New Year's Resolutions

For the Year 2008, I hereby resolve to:

1. Read my scriptures EVERY day. Because that's what good little Mormon girls do.
2. Exercise (more than once a week). Because Life IS Pain. Highness.
3. Keep my office clean--- put things away right after meetings and file things somewhere other than on top of my desk in The Pile.
4. Attend the temple more regularly.
5. Pay off my VISA. (oopsies)
6. Spend more time with my Niece and Nephew
7. Become a Master Bowler
8. Read more books. So I can be all smart and stuff.
9. Travel more.

Yes, Nine. Because eight is not enough.

Skeleton Love

So KP has a skeleton in our living room. He's very cool. I think he really adds a special touch to the room. When K moved in a few months ago, she was a little freaked out by the skeleton. She did NOT like it, and didn't find the lights strung through him for mood as entertaining as I do.

Fastforward three months and they are fast friends. She was positioning his arms this weekend. Yesterday (cover your eyes KP, you may not want to know) he was digging for gold, if you know what I mean, and today his hand fell down. And K said "aw!" and reached over and kissed Skeleton's hand better. Something I never thought I would witness. And then she was dancing with him. Now he has his arms crossed. I think he's doing a little "stop, in the name of love" er something over there. He looks very content, now that he has won K's love.

Meet Mr. Skeleton. He should have a Santa hat on but we never took the time to dig it out. The eye patch was for Halloween.

Now we are sitting in our cozy living room with the fire a-blazing and the tree a-glowing. How christmas-y is that. Yes, I know Christmas is over. I don't fully recognize that fact until after January 1st, though.

Homey...

Also I learned something cool about Christmas traditions. My boss was telling me last year that at her house, they leave their lights on for twelve days AFTER Christmas, until January 6, which is Epiphany. If you look in Wikipedia it says that depending on the church Epiphany is either celebrating the day the Magi visited Jesus, or the day that Jesus was baptised as an adult. In the West churches are generally celebrating the visitation of the Magi. It brings a whole new meaning to The Twelve Days of Christmas. At least to me. Maybe you already knew that it was the twelve days after, but I always just assumed it was the twelve days before Christmas. I feel so educated. And how cool that the celebration goes on beyond December. Some people even exchange gifts on Epiphany instead of Christmas, to keep the spiritual feel at Christmas and leave the gifts to the end of the celebration. So those people's kids have not yet gotten their Heelies. (Is there ANY child left without them? I'm going to take one of them out with my grocery cart some day soon... on accident of course.)

I hope your Christmas was as merry and bright as mine was! Now I'm working on my New Year's Resolution. You can breahtlessly await that post next...

Speaking In Church

I got assigned last minute to speak in Sacrament Meeting (which is like the main meeting in church where we all meet together in the chapel and take the sacrament). All those lucky ducks get to hear me speak. It's very brave of them to give me the microphone for 15 minutes. So, being true to my organizational style, I am blogging right now. Because if I blog I will magically know what to say. Or I will be up until 2 in the morning planning my talk. One of those two things.

I get to talk about Service, and how we are serving our Heavenly Father when we serve each other. I thought about polling all y'all to see if you had good examples of service in your life, but since I got this assignment on Friday afternoon, I didn't quite have time...

Let It Snow!

Merry Christmas! It snowed today! No, it did not stick. But it came down rather thick for quite a while. It was very Christmasy. It made me think of the part in "Hook" where Toodles opens the door, sees snow, yells, "it's snowing!" and slammed the door in Peter's face. Which also made me think of my college roommate who used to say that when it was snowing in the way of Toodles. Everything used to be a movie quote in my life. But now I don't have friends nearby who would understand like Brat and JennaL, so it's mostly just a movie quote fest in my head.

Sometimes I Go Mute

When I'm really, really mad, or something makes me really, really sad, I stop talking. Many of you have experienced this. This is especially common if I think that talking will cause the person(s) involved to say something further to make me really, really, really mad or really, really, really sad. Apparently some people talk more in these situations.

Example of anger: When I was working at the warehouse as a line supervisor, the supervisor directly above me was driving me crazy. I was venting to my friend, the other line supervisor. And apparently, Dude moves fast. Because all the sudden he was standing there, and neither of us had seen him come through the huge warehouse room we were sitting in. And the vent came to an abrupt stop, and I got very, very quiet. Fortunately he was calm, and he kinda smiled and said "This'll be good," and sat down and waited for me to spit it out. If you approach me very calmly like that, sometimes I speak. Unless I just don't want to talk about it ever. I told him my beef in a very quiet, even voice (another indicator that I am angry), and he actually took it fairly well. I will never forget that moment when I saw him and he was like, "this'll be good." Oops.

Actually that wasn't the best example of anger because there was much vocalizing right before. A real example would be one where I can't find my vocal chords at all. Which happens.

Let's Bowl!

This must be the year of the cool birthday gifts. I just got this:

There are also shoes. They are on order. I'll be sure to post a picture of those too when I get them. Suffice it to say that they are shiney. And purple. Let your imagination soar.

Oh, and I got a bag to carry it all in. It's the complete package.

I got them from the Red-Headed Boy. Isn't he nice?

You Know What Irritates Me?

People who tell me they won't ready my blog because they only do MySpace. You know who you are. And you aren't reading this so I can talk smack.

I guess you'll just miss out on the wonder that is my blog.

I Admit Defeat

My room is very clean. K might not agree because there are books stacked upwards on my bookshelf and dvd's overflowing off my shelves that I could probably find a more neat way to store. But I've gone through my closet, my clothes, looked under my bed, looked under my dresser, computer stand, and bookshelves, thrown out a huge bag of recycling and a huge bag of garbage, and put together a big bag of stuff to go to the DI (Deseret Industries, which is like the Mormon version of Good Will--we have one in my city now). And to be honest, I am very tempted to go through my bookshelf, cd's, and dvd's for reasons I won't go into here. But I've got to put my foot down somewhere. I've done my laundry, cleaned my bathroom, made my bed, and prepared for the glorious arrival of my sister on Sunday. Plus I'm all packed for a little road trip I'm going on tomorrow. I'm feeling quite in order.

My point is this: I give up. I have looked EVERYWHERE for my Netflix DVD. Including under the beanbags, in many of my books, in my dresser drawers (leading to the purge of clothes going to the DI, which was long overdue), in my office files, and in every little nook and cranny of my car. My car is where I think I lost it, because I had it in there at one point to mail and then at some point it walked away and left the envelope empty. I think it is somehow tied in with my sleep-deprived state after getting this shiny new toy I am typing on right now. I must have put it somewhere really special. Or someone stole it out of my car, which is possible, since I've had a few passengers lately who forget my car is the ghetto kind with manual locks and don't lock their doors when they get out. If someone stole that DVD they were sorely disappointed when they took a look at what it was, since it was one of a set of three of a BBC period mini-series.

So I went and clicked the little option to pay Netflix for the DVD. I COULD have clicked the "gosh, you should have gotten it by now" option and not paid for it, but I've got to be a good little Mormon girl, since I just told my Stake President that I am honest in my dealings with my fellow men. (Thanks, JennaL, for reminding me of that and instilling the proper amount of guilt). But what I did learn when I clicked that option is that I have a year to find it, and they will refund me the money if I mail it in within that time. So if it is not stolen or laying on the ground somewhere, I can still return it and get my money back. It's still going to drive me crazy, because I hate that feeling of losing something. So hopefully I will find it. Because I don't like feeling all airheady.

Ways I Deal With Stress

Number one on the Ways I Deal With Stress list is cleaning. I had a roommate in college who would joke about taking cover if she came home to find a sparkling clean apartment. Cleaning sometimes calms my rage. Something about having order in my life. I'm thinking I need to get good and angry so I can find that Netflix DVD.

Nashville or Bust!

So today I got a call from work, saying sorry to call on your vacation, but do you want to go to Nashville? Every year we have a national professionals conference. Last year we went to San Antonia (I remembered the Alamo for about 5 minutes). The year before last we went to Wisconsin (Moo). This year it is Nashville. Yee haw!

I go in February.

Will You Please Find My DVD?

As mentioned in a previous post, I cannot for the life of me find one of my Netflix DVDs. Will someone please tell me where it is? I am losing my mind! I have cleaned my office, my car, and my room. I'm almost organized everywhere. While this is helpful in giving me a jump start on a New Year's resolution, it is not making me happy. They say the mind is the first thing to go.... I guess turning 30 really does start you on the path to senility...

Christmas Card letters are for happy people.

Since Thanksgiving I have been receiving Christmas cards from my overacheiver friends. Yes, your children are adorable. And yes, I am glad you have me on your list still. It's nice to confirm you're not dead at least once a year.

I've been meaning to send out my own Christmas card. I have the cards. The dilemma is, what to put inside it. The last few times I've sent a Christmas card, I've sent a "letter" that was mostly pictures. I get these letters from my married friends with all these cute little pictures of their kids, and I think, heck, why wait! I'm cute. I'm sure they want pictures of me. If I have your address you have probably seen it. The year it was really easy was the year I went to Europe. Plus I think I had skipped a year so I combined two years of pictures. But most years, when I don't have an exciting life, Christmas card time is a time for reflection on just how exciting my life is NOT. Plus there are certain things that I'm not willing to share in a group letter, so if you wanna know what's up with me, you're going to have to buckle down and write me an email. One or two sentences will suffice. As you know it doesn't take too much to talk me into talking about myself what might seem like endlessly.

So I"m trying to decide. Should I do a letter? What do I put in it? What did I do this year that's worth immortalizing on Christmas paper? Or should I just insert a few pictures and call it good?

I will tell you one thing I will NOT do. I will not send out a mass email. I'm all for not killing trees and all, but to me, mass emails send the very special message, "I'm SO busy with my real life I can't be brought to keep up on your address and lick the envelope. Or send you an individual email. So here ya go. Hope you have the program I created it in." And I'm not down with that. And NO, some day I will NOT understand.

Crabby

The more I think about it, the more it irritates me. One of the People I Work With made a comment tonight about how few members we have in their area. Because, you know, I've been sitting on my butt all Fall. As those of you who have tried to spend time with me well know. Um, why don't you show me how it's done since you're so smart?

Free!

I am officially on vacation. Except that I'm not, because I have a caroling event tomorrow night for my teenagers, because I'm a sucker and I can't say no to their cute little faces. Er something. But other than that I am free until after Christmas. How sweet is that?

Things to do while I am on vacation:
1. Wrap all the christmas presents in a pile in the corner of my room.
2. Buy a few more presents.
3. Find the Netflix dvd I've been missing for almost a month now
4. Go caroling with cute little teenagers.
5. Go to pottery and finish my plates. They're so purty.
6. Exercise lots-lose the 5 pounds I gained with all the birthday celebrations
7. Set New Year's Resolutions
8. Set a new budget for next year so I don't feel so poor
9. Babysit my cute little nephew.
10. Sleep

So Sleepy

Why, oh why must I go to a meeting after being at a meeting all day? I had to leave my apartment at 7:15 this morning and I just now got home.... and must leave in ten minutes to set up for a 6:30 meeting. Ooky. I NEED a nap.

And Then We Went to Joann's, and then we went to Joann's...

And then we went to Joann's. Oh, and then we went to Joann's!

So Saturday night I went out with a few other ladies and Tonganboylover, who was shopping for material for her bridesmaid dresses. All 10 of them. So we went to FOUR Joann's throughout the area. We started around 7, and finished right before 10. We made good time. Then we went and stuffed ourselves at Red Robin. Mmmm. There was a little milkshake incident, but it totally wasn't my fault. The shake was suctioned to the little shaker.

See the hot mamas at the last Joann's checkout:

Surprise! You're Old!

I turned the big three-oh. And a few of my closest friends took me out to dinner at Cheesecake Factory. The truest testament of their dedication was that not only did they manage to show up, but they waited for 80 minutes to be seated! That's love!

Look how cute they are:

You know what's great about a blog? I have the power so if I don't like the pictures of me at a particular event, I can just not post them. And since it was on my camera, neither can any of the above people (neener, neener!).

And guess what I got for a present. I got this:

Which is a huge version of this picture I took in Paris, further confirming my superior photography skills:

K got it framed for me, by Little S, master framer. Little S tilted it a little because as you can see, I take crooked pictures. Totally planned. You know, for perspective er something. Several of my friends pitched in on it (you know who you are).

Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday just officially drew to a close. There are still family festivities on Sunday, so it's really more a week long celebration. As it should be. I got this today:

Also I got these:

Remember these? It's those cool rice candies that have the paper wrapped around them that melt in your mouth. My mom used to get them for us when we were little. My pottery teacher gave them to me becasue I had pottery class on my birthday. I also got a beautiful hand watercolored card from one of her students, and cookies from a few of her students. It's a party everywhere I go this week. :)

Tonight I went to a meeting at a restaurant with some of my volunteers and again one of the volunteers had a little candle and a balloon for my birthday. See, they understand. It IS all about me.

Reason #3 I Know I'm Old- I am the Cat Lady

So my roommate KP adopted a kitty before she left and made me swear to take care of her/him while she was gone (we've never confirmed the gender of kitty-- he/she is a little anxious when it comes to human contact). Then this week I was coming home one day and found a DIFFERENT cat climbing out of the little kitty house KP got for our kitty in case he/she wants somewhere to snuggle in the cold. THEN I found a big fat grey cat eating out of our kitty's bowl. And just now, the little house-stealing cat was sitting outside of our back door, meowing loudly and looking expectantly at the door like I was going to let him/her in.

I am the cat lady.

Your Mind is the First Thing to Go

They tell me that the mind is the first thing to go.

Today on my 30th birthday the following happened:
1. Lost my camera
2. Went to car to look for camera. Contact popped out.
3. experienced small miracle and located contact on floor of car in dark with flashlight
4. Callled restaurant-waitress located camera (yay honest people!)
5. Started to leave to retrieve camera but K forbade me to leave the house wearing sweatpants, kermit shirt, and high heals. I still don't understand how that doesn't go.

Also I"ve been missing a Netflix dvd for 2 or 3 weeks now. It's driving me batty. Someone tell me where I left it.

Reason #2 I Know I'm Old

I can't remember where I put things and I'm walking around the apartment muttering about it.

The Last Day of My Youth

One of my friends kindly reminded me today to enjoy the last day of my youth. Because tomorrow I am old.

Siiiigh. It was good while it lasted.

Things I enjoyed in my youth:
1. Tire swings; because being dizzy is fun
2. Red Rover; because I SO kicked butt at that game
3. The Muppets
4. Smurfs
5. MASH (Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House)
6. TPing
7. Shera: The Princess of Power
8. HeMan: insert rest of title I can't remember here
9. Knight Rider. Because I was going to marry him
10. Peaches N' Cream Barbie
11. Rainbow Bright
12. Little House on the Prairie (The books and the show)- I wanted to marry Manly. He rode through blizzards to pick up his date.
13. Happy Days. Eeeeh!
14. Mr. Rogers. I think I'll make a snappy new day.
15. Swings.

So do I have to stop liking these things now that my youth is ending? I have two hours left. Should I run out and find a swing? How about a quick pick-up game of Red Rover? Who's in?

Reason #3 Turning 30 is Fun

People give you flowers :)

Reason #2 Turning 30 is Fun

I was at the W's house for Taco Tuesday tonight (although we did not have tacos), and Baby Girl was walking around singing "Happy Birthday" over and over again. What could be cuter?

Also I got a monkey. And Baby Girl was quick to point out it was a Monkey.

Reason #1 Turning 30 is Fun

I get cute little things like this from my teens:

And this:

Two Days Till Old

When I was little we had one of those station wagons with the backwards seats in the back. Why don't they make those anymore? They also still had seesaws and merry-go-rounds on playgrounds. And there were still trees in Federal Way. Ah, the olden days!

Being the Bigger Person Sucks

I mean figuratively, not literally, by the way. I got accused tonight of having said something that I totally didn't. I totally got slapped down at a meeting in front of a lot of other people and all I could really say was that I'm sorry if there was a miscommunication. All I can say is, Chicks! And I WAS RIGHT AND YOU WERE WRONG. Neener, neener.

Like I said, being the bigger person sucks.

And, that was reason #1 that I will never be old. Because, like at least two of my teenagers have told me through the last five years, I'm just like a big kid.

Oh, Christmas Tree

I didn't have to do anything this year and I have a pretty little christmas tree in front of me. And my wonderful roommate making it all sparkly and pretty and Martha Stewart-y (in a good way).

See:

K didn't want to be in the picture. She's no fun.

And the piece de resistance is the fluffy little angel:

See, that's the apartment chicken. There's a whole story behind why he is on the tree. The short version is that we've been hiding it around the apartment for each other, and then when we find where the other one has hid it, we put it somewhere to pop out and surprise the other person at an unsuspecting moment. I came up with the christmas tree spot. I also came up with the microwave as a hiding place, which I feel is one of the more brilliant places Little Fluff has hidden.

The long version is a little more difficult to explain, and is best done with a demonstration. So if you want to know that story you have to come visit me at my house.

Reason #1 I Know I'm Old

I was giving one of my teenagers a ride home today, and we were listening to "It's the End of the World" by REM (no, I'm not obsessed, it just happened to be on the cd I popped in), and she told me she had never heard the song before. And that she didn't know who REM was.

Five more days till oldness.

Ow.

Just fell down concrete steps in front of house. No visible bleeding, bruising, or reddening to make it worth it. No witnesses. If Holliberry falls and no one was there to see it, did it really happen?

Oopsies!

My dear roommate K has shared a lovely habit. The other day at work I said "oopsies" approximately 5 times in a half hour period. I thought to myself, where did I pick up that perky little exclamation? That is so unlike me. Today it came to me. It's K's fault. She actually says "oopsy." Apparently I added the "s" all on my own. To punish her I shall have to come up with an equally torturesome exclamation to say all the time to get stuck in her head.

Perhaps I should try "oh, my heck!" Because according to the writers on Law and Order: SVU, this is what little Mormon girls say. ** Or maybe it's only Mormon nannies who grew up in Utah (In reality this may not be far from the truth based on my Provo experiences-- there, that should draw out some comments from old roomies if they ever actually come look at this blog ;) Or cement their eternal hatred towards me and my Seattle snobbery).

Or I could just try singing "The Love Boat" around her. Because once you've heard that song, it's stuck in your head for days. There was an entire semester in Junior High where we lived in a Soundtrack of The Love Boat.

What's the last thing you got stuck in your head?

**note: the best part about the way they wrote that scene was the fact that "oh, my heck!" was the reaction of the little Mormon girl upon hearing that her friend had been MURDERED. Totally would have been my first reaction too.**