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!

Best Neighbors Ever

How Cute Are They?

I pulled onto my street tonight to find my neighbors working in my yard. Their Family Home Evening lesson tonight was about service, so afterward they grabbed their yard tools and worked together to pull all of the weeds in my front bed. I nearly teared up it was so sweet and cute! Especially because just a few minutes before when I was driving home, I had been thinking about the weed predicament and the desperate need to do some yard work very soon. I am so blessed to have them as neighbors! I just love them. They were finishing up just as I got home, so then they invited me over for a delicious dinner. SWEET!

Super-Quick Recap

What I've Been Up To:

Last weekend, I took a last-minute trip to visit the Buxtons in California. We had a good, relaxing time just hanging out, watching a few movies and doing this:

The girls had their first pedicures ever and totally loved it. They said, "We should do this more often!" To which Jodie responded, "Yeah, right." :) However, she is considering making it a yearly tradition.

I'm a huge fan of the shade of purple I chose.

(It's OPI "Can you Dig It")

On Friday, my sister, Nicole had a birthday. We celebrated at a Thai restaurant and had an amazing dinner. We ordered so much food that there was enough for all of us to take home some leftovers. And then we split four different desserts. It was SOOO yummy.


Lots of people have been asking about how my brother is doing. I have to ask "which one?" because all three of them are recovering from surgery or injuries.

Lance is healing. He's in MUCH less pain. Here's a look at his staples from his surgery:

Brad is doing good. He can eat solid foods again now that his jaw has healed (scratch that, he says he still can't chew ... but he's recovering) after his surgery.

Ryan has some banged-up teeth, swollen and stitched-up lips and a big knot on his head. He's feeling better but we're still hoping that his very loose tooth will decide it wants to stick around.

Just another day in my family.

Really?

So I went to the movies with my sister and brother-in-law. It was so crowded that we all had to sit separately. To avoid that, my sister tried to convince me that these seats weren't that bad:
Can you see what's wrong with that picture? The seats are right behind a wall that completely obstructs your view if you're sitting back in your seat. I'd like to meet the man that designed that row. Ding. Dong. Nicole tried to convince me that if you sat at the edge of the seat and leaned on the wall, you could see better and it was sorta comfortable. Yeah, right. She ended up moving, but three girls came and sat there and talked all through the movie. Probably, because they couldn't see the screen.

Lance's Surgery

My older brother Lance had a pretty serious injury this week and had to have surgery today. Lance fell while he was running on Monday evening and landed on his right shoulder. The top part of his humerus was displaced and shattered and the bone had several other breaks -- some almost down to his elbow. (The humerus is the shoulder bone that goes down your upper arm.)

It was about a three hour surgery -- shorter than the doctor expected and he says things went well. He put the bone back together with plates and screws and it will take about six months to know if the bone will heal properly.

This will require a long recovery process so please keep him and his family in your prayers.

Picture Perfect

I was a late coming into the digital camera era. I didn't buy mine until late 2006. And now, my camera is a dinosaur compared to the new models. Sometimes that is reflected in the photos, but occasionally it will take some brilliant pictures. Why is this blog-worthy? Because I just celebrated a big step. I actually developed some of the pictures I've taken in the last two years! I've just been accumulating them on my computer. I finally decided that some of them should be developed and framed.
I developed so many good ones, I had to buy some new frames. The triple frame below turned out awesome. I took some great pictures on my Washington trip.

What do you do with all of your digital photos?

Zippity Do Da and Sew What?

I have some kind of zipper curse. I have SO many broken zippers. I don't know if it's user error or what, but it's really becoming a problem.

This zipper in the skirt pictured above is stuck in the "down" position which means I can't wear it. Some of the others are stuck in the "up" position, which means I still try to wear them by pulling them over my head. The problem with that is that the skirt gets stuck on my bosoms and the consequent tugging tends to rip the skirt.

I paid someone to repair two of my skirts with broken zippers, but it cost about as much to fix them as it does to buy a new skirt. And it's not just clothing. I liked this wallet before the zipper malfunctioned:

Here's another very common occurrence ... ripped hems:

I have several pairs of pants without hems. Sometimes I used double-stick tape to repair them, and sometimes I just wear them with one pant leg longer than the other.

And don't even get me started on missing buttons. I have a ton of shirts that are missing buttons. I just wear them with an undershirt. Yes, I at least know how to fix a button, but who has the time or energy for that?

Proper Mormon women know how to sew. (That's probably why I'm still single.)

What You've Missed

Okay, so I've been a terrible blogger lately because I have had no time. I'm not sure what the deal is but I feel like I can't catch up on anything lately. I'm even behind on TV. I haven't watched Lost or The Office in two weeks, and they are my two favorite shows ... so you know it's bad. When my DVR reached 95 percent this weekend, I had to make some choices and kill some stuff that I just wasn't going to get to. (Goodbye Earl, it was nice to know you, but since I haven't watched one episode this entire season, I had to let you go.)


Anyway, I decided that I need to update my blog more regularly because I don't want to let my faithful readers down. (Is anyone still reading my blog these days?) So, I thought I'd pay tribute to the blogs that might have been. These are things that I had intended to blog about, but ran out of time.


Like this one:

I got some very last-minute free tickets to see Dancing With the Stars and found some spontaneous girls to go with me. We had a great time. This blog post would have been funny.

Karen's Visit:

My friend Karen, and her husband Chuy came for a quick visit. We had a delicious dinner at the Silva's house where the newlyweds announced they are EXPECTING. I'm SOOO excited for them.

Brad's Surgery:

My brother, Brad had jaw reconstruction surgery. I'll spare you the gory details ... but WOAH it was intense. This picture was taken a couple days afterward. His jaw was banded shut and he had to eat through a straw for weeks.

Other Stuff:
I'm sure other fun, interesting or noteworthy stuff happened that I've forgotten about. But my head is filled with cobwebs. Oh, speaking of cobwebs ... look at this awesome one that a spider built one night on my crepe myrtle:

Pretty impressive, eh?

Okay, so I've got a couple other blog posts in my brain but I already know that I have no time to write them this week. So, I'm going to write them quickly now and post-date them (like I've done with this one. Didn't know that, did you?) Then, you'll have new blogs to read all week. :)

Excuse Me, Sir, Is That a Fire Hydrant Under Your SUV?

Exhibit A: Fire Hydrant

For at least the third time in the last couple of years, I was woken up out of a dead sleep to the sound of a drunk driver crashing into something on my street. For the second time, it was a fire hydrant.

I was all cozy in my bed Friday night when I woke up to a loud crash. I quickly jumped out of bed to look out the window and saw an SUV driving on the wrong side of the road with sparks coming out of the bottom. A couple seconds later I noticed the flood of water rushing down the street and realized just what the driver had hit and what he was still dragging: a fire hydrant.

Next, I noticed the minivan parked in my neighbor's driveway and saw that my friend, Amanda, was dropping my neighbor, Kristen, off at home after scrapbook night. (Those scrapbooking girls are CRAZY! Twice a month, a group of them meets to scrapbook until the wee hours of the morning.) Anyway, they pulled in the driveway just moments before the crazy drunk came plowing down the street.

Most sane people would probably go back to bed at this point. Not me. After calling the police and the water company, I pulled on some clothes and headed outside to take in the unnatural disaster and of course, to take pictures so I could blog about it.

Kristen and Amanda and their babies outside at 1:00 a.m.

Since we're in a major drought here and probably going under water restrictions soon, Michael and I decided to take advantage of the free water. I had a tiny bucket and was watering my shrubs and flowers. Michael got out a big 'ol trashcan and watered his whole yard.

It took the water company about an hour to come shut off the water. I wish I could have found a way to funnel it into my yard. (If only I had hundreds of sandbags stashed away for a time such as this.)

So here's the funniest part. (As funny as a drunk-driving crash gets.) The fire department shows up and asks about the drunk driver. We told them to follow the gash in the street (caused by the dragging hydrant) and it might lead right to him. Sure enough, they come back and tell us the SUV was parked in a driveway with the hydrant STILL UNDERNEATH! You KNOW I had to go get a picture of that! At this point Amanda decided she was going to go home and said she'd drive me by the house first so I could take a picture. The scrape in the street led us directly to the guy's home and into the driveway where we found the perpetrator's vehicle. Jackpot. Mid-photo shoot, I notice the guy is peeking out of his blinds at me. I yell to Amanda to take off and we peeled out of there in her minivan.

But I got a good picture:Ah. Good times. Anyway, the cops finally showed up and went to the guy's house, and the water company came and turned off the water, and then I went back inside and realized I had been outside for an hour with CRAZY bed hair. (no picture available)

INSERT PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT HERE: Don't be an idiot and drive drunk. If you know you're going out to drink, make plans beforehand for a designated driver. Take a cab. Call a friend BEFORE you get drunk. If not ... the next day we could all be laughing about the fire hydrant you hit, or much worse, you could have just ruined your life by killing somebody.

Jodie B's B-day

The Birthday Girl!

(Hairstyle courtesy of Aubrey)

It just so happens, that two of my very favorite people in the world have their birthdays one day apart. Today is my friend Jodie's birthday! (We won't post her age, though. Not that she's old ... she's still very young and very fun!)

Jodie is an amazing person and I admire her so much. She is a fantastic mother and is raising two perfect children.

Jodie is a wonderful friend! She's been a great example to me and has blessed my life so much!

Unfortunately, she had to move away. We all remember THIS POST where I blubbered all about it. But, looking on the bright side, it gives me a place to visit! I've already done so once (click here for the recap and pictures) and I plan to do it again in the near future. I just wish I could be there to celebrate your birthday, Jodie. I hope it is a fantastic day and that you get to eat a VERY yummy dessert!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JODIE!!

Ryan is a Teenager!

The Birthday Boy!

... Except that picture was taken on Ryan's 3rd Birthday, and now he is 13! My baby brother is entering TEENAGEDOM. I can't believe it. In honor of the big milestone, I thought I'd share some pictures of Ryan's life so far.

Ryan was absolutely the cutest baby you've ever seen. He was so happy and giggled ALL THE TIME! He was so fun to cuddle and squeeze ... and you'd have to squeeze him tightly if you wanted to keep hold of him. He was so squirmy that became his nickname. I called him "squirmy" and "squirms" until just a couple years ago, when I realized that I was probably embarrassing him.

Below, Clockwise from Top: Brad, Nicole, Ryan and Me at the zoo when Ryan was 1

Ryan and I have always had a special bond. We even shared a room from when he was 2 to when he was 4 years old. (It was when I first moved back to S.A. and moved back in with my mom for a couple years.)

Seriously, look at that adorable face:
We've done lots of fun things together! I took him to DisneyWorld when he was 9:
Here we are at a Switchfoot concert when he was 12:
And now, he's growing up so fast! He's into skateboarding and music these days. And I'm not as cool as I used to be. He's informed me that my ipod list is "so last year".

Above: Before the haircut last month

Below: After the haircut with my sister, Nicole.

This is definitely an interesting time with lots of middle-school challenges. But no matter how old he gets, I'll always love him SOOO much and he'll always be my baby brother.

Happy Birthday, Ryan!