Florida

This past Sunday, I got to attend my home ward in Jupiter. It's always fun to see how the youth have grown and how the children are growing up. Though I never get homesick for any place or group of people, it feels nice to be somewhere so familiar where people are genuinely interested in what is going on in my life. There was a definite reversal where the ward was asking me for news of my mother rather than the other way around.

On Saturday, I got to go to the temple on an endowment trip! Unfortunately, it was not for me but, fortunately, the trip was for one of my good friends. Inside the temple was interesting because I was a walk-in at a temple where the vast majority of visitors have appointments. This may not have been such a big deal if the temple patron that intercepted me was not a businessman by trade. (Note: I don't actually know what his profession is but he demands order and I thought a lawyer seemed a little less in-your-face than he was) My first reaction to his manner was to be difficult but I try even harder than usual to behave in the temple. Later, I was grateful that I kept my peace and took his lead because we got to be good friends after four hours of each other. Toward the end of my visit, I thought it would feel nice to go outside. I'm not sure where I got this notion but I did it anyway. Unlike sitting outside in the heat of Utah, there is water in Floridian air which encourages the water in my sweat glands to come out in volume. It was pretty disgusting but the temple was beautiful! so it all works out in the end.

So, my favorite day of travel e.v.e.r. was on Friday the 13th. Emmaleigh and I drove to the airport together, went though security, ate lunch together and then went our separate ways to Florida. I had my normal nap on the first flight but the girl sitting in the seat next to me started up a conversation when the flight attendants asked us all to relinquish our comfortable positions for the descent. As it turns out, Natalie is going to be one of Chloe's roommates in the Fall and was headed home to Houston for the break before school starts back. Waiting in the airport, I got to tell Charné and Chloe about my adventures with Chuck Norris in the captains chair. On the next flight, I got all comfortable in my seat before I heard a very familiar voice: I had forgotten that Sister Mooneyhan flew American Airlines! After the flight attendants had served drinks and picked up trash, I got to talk with Sister Mooneyhan in the back for about a great majority of the flight. No matter where I was on Friday the 13th, I had someone to talk to and I quite enjoyed it.

I miss the mountains of the west but I am enjoying the mountains of clouds that form over the shore. (I'll put pictures up when I've e-mailed them to myself from my phone)

School starts in less than two weeks!!

Research and Other Topics of Interest

Research:

Our group decided to research nudibranchs. The questions we propose have to do with their slime trails. It's a good thing that these creatures are so interesting to look at because they definitely don't have my favorite tanks to clean.

Things we realized too late:

Hint #1 If you're studying slime trails, slime is involved.

Hint #2 If something moves on a slime trail it moves really slowly making the study of weather they follow each other, other species, currents, run from predators, etc., is going to take a long time

Hint #3 If you read that some of the species are cannibalistic toward others, chances are that I would be the one to catch it and allow it to eat one and a half of our pretty ones.

I've only caught two nudibranchs and I've been banned from catching any more. The first one that I caught was found to secrete toxins that are harmful to other nudibranchs, the second was the cannibal that ate the pretty nudibranchs. The toxic one is small and we keep in the big tank and the cannibal is in a homemade cage made of tupperware, screen and what looks like green painter's tape; he will be used as a predator later in our research.


As you can see by the exceptionally large belly and the feather hanging out of the mouth of this anthropleura xantogrammica just swallowed a sea gull. Well, not really, but that's what it looked like! We're supposed to have 100 pictures in our photo journal for marine ecology so I figured that I'd have 100 serious ones and then this one thrown somewhere in the middle. Some sea stars eat barnacles, some sea gulls eat sea stars and some anemones eat sea gulls - just to see if the grader is paying attention.

Yesterday, we had our OP at Cape Arago and it was beautiful!! The tide wasn't as low, so I wasn't able to find epiactus prolifera (a brooding sea anemone) but I was able to get pictures of other ecological events and some panoramic views of happiness.

P.S. The first picture is of anisodoris nobilis (the noble sea lemon nudibranch) with freshly laid egg ribbons. Apparently the conditions of their captivity were favorable for egg laying but we'll have to wait to see if they're favorable for hatching.


Why don't I live in Oregon??

Pictures of Oregon I

(left bottom) Just after a sunset at the mouth of a cave at Bastendorff Beach
(left middle) view of an estuary a little north of Sunset Beach
(left top) lighthouse in the distance viewed from a little farther north of Sunset Beach
(right bottom) Antrhopleura elegantissima (anemone) among mytilus edulis (mussel), at least one species of barnacle (possibly balanus balanoides) and maybe a limpet or two
(right top) another view of the estuary a little north of Sunset Beach

Oregon so far

I'm on study abroad, but I've only made it as far as the west coast of this great nation.
One week ago today, a group of eight students in two cars began the 18 hour drive to Coos Bay, Oregon. I drove for the first 3ish hours and for the last 5ish hours. It was fun to talk and get to know the three in my car. There has definitely been a separation between those of us who started this trip riding together and those who flew in or drove in by themselves but integration will soon be achieved.
It was breakfast time when we arrived in Charleston where OIMB is located so we stopped at the Sea Basket for breakfast. As much as I dislike the smell of fish, I prefer the look of the fisherman - thick clothes to protect against the weather encountered at sea, a strong build and a thick beard. I think I might stay a while!
On the whole, our class was dreading the 4 hour lecture before lunch and the 4 hour lecture following lunch to total 8 hours of lecture per day, in one seat, with the same professor, while we prepare for field trips ahead but we've never had to sit the whole 8 hours! He'll think of some story and have us go out to collect hermit crabs or to find snails that he'd been talking about or sponges to make slides of spicules. It's been working out just fine. We removed the hermit crabs from their shells and watched them compete for a shell against and opponent. We collected a lot of snails that we thought were latterina planaxis, common name "periwinkle," but turned out to be a lot of nucella lamellosa, common name "dogwinkle." All three of the sponge species sponge that we collected off the Outer and Inner Boat Basins had long thin spicules. The only variation was that they were either long and pointed at both ends or a little shorter and rounded at one end. Oh the excitement of invertebrates!
On Sunday, the YSA representative for the ward we attend asked Dr. B if they could join our Sunday firesides. Apparently, Dr. B hogs his students for the duration of our stay and the YSA want our women; (From the perspective of the YSA representative and Dr. B respectively) slightly entertaining.
After some hardship with crabs as the subject of our research, we may have moved on to softer animals. Before moving on, however, we went to the docks to talk to the crabbers and got a few leads that didn't really lead anywhere. At least we were able to have those conversations that just aren't to be had in the BYU-Provo bubble.
There is one drawback to this rainy paradise - all of the mail comes through Dr. Braithwaite which means that the TA's usually carry it into class. I get a lot of mail! He hasn't said anything yet, but it's only the first week and I've received three things.
I now own a digital camera and have taken many a picture with it but I don't have internet because I didn't think to bring an ethernet cord. Wireless is everywhere esle! I'm in the library and I don't have my cord, but I had time. Pictures to be posted at a later date.
Oregon is beatiful!

Birmingham Temple

This morning, I went to the Birmingham, Alabama temple. It's a beautiful temple! (pictured below) I think Provo is still my favorite as far as the way that the baptismal area is set up. The comedy of the day was the little towels they had for us. With the Atlanta temple being closed for renovations currently, Birmingham has had a lot more traffic. The people that did towels were staying 3 to 4 hours after the temple closed. They have temporarily gone to a towel provider (I'd be very curious to know how that business works... don't have time to wash thousands of towels? We'll do it for you!) However, I'm not sure that the towel people understood that small children were the minority of the people that would be using the towels. At least I'm hoping they didn't understand, otherwise I don't appreciate their humor. The towels are a little bigger than hand towels. Beside the little beehive, Michelle was the only other person that fit in one towel. She's about 7 inches taller than me but she weighs less than i do - that consoled, sort of?On the ride back from the temple we were talking about missions. I mentioned that I have less than 8 months before I can put in my papers. Michael Alan's comment was, "Be sure to pray about it... and don't go crazy." I informed him that craziness runs in my family. Michelle commented that girls are just crazy, so I corrected my statement; "Craziness runs in my gender." I'm thinking it might be better for my crazy to come in while I'm on a mission. That way, any poor bloke that thinks he wants to marry me will have his desire in spite of the knowledge that he's in love with a lunatic.
I got to talk to my mommy and hang out with my brothers when I got back; I feel loved!

Lady and I went to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, GA. Here are some of the beautiful creatures that I most enjoyed.
(Manta Ray, Beluga Whale, Leafy Seadragon)


After we were done there, we went to the World of Coca-Cola right next door. I really like learning the history of people, regions, and I've discovered I also like learning the history of a companies. Maybe it's just that I like history; learning where thing started and the journey they went through to get where they are today. My favorite part was at the end where we got to test coke products from across the globe. I like those better than the products distributed in the United States. All of it was one huge Coca-Cola advertisement but still pretty cool. My Aunt Mary has her entire house decorated in Coca-Cola and I'm sure she would have been in Heaven while there, so I got a post card for her.

To come full circle with the aquarium theme, we ate at Legal Seafood Restaurant. We both got shrimp dishes, though they were very different, they were both pretty satisfying.

Our last stop in Atlanta was at IKEA. Now I can say that I've been to IKEA. Our purpose for stopping there was to get ideas for Lady and Dad's bathroom/bedroom; colors, themes, anything. Not much luck. We found a couple of pieces that we liked, but they wouldn't really work together. We left IKEA with a few bars of chocolate, some cookies requested by a coworker, and a bottle of sparkling cyder. I'd call that success!

My brothers and dad will come into the Huntsville airport on Sunday around 4:30. I'm really excited to get to see them! They've been out at Grandma Lowe's house in California working on things around her property.

I Love Relief Society

A little over two years ago, when I was turning 18, I prepared an argument to present the bishop that would convince him that I needed to stay in Young Women until I graduated and moved out - it's a phase of life. Now that I'm 20 and have had time to get used to relief society in all of its strangeness, I can say that I love relief society. Sister Hendry (whom I love) came to sit next to me at the beginning of class and Nicole (whom I also love) came to sit with me shortly after that. Nicole has three beautiful daughters and she had her youngest, Reagan, with her. Aubrie would be very proud of me, I played with Reagan's fingers while we were having the lesson. Plus, I offered to watch the girls on Friday so Nicole and Chris could go on a date - mostly to play with their oldest, Kayle (Kay-lee). She plays soccer with me and she runs really fast; we have races all the time.
We had a great lesson today on temples and doing work for the dead. It was particularly good because the sister that gave the lesson is a fairly new member and my mom and I got to go with her for her first temple trip. Mom did whatever upstairs, but I got to stay downstairs with both Kerri and Deana (a recently reactivated member); it was wonderful!
So, I am now a Relief Soceity Sister. I'm officially old. The good news is that there is no High Priest Chorum to let me know that I have become a fossil; the unfortunate thing is that if I'm married I will still know when I've become a fossil because he'll get moved into High Priests.