A bad day that turned into a good day

I had a bad morning -- one where I kept dropping things like bags of garbage and cardboard boxes in the rain. I had plans to go to get cupcakes and lunch with two of my favorite work friends but realized on the drive in that because we were so shorthanded, I needed to stay at work. Sigh.

I let my friends know right away that I couldn't go on our lunchtime field trip and encouraged them to still go. They brought back the cupcakes I'd requested for my mom (pineapple upside down!) Kim (triple chocolate!) and me (the usual!) But guess what else? They made a special trip to Panera for lunch and brought me broccoli cheddar soup and a red balloon to cheer me up. Friends are the best!!!

Why I love New Jersey

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to go to a Botox party?

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to completely furnish your brand new, ginormous, designed by you home with furniture you bought with cold hard cash?

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be BFFs with a former/alleged actress slash model slash drug dealer slash stripper slash convicted felon?

Well, if you yelled YES to any of the above questions, you are probably obsessed with "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" just like me. Here's a little background for you...

Pictured above is Caroline. She's sort of the head of the family, the godmother if you will. She has three grown children and owns a scary dog.

This is Dina (probably my favorite.) Dina and Caroline are sisters who are married to brothers. Dina's husband doesn't appear on the show and she has a normal/healthy relationship with her daughter Lexi.Next is Jacqueline. She's married to Dina & Caroline's brother (are you still with me here?) On this season of the show, she was shown trying to get pregnant. She has since given birth to a baby boy - yay.

This is Teresa (not the best picture of her.) She's the one who pays cash for everything. She's a married, stage mother of three little girls. She has a ton of clothes. Her husband's job is listed as "entrepreneur." Um, right. Oh and she's pregnant in real life.

And finally, my least favorite. Danielle. She's the one who has allegedly done all of the bad stuff I mentioned above. She's part of the group because she's friends with Jacqueline (and because they needed a villain on the show) and she's just a horrible, icky woman. She has two daughters whom she tells everything to (stuff most normal mothers would not tell their teen/tween daughters.) She's had too much plastic surgery (she was the hostess of the Botox party.)

The season was only six episodes, which was not nearly enough. Seriously, last night's season finale was probably the best reality TV I've ever seen. It will be repeated a few dozen times this week so if you need an escape from your life, look for it and watch it. The last 15 minutes are so delicious. I can't wait for next week's reunion!

Here's what I'm thinking about

I gave my second bridal shower in four weeks yesterday. It was wonderful...exhausting but wonderful. I was too busy to take a headcount but I'm thinking we crammed thirty or so people into Tricia's home. The food was fantastic...salads, watermelon, rolls and then an assortment of peanut butter & chocolate desserts (the bride's favorite.)

She got lots of great gifts and was extremely kind and gracious to everyone. Lots of people helped with the food and that was wonderful. All in all, it was a really fun day but seriously, I am off the party-planning train for awhile. It's hard work being the hostess with the mostess.

Camp is four weeks from Monday. Wow.

We're getting a new bishop soon because ours is moving in a week. I was a few minutes late to church and thought for sure I was going to miss it but it didn't happen today. I love our current bishop. We have such a good ward and I know a lot of that comes from his calm & loving leadership. I know we'll be fine with whomever takes his place but it's still going to be interesting.

My blogging friend Michelle lost her mom this morning...so sad. This has been such a hard year!

I had tiny little ants on my kitchen floor on Friday night but haven't seen once since. Weird! And disgusting!

I want to be on the hot tamale train.

I so very much love this show. So much so that I deleted last night's show on my TiVo and came home tonight and retrieved it from the deleted file so I could watch the performances again. I just love it! Here's exactly what I love about the show...

I love the music and I love that it's not performed by cheesy lounge singers. I also love that they include the titles and artists so I can buy the stuff I love.

I love Nigel, especially now that he's cut his hair. I love that he is always kind even when giving criticism.

I adore Mary and her fakeouts that she hated the performance but then turns into her screaming that she loved it. She's a little too free with the OMGs but she is just sweet and kind and you know what? She knows what she's talking about. Did you see her dance on the finale last year? Wow.
I love that darling Cat Deeley and the way she says "jidges." (Sorry Chrissy.) I think she's a great host and so much more watchable than that lame Ryan Seacrest.

I love the choreographers. Wade Robson's crash test dummy number? So out there but so cool. Mandy Moore is phenomenal too. Oh but that brings me to the one thing I don't like about this show -- Mia Michaels.

Okay, her choreography is amazing but as soon as she opens her mouth I want to tell her to shut it. She's just rude and mean and really, this show does NOT need a Simon (who seems mean but you know he's not.)

I'm having the hardest time figuring out which dancers I love the most because they were all seriously phenomenal last night. I know for a fact I love Melissa & Ade (she's the 29 year old ballerina.) That lift they did last night -- holy cow! Until I watched this show last year, I had no idea I could ever like contemporary dance and I absolutely adore it. It's my favorite to watch with hip hop being a close second.

If you haven't watched this show yet, please start so we can talk about it! Here's Melissa & Ade's performance from last night...let me know if you loved it as much as me.

I heart Broadway

I love anything and everything Broadway. Love. It. I started watching the Tony's late tonight though, darn it all. Apparently Bret Michaels got smacked in the head because he missed his mark during the big opening number. Oops. Here's a video:



And I think I have to buy the soundtrack to the show "Rock of Ages." Come on, you know you want it too! It's all 80s hair band music that's been totally Broadway-ified. Here's one of the performances -- High Enough with Constantine from American Idol fame.



I should be in bed but they said there was going to be a performance from Legally Blonde so I'm staying up for that - can't wait to see this show when it comes to my town next year!



Ooh it's on -- gotta go!

Numbers of the week

25 -- Difference in degrees in our temp from yesterday to today...cloudy and high 60s after 90s yesterday. Sigh...I want summer back, please.

5 -- Ice cream treats consumed at DQ tonight. I took my birthday girl/sister Jen's kids out tonight so she and Matt could party it up. We went to Target, over to Boni's to visit with the stamp club girls, stopped for treats and told stories on the drive home. It was such a fun night. One of the stamp club girls said the kids looked like they could be mine, which I thought was sweet. But seriously, aren't these four super cute kids??


3 -- Hours I lost while watching "Lost in Austen" that I will never get back. I so wanted to love it but I only liked it occasionally and hated everything else about it (especially the ending, which was so terribly wrong.)

4 -- Bald eagles I saw while eating at this restaurant last weekend, which made me super happy. I had Copper River salmon -- total perfection.

60 -- Bridal shower invitations made on Monday night. My dear, kind and wonderful friend Boni stayed up late on a work night and helped me put them together. I kept them simple considering the numbers - here is a so-so picture. They turned out really cute and now I'm just trying to decide what to do at the shower (besides hope that less than 60 people show up.) I want the shower to be completely different from Callie's, which was so perfect. Wish me luck!

A broken record

Camp planning this year is hard. So, so, so SO hard. If I haven't mentioned it a few dozen times already, I'm taking a break after this year. And like Forrest Gump once said, that's all I have to say about that.

Oh but will you please read this article from LDS Living?

The author of the article is one of my former young women who is interning at LDS Living this summer (so proud of her!)

The person she interviewed for the article is my dear friend who eight years ago convinced me that I, a non-camper who had only worked in Primary and Relief Society up until that point, could be a leader of youth. I loved reading the article and being reminded why this is such a wonderful program for young women.

Oh and it was 89 degrees today and probably even hotter than that at my house. Love it but it's stinking hot.

The end.