As You Wish

M.I.A.

2009-05-06T19:04:00.000-07:00

I know I've been missing in action for a while, but I thought I would stop by and let you know I'm still alive and kicking. If there is even anyone still out there.

I'll give a bullet list of things that have been going on to catch you up...

Looking forward to moving to Santa Barbara.
Getting ready for a trip at the end of the month with my mom and Andrew to Santa Barbara to check things out.
Thinking about financial aid, but still not applying for my loans. Loans kind of freak me out.
Fighting off bronchitis. Being sick can suck it.
Watching Sydney White on repeat because I absolutely love that movie.
Patiently waiting for my hair to grow out. It's a long grueling process and I hate it.
Reading "Eat, Pray, Love." So far so good.

Anyway... that's all I have to say for now. I just wanted you all to know that I haven't disappeared, I was just taking a break. See you again soon.

Accepted!

2009-03-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to figure out for a while now what I want to be when I grow up. I decided that I wanted to pursue photography seriously, so I figured the best thing in my case would be to go back to school.

A while back Ashley posted on her blog about the school her father attended and when I clicked on the link to see the school I instantly fell in love. I guess you could say it was love at first sight.

Ever since that day I have been going back to the school's site thinking about how awesome it would be to become a photographer professionally. I've "met" so many fabulous photographers here on the internet that are for the most part self taught. It kind of makes me jealous that they have learned so much by just going out and doing it. I am more of a hands on, show me and I will do kind of girl. If that even makes any sense at all.

Well...I applied for the professional photography program at Brooks Institute and I found out I was accepted! You truly have no idea how completely overcome with excitement I am.

I finally feel like I'm going to do something productive with my life, finish school, and move to a place I've never even visited before. Brooks is in Santa Barbara, CA which is approximately 11 hours (with out traffic) from where I am now. In some ways it seems like a long way, but when I think about the fact that people travel from all around the world to attend school here it makes my commute seem a little insignificant.

Aside from being completely ecstatic about my acceptance I'm also a little sad. Moving to California means leaving behind my family and Andrew. Of course I will visit and I'm sure they will too, but it will still be incredibly difficult to be away. The photography program at Brooks will take me 3 years of intense work to complete, but it will be so worth it.

I better go, I have a ton of paperwork to fill out and financial aid to find. Wish me luck!

Weekend Recap

2009-02-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

Good morning all! I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend whether you were celebrating your love for your special someone or just celebrating the love you have for yourself (because you should totally love you... you are amazing and I said so).

Anyhoozle... I think for this post I'm just going to recap a little bit of each day and call it good.

Friday the 13th, cue spooky music. I had a doctor's appointment in Reno with a neurologist, so we packed up for the weekend and made the 2 hour drive. After the appointment we went to the theater and watched Slumdog Millionaire. It was a really good movie and I'm glad we made it in time to see it.

We made it a semi-early night by checking into the hotel, Summit at Grand Sierra. The Summit rooms are fabulous.

Saturday, Valentine's day, we took advantage of not having any plans and we slept in. It was so nice. The beds in the Summit rooms are so comfy, I wanted to steal one and bring it home with us, but I didn't think we could get it out with out anyone noticing.

Andrew made reservations for dinner at Dolce. The atmosphere is modern and the food was great. I even bought a new dress for the occasion, which I just realized we didn't take any pictures at all over the weekend. Sad.

Sunday we didn't have plans other than driving home, so we slept in once again. It really was a fantastic weekend. Thank you Andrew! You're the best.

My only complaint is that when we got home the heater for some reason decided to stop working, so the house was freezing. Somehow after jiggling some wires and replacing the thermostat it started working again. I hope it stays working because I don't particularly like being cold.

So that's it. I hope you are all having a good Monday. I know that's an oxymoron, but a girl can hope, right?

Side note: I went to the neurologist because for several years now I've been having headaches/ migraines and I was hoping he could give me some answers. A little over a month ago when I first went to see him he told me he wanted me to get a CT scan of my head and do some blood work. At my appointment on Friday he told me the scan looked just fine and he prescribed me some medicine to take when I get my migraines. It was bittersweet to hear that everything is fine with my head. On one hand I'm glad I don't have to have some crazy ridiculous surgery to fix my head, but on the other hand I wish there was some explanation for my head pain other than just because.

Oh and while I'm here typing away I might as well add that when I got my CT scan I had no idea what to expect. When I was taken into the room with the machine I was told lie down on the table. The nurse then proceeded to give me an IV. It then became apparent that she was new to giving IV's and she was unsuccessful on her first attempt on my right arm. I don't know if you have ever had an IV, but it's not the most comfortable feeling having someone poking around in your arm with a needle. She moved to my left arm and was able to get the needle in the right spot. They took the first scan and the nurse came back and told me that she was going to inject some die into the IV and do another scan. She also said that sometimes people get a warm feeling all over or they itch. As soon as she injected me with the die I felt like I peed myself. No kidding. I thought to myself oh great how embarrassing most people feel warm or itchy and I pee myself. No worries I didn't actually pee my pants it just felt like it. Weird.

I'm an Aunt Again!

2009-02-04T12:48:00.000-08:00

Everyone welcome my new niece Kendal onto the scene. My sister, Amber, and her wife, Erin, adopted Kendal around Christmas time and I am so happy for them. She is just a doll. Amber emailed me these pictures of this precious little bundle of joy. I hope we can make a trip to see them sometime soon, I really want to snuggle her.

Goal: February

2009-02-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

Everyone needs to have goals. I've decided I am going to come up with a monthly goal for myself that I will attempt to accomplish within that month.

My goal for February is to drink more water. I need to become a healthier happier version of myself and what better way than to start hydrating myself with water? I'm not saying that I don't ever drink water, but I don't do it near enough. I'm not going to count the ounces I intake in a day and I'm not going to hold myself to 8 glasses a day. I know that drinking more water rather than sugar packed soda or flavored drinks is going to be way better for me.

I'm also not saying that my goal is to give up these other drinks. I have tried too many times in the past to give up drinking soda or other good tasting drinks. I would like to someday stop drinking soda, but for now my goal is only to drink more of the good stuff.

I'm also going to take this opportunity to give a shout out to the 20 Something Blogger's Biggest Loser site. I have joined and was placed on the Red Team. I expect good things to come from joining this group of bloggers in trying to reach our goals and becoming happier and healthier. My goals for joining this group are to lose 10 pounds, get healthier, and drink more water. Hey look at that I'm going to try to accomplish one of those goals this month. I know that my goals are a bit vague, but I don't want to set my sights too high. Once I have a handle on these things I will re-evaluate my goals and set more. I think this is going to work out beautifully and I'm really looking forward to the outcome.

Here's to living a happier, healthier year!

Under Construction

2009-02-02T14:44:00.001-08:00

Please bare with me as I try to fix the mess that is my blog! mmkay! Thanks!

Flash Back

2009-02-02T11:27:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! I'm back. It's been about a month since my last post. I have several reasons for my absence, but I'm not going to bore you with them. Instead I'm going to talk about football. Now ladies before you go running for the hills I guess I could elaborate a bit and say it's a bit more about dance than the actual game of football. Are you still with me? Ok good.

Yesterday as I was watching the pregame coverage of Superbowl XVIII with Andrew I noticed for the first time that it was being held in Tampa, Florida at the Buccaneers stadium. I know this doesn't mean much to most, but exactly 8 years ago Superbowl XXXV hosted the Ravens and Giants. The Ravens beat the Giants with a final score of 34 to 7. You know what else happened that day? I was chosen to perform in the pregame and halftime shows of that game.

Thanks to American All-Star I was chosen as a dancer that was invited to perform in London, England and at Superbowl 35 in Tampa. It was an amazing experience.

When I was in high school I was on the Varsity Dance Team for all 4 years (don't judge). Each year we held a summer camp at the beginning of August and we invited American All-Star staff to come out from Louisiana to conduct a week long camp teaching us several routines a day. At the end of the week we would have a "show off" day for friends and parents to perform the routines that we learned throughout the week. After the performances the staff would give out awards and a select few would be chosen to represent American All-Star as a goodwill performer to travel to whichever destination they chose for that particular year. When I was a junior the location was London, England. (I will save London for another post.) Then from the goodwill performance team they would narrow that number down and invite those young ladies to accompany them to the Superbowl to perform. I was lucky enough to be chosen twice (my junior and senior year).

I don't remember the name of the photographer that took our official pictures, but look at how young I look. Wow 17 years old and thinner. To think that I wanted to lose a few pounds at that time makes me laugh now. That's not how I did my hair for the performance. This was an at the last minute kind of thing, so my hair isn't nearly as cute as it could have been. I was 17 at the time too, so who knows what I was thinking.
Pretty snazzy outfit right? We performed in the pregame show to Sting's song "Roxanne" wearing this outfit. I had no idea until I was on the field practicing that this song was about a hooker. Talk about naive. I remember the girl who was placed right in front of me in our formation was quite large and always had the look of death on her face. When we had our dress rehearsal I noticed that she had her skirt on backwards, so the slits that should have been in the front were showing off her rather large behind. I wasn't about to tell her for fear that she might eat my head.

One of our less attractive outfits would have to be the full body white sweat suits that we had to wear while the National Anthem was being sang by the Backstreet Boys and America the Beautiful by Ray Charles.

Ray Charles was quite funny from what I remember. There was some sort of delay and he was standing on his platform waiting patiently. Finally you hear him say into the microphone, "Can we get this damn show on the road?"

After our dress rehearsal with the Backstreet Boys we were told we could change back into our street clothes. At that point in time I wasn't one of those screaming fans that was absolutely in love with the boy bands. I heard some girls screaming over by one of the tunnels, so I figured I would check it out. You know I was curious. It turns out that they were escorting the Backstreet Boys off the field one at a time with about 10 bodyguards per guy, so the screaming girls wouldn't hurt or attack them. I decided instead of screaming my head off I was just going to go into the tunnel and change my clothes. I bent down to drop my bag by the wall, and stood up to pull my pants off. When I turned around about .25 seconds from dropping my sweats I saw this guy right behind me...Needless to say I didn't undress, I just stood there in shock, first at the fact that there were people there, second these people were men, third most of them were gigantic bodyguards, and fourth I didn't want this guy to think I was trying to undress just for him.

All in all it was nice watching the Superbowl yesterday. It brought back some pretty awesome memories. I need to go through pictures from back then because I didn't have a digital camera. I'll have to scan them and hopefully have some more pictures to blog about.

Good job Steelers! I do have to admit though that I was routing for the Cardinals. After hearing their story and the fact that their franchise has never won a superbowl in their history, it made me want the underdog to win. I was happy with the fact that it was such a good game though. I also decided I need to invest some time in learning the rules of football because sometimes I just don't understand and don't want to bother anyone with my questions.

It feels good to have a post finished and ready to publish.

As You Wish - Sorry for ignoring you. I'm back, I love you, and I will be posting more often I'm sure of it. xoxo

La Tua Cantante

2008-12-31T05:00:00.000-08:00

La Tua Cantante translated means "your singer" and implies being irresistible and enchanting. This line comes from the book New Moon in the Twilight series. I can honestly say that I have found my singer. His name is Andrew and I can only begin to describe the way I feel about him. Today is our 3 year anniversary.

Dearest Andrew ~

I like bullet points, so I'm going to count the ways I love you with bullets (haha kinda sounds like I want to shoot you):

You know I'm nutty and love me all the same.
You make me feel smart (even though we both know I'm a little less than brilliant).
You laugh with me when I do silly things.
I think it's super cute that you are happy with your alone time, but you miss me when I'm gone. (Absence makes the heart grow fonder!)
My parents love you (it wouldn't be a deal breaker if they didn't, but it's definitely a plus... although sometimes I feel they like you more)
You listen when I want to talk about my blog friends.
You listen when I want to talk about random nonsense.
You let me rant about my bad day, bad mood, or anything else less than happy and you hug me and tell me it's going to be alright.
You don't judge me (too harshly) when you catch me dancing or looking in the mirror when I think I'm alone.
You're not a liar.
You always kiss and hug me before you leave.
I knew you loved me long before you had the words to say it.
You like to take silly pictures of me.
I like to pose for the silly pictures you take (most of the time).
If there is something wrong, you try to make it right.
If I can't reach something on the top shelf, you gladly get it for me with that adorable smile on your face.
You watch chick flicks with me.
You make dinner.
You go to McDonald's for cheeseburgers and coke if I'm not feeling well.
You save me from myself on a regular basis.
You call to make sure I made it to work safely if the weather is bad.
You give me the cookie that looks more appetizing.
If you know I'm leaving before you, you put my key in front of your key on the hook.
You help me with the decisions I don't want to make on my own.
You are adorable in all of your fantastic nerdyness (I just made up that word).
You think it's funny when I make up new words.
You love me for me.
You are you!

Our first "date"3 years ago

Yellowstone National Park 6/07

Seattle 11/06

Runnamucca '07

Montana '07

Just us being our silly selves

12/07

Happy 3 year Anniversary Love! I love you very much and I can't wait to see what our future will bring us.

Side note: Happy Anniversary to my parents! They have been married 19 years today.

Puttin' on the Ritz

2008-12-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

This clip is from the movie Young Frankenstein, which apparently is my dad's favorite movie.

One day my mom and I were sitting in the truck waiting for my dad and the song "Puttin' on the Ritz" came on. She started singing it like Frankenstein in the clip. This really doesn't phase me because this is what she does. She then proceeded to tell that the way she was singing was because of the movie and if she sang that part to my dad he would know exactly what she was singing. There was no doubt in her mind that he would get it right away.

Well when my dad returned to the truck I reminded her to sing for my dad. She belted it out in her best impersonation of Frankenstein and my dad looked at her wide eyed and said "did you just say oompa loompa?" I died right then. That was one of the funniest things I have ever witnessed. Keep in mind that I am easily amused. She just knew he would get it and when she crooned "puttin on the riiiiitz" in that special voice of hers he DID NOT get it. I love my parents. They continually fuel my need for laughter.

New Look

2008-12-16T05:15:00.000-08:00

Hello there! So I must know what you think about this new look? It's kind of frustrating changing things around and realizing things are missing. That being said take a look at my blogroll and let me know if anyone is missing, or if you want to be added let me know, I would be more than happy to add you.

I'm not quite sure how I'm feeling about the changes yet. There might be some more minor tweaks to be made in the coming days and maybe a complete overhaul again. Who knows? Let me know what you think if there is anything I should change (not that I would know how, but I could try).

Hammond Family - 12/7/08

2008-12-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

On Sunday the 7th I was lucky enough to be asked to take the Hammond family pictures. Andrew and I are actually quite good friends with Bryon and Angela. They have pretty awesome personalities and I think we all had a good time with the photo shoot (other than it being super cold outside).

They asked that their pictures be taken on these steps because they just finished building this block wall this past summer and they are very proud of it (which they should be because they did a fantastic job).

Chelsea, Grandpa & Grandma Hammond, and Courtney

Bryon and Angela (I call her Angie)

All in all this was a pretty fun shoot. Bryon reminds me of Chandler (from Friends) when he and Monica are trying to take engagement photos. If you aren't sure of what I'm talking about watch the clip below and laugh with me because it's pretty funny. Don't worry Bryon has a good sense of humor.

P.S. Chelsie insisted on wearing those legwarmers. She loves them.

Winter Wonderland...

2008-12-15T05:00:00.000-08:00

...my ass. It's snowing today. When I went out to start my work truck this morning everything was covered in snow.

My original plan was to complain about snow, but because I don't want to be a complete debbie downer I'll give a list of complaints and praises.

I'll start with complaints, so that I'm ending this post on a happy note.

Complaints:

I don't particularly like the cold, therefore I don't particularly like snow. Right now it's 22 degrees.
People drive like lunatics when the weather changes even the slightest little bit.
I have to drive on the freeway part of the way to work and this morning the visibility was about 20 feet in front of me. The only thing I could see other than a white sheet of snow were the red lights of the vehicle in front of me.
I hate how mesmerizing the snow is while you're driving. It's like hey look at me I'm so cool, oops yeah that would be the rumble strip you're driving on.
I haven't been officially diagnosed by a doctor, but I'm pretty sure I have adult ADD and snow is distracting. I mean really distracting. Stupid snow.
Probably one of the worst things ever is when someone rubs it in your face or smashes your face into it. That's rude and just plain mean, so don't do it. Alright?
The roads get so crappy and it's hard to drive like that. I get all sweaty, nervous, white knuckled, and I clench my teeth. Those are not a fun combination in any situation, but especially when it's snowing outside.
Ice is usually a part of the equation when snow is involved. Not only is it possible for vehicles to slide around, but I'm a big ole klutz and I have to be extra careful not to fall on my face.
Did I mention that it's cold?
I hate tracking snow/ water into the house and stepping on it bare foot or in socks.
Having to drive 45 m.p.h. in a 75 m.p.h. zone stinks.

Praises:

Snowball fights can be fun...if I'm in the mood for it.
I would love to build a snowman, because I've never built one before.
I like the crunch sound snow makes when walking in it.

Yeah so there aren't many things I can find to praise snow about, but I'm ok with it. If it could snow and leave the roads alone we could probably be friends, but because it interferes with my driving abilities we are totally not on speaking terms.

Mother nature can do amazing things and be absolutely gorgeous, unfortunately beauty isn't always a pretty princess, she can be a total bitch. I'm just sayin'.

Ok that's all the complaining I will do for now. I hope everyone is having a happy holiday season and don't let my bad mood rub off on you. I'm looking forward to having next week off. I'm not however looking forward to the drive to Montana.

Christmas Shoes

2008-12-11T05:15:00.000-08:00

This song is my favorite Christmas song. It makes me cry everytime I hear it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

"Christmas Shoes" by Newsong

Girl Get Your Scarf On

2008-12-11T05:00:00.000-08:00

Recently I decided to get involved with a scarf exchange that Sarah Marie P and Talia put on. All that was required was to comment on the "Girl Get You Scarf On" post at either of their blogs and they would pair you with someone to exchange a scarf with.

There was a whopping 89 people who participated in this exchange which is totally amazing. As I write there are tons of scarves wandering around the mail system waiting to arrive at their destinations.

Well guess what? I don't have to wait anymore, I was lucky enough to be paired with Susan and look at the lovely gem I received in the mail yesterday.

Susan ~ I love it and I'm so glad we got to meet through this awesome scarf exchange. Thanks to Sarah and Talia for this awesome idea.

Les and Kathy * October 31, 2008

2008-11-25T05:00:00.000-08:00

I can hardly believe I'm actually writing this post right now. The following pictures were taken by yours truly at my very first wedding shoot. I think I went through every emotion possible the night of the wedding (yes it was back on October 31st, sorry for the delay), but most of all I was very thankful that Kathy and Les allowed me to capture their special moment. The wedding was a small, intimate event with the bride and groom's close friends and family.

Keep in mind that I am no professional, but I'm open to constructive criticism. I know there are not many pictures, but these are my favorites of the bunch. Let me know what you think I appreciate the feedback. In no particular order (because blogger won't let me rearrange them) here are the photos...

Cody (the groom's son)

Friend and mother of the bride

Kathy

Les and Kathy

xoxo

Willow Tree Promise Cake Topper

That's my kind of bride (beer in one hand and boquet in the other)

Best wishes Les and Kathy!

Turkey Cookies

2008-11-24T05:00:00.000-08:00

It's the time of year again where as a country we give thanks. Miss Alyssa decided to have a crafty challenge that centers around something thankful for Thanksgiving. I decided to make some Turkey cookies to give out to friends, family, and my co-workers. Don't worry they aren't as gross as they sound. Take a look at the pictures and let me know what you think. In my opinion they are super cute.

This is me being me:

This is me getting caught eating frosting:

This is a turkey cookie (and my lovely assistant's hand):I wouldn't recommend putting them in the oven.

If for some reason I don't post again before Thanksgiving I hope you all have a fabulous Thanksgiving, safe travels, and loads of good food. Take care! xoxo

Ingredients per turkey:
2 cookies
1 chocolate covered cherry
candy corn
chocolate frosting (this is the glue that holds the turkey together)

A Quick Thank You

2008-11-18T07:14:00.000-08:00

Do you remember back when I was contemplating cutting my hair off in a short pixie style? Well if you do remember that you might also remember that I decided I'm going to grow my hair out so that I can cut and donate it. Getting to the point...I was looking at my flickr last night and noticed I had an email. When I opened the email this is what I saw...

Rik aka fotocutr was ever so kind to show me what I would look like if I were to cut my hair in the pixie style. Thank you so much Rik! Maybe when I donate my hair I will give this cut a try, or maybe not...what do you think?

You Could Win!

2008-11-17T17:00:00.000-08:00

Katie aka La Petite Chic is having an amazing giveaway over at her blog and everyone is invited to participate. You should totally go over to her blog and check it out. You could win a Wii console and Wii Fit game. Now that's what I'm talkin' about.

Confession...

2008-11-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

Ok so I’m sure that most of you have heard of the book/ movie Twilight by now. Can I just say…Love, love, love? Wow yeah my obsession with this book, the movie, and vampires could be considered a little loony, but I’ve resigned myself to that fact and I’m over it as you should be.

I haven’t quite finished the book yet, but I’m close. The movie comes out this Friday and I’m super stoked about seeing it. The only problem is I don’t know if it will play in Winnemucca this weekend. If they disappoint me by not showing it I will have to escape to Reno to watch it. I believe Andrew officially thinks I’m crazier by the minute and he thinks going to Reno just to watch a movie is dumb (and a waste of money). He really has no idea does he?

I believe my obsession with vampires started with Interview with the Vampire. This movie came out in 1994 when I was 10 years old. Is that young? Oh well I’m over it once again.

I loved when Kirsten Dunst’s character Claudia was turned into a vampire and her hair changed into tight spiral curls. I wanted my hair to do that. I was jealous.

Now that I've made my confession here are some pictures courtesy of Google images.

Edward & Bella

Beef Supreme

2008-11-11T20:11:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure if you know, but I have puppy fever. You know it's kind of like baby fever, but I want a puppy instead of a baby. For many ~~good~~ reasons we just can't have a puppy right now. With that said a while back Andrew told me that if we get a puppy he wants to name him Beef Supreme. Why? He thinks that would be an awesome name for a dog. Also this is the name of a guy in Idiocracy. Have you seen it? No? Go now and watch it. It's one of those movies that's so dumb it's hilarious.

Today I was doing a google search of puppies and I just had to send Andrew an email that went something like this...

Can't you just imagine calling this little guy Beefy?
Isn't he the cutest? Someone talk Andrew into letting me have this sweet little beefy goodness because he obviously isn't listening to me or my super adorable email.

Another Monday

2008-11-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

Well hello there! Long time no write. I know I know. I would apologize for my absence, but honestly I'm not sorry. I'm more sad about it than anything. I just haven't been in the blogging mood I guess. Hopefully now I'm out of my blog funk and I will be back in action. Keep your fingers crossed, but don't hold your breath (you know just in case).

As soon as I finish editing the pictures I took at the wedding I shot I will post them. Oh that's right I haven't blogged about that. I got to shoot my first wedding on October 31st. It was a small ceremony, and the bride was so nervous. They had a friend there also taking pictures, so that was interesting, but it all turned out pretty good.

I also shot a volleyball game at my old high school. It was fun, tiring, and I now know I need A LOT of practice doing any sort of action photography. I haven't gone through those photos yet, but if there are any good ones I'll be sure to share them.

I'm so excited about what the future holds for me and photography. I know I'm not going to be amazing overnight, that just doesn't happen, but in the meantime I will share with you my attempts to become better.

I hope all is well with everyone!

Daily Me

2008-10-22T05:30:00.000-07:00

I have been seeing some of my fellow bloggers doing what they call a daily me. It's where you take a picture of yourself everyday for a year. Sounds a bit narcissistic right? Well narcissistic or not I'm doing it. It'll be nice in a year to look back and see how I've changed and how incredibly insane I still am. There will be a link to my flickr on the sidebar, so go take a look anytime you like.

Now I Know my ABC's...

2008-10-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

Next time won't you sing with me?

I saw this on Sarah’s blog and decided to fill it out myself. Enjoy!

A - Age: Twenty four getting a little too close to a quarter of a century (picture me nervously biting my fingernails)

B - Band listening to right now: I’m listening to my itunes playlist which includes – Colbie Caillat, Fergie, Celtic Woman, Natasha Bedinglfield, Nicole Scherzinger, Rihanna, Six Pence None the Richer, Taylor Swift, The Dan Band, Christina Aguilera, Chris Daughtry, Cascada, Carrie Underwood, Annie Lennox, David Cook, T.I., M.I.A., Leona Lewis, Katy Perry, and A Fine Frenzy – I like to listen to a mix of things and this playlist keeps me guessing.

C - Career future: In the future I would like to be a well-known self-employed photographer. Is that too much to ask for?

D - Dad’s name: Robert (Bob) Lee Flowers

E - Easiest person to talk to: myself duh! Just kidding Andrew is pretty easy to talk to. He always has the best advice, even though I may not always want to take it.

F - Favorite type of shoe: high heels. They kill my feet, but I still keep coming back for more.

G – Grapes or Grapefruit: Grapes

H – Hometown: Winnemucca, NV woot woot for the Mucc

I – Instrumental talent: haha that’s funny. In fifth grade I played the saxophone for about 5 minutes if that counts.

J – Juice of choice: Apple juice.

K – Koala Bear or Panda Bear: Panda Bears all the way. I’m kind of obsessed.

L - Longest car ride ever: Summer of 2007 Andrew and I drove from Winnemucca to Great Falls, MT to Bozeman, MT to Yellowstone to Butte, MT to Missoula, MT to Kalispell, MT to Glacier National Park, MT to Browning, MT to Great Falls, MT to Winnemucca. It was about 2,604 miles.

M – Middle name: Rose

N - Number of jobs you’ve had: 10
Cashier, Shoes, Jewelry, Clothing at Wal-Mart (the evil empire)
Soda server at Street Vibrations
Office assistant during Christmas break 2002 and 2003
Laborer for a mine during the summers of 2003 and 2004
Athletics customer service at Copeland’s Sports
Receptionist for mining exploration office
Receptionist for a car dealership
Parts runner for a mine
Office manager for a contractor
Admin. Assistant for a mine

O- OCD traits: always wash my hands after using the restroom and I hate to touch the inside of a public restroom door, checking my email and twitter (I don’t think these are bad, but others might… ahem Andrew)

P - Phobia[s]: spiders (I kill several a day at work), not living my life as fully as I would like to, losing those who are close to me

Q - Quote: "I would rather go through this life like a complete and utter retard than have to accept somebody else's miserable reality." - Duets

R - Reason to smile: Andrew, family, friends, life, love, jokes

S - Song you sang last: Probably “You are so beautiful to me…” in the tone of Alfalfa in Little Rascals

T - Time you wake up: On Monday through Thursday I’m usually out of bed by 4:30 a.m. and on Friday through Sunday if we don’t have any plans it's usually between 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

U - Unknown fact about me: Sometimes I can smell the taste of things or vice versa. Does that even make sense?

V - Vegetable you hate: I went through a stage where I didn’t really like mushrooms or broccoli, but I like them now. I don’t like the veins in celery, but I don’t mind celery. I also don’t like the after taste of onions, but I don’t mind them if they are caramelized. Basically I guess I can’t think of any particular veggie I don’t like at the moment.

W - Worst habit: Procrastination, being late and picking at my fingernails (drives Andrew nuts).

X - X-rays you’ve had: teeth, wrist, chest.

Y - Yummiest food my belly likes: Cake, Mexican food, pizza, dessert

Z - Zodiac sign: Aries

Ok now it’s your turn.

A Little Bit of This...A Little Bit of That

2008-10-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

*My friend and neighbor Annie had her baby. She actually had her baby girl back in July, but I'm a little slow to post about it. Annie told me that if her baby was cute she would definitely let me take her picture. Well I'll let you be the judge, but in my opinion she is a beautiful little girl.

*My geology class is going well. I know I was being such a nerd about it, but it's actually really interesting and I'm learning quite a bit. I definitely don't want to be a geologist (not that there is anything wrong with that field), but I'm happy I'm still in the class. So far I've been doing pretty well on the assignments and I got a B on the first test. Today is the second test and I need to STUDY. We are going on a field trip on Saturday to one of the local mines and a geologist is going to give us a tour. I'm taking my camera, so I'll post some pictures when we get back.

*I decided not to cut my hair. I know I really wanted to, but I decided I'm going to grow it out and donate it once it's long enough. I figure that's a win win decision; someone in need of a wig will get one made from the hair I donate and I'll get to have short hair.

*I'm not as gangsta as I originally thought I was. Sad face. For several reasons I'm not taking the hip hop class anymore. I'm sad, but I know it's for the best in the long run. I could go into more details, but that's boring and I'm sure you don't want to hear about it.

*My boss told me I can order business cards. I'm not quite sure why, but I'm so stoked about it. Maybe it's the thought that it means I'm official or something. Or maybe I like the thought of being able to say "here's my card." I know that's cheesy, but I love it.

I guess that's it for now. I hope everyone is doing well and keeping warm as the weather is skipping right over fall and crashing face first into winter. xoxo

An Award...For Me? You Shouldn't Have

2008-10-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

My lovely friend, Miranda, over at Keeper of the Cheerios has given me an award. Let me just say I AM SO EXCITED!! Thank you so much for thinking that I/my blog deserve such an honor. I had resigned myself to the fact that I wasn't ever going to receive an award and I was ok with that. As long as I can continue to write and people stop by and say hi I'm down with that.

I have known Miranda in real life since we were 6 years old. We both moved to Winnemucca in first grade and started school in the same class on the first day back from Christmas break. Not only did we start at the same time in the same class, but we were both late that day because we had doctor's appointments. We were BFF from the very beginning. I wish I had the picture of us smiling as big as we possibly could missing several of our teeth. Those were the good ole days. Not that these aren't good days, but those were the days when the only thing we had to worry about was what fluffy dress we were going to wear to school and which Barbie we wanted to play with.

Miranda - thank you again for the award. You are the best!

Now it's time to nominate 7 blogs that I feel deserve the love. It's difficult to pick only 7 because there are so many great ones, so I'm going to pick 8 (I like even numers better anyway):

Anna (aka ALF) - I Shot a Man in Reno

Ashley - clever blog name here

Emily - EmilyPie

Sarah - Sarah said

Colleen - See Sherm Blog

Sarah - Sensibly Sassy

Kerri - simply, me.

Steph - Those Corwins

There you go ladies. Display your award proudly on your blog (if you want to). Link it to the person who gave you the award, nominate 7 others, and link their blogs on your blog. Last but not least, leave a comment on their blog letting them know that they've been chosen!

My Very First Vlog

2008-10-13T19:00:00.000-07:00

Let me start off by saying yes I know what a dork I am and how completely out of my mind I am. Now that we have that covered... Ashley gave us a challenge to post a video (vlog) and at random she will pick a winner and give out some sort of amazing prize. Well this is my attempt at a video blog. I don't know how many more of these I will be doing because 1) I'm a gigantic dork 2) I don't think I can handle it 3) I got nervous; really nervous (don't ask I have no idea why) 4) For some dumb reason I'm really breathy and I blink A LOT 5) Apparently I also laugh at my dumbness.

So anyway...here is my entry in the contest. I hope you enjoy how special I truly am. Oh and don't you love the screen capture viddler chose for me?

mmmkay?

Fabulous Weekend

2008-10-08T04:07:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was pretty fantastic, so I am going to share with you what went down.

Friday - We joined some friends of ours for breakfast and had a great time chatting and catching up.

Saturday - Andrew decided he wanted to take a break from the deck and make a trip to Reno. I'm always up for anything that gets us away from Winnemucca for a couple of days. When we got to town we went to the new Scheels that was just opened last weekend. It was amazing. That store is huge. It has two gigantic fish tanks that you can walk under, they were handing out free hats, it's two levels, it has a running ferris wheel in the center and an airplane hanging from the ceiling. That isn't even the beginning, but I think you get the point. Here is a picture Andrew took of me while trying on one of the hats. What a goober!

After Scheels we made our way over to the Atlantis buffet to meet up with my parents and grandparents. It was an awesome lunch and I love buffets. I feel like everyone walks away happy, because you can get whatever you want. I won't go into details about what I ate because now that I think about it I'm a little ashamed at the amount of food I consumed.

As an added bonus to our stay in Reno Andrew told me that we would get dressed and go dancing at Bubinga which has a pretty strict dress code for getting in. No street clothes, sneakers, etc. I was pretty excited. I love to dance.

When we were ready to go we made our way downtown and ate some dinner. We ordered some pizza and enjoyed a few alcoholic beverages. I had a strawberry daquiri and Andrew had a couple Dos Equis. Upon finishing dinner Andrew pointed out that there was a little something extra in my purse. When I investigated I saw that there were two pieces of paper folded together. You know what they were? Tickets to So You Think You Can Dance! OMG! That is one of my most favorite shows ever. When tickets were first on sale I decided I wasn't going to buy them this year because I should save my money. Being the sweetheart that he is Andrew took it upon himself to surprise me with tickets. I love him!

We didn't end up going to Bubinga, but that was ok. I was happy watching others dance even if I didn't get to.

This was one of my favorite routines between Kherington and Twitch. I heart Mia Michaels and her ability to choreograph.

Picture time before leaving the hotel:

These are Andrew's shoes. I love these shoes.

Sunday - We did some shopping and made our way home.

Thank you Andrew for such a fabulous weekend. You're the best!

If you are interested in reading about our trip to see the show last year click here.

A Call For Enlightenment

2008-10-02T05:00:00.000-07:00

This is a guest post written by Andrew. Continue on with an open mind and willingness to learn something new. This post is completely non-partisan.

America,

It’s that time again when politics and political hearsay are running wild. It’s my personal opinion that this election is very critical for the future of the USA. I consider myself a skeptical person by nature (especially when it comes to political statements, rumors, and rhetoric) and I truly despise the fact that “wedge” politics are used so often nowadays to decide political outcomes instead of facts about the issues.

While I will never claim to have all the answers nor will I ever try to push my opinions on anyone else; I would like to ask of you the following: Try not to get caught up in the political “spin” and do NOT believe everything you hear from the left wing or right wing media; and be very skeptical about any emails you receive or TV adds you see.

Collectively we, as a people, owe it to ourselves and this great nation not to be tricked or coerced into believing anything. We should be free thinkers, who pay attention to truly important issues and aren’t distracted by fear mongering or other political ploys that may distract us. We must check the facts that are presented to us, and then weigh our personal beliefs, morals, and life experiences against those actual facts to come to our own independent conclusions.

If we fail to base our decisions on facts and fall victim to the lies, then we perpetuate the stereo type of uninformed voters who can be easily manipulated. Unfortunately this is all too common and many elections are won on false pretenses. This rampant onslaught of misinformation that bombards the American people is astonishing and truly does us all a huge disservice.

We are all very busy in this day and age, and are constantly inundated with stories and opinions from every direction. It’s easy to become overwhelmed, throw up your hands, and follow the rest of the flock. I urge you not fall into the perils of becoming one of these sheep who repeats rumors and rhetoric as absolute fact.

I’ve found a couple of non-partisan Fact Checking web sites that are straight forward, quick, and easy to use. They serve to declutter the fog of misleading information and/or lies that surround much of the world today.

http://www.factcheck.org/
http://www.snopes.com/

Here are a few examples of the untruths circulating out there:

1) Obama claimed McCain’s plan for Social Security would have senior’s money at risk in the stock market.
-FALSE – under Bush’s plan supported by McCain, seniors would have the option to put some of their money in the stock market. (link)

2) Claims that McCain said he was a war criminal and had bombed innocent women and children.
-FALSE – twisted account of McCain retelling a story about the document he was forced to sign while being tortured during an interrogation session while he was a POW. (link)

3) Obama is un-American and despises “Old Glory” as proof by removing the flag from his campaign jet, not covering his heart during the National Anthem, and refusal to wear a lapel pin of the flag.
-FALSE – the plane was repainted (as all campaign planes are) and the North American Airlines trademarked stylized depiction of the flag was removed, but there is still a traditional depiction on the aircraft. (link) Technically the popularized photo is true, but over emphasized as other photos show he does cover his heart during the anthem and sings along, and has led Congress in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. (link) He has worn the lapel pin and still does on occasion just like the rest of Congress and the Senate. (link)

4) Multiple statements about Palin including cutting funds for special needs education, demanding that books are banned from the library, was part of an association to get Alaska to succeed from the union, and she pushed for teaching creationism in schools.
-FALSE – these statements are all either misleading or completely false. (link)

5) Multiple statements about Obama including that he is Muslim, was sworn in to Congress using a Quran, and has relations with radical Muslims.
-FALSE – all of these statements are false and are twisted interpretations of some of his past or just made up all together. (link)

Artsy Fartsy

2008-10-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

The lovely and talented ladies over at Sarah Said and Sensibly Sassy decided they wanted to make fall wreaths and invited all who wanted to participate to make their own and post the finished products on October 1st. Well here I am with my wreath and let me tell you it was fun and pretty cheap to do. I got my supplies at Michael's and it only cost me about $13. That's not bad considering pretty much everything was on sale.

So here is my craftiness in pictures.

Before

And after...

So what do you think? This was my first attempt at making a wreath and as I said before it was pretty fun. Maybe I will have to do this again.

ATTENTION: Check back tomorrow for a guest blog from the love of my life, Andrew. I won't be away or anything, but he wrote a pretty amazing piece that I would love to share with the blogosphere.

XOXO

I am so Gangsta

2008-09-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

Last night was my first hip hop class. Hi! Have we met? I’m one of the whitest girls you will ever meet. I haven’t ever taken a hip hop class before and I think it just might be the death of me.

My good friend Tovi is teaching this class and I thought what the heck that should be fun. Well friends let me tell you something; I have done approximately 0.000 exercising in the past four years and I’m feeling it today. Everything hurts. I want to take a hot bubble bath right now and have a drink (preferably something with alcohol in it).

So far so good, but it’s not going to be an easy. Throughout the class I thought to myself you want me to do what with my body? Top rock, huh? And when we started learning some simple freezes (simple?) I thought I was going to break my head off. It was not pretty. I think I’m too old for this. The easiest freeze she taught was putting your head on the floor, your hands on the floor in front of you shoulder width apart, and balancing with your knees on your arms? Does that make sense? I didn’t think so. Anyway…after class I told my friend that my head was saying, “Hey your butt isn’t supposed to be up there. What the heck?”

Sometime in early June next year we will be having a recital, so hopefully by then I won’t look like I’m seizuring about on the stage.

Here’s a picture of my interpretation of what hip hop looks like. This was taken right before I walked out the door to go to class. Peace out!

Hold it...Put Down the Scissors

2008-09-10T05:00:00.000-07:00

* Edited to add pictures at the bottom 9/15/08

Quick stop me before I do something drastic.

I’m thinking about chopping my hair…again. Before I go all nuts-o and grab the nearest pair of scissors I want your honest opinions. I have an oval shaped face and according to most things I’ve read and heard this shape works well with practically any length.

In the past I’ve been one to see a cut, immediately fall in love and call Tovi (my lovely friend and hair stylist) the very next day to make an appointment. Thankfully she has known me for a while and when I tell her what I want she talks me through it before she will even begin. I love her for that. Some stylists just say whatevs and go for it. I’ve been to these stylists before and hated the outcome, but what can you really do? I mean your hair is already cut; the only thing left to do is go shorter or grow it out. This has not been the case with Tovi. I haven’t ever come away from the salon upset with what she’s done to my hair.

Before I show you what you might need to stop me from doing I’ll give you an example of my compulsive behavior. Hopefully this will help you restrain me if this is a terrible idea.

Earlier this year I watched the Miss America reality show and fell in love with one of the contestant’s makeovers which involved bangs and I had to have bangs. That wasn’t a major deal because it wasn’t a bad choice, but nonetheless I did it practically with out thinking about it first.

A couple of months ago I started to get tired of my long hair and wanted something different. I went to Tovi pleading for a change, so she put in some layers and I kept the bangs. Still not bad.

I then decided I needed something really different, so I had her give me an A-line that was pretty dramatic. It was pretty awesome and I was really happy with it. I hadn’t had shorter hair for a while, so it took some getting used to, but it was great.

Last week I went in and asked for it to be shortened a little more, but I wanted to keep the overall A-line look. It’s not bad. I think I liked the dramatic look better, but what’s been done has been done and now I can only move forward. I can either let it grow…or cut it shorter.

This is where I may need a straight jacket and all sharp objects hidden from my sight for a while. I’m contemplating going shorter. Much shorter. Possibly pixie shorter. Are you still with me? Please don’t scratch your eyes out when you see what I’ve been liking lately. Give me your honest opinion and I promise I won’t call Tovi today to make an appointment. I’ll wait at least a couple of weeks to let this one settle in because it’s so different.

Do you love any of these? Hate them all? Let me know what you think. I appreciate the feedback/ constructive criticism.

Here are the pictures of my most recent hair style. What do you think? Leave it? Cut it? Shave it?

*Pictures courtesy of Google images (except the two of me)

Back to School

2008-08-25T05:34:00.000-07:00

It’s that time again; time for school to start. Summer is officially coming to an end. Sad.

I start my geology class tomorrow night at the local college. Am I excited? I’m torn. I’m happy to be dipping my toe into the pool of education again, but I have to admit I’m not really interested in geology. You might be asking why I’m even taking this class. I originally signed up for a photography class and I figured I was already taking one class I might as well sign up for a class that will help me at work. Well… the college cancelled my photography class and now I’m stuck with geology. I could withdraw from it, but I already paid for it and in the end my employer will reimburse me for most of it.

As some of you might know I am an aspiring photographer, NOT an aspiring geologist therefore this is going to be a tough few months. My last day is December 11, not that I’m counting or anything, so please be kind if I’m not able to blog as much. I really will try to keep up, but I might have to stab my eyes out due to the fact that I don’t get geology.

The Odd Couple

2008-08-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

I read this entry from Katie and it gave me inspiration. Thanks Katie!

I have never spoken of my past relationships on my blog and it's for good reason. I am a believer in moving forward and not dwelling on the past. I also believe that you learn from your mistakes and they should make you stronger. That being said you should never forget your past, just store it away in your mind so that you don’t do the same things in the future.

I, like Katie and so many others, “changed” myself for what I thought a guy wanted. I was in a long roller coaster of a relationship in high school and a few years after. I was constantly trying to please someone that could not be pleased. I truly believe that he thrived on being better than me and making me miserable. Of course I could not see that while it was happening because I was too busy trying to be something I was not. At that point I was young, confused, easily swayed, and needing acceptance. Like I said, I was too busy trying to please others that I forgot about the most important person of all. Me. I don’t want to sound conceited, but your own happiness is so important. It’s so much easier to make someone else happy when you yourself are happy.

When I met Andrew I felt like a new person. I finally knew what I wanted and that was him. I was very persistent in my endeavor to win him over. Hold on a second… shouldn’t that have been the other way around? Anyway… like I said I was very persistent. I don’t know if I finally wore him down or if he realized what a catch I was (*snort* excuse me, I just had to laugh at myself), either way I got what I wanted.

I’ve always been myself with Andrew. What you see is what you get… kind of. In public I try to behave myself for the most part, but when we are alone I burp, fart and anything else you can think of that would only be done in the presence of someone as close to you as a relative. TMI? Well… that’s me… no apologies for that.

I’m so thankful for the bond that Andrew and I have. I’ve never felt as close to someone as I do to him. He understands me (for the most part) and he’s ok with my flaws. He always knows what to say to make me feel better and he ALWAYS knows when something is bothering me.

We are two completely different people yet we have so many similarities. He is more rational and logical. I am more random and spur of the moment. We even each other out and we mesh so beautifully together. We enjoy lounging around watching tv, eating cereal for dinner, and for the most part we both have the same sense of style.

Andrew - I love you for you and I'm so happy and thankful that you love me for me.

Letter to an Olympian

2008-08-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

Dearest Mr. Phelps,

Can I call you Michael? Ok good. First I want to start off by congratulating you on your 8 Olympic gold medals. That is quite an accomplishment and you should be very proud of yourself. I have to admit I hadn’t paid much attention to who you were until the Olympics this year, so to me you were just another face/ name in the crowd. Now that I do know who you are, holy cow you’re an amazing athlete.

I heard on the radio yesterday that you are currently single. When asked if you could meet any celebrity who would it be, you answered, “Lindsay Lohan.” WTF? You do realize that she's totally not catching from your team anymore right? Why not date Amanda Beard or Natalie Coughlin. I mean they’re both obviously gorgeous, each are also gold medal winners, you already know them, they’re both swimmers, and you are all sponsored by Speedo. What could be better?

Amanda Beard

Natalie Coughlin

I have also heard many people say that you need to do something about your ears and teeth. You know what? My opinion counts for nothing, but I think you look just fine the way you are. It’s even kind of cute when you are being interviewed and you stutter. Don’t change who you are to fit the mold of what society thinks you should look like (ahem…even though you are a little goofy…*cough). Sorry about that I had to clear my throat.
I watched your interview with Bob Costas and Mark Spitz and I was very touched (not physically you perverts). I could tell you were fighting back tears and honestly if you would have cried it would've been ok. Mark had such beautiful things to say about you and it was a very moving moment in your life.

Mark Spitz in the 70's

(my mom had the biggest crush on him)

Your mom reminds Andrew of Marie Barone, the mother on Everybody Loves Raymond. I think that’s pretty funny. You probably wouldn’t and neither would your mother, but that’s ok. I have to add that I saw your interview with Bob Costas and your mother and she doesn't really seem like Marie Barone. She seems like a very nice lady. For the sake of anyone you might date I hope she isn't like Marie.

Marie Barone
Debbie Phelps

That $550 full body swim thing (official name LZR Racer) that Speedo gave you to wear looks painful and oh so uncomfortable. Is it really necessary? It might cut down on resistance, but you can only stuff so much in there before it gives. You know? One more thing...if you decide to retire from swimming (not that you are or anything) you should definitely cut back on your intake of food. I heard how much you eat in a day and if you aren't swimming and you eat that much you are going to be huge. By huge I mean fat, not huge as in Olympic gold medalist (8 times).

Have a fantastic day!

Much Love,

Allison

I just had to add this next picture because it's so amazing. The photographer is Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair. This is Michael Phelps and Julianne Moore as mermaids. Love this. Mad props to Annie Leibovitz.

*Picture courtesy of Zimbio

*Photos courtesy of Google Images unless otherwise specified

Come on Over...We Finally Have Somewhere For You to Sit

2008-08-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

I've been neglecting my blog for far too long. I’m not going to make excuses for myself and why I’ve been such a slacker, I’m just going to move forward. With that said…

On Friday Andrew and I woke up and decided we wanted to go to McDonald’s for breakfast, go to the hardware store to pick up a few things for the deck, and come home to work on the deck. You know how sometimes things just don’t go as you planned? Umm yeah that would be us on Friday.

I remembered that we got a flier in the mail from a local furniture store stating that they were having a big sale over the weekend, and we decided we would go check it out because we need to replace the appliances in the kitchen. (Side note: we would like to sell the house at some point and we most definitely need to replace several things in the house which includes the refrigerator, range, microwave, dishwasher, etc.) It turns out they didn’t have anything we would actually like to purchase, so we perused the furniture. You know just to look around.

As we wandered through the store we came upon the couch section. It’s always fun to try them out and imagine buying one. Whenever we are in Reno we go into the JC Penney Homestore and sit on our favorite couch in hopes that they would be having a sale we couldn’t refuse. Unfortunately that day has not happened thus far. The fortunate part is that our local store WAS having a sale and we found a couch that we just couldn’t refuse. It was love at first site or sit if you will (if you believe in that sort of thing).

As we were walking past we saw it, it called our names, we gave in to the temptation and made ourselves comfortable. It was beautiful. It was meant to be. The couch was on sale, it was so incredibly comfortable, and we really did need a new couch. The couch we had left no room for anyone else to sit in the living room, it was broken, and it didn’t go with the design we had in mind for our space.

It just so happens that I went to school with the son of the store owner. When I reminded her who I was she exclaimed, “OH you’re the little hottie all the boys used to talk about!” I think I died for a minute just then. Wait a minute…What? Thanks for the compliment, but I’m about 99% sure that the boys you are thinking of never thought that way about me. It was a nice confidence booster, but you don’t have to lie to get us to buy the couch.

By the time we traveled back and forth from the store to our house, to our friend’s house to ask them to borrow their trailer to haul our behemoth couch home, it was too late to work on the deck. Bummer.

We are far from having a complete room, but we have a good start with an amazing new couch. What do you think?

I'm Back!

2008-08-10T21:18:00.000-07:00

I know finally...right? Between working on the deck, the family reunion, and vacation I haven't been blogging. I know shame on me, but I'm here now and guess what? This is my 100th BLOG! I had this fantastic post planned where I would list 100 things about me (probably boring to most), but I couldn't come up with 100 things. I decided I'm not going to wait for the time when I can think of 100 interesting things about myself and instead I will respond to Steph Corwin over at Those Corwins who tagged me. Thanks Steph! I'm also going to add that I've been tagged in the past to do the same thing over here, but it's been several months since then, so I think it's ok.

The rules:

Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I hate sneezing. I hate the feeling it gives me, I hate that it takes my entire body under it's control, and I absolutely hate when I sneeze while driving. I already get distracted by every single thing ever, I don't need a sneeze to make me jerk the car off the road.

2. I haven't ever dyed my hair. Yep that's right this is my natural color and I take pride in it. Side note: yes the carpet does match the curtains just in case you were wondering - Andrew made me say that.

3. I don't like when my elbows get cold when I sleep at night. Very random and quite weird I know, but I just don't like it.

4. I love the outdoors, but I hate when it's too hot, too cold, and the bugs. Ick!

5. One of my ears is pointed. Yes only one. Andrew calls it my Spock ear.

6. When Andrew is out of town I keep a pointed letter opener next to the bed for protection. You know just in case. He thinks I'm silly, but I think it's more for peace of mind than anything.

7. I can't stand the way cotton balls feel. There is just something about it that gives me the heebie-jeebies. Even thinking about it gives my goosebumps. Yuck. Ok I have to stop thinking about it now.

And now for the next 7:

Sensibly Sassy
Keeper of the Cheerios
Sarah Said
Simply, Me
Pink Puffy Sleeves
Gorgeous Footsteps in the Sand
Colleen Sherman

Hopefully sometime in the near future I will be able to sit down, edit pictures, and post them.

Big Teeth

2008-07-16T20:21:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I had a dentist appointment and the dentist's assistant told me I have big teeth. Um...thanks? I already knew that, but the fact that she said it reiterated it. Today I had another appointment and I reminded the assistant of my large chompers. She told me, "don't worry about it. Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock both have big teeth." Well then if I'm going to be compared to these two amazing women I'll take big teeth any day.

I can't help but think they meant that I look more like this...
*Pictures courtesy of Google images

I Love It When You Talk Dirt To Me

2008-07-14T05:30:00.000-07:00

About 3 months ago in April we decided we wanted to build a deck in the backyard. Easy right? Wrong! It started out as a simple deck and when my lovely little engineer (Andrew) started his design process simple turned out to be not so simple after all. Don't get me wrong when the deck is complete it will be super fantastic, but getting to the finished product is easier said than done. Andrew had an amazing idea, he created it in AutoCad, and now we are making his ideas a reality. Here are the pictures of our progress thus far:

Before

Thank God for friends who have friends who have Bobcats (make sense?)

Say goodbye to the crappy cracked concrete slab and say hello to dirt.

This is the remains of the concrete steps that you saw in the first picture. It took Andrew an entire day and a few hours of the next to break that bad boy. He was even using a jack hammer. Those darn steps weren't giving up with out a fight.

This is the remains of the rest of the concrete slab. Take that you cracked POS.

Some more dirt. I promise we have done more than move around some dirt. Bare with me.

Got wood? Hehe.

Bryon (left) and Andrew working the post hole digger auger thing-a-ma-jig and Angie supervising in the background.

He's mine ladies and no you can't have him!

Thank God again for friends that own a concrete mixer. Hallelujah!

My staining work station in our driveway.

Making progress.

Ok picture this...right where he is standing is where the BBQ will be. Isn't he cute pretending to flip a nice juicy steak? Yum I can't wait.

Starting to look like a deck or at least the skeleton of a deck.

This is my favorite part of the deck. It looks like a pair of eyes.

We are further along than this picture, but this is the last picture I took.

This beast totals about 700 square feet. When it's finished (providing we have enough wood) there will be a bench on the left side and a built in BBQ over on the right. Stay tuned for the finished product. It'll be a while I'm sure because this weekend we are going to my family reunion and next Wednesday we leave for Montana for a week and a half. Wooooooo! I'm excited for a vacation if you couldn't tell. I'll still be around blogging and twittering.

My Head is Going to Explode

2008-07-10T05:12:00.000-07:00

Lately I’ve been feeling a bit blah. Does that make sense? I hope so. Nothing very exciting is going on (which isn’t that big of a deal), but I wish I had something super fantastic to blog about. We are building a deck which is pretty awesome. I should have been blogging about it a few months ago, but for some reason I haven’t downloaded any of the pictures yet, so until I do some downloading I have nothing cool to talk about.

I guess I can rant about some things. Do you mind? I apologize if you do because I’m going to do it anyway.

It turns out my aunt (my mom’s sister) does have cancer. She goes in for her second round of chemo today. It really is too bad that she has to go through this. I can’t imagine how she must be feeling. Our family is planning a reunion next weekend in Idaho and I’m really happy we will get to see her. I wish there was some sort of magic remedy we could give her to make it go away. I know all families feel the same way, but it’s especially difficult when it’s someone as close as she is.

This past weekend my aunt’s “partner” passed away (my dad’s sister). The reason I call him her partner is because they were together for 30+ years without getting married and in my opinion calling them boyfriend/ girlfriend is a little insignificant for the amount of time they spent together. Other than his passing the worst part about the whole deal is that because they weren’t married the hospital won’t give my aunt any information about his death. I kind of hate them for that and I’m sure she does too. I know it’s just procedure that they have to follow, but WTF? I know in some states common law marriage is recognized and in that instance they would be able to give her some information, but do you think that’s the way it is? No. Where she lives it’s not recognized, so they’re basically telling her she’s S.O.L. I don’t know the whole story, but I do know that the only way to make funeral arrangements is if one of his family members makes them. Apparently the family he has left is too busy to make it right now, so my aunt is stuck waiting around with no answers, no closure, no loved one to go home to, and a heavy heart.

It’s pretty messed up when your own flesh and blood can’t take time out of their busy schedule to make funeral arrangements and find out the cause of death. It’s also messed up that someone so close to you they should be considered a relative, someone that spent the last 30 years with you, someone that knows you better than anyone else can’t be told anything. It’s not like she’s some stranger or someone he just met. She is as close to being his wife as you can possibly get without some fancy legal paper saying so.

Like I said before I don’t know the whole story and maybe I will find out, but until then I’m going to continue being mad. I know there isn’t anything I can do to change things, but I’m in a poopy mood and I just want to be mad at the situation. So there.

Ok I’m done being a four year old. For now.

On a lighter much happier note I love that without having to say a word Andrew knows that I’m bothered by something and he hugs me, cuddles with me, and tries so hard to make me feel better. Sometimes all you need is love.

Update

2008-06-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

Wow it's been a while. I've missed you all. I have been commenting, but for some reason I just haven't been in the mood for writing. I have lots to write about I just didn't want to type it all out. For now I will just give an update of what we've been up to and I will go into detail at a later time on some of these things.

I bought my very first SLR. Can you say EXCITING? Oh man! I decided to go with the Canon 40d and it's absolutely amazing. So far I'm totally satisfied with this large purchase. I haven't downloaded any of the photos I've taken, but when I do I will post them.
Andrew and I have been working on building a deck in our backyard. I have quite a few pictures to post of our progress, but I still need to download them. Maybe in the next few days you will get to see our progress thus far.
I officially need a new job. It's not that I don't like my job; I really do like it. I have a great boss and coworkers and the work isn't too incredibly hard. The reason I need a new job is because our office building has been infiltrated by creepy crawlies of all kinds. I will name what I've come in contact with up to today: crickets, mormon crickets (yes there is a difference), lizards, snakes, beetles, flies, spiders, vinegaroons (a type of spider), and I'm sure I've missed something, but you get the point. I have seen each and every one of these inside the building and most of them in my office. I can't handle it anymore. I am constantly on edge and paranoid and I think if it doesn't stop soon I will need therapy because of it.

This is a picture of some of the crickets. Notice I only said some. I've been catching them for my boss' son to take fishing. Yuck!

Mormon Cricket
*Picture courtesy of Google images
Vinegaroon
*Picture courtesy of Google Images
These things have been inside my office building. Yuck!

My friend and neighbor Mrs. V is 9 months and 5 days pregnant as of today. We look like we could be sisters. This picture was taken outside the movie theater. It was unintentional, but Mr. and Mrs. V and Andrew and I all showed up to watch Wall-E at the same time. That was one of the best movies ever.

"Second Star to the Right, and Straight on 'til Morning"

2008-06-15T19:49:00.000-07:00

When I was a little girl I watched the movie Peter Pan for the first time and fell in love with the Indian Princess Tigerlily. From that point forward I wanted to be referred to as Tigerlily. My name, Allison, was too plain and I hated it. I informed my family that they must call me Tigerlily and I wouldn't answer to anything else. I ~~was~~ am a demanding person.

One of the funny things about me wanting to be called Tigerlily is not only is that the name of an Indian Princess, but it's also the name of a flower. I'm not comfortable with giving away my full name, but I will tell you that after being adopted my middle and last name both have something to do with flowers.

Tigerlily

Another funny fact about this is before the adoption my mom and dad had to speak with a lawyer on several occasions to fill out paperwork and discuss what would happen. When I decided my name was now Tigerlily my mom began to get nervous. She just knew the judge would ask me what I wanted my name to be and I would tell him Tigerlily. In one of the meetings my parents had with their lawyer my mom asked if the judge would give me the opportunity to tell him what I wanted my name to be. She was relieved to find out that he wouldn't. I don't think the lawyer realized how nervous my mom was. *cue for my mom to wipe the sweat from her brow* It might not have been that big of a deal to most, but it was to her. At the very least she wanted to keep my name Allison on paper.

Recently my mom gave me a package and said she had a surprise for me. I opened the envelope to find the following.She was searching for new makeup and found this eyeshadow and couldn't pass it up. It's perfect!

*Pictures courtesy of Google Images

His Name is...Bob

2008-06-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

One of my earliest memories would have to be from about 22 years ago. I have a terrible memory, so the fact that I remember this is quite strange. I was 2 years old and I can remember seeing the back of my biological father as he walked out the door. I sat with my mom on the coffee table as she cried and I know that was a turning point in both of our lives (a turn for the better). I love my mother dearly and I wouldn’t trade her for anything. Ok well maybe I would trade her for a purse or a new pair of shoes…just kidding. I know that wasn’t even funny I apologize.

Moving forward…

That being said I hated seeing my mom upset, but I hated seeing her date even more. She was mine and no one else’s. I was a very selfish little girl and I wanted her to myself. Then one day when I was about 3 she brought him home. Who was this stranger? Why was he kanoodling my mom? I wasn’t having it. Whenever they sat together on the couch I would sit between them. Remember? She was mine.

I don’t remember this, but I’m told that enough was enough. I had to be stopped. They had heard a rumor that if you give a child a little bit of wine it will make them sleepy. That could be harmless right? I mean just a little won’t hurt. Right? They gave me a couple sips of wine and waited to see if I would drift off to sleep like they were hoping would happen. They were wrong! I was wired beyond belief, worse than before. Not to be cliché, but I was bouncing off the walls. As I write this I have an evil little grin on my face just in case you were wondering. That’s what they get for trying to get some alone time.

The more time they spent together I started getting used to him being around. Don’t get me wrong I still wanted my mom to myself, but that wasn’t happening. When I was 5 they decided to get married. That story has already been told here.

Around 1990 the company they were both working for decided to close its doors, so we moved to Winnemucca. That winter was horribly cold. We were renting a two story house at the time and my bedroom was downstairs. It was right next to the basement and I hated sleeping there by myself. For a few months my step-sister, Amy, came to live with us and while she was there I slept in my room with her. I’m sure she thought I was a loser little kid because she was in high school and I was in first grade, but I thought her and her twin, Amber, were the coolest.

After spending some time around my step-sisters and step-dad I started thinking. I know scary right? I began to realize that my last name wasn’t the same as my mom’s and I didn’t have anyone to call “dad.” This was quite perplexing for me. This had to change. I told my mom I wanted my last name to be the same as hers. She explained to me that the only way for that to happen would be for me to ask my step-dad to adopt me. So…I asked. He gratefully accepted and when I was 8 years old we went to court and my last name became the same as theirs and I had someone to call “dad.”

I’m going to digress for a moment to talk about my grandpa (my mom’s dad). He was AWESOME. I won’t go into too much detail here about my undying affection for him, but I do want to say that when I found out he was dying from cancer my heart was broken. I was too young at the time to fully understand all the details, but I did know that this monster was taking my Poppa from me and I didn’t appreciate it. The day before the adoption he was taken from us. My mom says that he wanted to make sure I was going to be ok before he let go. He knew he was leaving me in good hands with my dad. *clearing throat and wiping tears*

It was difficult to explain to my friends at school how I was able to change my name. They thought that if you were adopted that must mean you came from some orphanage and that your parents weren’t your “real” parents. I spent countless ~~hours~~ minutes explaining myself to them. I think they understood, but I’ll never know.

It has been 16 years since the adoption and I couldn’t be happier with the decision we made. Bob has been the best dad a girl could ask for.

Thank you so much for the life you have helped to give me, for adopting me, for loving me (even though I ~~was~~ am the biggest brat ever), for teasing me, for being there for me, for carrying me from your bed to mine, and for loving my mom. I know I wasn’t always into the thought of you being around, but I can’t imagine for even just one second not having you in my life now. I love you very much and I hope you have a Happy Birthday!

*Side note: Don’t judge my parents for giving me alcohol at such a young age. It really was only a little and I think I turned out fine. I think…

I apologize for the rollercoaster of emotion this post may have caused, but I don’t apologize for the information. I know while writing this I laughed, I cried, I rubbed my hands together in an evil manner, and I loved whole-heartedly.

Exposaroonie Challenge 7 - Your Location

2008-06-12T19:20:00.000-07:00

It's challenge time again! This week's challenge over at Exposaroonie is "Your Location." If you weren't already aware I live in Winnemucca, Nevada otherwise known as "The Mucc." We have a population of about 8,000 people here. Our town was named after Paiute Chief Winnemucca. The meaning of Winnemucca is one moccasin.

Chief Winnemucca had a daughter named Sarah who was often called the Paiute Princess. She lived from about 1842-1891. Sarah was very influential for her time being one of very few educated Paiutes in Nevada. She was able to read and write in English and acted as an interpreter. Sarah was the first Native American woman to obtain a copyright and publish a book. She wrote an autobiography titled Life Among the Paiutes: Their Wrongs and Claims which accounted for the first forty years they had contact with explorers and settlers. There is a statue of Sarah Winnemucca in Washington D.C. at the National Statuary Hall for being a "defender of human rights, an educator," and an author.

You learn something new everyday. Did you ever think you would be learning something about Winnemucca?

Anyhoo...here it is...my entry:

This picture was taken behind one of the oldest buildings in Winnemucca. I really like how it has aged and I had fun trying to find the perfect area to photograph for this challenge.

Winnemucca is pronounced win-uh-muck-uh and it's Nevaaaaada not Nevawda. I'm just sayin'.

OH! I almost forgot if you want to vote for my picture you can go here on Friday June 13. Oh man it's going to be Friday the 13th muahahahaha.

One Year Blogoversary

2008-06-11T19:40:00.000-07:00

I realize this is several days late, but better late than never.

I cannot believe it has been one year since I started blogging. Time sure does go by in the blink of an eye. My mom once told me when I turned twenty-one time would fly. I didn’t believe her. I am now twenty-four and I’m wondering to myself where have the past few years gone? Where have the past 24 years gone for that matter?

I’m at the point in my life where I have to make decisions for myself (not that I won’t be making decisions for the rest of my life, but…). What do I want to be when I grow up? Do I really want to go back to school? What should I make for dinner? Should I clean the house or lay on the couch? You know the important things.

I originally started this blog because of my good friend ALF. I always loved reading her stories and finding out what was going on in her life. I figured it would be a good way to communicate my feelings, laugh at my faults, and let people know what’s happening with out having to make a million phone calls (that of course in an exaggeration because I don’t even know a million people, but you get the point).

I didn’t realize a year ago I would be trying to keep up with 30+ different blogs, or that I would be twittering (you should most definitely follow me by the way), or that there are so many others out there feeling the exact same way I am, and I never imagined I would be participating in a photo challenge. It’s so crazy. And by crazy I mean awesome! I absolutely love that I started to blog.

I’m going to sum up this year with highlights from each month:

2007

June – I bought my very first brand new car.

July – Andrew invited me to meet his friends and family in Montana. While we were there he took me all over Montana from Glacier National Park in the North to Yellowstone in the South. It really was an amazing trip.

August – We went on my very first camping trip ever in Lake Tahoe.

September – We had a surprise party for my mom’s 50^th birthday. So fun!

October – We painted our house all by ourselves.

November – Andrew’s parents came to town to surprise him for his birthday and I kept it a secret from him. We also got to spend Thanksgiving with my aunt. Love her.

December – Andrew and I celebrated 2 years of dating. Woohoo! Go us!

2008

January – I was laid off from my last job. At the time it was terrible news, but when one door closes another is opened. You just have to keep your head up, stay positive, and keep your eyes open for new possibilities.

February – I got a new job working for one of the mining companies near Winnemucca.

March – I turned 24!

April – We found out my dad does not have cancer and his surgery to remove his thyroid went very well.

May – At work I got to change from working eight hour shifts Monday - Friday to ten hour shifts Monday – Thursday. Three day weekends are awesome!

June – Well…June will have to wait another year because we definitely aren’t far enough into it for me to be able to give any highlights.

Thank you to those of you who have been around since the beginning and hello to those of you who are new. I love comments just in case you were wondering, so if you are lurking (reading with out commenting) you should say hi. I don’t bite…that hard.

Exposaroonie Challenge 6 - Friendship Is...

2008-06-06T10:42:00.000-07:00

So...I was a complete slacker (sort of) last week and I didn't submit a photo to the Exposaroonie challenge, but I'm back in action this week.

The challenge for this week is to show what we think "Friendship is." The following picture is of Andrew and I in our backyard. He is always there for me making me laugh, being the shoulder for me to lean on, and listening when I need someone to talk to. Simply put he is the best. I love him and he is one the best friends I have ever had. Thank you for going along with me when I ask you to help me with a photo challenge. You're the sweetest.

If you like my photo you can go here and vote for me. Thank you in advance if you do decide to vote for me.

Walk For The Cure...

2008-06-04T21:44:00.000-07:00

'cause you know I'm too lazy to run.

On Saturday May 31st my mom and I walked 3 miles in the local LaRena Smith Bengoa Run, Walk, or Ride for the Cure. I've wanted to do something like this for a few months now and when I saw the ad at the grocery store I knew I wanted to participate. Not even a week after seeing the ad my mom mentioned that she would be participating in this event for the second year in a row and I told her I was in. She originally wanted to walk 5 miles, but I knew for sure that would be the death of me, so I told her 3 miles would be my limit.

You see I'm quite lazy, I'm not proud of it and I know I need to quit, but I hate being a quitter. Jokes! Once our backyard project is complete I'm going to take exercising more seriously. No really I am. Oh you don't think so? Well...we'll see. Ok fine you're probably right, but I really do want to do something about my laziness.

So...back to the walk.

As some of you may know we had a little bit of a scare with my dad thinking he might have cancer, but thankfully after his surgery we found out his nodules were benign. A few weeks later we were informed that my aunt had lung cancer. I was so happy when we found out my dad didn't have cancer. I thought for sure our family was healthy again. It was time to be happy and celebrate. Not now. The doctor told her the tumor is inoperable and we are still waiting to see what the treatment will be (if there is one).

Fontella Rose

My aunt is one of the most awesome people you will ever meet. She is sweet, kind-hearted, strong-willed, loving, opinionated, creative, humorous and beautiful (just to name a few). When I was in high school she lived with my family and we were so close. She was more like a sister or second mother rather than an aunt. I truly valued her opinion and I asked her for it quite often. Practically everyday before school I would check with her to make sure my outfit for the day matched and I would always put on two different shoes to see which she thought went better (I still do this to this day - thanks for your help Andrew).

She constantly makes me laugh when she says things like, "I need to warsh the windels." Translation - I need to wash the windows. I know you think I'm making fun of you Auntie, but I only do it because I love you and I like to laugh with you. I don't know if you know this, but you are one of my most favorite people ever. I'm always so excited to see you when you come to town or we make the trip to see you.

My aunt has had several battles with illnesses in her life and so far she has beaten them. All I can say is I know this is a rough time, but stay strong. You are so tough I know you can beat this. We all love you very much and we are here for you.

If I could take the pain for you I would. I love you and I’m so proud to have been given the middle name Rose because of you, Ms. Fontella Rose.

During the walk my mom and I both wore a lanyard around our necks that had a picture of my aunt (her sister), my grandparents (her parents), and someone who would like to remain anonymous.

My grandfather passed away in 1992 because of cancer in his lungs, brain, and liver and my grandmother passed in 2002 because of lung cancer. I still to this day miss them both. I really wish they could have been around to meet Andrew and see me grow into the person I am today.

My grandparents on one of their anniversaries

The woman who would like to remain anonymous is very close to my family. She is a wonderful person and I’m so happy to say she is a survivor. I love this woman and her husband as if they were a part of my family. Every time I see these two in person they always get the biggest smiles on their faces and I hope if you are reading this you know how much that means to me. You are such a sweet person and I’m so glad my mom has a friend like you.

*Update – I have been working on writing this for a while now waiting for the perfect moment to post and since beginning to write this we have received an update on my aunt. She was supposed to be going to see the doctor on the 5^th to see if there is any sort of treatment for her situation. The doctor my aunt went to told her she needs to go through a whole new set of tests because in the 20 years she has been a doctor she has dealt with 3 misdiagnosed patients and she wants to make sure that isn’t the case with my aunt. We should be hearing something back in the next couple of weeks, so in the mean time we will be praying that this isn’t cancer.

Google Analytics

2008-06-02T05:30:00.000-07:00

I was reading Wishcake's blog one day and came across this post. I decided I wanted to check out how people find my blog and this is what has happened so far...

allie – ok so this makes sense because that is the name I’m using for this blog
brand new mazda 3 – my very first post on this blog was about my car
everyday conversation – I don't even know what to say...
hairy buttcrack pictures – um…eeeww! This actually came up twice. I know I don’t want to know, but why the heck would you want to see pictures of a hairy buttcrack? This post would have to be the reason these people were led to my blog. Guess what? You aren’t going to find what you’re looking for here.
How 2 wish a birthday – ok?
How long does a gi cocktail work? – Andrew needed a gi cocktail when he was having chest pain.
What to do if heart hurts – go to a doctor.

The following are strange, but they were brought here because of this. Many apologies Julie. I never meant for these creepos to end up here.

Poop and boobs – definitely do not go together.
Poop on boob – um…no!
Pooping boobs – huh?
Poopy boobs – gross!

To those of you who stumbled upon my blog hoping for some sort of poop or boob fetish and your desires were not satisfied I just want to say that you are weird and that is totally disgusting. I’m not judging…I’m just sayin.

Exposaroonie Challenge 4 - Nature's Softer Side

2008-05-23T16:56:00.000-07:00

No thanks to mother nature I was able to take a picture earlier this week when we were on a walk by the golf course in town.

So far I have been really enjoying the challenges for Exposaroonie. I find it quite interesting trying to come up with ideas for each weeks topics.

My entry for Nature's Softer Side:

If you like my picture you should go vote for me here. Please and thank you!

Werd To Yer Mutha

2008-05-22T05:52:00.000-07:00

Dearest Mother Nature,

Let me start off by saying you’re so beautiful. I am in awe of the existence that is you. In my book you’re pretty awesome (my book doesn’t count for much, but still). Thank you for the wonderful sunsets, sunrises, rainbows, and cute little bunnies.

Now that the pleasantries are out of the way I can move on to the real reason for this letter.

It is now May 22 of 2008. May. Not January. It’s snowing. Not cool.

Yesterday it was cold and raining.

Two days ago the wind was blowing so hard you couldn’t see five feet in front of you because the sky was filled with dust.

What happened to the clear skies and 90 degree weather we just had about three days ago?

I would complain about the fact that we went straight from winter to summer skipping spring altogether, but I would prefer warm weather to snow any day.

Then there is this contest I like to compete in every week. You may have heard of it it’s called the Exposaroonie Challenge. If you haven’t heard of it you should definitely check it out. Ashley and Emily did a fantastic job creating it.

The fact that you are being all schizo and changing the weather all the time is making it difficult for me to take my challenge photo. The challenge this week is to take a picture of nature’s softer side and because I’m such a procrastinator I haven’t been able to take a picture of you being soft. The photo is due tonight. TONIGHT. Do you think you could hold off on your PMS for a couple of days, so I can take a decent picture of you and do some yard work? Even if it’s only long enough to take a picture I can handle that, yard work isn’t my favorite anyway.

I don’t know if you’re just having a bad month or your boyfriend broke up with you, but it’ll be alright. You’re better than him (or her, I don’t know what your preference is) and the pain will go away. Don’t take your anger out on us.

Pretty please with a great big cherry tree on top stop this bad weather nonsense. I along with many others would really appreciate it.

Much love and many thanks,

Allison

Dreamweaver

2008-05-20T18:54:00.000-07:00

On Saturday at around 7:00 am we were both sound asleep; both in our own little dream lands. Let me just start off by saying that the only time I remember the dreams I have had are the ones that are super strange. The dream I had Saturday wouldn't really be considered strange, but the fact that I remember it is a little strange.

I guess I was probably at work in an office setting. I wasn't at the place I work now though because there were several women around and in my office I'm the only female. There was this one particular woman who decided it would be fun to hack into my computer and use my account information to buy herself some airline tickets. I'm sure we all know that flying isn't cheap and I was furious. I yelled at her and decided it was a good idea to punch her in the face. What was her reaction? I have no idea because at the moment I swung to punch her in the face I woke up to punching Andrew a few inches below his face. Needless to say he did not appreciate it. He now fears for his life sleeping in the same bed with me.

We both agree we need to upgrade to a king size bed (or california king would be even better). I am a bed hog and I steal the covers. He had no idea what he was getting himself into when he started letting me stay over. Not only do I take up 3/4 of the bed, the entire blanket, and I grind my teeth, he now has to wear a suit of armour to protect himself from my violent women bashing dreams.

Exposaroonie Challenge 3 - Rule of Thirds

2008-05-16T09:35:00.000-07:00

This weeks Exposaroonie Challenge was the Rule of Thirds. Instead of just telling you what it means you can look here or here for an explanation.

I absolutely love taking pictures. I'm not sure what it is about photography that I like so much, but it is freaking awesome.

So...here is my submission. If you like it vote for me here, pretty please. Everyone did an amazing job with this week's challenge. I don't know what it's worth, but I'm impressed.

Zipper Neck

2008-05-14T20:20:00.000-07:00

The name will make sense I promise. Keep reading.

It came to my attention a few weeks ago that my dad has been reading my blog and he commented to Andrew that I never write about him. Dad - I apologize for not writing more about you, this post is just for you. I will keep my eyes open from now on for blogworthy material pertaining to you. I don’t know if you will find that a blessing or a curse, but just remember that you brought it on yourself.

This is long overdue and I apologize for the amount of time it has taken me to do this.

A couple of months ago my Dad had a doctor’s appointment and he found out he would need surgery to remove his thyroid. I was told by my sister, Amy, who has had a similar surgery that my other sister, Amber, who is a nurse told her doctors don’t usually like to remove the entire thyroid. (Got that?) In our Dad’s case the doctor was worried about some nodules that were found and there was a possibility that it could be cancerous. When he was younger he worked for several years in a uranium mine and this worried the doctor. Apparently the only logical answer was to remove the entire thing and start my Dad on medication to treat the cancer if it came to that.

After my Dad’s doctor’s appointment in Reno Andrew and I joined my parents for lunch and as if it were any other conversation they explained to me what was going to happen. It didn’t faze me one bit that he could possibly have cancer. They were so calm in telling me it was almost like this is an everyday occurrence…no big deal. Right? About a week later I received an email from my sister, Amy, which went something like the following:

This is my home, cell, and work number. Call me ASAP.

What the heck is going on? You might think I’m a bad sister, but we don’t usually talk very often, so it was a little strange that she gave me every possible way to reach her. (I’ll blog about that later, no big deal.) After reading her email I immediately picked up the phone and called her at work. She asked how I was doing and I told her I was fine.

Amy - Fine good, fine bad, fine what?
Me – Fine good I guess. Why?
Amy – Well we heard about Dad and I just wanted to make sure you were ok. Amber and I are going to come out for his surgery.

At this point is when I started to worry. My sisters were going to fly to Reno for his surgery, he could possibly have cancer, and the doctor is going to slice open his neck to take out his thyroid. What is wrong with me? Why haven’t I been more worried? Have I been in denial? I hadn’t even thought about taking the time off to go be with him. Am I a bad daughter?
I will be the first to admit that I’m not the quickest person ever, but when I do figure out what’s going on I worry. I don’t worry like a normal person would though. When I start to worry I over think everything. I always think of the worst possible outcome and in my mind that’s what’s going to happen (even though it’s pretty likely it won’t). When I’m thinking clearly I’m pretty logical (for the most part), but once I get myself into worry mode any logical thought to be had goes right out the window and is replaced with gloom and doom.

My Mom reassured me that everything would be fine and there was no need to worry. I knew that was just the typical mother response to calm me down because at this point I was sobbing. My Daddy was not ok. This is not ok. This is the perfect time to worry. Right? The answer for me was yes. My Mom was out of town at the time, so she called my Dad and told him he should call me to let me know what was going to happen. I kept myself from crying while we were on the phone, but it was so hard. I wanted so badly to be strong for him and I didn’t want him to know how worried I was. He also reassured me that everything would be fine. I still wasn’t convinced, but I did feel a little better.

The day of his surgery finally came. We were supposed to meet my parents at the hospital around 10:00 because that’s when he was going to check in. My Mom called a couple of hours before we were supposed to meet and she said they were on their way to the hospital because the two surgeries before my Dad had to cancel. They wanted him as soon as he could get there. When we were finally able to get to the hospital he was already in surgery. I admit I was a little upset I didn’t get to see him before he went in, but I just hoped and prayed that everything would turn out ok.

Once the surgery was over the doctor came in and told my Mom it went well; he was in recovery and it would be about an hour before anyone could see him. About the cancer situation it would be at least a day before they would know anything, so at that point it was inconclusive. When we were finally able to see my Dad he told us he felt better than he ever had after surgery. It felt good to hear him say that.

Andrew and I had to leave Reno that night because we both had to work the next day. I really would have liked to stay with my family, but I had to go to Elko for training. It was kind of tough to concentrate on what I was doing the first half of the day because all I could think about was the possibility that he had cancer.

Around lunch time I was walking out the door to go get something to eat and my phone rang. It was my Mom. I took a deep breath, answered the phone, and she said they just got off the phone with the doctor. He said the nodules were benign (non-cancerous), so he could leave the hospital that day to go home. That was a huge relief.

After returning home I figured he would take it easy and milk the situation until he had to go back to work. Oh no, he was driving around the next day like nothing had happened. I kinda think he’s crazy, but I hope he can’t read letters this small.

I was informed that his stitches were removed the day after the surgery and they were replaced with some thin strips of medical tape. I didn’t know it was ok to remove stitches less than 24 hours after being cut open, but the doctor knows more than I do, so there you go. I told my Mom I hope he didn’t have to sneeze. That would be a pain in the neck…I apologize, that was horrible I know. So now being the funny guy he thinks he is, he’s going around calling himself a “zipper neck” because he thinks his neck wound looks like a zipper. All I have to say is eeeeww.

*Thank you for the thoughts and prayers to those of you who knew ahead of time about his surgery. I really appreciate it and I’m sure he does too.

Happy Birthday Julie!

2008-05-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

I hope your day is super spectacular because you totally deserve it. By the way you are so freaking cute I can hardly stand it. Happy Birthday Poop!

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-11T21:00:00.000-07:00

I have the best Mom ever. I know that there are many people that would argue that their Mom is the best, and those women probably are pretty great, but my Mom truly is the best. I couldn't ask for anything more in a mother.

In the short time I have been alive she has taught me so much and I'm so thankful for each and every day with her. She has always been there for me through the good times and bad. She let me make mistakes and held me while I cried, she was there to watch me dance whenever I had a performance, she very rarely told me no, but when she did she knew it was in my best interest, and she always has the best advice.

I know I'm not perfect, but in my opinion she did a pretty good job raising me. I know ~~I was always the perfect angel~~ it wasn't always easy, but she stayed strong throughout and took the best care of me she knew how.

I don't always show her the appreciation she deserves, but I hope she knows how much she truly means to me.

I want the blogosphere to know on Mother's Day and everyday I love my Mom and I'm so proud she is mine.

Side note: This morning my Mom and I went to breakfast together. When she came to pick me up we were both wearing heels. I came out of the bedroom with a pair of flip flops for when we went shopping after breakfast (sometimes heels are just too much for a Wal-Mart trip). Andrew commented about the fact that I had my flip flops and my Mom chimed in that she did the same thing. Great minds truly do think alike.

Exposaroonie Challenge 2 - Bad Habit

2008-05-11T12:51:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I know the deadline for the challenge was on Thursday and I did submit my photo on time, but I've been pretty busy lately, so I haven't had a chance to blog until now. As you may know from my previous post I'm now participating in the Exposaroonie challenges each week. I posted the following picture and you should go vote for my entry (that is if you like it).

The challenge for this week was "Bad Habit." I'm sure I have a million and one bad habits, but I wasn't sure which one to choose. I finally narrowed it down to chocolate. I love chocolate. It just tastes so darn good, I can't help but want to eat it. Unfortunately my bootie likes chocolate too, so when I eat it it goes straight to my butt, and holds on for dear life.

Here is my entry:

Exposaroonie 1 - Self Portrait

2008-05-01T19:52:00.000-07:00

Remember the PhotoPie challenges I've been posting for? Well...it's been moved from EmilyPie's blog to Exposaroonie. Emily and her friend Ashley made this awesome site and they are now hosting the weekly photo challenges.

If you go to the Exposaroonie link above or click on the Expose Yourself button to the left it will take you to the their site and you can see the other entries and vote for your favorite.

I don't know if it was just me, but I found this challenge tough. I found it difficult to take a picture of myself that I actually liked enough to enter it in the challenge. So...without further ado.

My submission for this week is...

The runners up...

PhotoPie Challenge Week 9

2008-04-24T21:57:00.000-07:00

I was in Elko, Nevada again this week for training, and for some dumb reason I was having blogger's block. I have no good reason for being late yet again with this PhotoPie Challenge, but alas...I am.

This week's topic was something "Hot." While in Elko I was able to go to the Flying Fish and have sushi. I was so excited. I haven't really experienced sushi too much in the past, so it was quite enjoyable. I know my idea of hot is a bit different than others, but my submission for the challenge is the following:

Fire Thai Soup

I got to go to lunch with the people that were training me and the following is what each of us ordered.

I ordered the Phat Lip - Tempura Shrimp, Cream Cheese, Cucumber, Wasabi Crab, and Teriyaki Sauce (It was delicious)

John ordered the Tokyo Ninja (left) - Wasabi Crab, Cucumber, topped with Ahi and Sriracha
Ginni ordered the Rudy (right) - Wasabi Crystal Shrimp and Crab, Avocado, Eel and Sriracha Sauce, topped with Crunchies (Sriracha is HOT)

Jamie ordered the Happy Sumo - Spicy Tuna, Cucumber, Red Jalapeno, Lime, and Tobiko
(I didn't really care for this one. The lime was too overpowering and the little black eggs were crunchy. I kind of felt like I was eating little babies)

All in all I was quite happy with the sushi experience. I want more. If Winnemucca had a sushi restaurant you better believe I would be going there for dinner tonight.

I guess I should also add that the people I went to lunch with don't really know me and when I took out my camera to take pictures I think they thought I was kind of strange. Instead of explaining to them that I wanted to blog about our lunch I just said, "Please don't think I'm strange, but I like to take pictures." They all kind of giggled and then made sure each time a new plate was delivered I got to take a picture before they chowed down.

PhotoPie Challenge Week 8

2008-04-17T21:17:00.000-07:00

For the challenge this week EmilyPie chose "Skies" as the topic. Not to make excuses, but I've been out of town this week in Elko, NV and the weather/ sky was not pretty. I took a few pictures while there and I was quite disappointed with them all. Today when I got home I decided I needed to step it up and take some photos. The following is my submission for this week.

PhotoPie Challenge Weeks 1-7

2008-04-10T20:26:00.000-07:00

I have been reading EmilyPie's blog for a while now and every week she posts a new photography (PhotoPie) challenge. This has been going on now for 7 weeks (well if you're going to get all technical on me it's actually 8 weeks, but there have been 7 challenges) and I haven't been able to participate until now. My old camera took a crapper, so Andrew bought me a new one, and now I'm ready to shoot everything (with my camera that is).

I hope Emily doesn't mind that I'm going to post for all 7 PhotoPie Challenges right now. I know weeks 1-6 are so obviously late, but I'm going to do it anyway. I hope you enjoy.

I'll start with week 7 and work my way backwards, seeing as that's the challenge that's due this week. So here goes...

Week 7 - Work Station

This picture was taken on the couch in our living room. This is where I do most of my blogging.

Week 6 - Favorite Beverage

This challenge was chosen by Emily's guest blogger Ashley.

One of my favorite beverages would have to be an Amaretto Sour. Yum yum!

Week 5 - Spring

When I think of spring I think of new growth. This baby is in our backyard.

Week 4 - Action Shot

This is my mom (left) and my cousin, Pam, dancing.

Week 3 - Landscape

Sunset outside our house.

Week 2 - Candid Portrait

I think my mom kind of scares him...but only kinda.

Week 1 - Macro

I think this is pretty self explanatory, but if not...this is my name.

Dirty Mouth?...Clean It Up!

2008-04-09T19:47:00.000-07:00

Recently Andrew brought to my attention that the mouthwash we use is no good, and by no good I mean I'm never using it again.

Before reading the site that I linked to above Andrew and I both really liked this mouthwash. It doesn't burn the bajeebus out of your mouth, you can swish it for more than a few seconds, and it seemed to get the job done...Right? Well after the above reading I don't know. There are several accounts of brown spots on the teeth, loss of taste, and long term damage. WTF? Are my teeth really looking dingier? I'm pretty sure that I didn't lose any taste, but I've been known to pay little attention to details like this.

One of the things that really bothers me about reading this article was the fact that the active ingredient is cetylpyridinium chloride which is apparently toxic. This person states that the concentration is probably small enough that it probably won't have any effect in small amounts, but what about in the long term. We've been using this mouthwash for around a year now and I really hope that it doesn't affect our teeth or health (it probably won't, but I'm just sayin'). I'm thinkin' that maybe the mad scientists that came up with this stuff were patting themselves on the back. They are secretly laughing all the way to the bank with our money while our mouths and innards are rotting away. Not funny guys. Not funny at all. I hope you're proud of yourselves.

I'm now back to using Listerine again and although it burns something fierce it does a good job. Thank you Mr. Cresty pants for your semi-toxic product. I appreciate it.

New Look

2008-04-07T18:27:00.000-07:00

As some of you may notice there is a new header on my blog. Thanks to Andrew (and photoshop) this was all made possible. I edited my photos on my own and he arranged them to look the way they do now. I would have done it myself, but I don't really know how to use photoshop yet and I didn't feel that the other night was the time to learn.

I figured because it's a little difficult to tell what is going on in some of the pictures I will explain them all. Starting from left to right there are 7 pictures.

This picture was taken at Wal-Mart. I like monkeys, so when Andrew saw that giant one he pointed it out to me. I immediately picked it up and hugged it. He thought it was cute, so he took my picture.

In November 2006 we went to Seattle with Andrew's parents for his birthday. Their gift to him was the trip and tickets to watch the Seahawks play the Raiders. At the gift store I found that awesome blow up helmet and had Andrew take a picture of me with it on. (I know I'm silly.)

In this picture we were at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle (same trip as above). We had gone on the Ride the Ducks of Seattle and the captain of the "amphibious World War II vehicle" gave me a duck bill that when you blow on it, it quacks. I had a lot of fun with that...probably too much fun.

We were in Spencer's and I put on that cute hat and posed for yet another picture.

At the Pacific Science Center in Seattle's gift shop I found a pink hard hat and a huge fake diamond. I wish I would have bought those, they would go perfect as decoration in my office.

In July 2007 we made a trip to Montana to visit Andrew's family and friends. While there we made a trip to Bozeman to see where he went to college and visit his old roommate. At the university bookstore I found those giant "bobcat paws" and...yep you guessed I posed for the camera.

And last, but not least...once again at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, I found that dinosaur head and just had to put it on.

If you haven't figured it out by now I like to be silly and let Andrew take my picture. I'm not sure which one of us enjoys it more, but we both have a good time.

So...what do you think? Do you like it?

S*** or Get Off the Pot

2008-04-07T17:48:00.000-07:00

Today I have a guest blogger. Her name is "Allie Mama" and she just so happens to be my Mom. She saw my post for my proposal challenge and decided she wanted to participate. She doesn't have a blog of her own, so I told her she could be a guest blogger.

Here is her story...

The guilty party involved in the following story

"Ok, so here goes. This is for the proposal challenge.
The year was 1989. We’d been living together for two years in perfect harmony. Every once in a while, Bob would say something like, “Maybe we should think about getting married.” Then he’d drop it and say something like, “Do you think it’s going to snow today?” About that time I’d want to knock him in the head. Well me being me, I decided to make him put up or shut up. Whenever I had something on my mind, I’d pull out the old pen and paper and write it down for all eternity. So that’s what I did!
It was New Year’s Eve eve, and he was working swing shift. When he got home there was a note on the table that said how happy I was with the way things were, but that if he wanted to take it to the next step – ask. Otherwise shut up and let’s just be happy. So in he comes and sits down on the bed. “Um, Um, Um, Um (I’m thinking oh brother!!). So about five minutes later, he popped the question. So I sat up and said, “Um, Um, Um, Um (I figured he deserved that!). So we decided to get married on New Year’s Eve. My Dad and daughter were the witnesses. We went to the Justice of the Peace and got married on a commercial during the big football game. Talk about your Hallmark moments. It was pure romance from start to finish. Anyway, it was meant to be!
New Year’s Eve is our anniversary, and it’s also the day we met at the company holiday party. The first year we met and danced at the stroke of midnight. We had a most romantic “hug” that year. I didn’t see him again until the next year. He got a “kiss” that year and that led to us getting together. That is a story for another challenge."

Happy Belated Birthday 4/4/08!

2008-04-05T11:46:00.001-07:00

Aunt Fontella

Kimberley

I Can't Drive 55!

2008-03-31T22:11:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Juanita!

In case you were wondering Juanita is me. My birthday was Friday and I celebrated with my family Friday night and with some friends Saturday night at a local Mexican food restaurant. When it came time to sing the birthday song the employees of the restaurant told me my name was Juanita…? I had a few drinks by that time, so it was funny.

I’m like a little kid when it comes to my birthday; I always get so excited about it. I think it’s so much fun to have a party and get everyone together. Oh and... it’s more of a birthweek than a birthday. I mean why not celebrate for a whole week? I think it’s a good idea.

For my birthday I was given:

A Nikon Coolpix S51 (which is pretty sweet) and a diamond heart shaped necklace (diamonds are my favorite) from Andrew. He is such a good listener; he got me exactly what I wanted. Many kisses are sent your way Andrew. XOXO

A necklace and small stuffed bear that had a note that said “Bear Hug from Montana.” It’s super cute. The bear also had some chocolates with huckleberry filling attached. If you haven’t ever had huckleberries before I demand you try something huckleberry. It’s pretty much one of my favorite flavors. Mmmmmmmm. Thank you Donna and Gary (Andrew’s parents).
A gift card to MAC makeup. I adore MAC thank you so much Julie (Poop).
A necklace, bracelet, and free visit for hair maintenance. Thank you Tovi! I will see you tomorrow for some good hair TLC!
Cupcakes, a candle, and the movie 13 Going on 30. Thank you Annie and Jim! I apologize if you think our house stinks, but I like the candle anyway. *wink wink*
A speeding ticket and the money to pay for it. Thanks Mom and Dad (for the money that is)! Yep that’s right I got a speeding ticket on my birthday. I was on my way to work and I was running a little late, so I guess I was speeding a little. Ok so maybe I was going 24 miles over the speed limit, but that’s not the point. Ok so it is the point, but it was my birthday, so I thought the highway patrol would take pity on me, but nooooo of course not. Why would he do something like that? He did only give me a ticket for 10 miles over the speed limit which was nice of him cause I’m sure he could have taken my license away or arrested me or something similar. In my defense I haven’t ~~been caught speeding before~~ had a speeding ticket before, but apparently that also counts for nothing. I definitely should have cried when he told me he was giving me a ticket, but I didn’t. Why? I don’t know, maybe it had something to with me thinking about blogging about the incident instead of thinking about what was going on. I did cry when I got to my office though, but only a little. Thanks a lot Mr. Officer for making me cry on my birthday, I hope you're happy with yourself. Yes I know I was in the wrong and I go the speed limit now (on the mine road), but still making someone cry on their birthday isn’t very nice. Did I mention that I was driving a company vehicle? Not a big deal, but I thought I would add it anyway.
I also got some pretty cute cards, so thank you to everyone else too. I thoroughly enjoyed your company and I think we had a pretty good time. Don’t worry Angie that commercial with the shuttle-cock stuck in that guy’s leg is not real.

I have a pretty awesome group of friends and family. Thank you everyone for being so awesome.

Left to right: Annie & Jim, Andrew, Julie (hiding behind Andrew), Tovi, Troy, Angie & Bryon, and in the fun sombrero is me (Juanita)

What an Idiot!

2008-03-27T18:15:00.000-07:00

This morning on my way to work I was listening to the radio. They have this game they call “Where’d it happen?” They find these funny redneck stories, tell you about them, give you multiple places to choose from, and the first person to guess it right is the winner of a prize.

Their story today was about a guy in Chicago who walked into a Muffler store and told the workers to open up the safe. They informed him that the only person with access to the safe was the owner and he wasn’t there. The robber then proceeded to give the workers his phone number explaining that when the owner returned they should call him, so he could come back and rob them. What an idiot!

A few hours later the workers called the guy (and the police) and when he got there the police shot him in the leg. I think he deserved it. If you're going to be an idiot, give yourself up, return to the scene of the crime, and all the while not realize what an idiot you're being...yep you deserve to be shot in the leg.

Damn You Cubicle Clip

2008-03-27T18:00:00.000-07:00

(Picture me shaking my fist in the air at the clip)

Today I was looking on the internet for one of these:

I couldn’t think of what it might be called, so I searched the site using:

Cubicle panel clips
Cubicle panel accessories
Cubicle panel fasteners
Cubicle panel connectors
Cubicle panels
Clips

Not one of those gave me what I was looking for. I knew those darn things had to be somewhere on that site because my boss ordered some panels along with the aforementioned “darn things,” but for some reason I couldn’t find them. I also scanned through the catalog and couldn’t find them. I didn’t look through the catalog with an eagle eye though because it’s 4,070 pages.

I resorted to the only thing I could think of that would help me. Nooo I didn’t go ask my boss what they were called, of course not. I called Andrew. He knows I’m special and he doesn’t judge me for it. The longer I can keep it a secret from the people I work with the better, especially my boss. So when I called him this is what happened:

Me - I need help. I’m going to explain to you what I’m looking for and hopefully you can tell me what they're called.
Andrew - Ok.
Me - You know what a cubicle looks like? You know how there are those things that hold them together?
Andrew - …?
Me – When you have two sections of panels and you need to hold them together there are those things…
Andrew – I know what you mean I just don’t know what they are called.

He then proceeded to go to the site I was looking on.

Andrew – I think I found them.

Mind you about 2 seconds had gone by.

Me – What did you type in?
Andrew – Cubicle.

I typed Cubicle in the search.

Me – grumble grumble That is exactly what I was looking for.
Andrew – Did you try using Google to figure out what they were called?
Me – No because I wanted to order them from this specific site.
Andrew – The Google machine can still help you figure out what they’re called.
Me – Yeah well I didn’t think of that.
Andrew - You just need more experience Googling stuff.
Pause…
Me – I’m missing the part of my brain that knows stuff.

Money, Money, Money, Munay…MUNNAAAY

2008-03-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

Words to live by:

“If you don’t hold onto your money now, life will pull down your pants and punch you in the money bags.” - Suze Orman (who is actually Kristen Wiig) on SNL

Everyday Conversation

2008-03-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

We decided we wanted to have cereal for dinner the other night (because it was easy and good) and this is the conversation we had:

Andrew - Do you want Fiber One?

Me - Eew no. I already pooped today.

Andrew - It's not for today...it's for tomorrow.

The reason we have Fiber One in the first place was for this recipe and this one too. We tried the cheese sticks and they were pretty good for a healthy option. We haven't tried the chicken yet, but I think it looks good.

How We Met - The Proposal Challenge

2008-03-21T23:12:00.000-07:00

So far it looks like I’m the only one that is going to take my challenge. That’s alright I see how it is.

Andrew and I are living in sin, so I’m going to tell you about how we met. I think it would be fun to talk about a fantasy proposal, but I want it to be organic and happen on it’s own with out any persuasion from me (not that I don’t want one, but…).

Here goes…

Andrew moved here from Montana to take a job with a local mine in January of 2005. I started working for the same company a short time after that, but I wasn’t available at the time. I’m not the type of person that has a wandering eye and I dedicate myself to the person I’m with, so I didn’t notice Andrew in the beginning. I think it’s only fair to your significant other and respectful (even if you despise them) to be faithful. I’m all about r-e-s-p-e-c-t. After I wizened up (became single) I took some time and started to take notice of a very good looking guy in the department I was working for (Andrew).

In the beginning I totally thought he saw me as an idiot. In my mind I was that dumb girl that couldn’t figure out the copy machine right across from his desk. He constantly had to save me from myself when I tried to use/ break it.

I started flirting with him, asking him a million questions, and I always tried to find reasons to be in the vicinity with him. At the time he was working for two different mine sites owned by the same company, so no matter which site he was at I would try to spend a little more time at that particular site. I’m not sure if he knows that or not, but now he will. I was working as a Parts Runner, so I was able to travel between these two sites quite frequently. I had such a huge crush on him and I really wanted him to notice me. I told him about the local comedy night that occurred every Thursday and I told him he should join my friend and I sometime.

The only time I got to see him outside of work was on the weekend going to dinner or out to bars. I took what I could get in the beginning because he told me he wouldn't tell me where his house was. His reasoning...he was afraid that if he told me I would never leave. Fast forward for a minute...he was right. Now he's stuck with me because I won't leave.

Ok back to the beginning again. The first time we ever went out alone was to a local bar in early February. We were having a good time, we had a few (several) drinks, and I remember we were playing pool. It was a Thursday night, so there were only a few people in the bar. I kept trying to talk him into calling in sick the next day, so we could stay out later. Secretly I just didn't want to go home (or him to go home) because I knew that would be the end of our evening together. I'm going to confess now that I'm a light weight when it comes to drinking, so I was pretty tipsy playing pool. The next part is a little fuzzy, but I still know what happened. Andrew was sitting on a stool leaning against one of the tables beside the pool table all smooth like and that's when I pounced. It was more of a I'm trying to be sexy, so don't think I'm stupid kind of pounce. I leaned in real slow and kissed him. It was heaven. I was so excited. I actually kissed him.

Next. (This is how it should have happened) He took me in his arms and confessed that he had been dying to kiss me from the first time he laid eyes on me, but nnnooooooo. You wanna know what really happened? Whether you do or not here's the cold hard truth. Approximately two minutes after I practically threw myself at him I had to excuse myself to the ladies' room to vomit. How sexy is that?

I returned to the bar trying to compose myself along the way and I decided it would be a good idea to down two huge glasses of water. Guess what? Not such a good idea. I then returned to the bathroom to spew once more. I'm sure at this point he was so impressed.

Upon my return to the bar I decided this time I would sip my water more slowly. This surely would cure my ailment. Once again I had to excuse myself and... yep you guessed it...I had to be sick...again!

This is when Andrew decided it would be a good idea to take me home. In hindsight it was probably for the best.

After falling asleep in the passenger seat of his car he woke me up long enough to drop me off at my house, and drove himself home probably thanking his lucky stars the night was finally over. I found my way to my bed and woke up the next morning naked from the waste down with a very hazy recollection of the past evening.

So that's how it all started. There it is in all it's gloriousness.

Spring Fever

2008-03-20T16:00:00.000-07:00

Happy First Day of Spring! This is always an exciting time of year because it means it’s time for the weather to get warm again. It’s time to break out the flip flops, tank tops, and fruity drinks with little umbrellas (well…it’s always time for drinks, but you get the point). I hate being cold, so it’s always nice knowing there is warm weather right around the corner.

According to the radio it is also Proposal Day. What’s that you may be asking? Well simply put it’s a day to celebrate popping the question, gettin’ down on one knee, asking for her (or his) hand in marriage. I wondered how they could even know that and where they get their information, so I used the Google machine and this site shows that it truly is Proposal Day as well as Absolutely Incredible Kid Day, Sweater Day (Happy Birthday to Mr. Rogers R.I.P.), Companies That Care Day, Snowman Burning, and many others. I had no idea until going to this site that there were so many things to celebrate. I mean I’m very thankful for many things, but I had no idea there were special days to celebrate such as Awkward Moments Day (3/18) or Planet Uranus Day (3/13).

So I am giving my readers (fellow bloggers) a challenge or meme if you want to call it that, but I would like to name it The Proposal Challenge. I would like to know how your significant other proposed to you. If you have already written about it give me a link to it, if you haven’t, comment to me about it or post a blog about it (then let me know). I’m just being (nosy) curious about how it all went down. If you are not married tell me how you would like to be proposed to or how you met your partner. This is meant in fun, so don’t stress over it. Like I said before I’m just curious. If you think I’m silly for this I completely understand, I know I’m silly, but you gotta admit you are curious how it happened to other people. Right? So get to it, you are officially tagged. I wait in anticipation of your responses.

Happy Birthday Janice! 3/19/08

2008-03-19T06:45:00.000-07:00

What's the Point...

2008-03-14T19:18:00.001-07:00

in going to the doctor if they aren't really going to tell you what's wrong with you? I mean they went to school for how long and they aren't really giving you any good information. Or at least that's how I'm feeling at the moment.

I was feeling pretty lucky because I hadn't gotten sick like everyone else in the area and it finally came around to bite me in the butt. I started to get a tickle in my throat on Tuesday and it just escalated from there. I didn't go to work yesterday or today, because I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate me hacking (coughing) all over the place. I actually don't cough very often, but when I do it sucks large anus and just now as I'm writing this I had a sneezing fit that didn't treat me too nicely. It also hurts to talk for long periods of time and if you know me at all you know that it's practically impossible for me to be quiet.

I called yesterday to get an appointment with the doctor and there weren't any available, so they gave me one for today. While on the phone the nurse asked what the problem was and I told her I have a soar throat and my head hurts. So today I stayed home from work to go to my doctor's appointment and when I got there I had to fill out a million forms (all with practically the same information on them and yes I am exaggerating, but I'm sick...so there), then when they called me back the nurse asked me what the problem was, so I told her. She took my vitals and told me the doctor would be in shortly. A little while later the doctor came in, sat down, and asked what the problem was. Seriously it says on the paper right in front of you what is wrong with me and I'm pretty sure the lady in here before you wrote down that it hurts for me to talk. Anyway...he listened to my breathing, looked in my ears, nose and mouth and asked, "Did she take a throat swab?" I said no, so he just walked out. A minute later the nurse walked in and said, "Was it you I was supposed to give the throat swab to, because he said 'give him a throat swab?'" Well as you can see I'm not a man, but yes I am the one that needs a throat swab. (Apparently the throat swab will tell if I have Strep. throat or not.)

The doctor came back in and said, "the test came back negative, but I'm going to treat you for Strep. anyway." Ummm ok...I guess...Whatever you say. You're the doctor right?

I apologize if this was an incoherent rambling of a sick person (physically, not mentally), but I wanted to do something other than sleep and shovel cough drops into my mouth like they were candy. I hope you are all feeling well.

Oh and there are a couple of good things to come out of being sick: Andrew is taking good care of me and I have insurance! Woohoo!

I'm a Miner!

2008-03-11T17:55:00.000-07:00

Ok so I'm not really a "miner", but I do work for a mine now. I have been working there for two weeks now and I think it is finally time I talked about it for a minute or two. I got a job with this mine which is about 45 minutes from where I live which might not seem that appealing, but they gave me a company vehicle to drive, so I won't complain too much. Let me take a minute to add that if you have any questions about mining go ahead and ask. I have been around this business my whole life and I take it for granted sometimes that people just know what it's all about. I will warn you though I won't go into too much detail about the mine I am working for because...well...I don't want to get fired.

One of the scary things about my job is going underground. I am slightly claustrophobic and it can be dangerous. You have to be aware of your surroundings at all times, watch above and below you, and keep track of where you are, so should there ever be an emergency you can get yourself to safety.

I don't know if you can see it, but next to the water tank there is a small haul truck. I know it might not seem small compared to most vehicles, but compared to the other haul trucks I have seen this is just a baby.

The road and mountain along the back are part of the open pit.

Now for the underground pictures (I know you are so excited):

I am the one on the far left with my light shining directly at the camera. I don't know if you can tell, but I have a "pageant smile." (Andrew calls my smile a "pageant smile" because it's always very large and shows every single one of my teeth.) You may also notice my attire. I am wearing a pair of coveralls. They are not flattering at all, but they keep your clothes underneath clean.

This is a piece of equipment used to drill holes in the walls of the underground to put explosives in.

The wire mesh and those dark squares are used to hold the ceiling in place.

It's always nice to know which way the exit is.

This sign says "primary escape."

This is called a refuge chamber. If there is ever an emergency underground this is where we are supposed to seek shelter. This thing is tiny and God help the people that would be stuck in this thing with me if we have to use it. Like I said before I am slightly claustrophic and this pop can just isn't big enough.

This is an example of what it looks like underground. There are no lights other than the cap lamp on the forehead of your hard hat, so it's very dark. Imagine a night when the moon is hidden behind the clouds and it's really dark...take that and multiply it by about 100...that's what it's like underground. Completely and utterly pitch black. You can't even see your own hand in front of your face if you turn your cap lamp off. I am going to go ahead and confess now that I am afraid of the dark, so once again God help those around me if my lamp ever goes out.

When I looked straight down this is what I saw. Water. If you dig far enough into the ground you will eventually find water. This is why mines have a dewatering system in place. Unfortunately it doesn't always get all the water and because I am height challenged the water at some points came close to my knees.

Um...My Heart Hurts

2008-03-06T19:15:00.000-08:00

A few nights ago Andrew got a sharp pain in his chest when we were getting ready to go to bed and didn’t think much of it. (Don’t worry he didn’t have a heart attack.) All day Tuesday he felt tension in his chest and it wouldn’t go away, so he decided to go on Web MD to see what it had to say. No matter what he typed in or clicked on, it told him he should be seeking immediate medical attention. So what did he do? He waited until I was off work to drive the 10 minutes from my mine site to his to pick him up and take him 45 minutes back to town to the emergency room.

When we got there he went to sign in and told the guy at the desk he had been having sharp pains in his chest and a continual tension. There were 3 or 4 people already waiting to get in, but I didn’t think we would have to wait because well…he’s been having chest pains. The guy told him to have a seat and they would get him back as soon as they could. Two and a half hours later they called him back. Let me repeat that…Two. And. A. Half. Hours. Later. The nurse took his vitals, asked him what the issue was, and sent us back to the waiting room because they didn’t have a room available yet.

If you have a bad memory like me you may have already forgotten what the problem is, so being the nice gal I am I’ll remind you. He has been having CHEST PAIN. While we were waiting my Dad called. This is how the conversation went down:
Dad: “You got a letter from (the place I work), and I wasn’t sure if it was important, so I stopped by your house and the lights are out and no one answered the door.”
Me: “That’s because we aren’t home…we’re at the emergency room”
I then proceeded to explain why and he said: “You’ve been there that long and they haven’t taken an EKG or anything????”
Me: “Nope. Apparently chest pain isn’t a big deal around here.”
Dad: “I’d be suing the hospital for $8 billion if there ends up being something wrong.”
Oh only $8 billion huh? Wow! We had a pretty good laugh about that.

They finally took him back and set him up for an EKG which involved several sticky patches attached to the hairiest part of his chest and lots of wires. The nurse laughed saying it was going to be fun ripping those off afterward and she told me I could do the honors if I wanted to. I liked her, but for some reason Andrew didn't find the humor. There was a monitor behind his head that showed his vitals and I had a pretty good time giving him the play by play of what it said. I have no idea what most of it meant, but I made it up as I went. At one point there was a loud beeping going on and flashing red lights and we both thought he was dying. Apparently we were wrong because no one came running and thankfully he is still alive. The EKG showed his heart is doing great, so that wasn't the issue.

The doctor poked, prodded, asked tons of questions, and decided to give him a GI Cocktail to see if it was heartburn. All that did was make his throat numb. Awesome. They then proceeded to take a chest x-ray which also showed his chest doing great. So you may be wondering what was wrong with him. Well honestly we don’t know and the doctor didn’t either. She thought it might be inflammation in the chest wall, so she ordered a shot of something that started with a T, 800 mg of ibuprofen every 8 hours, and if the pain returns he should go back to the hospital. Hmmmm…Did that help? No. Do we feel better about the situation? No. What are we going to do now? I don’t know.

OH…while we were waiting for the results of the x-ray we had to keep ourselves occupied (keep in mind that we were there for a total of 4 hours), so you know what we did? I’m kind of embarrassed to say, but Andrew was trying to teach me how to blow air out of the bottom of my mouth. You know how when you stick out your tongue and blow it makes a silly farty noise and your top lip kind of just flails around? Oh you don’t know. Dang it. Well take my word for it. So anyway when Andrew does this it is reversed and the air comes out of the bottom of his mouth and makes his bottom lip flail about. I couldn’t get it right for the life of me. The other people in the emergency room probably thought I was farting myself to death in our room.

When the doctor first entered our room she told us we had to stop laughing. I’m pretty sure she was joking, but she had to remind us we were in the ER. Side note: occasionally I revert back to about four years old just in case you were wondering. I was delirious, we were hungry, and Andrew was ready to tell them he felt better just to get out of there.

FYI: Just so you don’t think we’re some kind of freaks that think heart or chest problems are a laughing matter I thought you should know that Andrew was feeling fine and wanted to keep the mood light. If he wouldn’t have been feeling well or the pain returned believe me I wouldn’t have been laughing.

Think Before You Speak

2008-03-04T06:00:00.000-08:00

Let me start off by saying that Andrew does not like dark chocolate. I don’t either, but that’s not the point. We were in a gas station the other day pondering what to get and we stopped by the candy. Andrew is very fond of coconut and milk chocolate, so he was considering an Almond Joy or Mounds. Well…Mounds are made with dark chocolate, so that was definitely out and Almond Joys have nuts (he doesn’t particularly like nuts either). What to do? What to do? So I say, “Why don’t you get the Almond Joy and I'll eat your nuts?” He thought that was hysterical and took it upon himself to tell my parents the “funny” story.

You Wanna Do What To My Hair?

2008-02-27T20:37:00.000-08:00

I had to go to our local clinic today for a physical and drug screen for my new job. Let me start by saying it was such a pain. As you might have read here you know I hate doing a urine test. Today I managed to make it through peeing in a cup with out urinating all over myself (score for me). The worst part of today was not only did I have to pee in a cup, but my company also requires a hair sample to be taken. Apparently drugs can stay in your hair for a long time and it is a pretty accurate indicator of whether or not you have done drugs. The nurse asked me to sit in a chair and she separated my hair and cut a chunk out of the back at the root. That's right I said a chunk. I was very unhappy when I turned around and saw the amount of hair she cut off. It isn't at all noticable when you look at my hair, but I found the spot later in no time at all. Yes I am bitter, but I will get over it.

While I was sitting in the waiting room a guy and his 3 or 4 year old daughter walked in. I then witnessed this conversation between the two of them:

Girl - "What is that?"
Dad - "Chalk."
Girl - "Cock?"
Dad - "Chhhalllk."
Girl - "...Cock!"

I thought to myself oh the innocence of youth...how cute.

Sledding Is AWESOME!

2008-02-25T19:24:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we went sledding with some friends. It was so much fun!

This is Angie and I at the bottom of the hill.Andrew
He got some pretty good air.

Andrew building/ engineering his jump.
Liz and I.
This is Luke. He was so cute. He sled the hill from the very top to the bottom. That is gangsta! Go big or go home little guy.
This is Courtney aka The Green Blob
The Green Blob and I

It Just Isn't Sanitary

2008-02-24T11:20:00.000-08:00

Some friends of ours were having some computer trouble yesterday, so they called us. Why did they call us you may be asking. Well...Andrew seems to be the go to guy when something is wrong with computers. He has a wealth of knowledge about computers and if he doesn't know what the problem is or how to fix it he is a master of the Google machine. "Just Google it!" I always hear him say when I am having trouble figuring something out. So...he told our friends we would be over after dinner to take a look at their possibly diseased machine.

Speaking of diseased (not that they have any diseases, but read on). Our friends have been sick for quite some time with what I'm pretty sure could be called death. Unfortunately for them they haven't been able to get well for over a month now and Bryon has pneumonia (poor guy). Being the funny couple that we are we decided to get some masks to wear over to their house while Andrew worked.

It just so happened that we were going over to my parent's house for dinner and they happen to have these masks that we were hoping for. My dad said he could do us one better and he walked in with these white Tyvek suits. We were both very excited. It was going to be awesome when they opened the door and we were standing there looking like this:

We drove the entire way to their house wearing these and I think we were equally excited to see their reaction. I know we are silly, but we get a kick out of ourselves.

There is a warning on the masks we were wearing and it says, "This respirator helps protect against certain dusts and mists." Okay so far so good and then it moves on to say, "Misuse may result in sickness or death." Well that's not good. Don't worry no one was hurt in the making of this blog.

Good News!

2008-02-21T21:52:00.000-08:00

I was offered a job today and I accepted it. Yay yay yay! I am so happy. I will be working in an office which I am used to and I am pretty excited about it. I will blog more about it later, but that's all for now.

Get Yer Hair Did

2008-02-16T16:52:00.000-08:00

I wanted to change my look a bit, so I got my hair cut yesterday. What do you think? These are the flowers that Andrew sent to me at work on Valentine's Day. I love to receive flowers, it is such a special feeling.

This next picture is of the Slanket he also got for me. I am standing on the couch and it still touches the floor. I love it!

Update on my job situation: I have an interview on Monday and another one on Tuesday. I'm definitely keeping my fingers crossed that one of them works out for me.

I've Been Hit

2008-02-15T18:20:00.000-08:00

Ok so I really haven't been hit, but I have been tagged by Tootsie Farklepants. I haven't been tagged before, so this is new to me. (Tootsie - there are no feelings of hate toward you. It might be weird that I think this, but I'm glad you noticed me and wanted to tag me.)

The rules are as follows:
1. Link to the person who tagged you
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share seven random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag seven random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
5. Leave a comment on their blogs so that they know they have been tagged.

So here goes...only 7 huh?

#1 Sometimes I snort when I laugh. It doesn't happen everytime I laugh, but I have noticed that when I have a good gut busting laugh there are several snorts sprinkled in there.

#2 I have performed in the pregame and halftime shows of two Super Bowls. That would be Super Bowl XXXV in Tampa, Florida and XXXVI in New Orleans, Louisiana.

#3 When I was little Allison I called quarters (25 cents) big nickels. Don't ask. I have no idea. It must have been one of those kids say the cutest things moments. "Mommy can I have a big nickel?"

#4 I have to smell everything before I eat it. The only exception is if I have eaten it several times before. If its new to me, I'm unsure of what it is, or it looks funny I definitely need to smell it before putting it in my mouth. Hello its going in my mouth!

#5 When riding an escalator I don't touch the rail. I border OCD when it comes to this. I can only imagine the disgusting things that are waiting on those rails. Eew eew eew. Andrew thinks its funny to push me on escalators so I am forced to touch the side. Just so you know...its not funny.

#6 I burp like a man. I can't make myself burp, but just about anything I eat or drink makes me burpy. My mom is not impressed at all. She thinks I'm a "leetle peeg." (That's "little pig" for those of you that don't speak Momese.)

#7 I have ripped a phone book in half. I wasn't mad; I just did it for fun.

So now it is time to tag others. I apologize in advance if you don't like being tagged. I don't mean to cause any hate or discontent, but here goes.

Bagpipe Fever
DJ Kirby
EmilyPie
Having My Cake...
Le Petit Chic
Hubcap's Revenge
Twipply Skwood

Enjoy!

Brain Fart

2008-02-13T21:25:00.001-08:00

I was given the task of delivering a welcome basket today to an interviewee. When a qualified candidate (interviewee) is asked to come in for an interview for a salary position they are given a basket of welcome gifts. This basket (which is actually a lunch box with the company logo on it) includes a water bottle, keychain, calculator, clock, pen, chocolate, some information about things that happen locally, and a small vile of gold flakes. It might not seem that exciting, but hey its better than nothing.

I was asked to deliver this basket of goodness to the hotel where the guy will be staying, so...I gathered the items, set my cell phone on top of it, grabbed my purse and headed out the door. I took the basket into the hotel and left it, went to the store, and drove back to the office. This is when I realized I left my cell phone in the basket at the hotel. Thankfully this guy wasn't supposed to show up until later in the evening, otherwise he would have thought this is an awesome company because he just got a free phone. I don't think so. Like the idiot that I am I got to walk back into the hotel and ask the front desk for my phone. That was awesome.

Happy Birthday ALF! 2/11/08

2008-02-10T19:20:00.000-08:00

This is ALF, if you were curious.

What A Day...

2008-02-06T21:48:00.000-08:00

I'm going to start with today and work my way back to yesterday. I know its a little backwards, but...whateva.

I was given the task of looking for new service awards for Newmont's employees. (Newmont is where my temp job is taking place; I will explain more at a later date.) Right now they only receive a Carhartt jacket which is only cool to some people. Today I was looking online for a good knife that can be engraved with Newmont's logo. While looking at one of the websites I came across a small knife with a description that read as follows: "Is junior having problems at school? Is he being bullied or pushed around? You've tried self defense and psychology, new clothes and biting venacular, but nothing seems to be working. That's why you should invest in personalized junior aluminum folding knives." My thoughts...WTF?????? I was truly disturbed by this and I had to tell practically everyone that would listen to me what a horrible idea that is. I would have blogged earlier, but they frown upon doing personal business while at work. I finally read more of the description and it said, "Okay we're just kidding...Really don't give them to children." I still feel disturbed by this and I don't think saying "just kidding" makes it ok. Here little guy, you can't stick up for yourself, so take this knife to school. You might get expelled or the bully might take it from you and stab you with it, but that's okay. Argh!

Ok now back to yesterday. I see quite a few names in the course of a day and I just have to list a few of the honorable mentions:

Clifford Hanger
Holly Wood
Mrs. Moore-Mann
Richard Seaman
Michael Hunt (the key to this name is saying Mike followed by his last name, sorry if you got that already, but I wouldn't have gotten it)

That's all for now. I still have five more days at this office, so hopefully more blog-worthy things happen.

Words To Live By

2008-02-02T20:27:00.000-08:00

We went to the movie theatre tonight and saw The Bucket List. It was a really good movie. I recommend it to anyone looking for something to do.

One of my favorite parts was when Jack Nicholson was talking to his assistant and gave him three things to live by:

"Never pass up a bathroom."
"Never waste a hard on."
"Never trust a fart."

What more do you really need to know?

The following is completely unrelated to the previous story. For a couple of years Andrew played on a local pool league and now he only fills in when he is needed. He got a call this week because they were desperate for him to fill in, so he said he would do it. Its not really that big of a deal; all he has to do is show up and play four rounds of pool. The lady on the other team walked up to him, told him her name, and asked for his. Of course his response was, "Andrew." She asked, "Curt?" I can see how she could mistake Andrew for Curt...wait no I can't.

I Never Knew It Was A Big Deal

2008-02-01T11:21:00.000-08:00

I am currenty working a temporary job for a couple of weeks for a mining company in our area. They have an office in town which houses most of the human resources department. If you have ever wondered what the HR department talks about I am about to tell you (don't worry I won't divulge all your secrets).

Yesterday several of the ladies were talking about bras. That caught my attention, so I started listening to what they were saying. One of them noticed I was now listening to them and she asked me, "How do you put your bra on?" I was confused at first because I wasn't aware that there was an abundance of ways. She then went on to ask, "Do you clasp your bra in the front and twist it around or do you put your bra on and then reach your arms around back to clasp it?" Seven women were polled and four out of the seven clasp their bras in the front and twist it to the back, two put on their bra and clasp in back, and one wears sports bras all the time. If there is any interest in knowing, I clasp my bra in front and then twist it.

Now you know what the ladies in HR talk about. Aren't you jealous you don't get to do my job?

The Things You Do For Work

2008-01-29T13:06:00.000-08:00

My least favorite thing about looking for a new job is the drug test. I hate having to pee in a cup. It is such a pain to actually get your pee in the cup without peeing all over yourself. Mabye its just me that has that problem, but I don't like it. I mean I really don't like having to fill out application after application in hopes that someone will call, but the drug test is the worst.

Guys have it so easy because they have a 99.9% chance of getting it in the cup. I'm not saying I would prefer to be a guy, but they have a dangly doodad they can practically just poke in the cup and do their business. Ok I'm done poking fun at guys (hehe poke).

The best/ worst part was when I couldn't pee enough to fill the cup past the line. The line was about a half an inch from the bottom of the cup and I couldn't do it. I filled it about halfway as much as she told me to. She didn't say I had to try again or anything, but I felt my insignificant amount of pee was sad.

That's all for now. I just had to talk about pee for a minute.

Long Story Long

2008-01-24T21:40:00.000-08:00

I'm sure most people have heard the saying "to make a long story short." Well...this is not the case here. This is just going to be long and possibly boring, but I have to vent and what better way than in a blog?

I am currently looking for a new job. Not because I want to. No. Its because my boss told me on Monday that the end is near.

About six months ago my boss told me that a company from back East was contemplating buying his business. This was great news for him because he really wants to get out of a manager position and ween himself out of working. Over the next few months he would give me the update, "maybe next week we will hear something." I got quite accustomed to hearing that and I started to believe that it wasn't ever going to happen.

At one point an employee of the company came and had a meeting with us just to let us know what was going on. He made the company sound spectacular. They had better benefits, possible raises all around, travel for orientation and training, and all we had to wait for was the approval from the parent company. "Maybe next week we will hear something," he says. He assured us that even if the parent company decided they didn't want to go through with the purchase they would still buy the my boss' business. We all had a renewed hope and I admit I was excited. All we had to do was be patient and wait for the go ahead.

In December my boss told me that they got the go ahead to buy his business and the only thing left to do was sign paperwork. He told me he would have to make a trip back East to sign paperwork the week of January 7th. It was all starting to finally come together and he was so happy. So was I. I was finally going to have good insurance (not that my insurance is horrible, but should I ever need to see a doctor I would have to go to the emergency room because that is the only place that is in my insurance company's coverage), a retirement fund, more money, more experience, etc etc etc.

Last week on Thursday my boss told me that the company called him and said they decided not to go through with the purchase. At this point my boss was very discouraged, as was I, and he told me that I was going to have to go part-time sometime in the future. On Monday this week I asked when he was thinking about making me part-time and his response was, "Well I was thinking and I think this will be your last full-time week. I don't know when I will need you after that, but I will call you when you should come in." WTF? I really wasn't expecting this that soon. I thought maybe in a couple of weeks I would start working part-time, but no.

On Tuesday he said he wanted me to work half a day Wednesday and take the rest of the week off. I think he thought he was doing me a favor by letting me have the rest of the week to look for a new job, but really by the time we had that conversation I already exhausted most of my options for new employment. He wants me to come in for a couple of days next week to wrap some things up and try to teach him practically everything I have been doing for the past year. That should be fun. Neither of us has a very long attention span and he is not very good with computers.

A bit of good news: our neighbor called and told me she had a proposal. My response was, "I don't think Andrew will approve, but that's ok go ahead." She told me that her office's front desk needs to be covered for a couple of weeks while the woman who works there is on vacation. The even better news is that before I started working at my current job I was working at the front desk of this office, so I know exactly what to do when I show up. I only hope that while working for her I can find a new job in the next couple of weeks. I am keeping a positive attitude about the situation because I'm a believer in everything happening for a reason. This is a crappy situation, but Andrew keeps assuring me that in a few months I will look back at this and laugh. I hope so.

The Shower Monster

2008-01-15T09:24:00.000-08:00

Let me start by saying I know I am not the only that does this. At least one of my roommates in college did this too.

Whenever I take a shower instead of letting all my hair fall down the drain I like to stick it to the wall and dispose of it when I am done. Well...occasionally I forget to dispose of it and it is left there for Andrew's enjoyment. By enjoyment I mean he absolutely hates it. When he sees this monstrosity he screams and gags, but not necessarily in that order. He has a phobia of hair. Lucky for him he shaves his head. Even luckier I don't shave mine and I have a ton of hair.

Side note: just to give you an idea of how much hair I have. I have donated my hair to Locks of Love in the past. One of the requirements for donating hair is it must be 10" from tip to tip in a ponytail or braid tied off at both ends. I have so much hair that when I went to cut it I had to separate it into two braids because the stylist couldn't cut through one braid.

Our house is covered from top to bottom with hair. My hair falls out in handfuls each day and for some strange reason I still have so much you couldn't tell I had lost any (thank God for that). I truly believe that I should be bald because of the amount of hair that falls out. I think Andrew would like it better if I was bald. He might not like to look at me, but he would feel 100 times better.

Some of the places you can find my hair:

In my brush.
All over the floor in the bathroom.
In the bed.
Inside every single pair of Andrew's undergarments after doing laundry.
All over every blanket on the couch and bed.
My back.
My chair at work.
One time it made it into Andrew's sandwich I made him for lunch. ONE TIME!
I leave at least one strand in every place I go. (That includes ALF's house, sorry about that.)
The shower drain.
The shower wall.

I know my hair loss is disgusting to most (especially Andrew), but I don't know what to tell you. It is going to continue for the rest of my life I'm sure. I guess I'm just used to it. Somehow I need to figure out how to desensitize him. You'd think after two years together he would be used to it, but no not even a little bit. He hates it just as much today as he did two years ago.

Just Another Day

2008-01-10T14:57:00.001-08:00

Nothing much to report on. We made it back from vacation. It was nice to get out of town for 2 weeks and relax, but I have to be honest...I was so happy to get back home. Andrew's parents were more than hospitable, it was to see some of his friends, and my friend Janice's wedding in Vegas was very cute.

I ate as much as a person could possibly eat while we were gone and I'm glad to be back trying to eat healthier. We decided we would eat whatever we wanted to while on vacation, but as soon as we were back home again we would behave ourselves and try to lose some weight. I think we both gained about 10 pounds while we were gone and I pretty much hate myself for it. Ok now I'm over it.

I don't have any pictures today because my camera died on the second day of vacation and I didn't take the cord to recharge it. Thankfully Andrew had his, so I will post some later.

Today I had to call into a conference hearing and I was a bit nervous about it. I don't really know why...I wasn't the one the hearing was for, but nevertheless I was still nervous. I just knew that once it came time for me to speak I was going to be a complete idiot and they were going to be recording every second of it. I would love to go into detail about the reason for the hearing, but unfortunately I'm not allowed to. So...just to be sure I was on time for the hearing I called a few minutes early and I was the first one to the "room." I decided to take a couple of big drinks of water before anyone else called in, so when it was time for me to talk I wouldn't have cotton mouth. Right after taking the drinks the phone beeped to let me know that a couple of other people were now on the line and then it happened. I had to burp. I thought to myself oh great, just perfect, yeah sure why not burp right in the ear of a judge and administrative representative that would be real professional. I'm sure by now Andrew is laughing his butt off because he knows what my burps are like and let me tell you they are not petite by any means. You will be relieved to know that the urge went away and the rest of the conversation was completely painless.

After the hearing was over I decided I should make a trip home to use the bathroom. I no longer use the bathroom in our shop because a couple of months ago I saw a gigantic black widow spider right next to my bare bottom while going pee and that cured me of wanting to use that bathroom. Plus, the guys here use my bathroom, so it is so gross (picture me shaking my fist at those dirty men). Anyway...we only live about 3 minutes from my office, so I don't see it as that big of a deal. I walked out the door of my office and clicked the lock button on my key fob. You might be thinking to yourself oh you silly girl you should have clicked the unlock button because you're getting in your car. Oh no, that's not the reason I did it at all. I clicked the lock button because at that moment in time my brain farted and I thought that would lock the door to my office.

Stinkin' Thinkin'

2008-01-09T20:45:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it just feels better to cry.

Where Am I?

2007-12-23T17:41:00.000-08:00

We made it safe to Montana on Friday night. I don't have much to say other than this is what has happened since leaving Reno Friday morning...

I was stared down by a creepy 13 year old boy.
I sat next to a smelly boy on the plane from Reno to Vegas.
We stood in line for an hour and a half in Vegas to get our Allegiant tickets. Allegiant is the airline we flew on from Vegas to Montana.
We ate at Fuddruckers. Awesome food.
We saw the bearded lady at Wal-Mart. I kid you not she was a large woman with a full beard.
And I know it might seem a little boring to some, but I have gotten to relax and take several naps since being here.

I am sort of annoyed at the fact that Andrew won't tell me what he got me for Christmas, but thankfully it is only day after tomorrow.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday. Take care and Merry Christmas!

"The Land That Green Forgot"

2007-12-20T07:16:00.000-08:00

Last night was our company Christmas dinner. We went to a nice, fairly new, Basque restaurant. I ordered the Lamb Chops. I hadn't eaten lamb before last night, so I guess it was time to try it. I told Andrew quite a while ago that the next time we went out to eat and lamb was on the menu I would try it. He called me on it last night and I was pleasantly surprised. There wasn't much meat to it, but the meat that was there was very good. I also really enjoyed the soup, beans, salad, and bread. It could have been the fact that I was so hungry by the time we ate that I would have been satisfied with just about anything, but it really was an enjoyable dinner.

A few of the topics discussed at the dinner table last night:

Trucks
An undisclosed man's buttcrack that goes on for days
My boss's wife trying to sell everything he owns (she works in sales)
Trucks
Men sitting to pee
My boss was bent down to tie his shoelaces and one of the guys said, "While you're down there..." How original.
My boss's son ate all of the jelly filled doughnuts that did not belong to him. His response, "No name fair game." And, "They looked so good I had to have one and once you've had one...well...you have to have 5 more."
Trucks (I'm not saying this to be annoying, this is really how many times they talked about trucks, which if you didn't know already I am not interested in.)

When Andrew got home from work yesterday he came through the front door which is a rare occasion. He usually enters the house through the garage. I greeted him at the door and he handed me an envelope that had been sitting outside. Our lovely neighbors Annie and Jim left us a Christmas card on the doorstep which included a letter inside. Jim wrote what I think is the quote of the year, Winnemucca is "the land that green forgot." What more can I say? I mean this is the epitome of greatness. If you live in Nevada, anywhere other than Lake Tahoe, this should hit home.

We are leaving for Montana tomorrow, so... Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year just in case I'm not able to write for a while. We will be gone until January 6th! I'm so excited.

What Are You Thinking? Part 2

2007-12-17T15:30:00.000-08:00

As some of you might know I already wrote Part 1 of What Are You Thinking?. If you have not read that blog already please feel free to take a gander at it with the link I provided above.

I am now going to continue on with my thoughts for the moment.

Andrew and I watched the movie Duets over the weekend and my favorite quote from the movie is, "I would rather go through this life like a complete and utter retard than have to accept somebody else's miserable reality." This quote is both very funny and totally true. I would much rather be happy than miserable. Even if the things I believe are wrong in other's eyes, I'm completely content with my life the way it is.

Sometimes I wish we could bring the garden of Eden days to the present. The days when being naked wasn't a big deal. In no way do I mean for this to be sexual. I'm not the kind of person who likes to look at pictures of naked men (or women for that matter) and I'm not perverted (for the most part). I would just rather be naked. It is so much easier. You don't have the fuss of picking out an outfit for the day and accessorizing yourself. You don't have to make sure your outfit has any kind of faux pas (i.e. white socks with black shoes). The weather would always have to be warm, so we wouldn't have to worry about cold weather. Everyone would be desensitized to the birthday suit and we wouldn't have to worry about creepy men picturing us with our clothes off. This is my own dilusional little fantasy. There might be flaws in it and most might not agree with me, but I'm ok with that.

The title of my blog is "As You Wish." For those of you who don't know what this means it is from the movie Princess Bride. I have always been very fond of this movie and sometimes Andrew allows me to fall asleep watching it. I have the DVD, I'm sure I have it somewhere on video, and it is permanently in the Tivo at home, so I can watch it at any moment. If you haven't seen this movie do yourself a favor and watch it. It by no means meets the standards of today's visual effects, but it really is a great movie. It has action, love, drama, a good guy, a bad guy, a damsel in distress. What more could you ask for?

I took this picture at Glacier National Park in Montana. I thought it looked interesting.

We Must Be Getting Old!

2007-12-16T18:29:00.000-08:00

The other night we went to the late show at the movie theater to watch "I Am Legend." It was a pretty good movie. We both agreed that the ending could have been better, but Will Smith is a great actor. I wish I could say that I was blogging to sing the praise of a good movie, but unfortunately I'm not. I am writing today to curse the rude little 13 and 14 year olds who decided to grace the theater with their presence.

Let me first say that "The Mucc" (Winnemucca) is not a very big town. There are about 15,000 people at the most. I think the rule is that if a movie is rated R you have to be at least 17 to attend the showing or be accompanied by an adult. Well...in "The Mucc" this rule does not apply because if they didn't allow people under 17 at rated R movies they would lose too much business.

There were about 15 of them sitting in the first 3 rows of the room. They obviously have not been taught silence is golden because not only were they talking, but they weren't even trying to whisper. We have encountered this problem before and let me tell you there is nothing more annoying at a movie than getting distracted by a bunch of teenagers talking and playing musical chairs.

I am very easily distracted which Andrew will attest to and I have missed way too much of a movie to put up with this shit. The last time this happened (same scenario) the kids were playing musical chairs (moving from seat to seat around the theater) and Andrew (my hero) leaned forward, got face to face with one of the boys, and said, "Sit the f*ck down." I can't help but giggle while I write this because let me tell you it was awesome. The boy apologized and kind of quivered back into his seat. You might be feeling sympathy for the boy. Don't. He had walked from the front of the theater to the back a handful of times, he was talking, and quite frankly being very annoying. In my opinion he deserved it. I mean it's not like Andrew sat on top of him and pounded on him...which is what I wanted to do.

Anyway...back to the other night. Apparently we weren't the only ones about to blow a head gasket because about 2 minutes into the movie the owner of the theater walked down to the front of the room, leaned over the group, and said, "If one more person complains about these 3 rows you are ALL leaving." I wasn't silently applauding at this point. One of the boys in the group replied, "Sorry sir." The owner whipped around and snorted, "Who said that?" One of the boys confessed and the owner leaned down right in his face and quietly scolded him.

Once again young people who feel entitled drive me crazy. If you decide to go watch a movie I suggest you watch the movie. If you feel like talking do it at home or at McDonald's like everyone else. And if you don't have a car or you aren't old enough to drive...please behave yourselves (shut the f*ck up).

I apologize if anyone is offended by my language here. I think I offended myself, but I was in the moment and that is how I felt at that point in time. I wouldn't actually talk to someone like this or even voice my opinion for that matter. In my mind on the other hand I can strangle rude people and be completely content with it.

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-13T15:36:00.001-08:00

Happy Thursday-Friday! Today is my Friday and I am so excited about having a three day weekend. I don't really have much to say, so I am attaching a video of Lacey and Kameron from So You Think You Can Dance. They are performing to the song, "Dancing" by Elisa. I hope you enjoy it. I know I sure do. I just can't enough of it.

I Hate That!

2007-12-10T07:05:00.000-08:00

I was reading my dear friend ALF's blog and it reminded me how much I hate going pretty much anywhere. I am over exaggerating of course, but sometimes I just can't stand going out into public. I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but I am going to go ahead and rant a little.

My rant for the day would have to go to Subway. First of all it is not my fault you work there. I didn't force you at gunpoint to fill out the application and get behind the counter to make sandwiches. Take some pride in your job, no matter what it might be, and do the best job you can do at it. Make sure that every sandwich you make is something you would be willing to eat yourself. Make sure that when the person who is going to eat it takes a bite, everything they ask for is tasted with each bite. I hate when I unwrap my sandwich and everything is spilling off the side of the sandwich. I don't think it would be that difficult to move everything over 1/2 an inch, so it is centered on the sandwich. When you ask what vegetables I would like don't act like it's an incovenience to you. Once again it's not my fault you work here.

I do have to commend the few people that do make a good sandwich. I don't know their names, but they usually work during the day. They are pleasant and take a few extra seconds to make sure the sandwich I order is put together so the only mess is the one I make because I am a messy eater.

I guess my real complaint is toward the late teens early twenties. I myself am in my early twenties, but I don't feel entitled to anything. Why is it that people my age are holding out for a management position, or something similar? I am lucky to be in a management position at my age. There are only three other people in the company I work for, but I still feel very privileged to be in the position I am. I have worked in retail, and as a receptionist and I think that is perfect for someone starting out their career. It takes years of hard work and dedication to get up the career ladder. We can't just expect right out of high school or even college that an amazing job is just going to be handed to us. We have to work for it.

Of course there are those lucky few that seem to have everything going for them and they have things handed to them. For those of us that don't fall into that category let's be happy with what we can get, work hard at whatever job we can get, and for goodness sake smile once in a while.

Side note: I spent the entire day baking yesterday. What is wrong with me?

Inspiration

2007-12-05T12:50:00.000-08:00

I was going through my usual routine looking at different sites and I came across this. You might need a tissue. Seeing these two amazing people perform together really puts things into perspective. It's funny the things we take for granted.

If That Isn't Love I Don't Know What Is...

2007-12-04T15:00:00.000-08:00

So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD) finally came on Friday, November 30. It was awesome to say the least. I really enjoyed the show. I don't know if Andrew would admit it out loud, but I think he enjoyed it as well.

My only complaint about the show would have to be I didn't know in order to get autographs you had to have a pass. Yes I wanted autographs... so what. I'm like a teenage girl when it comes to things like this. I don't go crazy over cute boys or make signs confessing my love to famous people, but I love dance. These people are amazing dancers (in my opinion) and I wanted their autographs. I asked several people after the show where they got their passes and they told me the dancers left them at dance studios in their hometowns. I will admit this information made me a bit depressed. I saw someone that looked like they were on the backstage crew, so I stopped him and asked if it was possible for me to get autographs even though I didn't have a pass. He told me that if I went around the back of the Events Center and waited by their bus the dancers would give me autographs while they were leaving. This, at the time, didn't sound like a bad idea, so we decided we would wait inside until the "pass people" got their autographs and then make our way to the bus. We decided to go get the car and move it closer to the building. We ended up parking at a shady motel across from where the bus was parked. It was around 11:30 PM when this all started and about 19 degrees outside.

We saw a group of about 20 people waiting by the back of the building, so we stood with them in hopes of autographs. I'm not sure how much time passed, but the bus left. It just drove away. About 5 minutes later a cranky full of himself security guard walked up to our group and said, "You people are going to have to move. You're in our way and you need to move. All the dancers were on that bus and now they are gone. I promise you they are gone now." What a load of bull that was. We weren't about to believe that.

Now it's about 12:30 AM and there was still no sight of the dancers. As we were sitting in my car trying to decide our next move we spotted two 15 passenger vans waiting at the corner. They had to be waiting for the dancers...right? We pulled the car closer to the vans, parked and walked passed the vans to wait. Don't forget that it is still about 19 degrees outside. We were all alone waiting on the side of the Events Center...just waiting. Freezing. I'm sure Andrew was not impressed with me, but he stayed with me; patiently.

I'm pretty sure we saw a drug deal go down at the corner by the 24 hour convenience store. A woman toting her baby in a hat and blanket came out of the motel across from where we were standing and walked to the corner where she met a man. He handed her something and then proceeded to follow her to the motel. Was this for payment? Maybe? Eew!

It is now getting close to 1:30 in the morning. Andrew decided to move the car to a spot closer to where we were standing and as he started to walk away who is that? Could it be? Yes yes it was the dancers. OMG! OMG! I walked calmly, sort of embarrassed, up to them asked if I could have their autographs. I won't name any names, but the guy closest to me said, "If it's quick because it's cold out here." REALLY? I had no idea. We've only been standing out here for like 2 hours in below freezing weather, so I could have you write your name on my SYTYCD scrapbook. Yes you read that right, I made a scrapbook or as Andrew so kindly named it my stalker book. Even though they were annoyed with the fact that I wanted their autographs they kindly gave them to me. Thank you SYTYCD dancers, I know you were tired, cold, and sad about this being your last performance on your tour. I really appreciate it.

On an unrelated note: Today is my one year anniversary at my job!

They Don't Know Me Very Well Do They?

2007-11-27T21:30:00.000-08:00

Wow! Really? I can't believe that.

I found this link on Cebasham's site, so I figured what the heck...what is my blog's reading level? I always feel like my thoughts don't make any sense or I'm acting/ thinking/ talking like a 4 year old. Thank you Blog Readability Test!