We're cool now...

So Mark and I just got iPhones yesterday. I felt like a kid in a candy store because I had a hard time containing my excitement. iPhones have always been that really cool gadget that people with money to spare have. But not me. I've always said I don't need nice things. (and I don't. I just like them).

The phones we came from were for me a Blackberry with no data plan. For Mark it was a REALLY OLD Nokia. Like so old. But he loved it. I think my Nokia was my favorite phone ever (though I think this iPhone will top it). Liz knows what I'm talking about. That phone was perfect. Until it got lost in a snow bank. :(

Anyway, the reason this was made possible was because AT&T was offering them for $0.99. I guess we can afford two dollars.

I know it's really stupid and I shouldn't set my heart on the vain, material things of this world. Apple, you pathetically have my heart.

Brooke

My Friend Andrea

Or as I like to call her Dre. She's the only one who really cares if I blog or not, so I figured I'd dedicate a post to her.

We met many years ago down at BYU in the Nursing program. Liz was friends with her first. I remember seeing her in our geriatrics class. She was wearing white and pink striped pants, and they looked good! I wanted to be friends with that good-looking girl.

I probably forced my friendship upon her. I remember Liz telling me the story of how she slipped on the ice on her way to study with us and would now need to borrow some clothes of Dre's. :)

These study sessions were not the most productive thing because we liked swapping stories so much. It's so fun when you meet someone and make an instant bond. That's how it was with these girls. We're all still friends today.

Dre used to ask me if I wanted to come sit on her couches. What a pick up line! Anyway, she knew I would because they were such great couches!!! And it was really an excuse to talk! We became extremely close and lived together the next year. Classic phrases from that time:

"sit up and cough it out"

This was when I got the black lung (as my friends called it- actually bronchitis and early stage pneumonia!!!!). I was coughing all the time and I thought I might die... sort of.

"go to church, go to school"

This was when Dre was sleeping and I walked into the room. I thought I'd woken her up, but turns out she was just talking in her sleep. Totally normal.

"ICU baby, shaking that thing"

Turns out she was saying "I see you baby, shakin that thing", and not referring to a small child in the intensive care unit. We also danced to "Sweet Escape" by Gwen Stefani all the time.

This is probably my favorite picture of her. Maybe.

The room we shared together. She wouldn't get off my bed!!! My grandma made me that pillow case!
Ok maybe this one is my favorite. The snow child.
Studying for nursing exams and looking our best!
See...we had a lot of fun.
She's sandwiched in this picture with my family. Dear heart.
Here we are all dressed up for Halloween one year.

Hooray for good friends. I get to see this friend this weekend and I'm excited!!! Thanks for having a second baby Dre!

Spudman

The Spudman was really hard, but I did it. My second triathlon was much easier, not physically, but mentally. It was great to have Mark there and I am also really glad that I did a practice one. Having such a difficult time with the first made this one a breeze by comparison, though it was longer. Another thing that I decided was that I would be the nicest person on the course. In St. George, there were lots of racers who were encouraging and kind. I wanted to be like them. So this race I constantly gave encouragement and told people milages.

Thank you Mark, Daniel, Jess and Jeff... and Burley ID

The Orange Grove

A Day Off

Yesterday was too full to send an email. Perhaps you will get two today...

In the morning we loaded survey responses into excel in the and then went through our second survey to make sure we were ready to hit the ground running on Monday after the break this weekend. Then in the afternoon we went to a meeting with the Agric Co-op and some community and BCCDP members (from the Co-op regional offices, The U, The local hospital, and KNUST the university). It was a cool meeting. They all talked about their concerns and plans for the future. It was interesting to hear their opinions. They have good goals and lots of people that want to help them reach those goals. I thanked them again for participating in my research and they all clapped for me. Many people have thanked me for listening to their opinions.

After we came back we had a few meetings and then tried to go out to dinner. Our bus was taking too long so we grabbed a cab. It was fun to haggle with him over a price, but in the end I was arguing over $1.50. Dinner was good and we beat the bus with 20+ students so we were in and out faster than them.

Today, the vast majority of students and teachers went to Mole national park for the weekend. Brooke and I and about 8 other people stayed behind because they have all been before. I am doing a survey in a few hours, but mostly looking forward to relaxing and not having anyone to take care of.

I'll email again in 10 hours or so. Love you all,

The Citrus Grove

Today my group saw the Citrus Grove. I realize that some of you may
not know that Brooke and I are not working together on research
projects. She is doing nutrition research while I am doing
Agricultural and Development Economics Research. So we after 7 AM we
don't see each other again until 5 or so. Anyway, back to the Citrus
Grove.

The trees are a hybrid tree developed to withstand many of the common
problems the citrus trees have in the region. There are about 700
citrus trees and 5 times that many corn stalks. They inter-crop until
the trees mature. The maize provides shade when the trees are young to
keep them from over exposure to the sun. It also helps them have some
money now until the trees produce which is usually 3-8 years (an
average of 5).

Last October, a man related to the Chief destroyed 400 trees because
he felt the land was his. This and other problems are what I am asking
the 32 person cooperative. Their perceptions on how things are going.

We finished 6 out of 8 we were supposed to do leaving 2 of 32 not
sampled. Pretty good numbers and we think we'll get at least 1 of the
last 2.

Tonight I went with my team at the invitation of one of our group
mentors to the Golden Tulip. The food was good, it was free because
the group mentor paid for everyone. I sat out by the pool for a while
with my other group mentor and Joe Marfo, one of the BCCDP employees.
It was a nice relaxing time.

Tomorrow we are doing data entry and meeting again with the
cooperative and some other leaders. Friday all the students are going
away for the weekend, so Brooke and I and a few others have this hotel
to ourselves. It will be a nice weekend.

Pretending to be Chief

When we arrived in Barekuma which is the community we are studying yesterday. I mentioned that I met the Chief, but the story of how he was introduced to our group is bigger than that. I met him in a simple way. I was talking to Joe Marfo, one of the study coordinators and Chief Nana Tiberi arrived and greeted Joe and introduced himself to me. Everyone else met him in a ceremony. The Chief and all the councilmen and women sat at the front of a large church and all 80+ U of U and KNUST (Ghana U we are working with) sat in the audience. There were introductions, everyone in our group went row by row to shake their hands. Then we were all given Coca Cola and clapped for all of the introductions.

Then today my team went back to that same Catholic church to meet with members of what's called the Agric Cooperative. When we had about 20 members of the 35 person Cooperative, My team and I sat where the Chief had sat the previous day. We made introductions, I made up a speech about how honored we were, though really we were. In their community it is a big deal to be part of the Cooperative so we respected that and made introductions a big deal. Then we finished 24 of 35 interviews and came home.

I was hoping to spend some more time tonight working on some data entry, but instead we went out to a restaurant across town. The atmosphere was more upscale than last night which meant more money, but the food was as good as last nights place. Tomorrow I am supposed to go to a really nice place with my team and our leaders. It'll be mine and Brooke's first night apart in a while.

Everything is great, we get back to work too soon. I need a bit more sleep, but Friday the students are going away for the weekend, so hopefully we get to sleep in some days over the weekend.

You gotta Ghana :)

So Mark has been emailing updates to several people, and I thought it might be fun to post them all on our blog. Follow if you'd like. Each day brings new adventures!

Here are the last 2 messages he's written. Enjoy!

So far so good. We've had some hiccups with travel, but interestingly
enough, those have been American errors. Long flights, long bus ride,
but we are now in our hotel room emailing all of you as you are nearly
ready to start your day.

We are in Kumasi, Ghana at the Okubi Hotel. Tomorrow is a laid back
day. We are going to church, I'm not sure if it is a ward or a branch.
Then we are going to the U-17 national soccer game between Ghana and
Nigeria.

Ghana is lush and green. It reminds me a lot of Guatemala, most
specifically Tecal where Return of the Jedi was filmed (the moon of
Endor) though we have seen no Ewoks. It's about 82 and humid, which is
nicer than I thought it would be. There has been light rain off and on
all day. Though there are no Ewoks, mini goats are everywhere in the
way you'd expect there to be dogs. They are the dogs of Ghana, and
probably more tasty.

We have a really great Ghanaian support staff of drivers and travel guides. Cofe (Ghanaian for "Friday) is our driver and he manages the
crazy roads really well. Lots of people here are named for the day of
the week they were born, so I expect to meet lots of Cofe.

I am excited to get to work. Love you all and we'll be in touch!

Richard is the man. Richard is our hotel manager. I was using my dad's voltage converter in the wall and there were two loud pops, some smoke and a black mark on the wall (I'll send a picture, maybe) and no more electricity to our outlets. I feared we may be on third world time to get something like this fixed, so I went looking for the fuse box myself to no avail. Having no other resource at my disposal I went for help. After the front desk assured me they would call an electrician, I prepared for a powerless stay in room 118 of the Okubi Hotel. To my dismay, Richard knocked on the door a few minutes later. I explained the problem and my desire to see a fuse box if things were similar to American electricity. He assured me he knew what to do and after another few minutes, power was restored. Now I can email all of you lovely people, the computer is charged.

Church was also great. Piano lessons are needed in the Kumasi Second ward, so Dad and Mom, maybe you could serve a mission here. The talks were mostly in English, the lessons were mostly in English as well. It was all very nice. One woman had a dress with the pictures of several modern day prophets on it as the print. I don't know if anyone took a picture, but imagine grandeur.

After church, Brooke and I passed out and missed the soccer game, but Ghana won 2 - 0 if you were wondering. Upon waking, we made food from our vast food storage (I'll upload a picture and send that too, we brought 2 suitcases of food). Cup-O-Noodles, but we have no way of heating our water so I put bottled water in a metal water bottle brought from home and placed it in a bucket. I then ran hot water from the shower into the bucket and heated the contents inside. It worked pretty well.

Then team meetings ensuring that we'd be ready for tomorrow and now to bed.

Let me know if there are more specific things you like to know.

Hope you enjoy reading. We're having a good time and we haven't gotten sick yet. Today was our first day in the field. I suppose I'll have to get used to this sticky feeling and be ok with my clothes clinging to my skin, revealing all my secrets. :)

I can do hard things!

So this past weekend I went down to St. George to do a triathlon. My first ever. As most know, I've been in a triathlon training class for the past semester. My goal is to do an Olympic distance, so I thought I'd start out with a sprint triathlon.

Mark had class, so he couldn't go down with me. Diane was kind enough to accompany me and be my official cheerleader and photographer. Thanks for your support Di!

First off, I was super emotional this weekend. And so scared to do this race. The triathlon fear had set in. Someone would kick me in the head in the swim. I wouldn't have enough energy to complete it. I would run out of water. All sorts of crazy thoughts came into my head. I was really on the verge of tears for 2 days straight just thinking about it.

The night before the race we went and checked in. Di accidentally ate the volunteers food. I went to go get marked and the guy said "Let's see. Athena heat?" Why, yes. I am an Athena thank you very much (to be in the Athena heat you have to weigh at least 150 pounds). Awesome. Those marks started rubbing off right away.

The morning of the race finally came. I kept thinking I should've trained more. But it's just a sprint triathlon. I can swim a half mile. I can easily bike 12 miles. I can run 3 miles. All together though is another question.

When we got there, the race was already underway and we had no idea where to go. We finally found a spot to put up our bikes and set up our stuff for transitions. After squeezing into our wetsuits we headed down to the water. I had hoped to get a warmup in of a few minutes, but we ran out of time. That's ok. I know how to swim. I've improved so much in the last few months. Turns out open water swimming is a whole different world than lap swimming. You can't see anything! You can't swim normally and still see where you're going. There are people around you everywhere. I accidentally punched a girl in the back of the head. She came up under my hand though. She yelled at me. Oh well. I said sorry and kept swimming. Nothing I could do. She came under me. Cancels out. :)

My confidence seriously dropped during this swim. It was so hard. I'm not sure what made it so difficult to breathe, but I was having an extremely hard time. The water was freezing, which I think was the biggest problem. I'm not sure my wetsuit fit correctly either and I hated having it on! In the end I did a lot of backstroke and a ridiculous freestyle with my head out of water. I just panicked every time I tried to swim normally. Overall I bet I only had my head in the water for no more than 2 minutes of the swim.

Transition 1- I should dry myself off. Actually, who cares. Let's race. Bike shoes on. Tried to ride out of the transition area. Didn't know I wasn't supposed to. Finally off. I can do this. Biking is my favorite. I approached a tent with a sign that said sprint turnaround. Yes! That was easy. I went way faster than I thought. Wait. That's the run turnaround. Talk about disappointment. I still had four times that length to go before I could turn around. There was actually a big hill on the course (so glad Liz drove through the course the night before) and it kicked my butt. There were many people who got off their bikes and walked all the way up it. Not me though. I can do hard things. That really was a hard hill.

Many miles later I was coming in to the transition area again. Looking for Di, my support. It's weird, but that helped SO much. I got a burst of energy after every time I got encouraging words from people I knew. My friend Liz who was right behind me started running the wrong way and I got all confused. We found the right way and I was off. Not very fast though mind you. Running is quite difficult for me.

I could see the tent where I would be able to turn around. Once I get there, I'm almost done. Running, walking, running, almost to the tent. Mile 1. What!?!?!? No. I thought it was the turnaround. I still had 1/2 mile to go...uphill. Shouldn't have been too hard, but it was. Coming back that last mile and a half was such a relief. Almost done with this miserable experience. Why do people like to do this? How am I EVER going to do an Olympic length? My friend Mike from my triathlon class was close to the finish and cheered me on. I was renewed! I came up the last little hill and broke into as much of a sprint as I could handle. There was Di with our new friends cheering me on...I can do it! Finally crossed that Finish line. The pain was over. I could finally rest.

I went and found Di. She gave me a hug and asked how it was. And then the tears came. It was so hard. I did not expect it to be that hard. I had been training now for over 4 months. And it was still that hard. I think the biggest problem was the swim...not only because it was so difficult to breathe but also because it shot my confidence. I felt physically and mentally weak after getting out of the water.

Now that it's Monday and exactly 2 days since I finished the race, I can say that it was an enjoyable experience. I would be happy to do it again. Good thing too because I have already purchased my spot in the Spudman in July. I will have to devote myself to training even more now that I know how hard it really is. Looking forward to it. :)

For anyone considering doing a triathlon, I'd say go for it! It was fun. I enjoyed the training and am so very proud of myself for actually doing it!

Let There Be Light...

...at the end of the tunnel.

We're so close. A few more class projects, a thesis, a grant, and a comprehensive exam and we are free people. Sort of.

Turns out I'm the TA again for the Social Context class which will be in the spring. Executive style. I can handle that.

I told my visiting teachers they could come over at 9 this past Saturday. Why would I ever do that? Because that's the only time I had that week. I totally forgot about them coming over until we heard a knock on the door. No one ever knocks on our door. We live in the basement so all misguided people talk to the people upstairs.

I threw some clothes on and looked around. No time to clean up the remnants of what looks like a tornado. Clothes everywhere. Really everywhere. Shoes- even more out of place. Catch the heel of your pumps in bare feet and you'll learn to put those in the right spot when you take them off your feet. Or at least you should...I apparently never learn.

That was Saturday. Has much changed since then? Not really. We've added a few bowls to the towering pile of dishes in the sink. We're now out of silverware...I used the last fork today. Now we'll start using measuring spoons to eat our cereal...for real. :)

Even though I still have plenty to do, I decided to clean up a little. I looked at my closet- it looked malnourished. Empty. If you've ever been my roommate, you know that my closet is usually stuffed to the brim. I started gathering all the sad, lonely hangers. I gathered at least 20. That means that at least 20 items were strewn about my house in efforts to make reasonable outfits that don't scream I haven't really done laundry in 2 weeks. I should develop an equation for how many clothes I need to put away if I need to hang up 20 things. It usually means 5 pairs of pants to fold, 2 clean laundry baskets full of clothes to fold, 12 pairs of shoes to put in the closet, etc. That would be a really funny paper to write. If only I had a creative writing class. I'm pretty sure my professors would not accept a paper figuring out an equation for the mess in my house instead of a health program plan and evaluation. :) Anyway...

I can now see the floor. That's progress. See, it's about the simple things. A few feet of my bedroom are now visible. I am an accomplished person. I bet even Mr. Darcy would say so. He'd also call me the most handsome woman of his acquaintance (as long as people in his time did not shower all the time). :)

The Bad Kind

Good stress vs. bad stress.

You hear all sorts of things about how some stress is good for you. I totally agree. I like having lots to do. Heck, that's part of the reason I'm getting a Masters degree. :)

However, I think I have met my worst enemy...bad stress. The kind where I think of all the things I have to do in the next two weeks and it makes me cry. Every night. And any little thing could make me freak out at any moment. The kind where my shoulders tense up and only relax while I sleep. I end up with my shoulders scrunched up all day and a very uncomfortable look on my face.

I only have like 2 1/2 weeks until I'm done with school...probably forever. I'm working on a grant that is due the same time I have my final comprehensive exam that I MUST pass in order to graduate. Likelihood that I'll fail? Not high, but I thought that about other people last year and they were not so fortunate. You know how grants can overwhelm someone's life for several days. That's where I am. How do I have time to write this post? It's my therapy. I have to have something.

I think I'd be much better off if I were coming home to a husband who had made dinner and done the dishes. As great as my husband is, that's just not happening right now. He's busy finishing his semester and trying to write a thesis. So, as it is, I get up at 6 or so to do some triathlon training and go to bed at 11 ish. He comes home between 2 and 3 every night and gets as much sleep as he possibly can before he has to go back to work. The few minutes we have together every day are so wonderful and so precious.

It's weird because I feel like I love him so much more. I miss him so much.

May 10th will you please come sooner. Please? I'll bake you cookies if you do. And then we can look as we did 1 year ago, enjoying the beautiful weather.

And, because I can't figure out how to delete one of these pictures, you have two!

Justified Lies?

My friend, Matt, just got engaged last night. I am so happy for him because we've been through many hard years together. And now he's about to see how wonderful it is to be married to your best friend.

All this joyousness has reminded me of engagement culture. I think it's quite funny. You are asking someone to marry you and you promise all sorts of things to them. Yet, in the process of asking them, you deceive them and lie to their face. It's either that or lack any element of surprise.

So the scenario generally goes like this: boy and girl, so in love, go out to find a ring together. He sees the one he's going to get, says they'll have to keep looking. He comes back later and purchases the ring and makes up all sorts of lies....I don't think we've found the perfect one...this one is too expensive...too cheap...the diamond isn't right...we need different prongs...and they go on and on. Even if she knows he bought the ring, there's the it's not ready til Wednesday....they're still resizing it....they're behind schedule....I'm picking it up on Saturday routine lies.

So now the boy, with ring "secretly" in possession, plans an extravagant date to propose to pop the question. This can be any number of things, but usually includes going to places that they've been together in the past. As the night unfolds, little things creep in and threaten to destroy his master plot. She sits on the wrong side. They're too early for something...or traffic has held them up. The girl, being the sweet angel she is and not caring if they have an extravagant date because she just wants to spend time with the boy she loves, kindly suggests that there's no need to be upset by the traffic (or whatever) and they can change their plans to something easier.

At this point, the boy is freaking out. CHANGE OUR PLANS?!?!?! Do you have any idea how long I've been planning this out? How carefully I've thought of every little detail (except for maybe the traffic :) )?

The boy then insists that they stick to their guns and do what they said they would. Which the girl finds to be absurd. And so the night goes on. He's insistent, she thinks he's being weird and uncompromising and ends up a little annoyed him. So the perfect date is getting not so perfect.

In the end, everything is fine. He finally asks her to marry him and all is well. All the lies become quickly unfolded. She understands why he was acting like a lunatic and she feels a little bad about getting upset at him because it was all for her. Or is it for him?

Do I appreciate a good engagement story? Of course I do. Do I think these are justified lies? I do. But would Jesus think the same? :)

I think he would. I'm convinced he has a sense of humor because otherwise I would already be smitten.

I think the stories like this are so funny. Here is the gist of the engagement story of my good friend Breen (or Brynn, if you prefer).

EJ takes Brynn to a path where they often would go on walks together. It's a nice path and has a nice bridge and not many people frequent this area. While on their walk, Brynn sees the bridge and notices that it is decorated with candles and stuff. She tries to tell EJ that they should not go over there because someone is using the bridge. He insists that they do...I wonder why.

So he keeps leading her down this path and they get closer and closer. Brynn tries to back away from this place because someone will be here any minute. EJ, again, insists they go closer. Brynn is annoyed that he won't listen to her and keeps insisting they go to this place. When they are pretty close to the bridge she finally says "EJ, we have to go now! Someone is going to propose to someone here!!!"

Exasperated, EJ admits that yes, someone is going to propose to someone here. It's him! And then I think he just asked right there.

Man! I think it's so funny. They're both just getting more irritated at each other. Brynn because he won't listen to her request to go somewhere else, and EJ because she's ruining the surprise!!!! Just follow along, woman!

Anyway, that's part of all the fun of getting engaged, right? My husband tricked me and I liked it. We had looked at rings, but not very seriously. And we'd only been dating for 4 months. This is how he got me...he told me he wanted to go film our first date so we'd always have that memory (of which he was starting to forget). I believed him. I didn't suspect a thing until he told me to finish my sandwich and put the trays away myself while he went to the bathroom. Heaven forbid I do such a thing on my own, right?

Don't think that I don't enjoy engagement stories. I truly do love them. I just think it's funny that so many people are in on lying to one person, and it's somehow ok. And that what is supposed to be the greatest night of your whole dating history ends up tangled in annoyance and deceit.

Congratulations Matt and Emily!!!

The Biggest Loser

As my dear friend Andrea has pointed out, a new post is way overdue. So here it is.

Nothing special. Just our awesomeness.

The Mark and Brooke Taylor family has decided to enter into a Biggest Loser competition with not one, but both sides of our family. The Taylors and the Walshes are competing to be the skinniest (well, at least to lose the biggest percentage of body weight)!

If you don't know the Walshes, you've never met competitive. Each Walsh will tell you that they are the smartest, strongest, funniest, best-looking, and most accomplished one. In fact, my brother gave me a numbered list via text today explaining why he was, indeed, the most awesome Walsh. Why not share the ridiculousness he wrote:

Things I can beat every member of the family at:

1. Subway by being a good worker and manager

2. Being the best at all sports Walsh fam plays

3. Being smart

4. Last but not least, lookin good.

And I rest my case.

In all reality, I am the best. Should you question this statement, I will invite you to peruse my transcripts and resume, and feel my biceps, quads, gastrocs, triceps, hamstrings, gluts (for real!), etc.

So back to the point. We're doing a competition. As a result of this, I have become OBSESSED with Trainer Momma! Just ask anyone I go to school with. I refer everyone to her (thanks to Miss Natalie). Oh, what's that? You're looking for a good recipe? Trainer Momma. Oh, you eat food? Trainer Momma. Oh, you have a body? Trainer Momma.

I love her. She's funny. And encouraging. And provides good recipes with caloric information. Mark and I have made tons of stuff and are dropping the pounds. His pounds are coming off faster than my pounds, which is annoying, but whatevs.

I suppose all of this started because I wanted to do a triathlon. Notice the spelling: only one A. It's not that hard. One of my great life goals will be achieved by completing this feat. I've been going to a triathlon training class to really get me in gear, and so far, it's been great. Especially when I DOMINATE my entire class like I did today!!!

So, here's the schedule:

May 21st- Sprint Triathlon in St. George

July 7th- Off to Ghana to lead a group studying abroad (this time Mark is going, woohoo!)

July 28th- Home Sweet Home

July 30th- Spudman Triathlon in Burley (the real deal)

July 31st- My birthday :)

August 2nd- Off again, this time to Costa Rica

August 29th-Home from Haiti

Can I do it? I sure hope so. I'm a Walsh not a Wyner. I'm a winner. I've been brainstorming ways to continue training in Ghana. This will not be easy, but I'm sure it will be worth it!

For all of you who will actually see the Walshes or the Taylors, check out the weight-droppage. Not bad.

This concludes my post. Perhaps I will consider posting in another year or so. And seriously check out trainermomma.com sometime.