More random stuff -- from my brain to yours!

• I love Cook's Illustrated and their anal retentive recipes. I love that everything is scientifically tested and I adore how snooty they are. I accidentally bought a subscription to their online site (because I forgot to cancel after the free 14 day trial.) So I thought I'd share with you that they ranked dark chocolate chips and Nestle came up last -- as in not recommended! I had no idea that after all of my years of baking, I've been using the wrong chocolate chips. I'm sure you'd like to know that #1 was Ghirardelli 60% cacao, #2 was Hershey's Special Dark and #3 was Guittard semi sweet. Go forth and shop, then bake and report back.
• I'm so, so, SO looking forward to General Conference. I love everything about this weekend -- hearing meaningful and profound messages from our leaders, having a reason/excuse to relax, and yes, many opportunities to snack.
• But after this weekend, I'm calling Comcast and giving up all of the channels I have above my channel 67, which includes KBYU. I just don't watch them and I can watch Conference online or at my mom's. It's just too stinking expensive to pay all of that extra money each month for one channel.
• And while I'm talking about Comcast, I love their new commercials, especially the one that says "ROTFLOL'ing." Makes me happy.
• Today's rant about Facebook: I wish you could appear offline to some people but still be online to others. Yeah, I want to block someone but not enough to delete them as a friend and no, it's not one of you. Oh and still hating all of the dang quizzes that appear over and over. Makes me never want to take a single quiz because I don't want to inflict a huge list of quiz results on all of my FB friends. I liked how before you could say "less" of something like less notes or less quizzes. Wish they'd bring that back.
• After about a month long drought, I have had many Mr. Crushworthy encounters over the last several days. In case you were wondering, he's still quite fabulous and dreamy. He also helped me be a superstar at work today, which is always a good thing.

What I thought about while I was doing my hair:

1. Why Facebook keeps showing me updates for some people and never for others. I really don't care to wish a friend of a friend a happy birthday every single day. Um, hiding you now, sorry...
2. How much I love the super animated sister who seems to always lead the choirs at those general meetings - watching her lead the closing song during Saturday's YW broadcast made me SO happy.
3. And while I was thinking of that, I thought of how much I loved Sister Dalton's talk about purity.
4. And while I was thinking of THAT, I thought of this recent Blog Segullah post that I just loved and you all should read.
5. Chrissy -- love her.
6. Why my Quaker Crunchy Corn Bran tastes "different" this time. It's like it's not as crunchy but it's not stale. Just seems like they under toasted it or something. But did I return the box to the store? No.
7. Why my mom's face swelled up for no apparent reason yesterday. We're wondering if she's developed an allergy to nuts.
8. Why the movie "Ghost Town" had to throw so many f-bombs in there. So not necessary and it wasn't even that great of a movie. Two thumbs down.
9. My sister saying goodbye to her friends in her ward at church yesterday. I ache for her because goodbyes are the worst.
10. The rat and baby that were living in my next door neighbor's bag of squirrel food in her outdoor closet. She wanted me to help her get it out of there (she's pushing 80.) All I did was suggest she call a guy in our complex. I should have taken a pic of it happily ensconced in the bag but I was too busy keeping my exit route open so I could bolt. But seriously, she gave the thing an all you can eat buffet - why WOULDN'T it nest in there???? SICK!!!
11. How I needed to blog all of these things before I forgot and hopefully will not be late to work. Um, gotta go.

How to get through a 2 hour American Idol in about 45 minutes

I know I'm going out on a limb here but really, American Idol bugs me. Yes, it's a cultural phenomenon and I usually love me a cultural phenomenon. Yes, 30 kajillion people vote each week so that means everyone else loves it. I usually end up buying songs from the winner and runners up but most of the time, I fast forward (FF) nearly the whole show and here's why:

• I think Ryan Seacrest is smarmy and I really don't like to listen to him talk. I especially hate it when he and Simon "fight." It comes across so mean most of the time. When Ryan opens his mouth, FF!
• Whenever Randy doesn't like someone's performance, he usually starts out with a "how are you feeling tonight, dawg? You feeling alright?" If you hear that, you have just given a horrible performance. You'd think after all of these years, he'd come up with new material. Whenever Randy starts to talk, FF!
• Paula, Paula, Paula. I really try hard to like her because she's all kinds of crazy and I sort of feel bad for her. But she is such a train wreck and cannot speak in complete sentences most of the time. It's just sad and I'm embarrassed to even watch her. Whenever Paula starts to talk, FF!
• The cheesy commercials the contestants do are lame! FF!

With all of that being said, my favorite contestants are Adam and Danny and I will continue to zip through watching the show each week just because I want to hear their performances. Hopefully, my FF tips will help you make better use of your time in the future.

Graceful, I am not

After work last night, I drove to my mom's to bake lasagnas for my fun dinner & games party at Kim's. Why? Mom has two ovens and she got this adorable, tiny little puppy I was dying to meet (name is still to be determined.)



Anyway, I walk in carrying the two pyrex 9x13 pans on top of each other, looking at the tiny 1.5 pound furball sitting on Mom's chest and I step up to go into the family room toward the kitchen and don't notice that Mom has put a 12 inch high piece of wood across the doorway to keep the puppy from roaming around the entire house. I went flat down on my face and immediately thought "I broke a tooth." I start bawling like a baby because my mouth and chin hurt and I was sure I wrecked the lasagnas. Thankfully, I had tight-fitting lids on the dishes and they were fine.

My face however, was not. I had a small bump right away so Mom got me some ice. When I got to Kim's, she could barely see anything. But by the end of the night? Here is what I looked like:

Why is it that I fall when I'm making food for other people?? At least my hair looks good, right?? ;) It's about the same today -- swollen on the inside of my mouth and still, a lovely and vibrant shade of purple. My teeth are fine, thank goodness.

Anyway, I had a fun night last night because Callie brought Andrew home to meet us. We all loved him immediately -- he's great!


These two guys were also there -- I had almost forgotten how much fun it is to be around both of them. Greg is on the left, Robert is on the right. Love them. (This pic is from Wednesday night when Robert came home from his mission.)

Well, it's Stake Conference weekend and I'm getting ready to meet Tyler for lunch in a bit. I'm not sure I can do much to disguise the bruise. I think I'll create a story to explain it. Maybe I was in a bar fight? Hmm. Better, more creative ideas are welcome in the comments.

A sweet reminder

All of the meetings
All of the time spent in prayer
All of the headaches
All of the time spent trying to devise meaningful programs
All of the activities
All of the time spent planning activities
All of the worry
All of the nights spent chaperoning dances
All of the tears
All of the staffing challenges
All of the times feeling unsupported and alone at the top

All of those not-so-fun memories are forgotten when a former Laurel called me today to talk about a situation she's dealing with. Now a mature 20 year old and one of those girls who doesn't feel the need to reach out much since she graduated from high school, she called me because I was the first person (after her mom) she wanted to discuss things with and to get advice from.

Phone calls like the one I got today make everything I struggled with while I was a YW leader totally and completely worthwhile. I'm so grateful I've gotten a lot of reminders over the years (and continue to from extra special girls like Chrissy, Jamie, Callie and Kara.)

I am blessed.

What I did today

• I went to work and spent the entire afternoon totally irritated with a lame coworker. Why do some people refuse to do their own job? Seriously. Why?
• I checked on my NCAA bracket. I'm in a bragging rights only pool with a bunch of guys and I didn't do too badly. Oh and BYU? Way to go.
• I made two of the Pioneer Woman lasagnas for a little gathering tomorrow night. Yes, two. I have my window open to air out the food smells. I really hope it smells "normal" in here by morning.
• I hid my eyes in embarrassment watching Michael on the Office tonight. Oh. My. Goodness. And poor, poor Jim.

And...that's all I did today.

Emotions of the day

Thrilled: One of my most favorite missionaries comes home tomorrow! I can't believe it's been two years. I'm going to the airport and then over to his family's for dinner tomorrow night (hopefully my Primary peeps are not planning on a Weds night meeting!) I can't wait to see him!

Curious: I ordered some stamping stuff and UPS said they delivered the boxes on Friday but guess what? The boxes weren't there when I came home Friday after work. I called Stampin Up and they are re-sending my entire order (which wasn't small.) I've lived here almost eleven years and have never had anything stolen off my porch. Why now???

Excited: My sister Jenilee was at the Honolulu Airport today picking up our niece who was coming in for a visit and just look who she met!!! (Bridget, this pic is for you!)

In case you don't watch the show, it's Hurley from Lost. This was taken with her cell phone and lifted off of her Facebook (thanks, Jen!) She said he was really nice and friendly. I'm so glad she met someone from her favorite TV show before she moves home. Which brings me to my next emotion...

Happy: Jenilee and her family move home in about 3 weeks and my friends Tyler and Jeni will be home from their European adventure around the same time. I'll love having both of them relatively close by again!

Pleased: My mom is getting a puppy this weekend -- half Pekingnese/half Shih Tzu. It will be nice for her to have a little companion.

Thoughtful: Michelle posted a wonderful blog entry today -- go read here. See if it makes you think a little too.

Food smells

I think I've mentioned before my aversion to food smells. I hate them. I hate cooking bacon in my house so I either (a) go to my mom's to do it or (b) buy the pre-cooked/microwave kind when I need it for a recipe. I won't go to certain restaurants just because I'm afraid of coming home and smelling like that restaurant (like Denny's or a Mongolian grill type place.)

If I had my way, I'd outlaw fajitas. They come out all hot and smoky and that smell just goes everywhere and then you smell like fajitas the rest of the day (and you have to come home, shower, and wash every item of clothing because the smell sticks to everything.) I wish they would either (a) create a fajita section in the restaurant in its own separate, fan-less room or (b) stop making them altogether. This week I went to lunch with my friend who was here from London and he always likes to go to Mexican food. We have been very lucky and he hasn't had to see my fajita-aversion manifest itself on the other two times we've had lunch there this year. Um, until this week.

We're all done with lunch, all paid, just sort of lingering and chatting when all of a sudden, I hear the disgusting sizzling. I say "V, I've gotta go." I jump up, grab my purse and walk quickly in the opposite direction of the waiter carrying the fajitas, which happens to be through the bar. V is calling after me saying "you dropped something" and I look back and he has both my iPod and my cell phone which fell out of my bag as I was getting the heck out of there. But I made it safely out and only smelled a little of food when I got back to the office.

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

There's a girl at work who uses our executive kitchen's microwave to make maple flavored oatmeal -- every single day. It is the WORST smell. It smells just fake and gross and it never leaves our office area. People come in all of the time and ask who is having pancakes.

I happened to be in the kitchen one day with the oatmeal girl so I "jokingly" mentioned how nice it would be if she could make her oatmeal in the other kitchen once in awhile to sort of spread the smell around to other areas of the floor. Didn't work -- it was smelly again the next day.

I mentioned my conversation to one of my coworkers and she agreed with me that it was an offensive smell. Another coworker said she was in a meeting in the conference room that has a door that opens to the kitchen and the group in the room kept wondering what that bad smell was in the kitchen. Then one of the vice presidents overheard our conversation, came out of her office and said "I never wanted to say anything but I hate that smell too." So my friend (who works for our group's president) wrote an email to the oatmeal girl's boss this week to ask her to use the other kitchen instead of ours.

Guess what? No disgusting maple smell at work yesterday! Ah, the sweet non-smell of success.

Two items of business

1. Do I (as a single girl) accept a friend request from a guy I don't know nor do I think I have met but who apparently wants to be my Facebook friend? Oh yeah, he's single too. I maybe have met him but I don't remember his name or face at all. I checked with one of our mutual friends and apparently he's a "nice guy."

This Facebook thing is weird. I have two friend suggestions and three friend requests I'm sitting on at the moment. Facebook should not be stressful.

2. Camp planning is upon me. I believe if you went back and read my blog about this time last year, I probably said how stressed out I was about the whole thing and guess what? I'm once again, all stressed out about the whole thing. Granted, I know I will feel great when it's over but I absolutely loathe the six month pre-work for so many reasons. This will be my 8th year in a row serving in some sort of stake-level camp calling. We camp by levels, rather than wards, in case I haven't mentioned that before. So I was a level leader for five years and the assistant stake camp director for the last three years. We have our second YCL meeting tonight and I have done nothing since the last meeting six weeks ago. Yes, the month of February was painful and stressful but I still should have been more on the ball and gotten myself ready for tonight before today. I have a big ward calling too which weighs on me because I need to do more there and I'm not.

I said this all of last year and I'm saying it again this year -- I need to come to a decision about whether I can keep going to camp year after year. I absolutely love it but it takes so much out of me. Will I miss it too much and regret not going if I "retire" after this year? Does anyone else feel torn about where they serve??? I simply cannot be the only one.

One more item -- pre work blogging is bad. I am going to be late.

Things I love today

• My gray hair is gone again for another six weeks or so.
• A woman I absolutely love (and also visit teach) spoke in church today and gave a truly phenomenal talk about spiritual and temporal blessings.
• I didn't cry whenever anyone asked how I was doing. Progress!
• I got really pretty flowers from a sweet family I love.
• My home teachers came over. I am so grateful that I have had the best home teachers pretty much the entire 10+ years I've lived here.
• A good friend at work is in town for meetings this week - I love getting to catch up with him.
• I played games with one of my most favorite families tonight and had a marvelous time.
• I have a new-ish, fun and wonderful friend at work who makes the hours I spend there so much more enjoyable.
• Our Primary presidency is running like a well-oiled machine, as is the entire Primary staff. We are practically 100% staffed. (Let's see how long it lasts!!) But I love how well our Presidency works together. Everyone pitches in wherever they're needed and always without a complaint. Primary is a good place to be.
• And speaking of fun and wonderful friends, Kim gave me a beautiful book today and wrote even more beautiful things inside. Whatever did I do to deserve such great people in my life??? Happy sigh.

The Bachelor - the aftermath

I didn't get to sleep until almost 12:30 and I'm an irritated, irritable, bleary-eyed mess today. I'm even breaking my personal rule by blogging at work because I just have to get my thoughts out of my head. When my boss saw me this morning he said, "you're emotionally spent." And I totally am. I know it was just a ridiculously stupid (and scripted) reality TV show but it was all just so CRUEL! I think that's what I hated the most.

Okay, here's my list of thoughts...

• Jason is a total loser. If he didn't want to marry Melissa, why didn't he break up with her off camera instead of subjecting her to such a humiliating public dumping? I couldn't even watch the screen, it was that horrible. I'm glad she was more angry and hurt than emotional. I would have walked off the stage sobbing, if I were her.
• How much more money did he get to stage the break up in front of the cameras, do you think? I saw a Jimmy Kimmel clip where Jimmy asked why Jason broke up with her like that and Jason said "I had to." Um, "Jay?" No you didn't. You could have been a man and broke up with her one on one or even via email, fax, text whatever. Any of those ways would have been less cruel than what you subjected Melissa to last night.
• The crap he spewed to Melissa during the break up was SO scripted. I have worked in PR departments and I know people don't write the stuff they are quoted as saying. That's just the way it is. So people, everything that came out of Jason's mouth on the after the rose show was fed to him by producers, a shrink, or a PR person. They told him what to say to try and convince the viewers he was not being a complete douchebag by breaking up with a nice girl on national TV.
• And really, I don't begrudge him wanting to be with the girl he loves the most. Wait, I meant to say "loves" the most, because we know how real his "love" is. I just think Jason/ABC should have been decent human beings and left Melissa out of the after the rose show altogether.
• I have nothing against Molly either. Well, I didn't until her hand went on his knee with about 10 minutes left to watch last night. If she would have just stopped at the "let's see what happens" or whatever, I would have been fine. But no, her hand went to his knee and then the stupid kissing began. Again, could Jason/ABC have been more cruel to Melissa? Seriously???
• And Jason crying. Oy vey. I am a sensitive, romantic girl who appreciates a man who cries but when Jason cried throughout the three hour debacle of last night, I just rolled my eyes. I have zero sympathy for him and again, do not believe him at all.
• ABC -- is Jerry Springer now the president of your network? Maybe Maury Povich? That's what last night felt like to us -- a 3 hour, primetime Springer/Povich extravaganza.
• The DeAnna visit was just a waste. Did you notice they didn't show his face when she came in the door? Her arrival obviously wasn't a surprise to him. And it was just to set us up for the public breakup, which really does sort of seal the whole conspiracy theory: that Jason likely proposed to the one he didn't really want so he could do this whole after the rose breakup and rekindle the relationship with Molly.
• His ridiculous suits are still too small.
• Melissa's dress at the final rose ceremony was BEAUTIFUL! I liked Molly's purple but Melissa's was stunningly gorgeous. And her hair was (slightly) better. I can't remember who said it last night (either Jaylene or Kim) but you don't wear a bad pony tail with a formal dress!
• Melissa's acceptance of the proposal was probably the most darling thing I've ever seen. Everyone at our viewing party said "I want to marry Melissa now" (and yes, we're all hetero females.) She was so sweet and real. Melissa, you had us at "can I wear my stretchy pants?"

What I know for sure

1. Adjusting the part in your hair slightly to the left or right will allow less gray hairs to be visible. This will keep you from feeling a little less ugly until you finally get around to getting in for your long overdue foil/color (four more days, people. Four. More. Days.)
2. Not every single girl is as neurotic or as desperate as the Ginnifer Goodwin character in "He's Just Not That Into You."
3. Not every married man is as disgusting as the Bradley Cooper character in "He's Just Not That Into You."
4. Getting an unexpected "I missed you and I'm glad you're back" followed by a hug from a darling six year old boy helps get you through an overly emotional Sunday (Sharing Time was all about fathers. Come on!!! It was my first Sunday back!!!)
5. If you cry a little (okay, a lot) at church, you get LOTS of sympathetic dinner invitations.
6. Those uncooked tortillas from Costco that Celia has talked about are pure, unadulterated heaven.
7. I will likely want to yell at the TV screen tonight while watching The Bachelor with Jazzy. (Another fun day of emailing with Holly, Jill, Lindsey and Jazzy today as we blathered on and on about Bachelor rumors.)

So glad it's March!

This was probably the hardest month I've ever had. I'm so glad it's over and I can start fresh in March with no funerals. Please. Thank you to all of you who commented here, emailed, brought me warm cookies and sat with me as I dealt with stuff, and on and on. I am so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life.

I flew to Arizona on February 18th and came home on the 24th. It was my first time visiting there and I loved the 80 degree weather we had all week. I think I'll be a snowbird when I grow up. My sister and I stayed with my brother and his family at their beautiful home in Chandler. My sisters and mom arrived over the next few days. My dad had eight daughters (one died as a child) and one son. Here's a so-so picture of the siblings -- I hope someone else got a better one.


Planning a funeral with seven siblings was challenging at times but it was nice to be able to sit back and let others take over. Dad's bishop conducted the funeral and was wonderful. All but one sibling got up and shared memories of dad. (I talked about how service oriented he was.) The Relief Society put on a nice lunch after the services: tater tot casserole, funeral potatoes, 50 jillion cakes. Real LDS comfort food. ;)

Speaking of food, I learned a great lesson during this experience and I will share it here. If someone you know has a death in their family and they are hosting lots of visitors, please, please, please send food. Easy stuff like Costco muffins, bags of chips, soda, etc. will always be welcome and do not feel one bit bad about not making something. The family will be so busy with details that there isn't always time to run to the store. My brother & sister-in-law's friends and neighbors were so kind and generous. We had almost entire meals brought in that were able to feed the roughly 45 people who were in town at some point over the weekend. We took this big group shot at a nearby park.

It was an emotional weekend but I felt a lot of closure after the funeral was over. I loved my dad and he loved me. That's all that really needs to be said. Oh that and the fact that every family has a, um, "different" person or two (or ten) in it.

I'm going to finish with a bunch of pictures from the weekend. Even though it got crazy and some members of my family are extremely different from me, it was still fun catching up.

My oldest niece Cami (I was 7 when she was born and she now has six kids of her own!) and Makenna at my brother's house.

My great-niece Ruby and niece Rylee. Imagine what a real photographer like Michelle could do with Ruby -- check out her eyes (both her mom and dad have dark brown eyes.)

Lots of fun time with Natalie who is moving from Hawaii to Washington in about six weeks. I know they can wait but I can't!!!



My sister Jenilee, my brother Allan and my sister Katie.

My niece Amanda

My first visit to In-n-Out. We sat outside because it was super crazy inside. That's my bro-in-law Matt with me. The burgers were great but you know what? Dick's Drive-in burgers are a tiny bit better, I think (just don't order their greasy fries when you go.)

Many years ago, my mom took three old photos of my dad as a little boy and had them framed. This is one of them.