Who knew?

Suddenly my family has become bloggers. This is good news. Heff asked for my answers to questions - I kind of love these surveys so we give it a try:

1. Best thing you cooked this last week
This question is weird, but mmmmm, annoying Giada's Shells with Crispy Pancetta and Spinach. You know you just heard her say pancetta with her stupid accent. But they were seriously good.

2. If money, time, and babysitting were no object where would you go?
Definitely France, probably start in Paris but then I'd go South for awhile. I'd spend at least 3 months there. Until I went to Montrèal, I would have been intimidated by the prospect, but now that I realize I can understand what's happening on my college French, I would want to re-learn how to speak. Dreamy.

3. When was the last time you cried?
How embarrassing, but during last week's Friday Night Lights during that gorgeous song playing when Street, Tim Riggins (love!) & Lyla were on the boat.

4. 5 things you were doing this month 10 years ago
Well, this is super depressing. I would like to change number 3 to right now.
(1) I would have been on my mission, in Bluffdale, (2) teaching children of polygamists, (3) living in a basement apartment with weird lion statues on either side of the walkway, (4) getting our Ford Escort stuck down a hill in the snow and tromping in our dresses to a neighbor's house to use the phone and call said polygamist to tow us out with his giant truck, (5) eating pot roast for dinner 7 out of 10 dinner appointments because Peterson's had it on a 2 for 1 special

5. 5 things on my to do list
Is that the existential or the random to do list? We choose random.
(1) Use my real passport and not just the printout fake passport that works for Canada
(2) Learn calligraphy
(3) File the billion papers on my desk
(4) Find a better way to save some money that makes some money
(5) Be more careful, e.g. stop stubbing my toes all the time and breaking things

6. 5 favorite snacks
(1) Diet Coke
(2) Cheetos
(3) Slightly dry Fresno oranges
(4) Peanut M&Ms
(5) Armadillo Grill queso

7. 5 bad habits
(1) Too much TV!
(2) Not filing the billion papers on my desk
(3) Speeding
(4) Sniffing my hair
(5) Clutter, everywhere

8. 5 favorite foods [right this minute]
(1) Armadillo Grill queso
(2) Bruegger's Bagels
(3) Rare steak
(4) Red Vines
(5) Popcorn

9. 5 places I've been [which have awesome bridges]
(1) Montrèal, Quèbec
(2) Trois-Rivières, Quèbec
(3) Portland, Oregon
(4) Linn Cove Viaduct, Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina
(5) Lake Ponchartrain, Louisiana

10. 5 favorite memories
(1) That time we went to the canyons somewhere with the Egans and us kids wandered around playing some kind of game where we hid from each other and were sneaky
(2) That time on a really muggy, cicada-filled summer night near Nauvoo, Illinois, driving out to North Carolina with Dad, as I waited for him in the car to check in to the Days' Inn, listening to "Jealous" by Sinead O'Connor on repeat, feeling terrified and excited that I was moving across the country and hoping (correctly, it turns out) that it might end up being really awesome
(3) That time when Louise Plummer said, "You're going to be a writer, right?" going up the stairs to her office in the JKHB
(4) That Christmas Eve where our family sang Stille Nacht, poorly, through lumpy throats, to Martha Lewalder in a sad hospital room
(5) That time when I found a cheap ticket to fly to Vegas the next day, (and had a super awesome boss who let me go) to be picked up by Em & Trav on their way to Fresno, to surprise everyone that I was coming home to see Neck, and Bean went into labor early with James so Em, Trav, Mom & I left Fresno toute de suite to drive to Utah and see that baby and we drove to LA on accident and stopped in St. George at a sicko Days' Inn and slept for very few hours, and Mom worried that Em & Trav were sharing a bed after only dating for a few weeks. Even though it was 2 am. And I think we slept in our clothes.

And PS, somewhere on that list would be your wedding, Bean & Heff, on the Groundhog Day that was the opposite of ugly, because it was the most peaceful and silent the Salt Lake Temple has ever been in my experience as a guest, and even though it was cold and leafless, it was happy and figuratively warm and hopeful in a way that feels different than Spring and Summer at Temple Square, because the grounds weren't perfect in that picturesque way, but they had a spare minimalism that was sort of like just the right amount of white space, if you see what I mean, like you could hear the wind and not the embarrassing wooing of the billion bridesmaids milling around, waiting for the doorways to open up for their sunny photos.