What's My Blog Again?

True Story.

I haven't blogged in so long -- I forgot my blog address. I just had to ask my coworker what it was. He looked at me like I was on crack.

True.

Catching Up in 6 Words

Haven't blogged since Mother's Day. And now it's Father's Day. Coincidence? Actually, yes.

There have been all sorts of things to blog about, I just haven't had time or been in the mood I suppose. And then the task to catch up seems overwhelming -- and who wants to read LONG WORDY BORING SUMMARY BLOGS?? So I've decided to just post some pictures from my recent adventures and only caption them with 6-word summaries. Hopefully, you can get the idea. And who knows, maybe your version of what you think happened will be better than my version anyway.

Beach-to-Bay Marathon-Relay Roadtrip

Blazing Hot. Such a fun weekend.

That racer's outfit was my favorite.

Won weight contest. Pigged out afterward.

River Walk extension opened. Come visit!Birthday celebration --on barge with family.
No cake. Made wish on match.

Took mom to Wicked. Wicked Awesome!

Lost a friend --replacement already ordered.

Scenic mountain vacation deserves own post.

Now you are all caught up.

Mother's Day

Here's my obligatory shout-out to all the moms.

Happy Day to you.

My blog-post from last year about my mom is still applicable.

The CUTEST thing EVER happened at church today. After sacrament meeting, my friend Amy walked up to me with her 8-year-old son, Henry. Amy had a sort of puzzled and amused expression on her face as she told me that Henry wanted to ask me something. Then, Henry invited me to dinner at their house. I told him that he was very thoughtful to ask, but I had to take a raincheck because I had already planned to have my mother over for a Mother's Day dinner at my house. After he went to his primary class, Amy explained to me that he had come up with the plan on his own during church and (randomly) asked permission to invite me.

Fast forward to the end of church when all the kids came rushing into the Relief Society room to give their moms the cute Mother's Day pins they made for them. Here comes Amy and Henry again. This time Henry hands me a pin he made for me that says in cute little 8-year-old boy handwriting, "Your the best". How sweet is that?! Amy whispered to me that she wasn't sure what sparked Henry's sudden interest in me but we both agreed that it was about the cutest thing ever.

The funny thing is that I don't have much interaction with Henry. I'm not sure if I've really even spoken to him in the past few months. But on this Mother's Day, something sparked in him to do something nice for me. Maybe he's had a lesson recently in church or at home about being nice to the older, single ladies. Ha ha. Who knows? But it got me thinking ... sometimes people say they don't want to be a "charity" case. We know from the scriptures that charity is the pure love of Christ. It was clear that Henry was feeling Christ-like today and I feel blessed and honored to have been his charity case.

New Roomie

This side of my house is now occupied.

Yes, I now have a roommate. It's crazy to be sharing my space again. Over the years my stuff has magically expanded and filled every room and closet in my house. (I'm not sure how that happened) So, I had to have a major cleanup day to get the room ready for her. I had to move everything out including the treadmill, clothes from the closet, office stuff, random stuff, and lots of other stuff ... and then move a bed into that room. I took the doors off the hinges and then, with my mom as my assistant, I proceeded to move all of the heavy items including a mambo, jambo treadmill and two big ol' televisions. Impressed? I was.

The unfortunate thing was that all of the "stuff" that once filled two rooms, had to be crammed into one room. Now my "spare" bedroom is packed.

AFTER THE MOVE, AND BEFORE THE ORGANIZING:

AFTER THE ORGANIZING:

It's still pretty random and cluttered in there, but hey, if you ever get the urge to read a book, pay bills, iron clothes, shred some documents, wrap presents, do crafts, try on some winter clothes and/or workout, this is your room because it's all within arm's reach.

All of that clutter kinda makes you want to move in this room (below), doesn't it?

Too late. It's occupied.

NOT a Friend of Jack

Bella Strikes Again

So Bella was barking incessantly tonight. (Unfortunately, not that uncommon) - but she was doing it right outside the window so I looked out to see what the fuss was about. I saw something weird in the grass. It looked like a sausage link. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was, so I got a flashlight and shed some light on the subject ... and then I freaked out. As I inspected the serpent, I recited the little rhyme that lets you know if you are dealing with a poisonous coral snake or a harmless other snake:

Red on Black, Friend of Jack ...

Red on Yellow, Kill a Fellow.

Oh yeah. It was a coral snake. And Bella was playing with the head. I wasn't about to go outside with that thing -- bifurcated or not. So what did I do? I called my mom (as if she could come through the phone and take care of it for me). She told me to just go outside with a shovel and get rid of it. (duh.) PSHAW. Instead I called my neighbor to come get rid of it for me. I've had to call him to get rid of a number of Bella's kills. Blek. Anyway - the neighbors, Michael and Kristen, came over and saved the day. Michael was WAY too excited about examining the dead carcass. He put it in a ziploc and kept squishing it. It was still wriggling around even though it was missing its head. Finally, Michael realized that it had ANOTHER snake in its stomach so he pulled the eaten snake out of the coral snake. How gross is that? Boys are so weird. And so is Bella.

OY.

Feeling Thrifty

I haven't blogged in weeks. I'm just uninspired. But today I'm feeling do-goodly (I made that word up). We've been doing lots of news stories about saving money. So I thought I'd pass some helpful websites along.

Here are links to some of the great coupon sites:

http://www.coupondad.net/
http://www.couponmom.com/
http://www.retailmenot.com/
http://coupons.smartsource.com/

Here are the links to two news stories we've done recently on coupons:

http://www.ksat.com/video/18979696/

http://www.ksat.com/video/18970655/

If this website takes off, it could be cool. They're going to take your shopping list and tell you which store has the cheapest prices for your list:

http://www.grocio.com/

If you register, use this as your invite code: ESCB

(It lets them know that I sent you.)

This site is cool because you can search for any farmer's markets in your area:

http://www.localharvest.org/

Our church Relief Society group had a night where we swapped recipes for inexpensive dinner ideas and also swapped clothes. You could do the same with your church or neighborhood group. Here is a link to a story we did about it:

http://www.ksat.com/video/18927808/

Here is a link to some of the recipes we shared that night:

http://www.ksat.com/download/2009/0313/18926177.pdf

I hope someone finds something helpful in this blog post. I'm here to save you money. (Well, at least for today and until I think of something more entertaining to blog about.)

Jerk

I could think of some other things to call him, but I don't use that kind of language. Ugh, what a complete tool! Yes, I know this is a silly reality show that I don't take very seriously, but SERIOUSLY ... this guy is a JERK.

MILEStone for Me

You probably can't decipher what that display says, so I'll just tell you. It says 8 miles. Woo Hoo! That's what I did on my Saturday morning run in the park. I'm so proud of myself. Now, for some of you, that may be no big deal, but for me, it's amazing. And I've got to give a shout-out here because I was inspired by my neighbor, running partner, and friend, Kristen. We've been running together several days a week for a few months. Our route is 3.2 miles. I feel good about that and we've gotten faster and it's gotten easier. But in NO WAY am I in great shape. I huff and puff my way through it. Kristen (who has six kids, by the way and is still nursing her youngest baby) recently decided to do a 1/2 marathon and has been stepping up her training in the past couple weeks. So while Kristen was running her 1/2 marathon in Dallas this morning, I thought I'd get up and try to go 1/2 that distance (6.6 miles) as a show of solidarity. I ran 4.6 miles of the first 6.6 and then decided I'd go a little bit further for an even 8. Don't get me wrong -- I was no speed demon. (As I was walking part of my last mile I was passed up by an old man wearing khakis and a sweater and walking 2 dogs.)But I made it! I was exhausted at the end. My legs were so tired and that made me even more in awe of Kristen knowing that she did 5 more miles than I did! And she ran it at a faster pace-per-mile. Amazing. So here's my public congratulations to her!

Kristen, YOU ROCK!