Analysis Paralysis

What's My Blog Again?

2009-09-11T11:44:00.001-05:00

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

2009-06-21T19:59:00.009-05:00

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

2009-05-10T21:29:00.004-05:00

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

2009-05-10T20:55:00.003-05:00

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

2009-04-24T23:25:00.003-05:00

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

2009-03-25T12:54:00.003-05:00

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

2009-03-02T21:58:00.005-06:00

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

2009-02-28T15:12:00.002-06:00

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

2009-02-23T20:51:00.003-06:00

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

2009-02-23T20:27:00.007-06:00

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?

2009-02-13T08:00:00.001-06:00

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

2009-02-11T17:55:00.002-06:00

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

2009-02-11T17:00:00.002-06:00

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?

2009-02-10T17:00:00.001-06:00

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

2009-02-09T17:00:00.002-06:00

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?

2009-02-08T20:14:00.004-06:00

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

2009-01-29T00:00:00.001-06:00

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!

2009-01-28T22:56:00.005-06:00

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!

A Decade Ago

2009-01-14T00:00:00.002-06:00

Today marks a somber anniversary for me. Ten years ago on this day, January 14th, my dad passed away. I have so many emotions that it's hard for me to express them. First of all, I cannot believe an entire decade has passed. It's strange to think about how different my life was back then. It's even stranger to try and imagine how different my life would be today if he were still here. He'd be 68 years old and I probably wouldn't be living in San Antonio; the only reason I moved back home was because he was sick. I'm so thankful that I did.

Here are a few photos of my dad:

I was definitely a "daddy's girl" when I was little.

My parents about 5 years before he died.
My mom thought my dad was the best dancer.

It's one of the things she misses most about him.

This was my family at my college graduation -- less than two years before he died. My dad was just starting to show symptoms, but had not yet been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease).

It's bizarre that most of the people in my life today never knew him. So I thought I'd share a few facts about my dad. First of all, he was hilarious and goofy. I definitely inherited my sense of humor from my dad. (I also inherited his cleft chin.) He was equally self-deprecating and self-admiring -- my family loved to mimic the faces he made when he was combing his hair in the mirror. He was very impulsive -- one time he got into a car crash and when the cops showed up to take the report, he had already walked across the street to a car dealership to look for a new car. He was strong and athletic -- he played football at Texas Tech and then with the Philadelphia Eagles. But he wasn't just a jock; he was also very hard working and ambitious. He had a Master's Degree and had completed all but a few hours on his Doctorate Degree. My dad had several careers in his lifetime. He started out playing professional football, and then he went into the management side. He owned a couple of minor-league football teams in San Antonio and then was GM of the USFL team here. He was also a college counselor, a teacher, and a special education coach for middle school and high school kids. And in his final business pursuit, he started his own nutritional supplement company. These are all things my dad would have wanted me to mention about himself. :)

Unfortunately, we were both very stubborn and didn't always get along. I have lots of regrets about our relationship, which I think makes the ache deeper and more complex. But I value the time I had with him and am especially grateful that I moved home to help care for him in the final months of his life. I admire him and love him and still miss him. I am the person I am today because of AND in spite of my father.

Resolved- REVISED

2009-01-04T20:32:00.005-06:00

Welcome to 2009!

So, I've been debating what to write for my first post of the year. At first, I didn't want to publish my resolutions because I felt like they were too personal to be paraded before the masses (or even the fews), but then I thought, "Who better to share my goals with than my blogging buddies who love and support me, right?" I don't think I made any resolutions for 2008. I really hate to fail -- so often when I'm afraid of failure, I just don't try. There is no fail when you haven't tried. (I should put that on a bumper sticker.) Just kidding. It's a terrible personal creed and one that I'm trying to conquer by putting these goals in writing and making them public.

Goals for 2009:

Physical (Edited: Details Deleted)

Spiritual (Edited: Details Deleted)

Financial (Edited: Details Deleted)

Emotional/Social (Edited: Details Deleted)

EDITED TO ADD: So ... ever since I blogged about my goals, I haven't been comfortable. I felt overexposed -- kind of like that nightmare where you go to school/work and realize you're naked. So - I've decided to delete the specifics. I've written them down elsewhere for myself. The following statement still stands:

So, there. I'm resolved. I'm committed. I'm motivated. Onward.

Blessed

2008-12-28T20:49:00.010-06:00

Merry Christmas!

I hope your family had a very Merry Christmas!! I have had a jolly holiday and I feel so overwhelmed with blessings. We spent Christmas Eve where we always do - at my Nanny and PaPa's house. We had a delicious Mexican food feast, and as tradition goes, we all ate way too much. This year, we added something new ... a musical performance! My friends, the Craguns, loaned me their set of pipe bells and a few of us performed "Jingle Bells" for the rest of the family. (They were so much fun, I really want my own set now.)
After dinner, we had our gift exchange. My cousin, Todd, had my name and I got an iTunes gift card (the best gift you can give, in my opinion) and a hat and mittens.

Christmas is always better with kids around!

My cousin, Shawna, and her cute little girl, Emily.

My nephew, Logan, and his new pair of boots.

Now that the cousins are all grown up and some have their own families, it's rare that everyone can make it on Christmas Eve, but for the first time in many years, we were all there and it made it a really special night.

On Christmas Morning, I went to my mom's house with two of my brothers, Ryan and Brad. My mom decorates her house so cute for Christmas and she still hangs all of our stockings from when we were kids.
Ryan received some new clothes ...

... and Rock Band 2!!

My brother, Brad, and his dog, KC:

(Brad's the one in the hat)

On Christmas night, my mom, Ryan, Jon, Nicole and I went to see "Bedtime Stories".

It was a wonderful day!

December has gone by in a flash for me. I didn't get everything done that I wanted to get done and I didn't have the money to buy as many gifts as I would have liked -- but I still think this was one of my favorite Christmases in recent memory. In addition to what I've shared so far, I had a couple other big blessings this year. First - I was given the responsibility of organizing our ward's "Giving Tree" project. Members of the congregation purchased presents for 13 families and I gathered the gifts and got everything ready to be delivered. It was amazing to witness so much generosity, especially during these hard economic times.

The other big blessing is more personal. On Christmas Eve, some anonymous angels gave a very special present to my family. We walked outside to find it right on the front porch. We were all in shock and my mom cried tears of happiness. We feel so blessed to whoever gave us such a generous gift. You have made this Christmas one that we will always remember and we feel so blessed to have friends like you. I hope you receive many, many blessings for your kindness. It truly was a Christmas miracle.

My Christmas Mix For You

2008-12-14T10:33:00.004-06:00

THANK YOU for all who have sent me Christmas cards. I love getting them! I'm sorry that I am a bad friend and don't reciprocate. (HOWEVER - I may blog my Christmas Card this year, so stay tuned for that.)

I'm better at Christmas Mix CDs than Christmas cards. Most of my friends who have lived in the same city as me have been the recipient of one or two in Christmases past. I have a LOT of Christmas music (as most of us Christmas-lovers do). So I thought I'd spread some Christmas cheer by sharing my favorite (and not-so-favorite) Christmas songs.

First, I must say that it's a Crooners' Christmas for me. I'm all about Frankie, Dean, and Bing. There's just something romantic about their renditions that transport me to a winter wonderland. (I also love Ella Fitzgerald, Perry Como and Nat King Cole) So, unless I specifically list another artist, just know that I prefer the classics on these when available.

Let's start with the reason for the season.

Category: RELIGIOUS

I Wonder as I Wander
O Holy Night
Who Would Imagine a King
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
What Child is This?

Category: PROBABLY MY FAVORITE CHRISTMAS SONG OF ALL TIME

Christmas Waltz (Frosted window panes, candles gleaming inside ...)

Category: SONGS FOR GETTING IN A HAPPY, HOLIDAY MOOD

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
I’ll Be Home for Christmas
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Winter Wonderland
Home for the Holidays (Perry Como)
Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow
Baby, It’s Cold Outside (It's a draw as far as the Dean Martin or Johnny Mercer & Margaret Whitling versions)
Cool Yule (Louis Armstrong)
‘Zat You, Santa Claus? (Louis Armstrong)
A Holly Jolly Christmas (Burl Ives, of course!)
I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm (Dean Martin)
A Marshmallow World (Bing Crosby) (This one ranks VERY high.)
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

And just for fun, let's add a few more categories.

Category: CHRISTMAS-TIME MAKES YOU WANT TO BE IN A RELATIONSHIP.

All I Want for Christmas is You (One of the only Mariah songs I really like)
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) (U2)
I’d Like You for Christmas (Julie London)
What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve

Category: IF YOU’RE NOT FEELING JOLLY, HOW ABOUT SOMETHING MELANCHOLY?

Hard Candy Christmas (Dolly Parton)
Where Are You Christmas? (Faith Hill)
When My Heart Finds Christmas (Harry Connick, Jr.)

Category: DOES ANYONE ELSE FIND THE WHOLE PREMISE OF THIS SONG DISTURBING?

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

Category: I REALIZE THESE ARE SOME PEOPLE'S FAVORITES BUT I'M TIRED OF THEM AND PREFER NOT TO HEAR VERY MUCH OF THEM DURING THE HOLIDAYS.

Rudolph
Silent Night
Jingle Bells
12 Days of Christmas

Category: NEVER WANT TO HEAR AGAIN. IT MAKES MY EARS BLEED.

Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer

Okay, there's my list. Now tell me your favorite Christmas song(s).

You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch

2008-12-01T10:16:00.003-06:00

Dear Grinch,

I realize that your heart is two sizes too small, but I want you to know that you broke mine this morning. JUST when I'd found my Christmas spirit, you came and stole it from me. Literally. I wonder, what will you do with the Christmas decorations you took from my yard overnight? Will you use them to decorate your own house? More likely than that, you will probably sell them to someone else to make a few bucks. Well, I want you to know that I think you're a bad banana with a greasy black peel!!

You probably steal from lots of people, so to refresh your memory ... here's what you stole from me: (I found this picture online but they look like the same ones I had.)I just bought those lighted presents last year. Why didn't you take the spiral trees that are 6-years old now and have a short in the cord? OH ... I know why. It's because your soul is an appalling dump heap overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable, mangled up in tangled up knots.

Sorry. Your hatefulness is bringing out the grinch in me. I'm really debating whether to put up the rest of my lights now. What if you steal them too? But then again, if I don't decorate I guess I'm only punishing myself and then you win again.

In closing, the three words that best describe you, are, and I quote: "Stink. Stank. Stunk." And if you happen to read my blog, well that's just makes the whole thing even more disturbing.

Merry Christmas, JERK.
-Julie

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

2008-11-30T11:36:00.002-06:00

My long-standing tradition has been to decorate my house on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I'm usually excited to get in the Christmas spirit and that's when I allow myself to start listening to Christmas music. I don't know what my deal was, but I just wasn't feeling it this year. I didn't get it done on Friday. Finally, on Saturday evening, I WILLED myself to do it. I knew that if I didn't get it done this weekend, then I might not have time to do it at all. (The worst part is dragging all of the stuff out!) Believe me, the thought crossed my mind of skipping the decorating all together this year -- but now that it's done, I'm so glad I did it. I love Christmas decorations!

Just when I had all the boxes strewn all over the living room -- I had a surprise visit from my friends, the Cragun family. They helped me set up the trees and decorate them. They brought some cookies to bake, and we listened to Christmas music and watched football. It made it SO much more fun than doing it alone.

(This cute little tree was decorated by the Cragun girls.)

They even convinced me to let them help with the outdoor lights even though it was completely dark outside. We got the yard decorations in place, now I just have to put the icicle lights on the roof and the garland around the door and the porch and I'll be completely finished.

I am blessed to have such good friends and I'm definitely feeling the spirit of Christmas now.

I hope your heart finds Christmas, too.

Black Friday

2008-11-30T11:00:00.002-06:00

I spent "Black Friday" at home in my pj's, sniffling and coughing and wondering what good deals I was missing out on. I browsed all of the ads and found lots of stuff I'd want, but not much I could afford. So I balanced my checkbook to unequivocally confirm that I was indeed doing the right thing by staying home.

With the money I saved on "Black Friday" I decided to go shopping on Saturday! :) I didn't have much to spend, but there were a couple good deals I really had to take advantage of. And like all good deals -- that means I bought a few things that I didn't really NEED, but I saved money doing it.

For instance -- I completed my set of the Gilmore Girls series. I had all but a few seasons and they were on sale for $14.99 (Down from $48.99). Did I NEED them? No. But it was a good deal. (If any of you haven't seen the series but are the least bit interested, I would gladly lend them out. My friend, Karen, got me hooked a couple of years ago and I joined Netflix that summer just to catch up with the series. It's very cute and very addicting.)

This is my other VERY COOL purchase:Not the ipod -- I had that -- but the little bitty speaker. This was on sale at Brookstone for $19.99 (down from $35). I can't believe how good the sound is from this little thing. I mean, it's no Bose -- but it's decent! It runs on double-A batteries and so you can just carry it around from room to room. I love it!

In full disclosure, there may have also been another purchase -- a pricey hair-styling tool that was rated #1 by Consumer Reports. I realize that you can buy a 20-dollar blowdryer -- and that's always what I've purchased in the past -- but this Chi dryer has been beckoning me to take it home. Until now, I've ignored its siren's song. But the stars aligned and I felt it must be fate. Judge for yourself:

A knob broke off of my blowdryer.
I saw an ad that it was on sale for $40 off this weekend.
I received a coupon in the mail that would make it another 20% off the sale price.
We ran a Consumer Reports story this week on the best hair dryers and this very model was ranked #1.

Justification OR Justified? You be the judge. I'll let you know if it's as fabulous as the reviews say it is.

Thanksgiving '08

2008-11-30T10:22:00.005-06:00

As they say, "There's no place like home for the holidays".

Unfortunately, I spend most of my holidays at work -- (See: 4th of July) -- and Thanksgiving is no different. Most of the producers have to work on Thanksgiving because we have every one of our newscasts that day. (The Friday after Thanksgiving, we only have a 6pm and a 10pm so most of us can have that day off. Another reason to LOVE FOOTBALL).

Anyway -- the bosses bought us a turkey lunch from Grady's-- Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans and Pumpkin Pie. (Thanks Dave! I mean "Kenny") It was delivered on Wednesday so I volunteered to heat everything and serve it to our crew of about 20 or so on Thursday. I meant to take a picture of us sitting down for our "family" dinner, but I forgot -- so that's why you have the picture of our tables without people at them. I bought some rolls from Luby's and some cranberry sauce to complete the meal. It was good but of course it wasn't NEARLY as good as my family Thanksgiving meal. I always make the fam PROMISE to save me a plate for dinner. (Several years ago, they forgot to save me rolls and mashed potatoes, but I'm working through that loss and I think I'm over it now.) I usually make it out to my family's Thanksgiving gathering just as everyone is saying their goodbyes. That's what I had planned to do again this year, but I had a really bad cold and by the time my workday was through --- I was too. (Sorry, Shawna!) I just wanted to go home and get in my pj's -- plus I didn't want to spread my germs to my relatives. (I had already exposed the co-workers as I prepared their meal for them. HA HA -- Just kidding. I washed my hands a ZILLION times and didn't breathe on anything. Just ask Mario who was hovering to make sure.)

Anyway, I went home and my mom and brothers delivered my leftovers to me! A HUGE plate of food and a HUGE plate of desserts. It was so delicious!!! I had enough food to last me for several meals. Well done, family!

This is the part where I should write about all of the things I'm thankful for. I won't bore you with a LONG list ... I'll just say I'm most thankful for my Family, Friends and my Faith. And even though I have to work on holidays, I am very thankful that I have a job!

Leaving Lost Maples

2008-11-16T10:32:00.005-06:00

Fall has finally arrived in Texas.

And as my favorite motto (See Also: excuse, rationalization) goes ... Better Late Than Never.

One of the traditional Fall treks for those living in this neck of the woods, is to Lost Maples State Park where you can take in some of the best Fall foliage. The colors at the park were at their peak about a week ago and people have been flocking to Lost Maples to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

I haven't been to Lost Maples since I was a kid. Every year I want to go, but I just don't seem to make it. So when a friend said he wanted to go this weekend, I was very excited to finally make it up there and get in a good hike amidst all the pretty leaves.

We knew we needed to get an early start, but our ideas on "early" differed somewhat. (Sorry, but I was so tired and had gone to a late showing of Quantum of Solace on Friday night). So we settled on 8am. As I headed out the door to meet him, I picked up my morning paper and right there on the front page was a picture of Lost Maples with the headline: "Storm blows the leaves off of Lost Maples." A wild cold front had blown in Friday and it was monstrously windy and apparently it blew most of the Fall leaves off the trees in the park. Great. Oh well, there would still be some color on the trees and because of the cold front, the weather was absolutely perfect on Saturday. It was the ideal day for a drive in the Hill Country.

I mean ... come on ... how pretty is this?

Apparently, hundreds of other South Texans had the exact same idea. After a missed turn and a 45 minute detour, we arrived at our destination to find this:
There were dozens of cars lined up waiting JUST to get in the park. The wait was estimated to be about an hour or so.

Sadly, we decided not to stay. I had to be back in town for a meeting at church at 5:00, plus the low-fuel indicator light was on in my friend's car and we were about 40 miles from a gas station. (Luckily, he has a diesel VW with insanely good gas mileage).

So another year, and I still haven't made it to Lost Maples -- but all was not lost. We still had a good time. We stopped at this Apple Orchard/Bakery and did some antique shopping in Bandera.

And the scenic drive was absolutely amazing.
(I hope blogspot lets you enlarge these next two pictures because they are so pretty.)
We stopped on several bridges to take pictures. This one is my favorite:

See? Texas can be pretty in the Fall.

Sock it to Me

2008-11-03T21:50:00.003-06:00

This is how I went to work this morning and how I stayed all day long.

"Why only one sock?" --you may be asking. Well here's the deal. We've already established my issue with tardiness -- so of course I was frantically trying to get out the door this morning. My last stop was the dryer where I was going to fish out these socks. I searched and searched but could only come up with one. The other is still hiding somewhere amidst the t-shirts and workout shorts. I was running so late that there really wasn't an option to run upstairs and find another pair.

"So why wear the one sock -- why not just go barefoot?" -- you may be asking next. Well, here's the deal.

These are my new shoes and I want to keep them nice.
They're just more comfortable with the socks.
Why should both feet have to suffer when there is one sock available?

Perfectly rational explanation, I think. And to be fair, I let my right foot wear the sock for the first half of the day, then I traded it to the left foot.

Girls Day Out

2008-11-02T11:53:00.002-06:00

I promised my friend Ami's daughters I would take them to lunch and a movie for their birthdays - which were within a few weeks of each other. So Saturday, Kenley, Adi and I went to see High School Musical 3 and then had lunch at Firehouse Subs. Despite the grimace on Adi's face (I took the picture with my arm outstretched and we were looking right into the sun) we had a great time! They are such sweet girls!!

Afterward, I did a little retail damage and purchased some random things that I really don't need. I was sucked into the after-Halloween 50-percent off sales! Here are the items I ended up with:
I got everything displayed on this bookcase for about 55 bucks. I won't show you what else I bought (shirt, shoes, a purse or two) so as not to be subjected to further ridicule.

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T11:57:00.006-05:00

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!

2008-10-28T19:09:00.003-05:00

Civic Duty: a

Finding Joy in Life...

2008-10-28T19:04:00.003-05:00

... And in My Order of Curly Fries.

I dedicate this post to my mom.

Me, Quirky??!?

2008-10-23T19:18:00.004-05:00

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

2008-10-20T19:02:00.006-05:00

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!

2008-10-17T22:27:00.009-05:00

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

2008-10-05T13:10:00.003-05:00

(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

2008-10-05T13:07:00.006-05:00

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. :)

Happy Birthday Chandy! (sorry for the lame party)

2008-09-28T21:28:00.004-05:00

Andy & Chade (a.k.a. "Chandy") both turned 30 this week. For months, I've been thinking about how to celebrate this momentous occasion. I knew it needed to be something special. After all, they are two of my best friends, we've been friends for years, and 30 is a big deal. Plus, they helped carry out a surprise party for me when I turned 30 err ... I mean 25.

So I called them up and said "Are you ready to party?!!" Ok, not really. The actual conversation went more like this:

Me: What do you have planned for your birthday tomorrow?
Chandy: Nothing. Our employees already threw us a huge surprise party. It was awesome.
Me: But we have to celebrate! You're turning 30! What do you want to do?
Chandy: Why don't you make that delicious dessert for us?
Me: Errgg. Ok, I guess. Then I suppose I should make dinner for you too?
Chandy: Sure.
Me to myself: (Dang it. Now I have to figure out something good to make.)

So what dish just screams "special celebration"?

Chicken and broccoli casserole of course.

Fine. I admit it's a lame birthday dinner -- but I've been sick and I was feeling tired and lazy. And for whatever reason, I was craving the casserole and I thought it would be delicious with rotisserie chicken. Unfortunately, the store had sold out of their freshly-made rotisserie chicken, so I had to use plain old chicken breasts. Lame. But I was proud of myself because everything was on the table and ready to go when they got here. Before I dished it out, I decided to make sure the rice had cooked. Good thing I did. I took a bite and crunch, crunch, crunch. CRAP! Apparently, and hour-and-a-half wasn't long enough to cook the long grain rice. In fact, it needed an additional hour to cook. We ended up eating nearly 2 hours after the time I told them to be here.

Woo hooo! Happy 30th!

Let's get all crazy and eat a dry, chicken casserole!

Thankfully, I talked my mom into making the dessert they wanted so at least they had that to look forward to. She brought it over and ended up staying for dinner. So it was Andy, Chade, my mom and me. I'm telling you, this party was off the chain. It was crunk. It was all crazy up in here.

(What do you think they're wishing for? I bet they're wishing for a cooler party next year.)

Necklace Solution

2008-09-20T10:46:00.003-05:00

Faithful readers will recall that I've blogged before about my necklace issues before.The string of beads pictured above is a lost cause of entanglement but I have long searched for a solution to my overall jewelry situation. I have several jewelry boxes and I've tried various hanging methods. A few years ago I got this big jewelry case for Christmas. It's okay but the doors on the sides aren't long enough to hang a lot of my necklaces so the doors had to stay open PLUS I have way more necklaces than pegs.

Old Jewelry Case:

Recently, I just started laying my jewelry on top of my tv armoir because it was easier.

But then ...

Ta da!!GENIUS!

I can't take full credit for this. My friend, Ami, who makes very cute jewelry uses the small hand towel holders to hang her necklaces and bracelets. I went to Home Goods to buy one and they were out. So I saw this full-size towel hanger. (To give you perspective it's about three feet tall) I am impatient so I decided to buy the big one instead of waiting for the smaller ones to get in stock -- and I love it! I finally have enough hanging space for all my necklaces. I thought I'd share in case some of you were having similar jewelry hang-ups (or lack of hang-up places for your jewelry). The towel racks are the perfect solution! The necklaces don't get tangled with each other and now my earrings have the jewelry boxes all to themselves.

Storm Supplies and Soft Soles

2008-09-11T13:39:00.002-05:00

OH yeah, we're tracking Ike. The good news for us (sorry Houston!) is that it seems to be tracking more to the North which would put it mostly to the East of us. Now, these things can change -- so of course we're all still on alert.

Last night, when the hurricane was still aiming straight for us, I decided it might be a good idea to stock up on a few supplies for the house (like food). I bought some bread and peanut butter. I figure I can live on PB & honey sandwiches for a few days if I needed to. Unfortunately the store shelves were completely void of bottled water and flashlights. So I decided to buy another must-have for the 72-hour kit ... the Pedegg.

(Oh, come on! You know you've wanted one.)

Sometimes when we're faced with a crisis we have to prioritize our values. And during this time of emergency preparedness I decided I REALLY needed soft feet. I took it for a test run last night and I think I'm going to like it. I must admit that the collection of powdered calluses is quite nasty. But my feet are significantly softer and smoother than before.

So if/when Ike comes howling ... I may be sitting in the dark feeling quite parched ... but at least I'll have soft feet.

Apple Anger

2008-09-09T13:56:00.004-05:00

Oh, I'm really hating Apple right now. Remember a couple months ago when I purchased a new Nano? I debated over that purchase for months. I kept searching the Internet to make sure Apple wasn't going to come out with a new Nano in the next few months that would be cheaper and better. And WHAT DID THEY DO TO ME????? They've come out with a new Nano that is cheaper and better just a couple months after I bought my Nano. Fuming. Furious. Super Annoyed.

Did you ever see the SNL skit about ipods where they keep getting smaller and smaller until they are finally invisible? If not, you can watch it by clicking here. It's not that far off. I should boycott Apple by not buying their products. But I want them. I want them bad. As Rihanna says, I hate how much I love you.

Out of the Mouth of Babes...

2008-08-31T21:53:00.005-05:00

Kids say the darndest things -- but the fact is, they generally speak the truth. The raw, unfiltered truth. I have a friend whose 4-year-old daughter tends to embarrass her by saying blunt things to people about their physical appearance. She is just about the cutest, sweetest little girl you've ever seen. She is also EXTREMELY observant and makes mental notes about what people wear. She was disappointed one time because I was wearing the same earrings as the last time I'd seen her. Another time, she wanted her parents to call me and make sure I was going to wear something "cute" to dinner at their house. I am not using her name in this post because her mom is already mortified enough --but here is the conversation that took place at her house today. She was snuggled up next to me and I was reading her a book when all of a sudden she looked up at me and said:

Little Girl: You're big.
Me (not quite sure where she's going with this): Yes, I am.
LG: You're big. And we're not. None of us are big.
Me (ah, maybe she means tall ... her family is pretty tiny): Yep, that's right.
LG: You have a big bum. We don't.
Me (oh, that's where she's going with this): Well yes, that's true.
LG: Some people at church have big bums too.

This is the same darling little 4-year-old who asked me this a few weeks ago:

LG: Do you have kids?
Me: No.
LG: Are you married?
Me: No.
LG: You're just a girl, right?
Me: Yep, I'm just a girl.
LG: That's what I thought.

Yep, I'm just a girl with a really big bum.

I'm totally going running in the morning.

Uphill Battle

2008-08-28T21:18:00.005-05:00

I've exercised 7 of the last 11 days. Are you proud of me? (If not, then hush ... I'm proud of myself.) Anyway, I was in a funk today. No need to send condolences --it's not a major funk and I'll get over it -- I think I have just been over-analyzing the sadness in the world and letting it weigh on me. But all afternoon I had the urge to go running to relieve my stress. Isn't that exciting?!? Despite a chaotic afternoon and stressful newscast, I didn't have the urge to go home, lay on the couch and eat ice cream -- I HAD THE URGE TO GO RUNNING. I feel quite satisfied about that.

I often start out my walks/jogs by walking up this hill by my house. It's only a little over a tenth of a mile but the top is pretty steep and it's a good way to warm up. The other day after I'd walked/ran for 45 minutes I decided to take the hill another time as fast as I could. Now, I must confess that my sprinting on this hill compares to the speed of an old lady walking the mall ... but still!

Here is a (blurry, sorry) picture so you can see where it get steep at the top:

Tonight, I didn't even start out walking like I usually do, I just ran up the hill - TWICE! and then I continued on the rest of my walk/jog. Right now this hill is kicking my butt - I am pretty much at a 10 on my exertion scale when I reach the top. But I am going to start timing myself so I can get faster and then one day I will dominate. One day I will conquer this hill.

I Know an Olympic Gold Medalist

2008-08-24T22:11:00.003-05:00

Another Olympic season has come to an end ... sigh.

Ever since I was a kid, I've LOVED watching the Olympics. I remember watching gymnastics with my neighborhood friends in elementary school --we'd clear out the living room so we could compete in our own gymnastics competitions. We'd put tape on the floor for the balance beam, and then for the floor routines we'd start on one end of the room and do our cartwheels and walkovers from one side of the room to the other. Now, decades later ... I'm not about to try a walkover ... but I still get so excited to watch the Olympics! I'm in awe of athletic greatness. Well, now I can say I know an Olympic Gold Medalist! Or more accurately, I knew him. That's Rich Lambourne. Libero for the USA Men's Volleyball Team. Gold medalist. He played volleyball for BYU when I was there. So did Ryan Millar.And the USA coach, Hugh McCutcheon, was the assistant coach at BYU at the time.

It was pretty sweet to watch them win Gold! (Especially after McCutcheon's father-in-law was murdered in Beijing as the Olympics got underway. That was so horribly sad.)

I watched a lot of men's volleyball at BYU. It's not a sport that many Texans appreciate. In fact, I didn't even really know that guys played volleyball until I went to college. But then I became a huge fan. My roommate, Marianne, played on the women's team and her boyfriend (then fiance, later husband) played for the men's. So I got to know some of their teammates, including Rich.

I first met Rich when he was a scrawny freshman. He looked so young and goofy. But when he came home from his 2-year LDS mission we were surprised to find he had gotten all manly and hot. And now he's in the Olympics!! Who coulda guessed? I felt like I was going back in time when I watched him on TV. In fact, I caught myself saying "GO BYU" a few times. I feel so happy and proud for them.

Anyway - no point to this except to say I love the Olympics. Go USA!

And Rich -- if you're googling your name now that you're a bigtime Olympic Gold Medalist and you happen upon this blog -- be sure to leave a comment!

My Blind Date Wore High Heels

2008-08-23T23:51:00.010-05:00

I went on another blind date this weekend ... my friend Nicki set me up. Yes, that's him wearing high heels. Could I possibly go out with any more freaks? Ha Ha! Just kidding. He wasn't really a freak. We made him try on Nicki's shoes when we discovered that they have the same size feet. Then I promised to embarrass him by putting the picture on my blog. And now I have.

It was a fun day. Eating, hiking, more eating and then Guitar Hero. We hiked Enchanted Rock near Fredericksburg. It's a batholith (underground rock formation uncovered by erosion) and it's apparently the second largest granite dome in the United States. (Just one of the many facts shared by my new high-heeled friend who also happens to work for Texas Parks and Wildlife. He also identified animal droppings, and let us know the scientific names of the plants and wildlife.)

Enchanted Rock:

And here is the view as we got close to the top. This is my friend Nicki with her husband Billy:

Climbing up was fun despite the fact that it felt like we were hiking in a sauna. It had just finished raining and it was in the 90's so basically the humidity was insane. I prefer to use the term "glistening" but others might say I was dripping in sweat.

Yea! We made it to the top:

My "creaky" knee was obnoxiously loud on the way down as a cruel reminder of how old I am (and how much older I was than my date). Thankfully, I wasn't as uncoordinated as the other day (see earlier post) and didn't injure myself. But Nicki's husband Billy has a fat ankle after twisting it by stepping off a rock into a hole. Ouch!

If I lived closer to Enchanted Rock, I could hike that a few times a week instead of going to the gym. Can I count this as one of my workouts this week? I didn't add it to my running tally, but I'm thinking about it.

Nicki loved the hike too :) and I loved spending the day with my friend Nicki! It's been way too long since we've hung out. In fact it's been more than a year!! Much too long.

Oh well, it was another fun Saturday spent avoiding chores at home! One day soon there will be another blog post about yard work. I have avoided it for far too long and I have many a weed to tend to. Until then, let the fun continue.

p.s.- I normally wouldn't blog about first dates. That seems creepy. But Nicki told him about my blog and he's expecting it -- so go ahead and give him a hard time about the heels.

Prodigious Pencil

2008-08-20T22:10:00.008-05:00

I've always loved getting new school supplies at the beginning of a new school year. So imagine my delight when the mother-of-all pencils arrived in our newsroom. I took it for a test run to see how it holds up against other wee writing utensils.

Big pencils need big erasers. ... So far so good.

This pencil ROCKS in pencil wars! I totally dominated this match.
(Apologies to Joe for whacking his hand instead of the pencil. My weapon was heavy and my aim wasn't very good. whoops)

But I did find some drawbacks. For starters, if the pencil lead breaks it might be hard to find a sharpener.

And it's a little awkward to keep behind your ear.

It's definitely difficult to accomplish the pensive pencil-in-mouth look.

My hair was too short for the final pencil test. But Bernice tried it out. I decided that you might have to be Crystal Gayle to sport this pencil-in-hair fashion.

I wonder if it's a #2 pencil? I would LOVE to whip this sucker out during a standardized test. I dare someone to bring this pencil to the first day of school!! Any kids out there wanna do it?

(You will be required to document your dare with pictures.)

Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This

2008-08-19T10:54:00.006-05:00

There are days when I'm pretty coordinated ... and then there are days when I am not. I am currently going through the "am not" stage. Let me tell you about my series of mishaps last night that left me boiling over with frustration.

First: I ran errands after work and decided to pick up some delicious chicken soup from Las Palapas for dinner. I got home at about 8:30, fed the dog, changed out of my work clothes and was so excited to sit on my couch, eat my soup and watch the Olympics. But as I grabbed the paper sack with the container of soup inside, the bottom of the bag ripped open (it had become soggy from the soup), the styrofoam thing of chicken soup went flying and landed right on the threshold between the kitchen and the living room. The container burst open and half of the soup went splattering across the kitchen floor, the other half soaked into my living room carpet. By this time I was hungry and tired and it took everything I had in me to clean it all up.

Second: I went upstairs to clean myself up after the soup fiasco. My hands were soupy so I didn't flip on the light and consequently ran straight into a wall very hard. The pain just made me even madder so I yelled at the wall and called it a jerk.

Third: I went back downstairs and decided to have a pudding cup since that's about all I have in my fridge. (Don't worry, it's sugar free). I reached for it and somehow dropped it on the kitchen floor and it split open, sending pudding splattering on the floor and into my refrigerator.

Four: I'm sitting with a new pudding cup trying to enjoy the Olympics and the devil dog starts barking NONSTOP at a stupid toad. So I get her in from outside and I was about to put her in her crate when she knocked over a brand new bag of dog food that I had JUST opened. (I couldn't get the zipper open so it was ripped at the top) The dog food goes scattering all across the floor -- at least 4 or 5 cups worth.

Five: I've finally had enough and decide I must be REALLY tired and so I just need to go to bed. So I went to get my nightly cup of water out of my Ozarka-big-bottle-dispenser-thingy. As I was filling up the cup, it slipped out of my hand, landed squarely on the top of my foot and splattered across the floor. I grumbled in pain and just went to bed. I didn't even clean up the water.

And apparently the curse continues. This morning my friend, Phil was sharing his big thing of gum with the newsroom. (Have you seen those plastic dispensers of eclipse chicklet kind of gum?) Anyway -- I tossed it to an intern and it hit the floor and burst open like a pinata. Gum for no one! Yea me.

What the huh?

p.s.-- To make me feel even worse about my lack of coordination, Phil has written an obituary for his lost gum pack. (Way harsh Phil.)

Get in Shape, Girl!

2008-08-18T11:49:00.004-05:00

It's six weeks until October. Summer is winding down and school is about to start. It just feels like the right time to make some healthy goals. I've made "contracts" with friends and they seem to work - so I'm going to do it again. This time I'm using the blog for some accountability and hopefully, I will be motivated by the fear of public humiliation. My goals may seem easy to some of you -- but let me say that they will be a huge improvement over my current situation (diet soda every day, sweets after every meal, etc.). So here are my goals starting today until October 1st:

*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)

Anyone want to join me? (You can make up your own goals)

White House Mix Tape

2008-08-11T21:36:00.002-05:00

Alright - after two tear-jerking posts, it's time to lighten things up. Blender Magazine recently asked Presidential Candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama to name their top ten favorite songs.

Here's what they said:

BARACK OBAMA
1. Ready or Not - Fugees
2. What's Going On - Marvin Gaye
3. I'm On Fire - Bruce Spingsteen
4. Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones
5. Sinnerman - Nina Simone
6. Touch the Sky - Kanye West
7. You'd Be So Easy to Love - Frank Sinatra
8. Think - Aretha Franklin
9. City of Blinding Lights - U2
10. Yes We Can - will.i.am

JOHN McCAIN
1. Dancing Queen - ABBA
2. Blue Bayou - Roy Orbison
3. Take a Chance On Me - ABBA
4. If We Make It Through December - Merle Haggard
5. As Time Goes By - Dooley Wilson
6. Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys
7. What A Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
8. I've Got You Under My Skin - Frank Sinatra
9. Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond
10. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - The Platters

Don't worry, I'm not about to get political with this post. I'm just going to do some equal-opportunity mocking. I can't knock Obama's list too much because they are good songs. But I wonder how much consulting went into the process to make him appear "cool"?? Plus, he picked his own campaign song which is just dorky!! But speaking of dorky, McCain has two ABBA songs in his top ten!! Ha Ha Ha! Don't get me wrong. I love ABBA. But it's one of those guilty-pleasure kind of things. And MAN does McCain's list confirm the fact that he's old as dirt. Great songs. But they skew a little old. There isn't one song from the last three decades on that list.

But it got me thinking -- could I make a list of my top ten favorite songs? I'm not sure that I could. I DEFINITELY wouldn't be able to rank them. That would go against my very nature. I might be able to commit to some songs that I really, really like in no-particular order that wouldn't be all-inclusive and could be expanded and that I'm coming up with off the top of my head so I may be leaving some very important ones out. I could do that.

So here is THAT list:

· Come Downstairs and Say Hello - Guster
(It was hard to only pick one Guster song -- I could have easily said What You Wish For or Diane or Careful or Amsterdam or Fa Fa or Center of Attention ...etc, etc.)
· Awakening - Switchfoot
(Also Let that Be Enough or Stars or The Shadow Proves the Sunshine or Head over Heels)
· Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me - Mel Carter
· You Make Me Feel So Young - Frank Sinatra
· Just Like Heaven - The Cure
· Waiting For the Day/You Can't Always Get What You Want - George Michael
· Banana Pancakes - Jack Johnson
· If You Leave – OMD
· Graceland - Paul Simon
(Also Diamonds on the Souls of Her Shoes)
· Baby, Now That I've Found You - Alison Krauss
(Also I Will or In the Palm of Your Hand)
· Your Smiling Face - James Taylor
(Also Something in the Way She Moves)
· She's Got a Way - Billy Joel
· Not Myself - John Mayer
· Joey - Concrete Blonde

I have a hard time putting any song that has come out in the last several years to my list because what if it doesn't stand the test of time for me and I change my mind?? So, I'm sure I'll be thinking of others and this list will grow. (I know I am leaving some crucial ones out!)

But now I challenge you -- what are your favorite songs of all time? Make a list on your blog so I can read them.

A Farewell to Friends

2008-08-11T10:20:00.006-05:00

And the tears continue. I have cried so much in the past week that I think I've done some permanent damage to my eyelids (and I look 10 years older). Stop the madness! Today was the day I have been dreading for months. My best friends are on their way to California. I love the Buxton family so much!! It all started when they moved here and Jodie and I were in the Young Women's Presidency together at church. We immediately bonded over our mutual love for the band, Guster.

Over the past several years we've been to many concerts together (mostly Guster and Switchfoot). We've taken road trips and family vacations together, watched lots of TV and seen many movies together. I've eaten just about every Sunday dinner (and many weeknight dinners) at their house.

(One of the neighbors children (about 5 or 6 years old) once asked me why I was ALWAYS at the Buxton house. I answered, "Because it's fun there." Then she scolded me, "Shouldn't you be spending more time with your husband?" )

We've laughed so much together, and cried together and prayed together. I love their daughters as if they were my own.

I'm so overwhelmingly sad that they won't be living right down the street from me, but I'm excited for their new adventure. The girls are worried about making new friends but I have no doubt that anyone who meets the Buxtons will fall in love with them just like I have.

My Nanny

2008-08-11T09:32:00.004-05:00

I haven't blogged in a while - but this past week has been a hard one. My Nanny passed away last Sunday night. She had Alzheimer's Disease and has been bed-ridden for several years. I have mourned the loss of my grandmother at various times over the last 7-8 years because the disease really took away the Nanny that I knew, but at least we had the comfort of having her physically in our lives. But in the end, it was time to let her go. I was there along with some of her children and other grandchildren when she passed away. The most heartbreaking part was seeing my grandpa in mourning. They were married for 66 years.
That picture showed my grandparents on their wedding day. My nanny was buried in her wedding dress (without the white collar).

I gave the Eulogy on behalf of her nine grandchildren. Here we are with our PaPa:

We all came up with some of our favorite memories. We talked about some of the fun outings we went on with her and how much we loved her cooking, especially her baking. (She was famous for her banana bread and even though I have her recipe, my bread doesn't even come close to hers.) She had an infectious laugh and we loved to joke around with her. But our favorite part was how much she loved us and how proud she was of her family. We will miss you Nanny but will always remember you!

Girliest Day Ever

2008-08-02T09:02:00.011-05:00

I took a vacation day on Friday to have a girl day with my friends, Jodie, Melissa, Ami, and Amy. First we had pedicures. It was heavenly!Don't our feet look fantastic!
Then, we took our silky smooth soles to lunch. Mexican food. Yum!Next, we went to a movie. We saw Mamma Mia! It doesn't get any girlier than that. If a straight man were forced to watch that movie I think he might break into hives or have a seizure or something. I had read the reviews beforehand and knew that it was supposed to be over-the-top cheesy. But the others were actually expecting it to be a great movie so needless to say they were pretty disappointed. If you haven't seen this movie and you are still considering it ... I must warn you ... First, you CANNOT have an ounce of cynicism in your body to be able to enjoy this movie on any level. The script, the acting, the dancing is so ridiculous. You must accept that going into it. Second, with the exception of the main girl, the singing is absolutely terrible. When Pierce Brosnan started singing the majority of the theater started laughing. It was that bad. Every time he would sing, we couldn't stop giggling. And to think that was his voice AFTER digital enhancement. Frightening. I'd say wait for the DVD and then rent this movie from RedBox for a dollar. Then make yourself some queso and enjoy a cheese-filled evening.
And finally, as if a day of girliness weren't enough, the fun continued into the night. In fact, this may be the girliest event of all. A friend from church hosted a Twilight party to celebrate the eve of the Breaking Dawn release.(Morgan, the host of the party)

There were book-themed food and games and we wore buttons to declare our allegiance to either Jacob or Edward.
I declared my indecision with temporary tattoos on both my ankles.
(Is anyone really surprised that I can't make up my mind about who Bella should choose?)

There was a contest to see who had the most extreme story for being sucked into these books. (They are very addictive and once you start reading they are hard to put down.)

I won the contest for being the biggest freak!

My Story:

When I started reading Twilight, it was on a week night. I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to read. I got maybe 3 or 4 hours of sleep. Then when my alarm went off, I decided I could allow myself to read for 15 minutes before getting up for work. Well, of course I was totally immersed in the story and ended up reading WAY longer than I intended. I had to call into work and tell them that I was going to be coming in late. And of course, because like George Washington, I cannot tell a lie, I confessed about why I was going to be late. I have endured endless mockery for this confession. (But now a couple of my coworkers have read the series and have a little more compassion toward me.)

Here was my prize for being an obsessive reader:

It was a silly, fun day with great friends.

A Perfect Day

2008-07-27T09:44:00.006-05:00

I love going to the lake. It makes me happy! And we had a great day on Saturday when my friends Andy and Chade invited the Buxtons, the Craguns, and me for a day of boating.
The kids had a great time riding on the tube. There was a lot of screaming and giggling.
The big kids had fun too!

Ami and Ava had the official duty of looking cute, and as you can see they did a great job.

And - I'm happy to report that in my advancing age and after not having done it in a couple years, I can still wakeboard. Yahoooo!! But I am paying the price today. My already bad back is hurting so bad I can barely move. I'm so old. One of my favorite moments was watching Rachel (who is 13) try wakeboarding for the first time. Despite her nervousness, she didn't give up. She tried several times until she could do it. She was AWESOME! All of the other kids were so excited for her and they were cheering and screaming (in very high-pitched manner) like they were at a Jonas Brothers concert. They even asked for her autograph afterward. In that moment, I think another boat-ophile was born. I don't have pictures of her on the wakeboard -- but there is video available. Hopefully, Jodie can post it on her blog. The Buxtons are moving in two weeks and we are trying to pack in all the fun we can before they leave. This was a great day that we'll all remember. For me there is just nothing better than a day at the lake with your best friends.

Perfect Bliss!

I Wanted to Believe ...

2008-07-27T08:49:00.010-05:00

I wanted it to be the same X-Files (first 8 seasons) that we knew and loved. But it wasn't. There was Mulder and there was Scully, but it just wasn't the same. Sad.

I don't want to spoil the movie if you haven't seen it so I'll give my detailed review in the comments section.

P.S. - After I initially posted this, Ami reminded me that I didn't include some of the most important factors that contributed to an overall stinky movie experience. First of all the icee machine was broken. After realizing that, I had to return the empty cup for a refund because I wasn't about to pay 4 dollars for a soda. Then, I sat next to some annoying teenagers. (I have nobody to blame but myself because I picked the seats.) They weren't there to watch the movie, instead they just talked loudly nonstop. I finally had to be the annoying adult that told them to please be quiet. The teenage boy apologized, but the teenage girl just kept talking. I have encountered this phenomenon quite a few times. Movies are expensive, I don't understand why they pay the $8.25 when they could text and talk somewhere else for free. Then, the most baffling thing is that 4/5ths through the film, in the MIDDLE of a climactic chase scene, they got up and walked right in front of us and left the theater. I have seen teenagers do that in several other movies too. Strange creatures, these teenagers. Baffling. The people behind me were also talkers but they were a different variety. They were the loud reactors, i.e. "Don't go in there!!" "What is she doing?!" "He better run!" And finally, there was Ami. She sat next to me with her hand covering her eyes the entire time. She has never seen an X-Files; she just wanted to come along with us for popcorn and a soda. I kept having to tell her that she was covering her eyes during completely mundane scenes. That's when she informed me that she didn't like scary movies and that her favorite movie is "The Sound of Music" and that she had to keep them covered because something scary could happen at any minute. I've already decided that I'm going to see Batman alone.

Extreme Makeover

2008-07-20T09:32:00.010-05:00

Okay so maybe "extreme" is a little extreme, but I'm still at the "What-Have-I-Done" stage of my new haircut. I feel naked. But I was needing a change and decided to chop off all of my hair.

The goal was to make it easier to fix my insanely thick hair. I hope that it will indeed be easier because it is definitely is one of those haircuts that has to be fixed. When I woke up this morning I looked like Lou Ferrigno.

So what do you think?

Burn Baby Burn (Mail Truck Inferno)

2008-07-20T09:03:00.005-05:00

This was one of my most exciting mailbox days ever!

I opened the mailbox and was greeted by a smokey scent. Then I reached in and found a plastic bag with a scorched piece of mail inside. The Post Office informed me that my mail was on a postal truck that burned back in March. (You can read and/or watch the news story by clicking here.) Isn't that exciting? The postal service salvaged a four-month old piece of junk mail and took great care to make sure I got it. Hilarious. But now it makes me wonder if that million-dollar check I've been expecting was on that truck. I may never know.

P.R. Gone Awry

2008-07-15T22:44:00.008-05:00

So this cake ended up causing a big ruckus today and consequently became the lead in my newscast. One just like it showed up at another news station this morning and prompted an evacuation there. The cake had a wire sticking out of it and a number written on the top. It also came with a strange looking ransom note. The other news station became concerned and called police.

Turns out, it was a press release for the upcoming Batman movie. The theater chain here has been doing all sorts of corny little pranks to drum up attention for the film. This hair-brained scheme nearly got the PR chick arrested. That wire is attached to a cellphone in the cake. When you call the number, the phone in the cake rings, then you are supposed to pull it out along with a press kit about the movie. I can't give the local PR people too much credit for coming up with it, because apparently it's a marketing idea that has been used across the country for the movie. But it's pretty idiotic considering most people are a little paranoid about terrorist attacks these days.

I think if the cake had been delivered to my station, we would have realized it was a press release. In fact, during the commotion, I said to my coworkers, "I bet this ends up being a publicity stunt for Batman." I was right.

When the cake was finally delivered to our station -- we were all giddy with excitement. Here we are gathered around the cake:

Here's a chocolaty covered Sean answering the cellphone:

The PR people ended up getting a slap on the hand and a "you-should-have-known-better" lecture from police. But in the end, I'd say the campaign was pretty successful considering it ended up being the lead in my newscast. Who's the sucker now?

Watch Out Below!

2008-07-15T22:30:00.004-05:00

I know you were all enthralled with my tower painting blog, so here's another. The painting project is going pretty well. Except for this:
That's what it looks like when you drop a gallon of paint from 400 feet in the air. (The other debris in the picture is a giant bird's nest that the painters knocked down.) Apparently this is why we're not supposed to park/walk in this parking lot. I'm guessing a paint can might hurt if it were to hit you on the head. And in case you were wondering, paint dropped from that height can splatter pretty darn far.

I Remember

2008-07-11T22:28:00.003-05:00

Alright -- I'm actually participating in one of these blog games. Shocking! It's a "Memory Swap" that I got from my friend Shar. After reading the comments people left for her, I realized it could be kind of fun.

Here's how it goes:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one of your favorite memories that you and I had together. It doesn’t matter if you know me a little or a lot, if we’ve actually met in person or not, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you.

If you read this and you know me, you need to comment - otherwise I'll feel like a dork with no friends and then this would become a sad memory for me.

You Could Not Pay Me Enough

2008-07-09T20:29:00.009-05:00

That's a TV tower. It's like 2 billion feet tall or something like that. (Just an estimate) It sits in the back parking lot of the station where I work and it allows for technical stuff like sending and receiving satellite and microwave feeds so we can do live television. Basically, it's like magic. Yes, there is a scientific explanation for how TV works, but it hurts my brain to think about it. (The fact that images and sound can be captured in a camera, travel through the sky, be compressed into cables and stuff and then come across your TV basically instantaneously is mind boggling.) I write the words and tell stories -- I don't mess with all that technical stuff.

Another thing that my mind cannot fathom is having to climb that tv tower to paint it! That's exactly what some very brave and/or crazy people are doing this week. Therefore all of the station employees are having to park way across the street. Here is our empty parking lot:
The high school across the street is letting us use their parking lots:
We have to park far away so that we don't get red polka dots on our cars. As illustrated in this picture, our parking lot is still splattered with red paint from the last tower painting about a decade ago.
But can you imagine climbing this sucker??!!!?? You can't even see them because it's so far up there, but there are a couple of guys at the very top of the tower in this picture:

They crew has this crazy pulley system to get the paint cans up the tower. A van drives forward and pulls a cable down one side of the tower, so that the cable comes up the other side of the tower with the paint cans:The other side of the cable is stretched all the way across the parking lot. You can see in this picture the cable with the paint cans attached. (They are about 3/4 the way up on the left -- they look like balloons or something.) I could never be persuaded to do such a task. Never. It is total insanity.

On a side note, the parking situation added to the chaos at the station today. The Avid system crashed several days ago and the engineers haven't been able to fix it. (That's the non-linear system we use to edit all of our video.) We got rid of our tape-to-tape editing decks several years ago, so the only tape-to-tape editing systems are in our live trucks. So with Avid down, our editors and photographers were running back and forth across the street to the trucks all day to edit the newscasts. Good times.

Nicole has a video clip on her blog that very much illustrates our plight. Check it out by clicking here.

Fireworks and Freedom

2008-07-04T20:57:00.005-05:00

I've always loved this holiday. It symbolizes freedom, family, friends, fun and fireworks! Fantastic. However, the reality of the last few July 4th's haven't quite lived up to the romantic ideal I have in my memories. (Holidays tend to lose their luster when you have to work.) But I refuse to let my employment or a fireworks ban stand in the way of my Independence Day!

The (working) holiday started with an early morning pancake breakfast at church. I had a great opportunity this week to read the life story of a World War II vet in my congregation. I was given an assignment to set up a little display and create a handout with facts about his life. He was a tail gunner in a B-26 bomber and has some amazing stories about the Battle of the Bulge. It added some meaning to my July 4th as I reflected on the sacrifices of our servicemen and women. I have many friends who currently serve our country and to them I say, THANK YOU!!

Not to get all serious on you, but I read a great quote this week about patriotism and the price of freedom. It was penned in the year of the birth of our nation and it is as applicable as ever 232 years later:

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country, but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of a man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly."

"The American Crisis" by Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

Alright, that's enough of the soberness -- now, onto the celebration. A few of my coworkers and I displayed our American pride by popping some "fireworks" on our lunch break. Don't worry, these were the legal (lame) kind. We had a huge box of poppers and other confetti-spewing noise makers and we littered the parking lot in our revelry.

Whoo hoo!!!!

Another reason I love this holiday is because it is my brother Brad's birthday. For years he thought the nation celebrated his birth, and the heritage has made him somewhat of a pyromaniac. Here's a picture of the birthday boy: For his entire life, I've called him "Baby Brad". But now he is all grown up and 26 years old today.

Happy Birthday Brad!

2008-06-22T10:06:00.003-05:00

(Tobi, Shar and me)

Okay, try to keep up as I explain how this fun day came to be:

Shar and I have been friends since we were teenagers in Texas. Shar and Sam have been friends since they were pre-teens in Germany. Sam and I got to know each other at BYU through Shar. Tobi married Sam's cousin. We all started blogging. Shar and I got to know Tobi and vice versa through our blogs. Shar brought her kids to Texas for a visit, and since Tobi lives about 2.5 hours away from me, Tobi decided to drive down to meet Shar and me in person and spend the day with us.

Here's where we ate lunch in the quaint little town of Boerne:
(pronounced "BURN-nee" and not "born" as Tobi discovered)

We had sandwiches and yummy desserts. Then we went shopping in the cute antique shops along main street. It was fun! However, we may have scared Tobi because then she met our families. She met Shar's parents and Shar's kids and my mom, brother, sister and brother-in-law. That's a lot to take in on a first visit!

Here we are along the Guadalupe River at my sister's in-laws' house:

Tobi was fun and nice and we had a really good day hanging out with her. I'm glad we can be friends in real life now and not just in the blogosphere!

And it was so great to see Shar and her kiddos. They are quite a funny bunch!!

Nicki's Hickeys

2008-06-22T09:18:00.009-05:00

Is a hickey from Nicki really like a Hallmark card?

This is my brother-in-law.
I've cropped the pictures to protect his identity and his dignity. (But I only have one brother-in-law.)

At a family gathering this weekend, we all noticed this weird bruising on my brother-in-law's face. The bruises weren't as red as these pictures show -- they looked more brownish/blue in real life. At first I thought it was dirt. Then I could tell they were bruises and I wondered how he could get them under both eyes?? When I inquired, he told us that my sister gave him hickeys on his face and neck a couple days ago. He had to go to work the next day - when the bruises were at their worst- and so he told his coworkers that he got involved in a fight. I can't blame him for the fib -- was he really supposed to admit that my sister is a weirdo and that he didn't stop her at least after the first cheek? My sister (who usually gets away with just about anything by acting innocent and cute) just giggled and said she thought it would give him rosy cheeks not deep bruises. I am so embarrassed for them.

As Def Leppard says, "Watch out! Love Bites."

Songs of Summer

2008-06-20T10:35:00.003-05:00

Even though we've had summer-like temperatures for months here in Texas, SUMMER officially starts tonight. In an ideal world I would spend my summer boating at the lake, reading by the pool, going to the movies and having barbecues. Unfortunately, it's not an ideal world, and I have to work all summer. But I still love to get in that "summer" mood, and of course for me, that means music. So here are my submissions for the Soundtrack of Summer:

Viva La Vida Coldplay
Underneath Alanis Morissette
In Love With a Girl Gavin DeGraw
Lucky Jason Mraz (featuring Colbie Caillat)
Love Remains the Same Gavin Rossdale
I Will Possess Your Heart Death Cab for Cutie
No One's Gonna Love You Band of Horses
Pork and Beans Weezer
Feels Like Tonight Daughtry
Resurrect Me Jon Foreman
Mercy Duffy
Whose Authority Nada Surf
Tessellate Tokyo Police Club
A-Punk Vampire Weekend

I could go through each of these songs individually and tell you what I like about each of them, but I'll spare you that analysis. I will, however, offer the following disclaimers: Yes, a couple of these songs have been out for months but I just can't get enough of them right now (i.e. Band of Horses- LOVING them). And while I am not normally an Alanis fan, I do like her new song for some reason.

As for overall Best Summer Albums, I think that designation will go to Coldplay and Death Cab. I am loving both right now! I reserve the right to add to this list as the summer progresses. For one thing, I can't believe there isn't a good hip-hop song that I am diggin' on -- but there just isn't.

Now tell me what your favorite songs are right now!

Blind Date Haiku

2008-06-17T11:35:00.001-05:00

I know you mean well
Just because two are single
Does not a match make

Happy Birthday Shar!

2008-06-13T23:55:00.006-05:00

With just minutes to spare on this Friday the 13th, I am wishing my friend, Sharlene a very Happy Birthday! And in retribution for the birthday blog that she posted for me, I will now post some slightly embarrassing photos of the birthday girl.

One of the greatest things about Sharlene is her great attitude and sense of humor. She is so fun to tease, and therefore, her friends pull pranks on her a lot. (Or at least we used to.) When were were teenagers, the boys at church often toilet papered her house because it was fun to see her get all riled up about how the "homeowner's association was going to put a lien" on her house! I am cracking up just thinking about how she said it. Back then, we called her "Chuck". I think she hated it at first, but eventually embraced it because she is just good-natured that way.

Shar is one of the strongest people I know and I have always admired her fearlessness. She is so brave when it comes to trying new things. If there is a task ahead of her, she just goes for it. It's an amazing thing to behold. She has been able to accomplish so much in her life because not-only is she brilliant but she also has the guts to go for what she wants. And she'll try just about anything. Her talents are so broad and varied. I mean what other intellectual properties attorney can cook and sew? Do you know anyone else who has spent years doing social work, including managing a battered women's shelter, and ALSO trained beauty pageant contestants? I think not. Oh, and she plays the violin and was on the fencing team in college! ( I thought for SURE I had a picture of that, but I can't find it anywhere.)
Shar is a very persuasive person. She has talked me into a lot of smart things in life including going to BYU and being her roommate.

Shar is the best cheerleader and a very supportive friend. For example, she drove from Utah to Texas with me when I moved back home. And when my dad died, she caught the next flight to be with my family.

Sharlene is probably the most generous person I've ever known. Without hesitation, she is always giving and sharing whatever she has. In high school, I would go to her house and borrow stacks of clothing. She wore a uniform to private school, but she had the best clothes and so she always let me borrow them! She even let me borrow this prom dress:

Sharlene's generosity paired with her impulsiveness, sometimes makes for funny gifts. Like this one: That is Jackson. The dog that Sharlene gave me for my 22nd (?) birthday. I had often said that I couldn't wait until I had a house and a dog, so Sharlene showed up at my work with this dog that she adopted from the animal shelter for me. Unfortunately, the dog was psychotic. It would sneeze nonstop and was obsessed with eating paper. Seriously, you couldn't leave paper around or he'd gobble it up. And you had to keep the bathroom door closed or he'd eat a roll of toilet paper. Many times when he would poop, it would just be this white recycled paper poop. I had to give him away when I moved back to Texas and the family that took him in reported that Jackson liked to eat the crotch out of the kids' underwear and once ate an entire birthday cake.
Shar is the kind of friend that you can completely be yourself with. We've been friends for more than 18 years now. (How crazy is that??) Back then we used to drive around in her big brown truck, rent movies, play Tetris, sing duets of country songs, talk about our crushes and just be silly. Now she is an accomplished attorney, a military wife, and a fantastic mother-of-three. Lots of things have changed over the last 2 decades, but Shar is still the fun, generous, kind-hearted friend that I can talk to about anything and everything.
Happy Birthday, Shar!!

South Padre Island

2008-06-13T23:24:00.004-05:00

From Southern California, to South Padre ... the vacation continues. The morning after I returned from San Diego, I headed south to the Texas coast where I spent the better part of a week at the beach with several families from my ward. We had a great time playing in the surf and sand.

Check out this awesome sand turtle the kids built:

We all love to boogie board:

Each night, we all went out to eat together (all 22 of us!!) and then we went crab hunting:My brother, Ryan is the master crab hunter because he's not afraid to pick them up. When the other kids found a crab, they all yelled for Ryan to come pick it up. He wasn't afraid of the pinchers, even after the biggest crab we found actually broke the skin with its pinchers.
Here are some of the small ones we found. Of course, the girls in the group named each one. The kids carried them around in their buckets for awhile and then set them free during a crab race.

Now, we are all tanned (burned) and tired. But it was a great week with lots of fun memories!

California Dreamin' Part 2

2008-06-13T20:45:00.020-05:00

The Sight-Seeing:

After the wedding, I stayed several days to take in San Diego's offerings. I must say that I am completely bewitched!! It is the most amazing place. The first night I experienced Mission Beach and Pacific Beach with Todd, Kim, Cary and Michelle (friends that I met several years ago through Karen). We had a great time walking on the beach at sunset and talking over gelato.

But as the Go-Go's say: "Vacation, all I ever wanted. Vacation, had to get away. Vacation, meant to be spent alone."

And so, I spent the next three days exploring the city alone. I stayed in this funky European-style hotel in the Little Italy section of San Diego. It was a great location and it met my needs perfectly.

It wouldn't be the ideal hotel for everyone. The rooms are teeny tiny! The double bed pretty much took up all the space. The hotel does not have air conditioning -- but that was fine in early June because it stayed pretty cool. And as a solo traveler, I thought the hotel added to the overall adventurous vibe I was going for.

Day One:

I started early and hit the road heading North along the coast. My first stop was La Jolla Cove. WOW. The views were amazing.

I wasn't the only one enjoying the amazing scenery. I had a Zoolander-experience as I stumbled upon a male-model photo shoot. Hilariously fantastic:
I drove up the coast through Del Mar, Solana Beach, Cardiff-by-the-Sea, and finally on to Encinitas. It was completely serendipitous that one of my very favorite bands, Switchfoot, happened to be having their Bro-Am charity event the weekend I was in San Diego! The Switchfoot Bro-Am is an annual surfing competition and concert on Moonlight Beach. It was awesome! I sat on the beach for hours and watched the band and other surfers compete.

I saw a few of the other bands at the free concert, but I really only cared about Switchfoot. As usual, they were awesome. (This makes my 4th Switchfoot concert in the last 15 months.)

It was a pretty amazing concert venue. Check out the view:

After the day at the beach I drove down to Coronado for some quick sight-seeing. It was very, very pretty and worth the terrifying drive over the extremely high bridge you have to take to get there.

I ended the day back in Little Italy, with a delicious dinner outside a restaurant close to my hotel.

It was pretty much an ideal day.

The only bad thing was my atrocious sunburn. It is with humility and self-deprecation that I post the following photos. I took a picture without makeup on so you would be able to most fully appreciate the distinct demarcations of where my sunglasses sat on my face.

And look at the exact line caused by my Capri pants:

Day Two:
Not to be dissuaded by sunburn or exhaustion, I set out on day two to conquer the San Diego Zoo.
With the theme from Three's Company running through my head the entire time, I walked every path of the mammoth park. It is a great zoo. My favorite exhibits included the panda bears, gorillas, monkeys, and the grizzly bears who were very active and splashing around in their pond. I also had several sightings of the baffling high-heeled female:
My feet were KILLING me after hours of walking through the zoo. I cannot imagine wearing these wooden high heels. Insane!
After the zoo, I drove around Balboa Park and then drove up the coast again. My first stop was Sunset Cliffs in Ocean Beach. Another amazing spot.
I took the scenic route and drove back up to La Jolla to drive around some neighborhoods. I couldn't get enough of the beautiful beaches and felt compelled to see as many of them as possible despite the fact that gas ranged from $4.55-$4.79 in So Cal. My fill-up was quite pricey.

I ended the day back in San Diego in Seaport Village where I had dinner outside overlooking the ocean.

Day Three:
On my final day in San Diego, I drove to the Cabrillo National Monument on Point Loma. It was incredibly beautiful and I was sad that I only had about an hour and a half to spend there. I really liked seeing all of the sea life in the tidal pools on the rocky beaches. It was fascinating and I could have spent a much longer time exploring that area. The Cabrillo monument and museum was also interesting. And I love lighthouses, so I enjoyed the Old Point Loma Lighthouse.Okay, this post is quite long, but I had to give a semi-detailed description of my amazing San Diego adventure. If you were bored by these vacation pictures, then you definitely don't want to click here to see even more pictures from my trip.

California Dreamin' Part 1

2008-06-10T00:01:00.005-05:00

Ahhhhhh ... vacation. I had just had a week of it and it was fantastic! So now I will regale you with pictures and stories from my travels.

THE WEDDING:

My great friend, Karen, got married on June 6th in San Diego.

The night before the wedding, Karen and Chuy had a family dinner at Buccaneer Park in Oceanside. It was beautiful and a good time was had by all .... especially Karen's nieces and nephews from Utah who couldn't wait to jump in the ocean despite the fact that it was in the low 60's and the water was quite chilly. I stayed as dry as possible. (My South Texas blood can't handle that kind of frigidity.)
Karen and Chuy were married in the San Diego Temple. The temple was absolutely gorgeous, as was Karen on her wedding day:
Karen put me in charge of the wedding picture process. She made a list of 41 pictures that she wanted taken after the ceremony and I had to make sure the photographer got them all. Basically, this meant was that I had to round up Karen and Chuy's relatives for each of the poses. (They are probably still wondering who the bossy girl was who was ordering them around after the wedding. I apologize, but I had to make sure the bride was happy! She was counting on me!!)
The reception was held at a yummy Mexican food restaurant in La Jolla. It was delicious! Karen stayed exceptionally calm and cool during the entire process. As a general rule, she almost never gets stressed out and she is the most organized person I know. She makes a plan and sticks to it, and therefore, everything was carried out with exactness. The morning of her wedding was completely calm and on schedule. It was in stark contrast to how we do things in my family, so it was an amazing thing to witness. Just look how relaxed Karen is as she enjoyed her wedding cake:
I am so happy for Karen and Chuy!! They make a great couple and I am blessed to know them and to have been invited to their wedding.
Click here to see more wedding photos.

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

2008-06-02T21:14:00.003-05:00

I checked my mail today and had an awesome present from Shar!How cute is that!?? I LOVE it! Did you make that? If so, I am in awe. But either way, I adore it. Thank you so much!

It was one of several awesome gifts from wonderful friends. A cute little friendship plate from Jill, an itunes giftcard from Melissa, a movie giftcard from Karen and a package of cute nylon sacks from Nicole P. (She knows I'm trying to be "greener". Hopefully I will remember to bring them from my car into the grocery store unlike the big green reusable HEB bags I have now. I always get to the checkout and realize I've left them in the car. Doh.)

Yea me! It was a great birthday. Now for my acceptance speech:

Thank you for being my friends. You are awesome. Thank you for the calls, cards and text messages on my birthday. Thank you Buxtons for my delicious birthday dinner and for all that you do for me all year long! (Feeding me dinner several nights a week and for not getting sick of me when I'm at your house ALL the time!) You guys are WAY too good to me. Thank you Mom for the cash and the yummy cake. Thank you Jon for mowing my lawn!! I love you all. Thanks for helping me feel happy on my B-day instead of sad that I'm getting so old. :)

Happy Birthday to Me

2008-06-01T22:54:00.004-05:00

It seems a little self-centered to blog about my birthday. Oh well. I have to write an official rebuttal to Shar's Birthday Blog.

I had a good birthday. The Buxton family made Spaghettaay (top secret recipe, delicious variation of spaghetti) and invited my mom and brother and the Brackenbury family over for dinner. My mom made a fantastic mint chocolate chip ice cream cake. Everything was DELICIOUS! I have great friends and family.

Speaking of friends ... my friend, Shar, has lived far, far away for years now. But she still managed to dig up some old pictures and post them on the Internet to commemorate my birthday. That was a good trip down memory lane and it got me thinking about what has changed and what hasn't over the years. The following will only make sense if you have read Shar's blog:

I still love football but I don't watch very much of it at all. Especially NFL. Shar, you would be shocked at how little I watch football and how very little I know about who is playing these days. And people who know me now would probably be shocked that I was ever fixated on football.

I still love Elvis. But only young, fit Elvis, NOT fat, old sweaty Elvis. I mean, I don't LOVE Elvis. I don't have memorabilia around the house or anything. I did sell a couple Elvis knick knacks (that I bought at Graceland years ago) at the garage sale. They've been in a box since I bought them. So please don't send me anything Elvis-related.

I do love beauty products. I do still get the front of my shirt wet when I wash my face although now I just wash my face shirtless. (scandalous!)

I still LOVE music. I have an insatiable desire for new music. If you want to make me SUPER happy you can burn me a CD of good music. Oh and itunes giftcards ROCK my world. (But I rarely listen to country anymore)

Shar says I'm photogenic. I've been told that on several occasions. Here's how I translate that: "You look really good in pictures considering that you aren't that cute in real life."

BTW- I was on DANCE team in high school, not drill team and Norah was a cheerleader.

I did make up the Spice Girls costumes! One of my rare creative moments. I think I actually came up with that idea in my sleep.

Shar brought up my athleticism. Ha. That's funny. I'm so old and out of shape.

And finally, my handstands. A coworker and I were just talking about that the other day because that was a stress-relieving mechanism that I continued up until several years ago. (I would even do them at work -- out of site from my boss, of course.) I miss those days. That is my goal for the year. I'm going to bring that tradition back. In fact, I may go try one before bed. (Tomorrow I might be blogging about my broken arms and cracked skull.) By the way -- that outfit I was wearing, ROCKED. Nothing says "style" like rolled up brown pants and a jungle t-shirt. AWESOME. (It was 1992 people! ... give me a break!)

The Great Unloading

2008-06-01T22:18:00.004-05:00

So, I've been in the mood to unload a lot of junk lately. I've been cleaning out every closet in the house and getting rid of all sorts of things. Like my collection of mix tapes:

Considering I don't even have a tape player that works in my house, I figured it was a good time to let those go. I also decided to organize all of my CDs. I had been keeping them in 3 separate places in the house. Some in their original cases, and very many of them out of their cases in various CD holders. Plus -- a couple hundred CD mixes and other burned CDs. I decided to get them all back in their cases and go through all of them to weed some of them out. It was a process that took me 4 hours. It was insane!

But here is the end result. All of them are in their cases in containers in my armoire:
Next, I tackled the guest room closet where I had tons of junk and pictures and scrapbook supplies and gift bags and rolls and rolls of wrapping paper. Now look how great it looks. All of my wrapping supplies are in boxes (one for Christmas, one for other occasions) and all my wrapping paper is together:
I got rid of a lot of clothes and shoes from my closet and now it's also looking all lean and mean:

Then I hauled all of my old junk to the Buxton's house for a garage sale on Saturday. We sold SO much stuff. This picture was right toward the end when most everything was gone.

(Notice Wade with his nice man bag, AKA "murse")

They sold a table and chairs and a washer and dryer and tons and tons of toys including dozens of horses from Aubrey's collection.

The girls made bank! They literally made as much money EACH as I did for all of my stuff. Unfortunately only one person bought one of my tapes even though they were only 25 cents and I had some good stuff!! I can't believe nobody wanted vintage tapes from the 80's. I'm talking Madonna, Rick Astley, Barry Manilow!! What is wrong with people? Don't they recognize a good bargain when they see one? I didn't sell as many CDs as I'd hoped either. Or clothes. It's kind of a funny feeling when people are picking through the clothes that you've warn in very recent months and deciding they're not even worth a dollar. Rude. But my FAVORITE customer of the day was a little Asian man who tried on my shoes. He even tried on a pair with a heel on them. He said he didn't care if they were men or women's shoes as long as they were comfortable. He ended up buying a pair from me. It was awesome! Before the garage sale I said that if I sold 50 dollars worth of stuff that I would go buy a new ipod Nano. And when I counted the cash afterward, it was a few cents over 50 dollars. How is that for fate?

Responding Under Duress

2008-05-29T10:18:00.005-05:00

So, if you think this post is dumb ... blame Shar! She tagged me and insisted I comply.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

I was working at the ABC affiliate in Salt Lake City. I was APing for the 10pm newscast. I was living in Provo. My Utah life was about to come to an end. My dad had just been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease and I moved back home that summer.

2. 5 Things on my to do list today

Shower (check)
Go to Seminary Breakfast (check)
Work (check)
Answer these Questions for Shar (check)
Watch Lost Finale

3. Snacks I enjoy

I generally enjoy most foods that are bad for me. I have a major sweet tooth.

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire

Buy homes and cars for my mother and all of my siblings and take the entire family on fantastic vacations every year. I would have a fabulously landscaped yard and only garden because I wanted to and not because I had to. Yes, I realize this is a shallow response and I'm fine with that.

5. Places I have lived

Provo
San Antonio
New York City (2 months)

I refuse to tag anyone else without their consent - so if you want to be tagged, let me know.

I LOVE These Kids!!

2008-05-29T08:23:00.003-05:00

I guess that's what happens when you sacrifice so much of yourself for others. You really, really, really learn to love them. And I LOVE these kids. This was my senior Seminary class this year. They graduated last night and I am SOOO proud of them. They were worth all of the late nights and way-too-early mornings. What an experience! When I was asked to teach Old Testament for early morning Seminary, I didn't think there was any way I'd be able to do it. Wake up at 4:45am? Prepare a lesson every night? On the Old Testament? In addition to working full time? But I did. It was so hard, but I did it! Well, at least for just over four months. In January, I was put in the Relief Society Presidency (women's organization at church) and was relieved of my Seminary duties. It was bittersweet. I felt sad to not be able to finish the year but happy that my Sunday nights wouldn't have to end in tears due to being so tired and overwhelmed about the week that was ahead.

This morning, I set the alarm for 4:45 one last time for this class and went to the Seminary breakfast.

I am so thankful and blessed to know these awesome teenagers!

3 Tacos and a Ticket

2008-05-26T11:28:00.003-05:00

So, I'm just about to work when my cellphone rings.

Me: Hello
Phil: Hey, where are you?
Me: Close to the station, why?
Phil: Cause we're kinda hungry and Mario and I were wondering if you were stopping to get breakfast.
Me: No, but if you need me to I will.
Phil: Talk to Mario.
Mario: Hi. Tacos would be great.
Me: Fine. I'll turn around and go up Broadway. What do you want?
Mario: Phil wants a bacon and egg, I want a bean and cheese, and Danny wants a potato and egg.
Me: I'm going all that way for 3 tacos? Ugh. Fine.

Approximately one minute later as I turned into the Taco Cabana parking lot, I notice the joint was surrounded by cops. So I'm thinking, "Wow, I wonder what's going on? Maybe we will have some news on this holiday after all!" Then I look in my rearview mirror and realize I was being tailed by a Sheriff's deputy on a motorcycle -- red and blue lights flashing. Crap. Expired inspection sticker. I was busted in a Memorial Day stakeout. All for three tacos.

(I thought I was going to get pulled over again for taking this picture while driving. The deputy was totally staring me down. The things I do for this blog!)

And what is the reaction from Phil and Mario when I text them to tell them that their little errand they sent me on may cost me 160 bucks?

Text from Phil: "I'm sorry. Did you get the tacos?"

Shower Caddy Disaster

2008-05-25T02:05:00.003-05:00

Don't buy one of these, it will only end in heartbreak. Well, at least it did for me.
I am so P to the O'd right now!!

I drove all around today looking for a shower caddy. As I've mentioned before, I have a lot of hair products. My shower is crowded with them, and my old shower caddy is starting to rust at the bottom.
So I went to the Container Store, Wal-Mart, Marshall's, The Home Store, and Target all looking for a replacement. No luck ... I can't find this kind anymore. ERGGG. So I settled on a tall one with a tension rod. It sits in the corner of the shower and is supposed to be held in place by a rod that reaches to the ceiling. Seems cool, right? WRONG. Not if your shower isn't the right height and OF COURSE mine isn't. The whole process was a comedy of errors.
First, I put the stupid thing together and then realized it was too tall. So I had to unscrew the baskets and re-adjust so I could remove one of the rods. I did this a couple times and ended up stripping the screws. Then one of the teeny tiny screws went down the bathtub drain and I had to retrieve it with a pair of tweezers. Meanwhile, the entire time I was trying to work with it, the sections kept coming apart. The thing sprang into pieces about a dozen times. I was getting so frustrated. Finally, when I got it adjusted one pole shorter, it was TOO SHORT.
ERRGGGGGGG!! I guarantee Target will not take this thing back because it's assembled and all scratched up due to my adjusting the shelves. I was determined to find another use for it. The linen closet? It looked stupid and didn't fit anyway. So then I got the bright idea of trying to put it on my vanity thinking I could put my lotions and hair products in the baskets. I stood up on the counter and tried to get the tension rod adjusted correctly. The first time, it sprang apart and the spring shot across the room. I had to get down to retrieve it and of course the poles all fell apart again. So the second time I tried it I don't even know what happened but next thing I knew my medicine jar filled with Q-tips flew off the counter and crashed onto the toilet.
ERRRRGGGGG again! There was glass everywhere. I mean everywhere. That thing shattered all across the bathroom floor. And of course this was all happening at this time in the AM:
But I was still determined to find a place for it. I carried the whole thing into my spare bathroom and tried the process over again there. Nope. Didn't fit in that shower either. How about on the vanity? Whoops, there went the flower arrangement. Now that bathroom has little pieces of lavender all over the place.

So now, my shower caddy looks like this:
It's 2:45am. I'm going to bed. Thanks blog, for letting me vent.

Grey's Finale

2008-05-25T01:55:00.002-05:00

I thought the Grey's Anatomy season finale STUNK!!! I hated every minute of it. Well ... that's not entirely true. There were a couple redeeming qualities:

They played a Jon Foreman song
Izzy's hair looked cute

Other than those two things I thought it was horrible. There wasn't one plot line that I liked. I don't think any of the characters have any redeeming qualities right now.

Does anyone agree with me?

Five Guys and an Intern

2008-05-22T23:09:00.012-05:00

I was witness to a hilarious phenomenon this morning at work. Imagine if you will an all-male parochial boarding school where the hormonal teen boys rarely get to interact with hormonal teen girls. Then one day, the head cheerleader from a public school visits their campus. Each of the boys climbs over the other ones for the chance to talk to her, each working hard to impress her so that maybe he will be the one that she chooses.

Now imagine these boys are actually in their early 20's and the "cheerleader" is actually a college student who is just starting her internship at the station where they work. This is the real-life scenario I witnessed today. I saw these men (boys) flirt shamelessly with an intern who was playing them all like a fiddle. Here is a look at the men vying for her attention:

Danny the Intern:

(Yes, he's trying to wink in this picture)

Pro:
They are the same age and have more things in common since they are both college students.
Con:
He's competing with older guys who have jobs where they actually get paid.

Julie to Danny: "There are plenty of interns to choose from, Danny. You don't have to fight over just one. What about the blonde at the assignments desk?"

Danny: "I already tried. She wasn't having any of it."

Trevor: Pro:
Trevor may have intrigued her by staying out of the fray early on. He played it cool. (Also, he was the only one who actually knew her name.)
Con:
He caved as soon as she approached him and struck up a conversation. His cool facade faded and he gushed like a schoolboy.

Levi:

Pro:
Levi is also a college student. He loves to cook. He can bring her a ridiculously large sandwich on a loaf of french bread in his giant cooler, or even grill something up on his Foreman grill which he sometimes brings to work when he's craving a fresh-cooked steak.
Con:
He constantly tells the most intolerably corny jokes.

Phil:
Pro:
Phil is hilarious and endearingly dorky. He was valedictorian, Prom King, Student Council President, and voted Best Looking AND Most Likely to Succeed at his high school.
Con:
Phil has a girlfriend and shouldn't be flirting with the intern anyway. Oh, and he was homeschooled.

Mario (Who is married and therefore DQ'd):

Pro:
Mario has a lot of experience dating interns. (His wife is a former KSAT intern.) He is very funny and she probably looks to him as a father-figure.
Con:
Mario is married. He's old and she probably looks to him as a father-figure.

Now, some of these guys may think I'm a hater just because I'm old and the cute, young boys don't flirt with me at work. I'm not hatin'. I'm enjoying the entertainment. And I'm considering this an internship of sorts for me. I think this intern could teach me a thing or two about flirting. She is the master and she has all of these guys wrapped around her finger.

So who will win the intern's heart? I'll keep you posted on how the drama unfolds.

It's Gettin' Hot in Herre

2008-05-22T22:38:00.011-05:00

So yesterday we got the "The-economy-has-affected-us-all-and-we're-going-to-have-to-cut-back" speech from our GM. Today the AC was off in the newsroom. Coincidence? I think not.

After some whining, our Operations Manager (who from this point on wants to be known as "Kenny" in this blog) brought in an industrial sized fan which only had 2 speeds: "Gale Force Wind" or "Off".

We opted for the roaring wind and I pretended I was producing my show from the bow of a ski boat.

Should I Be Freaked Out?

2008-05-21T22:33:00.003-05:00

So I came home from work today to find my neighbor doing this:

If you're having a hard time figuring out what this picture shows, it is a man in a too-short pair of shorts having a knife fight with a wooden post. I had stopped my car across the street to get my mail when I noticed it. It was one of the craziest sights ever. I sat with my mouth open as he stabbed and slashed at the post as if he was practicing for a knife-fight with a man. That blade is about a foot long. I even called my other neighbor and made him look out the window to see it. My question is, how scared should I be? This neighbor is very odd and there is some background but I can't really blog about that because I'm scared to. In fact, I'm only going to leave this post up for a couple days so that there are other witnesses to his bizarre behavior. Enjoy it while you can.

Falafel- Is that Turtle?

2008-05-16T14:08:00.004-05:00

So there we were, waiting in line at a local Greek restaurant deciding what we wanted for lunch. My friend, Mario and I were both thinking we wanted to branch out from our usual orders. So I was considering the falafel. I've had it before, but I couldn't remember if I liked it. Right then, a restaurant employee (probably in his 40's) walked past us so I stopped him to ask him for a recommendation. What follows is our actual conversation:

Me: I'm thinking about the falafel. I know I've had it before, but I can't remember ... what is it made of? Is that chickpeas?
Employee: Uh, nah ... um I think it's turtle.
Me: BAH HAH .. TURTLE?
Employee (starting to blush and looking a little embarrassed by my outburst): umm .. not turtle, but something like that.
Me (realizing he's DEAD serious and feeling a little bad that I've embarrassed him): Oh, okay. Thanks.

True story. I can't stop giggling about it. We ordered it anyway and yes, it IS made out of chickpeas- not turtle. To our relief the employee turned out to be a busboy and not a cook.

The Host- Finished

2008-05-15T10:28:00.002-05:00

Alright, I finished it. I have to admit it took me several hundred pages to "bond" with this book, although, it is DEFINITELY a Stephenie Meyer creation. There is a pattern to her writing ... similar emotions and dilemmas, similar dramatic main character ... torn between two loves, etc. That bugged me at first, but then I realized that many authors follow patterns. (Hello - Nicholas Sparks. Apparently he can't write a book without killing off one of the main characters.) Anyway -- I finally got into The Host when I was about 2/3 through it. Of course I stayed up way too late last night and finished the last 40 pages before work this morning. That meant I had to shower and dress in about 10 minutes and then go to work without makeup on. (yikes!) Overall opinion of the book? It was pretty good. But I don't CRAVE a sequel like I do with the vamp books. If you've finished the book -- let's discuss! Go to the comments section. If you haven't read it and you plan to read it, don't go there. Spoilers await.

Ah Nuts! Knots!

2008-05-14T23:09:00.004-05:00

How frustrating is this?
I have this cute necklace that somehow ties itself in the most impossible knots. This morning as I went to put it on, I found it in a tangled mess. I brought it to work with me thinking I would be able to untangle it. I worked on this dumb thing for 3 hours!!!! And since there weren't any women around, I even recruited the men in my office to help.
The station's operations manager thought he could unravel the sucker since he is an experienced untangler at his house. (He has twin daughters) But after diligently trying for 20 minutes, the task was even too great for Super Dave.

Finally, we got most of it untangled except for a big 'ol knot that we couldn't unravel. So finally, I just put that knot in the back and wore it the rest of the day. When I got home and tried to take it off, it had somehow become all tangled around my neck. I almost had to use scissors to cut it off. I finally got it off my neck but now it's in a million knots again. I concede defeat. The necklace has won.

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-14T22:45:00.002-05:00

My mom is the best mom in the whole world!
Happy Mother's Day.

Brad's Graduation

2008-05-14T21:10:00.015-05:00

Congratulations Brad!

My brother, Brad, graduated from Texas State University on Friday with a business degree. My mom, brother Ryan, brother Lance, sister-in-law Lori, nephew Logan and I drove to San Marcos for the ceremony and the celebration.
That was the view from our nose-bleed seats. A Texas Supreme Court Justice gave the commencement address. During the speech, several people in the audience were obnoxiously yelling their graduates' names. Just as we were commenting to each other how rude we thought that was, my cute little nephew shouted at the top of his lungs, "BRAAAAAAD!"

(Brad and Me)

After the graduation ceremony we ate at Saltgrass right above the falls on the river. We had a great view!

(Lori and Lance)

(Brad & Ryan)

(All of us after dinner. The quality of the picture is horrible because my camera batteries were low.)

Congrats Brad!

In Defense of Hair Product

2008-05-07T00:24:00.002-05:00

Before Product (circa 1992):

After Product:

Need I say more? I think not.

Meyer Mania

2008-05-06T20:45:00.003-05:00

I couldn't wait. I went right after work and bought the new Stephenie Meyer book. Now, I have to use self-control and wait until this weekend (after yard work, of course!) to read it. I'm not one of those people who can leisurely read a chapter or two. If I start a book, I must finish it. I will put off everything else in life to do so. Last summer, I read Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse within a 3 or 4 day period. I hardly slept that week because I stayed up into the middle of the night reading. One of those days I even had to call in late for work after making the mistake of fooling myself that I could read a few pages before getting out of bed. (I was honest about why I had to call in late and received endless mocking because of it. But as a result, two of my coworkers read the books and now they're fans too! ... Just maybe not quite as obsessed as I am.)

So is anyone else out there going to read this very soon? If so, I say we set a date to finish and discuss.

Product Junkie

2008-05-06T20:26:00.004-05:00

They say the first step in recovery is recognizing that you have a problem. So here I am, publicly admitting that I am full-on addicted to hair product. The picture shows the stuff I bought just today. You see, Beauty First has a sale on the first Tuesday of each month when members get 20% off. I bought a TON of stuff last month so I told myself I needed to stay away for a few months. But today, after work, I thought, "Maybe I should just walk in the store to see if there are any great deals that I just can't pass up." Of course there were! (See those Joico products and the bag behind it? -- that was $24.95 BEFORE my 20% discount. So I paid 20 bucks for all of it. Purchased separately they would have been more than $40! How's that for a bargain?? huh?) Yeah, I'm not going to divulge how much I actually spent for everything.

Oh how I love hair product. It makes me so happy. But it's ridiculous how much of it I have. There are more than a dozen different shampoos and conditioners currently in my shower and I have a TON of styling product. I sort of, just a little bit, feel guilty buying more. But you know what, if loving hair product is wrong, I'm not sure I want to be right.

Maybe I should think of this as stocking up in case of an emergency. Some people have food storage, I have hair product storage. If there's an emergency, maybe we can work out a little trade.

Made of Doodie

2008-05-02T22:30:00.002-05:00

I wanted to see this movie:

But it was sold out.

So we saw this instead:

This movie made me want to:

(I settled on this image after unsuccessfully searching
for a picture of someone stabbing their eyes out.)

Please, please, please take my word for it.
I don't care how Mcdreamy you think Patrick Dempsey is.
This movie is terrible.

I just saved you 8 bucks.

"Simon is the New Chuck/Sea World is the New Fiesta Texas" or "The Curse of the Sea Lion"

2008-05-02T17:41:00.004-05:00

I hate sea lions. Okay, I don't. But they really have made my life stressful this week. We've pursued this stupid story for days and keep getting the runaround. The first day, Sea World ignored our calls, so the story -- which was supposed to be in my show, died sometime Thursday afternoon before showtime. TODAY, they delivered a disc of an interview they did themselves (totally not protocol). Well, the disc had corrupted files. So we had to drive to Sea World to get another disc. We shot some more video and planned to do a liveshot at 5pm, but then, our editor in our live truck broke. THEN, Sea World made us move our live truck 10 minutes before my show and right in the middle of the edit crisis. I floated the story further and further down the newscast until I finally had to kill it and tease that we will have it for 6pm. After all that, Sea World decided we couldn't go live from their property (for whatever reason) and so we have a lame anchor read vob that is running at 6pm -- no package, no liveshot. LAME.

This is why Simon is the new "no-luck Chuck" and Sea World is the new Fiesta Texas.
Calgon! TGIF.

Strange Sea Lion Encounter

2008-04-30T18:29:00.004-05:00

Yep, that's a SEA LION on the back of that truck! I encountered this on my drive home from work today. I noticed a big ol' truck pull out of the airport. Then a white pickup truck darted out behind it (right in front of traffic, I might add). I was curious who would be so bold (jerky), so I drove up to read the logo that was on the side of the white truck. It said Sea World. So then, of course, I wondered what was on the big 18-wheeler. I pulled up and saw ice flying out of several cages with sea lions in them!!

I must say, it was a very strange site. I pulled out my digital camera and my cellphone camera to document it. I was trying to stay beside the truck to watch the sea lions and take pictures but apparently, the drivers behind me weren't as enthralled with seeing sea animals riding down the road because I had to speed up to let some of them pass. But - I got another quick view as I pulled into the turn lane to turn on my street. Cool, eh?

UPDATE: Being the news hound that I am -- I emailed the pictures to my station and they called Sea World to ask what was up. Turns out the sea lions came from upstate Washington. They were removed from their natural habitat because they were harming the salmon run -- and salmon are apparently endangered in Washington. So, as punishment for the crime of gluttony, they have been sentenced to a life of confinement. Just kidding -- but we were told that they were transferred from the National Marine Fish Zoo and that Sea World will now be a "haven" for them. I think we're going to do a story on them tomorrow. So locals -- tune in.

Stop the Incessant Beeping!!

2008-04-27T16:58:00.002-05:00

Around 11:00pm last night, my alarm panel starting beeping. None of the lights indicated there was a problem, so I pushed the pound button and it stopped. About 30 minutes later, it started beeping again. I pushed the pound key and it stopped. This happened several times. I had no idea what the problem was, or how to solve it so I just hoped for the best and finally went to bed.
Unfortunately, the beeping continued this way throughout the night. Sometimes it would stop for 30 minutes, sometimes an hour and a half, but it always continued to beep again. I don't think I ever entered REM sleep last night because I was constantly getting out of bed to push the pound key.

Finally, this morning I'd had enough. I called the ADT alarm people and explained the problem.
Here is the actual phone conversation:

Me: My alarm is beeping and I can't get it to stop.
ADT Lady: Is there a light indicating a problem?
Me: No.
ADT Lady: Are you sure the beeping is coming from your alarm panel.
Me: Yes, I'm sure.
ADT Lady: Well, if your panel doesn't show there is a problem then the beeping is probably coming from somewhere else. Do you have other items like smoke detectors that could be beeping.
Me (getting somewhat annoyed): I have smoke detectors but I'm positive the beeping is coming from the alarm panel.
ADT Lady: Well, since your alarm panel isn't indicating a problem, I'm thinking it may be coming from something other than your alarm.
Me (very annoyed): It's definitely coming from the alarm panel. I haven't slept all night because I keep having to push the pound key to get it to stop. I'm POSITIVE it's my alarm.
ADT Lady: Oh. Okay. Well let's do a test then.
(I push the buttons she tells me to push)
ADT Lady: Oh, I'm showing you have a low battery.
Me: Where would this battery be located?
ADT Lady: In your master closet.

(Aha! I locate the box, find the battery and remove it)

Me: Where can I buy a replacement battery?
ADT Lady: Unfortunately I'm not allowed to recommend any business by name, but think of an electronics store.
Me: An electronics store? Like Radio Shack.
ADT Lady: Yes, that would be one place.
Me: Dang. That place is expensive. Do other stores sell them?
ADT Lady: Yes, but again I'm not allowed to give names.
Me: Home Depot?
ADT Lady: No.
Me: Walmart?
ADT Lady: I wouldn't go there to look. Maybe you could do an Internet search to find a place.
Me: Okay, I'll do that.
ADT Lady: You know, next time don't push the pound key. That doesn't really do anything. The star key would have silenced it for a lot longer.
Me: Well thanks for the tip.

I did an internet search and couldn't find any other stores besides Radio Shack so that's where I went. I don't know if this is true or not, but one of the clerks there said to me that the engineers design these systems to beep in the middle of the night on purpose because that's when people are home. And all these years I thought it was just my bad luck that my smoke alarm batteries ALWAY start beeping in the middle of the night!!!!

Anyway, thirty-eight dollars later, I had a new battery. These are big 'ol lead-acid batteries that would be very bad for the environment if they were simply tossed in the trash. I read online that you're supposed to take it to the store so they can recycle it properly. So that's what I did, and I was shocked by what happened at the store. Here is my actual conversation with the Emo kid who helped me at Radio Shack.

Emo Kid: Would you like me to dispose of your old battery or would you like to take it with you?
Me: Oh I definitely want you to take care of it.
Emo Kid: Sure.
(Emo kid takes the battery and tosses it in the trash can behind the register.)
Me: Uh, did you just throw that away?
Emo Kid: Yeah.
Me: You don't recycle them?
Emo Kid: We used to, but it got too expensive.
Me: But don't they have cancer-causing stuff in them that's bad for the environment? I think that's why they are supposed to be recycled.
Emo Kid (Sarcastically): Would you like to take it with you?
Me (embarrassed and defeated): No.

$20 Library Fine

2008-04-27T16:33:00.000-05:00

Check me out -- I gotta library card!

What's the big deal you say? I've actually had this library card for 10 years. It's been in my wallet for that long. (Actually, it has been transferred to various wallets over the years.) I remember getting the card and I remember not renewing for some reason. Well, now I know the reason. More on that in a second, but first some background info ...

I have friends who frequent the public library. I used to LOVE going to the library but somehow in the past few years I've developed a phobia of used books. I have an active imagination and when I see a library book (or any used book for that matter) I picture the foulest person taking that book into the bathroom while they do their business and pick their nose at the same time. I'm sorry -- it's just how I picture it and therefore library books gross me out.

So in an effort to get over my phobia (NEW books are EXPENSIVE AND you can check out CDs!!) I went to renew my library card on Saturday. It was then that I learned that I had a 20 dollar fine for a video called "The Art of Communication -- or Persuasion or Conversation" or something like that. It was a video about making telephone sales. Okay, anyone who knows me knows that I hate selling stuff, I'm not a big telephone talker, and I can't stand telephone solicitations. Why in the world would I have checked out that video? I try to explain this logic to the librarian. I would pay a fine (begrudgingly) if I knew it was my fault but how can I fight a fine that is 10 years old when neither of us has any proof that I checked out this video? I told the librarian that I have a communications degree, 10 years ago when I apparently accrued this fine I had a paying job in the field of communications ... I would never have checked out a video about making sales calls. Finally, she agreed to reduce it to 5 dollars. I thought that was fair enough -- so I paid it. I'm now an official library card carrier. whoo hoo!!

When it was all said and done, my friend Jodie said, "Do you think your sister could have checked that video out with your card and lost it?" Hmmm ... I hadn't even thought of that. And then it all started to come back to me. One of my sales-loving siblings very possibly could have checked that video out and lost it. My first guess would be Nicole, but I'm having a faint recollection that it may have been Lance. Whoever it was, your library sin has been absolved. You're welcome.

My Mom at the Talent Show

2008-04-26T20:25:00.000-05:00

Tonight our ward had a talent show for the primary (children's sunday school). The kids signed up to share their unique talents. Some of them played the piano, there were a few dancers, a karate demonstrator, even a whistler. The primary teachers were also invited to participate and since my mom teaches the 8-year-old class -- she offered to showcase her talent.

She practiced four times before the big show -- and considering it has been about 40 years since her last public performance, I think it's impressive. I also think it is hilarious and needs to be shared with the world. She's not going to be very happy that the video made the blog, but at least I didn't put her on YouTube. ENJOY!

(Unfortunately, my memory card filled up halfway through so you missed some of the fancy turns and tosses. Oh ... and you also missed the leaps and back flips she did -- those were awesome.)

TGIFF!

2008-04-25T18:41:00.000-05:00

It's Fiesta Friday!

Fiesta is a 10-day party in San Antonio. It means food, parades, and for most people -- lots of drinking.

Sad-but-true Fiesta Fact: We've had 6 DWI fatalities in the last week.

Today was our Battle of Flowers parade. Kids get the day off school and city workers get a holiday. Of course, we never take a holiday in news but we look forward to Fiesta Friday every year because the station is just a couple blocks away from the parade route and we always walk over and watch a few floats go by and then pay way too much for some delicious fiesta food.

Another Fiesta Fact: The first Battle of Flowers® Parade took place in 1891 to honor the heroes of the Alamo and to commemorate the Battle at San Jacinto, April 21, 1836, where Texas won its independence from Mexico. (fiesta-sa.org)

My Fiesta Friday started with a lapse in judgement. The street I exit to get to work is always closed on the parade day because it's where they stage the floats. I know this. I've experienced it for nearly a decade. But what did I do today? I took that exit anyway. Here is a picture of me stuck at an intersection while I waited for the floats to cross. (Yeah, I was 20 minutes late to work.)

As I mentioned, at lunchtime my coworkers and I walk over to the parade route to enjoy the festivities.
We didn't get to see much of the parade -- but here's a glimpse at some of it:

There were horses ... and floats with Fiesta royalty:

It's tradition that the Fiesta beauty queens wear tennis shoes or other crazy footwear under their ball gowns. People yell, "Show us your shoes" and the girls lift their dresses to reveal what's on their feet. This girl had on cowboy boots, but some of them wear slippers, flip-flops, or tennis shoes.

You can find entertainment all around you. Many of the parade-goers are just as interesting as the people on the floats.

There are cute kids in cute Fiesta clothes like this:

And then there's the frightening Fiesta Fashion like this:

Everyone highly enjoys the very-fattening, way overpriced Fiesta food:

There is so much to eat!
Tacos! Gorditas! Fajitas! Nachos! Roasted Corn! Turkey legs! Funnel Cakes!
And then some people (like Mario) eat the nasty Fiesta food like tripas:

(mmmm .. yummy. The small intestines of farm animals. Delicious!)

Funny Fiesta story. So I'm talking to some people running one of the food booths and they tell me to say hello to one of the reporters at my station.
"No problem," I say. "What's your name?" I ask.
"We are the Saldivar family," they answer, clearly emphasizing Saldivar -- so I'm thinking this must be someone I'm supposed to know. I think for a quick second and a lightbulb goes off -- Selena!
(OK, for those of you who have never lived in Texas -- Selena was a MAJOR star here and she was murdered by the president of her fan club. There was a movie starring Jennifer Lopez. google it.)
So I quickly blurt out "Saldivar???... as in Selena??"
They look a little taken back but nod, "yes."
Well -- here's the kicker ...
I had a brief moment of confusion and was thinking that Selena's family was Saldivar -- NOOOO .. the name of the woman who killed her was Yolanda Saldivar. That didn't hit me until about 10 minutes later and then I laughed and laughed and felt like an idiot. These were the siblings of the woman who murdered Selena.
I'm a dork and I can't believe I said "As in Selena??" to them. DUH!
I took a picture of them because they were nice and really because Yolanda's brother has a fabulous mullet that sadly you can't see from the picture.
(But imagine a long ponytail behind the feathered front on the guy on the left.)

Okay -- back to Fiesta Friday. Cascarones are a major tradition during Fiesta.

(That would be confetti eggs for you white folk.)
Here's a picture of me cracking one on the head of our unsuspecting intern:

Once you get someone with a cascarone, you can pretty much expect they will get you back.
It was actually my coworker, Sean who egged me. I'm a good target because my mass of curly hair makes it impossible to get all the confetti out.

After the hot and humid parade outing and then the shaking the confetti out, I had CRAZY hair.

Viva Fiesta!

Happy Earth Day! ( I Killed a Tree)

2008-04-22T20:14:00.000-05:00

OK -- maybe I didn't kill it, but it's definitely dead. I've been in denial for a couple weeks. It had the start of little buds and I was hoping it was just a late bloomer. I watered and fertilized and talked to it - but I finally confirmed what I think I knew all along. It's dead. I'm really sad about it. I almost cried.

I planted four Bradford Pear trees four years ago. They were finally getting big and looking like real trees. (The first one in this picture is a Monterey Oak that I planted 2 years ago -- the Pear trees are the ones after that). I had the trees carefully spaced and staggered and now this ruins the whole effect. I am going to plant a new one but it will be a silly little runt compared to the others.

And now I want to know what killed it so it doesn't happen again. Maybe it's on a rock, or had somehow become root-bound, but until recently it was growing just fine. I did some CSIing and noticed several small holes. Maybe some insect killed it??? RUDE.

Tree Hugger

2008-04-20T22:42:00.001-05:00

Just about anyone who knows me well, knows about my lawn issues. My house was newly built when I bought it 4 and 1/2 years ago, so there was no landscaping and the yard is RIDICULOUSLY huge for the size of my house. (The width of my backyard equals four or five of the houses behind me.) It's just lunacy. I mowed it myself for the first 3 years -- with a lawn mower that is not self-propelled -- and then finally decided to hire someone last summer because lawn work basically took up all of my Saturdays and I'd had enough!

(I could write a whole separate blog about my yard work envy. There are some tough things about being single -- but I don't think anything gets under my skin as much as having to do all the housework/yardwork by myself. It's the one thing that I get bitter about. If I see a family out working together in their yard, I boil with irrational jealousy. It's odd, I know. But it's the trigger to my crazy. I've never confessed this before so don't bring it up outside the blog world. I'll deny it.)

Anyway - I've drawn up DOZENS of landscaping plans over the years. I've planted a garden (lasted one year, now I'm growing weeds in there), planted five trees in the front yard and four small ones in the back, raked up my front yard after chinch bugs killed it all and then re-sodded it, made some big beds in the front yard (one which has been empty for 2 years) ... blah blah blah ... basically, it's just a non-ending struggle.

Every Spring I get anxious about planting. If there is good weather on a Saturday, I feel guilty if I'm not doing something about my landscaping issues. This Saturday, the weather was PERFECT and I really had a bug to plant some trees in the backyard. The first issue was finding a truck because my cute VW Bug is completely useless for carrying more than about 2 grocery sacks. Finally, my aunt agreed to meet me at the nursery in my Papa's pickup. I bought 5 trees, 8 bags of mulch, and 3 bags of compost. After loading it all in the truck, I hopped in and we headed for my house. It wasn't until I got home that I realized my car was still parked at the Nursery. Durrrhh. "Oh well, " I thought. "I'll worry about that later." I was anxious to get planting, besides I was sure someone could take me to pick up the car later. (foreshadowing)

So here's another "BEFORE" picture. You can see, there is lots of wide-open space for planting. And you'll notice that Bella (AKA Devil Dog) tries to help with the yard work. She is working on a trail system so people can hike around the yard. The trail goes around the side of the house, up one fence and down the other.

Nicole and Jon (my sister and my brother-in-law) came over for a couple hours to help me dig holes. After debating the placement for the trees for way too long -- we finally got to work.

They were awesome and helped me dig 3 of the 5 holes!!!

I think I'm going to like having a brother-in-law.

Here's a pic of the happy couple.

(Note: this photo wasn't taken on the actual hole-digging day.)

Unfortunately, they had a party to go to and were not able to see the project through to completion. But no worries, I was on the homestretch.

I realized there was a problem after a dug my last two holes and got all the trees in the ground. I was seriously lacking on dirt to fill the holes back up AND I was without a car and burning daylight. That's when my fantastic friends, Andy and Chade came to the rescue. I gave them a call and serendipitously, they just happened to be walking into home depot!

Andy & Chade

(AKA Chandy)

(It's because of times like these that they usually screen my calls. But unfortunately for them and fortunately for me -- Andy answered his cellphone!) They were my landscaping lifesavers. They delivered the dirt and helped me mulch the trees and clean up just as it was getting dark. They even took me to get my car at the nursery.

Here's where that foreshadowing part comes in. The nursery apparently locks its gates at closing time. My VW Bug looked so sad and lonely in the parking lot and I had to leave it there overnight.

The other bad thing is that despite the fact that I have a bin full of gardening gloves, I neglected to wear them.

I paid the price for that with an excruciatingly painful blister. I am accepting "Get Well" cards, but please act sympathetic and don't add insult to injury with comments like this one from my mother, "Now that is just irresponsible." That is just not helpful at this point.
This blog is now ridiculously long. I apologize. I am even bored by it. So here are the final pictures. My Cedar Elm, Chinese Pistache, and 3 Crepe Myrtles all in the ground!

(I will take you to the pound, dog, if you even THINK about digging up those trees.)

The Devil's Food

2008-04-20T22:03:00.000-05:00

The Devil came to my work on Friday and delivered a machine filled with the most delicious temptations. These are exactly the kinds of frozen concoctions that I get random cravings for in the middle of the workday. Thankfully, I'm chained to my desk and don't have time (and let's face it, I'm just too lazy) to drive to the convenience store to satiate my desires. BUT NOW ... the forbidden fruit will be readily available EVERY DAY in the break room.

How in the heck am I supposed to resist? The machine was delivered Friday morning and I considered having a fudge bar for breakfast but decided to show some self-control and wait to have one for an afternoon snack instead. The hours crept by. I made sure I had cash. I ate my lunch. Finally ... it was time for my first ice-cream machine purchase. And guess what greeted me in the break room:

THE HORROR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was denied.

And as my luck would have it -- I am starting my diet Monday so I must resist for at least the next 6 weeks.

Remember me in your prayers.