Justin+Melodie

HAWAII!!!

2012-01-29T00:05:00.000-08:00

We went to Hawaii a while ago. And it was the best, best, best ever!

We stayed in Oahu for like a day and a half. We went on a tour, because we're touristy like that. We saw some cool stuff. And then we hiked Diamond Head at sunrise the next day.

Then we went to Kauai for like 5 days or something. Soooooo awesome! Here's a whole bunch of pictures.

Morning #1- Total double rainbow! It was amazing.

My sunglasses broke the day we left. I didn't have time to get new ones before we went out so we stopped at the convenience store and I got these bad boys. They broke the next day. :(

This was a super awesome temple inside a cemetery. This picture might be the hottest I've ever looked. Or maybe that one right before this...

This giant gong was at the temple. If you rang it three times in a row it was supposed to make your wish come true. It hasn't yet.

Diamond Head at the butt-crack of dawn.

Hotel view. I loved it.

A pretty view on the drive.

We ate a snack at this adorable little fruit stand. Best fruit ever, for real!

All over there were these little stands. They all had a box for you to put the money in. I love Hawaii.

This lovely joint was called the Fern Grotto. It was pretty. And after we saw it we went to a luau but the pictures turned out kind of lame.

I am such a nice wife. I rode on that thing with Justin.

He wore this and I still rode with him.

And when it was over I looked like this. It was a little muddy.

We went here on our muddy trip. The tour guide made us pose like that.

And here. Wait... that might be the same waterfall. We went to a couple so I can't tell.

This was from a boat tour we went on. My previous feelings about riding boats on the ocean have been confirmed, but the view was amaaaaazing!

On a different day we drove here- a different view of the same cliffs.

Same day, same drive, very different view.

There were wild chickens every where!

Here's a couple pictures of Justin doing some stuff.

We had dinner in the courtyard of this plantation house on our last night. The weather was (of course) perfect, we could hear the music from the luau next door-- It was for sure the most romantic of all dinners I have eaten, and the food was phenomenal.

Then when we came home it was Christmas Eve and we spent it with our awesome friends Brad and Mandy at our house. I loved every single second of everything that happened that whole time! Hooray for the most awesome Christmas vacation ever!!

P.S. In Hawaii it's ok for ladies to not do their hair. That's why I looked like that. And I loved it.

Today's News

2011-11-21T22:36:00.001-08:00

We went on a day trip to Santa Barbara a while ago and took the funnest ever segway tours. It was freakin awesome! I will post pictures maybe someday.

Also we had a swell 11/11/11 party. Again, pictures may show up of this event at some point. If I feel like it.

Last the best of all the gang: We FINALLY booked our Hawaii trip last night. To my utter baffle-ment, I am the only one who is excited!! What is the world coming to when no one is happy about me going to Hawaii but me? Whatever. I'll just have the most fun ever as revenge.

That is all.

Update

2011-10-03T21:11:00.000-07:00

You might think that I'm too busy doing super-fun activities to blog. That is incorrect. I have no news of any sort, nor do I have any more I wish to say on the subject of my boringness.

Also the dogs are still cute.

BYU Football: More Than Just Something to Yell at on TV

2011-09-06T19:19:00.000-07:00

Everyone who knows anything about me and Justin is aware that he and his whole family are BYU maniacs and I openly make fun of them for it. That's just how we roll. I think we are all satisfied with our position in this situation.

However, on this particular occasion I have to admit that BYU has shown why they are worthy of the rabid fanaticism showered on them by Justin's family (if that is even possible). See, in the past year Justin's nephew, Ben, was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, spent weeks in the hospital and had several surgeries which I'm sure were highly unpleasant due to the nature of the disease. He is 9 years old. So when I heard that this was happening for him even I couldn't make fun of BYU:

http://www.broncomendenhall.com/ben-settle/ (if that video won't play this is the link for it)

Go on, watch the video.

Now go get a tissue because you probably cried. I did. How awesome is that, right?! He got to watch practice and talk to all the players and everything. Apparently they do that every Thursday or something. That's awesome. And Ben deserves it. Not only has he had the roughest year ever, but he is also an amazing kid and a huuuuuuge fan.

So, although I never thought I would say this seriously, Go Cougars! This time I mean it.

Queen of Earthquake

2011-09-02T18:51:00.000-07:00

My first earthquake!! I was so excited. I heard a funny building creaking noise, felt a bump and then I got so excited about it being an earthquake that I started bouncing up and down, prohibiting me from feeling the rest of it. It was perfect! And now I'm a real Californian, I'm pretty sure. Best earthquake ever!!

5 Years!! Woot wooooooot!!

2011-08-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

Greatest Achievement: (Achieved August 19, 2011) Putting up with each other for an entire 5 years.

Just kidding. It's been pretty much just fun! To celebrate we ate some food, as is the traditional celebration at our house for all exciting events from milestone anniversary days to milestone didn't-put-on-pajamas-until-after-9pm days.

It had been a particularly long week and since we are planning on doing a big trip later this year to officially celebrate we didn't really make any plans. At some point in the evening Justin said "Well... you wanna go to dinner or something?" And I was like "Ok".

We decided on Mimi's because we hadn't been there in like 2 years and we used to go all the time on account of I adore their soup. As we pulled into the parking lot we drove past another restaurant that had a live band and dancing and looked like such a party. And that was when I got worried that Justin would want to go there instead of Mimi's.

I was nervous of his answer but I had to ask anyway. "Is it ok that I just go to an old person's restaurant for our anniversary so we can sit in the quiet?" He said yes. And that is when I was assured of his true and everlasting love. He is happy to sit with me at an old people restaurant and eat soup and free bread. And that's what love is.

Congratulations to us on being in love and having cute dogs!

Pretty Sure He's on Crack

2011-08-23T19:04:00.000-07:00

This morning Justin came running into the bedroom to have the following discussion with me:

Justin: Do you know how much pain is involved in shaving with a brand new mach 3 razor?

Me: How much?

Justin: ZERO. It's like an angel licking your beard off!

Me: ......

Weekend

2011-08-15T14:26:00.000-07:00

It was so much better than I thought. It wasn't just only a movie outside, you guys! We played full on night games!! Remember "Ghost in the Graveyard"? And "Fugitive"?! It was a blast. However, turns out you can't never, ever exercise and then just be like "I'm going to jump over this shrub while running full speed" or "I'll just climb over this wall- no big deal." and then not feel it the next day a little. Worth it though!

Saturday we slept off the trauma of the previous night. We really were tired since we didn't get home until 2 and that is not our typical old person schedule. Then when we got up we had to rest on the couch for a while in our pj's and watch tv. Then... IKEA!!! I would kiss Ikea on the lips. Finally, we went to our favorite Brazilian with Brandy (Brad+Mandy). It's in Hollywood across from a strip club.

Sunday we had the funnest ever pot-luck at the park. And then I had a nap.

Combine that all with the fact that I made a double batch of Muddy Buddies on Friday, and boom! it was the awesomest weekend ever. Or in the top hundred, at least.

The Stuff That Is Happening

2011-08-12T12:58:00.000-07:00

1. My shoulders hurt. Looks like I'm going to have to get a massage!

2. Tonight we are going to our friends house for outdoor movie party. Fun! You guys know how much I looooove outdoor movies!

3. There have been several exciting family announcements made recently and I'm not going to spill any one's beans, but I will say that I'm getting some new niephews. I won't say whose.

4. I've decided that the time has come to begin planning the kitchen remodel! This is the project I've been most excited for since we moved in. So many decisions! Light or dark cabinets? Drawers or shelves? Move the sink to the other wall? Paint a gnome mural? Oooh, I'm so excited!!

5. The dogs are still cute. Sometimes I have to remind myself of how Obie was as a puppy to keep from giving Fifi away to the retarded dog sanctuary where they run around on padded grass and wear little tiny dog straight jackets when they get too excited. She ate one of my favorite books. She didn't eat the whole thing, but I was sooooo mad at her. Until I remembered that puppy Obie ate my entire Series of Unfortunate Events books to the point that I threw most of them away. And now he's perfect. She's not so bad. She's just a baby. Babies are stupid.

Plus, sometimes at night we just chillax in the bedroom before actually going to bed. But Fifi doesn't get it. She thinks if it is night and we are in the bedroom it is bed time, and then she cries until someone puts her to bed. She won't just go lay in her bed. You have to walk over there with her and tell her "Go to bed" and she climbs in and sleeps. But if you don't tell her she just wanders around and cries. She appears to have no idea that going to bed without us telling her to do so is even an option. She's so dumb. And cute.

And those are all thing things I have to put on the blog today. I'll leave you with some awesome pictures of us for your enjoyment.

Gilroy Garlic Fest

2011-08-05T12:23:00.000-07:00

We took a weekender. I love being able to have weekenders! Everything about it is fun. I love being excited all day at work because as soon as you get home it's time for a vacation! And I love when Justin drives me around in the car. And I love seeing new places. And I love staying in hotels. And I love being all relaxed when you get home after all then fun. And I love seeing my dog-babies after being away because they are so extra funny.

This weekender was to the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Apparently Gilroy, CA grows a lot of garlics, and you know how every small town has their summer festival that they do? (like the Ute Stampede) Gilroy does garlic. And y'all know how I feel about garlic. The festival is giant. Like Ute Stampede x4 - rodeo. And now I'll list all the things that I ate:

Just kidding. The internet would run out of room. But the food was delicious! However, it was not the highlight. This lady was:

Megan: prettiest hat, prettiest face.

That's right. It's Megan, who I love. She and her fam were the whole reason we weekendered in the first place. It was so fun to see them! Good friends who you would go to a garlic festival with are hard to come by and we sure miss them since they moved.

The rest of the Garlic Fest-ing group, inclusive of Josh's lady-work friends. I like them too.

Saturday we pool partied for Mason's 2nd birthday at Megan's awesome sister's house. Holy crap. Mason is adorable. More on that later.

I wish I would have taken a picture of the dog situation. Update! Megan did! Boom.

What?! What sort of dog actually likes to get wet?! Not mine, I guess.

Meggles and her sister both have big dogs, and both dogs like to swim, which was a huge shock to me since neither of my dogs will even step in puddles. They just jump right in the pool and paddle around. It was seriously the weirdest thing I ever saw! Dogs just swimming around in the pool! On purpose! Comparing dogs like those to my babies is the weirdest. It's like they aren't even the same species.

Sometimes you can judge the fun-level of a party by how dirty the birthday boy is after.

Obviously it was a HUGE hit! Okay, so he's not exactly dirty in the pool picture, but he sure was having fun with JP. I had to put it in here somewhere. Do you love the one where he looks like he's strutting on a little dirt catwalk? Funny little guy.

Sunday we drove home, taking the scenic route of the pacific coast highway. We drove through a lot of small towns before we got the the coast. Turns out central CA is just like central UT. Same thing. I swear every town we saw was a little clone of Lehi or Spanish Fork or one of those other little towns, including all the people in it. But the coast is a whole different situation.

It was so gorgeous. You guys, they have fields of strawberries growing right next door to the ocean. And there are houses hidden in the craziest little nooks all down the coast. And the local flora was delightful and surprisingly varied. Amazing drive. It is a must do for all people who enjoy nice things. There is probably even more pretty stuff if you go further north than we were. Maybe. Anyways here's some lame pictures we took from the car.

Pictures taken from the car with one's phone are bound to look like crap, but I pretty much don't care because looking at them still reminds of how pretty everything was. And I think that's the whole point of pictures anyway. Memories and stuff.

Summary: Super-fun weekender and winner of the best ever garlic bread! Plus it was fun to see our friends. Oh, and also I took this picture of bike that we saw at the 3rd Street Promenade a couple weeks ago.

What? Why? Seriously?!

Wait, what?

2011-08-04T16:31:00.000-07:00

It's AUGUST?! How did this happen? Wasn't it May like 5 seconds ago? I'm pretty sure it was. Sometimes I am so annoyed at life for going by too quickly when I'm enjoying how it is right now! Why can't it just seem fast during the lame parts? Stupid life.

It's all this little baby's fault:

She looks kind of sad here! Probably because I was waving a treat in front of her face to get her to look at the camera and not actually giving her the treat. That would make me sad too. Plus check out her little wonky ponytail on top. She's so cute.

I just want her to stay little and hop everywhere she goes forever! Seriously, she hops instead of running. I'll have to get a video of how funny she is. Plus she isn't pooping on the floor nearly as often these days. She's learning! And here I thought her brain was full of fluffy and pink and cuddles.

Obie is still cute too, of course. Now that he's the responsible dog of the house I sometimes imagine that he has a british accent. Because, you know... that's how fancy people speak. So now instead of imagining he says "Can I sit on your lap?", he says (in my mind and in a british accent) "Pardon me, might I trouble you to move your cereal bowl so that I might repose on your lap for a time?". See how grown-up and fancy he is now?

It's not all Fifi's fault. I just love summer, and I love playing. I love JP too. Good thing, since we're married. Last weekend we took a trip to Gilroy CA which I'm going to blog about as soon as I figure out how to get the pictures off my phone. See all the fun stuff that is happening?! Why does it have to be August already?! I don't want it to get to the end of the year! Especially because, according to the movies, 2012 is the year that California will fall off into the ocean. I am not down with going into the ocean guys! It's cold in there, and there is fish poop. Can someone call superman and ask him to spin us back a couple months?

Dumb

2011-07-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

Actual quotes from a real live blog I was reading earlier:

"Whoa and behold"
"the vain of existence"
"Oober.."
"more sizable for you" as in more equal to your size- gosh I love this chick.

I know I'm dumb. I'm not proud of it or anything, but I'm ok with it. We can't all be smart, nor do we need to be. That's why I picked Justin and put him in my vice-like love grip from which he can never escape. He'll do the smart in our family.

But if I ever sound that stupid someone needs to do like Ryan did with Creed on The Office and just make me think that a word document is my blog. Or some other solution to avoid all my stupid leaking out onto the interwebs and infecting the general population. Please? Much obliged.

Quote

2011-07-20T09:34:00.000-07:00

"It would be a lot easier for me to not be judgemental if people weren't doing stupid stuff all the time."

Anonymous
(It was Justin.)

Vegas, which I hate.

2011-07-18T14:21:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of feelings about Las Vegas. All negative. So we don't even need to go into that whole thing. I'll just start right off into the bit about Grandpa's (Verne's) house.

Verne has moved from his home into a group home, on account of he is like 10 jillion years old. Everyone went to clean out his house. By the time I got there things were in a stage of moderate completion. Most of the rooms had been sorted into crap vs. keep and was in piles accordingly. I was kind of glad that I didn't have a whole lot of work to do because it left me more time to pass judgement on the members of the Vegas family that I find particularly bizarre. Or most toothless. Whatever.

The cool part was that we found stacks of love letters from Verne to Ruth (Grandma) and back, and they had little initials (like s.w.a.k only it wasn't s.w.a.k. We couldn't figure out what they meant) that they signed their letters with, and sometimes Ruth would kiss the letter or the envelope! I never knew they were romantic.

We found dozens of pictures from the 30's and 40's of them. Like this one of Verne taken in 1943:

Or this one labeled "Verne and his horse Buddy, 1938".

I had never seen anything like this of him! I even went through my Grandma's baby clothes. When she was born her mother was sick with the flu epidemic and died 3 days later, so to keep newborn Ruth warm they put her in a box in the oven. Seems like a questionable tactic, but I guess it worked fine. However, if oven-baking is what caused her "cankle" genes to be passed on so easily then I have a bone to pick with my great-great-grandparents. All 4 of the girls in my family, and many of my cousins have Ruth's cankles. I won't name which cousins have them, in case they haven't noticed it yet and are upset by my pointing it out, but that is one persistent genetic trait.

Though I mostly went for the chance to see my parents, I actually found it very enjoyable to learn more about my Dad's parents. Plus I scored some new dishes out of the deal, as well as a very fine label maker. So I say it was time well spent.

P.S. Obie was the hit of the party, of course. Not much help though. Fifi is a giant pain in the butt still, so I left her with Brandy, to whom we are eternally indebted for how much dog babysitting they've done for us. Final thing: Justin comes back from UT tomorrow. Longest. Trip. Ever.

Little Sisters

2011-07-12T14:20:00.000-07:00

Oddly, neither of them are littler than me. I'm the shortest in the family by several inches which I think is unfair.

We had so much fun! I love having visitors, especially ones I like. We went to the beach on Thursday and it was gorgeous. The regular beach was really crowded so we went to one of the more private ones and it was just perfect. We had naps, talked about girl things, dipped only our toes into the ocean. It was a great beach day. And we took no pictures. You can probably imagine three manatees sunning themselves on the beach without pictures of it. I wore my new swimsuit "Red Menace" and it was super cute.

Friday we went to the Fashion District and I think they didn't like it as much as I did.

The "Fashion District" sounds deceptively attractive. It's actually pretty gross and crazy. Tons of people trying to peddle their discount wares on the street and from little tiny shops lining alleys, like this one. Lots of weeeeeird lingerie and old lady clothes and some cute stuff. Plus we ate hot dogs wrapped in bacon with fried onions on them.

On the way home from shopping we drove past Grauman's and the sidewalk with the stars on it where people stand in their outfits and you can take pictures of them- you know that road. Andrea got excited and took pictures of a couple of things:

HARRY POTTER!!! She (and everyone in their right mind) is so excited for HP! Every billboard we passed was met with pointing and screaming "It's so cool! Oh my gosh, I'm so excited! It's going to be awesome!!" However, in all fairness, those HP posters really are awesome, and it will be the best finale to an 8 part movie series ever. EVER.

Also she saw a pretty good Storm Whomper (Storm Stomper? Storm Blaster? I don't remember what they are called), but since we were driving this is the best picture we got. There was a pretty good character selection that day though. The standard slutty tinkerbells and catwomans, a spongebob, transformer, spiderman... I forget the rest.

Also we went to sushi with Evan and Lynn, who are my favorite aunt and uncle. Sorry other relatives! I lived in their house and they are awesome and I like their kids. You just can't compete. Besides, most other relatives can only compete on a novelty level anyway. (On George's side that is. Julie's family is all sane and nice and pretty. Sometimes I'm amused that George comes from crazy family- he's so normal sauce. But Julie's nuts, and her whole family has their original teeth and no criminal record. Go figure.) I mean, I can like the aunt with the beard who tells people to their face which of their children are the ugliest and how many twosies she's had this week. But she just can't compare on an actual "awesomeness" level to E&L. Merely amusement.

Saturday we went to the Getty. "Angel of the Citadel" puts a smile on every one's face. It is one of the ugliest things I've ever seen. So is it good art or not? I don't know.

I told them to stand over there for a picture and this is what I got.

When I told them the first picture looked stupid and boring I got this. Better.

One of the many, many, many things I adore about where we live (besides great weather, awesome friends, 13 miles to the beach, a zillion fun things to do, safe only semi-ghetto neighborhood, etc.) is that the city has great summer fun programs. At the park a block away from us they do free concerts and fireworks. You guys know how I feel about fireworks. At another park they do free outdoor movies. I think a movie being outdoors makes it like 59x more awesome. We watched Casablanca Saturday night. Perfection.

When we arrived at the park to watch the aforementioned movie we met this great dane.

He was nice. When Aubrey sat down he climbed right into her lap with no invitation. That's what I love about dogs and babies. They just assume everyone loves them and is there to play and snuggle with them all the time. The world would be a better place if we could all assume that everyone was nice and wanted to play, instead of that everyone is d.b.'s and wants to steal our kidneys.

I think it was the biggest dog I have ever seen. And it likes to cuddle.

Visit Conclusion: Awesome! I was sad when it was over.

But I have good news. Next weekend Justin is going to Nephi- and I don't have to go! Don't get me wrong, I adore his family. They are super great. But I loathe going to Nephi during the Ute Stampede. Or ever. So I'm really excited that he's going and he will have so much fun and I won't be there!!! He'll take lots of pictures of how adorable the nephews are and I will miss them, and I'll console myself with the thought of not having to go the rodeo. :) Everything's coming up Melodie.

Bad News Everyone.

2011-07-05T12:32:00.000-07:00

The 4th was pretty lame around our house. The good part was that we went to Malibu for fireworks and there is seriously nothing that compares to beach fireworks! Especially when you can see them going off at different spots all up and down the coast. It's so awesome! Plus Brandy was there. And I put FiFi in her little blue and white dress with a red hair clip and brought her and then she barfed on my sweater on the drive. Turns out she's not great in the car. She sure looked cute though!

But the bad part was that we didn't do much else, despite our best efforts. We wanted to get a lot done around the dang house (unrelated note: we need to think of a name for that place. It's pretty ridiculous that we've lived there for almost 2 years without giving it a proper name. Sometimes I'm so embarrassed for us) but it was a zillion degrees and our house seems to suck heat in like how a Sham-Wow! sucks up soda. It's hard to be productive when it's so hot.

Andrea and Aubrey are coming in just a few days and I'm so worried that I'll let them down with my boringness. What am I supposed to do with them? What is fun to do at my house besides go to the beach? See my dogs, of course, but is there anything else? This is why I get so nervous of house guests. Overboringness. Maybe if I just show them some pictures of Justin Beiber they'll be happy? That's what single girls like, right?

Dogs vs. Children

2011-06-28T14:27:00.000-07:00

The other day I was taking my dog-babies for a walk while I talked to Emily on the phone. The conversation went something like this:

ME: Blah, blah, blah... Oh snap, hold on. Obie found a chicken nugget on the ground and now I have to pry it out of his mouth.

(Commence prying stale chicken nugget out of his clamp jaws of death. I swear that dog's got a grip like a wolverine on the last moose carcass of the winter.)

EMILY: *Laughing, laughing, laughing* That's funny because today when I went visiting teaching Afton found a hot dog on the ground and I had to pry it out of her mouth. P.S. Why would someone have a hot dog on their floor?

ME: Gross.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Another day I was talking to Emily again. This is how that conversation went:

ME: Oh snap. Fifi pooped on the floor. I better go so I can clean it up.

EMILY: That's ok. Afton pooped in the bathtub today.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Amusing. I find it strange that children are allowed pretty much everywhere, but my clean, cute, quiet dogs are allowed very few places. The more I talk to Emily, the more convinced I am that my dogs are small, hairy two year olds that I can leave home alone without fear of them falling into the toilet. Fifi did get stuck in a laundry basket the other day though.

** Update: Emily pointed out that when her kids get the b.u. she can put them in diapers and Fifi just puts her poops on the rug to poison us all. My response is this.

Weekend Wrap-Up

2011-06-28T14:10:00.000-07:00

Friday was Justin's official birthday. We went golfing and I drove the cart while he played. He did super great. We went to dinner with some friends afterwards. Justin wanted to go to a gross burger place and since he's the birthday boy he gets to choose. I can handle maybe 2 hamburgers a year and my quota for the first half of the year has been met. So me and the other girl went to Panda Express (possibly the only food that will clog your arteries faster than greased beef on bun) just 2 doors down from there and brought it back to the burger place so we could all eat together but I didn't have to eat a hamburger. It was a good system.

On Saturday we babysat. Our friends are moving to Maryland and needed some kid-free time to pack. They have been married for 6 months longer than me and JP and just had their 4th kid! They are both insane and saintly. We took the oldest three kids (ages 4, 3, and 20 months) all day. All friggin day.

The thing of their kids is that they are they cutest kids on the planet- they look like cabbage patch kids (in the cutest way imaginable). And they are so sweet and easy and fun. But still- it's three kids. Holy cow.

Since I was the babysitter and didn't have to worry about their minds turning to mush I let them watch 2 movies. Also we went to the park. I had to carry the little guy and I guess with all the carrying and him being an active baby, his diaper came unhooked. I didn't notice it until it was too late. He was sitting in the sand. Justin looked at him and said "Melodie, is that his diaper coming out of his pant leg?". I looked. "Why, yes. Yes it is", I said. And then the baby stood up, took two steps and the whole wet diaper plopped out of his shorts and onto the ground. It was still hooked on the one side so he dragged it around for a few more steps until he had finally freed himself from the shackles of diaper-hood. Then he peed. Gross. He ended up wearing my old MHS Cheerleader t-shirt for the rest of the day (re-diapered, of course).

The saddest part was that it was kind of overwhelming for the dogs. Obie is a little more used to kids, but Fifi has had little exposure to children and she doesn't really understand them. At one point she was just cowering in the corner of the kitchen, shivering and too scared to go anywhere. I had to carry her for the rest of the night. She had been to the vet that morning too, poor thing (she's 3 lbs. 5 oz now and all healthy! We are still trying to decide what to do about getting her fixed...). The kids were really good with the dogs though. The oldest followed Obie around for like two hours trying to get him to play, eat his chew stick, lick his hand, etc., and Obie is such a good dog that he was just cool with it. He tried to hide sometimes when he got overwhelmed, but he's always so nice to everyone. Fifi's cute, but Obie's perfect.

The kids were really fun and cute and good. But holy cow. Three kids. And that wasn't even all of them! I swear those parent's must have superpowers or something. Also she told me a story about when they bought their rocking chair off Craigslist they got it from a woman who had in-vitro and ended up with QUINTUPLETS!! I'm pretty sure that's 5 babies at once. What?!! How is that even possible? Also the doctor who made those babies should be shot because I am very positive you are not supposed to put 5 in there. Plus, sometimes I look back on the moments of childhood when I thought my mom was nutters and I think "Oh! She had 5 kids! That's why...." or "It's because we thought it was funny to bang our silverware on the table and chant at her to bring the food over. That's why...". I think that our brood was not only large, but also butt-headed. Bless mother's hearts. I don't know how they do it. Dad's too, I guess.

We went to the cheap movies with Brandy when babysitting was over. I love the cheap movies.

Sunday made me want to be apostate from church a little bit. Sacrament meeting- an ooooold lady talked about all the people she knew who the congregation might know. "And we lived right down the street from Todd Watson's mother then. I wonder if anyone knew Todd Watson's mother? Then when we moved to a farm and you know who we met there?" And then another guy talked until it was about 10 minutes late for the next meeting. I was kind of glad of that because...

I am currently teaching the 16 and up class (in case you didn't already know) with a saintly woman who never even wants to kill the kids. It was her week to teach and thank heavens for it because they put the younger class in there too. Also she thought it was a good idea to bring gummy-life-savers, which the kids were throwing at each other across the room. And then they licked them and stuck them to their skin. And she was just calm and tolerant and teaching. I was blowing fire out of my ears! I would have seriously killed them! I do not know how she maintained her composure, but she's amazing. I only have a few weeks left in that class and I can't wait for the end. I don't know how much longer I can last in there without smacking some of those kids for being so friggin stupid. I'm so glad my mother has agreed to taking our future children from the time they are 9 to 18. I'm concerned that she thinks I'm joking about that deal but I am not.

Later we went to Brandy's for what is becoming a tradition: Sunday night card game and movie. It's a pretty great tradition. It was a pretty great weekend. Definitely an "I'm glad we only have dogs" weekend, but a great weekend.

Next weekend is beach fireworks! I love the 4th of July here!

Happy Birthday, Boyfriend!

2011-06-24T11:05:00.000-07:00

Today it is this dream boat's 28th birthday!

His biggest accomplishments thus far:

-- Winner of Best Husband Ever Award, 2006-2011

-- 2nd Runner Up at Dance Moves of the Century Competition, 1991

-- Knows all the words to the Gummi Bears theme song

-- Successfully read an entire National Geographic during a twosie.

-- Makes the best chocolate chip cookies ever!

-- Is frequently well-groomed.

-- Made this face using handsomeness and candy corns:

It's pretty obvious how he won my heart. By awesomeness. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my ultimate bestie!!

Friends! Friends! Friends! Friends!! Wooooo!!!!

2011-06-21T16:43:00.000-07:00

I think we can all agree that it is rare and special indeed to have friends that you can spend a whole weekend with and still like them when it's over. Especially for me. The reasons for that are two-fold. First because I'm super-annoying so people would rather jab their eyeballs out than hang out with me. Second, and most importantly, because I pretty much hate everyone. So when Brandy said they would come with us on our overnighter vacay I was so excited!! I like them! And they are willingly hanging out with me and Justin, bribery free! Sweet!!

Friday when work was over I practically sprinted to the car in excitement. As soon as Justin got home we were on the road, and me and Mandy had to spend the first hour talking about all the people who frost our cakes, which is one of my favorite subjects. If you are rude, stupid or boring you were definitely on our list that night.

Then commenced lots more driving and some awesome singing in the car. Our final destination was Cambria, which is super tiny and quaint. Kind of a weird place though... when we got to our hotel there was an envelope with our name on it taped to the office door and our key was inside! Who does that?! It made me so worried that it was going to be a nasty place, but it turned out it was fine. I celebrated by eating Cheetos.

Saturday we powered through 3 two-hour Hearst Castle tours and the movie, which took us total about 8 hours. Every minute of it was awesome. My personal favorite moments were the ones when Brad kept getting in trouble for not staying with the tour group. Also when we saw amazing things.

For those unfamiliar with Hearst Castle, it is a huge mansion built by William Randolph Hearst and filled with amaaaaaazing antiques. He spent like 25 years building it and it was never finished because he died. It has 56 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms and ten zillion awesomeness. You could fit our house twice in the smallest guest house. So here's some pictures of that whole day:

Here's me and Brandy. Mostly Justin took the pictures, so he's not in here much. (And then you all cry a little. I know you came here to see him.)

Some of our best posing.

Here we are in the gardens, out-sexying the nude marble sculptures.

Hey there's Justin! Cool pose, woobie. Apparently the tops of those towers are actually water storage, a fact which they don't tell you until they lead you into the bedroom directly underneath thousands of gallons of water. It's crazy in there.

This picture of us is not our best work. But it is a prime example of how foggy it was that morning. Note: At first I accidentally typed "faggy" instead of "foggy" and I laughed.

And then it cleared up so beautiful later in the day, and suddenly the pictures got so less lame, both subject-wise and fog-wise.

The indoor pool. It is the shiz. According to the tour peeps it cost over $400,000 to build it in 1930. What would that be equal to today? Ten jillion? First born child + kidney? I just want to know so I can get one of these pools! Also this is the room in which we saw Lorne Michaels getting a private tour and he smiled at Justin. Best ever.

More of the outdoor pool, or Neptune Pool. The staff gets to swim in it once a year. The problem with that is how do they get them to get out? Because I wouldn't. Ever.

Here's some marble lesbians. I tried to stamp a penny with this image but I messed up the machine and ended up getting a stamped penny of an otter. Lame.

Did I mention it was foggy (hahahahahah!! I typed faggy again on accident! That word is top ten funniest words for sure!) and that there are 80+ foot palm trees with climbing roses all up them and that they have a tree that smells like maple syrup and possibly robot squirrels and there are a zillion fruit trees and there used to be and elephant named Maryanne that lived there? All true.

The front door of the main house. I put this one up so you guys will know where to come knocking when me and Justin buy this place in a couple years after CA is too bankrupt to run it anymore. And you're welcome to stay with us then. We only need a few dozen bedrooms, leaving plenty for you and your family to occupy!

When Mr. Hearst lived up there he had an extensive zoo, most of which he had to get rid of during the depression. But some of it still lives up there wild all this time later. Like zebras, which we saw on the roadside. I was so excited!!!!

Ha ha ha!! Look at my face. I look like I'm going to jack! (Joy+yack. It's when you get so excited you peuk.) The rest of the herd was further away, so harder to phone photograph. There were probably 50 or so all together and they did not like it when you yell at them to "Come over here so I can pet you!!" Also I would like to point out that Justin is a giant party pooper and would make a terrible Disney Princess. He never lets me pet wild animals. He's always like "They have rabies!" Whatever. He's probably just jealous that bluebirds brush my hair in the morning and he doesn't even have any hair.

There's even a baby one. It's hard to see because Zebras all kind of blend together because they all wear the same outfit. Bad plan guys!

Then dinner, then home. The next day: church, then back to Brandy's for dinner, games and a movie (The Dark Knight- so freaky!!). Then home and fall asleep on the couch with this baby while Justin did work:

Notice she has short hair now. We'll have to discuss that later- there was... an incident.

Fun time, huh? And that's why we had to have a friends chant that goes like this, "Friends! Friends! Friends! Friends! Wooooo!!". Seriously, I love our friends with kids, and I usually love their kids, but sometimes it is just so friggin nice to go play and not have to worry about any one's baby sleep schedules or food schedules or poop schedules or fussiness or ten thousand pounds of extra baby crap or chasing their kids or whatever. The only thing we worried about all weekend was fun, fun, fun!!

Also we accidentally found a Quincinera on the way home. I had no idea how hard that tradition could make me laugh. The music, the balloons, the Holiday Inn, the dancing... all super. We took a video but it's too nutters. Just imagine how excited I get about everthing and multiply it by a Quincinera at the Holiday Inn and late at night. That's what the video looks like.

And that is what I did all weekend. The End.

A Short List

2011-06-17T15:50:00.000-07:00

Now that I've been away for almost 2 years, here are the things I miss about Utah:

1. Seven Peaks
2. Housing prices
3. Forever Young shoe store at the University Mall
4. Bajio... Oh Bajio!! I miss you most of all.

End of list.

I heart my niephews

2011-06-15T14:08:00.000-07:00

There isn't really a word for combining nieces and nephews, is there? That's a pity. Also, I don't mean to say anything derogatory about everyone else's kids or genetic pool, but I soooooo have the world's cutest 1 niece and 8 nephews (a.k.a. "niephews").

As you may recall I have been pants-messingly excited over my trip to Emily's house. It lived up to all my expectations. The only bad thing was the travel, which was epically horrendous. More on that later. First the run-down of all the fun we had. FYI, this is really long and I'm mostly only writing it for my mom, who I know is riveted by every detail of everything I do. You can just look at the pictures if you aren't my mom.

Saturday morning I got off the plane after an overnight flight and had about 20 seconds to put on a swimsuit before we left for boating on the cutest little lake I've ever seen. It was fun, even though I don't get in lake water. I just like being on boats. Then we went home, hurried fast to get ready for Brody's soccer game, which went pretty much like this:

He wasn't actually that bad. It's just a funny picture. He ran up and down the field smiling and when he got tired he rested. He doesn't really understand the "sportsiness" of the sport yet. He still got a medal though! Plus, this is hilarious: Emily is the soccer coach. Bwah ha ha ha ha!!!!!!

Then we went to a ward temple activity with Emily's ward. I had never been to one of those little temples before, like the Detroit one. It's really little. And I was so sleepy from going on the overnight flight that things got pretty ridiculous, head-bobbing-wise.

Afterwards we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant. I'm usually not a huge fan of Italian food, but this place was amazing! Except for the service, which was excruciatingly slow. When the food finally came me and Emily both said "This had better be awesome for how long we have waited for it". To each other, not the waiter. Luckily it was. Obviously, as evidenced by my butt, I looooove tasty food.

Despite the food slowness we still had time to make it to fireworks at the lake! Shaloogi proclaimed it "youd" (loud) and covered her ears while she told us all about how loud it was and listed all the different colors of fireworks as they exploded. Brody sat in my lap.

On Sunday I went to nursery with Emily and I only liked the cute kids. That's ok to do, since I was visiting. And there was napping and food, both during and outside of nursery.

On Monday we went to Home Depot and picked out tile for Emily's kitchen back splash. Despite my previous complaints about how I live at Home Depot, I actually really adore going there. Brody and Afton thought the paint chips were the bomb, and ended up taking home several each.

Then we went to Ikea, another of my true loves. Brody also loves it. He gets so so excited to go play in the babysitting spot! He talked for so long about all the things he likes to do once he gets in there. I think the ball pit is his favorite. Also it is unsanitary.

We ate lunch at Ikea, too. I love Ikea. I LOVE IT! We bought Emily some chairs for her living room, which look friggin amazing.

See? See how pretty? Such pretty babies, too. That pose is Brody's new go-to picture pose. I like how Afton is trying to copy him in that one above.

Brody's version of Blue Steel?

I bought this little swim-suit for Afton a long time ago and then forgot about it so Justin sent it to me while I was there (nice of him). I put it on her right after her nap and she was a little fussy. Result: Cutest picture ever.

Tuesday we had to go to Wal-Mart. Afton was really upset that we didn't go to Wal-Mart earlier. We kept listing a zillion other fun things to do and she only wanted to go there. So we went. I got Brody the game Operation (Buzz lightyear version). He's quite good at it for a 5 year old! Afton insisted we go look at the cakes while we were there, so we did.

Some other stuff happened and then it was almost time for me to leave. I asked Brody if he would miss me while I was gone and he said "No. I already have a friend named Emma that I can play with". And when I told Afton it was almost time for me to leave she yelled "No! My yuv Medowee!" (I love Melodie) and my heart squished a little bit.

Afton says everything. She got mad at Emily when she asked me if I like to watch Community. Afton said that I only like to watch Mega-mind and Handy Manny, neither of which I have seen. Afton just decided that's what I like to watch. She doesn't use "I" or "me". Only "my" and "Afton". She likes to make a lot of jokes about people. She'll say things like "Mama is stinky" or "Daddy is a silly willy". She thinks that's really funny. But if you say she is stinky she'll do upset face at you and say "No! My not tinky!" (I'm not stinky). She got mad at me for calling her Shaloogi one time, which made me sad and amused. She calls a lot of thinks scary, but I'm pretty sure she's not scared of much. Also she has a Woody doll from Toy Story that is her boyfriend and comes everywhere with her. She is adorable and hilarious.

Brody is same old Brody, just becoming such a big kid and it makes me sad. He's such a smarty-poo. He reads crazy hard words (like high-pressure wing warp, or the b of m) and thinks about things in such fascinating ways. His imagination is a riot. He still loves his blanket. I asked him why and he said because it's cuddly and he can throw it in the air. I think his main joy in life is being silly and giggley and he's so good at it. He just can't help but be smiley and funny.

Conclusion: the visiting part of the visit was perfection, including staying up until 2 am talking to Emily and then watching 2 episodes of 16 and Pregnant before I fell asleep. It was great. Now on to the travel part of the visit.

*Sidebar: Seriously, this is the longest blogging ever.*

My ticket was on Spirit Airlines. Don't ever fly with them. It is too gross! Emily and I have joked before about how they attach seagull to their planes to get them off the ground. It might not be a joke.

I showed up for my flight to Detroit and 9:30 and by the time I got checked in, got through security, and to the gate it was 10:50, five minutes before my plane was supposed to leave! I stood in line for an hour and 20 minutes! Most of that time was standing in the check-in line. For an hour. Of course the flight left late.

On the way back all was well for the first leg of the flight but I had a lay-over in Vegas, which is my least favorite place in the world. I would rather go to Antarctica than Las Vegas. That place is a breeding ground for human filthiness in all forms. When I got there I was supposed to have just a few minutes between flights. Alas, the flight before us had been delayed on account of a butt-head getting so rowdy and throwing his phone at the flight attendant that they turned the plane around to kick him and his friend off. It delayed my flight by over 4 hours.

The best part was that a lady was going so nuts on the gate agent that she got airport arrested. You know how I love crazy people when I'm not the one who is getting crazied on! But I still felt so bad for the gate agent lady. People are rude. I got to my house at 5 am when my original flight was supposed to have landed at 11:40. But I did get my row of seats all to myself for the whole way from Vegas to LA.

And that is the whole long story of my entire life since Friday night.

Hearst Castle is happening this weekend and we are going with some super cool friends and I am still too sleepy from getting home at 5 am to express how excited I really am. But after I sleep for 14 hours tonight I am going to be so excited!

Going on a trip

2011-06-08T12:45:00.000-07:00

I am so so so excited to go to Emily's house! I am leaving Friday after work and my flight arrives in Michigan at 6am. Then we are going boating, then to Brody's soccer game, then there will be fireworks!! Fireworks are my favorite ever! Sparkly, outside but I don't get dirty, pretty, exciting, lots of colors, you're allowed to scream, happens in the summer, you don't have to wake up early to see them- what is not to love about fireworks?! Plus we will probably go to a water park, which I also love. Plus I already made matching skirts for me and Shaloogi. Plus we might paint Emily's kitchen, which I also love. This is going to be the best trip ever! Holy cow, I can't even stand how excited I am.

In other news, Fifi is the worst ever at being house trained. Obie was so easy! He just liked to only go on the grass and no where else. She likes to go everywhere, but most especially on our front room rug (thankfully it was a cheapie from home depot so I don't have to freak out too much.). Also she only has problems with twosies. For onsies she is pretty much perfect.

She is so messy. She always likes to run and roll around in the dirty grass. Obie will only walk on the grass to go potty, then it's back to the sidewalk. She spills water when she drinks so I had to buy a little doggie placemat for her. She likes to take her toys to different rooms and leave them there, and then she gets bored when she can't find them. Duh. She doesn't like having her hair done- she'll rub her head on the rug until her clippy comes out. Sometimes I use to put it in a rubber band until I caught Obie trying to help her get it out of her hair- he was dragging her by the rubber band across the floor! She was totally down because she wanted it out anyway. Even though she's messy and poopy and stinky and is ruining my home depot rug I still love her so heart-squishingly much! I just wish I could get her to stop pooping on the rug and to not pull out her hair-do's.

How can you not love a puppy who likes to sleep with her head on your shoulder?! She is so cuddly. Also it was bedtime so don't judge that my hair looks like that and I'm wearing an orange t-shirt and there are clothes stacked on top of my dresser. FYI- that shirt has a tiger on the front. It is named "La Tigre" and I only wear it on special occasions.

I'll Memorial Your Face.

2011-05-31T11:36:00.000-07:00

Long weekend!!!! Woohooo!!!!

It was actually only a one exclamation kind of weekend. I just wanted to seem exciting.

You may recall that Justin's brother, Adam was here. Those two are ridiculous. I don't know how their mother lived through the teenage years. At one point they were web-cam-ing with the other brother and all three had removed their shirts and were flexing and jiggling and giggling. It was really weird. I took a picture. I think I'll delete it.

Friday night we went for a little walk by the beach and these awesome photos happened:

Why?

This was a Hindu temple we stopped at cuz it's cool. We got some weird looks.

Saturday the boys went to the Ronald Reagan Museum and I slept in. I think they sort of got the fuzzy end of the lollipop in that situation.

Air Force One at the Reagan Museum. And Justin in those shorts that I hate and need to throw away on the sly. This is what happens when he leaves the house while I am still asleep. Does anyone else have to sneak-throw away their husband's gross clothes? I guess I knew going into this marriage that he owned and tried to wear on multiple occasions a burgundy mock turtle-neck (which I threw away- I couldn't even donate it. Too ugly). I shouldn't be surprised that he still wants to wear those dang shorts.

Then we went to the beach but it was too cold, so we went back to our house, got the dogs, and walked to the park. The boys played sports games. We let the dogs off their leashes, which we never do (for real- this is like the 2nd time Obie's been off his leash outside), and they ran around crazy. The game, according to Obie, was to run really far and then run back to me. Fifi tried so hard to keep up but if they got too far ahead of her she would sit down and wait for them to come back. She's so cute. Here's her latest:

This is such a funny one of her. She looks so beardy! And stupid. Always stupid.

This is what her hair is supposed to look like when she's grown up. I'm not sure if I'm dedicated enough to let it get that long- she's already such a butt-head when I try to brush it.

Here's Adam running with the dogs.

We finished up the night by ordering pizza and sushi and watching Scrubs, which I felt really lame about. I was totally upset that we weren't doing something more exciting with our house guest, especial since he's nuts. He kept saying he liked sitting on our gross old couch and watching tv because he came to see us, not to play. I was really confused until I remembered that I always feel like that when I go to other people's house. I never care what we do or if we even leave the house- I just want to see them! It's just like that time I went to Emily's house and we spent every night watching Jersey Shore and it was awesome.

Adam left on Sunday. That night we had dinner at one of our very very favorite friend's houses, and I cried because they are moving to Vancouver. :((((((( Just when you get comfortable enough to use their bathroom for twosies they move! That's always how it is! I'm way sad about it.

Monday (Memorial Day- thanks soldiers!) we went to a friends house. They just bought this waaaaay awesome house with a pool that I covet, so we ate and swam and played and then decided we didn't want to fun to stop so we went to a movie at the dollar movies, which actually cost like $3.75. We saw Source Code and it was weird. However, if all men in the world looked like Jake Gylenhall we ladies would be in serious danger of swooning to death.

And now it's Tuesday and real life resumes. Lame.

Coming up: We might take another trip to Hearst Castle for J.P's birthday. He's going to be 28! What an oldy. Also, I am going to Emily's house soon and I am excited out of my mind.

EXCITING NEWS!!!!!

2011-05-25T12:08:00.000-07:00

There is a new addition to the Ware family!

This was when we had only had for a few weeks. It makes me sad to see it because she's so big now! She was so little that her front leg would get stuck through her collar. Now her collar almost fits her! Boo.

This is actually not that new of news. Everyone mostly know about her already, but I've been so busy picking up puppy poop that I haven't had time to blog her yet. Despite the poo situation she's friggin adorable. Her name is Ophelia, and we call her Phee-phee (Fi-fi). Just like how Obie's name is really Oberon. It's nicknames, people.

So here is all the stuff about her. First of all she's really cute. She's a maltese and is the silkiest fluffiest little thing in the whole world! She cries a lot, which I hope she'll grow out of. She is now almost 5 months old and still wakes up in the night sometimes. I don't know how people handle having babies that are actual babies- apparently those things never sleep through the night! Sounds rough. She also cries if she knows you are there but can't see you. She's kind of getting less crying-y as time passes. Good thing, too because I was about to start punching that little bitch in the face when she started crying at 5 am every day. It's ok if I call her a bitch, you guys. She literally is a bitch. It's not bad if I say that about her.

She follows me and J.P. around the house non-stop. I've even had to have the discussion with her about how bathroom time is private time, but she doesn't get it. She sneaks in and wants to cuddle. She ALWAYS wants to cuddle. All the time. I love it. Obie was always much to crazy for cuddling, clear until he was old. The first time Obie properly cuddled with me was the day we got him snipped, and it was only due to the sedation. Once that wore off it was probably another year before he sat on my lap without freaking out. She would be on my lap all the time if I would let her.

She seriously would never go more than 5 feet from me if she had her way. When I was laying tile in our shower room she came and laid on the bath mat for hours and just watched, slept, ate stuff off the floor, sniffed things, etc. This is way different than Obie. He gets tired of us and he'll go hide if he doesn't want to be around us anymore.

Construction helper.

For the first couple weeks we got her she didn't really understand how going on walks worked. She would only walk right behind me, and when she didn't want to walk anymore she would just sit down. She still does that sometimes, but now she at least walks in front or on the side like a normal dog.

She and Obie get along great. It's actually really fascinating for me to watch how Obie has changed since we got her. He has totally become big-brother-y. He yells at her when she's doing something wrong. He hides his toys from her so she can't play with them. He is mostly nice to her though. If she has a treat or a toy he'll just stare at her in longing- he never tries to take it. And they wrestle. It's pretty hilarious to watch. I think Obie has calmed down a lot since we got her. I like to imagine they are best friends and while we are gone at work they have adventures and cuddle.

My head:

Adventures!!

Reality:

Sleeping.

When we first got her she wouldn't eat and I had to feed her with a syringe for like two weeks. Lame. Obie got totally fat about her coming. I think he thought that if he didn't eat all the food then she would take it or something, and plus her food was better than his. Turns out its all just dog food. But we did have to have her on special food the first month or so because 1. she wouldn't eat and 2. when she did her mouth was too small to eat special small pets dog food we get for Obie. She was really really tiny. At 3 months she wasn't 2.5 pounds yet. She's grown a lot, but we still get asked if she's real when we take her on walks, which I think is a stupid question. Seriously? People really think that we, two adults, are walking one live dog, and one toy pretend dog? Duh. Of course it's a real dog!

Her favorite toy is the bat. I wish it was something more feminine, but she just really loves the bat.

Also, now that we have two dogs things get crazy sometimes. On separate occasions both dogs have accidentally been locked outside alone. We are really lucky that they are super-good/clingy dogs and just waited on the porch until we realized they were still out there. Yikes.

Plus, I sometimes don't realize how committal buying a dog is. They live for like 15 years! It freaks me out sometimes to think about it. Don't get me wrong-I totally love love love my dog babies. It's just... a long time. I would be freaked out to commit to anything for 15 years (not including marriage. We are already 1/3 of the way to 15 years! What?!). Even when you buy a house you can always sell it if you change your mind. I guess you could do that with a dog too, but only if you are horrible.

Finally, has anyone ever had a dog who made puppies? Justin wants her fixed asap. I'm thinking it might be nice to have her make some puppies in a few years. Has anyone had a girl inside dog? Is it really that bad? Here's the problem with that idea: if she has puppies I'm never going to be able to give them away! But I also refuse to be more than a two dog household. But puppies would be sooooo fun! Dilemma.

Can you believe I just wrote that much about my dog? Ya. Me neither.

Birthday outfits and messy hair.

Mixed Results

2011-05-24T11:13:00.000-07:00

Well, it was part awesome and part not-so-much. I forget what happened on Friday, but I do remember it caused me to stay up waaaay too late. Then I was tired on Saturday. We went on a good hike to the MASH (or is it M*A*S*H*? I don't know.) site with these foxy friends:

Megan, Josh and Mason (also Connor, who is still in Megan), in case you didn't recognize them.

We got in there. It was gross.

Having never seen MASH it was kind of anti-climatic. Still a good hike. I got a little sunburn (Stupid, stupid, stupid!!). The worst part about getting a shoulder sunburn is that (don't read this next bit if you are sensitive about lady underclothings) you pretty much still have to wear a bra to work after, and all that strap/sunburn contact sucks.

Other hike stuff

This tree was totally growing horizontal! It was magical.

The BEST part happened after hiking when we crashed some company picnic and got an awesome free lunch. I still don't even know what company it was, but the lunch was delicious. I wish I had taken pictures of it. Also I wish I taken a to go plate so that I wouldn't have resorted to eating Taco Bell nachos for dinner and clogging my arteries with artificial cheese. Yummy, yummy artificial cheese.

After hiking there was napping. I won't say how much. Then the friggin Home Depot for tile. Our check out girl commented on how we pretty much live at the Home Depot and I was like, "Yup".

Upon our arrival at our actual home I had an emotional break-down over the tile and then Justin had to spend the rest of the night carefully dragging my sobbing, ridiculous butt back into sanity. You guys, tile can be really emotional. Especially when you get paint colors into the equation- things get nuts.

The rest of the weekend consisted mostly of sleeping and eating bacon. So I would give it like an 7.5 or an 8 out of 10 overall. Maybe higher since there was bacon.

Next weekend Justin's brother Adam will be here and he's nuts. He'll probably want to go skydiving and swimming with sharks and to eat bugs just to see who barfs first. It will be me.

Speaking of music...

2011-05-20T10:46:00.000-07:00

Every day- well, almost every day, I wake up with a morning song in my head. It's just in there when I wake up. I never understand how I have a song stuck in my head at the butt-crack of dawn every day but I do.

The song generally has nothing to do with anything I've been listening to or thinking about. One day it will be the theme song to a tv show I haven't seen in years (Gummy Bears) and the next it will be like, Aerosmith or something.

So this morning's morning song was If I Ever Feel Better by Phoenix, which happens to be one of my current favorites, so that was fun. And then, when I got in the car and turned on my Pandora....guess what song it was!? If I Ever Feel Better by Phoenix!! That's like winning the Pandora lottery! Obviously I got really excited. I think this bodes well for the Friday and weekend to be a success. I'll let you know.

Confession

2011-05-19T10:57:00.000-07:00

I adore Michael Bolton. I don't care what anyone says- I love him. Plus he was on DWTS last week and it was magical. In fact, I would say I love him, but I'd lie. 'Cuz this is more than love I feeeeeel insiiiiide!!

That is all.

Birthday Finale

2011-05-13T10:15:00.000-07:00

After work (Note: How lame is it that your birthday is not automatically a day off?! Things like these are the reasons America is a country of fatties and weirdos. If we didn't have to work on our birthday maybe we wouldn't need so much comfort food and toilet golfing games.) That was too long. Now I have to start over.

After work I opened presents. Mom's first. It was one of my best gifts ever! Check out how adorable:

Oh my gosh, I am dying right now of how cute their little matching outfits are! Have you ever seen anything more adorable?! I don't care what anyone says, dogs in clothes is hilarious and precious. Also Fifi's hair looks stupid, and she has a dirty face. Poor ragamuffin dog. Still cute!

Also there were other presents, and they were great, but it's hard for me to even discuss it when my dog-babies are wearing friggin matching outfits!!

Then we went to dinner at one of the Benihana type places and it was a blast. Photographic evidence of our fun:

Justin was there. He was taking the picture. I didn't go to birthday dinner without him or anything. Plus I like how Brad's face is like horrifyingly excited it this photo.

Finally we saw Atlas Shrugged, which I give a solid OK. Not great, not terrible, plenty of room for improvement, but they did some things nicely- that's what I call an ok. F.y.i., that's also what I rated I am Number Four, if you haven't seen that one yet. I feel like so many movies nowadays have the weirdest pacing. Like- cram a zillion action parts in!!!!! and then spend 7 minutes doing a fly-over shot of the countryside... MORE ACTION... long boring conversation... What's the deal with that, movie makers? Also with bad make-up? How hard can it be to do good movie make-up?

I digress. Birthday was a stupendous success.

Tuesday: My final and most hilariousest gift ever arrived from Emily.

Awesome. She knows me so well.

Birthday Festivites

2011-05-06T13:56:00.000-07:00

Friday afternoon- Justin took me to pre-birthday lunch at P.F. Changs, which was delicious. He was unfortunate in getting the perviest sounding fortune cookie message ever: "Pleasure awaits your company". You know they took that straight off the billboard for Madame Linda's Classy A** Escort Service.

Friday evening- We went to Megan and Josh's house for Josh's birthday. Unbeknownst to me, it was also a party for my birthday on account of Megan is friggin awesome. She made me cake, and their kid is really cute, AND I got my first ever candy bar poster which I was totally excited about, so it was a pretty awesome night.

To complete the awesomeness for the evening we watched Shark Tank, which me and Justin had never seen before, and now I think Justin has a new tv show obsession.

Saturday Morning- Hiking. I do that now, because I am a well rounded person. Josh and Megan took us to a hike we had never done before called Solstice Canyon, and we took the hard way up. I am ashamed to say that a pregnant lady and a guy wearing an extra 50 pounds on his back totally out-hiked us. This hike ends at a fun little waterfall. Everything is still really green, and the weather was perfect. Despite several close calls, nature did not kill me, so I consider it a great success.

Saturday afternoon and evening- Justin and I went to Long Beach to hang out with one of my favoritest college roommates ever, which I did not take any pictures of. Lame. Now that I think about it she might be the favorite roommate, sane category. After we saw her we went to Balboa Island and had frozen bananas. Have you ever had a frozen banana dipped in Heath bar? If not you are seriously missing out on one of life's greatest pleasures. They were so good!

Justin's was Oreo dipped, and also awesome, but Heath Bar is the best. This picture came out so ugly that I had to make it b&w to hide how fugly we both looked. Don't you always feel sad when you see ugly pictures that you look like that all the time, and when you are having a good day you still spend most of the day looking like yourself in a bad photo? I feel sad about that every time.

Plus Balboa Island is the cutest place I've ever been in my life. I took this picture because Justin's mom is like obsessed with jasmine, and this was a nice whole wall of it.

Sunday afternoon- Coolest aunt and uncle's house for dinner. Cousin Aaron and family were there, so we brought the dogs for their little girls to play with. I was dying of how hilarious these two girls were with the dogs! It was a great time. Aaron's wife, Jen took a bunch of pictures- I'll see if I can't yoink one of the girls being adorable. For now I'll just use one of Fifi being adorable by herself.

Here is Fifi sitting on our bed yesterday. Sometimes I'll let her up there for a minute to cuddle when I'm feeling particularly seduced by her adorableness. This is a horrible phone picture, but she really is that cute.

Update: Photos courtesy of Aaron and Jen's blog. Look how sweet those girls are with Fifi! You can tell that by the end of the night she was all played out. Crooked bow, dirty face, sleepy eyes- signs of being well-loved.

Monday morning- Treated myself to being late for work, eliciting the stink-eye from my least favorite co-worker. Suck it! I will be late if I want to- it's my birthday!

Plus I wore one of my new birthday shirts from Justin's mom. She's a good gift giver because she just takes me shopping.

I've already received some record breakingly awesome whole-family-on-the-phone birthday songs, which I enjoyed. Despite being older and grosser than ever before things are going pretty birthday great, and the day's not over yet!

Announcement

2011-05-03T12:10:00.000-07:00

My birthday is next week. I will be turning old lady years old. Is it lame that pretty much the only part I am excited about is the outfit that I bought for Justin to give to me? Because I'm way excited for it. And not much else. I don't even like cake very much. I wish was getting more toys for my birthday.

Plus, I always imagined that by X years old I would be an actual adult. You know, put my laundry away instead of leaving it folded in a basket on the floor and digging through it when I run out of clean underwears, cook things that aren't cheese or chocolate based, enjoy the news, not laugh at fart jokes, etc. I am not an adult still. Dang. Maybe next year.

If anyone wants to send gifts here are a few suggestions:

I plan on having a really awesome birthday, which I will post more about later.

Five Years Ago

2011-04-14T10:59:00.000-07:00

Five years ago today Justin asked me to marry him. He took me took me to our special park and due to the drizzly and cold weather, had to seriously beg me to get out of the car. After some convincing we began our walk around the park. He talked about how awesome we were at being besties and tried to distract me from the huge bird that took a huge poop right in front of us.

As we walked around a corner I started to hear music (our special song- I still didn't catch on), and spotted a giant vase of calla lilies with a letter. I, being stupid, thought, "Sad. Someone left their flowers out here in the cold". But I was wrong. They were for me. Justin started his grand declarations of love, and until he started to tear up a little bit (don't tell him I told you) I thought he was just being extra nice. Wrong again! He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him and I was so excited I couldn't even say yes. Just giggling. And kissing. The yes came later- he had to remind me that I was supposed to say that part.

It's been a pretty big success so far. I would post a picture about it, but all I have are pictures of the dogs.

*Correction. I have a picture. Justin sent it to me when he read this. This picure is sadly blurry, but it's my favorite because he is down on his actual knee. How cute!

Tee hee!

2011-04-04T15:24:00.000-07:00

Seriously, you guys- I think April Fool's day is sooooo funny! I know, it's like I'm 12. I don't even care. It's so funny.

This year Justin thought he had me beat. He was so super conviced that he would not get tricked because he thought he would see it coming. He was wrong! He actually remembered that it was April Fool's day, which has never happened before. He put a huge wad of lotion underneath my car door handle, which caused me to later hit my face on the door when I was getting gas, and it still hurts. Very funny joke. It made me glad for two things: 1. My face does not bruise easily, 2. That was the first time I ever learned that my face doesn't bruise easily. Plus rude men at the gas station will laugh at you for whamming your face into the door and cursing a little bit.

That night we went out for sushi withsome friends to our favorite sushi place next to the dollar movies. Side note: I have never seen 6 people inhale so much sushi so quickly. It was like if you weren't careful you would get a chopstick to the eye and it would be totally fair because you can't get in the way of the sushi eating!

I need to back-pedal a bit here. I'm getting too excited. So, Justin is a giant nude-prude. I think he thinks that you would have to be some kind of perv to go to a nude beach or something. Whatever. Also, we are thinking really seriously about a cruise later this year, and have the dates picked out and everything and I'm so so excited.

So, on the way to dinner Justin was like "You only have 3 hours left in the day to trick me!" and I was like "Oh, I don't think I'll be able to do it! (Hee hee hee!)". I already had formulated a genius plan.

Whilst at dinner I casually mentioned something about the cruise while I knew he was only half-listening. I also mentioned about how it was a nude cruise,which it is not. I pretended like I didn't want him to hear, which of course made him want to hear more. See how crafty I am? So all the friends were like "What?!" and Justin was freaking out and it led to a very humorous discussion about how everyone would handle a nude cruise (i.e., would they go nude, would they peek at everyone else, etc.).

Anyway, he totally believed me and was all kinds of upset that I had arranged a nude cruise for us. I couldn't hold in my giggles for long and I had to tell him it was an April Fools. A pretty good April Fools, too. It wouldn't be so awesome if he didn't get so upset every time!

Oh, April Fools Day. What a great day. I hope everyone else's tricks were funny too! If you have any good ideas for next year let me know....

Mistakes Were Made

2011-03-23T13:55:00.000-07:00

I once wrote on Complaining Blog that I wasn't ready for forest green to be cute again.

I take it back!

via

Please forgive me, forest green, for ever disparaging your blessed hue. I love you now.

Making Plans...

2011-02-17T15:32:00.000-08:00

I have decided that Justin wants to take me on a lavish vacation for our 5 year anniversary, which is in August. I have considered a fancy cruise. Today I texted Justin about some cruise prices, and mentioned that the price varies depending on several things. His response: "Does it depend on pirate insurance? Because if so, I don't want to risk it. I'll pay the extra for peace of mind." I think he's funny.

But for reals, if you have experienced any vacation destinations worthy of hosting the commemoration of our 5 years of wedded bliss we are totally looking for suggestions/travel tips/donations to the travel fund (you can just mail me a check)/other thoughts as applicable.

My vacation requirements are as follows:

1.Warm

2. Pretty

3. Relaxing but not boring

4. Few children (I would say none, but the only places I know of where there are NO children are usually the nekkid resorts and I'm not interested in that.)

5. Less that a billion dollars.

6. Not Southern CA, obviously.

That is all.

Hot, Hawt, Haute?

2011-02-07T18:42:00.000-08:00

Um, how sad is it that we wore these sweaters to a sweater party and didn't even take a picture? I poached this off Megan's blog. It was a deliciously fun party with the best White Elephant/Yankee Swap ever. You know what else? As cool as these sweaters were, they weren't even the best ones. Next year I'm really going to have to step up my game.

That is a golfer on Justin's sweater, if you can't tell. Plus, my outfit used to have matching clip-on earrings that were made of clay, with giant pink rhinestones, but they were heavy and impeding my hearing so I took them off. Too bad. Also I'm not sure what is going on with my face in this picture. Or ever. Gross.

Snoozer Christmas

2011-01-17T10:39:00.000-08:00

In typical lame-people fashion, we failed to take even a single picture during the entire two weeks of Christmas break. We suck. It was a pretty good time though. Everyone's kids are cute, everyone had good gifts and there was 14,000 feet of snow. We were sad to leave, but glad to be home. Two weeks is a long time to be dealing with an away bathroom situation, not to mention the two twin beds we sleep in at my parent's house or poor little Obie having to live in his crate at Justin's parent's house.

I'm not always very sad that we live far-ish away. This weekend we went to the beach two times. It was about 75*. In January. At the beach. Mmmmmm!

Boom

2010-12-11T22:40:00.000-08:00

80's Prom Birthday Party for our friend Jason. It was every bit as awesome as you might imagine.

Michigan. Boo Hoo!!

2010-11-11T14:03:00.000-08:00

Waahaaahaa! Cry, cry, cry!!! You wonder why I'm crying? Because I had to come home from my best ever stay at Emily's house. Not that I don't love home or anything, it was just so much fun to see everyone! Pictures first:

One day we went to this place they call a Metro park. It was pretty much a lake/water park/ barnyard/ park/ naturey place. It was very enjoyable. Emily says there are lots of Metro Parks around there.

While I was there we had a little birthday celebration for Brody. We had a pizza picnic in the basement and he wore the birthday hat.

Shaloogi/ Afton. Yes, her eyes really are that blue. Plus look at those teensie little pigtails!

Emily got Shaloogi some new clothes, which she immediately had to put on and show off to everyone. Emily also got a little trick or treat bag in the shape of a strawberry that Afton carried around purse-style. In this picture she is showing off her new strawberry purse filled with the clothes she changed out of. She is the girliest girl ever!

Brody is still sooooooo into dinosaurs! This is his Halloween costume. I am too lazy to post videos, but I have the cutest video of him doing different kinds of dinosaur walks. Like, for a T-Rex he will hold out two fingers and stomp really loud, or for a velociraptor he holds out three fingers and runs fast. It is hysterical! Plus he knows the name of every dinosaur ever and all the facts about how and when they lived. For reals, all the facts!

I was in Michigan for a week and it was awesome. We did some fun stuff, but I didn't really care about any of it because I was just so glad to see some of my very favorites! Emily's house is so huge and pretty, and the town they live in is all quaint and new-looking. I kind of felt like I was in the country even though I know I was actually kind of in Detroit.

While I was there Emily got the prettiest piano! It's on her blog. I just love it. Umm... I guess that's all I have to say about my trip to Emily's house. It was great. That's all.

In other news, Halloween was decent. I was Dorothy, Justin was the Tin Man, Obie was a very uncooperative Toto. That little terd would not stay in the basket! I'll try to find a cute picture of that. Probably I will also have a surprise awesome activity picture on here soon. The End.

I'm Really Bad At...

2010-10-18T23:55:00.000-07:00

I'm totally bad at bedtime. I know that I'm like 40 years old (or some oldy person age- I forget) but every single night when it is time for bed I start to get all jittersy. Usually for absolutely no freaking reason. Unless I've contracted the vampiric germ, which would also explain why my teeth look like they do. But I'm pretty sure I'm not hip enough to be a vampire these days, so my night jitters are probably just due to the fact that I'm an idiot.

I try to do relaxy things at night, like have a hot shower or read. Our hot water is like 5 seconds long, making for a very brief window of relaxation, and usually if I start a book in the evenings I will have to stay up all night and read the whole thing. I have no reading self control. Or possibly I have excellent taste in literature and everyone reads the books I read in one sitting. Whatever. Not relaxing. And certainly not sleeping.

So my normal routine is to do my nightlies (wash face, brush teeth, etc.) and then lay in bed all shivery with excitement over nothing while I try to think relaxy thoughts but just end up pondering what to wear the next day until 1 am when I finally break down and watch an old episode of Nova on hulu or something. Then I sometimes can sleep. Sometimes not.

The next day I am so tired the whole time and I can't wait for night to come so I can go to bed. Then 9 pm hits and I get excited about nothing and the whole thing starts over again. See? Like an idiot. I can't help it. I keep thinking that when I become a real responsible, grown-up type person I will be good at bedtime. I'll be sure to blog it if it ever happens.

Tonight, however, is different. Tonight I am jittersy for a real live exciting event. I am going to Detroit tomorrow to see Emily. Aaaggh! I love doing stuff! This is going to be so friggin awesome.

This is loser-y of me

2010-09-27T14:22:00.000-07:00

This is in direct contradiction with something I just barely wrote on complaining blog, but I can't help it.

Look how cute my dog is!

Oberon Godzilla Ware, 3 years old

I don't mean to brag or anything, but he is totally adorable. This picture is from when I was trying to take a picture of the floor (for a reason, not just because I thought it looked cool that day or something) and he plopped down in front of me and wouldn't move. So I took his picture too. Cute.

Uh...ok. That's all I guess.

P.S. Right now I was trying to figure out how to change a setting and ended up finding our blog stats. Turns out that 3 people have visited our blog by googling the bathing beauties competition in Nephi! I am so amused that anyone would google that. Ha ha! Perverts.

Visitors

2010-08-25T13:15:00.000-07:00

Andrea and Aubrey came to visit me last week and it was super awesome. They are insane and drove here from Wyoming on Friday (its about 14 hours) and drove home Sunday night. Yuck. I've been on that drive before and it suuuuuuucks! But I'm so glad they did it because it was awesome to have them come visit. We went to the beach and some other stuff. Here they are, looking super-pretty:

I wish we had gotten a picture of Andrea's legs after the beach. She got super sunburned, which I knew was going to happen (on account of she is white like a ghost) and took advantage of by writing an obscene message on her leg in suncreen. It looked so nice.

Andrea was attacked by a lizard while they were here. I hid, so I'm not really sure of the details, but it does confirm my earlier statement that they are terrifying, violent little demons who want to eat your face. Other things that were less horrifying include hair dying, delish pizza, and some awesome movies.

Thanks for coming Andrea and Aubrey! Next time come for longer! Ooh- I know, come during the winter while it is horrible there and nice here! That will be fun.

Also it is a billion degrees here this week. I swear we live in the hottest part of the state or something. Or possibly the underworld. I dont' know.

4 Years

2010-08-20T12:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our anniversary. 4 years of being married award! To celebrate we ate at the Olive Garden because we had a gift certificate. It didn't make the food taste any better to know it was free. Happy 4 Years to me and JP!

Vacation, Consolidated Packing, Lizards

2010-08-05T15:17:00.000-07:00

The light packing method was a success. I packed everything for the entire week in a carry-on size bag and was still able to buy a dress and steal a shirt from my sister to bring home. No outfit repeats and only a moderate longing for a larger selection. Hooray!

The vacation was nice. I saw all the people and did stuff. Blah, blah, blah. I'm tired of hearing about every one's vacations, including mine. They're all the same. "We did stuff, every one's kids are so cute, here are a million pictures of stuff". Whatever.

Instead I will share a terrifying tale of my death defying acts of bravery when I nearly defeated a vicious monster. It was a lizard.

I hate lizards. Hate, hate, hate, hate them. Where everyone else sees a small, harmless lizard I see a creepy demon miniature dinosaur monster lying in wait to bite me and suck my blood and turn me into its zombie lizard slave. I hate them. They are like serpents only worse because they have those freaky little legs which make it easier for them to attack you with speed and stealth and death. And there are a billion lizards here.

So, a few weeks ago I spotted one of the aforementioned demon creatures lying right outside the glass door from our bedroom onto the back patio. I bet it thought it could suck my insides out and leave my carcass there on the hidden patio. Or, heaven forbid, it may have tried to eat poor little Obie!

Unfortunately for the lizard I have trained Obie for just such an occasion. I had considered getting him some armor like this-

-you know, just in case the training was insufficient. Turns out it was. In the preliminary battle against the demon lizard I banged on the door and yelled at it to tell its wicked zombie slave master that I would never be joining the ranks of lizard slaves. Ineffective. No response from the demon. So I prepped Obie for battle. By that I mean that I told him to go outside and get that lizard away for me. I opened the door so he could run out there and instead the demon ran inside!

Naturally I screamed and jumped on the bed and Obie stared at me with his head tilted like dogs do. The demon had secreted himself in the folds of the curtains. I feared defeat. I thought about trying to scribble a good-bye note to Justin just in case the lizard sucked my brains out but I had the great idea of trying to sweep him out with the broom first. To no avail- the demon was too well hidden. I had to retreat and form a new strategy. So I left the patio door open just in case he decided to leave because I was too fearsome a warrior, and made my escape with the dog. I barricaded the bedroom door with 3 cardboard boxes, a laundry basket and a folding chair.

Obie and I spent the next few hours guarding the door and planning our attack. Then Justin got home told me that he was certain that the lizard was gone and took down the barricade. He also said it was probably more scared of me than I was of it. Lies! I think he may secretly be a zombie lizard slave trying to convince me to let down my guard so the lizards can take me too. Not going to happen, lizards!

Anyway, see how I almost defeated him? Now the demon may be hiding somewhere in the house. The only thing I can do is prepare for the next attack and check the sheets every night before I go to bed. I think I'm going to order some bear spray and silver tipped bullets and stuff, just in case.

That is all.

Illustration

2010-07-16T11:23:00.000-07:00

I'm leaving to see these guys today:

That's George, Julie, Andrea and Aubrey. Also I'll see Jess and Cari and their flock, and JP's fam but I can't draw that many people.

I'm particularly proud of myself for my packing method for this trip. Usually I pack my entire wardrobe because I always think "I'll pack this for is we go to a sports game, and this for if we attend a garden party, and this for if we get invited to a gala, and this for if we go skydiving, and this for if there is a battle against the socialists, and this for if the rapture should happen whilst we are there, and these shoes just in case I start working out, and this dress so everyone can see how friggin classy I am." And then I sit on my suitcase so it will zip and then have Justin carry it to the car since it is so full I can't lift it.

This time I strategically planned my clothing situation to minimize the number of pieces while maximizing the number of outfits possible without outfit repeats. I'm a little nervous that I'm going to hate not having my entire wardrobe to choose from, but we'll see. I was inspired by this post on Cardigan Empire. That girl is a genius. Everything I'm bringing fits in my awesome Provo school district bag that I got for free from being a teachers aide 5 years ago. Like I said- friggin classy.

Reviews on the new consolidated packing method upon my return. Happy vacation to me!

The Pictures

2010-07-01T11:11:00.000-07:00

Finally. I'm pretty sure everyone who reads my blog (all two of you) thought I was dead and mourned the lost opportunity to look at me in the pictures I promised were coming. Not true! I simply left me camera on the Lake Powell houseboat we vacationed on the week after I wrote that and had to wait for it to get mailed via Pony Express back to my house.

Since it's been so long since the original post that I feel like the excitement has been squashed like a sandwich in a sack lunch. Remember how your apple would always squish your sandwich and it was gross? Thank heaven for those sandwich shaped tupperwares they make now. Anyway, I'm still going to put some pictures up but it's so anticlimatic now. Lame. Here goes.

Andrea came home from a mission in England (Hooray for her. Isn't she great?) and then we all went to Disneyland. It was pretty awesome.

I think this might be my favorite family picture ever.

Ha ha! Look at the face Emily is making! Oh, Disneyland. If a grown woman can be that excited to ride the Dumbo ride you know it is a magical place.

This is cute little Brody outside Mr. Toads. I was unaware that on Mr. Toads you end up in Hell. That was an upsetting ride. But isn't Brody the cutest? They just moved to Michigan, for those of you who don't know, and you can read about it and see video of baby Shaloogi walking on Emily's blog.

Ok, you can kind of tell by how fugly we all look that this is the end of two furious Disneyland days of awesomeness. I think we went on that Bear Mountain water ride three times that day, which gets you really wet, which is at least a partial excuse as to why our hair looks like that.

Also, a photo that is destined to become a Winn family classic:

Captain EO and The Head Tilt.

I do wish Shaloogi had wanted to participate. Perhaps next time we all go together she'll head tilt with us. I had more pictures of us that I was going to put up but I'm tired of doing this now.

Speaking of trips to Disneyland, Justin and I have been a few times since this whole thing and we saw the new California Adventure water show. Awesome!! It makes the Bellagio water show look like the somebody set up a couple of different yard sprinklers and turned them on at once. It is super awesome and if you are going to Disneyland you should make sure to get fast-passes for it. Also you should come see us! We currently have our first non-family house guests and I like it. We are nice! Come visit us!

Sorry I've been a blog lame-o. I may or may not do better in the future. Probably better because its hard to maintain such a high level of boringness. Plus because we are going on UT vacation next week and I'm sure I'll have some picture of that!

Exciting...

2010-05-15T18:49:00.001-07:00

The Winn ladies were reunited. Glorious photos were the obvious result. They are coming soon! I know you can hardly wait.

Staycation

2010-04-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

Tax season is over!! For tax accountants (like Justin) this time of the year is extra special. To celebrate we stayed at our house. We had actually been planning on taking a trip to the north, but we changed our minds because there is so much here we haven't done yet! It turned out great. We wanted to do some of the stereotypical Los Angeles stuff that people who live here never do. Here's how it went down:

Friday evening we had a beach semi-picnic. The beach is nice on chilly- ish evenings because it is empty except for people doing cool stuff. We saw some kite surfers. Any sport that involves kites is my kind of sport. Except for kite surfing also involves going in the ocean, which I'm not so keen on... Anyway, we went to the beach and sat on a blanket and stuff. The dog loves the beach and hates the ocean.

On Saturday Justin downloaded some podcasts for us of a walking tour of downtown LA. We went to Union Station (awesome) and whatever little mexican street is across from it, and we wanted to see a bunch more stuff but our progress was slightly impeded by a nazi rally. So we only got to see the Disney Concert Hall (crazy awesome) and some other stuff that I didn't care that much about.

Then we went to Hollywood Blvd. It's a tiny bit like a Disneyland trailer-park. There are all these people dressed up on the sidewalk that you can take your picture with if you pay them. I took a picture of a guy in a sweet robot costume and I didn't pay him and he kind of chased me. Thanks to my hasty retreat I now have a totally free picture of a guy who is trying to get his money's-worth out of his Halloween costume. Grauman's Chinese Theater is there and I made Justin put his hands in Humphrey Bogart's. The Walk of Fame is also there and Justin and I stood on the Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen star.

The very best part of the whole Hollywood Blvd. situation was as we were leaving I spotted a Spiderman with his hat off, sitting on the street side, taking a smoke break. We were stopped at a stop light so it was lucky that we got a picture of that priceless moment.

It was a fun time. Next week we might go to the fashion district.

These are the pictures:

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Great Jokes

2010-04-01T13:08:00.001-07:00

I LOVE April Fool's Day. This morning I went to the doctor and when I called Justin after I told him that the doctor wanted to replace one of my parts with a sheep's part. And he totally believed me!! Valentines Day officially has fierce competition for being my favorite holiday.

The Darndest Things

2010-03-21T13:30:00.000-07:00

I know that some people make a list of the funny things their kids say or document it in some way. I've decided to do the same thing with Justin, except for that most of the funny things he says are gross, so I can only blog about these ones so far. It's best if you imagine it coming out of grown-up, educated, reads textbooks for entertainment Justin.

Funny things Justin said when watching Snow White:

"Why wouldn't the witch turn herself into a cute old lady, like Betty White?"

After the dwarfs open up Snow White's coffin: "Good thing they air it out every once in a while. She's probably got dead farts filling that thing up."

Also, not while watching Snow White he made this keen and serious observation about ducks:

"Ducks are the funniest kind of bird. Why are ducks so funny?"

Hooray for things that are funny! I swear if it weren't for all the humor in life I couldn't handle it.

I'm Told There Was An Earthquake

2010-03-16T10:05:00.000-07:00

Apparently I've just slept through my first California earthquake. I'm so disappointed! I was actually watching 2012 (2nd worst 'end of the world' movie ever) just a few days ago and thinking "Oh boy! I hope I get to have an earthquake, only not one where California falls off into the ocean (even though everyone knows that the San Andreas fault is a transform boundary and not a divergent boundary so obviously that could never happen) , and where no one gets hurt and I'm not waiting at that stoplight underneath the freeway in Thousand Oaks". And then it happened and I slept right through it and so did Justin and probably the dog too. So lame!!

Lets all keep our fingers crossed that the next earthquake fits my strict earthquake fun criteria and that I am not sleeping so soundly when it occurs.

Some of the Fun Things

2010-02-08T12:38:00.001-08:00

On Saturday evening we went to the Getty Museum with some of our new favorite people. It was superb. It was also free, my favorite cost. We wanted to go to the beach but it was rainy so we decided to indulge in some fine arts instead and it did not disappoint. That place is the bomb.com/awesome_really pretty. We plan to go back during the day sometime because we missed a lot of the cooler architecture and ocean view kind of stuff. The nighttime was really lovely but I find that I appreciate the night view best when I know what the day view looks like. Also we took some of our own pictures but they were pretty much terrible. All blurry and smooshy and plus I looked like a swamp monster. So I had to delete them and burn the camera just in case.

Anywhoodles, the art was great. My favorite was some of the French furniture from the 1700's. How did such intricate details even happen when everything was done by hand?! Amazing. Plus it made me think that if I were all peasanty and the aristocracy was living like that I would want to have an uprising too. Also our friend we went with showed us a very interesting sculpture called "The Angel of the Citadel" which was very...artistic. Then we ate Chinese food which I newly LOVE. It was a great time.

As you may know, the Superbowl happened on Sunday. I liked that we went to a "party" about it, but I didn't like that the party didn't involve sleeping during the football parts. I was unaware that it is the generally accepted practice to watch the footballing and hope for a team to win the match. The party redeemed itself from the lack of naps by having a ton of food including cookie dough and hint of lime chips with cheesey dip and new friends with interesting stories.

Plans for next weekend: Our first visitors. Even thought they are fantastically nice I'm still totally nervous because guess who it is? The in-laws!!

Fancy Creams and Lotions

2010-02-01T15:40:00.000-08:00

Today as I was getting ready I pondered on the number of products I apply to myself each day. I believe I total around 16 different products on a basic get ready day (basic get ready schedule does not include things like eyeshadow, bronzer, lip liner, etc. ). That seems like a lot of things to put on my skin in one day, especially considering I do it every day. Plus I put on some of those things more than once during the day (like lotion and lip gloss). So here is what I am thinking now that I have pondered on this:

1. Is that a lot? Am I using too much stuff on myself? Because I have really cut down in recent years but still it kind of sounds like a lot.

2. I wonder how many things a make-up club girl puts on every day? You know those girls who you can always smell from 10 feet away and who always have on 4+ eyeshadow colors and who look like if you pinched their top and bottom eyelashes together their eye would be sealed shut from the goopiness of the mascara? Probably like 27. Oooh! I wonder what Lady Gaga's total is!! Probably like 64- she's so crazy.

3. Wow I am so so so so glad that I don't live in the days before grooming products. I am butt ugly without makeup. I would have been cast out for being a leper except that I don't have leprosy, just ugly. Plus imagine how horrible your life would be without lotion! Also it's great to be clean and smell good, but alleviating the ugliness is a super benefit of good grooming.

Now, I would like to note that the total does not include hair products or eyelash curling, thought I believe that those are just as important as other types of grooming. Especially eyelash curling.

These are the types of critical matters I think about while doing my daily grooming. Other topics on that list have included what kind of monkey makes the best pet (which I later googled and found out that none of them make particularly great pets. They have to wear diapers and they might try to eat you. Boo.) and if there is another race of humans living on the inside of the earth where science believes there is all that molten lava. I haven't googled that one yet.

Flora and Fauna

2010-01-25T22:36:00.000-08:00

Holy Crap! I just saw my first raccoon. My neighbors used to swear I had baby raccons living in my garage in Utah, but never saw them. But just right now I saw one wandering through our complex and it was like 4 times the size of my dog! And it was not as cute as I always imagined a raccoon would be. In fact it kind of freaked me out. It was not like the one in the picture. It was like the worst possible combination of cat, dog and monkey. I think it was here because it knew that tomorrow is garbage day. Gross. I'm glad I was in the car and didn't catch its rabies.

Also it is so super great here. As a fun Sunday activity yesterday me and Justin took a drive to the coast and watched the sunset, and then drove up from Malibu to I'm not sure- possibly Oxnard- on the Pacific Coast Highway and then to home. It was such a pretty drive. It was really rainy here for several days and now everything is extra green and beautiful. In summary, I like nature best from inside the car.

Duh.

2009-12-30T20:49:00.000-08:00

Well me and Justin are a big old bunch of dummies. We didn't bring a camera to Christmas! Not a single picture of this Christmas. Duh.

Oops

2009-12-18T15:19:00.001-08:00

I know! Everyone stop yelling! I know. I am fully aware that my words are so delicious to your soul that when my blog got privated for a few days you died inside a little each day. I understand that you can't bear to live without reading about my life's details artfully woven into a beautiful tale in a fashion so delightful that Bill Shakespeare would covet my mad writing skillz. I know all of these things. That's why I would never have intentionally made my blog private. Oops.

Turns out I didn't mean to do that. It is true that I did not immediately correct my error once I found out I had made it. But in my defense, I have a life outside of blogging and consequently can not go around un-privating my blog the second someone calls me in tears because they weren't invited. Stop being such a weenie everyone. (This goes for you Emily Dawn!!)

Here is what Emily emailed me regarding the topic: There are so many things wrong with this: First of all you put your blog private? What do you think you are a celebrity or something? Excuse me Miley Cyrus for wanting to look at your blog! Secondly why the heck was I not invited to look at it!? Imagine my embarrassment as I go to read your newest post only to be informed that I WAS NOT INVITED to look at your too-cool-for-me blog! That's it- I am deleting you from my Facebook friends! There is no need to fret, as the rift in our relationship has been repaired and I have not been de-facebooked. But I'm pretty sure that's how most people felt about it.

Anyhoodles, sorry about the privating of the blog. I assure you it was unintentional and only due to my retardness at changing the settings on my blog. Also if you are interested to know more about my feelings on private blogs you can read it here on complaining blog (Warning- complaining blog is full of complaints, most of which are grumpy and dismal in nature, sometimes even offensive. So don't read it and then complain that it's rude- duh.)

Also, if you didn't even happen to notice that my blog was private and you were not invited that means you don't check my blog often enough and we are not real friends. You should stop reading stranger's blogs weirdo.

In other news, we had Thanksgiving. It was good. Soon we'll have Christmas. We are hoping that it will also be good. Other stuff is good. the end

My First California

2009-10-28T12:02:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time I was at the Forever 21 in lovely Thousand Oaks, CA. I had found a belt that I wasn't sure if I loved or not and in these sorts of situations I often ask the check out girl for her opinion in order to aid me in my decision to buy or not to buy. The belt had a bow on it.

I made my way to the check out part and glanced up amidst my thorough examinations of the belt to see which part of the check stand I should go to. I observed that the check out girl was standing on the left end of things and was wearing a lovely maxi-dress and had long pretty hair and was kind of pretty herself- in an odd way. Then I went back to examining my belt and imagining how glamorous ( I totally had to sing the song as I typed that so I could spell that correctly) it would be if I could only find some bungee- type belt extender so that this normal size belt would fit around my monster waist.

I approached the check out part, still examining the belt in question, and asked the girl "Do you like this belt with a bow?", to which HE replied "Oh yes, I love bows. You should see, like, when I wear a pencil skirt I always attach a bow. One time I went to Jo Anne's and got tulle and wrapped it around my waist and had the huge bow in back- it was so cute. I'm all about bows." Also HE described to me a few other choice outfits, and all the while I was so in shock that it was all I could do to not point and stammer "Y-y-y-our'e a a a A DUDE!!"

I don't know how I had not noticed at first glance, but it was so obviously a guy. Although he was skinny, and be-wigged and with 13 pounds of cosmetic foolery made an almost pretty girl from far away, there was no mistaking those shoulders, the voice, or the 5 o'clock shadow poking through his face putty. It was a total tranny!! Right at my Forever 21!! And I thought he was pretty at first too! It was even my first time going shopping since we got here and what good fortune to have such an eventful and unique shopping excursion on my very first try! I love California.

Also the weather is beautiful and everything is pretty and we are making progress on getting the horrendous pile of crap house we bought into livable condition. It's slow going. Things are good and we are loving being here! We have even been to Disneyland already. Awesome.

P.S. I did buy the belt. He's right- bows are really cute.

P.S.S. Annie pointed out that there is usually some assortment of trannies at any Forever 21, even in Orem. But I have never though one of them was pretty from far away. I was nearly fooled! Had this guy not spoken to me I probably never would have noticed that he was a he. It was weird.

Out

2009-08-27T23:39:00.000-07:00

We're moving out tomorrow! I can't believe it's finally here. I'm so so so excited! Here's the plan, just in case you were curious about the tiny details of my fascinating life: Spend a few days at George and Julie's (dropping off poor little Obie who can't live with us for a while during the moving stuff. I'm going to cry every day until I see him again!), drive to California to close on our house, come back for a baby blessing and baptism (not the same child) and then go back for our cruise and then we live there. Yikes! I hope it's as awesome as I've been imagining it will be.

Happy 3 To Me

2009-08-18T14:52:00.000-07:00

Three years married and I still like him! Sweet!! Happy Anniversary to me and Justin yesterday.

Dear Nature,

2009-07-27T09:09:00.001-07:00

Dear Nature,

Remember a few weeks ago when I was complaining that it wasn't warm enough? Well, I hope you didn't take offense to that. I realize that you may have perceived my complaints as insults toward your temperature regulation abilities, but I assure you that was not the case. I was joking! Totally kidding. The only reason I bring it up is that I feel like you must have been offended by it. Why else would you have made this happen?

This picture was taken with my phone- not very high quality. If you can't tell it says 112 degrees, and also that my brake light is out.

I truly hope you weren't offended by my complaining- I promise it really was just a joke. So lets just agree that you do a great job of weather and in the future you can keep the temperatures under 100. I hate for you to have to do extra work making the earth all scalding and such, just to prove a point. Like I said, you're doing just a super job! Keep up the good work!

Kind Regards,

Melodie

The Ute Stampede

2009-07-12T17:15:00.001-07:00

I've been to a rodeo. A Rodeo. Me- amongst all the cows and poop and what not! It was nuts. We had the best seat in the house:

Ha ha. Get it? Because of the butts right in front of us. Seriously though, very front row, right behind the cages. When the very first grumpy little horse went out of it's cage he flicked poop on me. Not cool pony! Ben and Jonah (nephews- Justin's side) came down from their seats for a minute to sit with us and were loving it. Look how cute they are hanging over the side to get a better view:

To read my thoughts on the rodeo itself click here. Warning: It's not very nice.

Other things that happened at the rodeo that did not involve as much cruelty to animals: The Bathing Beauties! In Nephi they have this competition where teenage girls parade around the city park in their bathing suits and they get prizes for it. The winners get to be driven around the rodeo oval in their bathing suits in the back of a truck, to raucous applause by their mothers and all the old perverts in town. This is the most illogical beauty pageant ever, and beauty pageants are not know for being a particularly logical creation. The best part is that the two early-middle-aged ladies who organize the Bathing Beauties competition took out a full page ad in the rodeo program for a picture of themselves as an advertisement for the competition. Wouldn't it make more sense to put a picture of a bathing beauty? Yes, but that would make sense, thereby violating all rules of the competition.

Other exciting events- this boot/car: It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. The middle had a lift in it. At the beginning of the rodeo out comes the rodeo flag, held by a national guard guy, then it goes back down. Then the state flag, then back down, followed by the American flag, and then back down. Then all three came up with the national anthem singer (some 11 year old boy who was actually pretty impressive) and it spun around! I'm not even joking- I have pictures to prove it. So while this kid was singing the national anthem, he and the flags were rotating inside a giant cowboy boot. Talk about class! At the end they went back down and were driven off the field. It was what I imagine kings and queens would ride in. Probably they have these all over Europe in royalty-type countries.

Another one of my favorite bits was the following quote from classy congressman Chaffetz "Most importantly, I'm here to keep Obama away from your guns and Nancy Pelosi away from your wallet!" (Thunderous applause) I thought he was joking but apparently the rednecks really are that concerned about those crazy liberals coming to their house and stealing their guns. What do they think the liberals are going to do once they've stolen them? Shoot all the conservatives? I don't get it. Here is one of my favorite pictures we took whilst at the rodeo, though it has nothing to do with guns or Mr. Chaffetz. It's a little hard to see, but he's texting.

Well, that was pretty much it. Unfortunately we won't be here for the next few summers at least, so this is my last Ute Stampede for a while. Somehow I think I'll manage.

USA is A-OK!

2009-07-06T08:53:00.000-07:00

You may recall me saying that Justin was taking round 1 of the CPA on Friday. Well, he did that in Las Vegas and was probably a tremendous success, though we won't know for sure for another month or so. So there we were in Las Vegas after his test,hanging out at our hotel, and we discussed how we weren't ready to go home yet but we didn't want to stay in Vegas (on account of we don't really like it). So we went to California! It was a fun trip.

We didn't really go anywhere super neat (except for the mall in Woodland Hills that was sooooo wonderful, but the mall doesn't count as cool for some people, much to my astonishment.) but it was so nice to just hang out. It made us both so excited to move! Only two months!

We spent some quality time with my delicious cousins. We kind of crashed their family party (sorry guys). We had dinner at my aunt and uncle's house and then went with them to watch the town fireworks. They had a primo spot on top of a hill and the fireworks were set off from a hill across the way. It was pretty and they brought treats and glowsticks. Best event ever.

Here is Justin on top of the fireworks watching hill. He has a fun summer beard. Pretty, isn't it- (the view, not the beard)?

*His shirt really isn't a ridiculous lime color, just regular green. These were taken with his phone in the nearly dark so they aren't super high quality.

Here are the some of the delicious cousins to which I referred earlier, also atop fireworks hill. They are a delight. Thanks for the fun, guys!

Life as a Sugar-Momma

2009-06-30T10:54:00.000-07:00

Justin has finally done it. He's made me into his sugar-momma. He gets to hang out at the house all day long with the dog whilst I toil away as a member of the lady workforce. And I'm not even mad about it. Kind of seems like he has hit the jack-pot, right?

Ok, that's not totally how it is. He's actually studying his fancy pants off for the CPA (he takes round one this friday- yikes!). He goes to this special, secret study lounge at BYU sometimes so he doesn't get distracted. Or at least that what he claims to be doing. I think he's actually going to a day-time night club or something because he always comes home so tired. Also he still technically has a job, but he only does it like once a week. But still... That is pretty much like I'm the sugar-momma. And it is hard work!

The good part is that my job is totally easy. In fact I am typing this at my job. That shows you how much actual work I have to do, that I have time to sit around and blog. The bad part is that I haven't been to 7 Peaks yet. (I did go once, but I didn't get in the water and I didn't lay out so it doesn't count.)

In conclusion, life as a sugar-momma has its perks, such as days full of online shopping and reading my latest book-crush. However, it's not all fun and easy work. I don't think I could do it if I didn't know that Justin was at home with his face buried in another "intellectually stimulating" (super-boring) accounting book and having a lot less fun than I am. Good Luck on CPA round one, JP!

Why?

2009-06-14T17:05:00.000-07:00

I thought it was going to be summer. Why is the weather the worst ever? Every day that I wake up and it's still raining I die a little inside. I think I'm going to hibernate until real summer starts. Wake me up wen it's 85 or better.

Sweeeeeeet

2009-06-10T15:44:00.001-07:00

Some one- I won't say who- brought me breakfast in bed this morning of a cinnamon bun from my favorite bakery. Not only is this the surest way to my heart and the reason I love, love, love him (well, one of the many), it is also the reason I'm a fatty (again, one of the many). Sigh. I miss the good old days when it was fashionable for a woman to be plump.

The Name Shaloogi

2009-06-08T22:22:00.001-07:00

Some people might (and have) wondered about where the nickname Shaloogi came from. Everyone- don't worry. It is not, nor was it ever a part of Afton's real name. But it will always be her name to me. Here's the story.

Brody has a very unique talent of making up the best names. (Example: I once asked him what Justin and I should name our baby if we ever have one. He said Hogoshle.) When asked what the baby's name should be he answered the same thing from day 1: Shaloogi. Even after Emily and Riley had chosen Afton for her name he still insisted her name was Shaloogi and would get quite angry when anyone tried to tell him otherwise.

About 7 months into the pregnancy while discussing the fact that the baby's name was not going to be Shaloogi, Riley said to Brody, "The baby told me her name is Afton. I asked her." Brody apparently stared at Riley, very confused, for a few seconds. Then he ran into the kitchen where Emily was, patted her belly and yelled "BABY!! WHAT IS YOUR NAME?!"

He's been convinced ever since then that her name is in fact Afton. I guess she told him. But to me she will always be Shaloogi, even though it frosts Emily and Brody's cake. He has tried to remind me more than once that the baby's name is Afton, not Shaloogi. Anyway, don't think that Emily and Riley are insane for naming their child Shaloogi- really it is Afton Dawn Anderson, but I'm sure she'll like Shaloogi better.

Five Things II

2009-06-08T22:16:00.001-07:00

5 Things I'm really good at:

1. Eyelash curling.

2. Turning anything anyone says into a "Your mom" joke.

3. Creating a need for things I previously had no need for. Example: A cactus.

4. Telling people they look pretty.

5. Following my dreams.....

Five Things

2009-06-08T21:49:00.000-07:00

5 things I'm really bad at:

1. Waking up, not just on time- at all.

2. Saying "No" to sales people.

3. Time management.

4. Not crying.
*Inclusive of, but not limited to, sad crying, mad crying, happy crying, movie crying, stupid adorable kitten in the comcast mailer crying, and hysterical laughter crying.

5. Choosing a new sack.

Shaloogi II

2009-06-04T11:22:00.000-07:00

I'll post more soon, but here are a few pictures from Afton's first day:

Afton (Shaloogi) Dawn Anderson. She is seriously the cutest thing I've ever imagined.

Look at all that hair! It looks so cute with all her little bows in it.

Big brother, Brody, wearing the big brother present he picked out earlier that day. It also came with a Why Writer (?) which is really a wand with a question mark instead of a star at the top. It's from his favorite tv show Super Why, where they save the day by reading.

The whole fam.

Dad Riley with his new daughter. Isn't that the most precious ever?

Shaloogi is doing great so far. She poops every three seconds and never cries and all she ever wants is to be held and to suck on stuff. When she's awake she'll just lay and look around for so long. Also she makes the funniest new baby faces. Brody has been great with her- interested, but not very affectionate yet. Sometimes when she's sad he'll bring her the stuffed cat he picked out for her the day she was born. Congrats to Em and Ri for having two successful kids so far (only 8 more to go guys!) and to me for having the cutest nephews, and now niece, in the world.

Shaloogi

2009-05-21T20:18:00.000-07:00

She's here! She's here! My very first, all new, totally precious niece is here!!

More details later but here's the overview:

Name: Afton Dawn Anderson

Weight: 7 lbs

Length: 20 inches

Time of birth: May 21, 8:03 a.m.

Hair: Black and plenty of it

Cuteness: 100%

Everyone is doing great- you'll never believe me but I swear this is true- Emily did it with no drugs.

Duh! My Birthday!

2009-05-20T20:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday while I was blog-stalking everyone I know I thought to myself, "I know there was something I was going to blog about but I can't remember what it was... I must be thinking of posting about Emily's baby soon. Nothing else blog-worthy has happened. "

And then today I remembered- DUH! It was my birthday a while ago! And then I got sad because I also remembered that I am now old. Twenty five, in case you didn't already know.

I have been cursed (ahem, Julie, I believe this is your fault) with a birthday that falls dangerously near and occasionally on Mother's Day. That's only one step better than having your birthday on Christmas, which would be awful because everyone thinks they can double gift you. (Not cool everyone! We birthday lottery losers deserve just as many gifts as everyone else, and if you lack the foresight to budget for two gifts then you are just going to have to sell some of your stuff or something to come up with the money to buy us a reasonable birthday and other holiday gift.) Since I'm not a mother I have not been faced with that particular challenge but I've made sure that Justin knows that he has to get me two separate and equal gifts for my birthday and for mother's day if I ever enter that category. *Note: The only exception the the double gift law is that if you get a gift equal in value and awesomeness to the combined value of two gifts then it's ok. For example: a Wii, which is what I happened to get from my parents for birthday/ graduation, see pictures below for details.

Anyways, it was my birthday and since it was just the day before mothers day we decided to have a celebration of both events at my parent's house. And everyone had to go work in my parent's yard, but not me because it was my birthday. :)

The pictures are in chronological order through the day but the best part we didn't get any pictures of, on account of it was the part where I took the world's best bubble bath in my mom's rockin' bathtub. I didn't think it ladylike to ask someone to take my picture in there.

As soon as we got there Saturday morning we had to show off the Wii. It is so much fun I can hardly stand it.

Brody totally loves the Wii. He'll watch someone play for hours, which is really bizarre since he won't even watch cool little kid movies for more than 5 minutes. Weird. Also I got him those overalls and Emily hates them. He wore them special to help in the yard.

One year Andrea got that flexy-spiky-ball thing for Christmas and now it is on some one's head about 70% of the time at my parent's. During this part I think Riley was playing the Wii, then he had to go buy one of his own a week later.

This is my attractive parents at dinner at Bon Rico. The Bon Rico was voted 6 years in a row the most romantic place in Evanston to have dinner. Seriously? There are wagon wheels on the wall and old-timey buckets for decoration! That's the most romantic place in town? I think people might be talking about food romance because the steaks there are -no kidding- two inches thick and eight inches across. Huge. I can imagine some one feeling love at their steak. I think Justin and Riley must have because they both ate the whole thing.

Here is everyone except Justin (he's taking the picture) at the restaurant. Definitely romantic. The sawdust on the floor is what made me really feel the love. Also how everyone was so farty and bloated after eating 6 pounds of steak each.

Also at Bon Rico. Justin really was that excited about it. It was really good and lots of fun but how anyone could even imagine Bon Rico's steakery to be romantic is something I will never understand.

Finally, pre-bedtime Wii. It took a lot of convincing but George and Julie played a few games together. George was actually really good. Whatever, he's good at everything, except for not swearing during yard work. I love my mom's face in that picture.

The really best part of all was the next morning when we all got to talk to Sister Andrea Winn of the England, Birmingham mission on the phone. She sounded so good and happy and told us all about the things she is doing. She is probably the best lady missionary ever.

Summary: Delightful birthday for me. The only bad part was that by the time we got home everyone was so full that no one wanted cake. I didn't think that would ever happen to our family.

Cooking

2009-05-08T18:40:00.000-07:00

At the grocery store the other day I was looking for a spice that Justin had apparently never heard of. The conversation went like this:

Justin: You're looking for what spice?

Melodie: White pepper.

Justin: What is that? Are you making some sort of witch's brew? What ingredient do you need next- Eye of Newt?

Melodie: You say that every time I need spices. White pepper is an actual thing, and not even weird.

Justin: Perhaps some dragon scales? Toenail of Troll? Unicorn blood?

First of all, how does he come up with this stuff? Second, he had better be careful making fun of my cooking or maybe next time it will be witch's brew.

Graduation and Vacation

2009-04-26T22:58:00.000-07:00

Duh. The internet at our house has been the worst. I don't know what the deal has been, but it has been frosting my cake because I have a lot of very important blogging to do! It seems to be working today- kind of- so here comes all the news, all at once. Sorry it is long, but it's mostly pictures, which is all anyone cares about anyway.

I am so proud of my wonderful and handsome husband for graduating from BYU with a masters degree in accounting after only 5 years total of college. He is so smart and delightful and I love him madly. Here he is displaying his masters dress and accompanying finery. I love this picture. Ha ha! He's making a great face.
Here is everyone, at his graduation. Thanks to everyone for coming and giving us gifts. I am considering doing college again just for all the attention and gift receiving! Those are two of my very favorite things!!
I, after only seven years of college, have also graduated. Except for only with a bachelors degree. I was really thorough, that's why it took seven years. I didn't post any pictures of the actual ugly hat and dress event because that outfit is disgusting on me.The picture below is me and Katy, who graduated with me. I posted it to let you all know that if your were planning on attending a party with her- DON'T. Because this might happen....
Don't worry- it's cake, not poo. And it was Katy's doing. Not cool Katy. Not cool. Also I think it is worth noting that the only reason I took a picture with her was that she was wearing a necklace made of candy and obviously I can't refuse that! I always said if you can't make friends by being nice, make friends by offering them candy.

Anyway, Justin and I are both graduates of some college now. I can say with full confidence that it has not done me any good yet (besides a great gift receiving event) and it has been nearly 5 days. Stoopid colige.

What seems like forever ago but was actually only a few weekends ago, we took an impromptu trip to Phoenix to see Justin's brother Adam. It was amazing. It was one of those times when it was unseasonably snowy in UT but in Phoenix it was beautiful. While there we went to the cooooooolest botanical gardens that we took some pictures of with Justin's phone camera because we forgot the real one. They are super low quality but it was so neat that I thought I would share them anyway. First and most importantly is the picture of us. I like how you can totally see the shadow of the guy taking the picture. After that is some splendid desert foliage.
The main exhibits were these blown glass sculptures that were all in the midst of the cacti. It was so amazing and I am sorry that the pictures totally don't do any of it justice.I like those spiky ones a whole lot. These next two were just super-crazy glass sculptures in the garden. I sort of felt like I was in a Dr. Suess book. They were both huge.Phoenix is so awesome. Technically we stayed in Scottsdale, but whatever. I laid out and we had an evening poolside barbecue and I wore a skirt and sandals without goosebumps for an entire day! It will be another month before I can do any of that here! It was a divine trip.

Also the dog is adorable. Look-He has on a little bow-tie! This picture is mid-way through one of his newest tricks, he'll put his front legs up and he'll hold it until you give him his treat. He's super great.

The End

Classy Update

2009-04-15T10:18:00.003-07:00

Julie- you had to know this was going to end up on the internet. I hope you're not running for mayor or relief society president or anything, on account of you look slightly unprofessional here.

Pictured here are my mother and Laurie photographically captured in the very act of ridiculousness described below. They are nuts. How did this even happen? Also, isn't it fortunate that Cami was able to get a picture of it? At least no one can say our moms aren't entertaining!

Things Were Done

2009-04-14T22:53:00.000-07:00

Friday I went to dinner with some of my hottsie-tottsie cousins, all of whom are delightful and fabulous.

I'm a little bit sad that the food bag is covering Jonathan's little face. He's the small one in the back covered by bag. Pictured are Emily, me, Corey, Carly (and Jonathan), Grandma Veda, Cami, Lauri, and Julie.

The only rough part was that my mom and aunt came and I swear when the two of them get together it is like a tornado of teenage ridiculousness collided with a hurricane of middle-age craziness. They are nuts. They should be on a cartoon or something. They actually remind me a lot of the bird croquet clubs in Alice in Wonderland. (If you've never read the book you must. It is delightful.)

At one point my aunt was trying to drag my prostrate mother by one arm down the bench at the restaurant, and my mom was giggling too hard to get up. How did any of their children turn out so normal (and pretty)? I'll never know.

Nice.

Saturday we went to a Jazz game with my dad. I love having my parents close enough to hang out with them! Here is Emily, Brody, Riley and George. Looking good guys.

And here is me and Justin. Way to look happy Justin.

It was as fun as one can expect a sporting event to be. I lost interest about 30 minutes in and this was the result. This is one of the prettiest in a set of about 25 pictures of myself making super-great faces. Probably I should have brought a book or a magna-doodle or something. Anything but a camera.

Being ultra-photogenic runs in the family.

For Easter I dyed some eggs while Justin studied. It was less fun than I had imagined. Also he had to make fun of me for not boiling them first, but you can't use boiled eggs to make cookies or brownies so I'm not sure why he thinks it is so weird to not boil them. He knows the only food I care about having in the house are the ingredients to make cookies. Why would I spoil the eggs like that? Also we ate with our neighbors, who are splendid and have cute kids. Our contribution to the meal was cookies. Thanks neighbors for the food and fun.

It was a wonderful weekend. Good job everyone! Congrats on a great time!

New Business Idea

2009-04-04T00:31:00.000-07:00

We've noticed a few great new products on the market lately. Namely, the yogurts that help you poop. If you didn't already know about these it is time you learned (Click here for a great SNL commercial about it). All you have to do is eat a yogurt every day and it will help make you "regular". Why did no one think of this before?! Brilliant. Making this yogurt revolution even more appealing is the addition of the immune system building yogurt. What other improvements could be made to our bodies via yogurt?

Justin, a business savvy gentleman, has thought of some great additions to the health yogurt market. Enjoy his suggestions, but don't try to poach any of our new money makin' ideas.

Green Regularity Yogurt (Increases biodegradability of your leavings, or maybe is produced in a green factory or maybe both. We haven't decided yet.)

Armpit Deoderizing Yogurt

Hair Regrowth Yogurt

Anti-Monkey Butt Yogurt (This also comes in fruit on the bottom variety)

Eye-sight Improvement Yogurt

Teeth Whitening Yogurt

Foot Deoderizing Yogurt

Hair Removal Yogurt (make sure you don't switch this one with your regrowth one!)

Wieght Loss Yougurt

Weight Gain Yogurt (Comes in whipped, frozen, drinkable, and fruit on the bottom)

Anti-Acne Yogurt

Sleep Inducing Yogurt

Birth Control Yogurt

Menstrual Relief Yogurt

Breast Enhancement Yogurt

Stay Awake Through Church Yogurt

Wrinkle Reducing Yogurt

Fertility Increasing Yogurt

E.D. fighting Yogurt (works for up to 24 hours)

If you have some extra money to throw around and want to invest in any of these great yogurt ideas just send us a check in the mail.

Top Five

2009-03-14T22:36:00.000-07:00

I find that it's really important to have at least one good hysterical laugh every day and I'm not the sort of person who only laughs at the cute things their dog does, (though I do find him hilarious) though there are some who might not have seen me laugh at much else lately. I can't help that he is so funny. Here are a few other things that will crack me up any time.

The Top Five things I currently find absolutely hilarious:

1. Dr. Bukk's Artistic Finely Detailed Teeth for Connoisseurs

These are so gross! I totally want some. Hint, hint Julie... graduation and my birthday are both coming right up!

2. What Would A Unicorn Do?

Ha ha!! You can spin it for guidance. Also a great gift idea.

3. Failblog
I could laugh at this website for a billion hours. Watch out though because sometimes it's naughty.

4. Arrested Development

Genius. That's all I can even say. I would ask for this as a gift but we already have all 3 seasons, as well as commemorative plates.

5. This picture of Justin.

Tee hee! That man is so photogenic! I'm pretty sure he sits alone during the day and tries to think of ridiculous things to do to make me laugh.

1st Annual

2009-03-12T21:07:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the pictures and telling about the 1st Annual Winn Ladies Waycation held in St. George, UT. Emily, Aubrey and I (also Brody) had a super-awesome time over President's Day weekend at the parade of homes, the mall, the hotel hot tub, and the cedar city Chili's. Now that I've stated the time-frame during which this waycation took place you might be thinking "What gives? That was like a month ago." Indeed it was. But February is a short month so it really doesn't count.

Here we all are. I liked this day because everyone wore my clothes. Can you tell I heart cardigans? Also why does my hair look like that? Gross.

This is Aubrey and Brody on the way down.

In the beginning the trip was meant to include George, Julie, and husbands, but everyone else bailed on account of they are losers, so it ended up just being us ladies and it quickly became clear to us that the trip was being so awesome that it had to become a tradition. Andrea and Julie will be expected to attend in future years, as will Cari, but I don't know if I told her she is invited yet. (CARI- next year, president's day weekend, St. George. You in? All the cool girls will be there!)

Picture #1 is me eating a billion Nilla Wafers (for reals, I think I ate an entire box in two days), #2 is Aubrey looking hot doing a modified "Uncle Rico", #3 is Emily showing off her new frudunk-a-dunk (preg belly).

Despite the many awesome things about the trip, it did force me to miss Valentines Day with my husband and I was sad. Valentines Day is totally the best holiday. It's all pink and red and cute and everyone gets presents! Also there is always chocolate. In case you wondered Easter is my second favorite because of the adorable pastels. Justin made up for it by giving me a pre-valentine's day gift of flowers and treats before we left. Also a trip to St. George. We usually make a pretty big deal of gift giving holidays and have dinner and fanciness and all the fixins. But we had both been so sick for a long time (thanks kindergarten!) that I was totally touched that he even got out of bed long enough to pick me out some flowers! Also you don't need to feel bad that he was sick. He got better.

I spent the big VD with the sisters and Brody. Lucky I remembered to pack Emily's traditional valentine gift:

Ha Ha! Get it? It's a train and it says Choo Choo Choose Me! I think this is the 5th year in a row I've given her this exact valentine. Also it is important to know that it is a box of four "chocolates" and it costs $1. Classy.

In conclusion the trip was a splendid success and next year I hope we do it again except for that it doesn't fall on Valentine's Day. Also that for v.d. next year I get this:

Tragic Soap-box

2009-03-09T17:06:00.000-07:00

I found out this morning that a friend from work's daughter was killed over the weekend in an accidental shooting. (News story here) It is a horrible accident that shouldn't have happened. And it wouldn't have happened if A: the guns had been properly secured, B: the shooter had been educated on guns, C: there had been no guns in the house, which is how I think it should be. Guns are tools for killing things and if for some reason you want that in your house please keep it where children cannot get to it and teach them how it works in case they do. If you insist on keeping a gun in your house please consider first how easily this could have been your little girl getting shot, or your son accidentally shooting someone. I don't see how any parent could take that risk.

Kind of like a contest...

2009-02-28T20:00:00.000-08:00

I copied/ yoinked this directly from Tamber's blog ( with the exception of the picture. That's Deb. She's displaying the sort of home-woven handicrafts you are likely to get if you participate. Tamber had a cute picture, which is probably why she is more likely than I am to get a positive response). Thanks to Tamber! I'm totally serious about it and you should know that I am very crafty and have made probably at least two things that turned out well in my life. I don't remember what they were, but that doesn't matter- it is still very possibly true.

Fabulous Five Fun
OK! So here's how this works...the first 5 people to respond to this post will receive something made by me. My choice. Made especially for her. Of course there are some restrictions and limitations:

1) I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

2) What I create will be just for you.

3) It will be done sometime this year (hopefully sooner than later).

4) You have no clue what it will be. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may draw or paint something. I may bake something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure. ;-)

5) I reserve the right to do something extremely strange (but I'm not that creative).

The catch? The catch is that you must repost this on your own blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on their blog.The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did, will win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift from me!! Hurry fast, this is a limited time offer.

Oh! And be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!!

Five Things

2009-02-05T21:06:00.000-08:00

I'm adding a new feature to the blog. It is the Top Five Things, or Five Things which may not necessarily be the top five, but are five things nonetheless. They will be listed in random order, rather than in order of importance. Probably because I like to think that everything I say is the most important thing being said at any given moment.

Today's list is The Top Five Most Frequently Seen Sights In A Kindergarten Classroom

1. Fingers in noses. Usually the fingers proceed directly to the mouth afterward.

2. Other items in noses. These also typically proceed to the mouth.

3. Inconsolable crying. Usually over the most bizarre things too- for example, Mary cried because Seth told her she was grounded. What?? I don't know what it meant, but she was heartbroken.

4. Little kid plumbers crack. Apparently at 5 years old the "my butt is hanging out" sensors have not fully developed.

5. Hugging. The kids just love each other so darn much! There are hugs bursting out all over- on the rug, in line, at the tables, during centers, during recess, any time the kids are within arms reach they are hugging. I get a lot of hugs too. When I drop them off at music class or story class they walk past me in their little line and if one kid hugs me then every other kid in line has to stop and hug me too. It causes traffic jams sometimes but it's ok. Plus, there are a few in the class who are waaaayy too cool to be hugging the teacher, but everyone else is doing it. There is a terrible moment of confusion whilst they try to decide whether to hug me and fit in, or not hug me and maintain the "cool grown up kid" persona. Then they usually do, but they try to hug with as little actual touching as possible.

Oh, kindergarten. Will the entertainment and boogers never cease?

Once There Was A Snowman

2009-01-29T15:28:00.000-08:00

Justin took me on a particularly hot date a few weeks ago. We went to eat at our new favorite place, a Peruvian joint that I can never remember the proper name of. It had been super-snowy for a few days and when we got home we had one billion inches of snow to work with, and our neighbors had a tall snowman at their house so we decided to continue the date by building a snowman of our own. Here are the results:

You might notice that we look incredibly glamorous, even when building a snowman. Don't be jealous. That's just how it is with us. We're like the Branjelina of Provo, pretty much.

Justin looks awesome in this picture, I think. It was his idea to give the snowman all the arms, and I must say I think it adds to the overall effect in an rather appealing manner.

Alas, our snowman, and our neighbor's snowman, were both knocked over before morning. No one ever got to see him in all his multi-armed glory. It was a great date, even if the hooligans did destroy our handiwork.Good thing I had the foresight to take pictures right after we finished making him!

Tradition Search Winner

2009-01-12T20:53:00.000-08:00

There isn't a winner. I was going to post a poll and let you all vote, but you apparently all think Justin and I need more romance in our lives because nearly all of the suggestions were quite suggestive. You naughty readers! My mother reads this blog! For the time being I declare myself the winner and the prize not doing the dishes today.

I'll give the suggestive suggestions some "thought" and see which one I like best. If I choose a winner I'll post it, so long as it isn't too risque.

That being said, thank you all for your ideas. It was a hoot to see what everyone thought of! Also if I implement any of the non-boudoir ideas I will post grand pictures of the event!

Successes/ Events of 2008

2009-01-12T18:54:00.000-08:00

When talking about the end of a year I always feel like I should sing that lame New Years song that everyone on tv sings, but I've yet to meet anyone who knows the words to in real life. You know what song I'm talking about? Anyway, 2008 is over! Hooray! A year ended! (Also I learned from tv that you are supposed to be excited when the year is over. I can only assume this sort of cheering is what would actually happen at a New Years party, but I've never been invited to one so I wouldn't know.) It was a year full of drama, espionage, and forbidden love. Just kidding- none of those things. Mostly it was full of school. Amidst all the hubbub I did find time to ponder upon a few of the more monumentous (note: I've used that word quite loosely here.) things that have happened this year, which I will expound upon now.

1. I came to despise passionately, and fervently all things political. Particularly tv/ entertainment/ news bits about the candidates, president, or any other politically affiliated media. Not only is that stuff soooooo boring, but then everyone always wants to fight about on tv. Since when is that something that could be considered suitable for the public? I suppose if Family Guy is on tv then politics new shows can be too.

2. I devoted an entire summer to 7 Peaks. It was every bit as magical as I dreamed it would be and I have every intention of doing it again in 09.

3. I tried a seriously new hair color for my first time ever.

4. I, after only 6 years of college, became a senior. Justin also is having masters degree, but that's less triumphant because he's already smart. Everyone expects it of him, whereas I'm quite a dullard so for me it's an accomplishment. Hooray for me! And Justin.

5. I became a refined connoisseur of internet television. I don't even remember what my life was like before I discovered its joys.

6. Justin got some serious golfing done, which made it a great year for him. I credit myself, because it was I who got him a golf season pass last Christmas.

7. Leggings were still not pants in 2008, though some of the more asinine members of society refused to believe it. I blame Lindsay Lohan for this entirely.

8. Mimi's put the S'mores dessert on the menu and made me gain 87 pounds. It is too, too, too delicious. Good thing it's being discontinued soon.

9. Crocs happened*. This is, to me, a clear sign that the end of the world is near. Mothers everywhere are buying their stanky footed children plastic shoes with the excuse that they are comfortable and if they get dirty you can just hose them off**!!! Maybe it's because I'm not a parent, but assaulting the eyes of the general public (not to mention their sense of smell), and abolishing any chance a child had at a remotely attractive fashion life all because you can hose the shoes off does not seem worth it to me.

10. I stayed really pretty.

Happy 2009 every one! Hope you have a splendid year.

*I know that Crocs have been around for more than 2008, but it was disgusting before 2008 too so it still counts.

** This was a quote from an actual mom whose kids were in crocs. Nasty.

Like Master Like Lap-Dog

2009-01-01T21:42:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone. It's time for my once-yearly blog attempt. Before I begin, I wanted to mention: Isn't Melodie great? I'm always so impressed with her creative and amusing blogs. Good job, sweetie.

Anyway, on to my post. I walked into our TV room this evening, and I saw something I thought was pretty funny. So I took a picture. (Melodie would want me to mention that it is messy because we just had a party and threw a bunch of our school stuff in there.)

The small dish glowing next to Obie (the dog) is a heat lamp. Turns out that Obie has learned from a certain someone that one of the simple joys in life is to curl up in front of the heat lamp and watch a little HGTV or the FOOD Network. He's even perfected the exact position to lay your body to catch the maximum amount of warming goodness. After they caught me taking their picture, they weren't so happy about it.

Next time I'll know better than to disturb this "Happy Place" with my picture taking.

Stupid Christmas

2008-12-22T15:39:00.001-08:00

Today Emily stopped by to deliver my present and pick up Brody's present from me. I gave him Twister and let him open it while they were here. It was totally cute. When they left I thought that it was only fair that since Brody got to open his present I should get to open mine too. Alas, when I opened it I was met with disappointment. Another layer of wrapping paper and a note that said: Quit Peeking! Wait until Christmas. This is why I hate the holidays. Too much suspense! Only 3 more days to wait!

Tradition Search Update

2008-12-15T21:02:00.001-08:00

This is a special time of year. It's the time when apparently no one cares whether or not we have a holiday tradition! Only two suggestions! Albeit those were fantastic suggestions and if you feel like your suggestion will suffer by comparison I understand. That's no excuse. The deadline is Dec. 31, 2008. The prize is going to be cool! Plus we really need the help.

XOXO

The Search For A Tradition (and other goodies)

2008-12-14T00:21:00.000-08:00

I've decided that we need some sort of a holiday tradition. But what??? I don't know. So I've decided to take suggestions. I'm looking for something cool like an explosion or kidnapping a mascot of some sort. No lame stuff like holding hands and singing around the tree ( sorry if that is what your family does...). We need something sexy and exciting! Alas, I can't think of anything. This doesn't necessarily need to be a Christmas tradition, I will accept suggestions for Halloween through the New Year holidays. As an added incentive I will give you a prize if we select your tradition suggestion to be our yearly thing. Thanks for any ideas!

Old

In order to "one-up" Chelsea C. (old picture-wise, not romantic wise. Hers is way cute!) I have found this picture of Justin and I in high school. This was just a few months after we met. That other girl is Pam Baily, who introduced me to Justin and sent me this picture a few months ago. I hope everyone likes the attractive -
1. face I'm making
2. hair Pam and I have
3. turtleneck tank top I have on (even though you can't see it I felt it would be deceitful to not say anything, like trying to pretend that the picture isn't really as ugly as it is,similar to asking someone to use their bathroom but not telling them that it is for #2).

Justin looks like a baby! I believe this was taken at Juab high school in 2001, but I'm pretty sure the date on the picture is wrong. Six-ish years later we were married!

My First Try

Here is my first ever attempt at giving treats to the neighbors at Christmas. They are cupcakes. I hope I don't poison the nieghbors with them. That one on the bottom is pretty and silver in real life, not gray like it looks in the picture.

Also if you are in the mood for some really great music try this out. A recent discovery of Justin's.

Decemberween

2008-12-09T03:10:00.000-08:00

In recent months celebrations abounded in the form of Brody's birthday, Halloween, Gpa Winn's birthday in LV, and Thanksgiving. So this is a long one. Don't worry- you only have to look at the pictures, not really read it.

Andrea is having a great time at the mish. She is currently participating in a mission in Birmingham, England. She says that it is so pretty and everyone is so nice and they have 3-ply toilet paper! Those fancy Brits- showing us up with their manners, fashion, and now their toilet paper. She seems happy and is the greatest missionary in the world.

Now I'll proceed by expounding on things somewhat chronologically.

The Nephews

Cari, Kade, and Luke are visited Utah for a few weeks. They are all adorable. I love it when they come to visit! To read about their visit you can check out Cari's blog here.

Brody turned 3 years old a while ago and we celebrated at Kangaroo Zoo. I can not even begin to come close to expressing how awesome Kangaroo Zoo is. I swear that is the coolest place I have ever been! I am tempted to hurry and have kids so I can go there again. I would love to go by myself, but I don't really think it is socially acceptable for an adult to go jump on inflatable toys alone. Anyway, It was so fun. Cari and the boys came and they brought Gavin who is a treat, and the boys all had so much fun. Not as much fun as the adults did, but close. Also Ben and Jonah were thinking about coming but they were sick. :( XOXO to all the boys and Happy Birthday to Brody!

Feast your eyes on this splendid photo of the lot of us at that miracle of fun- Kangaroo Zoo

Halloweenie and Nephews

Halloween happened. Obie was a bee! It was so cute. We went trick-or-treating with Kade, Luke and Brody in PG. They were completely precious! It only rained a little bit and the boys all had a good time. Afterwards we went to Cari's parent’s house and played with the boys and watched them sort their loot. Thanks to Cari's family for their usual magnanimous hospitality and taco soup.

Kaden, Obie's bum, Brody, Lucas. You can tell which ones are still apprehensive about the dog.

Me and Obie holloweening. He never looks at the camera!

Vegas, Shmegas

Family party in Las Vegas in celebration of Gpa Winn's 90th was fun. We went out on Saturday night to the Strip and it was so gross. I hate L.V. Why does anyone go there? Also we ended up with some seriously hot pictures of the event here:

Jess, Me, and Justin vogue-ing

Melodie and Aubrey do "The Rico" at 1 AM

The hottest totem pole ever

I missed out on all the fun stuff because I had to come back early for school. Everyone else saw lions and sharks and a lady from the future! I always miss the good stuff. Thanks to George and Julie for getting us a hotel room 6x the size of our house and paying for our transportation and food and entertainment. It was a lovely trip.

Giving Thanks for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving took place in SLC this year at Uncle Barry's house. It was the best thanksgiving ever for the following reasons:
1. I slept at my own house.
2. My husband and I both got a seat at the grown-up table.
3. There were no fist-fights or wrestling matches (other than the traditional ones, of course).
4. We were treated to a 1 hour demonstration of how to play "Cooking Mama" on the Wii by Ashley.
5. The food.
6. The napping.
7. The fam.

Thanks to all involved for putting on a great show, thanksgiving-wise. I like the holiday of thanksgiving. I think any holiday that revolves mostly around food is right up my ally.

That’s all that has happened in my entire life these past few weeks. I am such a loser! Everyone else has cool stuff to blog about like taking vacations or having kids. All I have is school and a dog (and my darlingest Justin, of course. But all he does is school too, so he's not any more interesting than I am). My sincerest apologies to everyone who fell asleep reading this and is now left with drool all over the keyboard and a space-bar imprint on their face. Also a longing for something entertaining to read.

As a form of repentance for being a loser I will post the next bit in a Haiku poem (plus 2 lines- I think there’s a name for that).

I went to Twilight
Justin took me to the show
So I made him cake
In cake making class
Don’t make fun, it’s rude.
The End

Near Death Experience

2008-10-29T22:53:00.000-07:00

I seriously thought I was going to die. We had no internet at our house for over a week!! How do people live without the internet? I realize that most people can go to the actual mall and just look at clothes there, and I know you might think that a severe lack of online shopping was my greatest obstacle in living wihtout the internet. But it was not. I did miss it though.

My biggest obstacle was seriously, everything. Every ten seconds I would think to myself "Oh I'll just go look it up online". Alas, I could not and consequently very nearly had to use a phone book. But the problem I anticipated with phone book is that it doesn't have those little arrows pointing to the actual locations so how are you supposed to know if you are calling the right one?

Another issue- how can I cook dinner if I can't look up a recipe? (That's actually an excuse I might use more often- "The internet doesn't work. We'll have to go to Chilis for dinner! Again.") Plus when Justin and I argue about who sings a song we heard or what other movies the guy in the movie we just watched has been in how are we supposed to find out if we can't internet it?

The most tragic was that I had to watch regular TV!!! I watch The Office and all my other stories online I and couldn't even watch them clear until whenever I watch them now that the internet is fixed. Instead I had to watch regular TV and it was every bit as awful and commercial filled as I remember. There were about 13,000 times I wanted to use the internet and couldn't. And that was just in a week. How would someone live like that? It's like being a caveman, but probably more boring. At least cavemans had things to invent, like wheels.

It is especially problematic to not have the internet since we are in school. It was like running a marathon to get anything for school done. I've never run a marathon, nor do I intend to, but I imagine it would be difficult and boring, just like school without the internet. We spent several late nights doing homework in bizarre locations because we couldn't do it without the internet!

My heart is relieved an my life once again joyful now that the internet is back. It only came back today, and I've yet to shop online. I'm saving it for a special occasion now that I realize how precious it is.

SYTYCD!!!!

2008-10-09T23:54:00.000-07:00

Emily and I went to the event that will forever be engraved upon my heart- SYTYCD. She made a great post about it and I see no reason to rewrite what she's done so artfully. Click here to read about how it rocked our worlds!

One about the dog

2008-10-09T01:02:00.000-07:00

Sorry everyone. I really try to refrain from making posts about the dog. I really do. I realize that it is lame and loser-esque and no one likes to read something about another person's dog. But I just love him and I think he is the cutest thing ever and I can't help it! So here comes the dog post. Feel free to not read it. I won't even feel bad. I probably wouldn't read a post about your dog either.

The dog is so cute! He got his hair cut on Tuesday and he looks like a little fox/teddy bear and is all snuggly soft. I love it when he gets his hair cut! Here is his cutest new haircut picture:

And here are just a few of the many attempts it took to get a decent shot of the boy:

More precious dog moments- Sometimes while I'm at the computer he stands up with his little front legs on my leg and rests his head on me. Then he looks at me so hopeful that I will pet him. I totally love it!

Here he is in his tank top.

Justin sat down on the floor to play with the dog and within about 20 seconds the dog brought every single one of his toys over and set it on Justin's lap
It is too, too bad that this one is blurry! It would be so cute! He brought his bed over to the front door and stood in it while he looked outside. It was seriously adorable.

We've taught him to lay down dead if he gets webbed (like from SpiderMan) for when Kade and Luke come. I'm totally excited for it! I hope he'll calm down around them enough to do it for them. If he does I'm gonna post a video of it. Plus I got him a bee outfit for halloween which I'm really excited about. He hates it, but if he knew how cute he looked he wouldn't. I'll have a picture of it someday.

If you've read this far bless your heart. I know it is only because of your love for me that you did so, not because you really think my dog is the cutest. I'm ok with that. I'll make a real post soon that does not involve the dog and does involve everyone else not jabbing their eyeballs out. XOXO

Shorty

2008-09-30T01:00:00.000-07:00

If you are feeling like seeing the 12th wonder(s) of the world ( I don't know how many there really are) scroll to the bottom to see the new Face-in-Hole starring Andrea, Aubrey, and Me. Enjoy!

New image: Emily, Me, Andrea. It's super hot.