Table for Eight

I finally meet Sherri in the game! (She's from Idaho, PS. 5 hours away from Utah. Fun!) Me, Sherri, and Erik--on MERGE DAY. Survivor Caramoan. (c) CBS, 2012, Monty Brinton. My apologies to PETA or whomever governs the care in invertebrates overseas ... because this week's Survivor i s INCREDIBL E. In addition to MERGING tribes (so long NuGota and N ewBikal = AMEN!), they've brought back a classic Survivor challenge: the food -eating challenge (where you eat foods native to the la n d where you are living --Philippines). The promo s are showing pretty much everything in the chall enge, so lemme just start with these little fellas : BEETLE LARVAE! Talk about earning a payche ck ( Corinne's phrase)! I felt horrible --for about 2 seco nds--when I learned we'd be doing this. (For a mill ion dollars and some protein, I'll eat a living bug. Sad, but true.) Beetle larvae. Sorry to say, alive. Apparently these are eaten in the Philippines regul...

Survivor Caramoan FvF, (c) CBS 2012 (and TrueDorkTimes.com). (Psst: Yes, looks like I'm wearing a dress again.) In case you're new to my blog and are wondering how life changes once you go on Survivor/TV, well let me tell you ... If I win the million this time, some things are going to change around here! Pronto! But in the meantime, things aren't changing too much. See ... I still spend most of my time being "just mom." (PS: LuLu still thinks she's old enough for a phone-- and we still think she's too young for one. So, she routinely takes photos of herself USING MY PHONE to show me her frustration.) I still drive carpool. Although we do have STRAIGHTER teeth post-Survivor-- Jay got his braces off yesterday! I'm still teaching at BYU. Two classes this semester--with two great groups of students. (And I don't think any of them have seen Survivor before.) I still run my own errands. And take photo...

Lu and Me getting ready for her baptis m--two weeks after m y return from Survivor South Paci fic (2 summers a go). First of f, Happy Friday ! G uess what? It's snowing here in Utah this morning. Woo hoo! Okay, so back to my point : I have a confession to make. A s much as working out and taking care of my phy sical/mental body/mind has CHANG ED my life (Survivor was the o riginal cataly st) ... after Survivor Caramoan, I somehow lost my love for doing anything remotely physical. And I mean anything. And as a result, I stopped working out (minus a few random long walk s, hikes, and trips to the pool) until this past M onday. This past Monday! Yup. I hadn't worked out--really worked out--si nce Monday of this past week. It's hard to believe (for me) , but true. I don 't know why I stopped ( W e 'll I do. My brain just said "NO " ) . And I'm not sure why I started again ( T he brai...

Our kids with Heather at her wedding on Saturday night. (We were neighbors for 6+ years and we love her guts.) I look at this p icture and think, " Wow, life really is amazing and beaut iful." But to be honest, there's a reason I haven't been blogging lately : L i fe has been hard -- super hard . And that's made it hard for me to journal/blog. You see, I'm usually a really po sitiv e person , b ut lately I've had a hard time SEEING and genuinely feeling positive.  I know it's just the roller coaster of life : --You win so me; you lose some.  --You've got the world on a string; the world has YO U on a string. -- One day you have immunity; the next day you're on the chopping bl ock.      --Etc., etc., etc.) . . . B ut it's sti ll hard and that's a bu mmer. (Ca n I get an Amen? Amen ! ) So there. That's the vague, yet genuine truth : w hen life is super hard, I don't have a ton of motivation to ...