My new ringtone

Have you all seen this commercial? I hope so. It's one of my faves. My sister Jen texted me the song today so it's now my new ringtone. If you're a verizon customer and want it too, email me your cell number and I'll text it to you (I don't think it will work unless you're verzion.) Anyway, it makes me laugh whenever anyone calls me. LOVE IT!! Thanks, Jen!

Irritations / Non Irritations

The things that are irritating me today are:

• The conversion to digital TV. I realized last night that my beloved TiVo is basically going to be a VCR after June 12. I can only record one show at a time AND I have to stay on that channel while it's recording. How fantastic is that?
• Grown women who talk like little girls at work. Why? It doesn't make them look smart at all.
• Trying to come up with a graduation card to make for the millions of graduating seniors I love. Okay, I might be exaggerating on the number just a tad but still - it's a lot and I have no creative juices.
• Trying to eat healthy. Eating non-healthy is just simpler.
• Being asked why I'm not married yet. Love, love, love that question. Okay, no I hate it.

The things that are not irritating me today are:

• The weather. It's been sunny and beautiful all week and it's supposed to reach 80 by Friday.
• The fact that I didn't cough all night last night for the first time since Thursday.
• I'm going away for the second weekend in row. This time I'm going to a cabin a bit south of here with a friend to celebrate my birthday. I love having a birthday that never ends.
• How I feel when I eat more healthy. It's good.
• Seeing Mt. Rainier as I drive home. It's stunningly beautiful and reminds me how great it is to live where I live (found the photo on google images -- but this is exactly how it looked today.)
  
  

Holiday Weekend Perfection

What I did this weekend:

• Had dinner with two friends on Friday night, one of whom now lives in Australia. It had been almost three years since I last saw Sara and it was wonderful catching up, even though it wasn't long enough.
• Drove to Portland Saturday morning with Michelle. We stayed at a really nice hotel on the Columbia River. The weather was absolutely perfect -- high 70s and sunny.
• We stopped at some outlets on the way and I bought new clothes for summer. Yay!
• We visited the Saturday Market - super crowded and not really our thing but fun for people watching. Tons of tattoos, dogs and passed out people.
• We visited our second favorite Portland area mall, Washington Square (I love Clackamas the most.) We went to Williams-Sonoma where I spent my birthday money on a RED Le Creuset (Oregon has no sales tax - ours is 9.5% so it was like it was on sale. Almost.)
• We took the trolley into downtown and shopped, shopped and shopped some more. We experienced Anthropologie for the first time ever, which was very fun. We checked out the half yearly sale at Nordstrom, went to Macy's where I went a little crazy. Fabulous sales.
• We saw Star Trek. LOVED IT! I seriously seriously seriously love Chris Pine. Yum.
• I coughed so much at night. It was horrible. I tried everything to stop it and nothing worked. I haven't had a good night's sleep for the last three nights because of it. But I feel better overall.
• While we were in the hotel room, we watched a lot of the Jon & Kate Plus 8 marathon. I'd never watched that show before this weekend and I have to say Kate is mean. Jon has his moments too but Kate is so rude to her husband. And Maddie, one of the older twins, is a total mini-Kate, and that is not a compliment. I hope for their family's sake, they go into some sort of therapy. I also think they should stop doing the show so they can work on putting their family back together.

And finally, if you are a praying sort of person, will you please say a prayer for my blogging friend Michelle (not to be confused with the Michelle I spent my weekend with.) Michelle's mom is fighting liver cancer and they could all use your prayers. Thank you...

Chastity Cupcakes

The day before my birthday, I went to my friend Boni's house to do some card-making & die-cutting. She surprised me with a plate of cupcakes with this cute little C in them. Read this link and you'll understand why I laughed. Love you, Boni!

The I'm Sick Entry

I'm sick.

Cough. Sniff.

Have I mentioned that I'm sick?

I don't think it's "that" flu but it's the low grade fever/sneezy/coughing kind of sick. The kind of sick that keeps you home from work because you want to be healthy for the long, sunny, holiday weekend kind of sick.

What I've been doing while I've been sick: catching up on my TiVo'd shows, downloading stuff from iTunes, a little bit of work, sleeping, doing laundry and playing Peggle on my iPod. I haven't felt much like reading, strangely enough. Maybe after I finish this.

I loved the AI Finale last night. The performances were so great and it was such a fun surprise to see Kris win. I'm not worried about Adam's career - he'll be fine.

Did anyone watch Glee? I'm thinking I'm going to love it based solely on the music. I already bought the two songs (Rehab and Don't Stop Believin') and I downloaded the premiere for free (love iTunes.)

I'm very excited for So You Think You Can Dance which premieres tonight. If you haven't watched it before, try it out tonight.

I'm going on a little trip this weekend with my friend Michelle. This Sunday would have been/should have been her husband Rick's 51st birthday so we're getting away to celebrate. We'll be seeing Star Trek because he would love that. We'll also shop, soak up the sun and watch movies in our hotel room because what he would love most is for Michelle to be happy.

So let me know...did you watch Glee? Are you going to watch SYTYCD? Are you doing anything fun this weekend? Entertain me while I'm in my sickbed, please.

Updates: gift cards, my health and the Bachelorette

Gift Cards: I currently have $65 to spend at Amazon (yay, books for my Kindle!) and $100 to spend at Williams-Sonoma. Sweet!

Health: I really don't want to admit this or put it in writing because then I'm acknowledging it but I have a cold. Boo hiss. Thankfully, I bought a 4 pack of Puffs Plus tissues last night.

Bachelorette: This show takes a few weeks before I really know if I'm going to like it or not but I of course have some opinions to share after watching the season premiere. Jillian bugged me a lot last year but not quite as much last night. That of course could change. And can I just say there were TOO many guys on last night's show??? It was crazy and like 92% of them had dark hair so I couldn't keep any of them straight. A few of the likable standouts for me were Juan from Argentina, Sasha with the grandkid-hungry mother, cool-named Kiptyn and Jake the pilot. A few of the unlikable standouts were freaky foot fetishist Tanner, fitness model who is trying to force a nickname Greg and I drive a fancy car so it means I'm a total stud Julien.

Should we start a pool as to when the first kiss will happen??? Next week or the week after?

Birthday summary

Okay, my birthday, so far, has been wonderful and sad. I'll explain.


On Friday, my fabulous friend Krysta gave me a gift card to Red Robin and a box full of cookies. Not just any box -- this box!



Fun, huh? My boss gave me a gift card to Williams Sonoma. I long to own an overpriced dutch oven like the one below. I just have to decide which color.

As I mentioned earlier, my sweet sister Jenilee came up to help me frost sugar cookies for the shower favors and then we stayed up watching TV shows we love (is it sad that I'm so excited about the out of wedlock pregnancy on the Office? Yes, it is.) After Callie's bridal shower, these darling boys washed my car for me. I love a clean car when it's sunny and beautiful outside.


The weather has been perfect all weekend -- 75-80 degrees. Just lovely.


Later in the afternoon, my family and I went to Panera for lunch. I don't think any of them had been there before so it was great to see them love it as much as I do. One of my nephews got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and he marveled how it was "mostly jelly." Apparently, that's a good thing. Here's a picture of Jen and me. We're laughing because whenever I get ready for a picture, I make a little humming noise in the back of my throat. I don't know why but I have to think about it so I don't do it.


My sister Jana drove down to surprise me (she lives an hour away.) Here she is with Makenna & Natalie.



After lunch, we drove to Mom's house to hang out for a bit (here comes the sad part.) We were sitting out on the patio, enjoying the beautiful afternoon, watching the kids play. I asked one of my sisters to take a picture of me with one of my nieces. I handed her my beautiful, four month old camera (the camera I seriously love and bought with my Christmas gift card.) I saw her hand go up to take the camera from me (or so I thought) and I stupidly let the camera go and dropped it on the cement patio.




See the dented lens? Sigh. It won't open, close, focus, nothing. I just cried and cried. My sister Jaylene was so sweet and hugged me as I cried (she's not a big hugger so that made me cry more.) My mom and sisters immediately said they'd all chip in for a new camera so we went out to Costco but they no longer have cameras like mine. We got home and I left again to pick up Lynda and we met Kim and Callie down at Sam's and guess what? Sam's had my camera. PHEW! It's exactly the same except it has a blue matte finish instead of the smooth black finish of my old one.



After Sam's, we went to California Pizza Kitchen. YUM! I stepped out of my BBQ chicken chopped salad comfort zone and Lynda and I split a BLT pizza. It was pure heaven. Seriously.


Later we went back to Lynda's for a yummy birthday cake from Cold Stone (thank you Kim!)


Kim also gave me this beautiful new purse. The color didn't come through but it's a gorgeous red leather. I love it so much!



Tomorrow night is dinner with three of my dearest, longtime girlfriends plus I have two other nights out later this week. I love a birthday that lasts and lasts.

Callie's Shower

It's going to be a two post day...first I'll blog about Callie's shower, then about my birthday.

Saturday was a beautiful day for Callie's bridal shower -- sunny and perfect.

We hosted a brunch and served egg casseroles, fruit and monkey bread (which was so good and SO easy -- my tip is to cut the biscuits with kitchen shears and it will literally take you ten minutes to throw this together.)

There were about 25 people there and it was basically one of the best showers ever.

We ate first and while everyone was eating, I had a list of questions that the mother of the bride (aka Kim) had gotten the groom to be (aka Andrew) to answer.

They were just silly questions like how does he like his eggs prepared (scrambled) and who's his favorite super hero (Batman.) It was fun to watch Callie's face light up as she talked about Andrew. Ah, love. ;) After we ate, Callie opened gifts. Check out the way cute, blinged-out "domestic diva" apron below...I need one!

The hit gift was probably the ice cream maker but there were other standouts like a rolling cooler, a Kool Aid pitcher & cup set and lots of other wonderful things.

I gave Callie some thank you cards I'd made plus one of those Baker's Edge brownie pans where every brownie you cut has an edge (which is Callie's favorite part of the brownie.)

While she was opening gifts, we passed around a sheet of paper and had each person write the next line to a story about Callie & Andrew. We also had everyone fill out an envelope for their thank you card and then drew one for a door prize. That was it for "games." Nothing dorky or stressful or competitive.

For party favors, I made frosted sugar cookies with my alphabet cookie cutters (C + A.) I felt compelled to do something dessert-y since we didn't serve a cake or anything. (And they were SO good, if I do say so myself.)

I think it was such a great shower because everyone just enjoyed each other's company and Callie & Andrew are obviously MFEO (think Sleepless in Seattle.) We missed Callie's sisters, Kara and Jamie but otherwise, it was a perfect day.

What I'm doing right now

I'm at home, watching this:

Having a slumber party with this sweet sister (no, it's not snowing tonight - I just liked the picture):

Hoping I have everything done for the bridal shower I'm giving in the morning for the lovely girl seated next to me in the (also old) picture below:

Oh and thinking about turning this in less than an hour,

Phew!

I'm halfway through a crazy busy week. Work is seriously nuts plus I had Camp Kickoff tonight. I'm going to see High School Musical at a local high school tomorrow night. Friday I'm taking the day off and then my sister is coming to spend the night with me on Friday night. THEN Saturday is Callie's bridal shower so in between now and then, I'm prepping stuff for that. BUSY! I need a nap.

So after much fear and trepidation, Camp Kickoff turned out great. As I've mentioned before, the girls I'm over are not like any I've had in previous years. They are stepping up though and doing well. We had more of them there tonight than we've had at our previous meetings so that was wonderful. Our camp song (to the tune of Eye of the Tiger) turned out really fun and everyone seemed to like it. I already had one mom beg me to stick around one more year (to work with her daughter next year.) I will not succumb to peer pressure! Mark my words!!

Here's a picture of Tammy, my assistant and I tonight after kickoff. Someone made this lite brite YW torch several years ago and it works well now with our Olympics theme. Hilarious, no??

Thankful, emotional and everything in between.

Mother's Day is always just weird for me. I decided today that I never really got emotional about it until I worked in the Young Women organization and got a little taste of what it means to be a mother (it was much easier being oblivious, let me tell you.) I had to fight tears a lot today and I know it's selfish, self-absorbed and stupid. I know it - you don't have to tell me it's not all about me because I know it isn't. But I hate that I feel sad on a day like today -- a day that celebrates women.

I disliked feeling like there was a spotlight shining brightly on me each time anyone mentioned women without children of their own but who are still mothers to many (aka, me.) It's a really sweet sentiment and it's comforting but it's also a bit of a heartbreaker too. To keep from crying, I got out my notebook and just took notes all through a truly marvelous Sacrament meeting. One thing I was reminded of today: Eve was called the mother of all living before she even had children. I loved hearing that.

Besides feeling emotional today, I feel thankful knowing that my parents decided to adopt me nearly 42 years ago. I feel thankful that two teenagers knew enough to give me up for adoption so that I could be raised in a family who wanted me and could give me brothers and sisters and a really great life. I feel thankful that the family who chose me was an LDS family...I can't even imagine my life any other way. I have no interest or desire to learn more about them but I hope at least on Mother's Day, the woman who gave me away feels peace in her decision because she made the right one.

I was blessed with a wonderful mother who is fun, kind and giving. My flower pots are filled because she knows it makes me happy to have flowers by my door when I come home from work and she knows I really don't like getting my hands dirty. She is really smart and knows so much about the scriptures. She'll print a verse out on a 3x5 card and bring it with her on her walk (she's walked 2-3 miles a day for the last 30 years) and she'll memorize it. She's the hardest worker I know too. She is always doing something. She lives on 2/3 of an acre and she mows her lawn herself (none of that ride on lawn mower stuff for her either.) Oh and did I mention she's 70? I love my mom -- she is truly a gift.

Pics

I'm getting ready to go to my 4th wedding reception in 2 weeks. Yes, you read that correctly. Craziness! Before I leave, I thought I'd share some pictures since I am bad about putting photos up here. Just random photos...that shouldn't surprise anyone.

Here's my dear friend Patty -- she's the one I visited over conference weekend.

Here's Boni, Jeni and I at the SU regionals a couple of weeks ago. So fun to have Jeni back! She won a door prize too - lucky girl. Today is Boni's birthday -- happy birthday!!

Here's Mom and Jenilee after Mom opened her little lobster thing Jen gave her for Mother's Day today -- it's a little plastic lobster that moves in a fish tank. Don't know how to explain it. Mom was thrilled to get it. Our real gift to her was a digital photo frame. Hope she liked it - I thought it was really cool.

Here's Natalie today with Mom's dog Sophie in the background. Love Natalie!! She's so fun. And look at the beautiful day we had today - my mom's backyard is like a park.

And now my trampoline series. I love my camera and that I was able to get some fun action shots of Makenna and McKenzie on the trampoline today!

Serious air!

And finally - Sophie. She's about 3 months old and just over 4 lbs. She still doesn't bark. She is a sweet dog and makes my mom very happy which is the best.

A quickie before bed

Okay, about the flushing. I feel like I need to explain a bit more. In a public restroom, as soon as "something" hits the water, flush. If "something else" hits the water, flush again. Keep the bowl clean and the air around you stays a bit more pleasant. Get it??? And seriously. Leave an empty stall between you and whomever was there first. It's just good manners.

My camp meeting tonight was good again! Two in a row - I'm so happy. We got our camp song written (thanks anyway, ghost writer!) Our backdrop got painted and a major piece of scenery for our skit is done. We did all of this with only seven girls and in 90 minutes. It drives me crazy that we don't have the same people there each meeting. The girls who are in plays or whatever - I get that. But come on...would it kill you to follow through and come to your dang meetings??? Sheesh.

Biggest Loser - I cannot believe they did a marathon! Tara seriously, seriously rocks and I hope she wins. I can't believe I'm saying that but it's true. And Helen? She's weird but she is amazing too. She actually inspires me most of all just because she's sort of in my age bracket (but SOOOOOOOOO much older...lol.) The devious/competitive me wants Ron to be in the final three but I'm guessing everyone will vote in Mike. Finale party next week - can't wait!

And finally, there's a woman at work who infuriates me. I so wish I could go into detail but alas, I cannot. I will tell you she's rude and mean and condescending but she thinks she's super cool and smart.

But guess what -- she's in her mid 30s with hair almost down to her waist and she wears it pulled back with a scrunchie.

I KNOW!!!!! A SCRUNCHIE!!!

Now I have to shut up about it but I feel better getting that off my chest. Just know you would dislike her if you ever met her and you'd probably want to tell her off for being so rude and mean and condescending. Then, because you've totally got my back, you'd rip the scrunchie out of her stupid, too long for her age, hair.**

**I do try hard to be kind and good...sometimes I fail. I'll repent later.

Oprah, work, public bathrooms and more

Strangely enough, I've just not had anything to say lately. But today? I've got stuff to say.

• Today's Oprah just made me cry. I love it when people have their dreams come true.
• Work has been nuts for the last week and a half. My workload has almost doubled and it will likely stay that way until the end of June. I've been going in early and staying late. I'm tired.
• My camp meeting this past weekend was so much better. We had three first-timers there and just a much better energy. Camp kick-off is a week from tomorrow...ugh.
• I went to two wedding receptions this past weekend and there are so many more this summer. So thankful for my friends who are willing to do group gifts with me because this would be one expensive summer.
• Speaking of weddings, this past weekend I made really cute (in my humble opinion) invitations for Callie's bridal shower coming up in a couple of weeks. Can't wait to see her! The other shower I was hosting never happened. Thankfully, I only bought those invitations...if I'd made them and we'd had to cancel, I would have been a lot more bothered than I was. One more shower to plan after Callie's...no date yet though.
• And the topic you've all been waiting for: public restrooms. Gross, I know, but a necessary evil. However, I have two issues: one, why is it that when there are four empty stalls in your work restroom, someone comes in after you and has to go into the stall immediately next to yours? It's just weird to me - I don't like to be so close to people unless absolutely necessary. My other issue? People need to learn to courtesy flush! If you have to do something that um, smells, please flush often! Seriously. FLUSH LOTS OF TIMES! Who cares if you are wasting a little water?? The air pollution is a much bigger issue than a little water wasting, trust me! Master the courtesy flush -- your coworkers will thank you for it.