Adventures of Justin&Kristy

Only in Claflin, America

2011-06-29T18:00:00.000-07:00

I have NOT fallen off the face of the earth and other than a two week trip to Germany back in May, I really have no good excuse for not blogging. Now, on with the show!

I guess technically this would only be my second installment of 'Only in Claflin, America', but trust me it's worth the wait!

So, yesterday I left work at 9:45 to head to KC for an old co-workers funeral. (I promise, that's not the point of this story.) But first I had to meet my in-laws at our house (20 miles away) to get some frozen meat from them that I would deliver to my sis in KC. About 5 miles down the road (and yes, by then I'm TOTALLY out of town) I realize that I was supposed to stop at the store and get some ice to help keep the meat cold during the 4 hour drive ahead of me. So I stopped at the grocery store in the next town about 30 miles away.

So, I'm in the parking lot of the store and I am taking one big bag of ice and splitting it up into three trash bags of ice for the three coolers in my back seat full of 'Brisket' (we named our two steers that we sent to slaughter...twisted I know...but good cow karma = good cow meat). I realize to myself that if I put my keys in the trunk to do this, I will ultimately forget and lock my keys in my car. (Nice! One point for me!) So I deliberately take the time to put them on top of the car and then go about doing my thing. When I got done, I realized that I was A) running late B) had 3/4 a tank of gas and was golden...for a bit at least and C) should take advantage of this stop and grab some food for the road. So in a rush, I quick-drove next door to the DQ for a cheeseburger (in honor of my deceased co-worker who LOVED her some cheeseburgers) only to find the drive-thru not open. In my ~~laziness~~ haste, I skipped the food and decided that the apple in my purse would have to tide me over until dinner. Okay, sweet...I'm on the road, meat is iced, I have water and tea, life is wonderful.

....until

About 2 hours down the road I get a call from work. I reluctantly answered the phone thinking that I must have messed something up before leaving when my co-worker says:
Co-worker: 'Hey do you have your wallet?'
Me: 'Yep!'
Co-worker: 'No you don't.'
Me: (Annoyed because I know I didn't leave it at work. Little does she know I just used it at the grocery story!) 'Yes I do.'
Co-worker: 'Did you have it in (tiny town I got ice at)?'
Me: (Damn, she's good!) 'Yeeeeeeesssss?'
Co-worker: 'I just got a call from some lady telling us that her husband found your wallet in the ditch, on the side of the road, near the grocery store....'
Me: (Silence).......'Son of a bitch!'

So, apparently in all the hubbub, I was diligent enough to do something with my keys so as not to lock them in the car, but not so diligent enough to put my wallet in a safe place! My co-worker gave me this lady's work number and said I was supposed to call her. I called Jo (the lady) and she explained to me that her husband works in that town and while on his way back to work from eating lunch at the grocery store he found my wallet in the ditch and then realized that since he'd picked it up, he now had to do something with it...but didn't know what. So Bud (Jo's husband) calls Jo and says that he's got a 'project' for her and to try and hunt me down via Google and contact me. So now Jo, who works about 40 miles from there is tasked with 'finding me'. She has no luck just googling my name and ends up running my driver's license (she works at the Sherrif's office) to try and find contact info for me. This in turn gives her my address (and Lord only knows what else!). So of course what does one do once you know they live in a small town? Call the one place that you think might A) be open and that B) might exist in a small town...the public library! So she calls the Independent Township Library and asks the librarian if she knows me. Of course, being the small town it is (and her daughter was in J's class) she not only knows me, but can tell Jo where I work (and probably that we have a dog named 'Belle', like to two-step in the kitchen, and the scar on my forehead was from a nasty encounter with our fireplace when I was 2.) Hence, how Jo got my work number!

Insert here: Only in Claflin

And now...for the rest of the story!

So I make plans to meet Jo at a certain exit on the highway on my way back home. Meanwhile, I'm still not all that freaked out because I do have a check book with me in case of an emergency. Oh wait...there are no checks in my checkbook. And now I have a quarter tank of gas left and am scrounging the ashtray for change to pay my toll. AND I'm still running late because I couldn't speed for fear of getting pulled over with no license on me.

I coast into my sister's driveway with my gas light on. The call to my sister at work went like this:
Me: 'Hey, you don't happen to have some cash at your place do you?' (I explain the above saga)
Sis: 'You're in luck. While I was cleaning, I noticed some cash in one of the drawers...but I'm not sure how much is there. It might be $3.00 and it might be $300.00 for all I know. If all else fails, the kids' piggy banks are upstairs in their rooms.'

Great, so now I have to bring one blue and on pink piggy bank to the gas station and pay with my niece and nephew's coins!!! And I'm STARVING by now! I found the money (which was enough...no need to bust out the piggy banks), got gas (in which I caught myself trying figure out how to pay for gas with cash instead of swiping my card), made it to the funeral with not a minute to spare, saw all my old co-workers and friends, and life was looking up.

....until

While back on the road to go home, my cruise control and speedometer quit working on me. (Which used to be a regularly occurring thing in my POS, but hadn't happened in ages...so of course I didn't bother getting it fixed!). Plus, I was running late...again...and didn't want to make poor Jo wait on me...so I also skipped stopping somewhere for some dinner.

...and then

I missed my exit for Jo and my wallet! After ALL that! It was dark, late, and I was hungry and tired! I just drove right past it! And, that part of the highway was under major construction, down to one lane, and there was NO turning around! The next exit was 20 miles down and was MY exit...so I told Jo to just go home, apologized profusely while she just laughed at me, and made plans to meet her husband at his work the next morning.

Which leads me to today! A 30 minute drive to his work. A 20 minute wait for him the parking lot...of the jail...because that's where he works. A quick 3 minute conversation with the jail's security officer as to why I've been loitering in the parking lot of the jail for 20 minutes. Another brief 3 minute conversation with Bud, whom I now refer to as 'My Savior'. A 30 minute drive to get to Claflin and then another 25 minutes to get to work.

Moral of the story: 'Good JuJu only lasts for so long people!'

My Pick-Me-Ups

2011-03-23T13:22:00.000-07:00

As of late, J and I have been taking turns being a little bummed out due to 'real estate situations' (I'll leave it at that). Luckily, when his glass is half empty....mine is half full. And when my glass is half empty...his is half full. He is the pea to my pod, the apple of my pie, the (white) chocolate of my chip! (Apparently I'm craving sweets?!?!) So far, there have been only a few moments when both our glasses are half empty and last night was one of them! So he drank Tsingtao and I drank some extremely AWESOME white whine that had peach flavoring added to it...I'll be sure to add a post just about that wine for those of you interested...bonus: it was el cheap-o!!! So, it's at this moment, that a blog post like this seems to be appropriate. You see, there are a few things in my life that I purposely arrange in specific areas where I have the chance to look at them on a daily basis to brighten my day as needed. And so here they are:

1. The following email that my mom sent me...which is cut out and taped to the wall of my hutch at work with a picture of our dog, and a bunch of pics of J in various cities we've traveled to, and pics of my nieces and nephews:

'Holy Cow!!! It's 81 here. I survived my first "official" 5K. Yeah, I roll up to the park yesterday in street clothes with my coffee and I park and look around and there's all these people stretching, sprinting around, running, etc. I guess I should have at least shaved my legs and put shorts on. But in my defense it was 7:00 AM and only 60 degrees and slightly overcast. Anyways I finished around 77th out of 102 women. BUT also in my defense, there was tons of high school track girls and I was the sixth oldest person. Anyway, I wasn't ever sore at all. I did 53 minutes and I'm sure I could shave 5 off that just by walking faster and even being aware we were being timed. It was kind of exciting though with loud inspiring rock music blasting and free bagels and all. I think I'll do it again sometime, just for the heck of it. Okay gotta get busy.'

2. Scouring the old posts of my brother's blog that was established solely for niece and nephew updates! Things such as this:

(OMG! You just want to pinch those cheeks!)

3. At home, it's the big dark red 'R' for our last name that hangs on the wall with two old wooden antique frames that are two different sizes around it. We got that 'R' as a wedding gift from my crazy friend Colette who lives in KC and so many fun stories can come out of that 'R'. From the fact it's the first 'R' I received as newly married chick to the story of how I attempted to hang it, the 2 frames, and about 20 other frames on our wall in this cool pattern as a Christmas gift to J...but the 'R' kept falling and taking down even more frames with it and by the time all was said and done...it was not a gift at all but instead just a huge mess and headache...but a lovable one!

4. A homemade clothespin 'wreath' that I made at home out of brightly colored, funky scrapbook paper. It just keeps getting added to and has become a memory keeper of sorts. Each clothespin has things hanging from it such as ticket stubs to games, homemade 'Thank You' cards, wedding 'Thank You' pictures of all our hitched friends or 'Save the Date' pics, an antique B&W of J's gpa, and all sorts of other odd'n'ends that in some way, shape, or form made their way into our lives and created a memory.

5. Lastly, and most recently added, the following email from my sister last week...which now has it's own place on the hutch at work with my mom's. And after reading both of them, it makes me smile even bigger because it makes me think, 'Good Lord! There's no denying them for family!' So here it is:

'Btw speaking of delish…I discovered ice cream that has changed my life and may change life as we all know it. It’s at Murray’s Ice Cream in Westport. The flavor is called Monkey Nuts, which I only ordered because it sounded fun to say. But can I just tell you…seriously…LIFE CHANGING. Now my life is going to be divided into 2 parts; Before I discovered Monkey Nuts and After I became addicted to Monkey Nuts. It’s banana and peanut butter ice cream with chunks of chocolate in it. Words cannot describe how totally amazing this stuff is. Totally worth a 5 hour drive just to come try it. I’m going to get a pint and bring it home the next time you guys are in town. I’m going to figure out a way to ship it and give it to everyone I know for Christmas. I want to be buried in a big vat of it when I die. Hehe…just realized my will would read that I want to be buried in monkey nuts…hehe…you’ll explain that one for them right?'***

I know they all might seem very random and perhaps even meaningless to you all, but for me, they turn a 'glass half empty' day into a 'glass half full' day and for me...that means all the world!

***After asking approval from my sis to post her email (sorry mom...no heads up on that one!) she responded with this: 'Sure, you can include my name and the address to Murray’s so anyone reading your blog can go and see for themselves what an amazing scoop of heaven monkey nuts is.' (I kid you not people, I can't make this stuff up!)

So should any of you ever be in the Kansas City area...go eat Monkey Nuts at Murray's in Westport, and tell them Shelly sent you! (I will vouch that their ice cream rocks...but I can't say anything about their Monkey Nuts!)

Pepe Juice Update!

2011-01-10T13:06:00.000-08:00

I don't have much to report on this front, other than some menial ranting and raving about the pest control people...who showed up late afternoon Friday to 'do their thang' to our house...oh but wait...

...said pest control people didn't have their ladder!

If your job is to catch 'pests' on people's properties, be it in a tree, in an attic, on top of the roof, etc. wouldn't you have a FREAKING LADDER!!!! The lady basically told us to just go get our ladder (which we have to store at the Farm because of course our (rental) house doesn't have a garage or shed...nor does it have a driveway, so when it snows 4" like it did yesterday, we have to park in our BACK YARD so that the city's snow plow doesn't plow our cars in!***) and stick our head's up in their and throw some bait in it and we're good!

Gee...thanks! So needless to say I spent the weekend freaking out the dog and banging on walls and ceilings throughout the house just to f* with the little critters! (Although I am very well aware of the fact that it probably is scaring the dog more than them.)

Oh, and she mentioned that mice 'sure can create quite a ruckus and sound much bigger than they are'. I'm still refusing to admit it might be mice for the sole fact that's just GUH-ROSSSSSS and O.M.G. we are really clean people and how dare you imply we aren't? Clean, as in my wonderful, handsome, adoring, husband could be borderline OCD about it! (I love you sweetie, but simmer down with the Bleach!)**

*** Justin said that one of my New Year's Resolutions has to be to not talk so much trash on our living situation and to quit whining about it because it doesn't change anything. So I'm not...in front of him. Therefore, you all are now the proud parents of The Rage about The Shithole. Enjoy because it's still a fussy, teething, new-born!

** Pretty sure we have mice in our attic...sigh!

Skunk Much?

2011-01-07T17:30:00.000-08:00

...Why yes, I'll take two!

Okay, so my story goes a little somethin' like this:

I was minding my own sleep business, probably dreaming of unicorns and rainbows I'm sure, when what to my surprise, I awoke in the night (3:00 am to be precise) amidst panic and confusion (in my own head of course) to the horrid, awful, toxic, and lethal smell of a little Pepe Le Pew.

(Insert: I have smelled skunks before, and yes, they are atrocious. I have even owned a dog, who got sprayed by a skunk and then came in the house, and yes, that was crazy dirty terrible bad. But the Pepe I woke up to Monday night was THE.WORST.SMELL.EV.ER.IN.MY.LIFE. We're talking like acid in my nose, and ammonia poured directly into my brain type of burn.)

Okay, so once I realized that Pepe was not under my bed, in my pantry, or snuggled up on our laundry basket...I promptly attempted to go back to sleep and deal with him in the morning because let's admit it...I LUUUUB ME SOME SLEEP!

Next morning: House wreaks of Pepe Juice and now we can hear critter scratches in the attic! (Insert: Oh Shit!)

(Insert: Last year we had a kitty living in the crawl space of the house during the winter...which of course pissed me off because quite frankly, a house (be it rental or not) should never have a hole large enough in the foundation for said kitty to crawl through. But, we never knew when it was there and wasn't, and we sure as hell didn't want to trap a cat in the crawl space and then deal with the inevitable smell of rotting, decaying kitty in the summer when our house hit a cozy 90 degrees inside. This being said, my first thought was that Pepe chased some gorgeous broad under our house and Juiced her real good!)

So now we're dealing with Pepe, something in the attic, and possibilities of something in the crawl space...who knows! Our lovely landlord was kind enough to provide us with her last package of D-Con Bait, provided I pick it up from her house. Apparently, she tells me, that they've had the attic noises before and it's probably just mice coming in from the winter cold (not that it's been cold for like 2 MONTHS NOW or anything!). She then laments on about how they have had to deal with a skunk spraying their house during Christmas this year and had to go live with her mom for 5 days while their house aired out. Good, good. Thank you so much for sympathizing but quite frankly, 'I don't give a flying rat's ass about the issues you are having with the HOME that you OWN and is YOURS!' Here are some of my favorite quotes from my phone conversation with Lovely Landlord:

'Just stick your head up in the attic and toss the D-Con in there!'
'No, it wont leave behind a smell of rotting carcass.'
'D-Con eats up the mouse and just leaves fur behind.'
'You should probably do the same in the crawl space, but I only have one bait left.'
'Dogs? No, it's in the attic...it's not like they're going to get a hold of it.'
'No, we never had $222.81 gas bills in the winter when we lived there!' (Insert: Bold Faced Liar!)

We came home the next night from work, and our said shithole wreaked yet again of Pepe. He's a very busy little man if I do say so myself. And then last night, Justin walked in on me in my fleece PJ's, broom in hand, wild woman look on my face, crouching in silence to listen for the scratches. My thoughts were if I could bang the broom on our ceiling, it would scare the critter...and if it was a Pepe, it would spray (because hell if I no if skunks spray when startled) and then we at least would for sure know it was a Pepe and where he was bombing his juices at. I know, hindsight's 20/20, but either way, he didn't spray. Plus, after my first attempt at hitting the ceiling with the broom, I could here dirt hitting the floor from some cracks up there and decided that creating my own access point to Pepe's apartment wouldn't be wise. And I scared the dog, who in turn scared the be-jee-zus out of me when she came running in like a wild woman barking and growling.

Right now you're probably saying to yourself, 'Why don't they just call an exterminator and be done with it?' And to you I say, 'It's complicated man!'
A. It's a principle thing, I don't think I should pay a minimum of $50 out of my pocket for someone else's lack of upkeep to their house.
B. I'm of German decent and very stubborn.
C. I'm now extremely curious at some of the ideas friends have came up with to eradicate said problem. Douse towels in ammonia and toss them up there has been the most intriguing. (Which still entails one of us on a ladder with our heads up a dark hole and the possibility of a Pepe in there...while holding towels doused in mind-blinding ammonia...I'm not sure which I'd rather have my house smell like quite frankly.)
D. Had we done this already, Justin wouldn't have been able to come up with a text to his buddy reading: 'Screw it! We decided against the bait and threw some apples up there instead. We've decided to be friends.' (tee hee)

Okay, so that's what we're dealing with this week. The exterminator, which is now scheduled by the way, told me that if we didn't want to pay for them to come out and take a look that all we'd really have to do is stick our head up there in the daytime to look for exposed light and poo. Exposed light would hint to whether or not it's mice or a Pepe. Little poo = little critter. Large poo = large critter. Uh-huh, yeah right, sure...you couldn't PAY ME ENOUGH LADY! He's all yours!

Gobble! Gobble!

2010-11-25T12:49:00.000-08:00

Things I'm thankful for (both serious and not-so-serious...so don't hold it against me!):

1. J and I's lives...I sat last night thinking about this pain in my hip (More specifically, my SI Joint, that doctor's are telling me there's no cure for other than time...maybe. Oh, and in addition...when I told the doctor we might be thinking about children in the future, I got this response: 'You need to start preparing yourself now mentally for the pain you may incure.')...anyways, back to last night. My hip hurts...almost always...and it's from a wreck J and I were in 3 years ago. Therefore, I am reminded daily that we are blessed to still be alive...had we not been wearing our seatbelts...it's a pretty certain thing I would not blogging today!

2. I am sitting here at my sister's house surrounded by loving family and one set of my niece and nephew! So I give thanks to my brother and sister for both making me an aunt! Ha ha...I get all the fun and love...and then can dump 'em back off with mom and dad for the nitty gritty. I also give thanks for all the warmth and love we get from all our family we are missing today as well!

3. I am not thankful for the Caramelized Cranberry Onion Cheese Dip I just made...thanks, but no thanks Oceanspray recipe!

4. I am thankful for this Miller Lite in my hand...(don't hold it against me!)

5. I am thankful that I just went made the mashed potatoes after my sister threatened to make them! Nobody wants to drink their potatoes from a straw!

6. I am thankful for Karma...'nough said!

7. I am thankful for Jillian Michaels' '30 Day Shred' workout video and the 3-day 'pre-turkey fast' I've been on! I've lost 4 lbs. to put on 10 lbs. I'm sure...but it's Thanksgiving man!

8. I am thankful for my husband! He is what makes me complete. Without him...I'd probably be in the middle of a field in the fetal position, rocking myself! I love you 'Pete'!

Okay, well I'm thankful for a ton more things...but I'm missing out on all the action in the kitchen! I hope you all out there in blog-ville are enjoying all the things that you are thankful for today as well and enjoying your Thanksgiving traditions...be it Chicken Taquitos and beer (Thanksgiving 2007) or Lasagna (Thanksgiving 2008)!

Here is a random picture that I am posting from my sister's computer, since I'm typing this from KC:

My nephew Jude in his 'Cowboy Costume' with his best John Wayne look!

Google Analytics

2010-10-07T10:44:00.000-07:00

I am so loving Google Analytics lately! I have always wondered how people track their blogs to see who's stalking them...and now I know. This whole time, I unassumingly figured my whopping 5 followers were the only ones who read my blog. Then I added Google Analytics to my blog, and now I'm in the know!!! For those of you unaware as to what this magic tool is, it basically allows you to insert an html code into your blog (behind the scenes) or website and does all sorts of cool tracking for you!

When I first starting utilizing this tool over a year ago, I was able to see that other's were reading my blog whose locations all made sense to me...family and friends that I have in other cities across the state and a few in other states as well. Ahhhh, how cool am I? No, really! My blog is cooler than I thought! SWEET!

I just recently looked at my stats for the first time in a long time and noticed that I have had readers from 5...F-I-V-E....that's FIVE other countries! Now I'm like totally cool! Okay, okay, I know some of you are reading this going, 'Wow! She is so behind in times!' or 'What crappy blog stats, and she thinks that's impressive?!?!' And to those I say, 'Let me have my moment people! Your blog came from a smaller place too!'

Some other cool things that Google Analytics allows you to view:
- Custom reports that you can set up and have emailed to you.
- Customized goals you set up for your site and then track to see how close you are getting to reaching your goals.
- If people are accessing your site directly, from a different site, or even by what word was searched that got them to your site! (Cool, I know!)
- You can even drill down to the city...and even the hostname of the computer the person used: For example, I noticed that someone living in Round Rock, TX has been viewing my blog more often than even some of my family members (odd!) and was intrigued! So I kept clicking and voila!...it was someone accessing from Dell Corporation! How flattering...REALLY, I MINE IT! The fact that my measely blog, which barely even posts on a monthly basis, and is mostly about lame family events in my life is interesting enough to be viewed multiple times a week by someone from Dell Corporation...touched, REALLY! (Insert sarcasm here!)

Only in Claflin, America!

2010-08-27T18:00:00.000-07:00

This is series one of God only knows how many posts about our new(er) hometown and the surrounding areas. You have to say ‘surrounding areas’ because it’s so small, it really doesn’t count without them! (Keep in mind we've lived here now for a little over a year, but this post has been swimming in my mind since last summer!)

Insert Top 10 8 Reasons for Moving:
- Big City life ain’t our gig baby!
- Raising a family in our new(er) small town seems way more exciting to us…and our kids will thank us…much much much much later! They will, right?
- Material possessions nor money are as important to us as love and happiness! (I know, it sounds so cliche, but is indeed true for us.)
- ACREAGE!!! (Eventually we hope, that's another blog all together)
- FUN things like camping, hunting, fishing, floating down the rivers here!
- You can’t love the life you live until you start living the life you love!
- Change is good…for me at least…I leave it up to J to fret and stress over it…which my carefree attitude in life complimented quite well!
- Closer to ALL our family…except of course the two kiddos we left behind in the big city (I lived in my sis’s basement for a stint during all this…you can’t get much closer to family than that!) (BTW- I call my niece and nephew ‘my kiddos’…I didn’t actually leave kids of my own behind…gawh!)

Moving along…I have been dreaming up this ‘Only in Claflin, America’ blog for a while now, but keep forgetting the initial instances that made me want to blog about this…so I’m making it an ongoing series. This way I can post as they come to me and I won’t forget them. As promised, here is Series 1:

'Only in Claflin, America' would the local DJ of the radio station dedicate one whole day to playing only songs with the word ‘farm’ or ‘farmer’ in them in honor of harvest.

Only in Claflin, America would the street signs be white with purple letters because those are the H.S. colors (more of a reason for purple to be my favorite color!).

'Only in Claflin, America' would you find yourself purposely missing your street turn so that you can drive by the city pool because…they got new a slide installed! (I must go check out in person!)

'Only in Claflin, America' would the HS track still be sand/dirt…and only I would say, ‘Do they actually hold track meets here or is this just their practice field?’ and 'only in Claflin, America' would the answer, ‘This is the only track and yes, they hold meets here…’ be a valid one!

Only in Claflin, America do you walk back 7 blocks with a doggie poo bag to pick up your dog’s mess (the ONE time you forget to grab one!) so that your not the gossip talk of the town for the next month.

'Only in Claflin, America' does a story of the farmer who happened to grow a ‘Siamese Conjoined Cucumber’ make the front page:

And finally, 'Only in Claflin, America' do you know that school has 'officially' started when you can watch the H.S. Band practice marching up and down your street as you get ready for work. Ahhhh, the sounds of fall!

Run Like A Mutha'!

2010-08-14T11:01:00.000-07:00

This post is entirely dedicated to my big sis' (translated: I'll try really hard to leave the adorable niece and nephew out of it). So two weekends ago, J and I traveled back to KC to hang with the family and more importantly to see my sis compete in her first ever Triathlon!!!

So, a little history first about this particular marathon: My sister introduced me to this race and organization two years ago. Back in the day when I was living in their basement, trying to sell our house, and trying to find a job to move to the middle of Kansas (literally!) all while planning a wedding, my sister came home from some 'free whatnot and have you' with this recipe for healthy smoothies. She was so jazzed about them and was getting me all jazzified as well, going on and on about the health benefits, and how good they tasted, yadda, yadda. So, she made us all some that Saturday morning for breakfast...what she failed to say is that they had spinach in them which turned them BRIGHT GREEN...and then we all found out what else they turned bright green later that day! But they were really good and we were hooked.

The cool thing (one of many) about this organization is that they host all these free and fun workshops starting like 6 months prior to the race to keep you energized, healthy, and enthused about the race. So then we started going to all the these free things and getting free training manuals, fitness tests, etc. It was awesome! I got so excited, that one day I bit the bullet and signed up for it, thinking that would force me to not back out. (Translated: Would force my sister to sign up to and do it with me!) HA! Have you ever heard of the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure? And how they have a new box you can check called 'Sleep for the Cure' where you still pay the money for the cause and don't race? Well, that was me! (I could go on about all the very obvious reasons (translated: excuses) why I didn't, but luckily this post is for my sis!)

This year my sis signed up and I'll be honest, I was a bit hesitant about whether this was gonna happen or not...but then they got a membership to a gym...and then she started dropping weight like a crazy lady (FYI: She only has 4 more pounds before her husband has to wax his eyebrows!), and then I knew she was serious!

Okay, back to race day! We all get up at 4:00 am, load a 4 year old and an almost 3 year old in the car, the bike, me, blanket, cooler, Gatorade 1,2, and 3 (or whatever the hell they have out now for training!), drinks, Oh...and let's not forget the signs:

Madi and Jude displaying their mom's sign!

And the sign I made for a girlfriend of mine that I worked with in KC, who also designed my wedding invites, and who also now has a deal with Hallmark for some of her art! (And let's not forget her teammate Kristin who raced with her also!)

We loaded up, drove an hour to Lake Smithville, got some coffee on the way so Shelly go get the 'nervous poops' out of her system, and then rocked out a little 'She's a Brick....Houuuuuuse' in the parking lot while unloading. She danced, Jude cried, and yes...people stared. It occurred to me then that we really should have thought about tailgating...(and later we saw people doing it! So don't think I'm all that crazy!)

Shelly and her Sherpa (her husband) got her off on her way, and then I assumed the role of picture taker:

Ashley and Kristin; AKA: Team Jiggly Bits (And can you see the Hello Kitty balloon in the background? That's Ashley's...she LOVES Hello Kitty and the balloons are so that you can find your bike on your way back from the swim...One thing our Sherpa forgot!)

Striking a pose before the race!

Loving the kids before the race!

Lookin' a little nervous before the first event

'Blowin' it Up' with Jude! Go Mommy!

Trying to keep the kids busy before it got started!

Coming back in from the swim!

Ready to race...now that she found her bike! She had a slow transition due to a lost bike for a few seconds!

Coming back from the bike! I like this one because the look on her face almost is saying, 'Oh shit!' and the whole time she was out on the bike part, The Sherpa and I kept looking at our watches and saying, 'She should be back by now!'. We were getting worried and thought maybe she had a 'Grandma Attack' from the coffee and had to deviate! (Come to find out, we were just wrong on her bike time!)

I missed her bike to run transition...so we just hung out at the finish line for her, and these guys were there to cheer people on! I had to take a pic..there was pirate for Christ's sake!

Say no more about the tailgaiting part!

VICTORY!!!

Victory Dance!?!?

Victory pose with the kiddos!

Victory Pose with The Sherpa! (I made this pic XL so that you can get a good look at those eyebrows that are about to get a much needed 'Man-Scaping'!

And the victory party that night outside in the cul-de-sac. The kids were playing tag with J (AKA: Matthew McConaugh-Hair!). And no, Jude doesn't have to play with a helmet on...he was showing us his big boy biking skills right before that...and reallllly likes to show off the helmet!)

So that's that! Shelly finished 255th overall out of I think it was 855 racers that started. About 200 of them DNF'd (did not finish). Her time was 1:26:54, which she was hoping for 1:30:00!!! And her 5K, which was the last event was almost right at 30 minutes, which I find just 'Kick Ass Awesome' after everything else AND on hills! Oh, and next year....I'm soooooo doing it.....and kicking her ass!!! (Just a little sisterly love for ya!)

Photo Phriday!

2010-07-09T13:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics I've taken recently! I apparently have been fascinated with sunsets lately because that's all I have for ya:

This one was taken at Cheyenne Bottoms, about 5 miles from our house.

Also taken at Cheyenne Bottoms on a different date:

Shot 1

Shot 2 (Doctored a bit)

I little later:

And again:

This is a cool limestone post fence row that goes on and on for miles, and in such good shape! This little excursion took us to the local restaurant in Galatia, KS...if you ever find yourself there order the 'Chips and Cheese' with a side of Tums!

This is a picture from our front porch right after a nasty storm passed through town and the sun was starting to set. The tornado sirens went off during this storm...which just so happen to be in our BACK YARD!

This was taken somewhere in Oklahoma on a trip back with my mom. Notice the multi-colored spot in the upper left corner...it was too cool!

Another one:

This one's my favorite!

This is a blood moon coming up during an 'Ag Tour' we took one Friday night scouting out all the bridges for our float trip the next day.

And again:

And this was taken somewhere in VERY WESTERN BFE, KS. We pulled over on a dirt road for a...ahem...errrr....uh...restroom break and I just loved the pinks and the turbines in the distance!

So that's our life lately in pictures! I know, I know, you're IN LOVE with them and want to move to closer to us right away don't you? Okay, well just comment below and let me know your needs and I'll be your 'unofficial' realtor so long as you move here and be my friend! I can even post more cool pics to sway you if need be!

Listerine Makes Me Pee

2010-06-17T12:24:00.000-07:00

True story people! Okay, let's rewind ~~a lot~~ first:

Back in the day when I was all young and growing up and such my mom would always have the most ri.dic.u.lous sneezes. The kind that make you laugh when you're a kid because she looks so spastic and cringe when you're a teenager...because she looks so spastic. I will now try and describe in words 'THE SNEEZE' to you all but really the only thing that would do it justice is a video (which I don't have but would have been great blackmail in my H.S. years!). So first off, it was always a very quick and sudden thing...no long drawn out build up to her sneezes...one minute it what there and the next, gone in a flash! However, in these oh so short seconds of her sneeze was an all out legs squozen together crotch grab...to keep her from peeing herself and this noise which I will try and type out: 'Uuuuuhh-choooo-buh-loob-uh-loob-uh-loob-uh-loob-uh-loob-uh-loob-un' (One can make this noise by holding the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth like you're going to make an 'L' sound. Now make your lips into an 'O' as in the end of 'chooo', and then just stick your tongue out and back in over and over...as if you're making googly noises to a little baby...and do AS FAST AS YOU CAN! That last part is key to the whole thing really because it kinda causes your voice to go up a few octaves from normal. (PS- I love my mom dearly and wouldn't be posting this, except A) She so gets me and my sense of humor and B) This is really something for memory-sake that should be written down...it just so happens to now be written down on my blog! Love ya momma!)

Where was I?....Oh! So I always wondered why she had to grab herself?!?! I think a few times I got the answer, 'Maybe someday you'll get it after you have kids.' Well, okay, whatever! (Still cringing at the time!)

Okay, so now let's jump to about a year ago. (Side note that you must know about me for this to make sense: I sneeze...A LOT...in one setting...and mostly from looking at the sun or stepping outside...if the sun is involved I have gotten 8 out before quitting...which, can I add, is so scary when this happens and I'm driving!) Back to a year ago...I stepped outside, looked up at the sun, and sneezed. A LOT!

ME: 'Oh shit!'
J: 'What?!!?'
ME: 'I just peed!'
J: 'What?!!?'

That was just the start my friends! It has since gotten worse! I now find myself trying to 'nonchalantly' grab myself to keep me from peeing. And the kicker of it all is, since it's the sun that usually trips my '6 or 7 in a row sneezes'...I tend to have the most issues when walking to and from my car outside. The other day I was in the Wal-Mart parking lot of all places (it's like the biggest store in Great Bend!). The first sneeze is always a 'tester' sneeze to see how bad it's gonna be and if I'm gonna leak at all. Well, this one was and I caught myself trying to slow down my walking while squeezing my butt cheeks together and walking with my legs slightly exaggerated (like models down a runway!) to hold it in! Oh god, maybe I need to go look at People of Wal-mart and make sure no one got me on video!!!

So there's this sneezing issue right? Well, I also have this other issue called: 'Oh.Mawh.Gawd. I'm turning 30 this year and my body feels so old!' So now I'm all like, shit...is this a sign of old age? I haven't even started having kids yet? Oh.Mawh.Gawd! What's gonna happen when I'm knocked up and sneeze??? EEEEK! So I'm just calling the 'sneeze pees' a 'hereditary' thing!

Oh but wait! It gets ~~better~~ worse my friends! So, the other night I was washing my mouth out with Listerine...(Which might I add is the most FOUL-TASTING liquid ever invented! But J insists that we only use Listerine, actually generic brand listerine. Every time I use it though, it burns my mouth, singes my taste-buds, and causes an elaborate production in the bathroom that's worth popping popcorn for. Oh god, it's dee.scuss.ting! My mouth waters for like two minutes after I spit it out, so I have to stand there and hover over the sink repeatedly spitting while making 'mawh mouth is burning up haylp meh!' noises!)...back to the other night...it was burning (as always), and I was trying really hard to keep it in long enough to wash my hands (from flossing...I know, it's very aggressive flossing!), so the water was running and the mouth was burning and I was dancing already from it all and then 'IT' happened. An ever so slightly trickle of the....you know....trickle! What is my old, soon to be 30, life coming to people!

So the next day, I found myself googling, 'Listerine makes me pee' in hopes that it would make me feel better when I discovered 1000's of other people having this exact same dilemma....to absolutely NO AVAIL! Getting old sucks!

I'm a slacker!

2010-06-09T09:10:00.000-07:00

Once again, I have about 15 posts that I started, saved, and then never got excited enough to finish and post. I swear I've been trying though! However, I thought it might be nice to try and do some quick recaps of events to catch everyone up in our lives. So here are some recent conversations I've had:

Me: I'm naming mine Porky
J: Mine's named Brisket
(We are the proud owners of two baby steers! We worked for.ever. on a fence around J's parents' pasture and so far it has held up and kept them in. They will be fattened up until the fall and then sent off and 'magically' turned into yummy steaks for us.) (My apologies to my veggie only friends!)

J: Unlock your car
Me: It is
J: No it's not, where are your keys?
Me: (Oh shit! He's NOT gonna be happy about this one!) Are they sitting on the front seat of my car?
J: *&%@#%$*!@&^
(That happened about 1 minute before we had to leave for KC this past Saturday! It's the second time since we've lived here I have done it! Luckily I'm in cahoots with our neighbor that owns the car shop in town and he rescued my keys in like 10 seconds flat. AND, super bonus, he didn't charge us! I made him brownies this morning and delivered them fresh out of the oven...go ahead...call me Martha!)

Me: (answering door in my PJ's...again...but this time they were 'for real PJ's') Can I help you?
Radar: Yes, I'm with the census....
(He was baaaaa-aaaack! Radar dropped us another visit because they didn't receive the census form I filled out the first time! Go figure...)
Me: You do realize this is not Bogue, KS right? Bwah-ha-ha!!! (He didn't get it!)

Me: OMG! It's so frickin' hot in this house! I'm sweatin' like a fat kid at summer camp!
and
Me: OMG...if you don't turn on that AC right now I'm gonna FREAK.OUT!!! (PMS'ing)
and
Me: Jesus, this house is turning into a great weight loss program! Sweety, I've lost 4 pounds this week! Talk about sweat equity!
(Our (rental) house sucks...we went from $200.00/month gas bills to keep our house at about 60 degrees this winter to our one window unit A/C that keeps our house at about 89 degrees!)

Me: Hey guess what?!?! I celebrated my one year anniversary today at work!!!
(Uh, that was last night! Woot Woot! One year since our move from the big city and they have yet to find me naked, in the fetal position, in the middle of a wheat field, rocking myself! GO ME!)

Me: (to my 'Leadership Coach') We can change that first statement I made about how I make assumptions all the time (I got better) to 'Kristy is an impatient person'. (I had a self-discovery on the phone with him!)
Greg (my coach): LOL! Some might consider that a weakness, but you know that can also be a great strength (he's so nice all the time!).
Me: Ha! Next time someone asks me about my strengths then, I'll just say I'm impatient, I make assumptions, I procrastinate, and am late...ALOT! Now let me tell you about my weaknesses! (puh-lease!)

Said to Justin over the past two months:
Me: Guess what? I hit a cat today on the highway.
Me: Guess what? I hit a rabbit today on the highway.
Me: Guess what? I hit a pheasant today on the highway.
Me: Guess what? I freaking ROCK! I just tied my bumper back on with bailing twine I found in my car while pulled over on the side of the highway. Thanks for sticking that pocket knife in my glove box! Damn pheasant!
Me: Guess what? I'm a terrible person! I actually tried to avoid it, but I hit a baby turtle on the highway today. (I don't freaking rock!)
(I need a cattle guard on the front of my 1999 Nissan Altima! Here's the deal though...I paid $2000.00 cash for it and when J hit the dog (he started this whole dead animal curse!) we got $1800 back from insurance on it. The speedometer and odometer work intermittently so the mileage is not accurate...and my bumper is still being held on by bailing twine. I fixed the squeaking in my tires...by removing the hub caps. Oh, and a chisel won't even pry off all the bugs on the front bumper...it worked for the fur though! Needless to say, I made my money back on the beast and will be driving that thing until it dies!!! Or until we have kids...and decide I need to drive something more durable for smashing into animals on the highway with! Something with a cattle guard!)

That's all I can think of that's rattling inside my head right now! Maybe now I can start posting more often!

Ciao!

Census Taker, Schmensus Schtalker!

2010-03-15T15:36:00.000-07:00

So an apparent 'Census STALKER' visited our house this weekend and it went a little something like this:

I was sitting at home...alone (of course!)...sipping my freshly ground french pressed coffee (Thank You Mom!) while doing a little blog stalking myself when I heard footsteps on our front porch. Waiting for our 'guard dog' to start barking, I continued to bloggle. 'What's that, no dog bark?!?!', I thought to myself...Oh, damn...J took her with him out galley-vanting around. I was feeling particularly lazy that morning and just waited for the door bell to ring...hoping the person would disappear. Well, it worked because the bell never rang! About 5 minutes later, I hear footsteps yet again on the front porch. Now I'm just mad that some person can't work up the balls to just knock on my damn door. I looked out the window (closest thing to me that allowed for me to stay fully reclined and comfy) and noticed a big, old, red pick-up truck. 'Odd! I didn't ever hear a big truck like that pull up?!?! Perhaps I should go look out the window on our door'. To my surprise, what do I behold? Some short, scrawny guy (imagine Radar from M*A*S*H but skinnier and more confused looking) sitting on my patio chair and writing on a piece of paper on my patio table... At the same time 'Radar' gets up to knock on my door I realize I'm in my pajamas still (Adidas warm-ups and a sweatshirt...don't get any crazy ideas here! It's a lot what I look like when working-out minus the ponytail.) and children's cartoons are blaring in the background because I was so focused on bloggling that I lost track of time and apparently all reality. So I quick-ran and put my hair in a ponytail (so he wouldn't think I was answering the door in my pj's) and muted the TV (because what stranger would know if I had kids or not to watch said cartoon?!?!), all the while processing the weirdness of what I had just observed.

So I answered the door, but kept the glass door firmly shut and shouted at him through the door (I say that like I had to shout because our house is so fancy with some super cool, hefty duty door! Really, I could have farted and he would have felt the breeze...we still live in the crappy, 'arid', rental with a $200.00 per month gas bill and an average temperature of 55 degrees inside...yes that one!). He showed me his little 'Census 2010 badge' and his little 'Census 2010 clipboard' (I guess to try and tell me 'I know I look like a serial rapist, but really you can trust me!'). And I showed him my little 'I don't give a f*ck what you have, you look like a serial rapist to me' look.

Oh, I forgot to mention...going back to the whole Radar look. Take off the army camo. and add a full length black trench coat, black jeans, and hard core-shit kickin'-cowboy boots to accessorize his little 'Census 2010 badge and clipboard'.

He proceeds to explain what he's doing (hand delivering Census Forms...rrrrrriiiiight!). I'm thinking, 'OMG! They just ran a news story this week about how we will be getting a letter in the mail that let's us know that we will be getting our Census...in the mail...soon! And how people were all miffed about the waste of paper and postage...yadda, yadda.' (Like it mattered though...I only walk down and check our mailbox like once every two weeks...because who lives in a town so small that they don't have a mailbox directly on their property somewhere???...GAWH!') So I am under the assumption I will be getting my Census in the mail right? But, since I'm apparently a big girl now (it's my first official Census...FYI!!!), I have no flippin' clue how this shit works! Not too mention, living in small-town-rural-america almost always trumps the rules of any sane assumption of lifestyles as I once knew them. So I crack the door open enough to stick out my hand for the envelope. When this conversation ensues:

'R': I just need to verify a few questions. (As he looks at his 'Census.clipboard')
Me: Okay
'R': Are you the primary residence holder? (AKA...Do you live here alone? Are you alone right now? Those pajamas of yours are hot!)
Me: No, my husband is.
'R': What I meant (oh, uh-huh, right!) was, is this the only residence here? There's no apartment inside anywhere where another family may live? (AKA...You're not harboring any small trolls in the crawl space are you?)
Me: (Laughing out loud at that one!) Uh, no! (Does he see the size of this house?!?! Really??? It's like the smallest house in town!)...(AKA...You mean other than the rabid-stray-alley-cats that crawl in there purposely to waft their scent throughout our house...driving my huge guard dog that's chained up inside and about to eat you...CRAZY in the middle of the night just so that I can only get 2 hours of sleep?)
'R': Okay, all I need to do now is confirm the address on here.
Me: (You are standing...quite literally...in front of the numbers on my house and the street sign is in the corner of my yard! Not too mention, I already heard your scrawny ass on my porch once today! And now you're trying to tell me you're not sure where you are!)
'R': Okay, this is (insert street numbers and street name here)?
Me: Yes.
'R': And ummm, this is Bogue, KS right? Or wait, no???***
Me: What? NO! (You IDIOT!) You......arrrrrrre.....innnnnnn......Clllllllaflinnnnnn, KS (Very slowly and loud!). (Where the hell is Bogue, KS???)
'R': Oh, right (awkward chuckle)...okay, well let me just scratch that out and write in Claflin here. (I'm about to rape you!)
'R': Well, but the zip code is right...67635???
Me: NOPE! 67525...completely off! (How did this weirdo end up on my porch today?!?!)
'R': Oh! Oh? Okay, well let me just scratch that out and write in 67525 here. (Damn, she's onto me!)

Blah, blah, blah...yadda, yadda, yadda...he gives me my census and leaves!

CREEP-UH-ZOID!

***FYI...I googled it...Bogue, KS is about 130 miles away from me!!!

Olympics What?

2010-02-17T21:45:00.000-08:00

Dear work, husband, dog, 'Edward', laundry, sleep, loved ones I should be calling on the phone and catching up with, workouts, dishes, and blogs that I stalk on a daily basis:

I promise to return to you all just as soon as the Olympics are over. But until then, I am using my new HD antenna to watch the Olympics (in HD! for free! bitches!). During this time I will probably be screaming, yelling at the TV, waking up J (on accident), drinking a beer, and commentating Curling with the TV on mute (because if you've done it on a Friday night with friends, you know how entertaining it can be!).

I will be back soon though with the full ferocity, wildness, bloodthirstiness (seriously, it was listed as a synonym!), turbulence, and barbaric splendor (I can't make this stuff up people!) as when I left you. Except for maybe the laundry and dishes... And the bloggers that I stalk will really never know I left them! ...And I was never all that 'ferocious' with my workouts anyways. Well, and really there's no 'splendor' in my job(s)! Sleep...ah-ha!...yes, you - sweet glorious sleep! I rock at that (just ask J! Tonight we talked about how if it were an Olympic sport I'd have the upper hand fo' shiz!) and will never let you down again...at least not for another 4 years!

All Things ♥'ed On Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T20:00:00.000-08:00

♥ Karma Ale : 'Good beer happens to good people'

♥ Taking care of my sweet (sick) valentine and loving him even more

♥ The old fashioned valentine I scored for J that let him know how 'swell' he was

♥ Homemade Bierock Casserole

♥ Winter Olympics on TV ***

♥ Creme Brulee**

♥ Our sweet puppy doggy curled in a cuddly ball

♥ Hot rice bags on our feet

♥ Chamomile tea

♥ Lazy winter day on the couch watching movies

♥ Yawwwn...going to bed early; loving my life

*** Might I just add that I am watching the Olympics in HD on my $38 HD Antenna without any cable installed in our house!!! I freaking LOVE it! We have all the major networks and like 5 PBS stations to boot! Seriously people...$38.00 freaking dollars! Go buy yourself one right now, cancel your cable subscription, and thank me later!

** It's been a Vday tradition to make Creme Brulee for J every year. However, it must be the fact that he's ill that caused it to flop on me this year. Or the fact I made it with only about half the actual ingredients the recipe called for...and I was drinking...and a few ingredients may have been dumped in the wrong bowl and cooked when they weren't supposed to. They are in the trash now! Karma: Good Brulee Does Not Happen to Good People!

Go Girl!

2010-02-02T09:08:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I am not one of those people to support random products via my blog...unless of your course your name starts with an 'A' and rhymes with 'mazon'! (I heart you Amazon!) However, I must post this product that I ran into over at Divine Caroline because A) This is the most amazing thing ever and B) Any of you who know me well would know that I NEED this!

It's called the Go Girl and looks like this:

Below are the details from Divine Caroline:

Female Urinary Device

I might not want to be a man, but sometimes when I'm faced with dirty, disgusting, or worse, non-existent, toilets, I think it'd be handy to be able to pee like one! You Go Girl is a feminine urination device/pink silicone cup-and-spout thingamajig that you place against your body (forming a seal), and then ... well, you just aim and pee! No crouching or balancing required. It fits easily in your purse, pocket, or glove compartment, and you can dispose after use or clean and reuse.

$9.99

go-girl.com

So now that you all know I want one of these, you might already be assuming my issues with copping a squat. It started out one day on a family road trip to go visit Big Brutus when I was like six and I had to go pee while on a hike in the woods. My mom peed first to show me how it works and then helped position me in the correct 'cop-a-squat' stance. I remember holding onto her (probably mistake #1) and asking her if I looked good to go. She hesitated (mistake #2), but said yes (mistake #3)...and then I pissed all over myself...and my pants...and my underwear...and my socks...and my shoes. We ditched the undies and socks in the woods and I rode home damp and smelling my pee. I've been scarred ever since then. The few feeble attempts I've only recently starting making at getting this cop-a-squat thing down resulted in a need to walk like a mile into the woods in hopes that no one would catch a glimpse of my insaneness. Because once I pick a location, I then take off one shoe, pull my leg out of my pants and undies, toss them over to one side, throw my shoe aside so I don't pee on it, and then do my thing. Now, I have yet to get any on me or my clothes, but as you can see, it's quite time consuming and embarrassing as hell. I just get so panicky and sweaty when I find myself in a situation that I know will eventually involve peeing outside...which is often since we like to camp and drink! Oh, what I would give for a Go Girl in these situations! Hell, I'd probably flaunt it as if I had a boy part! I could just see myself keeping the Go Girl in my undies with the little pink tip hanging out of my zipper...oh man!!!...I could go in the woods Whenever.I.Wanted! Plus, if I had one of these, I could officially have a 'collection' of portable restroom devices since I already have a fold-able camping toilet: (Thanks mom for always trying so hard to get your little girl peein' in the woods!)

Game On!

2010-01-30T14:14:00.000-08:00

What a fabulous Saturday! Do you ever have one of those Saturdays that you wake up early...naturally..feeling well rested and ready to go? I did today...and that doesn't happen often! I love me some sleepy time! We've already 'been to town', shopped, and now I'm getting ready for the K-State vs. KU game:

Drink in hand: Check

Fresh strawberries, mangoes, and pineapple cut up and chilled: Check

Fresh veggies and homemade veggie dip made: Check

*Chicken legs thawing for homemade buffalo 'wings': Check

Homemade Deer Summer Sausage: Check

Sliced PepperJack chee' and crackers: Check

Homemade Bleu Chee sauce for 'wings': Check

**Fresh 'baked' No-Bake Cookies: Check

Dusted, sweeped, vacuumed, clean-clean house: Check

Laundry done: Check

Dishes done: Check

***K-State shirt and hoodie on: Check

Rockin' out to Dave Matthews: Check

****Cable to watch the game on:...SHIT!!!! I knew I forgot something!

* I realize you can't call them 'chicken wings' technically when you are using legs to make them...but 1) Small town grocery stores don't sell wings and 2) Legs are OMG better and less mess for more meat!

** I also realize that if a cookie is called 'No-Bake' that you can't necessarily bake it. But I like that it makes me sound like I worked harder in the kitchen to make them...even though it's really probably the easiest cookie in the world to make...unless you're my mom! Much love mom, but they never set up really! (And I gave half of them to our neighbor and wrote on the bag: 'Thank You Sidewalk Snow Remover!' since he always takes his fancy snow blower machine to our sidewalks also...much love!)

*** Yes, I admit it...I'm one of those that sports K-State gear even though I didn't graduate from there. But, in my defense, purple is my favorite color, Claflin's mascot happens to be the Power Cat with the same school colors, and it's just not the same to get all amped up over a Friends University game.

**** Oh, and we don't have cable. We moved here, had cable...for free. (I guess they forget to disconnect it when the last peeps moved out.) So really smart me says: 'I know, I'll disconnect the cable cord from the TV and then call and get Internet for us and it'll be like 2 for the price of 1! As soon as 'Mr. Internet Man' leaves, I'll plug the cable cord back in and he'll never know!'...and right now you all are like: 'Brilliant!'. Except I didn't realize that 'Mr. Internet Man' was also called 'Mr. Cable Man' and apparently has 'Magic Tools' to tell if we are getting free cable. Uh, needless to say 'Mr. Husband Man' was not thrilled with 'Mrs. Dumbass Me' and ever since we have successfully lived off DVD's and Hulu.com and life is great! So take that...Damn the (cable)Man!

Happy Birthday My Love!

2010-01-18T11:25:00.000-08:00

I would just like to take a minute to say, 'Happy Birthday' to my wonderful husband today! He is a great son, brother, grandson, nephew, uncle, great nephew, cousin (I think I covered them all...oh, and add 'in-law' as well to all those!), and friend , but most importantly he is the greatest at being:

my BEST FRIEND and HUSBAND!!!

So here's to the man I married on the 4th of July, who wakes me with kisses every morning (no matter how grouchy I am), who laughs with me (and sometimes at me...but in a good way!), who is a great chef, my #1 supporter of all my ideas (dumb or not!), who can hang with my family almost better than I can, who let's the dog out at night when it's cold, and who has the best heart, smile, and laugh (and big brown eyes) that constantly keeps me going! Thank you 'Pete' and I love you!

Here are some pics from the bday celebration in KC this past weekend:

Here's our fun dinner group: J and I, My sis and bro-in-law, and Trafton and Kerrie.

Thanks to all for the great dinner and company!

My sis and bro-in-law at the restaurant. We ate at Blue Koi in KC. If you ever get the chance to eat there, you must!!!

Terrible, I know! It's the only one that I apparently got of us though during the entire night!

After dinner we went to The Jazz for some beer, 'bugs, and live jazz music!

It was a wonderful evening!!!

Happy Birthday to the man who is 13 months younger than me (and by no means does that round up to 2 years!).

Sayonara Parasites

2010-01-13T08:38:00.000-08:00

Adios amigos! Arrivederci dudes! Au revoir gentlemen! Cheerio & good-day! Tah-Tah creeps!

My new found friends!

So I just finished day 3 of what I like to call my 'Anti-Parasite Pack'. Now I know what you're thinking right about now, 'What is she smoking!?!?' Well, I'll try not to go into detail about some 'issues' I've been having over the last two years...but they have recently caused the doctor's decision for me to get a colonoscopy. After having discussed some of the 'issues', my doctor asked if I'd traveled out of the country recently. 'No. Well, we went to Costa Rica like two and a half years ago...but that was forever ago!' Then it occurred to us both how long I'd been having some of my 'issues'.

For anyone out there who may be fearful of having to gt a colonoscopy...you really shouldn't be! I was more afraid of the anesthesia than anything else...mostly because I have a friend who lost her cat due to the fact that they had put it under with anesthesia for a simple, routine, procedure! I know, I know, it was a cat and I'm not...but I'm sure that could happen to humans too! I remembered nothing, I had no ill side effects afterwards (minus the fact I was starving!!!), and life was good. Afterwards the doctor said: 'Everything looked just fine. I didn't find any polyps. I did do a washing while we were in there for you and took samples to send off to the lab'. My first thought: 'Rock on! A free colonic to boot!'

Well, Mr. Doctorman called two days later and told me that my results came back from the lab and I tested positive for two parasites that are most commonly found in contaminated drinking water. Who'd-uh-thunk-it! He said that one of them is hardly ever heard of being found in the US. I only drank bottled water in Costa Rica, but we ate at lots of restaurants...so who knows what they served to us for 'water'! So, I had to take some medicine for three days and that was that! You could imagine the jokes though! Saturday we had a 'Going Away Party' for them...okay not really, but we went out with friends and drank so I called it that in my head. J banned me from the hot tub because he was afraid he would get them! Really? Come on now! Anytime I was in a cranky mood this week I blamed it on the pissed off parasites in me slowly losing the battle! Ha! I could go on...but you get the jist!

I don't really feel all that different! I'm not 100% convinced that this was the fix of all fixes, but it's a good start! 2010 is the year of Kristy's Health! I will be heeeeeeealed! (said in thick southern preacher accent!). I hope to get this all cleared up and solved this year so that we can work on more fun things...like making babies!!!!

Cutey Puh-Tootie!

2010-01-07T19:35:00.000-08:00

Once again I am a day late with a birthday posting, but at my rate I suppose it could be a lot worse!

Anywho, my fave nephew in AZ turned the big 2 yesterday and so in honor of the growing young man...(how sad...he's almost no longer a baby...more like toddler!) I found as many pics of him as I could from our wedding! Which by the way, he was a ring bearer in the wedding along with my other nephew who is a good three months older. My niece was the flower girl and is four. Kai was the only one of them to actually walk down the aisle by himself without throwing a tantrum, getting a case of stage fright, and having a 'stomp, stomp, throw yourself down on the ground' fit! So to that little man - 'KUDOS!'...and thanks for being so damn cute!!! Also realize this is the last birthday of the rest of your life that you'll get all the attention. It's all down hill once baby Mia comes along...of course minus the showering of spoiling you'll continually get from Uncle J & Aunt K!

Okay, well we don't have one of Kai actually going down the aisle...probably because he was just that good! But here is proof of the tantrum (hence dad holding the flower girl) and stage fright.

Thanks to my brother-in-law / flower girl / 'co'-ring bearer

Ha! He normally doesn't have that look on his face in pics!

Hmmm...there it is again...

Could possibly be a variation of 'the look'?....

This one makes me laugh every time I see it! He LOVES him some cake and ice cream with dad!

100% Hammin' it up!

So serious! It's like he's saying, 'Don't even get between me and this golf cart lady!'

Oh man, I need more dad! Can't...get...enough!!!

Okay, well I said I'd post every picture of him I had...he's in there...near the upper left.

So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the cutest, smartest, most handsome little boy there is!!!

Much Love

Aunt Kristy!

SCHMAPPLES!!!

2010-01-06T14:11:00.000-08:00

Note: I'll get to the title name in due time!

Okay, so this post is beyond a little old...but it should get me caught up to the present up until the holidays! I dumped all my pictures off my camera and went, 'Yikes! I'm am uber behind here!'...so here are a few trips down memory lane over the past months and some fun stories to go with it!

For starters: Here is our first snow that allowed me to go home early! It's not that great of a picture, but that's the point I suppose. Since then, we've had windchills in the -20's. With that being said, I would like to say, 'Thank You!' to all the nice friendly motorists that waved at me as they plowed past me on the highway...I never knew there were so many one fingered people in this town?

Okay! Well then, since we are rewinding, the next post I missed would have been Halloween. (Due to the economy, the Turkey Day post got cut this year!)

One joke I've had since we moved here was how we needed a 'Rupe Rock'! You know what I'm talking about, every house in this town has one. The limestone post/rock that has the family's last name etched in it and proudly displayed in the front lawn. I will assume this is the reason we never got a welcoming committee, or a homemade pie delivered to us...everyone just assumed we already knew them because all you have to do is read their rocks! It's a genius idea really, if you think about it! Well, since we don't have one yet...because of course I refuse to pay money for one and really think that making my own would 'rock'! (Tee hee!)...I made a temporary one for the season:

I called them our 'Rupe-o-lanterns' and proudly displayed them in the window for all to see!

This is my friendly, cackling witch!

And also my friendly jack-o-'lantern' lights!

The highlight I have from Halloween night is finding out the reason that we only had 10 trick-or-treaters as opposed to the 80-100 our neighbors had. It was because the former tenants' of our house never 'hung around for very long'. (Insert note: As in they were huge druggies!) One little girl informed me that her friend had a cousin that lived here and that 'her mommy and daddy were really dirty!' She peeked in and then said, 'Wow! You have a beautiful dining room miss! It's prettier than ours even!' I proceeded to find out that high schoolers once rented it for a bit...real smart right? And the last occupants couldn't afford the gas bill so they heated attempted to heat the house with the stove in the kitchen! Niiiiice! Oh you just wait until next year all you princesses and goblins! Every kid in the neighborhood will want to come to our house...you just wait and see!

Moving right along and getting to the title of this post! I have a list of all the bijillion things I want to explore in my new town and the area's around it and finally got a chance to one weekend in the fall. We first went to Cain City Orchard in Bushton, KS! Love, Love, Love this place and want this to be my future some day!

This is the cute little house that they sell homemade jams, jellies, and some produce from!

These are the fabulous apples we picked!

That bag is an 'official' apple-pickers bag that goes around your chest kinda like a backwards backpack! I refused the offer of it from the nice man because I didn't wanna run around looking all dumb...and later discovered that perhaps I should have taken it. My scrawny canvas bag got full, heavy, and annoying QUICKLY!

Ah! 'True Love Self-Portrait' (Can't you just feel my happiness in this pic!)

Ginormous apple orchard!

Once you pick your hear out of apples (15 pounds to be exact!) you take them into this cute little shed where they dump them in this polisher to make your apples shiny and pretty!

You can also pay a $1.00 to shoot old apples that have fallen on the ground from a slingshot!

If only you could have seen the look on my face when I found out about this!

Conversation:

(Me reading a sign in the shed: 'Apple Shooting: 6 for $1.00' and having already eyed the slingshot and bull's eye...knew exactly what they were talking about!)

Me: OMG...can I do that J...please, please, please!

J: (Not having noticed the slingshot or the bull's eye and literally thinking they meant allowing me a real gun to shoot up apples with.) Uh, no.

Me: Oh come on...it's not like we'll be back this year! Let loose and have some good ol' fashioned fun for once!

J: We don't have time!

Me: Yeah we do! (I then promptly bought one bucket of apples with a huge grin on my face!)

I got pretty close with my second apple. Then I decided that since I was having so much fun, I should let J in on it (since now he has figured out they didn't mean apple 'shooting'). He didn't seem amused and I think was really just humoring me more than anything. Until...

Check out that look on his face! He was so getting into it! Best quote of the day from him at the orchard:

'Man, I could so sit here and do this all day while drinking some beers!'

Needless to say it was 'little kid' fun and those times are the best!

After that, we headed over to Dozier Winery to sample some of their homemade wines!

This is the sampling room / gift shop / old train depot!

This is inside the old train depot and the 'Santa Fe' sign up top is the original one!

This is another original 'Santa Fe' sign for the depot and was taken from the gift shop side. The window there is the window where passengers would buy their tickets.

Mmmmm! These are all the wines we sampled! The one on the end is a Jalapeno Wine that they created for cooking / marinades...they had us sample just a swig...and yes...it was definitely made with peppers!!!

After all our sampling and purchasing of Sandhill Plum Wine and Concord Grape Wine (tasted just like grape jelly...so much so that I went home, made a peanut butter sandwich, and dipped it in a glass of the wine...shhh...don't tell anyone!) we decided to go for a stroll thru their forest! How beautiful it was with the pretty leaves, a nice buzz (as noted in my smile!), my lovely man, and a perfectly crisp autumn day!

Well, that should get me caught up to December...and I might just skip right over that and move on to 2010!

Oh crap...SCHMAPPLES!...I forgot to get to that. Well, needless to say we were getting pretty creative with our 15 pounds of apples. We used a lot of them for making homemade wine (which we finally finished up last weekend!). We then decided to slice a lot of them up in rings and throw 'em in the dehydrator. Oh YUM! The result was a crisp apple chip almost! I got so excited and crazed over them, I started calling them 'schmapples' except I would say it in a loud, high pitched voice over and over and over like the big dork I am! And so then every time I saw an apple...I started calling them schmapples...then J picked up on it...and now all apples in our house are 'scccchhhhhmapples!' There you have it!

Honey Moon Part One

2009-12-03T20:53:00.000-08:00

Since it's been almost 6 months since the wedding...I thought it's about time to get off my kiester and post some pics! So this post is one of a lot to come from our honeymoon in Yellowstone. One might be thinking, 'I haven't seen the wedding pics yet though?'...and that one might be correct. But, A) That would require me getting out of the recliner of warmth right now and B) I figure I should post these pics before I break the laptop and we loose them forever. (Similar to the broken hard drive we have right now with the last 6 years of pictures possibly lost forever...sigh!) These were chosen in no random order and we have about 400 pictures of our honeymoon....so here is PART ONE:

Words cannot even BEGIN to describe the beauty, peace, and calm here!

We drove all day and all night to try and get to the Park for our reservations the next day. We got so tired that we found a random campsite in the Grand Tetons at like midnight, leaned the seats back in the 4Runner, and just crashed...and this is the awesome view we woke up to the next morning...it's views like this that don't require coffee in the mornings to get going!

We went White Water Rafting, not our most 'intense' one yet, but we had a real dickhead in our raft which really got to me...I would have taken Class 5 Rapids over this guy! The pics that the company takes were $35 a piece so this picture serves as our 'souvenir'.

NEAT! Grand Tetons!

KS representing at Yellowstone with the Sunflower!

One of maybe 5 self portraits from the whole trip...which is odd because I LOVE self portraits and J is usually very good at taking them!

I think this was Day 1 Campsite...where our neighbors on each side of us had kids that were dropping food left and right and the people in front of us already had the Park Patrol on their site to lock up food they left out in the 'Bear Bins'...You either have to store it in your car or under lock in a big metal container. I was convinced we'd get eaten alive thanks to our idiot neighbors (more pics to come on bear sightings!).

Words cannot explain the Geothermal Features either! The more blue'ish green they are the hotter they are! And let's not forget the LOVELY smell of rotten eggs everywhere you went from all the sulfur...gag!

We figured out the timer on our camera! Woo Hoo! (Disclaimer: Yes of course I look like crap...but we like to see how many days we can go before breaking down and showering...I think our max is 4 and this trip hit 3!) If that sounds odd or gross to you...you don't know what 'roughin' it' means man!

This one looks neat in the picture, but sadly enough it's that yellow color because of abuse. People think it's 'cool' to toss trash and such into those to see what will happen and it destroys and deteriorates the feature...hence all the yellow!

Once again...speechless...but just so cool!

So those are round one and I'll be sure and get the rest up sooner than later! And for those of you contemplating driving across the whole state of Wyoming to get to Yellowstone...be sure and set your cruise to 'FAST'...there is NOTHING in Southern Wyoming...I mean nothing at all!!! The only story out of that part of the state was the lady at the gas station who told me about this cat that ate a rabbit that had some deadly disease and bit one of the employees there. They took pictures of her hand where she was bitten and had them posted all over the counter warning people of the disease and to stay away from rabbits! The pictures were non-recognizable body parts that were rotting away from this disease. Famous quote from that conversation (which ended rather quickly and abruptly):

Gas Station Lady: 'Yep! Best rabbit I ever saw is a dead one...buried 6 feet under ground..those bastards!'
(My apologies for any spelling errors..it's late, I'm tired, and ever since I uploaded the new Blogger I don't have a spellcheck button anymore!)

Field Trip Pics!

2009-10-27T21:10:00.000-07:00

I traveled to San Antonio for a work conference and took some fun shots:

I had to take a shot of this for J!

Full Moon at the Alamo!

The Alamo at night is so beautiful...once you're able to edit out the tourists!

There was a hand blown glass shop that had all these cool balls hanging from the ceiling!

And of course the water features along the Riverwalk!

Other Highlights From the Trip:

- The TexMex food...MMMMM!!!

- Seeing my co-workers reaction to 'street people'!

- The ability to go to dinner utilizing a trolley, your feet, and a cab all for under $5.00!

- Dick's Last Resort...(for those unfamiliar, it's the restaurant where they are purposely dick's to you)...and I note this as a 'highlight' to remind myself to never go back. I pay people for 'service' for a reason!

- And then the rest was really just work crap no one wants to hear about!

Side Note: As I kick back in the recliner typing this, wrapped in a warm fuzzy blanket and sipping on hot tea, I look into the bedroom (yes...it's a small house) and can see my wonderful (but pretty icky sick right now) J asleep like a baby and our dog curled up in a ball at the end of his feet. I sip my tea and smile to myself...'This is life I love!' (Minus the sickness!)...(and the snoring I can hear)...(Oh God, my dog is licking herself now!)

And Who Doesn't Like Making Ice Cream Cones out of Play-Dough?

2009-10-25T10:01:00.000-07:00

The last time we were visiting in KC, I snapped off these pics of my niece and nephew. We had pulled out the Play-Dough bin (which now that we have done that, thank god we won't have to for like another year!) and starting creating! They decided to make ice cream cones and so I took pics of there award winning masterpieces:

We're calling Jude's 'already eaten'. Prior to the picture his ice cream fell off, then he thought it'd be cool to step on it first and then put it back in his cone. Which also explains the coy smirk on his face!

Amazingly enough, Madi's really started looking more and more like the real shape of ice cream. And the 'green sprinkles' were all her invention too!

Free Customized Card

2009-10-19T07:55:00.000-07:00

I found this on my girlfriend's blog and thought I'd add it on mine:

"Send us an email to VIP@traylorpapers.com with your name & address and we'll send you a free customized card with your name. Tell us your favorite colors and/or style (i.e., whimsical, classic, girly..., etc.) and we'll try to make you a match ;) BONUS: post this offer on your blog or wall, send us a link and we'll send you a few extra! Good thru 10/28/09!"

Woo hoo!

Happy Birthday Jude!

2009-09-28T09:06:00.000-07:00

We traveled to KC this weekend to 1) Celebrate my godson's 2nd Birthday!!! and 2) Try and sell our house... I bet you can guess which one I had more fun doing! Here are some pics of the little squirt and family from our outing to a Japanese Steakhouse to celebrate!

Mom and Madi cracking themselves up!

Group Picture (Minus J...who's taking the pic)

My Babies!

Check out those chopsticks skills!

Coolest thing ever! This place had a sushi bar with a sushi train!!! You just grab your plate of sushi that looks goods off the train and munch on down! I think one guy had a bit too much sake...he kept missing his plate!

Birthday cake and ice cream face!

BFF's

How cute are those two! Now I know why Jude was all buddy buddy with J the rest of the weekend! He got to give him the cake and icecream!

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY 'JUDEEE-TOOTI'!!!!

Self Epiphanies

2009-09-21T10:35:00.000-07:00

Some of these are more recently discovered than others...some were just discovered this weekend! I had a long, boring, 4 hour road trip back from KC all by my lonesome to ponder on them all though and thought I'd share with you!

. I am the person to tell you that you have cilantro in your tooth, a boogie hangin' out, or a fly unzipped...whether I know you all that well or not!

. I am also the person on the other end of things that will self-assess myself to you...because let's face it...it was running through your mind while I was talking to you anyways: For example, 'Oh, yes, that is Poison Ivy on my neck; not a moldy fungus!' or 'I know I need to wax my hairy eyebrows so quit staring at them!' or 'Don't get too close to me, I stink!'

. I'm a procrastinator...and damn good at it!

. I have a relatively small perimeter when it comes to what size of things I'm capable of stressing out about. Large things are just out of my control, so why stress!?!

. Why pay for cool junk when you can get it for free (more to post on that later!)?

. I heart bangs today

. A car that's paid for will always look better than one that's not!

. The End

What are some of your self epiphanies?

Prove it!

2009-09-19T08:39:00.000-07:00

Goodness gracious! For those of you out there that read my blog and aren't the brave 4 that actually identify yourselves as 'followers' (which by the way, thank you guys!) and you also are not related to me (now they're droppin' like flies!) let me recap my year so far:

- January: Start new job and move in with my fiance!
- Around March/April (I don't even remember now!): J relocates 4 hours away and starts new job. I give two week notice that I will be quitting my new job. I search aimlessly for new job in soon to be new town. Oh, but I end up finding two part time jobs to equal a full time job.
- April, May, June: J drives 4 hours back to KC every Friday night after work to be with me (did I mention at this point in time I'm living with my sis, brother in law, and niece and nephew...no slack off my back...did I mention I was living with my lovely niece and nephew!!!) We work on fixing up our house every Saturday and Sunday so we can sell it. J drives back home 4 hours (did I mention he is living with the 'rents at this point in time???).
- June: I start my two part time jobs and we move! Woo hoo! Minus the moving part, having to learn 2 new jobs, 2 new sets of names, and still to this day not quite sure which direction North is in!
- July: Did you catch my mention in January of 'fiance'! We traveled to CO for our wedding (That we were also planning this whole time). Then up North all over for our honeymoon. (House is still not sold...we are still driving to KC every weekend to work on it....BIG FAT siiiiiigggghhhh!)
- August - Now: Still driving to KC every weekend. House is finally complete...just waiting for a buyer now! Finally starting to get all our crap settled and distributed. By that I mean we took about 2,000 sq ft of stuff and consolidated it into about 700 sq ft of space. A task that is not all that easy and if it weren't for J's parents allowing us to take over their storage areas...we'd be screwed!

I counted and last night was our 4th Friday night home at our new house since we moved here at the beginning of June. The first Friday night here, we spent the whole night busting our tails to get stuff unpacked and somewhat clean and orderly because my mom was on her way to visit. The second Friday, J went out with some buddies and I piddled. The third one, we did much needed yard work and hung out with J's parents, and then there was last night...I worked until 8:30, we went to dinner...J got called into work! Exciting...I know! Lord only knows what we'll do with ourselves when we have a Saturday night here at home and not in KC. Which, that would mean we sold our house...which that would mean we will be hosting a GREAT big party!!!

Not the most exciting post I know! But, life has been very chaotic and things are finally starting to simmer down a bit! Hopefully that will give me more time to post some crafts I have cooked up in my head! Thanks for staying tuned in to our blog through it all though! I have a ton of ideas for new posts on things that have happened during this chaos...soon to come!!!

Labor Day Weekend Recap!

2009-09-10T11:02:00.000-07:00

In memory of our two year anniversary doing this:

...I didn't drive at all on Labor Day! Whew! We managed to 'keep 4 on the floor', 'the shiny side up', and 'black on black' as my family tells us everytime we talk to them and they find out we're traveling on the road in a vehicle.

On to happier (and more current) topics of the weekend though! The theme of our weekend seemed to be this:

Yes, that's hot, sweaty, dirty, and working for food. No, that does not mean we hung out with a creepy old bum that liked to hang ten alot!

J and I went to the good ol' state of Okie-homa to visit my grandpa. Amazingly enough, I always find myself wannin' tuh tawlk lack this...after being there for more than a day. And! Should you ever get lost on the way to Oklahoma and in a tired stooper catch yourself asking this question at the gas station, 'Are we still in Kansas or did we pass into Oklahoma yet?' Just look around you for the answer.

Ginormous bugs crawling out of the woodwork outside? Check!
110% humidity? Check!
Count the number of vehicles around you...are at least 12 of them trucks? Check!
Of those 12 trucks, do the 12 drivers have a combined total of 1.5 sets of full teeth? Check!

Sorry my friend, we're not in Kansas anymore!

So we were there to help Grandpa do some work outside around his house so that he didn't kill himself...which he has been known to come close to doing before (falling off a ladder, with a chainsaw in hand, and shattering his ankle!). We spent Saturday and Sunday running a chainsaw and hauling the mess away. After Day 1 we had this burn pile created:

(notice the rusty old barrel)

After Day 2, our pile looked like this:

(notice rusty old barrel is no longer visible)

Okay, so the pics don't do our hard work justice in my opinion. That pile is about 12 feet high though! Here are a few more pics of us working hard:

Justin on the ladder that he precariously perched himself on while running the chainsaw...eeek!

That's Grandpa parking 'Ol' Blue'!

This is the after view...I forgot to take before's but as you can see, all those brown areas on the ground were covered in trees!

Moving along! In turn for all this hard work we ate the following (and my apologies to Kay and Grandpa if I forgot some of the deliciousness we had!): *disclaimer: All being homemade of course!

Buttermilk biscuits, buttermilk pancakes, eggs, omelets, cooked spiced peaches and apples, banana bread, t-bones, salad, homemade jellies, hamsteaks, bacon, garden tomatoes, Senor Salsa's...mmm, rotel and cheese dip, homemade salsa, blueberry sponge cake, ice cream, margaritas, beer, juice, coffee...I'm sure I am forgetting a few...but good LORD! We packed in the homemade YUM day after day! I'm sure I've gained 10 pounds...I'm too scared to look! We also took home okra, pickles, jams, and banana loaves with us. It's not a trip to Grandpa's unless you leave with deliciousness as well!

Have you ever had one of those Oh.My.God embarassing moments? You know, like when you accidentally walked in on two co-workers having an affair on the conference room table? Or when you got busted snooping for Oreo's your brother-in-law hid from you? Or that very terrible time you could have swore it was just gonna be a fart? (Not like I'd know about any of these!)

(snicker, snicker) Well now! Heeeeeere's a story for ya! Let me paint you a picture. It's Saturday morning, J is long done with his shower, wide awake, and sipping coffee with Grandpa in the living room. I on the other hand am peeling my eyes open, crawling out of bed, sleep showering, and getting ready to throw on some ragged work clothes whennnn...what's this? Oh shit! Noooooo waaaaayyy, I couldn't have! No underwear!?!?! You.have.got.tobe.kidding.me. I packed not one sole pair of undies! Now, I'm not one for being shy nor am I one for a little commando action if need be...but we were getting ready to go get all hot and sweaty...and that's just wrong! So what do I do? Go scavenging of course! I immediately think of looking in J's bag...'Crap! He doesn't even OWN a pair of tighty whiteys...let alone would have packed them for the weekend if he did. And I can't wear boxers...all I have for work clothes is spandex yoga capri pants!' My throat starts to tighten, my stomach is filling with rocks, I'm starting to sweat, panic is setting in. I spy the dresser in the corner of the bedroom. 'Hmmm...wonder if it is in use or not?' I open the first drawer, it's my grandpa's hankies. 'This could be promising.' I open the second drawer, socks and boxers. 'Warmer.' Low and behold, laying there in drawer no. 3...tighty whiteys! (Now, here is where I tell my audience to stop reading if you are actually my Grandpa...whom my dumbass gave this blog address to while there!...or keep reading, know this is a confession, and NEVER talk about it again!) I pick up what looks like a perfectly pressed pair of brilliant white Hanes...size 32! 'Sweet! They might fit me!' (I stress this last thought to convey to you that my grandpa is a VERY clean man and I have no qualms or doubts in my mind that perhaps he hasn't even worn these at all...right???...they look that new!) I'm standing there, desperate, naked, and in a hurry by now. Without having to make my mind process what I'm about to do, I quickly snatch up the undies, shove my feet into them, and go to yank 'em up as quickly as possible! Urrrrrrrrrr-ch! Screeching halt! 'Shit! My fat thighs and those little chicken leg size 32 holes are not compatible!' Right.then.and.there. J opens the door! Talk about a deer in headlights!

J: What the hell are you doing?

Me: Get out of here! Shut the door! Go!

J: What the hell are you wearing?

Me: Sigh! What's it look like!

J: Why don't you wear a pair of my boxers? (By now I have crammed them up on me, the waistband is under my boobs, and my fat thighs are bulging out the bottoms...pretty picture to paint...I know!)

Me: No, I can't becuase I don't have my work jeans. Now, go back out that door and pretend this never happened!!!

J: What are you going to do with them when you're done?!?!

Me: I haven't got that far yet! LEAVE!

Needless to say, the tighty whiteys came home with us. Sorry about that grandpa.

So, I also bought some of these over the weekend:

I also have confirmation that I must have rolled around in this as well:

Leaves of 3, leave 'em be! It looks like Poison Ivy gave me a hickey on my neck! Bleck!

And that was my fabulous Labor Day Weekend! How was yours?

But what does it all mean? (said in British tones)

2009-08-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

(Started this post in February and never posted it. Hence the reason it talks about shopping for a wedding dress. And for those wondering, the dress I ended up with is 10 times more amazing and also a thanks to the help of my big sis!)

These past two weeks I have been pondering the history and meaning of phrases. Not because I'm some huge English geek (sorry mom!) but because they just struck me as really odd and funny.

For instance:

As I am driving in the car with my sister and girlfriend, Rozanne, coming back from trying on a wedding dress. (A wedding dress that I might have bought had it not been for the saving graces and honesty of these two wonderful ladies) (A dress that I might have purchased before my sister said, 'Oh my god Kristy! You have a 'back butt'!')(A wedding dress that also, on that particular wet, cold, and snowy day made me feel rather 'sloth'ish'...especially since I then realized that I could have a 'back butt') So on our long, slow, wet, cold, snowy, blustery drive back home this conversation ensued:

Me: I am so sick of this weather! I have cabin fever so bad!

Sister: No you don't.

Me: Huh?

Sister: Cabin fever (matter-of-factly), you don't have that.

Me: Ohhh right, because it really doesn't exist and is just some stupid phrase someone made up when they were cooped up in their house over the winter. Well I don't care where it came from, I have it and am sick of it!

Sister: Actually, it came from way back when, when people lived in small hand built shacks (i.e.- cabins) with usually a wood burning stove or fireplace as the main source of heat. The cabin was sealed up tight to keep the cold air out and there was no place for the carbon monoxide to escape. Thus ensued sickness, fever, etc. from the people cooped up inside.

Me: uh-hmmmmm

Sister: Sooooo, quite literally you cannot have cabin fever because you are not suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning, you don't live in a cabin, and you have no ill symptoms such as fever.

Me: touche (I am notorious for throwing this word into conversation. Yet to this day, I have NO idea how to use it properly in a sentence!)

Now, did I actually believe her at the time? Ehh, her 'story' seemed logical enough but this is my sister we're talking about. The same person that when asked, 'Hey, who sings this song?' could look at you with the straightest of faces, act like she was really digging deep for the answer, ponder it for just the right amount of time and then say, 'Nirvana' as matter-of-factly as if she was telling me that the sky is blue. Only to later find out that the song was actually sang by Queen. She's good at what she does, I'm tellin' ya!

Fast forward two days later:

I'm sitting at my cubicle, at my new job, chit chatting with the IT guy at my desk. Why? you might wonder? Because I have entered a new IT ticket for every day I have shown up to work this week. On this particular Friday (my most favorite day of the week) no one was in the office and I was rather the Chatty Cathy. So I tested his knowledge and asked him where he thought cabin fever came from. His story almost 100% reiterated my sisters. ERRGIN-SCHMIRGIN'!!! I'll give her just this one!

Well, this conversation somehow lead into talk about meanings of words and such, which ensued the following:

IT guy: Oh yea, and 'cake eaters'...uggghhh

Me: (Weird, confused look on my face.)

IT guy: You know, a cake eater?!?!

Me: (Wheels are starting to turn and it's not good. I quickly think, surely he's not 'politely' trying to call me fat is he? I don't look like I eat cake all the time! Okay, I know I've put a few on, but it's WINTER! What a JERK!)

IT guy: You know, like the kids that went to...(dramatic pause)...priiii-vate schooool.

Me: (gasp! He IS calling me a cake eater!!!)

Happy Friday Randomness

2009-08-28T13:12:00.001-07:00

(Sorry the pics are so crappy and small!)

Well, so this is just a random blog to show off my 'art' project last night that took all of 3 minutes to put together. Our cute little rental (for now) needs a LOT of TLC*. We have been working our heiney's off on trying to make it our 'home' and little by little it is working. When I first created this blog, I thought to myself, 'Oh, I will instantly become a better decorator because I have a blog and all these other lovely people post lovely pics of their homes looking so lovely!' I have come to grips with reality (to an extent) and am opening up to you now: 'My name is K and I am not a decorator' (In unison, 'Hiiiiiii, Kaaaaaayyyy'). BUT, I can at least give myself credit for this attempt at decorating on a budget!
- The red shelf and twig bird house were from the Salvation Army for a total of $5.00.
- The garland and towel were from DG for a total of $2.50.
- The orange potpourri balls came out of a crystal bowl I have full of potpourri (FREE!).
- TOTAL: $7.50 TIME: 3 minutes

Now I don't care if it's no Martha Stewart, but that ain't bad for being frugal!

*Disclaimer: Just in case you noticed the line in the wall behind my decor.

#73

2009-08-26T08:11:00.000-07:00

The number 73 has never really had any profound meaning to me. (Hmmm...I can't remember my brother's football number from high school, but now that I think about it...maybe it was 73!?!?) Anywho, there was #25 because that was my assigned 'number' in school growing up until stupid Randy Sparks left in the sixth grade and so then I got bumped to 24...but I'm not bitter! Then there was 13 because that was my basketball number in grade school...our team sucked...all four years!!! A few other numbers in my life have come and gone over the years as well. As of late, I'm a big fan of number 74 because it combines 07 (July) and 04 (the 4th) which is our wedding anniversary. That's about as close to 73 as I've came to really thinking it's a lucky number for me until...

...I got the mail yesterday! My name was chosen as a finalist to win a brand new 2010 Ford Mustang! This promo/contest has been going on since before we moved here in early June and I have driven by the Mustang a ton of times while on display at various participating sponsors. Well, one day, while at the local office supply store, I finally saw a registration box so I filled out the little slip of paper and stuck it in a huge, already crammed full, box of other hopefuls and really thought nothing of it. And low and behold, there I was holding this piece of paper letting me know that I was winner winner, chicken dinner! Now, I realize most of you might be thinking to yourselves, (or re-reading this blog) 'Did she say she won the car? I thought she said that she was a finalist!?!?' No typos, I said finalist. However, I already consider myself a winner because stuff like this NEVER happens to me! Not even as a finalist!

So, this Friday evening, starting at 7:00 pm I will have a 1 and 100 chance of being the proud new owner of 'Ol' Red'. I already named him just in case! Click here to see my name listed as lucky number 73! How EXCITING! Wish me luck! I'll keep ya'll posted!

Love it!

2009-07-21T07:47:00.000-07:00

In a recent article I read here, I found the following words about my (I like to pretend they only cater to me like this!) fabulous Amazon.com:

'According to BusinessWeek, the 2009 Customer Service Champs — ranked by reader surveys and J.D. Power research — include Amazon.com at No. 1...'

'To start, customers want product value that exceeds the price they’re paying. Next, they want a level of service that rises above their expectations. As proof, two of the top 15 Customer Service Champs are Amazon.com and Zappos.com, both known for discount prices and exceptional service.'

Needless to say, 'Kudos to you again Amazon.com!'

Containers Rock!

2009-06-05T07:01:00.000-07:00

So as I was running errands yesterday, I realized there were a few things that were putting me in an exceptionally good mood. First, the fact that I was running errands meant that I was not working. The sun popped out and it was a perfect day for the pool...but I was of course....running errands. Sooooo...I stopped in at my local tan shop and got:

1) A Mystic Tan! This is the first thing in a container that I am loving. I took before and after pictures of my leg...and then realized you all WILL NEVER have the pleasure of seeing those photos. Am I tanner? Of course! I even taught my niece to call me a Tahitian Goddess! Are my legs slimmer, trimmer, buffer, and longer? Uh, that would be no!

After the Mystic Tan, I realized I needed gas and figured I'd get a drink to quench my thirst. I stopped at the nearest gas station, which happened to be a QT (Quiktrip). Low and behold, they had their summer fountain drink sale going on!

Let me back up on that for a minute. For starters, when QT started this promo, they were .49 and it ROCKED! My mom and I would find ourselves there like every day in the summer. It was almost as if our cars knew the route on their own. We just got in and said, 'Go, go, gadget fountain drink!' Well, the next summer rolled around and we got all excited again for the sale and they jacked the price up to .59! Still cheap, still doable...a little annoying though. Come summer 3...by now mom had moved to Colorado where QT's don't exist (so sad!) and I was in Kansas City, but it's okay because now they were .69!!! It was an outrage! (However, kudos to you, Marketing Team of QT! Your evil ploy of reeling them in worked fabulously!) I was so over QT and their 'cheap' fountain drinks, because by then it's not a good deal anymore. But on this fabulous sunny day, I walked in and saw the signs hanging from the drink station, like an angel from the sky!

2) Containers I'm loving - .49 fountain drinks again at QT!!!! Woo hoo!

And lastly...

3) I am loving Container Gardening! Okay, well, I'm not necessarily doing one but my niece is! My mom got my sister and I started on it, as she has a whole mess of them at her house (hopefully they do better than her first attempt...bonsai tomato gardening!). So my sister got one started with my niece and every day after pre-school, Madi comes home and runs to the patio to see if her tomato plant needs water yet. It's too cute. Now, when doing container gardening, be sure that you don't substitute the word container for a synonym like pot. My mom's first email to me on this subject, at my federal job none the less, was something along the lines of '...I'm so excited to try this pot gardening! I'm not sure what all is involved in it, but it sounds wonderful! Maybe I'll go buy a pot tonight!'.......hmmmmmm.....

(This is not my niece's, but it looks close enough! I got lazy!)

Funny Conversations

2009-05-30T08:19:00.001-07:00

As I sit here at the computer desk of my sister's house (where I am living until we find a house to buy and relocate), in my PJ's, sipping my morning coffee, editing pictures and posting, my sis and I hear this at the top of the stairs:

(My 3 yr. old niece, Madi, was supposed to go change into her swimsuit so she could help wash the car)

Dad: Wha...huh...Ma...ohhhhh...Madi, what are you DOING?
Dad: Why are you wiping with you clothes?
Dad: You're not supposed to that. The whole reason I had you change was to NOT get your outfit dirty!
Dad: Now it's all dirty.
Madi: But you can wash it! Right Daddy?
Dad: My god! Who's daughter are you!

Oh the joy of having kids!

Wanna See My Wedding Dress?

2009-05-30T08:10:00.001-07:00

Well, since we are getting married on the 4th of July...I thought I might let you have a look at my beautiful dress!

Wait for it! Wait for it! Waaaaiiit forrrrr it!

Are you ready?

Ya wanna see it, don't you?

NOT! This is soooo not my wedding dress, but I just had to try it on! What bride would not be compelled that is getting married on the 4th of July to try this dress on, when it's her size, and then walk out of the dressing room amongst about 30 strangers, tear up, and scream, 'Oh my god! I found it! This is the one! This is the dress! I love it!' I mean come on! I just had too!

Yeah, it's a real wedding dress....$650.00!!!! Can you believe it?!?!?

So Long, Farewell...

2009-05-29T20:05:00.000-07:00

Today marks the very last day at my still new job. I was there for almost 6 months. It was bittersweet to say the least. I am so not a crier when it comes to things like this and thought for sure I'd be 'cool'....uh, yeah, nooooot! Maybe it's all this wedding planning, who knows, but I was such a sap over this! So in honor of my old job and all the wonderful peeps there:

Top 5 Reasons I Am Glad To No Longer Have My Job:
(in no random order)
1. Cockroaches as big as my hand in the lower level basement...which happens to be the same level as the cafeteria. I hadn't seen one in a long time but was fortunate to have one grace it's presence in front of me this morning. I think he was coming out to say goodbye to me. It also just so happened to be the biggest one I have seen since working there.

2. Panels! As an intern, I had to give a huge report both written and orally on what I had learned every quarter. I only did one in my short time there but could only surmise that they wouldn't get easier. Things like that don't get easier for procrastinators!

3. The purpose of my quitting...to be able to move to the country with my fiance, get married, be with family, start a family, plant a garden, brew some beer, make mosaics, and take long walks while the sun is setting...so long as we don't get chased by a rabid skunk (that's a separate post in and of itself!).

4. I no longer have to hear one of my co-workers call me, (in a kind of high pitched, feminine voice) 'Krisssthhh- eeeeee Yama-gu-chi!' So we have the same first name....

Kristy Yamaguchi.............................................................. Me

-Japanese/Filipino .........................................-Pasty White
-Dancing with the Stars Champ ...................-No one wants to see me shake this money maker
-IN the Olympics ...........................................-Gets drunk & pretends to commentate the Olympics
-Born in 1971 ..................................................-Born in 1980
-Married to a hockey player ........................-Engaged to an Electronics Technician

Need I say more on this!

5. The mile long walk from my car to my cube, in the rain, after having blow-dried AND straightened my hair, while wearing very PAINFULLY cute shoes, and remembering I left my umbrella at my cube!

Egg-static Post!

2009-04-08T11:21:00.001-07:00

In honor of Easter, this post is gonna get a bit eggy!

First, click here to take The Easter Egg Personality Test

My results are below and I must say they are quite dead on!

Your Easter Egg Says You Are Uplifting
You are whimsical, spontaneous, and fun loving.You connect well with people, but nature is your true love.Changing locations and scenery is important to your creativity.You are inspired by the surroundings around you

Next, I was going to post pictures of beautifully decorated eggs that people created...I assumed there would be a niche for this kind of talent! However, after searching on the Internet, I only found these two: (Apparently the new 'cool' thing is decorating eASTER eGGS as in e-eggs...as in eggs you create virtually online...as in WTF?!?! What happened to good ol' fashioned boiled eggs, food coloring, and a white wax crayon???)

For those of you who know me well, I heart pirates! I dress up as one every year on Halloween and ALWAYS celebrate September 19th 'with me grog and mates'!!! It's not like some weird fetish, it's more just amusing to me. So in honor of pirates I found the picture of 'Sherwin'...which reminds me of a live version I have of 'If I Had a Million Dollars' by Bare Naked Ladies where he says, 'It's Uncle Erwin'. I wonder if Uncle Erwin is a pirate friend of Sherwin???......

The second egg won an egg decorating contest and the artist is from Goddard, KS which is where my mom grew up...so in honor of cool people from Goddard...(and a purple background)...cheers to these two eggs!

Moving Along:

The History of the Easter Egg: I'll spare you the boring details and reinterpret, through my eyes, what I found in researching this. Basically, the egg symbolized rebirth, new life, etc. for both people 'things' and like seasons coming and going.....etc. I get this, it makes sense and all...but all I could think about was, 'My eggs, as in the ones I carry inside me, somehow turned into some weird decorating ritual on Easter with chicken eggs instead of 'me' eggs....guh-rossssss!' However, on a positive note...I also learned about Mr. Faberge and his eggs (as in animal ones)! And then it hit me, 'Duh! I was going about my search for 'decorated' eggs all wrong!'

And then I found these, which are what I was looking for all along:

This one for some reason seems to be hiding some sexual innuendo to me! His 'watering can' is exposed and watering her 'flower' and he's all, 'Hey there sweet mama! Like my watering can?' and she's all coy and is like, 'Oh my, I didn't even notice you watering my flowers (but really she did) with your watering can (that she did really notice!).' Wait...I just looked at it again...it really could just be Jack and Jill...doh!

It's purple...say no more.

A beautifully decorated Ostrich egg.

I liked this one because it made think of an egg my niece, Madison, would like and pick out.

O.M.G! Those are real pressed flowers! My sister in law's mom makes BEAUTIFUL art out of pressed flowers. One piece even has pressed strawberries in it I think!

I'm on a b&w kick with photos of my 'peeps' (get it!), so this one sparked my imagination too!

Are you so totally egged out yet? Are you so egged out that you're breaking out with a bad case of 'egg'-zema? Or your just really 'eggs'-ited now? Orrr....you're not even reading this because you've 'egg'-nored the bottom half of my post your so sick of it? Ha! I'm 'eggs'-austed even trying this anymore! I 'crack' myself up!

Okay, okay...Last but not least...in honor of Easter Eggs...one my favorite breakfast meals...Eggs Benedict:

And by that I mean I tried to make the Benedict Sauce like 4 different times now to no avail. And we usually don't have English Muffins...just plain ol' bread. Nor do we have cute little rounds of Canadian Bacon that fit perfectly on the round muffins we don't have. And asparagus...for breakfast???...really???...and if so, why only two??? However, I am a PRO at making a mean poached egg in a pan of water! Soooo, I usually make up a 'Hole in One' and pretend it's Eggs Benedict. (Cut a hole in a piece of bread...we use a Mason Jar...butter the bread lightly on both sides...toast side one on a griddle...flip...break egg into bread hole...sprinkle cheese on bread...toast side 2 while cooking egg to over medium (my personal preference)...eat!!!...the bread soaks up the egg yolk as you eat and the cheese is all melted-ey...mmmm!) I would post a pic but then I'd have to re-space my whole post for like the 18th time...and when I googled it for an image, all I found was a picture of a turtle with a golf ball in it's ass...WTF? That's a whole different 'Hole in One', if ya know what I mean!

HOPE EVERYONE HAS A SAFE AND MERRY EASTER!!!

What I Can't Put Down Sunday...

2009-03-08T21:44:00.000-07:00

…other than CAFFEINE!!!

I am back on a reading kick! Okay, okay…and I don’t mean my addiction to People Magazine and the all the ‘trashy Hollywood gossip’ as I call it. Did you hear that Rihanna took Chris back AND that there is talk of Jon and Kate splitting? Well, not too long ago, I finished ‘Sex Lives of Cannibals’ by J. Maarten Troost. My brother got the book for me for Christmas, and upon first glance of the title, I speculated at what was bound in the pages following. I thought it a bit awkward for my brother of all people to give me a book about the sex lives of ANYONE really, let alone cannibals. AND, talk about awkward when you bring the book to your in-laws house to read. However, it is a hilarious book that I highly recommend for some entertaining, yet historically accurate reading about one man's stay in a tiny remote nation in the South Pacific. (I will disclose no more in hopes to peak your curiosity and make you click on the link above to go to Amazon right now!)

Well, oddly enough, the next (and current) book I'm reading is called 'Between a Rock and a Hard Place' by Aron Ralston. Why odd you ask? Well, I just happened to pick this up at the last minute from the library one night when I remembered a co-worker telling me about it. I would say it's a safe bet that my brother has already read this book, in fact, even safer to bet he owns it! So, what are the chances of me first reading a book he purchased for me and then randomly picking up this one that I know he has read too!?!?

Anywho, this book is seriously distracting me from the rest of the world! I can't put it down and when I'm not reading it, I can't stop thinking about it. It's a true story written by the guy that was out canyoneering when he fell off a boulder and got his hand smashed between the canyon wall and the boulder and ended up having to amputate his own arm with a dull multi-tool knife to save himself. I know that sounds a bit gory, but it's an intriguing book! Plus, I'm training for a half-marathon (week 3) in June (again...but this time I am seeing a chiropractor!) and you wanna talk about encouraging. There's something about this book that makes me want to keep my training up and pushes me to succeed. Hmmm...not to mention, it makes me really cold at night when I read it because he reminisces through out the book about all his mountain hiking adventures in the snow. shiver. Anywho, I've decided I'm just going to start reading books about people's adventurous lives and tales to keep me motivated and excited about what I am training for in real life. Plus, this website is the adventures of J&K and currently I have no 'adventures' that are blog-worthy...yet. (Just re-read that part...DISCLAIMER: No, I'm not pregnant!)

Well, I'm off to go read some more! Yessss!

Peaking at Panera

2009-03-06T13:01:00.000-08:00

Woo hoo! I get every other Friday off where I work, and this Friday off couldn't have come on a better day! It is GORGEOUS outside! I have definitely been bitten by the Spring Bug! Well, while out running errands today, I decided to stop into Panera for a light salad (it's Friday...no meat). To my dismay, the patio was chalk full of people that didn't deserve to be sitting on the patio more than me, but I was able to find a sunny table for two near a window. I plopped myself down and proceed to munch my salad.

This is when it occurred to me that Panera is actually a pretty happenin' place during lunchtime...AND is great for people watching and eavesdropping!

Ensuing 'Peaks' at Panera today:

1. Mom, Grandma, and bratty kids are eating near me. 6 year old Lukas decides to be a good little boy and clean the table off for mom and grandma who are so engrossed in talking about home decor that they hardly notice his presence. Lukas and his little sister proceed to throw the food scraps, plates, metal silverware, and newborn baby's 'binky' into the trashcan seemingly unnoticed. They then proceed to turn the trashcan area into some sort of game to see who can stick their heads into the trash the furthest to see inside. Guh-rooooosssss! I contemplate informing the women of what is happening and then realize that they don't deserve to be notified. What, even remotely decent parent, would allow their children to play, quite literally, IN trash cans at restaurants???? I turn my attention away immediately!

2. I look outside at the beautiful day, imagining the birds chirping that I really should be hearing but can't because some Prairie Village Fraternity version of 'Desperate Housewives' hover over all the tables while hugging each other and kissing cheeks. GAG! That's when I notice an old, OLD man walking across the parking lot to come eat. He has on black pants that are too long and about 3 sizes too big. His brown checkered suit coat is also hanging off him. His solid, bright, red tie hangs off his neck and is about 7" too long. His hair is unkempt and he his pilfering through his wallet as if he is counting his money. As he approaches nearer, I realize, there is no money in his wallet at all. I can't decide if he is for real or a bum. Odd I think to myself, but in this day in age and what, with the economy and all..who knows!

3. How depressing I think! I turn away from the old man. I think to myself that if he is a bum, I don't want to make eye contact with him and have him come begging me for money. I turn my glance away and notice the 18 year old looking girl walking up from her brand new Mercedes. She's wearing an ungodly hideous outfit! She has the 'skinny' pants on (I don't care who you are or how much they cost you...I will NEVER warm up to the idea of these!), Mary Kate & Ashley sunglasses, purple suede boots, and a skin tight white t-shirt that is extra long with NO BRA on! GAG(...again...it was a rough lunch, let me tell ya!) She walks up to an old man, seemingly her father, and as they walk in together he attempts to put his arm around her for an awkwardly posed hug. She rolls her eyes at him, shrugs away, and checks her cell. Typical I suppose nowadays! What are our teens coming to?!?!

Well, those were my ventures at Panera today. Maybe tomorrow I will post about my eavesdropping while using the computer at the library! (shudder!) I'm off to go play in the sun!

What Wallpaper (aka Devil Paper) has in Common With the Following Items:

2009-02-17T13:33:00.000-08:00

1. Drinking: It started out as a nice relaxing way to start the process of stripping paper and winding down from a day's worth of hard work. However, when I find myself craving a beer just telling people about the Devil Paper...I start to wonder if it's turning into a problem!

2. Turrets: Yesterday, I found it easier to shout a string of 3 or 4 cuss words every time something bad happened to make the pain go away. I was batting about 200 words per hour!

3. Cuss Word Alphabet: The devil paper led me to create a new game...the name really says it all...if not, read #2.

4. The new nickname 'Sparky': Metal scraper, Wall outlet, any questions! My good ol' 'Reliable' scraper somehow missed the paper and went flying into the side of the outlet. It got bent and melted, a chunk of it is missing now, and sparks flew all over the extra super dry wallpaper on the floor. Thank God for wooden handles!

5. Thoughts of burning the house down as a plausible alternative: See #4

6. Blood: My knuckles are rubbed raw! Between scraping them on the walls on accident, sticking them in buckets of hot soapy water,and washing them 80 times more than normal...I now have 'knubbles'!

7. The Devil: self explanatory!

What Drinking and Wallpaper Have in Common...

2009-02-14T23:00:00.000-08:00

Update on the wallpaper post. Jerry's halo has since been tilted and his wings broken. After much research and a multitude of conversations with Ace Hardware employees in the paint department of 3 different Ace's, we realized that texturing was only covering up a problem with a problem.

This is where I just want to take a quick moment to let everyone know that Ace Hardware Rocks! We went to 3 different ones, and each person we talked to in the paint department was an old man who was a retired professional painter. They had us convinced by the end of the conversation that we could do this and to not give up hope. I'm sure that Vic, our favorite Ace guy, was taken aback a bit by us. I can only assume he had never heard a young couple in their 20's say to him, 'Thanks a lot Vic! You have talked me out of 'accidentally' burning down our house now!' And he was the first one to then jokingly point us in the direction of the Lighter Fluid!

Well, we have now decided to leave that wallpaper as is and prime and paint over it. Why you might ask? Because this entire last week we have done nothing but strip wallpaper. As in ONE wall in one room. It all started last Sunday when we decided to crack open a few brews while stripping paper. It seemed to be much more enjoyable and we even cranked up some tunes on the radio and played 'Country Singer Alphabet'. Monday night rolled around and as I continued to attempt to get the devil paper off, I realized that a beer sounded good. My body was starting to equate stripping wallpaper to beer! Once again, I cracked one open and life was better. the paper still came of in small pieces, but I at least wasn't cursing it. Tuesday, I was in the mood for Mexican! Justin made homemade burritos and so I went down the street and bought Sangria! Next thing you know, I was drinking Sangria and.....stripping wallpaper. So here we are, a week later: a bottle of sangria and a case of beer, and ONE small wall in ONE small room is wallpaper-less. It is also chalk full of dents and gouges where the paper took of everything, including the backing to the sheet rock. Uggh! Needless to say, we are priming the rest and painting over the wallpaper. I don't think my body could take any more stripping of wallpaper...nor my liver!

Death to the Wallpaper!

2009-02-08T07:36:00.000-08:00

Justin and I are in the process of fixing up his house. And by fixing up, one might think major renovations, construction, interior decorating.....WRONG! Let me paint you a picture of what I mean by 'fixing up'. The prior owner was a little, old, single lady who apparently had a lustful relationship with wallpaper. (I shutter just typing that dreaded word!). I went to bed last night and my thumb was tingling from pulling so much paper. This morning, I felt like my fingers were bleeding. It was easier for me to use my nails opposed to a scraper and I am paying for it now.

Oh wait, I'm supposed to be 'painting' a picture yet...

We have a foyer with country blue and white striped wallpaper. A hall with squares that have geese and hearts wallpaper. A living room with an indescribable border that come to find out had an even more indescribable border underneath. Each room (3 of them) has wallpaper on the bottom half, then a border in the middle and then a different wallpaper up top. These consist of stripes on the bottom, gaudy flowers on the border and then some variation usually of paisley pattern up top. GAG! (I just threw up a little in my mouth!)

Thank goodness we had some added help this weekend! Justin's parents came up for the weekend to help us out. Thank you, thank you! AND, even more fun, we got to have a real sit down dinner at the dining room table with them. They are only the second ones to have done this at the house. (We don't 'entertain' for dinner normally and we JUST NOW no longer have roommates either...I guess you could say we are finally becoming 'big kids'...or dare I use the 'g' word...'Grown-ups'!!!)

We have painters in and out of the house for the last couple of days giving us bids on painting the whole inside of the house...literally, EVERY room! The last one, an ornery old man named Jerry suggested that instead of stripping paper why not spray on a texture to the wall and then paint over that. When those words came out of Jerry's mouth, I looked over at him with my bleeding fingers, nails ruined, and old gluey paper stuck to my butt and then it happened! Angels appeared out of nowhere! They flew down with a halo in their hands and placed it upon Jerry's head. Trumpets played in the background and then a few more angels fluttered down singing a high pitched, 'Ahhhhhhh!!!'. God LOVES Jerry!

So, as this wallpaper (shudder) peeling party proceeds, and the sheet rock is getting more and more gouged because the lady didn't size the walls, and our hands bleed a bit more, we are seriously contemplating Jerry's bid.

And that sums up our weekend!

Just a Few Things I'm Loving Right Now

2009-01-15T19:17:00.001-08:00

Just thought I'd let you all in some secret things I am adoring right now:

1. My 7" Santoku Knife that my brother and sister in law got us for Christmas! This thing will cut through anything, 'like butta!' Tomatoes cringe, potatoes cut themselves when they see it coming, and my garlic pleads with me, promising to never make my hands stinky again!

2. My Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker.

So far, this thing has cooked any of my vegetables from green beans to carrots to potatoes to a PERFECT...hmmm...perfect what? Perfect texture? Al dente? Well, whatever the word is for perfectly cooked veggies, this does it. Not to raw, not to mushy! It does stews, meats, chicken, and more! So far, the longest cook time has been 8 minutes! 8 MINUTES! Talk about quick and easy! (Once again, thank you to the brother and sister-in-law for this gift as well!)

3. My Zune MP3 Player and the long lost MP3's Justin found backed upped on his friend's computer that we thought he lost years ago! I take this thing everywhere with me. Some of you may be wondering, 'Is she crazy? Why is she boasting about an MP3 Player?' Well, it's been a very long 2+ years since my first one broke and so now I'm like a kid with a new toy! Thanks to my sister and brother-in-law for this little gift.

4. I guess from reading the posts above, I must include as #4 that I am loving MY FAMILY! Ha! If it weren't for my fabulously older (and wiser) brother and sister, I would not be secretly loving anything! In honor of them, I came across this pic from forever ago!

That's me on the left, then my brother Bill, and then my sister Shelly. I must say we actually all look related in this picture...partially due to the fact that we all look really crazy! What happened is that we were posing for a picture at my Grandpa's house and at the last minute, Bill (who had his arms around us) grabbed us and violently starting tickling us! This caused us all to drop our chins, open our big mouths, and laugh...which is apparently the 'missing link' pose to tie us together!

Well, that's what I'm secretly loving this week!

gasp What is this?...

2009-01-14T22:35:00.000-08:00

...an award? for me? Yippee! One of my favorite sayings is, 'it's the small things Pete.' (Sometimes I call Justin, 'Pete', for reasons unbeknownst to me any more. We seem to disagree as to the origins of the name but my story is that it started with 'stinky', then went to 'stinky feet', then on to 'stinky pete' because it rhymed, and then shortened to 'pete')...however, I digress.

It's the small things such as this virtual award that really just make my day! I must thank my very good friend Beth Ann over at Life With Us In KS for tagging me with this special award, especially since she was the force that pushed me off my duff into getting this blog started. Cheers to you BA!

So here is the deal. I am supposed to pass this on to 6 other beautiful bloggers as well as tell you all beautiful readers 6 things that make me happy.

First, the formalities:

1. Bryn over at Newlywedisms by Bryn

2. Jessica at The Everyday Adventures of Me in the City

3. Design*Sponge

4. jannypie

5. pixieprincss at Green Thoughts

6. 'd' at All Things G&D

Now for the fun stuff! 6 things that make me happy:

1. Justin and planning our wedding...and not so much the planning part (I procrastinate like something TERRIBLE...ask the person that gave me this award...a month ago!)...but more the fact that every time I do sit down to 'plan' it, I get all happy knowing we will spend the rest of our lives together forever...sigh (I had to, it was gushy...it deserved a sigh).

2. My 'kiddies' as I call them. That would my niece and nephews: Madison Grace (almost 3); Jude Xavier (2...and my godson!); Kai Daniel (just turned 1).

3. Trying out a new brew and LOVING it! To name a few memorable ones:

- Old Speckled Hen (Props to my brother for this one. We had it at Churchill's Pub & Grill in Chandler, AZ with our 'quintessentially British' Christmas dinner there. I highly recommend both.

- Jack Whacker's (It's a nice wheat beer brewed at Tommyknocker Brewery out of Idaho Springs, CO. And while you're there, you must eat at Beau Jo's Pizza...thanks to Uncle Tom for that one!)

- Of course, I must give some love to the locals and mention Boulevard Wheat as well as O'malley's Festival Ale from O'malley's Pub in Weston, MO.

4. My down comforter in the winter...I don't know what I would do without it!

5. Anything that is purple really.

6. My puppy doggy! It's a love, hate relationship really...but for the most part she makes me happy. Okay, so I did catch her drinking water out of the toilet this morning and I do make fun of her for being deathly afraid of the Vick's humidifier, but she is a good snuggle bug...and adorable!

Reasons to Like My New Job

2009-01-11T19:23:00.001-08:00

This week marks the first week at my new job and I am loving every minute of it. I thought I would post a list of reasons why I like it so far:

1. The bathrooms are exceptionally clean and somehow acoustically built as such so that you cannot hear much in the other stalls...you never know when a poo attack will hit you!

2. My second day on the job and I was already taking a 3-hour road trip with my coach, Stephanie, and co-worker, Mike. Once we got to the job site, I met a fourth co-worker, Rick. Rick is the very 'vivid' person in the pic below. They are all a GREAT group of people though (minus the smurf suit, Blublockers, belt, and yes...that's a dog leash around his chest that he has fashioned, rather cleverly I might add, into a strap for his clipboard). (I am on the far right sporting my 'Doc Marten' boots that I now call my 'on site work boots' and are from like 1999 and the oh so beautiful hard hat!)

3. People that actually talk to you AND seem to care what you have to say.

4. Said people from #3 that ask you to eat lunch with them in the cafeteria as well.

5. Said people from #4 that are so fun they managed to get a stranger to hug them in the elevator on the way to lunch.

6. Every other Friday off and jeans days!

7. Wonderful coaches, mentors, supervisors, and co-workers who are eager to help you learn and succeed!

I think I'm going to be okay here!

The Two Year Mosaic is Done!

2009-01-07T18:15:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I stopped by this mosaic shop two years ago on a whim one beautiful fall Saturday feeling rather creative after having just sipped on some java at Starbucks while reading a book and basking in the sun. And by 'reading a book', I really mean eavesdropping on a conversation two artists were having over their friend's painting.

Artist 1: Oh my god, did you see what she tried to show last night?
Artist 2: Horr.id

Artist 1: Tell me about it. And she says she's an artist!

I couldn't help it. They were talking loud and that conversation soon led into how much they drank at said art show, then what they did after said art show, and really it goes down hill from there! None the less though, it made feel...'inspired'!

Okay, so I wonder into 'Mad About Mosaics' to check it out and discover a rockin' world of art I never knew about. It was love at first sight really! The freedom of breaking glass into little pieces, cutting it, making something out of nothing, watching it transform yet again once you grout it. LOVE. IT. So I decided to start a 16" X 16" landscape for my brother and sister-in-law as a Christmas gift for them. Easy enough right?

Now, looking back on the grandiose idea, I do admit that perhaps I bit off more than I could chew for it being only my second piece and all (I did do a stepping stone for Justin's parents prior to that, but it was an outdoor piece). But I am generally of the 'Go Big or Go Home' philosophy when it comes to arts. For instance, I took up knitting over crocheting because someone once told me it was harder to learn how to knit and because making a sweater intrigued me more than a pot holder (I have since learned they should be equally respected and that my 'stereotypes' were a bit skew...especially if you could see what I have (not) knitted so far!)

Well, Christmas One and Two went right by and every November I would blow the dust off my project and start on it again with a ferocious appetite thinking that this year was THE YEAR! I would magically find more free time and dedicate it all to the mosaic. Rrrrright!

Then came Christmas '08! Mwah-ah-ah. I blew the dust off the mosaic, found all the old tiles, unclogged the tip of my glue, took out my nippers that now had cracked plastic around the handles, and got to work. I realized that my brother was coming here to visit and that if I could get this done, I wouldn't have to pay shipping and handling on the beast! (Oh yeah, and the fact I owed him some major back-ordered gift giving for him and his wife!

So...

in all her wonder...

I present to you:

(and yes, I did have 3 band aids on one hand at the same time)

...drum roll please...

THE MOSAIC 2008 (minus the grout...I'm still waiting on a good pic of it with grout)

(it helps to scoot back and look at it from a distance!)

One Year Old(er), One Day Late!

2009-01-07T17:55:00.000-08:00

HOW EXCITING! My 'Baby Kai' (nephew) is a whopping ONE YEAR OLD as of yesterday! In honor of Kai, here are some beautiful pics of him I snapped at Christmas!

I must say that he has the MOST innocent big baby 'I didn't do that'/'Who? Me?'/'Please give me a cookie' eyes/expressions ever! I'm sure he rules his 'crib' back in Phoenix!

Well Hello 2009!

2009-01-07T17:46:00.000-08:00

First, I must apologize for my absence of blogs lately. My blogging immune system was attacked by the 'Family in Town, Christmas, Birthdays, Travel to Colorado, Plan a Wedding, Start a New Job, Get a Cold' virus. This is a terrible virus that literally consumes your every waking hour. Once it has shut down your life, it then attacks you in your sleep as well.

So I am bypassing the, 'A Few of my Favorite (and not so favorite) Things' Christmas blog, the 'What Happened to Dick Clark?' New Year's blog, the 'Still on a Diet for my Wedding' New Year's Resolution blog, and then also the random ranting of 'I DO still love my dog?' blog.

I promise to give you in 2009, more up to date blogs that are better than ALL of last year's combined! (snicker, snicker)

No, Thank YOU Amazon.com!

2008-12-22T08:27:00.000-08:00

I just had to post about my customer service experience at Amazon. For those of you that thought a positive customer service experience was something that was only talked about in folk lore books, well then read on my friend!

Last Friday I ordered the most adorable pair of shoes for my nephew Kai on Amazon.com. The brand name is 'See Kai Run' and they have this cute little red 'K' on the side. How cute is that for a kid whose name is Kai?

Well, me being the best Aunt there is, (but not yet possessing a ton of 'motherly' skills such as knowing that one cry means, 'I want a bottle' and the other means, 'Change me!' ), did not know what size of shoes to order for him. I called his dad and of course the reply I got was:

'Uhhh, he only has one pair right now. Uh, I think maybe a 3 sounds right? Well, I don't know, he just started walking. I'd say they are about 3 inches long (referencing of course Kai's feet, not the shoes).'

So, after much consulting with many mom's in the office, I decide on a size 4 for him. I placed my order at Amazon.com and was happy knowing that they would arrive on Dec. 23rd with plenty of time for me to ogle them first and then wrap them up pretty like!

Then, my sister calls me and is talking about toddler shoe sizes and I start getting a panic attack. She starts convincing me that since they are soooo cute, maybe a 5 would be better so he can grow into them. Duh! What was I thinking? I go into panic mode immediately. I think to myself, 'But I already ordered them! And Dec. 23rd! Oh no!' I immediately get online to dreadfully search for a customer service number.

To my surprise, I find the 1-800 number without really even trying. Not only that, but I just typed my cell number into this little pop up box and seconds later THEY are calling ME! ROCK ON! I am quickly connected with Nice Amazon Lady (A. She is a live person! B. I didn't have to listen to a single options menu. C. Nor did I find myself in my cube shouting, 'OTHER! I said O-TH-ER! Speak to a representative! SPEAK. TO. A. REP.RE.SEN.TA.TIVE. Hello? Hellloooo?')

Nice Amazon Lady did the following that made me post this blog:

A. She commented on how cute my purchase was (I of course then had to tell her it was for my cute nephew who's name is Kai!).

B. She told me what all she was getting from Amazon.com for her nieces and nephews AND let me in on some other gifts that were popular among the Cool Aunts Club that she had been helping out on the phone as well.

C. She cancelled my transaction, posted the new one, and then said, 'I am going to try and checkout for you so that you don't have to do anything at all.'

ME: 'What? Did you say NOTHING? As in all I have to do is sit here and continue having a wonderful conversation with a complete stranger who is just too cool and friendly? I'm not sure how to react...I think now is when I'm supposed to yell at you and then aren't you supposed to 'accidentally' get disconnected from me?'

NICE AMAZON LADY: (Laughs) 'I get that all the time!'

D. She wasn't able to Check Out for me, but all I had to do was go to My Shopping Cart and there it was! My new order was sitting there waiting on me to hit Continue and VWAH-LAH, that was it! AND, I still had Dec. 23rd as a delivery date!

E. She wished me luck in my shopping endeavours for Christmas.

F. She didn't ramble off some memorized, cheesy line at the end that went something like this: (In a monotone voice with a steady fast beat) 'Thank you for choosing Amazon.com Kristy for all your shopping needs is there anything else I can do for you and if not thank you so much and you have a merry Christmas would you like to participate in our survey now please press 1 or I will disconnect okay thank you Kristy for shopping with us today ma'am.'

(G. I hate it when people call me 'ma'am'.)

H. She simply said, 'Okay thanks. Have a good one! Bye.' As if she was just my friend hanging up, that's all!

So thank YOU Amazon.com for the renewed hope that EXCELLENT customer service skills do still exist and that online shopping IS fast, convenient, and fun!

The Christmas Countdown

2008-12-19T07:20:00.000-08:00

As the days are narrowing down and The Main Event is drawing nearer, I am working diligently on all my projects to get them done. The great thing about having this blog is that I can post some pics of what I'm doing in hopes that I won't feel quite so bad about not hitting the gym at all this week. You see, I can now rationalize it by thinking to myself, 'But my people (that would be you all reading this) are counting on me to get this done and post pics and blog about it.' Even though my ass and thighs are saying, 'Help me! Help! Can't. take. much. more! Need. oxygen. or...(gasp for air) elssssee....' Okay, that was weird because for a minute there I really was having that conversation in my make believe world with my thighs. They really don't talk though!

Okay, well here is a pic of the project I finished up Monday night. My dad is into hot rods and is fixing one up of his own right now (slowly). So I furiously searched the web for pictures of car emblems from old hot rods, downloaded them, played with them in Photoshop, got a little help from our graphic designer here at work (in-house marketing totally has it's perks...thanks a TON Ashley!) and came out with this final product:

The 'l' is off a Falcon, the 'o' is from a Chevrolet, the 'u' is off a sweet looking Mustang, and the 'x' is from a Galaxy. (I have never heard of a Galaxy so I cannot attest to it's authenticity as being dubbed a 'hot rod', but it looked like an older car and had an 'x' in it so I went with it.) I picked the frame up from the Big Lots by my house that is going out of business and has everything 20% off. The frame is what makes it 'girly' enough for my stepmom to approve of hanging it in the house. Double Bonus Round Score!

On Tuesday and Wednesday nights, I moved on to baking:

On the line-up this year:

Chocolate covered pretzels
Coconut Macaroons
English Toffee
Pretzel Rolo Sandwiches
Chocolate Covered PB Ball
Ritz Cracker & PB Sandwiches covered in Chocolate

I didn't get my No Bake Cookies made, nor did I get a Pumpkin Roll made for this weekend. We shall see if that happens or not, but I'm kind of 'Pumpkin Rolled' out because I made 6 this year for Thanksgiving. Plus, pumpkin is more of a November flavor in my mind than a December flavor. To me, December is all about cinnamon!

And finally, last night I started in on the wrapping:

If you haven't noticed, I am in LOVE with the color Purple!

Toodles for now! And for those of you doing The Countdown of your own: May you score UBER bargains, NOT burn your finger on the oven rack, get everything done on time, and still show up to your parties in that little black strappy number, those stiletto heels, your dazzling hair-do, and a smile that could just kill so that you leave people thinking to themselves:

'How does she do it?!?!'

(insert jaw drop, gasp, or confused head shake here!)

How NOT to Earn One's Business

2008-12-17T13:26:00.000-08:00

Below is an email I received today at work after inquiring about my interest in a leadership seminar:

Hi Kristy,

Thanks for your previous interest in our event Leadership Across the Generations. The event is appropriate for Vice Presidents of Human Resources. I apologize we won’t be able to accommodate you.

I hope you’ll enjoy a quiz from one of our publications, “Motivating the ‘What’s In It For Me?’ Workforce”. Separately I’ve attached the answers.

Kind regards,

Bernadette Walter
Corporate Sales

What? A quiz? You slap that in my face and then have the kahunas to attach a quiz...which I took and passed with FLYING colors...Thank. You. Very. Much! Okay, I will admit that my inquiring email did have my signature on it which posted my title and which obviously is not a VP of any sort. However, who's to say that perhaps I have more than one title, more than one job, own my own company, enquiring for a VP, or maybe I am actually Donald Trump posing as someone else to avoid the publicity? Huh?

Well Ms. Bernadette Walter, sadly enough, you will never know. According to your little quiz, I already know everything there is to know about your seminar topic. And no, I will not be a guest speaker for you...EVER!

Grandma Attack

2008-12-17T08:31:00.000-08:00

A recent phone conversation between my sister and I while we were at work:

...blah, blah, blah about whatever the reason was for the call
(Insert random change of important topic to something not so important)
(Which means neither of us are really thrilled about hanging up and getting back to our work)

AND THEN...

Me: Hey, you know that time when we were kids and shopping at the mall with grandma?
Sis: Yeah?
Me: And she all of a sudden stopped in the middle of the mall?
Sis: (Laughing) Oh, yeah, that was hilarious!
Me: Okay, I'm having that...gotta go!
Sis: Oh weird, me too! *CLICK*
Me: *CLICK*

Let me explain myself and our secret 'I can't say I'm about to shit myself because people here at work will hear me tell you' code.

The holidays always find me reminiscing about what makes Christmas so special to me. One of those fond, oh so fond, memories is the time Grandma took my Sis and I (dragged me) shopping to the local mall. This was always a big deal for Grandma because she lived in a much smaller town that had only a Wal-Mart, TSC (for those of you city folk that is short for Tractor Supply Company) and oddly enough I think a Buckle on Main St.

As I reminisce, let me take you one step deeper into my memories and tell you that Grandma was notorious for carrying ginormous purses that could host a small immigrant for at least a week or so before running out of supplies. She was also notorious for clutching said purse with a white-knuckled-death-grip while mom drove all around 'the city' when she came to visit and take her shopping. (Which ALWAYS consisted of a stop at Merle Norman and the SAS Store for some new shoes).

On this particular Christmas Shopping Trip, Grandma wanted to go to the mall. The last place anyone wants to be two weeks before Christmas on a Saturday. The crowds, the noise, the crying babies, waiting in lines, uggghhh! Now, you know how most malls have an 'assumed' flow of traffic even though there is no written rule? And that during the holidays, doing anything to stop this 'assumed' flow of mass chaos could result in a real life trampling of someone? Okay, so now that the setting is painted for you, here is what ensued on that dreaded day:

Grandma: (STOPS DEAD IN HER TRACKS! Hand clutching said refugee bag, eyes focused intently ahead as if in a trance. She grabs my sister's arm with her other hand, stopping all of us dead in our tracks. With lips pursed together and in a voice as low as a whisper) Shelly, I can't move.
Sis: What?!?
Grandma: I'm serious. Don't move. I can't move. I gotta shit. Where is the nearest bathroom?
Me: Grandma, we're in the, mawwwwlllll! They don't have a lot of options here for restrooms.
Sis: (Noticing the seriousness in Grandma's voice and the said 'incident' that we were about to have on our hands.) Okay Grandma, it's okay. I see a bathroom just up ahead a ways on the other side. It's not far. We can go use that one.
Grandma: I can't! I gotta shit. I'm gonna shit myself right now. Oh my god, what do I do?
(Still assuming death grips on said bag and said sister) (People still trying to plow us over and giving us dirty looks for interrupting 'assumed' flow of traffic.)
Grandma: You don't understand! (Panic beginning to set in) I gotta shit! What do I do? I can't move?...

Well, long story a little shorter but not much, Grandma eventually made it too the restroom that day without down right shitting herself (I say that because I'm sure there was still some damage done to those panties of hers). However, I do think there was a little bit of lost dignity in it all. And from that day on the phrase, 'Grandma Attack', has a WHOLE NEW meaning to it in our family.

Thank you Grandma for the fond Christmas memories! And let's not forget about the sequined Christmas sweaters, matching earrings, great food, the PERFECT gifts, and multiple decorated trees with Santas all over and the train that ran under the tree!

Nerves

2008-12-13T16:53:00.000-08:00

Hi! I'm so nervous, this is my first post on my first blog ever. I feel like a ten year old again being asked to the last couple skate of the night by little Johnny Stephens (all names have been changed to protect identities of our past!) Well, I guess I'm doing good though since I already have two followers and no posts yet. I must give props to my good friend BA who got me hooked on reading blogs. I started sending her and my mom 'wanna be' blog emails until she finally pinned me down to a deadline so that I could post real blogs and in the meantime, she started one too! I think now is the time I tell you a bit about myself?

- Daughter, sister, fiance, aunt to these two and this one, mom (of our puppy dog).

- Lover of life, our dog, crafts, outdoors, health, family & friends, creating.

Justin and I got engaged on the Fourth of July, 2008 in CO and are getting married on the Fourth of July, 2009 in CO. So stayed tuned for updates on the wedding planning, what's new with us, our adventures, and my randomness!