The Dandelion Has It

Las Vegas

2012-01-24T21:30:00.003-07:00

So, I went to Vegas with my friend Stacey. It was a spontaneous kind of trip. She text me Wednesday night (at approx 2 am) and the text said something like: Hey Michelle, I'm going to Vegas tomorrow and I want you to come with.

I went to work the next morning, got that afternoon and Friday off, and we hit the road. We were gone from 1-12-12 to 1-16-12. It was a LOT of fun. Here are some things that happened:

I got woken up by a rooster Friday morning...I'm pretty sure it was a first for me. Not just being woken up by a rooster in Las Vegas, being woken up by a rooster at all. Awesome.
I went to CES. Who would have thought I would love that show so much? I don't generally know anything about electronic type stuff. It was really great though. There were a ton of spectacular things to see.
Went to my first ever Las Vegas buffet. The Buffet at Wynn Las Vegas...SO good! And while there I tried some delicious King Crab (although I was willing to try tasting it, I wasn't willing to crack that sucker open and dig out the meat, I let my friend Michael do that part for me...thanks Michael)
Personally witnessed a two party Jazzy wheel chair accident. Guy just ran right into her, almost head on. Poor lady didn't even know what hit her! And Stacey and I could only stand there and stare, thinking 'did we really just see that?!' Don't worry, everyone was ok.
Pretended to be Staceys jealous girlfriend to stop some creepy guy from hitting on her. I'm pretty sure he was ready to fight me for her! I had to tell him "Hey! She's going home with me tonight." Good thing I LOOKED intimidating and he didn't know I'm actually a wimp! He left her alone the rest of the night.
Made Stacey drive about an hour out of our way (well, an hour round trip) before we could leave for home so that I could get some delicious French Market Sparkling Pink Lemonade from Trader Joe's. Oh man, it's so good!
Won at the Roulette table. Twelve Whole Dollars! (Yes, I'm genuinely excited about $12, I'm not what you would call a high roller.)
Played Bingo for the first time ever. So much fun!
Went and saw the Fremont Street light show for the first time
Witnessed some lady at the gas station get a really funny look from Stacey because when the lady said "I like your boots" Stacey thought she said "boobs"...awkward
Taught Stacey how to curl her hair with a flat iron. It looked great!
Went in search of the pool in our swimsuits only to be given a funny look by the desk clerk and be reminded that even though it may feel warm to us, it's still winter. "The pools only open in summer."
Had a spectacular time trying to help Stacey figure out how to work the slot machine. For the record, I said that I tried to help, in truth I might have just been part of the problem. Michael was the real hero of the situation by removing us silly girls from the casino floor all together. Apparently you have to do more than just put money in and push the cash out button. Who knew?
Saw the fountains go off at the Billagio twice, after having missed them two days in a row.
Wandered around some of the hotels on the strip and saw some of the cool things that there are to see in Las Vegas.
Went into the Christian Louboutin store to drool and daydream over beautiful black pumps with a red sole....aahhhh....if only....
Showed up awkwardly in the background of almost every picture taken at the little rich girls birthday party. Hey, it wasn't our fault that her reserved V.I.P. table was right in front of where we positioned ourselves at the club. It was prime location, we weren't going to move!
Developed a pattern that I haven't ever had before, and I hope to never have again. This is how it went: Boy buys Stacey drink, Stacey sets drink down on ledge in front of where I'm dancing, I knock drink over, repeat. I swear I spilled half a dozen drinks, at least! Sheesh!
Had so, SO much fun!

I'm sure there are actually many, many more things that happened, but I cant think of them now and this post is already really long so I'll just leave it at that. It was a really great vacation!

Blogging....

2012-01-11T18:25:00.002-07:00

So...yeah....
Remember how I was excited cause I got the internet, and I was going to start blogging again. That isn't happening so much. It turns out I don't have much to say on my little blog....
hhmmm.....what a fabulous post this is!

Yup, Another Christmas Post

2011-12-21T22:59:00.003-07:00

It would seem that packing up to deliver the gifts is almost as exciting as the actual giving of the gifts...ok, it isnt quite THAT great, but it did make me a little giddy!

Christmas Countdown

2011-12-20T07:04:00.004-07:00

Do you know whats great? When it gets so close to Christmas that instead of counting dates to make sure you are on track with your cute little advent calendar (ie: 25th, 24th, 23rd...) you count days to make sure you're on track with your cute little advent calendar (ie: Sunday, Saturday, Friday...)

Christmas Decorations

2011-12-15T22:19:00.000-07:00

I love Christmas time and want to enjoy the season for as long as possible so I usually decorate right after Thanksgiving (which I did again this year). My little apartment is so cute with my Christmas tree and lights and little decorations all over, so I thought I'd share some pictures:

This is my little tree. Fun, huh?

And here are Brandon and Whitney after Whit and I hung some lights up in their apartment.

(tee hee, it started out looking nice, but then we had extra and since B was in the other room we decided to just fling them about wildly to see how he reacted. He walked into the room, paused, and said "oh boy...". It was funny. We fixed it later, they are pretty dang cute now)

And THIS is the picture that I received from my dad of my parents Christmas tree. Yeah. Its tipped over. There were a plethora of jokes to be had.

Mom claimed that she thought it would be easier to hang the lights if she just lay them out on the floor and rolled the tree around them.

I have yet to see the finished tree, but I did call to verify that no people or pets were injured in the falling of this tree. Apparently they were busy decorating and it just up and tipped over. Needless to say, I laughed. A lot!

Pocatello

2011-12-12T18:50:00.004-07:00

This weekend I took a little road trip to visit two of my very favorite people, B & Whit, in lovely Pocatello. We had so much fun (at least I had so much fun, and they said they did too...I choose to believe them)
Wanna know some of the fun things we did? Ok, I'll tell you:
They showed me around town a bit, I saw where B goes to school and works, and they pointed out where Whit works, and we went to the mall, which was...well...a little sad. The mall in Pocatello isn't really that impressive.
Then we went to the Fort Hall Casino...which is also not the most impressive thing ever... While there we got some hot cocoa, and we all played some slots. Whit and I played more than B did, we both played $1.00, Brandon only played $0.01. We are High Rollers!
Once we had decided that we had inhaled enough second hand smoke, we left the casino and went to a movie. We saw Arthur Christmas, which was SO GREAT! I really loved that movie!
After that we went back to their apartment, made some Muddy Buddies (yum!) and hung out until the wee hours of the morning.
It was so great! Thanks Brandon and Whitney for inviting me to visit!

An Invitation

2011-12-09T22:46:00.000-07:00

Thursday, December 8, at 10:45 pm I am the lucky recipient of the following text:

"Muddy buddies, an Xbox Christmas preview, comfy queen size bed with feather mattress pad and matching sheet/comforter set, and a special pan of vegetarian lasagna await your arrival in exotic Pocatello (a mere three hour jaunt) this weekend if you choose to accept this limited time offer.
*limited to the first caller, most expenses paid, offeree responsible for interstate travel."

I immediately called in (to my younger brother) and found out that I was, in fact, the first caller!! Whoo Hoo, I won a trip to visit my Brother and Sister-in-law! Pocatello here I come!

My Friend Santa

2011-12-04T18:31:00.007-07:00

I am lucky enough to live within walking distance of work. In fact, it would probably take me longer to get my car out of my parking garage at home, drive over, and park it at the parking garage at work than it does just to walk the two(ish) blocks. In order to get to work, I usually walk through the building that houses the children's museum here at The Gateway. Well, during the holidays they have a little area in that building where Santa comes to hang out, and the kids can sit on his little purple sofa and get their picture taken with him. I LOVE that. I love walking past all the fun holiday decorations every day. I love seeing the kids that are all excited cause they just saw Santa. And I love that I have been walking past Santa on such a regular basis, that we have started to become friends.

It started out slowly. I would walk past, smiling cause I was happy to be seeing all the Christmas spirit around me, and Santa and I would kind of make eye contact and smile at each other. Then after a couple days of that, he obviously noticed that I walk past everyday cause I started getting that little head nod of recognition. One day as I was walking home, I got a full on hand wave from him. A couple days ago, he actually said "hello" to me. And last Friday as I was walking home for lunch, there weren't any children there, so we exchanged a little small talk. It makes me so happy!

So if anyone needs me to do some damage control cause they were a little more naughty than nice this past year, let me know. Santa and I are totally becoming friends!

I'm Back...(to blogging)

2011-12-04T11:03:00.001-07:00

I finally got the internet....and I want to start blogging again...ok, here I go....

Day One

2011-04-11T19:43:00.002-06:00

Well, I survived day one of my new job...I got a lot of information and I'm not sure I can remember all of it at this point. That was a little overwhelming but all in all it was a really good day. I think that this is going to be good!

More Happy News

2011-04-07T18:57:00.006-06:00

I (with lots of help from my mom) found an apartment! I (again, with lots of help from my mom) looked and looked on the Internet and went down to Salt Lake a couple of days and was hopeful of finding a nice place, but didn't really think it would happen very soon. Anything worth moving into had a waiting list, and most places were telling me they didn't think anything would be available for at least a couple months. Actually, it was the office personnel that was telling me that, not the building itself...I didn't want to confuse anyone...ha ha, man I'm funny! Anyway. I was finding that if I wanted to actually live in Salt Lake and not in a neighboring city, I either had to compromise on my budget and pay more than I thought I could really afford, or compromise on my expectations of how nice a place I could find. Well folks it turns out that sometimes you really can have your proverbial cake and eat it too! I went to look at the apartments at The Gateway and thought they looked really nice, but found that they were WAY out my price range. I gave up hope on those apartments and continued to search elsewhere, but my wonderful mom didn't give up. After some phone call (thanks mom!) and some serious time on my part trying to convince myself not to get my hopes up, we found out that they do have a few select units that would fit my budget...but (pause for effect) they aren't often available. Bummer, huh? NOPE! My mom is a diligent one! She found out that one of these units had just been rented, BUT that the people were thinking that they didn't actually want it. So she called and called and called some more and when the renters finally decided they didn't in fact want the apartment she was the squeaky wheel that got the grease (yup, i threw another little proverb in there for you. You're welcome.).

It (by "it" I mean my soon to be apartment) is (in case you didn't figure it out from the above story) at Northgate Apartments at The Gateway. It's a one bedroom, one bath cute little place and I am so, so excited! It should be ready for me to move in (assuming the application process goes smoothly...knock on wood) April 19, which is only a week and a couple days after I start my new job down there (which is MUCH better than the month-ish that I was expecting) Thanks for all the help Mom! Yay!

New Job

2011-04-05T09:08:00.000-06:00

Hey guess what...after looking and looking for WAY too long, I have finally found myself a full-time job! Cool, huh? Yeah, I'm pretty excited! Starting next Monday (April 11th) I will work in Salt Lake for what seems like a really great company and I am very excited about it! I am so very ready to start a new adventure and I think that this is just what I need. Yay for me!!

Natural Highs

2011-03-18T11:43:00.006-06:00

Yes...this WAS an email that was forwarded to me...who are you to judge? I liked it, ok? So I decided to post it on my blog...wait...its MY blog, I don't need to explain my posting choices....

Laughing so hard your face hurts

A hot shower

No lines at the supermarket

A special glance

Getting mail

Taking a drive on a pretty road

Hearing your favorite song on the radio

Lying in bed listening to the rain outside

Hot towels fresh out of the dryer

Chocolate milkshakes

Bubble baths

Giggling

The beach

Finding a 20 dollar bill in your coat from last winter

Laughing at yourself

Looking into their eyes and knowing that they love you

Midnight phone calls that last for hours

Running through sprinklers

Laughing for absolutely no reason at all

Having someone tell you that you're beautiful

Laughing at an inside joke with friends

Accidentally overhearing someone say something nice about you

Waking up and realizing you still have a few hours left to sleep

Your first kiss (either the very first or with a new partner)

Making new friends or spending time with old ones

Playing with a new puppy

Having someone play with your hair

Sweet dreams

Hot chocolate

Road trips with friends

Swinging on swings

Making eye contact with a cute stranger

Making chocolate chip cookies

Having a friend send you homemade cookies

Holding hands with someone you care about

Running into an old friend and realizing that some things (good or bad) never change

Watching the expression on someones face as they open a much desired present from you

Watching the sunrise...or set

Knowing that somebody misses you

Getting a hug from someone you care about deeply

See, they were all nice little thoughts. Sometimes forwarded emails SHOULD be shared...dang it, I'm explaining my blog actions again...I wasn't going to do that, remember?

A Song in my Heart...er...Head

2011-03-13T16:25:00.000-06:00

I have a question...does anyone ever wake up with a song stuck in their head? As in, it wasn't there when you went to bed, but it was there when you woke up? For as long as I can remember I have. Almost every single morning there is a new song just stuck in my head. Sometimes it's a song I like & sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's a song I heard just the day before & sometimes it's one I haven't heard in years. I assumed that it was something that happened to everyone, but the other day I was talking to my friend Dale (who happens to be as passionate about music as I am) and we somehow got around to this topic of conversation and I was shocked to find out that he DIDN'T wake up with a song in his head. So I started asking some more people...so far 6 out of 6 have said "nope" no song in their heads in the morning either. Interesting. I like having a song in my head in the morning, I wonder why I do? And how did it get there?

Last Day in the City...for now...

2011-03-11T07:36:00.001-07:00

6-12-10
June 12th was the last day that I got to spend in The City before moving back to Utah. It was a beautiful day, and I had plans to do nothing in particular, which is my favorite way to spend the day in New York City. I started out by going to brunch because whats not to love about brunch? Great food (french pancakes) and a mimosa is such a wonderful way to start the day, especially if its not early enough to be called breakfast! I went to The Village and ate at Yaffa Cafe on St Mark's place, its a great little cafe with so much personality (you pretty much have to have a ton of personality if you want to be a restaurant or establishment on St Mark's place) Yaffa stays open 24 hours a day so if you get there early enough on Saturday morning its basically full of people just wandering over from the clubs on Bleecker Street from the night before.

After that I just wandered The Village for a while. I found a little street fair going on and shopped and enjoyed myself there for a bit. Then I made my way up to Central Park to wander around there for a while. I went to Strawberry Fields to see the Imagine mosaic that pays tribute to John Lennon and to see The Dakota (which is the apartment building just outside the park where he was living and that he was shot in front of). I also just hung out for a while around the park and watched the tourists, the locals, and the rollerbladers in all their flamboyant wonderfulness.

After I was done hanging out in the park, I decided to go to the NY Public Library, cause it was one of the things I wanted to do while living back there but hadn't done yet...unfortunately that list is a long one...I went inside and looked around then just sat out in front of it and enjoyed the sunshine and the pulse of the city. I did a little more wandering around, got a little shopping in, and that was about it. It was kind of sad to me as I rode the train back to Connecticut and tried to imagine when I would be able to get back to NYC. Hopefully it wont be too incredibly long.

It's Almost Here!!

2011-03-10T08:15:00.007-07:00

Look what I found this morning as I was leaving for work...

Its a little tulip! Poking its little head up out of the dirt in my parents garden! Oh, welcome glorious spring!!

Time Zone

2011-02-27T08:39:00.003-07:00

oohhhh....I just changed my blog from the Eastern Time Zone back to the Mountain Time Zone....it was a little sad....ok, enough of that, I've been in this time zone for a while now...

Disclaimer

2011-02-27T08:31:00.001-07:00

This is a disclaimer regarding the randomness and inconsistency that will be my blog for the next little while...did I use the word 'disclaimer' correctly? I think I might have, if not...too bad! So, I think that most of my next few posts are going to be random pictures that are on my computer (or still on my camera...it's so hard to download them isn't it, it never seems to get done!) that spark a reminder of a story or event that I feel like sharing. I'm going to try to remember to date them but I can't promise that they will be in any sort of order and some of them may be pretty random, but...well, its my blog and I can do what I want to with it....so there you go....consider yourself disclaimed. By the way, if anyone still reads my little blog, I LOVE comments...that was a hint :)

Addison Marie

2011-02-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

June 2010
I got another perfect little niece! I was still back east when Miss Addison Marie (Addi) was born on June 14, 2010, but I got to meet her in the hospital just a couple of days later on June 16th. She was (and still is by the way) so sweet with such a good little disposition! And Kinley was so excited to be a big sister! She was 20 inches long and you should see her little feet, she might just grow up to be a basketball player or something, they are so long! She weighed 8 lbs, 13 oz and is just a happy healthy little baby. When she was born it was hard to tell if she was going to have red hair (like her big sister Makinley and her Aunt Chelle..thats me) or if she was going to be blond (like Jared and Kayleen...that would be her father and mother in case you didn't know)
Welcome to the world Addi!

Here is Kinley introducing me to her new baby sister And here Addi is with her proud Grandpa Jay

Remember Me??

2011-02-26T19:37:00.000-07:00

Wow, nine months is a long time to go without blogging! Life has been a bit of a roller coaster, but I realised today while I was reading my old posts that there has actually been a lot that has happened over the last nine months...some great things, some not so great things and I really should start blogging again. It was really interesting to me to read posts from when I first started this little blog and notice little things about myself that have changed and a year from now I'd like to notice more things about myself that have changed. So while I'm not going to make any promises about how well I will do, I will promise to TRY to blog more...hey thats something right? I'm not sure how much I want to blog about some of the "not so great" things so I think to get myself back into the routine of blogging I'll just post some pictures and stories of some of the "great things" over the past months. Look at me, I'm back to rambling away already! :) hhmmm...where to start.....

Unexpected Beach Day

2010-06-06T11:04:00.007-06:00

Yesterday morning I went into the city to have brunch for book club one last time before I move home. It was great. We didn't talk about the book at all! Someone (I think it was Meg) pointed out how funny it was that when book club started and none of us really knew each other we all read the book and came prepared, with our list of questions and comments. But now that we all know each other and have become friends we show up to brunch and just kind of forget to bring the book up at all.

As we were finishing up with brunch I asked what fun things people were doing for the day. Meg (she's the other redhead in the photo above, by the way. Right across from me) told me that her ward in Brooklyn is going to the beach, so she was going to Penn Station to catch a train to Long Island to go with. That is when I recalled that on Friday night Sadie was trying hard to convince me to go to Long Island to the beach with her and our ward. I asked Meg if this was a multi-ward sort of an event and she said that yes, she thinks it is. So I invited myself to go with. I bought a sundress off the street on the way from the restaurant to the subway (Oh yeah the restaurant. Cafe Mei Mei in Brooklyn, which had the most amazing, cornflake battered french toast ever), hopped on a train with Meg, and went to Jones Beach.

This is a picture Patrick took and I stole off his facebook (thanks Patty) of Me, Sadie, Meg, and Sarah chatting just off the boardwalk

Meg, myself, and Karen (who I just met on this trip and is wonderful) hanging out on the beach.

And here I am with Sadie. We had a lot of fun. There was a volleyball tournament, frisbee, and just general lounging around. The water was SO cold, so I just put my little toes in for a few minutes...well, the cold water and the fact that I had no swimsuit is probably why I only put my little toes in. After we finished soaking up the sun and hanging out we (Meg, Karen, myself, and a number of Megs friends) got back on the train and went to dinner at the Shake Shack. It was such a great day.

Bye, Bye East Coast

2010-05-31T20:28:00.002-06:00

The plan all along has been to live in Connecticut for two years (it's been about a year so far). Someone decided that they didn't like that plan so they went ahead and changed the plan for me.
Anyway, the point is, I'm moving home! And I will be there....are you ready for it...Tuesday, June 15, 2010. That's right. Just a little over two weeks and I will live in Utah again! I am still not fully sure how I feel about this new "plan". I am so excited to see my family and friends again, I've missed them terribly. But I really love the Pags and am going to miss them a lot, and I REALLY love New York City and I am going to miss it like I can't even explain. I think I'm still a little in shock about the whole thing. Both excited and sad, so I'm just trying to focus on the excited parts. Anyway, that's the news. Now you know.

Girls Night, Mystic, and Robin Hood

2010-05-17T08:16:00.003-06:00

I haven't blogged in a while...sorry, I'll have to do a few update posts sometime but for today I will just write about my weekend, which was wonderful. On Friday, Sadie and I got all dressed up and went into White Plains, NY for a little girls night out. It's always fun hanging out with Sadie but Friday was especially fun cause we got the VIP treatment from the clubs while we were hanging out. We’re talking bouncers ignoring the long line of people waiting and hoping to get in so he can pull aside the velvet rope to let us in, then when we told him "Thanks but Sadie doesn't have her ID on her" he took us around to the side door to let us in there. It was great!

On Saturday, I drove my little self to Mystic, CT (which I've wanted to do since I moved here) and had a "little slice of heaven" (that would be Mystic Pizza...you know, like in the Julia Roberts movie, Mystic Pizza...) It was a pretty great slice, and the employees of Mystic Pizza were awesome. My waitress was chatting with me and then the manager Rob came up and was chatting with us. Then he volunteered to get in the picture with me and my slice of famous pizza.

After lunch I wandered around Mystic. It is a little fishing village and it used to be a big whaling port so I saw some cool things like the last surviving wooden whaling ship, a cute little lighthouse, and some tall ships. It was a fun little day. Then on Sunday, I went and saw the new Robin Hood movie, which I loved. All in all it was a pretty great weekend.

Me, My Mom, and Washington DC

2010-04-19T19:25:00.009-06:00

I can't even begin to find the words to explain what an amazing time I had between the night of April 13th and the morning of April 19th, 2010. Lucky for me i don't have to, I think I heard someone say once that a picture is worth a thousand words....here are a few thousand words:

look closer...I'm on the balcony at the Library of Congress

On the tour of our nations capitol

Almost eaten alive at the Smithsonian!

What Did You Do This Weekend?

2010-04-12T07:23:00.009-06:00

Well, Michelle, since you asked...I will tell you (wow, I'm such a nerd!)
I went into New York City on Saturday.

The first place I went was Union Square. It was a beautiful day and lots of people were out selling things and hanging out...this isn't a picture of that. This is a picture that I stole off the Internet because I wanted to show you the stores that I went to. DSW and Filene's Basement. If you don't know, DSW is a wonderful shoe store, and Filene's Basement is...well, it's better in Boston but its fun here too, it's basically a store with some great clothes and stuff for some great deals. They are both in this building in the picture above.

And this picture is one that I did take, it's Union Square out the window of Filene's Basement which is not a basement but actually on the top floor of that building in the picture that I didn't take. Whew.
After I shopped for a while (without buying anything, by the way) I decided to head to Times Square to the Tkts booth to see if I could find some discount tickets for a Broadway show that I might want to see. I didn't. I got there and decided that I wanted to see Chicago but the discount tickets weren't that discounted and the nice lady told me I would probably get a better deal if I just went to the box office and bought them there. So that is what I did. I got to the box office and found out that I could get some decent enough seats for a little more that $100 OR I could take the standing room only tickets (which she informed me were assigned spaces and she had one available that was a great view behind a wall to lean forward onto and next to a wall that I could lean sideways onto...did that make sense...) for about $27. Since I have recently discovered that saving money needs to be a top priority for me right now, I decided to see Chicago standing up...I can handle leaning for two hours, right? So I bought my ticket and moved on to the next part of my day.

Battery Park! Like I said earlier, it was a beautiful day, so I decided to go wander around Battery Park for a while. I saw the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (from a distance, I didn't ride the ferry out there), I saw a very entertaining street performance, I enjoyed the sunshine. It was great.

I also saw this statue that used to sit at the base of the World Trade Towers. I remember seeing it there when I came to New York back when I was sixteen.

After that, since I was in the area, I walked over to see the bull. I don't know who this guy in the picture is, it was impossible to get a shot of the bull without having someone in it. And it was also impossible (ok not impossible but more effort than I was willing to put forth) to get a picture of me and the bull...at least his head.

There was no waiting or pushing at all if you wanted to take a picture of yourself with the bull and his...um...backside so I got some nice people to snap my photo there instead. Say cheese!

Then it was time for the show! Note: after wandering around all day, two hours actually is a really long time to stand to watch a show. And on top of that the show was just ok...or maybe it was because of that, I haven't decided. Anyway, I suggest forking over the extra money for a seat.

Sunday!

On Sunday I went shopping. It was another beautiful day and I decided to go to the Woodbury Common outlet stores. My friend Megan told me once that she thought they were in Connecticut. I knew they were actually in New York but since she got confused I figured they must be at least close to Connecticut...not really. But the hour and a half drive was so worth it. These are outlet stores for very high end merchandise, which made it fun to wander around. I bought a couple of pairs of shorts, some jeans, a few tops, and a necklace. I refrained from buying the Jimmy Choo shoes that I fell in love with, because even though they were at the discounted outlet stores, $600 for a pair of (beautiful and wonderful) shoes is still out of my price range.

So there you go. That's what I did this weekend. (I was going to say that was my weekend in a nutshell but that was no nutshell...that was a dang novel! Sorry!)

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T15:06:00.004-06:00

Me, Chris, Dorothy, Madeleine, and Alex just before we went to Redding Country Club for Easter brunch.

Book Club Brunch

2010-03-27T21:10:00.003-06:00

Today was fun. I met up with the book club that I joined (but until this morning hadn't had a chance to attend) for brunch. My friend Megan started the book club and I've been reading the books but have always been busy with work when they have met. But today I wasn't busy, and it was great. We went to Sarabeth's (a delicious restaurant near Central Park) and ate wonderful food (Apple-Cinnamon French Toast with banana. Yum!) and chatted. Then Megan, Jessie and I did a little shopping (I bought a great cardigan at H&M). After that I went to Bloomingdales then Filene's Basement and wandered around a little more. It was a pretty great day.

Madeleines Math Test

2010-03-25T06:20:00.002-06:00

Problem: Queen Arlene has a problem. She wants to divide her land among her three children. She wants her oldest daughter to get 1/2 of the land and her younger daughters to each get 1/3 of the land. Can she do it? Explain your answer.

Mads answer: No because it is not fair for the older sister to get more than the younger sisters.

How Little Girls Play Basketball

2010-03-13T06:29:00.003-07:00

Everyone runs to whichever end of the court is appropriate
The ball is dribbled (a little awkwardly)
The ball is passed to one of the little girls
Every single member of the team then puts her arms up and yells the name of whomever has possession of the ball, over and over again
The girl that has the ball stops, looks around (for at least...oh I don't know...thirty seconds maybe), and passes the ball to whomever is yelling her name the best
At this point, the routine is either repeated, or the ball is hurled towards the basket
They do it all over again

It is maybe the cutest thing you'll ever see. I love to watch it, just cause its so darn entertaining!

"Maddy! Maddy! Maddy! Here Maddy! Over here Maddy! Pass it to me...Maddy!"

Another Day In The City

2010-03-07T17:43:00.006-07:00

Yesterday I went to the city again. It was fun, the weather was beautiful, I wandered around for a while then met up with Sadie and some of her friends. We went to the Museum of Sex which was interesting, then to dinner at Blue Smoke, which was just alright (it would have better if I wasn't a vegetarian and didn't have to wait for two hours for a table at a BBQ restaurant...and if the service didn't suck...) but my favorite part of the day was when I (for the first time ever) hailed a cab in New York City. I'm not sure why that was so exciting to me...all I did was stand on the street with my arm in the air, but it was very cool. It was a pretty fun day.

Love From Kinley

2010-02-28T21:48:00.004-07:00

Grandma Jean and Kinley made this video for me about a month ago with Grandma Jeans phone so they could send it to my phone. I love that she calls me "Aunt Chelle" and I love that "Aunt" sounds more like "Amp" ...sigh...I miss my girl...

Sleepy Hollow

2010-02-22T07:22:00.000-07:00

One of the things on my "list of things to do while I'm living back east" is to visit Sleepy Hollow, New York. It was a beautiful weekend and I had no plans so on Sunday that is what I did. I found on itunes a pod cast of someone reading the legend (which, by the way, was written by Washington Irving in 1820) and I listened to it on my way to see where the legend of the Headless Horseman came from. It was a pretty great day. My first stop was the Old Dutch Church (where Ichabod Crane sought refuge from the Headless Horseman) and the Old Dutch Burying Ground (where legend says the Horseman was buried and came from each night)

Besides it being kind of cool that this is an important chunk of the story, It was also really beautiful there. It was so cool to see the headstones that were dated in the 1700 and 1800's. I found it interesting that most of the stones (at least the ones you could still read) said the persons name, the year they died and their age at death in years and days (e.g. lived to be 47 years and 17 days old)

After that I went to the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, which surrounds the Old Dutch Burying ground and didn't exist at the time the story was written. The Bridge in the picture above is the Headless Horseman Bridge, which is within the newer cemetery.

I also went to Washington Irvings (the author) grave

This was really cool too. Its a monument and some of the solders of the the Civil War.

The last stop of my day was in Tarrytown (right next to Sleepy Hollow) for a tour of Lyndhurst. A beautiful mansion that was built in 1838, and was lived in until 1961. They have restored it, and it still has the original furnishings and art work in it, which was pretty cool to see.

This is the view of the Hudson River and the Tappan Zee Bridge that you can see from the mansion.

I, just like Eric Clapton, Have a Rock & Roll Heart Too!

2010-02-19T00:14:00.006-07:00

I just got back from the Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck concert at Madison Square Garden. I can't even explain how amazing it was! AMAZING!! Here are a few photos from the evening.

Jeff Beck played for about an hour, then Eric Clapton played for about an hour, then they played together for about an hour. It was such a great show.

Happy Birthday To Me

2010-02-16T17:16:00.004-07:00

Twenty-Seven today. Here I am wearing the birthday scarf that the Pags got me and holding the box of gifts that my parents sent. Thanks everyone for the warm wishes.

Happy Valentines Day

2010-02-14T04:40:00.003-07:00

Can I just say that I hate this "holiday"? That isn't just something that I'm saying cause I'm single, I have always hated this holiday. Ok, that isn't totally true, I really liked it in elementary school when we all got to make the paper envelope to hang on our desk and everyone in the class brought everyone else in the class a valentine with three or four candy hearts in the tiny little envelope. That was fun...but now I think its a really stupid holiday.

That having been said, look what my wonderful Aunt Becky and Uncle Ken sent me!!

Its a valentines card, and some dark chocolates (they aren't even the stupid Martha Stewart kind! Don't know what I'm talking about? Well, it was an earlier post, click here (http://dandelionhasit.blogspot.com/2009/12/stupid-martha.html) to read it) and a really soft stuffed lion with hearts all over him and a "grow your own valentine" kit! They are so thoughtful and great! Thanks guys!

And! Chris and Dorothy came home yesterday and brought me a very pretty flower for Valentines Day! Nice, huh?

And!! I got in the mail yesterday a really great card from my wonderful sister-in-law Kayleen and my adorable niece Makinley...isn't it great?!

Happy Stupid Holiday to everyone!

Guess What...

2010-02-10T13:39:00.004-07:00

Someone just knocked on the door.
It was the Fed-Ex guy.
He brought an envelope.
Inside was a ticket.
It's for a concert.
The concert will be held at Madison Square Garden.
Thursday, February 18, 2010.
Wanna know who will be entertaining me?
ERIC CLAPTON and JEFF BECK!!!
Yay.

We fixed it...I think...

2010-02-09T11:23:00.000-07:00

here i am typing again. i am on the phone with the nice computer guy who is trying to figure out what is wrong with my silly and stupid and beloved laptop. he is watching me typpe. its a little intimidating. i find that i keep messing up my typing and having to backspace. and now its not doing the annoying thing that it used to be doing and that we are trying to fix.

Yesterday I spent a majority of the day on the phone with the Dell Support people trying to figure out why it was that when I started typing things it would act like I was holding the Ctrl key down (for example, when I would hit the "t" key it would open a new tab. When I would hit the "B" key everything went Bold, etc) Anyway, he took over my computer from wherever he was and then watched while I typed and it did what it was doing then he diagnosed and fixed what was wrong. He kept opening documents then telling me "ok, type something" so this is when we were trying to make sure it was fixed while on the internet instead of just in Word. I thought it was funny that it automatically saved the post, so I'm going to...um...post it. post post post. alrighty, random. Yay for a fixed laptop!

Update

2010-01-31T21:53:00.003-07:00

Ok, so I have been very, very much not in the mood to blog for a while now, and a lot has happened so, I updated a little. There are a few posts to follow this one. Enjoy!

Brooklyn Museum

2010-01-31T21:19:00.006-07:00

Yesterday I went into Brooklyn to see an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum called Who Shot Rock & Roll. (I actually got the book, Who Shot Rock & Roll, from the Pags for Christmas and its pretty cool) The exhibit was a bunch of photographs and the stories behind them from the artists (The photographer artists, not the musician artists) of...well...Rock & Roll. Photos of the artists(musician artists this time), the fans, the album covers, the shows, and so on and so forth. It was incredibly crowded and the people that were there to see it were a little too artsy and pretentious for my liking but other than that it was really great. I really liked the Brooklyn Museum, and Brooklyn in general for that matter.

I was also able to help some people from Missouri figure out how the subway works and how to get to where they were going. Poor people ended up in Brooklyn when they were trying to get to the financial district, its a good thing for them that I could help I think cause they were pretty lost.

Anyway, that's about all that happened. I had a good time.

The Empire State Building

2010-01-31T20:49:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday (January 23rd) Sadie and I went into The City to play. We went to Times Square to buy Sadie a purse, then went to Rockefeller Center cause she had never been there before. After that we went to the top of the Empire State Building, which she also had never done and I haven't done since I was about sixteen years old, so that was fun. When we were done playing in The City, we went back to her house for a "girls night". We went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner, then went back to her house, got into our pj's and made virgin pina coladas. Yup, virgin...boring huh? hee hee, just kiddin Mom...um...mostly. It was fun.

Home for the Holidays

2010-01-31T20:29:00.009-07:00

I got to go home to Utah from December 21, 2009 until January 2, 2010. It was wonderful to be home for such a long period. I had a great time. Here are just a few pictures from my trip:

Happy 2nd Birthday Harlee

2010-01-31T19:38:00.001-07:00

While I was home in Utah for Christmas, I was lucky enough to get to go to Harlees birthday party. Harlee is my best friend Shays daughter, and her second birthday was on December 30, 2009. I got her basically the same thing that I got my niece Makinley for her birthday. A bunch of fun dress up, "being fancy" things. She seemed to really like them, which was really great. It was a lot of fun. Before the party began, I went over to their house to give them their Christmas gifts and hang out for a while, which was also great. I love these people!

Caviar

2010-01-31T19:13:00.000-07:00

We had family from Vegas at my parents house for New Years Eve and they brought with them some caviar. I think we were ready to just let it sit unopened on the counter all night long but Cassie wouldn't have that. She thought we should try it...

Cassie liked it...I think, but maybe she just didn't hate it

Here I am preparing myself...

I was pretty sure I wasn't going to like it but I had to try. I didn't like it. There is a pretty funny picture of my reaction but I look worse than horrible in it so I didn't post it. Sorry!

Here's Brandon preparing himself...

...tasting it....

...and reacting. He didn't much care for it either.

Goodnight Sweetheart

2010-01-21T19:35:00.006-07:00

I found out last Sunday that one of the best friends I've ever had is gone. Jon Riebeek died Saturday, January 16, 2010. I think that it may be the hardest thing that I have had to deal with in my life to date. It was hard for me to leave him almost three years ago, but this is worse. I have spent the past week being a complete wreck but also remembering the good times. There were a lot of good times. Jon was an amazing person and I will always love him very, very deeply. It's been hard for me to be so removed from the general mourning process of someone that was my complete world for over eight years but I take comfort in the knowledge that he was happy with the life he was building. I wish I could reach out and tell his family and loved ones how sorry I am, and how badly my heart is aching but I don't feel like I can so this blog will just have to do.

Goodnight sweetheart, sleep tight my love, may God watch over you from above... -Tom Petty

I'll Be Home For Christmas...If Only In My Dreams...

2009-12-19T13:40:00.002-07:00

I should be boarding a plane any time now that should be taking off at about 4:30 to take me home to Utah for Christmas. I should be, but I'm not. The flight was cancelled because of the storm that is brewing in the Northeast...It would be easier to be not bitter if it was actually snowing...we haven't seen a single flake yet. At least I was lucky enough to get a different flight in a couple of days. I'll see you on Monday, Utah. boo hoo!

Stupid Martha

2009-12-11T13:56:00.004-07:00

Do you know what I love? I love those little individually wrapped squares of Dove dark chocolate. You know the ones? And they have such nice little sayings on the inside of the wrapper. I especially love them during the holidays cause the wrapper message is all holiday-ish and it's so nice. Do you know what I hate? I hate that I bought a bag of those delicious and wonderful little treats, not only cause I love the candy but also cause I love the message on the inside of the wrapper, I got them home and carefully opened one to enjoy and on the inside of the wrapper was a stupid message from Martha Stewart! Stupid Martha! I didn't notice when I bought them that they are the special Martha Stewarts tips for making the holidays better type of Dove dark chocolates. Now instead of reading something like "Have a wonderful holiday season" I have to read something like "wallpaper and fabric remnants make inspired wrapping" or "Tie a sprig of holly to the bedpost in your guest room." Really Martha? Cause I think decorating my wreath with gumdrops will actually attract wild animals to my front door which I don't happen to think is a great idea! Stupid Martha!! I just want my chocolate to say something nice to me, not tell me how to decorate! And what if the chocolates were for guests? Now the guests are going to read the wrappers and know that it wasn't my idea to use a damask runner to create an elegant table setting...oh who am I kidding? I don't even know what a "damask runner" is! Stupid Martha!!

My Merry Christmas-ish Weekend

2009-12-07T19:00:00.007-07:00

On Friday, I was invited by Megan to go into the city to enjoy some Christmas festivities with her and some of her friends. We went to Bryant Park and watched them do some synchronized ice skating and some singing and then the lighting of the tree. Then we went to see the tree at Rockefeller Center (which is pictured above) (and which was so amazing!) Then we went to a great thai restaurant called Room Service and ate dinner. We wandered around the city a bit then Megan let me crash at her apartment in Brooklyn so that I didn't have to ride the train back to Connecticut that night (did I mention that this was the first time I met this really wonderful girl? My sister-in-laws brother gave me her number when I was in Utah for Thanksgiving...thanks Kevin, she's really great!). The next morning Meg and I went to brunch in Brooklyn (FYI, I am now in LOVE with Brooklyn, I haven't spent much time there but its so great!) at this little restaurant that I WILL be back to because it was AMAZING! It was called Watty and Meg's and it was delicious, and quaint and spectacular. And delicious! Once back in Connecticut, I did some Christmas shopping and topped the weekend off with a little Christmas movie watching. Oh yeah, and on Saturday night, my dear friend Sadie came over with some chinese food and hung out for a while. It was such a great weekend!

Home from being home

2009-12-01T12:14:00.007-07:00

I was going to post this on Monday but my laptop wasn't cooperating with me, so I'm posting now instead. I went home for a whole week for Thanksgiving, and it was SO great! I hung out with the people that I love, ate some great food, hung out some more with the people that I love, went to my nieces 2nd birthday party, played dress up with Kinley, and hung out some more with the people that I love. It was the best! Here are a few pictures from the week, I just wish I would have had a little more time to hang out with the people that I love...

Basically...

2009-11-20T06:39:00.002-07:00

Today is Friday.
Tomorrow is Saturday, which is a day that I don't work.
The next day is Sunday, which is the day I'm flying home for holiday.
So since I don't work tomorrow, and I leave in the wee hours of the morning Sunday, BASICALLY I'm already on my way...basically.

YAY!

Jazz vs Knicks (part II)

2009-11-09T23:19:00.001-07:00

Oh man, oh man, oh man! What an amazing night! My employer Chris found out earlier in the year that I am a Jazz fan so he told me he'd try to get me a ticket to the game when they're in town cause he knows a guy. It turns out, the guy he knows is actually an agent to some of the Jazz players so not only did he get me a ticket, he got himself a ticket as well, took me to the game, and got us both passes so that we could meet some of the players after the game! It was so amazing!! The Jazz didn't actually play the best game. In fact we tried really hard to loose there at the end, but we ended up pulling through and winning the Knicks 95 to 93. It was pretty stressful to watch, but I had a great time!

This is me at Madison Square Garden before the game

Our boys warming up

This is me with Marsha. Marsha Kirilenko. She was hanging out after the game waiting for her husband (Andrei) and so we were chatting. She told me I should come be their nanny when I'm done here. (They have two boys, and just adopted a baby girl) Not the most tempting offer since just before she said that she told me that she has been through half the nannies in Utah and she can't seem to keep them...

Me and Kosta Koufos. He was really nice, he asked my name and talked to me for a minute.

That's Carlos Boozer down there, that was as close as we saw him though

Here I am with Andrei Kirilenko. Mostly he just took the picture with me then hung around with his wife and entourage speaking in Russian

C.J. Miles was really nice too. This guy is my little brothers age...weird huh?

I walked up to Mehmet Okur and told him I was a fan and its great to meet you, blah, blah, blah and he shook my hand and said hi then later Chris' guy went to introduce me and he said "oh yeah, we met earlier" and smiled at me. I'm standing two steps higher than he is in this picture.

It was such an amazing experience. I didn't get to meet a lot of the guys but I was so happy to meet these ones. Chris told me that I should get these pictures printed out and he'll have his friend get them to sign them for me. What a night! Thanks so much Chris!

Jazz vs Knicks

2009-11-09T06:52:00.007-07:00

Anyone who doesn't have anything to do this evening, maybe you should watch the Utah Jazz basketball game. They need our support! In fact maybe you should watch the game even if you do have something to do this evening. They will be playing the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden at 7:30 (that is eastern time....that means 5:30 to all you Utah folk). Turn on your television, grab a nice cold beverage and cheer for our Jazz. Oh, and while you are watching the game, maybe you should watch in the stands for a very happy red headed girl wearing a black t-shirt with the old style Jazz logo on it, cheering her little heart out because she is at Madison Square Garden watching her team play! THAT WILL BE ME!! GO JAZZ!!

I'm going to be sitting in Section 213 (that's the yellow one) and I am SUPER excited! So watch the game and help me cheer! YAY!

Happy Day

2009-11-08T07:51:00.003-07:00

These are just some of the great things that happened today:

I woke up 3 minutes before my alarm went off. I love not being jolted awake!
It was a little chilly, but the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day
I got to the train station just in time to buy my ticket when the train pulled in. I was able to walk right onto the train without having to wait at all
It was an express train to NYC. Hooray for minimal stops!
I did some shopping on Canal Street. I've never been to New York Citys Chinatown before, so this was kind of fun.
I wandered Fifth Avenue and did some shopping at the expensive stores too.
I found a couple of Christmas gift type items while spending the day shopping in the city.
As I was walking back toward the train station to head home, I bumped into Jesse, a guy that I've met a few times who lives here and attends the local ward.
We decided that since neither of us had a plan, we should wander around and hang out together.
I got a chance to wander the city a little and sit down and chat with Jesse, who I came to find out is a pretty cool kid.
I found out that Jesse and I actually went to high school together for a little while at Bountiful...small world, huh?
I was able to sit at a seat with nobody next to me on the train ride home and was able to put my feet up on the seat across from me. You can't imagine how nice this is after a day of NYC shopping!

Halloween in NYC

2009-11-01T20:32:00.008-07:00

My friend Sadie convinced me to get dressed up for Halloween and go into The City with her and her friend Rylee. We met up at Sadies house where she did all of our makeup, and we were off!

I was a witch, but the hat was really annoying so it got left at Sadies after a few photos were taken.

Sadie (Tinkerbell), Rylee (Angel of Death) and Me on the train headed to New York City.

We found Peter Pan and decided Sadie needed her picture taken with him.

These guys were probably my favorite. They were dressed up like this and just hanging out in front of the Chase Bank. I was about to take this picture when some guy walked behind me and was VERY rude to me. The redhead in me came out a little bit and I think I shocked not only the friends I was with, but also a big chunk of people hanging out at Times Square. The area got pretty quiet as I yelled pretty vigorously at him. He deserved it. Jerk!

We stayed out so late that I spent most of today sleeping. It was a lot of fun. New York City is kind of a freak show on Halloween, I love this place!!

My Wonderful Grandma Rose

2009-10-28T18:03:00.004-06:00

This afternoon I went out to get the mail, like I do every afternoon, this particular afternoon though there was a great little surprise waiting in the mailbox for me. There was a package addressed to yours truly with two cute little stickers on it saying "thinking of you" and "I love you" and the return address was from my grandma! It was so unexpected and sweet!! She sent me this really cute little pair of pants...um...let me explain...it was a small decorative pair of overall pants that a scarecrow might wear, made out of a felt type material and filled to the top with little candy bars and some candy corn. hhhhmmm....I'm not sure that description does it justice, anyway, it was cute. And it was so sweet! Thanks for thinking of me Grandma! Love you!!

Be Nice

2009-10-19T18:22:00.004-06:00

Chris and Dorothy went out of town for the night tonight, so its just me, Madeleine, Alex, and Cleo (she's the dog) at home. Before they left, Dorothy wrote us all little notes on post-its and left them on the counter for us to find. When I read them this morning Mads and Alexs said the same thing with their names being the only difference but maybe I didn't read them very closely cause tonight, Mads still says: "Mad, love you see you tomorrow, Mom" but Alexs now says "Alex, love you see you tomorrow, be nice, Mom" and oddly enough Dorothys handwriting changed just a little bit on the part that says "be nice" its almost like she reverted back to her youth and used the penmanship of her ten year old self....hhmmm.....

Or maybe...just maybe Mad altered her big brothers note just a little...I guess its a mystery....

Madeleine Playing Soccer

2009-10-05T20:16:00.002-06:00

Sunday was a beautiful day. Sunshiny and warm and perfect for going to the park to watch a soccer game.

Mad and her team won!

Visitors!

2009-10-02T18:59:00.004-06:00

Late last night I got a phone call from my moms big brother. Basically what he said was this:

Hey Michelle! We're in a hotel in a town about 10 miles from where you live. Wanna get together tomorrow for lunch?

Isn't that so great?! So today, I got to have lunch with my wonderful Uncle Harry and Aunt Judy! They came to my house to pick me up and we went to Pinocchio's Pizza. After we ate and talked for a while, we went back to my house where they met Alex and I gave them a little tour of the main floor and my room. Then Mad came home from school and they got to meet her too. What an amazing and wonderful surprise! Thanks Uncle Harry and Aunt Judy, it was so great to see you!

Apple Picking in New York

2009-09-29T06:39:00.004-06:00

Last Saturday, my dear friend April called and suggested we go apple picking. So, I drove to New York (state people, not city...that's where she lives...its not far) and we spent the day enjoying Fall. It was such a nice day and we really had a great time!

U2

2009-09-25T10:23:00.006-06:00

So the Pags have been planning, for months, to go to the U2 concert in New Jersey at the Giants stadium. What wasn't planned, though is that Chris would happen upon two extra tickets and take his very grateful nanny with them! Yeah, that's right, I went to see U2 last night!! Cool, huh? We started the evening by doing the "tailgating" thing. Sandwiches and beer in the parking lot with the Pags makes me so happy! Then we went in (to the outdoor arena) (along with over 84,000 other people...yeah, that many. It broke a record) to see the show. The two extra seats weren't by the other four, so to begin with it was just Louise (Chris' mom) and I while the other four were much closer to the stage in their seats. But Chris sent me a text a few songs in that said there were empty seats by them so we should sneak down. It was so great. We had a lot of fun!

Where I Currently Reside

2009-09-15T10:37:00.001-06:00

I realised the other day that I never did get around to posting pictures of my new home...sorry mom :) well, here it is. Their whole house is really beautiful...but I just added pictures of the outside of the house, and my room. Enjoy!

Hey! My lamps tilted!

Glenn Beck

2009-09-09T18:29:00.000-06:00

Hey guess what happened on Monday...

I went to a BBQ/picnic thing and you'll never believe who was there...or maybe you will cause the title of this post is Glenn Beck...and because there is a picture up there of me and Sadie with Glenn Beck...anyway, Glenn Beck was there! I don't regularly listen or watch him, but it was really cool to meet him just the same. He was really down to earth and nice. And it was fun to call Brandon after the picnic to rub it in :) tee hee, love ya B.

Rock On NYC...day two...

2009-09-08T19:12:00.004-06:00

Sunday was day two of my Rock & Roll tour of Manhattan (if you didn't read about day one, go back a post and check it out). Day two was just as great as day one was, and just like day one there were WAY too many photos to share them all here, but here are a few of them:

One of the stops on the tour was at Washington Square Park. A plethora of musical wonderments! I spent so long just wandering around enjoying the beautiful weather and the people who set themselves and their instruments up all around the park. So great! This is me in front of the fountain and the arch.

This is me in front of The Bitter End. If you have a favorite artist, chances are they have played here. It claims to be New Yorks longest running night club, and the list of names who have played here is unbelievable

And here I am at Cafe Wha? Yet another amazing place, but I'm only going to write two names. Jimi Hendrix. Bob Dylan. WOW!

Speaking of Bob Dylan (one of my all time favorites, in case you didn't know) here I am standing on the street where the cover photo for the album "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" was taken. This was such a cool thing to me. I was slightly overwhelmed at the actuality of it all and I really, really loved it!

And the last stop on the tour...where else? The Hotel Chelsea. It would have been hard for the weekend to have been any better for me than it was!

Rock On NYC...day one...

2009-09-05T22:21:00.007-06:00

I'm not sure who in the blogging world knows this so I will say it as a precursor to my story. I LOVE music. I love almost all kinds of music with a passion that is hard to describe but I particularly love older Rock and Roll. The classic, groundbreaking, revolutionary, wonderfully amazing stuff. So when my mom sent me an email before I even moved out here (thanks mom!) about a self guided audio tour of a bunch of great Rock & Roll spots around Manhattan I was very excited. So I got on the website (citylisten.com if anyone is interested) and bought it (for $7.50) and downloaded it so I could do it today. The website said to plan on about two hours to take the tour, depending on how long you stay at each stop...I got through stop 10 of 26. Yup, all day long and I didn't even make it half way. It has been wonderful so far, and since its a long weekend I'm going back tomorrow to finish! Yay!

There are way too many pictures to share all of them, but here are a couple that I liked. I'm thinking the two day trip might turn into a scrapbook. Not a couple pages in a scrapbook, but a whole scrapbook all for itself, so ask me to see it sometime!

This is me on the train going into the city. I was so excited!

And this has been my favorite stop so far...although CBGB's was pretty cool...and I went on a non-scheduled (on the tour) stop to the Morrison Hotel that was also really cool...and the non-scheduled stop at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex was pretty neat too...

But that's not what this picture is of. This is the building pictured on the cover of Led Zeppelins' Physical Graffiti album! Cool Huh?!! I Know!! I seriously stood here and looked at this building for at least a half hour, at LEAST! It was really great! I asked a very nice guy to take a picture of me with the building in the background (he and his wife and daughter got very excited when I informed them what he was taking a picture of, by the way).

Anyway, that's it for today...I say that as if this post wasn't miles long, sorry :) I'll fill you in on tomorrows events later, you know, after they happen.

On Our Way Home

2009-09-04T21:27:00.003-06:00

Tonight we went to dinner at the country club. Chris, Dorothy, Alex, Madeleine and myself. It was a great meal and great company. Such a beautiful night and we were all in wonderful moods. After dinner Chris, Dorothy & Mad went home in their car and Alex and I took mine. What a great ride home! As we were walking out to the car Alex was singing the song to his dad and I that he had just discovered he "loves!" In my humble opinion, it's a stupid song. Its called "Party in the USA" and its by Miley Cyrus. Anyway, he apparently loves this song and he told me that he was going to search the radio until he found it, and we couldn't go home until he found it either. We got into the car, and guess what was playing...you should have seen his face! It was priceless, he was so, so, so excited! He turned the radio up, opened the sunroof and sang and danced along. Then he kept telling me where to turn so that we could take the long way home and hopefully hear it again. We did take the long way home. And we heard the song two and a half (the first time it was almost over so it didn't count as a full time) times on our journey home. What a great kid. It was worth listening to the stupid song two and a half times to see his excitement about it. Great ride home!

Excited About Getting In Shape

2009-08-29T18:20:00.004-06:00

Yesterday I joined a gym. I'm really excited about it. And today I went to the nearest Sports Authority store and spent way too much money on things for the gym...ie shoes, workout clothes, gym bag... Then this afternoon, I actually went to the gym! Its kind of silly how excited I am about exercising, but I am. And when I get excited about something, I try to blog about it. So here I am. Yay for feeling good about ourselves!

Yum, Sushi!!

2009-08-20T20:49:00.007-06:00

On Tuesday night I got together with some friends that I've made out here in Connecticut (April, Sadie, and Chef Patrick) (by the way, Patrick actually is a chef, that's not just a quirky nickname or something...ok, on with the story) and had a delicious meal. I learned how to make sushi!! We all went over to Patricks house and he taught us how to make sushi (mine might have been considered fake sushi since I am vegetarian and don't eat fish...therefore it had no fish in it. I call it sushi anyway!) and tempera (sweet potatoes and asparagus) and April taught us (I'm sure Chef Patrick already knew how...I dunno) how to make Won Tons (I don't know how to spell that so if its wrong, just pretend it isn't...thanks!). It was tons and tons of fun and so yummy! We mentioned that sushi night should be a new tradition and we should do it once a month, cause it was such a great night. mmmmm.....sushi.....

Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera with me so I only got a few not very great shots on my phone, but here they are. It was so great!

New Jersey

2009-08-16T08:02:00.006-06:00

Guess what blogging world...I've been to New Jersey before! My employer, Dorothy and I needed to go to a cute little town by the South Jersey shore called Margate to make sure the house her and her siblings own was ready for the new renter to move in. So on Thursday morning we left Connecticut, crossed the George Washington bridge (which was so cool! You can see Manhattan from it) got onto the New Jersey Turnpike (which was also cool cause I've heard about it) and from there took the Garden State Parkway to the quaint little town of Margate. I was telling Dorothy on the approx. 3 hour drive down there that I was expecting to see the stereotypical New Jersey with the men in wife beater tank tops and lots of greased hair and gold chains and the women with huge ratted up curly hair, and she told me that does actually exist but its more typical of North Jersey, and we were headed to South Jersey which is the nicer and more upper class area of Jersey. It was so beautiful! I expected to hate the Atlantic because I love the Pacific so, so much and how could something be as wonderful as it is...I was wrong. The Atlantic is so different than the Pacific, it's darker and more foreboding, but its beautiful in its own way. I really loved it! Ok, I think that's about enough ranting...I'm a little afraid to read this back to myself cause I just started typing and didn't really pay attention to what I was babbling on and on about...and I DID babble! sorry about that!! Lets see some pictures!!

Wow. I'm weird! Here we go:

Here I am in front of the Atlantic Ocean!

And Look!! That is Atlantic City in the background...wait, I think you can see it a little better after dark...

Look!! There's Atlantic City in the background...well, maybe you can see it better in this picture in the light...ignore the people in the picture, I didn't know them...

Look! You can see Atlantic City in the background!! ...ok, the point is I got to see Atlantic City (from a distance...but not a huge distance). It's...um...well, it's not Vegas, but kinda cool just the same.

Here I am on the deck of some guy named Louis who was trying to hit on me...he was nice enough but I wasn't interested so I didn't drink the beer he offered at least 700 times or go to the pool party he and his friends were going to have. But I DID let him use my camera to take my picture cause its hard always doing self portraits.

This is Lucy. The giant elephant shaped building in Margate. Yup, you read that right. Its a building, shaped like an elephant. It used to be a hotel. Now its a museum I think...funny, huh?!

We stopped on our way home Friday morning to pick Alex and his friend up cause they had been down there at a friends house all week. They were nice enough to help Cleo get into the proper Jersey Shore attire. She looks good, right?

New York City

2009-08-08T21:29:00.001-06:00

Today I went to New York City for the first time since I've lived here. I went with my friend April, and a group of her friends who were all really nice. It started out as a group of 9 girls, but we were all moving at a different pace so we ended up splitting up and I went with April and Sadie to hang out and see the city. We had lots of fun. It was Sadies first time ever being to the city and it was fun to see it through her eyes. The first thing I did was to get a bagel at Hot and Crusty in Grand Central Station. YUM!

And I discovered something wonderful today...there is ANOTHER Hot and Crusty! Its a full bakery! One day I will go in! Note to self: its on the corner of 104th and Broadway.

Then we went to the meat packing district and walked along The High Line (which is an old abandoned train line that is about one story up and they turned it into a little walking path/garden area. It looks out over the Hudson River and its really cute and fun).

After that it was just the three of us and we went to get lunch at this place that April knew of. I forget the name of it, but it was SO good! On our way to the lunch spot we turned down a street that was all blocked off from traffic and it had all kinds of booths set up selling things. I bought a new dress that is really cute!

Then we went back to Time Square so that we could wander around and have fun and take all that excitement in. It was pretty cool to spend the day feeling like I could be leisurely and relaxed because if there is something I want to do in the city that I didn't get a chance to do...I can just come back, cause I live out here now. Wow! It was a really great day!!

For My Bathroom

2009-08-03T19:36:00.002-06:00

Um...before you read this little post you should be warned that I'm stupidly excited, and it's a really silly thing to be excited about but I am. There. you were warned. Yesterday, I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond and got some stuff for my bathroom. Before there was a rack that hung over the shower head but it was kind of small and rusty. So I got...

...a new one. I warned you that it was a silly thing to be excited about. But wait! That's not all. Since the organizer hanging from the shower head was too small to fit everything, the rest of the shampoo and shower stuff went on the floor, which was annoying to me. So for the stuff that was residing on the floor of the shower I got...

...a shelf! Not just any shelf, a cool suction cuppy shelf that sticks to the wall. Cool huh?! Man I'm lame! :)

The Maritime Aquarium

2009-08-02T14:50:00.002-06:00

Friday was a rainy day here in Connecticut which means our plans for Madeline to go to swim practice and then golf and tennis camp got canceled. Bummer, right? WRONG! Since we couldn't do that, Dorothy suggested we go to the aquarium instead. So Mad called her friend Nicki from across the street, and the three of us (Alex is still playing in the Hamptons) went to the aquarium. It was so much fun. We saw lots of sea life, it is an aquarium that focuses on things that are found in and around the Long Island Sound (which is nearer to us than the Atlantic is). We saw seals and sharks and sea turtles and penguins and lots of different fish. We got to touch a cow nose ray. They have a whole area with all different kinds of frogs and toads. I thought the blue poison frog thing (I forget his real name, but it was something about being poisonous...and he was blue...and a frog...) was really cool. He was so pretty! They have a IMAX theater inside the building so later in the afternoon we went and watched a film called Deep Sea. Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet narrated it and it was really interesting and way cool to see the amazing picture and 3D effects. After that we got ourselves a treat (Ice cream. Yum!) and wandered around a little more then came home. We all had a really good time!

Nicki and Madeline being silly and cute

Mad and Nicki watching the seals swim around

Mad and I hanging out at the Aquarium

Me, Mad, Nicki, and a turtle shell

This is that poisonous frog I mentioned above. I googled him and found out that he's called a Blue Poison Dart Frog. He's pretty isn't he?!

Can You Hear Me Now?

2009-08-01T15:59:00.001-06:00

So when I moved to Connecticut I found out that my phone is really stupid. It didn't get service anywhere! So on Thursday I went to the Verizon Wireless store and spent way too much money and bought myself a new phone. I LOVE IT! I bought the En V Touch, and its great. The best part is that now I can call my loved ones who are so very far away, and half the conversation isn't "sorry, you cut out. What did you say?"

Time For Bed

2009-07-27T20:18:00.004-06:00

Yesterday, Steph went home. Which meant that today, was my first day of being a nanny, without having someone sitting right next to me to answer my "...um...is this where I turn??" kind of questions. All in all, it went pretty well. We got up in the morning and did the eat breakfast and get ready thing. Then a little later in the morning Mad and I decided to take Cleo (she's the dog) for a walk. I had assumed (silly me) that this was going to be a five or ten minute ordeal. Not the case. About halfway through our walk I said to Mad, "Wow, its taking forever to get back home. Are we almost there?" in response, Mad kind of giggled and told me we weren't even close. She had failed to mention at the beginning of the walk (but was quite happy to inform me once we were too far to turn around) that the path we took was about a 2.5 mile walk. And since I am not in the best shape, I was a little tired by the end of it...ok...by the middle of it. Anyway. When we got home from our walk we went to the country club to go swimming, and of course I couldn't tell that sweet little face no when she asked me to get in the pool and play with her. Anyway, what this rambling post is here to tell you is this: 1 - Day one of being on my own went well and 2 - I'm pooped! Ok, that's all I have to say for now.

The "M Project"

2009-07-22T14:33:00.005-06:00

This post is way overdue! I just wanted to say thanks to my wonderful friend Lauren. I was talking to her one day before I left about the company shirts I had with my name on them and said she wanted to make me something and asked if she could have them to do so. I gave her the shirts and for about a month I constantly heard bits and pieces about "the M project" as Lauren lovingly referred to it. She wouldn't tell me what it was, but I was aloud to know that everyone else at the dealership knew what it was, and I was led to believe that they all had something to do with it. It wasn't until the night before I moved to Connecticut that I found out what "M project" was. It is the most beautiful quilt I have ever seen. She gave most everyone at the dealership a quilt square so they could write me a message, then she sewed them all together with my shirt in the middle. It means so much to me. I'm sure she thought it would mean a lot to me, but she couldn't have possible known HOW much...a lot! So to Lauren I have to say this...thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you...

Gifts From Home

2009-07-16T13:00:00.004-06:00

Mom sent me a package that I received in the mail today. It was so wonderful. Thanks mom! In it was a blanket that my mom made when I was little, it doesn't belong to me, but its my favorite blanket ever. She also sent me some books and a CD with a bunch of photos on it. The following might be my favorite part. Be careful watching though, it will make you cry if you're me....

Day One

2009-07-13T21:06:00.004-06:00

Got up.
Helped Steph get Alex up and fed and took him to school.
Came back to the house to pick Madeleine up.
Took Mad to the country club for Swim Team.
Steph left to pick Alex up from school.
Watched that darling little fish swim.
Got Mad a snack at the club snack area.
Played at the club playground with Mad and her friend.
Steph came back from picking Alex up from school.
Ate lunch at the club with Steph and Mad.
Played at the playground some more.
Mad got back into the pool while Steph and I watched from the lounge chairs.
Steph got into the pool with Mad (I didn't have my swim suit).
Alex got dropped off by his mom at the club so he could hang out.
Continued to watch the swimming.
Watched some more.
Gathered things up to go back to the house.
Got Mad into the shower.
Watched (helped a little) Steph do laundry and cleaning up of the kids rooms.
Fixed some dinner (chicken nuggets, tater tots, fruit and brownies for dessert)
Ate dinner.
Played Rock Band with Madeleine.
Filled out some paperwork so I can have insurance.
Took a shower.
Blogged.
Went to bed.

And that was my day....well, I haven't done the "went to bed" part yet cause I'm still on the "Blogged" part, but that's next...

Goodbye For Now My Ensign Friends

2009-07-13T20:44:00.002-06:00

These are just a few pictures of my last couple of days working at Ensign Imports. I know I'm a little slow posting this, since the last day I actually worked there was July 3rd but a lot of these people became really great friends to me over the last few years and I will miss them so much so i thought it was better late than never. I love and miss you, my Ensign family!! xoxo

Connecticut

2009-07-11T16:48:00.001-06:00

Well. I made it. I'm now officially a resident of Wilton, Connecticut....weird....

A Girl & Her Shoes...Or Whomevers Shoes She Can Get Ahold Of...

2009-07-01T07:00:00.000-06:00

It would appear that Miss Kinley loves shoes just as much as her Aunt Michelle does!

Cute, Huh?!!

Reunion?...Barbeque?...Party?...FUN!

2009-06-28T12:23:00.003-06:00

Aunt Becky and Uncle Ken had a BBQ at their house Saturday night and I thought it was great! Lots of family showed up and we got to hang out and chat and laugh and eat great food and have lots of fun. Thanks Ken and Becky!

"She's Got Her Ticket..."

2009-06-24T22:01:00.003-06:00

(That title was sung. Like the Tracy Chapman song)

Wow! It's feeling so...real to me that I'm moving. I checked my e-mail today and found waiting for me the one-way plane ticket that I've been expecting for a while. The fact that its here, in my possession is a little weird. Its coming up so fast! My plane leaves Saturday July 11, at 6:00 am. (Yeah, that's right, 6:00 am. That's early even if you don't live two hours away from the airport! Oh well!) East Coast here I come, whether I'm ready or not I guess!

Tweet Tweet Tweet

2009-06-23T12:33:00.001-06:00

Hey! Look what I found. Its too bad its on the side of our house on the front porch, that's going to make a mess!! They're kinda cute though.

It's What Fun Is

2009-06-21T23:30:00.000-06:00

I don't have a lot of time left here in Utah, so when the rain threatened to ruin our plans to go to the local amusement park on Saturday, Brandon and I decided to tough it out and go anyway, even though our friends thought we were crazy for it. (We missed you being there, Mark and Jodi but I totally understand!) I have never been to Lagoon in the rain and it could have very easily made it an absolutely horrible day, especially if the weather man on the radio had been right about his prediction of "deadly lightning storms" but I am very happy to say that I think yesterday was the best day I have ever had at Lagoon. It continued to rain on and off all day, and for a majority of the day we were both soaked but we had a GREAT time anyway. By around 6:00 pm we were both freezing due to our wet clothes and I think we had just about had enough of the cold, wet fun but then something really awesome happened...we decided to go on one last ride and we noticed the rest of the park must have gotten sick of the rain too because there was no line. NO LINE! I have never in my life been able to walk onto a ride at Lagoon but this ride (The Samurai) we walked right onto not once, but five times in a row. No waiting in between! We were getting off the ride and running back through the non-existent line to get back on, feeling like we were 12 years old again! We went back to the car after our Samurai marathon, put some dry sweaters on, and went back into the park to roll with this immature adrenaline high that we were on. It was amazing! I think the only time we had to wait for anything was if we showed up when the ride was already going and we had to wait for it to end so we could get on. We rode the Samurai so many times (I think 11 was the final count at the end of the night) that we ended up practically best friends with the people that ran the ride. The girl working The Samurai was awesome! We had a system going where we would ride a roller coaster or ride a couple times in a row, then go to the next one and ride it a couple times in a row, then go back and ride the first one again a couple times in a row. So many amazing things happened on this Lagoon trip. There was an employee there that would just dance to the music that was playing and one time we ran past and she wasn't there dancing so Brandon said

"Hey, where's the dancing girl?"

"I'm right here." she said

"Well why aren't you dancing?"

"There's no music playing."

"Well dance anyway!"

So she did! Brandon convinced a cute little girl to start singing and dancing! And he didn't even play the game she was running!! Then when we ran past her the next time (yeah, we were basically running back and forth between the rides, I told you, we were feeling like we were about 12 years old!) she convinced him that he needed to dance with her! It was awesome!!

One time we went to ride the Turn of the Century (the swing ride) and we were the only ones there. We totally got a V.I.P. swing ride!

It was such an amazing day! I only had my phone to take pictures with so they aren't the best shots, but here are the few that I got:

Brandon making funny faces at me...yup we not only felt like we were 12, we acted like it too!

Here's Brandon waiting for this horrible ride The Rocket (its the only one I hate!) to take him up into the air, make him sit at the top, then drop him

And here he is falling, I'll admit I like the falling part, its waiting at the top that I can't handle...Brandon had a hard time figuring out how it is that I could jump out of an airplane but I wont go on this stupid ride. I don't know the answer...

Here we are on The White Roller Coaster

Eek! Good advice!!

This is Brandon and I on the one blue rocket type ride that I cant think of the name of. Man that is a great little explanation of a photo, isn't it?!

And here we are...well...acting 12

I think this is my favorite Roller Coaster there. Wicked is what its called. Its awesome!!

Summerfest 2009

2009-06-18T23:42:00.002-06:00

Just some of the things I really enjoyed about being at Summerfest today, in no particular order:

Hanging out with the best friend I have ever known, Shay
Shay's wonderful family, Jeremy and Harlee coming and playing too
Art
Kettle Corn
Live music
That the live music was actually pretty good
That Kayleen and Kinley decided to come join us even though we didn't call them until the last minute
Shay's sister Cassie
That Kayleen bought a watermelon Italian Ice and they mistakenly gave her cherry, so they gave her the cherry one AND her originally ordered watermelon one for the price of just the watermelon one
That Kayleen gave me the cherry one
Watching Harlee and Kinley running around playing together like cute little one and a half year old girls
Cotton Candy
Fry bread pizza (basically the scone part of a Navajo Taco with pizza sauce and cheese...yum)
Not having to wonder why my tummy is not so happy with me (just check out the food I've eaten today) (it was worth it!)
Sitting on the grass and listening to the live music while Shay played with my hair
That the afternoon turned out to be a beautiful sunshiny afternoon instead of the rainy one I was afraid of
Did I put "the great company" yet?
The GREAT company
OK, it wasn't part of Summerfest but it happened on the same day that we went to Summerfest and the guacamole we had at Cafe Sabor for lunch was defiantly worth putting on this list
Wandering around the booths and enjoying peoples creativity
Sluffing work (well, it was scheduled so it wasn't REALLY sluffing) for no other reason than to spend the day playing with friends

I'm sure there are plenty of things that I'm forgetting at the moment, but its late and I'm tired so the list will end here. It was a great day.

Hey, Guess What

2009-06-16T18:17:00.002-06:00

I PAID OFF MY CAR TODAY!! whoo hoo!!

Hanging Out With Bug

2009-06-15T23:34:00.007-06:00

My amazing sister-in-law Kayleen had a tooth ache today, so my also amazing older brother Jared called and asked if I would mind stopping by and playing with their super amazing daughter Kinley for a little while so Kayleen could lay down and get some rest and hopefully get feeling a little better. IT WAS GREAT! I really love that little girl!

I always have so much fun hanging out with my little Kinley Bug!

A Brave New Adventure...

2009-06-11T18:13:00.000-06:00

I can't really believe that this is happening, but it is...On or about July 11th I am going to take myself, a large chunk of my possessions, and my one-way plane ticket to the airport and I'm going to move my little self to the other side of the country. WOW! My darling friend Stephanie has been a nanny for a wonderful family in Connecticut for the past year, but its time for her to move home. When the mother of this family asked her to start thinking about who would replace her she called me (thanks Steph). I was hesitant, (who am I kidding, I'm still hesitant!) but intrigued. I have thought for quiet a while now that it was about time for me to take a step forward in my life, so I talked to Steph, I talked to the family in CT, and I decided to take, not only a step but a giant leap (a leap that spans about 2,000 miles). I'm having a mixture of emotions about the whole thing, the most prominent ones being extreme excitement and paralysing fear...ok, maybe I exaggerated just a little on the fear part, but its a pretty damn scary thought! I'm moving to the other side of the country very soon. Wow, what a brave new adventure this is going to be...

Park City!!

2009-06-10T22:21:00.009-06:00

Mom and I thought that it would be fun to have a little mom/daughter weekend get away, so last weekend we went to park city! It was so much fun!! We went up there on Friday and ate dinner at the Loco Lizard, which was delicious! Then we drove around Park City for a little while, seeing what there was to see. When we were done with that, we went to the hotel.
We stayed at the Park City Marriott, it was very comfortable and nice. When we went to check in we found out there was a misunderstanding and instead of paying $5 extra to get movies in the room, like we had thought we were doing, we had paid $5 extra to get some tickets to go see a movie in the theater. The lady that checked us in was sorry for the misunderstanding so she offered us a free movie in the room too! We got to the room, got settled and watched a $15 movie for $0 (I love that price!) then went to sleep. The next day we went to breakfast at this amazing bistro called Good Thymes. The food was wonderful! Then we spent the day shopping and having fun at the outlet stores.

By the time we were done playing we were both very tired! It was a very fun little trip. Thanks mama!!

...Is "Sunroof" One Word? Or Two??

2009-06-02T22:16:00.000-06:00

On the morning of May 16th I was driving with my friend Cassie down the interstate, when all of the sudden we heard - POP!!! And just like that the front sunroof on my beloved 99 Subaru Outback had shattered! I don’t know how…we must have gotten assaulted by a rock or something. It was a little frightening! Believe it or not, that little piece of glass that sits above my head, the one with that tiny little curve in it, is NOT very cheap. About $650.00 just for the glass. OUCH! Well the guys at the local body shop looked around and found a used one (which was no easy task) for about half as much and I am so grateful that they did! Thanks Preston Watts!! So, this post is to inform the world (or at least whomever is reading this blog) that last Friday (May 30th) (yeah, I was without my car for that long, sad huh? Thanks Dad, for letting me borrow your truck to get around!) I got my car back AND if it rains, I won’t even get wet through the sunroof cause there is a whole piece of glass in it!

I Love My Brothers!!

2009-05-09T12:58:00.006-06:00

Cause they're really silly!

Welcome to California

2009-04-21T17:37:00.014-06:00

Wednesday was a bad day. I don't have a good reason but I wasn't happy. So I thought to myself 'I just want to run away.' On Thursday I told a coworker and friend, Lauren, that I wanted to run away and we did some wishful talking about going to the ocean. We were on the verge of actually doing it when I called her Thursday night and said, "This is a silly idea, lets not go to California." The next day (Friday) I got to work and this is what was at my desk.

Lauren had set my little bamboo plant up to be a palm tree, and my little Zen Garden up to be the beach, and attached a little note that said "Welcome to California!" It made me so happy! I told her she forgot about the ocean, which I happen to love with a passion that I can't describe, so we decided to set my water bottle next to the beach. Oh if only it were true...

BUT WAIT! THAT'S NOT ALL!!

Friday was a slow day at work and by about 10:00 am I was all done with everything I needed to do. I took that as a sign, and by noon, Lauren and I were on the road on our way to the ocean! Yay!! We drove all day Friday, played all day Saturday, and drove again all day Sunday.

At this point I need to apologise to my wonderful family that lives in California, because I was SO CLOSE! If I would have had even just a little more time, I would have come by for a little visit. Please forgive me, I'll take another spontaneous road trip sometime soon hopefully and I'll come visit then.

Anyway! I wanted to share a few pictures from our little jaunt to Half Moon Bay (see, I told you I was close, Half Moon Bay is only about 30 miles south of San Francisco. I also hear that this is one of Aunt Catherine's favorite places. Understandably so, it's BEAUTIFUL!)

Yay, for spontaneous road trips! It was just what I needed!!

The Great Computer Chase

2009-04-14T18:08:00.007-06:00

Guess what, guess what, guess what! I bought a laptop!! Its so pretty and shiny and new! It was delivered yesterday and I am blogging on it right now. I'm not blogging in the den on my parents computer, nope, I'm sitting on my bed. With my cute new blue laptop (yup, I said blue, Midnight Blue!) Its very exciting!!

Now for the exciting, adventure part of the story:
Mom had the day off of work yesterday, which was good cause I was expecting Fed-Ex to deliver my laptop and someone would need to be there to sign for it. So Mom got up in the morning, started her laundry, and went into her room to get dressed. While she was getting dressed Ivy (the dog) started going nuts! Mom went out to see what was going on and Ivy was at the front door barking and whining. Mom opened the door, Ivy ran outside and mom followed just in time to see the Fed-Ex guy driving away. He had left a note on the door saying something like "we have your really exciting and anticipated package but you didn't answer your door fast enough so we are holding it hostage and you're going to have to come pick it up sometime but not after you get off work cause we'll be closed by then so you'll just have to sit and wait until we open in the morning while thinking about the fact that we have your highly anticipated and exciting package. Mwah ha ha!" No kidding, the Fed-Ex note had evil laughter on it! ...ok, that might not be an actual quote... anyway, on with the story... So, you would think mom would say "oh, dang it!" and go back inside right? NOT MY MAMA!! She shouted for the dog, they both jumped in the car and chased that Fed-Ex guy down! She saw him turning one way so she went the other way (it was a short cut I think) and caught up with him just as he was turning around in a cul-de-sac. She waved the nasty note he left out her window and shouted "I was home, I was just slow!" Apparently it wasn't this particular Fed-Ex guy that composed the note cause it sounds like he was actually quite nice. He laughed a little at Mom, gave her the package, and went on his way. ISN'T MY MOM GREAT?!! I don't know that anyone else would have chased down a delivery person on my behalf. Thanks Mom!!
Well, that's my exciting news and my moms exciting action adventure story. I'm hoping that I will blog a little more often now that I have my great new computer so stay tuned...um...I should probably note that the previous statement is a hope not a promise :)

Isnt Music Great?!!

2009-04-09T23:12:00.004-06:00

Tonight my brother Brandon, his friend Parker, and little ole me went up to USU and paid Twelve whole dollars to watch an utterly amazing musician play some utterly amazing music. If you are reading this and you are not familiar with Kalai then let me give you some advice...BECOME FAMILIAR WITH KALAI!! He is so unbelievably talented! I knew of him and liked his music before the show, but after seeing him tonight I love him at least ten times more. He is one of those performers that can completely blow you away when you see him and his guitar on stage. Not to mention the fact that we spent the whole night laughing at his stories and jokes. He is an amazing entertainer, deeply talented and if/when I get the chance to see him again I will go without hesitation (as if I usually hesitate when we're talking about music...silly me) It was spectacular! Thanks B for inviting me, I had such a great time!

Way To Go!

2009-02-26T18:09:00.004-07:00

This morning I was sitting at my desk working when the Honda Representative for our region (which includes two dealerships in Nevada and all of Utah except St. George) walked in and gave me this VERY pink hat and told me WAY TO GO for being the best Warranty Administrator in our region. I assumed it was just something nice he was saying but he was quick to correct me on that. He told me that he had the numbers and statistics for the region and of all the Warranty Clerks in all the Honda dealerships in our region, I was the doing the best job! It felt so great!! Yay me!!

Happy Tom Petty Tuesday

2009-02-24T09:20:00.004-07:00

Steph and I decided that today is going to be Tom Petty Tuesday, and I thought these adorable pictures of my niece Kinley rocking out while her grandpa played guitar were appropriate. I love Tom Petty. And I love Stephanie. And I love Makinley. And I love my dad.

Tag from Steph

2009-01-19T10:07:00.005-07:00

LAST:
Last person you hugged? Don't know
Last person to call you? Chris
When was the last time you felt stupid? This morning when I got to work I read a repair order that said "drive terrain" (its a car thing) and I thought that for years I had it wrong thinking it was "drive train" FYI: it IS drive train, I didn't need to feel stupid
What was the last thing you yelled? I can't remember

FACTS:
1. Hometown? Smithfield
2. Natural Hair Color? Red
3. Initials? MS
4. Hair style? Long and straight, unless I curl it, then its long and curled
5. Eye color? Blue
6. Height? 5'4" ish...depends on the shoes I'm wearing :)
7. Pets? None of my own
8. Mood? I don't know how to answer this queston..
9. Where would you rather be? I would love to be on a beach watching the ocean
10. What was the last thing that you had to drink? Water

THINGS ABOUT YOUR LOVE LIFE:
1.Have you ever been in love? Yes
2. Do you believe in love? No, I think that its a make-believe emotion...WHAT KIND OF QUESTION IS THAT?! Do I beleve in love? How silly! Of course I do
3. Why did your last relationship fail? That might be just a little too complicated to go into...or a lot too complicated to go into...
4. Have you ever been heartbroken? Yes
5. Have you ever broken someones heart? Yes
6. Have you ever fallen for your best friend (opposite sex)? No, I've been best friends with the person I fell for though...make sense?
7. Have you ever loved someone but never told them? Not that I can recall, although if I would have been asked when I was, say, Thirteen or so I would have said yes :) of course when I was Thirteen I was "in love" with someone new about every other week...
8. Are you afraid of commitment? I don't think so, although I am a little cautious about it at this point in my life
9. Have you had more than five different serious relationships in your life? Serious relationships? No

EMOTIONS:
1. Are you missing someone right now? Yes
2. Are you happy? Sometimes...
3. Are you eating anything? Not at the moment
4. Do you like someone right now? I like lots of people
5. Does your ex hate you? He might, but I don't think so. I don't really know. I'm not sure if I would want to know either...
6. Have you ever kissed anyone whose name started with an R? R...hmm...I cant think of an R person I have kissed...There was a Robert on the cheek, does that count?
7. Would you get married if you could right now? If it was right, yes
8. Is the last person you kissed mad at you? Nope
9. How old are you? 25, for one more month
10. Are you in a good mood? I'm in an alright mood today, yeah
11. Do you prefer warm or cold weather? Warm
12. Is any part of your body sore? No
13. Do you care if people hate you for no reason? I would like to say no, and I would pretend it didn't bother me, but I actually do care a lot.
14. Still talk to any of your exes? Ex-serious relationships? No. Ex-flings? Yeah.
15. Do you miss anyone right now? I still miss them from when I answered this question above, is that what is meant?
16. Lose a best friend lately? No
17. Who is the last person you texted? Shay Lee
18. Have you told anybody you loved them today and meant it? Yes, my mom. I Love You Mom!
19. What's worse, liars or cheaters? There is no worse, they are both horrible things to do to someone.
20. Is it easier to forgive or forget? Way, way, way easier to forgive than to forget
21. Can men and women be "Just Friends"? I think so, yes
22. Would you live with someone without marrying them? Yeah
23. Ever kissed a random person and then walked away? No. Maybe that should be a goal of mine...who am I kidding? I'm way too chicken to do that!
24. Are you a beach, country, or city person? All of the above.
25. When you marry will you wear white? Yeah
26. What's wrong with you right now? Where do I start?!
27. Are you excited about anything? I try to be
28. Do you think that you're a good person? Yes
29. Do you hate the last girl you were talking to? No. I can't think of anybody I hate.
30. Have you held hands with anyone today? No, but I would like to
31. Do you want someone back? No. There are people that I've not seen or talked to for a long, long time that I would love to see again, but I don't think that is what was meant by this question.
32. Why do people continue to smoke when they know the effects of it? Addiction
33. Have you known any of your friends for your whole life? No
34. Does anyone love you? Yes
35. How has the week been? Its only Monday, so far its good
36. Do you walk around naked? Sometimes
37. Has anyone ever seen you in your underwear? Yes
38. Is there a person of the opposite sex you care a lot about? Yes
39. What’s on your schedule for tomorrow? Work.

TAG FOUR PEOPLE:
1. Shay Lee
2. Tavia
3. Kjerstin
4. Jennifer

Me and my little Kinley Bug

2009-01-09T09:12:00.001-07:00

Christmas Fun

2008-12-25T19:37:00.007-07:00

It is a bit of a blizzard in Cache Valley this Christmas evening. Brandon and I thought it would be fun to play in it...maybe we should have taken the time to put on coats and hats and gloves...or at least shoes...

**UPDATE** A couple hours later our snow angels left us, so we decided to give it another go... Check it out on Brandon's Blog.

Gemini

2008-12-21T00:37:00.008-07:00

I miss my dog. Her name is Gemini. She was so playful and full of personality. She would snuggle with me at night time. She would keep me company. I know it sounds nutty but I swear she would somehow know if I was upset or had a bad day and she would crawl onto my lap and up onto my shoulder and she would snuggle her little head underneath my chin. I don't know where she is now, Jon kept her when we split up and I think he gave her to his mother or his uncle, but I miss her. I didn't even want a dog in the first place especially not a chihuahua but Jon talked me into getting her and I fell in love with her and now I miss her. It would be so nice to have a little Gemini affection.

Happy Holidays

2008-12-10T14:47:00.001-07:00

Here's what I'd like everyone to do - just copy this blog and paste it into yours (changing the answers of course), we may learn something new about each other - try not to be a SCROOGE!!!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Defiantly paper. It feels lazy to me to use a bag, plus you don’t get to rip them when you open ‘em!
2. Real tree or Artificial? I’m not against a fake tree but I think I like the real ones better…if I’m not the one that has to vacuum that is
3. When do you put up the tree? No tradition, just when I get around to it
4. When do you take the tree down? See above answer
5. Do you like eggnog? It’s ok. I don’t love it, I don’t hate it
6. Favorite gift received as a child? That’s a hard question, I have had a lot of really great ones. I think it might be my Cabbage Patch doll. (I think that was a Christmas gift…it might not have been though) She was blond with pig-tails and I loved her.
7. Hardest person to buy for? Dad
8. Easiest person to buy for? Mom
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yup
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I haven’t done cards for a while but when I do I send them in the mail. It’s more fun I think.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I can’t recall
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? The Grinch that Stole Christmas, the cartoon
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Whenever
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas Present? Not that I can remember…
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Wow, where to begin with this list?! Million dollar fudge, pumpkin pie, apples, oranges, rice balls, orange sticks, chocolate oranges, mashed potatoes, yams, cranberries,
16. Lights on the tree? I like white lights on a tree
17. Favorite Christmas song? Tom Petty sings a Christmas song
18. Do you travel or stay home at Christmas? Home, but I wouldn’t mind traveling. Its fun
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Yup
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? My parents tree has an angel on top of it and she is very pretty but I’m a fan of the star myself
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The commercialism. Is that a word?
23. What theme or color are you using? Um..
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Mom always makes Christmas Eve dinner instead so that no one has to work too hard on Christmas day, we just eat leftovers and have fun together
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Undecided

The Fairy Tale Adventures of Steph & Michelle

2008-10-13T22:08:00.002-06:00

Once upon a time there were two beautiful maidens....

Their names were Michelle and Steph. Steph lived in a far away land called Connecticut and Michelle wanted to come visit.

So Michelle went to the Salt Lake international airport and got on an airplane and flew all the way across the country to this far away land. Michelle was so happy to be seeing Steph and they planned to have Grand Adventures!

When Michelle had made it safely to Connecticut the two lovely maidens decided to take a train into the city of New York. They made sure to take photos of Michelle waiting to take her first train ride and of Steph in Grand Central Station.

They decided that they should go see the view of NYC at night from the top of the Rockefeller Center (aka the Top of the Rock). It was something neither of the beautiful maidens had ever done so it was especially fun for both of them!

They next day (Saturday) the two beautiful maidens were lucky enough to have another beautiful maiden join them on their trip back into the city. Stephanie's sister Kelly! Once they all got to Grand Central they made sure to stop for what could possible be the most delicious bagel in all the land at Hot and Crusty's.

They rode the subway to all sorts of exciting places, like Washington Square Park, where they also spent some time wandering around The Village and to Times Square to see some of the sights. They got all sorts of delicious goodies from the street vendors all day long as well. Another fun place they went was to the Brooklyn Bridge...

They had a lot of fun walking over the bridge from Brooklyn back into Manhattan. Making sure, of course, to take some fun pictures along the way.

After sitting down for a slice a cheese cake at Roxy's, the three lovely ladies were lucky enough to be able to go see The Phantom of the Opera! It was a wonderful show and they all enjoyed it very much.

The next day (Sunday) the beautiful maidens were two again. They had another splendid day in New York, full of Grand Adventures. They ate lunch at one of Steph's favorite places, Speedy's. They wandered around Central Park, They did a little shopping and had a lot of fun!

...They also broke the rules just a little by sitting on the stairs at Grand Central Station.

But New York wasn't the only place where the maidens had Grand Adventures. They also had a wonderful time in Connecticut...

Steph introduced Michelle to Stefano's Pizza. Home to the most delicious pizza that she had ever tasted.

And they also got to see the beach in Connecticut!

Michelle was sad when it was time to leave, but she was happy that she had gotten the chance to go. She was so grateful to everyone that helped her on her magical journey, and she was happy to have spent so much wonderful time with her friend Steph.

She was also very happy that she got to meet some new friends while on a layover in the Chicago (Midway) airport. The Blues Brothers!!
Michelle had a wonderful time!