ode to my mom

So it's my mom's birthday tomorrow, October 20, and I most definitely couldn't live without her, so here's a little post in her honor. I won't say how old she is this year but I'm 31 so she's at least older than that, and she looks fabulous.
But she's more than just beauty...

She's not afraid to attempt a variety of awesome hairstyles and fashion choices. I know these photos are pretty classic, but the truth is that my mom has always been a great example of figuring out how to make herself and her kids look great even on a really tight budget. She showed us how to be thrifty and still feel good about ourselves. She also always got us awesome presents for birthdays and Christmas (evidence #1: the amazing see through phone in the final hair picture. That was probably my 14th birthday and I had that phone all the way through college)

She loves coming up with really incredible ideas for family Christmas card pictures. But the creativity doesn't end there. When my mom has a great idea, she'll stop at nothing to see it through. Whether it's a year's worth of work to create the perfect girls' camp or youth conference, or an afternoon putting together an exquisite dining experience right in her own home, a thoughtful birthday surprise party or a beautiful bulletin board, gathering fun holiday decorations for her grown children's homes or thinking of a great topic for a family email conversation, my mom's mind is always buzzing with new ways to enhance the lives of everyone around her.

My mom, despite being incredibly organized and somehow managing to have a perfectly cleaned kitchen even when she's just made a 5 course meal, is very FUN! She made sure we all learned how to snowski, waterski, hike, bike, swim, and play as much as possible. If there is a fun family activity out there, my mom has found it and given us all the chance to try it. She and my dad planned incredible vacations and somehow had the gumption to load 5 kids in a car and tool all over everywhere.

Finally (just for the purposes of this blog since there is much much more I could say) my mom is incredibly compassionate. She has always listened to us whenever we had anything we wanted to say. She is the absolute best person to have around when you are sick because she takes such great care of you. She can always just sense when someone needs a phone call or a visit or a special gift and when she has one of those senses, she follows through. She loves her kids more than anything in life and would do anything she could for all of us. And she's the most amazing grandma! This little guy in particular is practically the president of her fan club.

So here's to my beautiful, generous, creative, fun, compassionate mother. I love you! Happy Birthday!

some commercials are really stupid

The truth is that I don't actually watch that many commercials any more, what with the most wonderful invention of DVR. But sometimes it can't be helped, and in those cases, these are a few of the commercials I could definitely live without.

1. Zyrtec time in a bottle ad. It really bothers me when that lady says, "it should say that on the bottle: ingredients: 2 hours you didn't have." Think about it. IF Zyrtec gives you 2 hours you didn't have (and that's a strange concept in itself), then it shouldn't be on the ingredients list, but the effects list. Thanks for trying, Zyrtec.


2. Cash4Gold. Are these people so hard up to find people to promote their product that all they could find was that old woman with the crazy lipstick--"I had no idea my gold jewelry was worth so much!"? And seriously who feels okay about sending their valuables to some random company and expecting a return on it?


3. Enzyte. If anybody likes to watch SVU on USA on weeknights, then you have probably seen this commercial. I hate these commercials almost as much as the corresponding spam I get in my inbox. But what I really don't understand is why Santa is selling it? In September? Seriously.



I do apologize for subjecting all viewers to these commercials. Hoooooorraaay for DVR!!!

little blessings

So I know I didn't post for a long time and now twice in one week, but I had to tell this story. A couple of weeks ago, I got a card in the mail from Adam and Karlie for my birthday. There was a check and a note that they hoped it could go to my bike fund.


I am ashamed to say that somehow the card fell out of my car, so I was a little sad that I lost it, but I hadn't really thought about it lately.

So today I got my mail and I found this envelope with a strange non-existent return address.



I opened the envelope, and there, envelope and all, was my card from Karlie and the check intact.


But that wasn't all. There was this adorable little note and $3 cash.


Seriously. I can't believe people like Pat still exist. She didn't even give me her address so I could send her a thank you. I told Rebekah about it tonight and she said that Pat probably thought I was a little kid since most adults don't have bike funds for their birthday. Well, whatever she thought, she did a good deed. Amazing. If any of the seven people who read my blog know Pat from Tooele, tell her I said thanks for making my day and helping me buy a ten-speed. :)

summer concerts

So one thing that I'd really rather not live without is live music. I definitely don't get enough of it in my life, but I did get to go to two great concerts this summer. The first, I am NOT ashamed to admit, was the American Idol concert. If you didn't watch the show this year, you missed out on some incredible talent. This year's concert featured each of the top ten singers doing at least 3 songs. They were all terrific, with the exception of Ramiele, who wasn't that great, but they were all also really adorable. David Archuleta was the fan favorite here in SLC since he's from here, so it was a little ridiculous how everyone reacted to him, but he really is incredible. Chikeze started off the show with a shoutout to all us folks in Salt Lake, or as they like to call it, "Archietown," which got a great reaction, but the moment of the night went to Michael Johns, the awesome Aussie who seriously rocked Queen, who after his first number said he was hot and took off his jacket to reveal an "I voted for David Archuleta" t-shirt. Classic. Personally, my favorite idol was David Cook, who beat Archuleta in the final, but the teenaged girl I went with is a major Archie fan, so we showed our colors and had a blast!


The second concert was Martina McBride, which I went to see with Melanie. Martina is seriously one of the best voices I have ever heard in real life. She is incredible. She sang all of my favorite songs, and we had a fabulous time, singing along, consuming extremely overpriced concessions, and watching the middle-aged couple across the lawn grope each other.



Anyway, good times this summer! I'm watching for the next great concert. If anyone needs someone to go with, let me know!

Loss

Something I could definitely do without is loss. It seems to be a theme lately. Both of the girls I've been working with at work for the last 9 months are getting ready to graduate. I'd love to post a picture to prove how cute they are and how sad it is that they're leaving, but that would be a horrible breach of confidentiality so you'll just have to take my word for it. Next week is the saddest loss for me right now because my sister Rachael and her family are moving away to Pittsburgh for dental school. I can totally prove how cute they are.



How will I get on without them? I don't know. Plus Chelsea is moving back to Illinois after teasing me with a summer of her presence. I can also prove how cute she and Ben are.



The latest in the string of losses, besides a good friend who is moving to California is the loss of my hard drive. So two years ago I became a mac person.


I have loved my little macbook up until last week when out of nowhere it crashed and my hard drive was completely wiped out.

So I took my computer into the technician at the simply mac store, where they told me he might get to it by Friday. When I hadn't heard anything by Monday, I decided to call the store. No one answered, so I left a message and received a message back basically saying "hey, i looked at your computer and your hard drive is fried so I ordered you a new one. I 'll call you tomorrow when I've got it installed."

Apparently they don't run these guys through sensitivity training. I mean, I've really been searching for empathy the past few days once I found out for sure that everything on my hard drive was irretrievable, and there seems to be a level of universal understanding that this is a really horrible thing. I mean, I had a lot of pictures and a lot of documents that are lost forever. That's a pretty big deal.

After Joe (that was his name) told me for sure on Tuesday that my hard drive was not only fried but that he had gone ahead and sent it off to mac in order to get me a new one so if I wanted to give it to someone to try to retrieve the data I wouldn't be able to do it, I went back to my office and had a good cry. I told the girls I was too depressed to do therapy. Then I did therapy anyway. Let's be honest, I can't help myself. Anyway, I went back to the store to pick up my sad empty little laptop and I was lamenting at the desk when I picked it up. This was the conversation.

Me: "man, this is really sad" (trying not to cry again)
Devin (or whatever the desk guy's name was): "at least it's fixed."
Me: "but I lost a lot of stuff"
Devin: "maybe next time you'll back it up"
Me: pound Devin over the head with my laptop.

Okay, so I didn't pound anyone, but I really wanted to. Seriously, if you read this blog and you ever have to give someone the bad news that 2 years of their life has been lost (okay, I'm being slightly dramatic here), a "wow, I'm really sorry" would be appropriate. I'm just saying.

So that's it. I love LOST but I hate loss. There you have it.

tiny greg

So this shouldn't be an official post for me but I just have to respond to Tammy's awesome Fourth of July post with this picture from Labor day almost three years ago so as to prove that Greg doesn't learn his lesson easily since he basically has the same church outfit on in Moab as he did in Patrick's Pond. No church shoes, no tie, short-sleeved wrinkled shirt, and even a little scruff. (If you're not a frequenter of Greg and Tammy's blog, which I doubt because their list of friends is pretty much endless, you can check out the prescript to this post at gregandtammyadams.blogspot.com, stars and stripes forever post on July 6th).


In keeping with the title of my blog, I must say, Seriously, Greg. I'm sort of surprised Tammy also hasn't learned the lesson that she should probably just start packing for her husband. I will say that I also did not bring church shoes on this trip and I found a nice pair at the dollar store while we were waiting for all of our clothes to dry at the laundromat after the freak rainstorm drenched all our stuff. I guess they didn't have any ties at the dollar store.

6 boys

I definitely couldn't live without my 6 adorable nephews. Now that they will all live out of state I'll pretty much never have a vacation to an actual vacation spot again since I can't' help myself but go see them as often as possible.

Adam and Karlie and their family live in Arizona where Karlie works as a nurse in the neonatal unit and Adam is starting law school in August.

Nick is 5 and just says the most incredible things. It took him a long time to get a hold on the whole talking thing, but once he did, it's hard to stop him. He asks great questions and really pays attention to what goes on around him.

Alex has the most expressive face I have ever seen. He wants what he wants (I guess that could be said about most 2 year olds) and it's hard to refuse him when he looks up at you with those big blue eyes. He's the sweetest older brother and really likes taking care of Dylan.

Dylan just turned three months old. In this picture he was about a week old, and he's even cuter now. Karlie posted some pictures of him this week on their blog and he's a dollface! He's got Karlie's awesome eyebrows and sweet demeanor.

Rachael and Lance live here in Salt Lake and they're moving to Pittsburgh in a month so Lance can go to dental school. I'm so sad to not see them on a regular basis!

Owen is three and the nephew I know best because we've lived in the same place the longest. He was a terror as a baby but he's quite a pleasant boy. He loves the number 4 and the color green and his mom and grandma. He is incredibly imaginative and loves to take anyone along for the ride who will go with him. He can do huge puzzles by himself and he knows his way around town. He's a very sweet brother.


Oliver turned one in March and he is a riot. He looks like his mom with very blonde hair and very blue eyes and the greatest smile. He is starting to walk and he gets really excited about it. He especially loves the stairs and other dangerous activities, so he generally has a couple of bruises on his cute face. He's a pretty happy little camper.


Chelsea and Jon live in Illinois where Jon is in medical school. Chelsea is here for the summer, so I'm excited to soak up all of them that I can before they head back.

Benjamin is the first official tank baby in the family. My dad likes to call him Big Ben Willes, in hopes that he'll be a football player. We figure if any of the women in this family are going to raise a football player, it's probably Chelsea. Ben has a great smile and the most fantastic cheeks! He's a mover and a shaker and he's got strong lungs.

blind dating

One of the things I could for sure live without is blind dating. Except as it turns out I probably can't live without it because those are pretty much the only dates I go on, which says a lot for what people think of me once they get past the blind part of the dating process, but this isn't really about a pity party.

Actually, this weekend I had a really fun blind date. Remarkable, really, since I didn't even know the people who set me up, but seriously a good time. Friday night withstanding, I'd just like to remind all my married blogger friends why you can be grateful to not be living in the land of the setups. Here are the hard things about blind dating:

1. what to wear. this is one of the worst parts. i mean, is the guy going to be offended by a little cleavage or is that going to be an attractive way to get a second date? the problem is, i don't know if the goal is to offend or to get a second date until the date is over and by then it's too late to decide which shirt to wear. and then there are the shoes. it's tough to choose shoes because you never know how tall the guy is going to be and you don't want your footwear to leave you towering over him.

2. the setup. the idea with the blind date is usually that someone you know sets you up. this is often the most mortifying part. i mean, you really find out what your friends think of you when you see who they decide is a good match for you. they say things like "i think you have a lot in common" and the guy turns out to be ridiculously boring and you have to ask yourself if your friends think that's what you have in common. more often than not, and this is more true the older you get in mormondom, the only thing you actually have in common is that you are both single and you are both mormon. note to all wouldbe matchmakers: when setting up friends, make it a general rule that you have at least one criterion beyond those two.

3. this last one is not limited to blind dates. it pretty much goes for all dating. i have a problem that could nicely be referred to as a lack of censorship. you know all those rules people tell you about dating? how you should ask lots of questions and not state your opinions too strongly and not talk about embarrassing things about yourself and not reveal too much about your level of interest in the person and be flirty and touchy in an appropriate leave him wanting kind of way and laugh but not too loud and all that other stuff that gets you a second date? i categorically forget every one of those rules every time i go out on a date. i pretty much say whatever i think. one of these days, someone's going to find that really attractive. until then, i'm wondering if anyone knows a real-life hitch who could maybe help me out.

one date i had recently i totally shook the guy's hand at the end of the date. like a missionary. i was nervous. he was nice enough. i mean, he didn't get out of the car we were in with the other couple who was out with us, which is really his bad, but i definitely gave him a handshake. i got out of the car and laughed at myself. it's not my first bad move. i mean, there was the time i told a guy that my family called my sister "rotch the crotch" as a nickname. and the time i told someone "maybe" when he asked about going out again. and the time when i was playing catch phrase on a first date and had the word "booby trap" and pointed to my chest. seriously. i'm about as unslick as they come.

the men of lost

I think since I stole the idea for this blog from Rebekah and since she's been meaning to write about this particular topic for some time but hasn't, it's only appropriate that I write my first entry about the men of lost. So it's like this. Every week four of my girlfriends and I get together to watch Lost and have pina coladas. This week was the season finale and it didn't disappoint. Now, I can confess that we have surfed the oceanic websites and that we are really fascinated by the mysteries of the island, but we can admit that our favorite thing about Lost is all of those beautiful MEN! It's kind of wonderful to have a show with strong, independent, powerful women, and insecure, scared, and royally screwed up men who happen to look really good on a desert island. Okay, we'll admit that the women have their neuroses and the men have their hero moments, but somebody in Lost land really must want to make the 30-and-single female population of the world happy. Here's why we love them (besides the obvious appeal).
Desmond. Aside from the great accent, this guy is full of passion and really loves his lady-friend, Penny, despite being away from her for a really long time. He's visionary and hopeful and long-suffering.
Dr. Jack. So Jack is the obvious hero on this little island of terror and mayhem. He's something of a tortured soul who really feels a need to take care of everybody and be the good guy but he's not above cutting somebody open and threatening his life to save everyone else. It's pretty incredible how he can keep the perfect amount of scruff on the island with no razor, but I'm not complaining. Somehow he's made the brow furrow sexy.

Jin. Clearly the producers of Lost are no respectors of race when it comes to choosing attractive men for the show. Jin's quiet, for the obvious-can't speak english-reasons, but he means what he says and he's not afraid to jump in and help even when he's uncomfortable. He's resourceful and good with his hands.

Sayid. Oh, how we love this man. He's incredibly passionate. He's ferocious and committed when it comes to protecting the people he cares about but gentle and loving by nature. Plus he's really smart can figure out how to make a 16 year-old radio work.

And for my personal favorite, looking more than a little bit smoldering in just jeans, Sawyer. The resident bad boy, he's impetuous and impulsive but under it all he's just a therapist's dream with his screwed up childhood and great big heart! Plus, at least for the cameras, he appears to be a really good kisser.





Honorable mention go to the still somehow sexy Locke for his goodness and his determination, the dead rockstar drug addict turned loving father of sorts Charlie and in a throwback to the first season, the attractive quasi-incest participant Boone.

So that's my first "don't want to live without" . If you've never watched the show, and you're intrigued, you have from now until January to catch up on the first four seasons. I recommend it.

starting out

So it turns out all the cool people I know have blogs. I guess you have to believe that you have something interesting to say, and since I don't have any cute children to write about and I hardly ever do anything all that noteworthy, I thought I'd write about things that are great and things that are not (in my not-so-humble opinion, of course). I basically stole the idea from my friend Rebekah, but I called it something different so it's hardly a rip-off.