Body Worlds Exhibit

This past weekend I attended the Body Worlds Exhibit with my sis Jerica. Although, I didn't major medicine or anything remotely related to the medical field I have always been interested in medicine, and growing up I even thought I might be a doctor, a pharmicist, or a plastic surgeon. (Now, I just do accounting). I saw this amazing special on the Discovery Channel years ago that talked about different ways of "preserving" a body, and plastination was one of them. On the special it talked about some museum in a far away country where bodies that had been "injected with plastic" were essentially "brought to life" again, in a way that I had never seen before. I thought to myself "Ah, I'd love to go to that far away museum someday to see these wonders." Lo and behold I was watching T.V. and saw that an exhibit was being held at The Leonardo Museum in Salt Lake City that featured the plastination technique developed by Gunter von Hagens in 1977 (the same gentlemen whose work/technique was being featured on the Discovery special I saw years ago). The tickets are quite pricey ($30.00) and I don't recommend going on a hot day or opening weekend as I did, but I really loved it! Keep in mind (as I had to) that these were real people. It's really the way their muscles and veins looked, except now their muscles and veins are formed in plastic. It's not their real tissue/muscles/or veins that still exist, but it's essentially a very exact mold of the inside of those structures (as the plastic is injected and takes the shape of the structures, while an enzyme melts away the real tissue, leaving in essence a mold of the inside of the structures - the bones of course are the real deal, as well as the finger nails and toe nails...ewww...). The procedure seems very complicated and I don't totally understand it. At theleonardo.org it says, "Plastination is a vacuum process in which a body’s water and fat content are replaced by fluid plastic, which later hardens to retain all tissue structures." I am doing a poor job of explaining it. If you are interested in more details check out theleonardo.org or bodyworlds.com.

26 weeks and counting....

Well, I figured it had been a month since I took some pregger pictures of me, so here they are. I can't believe I am six months already. Some people say I am small and others (like Kim R. and my Mom) think I am huge and look more like I am 8 months pregnant!!! I, of course, feel H-U-G-E! But I am really, honestly still loving it. I am even loving the seemingly annoying things, such as stretch marks (and chubby face). Yes...the stretch marks are already coming in masses. I just think "these are my battle scars, and I am proud of them." I am slightly worried with the amount of weight that I have gained though that it might mean that I'll have a 10 pound baby or something, but we'll see. I am loving having the baby move around inside of me so much. Sometimes though, I do admit, it gets a little excessive, like I am an internal punching bag.

Snowbird 2008

This past weekend we went up to Brennans Mom's condo in Snowbird. We hung out with our friends Trever and Dawnell and had lots of fun. We also loved hanging out with all the "old folks" and they loved calling us their "little kids."


Here's some alpine slide action!! Dawnell raced her father-in-law, Norm, and Brennan and Trever raced each other...looks liks a pretty close race guys!



The view at 11,000 feet is always breath-taking!
Here's my cute honey on the chair lift on his way up to ride the alpine slide.
Cheers!!! Thanks for lots of fun everyone! And thanks to Mom (Marcia) for being such a wonderful host!