Sunday, May 31

It's back! It's back!

What is the one and only thing I like about Halo and World of Warcraft?


Mountain Dew Game Fuel exists merely to advertise for them!

That's right, the delicious taste of caffeinated-carbonated-citrus-cherry-corn-syrup is dancing on my tongue for the first time since last summer!

This is how I feel:


Summer. It's here.




PS - I have been wearing one my laziest/most comfortable outfits for a couple of days now.
It's 100% worth it.


Friday, May 29

. . . in the mood for a ramble.

On the little side advertisement area of facebook I just saw an ad that says "Uncontested Divorces: $795" and underneath there is a picture of a happy family that is all jagged and broken. WHAT?! First of all, I'm not interested and secondly . . . who is?! Who out there sees that and thinks, "What a great deal!/Just what I was looking for!/The perfect gift!" ?


Speaking of great deals, I got a spectacular one! Yesterday at the mall job clearance was an additional 50% off the marked price. I got jeans, a pair of pants, a hat, a scarf, a vest and two pairs of tights for under $25! That's without my discount - I mean, that's what the average customer would have paid. I'm serious! I'm not sure if it is still going on, but Charlotte Russe is where it's at for deals.


I love good deals as much as I love the chicken alfredo pizza I made last night. I'm eating leftovers. Yum. Yum. Yum. Yum.


This morning I heard munching in the bathroom. It was coming from the window. I thought maybe we had termites. Nope. It was some weird burrowing wasp (that I never saw in Utah) eating its way out of its weird little mud tunnel that it made outside on the window pane. There are a bunch of weird mud houses out there. The husband called it my own little ant farm, but there is a big difference between wasps and ants. Stingers. Although the ants out here do have a pretty fierce bite.


I watched Twilight last night. I haven't read the books. I wanted to see if I could watch the movie and understand what all the hype is about . . . and I don't. I don't get it at all. I tried to make arguments for it in my head, such as "if the music wasn't so cheesy" or "if they cut out the awkward love scenes" but I still don't get it. I really don't want to try any harder. It wasn't 100% terrible, I just don't understand the fanaticism surrounding it. I'm going to put the movie in the cheesy-awkward-supernatural-teen-romance-cult genre with Teen Witch. Remember that one? Teen Witch is wayyyy better. Maybe in 20 years Twilight will be almost as entertaining as Teen Witch.





"He's so funky! I will never be hip."

Top that, Twilight.

Sunday, May 24

blurbieblurbieblurrrr.




this is what the weather has been like lately.
i took this picture at the lake by our house. these days it's always "about to rain."

it's been a while since i've blurbed.
(here are some little updates/things that have been on my mind/"what's ups?")

my cute little sister, sarah, is graduating on friday!
that means 3/5 of us kids will out there in this big world, adulting and stuff. :)

my other cute sister, erynn, and her husband just moved into their new house!
she's only a few blocks away from my parents, keeping up the nielsen tradition that i broke. :(

my other other cute sister, tatum, just turned 16!
don't worry, she won't have her license until august. you're safe, but she is dating! watch out boys! ;)

not to be forgotten, little brother noah is 12 - and graduating from elementary school.
junior high, please be kind to him - even though i know that's an impossible thing to ask.

we celebrated my brother-in-law's master's degree last night!
there was a pinata and cuban food and a real great time.

we finally watched slumdog millionaire and i really liked it.
it had everything a movie should have. now why are the stars still living in slums?

i'm back to work, work, work! this is my first day off in nine days.
now that's more like it!

i have to show people how to use macs all day.
there's a computer station at my new job - people can surf the web and eat or whatever.

i'm making a fantastic dinner!
turkey burgers! yum yum yum.



it's been an exciting spring.
and if you haven't noticed, blurbies shall never be capitalized - no matter the importance of the subject.

When I have to wear a nametag . . .



I look in the mirror and see

EIDARB.

I feel like some kind of alien.

Syksztolhcs sounds like a pretty dangerous planet.

Tuesday, May 19

you are looking at the face . . .

of a working girl.

I mean, I was working before, in the mall - but only part-time.
You see, I went from working my butt off for 50 hours a week to helping people choose outfits for less than 10 hours a week. Talk about a slump!

Not anymore! I am, once again, a deli girl. I'm going to do what I do best - sweat and slave for the sake of sandwiches. I just got hired at Schlotzsky's. It's pretty similar to what I was doing before we moved and I'm glad. I like the fast-paced work and I like making good food for people. I just wish that my first few weeks were over already. I hate the awkward newness and not knowing anything. It's hard for me to feel useless. I can't wait to just get going already.

Don't worry, I'm not leaving the mall entirely. I'm going to stick around and pick up shifts. Now that I have another job I can actually afford to use my discount. Woo hoo, right?!




Wednesday, May 13

happiness is . . .


chocolate zucchini bread.

(shhh! don't tell about the zucchini!)

I have two beautiful loaves and they are all mine.

of course, the boys might eat some but I really think the green bits will scare them off.
the only vegetables these guys like have to be fried beyond recognition.

Friday, May 8

beautiful breakfasts.


making breakfast foods look fantastic: possibly my greatest talent.
(i will note that it tasted as good as it looked!)

Wednesday, May 6

on a sadder note,

i had to dispose of some of judge's beloved toys today.
he really does love them to pieces. after they're in pieces, he loves them more.


they started out as a lamb and a raccoon. lammy and raccoon have been very faithful friends. they've spent many a night curled up in bed and many a day in front of the big window, getting some sun. judge was very diligent about getting each one of them out of bed each morning, one at a time, and carefully carrying them to his favorite spot in the living room.



sure, he did pull all the stuffing out of them but he loved their little fuzzy carcasses all the same. he was always concerned about the status of his pelt friends. at least once a day he would hold raccoon in his mouth and cry until somebody played with them. he loved lammy enough to try and keep all three pieces of him together at all times.



we said a nice goodbye and then i distracted judge with some treats while i gently laid the little buddies in the garbage.



we know that they have gone to a better place and they join buffalo, duck, rabbit, turkey and other friends. we hope they enjoy doggie toy heaven - we'll meet again.


for any of you who haven't seen it firsthand,

here's a little peek at life in the bible belt:






(this is a real sign that is off the highway a few minutes away from where I live)

Monday, May 4

what's up?

new look.
made it myself.
pretty simple, but i'm kind of a simpleton so whatevs.

i mean, sometimes simple can be pretty dramatic, right?

speaking of which:
hubs says that a lot of people come into his job (home improvement warehouse) after watching too much hgtv and think they are suddenly interior decorators.
they ask him questions like, "do you think this carpet will POP against my walls?"
or "will this give me the WOW factor?"
he wants hgtv to be banned for encouraging those ridiculous terms.

in other news, i'm enjoying my job . . . well, i'm enjoying my discount.
it provides for things such as:


this skirt. hubby says it doesn't make sense.
i think he's confused because it looks like denim, but it isn't denim.
oh, i don't know.

summer dreams . . .




I just ate a gigantic bowl of fruit salad. I also had fruit for breakfast and dessert last night. We also had a cookout with some friends.
Oh grilled veggies.

I'm excited, because that's what summer is all about.
I'm just gearing up.




Friday, May 1

it is so May right now!

time has really been flying for me.
we've already been here more than six months!
don't you hate looking back and thinking,
"what have i even been doing all this time? "
i mean, i've done a lot of things but i haven't gotten anything done.

we should have more holidays like new year's day, where we make resolutions.
that way, maybe some of us (me) would be able to stick to them.

there are so many things i need to improve.
i'll make myself a list and see what i can do about working on it.

until then, here's a picture of my adorable dog:


okay, if that wasn't cute enough, here's another:


how could you resist that face, especially when he puts his favorite toy in your lap and puts his nose two inches away from yours?