An Entire Harry Potter Movie and Some Plastic Wrap Later...

I'll probably blog about my birthday festivities tomorrow, but first, I have to share a short story of blood, sweat, tears, and the sweet taste of victory.  At the beginning of this semester, my LDS Marriage and Family professor passed out a tiny seed to every student in the class.  We were told to plant them and take good care of them because this assignment was worth a grade at the end of the semester.  He told us that the earliest he had seen a seed come up was 6 days and that they could take up to 3 weeks to sprout.  Jeff and I went out and bought a bag of soil and I planted my seed in a little mug and put it on my desk under a lamp, which I left on 24/7. We were told that light and warmth were absolutely necessary for this plant to thrive.  Three weeks went by as I diligently watered my plant, just a little bit each day (apparently even a tiny bit too much would kill this wimpy plant), but after all that time I had nothing to show for it.  One day in class, Brother Richardson said that if we didn't have a sprout by now, we needed to get a new seed and start over.  After class, he gave the group of sprout-less incompetents a little tip: use a lid or some plastic wrap to keep the moisture in.  That afternoon, I went home determined to make this little seed grow.  I decided that part of the problem with my first attempt was probably that my little seed was too much of a weakling to push through the bigger chunks and wood chips in my cheap Rite Aid soil.  I wasn't gonna make that mistake again, so I put on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and got to work sifting handfuls of soil through our unusually small-holed cheese grater.  It wasn't until the end of the movie that I finally had enough super fine soil in my mug!  I planted the seed, carefully watered it, covered the top of the mug in plastic wrap and replaced it under the lamp on my desk.  Over the next couple of days, I went back and forth between doubt and hope, but then Friday came along (justTHREE days later!)... I glanced into the mug and lo and behold, GREEN!  I looked closer, and there it was, a tiny sprout!  I was so overjoyed that I immediately called Jeff at work to share the monumental news.  I don't think he quite understood the magnitude of the situation, but he's a good husband so he did his best to feign excitement.  So yes, it took me a couple of tries, but I have the fastest sprouting seed Bro. Richardson's class has ever seen!  Oh the sweet taste of victory.