Body Worlds Exhibit

I hope the picture doesn't gross anyone out (because to us it's really fasci-nating), but I wanted to share that Darwin & I had the oppor-tunity to attend Gunther von Hagens' Body Worlds: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies on Tuesday. Click here for additional information. The exhibition is in Salt Lake City until January 11, 2009, so if you get the opportunity to attend, we absolutely, 100%, recommend it. It is a little pricey, so the only reason we were able to go is because Darwin was able to get in for free, thanks to him being a Utah educator. I'm not sure if all Utah educators were given the opportunity to attend for free, and I believe it was only for that one day, but we chose to take advantage of our opportunity. I believe the tickets for adults were about $22-$23 dollars (I can't remember the exact pricing), and about $16-$17 for children, but it's totally worth it if you can scrape up enough extra money to go!

Not only is this exhibit an art exhibit of the human body, but it is extremely educational and fascinating, and it really helps you to appreciate the durability and fragility of the human body. After attending this exhibit, we came out with a greater understanding and appreciation of what our bodies can do. Life really is so fragile; it's great to be reminded of the complexity of our bodies, and how many incredible things we are able to do with it. I don't know how anyone could go to an exhibit like this, and see all the amazing details of what our bodies look like on the inside, and not believe that there is a God. I'm sorry folks, but something as grand as the human body, doesn't just evolve into something like it is without the helping hand of a Supreme Creator. I firmly believe that we are created in the image of God, and that we can become like Him. I know that God created the world and everything in it. Each serves a specific purpose in His eternal plan. I am so grateful that we were able to attend this exhibit and be reminded of the opportunity to come to this Earth and receive a body. It was a great reminder as well, that we really do need to take care of our bodies. Our bodies are meant to last us a lifetime, and if we don't take care of ourselves, they won't be able to endure the length of time they are intended to.

I hope you will all take the opportunity to see this exhibit either here in Salt Lake City, or when it comes to a location close to where you live. The exhibit travels around the world, so hopefully it will come near by at one point or another. :)

Cool School of the Week

Dar's school was voted "Cool School of the Week" and featured on Fox 13 News yesterday morning. Darwin isn't in any of the videos but click here to view the clips. Congratulations Union Middle School!

Talk about talent!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59ZX5qdIEB0&NR=1
- Flute Guy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHUuqsSCn5g&feature=related
- Harmonica Guy

Pico de Gallo

It has been requested by our neighbor, Lisa, that I post a picture of my pretty salsa (aka Pico de Gallo) along with the recipe. I generally don't even follow the recipe. I just chop and mix until it looks good. This really is pretty tasty if you love fresh salsa. You could make it more spicy by including some of the jalapeño pepper seeds, but I don't like mine spicy. The last time I made it (this picture) I actually put 2 jalapeño peppers in it, and it doesn't even taste spicy. Just some tips in case you want to try out this recipe. :)

Pico de Gallo

6 medium tomatoes*, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
½ jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
pinch of garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Put all ingredients in a bowl. Add ½ cup of cold water**, mix well. Let set a few minutes. Refrigerate left overs.

*It's better if you use slightly under-ripe tomatoes, when they're more stiff.
**You may not need to add water, it just depends on how juicy your tomatoes are and how juicy you like your salsa.

The story...

Being the geek that I am, when I went in for my radioactive iodine treatment on Friday, I asked the nuclear medicine technician if I could take some pictures to post on my blog. He laughed at me and told me I could, and even assisted :).

The experience wasn't quite what I expected it to be, but it was pretty cool at the same time. I'm sure you're thinking, "Radioactive substance in your body...Cool, huh, Kiara?". But I did think it was pretty fascinating.

I was at the doctor's office for about a total of 30 minutes. When I got there, the nuclear med tech had me verify my identity to make sure they were giving the iodine to the right person. I agreed that it was probably a good thing to double check for a treatment like this. Doing an X ray on the wrong person is not such a big deal, but administering radioactive substance to the wrong person could be disastrous! He asked me some questions, and then asked if I had any questions. Then he told me we were just waiting for the iodine to be delivered. So, we waited about 15 minutes....When it finally arrived, I laughed when I saw that it was inside an ammunition box.


Then, he pulled out another container, about the size of a soda can, that was pure lead. He had me hold it without warning me how heavy it was and I nearly dropped it on the ground! Haha. Nice joke!

You can kind of see my name printed in the yellow box :)

Then, he opened up the lead container and pulled out a tiny little vile about half the size of an old film canister. The iodine was actually inside the tiny vile, inside the lead container, inside the ammo box. Talk about protection!

He weighed the glass vile to make sure we got the right amount, and told me that he'd page the doctor to have him come witness me take it. When the doctor came in, I had to verify my identity again (better to tripple check than to be wrong, I guess!). I was told that I'd be sipping the iodine up through a straw. And that part wasn't really what I expected it to be. I guess I half expected them to just give it to me in a little sample cup like they give to you when you are administered medicine at the hospital, but I was way off on that assumption. So when he told me to sip, I wasn't sure he was serious because when I did sip, I got like 2 drops up through the straw. (He did tell me that's what would happen but I didn't really expect it for some reason.) Then he squirt a little bit of water in the vile to rinse it out and made me sip again. We did this a total of 3 times, and then he said I was done ;) He measured the vile again to make sure I got all of it. And they sent me home. That was pretty much the whole thing.

One thing I thought was interesting was that the iodine they used was just plain old iodized table salt (about 3 little granules of it). To make it radioactive, they put it in some kind of machine (this was done before it was brought to the office) that did something funky that made it radioactive. Kind of weird/fascinating at the same time. So, I'm still a little radio active, but not enough to damage anyone so I'm allowed to be around people again. I didn't feel any different (which I didn't expect to) except that my thyroid was a little sore on Saturday but it seems to be all better now. Anyway, that's pretty much the whole story. Now we're just waiting for time to pass and for all the radiation to get out of my body. :)

Mr. D loves science, see?--Thyroid 101; Lesson 1

As many of you already know, I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism back in 2000, and have been treating it with medication, and doing very well. Recently I found out though, that I should not be taking one of my medications if we ever want to get pregnant at any point in the future, so when I asked my doctor about it, he graduated me from his clinic (I'd been seeing my pediatric doctor up until June) and sent me to an adult endocrinologist who recommended a different treatment option so that when we are ready to start our family, we'll be able to do so without any risk to the baby. Here's some more on our current Deming adventure:



Sorry that we both look/sound like idiots, but we couldn't resist sharing the funniness of the situation. I'll be having the actual radioactive iodine therapy done this Friday and will be secluded to our home until Monday, when it will be safe for me to go back into the world without exposing anyone else to my radioactive body :) Darwin is allowed to be around me, but I'm going to need a 6 foot radius, which means we won't be able to travel anywhere in the car together. Also, I'll be sleeping in our spare room so I don't expose him more than necessary. Let me know if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer any that I can. I hope this doesn't freak anyone out either. It's not as serious as it might sound. Hope you enjoyed it!

Donut Falls Hike

Yesterday Darwin and I, along with Jared, Tracee, and Reagan took advantage of the nice, cooler weather and went for a hike to Donut Falls up Big Cottonwood Canyon in Salt Lake. Jared & Tracee have done the hike before when the falls were still snow covered, but it's a hike Dar & I hadn't experienced before yesterday. It's a really simple hike to do, and would be a great one to do if you wanted to take your small kids out to experience some nature. The reason it's called "Donut Falls" is because the water comes down through a big hole it created in the side of the mountain. It's really beautiful, and yesterday was the perfect day to do it. Here's some pictures :)

The McSweeney Family

The Deming Clan

The Ladies :)

Dar is getting really good at taking longer exposed pictures. Some of them look really cool!

The unfortunate thing is that these boulders were put in front of the falls, so in order to get a good view of them you have to climb all over the place, and it could be risky to do with kids. Luckily Reagan was in a carrying back pack Jared & Tracee got for her. But she was getting antsy and wanted to walk around on the rocks by herself.

You can see the water coming down through the rock in the background.

Reagan started to get a little tired & grumpy :)

Dar & Jared climbed up on top of the falls to get a better view.

This is one of my favorite shots Dar got.

If you can't tell, Reagan has flowers in both hands, and she was holding them straight out. It was pretty funny. She's so cute :)

Labor Day Weekend - So Long, Sweet Summer!

Can you believe it's September already? Maybe I feel like it crept up on us because of our crazy summer but, WOW! Time sure flies when you're having fun, huh? First of all, I wanted to add another post to show you all my new hair cut :)

This is how long it was back in February before I chopped it. (I cut 11 inches off!)

This is what it looks like now (don't mind the red-eye :) And I know most of you have seen it short, but I decided to get bangs again after YEARS of not having them. Hopefully you guys will give me some input to tell me if you like the new "do" or not. Thanks, Mel, for always doing such a great job!

Second, I wanted to tell you about our boring Labor Day Weekend. Actually, it wasn't all boring. Friday night our apartment complex had a BBQ, although probably only 1/5 or less of us were there. We had a good time hanging out with our neighbors and getting to know them a little better. It's kind of funny that those of us that tend to be outside the most were the ones attending the BBQ. Hmmm....Great job on the appetizers, Lisa!! Soo delish! Saturday we did some homework and then in the evening we went to Doug Pusey's house. He's a friend of Darwin's and the guy Dar did his student teaching with at Canyon View Junior High. We watched an episode of the amazing BBC documentary Planet Earth and ate banana splits. Yum!! (*Side note: If any of you feel like you need to get us a gift at any time for any reason, we still need the Planet Earth set on DVD ;) Sunday we went to Church, as usual, and then had our friends, the Bradley's, over for dinner Sunday night. It was great to see them again because we weren't able to do our normal fun summer activities with them this summer because Dar & I were gone having fun other places. Monday was pretty boring for the most part as well. Dar & I ended up doing homework for most of the day before we went down to Mapleton to raid Mom & Dad Deming's garden to pick out some yummy veggies. We HAD to do something to get out of the house! The coolest part about the weekend was definitely being able to spend time together. A close runner up, however, was the great rain fall we got!! Did anyone else enjoy it as much as we did? Darwin tried to capture the intensity of the storm on the camera, but these pictures hardly do it justice:

Sorry about the big black slabs. Those are the stairs right outside our apartment door.

Obviously you can't get the full effect by any means. The sound of the rain was incredibile, and we were completely enjoying having ALL of our windows open so we could take advantage of the rare rain storm as much as possible. We quite enjoyed the chillier weather as well and it made us super excited for autumn and "cozy weather season" as we like to call it. Have I expressed at all how much I LOVE the rain! I admit that I wouldn't love it so much if it rained everyday, but Dar & I both decided that a good storm like this once a week would absolutely be Heaven!

The third point of this post was to get up some straggler pictures from the last few weeks of our summer vacation that didn't make it on our blog yet.

My niece, Hannah's, 3rd birthday party:

The birthday Princess, Hannah

I had to post this picture of Liam. Can you believe how big he's gotten??

At one point she had to crawl inside this bag to get her present out, but our camera was too slow to get the shot.

Hannah with the fuzzy green purse Dar & I got for her.

A cool flashlight from Gramps & Nanny

My favorite picture of the b-day girl. Leftover-ice-cream-face and all :)

Having Dad help her with her new fishing pole from Gramps & Nanny.

New & Old Friends (i.e. Misc. Pictures):

My parents got a new puppy named Roxy. We love playing with her!!! She's so much fun!

She's just the cutest little thing!

My beautiful kitty, Raz, who can't live with us because our apartment complex won't let us have pets :(

Reagan--Wouldn't this be a great shot for a Tostitos Tortilla Chip add?

Dar's first day of school. I couldn't resist taking a picture. It's tradition, isn't it?