Emotional, late-night blogging

I cannot sleep. So, of course, I'm blogging. My past experience has taught me that writing during the wee hours of the night/morning never really turns out well. But, alas, here I am. I feel like a million words and phrases are running through my head and I don't know what to do with them. Perhaps that's the curse of someone who writes for a job. Sadly though, I don't have anything interesting in my life right now to write about. So now would be the time to close your browser window if you're expecting to read something exciting.

I am working on a freelance project for the company I left about nine months ago. They needed some help and I was feeling up to the task. It is really fun and really stressful. I am sleep deprived and my brain is fried. Please consider this my apology for the phone call I forgot to return, the text I forgot to reply to, and the meeting I accidentally slept through on Sunday. I will be back online mentally in approximately 3-4 weeks. I see dead . . . lines.

I am feeling really grateful lately for good friends. God has blessed me far beyond what I deserve in the friend department. Lately, I have received phone calls, texts, or visits from friends at times when I have needed it most, and they had no idea! I'm grateful for friends who act on the thoughts that pop into their minds. I have benefited greatly from it. Because, you know, life is just hard sometimes. For everyone. Even those of us who like to pretend that we don't have bad days. We do. We just ugly cry ourselves to sleep and wake up the next morning to a breakfast of peanut butter M&Ms. These friends are of all ages and all walks of life, and I love them each dearly. Some are new and some are long-time friends. I love that they have a million other things going on in their lives but still make me feel like a priority. Because really, it doesn't take much. A phone call, a short visit, a thoughtful text, following through with plans, asking about someone because you genuinely care. Everyone needs at least one friend like this. How did I ever get so lucky to have multiple? Yeah, I have some crappy friends, too. I think they're just part of the package deal.

God loves me. And he's taking care of me with the help of my family and friends. I am ridiculously blessed. Anytime I feel frustrated with my ninety year-old body I have to laugh. Everything else in my life is so wonderful that I had to have something for a trial. I'm not trying to be one of those people who blog all about their "perfect" life. I make fun of those people and my life is far from perfect. For instance, I begin sentences with prepositions. Also, I'm not sure whether or not I actually brushed my teeth today.  I have the same everyday problems we all have. I just have a ridiculously wonderful husband, a loving, supportive family, and friends who are answers to my prayers. What more could someone need, right? (Besides some new boots for fall.)

I need new friends

I need new friends. Preferably friends that live in the same state—same county, even. My single friends are too busy doing single people things to hang out with me more than once in a blue moon. Trust me, I understand. My married friends all have kids and are never available when I want to hang out.

Sooooo.... I am now accepting applications for a new friend. Only one, actually. I've never been good at juggling multiple friends.

Please be married.

Please don't have kids.

Please don't be freakishly attached to your  husband so you can't go with me to get a pedicure on a whim.

Please work regular business hours.

Please don't be a flake. I've had enough of them in my life. If you're going to call, call. If you say we're going to hang out, show up. Make me a priority, dangit. Cuz I'm a dang good friend.

And please be funny. If you're not funny, don't bother.

Qualified applicants should send me cookies and flowers.

Don't call me. I'll call you.

decem part 2

So, by now you're probably thinking that I'm a total scrooge and maybe I am.

I get notifications almost every 30 minutes that someone else has written a comment on my class of 2001 reunion facebook group's wall. From what I can gather, I'm the only person in my graduating class that isn't making a countdown chain to this reunion. It's not that I hated high school, it was just a rough time for me.

For starters, I was 17 years-old. I was a completely different person emotionally, socially, etc. I would hope that the other people in my class could say the same thing about themselves. So maybe part of me is embarrassed to think that someone might remember what a dork and then what a brat I was. Right, I think that's a really big part of it.

But most of it is that I spent the better part of my senior year in and out of the hospital, was "home-schooled" since I was too sick to go to school, and was completely deserted by a number of "good friends." That sounds so stupid because it was so long ago and I have completely different adult friends now, but it still makes me lonely to think about it. I had a close group or really good, really fun friends. But when I found out I was sick and wasn't able to be present for most of the important things that seniors do, I found out who my real friends were—and that was really disappointing to me. The friends who were there for me when I was sick were a couple of girls who were a grade younger than me and a few of their guy friends. And most surprisingly, the other friends who stood by my side were a group of rowdy boys that lived an hour away. They drove up to see me in the hospital after both surgeries and would skip school to drive an hour and hang out with me on the couch when I was too sick to get up and out. These boys and girls are still my good friends today! They are people that I will always hold in the highest regard. And although I don't see them too often or talk to them regularly, they have proven themselves as people worthy to keep as friends for all of my life.

So that's my baggage with high school. Maybe you can understand now why I'm not too anxious to go and hang out with a bunch of people who deserted me when I needed them most.

This is a pretty dramatic post. At which point am I so broken up about this that I need to go see a therapist?

Where are my daisy dukes, belly shirts, and rollerblades when I need them?

Click play on this music video and close your eyes while you listen. Why? First of all, the video and audio are off sync. Second, ODB's teeth in the beginning might make you ill as you find yourself pondering when the last time was that you flossed your teeth. And I don't want to play the role of tooth fairy queen right now. But, mostly close your eyes to picture where you where ten years ago when you were listening to this song.

And then open your eyes about 4 minutes 50 seconds into the song and ask yourself why Mariah Carey in on rollerblades in this video when rollerblades hadn't been cool for at LEAST five years all ready.

Ten years ago, I was in my in my green Chevy Cavalier, Kermit II, with the top down, driving along Highway 89 well under the speed limit. It was the summer of my sixteenth birthday and I hadn't yet mastered the art of driving the speed limit while singing along with a car full of girls. I believe this was the night I was pulled over for suspected drunk driving.

I was also in gym class with Mr. Horne, who I still suspect to be a pervert. I was playing basketball in the field house with Jessica and, I think, Jarilyn. We would sing the lyrics to each other as we pretended to play the sport. This might have been the time I got caught goofing off and as a punishment, the entire class had to do ten sets of lunges across the length of the gym. Sorry about that, guys. By the way, I cheated on the lunges, too.

So, I guess I just wanted to say, "Thanks, Mariah, for the memories. May your career move forward with even more terrible hits with grilled-men who can't really sing."

2009 Year in Review

Special Olympic Utah Winter Games

"Just add water" boyfriend...

.... who my nephews had really high hopes for.

Cinderella revival

Dinner with my friends

Recognize the guy pulling the awesome face? Yeah, that's my then-friend turned husband.

I celebrated the Holi Festival of Colors by having one single handful of chalk tossed right into my eyes, then rubbing my face on my friend's shirt.

Date nights with the Wee Ones!

Best concert yet, featuring Mat Kearney...

... and Keane

Oh, yeah. I spent a good chunk of my summer in Europe.

I went here....

Swam in here....

Slept here (with many strangers)...

Toured here....

Was ECSTATIC about going here...

Even more excited about eating this...

Strolled by here....

And returned home to celebrate my birthday with friends like these.

Weber River tubing excursion and near-death experience

Antelope by Moonlight

Lots and lots of giggling with this girl

My first "date" with my friend... who is now my husband

I invited him to hear the Symphony play at Sundance

The first bouquet of flowers I received from a boy that didn't send my running...

though I thought about it briefly

Summer nights at Deer Valley with the Utah Symphony

Engagement party in Oregon with T.M.I.M.'s family

Where we were spoilt beyond belief and received these awesome hats

Indoor surfing on T.M.I.M's golden birthday

Wedding dress shopping

I got a new niece!

I GOT MARRIED to my best friend and the love of my life. I never have been so happy.

[Insert wedding pictures that are on husband's 

computer at a later time]

See our friend Lindsay's blog for some of our photos of the big day.

My long-coveted Kitchen Aide mixer

My first Christmas as a married woman... my husband and I gave each other the same gift

So far, so good, eh?!

Showered With Gifts... And Attention

Last night was my very first bridal shower. Three of my very best friends threw this party for me. I call it a party because we laughed the whole time and ate lots and lots of delicious sweets! I have always dreaded any kind of shower (except the kind that keeps you clean and covers the bathroom mirrors with steam)... even my own bridal showers. But this was SO FUN!

I have to admit, though, that I think this cultural tradition of ours is very, very odd. First of all, after mingling a bit and eating some goodies, everyone sat down in a circle and stared at me. I felt a little like a circus monkey or at the very least a winter window display at Macy's. I had an almost completely captive audience of good friends who suddenly acted as though they were hearing me speak for the very first time. I like attention as much as the next gal, but not of this magnitude. Then my cute friends who threw the shower shared a funny video of my fiancé answering questions... which lightened the mood and made us all laugh really hard. (Don't tell him, it'll go right to his head.)

THEN the strangest thing happened... everyone started handing me gifts, for no reason other than my pending nuptials! I felt so silly. I should have accomplished something or won an award to merit that kind of attention and those kinds of gifts. Even today, I feel a little silly and spoiled. Perhaps I'll go do something big and noble today, so I feel like I've earned all the doting. Then again, I'm sick, AND pretty busy today... so maybe tomorrow... or the next day....

I forgot to take pictures until almost all the guests were gone. Luckily, I got some of my BFFs. The others are just going to have to recreate the night so we can get proof that they were there.

Some of my best friends...

Oh, the memories we share!

When you're as cool as Michelle, you carry a film camera at all times.

This little stud had all the guest eating out of the palm of his hand...

or was it the other way around?

And our little night owl stayed up later than she has in years...

that's how much she loves me! ;)

Thanks for the wonderful evening, friend-Os!

Bow- WOW

One of my best friends in the whole world is disgustingly talented. She makes and sells hair bows and head bands for little girls. You can check out the goods on her blog. I tell ya, it's good to know talented people; my future daughters will have something feminine to adorn their possibly over-sized, bald heads.

Here is a sneak peak of what she makes:

SO CUTE, I KNOW!

Frankles?!

A friend recently decided to award me with the nick name frankles, for obvious reasons; I came home from Europe with Cankles and freckles. Clever, right? Well, I thought it was a nick name that was funny for a one-time conversation. Turns out it's sticking, and catching on with others. Thanks a lot, friend-who-I-cannot-come-up-with-a-mean-nickname- for!

I guess this is a step up from Megs'n Bacon.

[sigh]

Boys...

[sigh]

This Girl Knows How to Throw a Party!

It was my friend Michelle's 25th birthday yesterday. She threw a great party. But not just any party... a MUSTACHE-themed party! Why the heck not?

May you always be able to grow a mustache 

when the need arises!

Carl Malone's Gotta Do What Carl Malone's Gotta Do

Memories of Christmas Last Year

Ill Intentions & An Identity Crisis

So I have had every intention of blogging over the course of the last month-ish. But life got crazy somehow. I attribute the craziness to the following factors:

1. Break up

2. Bad hair month 

3. Crazy women who refuse to retire and make all our lives easier

4. The curse of living or possibly working on land that was once an ancient Indian burial ground

5. Beets. Bears. Battlestar Gallactica.

6. Communicable diseases

7. October 31st and the squares on the calendar that precede it.

1-Break up? Yeah, I did that. Turns out I'm getting better and better at them. I'm actually thinking of possibly writing a book, creating a support group, or becoming a professional trainer on break up how-tos. I can break up in my sleep ... with one had tied behind my back. Man, this one was different though. It was definitely not cut and dry; something that is still on my mind. Sometimes I hate thinking.

2- Bad hair month. I wonder if there's any correlation between break ups, stress at work, and the amount of hair that falls out of my head each time I wash my hair. I think the only solution is to stop washing my hair.  Think of all the time and money I'll save!

3- Crazy woman who won't retire... referenced above in "stress at work." Bless her heart...

4- Ancient Indian burial ground. I don't make the rules, I just deal with them. Everyone around me is sick and afflicted in some way lately. I can ONLY attribute this to the fact that we are either living or working on ground that was once an ancient Indian burial ground. Just ask Michael, he knows what I'm talking about.

5- Which bear is best?

6- Communicable diseases. Today is Wednesday, almost Thursday. One week ago today I came from work with a fever and aches which I fought viciously for the next 3 days. They were followed by dizziness and cold-like symptoms on Sunday and a sinus infection, pink eyes (yes, both eyes), and a bronchial infection on Monday. Needless to say I'm rather behind at work and can't stand the sight of the ceiling in my room.

7- October 31st. Halloween is my most favorite of holidays. Not that I don't love Christmas. I mean, I have a heart so I enjoy the holiday. But you certainly don't get to wear a costume and dance around to loud music while eating sugar-based sweets. Think about it.

It is actually item #7 on my list of factors that lead to my identity crisis this Halloween season. See photos below:

Princess Lea sewn by my sister, Hollie. 

Reused from a previous Halloween.

The Friday before Halloween.

Matching flappers sewn by my mom (maybe Hollie). 

Used from the old high school dance days (Remember Marcie?)

The Saturday before Halloween.

The Cowardly Lion. Sweats purchased at Target. 

Idea from a previous year. 

Hair curled by Marcie.

The Monday before Halloween.

And presenting my actual 2008 Halloween costume....

Sewn by my very talented sister, Hollie! 

This was by far my favorite costume yet! 

She did such a great job. I was complimented on the dress countless times.