My Awards are Piling Up I'm so Famous

I won an award from my fabulous bff (the one I've had ever since I knew what bff actually stood for) Molly. Here it is in all it's glory:


Actually, she gave the award to my other blog, but since I rarely post there, I thought I would do it here. Because I'm a rebel that's why.

As part of my acceptance I need to answer these questions with one word. (Or pretty close to it.)

1. Where is your cell phone? kitchen
2. Your hair? wet

3. Your mother? listens
4. Your father? bum
5. Your favorite food? bread
6. Your dream last night? forgotten
7. Your favorite drink? virgin pomegranate martini
8. Your dream/goal? sound of music tour in austria
9. What room are you in? basement
10. Your hobby? bargaining
11. Your fear? losing family
12. Where do you want to be in six years? on oprah
13. Where were you last night? playing piano
14. Something you aren’t? vegetarian
15. Muffins? blueberry, homemade, on the counter
16. Wish list item? tickets to see Nutcracker
17. Where did you grow up? America
18. Last thing you did? shower
19. What are you wearing? paint covered jammies
20. TV? thursday nights (I'm with you on that one Moll!)
21. Your pets? cat
22. Your friends? should comment
23. Your life? bodacious
24. Your mood? snuggly
25. Missing someone? always
26. Vehicle? family race car
27. Something you’re not wearing? wouldn't you like to know
28. Your favorite store? Target
29. Your favorite color? blue
30. When was the last time you laughed? twenty minutes ago at Maddy (apparently I am not a princess)
31. When was the last time you cried? probably yesterday. i like to cry
32. Your best friend? John
33. One place that you go over and over? D.I.
34. One person who e-mails me regularly? John
35. Favorite place to eat? kneaders

Next I need to nominate six other blogs for this award. I love all the blogs of all of my friends, here are some off of the top of my head:

Lindy--Not only because she is awesome, but because she hasn't blogged in five million years and I'm hoping this will inspire a post. I am that shameless indeed. :) Sorry, it's a private blog! (And I just realized she blogged a bunch, so forgive the previous comment!)

Kelly--my sister, because she also does not blog nearly enough. But when she does, there is usually a really funny video of her cutie pie daughter dancing.

Missy--because her blog always is fun to read and she's the one that made me think I could do something with photography besides just love it. She's pretty awesome.

Lori--because everyone needs at least one friend that loves them no matter how crazy they are, or how lame their blog posts are. Lori is one of the loyalest and craziest and bestest.

Raelynn--sorry, another private blog. All the cool kids are private these days, didn't ya hear? And cool Raelynn definitely is. She was my cohort in the Biggest Loser video, and is one of the funniest people I've ever met. Plus, she's just one of those people that makes you think that you're the most important person in the room. That's a gift.

Gabrielle--This lady really knows how to make people smile. She is another person who just exudes love and really is interested in people. Plus I tend to think she has pretty great style.

The 30 Bucket List

I read a post recently by a famous blogger (I know you soooo love this famous blogger Lindy LoL) who listed 30 things she wants to do before she turns 30 years old. She is only a few weeks from turning 30, so her list doesn't have anything too unreachable, but it got me thinking. What would I like to accomplish by the time I turn 30? Would it be setting myself up for failure if I listed some great fabulous goals, or make me more likely to do some of those things by putting them down for the world to see?

I've decided to be an optimist for a change and go for it. I'll tell you in two years (okay, a little less than that...) what I've managed to do. This should be fun. In no particular order--the mundane along with the fabulous.

My Thirty List

30. Go to the U2 concert in Denver next June (they're not coming to Utah)
29. Paint the main floor of my house a different color (too peachy)
28. Finish reading the rest of the Sherlock Holmes stories with John (we're getting close--I've read them all by myself before, but now I've got him hooked. They are my favorite short stories, and I'm so excited to see the new movie.)
27. Be kinder, judge less, care less about being judged
26. Make something with rhubarb in it, preferably pie
25. I so desperately want to put "travel to England or Paris" on my list, but I'll be realistic (and save John a heart attack) and say, Travel somewhere I've never been before (which doesn't exclude Paris....ahem.)
24. Visit my Mom (or she visit me, wink wink)
23. Enroll Maddy and myself into some sort of fun class
22. Maybe have a baby sometime (if that works out, you never know)
21. Save up some money (this may impede no. 25 sigh)
20. Get our family pictures taken
19. Go on the Heber Creeper (never been--it's an old fashioned steam train for my out of state friends)
18. Make a friend in my new ward
17. Plant a garden in the spring, hopefully including raspberries
16. Let Maddy play outside more
15. Read the Four Gospels because I love them
14. Let go of toxic people in my life, including family
13. Leave John more love notes
12. Go to the Drive-in movies next summer
11. Learn a new skill, like, hmm, I don't know, knitting? Or painting? Or learning how to keep my house clean with a toddler?
10. Try Eggs Benedict (because it sounds classy, and I like to pretend I live in a movie from the 40's)
9. Take a yoga class because I need to learn how to de-stress.
8. Buy some fancy lipstick
7. Get some new glasses
6. Go sailing on the Great Salt Lake (um, Uncle Craig, is your boat done yet??) :)
5. Stop hinting around stuff so much on my blog. Uncle Craig, have your people call my people. I'll buy you a sailor's hat.
4. Have a whole day vacation with just John
3. See a musical in person
2. Breathe deeply, and don't sweat the small stuff
1. Love people a little bit more

What's on your list? Am I missing something on my list? I'm not sure. I just thought of it tonight. I may revise it as more things come to me. But I think I will print this out and put it somewhere that I can see it and work towards these goals. What's on your list of things to do in the next year or so? And if you're going to Paris don't tell me. I might have to list you as a toxic person.

Well, unless you take me with you. Hey, that could be on YOUR list. :)

Pictures that my Mom wanted

My Mom requested a bunch of pictures of various things. You might like to see some of them too. Down below are pictures of our new piano.

Just a fun pic of me and Maddy.
This is the Halloween outfit my Mom made Madeline. Isn't it cute?
The back of the outfit.
The top is a little embroidered witches hat. So cute!
Don't look!
She kind of refused to stand up for a while.
But here she finally did. Thanks Mom!
Here's the new Tarjay rug. Lots of pink.
A close up. It's made of chenille, and has purple in it as well, so it will probably work with any future girly colors we may pick.
The 25 dollar couch. Big and overstuffed, but comfy for the basement.

The really huge couch went to the upstairs living area, known as the library now. The brown rug used to be in Maddy's room.
The new living room on the main level. We brought up the white couch since it was a bit smaller, and fit the new piano in the room. I am very in love with this piano and the new layout. I just smile every time I go into the room.
It is exactly what I would have picked out if I could have picked it out. It was such a lucky trade!
Look at those lovely legs!
Here is what I did with those pictures. My Mom graciously made me the vinyl lettering. The letters spell out LOVE if you can't read it.
Another view.
And another view.

Okay, that's about it, just wanted to finally get around to posting the pics. Other great things lately? Bought a water table from a garage sale that I wanted to buy for Maddy a few months ago (she loves to play in the sink, and this is like a mini sink for kids to play in). It looks like the one below.

Originally fifty bucks, I got it for five. The lady told me that it didn't work, but that it would still be fun just to play with even without the flowing water. I took it home, John and I took it apart to pop back up the button and added new batteries. We put in water, but it still wasn't working. So then I asked John to see if he could remove the batteries somehow (because we had already added water and couldn't just dump the batteries without dumping water). So he got some metal tongs but as soon as he touched the batteries with the tongs the water started flowing! lol. So we then figured it needed metal contact and added a little piece of aluminum foil inside the cap and now it works perfectly! We never would have figured it out if not for the salad tongs. So kind of a funny story, and a great cheap Christmas gift. Hurray!

For that difficult to shop for Christmas person

Having a hard time finding just the right thing for that special someone in your life this Christmas? Do you find that the normal gift cards, dvd's, or journals aren't cutting it this year?

I know. I am hard to shop for. But for you lucky friends, I am going to make it easy this year. Just this year mind you. Don't get used to this kind of mollycoddling.

I have become obsessed with the idea of collecting the whole set of this china from Martha Stewart. I don't know when it came out, but it is quite hard to find (I started my obsession when I found two dessert plates from the thrift and I love them). I managed to find the pattern on this site: http://www.replacements.com/webquote/MTWMTW18.htm

You're welcome.

Okay, enough funniness. Mostly I wanted to show you that such a site existed because all I had to do was search through the Martha Stewart pieces, find my pattern, and then you can request them to find pieces of your china. I think that's pretty genius. I think I should buy a piece a month so that I can build it up slowly. So if you're like me and obsessed with a plate or cup you found at the thrift, or you broke something from your complete set, you might want to check that site out.

Also on my mind is the fact that I bought a rug for Maddy's room from Target and it is pretty adorable. Much cheaper than the online versions. Also, John checked out the piano that we are hoping to get and it is awesome. Now we just have to figure out a way to get it here. Lastly on my mind, toddlers look cute in footed pajamas (when they keep them on) and Stawberry poptarts are pretty good if you're desparate. Oh, and tonight is a test night for my spanish classes that I tutor. Which means that I can smell the last minute studying despair from here. People yet get more keen on tutoring as the semester progresses. I think tonight is going to be a long night. Nos vemos!

The Good, The Bad, The Random

I have a few things to say today. In random order.

1. My computer is officially, irrevocably, unrecoverably, muerto. That means dead. Well at least the hard drive is, which is all that I care about because it had lots of pictures that I didn't have elsewhere. Pretty sad.

2. I am so annoyed by anti-vaccine people. If you are one, I'm sorry, but that means I'm annoyed with you. Read this article if you can't understand why. www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_waronscience/ Don't leave me hate messages. I actually really do love you even if you are anti-vaccine. Kind of.

3. I wish I could have vaccinated my computer.

4. I love classic Disney cartoons. Maddy and I are chilling out watching Donald Duck get bested by the chipmunks. There is nothing better.

5. I got Maddy evaluated today for her speech. They say she is okey dokey, which is a relief, but I'm not thoroughly convinced, since she didn't stutter while they were here, but does on a regular basis. So we'll just wait and see when she's older. But believe me, I'm happy to believe that everything is fine. It's much nicer to believe that. :)

6. Are you going to the Black Friday sales this year? I'm undecided. Last year I didn't get a single thing I went in search of, and that was annoying. Have you ever managed to grab one of the super good deals? How early did you have to get up? Was it worth it? Discuss.

7. I bought a couch today. Just because I wanted to mostly. Well, okay, I have been thinking about it for weeks. But I bought one for 25 bucks from craigslist and it is awesome. I kinda feel guilty for talking them down from $40 because it's nice. Now I need another rug because I stole the one from Maddy's room.

8. I consider it a date night if I buy frozen chinese food and rent a movie. Is that lame? Would it change your mind if I told you that the frozen chinese comes in those cool take-out containers? I thought it might.

9. I like Walmart brand's version of cinnamon rolls. I like real ones better, but I like the less work factor for the amount of tastiness. *Note, this only refers to the BIG cinnamon rolls. The normal size ones are semi lame.

10. I am almost done with my Christmas shopping. Hear me roar.

11. I forgot to mention that someone is giving us a piano for the pepsi machine. They called yesterday because "the pepsi machine will be awesome to hold their beers." I knew there was someone out there that would be perfect for this deal. And I figured beers would probably come into play. We're going to check out the piano tomorrow. I am so excited.

12. Why are kids rugs so expensive? That's the new rug I need. It's just rags? If I were living in the days of Martha Washington I would make a rug for free. Unfortunately I don't.

What is your random brain saying to you today?

Picture Evidence that I'm Alive

my computer is still dead. I finally gave in and am blogging on John's computer because pictures are started to pile up. Here is a photographic journey of our past few days.

I think we might need to have a son. John's getting desparate for some male bonding.
Hold on to your hats for an overload of cute fall pics. Just because I can. And because you know I love to.






You already knew I believe in child labor. Start them young and they'll identify with Cinderella in a personal way.








Once the jumping began, the work ended
Get ready for the cutest Little Red Riding Hood ever. I'm not joking. She's got the huge lost eyes for it. I know you can't deny it.



You can almost smell the banana bread she's taking to grandma, can't you? (I dressed up as a granny btw).A little leary of the big bad wolf (you'll see him soon)

My, what large eyes you have....all the better show you how cute I am.
We took the wagon so we could visit some houses in our old ward.


Scary wolf!Carving the pumpkin the night of halloween.
He turned out cute (supposedly John was going for scary? I said it's so cute it's scary!)

Happy Halloween, Happy Fall, Happy return to blogging.

Once there was a snowman...

Jenn's computer died, so this is a post from John:



Maddy tried her best. But the snowman couldn't be saved. Memorial services will be held tomorrow.