Luke, Luke, Where's the Luke?

In my head, I picture pirates walking around and chanting that - like they do on Hook.

Many of you have probably noticed the extreme lack of any blog input from Luke. And, like the excited pirates, you may even now be bursting off your seats and indeed chanting (whether in your head or aloud) "Luke, Luke, Where's the Luke?" If you haven't gotten this far, perhaps you've been at least the tiniest bit curious. So, I will assuage your curiosity.

Where's the Luke? He's busy.

Yep. Luke is a busy guy. Here are some of the things that he's up to:

Work: He works hard at his job and lately has been getting up at 6:30 AM for calls involving teammates in India. He often works after he gets home from work, too. Fortunately, Luke enjoys what he does. He will be leaving for a long trip to India this Saturday.

Running: Luke signed up with some colleagues to do an overnight relay from here to somewhere in Rhode Island. As such, Luke has been running more and more to build up his endurance.

Church work: Luke's weekends are often very limited in free time. Every other Saturday, Luke works at the Boston temple. And on Sunday's, Luke has early morning meetings and church from 2-5 PM.

In addition, I wanted to let people know that Luke was accepted to Harvard Business School and he as decided he is going and will start in the fall! I'm very proud of him and excited about what the next few years will bring.

I am often impressed by how Luke handles his work and other things (including taking care of me) so well. He is a wonderful man and I sure feel like I lucked out.

Being a Raging Chocoholic

Here I am posing beside a Chocolate Tree in the green house at the Calgary Zoo.

A few weeks ago, I decided that I am officially a Chocoholic. Here's the evidence I had:

- I would eat some form of chocolate for dessert after EACH meal, even breakfast, and as snacks between meals. Pretty much all day

- I ate so much of it, I didn't even like it any more, but some how I just couldn't stop

- I have been known to go to "extreme" measures to find my next fix of chocolate. These include stealing from other people (never from a store), searching through my parents house hoping to find a secret stash, and actually getting the in the car to go buy some

- I swear I had withdrawal symptoms if I ever went too long (i.e. longer than 4 or 5 hours) without chocolate

Having thus concluded my diagnosis, I decided that, like alcoholics staying away from alcohol, perhaps I just need to stay away from chocolate. So, Luke and I decided that I would try to go for 2.5 days without chocolate. My punishment if I failed: Luke would make me eat enough chocolate chips till I would puke.

I got excited as time went by and I didn't eat any chocolate. I would update Luke or my Mom, "I'm 4 hours off chocolate," "It's been 6 hours!" "8 hours sober!"

I failed, though. I couldn't make it 2.5 days. The call of the chocolate was too strong. Fortunately, Luke had mercy on me and could tell that I was genuinely remorseful, so he gave me another chance.

Since then, I have worked my way up to going for 4 days without chocolate.* It hasn't been easy. I've also decided that 4 days (or rather 96 hours, or thereabouts) is a good amount of time for me to aim for between my chocolate intake. 5 days is too overwhelming and as soon as I think about how many days I have till my next chocolate, I want it right then - not good emotionally. But 4 is enough of a challenge that I feel good after making it that long.

Tomorrow evening, I will have chocolate and I'm really looking forward to it.

* the chocolate that I am avoiding includes: chocolate chips, chocolate bars, Nutella, Reese's Pieces (which actually doesn't have chocolate in it, but is too close a substitute). Forms of chocolate that I am allowing: hot chocolate, chocolate milk, chocolate ice cream, chocolate pudding (which I don't eat anyway), and Oreos.

Here it is!

I admit it! I confess. I was over reacting.

With a little bit of work, my hair isn't all THAT bad and I'm slowly getting used to it.

Below is a picture of what I could do with my hair right after she cut and styled it. There was soooo much gunk in my hair. Part of me thinks I should try to pull this look off more often. You know, bring out the inner punk.

Plus, this is another benefit: I have really awesome bed head. But early morning, un-make-uped pictures are rarely taken and even more rarely posted. I tend to walk around for the first 30 minutes every morning with a scowl on my face (which, actually, works well with the bird's nest atop my head). I'm not a morning person.

Recently Appreciated Benefits of Short Hair

- it takes like no time to do

- I can jump out of a pool, make a part with my fingers and when it dries it will look half decent

- there's not much that a windy day can do to it

- if stranded in a city overnight without luggage, I can use a fork to comb it - Little Mermaid style

What a difference a Day makes.

Yesterday, I purchased the most beautiful bathing suit I have ever had and I felt like a million bucks. I swear I was walking through that mall like I was the coolest thing since sliced bread after buying that bathing suit. The suit is a one piece and could be a little grand-mother-ish, but it works on me because of my obvious youngness and longish hair. It is blue and it fits beautifully (and cinches without squeezing me to death) and I just love it.

Today, my engagement ring is more lost than it was yesterday (as in, it wasn't in the radiator where I thought it would be... so now I really have NO CLUE where it could be) AND I paid $17.50 (I had a 50% off coupon) only to wish I could wear a paper bag over my head.

Yes, I got my hairs cut. And boy were they cut. Perhaps it was my fault because I said I wanted a "cut" and not a "trim," but I tell you this girl went to town. I'm usually not one to cry over hair. It's just hair; it grows back. I've had short hair before. But that was usually intentional. Not today. I even showed her a picture of what I was looking for!

So, as I'm sitting in this chair, literally stroking a piece of my hair that has been cut off (unusual behavior for me), I am trying to suppress the tears. "It's gone, Amy," I tell myself. "Deal with it. No use crying over it. Just make sure this girl makes it look decent. At this point, it's about damage control." After the girl's done cutting it, I can tell it'll look good enough when I do it at home, so I allow her to do what she wants to style it.

She put so much gunk in my now 3-inches-long-in-parts hair and then starts blow drying it with this big round brush. In the end, it looks very puffy and I'm trying now to suppress the laughter because it's clear that she is struggling with making my hair look good.

I cried on the way home in the car. I screamed. Loudly. I was surprised.

Now I'm going to eat dinner, and deal with my hair as best I can because I've got to be at the church for mutual in 25 minutes.

Maybe I'll have time to try on my swimsuit again to cheer my up before I go.

What are YOU passionate about?

I have started doing these training sessions with personal trainers at a gym down the street from us. Last week, I was talking with the trainer for the day and he was telling me about how he's a big sports fan. And definitely a Red Sox fan. And then he asked me, "How 'bout you? What you are passionate about?"

Well, I was caught off guard. Perhaps it was hard to think because I was trying to remember to breath correctly while lifting weights. Or perhaps I wasn't prepared because we were talking about sports teams and I don't care about sports. But also at the moment, I really didn't feel passionate about much.

I told him that I am passionate about my Church (which is totally true) and a little about what that entails. But unless you're Mormon, you don't quite realize that being passionate about your Church means it effects everything in your life. For me, it means that I go for 3 hours of church each Sunday (and I'm often conducting the music or teaching a lesson for one of those hours); it means visiting with other women in the ward in their homes once a month; it means going to book club; it means I read my scriptures daily (or trying to, at least); it means that I give 10% of my money to the Church; it means I go to our chapel every Wednesday for mutual and sometimes I'm in charge of the activities; it means keeping touch with the young women on a regular basis, even when they don't come to activities; it means that I'm at the temple every other Saturday for 6 hours as an ordinance worker. Being passionate about being Mormon takes a lot of time and energy - and I don't think people outside of the Church quite realize that.

I AM passionate about being a Mormon woman.

I also realized that, perhaps I have too narrow a definition about what being passionate about something means. So, to broaden it, I've been thinking about things that I get excited, even very excited about. Here are some I've thought of:

- singing. I am singing in the Spectrum Singers choir right now and I come home from every rehearsal totally pumped up.

- travelling. I love seeing new things and when Luke and I travel, we can really pack in a lot,but we still have a lot of fun doing it.

- family. I just adore my family and am excited any time we get to spend time together.

- flowers. They just make me happy, though I wouldn't say I'm passionate about them.

- being creative. I'm a very lucky girl in that I get to do what I enjoy (making collages) and people actually have wanted to buy them.

- psychology. There's a reason I chose it as a major - I find people fascinating.

- being better. I'm constantly trying new ways to structure my time, be more active, live a more fulfilling life. It gets a bit tedious because some times I feel like I'm not improving much, but I think I am. It just takes more time than I'd like sometimes.

- journaling. I will sing its praises to the rafters.

- sales at the grocery store. They make me giddy.

So, hopefully, I won't be caught of guard by the question "what are you passionate about?" anymore.

3 Years Down. Forever to Go.

Tomorrow, January 23rd, marks mine and Luke's 3rd anniversary. We will celebrate by having bacon and waffles with fruit and whipped cream for breakfast, going to see Sherlock Holmes, and enjoying dinner at Ruth's Chris Steak House. Mmmm.... beef....

It has been so fun to be married to Luke! These 3 years have just flown by and have been filled with some really fun adventures. Here are some things I just love about Luke:

- he makes me laugh everyday

- he listens to me and respects my opinions

- he lets me cry when I need to and talks me down from any moments of extreme hysteria

- he supports me in doing my art

- he helps me solve problems and helps me see things differently

- he works hard to support our family and so that we can have interesting opportunities

- he makes sure that we talk everyday, even if he's on a business trip half way around the world (we've spoken to each other everyday since we started dating - it's a streak we can't break now!)

- he is tall and handsome

- he's totally comfortable in any social situation

- he fits in great with my family

- he is a faithful Mormon man

Yep. And there are more, but I won't bore you.

Here are three pictures - one of us in each of our three fun years of marriage.

2007: happily wed

2008: in Las Vegas for the 4th of July

2009: after a trip on the overnight train from Moscow to St. Petersburg