How to be interesting

Saw this great page, and thought I would share! I think she nailed it - explore, discover, experience, love yourself, have purpose, stay humble, try new things, forge your own way, be brave, and ignore the negativity! If we could all do this, the world would be a much more interesting place.

credit to this awesome webpage: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jessicahagy/2011/11/30/how-to-be-interesting/

How to be interesting (in 10 simple steps):

1.Go exploring.Explore ideas, places, and opinions. The inside of the echo chamber is where all the boring people hang out.

2. Share what you discover.And be generous when you do. Not everybody went exploring with you. Let them live vicariously through your adventures.

3. Do something. Anything. 
Dance. Talk. Build. Network. Play. Help. Create. It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you’re doing it. Sitting around and complaining is not an acceptable form of ‘something,’ in case you were wondering.

  

4. Embrace your innate weirdness.
No one is normal. Everyone has quirks and insights unique to themselves. Don’t hide these things—they are what make you interesting.

5. Have a cause.
If you don’t give a darn about anything, no one will give a darn about you.

6. Minimize the swagger.

Egos get in the way of ideas. If your arrogance is more obvious than your expertise, you are someone other people avoid.

7. Give it a shot.

Try it out. Play around with a new idea. Do something strange. If you never leave your comfort zone, you won’t grow.

8. Hop off the bandwagon.

If everyone else is doing it, you’re already late to the party.  Do your own thing, and others will hop onto the spiffy wagon you built yourself. Besides, it’s more fun to drive than it is to get pulled around.

9. Grow a pair.

Bravery is needed to have contrary opinions and to take unexpected paths. If you’re not courageous, you’re going to be hanging around the water cooler, talking about the guy who actually is.

10. Ignore the scolds.

Boring is safe, and you will be told to behave yourself. The scolds could have, would have, should have. But they didn’t. And they resent you for your adventures.

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AND as a side-note.... HAPPY 22ND BIRTHDAY TO MY WONDERFUL LITTLE SISTER! LOVE YOU JENBO!

haircut - 10 inches!

I'm a little late getting this news up - but, I finally cut my ridiculously long hair off! I'd been wanting to do it for months and the week before Christmas I decided it was time.

Before....

just ignore the fact that I'm riding a cow...

After!

10 inches shorter and boy does it feel great! I am going to donate it to somewhere as soon as I find a good one... I researched "Locks of Love" and apparently it's a big scam. So, if you have any suggestions, let me know!

Maybe she's born with it... Nah...I'm pretty sure it's Fotoshop

This.is.brilliant.

Dental Story & Baby Gage

And... a lovely picture of Brian on his wheels... :)

And he's still smiling! He has had a great attitude about all of this and I am proud of him. Don't take this the wrong way, but I am also proud of myself because it is not easy to have a "disabled" spouse. I now have an all new respect for people who deal with challenges like this for longer than 4-6 weeks... some for a lifetime! Brian is learning quickly about how UNwheelchair-accessible parts of campus can be. He told me today that the bathrooms in the Widsoe Building are a "nightmare." So what do you do? Hold it I guess ;)

We have also been discussing Brian's future as a dentist. I don't know if I've ever mentioned it on here before, but we have been considering doing something a bit risky as far as getting into dental school. Because there is a ridiculous 1-year waiting period between applying to dental school and actually going to dental school, we have been trying to figure out how to best fill that time. What better way than to still be finishing up school? So, the plan we are considering (thanks to help from my dear friend Megan and her husband, Mike) is for Brian to apply to dental school this coming June, take the DAT and second O-chem class afterwards, and submit those scores to the schools after his application is in. That way he can have everything turned in and have the application process rolling while he is finishing up his last semester(s) at BYU. That's how Mike did it. Sounds great, right? Riiiight... except for a few things... like... not as much time to do all the crazy stuff you have to do to make yourself applicant-worthy:

• shadowing hours with dentists
• volunteer hours in the community
• leadership hours
• studying for the DAT (!)
• DAT prep course

oh yeah... and still get great grades in currently scheduled classes. 

So, as you can see... it's a dilemma. It's either do it all this summer or push it off to next summer after he's graduated and then wait a year to go to dental school. Then the question is what does he do during that year? Try and find a business job I guess (that is his degree). Meanwhile, I'll be working as a nurse! 

Planning a future can be so stressful. Blah!

Other news... my nephew is now four months old! Yay!

this is Gage in his "Professor G" sweater

this is Gage not wanting to have glasses on. Brian, Jen, and I laughed forever about this one. What a photogenic baby, eh?

love him!

:)

didn't see this one coming!

I guess it's time to tell the sad sad tale of Brian's broken feet. Yes, not foot, feet.

I guess if you have to break your feet, you might as well do it while doing something awesome... like a marshmallow gun capture the flag war, right? We were invited over to Spencer's friend's house for just that. Now, this isn't just any house. This is a rather large house that just so happens to have a fire pole in it. I know, awesome, right? Brian and I have actually talked about having a firepole in our own future home (along with a slide, giant swing, etc...) but since this mishap, I guess we're going to have to discuss if it's still going to make it into the blueprint. Anyway...

The marshmallow war was epic. We had dried out the marshmallows with a fan so they were the perfect staleness to achieve real velocity. The lights were out and Pirates of the Caribbean was playing over the sound system. You just can't beat it! So, we had been playing for a while when suddenly I hear this very loud THUMP. 

...Followed by some moaning and "ouch, ouch, ouch, OUCH!"

We all rushed over to find Brian curled up at the bottom of the fire pole from which he had fallen nearly 10 feet directly onto his heels.

Time to go to urgent care! Oh, and did I mention that his 26th birthday was the next day and that he was in limbo as far as insurance goes as soon as the clock struck midnight?

Urgent care turned us down because he had fallen too far and they thought he would have injuries that they weren't equipped to handle.

To the Emergency Room!

The doctor there informed us that the x-rays showed a break in the left heel but not the right. He wrapped up his foot with an ace bandage and told him to take it easy until he could get into a pediatrist. This morning we found that this doctor really didn't have a clue.

So, Brian tried using crutches the next day at school which turned out to be the most painful day of his life because he was crutching around on an injured right foot. Even worse, it was his birthday! What a birthday! I love that the card my parents sent him said, "I hope your day his filled with big surprises!" Oh, it was!

After calling around for a while and telling our sob story, I finally got a wheelchair from the nicest man in the world at the healthcare center. I think he just felt bad for me because I sounded like a dying cow (I've been sick with a cold the past week and lost my voice). I went a picked up the lovely wheelchair and decided to surprise Brian with it when he got home from school along with his b-day presents. He said it was the best present ever!

We had friends over that night for his birthday - so fun! I was just very happy to be distracted from what was going on.

So, we couldn't get into the pediatrist until this morning and when he looked at the x-rays he informed us that both feet were broken and that the ER doctor should've immobilized both feet immediately because Brian's achilles tendons were pulling at the breaks every time he flexed or extended his foot! Egads!

So, Brian now has two lovely boots, a wheelchair, and a disability tag for the car on its way. I am now his nurse, taxi, and whatever else that he can't do himself. I am just so grateful that this happened after I graduated so that I have a little more spare time to help him out.

One day at a time. That's just how it's going to have to be.