this just in

"blindness separates us from things, but deafness separates us from people"

-helen keller-

remember a few months ago when i posted i'd be going to peru

to do humanitarian work?

well, plans changed a bit and my classmates and i decided to do our humanitarian trip with starkey (a hearing aid company) because they have an established humanitarian mission program that travels all over the world.  the only downside... we wouldn't know when we were going, where we were going, or how much time we'd know in advance before we'd have to leave. 

i was excited about the opportunity but i was worried that i wouldn't be able to go with laura and spencer's weddings coming up.

friday night i got a phone call from our student advisor saying she heard from the company and they were offering to bring all of us along to do a mission in toluca, mexico (right outside of mexico city).

here's the catch... they wanted us to leave friday... like this upcoming friday... and they wanted to know who was in within like 12 hours so they could book our flights.

it is an opportunity we didn't want to pass up so together we made the decision to go for it- and the email/calling tree started. 

there were 12 of us that were able to commit to going, so we booked it.

i am super excited to go- i guess we'll be fitting over 7,000 hearing aids in a week's time.

this is an opportunity that doesn't come available to students often, and i feel blessed and excited to be able to be a part of it.

here's a link to what they did in toluca last year... watch the video- it's seriously amazing and even made me tear up a bit!

http://www.starkeyhearingfoundation.org/hearing-mission.php?id=43

mexico.... here we come!

just call me edesia

edesia:  greek goddess of food.

ok, ok, you're right.  i'm not greek, nor do i claim to be a good cook.

but today i wanted to make a special meal for josh

lucky for us, the stars aligned and my meal came out perfect.

i'm not sure if this has ever happened.

in fact, josh said it was so good, he would throw up just so he could eat more.

talk about an awesome compliment :)

anyone who knows me well knows i'm obsessed with greece.

it's my #1 place to travel to in the world, and hopefully we'll be making a trip to the mediterranean next year as my graduation present.

i love greek history

and greek mythology

and i love love love greek food

one of my favorite restaurants in slc is aristo's 

it's up by the u and their food is the bomb diggity.

i seriously crave it

so tonight, i decided to make my own "favorite aristo's meal" because logan is lame and doesn't have a greek restaurant. 

and it was soooooo good.

these recipes are amazing and i dare you to try them

soup:  avgolemono 

lemoni patatas 

chicken souvlaki

pita bread (i just bought mine and warmed them)

had i remembered, i would have cooked up some asparagus, too...

the meal was cooked up pretty quickly once the taters and chicken were marinating.

honestly, it rivals some of the best greek i've ever had

hopefully it'll stay that way until i eat a gyro while sitting in a cafe in mykonos  

problem solved

maybe he wanted to be romantic. 

maybe he remembered i love surprises. 

maybe he was annoyed by my indecisiveness. 

whatever the reason, i came home from salt lake and josh had a present for me. wrapped and all. and he said there was no real reason for it, but just that i wanted it and that was good enough for him.

that boy of mine sure is a keeper!

and i'm glad he made the decision for me- especially because i was 99% sure i wanted the kindle.

and he didn't even know that i sold my 3rd textbook today!

all you kindle users out there-- let's be lending friends :)

2 down

i made a decision after comps to sell the textbooks i probably won't be using much

and put that money toward a new e-reader

because i want to be a more well rounded reader

(and then i'll have more things to talk about with miss liz welker)

i asked the facebook world what they would recommend...

a kindle or a nook

and got a great response

i got votes for both and good reasons for each

and even some for an ipad 

but i'm still undecided... and probably will be until i sell one more book

lucky for me, 6 were posted on half.com on sunday night and i had made 2 sales by monday afternoon!

2 down, 1 to go!

and if you have a recommendation for an e-reader and reasons why, please share!

recess

recess at the elementary school on campus looks downright awesome. 

at mcmillan elementary, we were never able to sled during our breaks!

reminders

today i was reminded why i loathe rush hour in salt lake county.

but then i saw an amazing sunset, and was reminded how nice it is sometimes to just slow down and notice the beautiful things in life.  

simply lovely

keeping up with my daily photo challenge-

today's picture wasn't taken by me but it was sent to me by my fabulous parents who are celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary this week in hawaii. 

and while none of us children are thrilled that they would go to hawaii without us, we are so lucky to have fabulous parents who are just as in love today (if not more) as they were 30 years ago!

(sorry the picture quality is sub par.  you get the idea)