Too much time on my hands...

This blog is the product of me having lots of time to research things I love to talk about...specifically, one man's mission: Bono. I absolutely LOVE this speech he gave to George W. back in 2006 and I really feel he 'gets' what it means to be a true Christian (Bono, not W.). Here's the highlight for me at least:

In fact, the poor are where God lives…. God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them.

Sometimes I just feel luck as can be that I get to be in a profession that focuses on being where God is. But then I realise that it doesn't need to be a career as much as a life choice. I must admit I'm always mesmorized by Bono's ability to put words together. The man's got a gift, what can I say? But more importantly, he backs it up. His faith has works behind it.

Anyway, if anyone is interested, click on the heading and it will take you to a RAD song U2 wrote clear back when they did the Joshua Tree, but just completed it with lyrics and such. Just had to get this out in the open: Bono=good.

I DID IT!!

And just like that, I have nothing to do. Graduation came and went June 14, 2008. I am now Master Mendenhall, as Bethany likes to say. This graduation felt different than my other graduations, probably because this one actually took some effort on my part. It was weird to really be studying and researching, its amazing what you can learn if you read the things your professors tell you to.

The other thing that was different is that the robe had crazy long sleeves so I felt like a wizard, plus I was 'hooded' with the yellow thing around my neck. As my favorite professor 'hooded' me, I felt a looming fear. I pinpointed it later because I realized I wouldn't have access to him every week like I have for the past year. What am I supposed to do? He's a genius and now he's out of my life forever. So don't let the smile in this picture deceive you.

The people I owe everything to...my parents and my darling husband. I loved having my parents here. Its funny how we never really grow out of wanting to show our mom's our accomplishments. Matt has been so supportive from begining to end, even when he had to throw the frisbee to himself because I was doing homework.

Besides being scared, I feel really relieved. With school, something is always due, books are always needing to be read, papers are always needing to be written, class is always there to go to and now I'm free! Until I get a job...

This is everyone who sat through the 2 hour hooding ceremony. My in-laws-Jeff and Sue, Uncle Gary and Aunt Valene, Matt, my parents, my bros-Chuck and Carson and my Aunt Margie (who told me not to tell the other neices and nephews she was there and here I am publishing it on the internet, sorry Marge!) I think its a miracle my brothers sat through the whole thing.

So, now its just figuring out where we will live, what job I will get and how to pay back these student loans...

Camping with Uncle Gary and Aunt Valene

So my aunt and uncle live about 10 minutes from us, which is nice. They are basically our only friends here, and I'm just fine with that. We went camping a last weekend and instead of writing my paper, I played in the forest. This is Gary and Val with their three fearless protecters, Abby, Jake and Joey.

We stayed at a new state park named Stubb Stewart State Park. Matt applied for a job there when we first moved here, but it didn't pan out so we tried to hate it, but it was hard to hate this place. They had a great trail system, nice campsites, wonderful bathrooms and of course, amazing trees.

So, Matt charted our course on one of the trails. The map said it would be about 3 miles round trip and off we went! (Minus Gary and the dogs, poor little Joey had to be carried back to camp after about a mile of walking). Our goal was to hike to a loop that went down by a creek. We hiked and hiked and hiked and made it to the loop to find out the loop itself was 3 miles! We ended up hiking about 6 miles all together. Our little stroll in the forest ended up being a 5 hour expedition. When a mama grouse jumped out on the trail and made mean hissing noises at us and puffed up her feathers I thought for sure Matt was going to get attacked by yet another bird. So I got the camera ready, but it ended up that she went to the other side of the trail pretending to be hurt to distract us from her chicks. Matt, very grateful for being spared this time, muttered a small thank you under his breath and kept on hiking.

Probably the nicest thing about hiking in the northwest, is being covered by the trees. Don't worry, I still worked up a sweat but its much cooler hiking in the shade. Its also nice to have a husband that carries everything in his backpack so I'm footloose and fancy free.

And I must give mention to my aunt, who is almost 60 and just kept going and going. I hope I'm in that great of shape when I'm 60...

There were loads of these wild orchids along the trail. So that plus the fact we were in the northwest made me think of Harry and the Hendersons. Remember when Harry eats the teenage girl's orchid corsage? That Harry... And Matt is pretty convinced he has found evidence that Harry's people (aka Big Foot) exist somewhere up here. He kept pointing out trees that could only be formed a certain way if a Big Foot bent them like that. And Matt's information comes straight from our friends the Bagley's and Enz, who both went with the Big Foot Research Organization to an undisclosed area in search of the Big Fella.

And I call this picture, find the snake! I LOVE SNAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!! Matt almost stepped on this little guy, but I saved his life (the snake's not Matt's.)

So that's another adventure of the Mendenhall's documented blog style. Ciao for now!