Graduation Cap & Gown

So Nathaniel is graduating in May and needs to borrow or rent a regular black cap & gown.
Anyone?

6 Things

1- Post the rules on your blog
2- List 6 random things about yourself.
3- Tag 6 people at the end of your post.
4- Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Nathaniel:
1 - He can ride a unicycle and did a unicycle triathlon last summer.
Maybe he'll do it again this summer.
2 - He was born in Indiana and lived in Wisconsin and Kentucky.
He hopes to move out of state.
3 - He likes to make up silly jokes. He makes me laugh.
4 - Nathaniel is an amazing cook and baker. I love breads!
5 - On our 2nd date he said, "What if our hands touched?" Silly boy.
6 - He loves Simpsons, music and reading.

Lina:
1- I took tumbling classes since I was about 4 until I was 16.
2 - I took bagpipe lessons, but I don't have my own set...
one day when we're rich or after I practice a lot on my chanter.
3 - I love to paint (walls, not pictures) and have had several jobs painting.
4 - I hit my head on the side of the pool at least 2-3 times while swimming in a
triathlon last summer. It seemed like I hit it 5x though.
5 - I love to take classes and learn (sewing, tiling, flower arranging, intro to
landscape architecture, racquetball, tennis, ultimate frisbee, aerobics, etc.).
6 - I used to or still want to: be a travel agent/clean airplanes so I could get discounts,
go to culinary arts school, finish learning Spanish, learn to play the acordian,
be a good mom, be good at dancing, be an olympic gymnast...

I tag: Bennetts, Porters, Larchars, Woodwards, Ethan and You!

Playing in the Sandbox

Two weeks ago the Sanders came up to Logan to play. We had a great time
and were really happy to see them! We went to the lunch buffet at the Indian Oven and
took a little walk around Logan. I LOVE Logan and will miss it sooo much if we move!
We walked by the Tabernacle and the old Roller Skating rink.
It was a pretty day but a little chilly.

Dave &Nathaniel playing
Comet Busters

Downtown Logan...

Yummy!
Kris and Dave

Sidenote: The yellow house is Citrus & Sage.
It is a cafe/novelty shop. Nathaniel and I
went there on our 2nd date for a poetry reading.
We were going to ride our bikes because I had just
gotten the boot off from my surgery, but we ended
up driving because he sprained both of his ankles
that morning. That was the first time we held hands.
Then a year ago at C&S he read the poems that he
entered in USU's Scribendi writing contest after he won 3rd place.

We also played Ticket to Ride and made sure to watch a Monkees episode,
an old Sanders-Hardman tradition. We skipped dinner because we were so full
and topped the night off with a USU Basketball game! We won of course
(just like we should have yesterday in Boise). The Hammonds sat with us.
I am glad they came to the game. They had never been and I highly
recommended it to them so I hope they had a good time.

What a Week!

Nathaniel had Spring Break last week, but I still had to work.
I guess it was for the best anyway because he had to study
for his first actuarial exam, which he took on Friday. He has
been studying all semester for it. He had to take it at the
testing center at the U of U and had a bunch of special requirements
(eg. They provided a packet of scratch paper, and if he were to
use it up he would have to sign it and raise his hand for another one.
He also couldn't take in the cover to his calculator
and had to get finger-printed. If he were to go the bathroom,
they would take his fingerprint digitally to compare when he came back) .

Lina wrote all that. I'll just add that it was a doozy of a test. There was a big bank
of practice questions online that I was using to study - I did the entire bank of questions once,
then I worked through most of the ones that I missed a second time. Even the second time
through I was only getting about 65% of the questions right,
so I was pretty worried about being able to pass the test.
I took some pictures of all of the study problems I did -
it's a quirk of mine that I love to stare at and admire a
page of my math work, so I laid it all out to see. Anyway,
I was really, really blessed on that test. As I took it, I was
happy to see that I knew how to do all but two of the problems
(though I may have missed more than that), and the test felt
much easier than the practice questions. When I finished,
a little message popped up that said something like, "Congratulations, you passed. You'll get
your official score in eight weeks." I feel really blessed, and I'm very grateful for the Lord's help.
Lina was very supportive, too, and she got me some Almond Joys to celebrate.

(Lina again) On Wednesday last week I had an observation - someone "bigger" than me
comes in to see how well I am teaching. It happens a lot as a 1st, 2nd and 3rd year teacher,
but this particular observation caused me A LOT of stress! I did everything I could think of to
get ready and get him the stuff he asked for, but I just felt like the main problem was going to
be when we went through it after. I emailed him my lesson plans and papers which he looked
through and said they seemed to have the important components of an effective lesson,
but that he had one question that we could talk about after. (We haven't had the best
conversations up to this point - he hasn't seemed to listen and/or
understand.) I called my "coach" to see if she had any suggestions,
and she gave me a few ideas and then decided they wouldn't help
and told me to wear red. Her sister believes it is a confidence color
and my dad told me it is a power color for women. I don't have a lot
of red, or any really, and I feel like a million bucks in a new shirt
so somehow I convinced Than (who was in his PJ's, had just dished
up some ice cream, hates shopping, was ready to go to bed, and
probably rightfully thinks I don't need any more clothes) to run with
me to the store right before it closed. We walked in about the time
they announced the store was closing in 5 minutes. I tried on 4 tops
as quick as a whip and got a fun NEW shirt with RED flowers on it.
I wasn't totally sure about it then, but it has really grown on me. It was even on sale!
Thanks to all the prayers, support, and my new red shirt, the observation went amazingly
and surprisingly well. Usually/Always he asks tons of questions and makes people defend
EVERYTHING they do, but I didn't even get to explain or show him all of my planning
methods and ideas because he was so busy telling me how great it was.

We also stayed with Kevin, a boy with disabilities that we
work with, and his two dogs while his parents were
out of town from Wednesday until Friday. Kevin volunteers at
the DI, takes voice and piano lessons, participates in
Special Olympics and LOVES anything Disney (especially Ariel)
or comic book related. We had a very pleasant time together.
I have known Kevin for almost 5 years now and have "lived"
at his house for a combined total of at least 4-6 months.
Our friends, the Merkets, were able to go to San Francisco over the break and
visit Noel's mission. So we checked up on their cat from Monday-Friday too.
It was easy and simple and they let us borrow some eggs.

It was a crazy week, but we feel very blessed!

Best of Lina

Let me preface this by saying that I am not making fun. It's just that
every once in a while, Lina says things that are so funny they have to be
shared. Here are a few of my favorites from the last couple of months:

We were playing a board game called "Ticket to Ride" with some friends
a few weeks ago. In the game, you have to construct train routes to
get you from one city to another. As our friend explained the rules, he
pointed out a few special places on the board and said that you need a
ferry to build your track there. Lina didn't notice that each of these
special places was a track that needed to cross over a body of water. So
about ten minutes later, in a quiet moment in the game, Lina suddenly
said, "Oh, like a ferry that goes on the water!" She had been wondering
and wondering what fairies had to do with trains.

Lina was giving a talk in sacrament and encouraging the sisters to
participate in relief society. She was saying something about how we're all in
the same wonderful stage of life together - "We're all newly married, just
figuring out how to be married and go to school, how to manage our money,
how to manage our time, how to have kids..." Then she stopped, laughed a
little, looked a bit embarrassed, and went on with her talk.

Lina's parents have a dog named Meg who likes to perch on the back of
their sofa. We were visiting a few months ago, and Lina's nephew had
climbed up on Meg's spot and was relaxing there. Someone commented
that he had taken a leaf out of Meg's book. Lina came into the conversation
just then and said, "Meg has a book? What?"
We said, "No, he's taking a leaf out of Meg's book."
Lina said, "Meg has a book with leaves in it?"

Lina and I were both at a ward council meeting with all of the ward
leadership as well as the stake presidency after our last ward conference
(I'm a ward finance clerk, and Lina is the R.S. president). At the conclusion
of the meeting the stake president called on "President Hardman" to say
the closing prayer. Lina looked at me with a confused look on her face,
thought, "He's not a president." Then she looked over at the person on her
other side, who was not a Hardman at all, and she looked even more
confused. Then she said, "Oh, Me!" and started laughing.
She's a cutie.

Spring is Coming! I don't know when, but it is coming!

One of my favorite things about winter ending (one of my many favorite things about that)
is hearing the birds chirp in the morning. I still vividly remember the ending of
my first winter in Logan. I was silly enough to take a 7:30 class which is a bad idea in the
spring semester because it is so much colder in the mornings than the fall semester. Anyway,
I was all bundled up, walking to class and I noticed the birds chirping. I remember finding
it so refreshing and I came to treasure those beautiful, freezing cold morning walks to class
I've noticed the birds chirping again lately and I love it!

Hmmm...

Sorry, please forgive us for never posting! (That is, if you haven' t given up on us and
you still actually read our blog every few months.) When I decide, "Okay, I just
have to post something. It can be quick and simple, but I have to post something"
then I can't ever think of anything. But here are a few random goings-on:

Nathaniel and I have been reading the Chronicles of Narnia together out loud. He actually
reads more while I work on things or cut his hair (don't look at it too closely). He also reads
better in the car and doesn't like driving much, so it works out. C. S. Lewis is amazing!
Two summers ago we read the entire Harry Potter series out loud too.


Nathaniel is trying to figure out what to do after he graduates with a degree in statistics
this May. He applied to the US Dept. of Agriculture and marked the "anywhere" box when asked
where he was interested in working. "Anywhere" includes 46 states and Puerto Rico. He is also
studying for the first two actuary exams and that would lead us a completely different direction
as far as what type of job he got, but also likely out of state.

I want to make a t-shirt quilt. I even gathered up my old t-shirts and called a friend to find
out how she made hers. But, Nathaniel still maintains that I won't actually start it for about 5 years.
Don't get me wrong, he is very supportive. He just tries to help me not get my hopes up because I
really don't have time. Plus I barely got around to fixing 2 of about 7 pairs of pants that need mending.
I don't know what he does to his pants, but I can't keep up with it. But I've also decided it just
isn't my time to do most of the things I want to do yet. Don't get me wrong, I try to stay really
organized and set goals, and I go 100mph 7 days a week, but barely have time to sleep. However,
everyone always tells me it just gets worse (worse meaning harder and having less time).


I also want to make curtains, fix my dress, sew a bunch of other things, scrapbook, make more
yummy meals, read any of the 20 books I have collected in order to read, read any of the other 100+
books on my list of books to read, finishing learning how to crochet, actually crochet something,
practice the piano more, practice my flute, practice the bagpipes, learn Spanish, learn to ride a
unicycle, take more classes (especially sewing, gardening, cooking, etc.), blog regularly with
interesting posts, read other people's blogs more (thankfully Megan helped me set up the blog
reader so I'm doing better at that, but I haven't been commenting on your blogs so I'll work on that),
play sports more often, hang out with girls... and the list goes on. Is that too much to ask?
I guess we all feel that way.

Nate has been busy too. He has some pretty tough math/stat classes, lots of study groups,
is an SI leader and Stats tutor, works with our friend named Kevin and helps me out a lot. He is good
to do the dishes often and make dinner quite a bit too - even though I've been doing better.

I spent my Presidents Day (really 7+ hours) taking 2 online courses about emergency management.
I have a training for it all day tomorrow too. My certificates say that I have, "reaffirmed a dedication
to serve in times of crisis..." I am not sure if taking these classes, being on the Emergency Committee
at work, re-certifying for First Aid and CPR, and being present when our ward/stake emergency plans
have been shared for the last few years has made me feel more or less afraid of some sort of disaster/emergency. I supposedly "know" what to do, but I feel pretty anxious about having to do it.