Sunday Fun-Day!

Last Sunday I decided I was sick of cooking, so instead of slaving away at dinner, I bribed the missionaries to come over and cook us something in exchange for a date with my younger sister!! (Whatta ya think Marcie?! :) Haha, no if you can actually believe it, Elder McKee begged ME to let him come over and cook up some shrimp fried rice. (Not that Marcie's name didn't come up, wink wink) This guy is a character and not bad company at all. I'm sure the ladies back at BYU Idaho didn't mind his English accent either. So here he is demonstrating his mad kitchen skills.

 

Collin seemed pretty entertained by all the excitement brewing. (Or mabye just nervous... ???)

We got a little visit from the Shaws during cooking time. Here's a little peek at Gavin all snuggled into his "Hot Sling". Does anyone else own one of these? I just learned about them and they seem to be all the rage. Apparently I could attach Collin to my hip using one of these things which would save me from a lot of hysterical crying throughout the day. Collin, not me. He starts shrieking the second I'm out of his eyesight. The problem-o... they are about $40 bucks. So the babe may just have to suffer from separation anxiety while I get my chores done.

Back to dinner.... the rice was actually pretty good. I had my doubts. I felt like I should contribute something, so I made homemade cookie dough. As I was scooping out the dough, I snagged a pre-cooked spoonful, then figured I should offer some to the missionaries. They both claimed to have NEVER tasted cookie dough!!! Is it just me, or is that unAmerican? So I forced a spoonful on each of them. Elder McKee's comment- "It tastes like uncooked food". Riiiiiight. A few minutes later I go to grab something out of the freezer and this is what I found.

A spoonful of cookie dough just chillin' on the shelf! I snatched it out of there and shook it at him, demanding to know why he didn't finish it! After berating me for moving it (apparently it took him SO long to get it JUST RIGHT on the shelf) he said he wanted to freeze it and see if it tasted like the icecream stuff. Did I mention he's a character?

Needless to say, it was a fun night with the missionaries. And just in case our families are wondering what else we do on Sunday nights since we can't visit "Grandma's house", we..... get our Scrabble on! Travis whooped me good on this game, and I'll never let him forget it since he say's I ALWAYS win :) Not a bad way to spend and hour and twenty two minutes (just a guess), but I think we both agree we'd trade it in a heartbeat to watch our crazy nieces and nephews run around at Grandma's house for even one minute.

Becker Farms

It's that time of year again... pumpkin patch time! The Cardon's invited us to go with them to Becker Farms and we had a blast. Trav and I have gone to pumpkin festival's for the past two years- childless. We felt cool. So even though Collin had no idea all the fun that was going on, we certainly appreciated his company. :)

We could smell homemade donuts the minute we got there, so we started the day off right with a little deep fried dough covered in sugar and cinnamon. Filled my oil quota for the year, just like the onion blossom did at last year's festival. Hmmm, I sense a pattern.

Next we were off to the pig races! Can you all say, Soooouuuueeeee!

We let Collin test out a slide, but we didn't think he was really able to take full advantage of all the toys so.....

.....WE gave one a whirl! This was one of those ideas that sounded best in my head. We got more momentum on that aluminum than I expected, and I feared for my ankles as we quickly neared the bottom. So I lifted up my legs, and the ole bum took one for the team!

Luckily, there was a rotted fruit that helped cushion my fall. I got to walk around the rest of the afternoon looking like I didn't make it to the bathroom in time!

Awww, my widdle piggy.

The whole gang! Minus Trav, but you can see his knee on the right side. :)

We ventured into the corn maze... that was more like a corn path than maze.

Even still, the men took a wrong turn at one point, so us women had to take charge and get our troops out of there.

We were victorious!

(And apparently a little hungry, hehe)

I was way bummed when it started raining, which ruined the hay ride we were waiting to get on. But.... at least the Haunted House was covered and available!! Our hubby's watched the kids while Tiff and I braved the goblins. Tiff is not being silly by the way, this pic is EXACTLY how it all went down! She clung to my arm til the very end while I tried to be brave and forge ahead! We both screamed a few times at nothing and then pushed our way out of the claustrophobic "birthing tunnel". Haha, and I'll have to give her the credit for going first through that. I thought I was going to suffocate!

We couldn't leave until I got my very first candied apple. I had barely gotten the wrapper off before Collin was leaning towards it, mouth wide open. And apparently Trav just wanted to eat Collin's ear :)

Well, just one taste can't hurt..... :)

We had such a great time. Thanks again Cardons! Even though it was a bit of a drive, I would definitely go back to this festival over the Clarence one. Much cheaper, less crowded, and "quaint". It was such a beautiful FaLL day. Here we come HoLiDaYs!!

(By the way, on the drive to the farm, Miley Cyrus's new song "Party in the USA" came on the radio and got stuck in all our heads. So throughout the day, we would all randomly start singin' Party in the U.S.A! That song now personifies this day to me :)

An Inconvenient Post

(mostly because it's the LONGEST one ever, sorry)

You know those days when you just feel like everything is going your way? Today has been one of those days. Actually, make that the whole week. It's not like anything remarkable has happened, I just consider myself incredibly lucky to be able to spend my days with my cutie pie and then get to see my other cutie pie at the end of the day. I love pushing Collin in the stroller around the peaceful neighborhood in the beautiful weather. I love nap time when I get to exercise. I love being able to clean, read, blog, grocery shop, and cook dinner. I'm so grateful that Travis works so hard at school and at studying so that he can do well and someday provide a living for us. Everyone is healthy. Everyone is happy. Everything is just goin' my way! :) (knock on wood, right?)

I was feeling especially blessed, while walking around BJ's this afternoon. I think a large portion of that was due to the fact that I had been craving a really cheesy pizza this morning and lo and behold, BJ's had the cheesiest of pizzas waiting for me as I checked out. I swear I heard angelic music and saw a glow encircling the pizza booth. I don't normally eat the pepperoni's (not worth the calories-that's the constant debate I have with food- is it worth the calories?!) But today I was feeling indulgent. It was divine. Collin preferred his napkin. That's his latest fettish. Paper. Could be a paper towel, receipt, or an actual sheet of paper. Since he doesn't have teeth, I let him gum on it until it gets soggy. I've only had to go down his throat with my fingers once. Oops. Gotta watch those kids, they're fast!

And maybe you've noticed what I purchased at BJ's on the table and in the cart. The next two editions in what is quickly becoming my "Glenn Beck" collection. I bought his newest "Arguing with Idiots" and "Common Sense". I tried to request Common Sense from the library, but even though it's #1 on NY Times Bestseller list, the NY Erie County library has but one copy. Count it. ONE. They have mulitple copies of the most obscure titles ever written, but when it comes to a conservatively written scrutiny of big government, just one. When I found out I was at the bottom of a list of 41 people, I decided NOT to wait 3 1/2 years, and just buy the thing myself. Darn liberal New York. I'm feeling the butterflies from the beginning of my post start to fly away :)

And now for my lengthy review of his book I just finished, An Inconvenient Book. It's quite thick, and I thought it would take me at least a couple weeks to get through, but no, I couldn't put it down. Three days later and I'm itchin' for more. 1- because it was hilarious 2- because I felt I was actually learning something and 3- did I mention it was hilarious? It consists of 21 individual chapters covering everything from minimum wage, to online dating. There were the serious topics and then the completely trivial, written to make you laugh topics. I felt like I finally learned a few things about global warming, radical Islam (can you say scary!) and our oil dependence (boy do I have a truck load of questions for my dad!). One chapter title made me laugh out loud- "The Income Gap: The Rich Get Richer, Good for Them". Haha. Sorry, but I thought that was funny.

There was one chapter I just couldn't read though. Child Molesters: A Fiery Solution. He started reviewing a certain molester who became a killer, John Evander Couey. I had never heard of him before. I wish I could go back in time to when I didn't know him. Reading about what he did made me physically ill. I had to put the book down. All I could think was, please let the Second Coming come now! Despicable, reprehensible don't even come close to describing his atrocities. After finishing the book, I did go back and read what Glenn's "solution" was. Molest a child, go to prison for LIFE. I agree. It makes me think of Jaycee Dugard. The sicko who kidnapped her wasn't a first time offender. He should have been in jail. Should have.

There was also a chapter on body image. Not exactly one of his "serious politcal" topics, but important nonetheless. It was the only chapter where I actually underlined something. "Yes, the magazines, the ads, the plastic surgery- it's all part of the problem, but each time you try to squeeze your fat fanny into a pair of size four True Religion jeans, your daughters learn to pray at the same altar." It struck a chord with me. Maybe that's because I have the most unmaterialistic mom in the world and I've been far from living up to her example.

Still reading? Then you must be either Travis, Jenni, my mother-in-law, or my mom :) I don't even think Shelley or Leah (just because I'm talking about a book) would have kept with this monster post! I just have so much to say!!!

Next up- "You Can't Say That! The Politics of Correctness". Maybe I loved this chapter because as a teacher I felt like being PC was my arch enemy. For example, no more saying, "Please sit Indian style". No, no, it's now, "Sit criss cross applesauce!" :):):) Ugh. It kills me having to tip toe around ethnic phrases. Should we say "African Americans" or "black". I saw a woman on the news spouting off that she wasn't an "African American" she was just "American". Okaaaaaaay. Whatever. I was teaching social studies and the book referenced "black" people. A white girl raised her hand and asked with horror on her face, "Why did the book call them black?" I happened to have a couple of black students in my class, so I asked one boy, "is that offensive to you?" With confusion on his face, he shook his head. Being PC is the reason Christmas trees got yanked out of some school's front offices and why I had to ask fellow teachers if they thought it would ok for me to put a witch decoration in my classroom during Halloween. I was advised to stick with pumkins. No faces on them though. It's also much more PC to use muti colored pens when grading instead of the evil "red" pen. Because if a child got a paper back with red all over it, it would be too hard on him. Sorry, but really, why all the hoops?! If you know me, I really never want to offend someone. I never want to make someone feel bad about themself, but maybe that's why we should all take a lesson in choosing to not be offended. I know, I know, the pot calling the kettle black. But hey, I'll make it my goal if you make it yours! Despite my personal exasperation, Beck proposes political correctness to be the demise of Western culture. "Proponents of PC defend it under the guise of diversity. It's an effective argument, because no one wants to be called a racist or perceived as intolerant; we all want to be "inclusive." But in my experience, "diversity" does more to exclude diverse opinions that anythingn else."

Chapter 13- Gratuities: I've Reached My TIPPING Point. I SO AGREE with this chapter. Again, maybe it's because of the whole teachers don't get tipped thing (unless you count those adorable, but useless, painted coffee mugs you get at Christmas). He makes such a good point though. You go to a restaurant, let's use Olive Garden as an example, and and pay at least 5x the cost for your chicken alfredo. And then, since the restaurant only pays their waiters a couple bucks an hour, YOU are required to pay a generous tip (regardless of how good your service was), effectually paying Olive Garden's employees on top of the food you just consumed. WHERE IS THE LOGIC?? That aside, tips should be given BASED on how well your service was, but if you got crappy service and consequently left a 10% tip, YOU'RE suddenly the bad guy. Enter guilt. It seems that expecting a tip is the norm and the minute you start expecting a tip, you stop trying to earn it. Oh man, I could go on. But really, I'm not bitter. Can ya tell?!

And lastly, probably my favorite chapter- "Parenting: The Case for Abstinence". I giggled through this entire part! He basically facetiously suggests that in order to have children, you should have to be interviewed and given a "permit" of sorts. You have to do that to drive a car or own a gun, so why not for the most important decision of all? Why? Because...." Bad parents and the dysfunctional kids they raise are everyone's problem, especially when they become serial killers, nitwit socialites (think Paris Hilton), or the watier who never brings lemon for my Coke Zero even though I've asked 12 times." Then my favorite part (I know it's long, but it's worth reading). He proposes that the Department of Parenting would actually give you a taste of parenting before you even conceive the baby. Here's how it works. "A DOP agent would come by, wake you up at 2 in the morning and keep you awake until 4. Then he'd let you sleep for an hour before waking you again and keeping you up until it's too late to go back to sleep. Then he'd yell all morning, take a nap, and -just as you were starting to doze off- he'd wake you up, start shrieking again, and not tell you why." BAHAHAHAHA! I died laughing. Maybe since it wasn't so long ago that I lived that. Also, just picturing a grown man coming to your house and doing that is just hilarious to me. Then he suggests some questions for the interview. "How much time can you devote to raising your child? Do you chew with your mouth open? Do you plan on giving your child a stupid name? Will you let your child roam the restaurant or insist he or she stay seated? Why is the sky blue?Why? Why? Why?"

Ok, I think I'm done. Quite possibly the longest post ever, but hopefully you thought worth your time. Beck is brash, outspoken and even rude, but I honestly think he makes a lot of sense. However if you are liberal or anti-capitalism, might not be the book for you! :) Now, I need to go capture those butterfly feelings I was talking about earlier :)

I am AWESOME!

Allow me to explain.

It's a quiet Sunday evening. Trav has three upcoming tests and left to go study at Doug's house. I settled down into my cozy couch with a chocolate shake and watched Pride and Prejudice. (The newest one that's two hours. Excellent by the way) Movie ends, I make my hubby's lunch, then head to the office to check my email and the blog before heading to bed. Then something catches my eye. It's on the ceiling. It's dark and appears to be a bug. Upon closer examination, it's a CENTIPEDE!!! Major shudder courses through my body. I thought I had avoided these monsters all summer! I personally sprayed the whole house in May and have since only seen two DEAD ones. And then this little bugger comes along.

Most people know, I'm a bug-a-phob. I don't say this lightly. It's a serious disorder. I put Hitler, rapists, and bugs all in the same category. They are all just as dangerous to me. Seriously.

So of course I've been tormented my whole life because of it. Anytime someone finds a cockroach, spider, what have you- it's gets picked up and thrown at ME! I never found it amusing. Scratch amusing. It makes me so MAD! I mean it's not FAIR! I can't just pick up someone else's worse nightmare and throw it back at THEM!

I have a few personal anecdotes if you will indulge me. Poor Trav is going to hate that I'm sharing this story but it just always comes to mind. We were at a mutual activity (I believe), hanging out by the pool, when Travis finds a cricket. Who do you think he throws it at? I scream. Insect lands in my mouth. After much shrieking, sputtering, and trying to wash my mouth out with pool water, I have never forgotten. I don't fault Travis because I think we were like thirteen. And honestly, what teenage boy wouldn't torment an easily hysterical teenage girl? The fact is, to this day when he kills a bug at our house, I'm always a bit skittish that he's going to toss it my way. He's always very offended by this, but my gosh, OLD HABITS DIE HARD. I'm talking about my wariness habit, not his habit of harrassing girls with bugs.

Next story (this post has the potential of being VERY LONG). I'm doing an internship at an elementary school in a first grade classroom. It was only my second time being there when the kids discovered a dead cockroach under a table. The teacher selected one of the eager boys to pick it up and throw it away. I'm watching from a distance seriously thinking to myself, "How, nice, this kid doesn't know A THING about me! I don't have to be scared of him throwing it at me". Oh, I was so wrong. I didn't even finish my thought, when I saw the light bulb in his mischievous head go on. He turned to me, with carcass in hand, and started to chase me with it!! I instinctively screamed (yes I screamed), and turned to run. The kid busted into laughter as the teacher looked at me quizzically. I was SO embarrassed. (little twirp) But might I ask.... How did he know???!!!

So, back to tonight. I see evil centipede. I call Trav. He gives me a variety of ways to kill it. I'm secretly wishing he'll just drop everything he's doing and come home and kill it for me. I tell him I can do it and hang up. I proceed to hyperventilate for several minutes before calling him back. I CAN'T DO IT!! He gives me a big pep talk and I hang up. People, I spent 20 minutes staring at that darn thing, trying to muster up the courage to JUST KILL IT! I fidgeted, made high pitched squeaking noises, had to control my breathing..... I almost sprayed our Home Defense poison on it, but knew that would just leave dripping chemicals on our ceiling. FINALLY, I got the sponge mop and just smeared the nasty thing. May I repeat, I AM AWESOME!! I haven't been that proud of myself in a long time. That stupid thing was my Everest. I would have sooner gotten an epideral (also a scary thing to me) and pushed out another baby before doing that again. Think I'm being melodramtic? I'm truly not. I told you it was a serious disorder. I called Trav back to tell him about my trimuph. It took me about 5 minutes to stop shaking. Then I had to share with all of you! :) (Oh, and OF COURSE, I had to take a picture!)

I considered taking an "after" picture of his guts smeared across our popcorn ceiling, but decided to spare you all. Also, this picture doesn't do it justice, it was way bigger than it looks and of course, straight from the devil himself.

Young Womens

I was recently moved around in the YW organization in our ward... again. I've served in the Young Womens ever since I've been married and I've figured that in 26 years of life, I've spent 9 of them in YW! Woo hoo! I really do enjoy serving there, but it's a bit more time consuming than my coveted "door greeter" calling. I hope I'm a good leader, but the girls in our group are definitely faced with so many more trials than I ever grew up with. I don't know if I can relate to what's going on in their lives very well (I think my biggest concern at 16 was how to meet N'SYNC in person), but I truly do love them and it's been a lot of fun getting to know their crazy personalities (reference Hunter in the pink).

We said goodbye to two leaders this week at out "Back to School" BBQ night for mutual. Tiffany and Britta will be missed!

I made a "goodbye" cake (you can kinda see it in the background) and the only reason I reference it, is that it was my first attempt at a layered cake. I even made some homemade pineapple filling for between the layers. I got positive comments until I brought some leftovers home for Trav to eat. He started to dig in until he disdainfully asked, "What's this yellow goo?" Always happy to please :)

(In his defense, he still tried it and ended up eating half the plate of leftovers)As tradition, we played "flour tag". Everyone gets a nylon sock with flour in the bottom and you basically run around trying to smack as many people as possible. It was all fun and games til Tiff got everyone to gang up and attack me. I got coated. :) That night while I was brushing my teeth I noticed my roots had suddenly gone really gray and ashy looking. What the heck! I truly panicked for at least 15 seconds til my good 'ole short term memory kicked in. I'm going to be the worst senile person ever.

In other news... I finally finished reading Pride and Prejudice! I ended up liking it pretty well. Since it's written in the old English type of language, I felt like every sentence was a riddle meant to obsure even the simplest of meanings. And I found myself wanting to say things like "Indeed, that fellow has spoken most favorably in want of redress for the handsome sum of a scandalous employment!" in my everyday language. Basically gibberish disguised in fancy words. Now I can't wait to watch the 6 hour movie!

So the weather has turned.

Leaves are changing.

I woke up to our house chilling in the low 60's. Brrr!

Collin was in need of long sleevs and warm pants, so off to Carter's we went. I found this onsie and had to have it.

I think this pic is hilarious. I imaging him yelling at those stinkin' girls to back off!

Rachel finally had her baby on Friday. I'm beside myself with happiness for her and Doug. And I'm a tad baby hungry. He's just so little! Then I remembered how happy I am to be sleeping more than four hours in a row. I think I'll wait :)

Sweet Gavin is beyond adorable. Collin had been waiting on pins and needles for his new friend!

And lastly.... Collin's first tast of real food! Well, rice cereal anyway. The first bite....

Not so sure about this stuff. (He actually gagged several times) They should make chocolate rice cereal or something!

Dad got to do the honors. I was on camera patrol.

HOYYYY!

*** This is completely unrelated, but I had to add this. This morning when I was driving Trav to school, we passed an empy dirt lot that had some dead, yellowed weeds growing on the outer edge and Trav perked up and exclaimed, "Hey, that looks like Arizona!!" Bahahaha! I had to laugh because he said it in a very positive, "awww home" sort of voice. We sure do love our desert heritage. :)

Going Private!

Tomorrow!

So if you're a blog stalker (like me!) and haven't already left your email address, please do so now :)

[And all those that had asked to be invited the first time- don't worry about it, I have your emails saved.]

Sooooo, on to the next thing that's been on my mind... t.v! I'll admit it, I've been eagerly anticipating the new fall line up. Summer shows are lame (I'm talking to you America's Got Talent), and those fall previews have done their job. I'm hooked. But as I've flipped through the channels the past month and not seen anything worthy of my time, I've discovered I can actually get quite a bit done when not sitting in front of the boob tube. Lest I mislead you, I really wouldn't consider myself a couch potato, but I do enjoy an entertaining reality show at night with Collin asleep and a melting bowl of ice cream in my hands. Please refer to Exhibit A.

Exhibit A :)

It's my night time guilty pleasure. I finally started buying the tubs of icecream instead of those dinky half gallon jokes. We only had company three times and yet we finished this one off in two weeks. And my heart rate truly escalated when I realized the chocolate syrup was running out before the vanilla goodness was fully drenched. And most embarrassingly, it wasn't until I uploaded this picture that I saw my lonely vegetables in the background. I'll tell ya, sometimes it's rough being an adult and making YOURSELF eat all your vegetables.

Which leads me to my next contemplation. As I've thought about all the fun shows coming up, I realized I need to set a limit. I should probably just pick one show a night. Ok, maybe two. And one of those was most definitely going to be Glee. The previews were hilarious. I watched the premier and found myself dancing in my seat. Then Trav and I watched the second episode. You really couldn't even call them sexual innuendos. Maybe just nuendos? It was pretty crude.

Growing up there were certain shows that were not allowed at my house. Rozanne, 90210, FRIENDS..... Big no nos. Don't ask me how Baywatch slipped through the cracks. One of our favs. Maybe our parents just really thought it was about lifeguarding. ANYWAY, you grow up, move out, get married and suddenly you're your OWN censor. And yes, FRIENDS became my friends. I get why it was on the "black list" and maybe I should have been stronger, but now we have Desperate Housewives, Dollhouse, Two and Half Men, etc etc. And I don't even KNOW what's on cable. I can't even begin to comprehend all the smut (yes, smut) that's on prime time. So where do you draw the line? I guess I'm going to start with Glee. (Blasted dirty writers! It had such potential)

On a more positive note, I am absolutely ADDICTED to Shark Tank. I find it so interesting, no- fascinating... maybe entrancing? Kevin is such a typical dirt bag billionaire. He seems so unhappy. Robert on the other hand, has a heart. I love watching them go head to head.

Also, Jay Leno starts tonight. Way excited for that. And I can't give up on So You Think You Can Dance, or The Office (heaven forbid). AND Trav just started getting into watching the Glenn Beck show online. So here's what I'm thinkin. I limit it to one show a night and we catch up online on our Friday and Saturday nights. Collin's in bed and it's supposed to be our "us time". Sigh. I think this might work. :)

6 MoNtHs!

Collin is 6 months today! My baby is growing up so fast.... wipe a tear. :) But seriously, it's true. I think I have the best job in the world, being able to stay home with him every day. We get comments all the time about how smiley and happy he is. I love his smile. It melts my heart.

He is a funny boy. He rolls from back to front, but then high centers himself on his stomach and acts like he forgot how to roll from stomach to back. He still loves tv. He likes to grab at my hair, and pull. Hard. He loves when Dad sings him the horsey song. (A favorite of Grandpas). He still is the best eater, but struggles with the sleeping on occasion. He doesn't pout as much as he used to, but will pull the lip if he's indignant. Usually this happens when I take something away that he wants or am trying to get him dressed. I guess I get to start feeding him "real" food now, so I can't wait to see how that goes. His checkup appointment is on Tues., so we'll know the stats then.

I feel a bit guilty that he didn't get "professional" six month pictures done, but oh well. At least he gets a blog post. I wonder if any of my other kids will get that much when they have their "month" birthdays. Probably not. Just the honored first born. :)

I heart his Sunday outfit. I found it at the Gap, and after scouring at least 7 other stores for Sunday clothes, I gave in and paid full price for this number. Well, I did have a gift card, so that had something to do with it. And I can't help but whine about the fact that cute girl dresses abound at all the department stores, but a collared shirt and vest are about as prolific as Mexican food out here. What gives?! Can't boys get dressed up?

And I'm ashamed to say it's already stained with mustard (my fault) and dye (again, my fault). He was being fussy in church so I let him suck on my necklace. It actually did occur to me that dye might come off, so I watched for a bit and no problems. Five minutes later, problem. He had red dye on his hands, cheek, and shirt. Ugh. Cheapo necklace. They should put a warning on it or something! :)

What comes next may be disturbing to some, but I couldn't resist. As you can see, Trav did everything in his power to protect his boy from humiliation. But what fun is parenting if you can't embarrass your child every once in a while, really.

Isn't he cute? hehe
Honestly, Trav gave it his best effort, blocking the camera and telling me it wasn't right. I told him to get used to it, because one of these days he's going to come home from school and Collin's toe nails just might be painted. Hey, we did it to all my younger brothers and they turned out ok. Well, I guess we'll have to wait and see about Craig.
JUST KIDDING CRAIG! :)

I'm pretty sure he still loves me.

Sorry!

Ok, I feel the need to apologize/explain. Well, I don't know that I can really explain so well, but I will say I'm sorry if I offended anyone by the sudden "going private" trip. It was a complete impulse thing and I know it sounds strange, but I was actually motivated to do it with the intent that by going private, I would eliminate accidently offending anyone with my comments or pictures. I don't know why it didn't occur to me that by going private without inviting anyone I might actually offend everyone! Does any of this make sense? Maybe not, but suffice it to say (ok that was totally BofM lingo) that I think I'm over my "funk". BUT as much as I dislike private blogs, I think I'm going to give it a run. I'll see how I like it for a while and if it's not working out, well then maybe I'll switch back. Sooooo, please leave your email if you'd like to be invited! I really don't know how it works if you don't have a blog yourself. I've heard it means you have to get a gmail account. Is this true? I don't want to alienate anyone that would rather not do that. So I guess we'll just see how this goes!

Anyway, I know I'm the annoying person who always takes pictures. And yes, they are quite often of very random things. I don't have a really cool camera like it seems most of the population does now, so they aren't of a good quality. BUT it feeds my inner documenting soul. :) So I will continue.

Sorry to those who wanted a pic with my last post. If I had been my usual self, I might have taken one of the JDubs (is that derrogatory?). (just from the window while they walked away though:)

And I do feel the need to add on to my opinion of the President's message to the students. I didn't realize there was a speech to go along with the video. I read the speech and actually quite liked it. It did seem very motivational and a good thing for kids to hear. And I have since learned that the lesson plans were optional, not mandatory. However I stand by what I said of the pledge video. If my sister doesn't mind me quoting her, she said, "It just irritates me that they act like they are higher than us and feel the need to give us advice. Stupid celebrities." I don't know, it just gave me the giggles. I concur :)

And as for my pic of the day, Collin finally discovered the joy of the Johnny Jumper this afternoon. He has been sitting in it occasionally for two weeks, but didn't grasp the concept of the jumping! He has been bouncing up a storm in our laps for some time now, so now he can do it on his own! He was beyond thrilled with himself.

Labor Day

Well today was kind of a low key day. To be honest, I forgot it was a holiday until last night. As a teacher I always knew exactly when holidays were and thought it was weird when mom's would say they lost track of the day of the week or when holidays were. I guess I've gone to the other side :) Trav went camping with some friends last night and did some early morning fishing. Apparently the "guy talk" kept them up pretty late so he was exhausted when he came home. I'm glad he had some male bonding time. :) So we just stayed home until the Cardon's BBQ. Until then, I had a very typical day. I exercised, took Collin for a walk, made some zucchini bread, cleaned the bathroom.... yawn.

I did have an interesting talk with my mom though while I was on my walk. Our biggest topic was the video that will be shown in all schools tomorrow. I watched it on You Tube and was pretty shocked. It all seemed fairly unremarkable until the ending when all the brainwashed celebrities "chanted" together- I will serve Barack Obama. Seriously? They all claimed pledges to smile more help their neighbor. But some pledged to "not flip people off while driving" or "get rid of their obnoxious car and buy a hybrid". This video will be shown to Kindergarteners. Can't say I knew what flipping the bird was at the tender age of 7. It definitely filled my "propaganda" quota for the day. My mom was debating on whether to keep my brothers home from school to make a statement, or just let them go, but discuss it with them since you can't "protect" them from everything. It's tough being a parent. I can't imagine the kinds of decisions I'm going to have to make when my kids are in school. I was also pretty outraged from the standpoint of a teacher because apparently they are given lesson plans to go along with the video that they have to do with their classes. If you ask me, this is just scary.

Also today, I had my first encounter with Jehovah's Witnesses. Two women came by and Trav saw them coming and warned me, but I was kind of curious, so I opened the door. They didn't state who they were or what they were doing, they just asked me if they could share a scripture. They shared the one in Matthew about the 144,000 being saved. I was unfamilar with the scripture, but had heard this was one of their beliefs. I asked, "So you believe that only 144,000 go to heaven?" They said yes, so then I asked where everyone else goes. She said that they would stay on earth. So I told her I was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints and shared what I believed. When I told them that I believe I can be with my family forever in heaven and even become a Goddess of my own world, their eyes got all big and one lady commented on how I "glowed" when I said that. They honestly didn't seem to know how to convince me that I should be content with staying on earth when I believed I could become a Goddess someday. :) They shared another scripture and seemed to try and find more common ground with me, but I think they realized they weren't going to convince me of anything, so I thanked them for their message and they left. To be honest, I thought they were very nice ladies. I wasn't interested in bible bashing with them, because I don't think I'm much of a scriptorian and I don't see the point anyway. I've just heard so much negative about them that I was curious about what they would say. Even though I believe they are confused, I guess they are just trying to share what they think is right, so I can't really fault them for it. And even though I think my knowledge of gospel doctrine and principles is good, it's not what it could be. So my resolution is to read more and dig deeper in my studying. That goes for politics too. :)

And I'm quite proud of myself- a whole Labor day and no pictures.

Bunco, Babies, and Bings....

Just had to keep with the alliteration :)

First off BUNCO!

This week was chock full of fun! Tuesday night kicked off the first official Bunco night! I caught the Bunco bug and started a group out here with some friends in the ward. I hosted the first month and we had a blast. I finally dusted off the ice cream maker we got for our wedding and made some homemade cookies and cream ice cream. The caramel brownies didn't turn out quite like I expected, but I think the peanut butter popcorn drizzled in chocolate make up for it! Not a good time to be dieting- although props to Rachel N., who was on her last day of "no sweets for 2 weeks". She has some major will power! (I think Denyse may have OD on the sugar, though.:)

Rachel and Melissa are holding out with only a week or two left til they hit their due dates!
That leads us into BABIES!
We threw a baby shower for Rachel for mutual on Wednesday. Here are the girls making the gifts...a diaper cake, bib, and beanie...

and a frame.

We enjoyed some treats,

and of course played games. They are trying to draw a baby on top of their heads in this shot. Britta's drawing won!

Here she is with some gifts. The girls were way cute and had some great advice to give her. We will miss our secretary when her little guy comes!

Ok, this has nothing to do with anything, but on Thursday I spent my afternoon weeding the garden and this is what my knees looked like afterward. I just think it's funny because I started out by sitting on a stool (wanting to stay clean), but that wasn't working, so I just bent over until I thought my back would give out, then I got on my knees. It was just easier that way. I kinda felt like a kid in the dirt. It was fun.

And lastly, BINGS!(or wings)

Tommy want wingy!!

That was the war cry Saturday afternoon when we headed downtown to participate in our city's proudest event, the National Buffalo Wing Festival. We did it last year and had such a fun time we decided to make it tradition.

Of course the main event was the National Wing Eating Contest. In this shot we have the #2 ranked World Eating Champion on the left, Badland Booker in the middle, and Sonya "The Black Widow" on the right. Let's be frank, watching this was disgusting. I didn't know if I would have an appetite afterward. Luckily, wings just smell too dang good to pass up. I love that the guy on the left has a whole wing hanging out of his mouth while he shreds up another in his hands. You can't buy this kind of talent folks.

Sonya was the winner. Go girl. The only female in the bunch, she definitely had the majority of the crowd rooting for her.We sampled wings from all different vendors like Wing Zone, Legend Larry's, Hurricane Grill, etc. It was fun to try flavors like Chipotle Raspberry or Salt and Vinegar.

It was a warm afternoon and Collin was pooped. I love when he rests on my shoulder. He hardly ever gives me the pleasure.

Seriously people. This wing is ridiculous. I think we got our money's worth on this one.

What came first, the chicken or the wing? Or should I ask, what left first, the pride or the dignity? Just kidding, I'm really jealous. I think I'll have to get one our last year. :)

Collin and Ryan like to coordinate what they're wearing. These are two cool kids sporting the Mesa pride for sure.

We went with the Carters and Shaws but ended up seeing the Shaheens, Majerones, Taylors, and Reheisses while we were there. It was the place to be! It's a two day festival and the Wing King (yes it's a real person) said he ordered 30 tons of wings and we went through 25 tons just on Saturday. While standing in line, we met a couple that had driven from Ohio, just to come to the wing festival. This is religion out here! And we were happy to be apostate for the afternoon. :)