Voiceofangel

Redboxing Movies.

2011-06-25T19:11:00.001-06:00

Me: (rents True Grit and Vanishing On 7th Street)
Meg: let's watch a movie.
Me: ok, which one?
Meg: I dont know, which one Abbie?
Abbie: *blink*
Meg: ok, I have one in each hand. On the count of three, both of you pick a hand. One, Two, Three.
Me: *pause* LEFT!
Abbie: *blink*
Meg: dang you guys!... K, my left or your left?
Us: *blink*
Meg: k, fine. Andrea picked left, Abbie you pick my left or your left.
Abbie: uh.... Ok.. (puts hands behind back) pick a hand!
Meg: right.
Abbie: your left.
Meg: True Grit!

Airport

2011-04-26T07:10:00.001-06:00

I want to put this down before I forget it again.. :) the extensive story will come later.... Or not lol. The guy I helped at the NYC airport asked me where I was from. When I told him Utah, he said the inevitable question... ' Are you Mormon?' But before I could answer he interrupted and answered himself... ' oh wait, of course not, your hair is dyed!' Now that's a new one to me and I've heard a lot.. So I told him the facts. Lol. A short story from the mouths of new yorkians.

Tiredness

2011-04-15T18:57:00.000-06:00

I am sooooooooo tired. I could add a few extra o's to the end of that. Exhausted. Pooped out. :(
It all started when Ross was watching Ripley's Believe It Or Not last weekend. The ever gorgeous Dean Cain is the host and I had to remark that nobody else could be Superman for me. Then I had to show Ross the "Lois & Clark: New Adventures of Superman" show that we watched when I was a kid. I don't know how long we watched the show. I sure as heck didn't know that the first season had a different Jimmy than the rest. But I do remember sitting around the tv in the basement of our old Ogden home, watching Superman. I remembered the green kryptonite. I remember around that time was when I heard my aunt Tara tell me that some guy was "hot" and I didn't understand what temperature had to do with a guy being good looking, but if anyone was hot, it was Clark. LOL! So now we've gotten addicted to the show and every night for the past week we've been watching it. Although I must admit, I think Ross likes the show, while I'm just staring at Clark. ;) Interesting note, the producer is Robert Singer - just like Bobby Singer on Supernatural, my other favorite show in the world. (although they have hot guys AND good plot lines. haha)

When it comes to a show you become addicted to, I don't know about you guys, but I watch it all. ALL, until there is no more to watch. So, last weekend, my sleep schedule changed from bedtime around 2am to bedtime around 9am, just so I could stay up and watch the episodes. This was a horrible thing to do. Yesterday was Ross's bday, and then he had a doc's appt in the morn I had to stay up for, and then I was expecting a package. Maybe most people can sleep soundly when expecting a package, but not me, not when my mailman just leaves things laying around outside. Then there's the fact that the kids who live above me are having their grandparents visit (who knows for how long) and are therefore outside running amuck, throwing things, bashing on the railing, yelling, I think they might've even crashed into the dumpster outside from the sounds of it.
What does this all mean? It means that this week - yesterday especially - I haven't gotten a lot of sleep, and when I come home from work I am watching Superman instead of sleeping. Yesterday I had to take NoDoz to stay awake at work and I had a migraine by the time I came home. I slept 2 hours this morning, and 3 hours just now. (Someone decided to mow the lawn today.) And all this with less than a week before I leave to go visit my best friend on the east coast... which will involve an entire day of travelling. I haven't even started packing yet. My plane leaves at 8:30 in the morn, which means I'll be up and getting ready faaaar before that, but I work the night before, so I pretty much won't get sleep that night. I get in NYC around 5:30p, but then there's a 3 hour drive back to her place. That's gonna be a looooong day. I'd better get more NoDoz.

LOL

2011-04-14T17:44:00.000-06:00

Ross's birthday! I took him out for "dinner" last night when I got home from work. We stayed up all night watching Superman (by the by, I do NOT like the whole plot line where Clark marries a Lois clone, and Lex kidnaps Lois, but when Superman frees her she hits her head and has amnesia and transfers her love onto her doctor. UGH) Ross had a doc appt this morn, and then I crashed to sleep.
But I couldn't sleep well because I knew my Kindle was supposed to be coming today and I was fearing that I'd miss the knock on the door and leave my kindle just sitting outside. Ty's packages are left outside all the time, but I don't exactly want to leave my Kindle out there.
So I'm up, on 5 hours of sleep, tracking my package, wondering when it is going to get here... when we hear a loud bang at the door. Ross says "that's probably it" and I know it is. Because my mailman has a tendency to THROW things at my door. I live in a 4-plex, on the bottom, and my lazy ass mailman never delivers the packages, he tosses them at my door and they hit, bounce off, and land a few feet away by the stairs. This has always annoyed me, Ty orders books and movies by the ton. But this is not some simple package, it's a freaking Kindle. It's obvious by the packaging it's in, and if you deal with packages all the time, you'd know. And he threw the dang thing at my door. I could kill him.
Yes, I know mailmen aren't lazy. They work hard. My dad is a retired one, my sister's father in law is one. But throwing packages at my door... I think that's one shortcut too many.

Anyways, I'm ranting my frustration at Tyler when Ross starts rough housing around with him. I always tell them to knock it off. My apt is small, I don't need two giant boys roughing it up and knocking stuff over or banging into things. They always ignore me until I yell, but I don't yell this time, cause Tyler falls over backwards onto the couch. As in, over the arm of the couch, on his back. "Come on, help me up" he says. So I lean over and say "aww.... are you too old to get up by yourself? You need some help?" and Ty says "Ha Ha, very funny. Seriously, I need help up, help me up" and Ross gets up, stands over him and says "Have you fallen and can't get up? You need Life Alert!" LOL!!

Ah man, that made me laugh.

PS. Ross's bday celebration will be at Meg's on Sat.

Books.

2011-04-05T02:35:00.000-06:00

Why does it always take so long for me to pick out the book I want to read next? I just finished the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and have spent the last 90 minutes looking at several books I want to read, but none I feel like cracking the cover to yet.

By the way, the GL&PPPS is a great book. I don't think I've copied down so many quotes from a book in my life. :)

Caseworkers suck

2011-04-04T16:07:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I believe that I just posted a status about really really hating caseworkers who take Ross aside to have private conversations with him about his future and don't let me in on it. I don't order Ross what he should do with his life, I present different options that are available and when he leans towards one idea I let him know what he would have to do to work towards that goal. It has helped him make up his mind from wanting to work in film, to business, to culinary arts. It has helped him make up his mind from wanting to go to UVU to MATC to now he's wanting to go to Job Corps. At that, I said 'over my dead body'. But once I learned he wasn't planning on the Clearfield location of Job Corps, but the Weber Basin location... even though I'm still not too excited about this, if he wants to do it then fine. I'd still he rather go to UVU though.
His last caseworker made appt after appt and then would just not show up. Once he was supposed to pick Ross up from school and never showed, so Ross walked the 5 miles home. Yes, 5 miles. I just Googled it.
Then on his 18th bday, we never heard from him again. Technically Ross is now an "adult" and should have an "adult caseworker". Before last Friday, I had only seen and/or heard of him once. Friday, he shows up at my door without a call or anything, and wants to see Ross. I tell him Ross is asleep. He seems shocked that Ross is asleep at such a time as 1pm. I tell him Ross follows my schedule mostly, and since I work at night and then stay up and all that, so does he. But it's easy enough to wake up when the alarm does, so let's make an appointment for later and I'll make sure that he's up and ready to talk. So he makes the appt for 3pm today.
Around 3:40 he shows up. And when I invite him in, he turns to Ross and says "it's such a nice day outside, why don't we talk out here?" and makes sure to close the door behind them. This.. annoyed the pickle out of me. You know I'm annoyed when I'm trying to make up new curse words instead of resorting to the old favorites.

So... being a curious snoop, I put my ear to the door for a bit just now. Yes, that's bad of me. No, it's not that I don't trust Ross or something, it's just that I don't trust the caseworkers, and I really really want to know what opportunities they offer to Ross that I don't find out about. Ross will say the couple of sparse sentences that he figures will appease me and I am left to wallow in my curiosity until they come to me as a last resort because they offered Ross this program or that program and he hasn't shown any interest in it. So yes, I put my ear to the door. And I hear this weasely caseworker ask Ross "isn't there anyone around that you can trust to give you honest and good advice?" and there is a looooong pause.. then Ross says "Andrea". And the caseworker says "really? Anyone else? Anyone that you can trust with anything, to help you out in your decision making?" And Ross says again "Andrea." and nothing else. The caseworker says something like 'it's great to have people around that you can trust, who help with advice, and keep you going' and Ross says "Andrea does that".

And at that, I backed off. My heart has swollen with pride and appreciation. There are a lot of programs and stupid little state things that these counselors and caseworkers want Ross to get into, but I guess if Ross doesn't tell me about them, then he doesn't. He'll tell me about the ones that he does, and I'll 'advise' him on those. Stupid caseworkers, yay for Ross. :)

Bradley Cooper

2011-03-19T21:03:00.000-06:00

HAHAHAHa

We're watching the Graham Norton show, and Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, and Blue are on.
I pointed at Bradley and said "HE'S hot!" and Abbie says "Oh yeah, hey, that looks like Bradley Cooper!"
hahaha
So we laugh at her and say "It is him silly"
Then a couple of minutes later she says "oh! It is Bradley Cooper!"
so we laugh again and say uh.. we told you it was!
And a minute later she says 'mmmmm.... Bradley Cooper.' As if she knew the whole time.
LOL

Glasses

2011-03-17T08:40:00.002-06:00

I like my new glasses. Love them, even. I think I look great in them, which is a miracle. This is only the 3rd pair of glasses I've ever had in my life. Before, I'd rather go blind then wear glasses - that's how awful the first 2 pairs were. I guess it makes sense. With so many kids in the fam and only one parent working, it's not like you were allowed to pick out any pair of glasses you wanted. One had to choose the best pair from the cheapest wall. Only once, that is. I was blind, but self conscious, so all through school I squinted at the board from the last row of class. I didn't know I was blind - I was less blind then than I am now, and I read a TON. When my parents found out I was blind, I was 15, and received the ugliest pair of glasses that I ever saw. When they broke, they refused to replace them, even though Adam was probably on pair 50 million by then. I was 17, and should buy my own glasses. But I didn't even know how to make appts for the doc. That was all the kinda stuff we figured out on our own. So I learned to recognize things by movement. Everyone has a specific walk, even more specific gestures; when you think you are doing something you picked up from your sister or your husband, it's really your movement, and I could identify you by it because I couldn't see the details of your face. When I was 18 I visited my Dad #2, and he was horrified that I was so blind and nothing was being done about it, and bought me a pair of glasses. I always felt bad about that. I had vision insurance and just didn't know anything about it, or even how to use it. We found a sale, and even though I could've picked out truly awesome glasses, I still went fairly cheap. I wasn't used to people spending $ on me, and even less used to Dad #2 doing so - even though he was my dad. I still feel the same way now. I can't really remember the last time someone spent money on me... I figure it's ok if you don't count holidays and random dinners where dad #1 will pay for everyone. So glasses #2 were better looking, but not great. I didn't get it really. I didn't understand what I looked like. I hated hiding my eyes behind glasses, but I hated being blind even more. Those glasses wore out, until by the time I was 20, I had tape on them. Or even better -to avoid the trashy stigma- super glue holding them together. Nose pads had disappeared, and again, I was too damn naive to understand there were kits to fix glasses. I figured, if things like that break off, you probably have to buy a new pair. I'm still naive about things like that I guess. I still get surprised at some things that can be fixed instead of duct taped together. Still clueless about the process one has to go through to get things done. My friend felt bad and gave me a pair of her contacts. My eyes were worse then hers, but close enough. I've worn contacts ever since. Finally, I had a reason to do my eyeshadow. I know you can do it behind glasses, but I always felt like it couldn't be seen unless you put a ton on, and that wasn't my style back then -unless I was blind and couldn't tell how much I was putting on LOL. A couple of people -who shall remain nameless- called me 'grandma' as a nickname. I don't think they knew how ugly it made me feel. It's still a joke, about finding me in a rocking chair, glasses on, hair in a ponytail, cross stitching away. When I look back at pics of myself in those glasses, I cringe. But finally I didn't feel blind. I could see the leaves, the stars, people's bumps & curves - and I could see it all without something sitting on my face. Freedom!

Problem is, I can't really afford to replace contacts the way they are supposed to be replaced. I didn't understand why my eye doctor wanted me to replace them every 2 weeks when they were good and clear for months after the cutoff date. So I didn't. I took the boxes of contacts that were supposed to last 6 months and I made them last until last year. So from roughly age 21 until 26, I had the same exact contacts.

Last winter I was on my last pair, and they were useless. After driving to work after throwing away my last pair, I burst into tears upon arrival, because I had been so scared while driving. I couldn't see a damn thing, and it didn't help that I drove to work in the dark. I had the basic house lights on either side of me guiding me straight, and the few oncoming traffic-ers must've thought I was loony when I slowed down to 10 mph while they were passing me - I couldn't be sure that I wasn't going to graze them. I realized I had to go get me some new contacts.

It cost me $70 for an eye exam, free visits for the whole year, 3 pairs of contacts, and the prescription. Obviously, I needed to get glasses, so when my contacts ran out I wouldn't go through blindness or brokeness to fix the problem. But I put it off. Glasses are horrible. Some people look good in them, but those are generally the same people who can wear hats, or look good in clothes. I don't really look good in anything, unless I distract people with a hairdo or bold makeup. I just look better in clothes rather than without them.

But a coworker told me about some website that does a free glasses thing every year, you just pay shipping. I thought I should check it out, until I found out it was only good for a day - and I got off work at midnight. My supervisor generously let me go past break checking out glasses so I could get some. And I settled on a pair. I was nervous about it. Years of not wearing glasses, looking bad when I do, and now I pick out a pair online, when I can't even try them on?

But they arrived Tue. I opened them, put them on, couldn't see myself because I still had contacts in, and asked Ross how I look.

hmmm.. he tilts his head.. ehhh... ok.

Wonderful. I'm just one of those people who look bad in everything.

He swiftly tried to make up his mistake - 'I don't really have an opinion, I don't know how you're supposed to look, you don't look bad.'

Whatever.

But a coworker asked me why I hadn't worn them to work - and so yesterday I did.

I finally saw myself in them, and was pleasantly surprised. Took a couple of pictures. Left my hair down. I think they're damn cute. I'm not sure that I'll buy more online, til I can go to the doc and figure out what the problem is... I can see out of them, but when I look into the distance - which is as far as across my own frontroom, so...NOT far - I get the sensation of my eyes trying to adjust to 3D glasses, and it hasn't gone away yet. I thought they were adjusting, but it's been long enough. Quit making my head spin! Besides the weird adjusting thing when I glance around, they are awesome. I almost think I look better in them than without glasses. I feel different too. The sides of my head hurt. I see these big black rectangles around my eyes and I feel like I'm hiding behind them or something. I feel like I could act out of character and it wouldn't matter because those are the glasses talking. If you don't know what I mean... *shrug* oh well, what can I say? I'm crazy.

But just now, I was starving.. and like I normally do, I don't like anything in my own kitchen so I must make a run for the store while I still have the car and Ty is asleep. So I run in the bathroom to check on the status of my morning couch-hair ... and my appearance stops me dead.

My glasses are cute, they totally are. I look good in them, I totally do. Even with my hair back in a ponytail, they are cute.

But I just remind myself of when I was 19-20... Glasses on, hair pulled back, surrounded by crafts and no friends, defined by the responsibilities that aren't hers and dissatisfied with the ones that are. I thought I left that girl behind. But who am I kidding? All I left behind were the glasses, and now they're back. So now I want to cry, but instead, I'm going to head out into the overcast day with my cute glasses, and search out something to eat. Then I'm going to come back, read, crochet flowers, watch tv and do nothing until it's time for work. Sleep and repeat. I feel like the naive friendless lonely girl is back, and this time the only thing she's missing is the rocking chair.

But at least her glasses are cute.

AAAAHHHHH

2011-03-03T02:13:00.000-07:00

Ok, this will be TMI, but whatever.
I had to go to the bathroom.
(that's the TMI part)
so la-de-da, I'm in the bathroom, when I casually glance around. .and..
HOLY CRAP!!
Giant Spider.
I hurriedly.... and yet slowly, so as to not startle said Giant Spider, get my ass up and .. you know, get decent.
Doing a quadruple take, I make sure the spider will stay in one spot whilst I go WAKE UP ROSS! THERE'S A GIANT SPIDER IN THE BATHROOM!!!!
Once he's awake (and rubbing his eyes) I book it to the bathroom where I come to a screeching halt to timidly poke my head into the bathroom and stare down Giant Spider.
GIANT SPIDER IS GONE!
DAMN IT!
So I told Ross to go back to sleep.
Now there's a Giant Spider loose in my bathroom. GAH!
How are you supposed to get naked in peace, when you know there's a Giant Spider that might kamikaze down upon you (or up) at any moment?!

rambler at the mouth..

2011-03-02T08:53:00.000-07:00

I tend to blather a lot at the mouth. So my ONE thought that popped through my head has already become a paragraph while I was trying to make my way here to my blog. That was AFTER debating whether to put it on Facebook or not. Why do I need to say it at all? you ask... because. Now, my statement will probably be a large ass story. Enjoy.

Anyways, I really hate being alone. Really really. But you know, I'd have to say that almost every single guy I've been with has had a chica on the side, which I do not accept. Then there's the ones I loved who smashed my heart - you will not be named! *sigh* besides, I enjoy idiotic torture and they are my friends on FB - where this blog gets imported to. I highly doubt they read anything of mine, after all they've got friendly little families and happybusyloveyness to deal with. :P Ok, enough bitterness. I'm not really bitter. Ok, I'm rambling during my ramble. Whatever, I haven't slept yet, you all know you like it. ;) Then there's the asshole bf's, who made me want to cease ever dating altogether. Then there was the one I dated who refused to commit to anything, but after we broke up he got married in a couple of months. They all get married after I date them. ALL OF THEM. Pbbt. Then I thought, ok - I need friends to set me up. But nobody would. It's sad to see your friends set up other people, but not you. Finally - someone set me up.. he was ok. New to the world of dating so I gave him a lot of leeway and time that I wouldn't normally do, but I couldn't stand it (and other things) anymore. Which leads to my now sad lonely lifestyle.

In which I am trying to change everything.

It starts out with cleaning my house. It's mostly done. I've thrown a lot of stuff away. My sisters helped me get started. It's done enough to continue on to other goals.

Another goal - get my ass off this damn couch. I sleep on my couch, but since it's in my frontroom, I also sit on it while I roam online, read books, watch tv. I think I have a butt imprint in the couch. I even sit there while I drink my coffee. It's got a *perfect* coffee holding arm. In order to get off this couch I need something to *do*.

Coffee helps. That makes me all energized and I can't sit still - but then I just get up and clean, and cleaning's no fun.
I wanted to be crafty, but that pulls me back to the couch.
I have neglected my always-neglected New Years goal of exercising more.. so I started that in Feb, but then I lost my job. Then I got my job back, but it was a different shift. And yesterday I started again. Hey, with all the stress & craziness I discovered that I lost 5 lbs. ;)
Improving my work situation is a goal.. applying for every position in my company that will give me full time and more responsibilities than QA!
School - I got some under my belt, I should start back up again.

But dating isn't exactly in my goal list. I kinda just thought, whatever - I'm meant to be single.

Pbbt. I have guy friends. Granted, they are work guy friends, but they are awesome amazing people. I should just go find some guy friends that I can hang out with outside of work. That will be some kind of anti-lonely replacement instead of having someone who thinks you're the bees knees. But I don't really know how to just pick up guy friends anymore than I can pick up a date.

Then my little sister got a boyfriend. And I thought - or rather, groaned in my mind - uuuuggghhh.. how sad is it that my 15 yr old sister can snap her fingers and a guy appears - like the insurance commercial - and I'm stuck on my couch, guy-friend-less?!

Then my younger brother gets girlfriends. Don't know much more than that - except he was spending inordinate amounts of time with them. Here it comes, I thought, the moment in life where they all start passing me by and I become the cat lady, but without any cats because I'm allergic to them. *sigh*
Did you know you can sigh in your thoughts? I'm very talented. :)

Then my other brother got a girlfriend. Now, this was just offensive to me. He doesn't even believe in girlfriends. He never wants to get serious with them, ever ever ever. Now, I won't jump straightaway onto the Serious Boat, but it is my ultimate intention. Ultimately. Anyways. He's all happy and glowy and datey. Until he dumps her cause he found out that she already had a boyfriend and was cheating on him with my brother. I was proud of my brother's moral values there. He felt like he was being cheated on, but also felt bad for the poor boyfriend and his cheating girl. :\

He found her on craigslist. *shakes head* When I heard that, I was startled and thought-yelled WTF?! Oi. What can I do with my brothers, I ask you? CRAIGSLIST?! Out of all the millions of dating sites out there, he posts a man-seeking-woman ad on Craigslist. Of course he got a cheater. He's lucky she wasn't a serial killer. I'm lucky she didn't stalk him to my house and rob it. Craigslist = NOT a dating site. NOT. Not.

But, all this has lead me to a pitiful end. Pitiful in my point of view. No, seriously. I do not use dating websites. Don't make me repeat 'Not' again. I've been on a fun one like hotornot (where I met 2 boyfriends & one date - we were great friends first though!) and one I was forced to go onto, it was either I do it or my dad would, UGH - plentyoffish. The jagoff that I found on that site has convinced me that plentyoffish is a worse version of Craigslist. I will never go there ever ever again. My aunt gave me her paid-for membership to LDSingles, since she got married and all.. and part of me was thinking - really? But I'm so inactive and rebellious, Mormon-wise. That must've cursed me or something cause the acct wasn't paid for at all. And, I'm on okcupid. Because a long long time ago, it was called something else and was quiz upon fun quiz, kinda like blogthings. And then they decided to be a free dating site. I've only visited there once since. And I decided it was more fun to take quizzes on blogthings. This is my experience with dating websites. I've seen my parents do it - eeeks and horrors galore - and my own idiotic experiences make me extremely reluctant to ever meet anyone from online. Well, from dating online anyways.

This all has lead me to today. Bored out of my mind. Exhausted, but can't sleep - so I'm not in the right state of mind to be making decisions. My foot hurts, which only adds to my incorrect decision making. And the knowledge that has been poking at the back of my mind that, while I'm molding on the couch, my brother-who-hates-all-romantic-relationships is meeting and dating people from Craigslist (*shakes head*). This has pushed me to a self-pitiful, drastic act. I consider it a desperate move. Please forgive me!

I logged into my okcupid acct.
And I apparently have a buttload of messages.
One guy looks like dopey. He seems pretty nice, and I'm not one to go just for looks, esp considering what I have to offer, but he seriously has Dopey ears. Poor guy.
Another one wrote an awesome email, and his profile rocked - until I saw that he did drugs "sometimes".
Another one is like.. 38. Now I don't think I'm completely *young*, but I'm sure as hell not old. 38 isn't old either, but it's more than a damn decade older than me... and I'm not comfortable with that.. :P
Another was 20. *sigh*
Another one is just ok, but he smokes. And we all know that if I'm kissing a smoker, I'm thinking about groceries. Or sleeping. Or I'm wondering if the dishes were washed at home. I wrote back to him anyways, cause I'm looking for guy-friends at the very least. My guy friends can do whatever the heck they want, as long as it isn't brought into my house. (you can smoke outside!) LOL
Another dude's name was Andrew. Funny. No, seriously. Can you imagine me with an Andrew? That would be second only to someone with the last name Andrews. Still wrote him.
And certainly not last, but the one to prompt this gigantor rambling meaningless blog - is the dude from Springville.
Apparently, Springville is the Ogden of Utah County. The way that Magna (or WVC? Or Rose Park?) is the Ogden of SL County. I don't know what is the Ogden of Davis county. And I know that I have plenty of friends and family in Ogden, but oh well. Guess what? Ogden sucks. Horribly. It's the most ghetto dangerous city I've personally been in. I've lived there long enough to have an opinion about it, and that's saying something, because I've been in some ghetto cities. Although I have yet to visit Wichita or Detroit. Tacoma was pretty raunchy though.
Springville dude left a boring message. One of those "what the heck am I supposed to say to that?"
But I don't say anything if I'm not interested.
And his profile, YUCK.
Thusly, my original thought.

Do NOT think that you can *ever* get me to write back to you, if your profile is a huge mess of grammatical errors. EVER.

I can understand not capitalizing things. After all, I don't sometimes, if I'm in a rush. But seriously, if you're writing a profile of yourself, this is the first impression everyone out there is going to get of you. Capitalize your damn letters.
This is not the 1700's. Having a profile like this, and then having the one of the only capitalized words be when you are trying to describe yourself as 'Intelligent', does not work.
Also - spell right. If you can't spell big words, don't use the big words. Downgrade, people will like you better for it. Myself is ONE word.. not two.
WHY can you put a space in the word "my self" but NO spaces anywhere else throughout the entire profile???
The comma is NOT a space.
The comma does NOT belong between random words. Unless you are from some strange culture where you take breaths at odd times - but then, grammar rules for writing are the same!
If you are a rambler like me, run on sentences can be understood... but not when it's 3 paragraphs and many subjects long.
PS - I can seriously believe that your favorite movie is "simpson's the Movie".
PPS - You're giving "uvsc" a bad name. Besides - it's UVU now.

Fat chance that I'll ever contact someone like that. Man, despite my non-perfectness in all things, and yeah, I'm sure I made grammar mistakes in this blog - but who cares? It wasn't anything as drastic as the horribleness of that profile.

This is why my butt grows roots into my neon orange swastika-looking couch.

Interesting

2011-02-19T21:56:00.000-07:00

My neighbor came over with some papers with these Book of Mormon things that she requested I post online. So here you go, Teresa -

The Book of Mormon & the T.V. Guide

On the table side by side,

The Book of Mormon and the T.V. Guide.

One is well worn and cherished with pride.

Not the Book of Mormon, but the T.V. Guide.

One is used daily to help folks decide,

Nope, not the Book of Mormon, but the T.V. Guide.

As pages are turned what shall they see,

Oh, what does it matter - turn on the T.V.

The word of God is seldom read,

Maybe a verse here or there before they fall into bed.

Exhausted and sleepy and tired as can be,

Not from reading the Book of Mormon, but from watching T.V.

So back to the table side by side,

The Book of Mormon and the T.V. Guide.

The Plan of Salvation is full and free,

But is found in the Book of Mormon, not the T.V.

Very interesting.. but does it count if you are watching book of mormon stories on the tv? LOL Anyways... on to the 2nd one...

Have you ever wondered what would happen if we treated our Book of Mormon like we do our cell phones?

What if we - -

Carried our Book of Mormon around in our purses or pockets?

Turned back to get our Book of Mormon if we forgot it?

Flipped through our Book of Mormon several times a day?

Spent an hour or more using our Book of Mormon each day?

Used our Book of Mormon to receive messages from its text?

Treated our Book of Mormon like we couldn't live without it?

Gave the Book of Mormon to kids as gifts?

Used our Book of Mormon as we traveled?

Used our Book of Mormon in case of an emergency?

Unlike our cell phones - -

One plan fits all.

Unlimited usage.

No roaming charges.

You always have reception.

You don't have to buy batteries.

No weak signals.

AND you never have to worry about being disconnected -- our Savior already paid the bill.

Ok, there you have it. Book of Mormon things to think about. I read it when I go to sacrament meeting.. cause otherwise I'm usually bored out of my mind. Which makes me sound like a bad person, but so be it. ;)

Smarts

2011-02-17T14:15:00.000-07:00

Tyler came in with another Civil War book - I didn't know there were any books out there in the world that he had not read yet (or not owned lol). I'm not really interested in that particular time of history. I'm more interested in the regency period and 1500's. Anyways - he comes dashing out of his room to tell me all about this new book. My thoughts wander to something I read online about one of my older brothers (sad that the only way I can get to know him is through an online bio..) about how he is actually an applied economics historian who studied mostly steam transportation during the Civil War. I got this mixed up in my mind with steamboats (probably because the bio talked about river boats) and so I mentioned this to Tyler. I said 'you know what? one of your older brothers is an economist who knows a lot about that era, more specifically steamboats around the Civil War time - now I don't know about economy, but I bet you got him beat on any other fact from that period.'
Tyler's reply?
"steamboats? Oh yeah, I've heard about those. Hey, have you ever heard of the one called Sultana? Now there's a tragic story."
Of course I haven't heard of any Civil War steamboat called the Sultana. And on the story goes about the Sultana, a Mississippi river steamboat that exploded and killed about 1800 people.
Again - economics he might not know, but - I'm not exaggerating here - Ty probably knows more factoids about the Civil War period than any historian you know. Bring me a professional, I want to test him. ;)

I'm really proud of my siblings and all they have accomplished. But you know what? Older bro might be smart, funny, charming - a success in life, building up businesses, travelling, earning big $ - but I don't know a dang thing about him besides what I've read or what my dad has told me. I've only met him once. Meanwhile, Ty is smarter and shows more love for his family. Even when he talks about getting published, it's nothing but what that accomplishment could help him do for all of us. What could make me more proud than that? :)

Beatles

2011-02-11T13:38:00.000-07:00

I love the Beatles. When my obsession with them started, I can't exactly say. Probably around the time I realized that all these songs I knew and loved actually came from the same group. ;)
So - while I should really get something to eat - let me share something I find hilarious.
I have American Idol playing in the background while I knit away. I enjoy the auditions, and that's about it. This rocker comes up and sings 'Oh Darlin'. Some of it is ok - but I can't tell if it's bad singing or the fact that he's a rocker and trying to make it all - stupid and rocky. I love rock, but you just need to be careful when you use someone else's music. And Steven, oh.. Steven Tyler.. he's awesome. (another group I totally love...) I'm not missing the new judges at all. Steven's just immediately like "no. no.no.no.no. NO." Rocker says "can I sing another song?" Steven: NO. His comments are "you may be tending bar." "oh MAN no" "do you SEE what's on my SHIRT?!" (he was wearing a Beatles shirt, WOOT!) "I thought you were gonna repreSENT" "you were so off the melody it was like you were on another planet!" (he really wasn't that bad LOL) The other judges are like "woah, you made Steven angry, we've never seen him like this" hahahaha!

That's right. Butcher all the songs you like, but you leave The Beatles alone! haHA.. it made me laugh. ;)

Job loss

2011-02-09T08:14:00.000-07:00

With more free time on my plate, I got exactly nothing done yesterday. Hopefully today will change, although I'll be watching my babies later tonight. I slept at night, and still woke up tired. I think it's just all the stuff going around in my brain. My phone wasn't on silent. I have now gone a full day without touching my keys, jacket, or shoes. I need coffee. Maybe I'll knit. Otherwise there's no way I will be able to catch up to Meg's "stuff I made" photo album.

Beards

2011-01-31T18:04:00.000-07:00

This makes me laugh..
Ross is watching one of his recorded programs from Adult Swim, and they had this little adult swim clip on there with a question from a viewer:

If Gandalf the White and Dumbledore's beard competition were to become hostile, who would win in a fight?

Answers:

Why can't all beards get along?

Conan's beard! One beard to rule them all!

This was exceedingly funny to me because of the amount of beard love on my graveyard shift at work. I wasn't really used to beards when I started working there, but now it's a normal thing. They talk about it all the time, try to convince the non-bearded guys to start growing one (poor BYU saps.), and show manly love for Tom Selleck, Burt Reynolds and Sam Elliot for the thick manly mustaches they sport.
So, seeing this Adult Swim 'ad' was amazingly hilarious. ;)

Yummy

2011-01-29T20:01:00.000-07:00

hahaha..
Ross is watching The Day The Earth Stood Still. I've seen it before, I don't think it's that bad. I like the actors, and I saw the original in a film class I took once. Anyways.. I wasn't paying attention much, but when I looked up it was a monologue by Keanu Reeves. mmmm.. Which is about what I said.
Ross is all going through the technical aspects of it, other options the alien could have, etc etc.. and when he was done, he looks to me for my opinion. I'm not even really paying attention, just blankly staring at Keanu.
"Keanu Reeves" I say "mmm.. yummy."
I couldn't help it. I LOVE Keanu Reeves. My brain shuts off during any and all intelligent conversations with good looking guys like that.
Ross just laughed at me. "How do you know that he's yummy if you've never tasted him?" he asks me.
I can play that game. So I said:
"I saw him, the visual hotness went in my eyes, through my brain, and converted to a taste sensation that then flowed through my entire body. Yummy."
After laughing his head off he said "Yeah, I guess I understand. Milla Jovovich does the same thing to me."

Root Beer part 2

2011-01-25T18:29:00.000-07:00

Tyler went out for food tonight and brought me back a surprise! Root beer! He walked in and said "it's NOT diet!"
So I took a sip.. and discovered that it is Barq's.
Aww.. how disappointing. 2nd worst only to diet.
I appreciate the thought though.
LOL
Earlier in the evening my sisters surprised me by A: showing up at my door and B: with vanilla coke.
Why are people surprising me with soda? LOL!

I have Skill

2011-01-22T18:46:00.000-07:00

I've told a few great people how skilled I am with root beer. :)

Root beer used to be my favorite drink. (I say used to be because I over-drank it and now I'd prefer something else..) Now, I do not claim to know EVERY root beer drink. Just the major 3. I can tell you if I'm drinking A&W, Mug, or Barq's. I don't know any other brand, but I could tell you if it wasn't one of those three kinds. (I'm trying not to capitalize everything. It feels weird.) I can't say I'm infallible at this, but so far I haven't been wrong.

I feel like I must state this skill cause I just did it again. And it's somewhat sad to only be skilled at picking out root beer, but .. there you go. It's my skill.

Tyler offered me a coupon on a free A&W root beer, no purchase necessary. I said sure, but since he was out running errands, he could get it for me. He came back with my 20 oz root beer. I took a sip.. eek. Held back the cup.. yep, A&W cup. A&W wouldn't serve anything other than A&W root beer. I must be tasting wrong. Sip. UGH. No, not tasting wrong. This isn't A&W root beer. Maybe the syrup was wrong. Maybe it wasn't fresh made. (which is odd, I always thought the restaurants had the fresh made stuff?) Sip. Yeah.. there's a slight A&W taste to it.. but it's definitely NOT normal A&W root beer. I made Ross taste it. Yep, it tastes weird. He says. Maybe it's Barq's. Sip. No, not Barq's. I know Barq's. I dislike Barq's. This is gross, but not Barq's. I bring Tyler out for interrogation. I have a suspicion that it's diet A&W root beer.

And I was right.

(even though I haven't really drank root beer in quite a while!)

He didn't go through the drive thru. He parked and went in for one cup of root beer. And he didn't know that when you go inside, you don't go to the normal dispenser, instead they have that tap with the pull down lever. So he went to the normal "syrup" soda dispenser and said "I was surprised that A&W only had one little root beer button there, so I got that one". *sigh* The syrup root beer in an A&W place would be the diet stuff. Diet Root Beer. Gross.

My root beer skill serves me once again.

Although I don't know exactly what this skill does.

So I gave the crap to Ross.

And he put it in Bordeaux Cherry Chocolate ice cream.

Double gross.

WOW

2011-01-10T01:53:00.000-07:00

Wow, holy crap, look at this people..
I changed the layout of my blog. WOOT
Something new.
I'm almost finished with the first design on my Dr Who scarf. Woot.
This weekend kinda.. sucked. It was the most boring thing ever.
And now it's time to get ready for work. woot.

Whoops.

2011-01-07T06:08:00.000-07:00

You know you are addicted to facebook when...
you have every intention of checking your REAL email.. and yet your fingers somehow operate seperately from your brain and type in facebook.. and where the username goes you type in "hotmail.com". My brain thinks that THAT is the address bar now.
Time to cut back. LOL

Frustrated

2011-01-05T21:50:00.000-07:00

I am SOOOOO flipping frustrated right now. My brothers have to be some of the biggest idiots that walk the face of the earth. (Mark, I leave you out. For now.) Let me explain.
When I had Adam here I tried SO hard to get the punk to DO HIS SCHOOLWORK! I talked to his teachers. (btw, chemistry teacher at Timp.. JERK) I filled out forms. I removed him from classes he had failed so badly that he could not pass them no matter what he did and put him in "easy A's" classes. He got a tutor. I helped him with math. I had his weekly grades and attendance sent to my email and phone. Let me tell you people something. It does NOT matter WHAT you do.... if the kid doesn't want to do a damn thing then not a damn thing will be done. There would be homework assignments missing that I had WATCHED him do at my flippin table. He would fail a class where all you did was homework from other classes. I had teachers treat me like shit when I talked to them because HE wouldn't do the work. I switched my work schedule so I could watch him go to school and make sure he wasn't skipping. I grounded him from things until the homework was done.. and then he wouldn't turn it in. He'd bring home all this artwork that he'd do in art class.. that was never graded. WTH! The school finally got ahold of me and pretty much told me that no matter what he did he wouldn't graduate HS. And down here, Alpine doesn't have "super senior". So I had to unenroll him with teachers giving me their self-righteous all-knowing evil-eye and enroll him in a packet school, where he was at for almost 2 yrs, while simultaneously getting nothing done. Comments abounded, not only among teachers, but among certain people in my own family, who blamed ME for Adam's dumb lazy ass. It didn't help that once he moved the flip out of my house, he all of a sudden got motivated and got a job and a degree within the year. Stupid damn kid.
Then I got Ross.
Ross seems to be a hard worker. He got some kind of award for most packets done in a week. He'd come home from the same HS as Adam and tell me that he got a couple packets done that day while Adam was playing on the computers there. He's helpful (if I ask) and friendly. No tension in the home, no stealing, no lying.. I think. Pretty funny. I can be proud of him because he's worked so hard to overcome the medical issues plaguing him and doesn't have a "poor me I have to do this for the rest of my life" attitude about it.
Here's my issue. He has come to a dead stop at school and doesn't seem to give a shit about it.
He was supposed to grad back in Mar. Shortly after he got the award for most packets done in a week. He didn't. Then Apr. No go. Then May. I blamed myself. He had to get Driver's Ed done in HS or else I'D have to pay out the nose for it after graduation at a "real" driving school. But Driver's Ed wasn't required so I told him to concentrate on the work for THAT class so he could get his license. What this seemed to do was bring everything to a stand still. I paid $25 for a driver's ed book.. and he never did any damn work. It's an online class and he kept having "problems enrolling" or "whoops he's on the waiting list" or "I can't figure out what assignment I'm supposed to do". I enrolled him in that class a million times, and all he ended up doing was NO work on his regular school packets.. and yet none in Driver's Ed. So when summer rolled around and he wasn't graduated, guess what happened.
Yep, lovely comments from people once again. A particular lovely one from a parental figure (which is ironic, considering I had the boys in the first place due to him not wanting to parent) of how they will "never ever allow Mark and Abbie to ever live with Andrea, because she just lets kids drop out of school and ruin their lives." Yeah. I'M ruining their lives. Seems to me that THEY are. I have already GONE through HS, and these are NOT my kids.. yet I attempted to force Adam in every way possible to get his degree and was trying to get Ross driving.. I didn't see anyone else do that.
Once school started back up again this fall, Ross started in the same school program. Doing packets. I was told that he had like... 8 left. At a rate of minimum 2 a week (to stay in the school) he should be done in a month. I gave up on him driving and told him to GET THEM DONE. This kid could do WAY more than that.. he had an award to prove it. And yet:
"yeah, I should grad in Sept"
"I'll be grad by the end of Oct"
"I only have like 4 left, I can get it done by Thanksgiving"
"Sweet I'll have my diploma by xmas"
Xmas week I was.. annoyed. He told me that he had 5 packets left. The number NEVER went lower. I couldn't understand it. His caseworker told me that he had 8 left. I questioned Ross on the discrepancy, but he said that the caseworker hadn't checked recently. I'm not sure if I believed him.. I told all sorts of excuses in HS, I know the drill. So we came up with this plan.. he brings home 2-3 packets (which he can do, so I don't understand why he hasn't been doing that ANYWAYS) does them ALL during xmas break, then first week in Jan he tests on them (he has to do a test for each packet, 8 packets is 1 credit.. that's how close he is to grad!!), and then goes to school to work on and also brings home to work on, the remaining 2/3 packets he has left. Then he hopefully could test on those at end of the week or Mon/Tue of next week and - HE'S DONE!!
This is not what has happened.
He brought home 3 packets. Or so he said. I never saw them. When I told him to work on them, he shut himself in his room. He said that he completed all of them.. but I never saw them.
Beginning of this week: Mon he comes home and I asked him if he tested on all 3 of the packets. No he says.. he tested on 1 cause it was a short day. He'll test on the other two tomorrow. Well, since he turned 1 packet in, he should've been able to bring 1 home (since he brought home 3 for xmas.. this means that theoretically he only has 2 packets left...) but he didn't do that.
Tue he comes home to say that he tested on the remaining two packets, but failed one of the tests' essay questions. So he has to redo that test. Which means he has 2 empty packet slots .. and as far as I know.. 2 packets left. We're making good time here. But he didn't bring 2 packets home. And I don't know if he has worked on them while at school.
So today he should've tested on 3rd packet, then worked on remaining two and brought them home.
He *just* walked in the door, so he's been at school from like.. 9am to 7pm. PLENTY of time to get this crap done. But after questioning.. no he didn't do his test. Why not? He won't answer. So you still have two packets left? Won't answer. What packets do you have left? Art, geography. Ok, I think. Oh yeah, and a buisness one. What? You have THREE packets left? Ever since xmas you've been telling me that there will only be 2 left. Where did the third one come from? Won't answer. Why didn't you test on your packet? Won't answer. Did you bring your packets home? No. Why not? Won't answer. It's almost the end of the week, Ross.. you were supposed to get done this week..how come you didn't bring them home? "If I go to the Sundance Film Festival, that gives me a quarter credit and I don't have to do the art" Now I know he hates art, but from what I can see online, Sundance occurs at the END of Jan. Plus, I am NOT driving there. How the heck are you going to make it to Sundance? some friends will give him a ride. So when are you going to test on that last packet? Won't answer. Sits down and turns on the tv. Uh.. what the heck Ross, I'm trying to figure out stuff about you being able to finally graduate and you can't even bother to answer my questions?! Won't answer. Found and started watching some asinine show called "The Ben Stiller Show" that looks about 15 yrs old.
Yes I am allowing him to watch it. Cause I am SO mad and frustrated right now that the only thing I can do is type all this SHIT out. He's not going to be watching it for long though, that's for sure. I don't know how many packets he does or doesn't have. I don't know why he won't test. Why is he at school for 10 hrs a day and yet the number of packets he has left to do stay the same? How come he has a counselor and a caseworker who all say he's doing fine but can't answer my questions about grades, packets, a timeline for graduation? At a real HS I could track all this, but at this packet school it is all dependent on the student doing everything for themselves. This doesn't help when the student just.. stops. And why did he flippin stop?! He could've graduated EARLY.. which would've been tremendous! He skipped a grade when he was younger, but when my mom kidnapped him she kept him OUT of school for nearly a year and a half! When he did go he was off his meds and acting loony! That bumped him to a year behind his own age.. and in just 6 months he caught up with all the work and was ahead! But then.. when the final week came..nothing! He's dragged it out for a year and I cannot get any info on why or get him to step up.
Instead, all I can hear in my head are the comments, all I feel are the accusatory looks that are coming. I'm angry at Ross for not giving a shit about his damn life when he's almost 19, I'm angry at mom for pulling him out of school and letting him get so sick. I'm angry at dad for not wanting any responsibility for him at all, and I'm angry at dad for thinking that he still gets the right to comments as if Ross not graduating is somehow MY fault. Dad does a hell of a lot WORSE with the boys, as evidenced by the fact that ADAM is now with our lovely abusive mom, and when Ty mentioned maybe transferring to SLC someday and living in Dad's trailer, Dad laughed in his face and told ME that it wasn't going to happen until Dad was gone.
Abbie, you'd better go away to school. Seriously. I want ALL you kids to go to college, but I want the REAL college experience. Go to Utah State. It's far enough away that you'll be on your own, but you'll be able to visit. You'll be in a dorm, with idiotic kids your own age. You'll learn and experience how to get through most issues on your own (although we'd still help, you know that) If you go to any SLC schools, you could just stay at home. Or with a sibling. Not that I care about you living with me, not that you will.. I'm just saying. I'm NEVER NEVER NEVER going to live my own life. With each passing year I'm starting to believe what my bitch of a mom said in the first place -- that I was born solely to help her out with her issues and problems. Because I'm so wise and beyond my years that I was the only one who could've done it. GAG. Well yeah. I have Tyler. Tyler helps me out a lot, if he didn't pay me half the rent then I wouldn't be able to keep up this place, for sure. But in return he makes a huge mess, and will also have flip outs before any holiday. At every flip out I have to apologize to get him to calm down, and he always threatens to move out. Which doesn't help me feel secure in anything AT ALL. I had Adam. He stole things, lied to people, crashed my car... (which is why I cannot afford car insurance, so I don't have it, so they took away my registration, which means I'm driving uninsured, unregistered, and unlicensed. Think about how great that is.) When I couldn't handle him anymore nobody else wanted to put up with his crap, he got his own place and stole so much from the landlady that he got evicted and ended up with mom.. who thinks that throwing things at him, stealing his paycheck and putting his name on her bills is a good thing to do. Well.. they are good for each other if he steals and lies to her as much as he did to me. I have Ross who is at some kind of a freaking standstill, no job, no schooling.. just tv and video games. Mark wanted to go to UVU.. then SLCC, then UVU again.. if he goes to UVU, he'll be here, with me. I can deal with Mark, as far as I know he takes care of himself and he's clean and doesn't start arguments.. well, not with me. :) But if he adds to the mess and/or starts some downward freaking spiral that I have to stop, I'm going to FLIP OUT. FLIP. OUT. Otherwise, I could really USE the help that Mark would bring. He can pay one of the utilities and clean up after himself. Any other reason my life will never be my own? With each and every mess I clean up... more happen. Just TODAY I found out about yet another thing my dear and bullshit loving mother has put in MY name. MINE. I fully believe that until she finds a sucker to take her or until she is dead, she will always continue to use my name and social for things. Even if she finds a sucker, she'll probably use my name. Her suckers don't stay around for long because she's so mental. How do you move on in life when you can't get a bank acct? A driver's license? I can't even get a copy of my own credit report because there are too many conflicting cities and ages and whatnot. I seriously want to just pack up and LEAVE. Just leave everyone behind in all their idiocy and let them figure out how to survive if I don't come back. Ah, but I have no $.. and things wouldn't be any better for me actually.. I need a place to go and a job and all that. Just taking off sounds great, but it wouldn't be LOL.
Now let me stop before this becomes a pity party. It's NOT a pity party. Just a frustrated rant. Ross won't answer my questions because... who knows. Who knows anything. I know one thing - it'll be a freaking miracle if he graduates this week. Wait, I know another - no more flipping video games or tv for him. (Although I can't help it if he sneaks them when I'm at work. I refuse to cut cords to prevent it)

Thanks be to my sisters who make me laugh and are my friends instead of adding to my stress.

Now. To turn off the tv and knit. Which sucks because I was going to knit while watching tv. Damn it.

You might not have Christmas Spirit, but I DO! (sorta)

2010-12-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

Man I was so angry at this person today. And I got rid of my anger by helping others. :)

Explanation:
I wanted to Christmas shop today. But I was SOOO tired. I fell asleep, then woke up 3 hours later and thought "WHAT?! That's all the sleep I get? Fine, Christmas shopping it is" and took off to Savers.
I, unlike SOME thrift store present shoppers, am EXCELLENT at buying the presents there. I bet $1 million that nobody will know what is thift and what is not when they open their presents. :D
When I came out, my car wouldn't start. Crap. My battery and connections were just replaced, so I have no idea why it's not starting. It can't be the alternator, because that was checked out and declared to be just fine. Cold, maybe? A fluke? Whatever, it was dead. (no I did not leave anything running.)
There was a woman in a running car sitting right next to me. I have my own jumper cables (yay me!) so I thought I'd ask her for help.
She rolls down her window slowly, reluctant like, with a trepidacious look on her face. "yes?" her tanned blonde 40 yr old self asks.
"Hi, I was just wondering if you might be able to help me start my car.."
"uh.. I don't really WANT to"
"um.. ok, well.. that's fine..." <-- this is me, kinda .. well, SHOCKED that someone would act that way.
"well, this is a BRAND new car, and I really don't want to use my battery or anything like that"
(me, thinking.. uh.. you are sitting here letting your car just idle for who knows how long.. maybe she just doesn't know HOW to jump a car and that's why)
"actually, if your car is brand new, it would be awesome at jumping a car. I have my own cables and I know how to set it up if you like, it wouldn't suck any energy or anything out of your car that you wouldn't do by starting your own car" <--- me, trying to be nice AND get help at the same time. Cause I don't want to be stranded at the store across town.
"well, I still really don't want to help." *shrug* "I don't feel like it"
Me, angry at her fake moneyed unhelpful butt "Fine. Have a MERRY Christmas." and walks away.
She, continues to sit there in her idle-ing car, talks on her phone and does whatever before driving away in her luxury "new car" goodness.
I call my best friend. My lovely best friend who will only be here til Jan 1 and then she's moving across the country. :( Her and her hubby, who just got in from the airport from across the country, decide to come straight away to help me. :)
Meanwhile, I'm stewing in anger towards this unholiday like woman. Granted, you don't HAVE to help me.. but her attitude was so... snotty bitch, that I'm just seething. A brand new car, fake blonde hair, orangely tanned in the middle of winter? I usually don't judge looks like that, but I do when your attitude matches all the cliches. I call Abbie up and bitch about it, but I'm still stewing.
While standing out in the rain, waiting for my friends to arrive, I notice a guy walking all over the parking lot, and two little old white haired walking cane ladies slowly toddering after him. They get close enough for me to hear, and I realize that he's helping them find their car. These women forgot where they parked, and he is searching this gigantic parking lot for a white car with Wisconsin plates. After he found it for them, the ladies offered to pull out some money and pay him for his time and help, but he turned them down. I was just astonished and grateful that *somebody* was being so helpful when I had just been rejected. When he got close enough to hear me, I called out "excuse me, but did you just help those women find their car?"
He meandered over and we pretty much had a long conversation until my friend arrived. Well, he left about 2 minutes before my friend came.
I discovered, through our talking, that he just went through a divorce and lost his job. A part time job was all he had left, but most of his paycheck was going towards his 6 yr old daughter. He couldn't afford his place anymore and therefore gave all the furniture and stuff to his ex wife, and has been staying with random friends ever since. His bishop said he'd help him find a place, so he's trying to find some cheap room to share because that's all he can afford at this moment in time. No car, no transportation, church food, waiting to see if a friend can pick him up or if he has to walk to his job. (we talked for awhile LOL) Now.. I don't know if his story was true or not, but he was a pretty young guy, a cleaned up guy, honest looking in his eyes. And even if he WAS bamming me, I had just watched him help ladies and turn down a tip, that he probably could've used. So I gave him some money. He tried to turn me down, but I wouldn't hear of it. It wasn't a lot, but it wasn't something that you throw in a tip jar, like $1. I thanked him for being willing to help, even if it wasn't me that he helped, and wished him a Merry Christmas when he said he had to make his way to work. I didn't offer him a ride, but .. my car wasn't working LOL
After I was jumpstarted, exchanged presents with my friend, had a kicking snow fight with her hubby and made my way to Walmart, I finished my christmas shopping and donated to the Salvation Army dude. I snuck stuff into the cart for Ross's present (cause he was with me) and told him to turn around when I was checking out. When I checked out, I turned around, to discover that he was gone. So I went outside to my car and he wasn't there. While I was waiting for Ross to show up, I was watching all the people go in and out and realized that everyone is just passing the ringing bell guy. I always always put some change in there, cause I feel SO bad for these guys who sit out there for hours and hours in the cold just ringing a bell. This guy asked me what time it was, so I threw a few bucks in and felt better.
For me, it's not about spending money on people, no. It's just about being nice. I would (and do) help people year round, not just during xmas. That woman's attitude astonished me. I absolutely could not believe it. But I feel so much better now knowing that I didn't pay forward her attitude, I paid forward mine. Chance encounters with a homeless broke dude still helping people, and someone who volunteers to ring a bell in the cold leaves rich lady with a new car behind in the dust in any and all values whatsoever. I hope everyone out there helps someone this holiday season, and even after the holidays and beyond. With this economy and government, most people are not in a good situation and could use the help. It's just plain amazing awesomeness to act like a good human being and give away an electric charge if it's needed. :)

Weather Reports?

2010-12-21T09:03:00.000-07:00

I have come to the conclusion that weather reports are stupid.
Maybe I'm coming to this conclusion rather late in life, but still.. they weren't ALL bad. If they said it was sunny and hot, I could be reasonably sure it was going to be sunny and hot. If they said 30% chance of rain, and it rained, I'd laugh and say, well.. more than 30% chance.. but at least I knew there was going to be rain.

But then this year happened.
First, was the Big Snow Storm of 2010. The Whopper of All Whoppers. Schools shut down in anticipation of this storm. I have an email from my business that said if we didn't feel comfortable coming in, then we didn't have to, at no cost to our attendance.

This is what the Biggest Storm of the Year, the Storm to Look Out For, looked like.

That's as big as it got.

No rain, no snow. Barely any wind. Nothing. A rare cloud or two. No storm. I was highly disappointed. I was expecting BLIZZARD conditions!! (I hate snow and blizzards, and I hate them even more if I have to drive in it.. which is why I was excited for this.. cause I was at home when it was supposed to BLIZZARD!)

Ah, the jokes, the comments, the pointing fingers that the weather people got the few days after. But for me.. it was a let down, but not everywhere! I know it blizzarded in some places. Some people couldn't see out their windshield to drive! Just ... not here in Utah County.

And then came tonight.

I heard it was supposed to snow on Wednesday. That changed to snow tonight, but it was just supposed to be a regular snow. When I walked out to my car at 11:30pm, ready to go to work, I swore under my breath. My expectations of clocking in 10 min early would not come to be. It took me 15 minutes to clean off my car.. it should've taken me longer, but working in the middle of the night means driving to work with maybe one car passing you on the way there. I was running late, and so I drove off with a blotchy foggy windshield, driving very slowly and wiping the screen in front of me so I could see something. Because it was SNOWING.

My car swung out on the first turn, barely stopped at the stop sign, even though I was going 15 mph, grinded around the next corner, and slid down center st. I fishtailed into my parking lot because, even going under 10, my car wouldn't stop and my tire hit a curb. After I slid into the parking spot I breathed a sigh of relief. I clocked in around midnight.

And came out at 8am.

It had been snowing all night long. Big Heavy Flakes. Snowing Quite Fast. As in.. you scrape off your windshield, walk around to the other side of your car to scrape THAT side, and the first side is covered in a layer again, like you hadn't done a thing. All night. When I walked out of my building, it was to see the snow shovel truck drive by.. right past my car. So I laughed. There was nothing else to do. My car was BURIED in snow. I scraped 3 in off the SIDE of my car to find the door handle. And started wimpily scraping my car with my scraper that is less than a foot long.

This is an idiotic poor picture of what my car actually looked like. What LOOKS like 2-3 inches is actually more like FIVE inches, on top of my car. I just couldn't get back far enough cause I was buried in snow up to my shin. See how the car is COMPLETELY dark inside? Light, buried by the darkness of snow!!

A guy walks by, laughs with me, then turned around and said "my jacket is kinda water proof, let me help you" and started shoveling great armfuls of snow off my car. Another guy walked by and said here, I have an extra scraper and threw one of those 3 ft long scrapers at waterproof guy. So here I have 2 awesome guys scraping my car for me. But then comes the task of BEHIND my car. A mountain of snow has been scraped there. So we jump right in and start walking through it, kicking it, scraping it, picking up mounds of it and throwing it aside. Trading little details of life. (such as both men telling me their wives worked at Ancestry. Lucky wives.) Then they flagged down the truck and had him shovel me out. That's right, even after the kicking, scraping, and throwing, I couldn't back my car out of that snow. So I drove my car sideways through the parking lanes a bit and let the truck shovel me out. I've never had a truck shovel me out before. It makes you feel all important like. As if you are needed somewhere and have this whole truck at your disposal to shovel this annoying snow out of your way. ;)

And on the way home (in which I slid and grinded many a time, but was smart enough to be so extremely slow that I was leading the pack of annoyed drivers behind me and not sliding into cars in front.. hehe) I heard the radio go into it's commuter watch travel time stuff. And the weather reports. And.. according to official weather reports, Utah County has the worst of it. HA! That's right, we've got the worst! But then they say Utah County has about 1-3 inches, with it snowing less the further north you go. 1-3 inches? Did it just say one to three inches?! Are they retards? This is the kind of snow I was expecting on that Snow Day! (Only, no windy blizzardy, just heavy, constant.. thank goodness) It was 3 in on the side of my door. How does snow build up on the SIDE of something?! This was Snow Day snow, an entire school district shut down because of it! (Alpine is already closed for the Holidays or else it probably would've joined Nebo!) It was break a tree in half snow! Don't believe me?

Here is a tree, broken in half, laying on my street.

It was probably TOTALLY illegal for me to take that picture. Hard to see, cause it's through the snowy windshield, but I made sure I was stopped before I whipped my camera out.

THIS is not 1-3 inches of snow:

Do ya see how much snow is on the seat of that bike? Or on the top of that railing? It's like there are at least 3 other bike seats ON TOP of the bike seat. So.. what, 6 inches? In 8 hours?

My neighbor was shoveling the sidewalk. Good man. I told him what the radio said and he responded with "what?.. uh.. This is more than 3 inches.."

Weather.com says that for MY zip code, I should expect 1.5 inches of snow. Winter Storm warning says 1-4 inches... but said it wouldn't become heavy til this morning. One website says it'll stop this afternoon, another one says it'll keep going til Wed, with 100% chance of snow. Weather Underground says 1.45 inches, and they update every 5 minutes.. or something like that. Does this LOOK like 1 inch of snow to you? Have we changed to some other unit of measurement? Weather people, I no longer believe in you. You disappoint me. You can't even say the same predictions about what is going on outside my door. I know you like your fancy radar, but why don't you try stepping outside and saying "hey! This looks like more than one inch!" and update what it really is. Don't try telling me that it's 1-3 inches average. I have driven to Provo and back. This just IS snow.

Now. My rant about snow is over. I hate it. It's freezing, I'm sick, it's dangerous, people slide, people crash, people die, people fishtail into parking lots and slam their tire into a curb, people get buried IN their parking space, people can't even go the minimum speed limit! It can snow on Christmas Day, just enough to be white, and no more (for safe travelling) and then it can melt after that and stay entirely in the mountains where people who love snow can go. :)

Or at the very least, give us good weathermen, who use their eyes AND their radar, so we know what we have to face and can be ready for it. None of this being late for work, sliding and 3 people to clean off a car surprises.

Teasing Tyler is so fun.

2010-12-08T13:34:00.000-07:00

HAAAAAHHAHAAAAHAHAAHA
Holy crap, I'm laughing SO hard.
I got some mail for Ross and inside the state document there was a GIANT BRIGHT YELLOW advertisement that started with "Do You Smoke?" and went on and on.. ended with some hotline, 1800quit-tobacco or something like that.
Tyler was in the kitchen. So I called out "Hey Tyler, this isn't mine, this was meant for you." and handed out the folded advertisement.
He got SO mad.
"What the F***! I don't SMOKE! What is this for! Who is sending me this crap!! Why do I need some damn Tobacco letter when I don't even smoke?!"
At that point I couldn't hold it in anymore and started laughing.
"Why are you laughing?! What do you have to do with this?!"
so I laugh harder
"OH YOU! I'm gonna get you! Why did you give me this?! Why do I need a tobacco letter?!"
He tries to distract me by showing me some war books. At the end of his description I start laughing again.
"UGH! Stop laughing! I DON'T SMOKE!" etcetc
he stalks to his room
"Andrea, you're SO weird."
silent laughter
(from his room) "Are you STILL laughing?! WHY is it so funny to give me a stop smoking letter? I don't smoke! I don't need any damn tobacco letter!!"
a few minutes later, a fresh burst of laughter
"I CAN HEAR YOU LAUGHING!"

hehehehehehe

Numbers

2010-12-08T13:14:00.000-07:00

HA! I figured out the stupid number thing that people are doing! Man, the FB games sure changed quickly! Anyways, I'm posting it here so numerous people can throw me a number if they REALLY want.. and I don't want to change my status that many times. Since my blogger goes to FB, I've got the best of both worlds!
OR.. you could just get me a good Christmas present and I'll dedicate a whole blog to you! :)
Anyways, it goes something like this: give me a number between 1 and 500 and I'll make a post telling you what I think about you. For a FB game, this one seems pretty neat-o. Although I'm pretty sure I tell people what I think about them all the time. ;)
So, number away. Or not. WOOT!

Drum Roll...

2010-12-07T11:21:00.000-07:00

... ok, now for the blog that you have all been waiting for...

Well, not really.
But I said I was going to post these pictures, and so post them I will.
But first, a little story.
When I was 20, I worked for a terrible company called Convergys. I had my own apartment, I had a roommate. My roommate had never been away from his family before, and having his own place was much too scary for him. Thus, he moved out, leaving me with the lease. I could not afford such a fancy horrible place on my own, and had to find somewhere else to go. The only people willing to step up and give me a room lived far away, in a magical town called Nowheresville #872. I had to quit my job and move in.
BUT, all was not well in Nowheresville #872. The only job I could get was with a terrible company called Teleperformance. Plus, things were not going well with these Willing People and the Relationship Insanity. Fearing that I might lose these people from my life if I continued to go Mad in their home, the only place left for me was...
Susan's House.
I've known Susan since I was 10-11 years old. I never especially wanted to live there, but she was my best friend, and I felt like I had no other choice in a place to stay. So I moved to Most Extreme Ghettoville #632
To quickly end the story, I moved to WA with a friend, found that place even more horrible, Meg & B rescued me, I lived with them, had a boyfriend, he broke my heart, had a rebound, moved in with my rebound, quickly hated and dumped rebound, found a better job, moved out.. and here I am. Same awesome job, my own apartment, etcetcetc.
So now, 6 years later, Susan comes down here to give me things that I left behind in her house. Mostly clothes. This is like an early Christmas present, for who remembers crap that you wore 6 years ago and left behind somewhere?
*warning: I want at least one good present this year or I will disown you all. To whomever hands out said awesome present, I will dedicate a blog entirely to you. Good presents do not have to be expensive, merely good. Thusly, examples for NOT good include: cheese [unless said cheese is imported from a cheesy place like Wisconsin, or France], library printouts of demotivational pictures, or your ultrasound [unless you plan on giving me that child {Baby Levi is MINE! Sorry, Meg MWA HAHAHA}]*

Now for the pictures of the crap I got back. :) Aren't you guys excited? I did NOT take a picture of everything that I got back from her, just the interesting stuff. Be sure to read the Neato captionings underneath each pic. ;)

Oh my goodness. How I loved them. Of course this shirt was ALREADY old by the time I was 20. I don't remember actually wearing this...

But I DID wear this. This was like.. favorite skirt of all time. Pretty easy to see why I left it behind though, since I don't actually go to church anymore.

From the What The Crazy?? files:

I don't think I wore this horrifying (but cute.. just because of Tigger) shirt when I HAD it. Nor do I know where I got it from. It's hard to see why it's so horrifying.. but this is like a belly shirt. A big one. Or should I say, wide? A horrifying wide belly shirt like from the 90s.

Oh my beautiful shirt, how could I have ever left you behind?! I'm so sorry! (Just to let you know, I still won't wear you, but I'm still ever so proud!)

This shirt is one of the things I got when I won 3rd place in a college math contest as a high school freshman in AZ. I also got a trophy and a bright orange pencil.

From the Uh.. This Isn't Mine.. files:

So.. this jacket isn't mine. YAY a jacket! But it isn't mine.

My first job. 16, and a pizza booth inside the Rice Eccles Stadium. First day just HAPPENED to be an NSync concert. I must've bugged my supervisor with my giddy joy because she let me off after the opening acts and I got to go to the concert. :)

From the Uh... This Isn't Mine... files.

Not only is this NOT mine, but I would never buy it.

Whoever DID buy it obviously had buyers remorse because the tag is still on it.

And judging from the tag (DI thrift store), the owner previous to that didn't want it either.

I feel bad for this poor shirt. Anyone want it?

Aw, memories.

I'm not sure WHAT memories, or else I'd tell you. But I know there are some attached because this is a familiar tank top. LOL

I hated this sweater when I owned it. There is nothing about it that will NOT make you look fat and blobby no matter what size you are. But it was just so comfortable. And the Y is shiny!

More from the Uh.. This Isn't Mine... files:

Ok.. so I would never own this. I don't buy things with sunflowers on them. Esp crockpots. Esp MINI crockpots. Anyone want this? I haven't thrown it away.. yet.

YAY! My boxers that I got from Cyprus High class of 2002!!! (the shirt is LONG gone)

anybody who bothered to know me back then will recognize this shirt. I wore it ALL the time. *HORROR* Although, the Mickey is pretty cute. I'm pretty sure I have a horrifying pic of me wearing this shirt back then, glasses and all. Remind me and I'll post that later.

Even more from the Seriously Susan, What the Heck, This Isn't MINE!!! files:

OK.. this totally isn't mine. And I don't know why she would think they are. Don't you think I would call her up and say 'yo, dude, I can't find my keys, can you look around for them?' ? I mean, really.. it's been SIX years. The keys even have a name tag, a name tag that says Danny. Do I look like a Danny? LOL

Half awesome, half I'm Starting To Wonder If She Even Knows Me Because This Seriously Is NOT Mine:

A bag of floss! How on earth could I leave that behind! Now I'm curious as to what project I was going to start, because this is a CRAPload of floss. Also - a box of Puerto Rico Dominoes that aren't mine. Anyone want to teach me how to play dominoes?

From the Half The Stuff She Gave Back To Me Was Not Mine files:

An ugly purse, and a book. Book COULD be mine, but I don't remember it, and I never forget a book. Purse isn't mine. Never ever. I wasn't even using purses back then. Think of all the lovely purses I missed out on! But not this one. Heck no.

This is the best one!!!:

The Blanket from our Childhood!

This is my dad's blanket. Or WAS my dad's blanket. I LOVE this blanket. There were two blankets that we fought over as children, this one, and one that was my mom's that my great grandmother made her. I got BOTH of them. hehehehe. This blanket is soft, warm, big and EVEN BETTER.....

It's REVERSIBLE!!

I'm so glad I got it back. How could I have left it behind?

I didn't know what to do with this pillow when I had it, and now I'm stuck in the same conundrum. Maybe I'll give it to Tyler. He likes flags.

A jacket with puff balls on strings! LOL

I hate this shirt. This was like.. biggo ginormous hugeantum ugly shirt that I wore to bed. And now, I hate it even more. Because it's not big, it fits.

Into the trash it goes.

I hope you have enjoyed this pointless list of objects that I left behind 6 years ago. Stay tuned for more, the ugly one of me in the Mickey shirt, and my christmas tree. I think now I must sleep. Comment away!

Anger

2010-12-05T01:41:00.000-07:00

There is an idiotic movement being started on Facebook that goes something like this:
Change your profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood to help raise awareness and fight violence against children.
Others say something like this:
Change your profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood because we don't want to see a single face on FB until (insert date). Help fight violence against children!

Here is my issue.

If some company said that for every profile picture changed into a cartoon, a dollar would be donated to help fight child abuse, then I'd do it. But to pretend that some cartoon character does anything to help abused kids is retarded. People change their damn picture and then never think about it again. As a fierce outspoken victim of child abuse I refuse to do it. REFUSE! Donate or go help! Don't act like your profile pic DOES anything other than provide YOU joy at joining some dumb FB movement like the incessant bra colors did. !! If whoever started this idiotic movement had just left it as "lets not see a face on facebook" then maybe I'd do it cause it seems fun. But acting like this has anything to do with child abuse is utterly ridiculous.

You know what cartoons remind me of? The childhood that was bad. The few shows that we were allowed to watch, because the others were all "from the devil". The fact that we had to sneak around to watch some shows or risk getting into trouble. The fact that not only did my parents make fun of me from some shows, like Animaniacs, but that kids at school made fun of me because of the shows that I WAS allowed to watch, and that ever since it has been a constant "wow you're deprived" from the shows and childhood facts that I still do not know. Or, as one friend put it, "wow, it's like you weren't even born in the 80s."

No damn FB cartoon picture for me. And maybe I'm blowing this out of proportion, but I'm pretty fierce about violence towards children, so I'm getting more and more annoyed everytime I log on to FB and see another 5 people re-post something so mind numbingly stupid. Copy and paste, people.. that's all it is. Why don't you try copying and pasting your information into doing something other than changing into a cartoon?

http://www.childabuse.com/
http://www.preventchildabuse.org/index.shtml
http://www.jimhopper.com/abstats/
http://child.cornell.edu/

The guy who does this podcast is amazing. I listen to him constantly and this particular episode is all about child abuse and how children have been treated in our history, how it was considered normal, and how that has turned into the child abuse of today.
http://www.dancarlin.com/disp.php/hharchive/Show-31---(BLITZ)-Suffer-the-Children/children-psychology-abuse

Hanukkah

2010-12-01T10:31:00.000-07:00

I usually don't post so often. And that's my bad. I won't post a lot right now, but I will post. I was looking at my comments and noticed that there were 13 under some tab called "spam". Most of them WERE spam, but a couple were not.. and were so old that I went BACK to 2009 posts to see what they were talking about.

I then realized that I posted quite often then. And rarely now. In fact, I am ashamed at how rarely I have posted this year. I would promise to do better, but I don't want to break that promise. I probably will do better though. Because of my abject horror at lack-of-2010-posts.

So I believe today was the start of Hanukkah. I'm not entirely sure of this fact, but I'm pretty sure. Matt (co-worker) brought a dreidel to work with a bunch of chocolate coins. My supervisor had chocolate coins too.. and they played dreidel. There were many jokes (does this count as gambling?; can we use real money?) and lots of loud cheers from the guys. On the 2nd break we went downstairs for a better table, and had a bigger dreidel game.. Sam, Matt, Mike, Dragos, Zach and I all played. I've seen a dreidel, but I've never played before. I lost all my coins, but they guys gave me some after the game was over. It was great fun. I even took a couple of pics. :)

So there are my dreidel pictures. I don't think any of them knew I was taking a picture. Which makes for the best pictures ever.

I'm really tired, but I started getting TOO sleepy in the middle of my shift, so the caffeine pills went down and now brain is up.

Other pointless information - I really like refried beans mixed with rice and cheese. I can now keep my hair up with one bobby pin. I changed the background on my phone. A spider fell out of my shower. My heater keeps dropping to 64 at night no matter how often I change it. I failed Nanowrimo. I played pyramid solitaire this morning.. I used to LOVE that game! (actually still do..) and when I was horribly failing at spider solitaire I changed the deck appearance and have since been on a winning streak - is that weird or did Windows 7 do something funky to the game? My Zune is working now, but most of my amazing stuff is lost to the wind. I HATE touchpads on laptops. I want my old USB mouse back so I can click away to dreamland.

Ok, that's enough pointless meandering thoughts.

Stuck

2010-11-30T02:21:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine commented that he would have the opportunity to go to New York on a vacation to see the christmas tree in Times Square. Whether he goes or not remains to be seen, but my first thought to his declaration startled me.. it was a thought; "and I'm stuck here in Utah."

I've never felt this way before. I'm jealous of travellers, I want to travel more but because of money or other stupid things (such as not having a drivers license) I don't get to do so very often. When I do, I usually go to California and nowhere else. I have a good reason to go to California - my dad is there and I LOVE visiting my dad. It's usually the highlight of my sad little life. But then I get home, and I'm sad that the only place I go to is California. When I contemplate going anywhere else, I know that I won't have enough money to visit my dad as well, and then comes this combining feeling of guilt and sadness. So California it is.

I've never thought I was stuck anywhere though. I've wanted to get OUT of Utah many many times. But I've never actually thought the thought of "yay, I'm stuck in this forsaken place" because no place is actually totally forsaken. But I'm starting to feel like this place IS.

When I arrived home, I remember thinking -'man, I just want to be YOUNG. I want to be 20, alone in my apartment, no responsibilities except for the random bill, a regular girl going to some random school, someone who can drive to get a hamburger without being freaked out. Who can save up money for some awesome trip of a lifetime. I wish I could just drop EVERYTHING and start over.' This is normally the time that I start to fall into depression, because none of this is possible. And that's what I thought next. 'whatever, I'm NOT 20.. I can't start over, I have more things to think about besides my next rent check, and I am technically not supposed to drive, so quit bitching about it and go about your day.' This is right about the time that I quit thinking about the normalcy that I will never know and cannot have, but still feel a little down in the dumps. Because I'm stuck here in Utah.

But for some reason, I didn't do what I normally did. I decided to switch things around. I put my hair down for work. (unusual) I wore reddish lipstick to work. (!) I gave Ross a goal of how many packets to get done, because if my goal is to actually feel like a single person, then I need to get him out of the house (or at least more dependent on himself!).. so his goal of graduating is now MY goal as well. I'm sick of people asking me when he is going to be done.. or asking him and I have to answer cause he acts like he can't hear them. So I told him what he'd better get done this week at school. When I get home I'm sleeping. (definitely different). I'm going to the mall with my friends. (also different). I'm putting up my Christmas tree. (strange!) Then if I have time before going back to work, I'm just going to throw crap away. Including books. Why have a stuffed bookshelf and books stacked everywhere else when some of these books I have.. I don't even want? Or read? I got them and they are crap. My double chin is disappearing (holy crap, really?!) and we'll see what other things I can do to freak people out. Maybe I'll go into an elevator and stand with my back to the door. Solidify my plans to go to AZ in Jan. Cut my hair shorter. I need to get rid of dead weight instead of thinking that feeling down is normal.

That way, I won't be 'stuck' in Utah anymore.

Abbie

2010-11-28T19:26:00.000-07:00

I was putting on lipstick that I forgot that I owned and Abbie pops out with this little gem:

"The girls locker room smells like a mixture of poop, lipstick, and singed hair."

LOL!!

Ty

2010-11-24T20:55:00.000-07:00

Ah.. Tyler can turn a pretty phrase. Here is what I just heard him say to my little sister, who is doing her makeup in the bathroom.

Ty: "You look beautiful you know. Real pretty. All that eye liner, or mascara or whatever the fuck it is."

LOL!!!!

Taco Bell

2010-11-17T18:11:00.000-07:00

Taco Bell is stupid.
I rarely go to Taco Bell because it's all the way across town. I love Taco Bell however. When I was in high school, I had Taco Bell every day. My parents gave me 1.00 - 1.50 for lunch every day and I had to try and find something with that. Our high school was way out of town and fenced in by at least 3 fences, almost as if school officials were afraid you'd escape. Therefore, practically every fast food source was in school, and since this lunch money was the ONLY money I was allowed to have, the .75 bean burrito was my daily fare. (unless I could get away with not eating at all, and thereby save the whole dollar. LOL!)
That said, (didn't you enjoy my memory?) the Taco Bell in this town SUCKS.
Practically every time that I've gone there, they have gotten my order wrong. Last time I went was mid-October. I ordered this $5 box meal they have (and then take away, and then put back, take away and put back on the menu. over and over.) which is awesome cause you get a burrito, cinnamon twists, a drink, a taco.. and then "main event" which changes based on what commercials they have at the time. Last month it was this new flatbread chicken sandwich thing. I ordered, I paid, I drove home, I discovered there was NO flatbread sandwich. I called them, got upset (nicely) and they told me to come back. uh.. no. I'm not driving back across town to pick up my $1 sandwich. Their solution was to keep the receipt and come back when I could. They probably thought it was the next day.. but it was the next month. Today.
So my last problem was that I didn't check the bag. This is like Fast Food 101. Always check your receipt, always check your bag. Then, if you ordered a drink, take a sip of it. If they CAN screw up on something, they will. This time.. I checked MY bag. It was perfect. However, I didn't check Ross's bag.. he said it was fine. Nor did I check my receipt.
I got home.. there's an extra burrito that we didn't order. I got my flatbread sandwich finally (and do I really need to review it? I love Taco Bell food). But Ross got a burrito supreme stuck in his bag, when he only ordered one little chalupa. OI.
Moral of the story. Follow Fast Food 101 rules. Follow them twice at Taco Bell.

2010-11-15T20:03:00.001-07:00


Instead of throwing away food, they wait til it's stale and then draw on it.

My 24 hr day.

2010-10-09T10:36:00.000-06:00

The number of blogs that I follow is disgusting.
Which really means, it's awesome. I was going to say delicious, but I don't eat blogs. Although, I do consume them. Ok, now I'm confusing myself.
While roaming the forums of nanowrimo I found a fellow blogger whose description of his upcoming nano book sounds awesome. So I followed the blog. And consequently discovered that I follow entirely too many blogs. But I love it. What else is there to do but read when you live on a couch?
I think I'm still tired from yesterday.
This week has been so busy that my head is spinning from it. I think I've had visitors every single day. Every. Single. One. If someone visits me today, I will.. I will... I will invite them in and laugh and talk and socialize!! Does that sound threatening enough for you?!
Yesterday I had a lunch date with one of my visiting teachers. My NEW visiting teacher wanted to get to know me. (you hear that you OLD visiting teachers who had their husbands throw a card out of a still-moving truck window to my brother to give to me and the card said "sorry we missed you"???!) The other new visiting teacher is my next door neighbor who already knows me, so she wasn't invited. Just kidding! Visiting Teacher #1 (not next door neighbor, and will hereafter be known as VT1) wanted to start the lunch at 11 to give us time to talk before eating. This meant that I was up ever since I got off my work shift at 8am. But instead we talked AND ordered our food, and talked AND ate, and talked AND drove home, then talked AND parked in the driveway, because we weren't quite done with our conversation even though we had arrived at my home... and since she didn't know me, I talked some more. And more. The more tired I got the more I talked. But that doesn't really matter because I'll talk a lot regardless. After making plans to go hiking in a couple of weeks (she originally wanted to do a 5 hr hike, but let's not plan my funeral yet!!) we parted ways around 2:30pm. Then I discovered an invite to go to my bestie's house and watch a movie with her and her husband. Her hubby is flying away for a few months, starting a new job, and they will be following after all the holidays are over. I SHOULD have gone to sleep then. But my forlorn puzzle called out to me in it's glittery glow-in-the-dark voice and so I half finished it. THEN I decided to go to sleep. Whilst laying down for a short non-rejuvenating 2 hr sleep (the only time I had to sleep before going over to watch a movie), I checked my phone. My sister posted something saying "ROAD TRIP!" and my brain thought What?! I LOVE road trips! and immediately ordered my fingers to text her back and find out what was going on. She road tripped to MY house! Which shattered my non-rejuvenating 2 hr sleep dreams. BUT - we went hog wild crazy at a park up provo canyon. I think people enjoyed it. Except for the group of longboarders who called us witches when we laughed HI!! at them lamely zooming past. Who zooms down a canyon trail with their hat at a cocky angle? Learn to enjoy nature, idiots! We never did get to Bridal Veil Falls. I'm not sure we even got halfway there. Our trigger happy fingers took many a pic, and exactly 7 videos, which will be forthcoming on Facebook as soon as I get my camera charged. After that, I grabbed coffee and we booked it to Penny's. My sisters were hoping to see her, but alas, Penny was not there. However, one of her sons leaped upon my sister's lap and exclaimed "NO! Don't leave! I LOVE YOU!" and proceeded to kiss her face up when she had to go. Penny picked me up on the way home and we had an awesome time chatting and being creative. I cannot be held responsible for any words that came out of my mouth last night.. my brain had gone to sleep. I am not entirely sure that it has woken up yet, judging by the yawns coming out of my mouth. Ah well. My stomach is the one that woke me up, reminding me that I haven't had anything to eat since 11am yesterday. Wow.. first 24 hrs without sleep, and now 24 without food. Am I crazy?! Don't answer that. I'm just busy. :D
I was going to write more, but I can't. I need food. NEED it. I did however, just write 797 words according to Microsoft Word. (yay copy and paste!) This is good! It might bug you, but I will be counting EVERYTHING I write, just to see how likely it is that I will be able to do 50,000 in the month of Nov. My first attempt at NaNoWriMo.org is happening. That was the story (of how I decided to do NaNoWriMo) of which I was going to write. But.. that story deserves it's own blog entry. And my stomach deserves food.
880 words!

uh...

2010-09-28T06:18:00.000-06:00

I am more than a little disturbed that an anonymous someone left a "good, the details are more precise than elsewhere" comment on a random survey blog I did. What did this stranger need my details for? Oi.

2010-09-24T08:09:00.001-06:00

As I was on my way home, flipping through radio stations, I heard, "KSFI- Salt Lake City.." and got an immediate longing & impatience to hear- christmas music.

Gads of books! Mountains of books! Forests of books! Cascades of books!...

2010-08-22T13:09:00.000-06:00

... Swamps of books! More books than you'll ever be able to read in a lifetime!

Ah, a quote by one of my most favorite movies.

For Mark's bday I took him to Barnes & Noble so he could pick out a book or two. He ended up picking out World War Z. A book that I had already acquired. LOL. Then I bought myself World Without End by Ken Follett because I had just finished Pillars of the Earth. GREAT book! And kudos to Starz for making a mini series out of it!! AND I'm just plain plum excited that the Hunger Games #3 is coming out on Tue. I thought it was tomorrow, but looking it up says the 24th. I'm going to buy the first two so I can have them as actual books. And while I was at Barnes & Noble I was taking pics of books that sounded interesting to me so I could look them up. My bookcases' shelves each have two rows of books on them, and some stacked up on top of that. Then I have stacks on the floor. Some laying beside the couch that I have read - and no more room in my house for another book case. That's IT. I'm getting rid of the table and stacking books on my kitchen floor. :) I do have a ton in my room that are still packed away.

*sigh*

If only I could have a library like Beauty and the Beast. Is asking for a built in bookshelf wall a little too much? :)

@ work

2010-08-20T02:16:00.000-06:00

I can't wait for work to be over. Usually I don't feel that way, but today should be fun. One of my favorite people SHOULD be coming over to my house this morning (abbie - last weekend before she's a sophmore!) and then later on I'm going to be hanging out with another one of my favorite people ever (Penny - i miss seeing her everyday!!) and then maybe I can convince another of my favorite people (did you think I'd leave you out Meg? LOL) to come over so we can see what seems like a funny movie (the switch) and it has one of my favorite actors in it. (Jason Bateman rocks!)

There. This is how much I can blog in the remaining 2 min of my break. :D

Nothing-ness

2010-08-16T18:26:00.000-06:00

I DID make it through work on so little sleep.. with a cup of coffee, two no doze, and my trusty mp3 player. It's annoying how my mp3 player will play for HOURS if I just leave it, but if I constantly change songs and favorite stuff then BAM - battery sucked dry. That's what I did at work... decided that my mp3 player was full and I should delete stuff. First stuff to delete? Duplicate songs. How do I know they are duplicate? Go through them one by one. 8 hours (technically 6.5 cause it died) and I haven't even finished going through the songs that start with a letter A. LOL!! Did find a lot of duplicates though. Came home, passed out, woke up 20 min ago. I wish I was still asleep, but I can't force myself to sleep. Sleeping an average of 4-5 hrs screws up your body's alarm clock.

Yesterday we went to have family pictures done at Layton Park. I love layton park. I'm not entirely sure that it's technically called layton park, because when I tried to google the address yesterday, their "layton park" was in an entirely different place. Anyways, this layton park is by layton high school and the layton surf and swim. I wonder how many times I'm going to type Layton. It's starting to lose all meaning. (now I want to look up the meaning of layton to see what meaning it's lost.) Anyways, I don't know how I looked in the pics (probably freaky) but the park is a beautiful location and I saw the others family pics, so I think they'll turn out well. I also don't know how I'm going to get my hands on the pictures, but if I went to all that trouble to end up saving small copies that pop up on Facebook, I will be highly annoyed. I think I acted like a little kid during the big group picture, but that's because there were like 50 people in our big group (i think.. i could be wrong. it seemed like a 50!) and my sis and I were at the back, juggling 3 kids between us (k, I can't hold Caydi anymore, switch!) and both of us standing on one foot kinda leaning against each other or rocks to stay up while the cameraman was doing his 'hey you, tilt your head.. hey you, sit a little higher on that rock'. My foot feels like it's breaking and I'm thinking in my head "WHO GIVES A SHIT ABOUT SITTING 1 INCH HIGHER?! TAKE THE FREAKING PICTURE!!" I might have said something like that out loud. LOL! So to any relatives who read this and heard my loud annoyance, I blame my foot. It took control of my mouth. But I'm way excited to see the pics. I love that side of my family to death.. which probably explains my extreme bitchiness when we're not invited to stuff. Or know about stuff. Or when they all travel to see my cousin's first time passing the sacrament, but don't come to our things. It's all good.. it's all good.. I've given up my expectations LOL.. and now I've settled on a couple times a year and fun pictures.

My aunt is due with her 3rd boy in Nov and my cousin announced she was pregnant.. due in Feb or Mar I think. I also have a friend at work who is pregnant. And my sister has a 4 week old son now. Anyone who knows me should realize that I love babies, I love them, I'm happy for them, I'm uber glad that they are lucky enough to be blessed with having a family and all that stuff, (crap, did I just say uber?! AAAAAHHH) But I swear, if another person tells me they are pregnant, I'm gonna.. .. I don't know. But I'll think of something! Now, this doesn't mean don't tell me you are pregnant, it just means don't get pregnant. LOL! I don't have kids, I'm not even close to having kids, but I want kids, and I can remember wishing I was old enough to have kids when I was a teenager. Personally, I don't think I'll have the opportunity to have kids, but that doesn't make it any easier when everyone around you seems to be pregnant. As soon as one person is done having a baby, another one announces their pregnancy. Quit taking turns! You should all get pregnant at the same time! LOL *shrug*

My A/C was "fixed" but it's not fixed. My landlady came over to borrow my internet connection and realized how hot it was in my house, then had her husband come over to fix it. I apologized for the state of destruction in my house, and she assured me that he's seen worse. He might have seen worse, (hell, I've lived in it; "HI, MOM!") but that doesn't make me feel any better. He threw the breakers, replaced the filter, did some other things.. now it runs, but nothing is cooler. As I speak my house is about 83 F. (or about 29 C for those of you who are not American.) The A/C kicks on, makes rackety noise, outputs some not-cold air for about 15 min, then thunders to a stop. Only to start the whole process again about 10 min later. It never used to make such rackety thundery noise. Of course, it used to cool down my house too. I'm debating whether or not to go back over to my landlords house.. but at this point I'm lazy and don't care. It's the end of Aug. It's only going to get cooler. Obviously I can live with heat, and this rackety thing cools my house down by 2 degrees now. (That's why it's 83 and not 85. YAY) I tell you what though, if the heater gets any ideas and thinks it's going to give me problems during the winter then I'm GONE. It will get fixed or I will stay in a hotel and not pay the rent until it's done. I'm totally serious. A hotel will have warmth and a bed. Yes, technically, I have a bed. But those of you who have been to my house know that it is inaccessible. And unsleepable, because there are spiders. I don't like cold.

I can't believe it's the end of Aug! This must be the first year that I've never been to Lagoon! I'm not THAT sad about it, but STILL! I'm excited for the state fair that starts in a couple of weeks. When I see the word "September", I think it's far away. It takes awhile to realize that it's NOT far away. Well, I got one of my new years resolutions done. It's not one that i'm going to type up, but I got it done. :D that's a record for me, I don't think I've ever gotten a new year's resolution completed, ever. And as of the 11th (in their records) I have worked at my job for 4 years. Take THAT, stupid people who believed I wouldn't find a steady job. I can find em, I just don't stay. I refuse to spend so much time at a job I hate, and when I'm home, most of my time was spent dreading going back. My job is awesome. Obviously, I've been there for 4 years. :D

And, to further continue this long rambly pointless blog (just cause there is so much nothing going on that I'm bored and decided to write about it. It being "nothing") I have recently been told that my MOTHER (of all freaking people) is "worried" about me and thinks I need medical help because I have split personalities that I don't know about. Apparently, if I knew about them, all would be well, but since I don't, I need help discovering them. If anyone has any information about my split personalities, I would like to know. I don't have the medical insurance to discover them. LOL!! According to this crazy loon that people claim gave birth to me (where's the proof?!), split personalities run in my blood (boy do they ever) because my father has split personalities and even names them. Um.. those are called NICKNAMES. (Hello Dad, Ken, Dr., Papadoc, and Scotty!) You know.. for example: your friends call you Long Duck Dong (maybe without the Duck?) but normally you go by Charlie, although your name is Charles? No wonder it runs in the blood, she thinks nicknames are entirely different personalities. Is that why she dates so many men? A different personality with each new last name. Abbie, Meg, Ty.. holy split-personality-ville! And yep, it's true, I have no nickname. (no matter what Meg says - don't believe her!!) Maybe my split personality is all the comments I put in parenthesis. I have a hard time controlling those comments. Sometimes I have to tell myself to take AWAY the parenthesis. LOL!! Oh yes, I forgot to mention the REASON my insanitic (combine lunatic and insanity) mother thinks I have split personalities. Apparently, I am nice to her in person, and mean to her online. Read this now, and know - I am not nice to her in person. Think I'm a bitch if you want, but I'm sure that most people who know me, know better. In person, I rarely see her. I TRY to avoid her. I don't answer her phone calls, I don't answer her text messages. I don't answer my door when she randomly pops by. I moved and didn't tell anyone my address for the longest time so that she couldn't find out where I lived. If I happen to answer the door, cause I think it's someone else, then I will shut the door in her face. I have many lovely nasty text messages from Tyler's bday because I straight up refused to allow her to come to my house. When it comes to other places, I have no say. When she comes to Christmas parties, I walk out of the room. I don't talk to her, she comes up to me and I will nod, maybe say 'yeah' a couple of times and get away as soon as possible. If that is nice, then sue me. (or blame it on me, the split personality) I left my cousin's wedding reception early because she tried to fight with me there. So I told her off, then walked out before causing a stir. (sorry Jen) I've yanked people out of conversations with her to "save" them, and the last time I was at Meg's house I flipped off my sister who told my Mom to hug me. My mother saw, and pretended not to understand. "Why are you flipping her off?" HA - YOU KNOW WHY! As a reference, look at my picture on facebook. I took a picture of me, flipping off meg, about 2 seconds after mom attacked me with her fake love. I've called her names, and I will bet you a million dollars that mom thinks I'm nice to her because of all the jokes I've played at her expense. As in - if I'm forced to talk to her, then I will make up stuff and take joy in getting her to believe it. Or I will insult her to her face and laugh at her "not understanding". At Chloe's bday party, I screamed at her 5 times, just to try to get her to pass out. (because of her fake MS) (and she didn't pass out at all, but it was fun to scare her!) So yeah... wow, this sounds like I'm a total bitch, but before judgement, you should have a little talk with me about the stuff SHE'S done or said. Any and all of us will give you our own lovely horror stories. I have just moved on from trying to have her in my life, to avoiding her and having great fun in telling her off when I'm forced to see her. :D If that gives me a split personality, then bring it on.. but my mean second personality is not an "online-only" one. I received a great idea of what to do next, but I won't type it up because I'm fairly sure that she reads my blog. And my online meanness/split personality doesn't care what I say that she reads. Cause it's all true. LOL ooo.. in that case I should re-post the letter. She flipped out recently and I wrote her a letter. I posted it in a blog and then took it down. But I guess soonly I will re-post it. :D

And now - both of my personalities are starving and want food. So goodbye random blog and hello food. Probably food with cheese. :D

2010-08-15T05:12:00.001-06:00

Coffee is good, coffee is great! You know what else is great? Buca di beppo. I think that's the name. I've known almost the whole week that I was going there and I still barely have the name down. Why name a place something that is hard to remember? Makes it hard for word of mouth. Drive in theaters are also great. Even if the movie is bad or hard to hear. (because you're sitting outside the car.. Sacrifice audio for video or vice versa?) Friends are great. I need more people I can be MYSELF around. My coworkers are awesome people, but I'm not my crazy self around them, no matter what they think. I need more craziness. GOOD craziness. And coffee. I could always use more great coffee. Because great coffee brings you more great posts like these.

Abbieisms

2010-08-08T00:50:00.000-06:00

Abbie has a friend who considers herself a communist. I told Abbie that we needed to introduce heer friend to my co worker who comes from..comes from... And then I had a brain fart. What's that country that has Budapest in it? I asked her. I don't know, she says. So I tried to think of something else. Uh..what country is Dracula's castle in? I asked, hoping that I got the right country. Transylvania? Abbie replies. Ha ha ha ha lol!!!!

2010-08-04T17:20:00.001-06:00

Well I recorded the thunder strike during the storm..there were a ton of these, it was awesome!! I don't know if the sound will post.. If not I'll try again later from my computer. Weather like this makes me happy like nothing else really can. As far back as I remember I've loved to watch the rain, hear thunderstorms, be in them. (just not drive in them) They are amazing!

lightening

2010-08-04T06:18:00.003-06:00

So apparently my work got hit by lightening last night while we were in it. I'm kinda sad that none of us noticed.. Our computers didn't even turn off. However the security guard did tell us to stay out of the elevators because the lighting was acting weird. Now there are problems though... Air conditioning is broken (yes that particular problem seems to be following me around) and the lights are off in the parking lot, which makes it creepy to come to work at night. If only we KNEW that we had been hit by lightening. Awesome!!

2010-07-24T08:47:00.000-06:00

K, I am trying to post more about everyday life now that I know some people check every day. LOL

Abbie just said "ARE YOU FACEBOOKING ME?!" I told her no and asked her why. She said "we talk and you laugh and then you facebook me" LOL - I can't help it, she makes me laugh over so much stuff. Just earlier I had to refrain myself from facebooking her because she took a survey, and one of the questions went along the lines of "if you could know one thing about yourself in the future, what would it be" with the options being something like, when you die, what you look like when you're older, how rich you are, what your career is.. stuff like that. She was going to pick what she looked like when she was older and I protested. I told her "if you can find out ANYTHING about yourself in the future, and you want to know what you look like, then you don't deserve to know anything about yourself in the future" and Abbie replied "well, isn't it dangerous to know too much about yourself in the future?" To which I laughed and said "you've been watching too much tv!" haha

Anyways... I really really can't figure out if I should get a new phone or not. I've been thinking about it and deciding and agonizing over whether I should or not for a long time and I still can't decide. I'm going to be stuck with this phone forever. I've done pros and cons and I just can't figure it out. On the one hand there is really no point to me doing it at all cause I rarely get phone calls or text messages. On the other hand, I love the technology of new phones and it would make me happy. I HATE the phone I have now, and I've hated it since the first week I got it. I told Abbie MONTHS ago that I would get a new phone and give the one I had just barely bought to her. She was excited about it, but I never bought a new one, and now she has experience in playing with my phone and she hates it too. Everyone who messes with my phone says it's gay. The thing is.. Cricket hasn't really gotten any new phones in for about a year. I know cause I've been checking. Last thing I want to do is spend money on a different phone that I don't want. So now it changes from a new phone to a whole new service. In that case, the only service that I would really consider is T-Mobile. I like Sprint too.. but they are more expensive. The price doesn't bother me that much, because I pay almost the same thing even though I am with Cricket. What bothers me is the contract. I hate contracts. I despise them. I loathe them. I dis-trust them. In my mind, they are almost a guarantee that something will go wrong. For example: no contract Cricket - same number and service for years. 2 year contract something else - guarantee that something will happen and I will not be able to pay and then creditors will attack me and etcetc. Maybe I'm pessimistic about the whole situation, but I paid for my entire car all at once in order to avoid a monthly payment to a car place, and celebrated my butt off when my contract for my apt expired. Yep, I'm living in a no contract world. The only contract I would appreciate is one at work.. supposedly cause then I would have a guaranteed job, but that's just hilarious LOL. So... honestly, the only thing impeding me is this contract situation. If not for it, I would join another service immediately. (I know that I can nix the contract by paying more - but I'm not worth THAT much money! It's contract or nothing.) Oh how I lust after some phone like a blackberry or the HTC. *sigh*

Abbie just left and I am sad. We never really do anything when I am here, mostly due to my non-driving ability (technically). But today is the 24th of July and she wanted to see fireworks, but I wasn't too keen on driving up to SLC so she had Dad come and pick her up. Ross went with, and Ty went to work so now I am alone once again in my house. She wasn't going to come back, but I think I convinced her when I said I'm going to watch the kids on Monday. I'm so excited! I haven't had the kids in quite a while and I'm starting to miss them like crazy. You can't give them to me a few days a week and then yank them away. If I knew they were coming back after Meg's maternity thing, then it'd be a vacation.. but they might not come back. Meg's saying that she might transfer to the school in Murray to save on gas. B would watch the kids and etcetc. This is a good situation all around, for their money, B's daddy-ing time, my sleep. But I would MISS them. They aren't mine, but I saw them SO often and I know it's going to be like a once-a-month thing - if Meg transfers. :( But on Mon, Meg DID say that I would be able to have Levi too. Prob because she's not going to be gone that long, just has to have a discussion with a professor. She'd probably take the baby there, but I was like "I GET TO WATCH THEM!?!" and she relented. Even then with her hesitancy I told her hey- I'm used to having the other 3, Levi is a teeny thing so he'll be sleeping, and Ross & Abbie will be here, plus you won't be gone long - before she REALLY said ok. I'm so excited. I get to see my babies WITH the baby. I heard that Chloe and Caydi obstinately call him Popcorn instead of Levi, and Liam pokes and says "baby". I can just hear it in my head. If someone (aka Mary Ellen or any other in-law) steps in and takes him/them on Mon, I will be VERY upset. If you don't know what I'm like when I'm upset, read some of the blogs I've written when I'm mad (ex: my last one) and picture me ranting and pacing my small apt. That's about all I do.

I bought Chloe's bday present and I'm so excited to give it to her. This is a very good reason why I should never go bday shopping or xmas shopping until just a few days before. I am more excited for them to open it than they are. I will most likely ask the following "do you just want to open it NOW?" I got her ruby earrings in a white gold stud. They were fairly cheap, compared to how I thought jewelry was supposed to cost. But then I don't buy real jewelry ever, and rarely wear other kinds. I have it - I just don't really wear it. Anyways - stop me from rambling why don't you - my coworker bought her niece some nice earrings for her bday and I thought 'what a good idea' but wasn't happy with the price she said. I had that in my mind and was pleasantly surprised and the steal I got them for. The best thing is that they are rubys - which match both Chloe's favorite color AND her birth month jemstone. :) I can't believe she's turning 5. But at the same time I know she'll appreciate the princess doll that we saw at the disney store the last time I had them. So I told Meg to bring her on down Mon and we'd go get her a "little girl" bday present too. I spoil those kids when I can. I would spoil them ROTTEN.. but I don't have that much money. So they are just fairly ripe. LOL

So many bday's coming up - Meg's, Chloe's, Tyler's. And in extended family I know there is Connie, and two of her girls, my cousins Jaycey and Britt. Crazy bday month!! (if there is anyone else, I'm sorry I missed you. Tell me when it is. I won't miss it again LOL)

I have decided. Tomorrow is my throw away day. I am going through my house and throwing everything away. Not everything. But enough. I wanted to get a storage unit, but I don't really need a monthly bill, nor do I have ready access to a truck, so I decided that the table would just have to continue taking up space in my kitchen, and I would probably move the chair to Ross's room. He could use some more clutter. :) Any other clutter, from unused dishes/tupperware, to clothes, to -yes, even this- books *gasp!* is just going to get chucked away. No, I'm not bagging it and taking it to the thrift store. I grew up with mom always bagging stuff for the thrift store and then it would never go. We kids would soon get curious as to what she had actually bagged and then rip open the bags and agonize over our fav old shirt or toy. I'm not going to rip open my own thrift bags, but they'll never get taken and I don't want bags laying around my house. Plus, it'll give the bums something valuable to go through in the garbage. If there actually are bums that go through garbage. Now I feel bad, like I insulted bums. SORRY BUMS! But just think! Soon you will have reading material and new clothes! Probably not very much reading material. The likelihood of me giving up a book is.. slim. Definitely not GOOD reading material. I'm keeping that to myself.

The best thing about chucking stuff away is that maybe I can de-heat my house. Un-heat? Anti-heat. Something like that. I've gotten all sorts of suggestions on what could be wrong with my A/C, but the ultimate one is "call your landlord, he should fix it for you." He would fix it for me, I know that. My managers are awesome amazing people. I will not having him roaming around in my cluttery messy house though. So I just deal with it. The other day it hit 87 INSIDE. I opened up the door for it to cool down and it went down 2 degrees and I was HAPPY. My fan is never off, and when it makes a weird noise, I imagine the fan blade coming loose and flinging at (or through) my head. After all, I MADE the fan. How good am I at construction? Ok, I'm not that bad.. but still.. I put the blade on and it flings around at super speed 24/7. Ok, maybe I am a little paranoid. Further evidence of my paranoia is shown by how much I do NOT like having my door open. It's hot - I'd rather sweat it out, fans, spray bottles, tank top on, fat ugly belly showing - than open my front door. I don't want people to walk by and see inside my house! As of right now it is probably cracked 5 inches. Enough for the fan in front of it to pull the breeze inside, not enough for walkers-by to see inside. LOL Oh yes, deheating my house sounds joyful. To bring it down to 75 or 70. mmm.

I'm bored, but I'd better stop now. I still need stuff to ramble on about tomorrow. BTW, my "random facts" survey on FB made ME laugh. I wrote it but everytime I read it, I laugh. It's all true!.. just funny.

Whatever, people.

2010-07-22T09:07:00.000-06:00

Beware of this epistle. I'm more than a little frustrated, annoyed and just plain pissed.

I'm so sick of being nobody. Sure, people will talk to me, but am I included in any events? Not really. All the things I go to I invite myself to or pay for myself. "Oh, a BBQ? Sounds yummy...wish I could come. Oh, you're going to a movie?... I've wanted to see that movie. Oh, you're getting married?...you should invite me! Oh you're bored?..let's go do something.. no money?.. let's just hang out...still bored?.. fine then I'll pay." I'm so sick of it, I feel absolutely pathetic and desperate when I have to invite myself to things, when I have to pay to get people to hang out with me. I love how people will be willing to talk to me, but they'll have group picnics, dinners, movie nights, etc and I'm not there or missed. I love how I had one good friend and everyone relies on THAT. 'why don't you ask Penny? why don't you call Penny, Penny will go with you'. Guess what? Penny had her own best friends before I came along, plus her own gigantinormous busy family to be occupied with. I haven't seen her in weeks, nor do I feel comfortable just showing up cause I'm lonely and have to use her for ALL my friendship needs. I just *love* the fact that I have an $80 phone bill right now, but in the past month I've gotten 3 phone calls and approx 5 text messages - most of them from Meg. Whoops - sorry Meg, maybe you sent me more than 5. WTF am I paying $80 for? I give people my number and say 'hey, text me if you want to go somewhere... do something.. etc' and nothing happens. But you know.. all of this is supposedly MY fault. I should text first - even though I'm getting SICK of feeling like I push myself into situations where I'm not really invited. I'M the one that lives too far away to do anything with, but I don't really see people who are close to me wanting me around either, and being too far away doesn't stop my friends and family from travelling to see other people! 'didn't you hear us talking about it?' - like I overhear a situation and I should count THAT as an invite. But no, I didn't hear about it. And no, it WASN'T on a day I was absent. Yes, most of your little group has my phone number. But, you know, who cares. I either sit my ass at work listening to my 'friends' discuss all their little fun situations or I sit my ass on my couch, stalking facebook and watching my family plan things out without me. And that was with me trying to be included. I socialize the best way that I know how, but I feel like I'm worth a smile and a brief conversation and that's it. You guys can comment away, but it's not really worth it when I feel like I run around like crazy still trying to be included and paying anything to do it and get there, but in return I don't warrant a lunch invite, a movie, a thought. Watch me disappear. Will anyone notice? HA - In return for my blogs I have 2, sometimes 3 aunts who read it and comment - and all 3 are "too far away" to do anything, if they wanted to. Thank you mom, for giving me such a lovely family, who are SO close to each other, who just also happen to love YOU so much, that I didn't even know about family pictures until it was too late. I'm bitter and pissed you say? Yeah, maybe I am. YOU try walking in my shoes for awhile and let's see how you react.

Or maybe I can just get some sleep, and wake up feeling much more cheerful and more like myself - the person you can all trust to come to when you need something, but who must not have needs of her own. Then I can cheerfully go watch a movie by myself tonight, go excitedly phone shopping by myself tomorrow, have a lovely ice cream while watching fireworks by myself on Sat, and maybe clean my house by myself on Sun. Anybody who wants to come is welcome. :\ Yeah, like that'll happen.

Learn to say Thanks!

2010-07-07T18:10:00.000-06:00

I confessed to my aunt Tara earlier today that I have a problem taking compliments. If people say I'm pretty, I laugh, tell them 'whatever', make comments on how it's rare, or my sisters are prettier. If someone I don't like pays me a compliment, then I shudder and throw it away because.. well, because I don't like them. I remember a few weeks ago a coworker said that he thought I fished for compliments. I guess it sounds like that. Well - Tara said I just needed to say Thanks and leave it at that. Nobody is going to go to the trouble of saying something nice about you when you just throw it away - it's like calling them a liar. Just say thanks! At the end of the conversation she wanted to know if I remembered the piece of advice that she gave me and said she would be waiting for an update, like a homework assignment. :)

Well, it's only been maybe an hour, and I already have an update for you, Tara. LOL! While I was at my friend's house helping her and her husband with uploading pictures, her husband asked if I just KNEW how to do it.. and my friend said, yep.. she just has a knack for this stuff, she's so good at figuring it out, even if she's never seen it before (which I hadn't. What is with Olympus and Sony's idiotic memory cards?! Just use an SD card for pete's sake!) My first instinct was to say, nah.. I've just used digital cameras a lot (but I only got mine a couple years ago) and nah.. I just click buttons all over the place until I figure out the right way to do it.. or nah.. it's not that hard to figure it out (although I didn't want to make them feel dumb! everyone has their specialties!) and I remembered what Tara said, and turned around and said Thanks! .. and that's all I said. : > Then I helped him with a photoshop question, and realized that I have never had any classes or training or teaching on photoshop whatsoever.. I just clicked and did it. So maybe I am good at figuring stuff like that out. I'll keep trying to say thanks instead of just dodging nice comments. So - Thanks Tara! I'll keep updating my amazing character growth, LOL! Now - time to clean. If I can dodge the alluring appeal of Doctor Who. *grin* (and appeal is a definition of allure, so that makes perfect sense, right?)

On a funnier note: I just made Tyler kill a spider.. it was sitting there on my wall above my fridge and I couldn't take my eyes off of it the whole time I was on the phone. I never ever take my eyes off a spider because the minute you do, they move, and then they could get closer to killing you. (Now that I think about it, it's kinda like the whole weeping angels thing in Doctor Who -- FREAKY!) So I was a bit freaked because I had to go to my friend's house, and who KNOWS where the spider would be then?! (maybe this is what has been giving me itchy bites on my arms when I'm asleep! *shudder) Luckily, when I came home, the spider was still in the same spot, and Tyler was home. I immediately told him to kill the spider, but I flipped out when he was just going to reach up and hit it. It is by the ceiling! If he misses then the spider will fall on my fridge! I won't ever be able to eat in my house again! I made him get on the chair, and he whacked it with my NEW book.. :( "Is it dead? Is it DEAD?!" I shrieked. "No," he calmly replied. "NO?!! WHERE IS IT?!" "It's pudding," he says. "Pudding? .. so.. its dead?" "No, it's pudding -- MORE than dead," he says.

Very funny. Also, very effective at extending the freak-out factor of my fear of spiders. Dang it.
And then he wiped off my book with a sponge. Poor book. I wonder if I'll read it now.

Abbie-isms

2010-06-27T22:20:00.000-06:00

Stating that Abbie provides me with endless hours of amusement would be understating the fact. After several numerous facebook statuses of Abbie-quips - which I'm sure do not really show how funny the situation is - I decided to put this one in the blog.

Abbie recorded Enchanted so that we could watch it and skip the commercials. I loathe commercials. Many funny statements have occured, but my favorite came when I said that I loved how they drew the evil queen to look like the actress who plays her in the human world. Abbie said: "Yeah, they did that to all the characters, except for the animals." which made me laugh hilariously. They drew all the cartoons to look like the actors who played them, but didn't draw the animals to look like the animals they are supposed to represent? HAHAHA!! I don't know how many more Abbie-isms I will type, but they are almost as memorable as what a toddler says. :)

Genealogy - I am doing it; YOUR genealogy.

2010-06-24T12:32:00.000-06:00

I guess everyone knows that I love doing genealogy by now. I usually jump at the chance to attack and investigate other people's family history. Much to the other people's regret, anything they hand over to me is usually held for months at a time. I'm sorry if I ever made them nervous, but I think at the end they start to believe that they aren't getting their stuff back. The longest I've ever had someone's genealogy info by far is Matt. From what I understand, Matt's great aunt died, and he inherited approx 8 big boxes full of jumbled up genealogy, and offered it to me to go through it for him. I jumped at the chance. I've had Box #1 for quite a few months now, to the point that it's become a running joke at work that he'll never be getting it back, or that I'm holding it hostage. When he first told me that it wasn't organized, I wasn't intimidated. My genealogy stuff isn't organized either, but I know who everyone is and where they belong. I type every name in by hand so I can remember a name when I look at it. I figured my confuse-ment would come more from trying to make order of a family that I'm not familiar with, but that I would soon start to recognize the names.

I couldn't have been more wrong. Which is why I've had his box forever and ever. It was literally hundreds upon hundreds of pedigree sheets of people, with no connection whatsoever. I started typing the names in like normal and could not find any family connection between one group sheet and the next. I couldn't believe that out of all these people I couldn't find ONE connection. As time went by, and jokes started piling up, I realized I would need another way to put this together.. there was no way I could be finished with one box in any sort of reasonable time frame, and he had more boxes.. I didn't want to put Matt out of sorts so much that he no longer trusted me with the other boxes! So I got a scanner and have just been scanning away ever since. I figured that once finished with the digital files, he could have a copy, and THEN I would go through and type up what I saw on the image. A bit more annoying, but it would take up less physical space, and Matt could have his box back. It worked! Today I got Box #2. THEN I got overwhelmed.

Don't get me wrong. I am not yet overwhelmed enough to not do it. I'm more of a overwhelmed-excited. The more I see of his aunt's work, the more impressed I was. So many centuries of families, and most seemed to be written down to paper in the early 90's, before our lovely invention of computers made it easier for us genealogists. Also, I'd read articles and all sorts of stuff from the "professional" genealogists, and although it was common to have some papers dumped on them to sort out, a project this big was NOT that common. I guess it would be with just pedigrees in random crazy order, but - as Box #2 has shown me - she has a lot more than just pedigree papers.

This box has genealogy books, more photocopies of stuff in a different language, and all sorts of different forms to do submit temple work. There are a ton of index cards, letters from curious genealogists, and from distant family members in Holland, and worst of all (for us sorters) there were a ton of handwritten notes about random families. Then there were floppy discs. Matt and I had recently made a joke about how she probably wouldn't have known how to operate the internet side of genealogy. So seeing these floppy discs caused my heart to drop. Crap. What am I going to do with floppy discs? I didn't even have a floppy drive on my old busted home computer, let alone my 1 yr old laptop. I vaguely remember my sister saying she had a floppy drive on her comp.. which was cool.. but didn't she also say she didn't have a cd drive with it? In that case I couldn't transfer any info over. Crap. Who has a floppy drive nowadays?! My thoughts were racing with who I could talk to in order to see what was on these floppies.... when I saw this:

Are you kidding me. Imagine that as a flatly stated sentence. More of a 'are you kidding me'. Then it was more of a 'ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!' I think I have seen these and physically touched them maybe ONCE in my life. Don't EVEN try placating me with any hopes.. I am quite confident that not a person I know will have any drive to accommodate THESE. LUCKILY, they seem to be program installation "floppy" discs. Or whatever they are called. MONSTER floppy discs. That was more of a relief. I don't think I need to check out a program. I have however, found approx 8-10 regular floppy discs that I have to check out. *sigh*

Then, during more rummaging, I found THIS:

Dude. This is a 1972 original Deseret Newspaper on Joseph Fielding Smith's death. I'm holding a 38 yr old newspaper about the death of the 6th prophet of the Mormon church, who also happened to be the last living person to have known Joseph Smith Jr. personally, who was also a NEPHEW to Joseph Smith Jr!! This is amazing!! Maybe only a history nut like me would appreciate it. Genealogy, history, you name it, it is awe inspiring. Plus, Joseph Smith Jr happens to be a personal hero of mine, and as remote as it seems, this just seemed so crazily close in time. I'm standing there touching a newspaper of the day that he died, this man who had known JSJr in his own lifetime. Ok, he was a great man himself, I was excited to see it for both of them. Come on people - the 1800's were NOT that long ago. :)

Anyways, sad as it might seem to you, this was the most exciting thing to happen to me this week. I HAD to post something about it. I have rummaged (gently) through Box #2, and now must finish the last remaining pages of Box #1 because I have refused myself to thoroughly go through 2 until 1 is completely done. Now - if anyone has a floppy drive AND a cd burner, I would be grateful if you would give me a text. :)

Damn You Arby's

2010-06-05T17:09:00.000-06:00

This is a long post about nothing more then my frustrations with the drive thru establishment of Arby's. Prepare to be bored.

I think someone has passed on their bad luck eating out vibe to ME! Abbie and I decided to go get Arby's cause it was close, we were starving, and I was lazy. I get to the drive thru and order 2 beef & cheddars (my fav!!) one Arby's melt, and one small jamocha shake. The person at the drive thru was english-speaking and repeated each part of my order back to me as I ordered it, and then repeated it to me at the end to make sure it was correct.. which is how drive thru orders USUALLY go. But when I got to the window.. I had to wait forever... and ever.. and ever. A million songs go by on the radio (give or take) and I am charged $13. It seems an exorbitant sum, but anything at Arby's costs a million dollars (give or take). Then I wait some more. I am finally handed a bag, and even though there is nobody else in the drive thru line, nobody inside, and employees standing around talking, I still check the bag.. yep.. looks like 3 hamburgers. Then I wait. The manager comes up to see why I'm still there and I say 'um.. I ordered a jamocha shake?' She turns around and grabs one that seemed to be just sitting there and says 'here, you can have this for free since you had to wait for so long.' Uh.. what? I paid for the dang thing! So I drive away from Arby's and while going thru the Macey's parking lot I get a bad feeling about what the contents of the bag might be. I parked and opened up the bag.. uh.. this is NOT my order. No arby's melt for Abbie, instead, 2 regular roast beef sandwiches, plain. The beef and cheddars are there, but are so tiny that I might have mistaken them for arby's melt if it weren't for the oozing red sauce coming out the side. I u-turned around and parked my car to march into Arby's and express my displeasure. While digging around for my receipt, I see that it is time stamped about 30 min BEFORE I was there.. with a $2.09 employee meal ... instead of whatever I ordered. Now that I stop to think about it... my stuff shouldn't have cost $13. Maybe $10. When I demanded (nicely) to speak to the manager, she popped her head out, saw me, and went in the back while gesturing for the non-english speaking cook to take care of my problem. I told him my order was completely wrong and I didn't even get the right receipt PLUS I paid more than I should've. All he did was say 'what did you want?' and then went in the back to re-make my entire order. I saw the lazy employee just standing there and said 'excuse me, but do you think you could find my CORRECT receipt so I know why I was charged $13?' After it was printed off I could see the $13 charge, but not any possible way that they got my order wrong. How does jamocha shake sound like '2 small regular roast beef sandwiches'? Man.. the girl REPEATED my entire order back to me.. and upon entering the Arby's establishement, I discovered that the ONLY girl there.. was the MANAGER!!! Freaking A I'm so annoyed right now. Probably by the attitude of the employees there.. the manager HID from me, the cook remade my order (yay cook) and the idiot employee prints out my receipt and said 'you never ordered a jamocha shake' as if it was MY fault. Like.. how dare I, the customer, insist that I ordered a shake when it isn't on the receipt? I wanted to shake his little Adam Lambert styled hair head and say 'you money stealing fiend - move your jelled hair from your ears and listen to my order!'
I didn't get any money back but whatever.. I now have 4 beef & cheddars, an arby's melt, and a shake, for $13. (they threw away the 2 regular ones.. ?)
Seriously Arby's - if you are going to charge people an arm and half a leg, you should at least get the order right. I will smack you next time.

Nighttime

2010-05-25T02:07:00.002-06:00

You know it's bad, when in the middle of the night, you look up at the moon and think to yourself, "Wow, the sun is bright tonight!"

intelligence

2010-04-23T19:50:00.000-06:00

haha one of my friends on facebook posted this as a status and I thought it was HILARIOUS! :) I must be pretty smart!!

With time, women gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room, it distributes out to the rest of our bodies. So we aren't heavy, we are enormously cultured, educated and happy. Beginning today, when I look at my butt in the mirror I will think, Good grief..., look how smart I am!

Cali Cali Cali

2010-04-11T22:32:00.000-06:00

Now I know we've gone to California and maybe some people are impatient to hear about it. However, here are some funny happenings at home:
I gave Tyler an order to get at Wendy's.. (great cobb salad there!) and had to write it down on a piece of toilet paper because that is the only paper around. It is really hard to write things on toilet paper with pen. Imagine a toilet paper commercial here, where the pen rips through normal toilet paper, but NOT through Angel Soft! That's a commercial that's never been tried!

When we went to the Arden Fair Mall in Cali, a lady in the Macy's store we walked through gave us a sample of some perfume on a card. It's called Givenchy and smells really good. It probably costs $100 or something. While we were shopping around, Chloe kept sticking her little card out as we passed people to rub her free sample on them and make them smell good. I stuck my card in my pocket. While I was giving Tyler some money just now, I realized that it smelled good. I kept smelling it instead of giving it to Tyler. Ross says 'That's probably why money is addicting.' LOL, mass amounts of people spraying their money with expensive perfume. I knew it!

I lost my phone. While this is probably not as devastating news as losing my camera, it still kinda sucks. I can't find it anywhere!

While we drove to and from California I stayed awake with my sister the entire time. I felt really bad that I couldn't take over a turn. I'm going to get the squealing-ness of my car double checked to make sure that it is ok so we can take my car next time. It's got much more room, and is an automatic! Staying awake like I did for so long has killed me. Here is an example of how we slept. We leave Thurs night around.. 1am. Drove straight through with one 20 minute break in Battle Mountain (or thereabouts). Meg slept for 20 min and I commanded her phone to get on facebook cause I was not tired. We arrived in Cali around noon, Meg got a semi-sleeping 2 hr nap around 3pm, I fell asleep at 4, and we were up at 5 to go eat. We tried to eat at Old Spaghetti Factory but ended up in the hospital to make sure Meg and Baby 4 were ok. Got back, and Meg crashed around maybe midnight or 1, and I fell asleep a couple of hours later. I woke up at 7 am, we ate, did taxes, checked my dad's email and other various online accounts, looked at bills, ate lunch and then he wanted to take me shopping for my birthday. I wasn't really up to it, I'm not used to shopping on someone else's dime. But we went to JCPenny's, and I snagged a couple of cute shirts! We came home and chilled for a little while and then went out to IHOP for dinner and when we came back we pretty much packed up and left! I got back home around 8am and I know Meg went to her in-laws where her hubby and baby Li-Li were. I must tell you, I do not in the least feel bad for sleeping from 8am to 9pm today. I have never slept so long in my life! I woke up, and I woke up still tired!

Anyways, it is not comforting to know that my dad is blind. I really hope his eyes get better but I'm not sure if they will. He's on blood pressure meds and he's had eye surgery, and yet his blood pressure is still up and his eyes are still blind. I had made him this scrapbook, and even though it was only half done, I took it anyways. He couldn't see the pictures, let alone the stampy garnishments, and couldn't even tell me what the color of the scrapbook page was. He couldn't see us unless we were standing closely in front of him. Anywhere we walked we had to guide him. He can't get online, can't read, and can only watch the tv at certain times and when he has been sitting down for awhile. I helped sort out bills, coffee, emails, and even do his taxes, because despite living among family out there, nobody seems really interested in helping him out. He thought that maybe someone might've come along to help him do his taxes on Tuesday. Which just so happens to be the day before they are due. My brother that he lives with probably would've helped him out more, but he's been in an accident and had major surgery so he's walking around medicated as well. All in all it was a really good thing that we spontaneously went out there because of the help that we could give him, plus we got to catch up in our lives and his, since we haven't been able to find out what was going on any other way. We had lots of crazy fun in a short period of time and I hope we can go back later like Meg wants to, I just hope that she is up for it if she can! Maybe we can wait until after she has baby 4.. it'll give Ken a chance to feel out his newest grandchild! :) Either way, we have to take Abbie, who was left out of this trip and now claims to hate us. LOL!

On the way back I was sending a few updates to facebook from Meg's phone. It was working fine, and then all of a sudden it kicked me out and wouldn't let me log in at all. When I just tried to log in, (YES! I'm a facebook addict!!) I had to verify my account because the website recognized that I was logging in from an unfamiliar area and blocked me, but wouldn't unblock me using a mobile phone, only a computer. Here are some funny images from verifying:

Verification code #1: mashed dungs. It wanted me to type in mashed dungs to prove that it was me.

Verification #2: It wanted to confirm the spot that I had tried to log in before. Well no wonder it took so long to get home! Apparently we came home by route of CANADA. Who knew that if you try to access the internet while driving through Nevada, that facebook believes you are in Canada! Does this mean I was now IN Canada? After all... it WAS pretty dark out.. I couldn't see anything (runs in the family). I could've been in Canada!

Now I will upload some non idiotic pictures from our trip. :) I will upload all of them on Facebook later. According to my camera, I took approximately 975 MB worth of pictures. hehe

Meg on the way there.

Caydi as a hot mess. For a picture of Chloe as a hot mess, please visit my sister's blog!

Chloe and mommy coloring at the Country Waffle restaurant.

Caydi and me coloring at the Country Waffles place.

Chloe's stack of jam falling at the Country Waffles place. For the whole picture series of Chloe's jam-stacking, I will upload it to Facebook later LOL

Chloe took this pic of Ken. I think she took about half of the pictures from this trip, she loved my camera. :)

waiting for a table at the Old Spaghetti Factory...

... eating the food in the hospital room. We were born in this hospital!

Meg has all the pictures from us eating din-din at IHOP or going shopping.. I *SURPRISINGLY* didn't take my camera to either one of those places! But here is my Dad and I, as we were leaving.

Here is Dad and Meg!

the girls were passed out within minutes of being back on the road..

and we stopped in Reno to get this awesome pic! (BTW, Reno is a scary ghetto crazy place! I will never go there other than to stop for gas!)

And that's all the pics that I feel like uploading right now! I need food! :)

Spider Exercises

2010-04-07T01:03:00.001-06:00

I will never be more active than when I think I have either touched, had fallen upon me, or even come into close encounters with, a dead spider. Unless possibly I think I have touched, had upon me, or come close to a LIVE spider. The spastic, jumping, aerobic, frantic shock that comes upon me flips me around and is enough to rival any Olympian. It also really hurts when I bang into stuff.

WoW

2010-03-30T21:24:00.000-06:00

Now, I do not play WoW. I normally would say that I know virtually nothing about the game. Even now I don't think I really know much about the game. However, half of my shift at work plays WoW, or at least jumps in the WoW conversations when they come up.. which they quite often do.

Today Ross asked me if he could spend Spring Break at Dad's house. I don't really much care. Maybe Dad cares, but I don't. He got really excited and started talking about all these games he was going to play with Mark. He also started comparing them to other games and made a statement like "I'm never going to play World of Warcraft because you HAVE to fight with magic-"
"WRONG" I said.
Ross looked at me quizzically.
"Well," I started.. and then I just started talking about WoW.
After another strange look from Ross I slowly quit talking. He knows that I have never played the game.
"Don't ask." I said.
"Work?" Ross asks me. And I just smiled crazily.
*sigh*
Apparently I know more about WoW than I thought I did. Thank you crazy WoW co-workers!

Tyler + Technology

2010-03-25T17:47:00.000-06:00

LOL.. I posted this as a status on Facebook, but this is just too funny to not type up. Tyler came up to me and says 'Oh hey, Andrea, I'm gonna need your help with something later on..'
Me: What is it?
Ty: Well.. thing is.. I got a present!
Me: A present? From who? What was it?
Ty: A present for my 2 year anniversary!
Me: 2 year anniversary? *running through dates in her mind and how they could have to do with Tyler*
Ty: Yeah! With the company! A cashier gave me a present!
Me: What'd she give you? *I just automatically assumed it was a girl lol*
Ty: An MP3 player! But I'm gonna need your help with it..
Me: Ok, well, how much is it?
Ty: It was FREE!
Me: Oh, well, I KNOW.. but how BIG is it?
Ty: Oh - it's pretty small.. it's about this big.. *holds out fingers about 3 inches apart*
Me: *stifling laughter* No, how much SPACE is there? On the MP3 player? To hold songs?
Ty: OH.. Oh.. oh.. uh.. about 200 MB? it holds 600 songs? I-I don't know.
Me: 2 GB?
Ty: uh.. yeah.. 2 something. I don't know.. I can barely figure out the Media Player thing to get it working!

hahahaha!! Omg.. this was hilarious!! Sorry, Ty, but you are so far out of the world of technology it makes me laugh. I'm so glad that someone got you an MP3 player! You will see that it is FAR better than your cassette tapes and walkman, and you didn't even have to use cd's in-between!
Now.. if only 200 MB would hold 600 songs. ;)

Creative Genius

2010-03-20T11:40:00.000-06:00

I've been scrapbooking the past few weeks with my friend Penny. I always wanted to scrapbook, but I felt that I lacked enough creative juices to bother. That, and the infernal cost of all these stickers and buttons and ribbons and pages greatly influenced my decision.
On my old computer I had a photoshop program that seemed to take away that problem. I could download elements and spend as much time as I needed to create a decent looking page without spending any extra money. But now my old computer is kaput (I can't get it to start!) and so convincing me to try the 'real' scrapbooking route was easy.
My pages are awesome! I'm going to hook up my scanner to my laptop so that I can show the beautiful-ness online. But oh how I miss having my photoshop programs! Especially because, while I am slowly gathering cool stickers and such, I probably have more photoshop elements than I do pictures. Anyone who knows me and my pictures KNOWS what this means.
But now, excitement! Soonly I will have my programs back on my computer, both of them! My creative juices flow, not only to decorate amazing pages, but in figuring out idiotic computer problems! My old computer is still not turning on, but I have found my photoshop programs! So be prepared to have scanned paper pages, and digital beauty as well. Oh photos, how I love thee.. let me count the ways. :)

Now hark, a hilarious story!:
Last night, after scrapbooking, Penny and I went and bought New Moon (WoOt!!), and than stopped for some grub. Unfortunately, the only available 2am eateries consisted of a Rancheritos (Betos!!), and a Burger King. (Dag nab those infernal McDs not being 24-7 down here!!!) So into the BK we go. Staring at the hamburger menu screen, Penny asks "are you serving breakfast yet?" to which the window guy says "no". Crap. I am not a big fan of BK hamburgers. Much staring, debate, and giggling commences as we try to decide what to buy. Penny and I have our own beliefs as to whether it was 3 minutes later, or 5 minutes later, but I finally decide: I will have a #6 with iced coffee. (YUM!) "Ok - we're ready to order now!"
window guy: "whad-do-ya want?"
Penny: "#6 with no lettuce, iced BK Mocha Joe, rodeo hamburger"
window guy: "no lettuce and what?"
Penny: "iced coffee and a rodeo hamburger"
window guy: "oh, we're serving breakfast now, hold on."
At this statement we both yelled "WHAT?!" and burst into hysterical laughter. Window guy came outside, moved the menu board around to breakfast, and went back in then asked "can I take your order now?"

I much prefer BK's breakfast menu. I ordered a #6 with iced coffee (no lettuce included! hahaha) and Penny mournfully wondered if we could stay 'til they changed the board back to lunch-time - she had her heart set on that rodeo hamburger. ;) Burger King: Burger Killjoy and Breakfast Know-how!

School Sucks.

2010-03-15T03:34:00.000-06:00

I'm getting uber annoyed at my school. Vastly completely slightly ticked off.
Anyone who has talked to me lately knows that I have been out of class for about 3 weeks now. The long and short of it is that I got a list of classes to choose and took my own sweet time choosing them because I figured that they could put me in my core computer classes while I was deciding on my extra curricular stuff. Then the week to start new classes starts and.. no class.
I send very concerned emails to my councelor. Again. Then call. Again. Finally after the first week of no classes, I get two emails. One is a general one from UoP applauding their councelors and the second is from my finance councelor.. not addressing my emails at all, but telling me that it's time for me to re-submit financial paperwork for the next year.
I was very .. pissed. I wrote back and told her that I was not going to be submitting my paperwork. I had student loans and fafsa grants for this entire year, and there was no way that I was going to be sending in more paperwork to be approved so that loans and grant money could be sent to the school when I wasn't enrolled in a class nor could I obtain contact from any of the 3 personal counselors that are supposed to be there 'whenever you need'.
Now I find out the real reasoning behind why I didn't get in my classes. For the first two weeks I assumed it was because I didn't choose my classes quickly enough and didn't understand that they would not enroll me in my computer classes. Now I have my finance counselor - only replying to me cause I sent an offensive pissed off letter - telling me that I am not going to be in any more classes until I get my 2009-2010 finance paperwork in.
?
WTF? What do you mean 2009-2010 paperwork? That should all be in. Don't you mean you want the 2010-2011 paperwork? For the coming up year? The year that 'starts' this summer? So after sending a 'correction on your dates' email, I filled out the fafsa for 2010-2011.
No, she says. We only have paperwork for 2008-2009. You need the financial backing for 2009-2010 to continue class.
(she then informs me that my academic advisor DID receive my email and signed me up for classes to start on the 15th, and she was looking forward to my financial paperwork being turned in)
So I was confused. I studied things. I discovered, to my uber horrific annoyance, that the financial student loans and grant years start as of July 1st. I had started school on June 1st. June. Which means that the paperwork that I filled out in 10 minutes online - without reading it - was for the years of 2008-2009. I stupidly didn't read it because I didn't know or understand that loans and grants go by some odd timeline of starting in July. I didn't read it because I knew that in order for me to start school I would HAVE to have these grants and loans, so no matter how I protested against certain policies, it was either fill it out or don't go to school. I didn't read it because my admittance counselor assured me of things, (I still like my admittance counselor a bit) and told me that I could just submit the stuff, enroll in school, start on June 1st, and he would print out all these documents for me to take home and read. He did, I didn't. I didn't see the point - I had filled them out and signed them, they were paying for school, I wouldn't until 6 months after I graduated and/or left school. Since I wanted to do the full baloney of school, I had 4 years to worry about making payments.
Now I realize that I just took out some {expletives deleted} student loans for the full amount in order to cover one month of classes. They didn't take that money and apply it towards the 2009 expenses. This also explains why I received a bill last fall for one of my classes. I saw a copy was sent to my school and just figured 'eh, my loans will take care of it' because that's what is supposed to happen and my finance counselor never contacted me about it or anything else. I have now discovered that from July until Jan, my classes were covered by nothing. And nobody said a thing about it. They just decided that I was going to be enrolled into no further classes until they received the paperwork, and emailed me about it at the last possible date, nor did I get informed of anything going on until I started sending angry emails about the lack of communication.

The problem is, I already filled out a 2010-2011 fafsa. Also, my memory isn't THAT bad. I swear to [expletive deleted] that I filled out paperwork for 2009-2010. But I can't find my college folder from last summer to confirm the dates. So I go online, do an MPN and a FAFSA for 2009-2010. And I hope that no problems ensue from filling out 2 FAFSA's at the same time. But I wouldn't know, and my counselor isn't talking. Literally.

She told me (in response to 'angry letter') that the reasons I never received their replies was because they were sending emails to my gmail address. First, I never check that address. Second, I have absolutely no recollection of ever giving them that address. I gave them the hotmail address. One where I HAVE received limited communication from my school at. She says 'if there is a better email address for us to write to you at, please update your student info page'. So I do. I put in my ancestry.com address (or tgn, for those of you that use it.. it goes to the same place!) Not only that, but I reply to her using that address, and she sends me the 2nd 'you need your 2009-2010 paperwork' email to my ancestry.com address. She told me to email her when I was done filling out the 2009-2010 paperwork so she would know. I did, and got no reply, so I (stupidly) figured that everything was on track. I don't know why.

Now I go online, excited to look up my classes. I have time to kill (not anymore.. in fact I'm probably running late) and it's Monday, the first day of class! This whole past week (the 3rd week of no class) I've been checking on my 'upcoming classes' and they were supposed to start today.. the 15th. Only.. my current classes tab is empty. Now they are still in my 'upcoming classes' tab - stated as starting on the 29th. WTF?!

I check my email. Nothing. I check on my submitted finance info. Nothing out of place. I get a twinge of uncomfortability and an idea towards my hotmail address (which is full from not checking it this past month). There.. a few days ago.. a letter from her. AFTER communicating through ancestry.com AND changing my email address. Stating that until all my paperwork is submitted and verified and accepted, I will not be starting classes. Another email. After AND replying to the email that I sent her from ancestry.com - stating that she will be out of the office for 3-4 days and will reply to email in the order that it was sent. So she's gone, I don't know, my finance paperwork is NOT getting processed because she's gone, I don't know, and my classes are postponed for another week.

On top of all this - if you do not attend school for 29+ days then you lose all your loans and grants. At first I was worried about this.. but maybe I shouldn't be.. since there ARE no loans or grants in place for 2009-2010, according to my counselor.

Has everyone been able to follow this fiasco? Get this people - it might be frustrating and annoying and time consuming as HELL to figure out this finance stuff on your own, to submit it and wait and get together the necessary documents and it's ALL your own responsibility to sign up for classes on time and your own fault if you don't get what you need.. but at least it's YOU!! I sign up for NOTHING. My counselors enroll me in class, track my finances, do it all for you and are supposed to be at your beck and call. So when they do it all.. and they are NOT at your beck and call.. problems ensue.

So supposedly - starting on the 29th - I will be starting these two classes: a history class entitled "The American Experience since 1945" and a computer class (I KNEW they could put me in my computer classes!!!) called Fundamentals of Programming with Algorithims and Logic.

And no longer will I be that idiotic and dumb to think 'ah, it's filled out.. let them handle it.. it's their job.. on with school!'
I shouldn't have been that dumb in the first place, really. *sigh*
Now, it's time for me to be late to work. Yay!

It's Valentine's, baby.

2010-02-17T20:10:00.002-07:00

I got a balloon from Abbie for Valentine's Day on Friday.

While the babies are here today, Chloe has been playing with the balloon.

She finally picked it up and said:

'Andrea, why is the balloon down on the ground?'

I told her 'cause it ran out of air!'

She says: "it ran out of air? out of air?! Why did it run out of air? Why, Andrea?"

I said: 'cause it's an old balloon, baby. It's old and so it ran out of air.'

She says: "it ran out of air cause it's old like you? Like you Andrea?"

hahaha

I just laughed at her and said 'yep, it's old like me.'

Laugh

2010-02-17T14:58:00.000-07:00

First thing to make me laugh today -
watching myself use a snow shovel to get all the dirty clothes from the hallway to the bathroom.
My opinion? It's much more fun (and warm!) to shovel clothes instead of snow. :D

Update

2010-02-16T15:27:00.000-07:00

Here's a list of new things. Or thoughts. Update. Whatever.

I dyed my hair blonde. The salon people were idiots and kept telling me that what I wanted to do to my hair was impossible. When I was telling them what my sister did to achieve the results I wanted, they were surprised to hear that she was not a professional salon person. Thus, my hair is not how I wanted it to turn out. Everytime I've been to a salon, it's sucked ass. Yet, having my hair permed, cut, and dyed at home has always turned out amazing. Someone needs to start a salon in their home. I'll go there.

It's finals week in my two classes. I think I have to redo my FAFSA and pick out my next classes for me to even have classes next week and I have no motivation to do that.

The state cancelled Ross's medicaid. They mailed me the 'fill out these forms that we send once a year to prove that you still qualify' and the 'you are declined because you didn't send the forms to prove you qualify back in time' papers on the same day. I have to re-fill out the papers in order for him to go to his therapist, doctor, hospital, and continue to get meds. I will - but I hate state forms and I have no motivation to do that either. I think I'm slacking so much cause he has 2 months worth of meds on hand. *sigh*

I got an xbox 360 from my abnormally 'this-only-happens-once-a-lifetime' high tax return. So if anyone wants to add me as a friend, I would be extremely happy. voiceofangel84 is my gamertag. woot.

I am now so fat that I either go have to go up a size in clothes or pin them together to pretend to be the same size. Guess which one I'm doing.

My sister is naming her baby something that starts with an L. I'm secretly glad. She'll have two girls with C's and two boys with L's. I'm also secretly upset that I number among the common people who will not know what the baby's name is until he is born.

I'm reading 4 books at the same time. Sex With Kings by Eleanor Herman, The Time Traveler's Wife, The Other Boleyn Girl, and American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Amazing books. Any true readers out there should not need the name of the authors on the other two books. That's my opinon.

In a short little while I am going to overdose myself on caffeine so that I can have a semblance of energy to clean. I'm overdoing it so that I can include rearranging my furniture with the cleaning.

I've started 2 new cross-stitch projects.

I can scan the covers of books at 30-50 seconds a book. I'm idiotically proud of this meaningless achievement.

I have real flowers embedded in my nails. They are purple and cute.

The power of klutziness has gone after my hands. In the past two days I have cut myself (accidentally!!) 5 times. Ow!

I have over 14,000 emails in my email acct. I have at least 2 other accts that are the same way.

I miss my dad. His eyes have gotten so bad that he has forsaken the internet. We used to exchange letters every day. I would run out of things to say and slack off for a couple of weeks, but then we'd be back to writing every day again. This cycle has gone on for years and years and years. Now he cannot see to get on and I'm sad. :(

I strangely wish this year was a leap year. I don't know why.

The people with the chickens and roosters across the street from me have recently acquired a goat. This makes me moronically happy every time I go outside and hear it bleet. I want to baa right back at him. (and I usually do once I reenter my house where I can be as weird as I want) I love goats! :)

I also love the paper stars that my coworkers make and give me. It's like a little piece of friendship or something. *shrug* I got a paper heart on valentine's day from one of them. It was amazing and the only valentine I received.

I also love comments. :)

Oh.. Dad

2010-01-16T20:53:00.002-07:00

HAHA.. Dad wanted to know what movie we were going to watch.. so we told him "The Book of Eli"
"OH! I went and saw that Ninja Assassin movie last night!"
How was it?
*gigantictium grin* "It was AWESOME! It was so GORY! They ripped someone's face right off!"
*more gigantictium grins*

LOL.. aw, why do men like gore?

WalMart

2010-01-16T20:50:00.000-07:00

The boys were roughhousing around and Brandon hit Mark in the face with a pillow.. all of a sudden Mark's nose started bleeding. I think the pillow affected his brain because Dad asked Mark 'When was the last time you had a physical?' and Mark responded "The last time I went to WalMart."
LOL!

Cleaning

2010-01-06T19:54:00.000-07:00

In the past, I have tried different methods of making the boys clean up after themselves.
First, I assigned chores. Then, I tried yelling at them when they didn't do their chores. Then, I tried grounding them until they had cleaned up the mess. Then I tried banning the food that they seemed unable to clean. Then, I started buying plastic silverware, paper plates, foam bowls.. anything to help me in my kitchen debacle. For Christmas I got a new microwave (courtesy of Black Friday) and decided to give the old one to Tyler - which he could keep in his room, free to microwave food and messes to his hearts content, AWAY from my kitchen. Finally, I gave up and just started cleaning up after them. But every once in awhile my temper grabs hold of me and demands "WHY are you cleaning up after 2 adult boys?!" and I try to do something again.

Lately, this method has been to throw all the garbage in their room. If I must pick up after them, fine.. but they are getting their own garbage back where it will inconvenience THEM, not me. I do it very nicely too - I simply pick up their boxes, their plastic baggies, paper plates, etc.. stroll down the hallway to their room, open the door and say 'Here Tyler! You forgot your box!' and throw it in. Then I hurriedly shut the door and walk away before they can say anything. It's KINDA working. Not entirely. But throwing garbage at them makes laughter bubble up inside of me and helps me deal with the messes they leave.

Today Ross decided to make some Mac & Cheese for dinner. Here I am, laying like death on the couch, when Tyler decides to critique the method used by Ross in opening the box.
"Is THAT how you open the box?!"
"Well, it does say press here to open, but I prefer to rip apart the top!" *manly laughter*
I croak out "Who CARES how the box is opened, as long as it finds its way into the TRASH?" followed by an evil eye towards Tyler. (the main offender!)
He strolls over...
"What could you possibly be talking about?"
"I'm talking about the boxes going into the GARBAGE instead of me throwing them into rooms!"
"Rooms? Who's rooms?" he tries to say innocently..
"Oh, I think you KNOW what I'm talking about."
"Ross! She's insulting your honor! She says she has to put the empty boxes in your room! Are you going to do something about this?"
At this Ross slowly walks over with narrowed eyes.. something that might intimidate anyone else, seeing as how he is about 6'2 or 3.
He stops right in front of Tyler's face and demands,
"All the boxes are in your room.. why have you been stealing boxes from me!!"
LOL!
Granted, I am very sick and delirious on flu medication, but I found that funny.
Alas, I need a new method of making them clean. Throwing boxes at them seems to have started a manly contest on pizza and pasta boxes. *sigh*
I think I'm going to gather up the energy to go throw a box at them. That will cheer me up! :)

Sprinkle Cake

2009-12-31T14:02:00.000-07:00

Ah, Caydi.
Almost from the moment she saw the cookie decorating table, she loved the sprinkles.
After the first tub of sprinkles was dumped, she was grounded from them.
But after time, she snuck her way back to the cookie table - where I found her with a plate full of every sprinkle available.
Good thing everyone was finished. LOL

Twenty-Something

2009-12-28T12:22:00.000-07:00

Why is it that when I see the phrase "twenty-something" my first thought has something to do with 'wow, how young!'
I'm twenty-something.
I don't feel twenty-something. If you tell me that I'm twenty-something I will probably do a double-take in my mind.
'Whaa..? Twenty-something? Oh yeah.. I am!' is what I will be thinking.
However, I don't know how old I really do feel.
I have the life problems that nobody of any age should have.
I am permanently date-less like an 80 yr old. (sorry to all the 80 yr olds who have dates.)
I can be serious and thoughtful like a 49 yr old turning 50. *horrors! my life is over!* LOL
I have the body of a 30 yr old (probably mormon) who's had 20 kids. ok ok..maybe that's my own insecurity. .. it's probably only like 12 kids.
I have the awesome talent of a teenager in turning any normal sentence into a perverted joke - which, let's face it, makes anything funnier.
I feel like a child when I approach something new. What do I say? How do I act?
But I'm actually a twenty-something who has no idea how old I really am.

Merry Xmas!

2009-12-25T02:58:00.000-07:00

Finally done wrapping Christmas presents!! Just in time for them to be ripped open in a couple of hours! :)

So now I'm the only one awake, chillin at my sister's house in West Valley. Here is picture of her gorgeous tree, with most of the presents under it! We still have my dad's presents to put under the tree, and of course all of the kids' as well. Dad let them do chores in exchange for $100 to buy their own Christmas presents for everyone!

This is still a cell pic - my lovely digital camera is charging up, getting ready for the onslaught of pics I am ready to start taking.

I have a feeling that Santa will not visit me, since I'm staying up all night long. Oh well. Dad already told me that he didn't buy me a present this year. I think the best present so far was Meg's text saying she missed me and was starting to forget what my face looked like. :) I'm keeping that text. I didn't think she cared that much and we had a good sister gossip session at IHOP this morning. Thanks IHOP for staying open! Chloe tried to tell me what Meg bought for me at the store. I'm so excited for the others to open their presents this year! I'm streaming FM 100 for the rest of the day! Let me add one more exclamation point. ! (The coffee might have something to do with that. Maybe.) :)

Me

2009-12-16T22:57:00.000-07:00

Everyone see this? Look really hard.

this is a screenshot of me. I was looking up someone's phone number and wondered what would be under my name, since I have moved so many times.. and lo & behold, my information comes up as me being 41 yrs old.

If anyone didn't believe me when I said my mother is the best mother in the world, then here is your proof!

I'm so mad, but it's a calm mad.. because I already knew this anyways.

So who wants to come over and celebrate my middle-aged-hood with me?

Movie

2009-12-13T00:35:00.000-07:00

I'm strangely proud of my brother tonight.
Strange, because this is not something that one would normally be proud of.
Yesterday night, Ross was waiting for time to pass by so he could watch some movie. So he's passing the time with Family Guy, South Park.. all the creepy (yet somehow funny) adult cartoons available.. and then his movie came on. Some movie titled "Where The &$*! Is Santa?" that had some of the guys from Jackass in it. I confess that I find Jackass funny too, but these are my guilty pleasure funnies. Not to sound snooty, but I usually don't "approve" of crude, rude, and pointless humor. I didn't watch the movie, and just sighed while roaming around the interwebs. :D
Tonight Ross did the same thing. Family Guy, South Park.. he tried to go for some recorded King of the Hill episodes, but I REALLY hate that show. He told me he was waiting for 9pm to come around so he could watch his movie. I steeled myself for another crude humor one.
And was shocked when Fried Green Tomatoes started playing.
A 17 yr old boy is willingly watching Fried Green Tomatoes? This is in the general category of a chick flick, right? Maybe he doesn't know what it's about. He's probably thinking it's something else. I looked at him with suspicion.
"Have you seen this movie before?"
"Yep."
Hm..
So my brother and I sat down to watch Fried Green Tomatoes together. And that lovely feeling of pride in him and the knowledge that he IS going to be all right stole over me.

Tawanda!

Ah.. Dumb Advertisements.

2009-12-12T02:11:00.000-07:00

I just saw this advertisement for a game called 'Big Buck Hunter Pro', which is a video game rifle that you just plug into your tv to play some hunting game. Part of the benefits include "No video game console or ammo needed!!" Wait a minute.. does that mean that you usually NEED ammo with any other hunting video game?!

Happiest States

2009-11-12T15:30:00.000-07:00

So I'm watching Jay Leno (thank you dvr) from last night when he goes into one of his news stories that ends with a joke. He said that the list of the happiest and unhappiest states in the union have been released, and that Utah and Hawaii are on the top of the list for the happiest states in America, while West Virginia and Kentucky are the unhappiest. The joke goes on to say that researchers state Utah and Hawaii are happiest because economic factors and education are related, and they say Kentucky and West Virginia are the unhappiest because first cousins and their spouses are related. LOL! Great joke!
However, if Utah is the happiest state in America then I might be screwed. *shrug*

Bored of the Babies yet?

2009-11-10T16:57:00.003-07:00

It's time for yet another round of the cute things my babies say or do. :D

I was telling Meg something that Chloe did last night and Meg laughed and said Chloe, you're funny. Very seriously Chloe replied 'I'm not!' So I laughed and said 'well you're cute.' To which Caydi stepped up and defended her sister 'she's not!'

'yes she is'

'she's not!'

'yep!'

'she's NOT!'

'Chloe's not cute? well then what is she?'

Then Chloe leaned over and says in Caydi's ear: 'I am!'

So Caydi looks up and says 'well then I am too!'

Confessions of a Toddler

2009-11-09T17:53:00.004-07:00

When the girls came over today they wanted to raid my kitchen. I don't know if they really were hungry, or if it was just curiosity. I did not have any of their favorite snacks however, I had forgotten to fill up on my last trip to the store. (On a side note - my last trip to the store was to Harmons, and their horrendous prices resulted in my buying only milk and cheese!) On the way out of Walmart, fully loaded with jelly and fruit snacks, Caydi started bobbing her head side to side with a big grin. Since there was no hip hop music around, I asked her what was so funny but she just kept bobbing and grinning. Meg walked up ahead to unload and I again asked Caydi, 'what's so funny?'

'My seatbelt is wrong!' she replies.

'Your seatbelt is wrong?' I wondered.

Still bobbing and grinning she looked up at me: 'Mommy shuts the door, and my seatbelt is wrong!' and then she started laughing.

The little minx. Just like all children, she hates seatbelts. Meg told me once that Caydi will always find a way to struggle out of her seatbelt and then slip the arm straps behind her, so that when Meg, usually driving, tells her to put them back on, she says 'I can't! They're wrong!' - when she can slip them back on, but doesn't want to. And here she is confessing the whole thing to me, too overwhelmed with her own diabolical plot at escaping the evil seatbelt to be able to keep her plot to herself when she realized that we were headed toward the car.

Now we are home and Chloe says, 'Andrea, do you have those gorilla bars?' ... '?' I am thinking. (You cannot speak such questions aloud because Chloe is a very sensitive little girl.) 'I don't know' I say. 'You know,' she goes on, 'the cereal gorilla bars like what grandma has? you and grandma has the same gorilla bars.' AAH.. she is talking about GRANOLA bars. 'Of course I have granola bars, Chloe. But I don't know if they are the same thing.' 'They are,' she replies, 'you and grandma's gorilla bars are the same.'

And she's been impatient for them every since, so I'd better finish this series of confessions to get her the gorilla bar. :D

Update:

I have not slept today at all. Not one wink. Doc's appts, errands, cleaning, and just plain insomnia have interfered, and now I have the babies to watch. Meg will pick them up at 10pm, and.. HORRORS!.. I must go to work about an hour later. I thought I might be able to take a nap.. put all the babies down and rest for a little while. Liam is not asleep, but he's safe in his playpen. Caydi is out like a light. Why you ask? Because I have my OWN diabolical plots. I awesomely laid them down on blankets and pillows and turned it to the NGeo Science channel, where they are playing a very interesting and yet still very boring (because of the monotone voice and blah images) show called 'Mystery of the Persian Mummy'. Caydi, normally the hardest one to get to sleep, is out. Chloe, normally the easiest one to fall asleep.. is facinated. Who knew? She wants to know EVERYTHING. Who is the mummy? What are they doing? Where did she live? And is SO into the show that when the video of mummy changes to scenes of the town she says 'Where did she go?' (using the word She when talking about the mummy LOL) and when the commercials came on: 'where did the show go? when will it come back?' 'what are they doing to her now?' .. and uh oh.. now they are very WELL explaining HOW to make a mummy, even showing the tool they shove up the nose and talking about scrambling the brain. And there she is, like a mini teenager, on her stomach, chin in her hands, feet in the air, wide eyed and absorbing everything from a dang documentary with british accents, talking about something from 2600 years ago.

Sorry Meg. :D

Sides

2009-11-07T05:58:00.006-07:00

I've been reading this book that Abigail recommended to me. It's a series by Scott Westerfeld, and the first one is called Uglies. It's about this teen girl in a world where everyone is born 'ugly' and when you turn 16 you get these operations - plastic surgery - to be pretty. In the book the girl is talking to her friend and mentions how she hates her right side, the left side is just prettier so when she makes little models of what the pretty version of her will look like she always duplicates her left side. So, out of curiosity and a huge bout of boredom,

I decided to see which side of mine I liked. LOL

On the left is my Right Side, and on the right is my Left Side. I must agree with the author.. I like my left side better. Although both sides could use some work. Take me in, New Pretty Town!!

Smarty-Pants

2009-11-04T15:31:00.002-07:00

Today when the kids came over they were all bouncy and happy and ready to play in the warm November air. Liam had a sucker, but Meg didn't want him to drop it and get it dirty or hurt himself so she opened up one of Ross's butterfingers that he had put in a pile on the floor. Ross was separating them all out because he doesn't like them unless they are crushed in yogurt or ice cream. Upon Liam getting a candy bar, Chloe and Caydi wanted one as well. I told them no because it was Ross's candy and Chloe says 'Well where's our candy that we got together?' and I said 'I gave it to Daddy. Mommy and Daddy have ALL of your candy now, they hold ALL the cards.' Immediately, with no hesitation or thought she then asked me 'Where are YOUR cards?'

LOL!

I gave her a piece of candy just for that.

Phone Book

2009-10-29T06:01:00.001-06:00

While scanning a phone book today I saw that there were more liquor stores than there were libraries. How sad. Come on people, at least read WHILE you drink, like I do.
Just kidding. :)

2009-10-25T02:12:00.003-06:00

This is probably the most boring weekend I've spent in a long time. Now I know I said I cleaned my entire kitchen, but I divided my kitchen into two parts: Kitchen and Dining Room/catch-all. My plan for the other half did not go through yet, but can you blame me? It's SO dirty. The Kitchen half is bee-yoo-ti-ful though. Who knew that my counters were white? And the walls are white too! Believe it or not I'm just sitting here staring at my table, even while typing. I wish I had one gigantic sheet that would just drape over the table and cover everything, even the floor beneath it. One benefit of having a glass table - beauty. One not-so-benefit: see-through. So I suppose that day 2 of my weekend will again be spent on my kitchen, and then my kitchen will be perfect, my frontroom will be semi-perfect, and I can move on to agonizing over my bathroom.

Did I ever tell anyone that I buy clothes as if I'm some kind of celebrity? Doesn't make sense, does it? I'll wear an outfit a couple of times and get a new one. Hard to do since clothes don't fit me right, AND I have less-than-none money. This still makes my room and bathroom fill up with clothes, because there are only so many things that you can fit inside 2 closets, a dresser, 2-80 gallon tubs, and 4 stand-up laundry baskets. Time to throw away clothes? You betcha. :D Either that or time to get a 4 bedroom place - the 4th bedroom could be JUST for clothes. Hmm.. the thought has potential.

Thanks be to Meg for dying my hair. It is now so soft that it won't stay in a ponytail or bobby pins. :D Hm.. maybe those thanks should go to Caydi for making my hair soft. Patting your hair with the backside of the brush works! Ah, if only I were a popular blogger. I could so imagine a few girls feeling foolish but patting their hair anyways to see if it's true. :D

I've been stuck in a gooey cliche 80's love music phase lately. It's embarrassing but oh-so-satisfying. Come on, you know that 'groovy kind of love', 'true', 'missing you', and 'died in your arms tonight' are great songs. :D

And boredom begat a boring blog. Say that 3 times fast.

Annoying Mess & Adorable Caydi

2009-10-23T20:52:00.003-06:00

Since when did my house turn into my mother's? Who knows, but my house is disgusting. No more gross. I won't even take a before photo because it's so absolutely disgusting that those who do not have the swine flu will quickly get it just from looking at the mess. I totally just flipped out because I asked Ross to do the dishes, and he put 5 bowls in the dishwasher and turned it on, leaving all the rest of the dishes in the sink. I've become overrun with gnats with no helpful suggestions on how to get rid of them, and there are cups on the floor. My brothers will open a soup can or a box of mac & cheese and just LEAVE the can and box and cheese powder all over the counter where it will stay until I clean it up. I have other fits where I just leave the boxes to see how long it will take before THEY notice and clean it up - and they notice nothing. I think I could've moved a homeless guy into the building of boxes they left on my counter. Ross lives on cereal as well and every single empty cereal bag from the past month is just tossed on my table. I should get rid of my table. Nobody uses it, it's a catch-all. Only now it's a catch-all for garbage because - oop - the garbage can is full and it's way too hard to take it out. They shave and leave the hair in the sink. They use up their shampoo and leave the empty bottle in the tub - and then use my product! I'm probably not the cleanest person in the world either, but hell, at least my clothes are in a clean pile and a dirty pile, my makeup is organized in piles of eyeshadow and lip gloss and my books are piled on the bookcase in a disorganized order. I put my dishes in the sink, throw away my stinking garbage and do NOT wear the same dirty clothes for 5 days in a row. Sorry Tyler, a normal person does NOT throw away their clothes and buy new ones when the white shirts become too brown.

And the crap just piles up and piles up and I tell them to do the dishes and pick up their clothes and take care of their garbage but it doesn't help. And I just let it sit there because I absolutely hate spending hours scrubbing something that will be a complete mess in a few hours as if there are 10 5yr olds running around instead of 2 damn grown men who should be able to get a towel and clean the juice they just spilled instead of saying 'oops' and walking off with the juice that survived. I buy plastic silverware and paper plates and foam bowls so that I don't have to clean up after them. Ah look, my favorite thing to see - tyler eating hot pockets. That's like 3 messes in one.

So now I've gone on a rampage, putting Meg's kids in front of a tv movie and throwing stuff away left and right. If I see them leave a milk cap on the counter or throwing a granola wrapper under the sink then I'm going to scream bloody murder.

LOL, I swept up the kitchen floor and left all the garbage in the middle of the floor while I typed this - and Tyler couldn't walk across the floor so he finished sweeping it all up. I should just start piling their stuff up in front of things they use, like their bed, the toilet, the microwave. Maybe then they would pick it up.

On a lighter note, Caydi loves brushing my hair. Anytime I pause for a moment she has a brush right on hand to 'fix' my hair. She has this weird habit of patting my hair with the back of the brush a few times before she brushes it. She says it will make my hair soft. LOL!

lalala

2009-10-23T02:06:00.002-06:00

I suppose if my sister can find time to post while she's in class, then I should post in the 8 minutes I have left in my break. :D
I am SO jittery.
So on Wed, I got a sum total of 3 hours of sleep, so yesterday while I was at work I took a total of 4 caffene pills to stay awake, not that many in an 8 hr period, right? But those stayed in my system good so that it took me FOREVER to fall asleep yesterday, I got a lot of stuff done in the MORNING instead of at night, I even cleaned my frontroom - shocker! And the little sleep I did get was restless and filled with strange dreams. Now back to work - back on lovely caffene - AND Abbie will not be coming over this weekend. Maybe Meg will do my hair, maybe not, so I will be on a lonely caffene high this weekend. Maybe that's a good thing, my house deserves the attention LOL!
Oi, I'm bored just thinking about it.
Mark is coming over this weekend though - he's taking a tour at UVU. I'm so GLAD because he's been saying for awhile that he wants to attend ITT Tech, which is, in my opinion, the worst idea he could possibly have. Thank goodness he's thinking about a real college. Maybe I can hook him on it. Mark also shaved his eyebrows off, curteousy of some dickwad thing that Adam said to him. Wish me good luck on getting a picture of it. Maybe I can pull it off when he's sleeping. :D
Any good idea on how to get rid of gnats? I'm being overrun with them.
Once again, the time for front-door decorating is here. I'll have to take a picture of my lovely purple cobweb - spider ring front door. Which reminds me, I have about 9 days to put together my Halloween outfit. I have no idea how to sew, not even with a simple handheld sewing machine. Just give me a needle and thread. It might look bad, but at least I can figure it out.

?

2009-10-14T22:45:00.002-06:00

A unique question posed by my brother Ross:

If the Gecko lizard and the Sobe lizard were to have duel, who do you think will win?

LOL

The Biggest LOSER

2009-10-13T20:59:00.004-06:00

I know that The Biggest Loser is above all just a reality show. Here is one main reason why I usually dislike reality shows intensely. Idiotic producers doing things within the show that they think will keep it interesting.

So far, week after week, people have been out for Tracey's head. This week, one contestent worked SO hard to lose as much weight as possible in order to get Tracey voted off that she ended up fainting. Everyone on the show looked like they were just waiting for the opportunity for Tracey to be gone. Heck, I was waiting for the little backstabber to be gone. And the chance came! The prime opportunity! Adios Tracey!! But wait.. WILL they send Tracey home? She offers up backstabbing idiotic feelings of hate and annoyance every week. YES! Go home!!

Nope.

Of course, like I was suspecting and hoping they would NOT do.. a surprise ending! Someone else OFFERS to go home - yes, volunteers, which sounds very unlikely considering how hard it is to even GET on the show, also thinking about the prize money you could get if you win, if that is something you care about - the dumb reason being offered is that he is 'injured', also stupid because Tracey is pretty sick too and has been since week 1. I wonder how much he got paid to offer to go home?

And everyone on her team jumped on the bandwagon! All these insignificant things like 'trust' and 'emotions' mean nothing in the long run, the fainting is in the past, 'Tracey doesn't know that I'm out for her blood so I'll keep her in the game so we can last another week and I can take her down.' Um.. hello? You can take her out now, give injured guy a better chance to lose weight and get better AND give yourself a better chance at staying in the damn game because Tracey won't be around to backstab you!!

But I'm sure the producers think that we viewers will tune in just so we can watch and dislike Tracey more, so let's keep her around! HA. I'm disappointed and annoyed. Stupid fake reality shows. In my opinion, the challenges, temptations, immunities, rewards, and game play should help them all work harder in order to win them, but it should all ultimately be about getting healthier, not backstabbing someone so the 200 lb girl can stay while the 400 lb girl gets sent home. Give me a break.

.

2009-10-12T18:38:00.001-06:00

I want to DO something. Sitting here just watching it get darker outside day after day is not very entertaining.

2 Things

2009-10-02T16:06:00.003-06:00

When a cashier at a store says "ok - out of $20?" I get this extreme urge to say "no, out of a $50 please."

YES out of a 20. Do you see another number there? Are you afraid that I'm going to say no-wait.. I have $100 here.. so you can cash out a $5 purchase with $120? Wondering if I have change to give you? That's where I would say 'hold on, i have change'. I really really think that one of these days I'm going to give a cashier a $20 and then say 'out of 50 please' and see if I can convince them that they are blind. LOL

I'm sure that all of us SaltLakeCity-ers (used to live there) know how the KJAZZ tv station flies around with a little plane and a banner to advertise the Jazz basketball games. Well here in Utah County (where I live now) we have it better!! They fly around a little plane advertising "The Office"! YES! SO much better than basketball games! That is such a better use of advertising money! I love it! I just wish I had been able to take a picture of it. :D The Office rocks!

ps. Happy Bday to little Liam. Costume bday party at Meg's tonight! YEAH!

Learning the Alphabet

2009-09-30T17:43:00.004-06:00

I bought these punch out letters (like flash cards, but in the shape of letters) for the girls. They also include numbers and symbols. I'm just cracking up while I'm punching them out, Chloe on my left and Caydi on my right. Chloe is collecting all the letters and numbers, Caydi is collecting all the scraps but watching me intently. Caydi's comments are awesome, with every M and N that I punch out she says 'is that a 3?' and I say 'noooo' and she says 'you're RIGHT! It's NOT a three! yay!' like SHE is teaching ME. I love it.

Then I punched out a question mark, which came in two pieces. I got the top part done and gave it to Chloe who plunged into despair: 'oh no! yo

u destroyed it!' I told her it came in two pieces, and gave her the dot. She immediately said 'what is this?' and I said 'it's a question mark!'

'NO' she replies. 'It's not a question mark! It's an idea!'

'An idea?' I ask.

"yep! Look at the idea!" and she started waving the question mark around. I must say, that's a totally awesome way to look at it, a very cool response. It's an idea.If I have any other cute comments on the alphabet, I'll edit the post. :D

Caydi just spent the last few minutes arguing that the L was an I.

And she says that one lowercase a is an A and turns the other one around insisting that it's a B. :D

She also thinks the J is a cane, and everytime I put it into a J she says that it's upside down. LOL

"Period" "Circle" "Period" "Circle" "period" "circle" "period" "you're right! it's a period!"

It also makes me grin when I realize how much the girls know. They still seem so small. So Caydi holds up a couple of S's and says 'what's this?' "S" is all I tell her. 'S-es!' she exclaims. Automatically making it plural because there are two. What a smarty pants. :D

Now Chloe is quizzing me on the letters and on the letter E, which looks like this:

she says "It's an E with a foot in it!"

See the foot?

Knowledge

2009-09-21T21:58:00.005-06:00

Ah, you learn new things every day.

For instance, I learned that you are not truly old until you have to scroll down to find the year you were born while registering for a site. :\

Also, apparently the Guitar Hero website was up and running in the 60s. Not only that, but I was alive in the 60s and got online to log into their site. Who knew?

Tyler

2009-09-14T12:06:00.002-06:00

Here is an interesting conversation with Tyler:

T: I only got 4 books from the library today! Man, I must be getting old!

Me: Yep.

T: Yep, we're getting up there.

Me: Yep.

T: I guess I shouldn't say that WE are getting old huh? Sensitive subject?
Me: Yep, OLD Ty, that's what I call you.

T: Well at least I don't have to worry about what we want to be when we grow up, cause WE'RE already grown up, HUH?

Me: Lies. There are 60-70 yr olds who go to college.

T: Well I don't plan on living that long.

Me: Well I plan on you living that long.

T: Oh yeah? And what you gonna do about it? Kick my ass? Give me the evil eye?

Me: *evil eye*

T: ok ok.. but it won't do much good when I'm DEAD.

Me: I'll go to your grave and make fun of you there then.

T: I hope you have fun doing that cause I won't CARE.

Me: *thinks for a second* I'll put a German flag on your grave.

T: WHAT! You can't do that!! You fiend! You're going to put a Nazi flag on my GRAVE?!

Me: Yep.

T: Crap! You can't do that! I'll haunt you!

Me: Great! Then I'll be able to torture you even better!

T: *pause* Well crap. *pause* Well, at least I know what I'm going to look like when I'm 80 then. Cause I look exactly like Ken, huh?

Me: Yep.

T: One of these days I'm going to stand up to you.

Me: Sit down.

T: *sits down* I guess it won't be today huh.

Me: Nope.

Comments

2009-09-11T22:30:00.004-06:00

So apparently I need to go change the settings on my picture blog, because I am at least NOTIFIED when I get comments on my "regular" blogs.

So I made an awesome discovery. I had comments on my 365 blog! Woot! I had no idea! I saw the little underlined link and thought.. what? Comment?! WHEN?! and had SO many to read!

Thanks aunt Connie!! (it's so weird saying "aunt" first LOL) You are my number one fan (tied with Tara), and if you both didn't leave comments I probably wouldn't write as much.

Jeez I'm bored. How dare Abbie get sick when we had such a fun weekend planned? I order you to stop throwing up Abbie!!

Confuzzled for a criminal

2009-09-10T17:04:00.004-06:00

How can I be so absolutely angered and disgusted with a criminal, and yet still feel offended and affronted in his behalf? Curious.

In the case of the child abuser father who beat his 4 month old daughter to the point where she died with many severe injuries, .. he angers ths shit out of me. He should die.

Hence the point for my further offense that attorneys pointed out that "although he was NOT an illegal immigrant, this felony charge COULD cause him to be deported".

What the holy F is THAT? He is NOT an illegal immigrant. He's a FREAKING citizen of the USA who beat, burned, and threw around a 4 MONTH OLD until she died. You want to try and deport him to a country he does NOT belong to, simply because that is his ethnic culture?! What, is that a simple cheaper way to get rid of a felony criminal? Curse him to the children down south?! He commited the crime, now burn his ass in the electric chair!! What if I did something wrong? Where are you going to send me? England??!

And good for the judge, who wanted to make comments even when he didn't have to, and who stated what a horrific thing it was that the criminal did, and swore that if the legislature did not already have a pre-approved sentence for that specific crime he was charged with, he would've dealt him a worse sentence. Come on, who says you cannot add on jail time?! Fry his ass!

(I approve the death penalty.)

Discoveries

2009-09-03T15:12:00.002-06:00

So I have discovered this fact of life that I should try out; if you live like a happy person, you'll be a happy person.

I have also discovered that when there are tons of dirty clothes surrounding the toilet, WET dirty clothes, that the most likely occurance is that one of your brothers flooded the toilet, and instead of cleaning it out or plunging it, that brother then DOVE into the laundry room, gathered a load of dirty clothes and padded the outside of the toilet with it. I discovered that dirty clothes still soaked with toilet overflow do not smell or feel good against your unknowing feet. I discovered that it is best to discover the cause of wet clothes padded around your toilet BEFORE you flush the toilet yourself.

Luckily I discovered happy fact one before all the rest. So now I will go to sleep on the couch (away from my spider infested room) with my newly washed feet (which IS a positive) having sweet dreams about pickles (because the relish jar dropped and broke this morning and the pickle juice smell never disappears.)

See? Working already! :D

Letter

2009-09-02T02:02:00.003-06:00

Dear God
When I prayed for guidance or help with my finances and my bills, I did not mean to send me MORE bills. I can do that perfectly well on my own. That was more of a 'make things better' prayer, instead of a 'send more troubles that I can struggle through to get stronger' prayer. Just as a future guide, most of my prayers will be of a 'make things better' nature.
Thanks!

Sean Connery

2009-08-30T15:54:00.002-06:00

haha I'm a dork.
Goldfinger came on the television, with a young Sean Connery. oo.. so I turned to Abbie, so I could tell her 'guess what.. that's Sean Connery.. hehe' One of those now-you-see-why-everyone-thinks-he's-handsome-despite-his-old-age things.. and my brain farted. I think I HEARD it fart. I said 'hey look!.. that's.. that's.. hey-- what's his name?' 'Sean Connery' Abbie replies. 'Yeah!' I say.. 'Sean Connery!' 'What about him?' Abbie asks?
'Nothing' I say. 'I just wanted you to tell me who he was so I could tell you who he was.'

Food

2009-08-30T07:56:00.003-06:00

Give a man a tuna sandwich and you will feed him for a day.
Teach a man how to make a tuna sandwich and you will make him happy for a lifetime.
Oh bliss!
Tuna, mayo, relish, cheese, all on a buttery piece of bread and eaten with chips.
Followed swiftly by death by clogged arteries.
But what a yummy death it is!

Chloe part deux

2009-08-29T16:54:00.004-06:00

I was playing a game on my comp while Chloe was watching. When I closed my computer she started rubbing her feet all over the top of my laptop. Stop that, I said, my computer is not a stepping stone. Ok, she pouted.. then she looks up at me and says 'do you have a stepping thing in your bathroom?' You mean a stepping stone? I ask 'yeah, do you have one of those stepping things in your bathroom?' no I say.. I have no stepping stones at all, you will just have to use the floor to walk on, sorry. 'why not?' she asks me. 'mommy has a stepping stone in her bathroom.' laughing I say.. do you mean mommy has a scale in her bathroom? 'yep!... wait, no!' she exclaims. 'mommy doesn't have a scale, mommy has a stepping stone that she steps on all the time! it's in the bathroom!'

LOL!!!

Ghosts

2009-08-29T13:36:00.003-06:00

How do you explain ghosts to a 4 year old? How do you explain anything to a 4 year old? LOL..
Abbie and I are watching the Ghost Whisperer, one of my all time fav tv shows. This ghost appears, of course, and Chloe (who is spending the night), says 'what's wrong with her?' (she says her for guys and him for girls LOL)
I said 'he's a ghost, and she is the only one who can see ghosts. Do you know what a ghost is?'
'yep' she nods.
'What is it?' I just wanted to see her definition.
'I don't know.' Which also makes me laugh. She knows, but she doesn't.
So I tried to explain. A ghost is a spirit, when a person dies.. (confused look) when someone dies all their skin and hair and heart will stop and they are dead and gone, but their spirit, their soul.. (confused look) their thoughts, (I put my hand on her head) their laugh, their happiness and feelings are still around, floting everywhere.. (I waved my fingers) but you can't see them because they have no body, it's invisible. No body.
'They have a body' she replies. 'It's white!'

LOL!!! This must be where the knowing-but-not-knowing comes in. She knows they are white floaty things, but what WERE they? It made me laugh.

A Sad Day For Cross-Stitchers

2009-08-22T04:57:00.000-06:00

Dear WalMart:
I feel very betrayed right now.
Oh how many times I have browsed through your items. How many hundred dollars have fallen from my fingertips into your cash drawer. How oft my faithful words have spilt from my lips against evil boycotters set out to do you harm!
And now I find betrayal is my payment!
Oh WalMart, how it pains me! Since when does the entertainment section matter more to you then my craft needs? What alien doors must I walk through now in order to get my floss and aida cloth? My heart is troubled. I fear it will never again regain the true love I once had for the low-priced variety goodness you offer. Money flow forces me to come back to you, but believe me! I will now repeat my sad tale of anti-craftiness that you have shown yourself to be! (and I will do my xmas shopping ELSEWHERE!)
signed,
a cross-stitch loving former shopper.

ps. And to think, my brother drove into the oncoming traffic lane 3 times, just to put me through your entryway!

Award!

2009-08-21T06:17:00.003-06:00

Lookie! I got an award! An award for my blog! A zombie chicken award! I'm so excited about it! :D I feel like a good blogger now and I must live up to my responsibility and post more. :) Part of the award apparently gives me the ability to pass it on to a couple of bloggers that I feel deserve such a great achievement, so I will think about it before passing it on. The main person I would give it to has already received it!
Also, zombie chicken strangely sounds very accuately descriptive of my life. Also about common topics that we discuss here at work. :D

Mood

2009-08-20T18:55:00.003-06:00

I must be in a mood today. Earlier I believed it was because of my eternal exhaustion, but that cannot be the case right now. I have been slightly to moderately annoyed at every word coming out of anyone's mouth, and have now just stormed into my room in a huff. Ok, that's a lie. I actually looked at my brother, blinked, slowly picked up my book and my phone, and calmly walked down the hall to my room where I softly shut my door and stewed in my indignation.

I cannot help myself. Just imagine that YOU are in a mood, when your 24 yr old manly beard-growing brother who works full time (with benefits!) and has so far made more money in the year then you have, comes up to you and tells you that people have been praising him for being SUCH a good brother. I nodded. Yes, he adds, these people say you are SO good to be helping out your sister the way that you do. (what way? I think. Rather unfairly I suppose, he does help with some things, but remember.. MOOD) I nodded. Well, he says, I am only doing what a good brother OUGHT to do. What kind of brother would I be if I didn't help my sister with the bills when she needed it? Rather aggravated and annoyed now I asked him very calmly, assumedly showing no outward sign of my inward thoughts, 'what bills?'. It is almost like I WANTED to be annoyed. I had to decipher exactly what help he was talking about. If he was talking about buying tires for my car, or oil for my car, or gas for my car.. then OK.. I would accept what a good brother he is for helping. Surely it is not any of his business to help out with my car, even though he uses it every single day. I would grant him his compliment of being SUCH a good brother. But if it was anything else..

It Was.

'Oh you know what bills, paying the rent, buying my food, stuff like that.'

Now my slight to moderate aggravation has turned into if-I-don't-calmly-walk-away-I'm-going-to-smack-your-bearded-good-brother-head-across-the-room. So I walked away. And stewed. My stewing consists of why it is expected of me to take care of all the bills, every single one, while my brother gets compliments and admiration from all surrounding people for deigning himself good-brotherly enough to 'help' me. I have an inkling of 'cut my nose to spite my face' as well, for I almost told him to go live somewhere else, and see how much a favor THEY consider the rent to be. I am angered that I have 3 able-bodied MEN living with me, only one working, and he is doing me a FAVOR by paying his part of the rent and NOTHING else. Did I forget to tell you that he praised himself in front of me because he had to pay the rent AND his phone bill in ONE paycheck, and that it was so hard that he had to LOWER his phone plan to afford it, but he didn't care because he was helping ME?

Imagining over. What WOULD you do?

Well folks, maybe on some days I can play along and say thank you, but today.. I blinked at him.

neice quips

2009-08-13T21:09:00.002-06:00

LOL, my nieces crack me up. When Chloe came over today, I opened the door and she immediately put down the diaper bag she was holding. I said 'hi Chloe!' and she looks at me .. pauses.. then says 'Actually, my hair is dirty. I need a brush!' and promptly walked into my bathroom and started yelling about where the red brush could be. LOL!

My neighbor just came over and we were trading recent gossip, it seems like I haven't talked to her for quite a while. She's a great woman, really friendly and willing to help out, even if she's on the short end of the stick. We have something in common there. :) She brought over a lot of clothes to give to Ross cause her son has outgrown them. Strange to think that a 13 yr old outgrew his clothes and they fit my giant of a 17 yr old brother.
Anyways, she was headed out the door and Caydi pips up 'where you going?' and my neighbor says 'well, I'm going to go next door and see if my daughter is still sleeping or not' 'Why?' Caydi questions. 'Well, we need to call [whoever] and see if this bill can be covered for this grant so that ..' and it went on. I was laughing because Caydi was still looking at her with great interest as if she understood perfectly. Fact is, she probably understood a hell of a lot more then any other normal 2 year old would. But I knew she was probably lost on the conversation. So I said 'she probably doesn't understand anything that you are saying to her' and my neighbor looks back at Caydi and says 'I'm going home so I can pay bills and go shopping!'
Caydi's reaction was priceless. She immediately broke out into a great smile and nodded while saying 'OOOOHHH!' LOL.. yep, she didn't understand the grant situation, but bills and shopping she knows. Shopping she loves. LOL

2009-08-12T20:09:00.006-06:00

I posted on another blog. Not here because of how extremely angry I am. So angry. So here, have a friendly little picture. You deserve it.
I love you dad, that'll never change!

Pic

2009-07-27T18:39:00.002-06:00

I was looking for a pic of my grandma, Ken's mom, so that I could show my friend Susan. She wanted to see if I look anything like her and I told her from the few pictures of her where I can see her face, I don't think I look anything like her. One of the last places I looked to grab her picture was photobucket.. I have a ton of pics on there that I have scanned, and hundreds that I scanned a few years ago when I was visiting my dad in Cali. And I don't know if anyone else has a copy of this, or has seen this, but even if they have I just thought that my family would like to see it.. it's a picture of my Grandma and Grandpa Taylor, along with their then 3 children, Dan, Mark and my mom, and you can tell that my grandma is pregnant. I love this pic.. enjoy! (and leave comments!)

Haha

2009-07-20T10:54:00.001-06:00

Dad kept trying to call me over and over.. my phone was on silent in my purse. When I finally answered the phone I discovered that it was Mark; trying to call the Murray Vision Center. ?
He says, yeah yeah, I know, don't say anything. I'm a little out of it right now cause I didn't get much sleep last night.
But still, I said, you try to call the Murray Vision Center and you call me?! LOL!

*Voiceofangel*

Redboxing Movies.

Airport

Tiredness

LOL

Books.

Caseworkers suck

Bradley Cooper

Glasses

AAAAHHHHH

rambler at the mouth..

Interesting

Smarts

Beatles

Job loss

Beards

Yummy

Root Beer part 2

I have Skill

WOW

Whoops.

Frustrated

You might not have Christmas Spirit, but I DO! (sorta)

Weather Reports?

Teasing Tyler is so fun.

Numbers

Drum Roll...

Anger

Hanukkah

Stuck

Abbie

Ty

Taco Bell

My 24 hr day.

uh...

Gads of books! Mountains of books! Forests of books! Cascades of books!...

@ work

Nothing-ness

Abbieisms

lightening

Whatever, people.

Learn to say Thanks!

Abbie-isms

Genealogy - I am doing it; YOUR genealogy.

Damn You Arby's

Nighttime

intelligence

Cali Cali Cali

Spider Exercises

WoW

Tyler + Technology

Creative Genius

School Sucks.

It's Valentine's, baby.

Laugh

Update

Oh.. Dad

WalMart

Cleaning

Sprinkle Cake

Twenty-Something

Merry Xmas!

Me

Movie

Ah.. Dumb Advertisements.

Happiest States

Bored of the Babies yet?

Confessions of a Toddler

Sides

Smarty-Pants

Phone Book

Annoying Mess & Adorable Caydi

lalala

?

The Biggest LOSER

.

2 Things

Learning the Alphabet

Knowledge

Tyler

Voiceofangel