Giving myself a pat on the back!

I had a first this week. I actually attended a Relief Society function....of my own free will.....AND I brought a salad!!! I hope you were sitting down for that because if you know me at all you know that I just don't do Relief Society, so you may be totally shocked. Andy sure was. He immediately stopped what he was doing and turned all his attention to me when I said I was going to this function. He all but felt my forehead to check for a temperature! It actually turned out to be quite fun. All thanks to this lady in the ward that I sat by who has more personality than 10 normal people combined. She is outgoing, funny and a great story-teller. She is getting married in a month.....to her ex-husband! They were married for 35 years, got divorced 11 months ago and are now getting remarried. I thought it was a hilarious story. She is trying to sell her condo so if anyone is looking for a 2 bedroom, 2 bath place with a garage, I can hook you up. PLUS, you could live right down the street from me!! What could be better??
I guess I learned a lesson from all of this......Relief Society isn't all that bad. I suppose I just needed to give it a chance. Only took me 10 years to figure that out!

I dare you...

I dare you to have a cooler car name than "The Brentmeister General". Bring it on!!!

Good times

Our neighbors came over the other night and we played Liars Dice. I think it's also known as Pirates Dice. It was shown in the second Pirates of the Carribean movie and so the set that our neighbors have is all decked out in a pirate theme. Barnacles and all! It sounded a bit lame to me at first but it was really fun.....especially because I rocked that game! So, if you ever get the chance to play Liars Dice I highly recommend it. It's also fun to talk like a pirate while you play. I make a great pirate and I think next time I play I'll wear an eye patch. Yeah, that'll be hot.

No real reason to post

Someone made a comment on one of the discussion boards for my Global Political Economy class that made me think of this. In fairness, he was trying to be silly.

Because I'm a moron

I'm a total idiot for forgetting to take my camera with me today as my mom and I took Samantha to Disney Princesses on Ice! She was dressed as Snow White and her hair was pulled up with a cute little red ribbon. She even had red shoes to match! Matching red shoes and me without my camera! Can everyone say "Worst mother in America"??? Thankfully my phone has a camera and I was able to snap a couple of photos with that. I also have a picture of her in the full Snow White outfit from Halloween. I will post those at the bottom.

Samantha was so excited to have a girls day with Grammy and mom and Grammy even bought her a "Princess Day" present---a miniature tea set with, of course, Princesses on them. Samantha held it all the way up to Salt Lake. We had a little trouble with traffic around the Gateway because unbeknownst to us there was a St. Patrick's Day parade going on right down the main street. It wasn't really a big deal and kind of fun to see everyone in green for the parade. I hate parades. Especially in the winter. I mean, who wants to stand on the side of the street, freezing, watching a bunch of people walk and wave?? Not me!! But I digress.
There also seemed to be a "Parade of Princesses" as a ton of adorable little girls dressed as princesses walked toward the Delta Center (oh, excuse me, the EnergySolutions Arena!). Samantha was, of course, the cutest one there and was so pleased to see other princesses like her. She really is the most beautiful girl in the world. I can't say it enough! Again, I digress.

When the show started and Tinkerbell came skating out Samantha let out a huge shriek and started clapping. This is when I began crying. Then when Mickey and Minnie Mouse came out, she jumped 10 feet in the air with excitement. Again, more crying from me. To see your child so happy and excited about something is the most wonderful feeling in the whole world. I felt so content. Like this is what everyday should feel like.
It was a great show and Samantha seemed to enjoy every minute---except of the dragon from Sleeping Beauty. That kind of freaked her out. And Grammy and I thoroughly enjoyed watching Samantha enjoy herself and clap and dance and sing. I wish I could do that everyday with her.

If you're wondering what the little cowboy and his daddy did today, they went to the trampoline place and jumped their little hearts out for 45 minutes! Andy said Alex had a great time and I think they just enjoyed being together. What a lucky gal I am to have such an awesome family! Man we're cute!!

Travelzoo Top 20

I won't lie - I feel a little dirty posting a link to a contest on our site. But I've actually used this site to pick up good deals before, so I guess it's not so bad. Travelzoo has lots of deals, just like everyone else. Every week they send out a Top 20 email, mostly filled with things that I can't do, or are too expensive. But every so often (once every 2 months or so), they'll post great deals on Vegas shows, or hotels. I can't really comment on how a lot of the other deals are priced, but those have been great deals, as have the hotel deals they have had in NYC. So if you want to try to win all 20 of their posted deals, click the flashing banner before Kristi takes out this post and bans me from posting on her site.

What I've been up to!

Andy devotes every night (almost) to studying and reading and taking tests and all that crap that comes with getting your MBA. So in the evenings I have a lot of time to myself. Some nights I laze about watching TV or reading and other nights I sew! Most recently I decided to make myself a duvet cover and a skirt. The duvet cover was originally going to be white, lime green and purple, but when I got to the fabric store I was uninspired by any of the purples they had. I found this pink, aptly named Flamingo, and thought it with the green, white and brown would look lovely. I think I was correct! It turned out just how I had planned and I'm excited to use it. When I asked Andy what he thought he asked if I wanted the truth. I should have said no. He does like it but says it reminds him of Neopolitan ice cream. Now we're going to go to bed hungry every night craving ice cream! Great!My next project was to take an old dress I had for a friend's wedding and turn the skirt into another skirt. I loved the yellow fabric but it was a full skirt on a sleeveless top that I knew I would never wear again. So I cut the skirt portion off, found a cute pattern for a more fitted, shorter skirt and sewed away. I think it turned out pretty well. This picture is of the back since the front isn't too interesting. All of the detail is in the back. I think I have a pretty nice rear end so hopefully this skirt will accentuate that feature!!! "Whatever draws attention away from your face!"
Next project is to make an apron for my sister for her birthday (we still need to go fabric shopping Kami). Then I'm going to attempt to make a purse. I have a shape in mind I want to try, so we'll see how it goes. If it bites I'll just give it to Samantha....she'd love a new play purse I'm sure.

Reality Check

I got a phone call from my old friend Sophie Houser (now Sophie Child) on Friday reminding me that our 10 year high school reunion is this summer! It actually feels like high school was more like 20 years ago. So much has happened in the last 10 years that I barely remember my days as a Red Devil at Springville High School. But still.....go Red Devils!!! I wonder how hard I'd have to club Andy to knock him out and drag him with me?? Do I really even want to go though? I guess I have a few months to think about it.

Thing I Love - Extended

This picture was meant to go in the Things I Love section, but this quilt has a funny story. I bought it in Venice, Italy when my friend Ashly and I were backpacking through Europe. Not the sort of thing you usually buy when all you're carrying with you is a backpack, but I fell in love with it when I saw it through the window. Luckily, our next stop after Italy was Switzerland where my friend Gerd came down from Germany to meet us and hang out with us. He drove his motorcycle down and when I inquired if he would take the quilt back to Germany with him he looked at me like I was nuts. Did I expect him to strap it to his back and ride it home?? Well, yes, I did. Actually, he had a carrier that strapped to the front his motorcycle. Much better, I know. I didn't think in a million years this huge quilt (it fits nicely on our king size bed) would fit inside this tiny bag but Ashly pulled some voo-doo out of her hat and managed to stuff the entire thing in the black bag and still was able to zip it up. I wish I had taken a picture of the magic. Gerd rode it all the way from Switzerland to Germany.....in the rain, where I picked it up and shoved it in my suitcase to bring home. Yes, this quilt has made an incredible journey!! Thanks for making it possible Ashly and Gerd!

Dance Dance Revolution - The Samantha Higham version

Oh. My. Goodness. Squirrel Melts

Five bucks to the first person that shows me verifiable proof that you made one of these. 10 if you eat it.

A new body

As I was watching Samantha in dance class today (I finally remembered to take my camera so I will post cute pictures of her later) I was thinking what it would be like to have a perfect little body that would let me do anything I wanted. She is able to twist and turn and dance and stretch any way she wants with no pain or discomfort. I know she's 3 and I'm....well....not 3, but still, it would be nice. As long as I can remember I've had horrible knees that have limited my activity. Now I have 4 screws and 2 rods in my back that cause me pain and will probably limit my activity as well (although I fully plan on water skiing on Greg's new boat this summer!! So there!). I know I'm blessed and healthy so I shouldn't complain. It just would be nice to be able to walk up and down stairs without pain and not be a human barometer sensing every pressure change as storms come and go. I guess our pain management plan is to live at sea level in a rambler with no stairs. Yeah, that's not going to cost us anything!!

Observation

The Spongebob Mac and Cheese is not near as good as the regular shaped Mac and Cheese. I lead a sad, sad life.

Sunny Days, Sweeping the Clouds Away

We took the kids to the Sesame Street exhibit at the Gateway. Not worth the money, but a cute picture nonetheless. It's always been my dream to go on the set of Sesame Street in NY so if anyone knows how I can do that, let me know!! I don't think I have any friends with special connections, but who knows!!

Potty Training

So, Alex is in the middle of potty training which is going very well I must say. I have very mixed feelings about all of it though. There is this side of me (the much larger side) that is letting a huge sigh of relief because of the hundreds of dollars spent on diapers and wipes. Also my nose is relieved not to have to endure any more changings! Then there is this other side of me that is feeling a bit melancholy at the idea of my baby not being a baby anymore. See, we are not planning to adopt any more kids so Alex is my baby. I don't think it matters if you have 2 kids or 20, the youngest will always be momma's baby. The diaper seems to be the final stage of a baby before they cross over to being a big kid. First they ditch the pacifier (or at least I think they should!) then goes the bottles, then the last thing are the diapers. Pretty soon he'll be in a big boy bed and out of his crib too. I went through all of this with Samantha but it's really getting to me more with Alex. It's both a celebration and a mourning for me. Pretty much just a celebration for Andy! We love you baby Alex just like we're going to love big boy Alex!

I've been trying so hard.....

To not let the public know what nerds we are, and in 2 little posts Andy screamed it out to the world!!! "We are nerds! We have Star Wars figurines and know what an RSS reader is!!! Ridicule us! We welcome it!". Thanks a lot babe. ;-)

Ignoring my homework

I started an MBA at the Thunderbird School for Global Management in January. We are forbidden from referring to it as an on-line program - our program is "on-demand". Well, as on-demand as their servers will allow. Everything's been running slooooowly for a few days. Anyways, I'm currently watching a video ONLINE (so there!) on the World Trade Organization, and just like in class, my mind is wandering, and I find myself here writing on the blog. In all fairness, we spent a week in January on campus in Arizona, where we were in class 12 hours a day, and we already had this lecture, but I guess I should be paying more attention to it...

Which is why I'm about to post this link. Kristi has her list of her favorite things down below. My favorite things will make random appearances in my posts. Kristi loves a website called Outblush. Ladies, if you haven't already, you'll want to check it out. Guys, if you know how, you'll want to re-route your browsers so that URL points into space, as it's sure to cost you a lot of money. However, it's very good check out whenever you need to buy a gift. If you can get over the stupidly expensive items, there are a few things on there she's sure to love. Just don't surf the site at work, because it's very pink, and you will get looks.

I think I said I was going to post a link, and got sidetracked. Just like while watching my video. I can't even focus on wasting time! Anyways, the link is a sister site (brother site?) to Outblush called Uncrate. This thing is even worse for giving you ways to waste your money - $500K watch anyone? But occasionally they come up with a real winner like this one. Being a true geek, I had one of these things long before these guys posted about it, but it prompted me to go buy a new one today. I wanted a Boba Fett to complement the Han Solo (which is weak, but was the only one they had when I bought it), but no dice. Toys R Us only had 4 of them, and Darth Vader was the best of the bunch. I'm really looking forward to the Indiana Jones collection coming out to ride the coat tails of this year's movie (don't miss the awesome trailer). Kristi wants Mola Ram with the awesome flaming heart accessory. Is there any wonder why I love her?

Heeere's Andy

Hi everyone - I totally don't know most of the people that read this site. I'm Andy, the one that's usually behind the camera so I don't have to be in front of it. Kristi has asked me to contribute to this thing, so I'll see if I can't do better with that in the future. In the short term, I'll be making some nerdy enhancements to the site. The first one is already there - the big RSS icon on the left (you have to scroll down). If you right click on that and choose Copy Link Location, you can paste it into your RSS reader and get notified whenever there's a new post. If you still insist on using Internet Explorer, you can right click and choose Copy Shortcut and paste that into your reader. Then you can click here to get your new browser.

A Great Weekend

Our fun weekend started off on Friday because Andy had the day off. He didn't have President's Day off since he was flying to Philly for work so he took Friday off instead. We got going early to get my car up to the Honda dealer by 9 am for a 10K mile check-up and then took Andy's car up to Ruth's Diner for breakfast. Now, if you live in Utah and have never experienced Ruth's Diner, you're really missing out. They have the best biscuits in the entire world!! Possibly one of the best things I've ever eaten. All the other food was delicious as well and the kids ate great which always makes a meal out even more fun. We then took the kids to the children's museum at the Gateway which was showing a special Sesame Street exhibit on the body. It wasn't quite as cool as we expected and was just expensive! The kids weren't that entertained by it but had fun in the rest of the museum. It got past nap-time so we picked up the car and rushed home for naps.

Saturday we did a little shopping at a fantastic place called Steve and Barry's. I'm a little hesitant to tell everyone about this store but it's too good to not share. EVERYTHING IN THE STORE IS $8.98!!! Now that is with a "sale" going on right now, but I think in general nothing is usually over $15 or $20. Sarah Jessica Parker has a clothing line sold here as does Venus Williams. I bought 4 pairs of pants, a jacket and a shirt. Andy got 2 shirts and a pair of pants. We also bought the kids a scarf each and our total bill was $92! It was a lot of fun. On our way home we stopped by a new frozen yogurt place called Red Mango. I got the Fruity Pebbles with Raspberries. It was delicious!

Sunday night we FINALLY had our neighbors over for dinner. It's only taken us 16 months. They are a very busy, young married couple with no kids. We had a great time getting to know them and it turns out that we all get along just lovely. The kids adored them as well and showed off in their usual fashion. We now have plans to have them over to play games or to play the Wii. It's always nice to find new friends.

We posted this video on YouTube almost a year ago and thought we'd post it here for those who haven't seen it. Yes, Samantha did cry after she fell but as soon as I showed her the video of herself singing and dancing she laughed it off. Enjoy!!