Arrgh.

So I've received a few strange looks from fellow employees as they pass by my office. Why? Because I'm laughing like an idiot at my computer screen.

I, like many of you, have been sucked in to the vortex they call "Facebook." I don't usally participate in tests/quizzes, update things, or change settings. I use it mainly to stalk people.

HOWEVER.

My friend (Sharee) noted in her status that she had changed her Facebook language to Pirate. I of course had to do that same thing. I have been laughing for 10 minutes straight, while reading phrases such as "Divvy spoils t' all ye mateys" and "Th' infamous landlubber (so-and-so) is partakin' " and, my favorite, "Th' wench Ashley scrawled upon ______'s portrait."

*sigh* ... good times.

Voting.

Justin's awesome band, Vicious Starfish, has been selected as one of the 20 local bands to potentially play on the main stage in the B.A. Show this year (a major summer concert. So it's kind of a big deal). BUT the only way they can play is if they get enough votes. By May 11th.

Go here:

http://x96.com/local_bands/

And click on the word "Vote" (how appropriate, huh?) under their band's name. Vicious Starfish. You can vote once a day from one computer (URL). Do you have 2 computers? Do you have a local library or school with lots of computers? Hm...

Go forth and VOTE!

*Oh- and you can also vote from your smartphones (Iphone, Blackberry, etc.) Just FYI.

Daaah-dum dah-dum

What did I do today?

Well. Since you asked, I went shopping- one of my most favorite things to do. Ever.

What made it even better? I went shopping with Ashlee.

And what could be better than THAT, you ask? We went shopping for her wedding dress!!

And she had some fabulous spectators who offered their extremely helpful and important opinions. (Tara & Ashley. Yes. There were 3 Ashleys there. We like to go out as a group. It confuses people.)

And here's me. Taking pictures of the dresses:

After trying on only 3 dresses, she found "the dress." (I wish I were that decisive.)

The sash looks black in the picture, but it's actually a deep purple. "Lapis"

Aw, she's so pretty.

Mine.

Owning a house is cool. This is why:

- If you feel like knocking down a wall you can totally do it.

- You are no longer "throwing" money away into the endless black hole called "rent."

- You can say "come over to my house" and really mean it (as opposed to "come over to the duplex I am currently residing in which I do not own but for which I pay rent to the lady up the street")

- You have a yard for your dog(s). And kid(s).

- You don't have neighbors above you so you don't have to be annoyed at 1 in the morning when they're having a party and they're stomping around and you're trying to go to sleep but you can't because there are people dropping bowling balls above your bed (at least that's what it sounds like).

- You don't have neighbors below you. So you can stomp all you want. And drop bowling balls.

- All of the outside walls are yours. They are not shared with anybody. So you can run, scream and yell as loud as you want. Which we do often.

- Paint. Any wall. Any color.

Last but not least:

- You have your very own garden.

A cool thing about moving into a previously owned home is discovering the cool (or not-so-cool) stuff they have planted. I have been anxiously awaiting the flora to awaken, this spring. And it has not disappointed. For the most part. I knew that the previous owners had lived here for a few years and had let everything die (including all the grass in the backyard- but that will be another post), because they were lazy or something, so I wasn't expecting much.

First, here's a pic of the backyard (in March):


Yes, I have my own garden shed. It is pretty much the most awesome thing ever. It comes fully equipped with a sink.

And no, your eyes doth not deceive you, my friends. That is a pond. With a rock waterfall.


Full of 3-4 years worth of nasty decaying leaves and other smelly crap. HOWEVER. After spending roughly 4-5 hours raking the leaves out, dumping buckets full of water out and nearly gagging and passing out from the stench, I can see the potential. And right now there are some freaking beautiful flowers growing on it. (Aubretia)

It makes me happy. Soon we will have it all cleaned out and running. And perhaps allow some fish to live in it. If they're lucky.

I have also found other things in the backyard which please me.

Flowering plum (non-fruiting):
(ignore the ugly fence and blue a/c thingy.)

And there's also a tree next to the pond that isn't quite blossoming yet- and I think it's a Redbud. Happiness abound.

And I THINK this one is a pear tree. Although I'm hoping it's a peach. I'll find out in a few months, I suppose. What sucks is that it requires lots of pruning (since it has been so neglected. poor baby).

But my most recent discovery is this:

A ginormous Japanese Maple. I'm in love.

And because she's so cute, here's a picture of Little Miss K.

...who also loves having a backyard. Today she was "digging holes" for the potato bugs and nice ants to live in. She's so thoughtful.

baom. That's "moab" backwards.

I will try my best to let the pictures speak for themselves. Try. Because I know it can get tiring reading a bunch of words on a page. However, I have been known to be long-winded. So all I can do is try. And don't give me this "There is no try, only do" Yoda crap. Because I'm trying.

I give you: Our adventures in Moab.

We drove down Saturday morning, and this was in the back seat:

The sun was too bright for her to see her little video game thingy, so she put the blanket over her head. About 10 minutes into it she realized that having a blanket-over-your-head + moving vehicle = car sick. She abstained from playing the video game any more on this trip. Instead she decided to whine and ask the ultimate question "Are we there, yet?"

We arrived around noon, and our friends Jeffrey & Sarah had scoped out and claimed an awesome camping spot for us. We hung out for a bit and hiked up to a rock.

[click any picture to enlarge, of course]

(Kennedy and her bff Jackson)


And this truck stopped by our camp site offering to sell wood for $5. How much wood, you ask? "As much as you can carry!", according to the man in the truck. Well, our good friend Jeffrey jumped into the truck to help load all the wood into Justin's arms. He wanted to get his money's worth.


Then we met up with our other friends (who stayed in a hotel) and drove up to Dead Horse Point (where the river curves around like a horseshoe).


Pic of the girls:

The whole gang:

We went back to camp, played around and made s'mores and "smeese's"! (Smeese's are when you use a Reese's pb cup instead of chocolate. Yum.)


And I saw a beautiful sunset.


In the morning we had pancakes, eggs and bacon. Kennedy and Jackson found "blueberries" and were making their own blueberry breakfast, courtesy of the nearby juniper bush. I'm so glad that Jackson came - it made it so much more fun for Kennedy.


We then went swimming at the hotel and then we went up to the famous Delicate Arch.

After hearing lots of "I can't walk anymore." "My legs don't work." "Carry me!" and "My feet are sore." (all from Kennedy- not Justin. He just said things like "MAN! This has GOT to be farther than 1.5 miles..."), we made it to the top. And it was well worth it.


The drive home was much quieter than on the way there. This is probably why:

Thoughts.

Sometimes my mind is just so full that I have to let the thoughts spill over on to my blog. I hope it doesn't make too much of a mess.


-I'm happy that Spring has finally decided to show it's lazy self to us. Snow should only be allowed from November-January. Then it needs to be Springy from Feb-June, hot summertime from July-August, and then Fall from September-October. Yeah? Ok. Let's go tell Mrs. Nature.

- I love having my own house.

- I'm excited to start gardening. First I need to find some spare time. And with that time I hope I find a big pot of gold to help me pay for all of my expensive plants I want to buy.

- Kennedy is such a polite, sweet little girl. Unless she's talking to her mother and father. And then it's like some demon child has taken over her. But then the next minute she's cuddling next to me saying something that melts my heart like "You are the best mother. I just love you so, so, so much." Sometimes we call her Rhoda. Have you ever watched "The Bad Seed"? Rhoda. Except Kennedy doesn't kill people.

- Moab was fun. I want to go back. I'll post about it later. Or you can read about it on Sarah's blog until I find time to put pictures up.

- I should be working right now. Do I care? Meh.

- Justin will be done with school in, like, a week. Seriously I'm so excited I just might wet myself.

- Thank you for all your book suggestions. We are starting with "The Secret Life of Bees." And the rest will go on a list for future reads. I'm excited to finally have a reason to make time to delve into good books.

- I want to see "17 Again." I know Justin won't go. Anyone want to go see it with me?

- I have a crush on Zac Efron. So what if he's too young for me and unattainable? It makes me feel that much less guilty for lusting.

- Justin and I have this "thing" where we have crushes on certain celebrities and if those celebrities ever came up to us and asked us to run away with them- we could say yes. No strings attached. Justin's picks are Norah Jones, KT Tunstall and Meg Ryan. Oh- and he also loves Maggie Gyllenhaal. And I have too many to list.

- My baby girl is starting kindergarten in the fall. What happened to the last 5 years?


Ok. My mind is no longer overflowing with negligible thoughts. I have made room for more.

Read any good books, lately?

A few of my friends have started a little book club, but we are in need of book recommendations. And that, my faithful readers, is where you come in. Don't try to fool me - I know that you are literate, since you can obviously read my blog (or maybe you just like to look at my pictures- but whatever), and I'm assuming you read books (after you've finished reading my blog, of course).

So... if you would like, and if you would be so kind, please leave a comment with the title of the book(s) you think we should read and discuss.

Oh- and if the book sucks, we will totally blame you and gossip about you. Since that's the type of people we are. Just so you know.

Thank you kindly.

Pictures galore

Pictures galore. Just for you. With a dash of commentary which you may skip over if you so desire.

I don't really like dyeing eggs. I'm sorry. So instead of doing that, we started out celebrating our Easter weekend by making Easter cupcakes. They taste way better than eggs.

Sometime during the night, Mr. Bunny visited our home.


He brought a mermaid barbie and a jump rope.

And lots of candy.

After our hidden egg quest and then after Kennedy had her bath with the new Barbie mermaid (aquamarine, of course), we went outside to practice jump-roping skills. After only very few failed attempts, she was ready to jump with the best jump-ropers in the world. You go, girl.

After church, we took some pictures in the backyard. It was hard, though, since Kennedy is extremely camera shy. Obviously.


Quick Kennedyism:

In that bottom left picture she's pointing at a honey bee she didn't want to step on. Shortly thereafter, she said :

"I want Jesus to take away all the mean bees. You know, the ones with the pointy stingy things on their butts? Those ones. He can leave the honey bees. But those other ones... Jesus has GOT to take them away."

And we smelled some flowers

(Oh- and thank you Monica for the link to the hairstyle website. Lots of fun ideas.)

(And thank you mom for the dress. She loves it.)

(And while I'm at it, thank you everyone for just being you.)

(And finally- I'd like to thank the little people...)


Ok- back to Easter. We then went to Justin's parents' house for the big egg hunt and dinner.

Cute kids, aren't they?

There was a lot of candy, toys and money in the eggs. Including an animal nose mask-thingy.

Shortly thereafter, the sugar high wore off.

I know, darling- it sucks when you have to wait until AFTER dinner to have more candy.

Happy Easter.

It's about time.

We bought this house knowing that we'd have to do some work to it. So far we've ripped out the attractive russet-brown, lime green, and cadet blue carpets and have cleaned the hardwood floors which were buried underneath. We still have to do the yard (the backyard, which has a pond that needs to be cleaned out and I'm not excited for the stench that is guaranteed to knock me out), put carpet downstairs, re-finish the hardwood floors (eventually) and take the ugly awnings off the front of the house. And then some. Luckily it has tons of potential and we're loving it.

Before, obviously:

And after (we still haven't put our paintings up, so it's temporarily kinda dull. Sorry):


And we've finally unpacked and cleaned the whole top floor- but I think the only reason we finished that so quickly is because we had Justin's parents over for dinner, and I have to impress the in-laws, of course.

So here are a few more pictures of the house:

I took more, but pictures of the bathrooms and other bedrooms just aren't all that enthralling...

Yesterday was such a nice day (finally), Kennedy and I decided to do some gardening. Well, I did some gardening, she just shuffled dirt around and played with worms. We had fun. But there were so many freaking weeds I thought I was going to die. Luckily I didn't.


Then today was another beautiful day (I'm starting to forgive mother nature for her nasty temper of late), so we played outside with chalk and Kennedy amused me with her many faces.

And she pet the neighbor's kitty.

P.S. I have very nice neighbors. So far 5 of them have come over and welcomed us to the neighborhood. The one to the east of us is a former preschool teacher. I wonder if she'd be keen to babysit. Hm...

And this is my next adventure- downstairs:


... which will probably be finished when I turn 50.

Zombie

Packing + moving + cleaning old house + cleaning new house + looking through boxes at 5:30 this morning to help Justin find his work badge + realizing how much unpacking still needs to be done + 4 hours of sleep = Zombie.

Pictures coming soon.

Not of me - of the house.