Help My Pod

I think it's time for some new tunage to my daily soundtrack. I've been referring to J as my plain white t and demanding he call me 'Delilah'. Hey, it's applicable! Two more years of school? And I've been giving this song 'another listen' when I'm lonely, pretending J wrote it for me :) Actually, I think it takes a pretty sensitive, emotional soul to write songs like this and I'll keep my steady, level-headed hubby any day.

I digress. My point is, I need some new tunes. And I think the best way to find good music is to dig into everyone's 'favorite' playlist. Before we moved I hijacked Paul and Melody's 'favorites' off their computer and found some new loves--Mushaboom, Leigh Nash, Fa-Fa-Guster--that I listen to every day. I have weird taste in music--meaning, I don't have a particular genre I like. This morning I listened to Mozart, Michael Buble, Pink, Beatles, Beatles, Beatles, Woody Guthrie, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and The Backyardigans. So...not really picky. I can appreciate a selection of all types, so lay it on me.

Although, no Christina Aguilera, please. A particularly brutal man has been subbing the Saturday morning Body Pump class and has perfected the 'FREEZE! Hold it, hold it, hold, it. I don't care if the song is over! I said HOLD IT!' Just the sound of her voice makes my biceps tremble.

'If every simple song I wrote to you would take your breath away, I'd write it all.' Thanks, plain white t! That's sweet.

Head Wounds

Yesterday, after running a frustrating errand and then realizing I didn't have an east-bound freeway entrance to get to the zoo, I gave in and decided to spend a little dough and go to The Magic House instead. Of course, it didn't open for two more hours when we got there and was three times more expensive than I thought. So we hung out in the gardens for a while and to top it off, Abbey tripped and received her fourth major head wound in three days. Is it any wonder? She was pulling this stunt not two minutes later.

I love the look on her face when she realized it wasn't as easy to get down as it was to climb up.

J was at the hospital for almost 40 hours from Friday to Sunday this weekend, so I headed up to The Ville to see my gal pals. It didn't take too much persuading--I think all Katherine said was "Bobby has a hard weekend too". Hmm, should I come up? I should come up, huh. Ok! I'm coming up! See you in three hours.

Before we moved out here I had a dream one night about what med school would be like. I dreamt we rolled into town to find that everyone lived together in this compound sort of thing. There was a huge common area and everyone's separate apartments stemmed off this main room. I remember thinking 'what did we get ourselves into?'. Now, I don't think it would be too bad :) It was nice to have someone to talk to all weekend, cook meals together (Ok, mostly Katherine cooked), and Abbey was content and entertained with buddies all day. Here's a picture of our two kiddos staring each other down in the tub. What a funny shot. (Can you see Abbey's black eye? This was head wound #2)
It happened to be the weekend Jessica was doing a caramel party, so I invited myself over. Thanks, Jessica! Abbey loved the carameled apples--well, mostly the caramel. And Jessica had us doubled over, laughing at hilarious stories. Great times, I love this place.











I almost forgot to put this picture: I set the timer on the camera and was trying to get Abbey to smile. It caught this moment instead, I thought it was cute.

This Little Piggy

I am borderline obsessed with this, but I dare you to find a sweeter hair style than The Pig Tail. Unfortunately, this hair battle is rarely won. So I must document that I do care about my urchin's hair and would fix it like this every day if it were up to me. Especially since it encroaches 'fe-mullet' status more and more every day. Any hair stylists out there? Do you cut a cute bob or let it flow? I'm afraid the Mullet Patrol may sever connections if I would allow it in my own progeny.

Anyway, at least we're not battling over clothes yet. I'm sure she'll have an opinion soon.

It's The Final Countdown

Let the countdown begin! Seven days until The Office premier. Yes, I am that excited. I feel like The Office is to me what Mash and Cheers were to my parents. Bleh, Mash. My mom likes to share how she went into labor while watching Mash. And 23 years ago today, that baby waiting to come and blow this world away was....my little sis, Allison!

Happy Birthday Allison!

Nice segue, huh? Well, you're lucky your birthday happened to start off my countdown! :)

Immunize By Two

No, this isn't a public service announcement. I actually avoid and postpone immunizations as long as I can.
Doesn't she look so delicate? You who know and love Abbey know she is anything but delicate. My little pixie is usually so feisty, daring, and full of energy and life. Sleep is always met with varying degrees of resistance--why succumb to sleep when there is so much to explore and destroy. So it was bittersweet to look at my sleeping mermaid, zonked out on my bed as I studied this afternoon. It was nice to have her close and calm, but then I would look at that little bandaid on her thigh and remember it's probably a little drug induced. Poor baby. I hate sitting in the doctor's office with Abbey happily reading a book, not knowing what's coming. They always ask "Mom, are you doing ok?" No! You have needles! Just get me out of here.

An excerpt from Justin's prayer at dinner tonight:
"Please bless Abbey's body that it will be able to handle the virus agents that have been introduced into her system." Closely followed by, "And please bless Ashley to be more reverent during my prayers."

The World Below

This weekend was the great hot air balloon races. One of us wasn't so thrilled to be there, but we thought it was pretty cool. They blow up this humongo Energizer Bunny balloon which I thought looked kind-of tacky. Sorry, that probably offended a few, people were pretty proud of it. I guess I prefer the classic balloon look. And then they play a cheesy song that goes something like 'Up, Up and Away...in our beautiful ballooon.' Hmm...the lyrics don't do the cheesy factor justice. You'll have to call and I'll sing it for you to get the full effect. Sheesh, I'm cynical today. Anyway, the rabbit starts it off and when it's on its way, they announce the go ahead and all the crews start blowing up these balloons right in front of us--I counted about 3 dozen in the field just ahead of us. What a pretty sight.

'Well this can't be good,'

methinks to myself. If it were me and I was blowing up a huge, nylon balloon with hot air and fire, I think I would give myself a little room. The crowd got a little anxious as this group of balloons all started crowding each other at once. But what do we know--it turned out fine.

Temper, Temper

My photo skills (or lack of) are killing me right now. I guess you can't persuade a toddler to stop mid-meltdown to move to better lighting. I tried it. I do love the movement in the bottom picture as she's pulling the blanket to avoid the camera.

But despite the subpar photos, isn't that a gorgeous little creature? Even during a low point in the day.

Oh Martha

Say what you will about her personal life, but you can't deny Martha Stewart has taste and some great ideas. I found these cookie cartons the other day and couldn't resist.

You know you are receiving many blessings and answers to prayers when you need to make thank you gifts every other day. And I think these look so much better than a paper plate and tin foil. Oh Martha, I love you despite it all.

True Aggies

I absolutely love this time of year, it reminds of going back to school. I rate pretty high on the nerd scale because I love school. College was such a great time of life. I always had good roomies and good friends. Living off no sleep and no vegetables, I don't know how. I guess you just live off excitement and youthful energy. I love the first week of school when everyone's excited to be back and hangs around campus to catch old friends and enjoy the nice weather. Everyone's in their new fall digs, everyone has their new backpacks with fresh pens and binders perfectly organized and tabbed. Ok, maybe that was just me. Roommates are still nice to each other because you don't know each other that well and haven't been annoyed yet by messy bathrooms and kitchens. The band was always practicing as I would walk home in the afternoon. Another nerd alert--I love marching bands. It was like having my own theme music as I walked along.

I met Justin the first day of my sophmore year and the intense crush began. He dated these gorgeous, little blondies and I knew he was out of my league. But it didn't help the situation that he was always with the apartment of boys across the hall. I shamelessly flirted with everyone but him. I guess to get his attention, I don't know. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Hey, I was 19 and oblivious, what can you do? Luckily one night the stars were aligned just right and we stopped being so immature. After that it was a no-fuss, no-drama courtship. What a fun year with roadtrips to Wendover, Colorado, Vegas, St George..it was always a party. I don't think any of us went to bed before 1:00 am.

I love reminiscing. Here's an old picure of my cute roommates.

St George--Spring Break
Can you pick out Justin? Woo woo, what a hottie. Now you understand the angst I went through earlier that year :)

So here's a shoutout to my alma mater, USU. My mom, all my sisters and their husbands have attended USU. Maybe Abbey will one day as well. Thanks for the game day t-shirt, Aunt Megs! We were sporting aggie blue today in support of your b-ball tryouts, good luck! We're so proud of our little 'baller' sister. Is that how you spell 'baller'? I'm so not hip.








Bust your A to WIN--

Appropriate for a toddler, don't you think? I love it.

A Worthy Debate

Would you sport this hairdo in exchange for a three-hour nap?

Mighty Good Man

What a Man, What a Man, What a Mighty Good Man--can't get it out of my head now. Great.

In honor of my 4,000th visit to my website, I've come up with 4,000 things about Justin. Val tagged me on her site (check it out, very cute kid there!) and I usually don't do them, but this one is about my hubby. And since he's not adequately represented on this site, I'll go ahead and do it: Oh! And I was kidding about the 4,000 thing! Come back!

1. Who is your man? J-Bird

2. How long have you been together? almost 5 years

3. How long dated? 7 months. Wow! That short? We were crazy. Crazy in love, that is :)

4. How old is your man? 26

5. Who eats more? 'he does, unless its sweets we're talking about...then for sure me.' I can just copy that straight from Val's. J's kind-of a health food junkie.

7. Who is taller? he is.

8. Who sings better? me. I tell him if he'd let me teach him music he would be a great singer, but it's been a no go.

9. Who is smarter? ooooh--I'll have to go with him on this one. You wouldn't believe his memory. Last night he was fixing our internet and the customer service lady gave him a 10 digit code to type into some field. An hour later he could recall it. He does stuff like that all the time. And he rocked his boards--woo woo.

10. Who's temper is worse? Do we have tempers? Allison? Eli? Can you vouch for that :)

11. Who does the laundry? I'll let you in on a little secret, ladies. I have a few more pairs of underwear than Justin--he gets more desperate for laundry than I do. So he's been the one to buckle under and start a load. Although he hasn't done a load since we've moved because the Abster always needs something cleaned.

12.Who takes out the garbage? he does--exclusively.

13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Me. No particular reason.

14. Who pays the bills? This is a sore spot. He did until med school then all of a sudden I was thrown into it. I think I have it down now. Had to sweet talk my way out of a few late charges.

15. Who is better with the computer? I use it more but he's the one who can figure out a problem without getting frustrated.

16. Who mows the lawn? The condo association.

17. Who cooks dinner? me.

18. Who drives when you are together? him.

19. Who pays when you go out? what? It's all the same, right?

20. Who is most stubborn? him.

21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? probably me

22. Whose parents do you see the most? mine since his are out of the country.

23. Who kissed who first? he kissed me--it was an awesome first kiss. The kind that still give you butterflies when you think about it days later.

24. Who asked who out? probably him.

25. Who proposed? J, of course.

26. Who is more sensitive? me.

27. Who has more friends? we have a lot of the same friends. I think I stay in better touch with mint though because that's important to me.

28. Who has more siblings? same.

29. Who wears the pants in the family? That's a loaded question. I think I make more of the day to day decisions, but he's the one that gets my rear end in gear with scripture study, prayers, FHE, you know, 'patriarch of the family' sort of stuff.

It's Good To Be Green

I seem to be attracted to all things green lately. Particularly bright green. Looking over my pictures from Friday, that seemed to be the theme.















We went to a farmer's market in the morning and oh.my.word. The prices were unbelievable. I bought 24 cartons of blackberries for $8--that's what it would have cost me to buy 2 at my local store. Come to find out that makes a LOT of jam. So if you come to my house, you're getting rolls and jam, pancakes and jam, bread and jam, or just plain jam if you'd like. :)

Here's a pic of my plunder. It felt like thievery, I loved it.

Then off to my favorite park. It's a good 15-20 minute drive from our palce so it's ridiculous how often we've been there lately. But I think it's gorgeous and I love the wading pool there. We took some portraits--next to a big green leaf, of course. Ha ha, I have a problem.


It was all we could do to keep her from jumping in after those ducks.

Abbey's Twin

Did you know Abbey has a sister? We went to the park with some friends last night and as I walked up I thought 'Where did Abbey get those clothes?' This picture doesn't do it justice, it was uncanny how much she looked like Abbey. Especially because she was turned around and has the same hair color and same cute wings over her ears.

Later the twin's mom came over to me and said 'You want to hear something funny?' and I said 'Uh, our babies are twins?' She laughed and we talked about how beautiful our kids are. Kaitlyn and Abbey immediately took to each other and said enthusiastic 'byes' to each other when they left.

I had to snap a picture before though. My friend Heather said 'For your blog?' Uh oh. She's on to me :)