if you see mr mortensen, tell him his wife has been waiting 29 years.

Yesterday I went to the front desk at our office to test our company's new admin system to make sure everything I normally used on it still worked ok. Doing this required me to login to the admin from scratch. I couldn't remember if my username was just my first name or my first name plus my last name's initial. I wagered a guess and I logged in on the first try! Then I looked closer and saw that I was logged in as "Melissa Mortensen". Now, I know that this is our future admin, but I didn't realize that it was the admin of the future!

My eyes are open for my Mr. Mortensen.

Here's a new awkward Melissa moment for the week:

Attending my aunt's funeral on saturday, I was excited at the prospect of seeing my mission president and his wife and other couples from my mission that my aunt and uncle served with as well. I was able to talk to the Brooksbys who were in the mission office while I was there and the Roberts' (my mission pres) right as I arrived at the viewing before the funeral. I then proceeded in to the viewing room. A few minutes later, I saw a youngish man out in the hallway that looked familiar, but I couldn't figure out why. I brushed it off assuming it was a missionary from my mission that I just didn't know very well. About 20 minutes later I was talking to my sister and this same guy taps me on the shoulder and says "Hi, Melissa"
....all I could say was "Hi...i don't remember how I know you..."
"um...we went out a few times"
oh yeah....aunt Linda set us up a couple years ago.
"yeah...oh!....those were really fun dates"

ode to auntie lulu

Wow, talk about pumpkin carving skills. I still don't know who did it, sadly. Also, I think the origins of my mysterious eye squint are finally brought to light.

Some things I learned (or want to learn) from one of the funniest, happiest, daring-est, creative-est, scripture knowledgeable-est people I ever knew (that's a lot of ests):

Top thing I have admired about her is her sense of humor. Everyone who spent any time with her in the last few months knows of it's resiliency. It survived through every invasive form of radiation treatment on her brain tumor and kept us smiling/snorting anytime we were around her. I believe I now have proof that a sense of humor can get you through anything.

Her children each told of some april fool's prank she played on them. I think my favorite/most random one was when she cut up nylons and cooked the pieces into their breakfast pancakes. I'm so doing that someday. Watch out, my future children.

I'm pretty sure that I was her favorite niece...just like all her kids were sure they were her favorites as well. That's because she treated everyone as if they were the most important to her...how did she do it? It was simply by making that person the most important when she was with them. It seems simple. But, how often do I treat others that way when I am with them?

thanks for tagging me, tanya...if it were anyone else....

Five things that people don't always know about me...this sounds suspiciously like cz's blog. So, maybe mine will turn out to be more quirky than unknown...let's face it, my life is an open book.

1. One side of my bath towel is used strictly for my face and the other side for the rest of me. Under no circumstances must I allow myself to dry my hands on the inside (face side) of my towel.

2. While talking, I usually have to pause in the middle of many sentences...most often it means that my train of thought is still boarding at the station. Many of you have already noticed this/want to kill it.

3. When faced with a situation where a response from me is necessary but I don't know what to say... "totally" is often all that comes out. Ask our company ceo; I think I have said totally to every comment he makes to me. Also, I'm pretty sure I have Stacey to thank for it....

4. I am a personality chameleon. When I'm around someone long enough, I start to talk like them (see quirk #3)

5. I can stare off into space for extended periods of time. No need to entertain me. Put a pleasing color or pattern in front of me and I could be there all day.

ok, I tag jojoba...apparently she needs a reason to post.

money isn't everything; it just is

I've been organizing things. Like my m&m's this morning...and last night, I had to organize all the scrabble tiles that were sitting on my kitchen table. I just had to.... btw, I didn't realize that a scrabble set has 12 E's. That's the most of any letter. I remember organizing my dad's coin collection by year.

I think this re-emergence of my organization tendencies might be related to my recent concerns about my finances. I think I need to organize my budget a little better. Sometimes, I feel a little bit out of control, money-wise.

In the last month, I have casually happened upon two articles about families that tried to go a month and a week, respectively, without spending money. I read the month-long one first. Then a couple weeks later when I read the week-long no spending article, I found that it left a bad taste in my mouth. There is something very different about how each accomplish their "no spending" goal.

It seems to me that the first discovers what they really can and can't live without and changes their lifestyle accordingly. They are able to find ways to enjoy and survive life through their own creativity. The second makes seemingly no changes to their lifestyle... just tells everyone they are with, or purchasing services from that they can't pay or have to pay them 'next week'. One becomes self sufficient while saving money...the other just becomes a burden to all those around them. Which would you rather be?

the land of my fathers

A week and a half ago I was able to go down to southern Utah for a couple of days and spend yet another great couple days at Stacey's parent's house. I'm sure they are sick of me by now...but I'm sure not sick of their scone breakfast or tacos...or fall apart roast.

That Saturday, my friends followed me on a bit of a wild goose-chase to find the lytle nature preserve, a place from my childhood where I spent much time:

playing with toads in the mud,
looking for horned lizards,
clearing nature trails,
watching dad catch rattle snakes,
luring ant lions out of their lairs,
picking cholla cactus needles out of my arms and legs,
getting dust in my eye,
killing invasive frogs and eating their legs,
sleeping in a trailer that hadn't been cleaned for 20 years.
climbing the movie screen (as we call it).

We might have done a few of these on this trip as well...but mostly we just hiked the movie screen. here are some pictures of our 10 minute 'scramble'.

View from the top, Eastward
View from the top, Westward
A very brave Judith
That night we went and saw Les Mis. at the Tuacahn. Notice how everyone else is dressed in cute blouses and I'm wearing a t-shirt that I pretty much only use camping...some occasions just call for fancy.

sore feet = spiritual contentment

Ok, so I've been complaining a lot about the "green" movement. But, I remember our family back in the day (probably about early 90's when my oldest brother was thinking of doing conservation biology as a major) wishing that the rest of the world would get a clue. For my freshman writing class I even chose to do my big term paper on deforestation. So, why does the "green movement" bug me? It shouldn't... I should be happy that the rest of the world is now becoming aware of the environment around them. And even though most are excited about the green movement and will wear the shirt, etc yet actually do nothing about it...neither do I. I mean, I bought one of those reusable grocery bags...but how often do I actually remember to take it into the store?

I took one small step (so to speak) forward yesterday, though... I walked to work. I think maybe it was about 4 miles round trip and took probably a little more than a half hour each way... not too bad. I wonder if I can make myself continue... even if only once a week.

You might have noticed my link to this blog on my links list...sometimes he kind of annoys me (read 1st paragraph of this post), but I appreciate that he was one of the original green movers that was willing to actually make drastic lifestyle changes a few years ago.

After finally arriving home from work yesterday, the bottom of my feet had a sharp, tingling sensation that I only relate to working at the temple for 4+ hours on my feet. Now, the real test: see if I can keep it up without falling into the green movement trend of bragging about it. Oops. Too late.