Happy Halloween!

Boo!


I hope everyone is having a Happy Halloween!

(Especially my brother, Lance who is celebrating his birthday today!)

The Grinch may have stolen Christmas, but the economy has put the kibosh on Halloween ... at least at my place of employment. We used to have a party and a costume contest with CASH prizes. I've been known to win some of that moolah in years past. Last year, I finally achieved my dream Halloween costume. I had been wanting to do it since 1984 when Danielson (Ralph Macchio) sported it in The Karate Kid. This masterpiece won me 25 (or was it 50?) bucks. See how we all played along? Usually we have a ton of people in great costumes, but not this year. It's sad. There are just a few of us. Not that my costume is great. In fact, it's my go-to witch apron and hat that I bring out every few years when I'm too lazy to come up with something good.

Phil and Me. You can't see his boots in these pictures, but he was either a cowboy, Indiana Jones (with a large man-purse), or Woody from Toy Story. I'm not sure which. (Or maybe he wasn't dressed up at all??)

But check out the picture below. There are some unexplained phenomena in the upper right part of the picture. I'm pretty sure they are ghostly orbs.

My coworker, Mike, looked better in my witch costume than I did:It's so fun to play dress up. Maybe I should have gone as the Sonic commercial girl. Lately, a lot of people have been telling me that I look like her. I guess we both have blonde hair and small noses ... but other than that. I dunno. What do you think?

YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjHoxSKqE0M

And speaking of other people's perceptions of me ... my friend Tobi wrote a blog about her quirks ... and in it she mentioned this talent she has for assigning songs to people she knows. So, of COURSE I wanted my songs. I got two of them. (Awesome!) The first was a Daughtry song -- "What About Now." cool. But the second one is so tremendously fantastic! Apparently when she hears BRICKHOUSE by the Commodores, she thinks of me. I'm sure you are all familiar with the song, but let's review the lyrics:

Ow she's a Brick-house
She's mighty mighty
Just lettin' it all hang out
She's a brick-house
That lady's stacked
And that's a fact
Ain't holdin' nothin' back.
Oh she's a brick-house
Yeah she's the one, the only one
Built like an Amazon.

Is that not the most hilarious song assignment EVER. I'm LOVING it. Thank You, Tobi!! I think she was inspired by the picture that she posted of me on her blog where my bosoms are OUT OF CONTROL huge.

I Rocked the Early Vote!

Civic Duty: a

Finding Joy in Life...

... And in My Order of Curly Fries.

I dedicate this post to my mom.

Me, Quirky??!?

Dang it.

I got tagged again.

You can blame Jodie for this post. I'm doing this under duress, but apparently, I'm supposed to share SIX QUIRKS about myself. Here's the thing about quirks -- they're usually things that others notice about you but that you think are perfectly normal parts of your personality. Most people probably don't even realize the quirks about themselves that others find glaringly obvious. So I'll try to list my quirks, but if I'm way off -- feel free to comment and fill me in on what my most obvious idiosyncrasies are.

Quirk #1: Over-analytical & Indecisive
I drive even myself crazy with my inability to make quick decisions ... especially when it concerns things of very little importance. I will mull over very trivial things for an obscene amount of time. I often can't decide what to order at restaurants and quite frequently will just tell the waiter to decide for me. It's a problem. Hence the name of this blog. The launch of the blog was delayed because of my internal debate over a title. Analysis paralysis is what happens when you analyze a situation for so long that you become paralyzed and unable to make a decision. Unfortunately, it's a state I find myself in often.

Quirk # 2: Musical Tourettes
I break out into song -- A LOT. My coworkers call me "Julie Gill, the musical". In fact, when I asked them what my quirks are -- they named this one first. When someone says something in the midst of normal conversation that happens to be a song lyric, I must sing the song. I've been this way my whole life. In elementary school, it got me sent to the Principal's office. Here's what happened: The lunch lady was fussing at the kids at my table to be quiet and in her German accent yelled out, "Enough is Enough!" OF COURSE I was compelled to break out into the Donna Summer classic. The lunch lady, Principal and my mother all thought I was being disrespectful. I was not. The music was in me and I had to let it out.

Quirk # 3: Persistent Tardiness
I hesitate to mention this one because I am sensitive about the subject. I don't know if this is a quirk as much as a major personality flaw. But again, my coworkers insisted that it needed to be on the list. It's something that I really can't stand about myself. I am constantly getting mad at myself over it. I try to change -- but I've been late my whole life. (Seriously -- I got in trouble in elementary school for it!) My whole family is late and believe it or not, I'm not the worst offender.

Quirk # 4: My Need for Symmetry
I asked my mom to name my most glaring idiosyncrasy and this is what she came up with. It's true. I like things symmetrical and balanced. My mom laughs at me all the time about it, but for the life of me I can't think of a single example to further explain this one. And this is one of those that I may not have completely realized about myself if someone else didn't point it out. Thanks, mom.

Do I really need to come up with two more? What the heck should they be? Is being self-deprecating a quirk or a personality trait? I'm really over-anaylyzing this. This is taking WAY too much time -- I could be watching TV. Ugh. ...... Phewsh, just thought of two more.

Quirk # 5: Spelling and Grammar Police
This is one of my quirks that I know people find annoying. I tend to correct other people's spelling and grammar mistakes. Sorry. My mom corrected my grammar when I was growing up, so now I must pay it forward.

Quirk # 6: I Notice Other People's Quirks
Overall, I think I am a pretty tolerant and easygoing person. A lot of the big things don't really bother me. I tend to be patient in a lot of situations that drive other people crazy. Instead, it's the minutiae of people's behavior and individual oddities that can drive me insane. I am a very attentive person and I notice things about people that others don't. Repetitive phrases, hand gestures, the fact that a person has one nostril bigger than the other. I notice these things. Most of the time I process the information but I don't let it bug me. But if I'm in an impatient mood or if someone is on my nerves, I lose patience and become agitated at the little quirks. On occasion, if I feel the need to vent by pointing out such oddities to a third party, people think I'm either 1)crazy or 2)extremely judgemental judgmental. I'm neither. It's just one of my quirks.


I won't tag anyone else by name, but instead I am tagging EVERYONE who reads this. Ha Ha Ha! Take a good, hard look at yourself and share with the class what you think everyone else finds peculiar about you. It's great for the self esteem. And I'm checking your blogs so you must do it!

Vacation is Over

To everything .. (Turn, turn, turn)

There is a season ... (Turn, turn, turn)

And a time for every purpose under heaven.

Unfortunately, my vacation time has come and gone.

As I was packing up to leave the Anderson Zoo, Shar's kids were asking why I had to go back home and why I had to go back to work. It's simple kids ... it's time to earn that paycheck so I can plan another vacation!!

Who's excited to look at more vacation pics?

Here are a few that I tried to display on my earlier vacation post but you can't really see because for whatever reason blogspot is all buggy with the "click to enlarge" function.

Pretty Scenery:

By request -- Shar and the kiddos:

On my last day with the Andersons, we went on another hike to the beach. (We found one that wasn't polluted and stinky). In fact, it was gorgeous and we had a really cool experience -- I saw something I've never seen before in real life! Let me tell you the story.

Once upon a beautiful Fall Saturday afternoon ... The Anderson Zoo and Julie went on a walk in the forest.

We walked through some really tall trees until we reached a beautiful beach.

We walked along the beach looking for shells when suddenly we noticed something in a tidal pool. It was a STARFISH!

It was so cool! None of us had ever seen a live starfish before!

The kids were excited to touch it and to pick it up and look at its belly.

They weren't scared at all, even when it "relieved" itself as they were holding it.

The kids decided the starfish was stranded in the tidal pool and wanted to set it free back in the ocean.

So long, Starfish!

As the starfish swam away to its home, we headed back to ours. First, we hiked back through the tall trees in the forest.

Then, we drove back along the enchanted tree-lined roads to the Anderson home.

THE END.

Go West!

Vacation Part 1:
BUXTON FAMILY in No. Cal

I'm on the tail end of my 9-day vacation so I thought it was high time to blog about all the fun I've been having. I'm on a fabulous vacation out West ... enjoying beautiful Fall weather with fantastic friends. I spent the first half of the vacation at the Buxtons' new home in Northern California.

Before you get any further on this post, I must warn you that I went collage CRAZY so that I would be able to display as many pictures as possible ... because I've taken a TON.

Collage #1: Apple Hill

On my first full day with the Buxtons we went to Apple Hill and enjoyed the pumpkin patches, apple orchards and farmer's markets.

A couple days later we drove up to Lake Tahoe. It was amazingly beautiful.

One of our favorite parts of the Tahoe trip was hiking down to Vikingsholm in Emerald Bay in South Lake Tahoe.
We had such a great time. I was also happy to get to watch the girls in some of their extra-curricular activities.

Rachel had her last cross-country meet and she finished with her best time yet! I also got to watch Aubrey's horseback riding lesson.

I had such a great time. It's reminding me how much I miss them, but at least I have a fun place to visit!

Thank you Jodie, Wade, Rachel and Aubrey!!!!!

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

Vacation Part 2:

ANDERSON FAMILY in WashingtonOn Wednesday, I flew from Sacramento to Seattle to visit the Andersons. Unfortunately, I started to feel sick that morning and by the time I arrived, I had officially reached barfdom. Do you know how horrible it is to be sick when you're a guest in someone else's house?! I felt so horrible!!! I tried to put on a brave face but soon after arrival, I had to prostrate myself on the couch. Shar's kids were so cute and so excited to see me and pretty soon they were like, "Are you tired or something?" And of course, Shar made a delicious dinner and I could only take about two bites of it. I was determined to be healed because we had reservations in Seattle the next morning for a food tour of Pike Place Market. That place is SO COOL!

Here's what we sampled on our Savor Seattle tour:

• Freshly Fried Doughnuts


• Crackers and Spread at the Spice Market


• Two Kinds of Salmon at the Fish Market


• Fruit at the High Stands


• Assorted Chocolates and Cherries


• Clam Chowder


• Cheese on Crackers and Macaroni and Cheese


• Salmon and Meat-Filled Piroshkies


• and Finally ... Coconut Cream Pie

I gotta say - I was doing so good at first ... I was pushing through like a champ. I made it all the way to the chocolates and cherries before my stomach began the churning. I REALLY slowed down at the cheese place - but I was determined to at least taste everything. So, despite the pain, I had a bite of each of the piroshkies and then I was officially done. Here's the one item I couldn't partake of:

After the food tour, I could barely stand I was so nauseous. It was so sad because I'm such a foodie and my normal self would have been in heaven at the Pike Place Market. When we first arrived, I was sure I was going to shop around and buy a ton of stuff. I would have loved to try some of the different foods. But after the tasting tour, I was done with food for the day. I couldn't even handle the smell of it. Poor Shar had to eat lunch alone because I couldn't even look at her food.

Thankfully, I was feeling a little better today so we headed to the Olympia area. "Sparky" and "Squirrel" were in school, but we took "Scuffy" along with us. We went to the farmer's market and had lunch and Scuffy entertained us with some hilarious dance moves.

Afterward, we went to a nearby park and hiked a little. It was very pretty but apparently the bay there is very polluted -- we saw lots of nasty looking dead fish, and the smell could gag a maggot. Ignore that smelly part, and just enjoy the pictures. The views were incredible -- especially because the weather was so uncharacteristically sunny.

Tonight, Shar made some DELICIOUS pizza on the barbecue:

And the kids and I giggled and giggled as they directed me in a hilarious photo shoot. They were giving themselves lots of poses to do. See if you can tell in which pictures they were trying to look sad, mad, sleepy, or cool. There are also some action shots where they pretended to be telling secrets or eating, and some where they acted like cute cats and then mad cats. These kids are very imaginative and charming and they were cracking me up.
Ah ... and now I've been organizing pictures and blogging for hours so I must go and enjoy the rest of my vacation!

She's Crafty

(I know, I know ... Two posts. One day.

Don't hurt yourself muddling through it all.)

Crafts make me angry.

I'm not proud of that fact. It's just the truth so I'm putting it out there. I realized this a few years ago after a maddening craft-related experience. The problem is that when it comes to crafts I am a perfectionist and at the same time I am very impatient. These two personality traits don't mix well. Nevertheless, I participate every year in our craft night at church. In years past I have signed up for WAY too many things. I always end up half-way finishing each thing and then leaving totally frustrated. These crafts end up in a box, stored in a closet, never to be completed. This year, I thought I was being mature by signing up only for one craft. I was determined to have a positive craft experience.

Here are a couple examples of what I wanted to make -- they are decoupaged picture of Christ:

Pretty cool, right? Here's what I left with. Two boards that look like this:
Apparently, there was some sort of miscommunication. I thought the pictures would be provided. While there were a few pictures to choose from, by the time I started my project they had all been picked over. Most people were smart and brought their own. I had nothing. So that's what I accomplished on craft night. I painted two small boards black. woo hoo.

Oh and I did make this for my friend Ami who was going to come but couldn't make it:

Craft night did not satiate my once-a-year compulsion to craft so the next day I took on a few projects around the house. First, I decided to paint a few planters for some fall flowers I purchased.

And then, since I had the painting bug, I decided to tackle a small bookcase that the Buxtons gifted me when they moved.

BEFORE: AFTER:
(Obviously, I haven't put anything on it yet.)

And I wasn't done, yet. Next, I moved to the front porch where I finally planted the topiary that Jodie and Ami gave me when my grandmother died. Then I planted some mums and decorated the porch with some Fall flair.

And now, I am officially crafted out.

Until next year!

Three-Posts-In-One

Okay, so my blogging has been pretty sporadic. I'm sorry. I didn't want to bore you with the mundane so I've been waiting for something exciting to happen. Nothing exciting has happened, so instead I've decided to do a summary of what you've missed. Consider this three-posts-in-one.

"Get in Shape, Girl" Update:

Let's refresh. The goals were these:

• No more than 3 (diet) sodas per week
• No more than 3 desserts, sweets or sugary snacks of any kind per week
• No more than 1 meal with anything fried per week (french fries, regular chips, etc)
• At least 20 days of exercise (20 out of 44 days)

Yeah, so I'm a loser. Not the Biggest Loser unfortunately - just a loser. I did so well some weeks and some weeks, not so much. Here's the good news -- I DID meet my goal of exercising 20 of the 44 days. The last few weeks I've started walking/running with my next-door neighbor several mornings a week in the dark-and-early. It's a great system because there were MANY mornings I would have pushed snooze but I knew she would be waiting for me so I got my rear out of bed.

And I had moments of great restraint. Let's focus on those for a minute. There was one day at work when a coworkers brought the most amazing looking cupcakes.
Key lime, OREO, chocolate and red velvet! And there were dozens of them.

I had to endure all of my coworkers comments about how delicious they were. Several people even said they were the best cupcakes they'd ever tasted. I took pictures, but I abstained from partaking. This act alone is worthy of international commendableness (That's really a word! Look it up).

So now that I have talked about all of my triumphs, here is the confession part. 1) I am totally addicted to diet soda (especially Diet Pepsi) 2) Sugary carbs call to me 3) I am weak.

I will set new goals (or the same goals again) AFTER my upcoming vacation.

TV: I was going to write an entire post about the new TV season -- since we all know I love TV -- but is it just me or is everything just mediocre so far? Oh except for THE OFFICE; it was a good season opener. The bad news is that it's only week #2 and I am already behind. I can't keep up with all the shows that I DVR. I'm still trying out a couple of the new shows. Note to my fellow telephiles: let me know what you are liking/not liking and what new shows you're watching.

Concerts & Craigs List:
So many of you know about my love for the band, Switchfoot. I've seen them 4 times in the last couple years. Anyway, they were here last night. I had tickets. I did not go. I'll make the sob story as short as possible. When they first went on sale, I decided not to buy them because they were 60 bucks PLUS it fell on General Conference weekend and so most of the guys in my life would be attending the Priesthood meeting that night. But a few months later, Live Nation had a one-day sale where you could get concert tickets for 10 bucks a piece. I got 4 hoping that I could find someone to go with me. Fast-forward to this weekend -- I couldn't find anyone. (I blame the Buxtons for moving!!) I had to sell the tickets on Craig's List. The good news is that I made 50 bucks. So there's a silver lining in my sad little Switchfoot storm cloud. Oh and I found out they're going to be here for the rodeo in February. Maybe I can find friends by then. :)