Lately...

I have been trying to post on blogger for two days now, but it has been such a pain in the *beep*. Anyways...now it's letting me post certain pics, but not others. So get ready for an endurance test of pictures here.

Last week was crazy busy. Fun, but busy. Heidi and I went to Martin Sexton, who was awesome as always. He has such great range. He even played some Johnny Cash, which was pretty sweet. Of course, it won't let me post any pics of him, but here we are at the concert. (Yes, I know my cheeks are extremely pokey).


Friday was my cousin Mehgan's law school graduation down in Happy Valley. She is a smart cookie and I am proud of her!


Here is her cute family minus one sib. Attention single ladies: My cousin Micah (blue shirt) is a babe and is also single.


Saturday was THE busiest day ever. I won't go into boring you with the sched details. One of the events was my sister's bridal shower.


Grandma's and aunts:


I think my mom looks so pretty in this pic.


And here is Meg, me and my aunt Jen.


So only 3 people asked me if I was pregnant at the shower because of that dumb shirt. Finally when one of my aunt's asked me if I had an announcement to make I said "Ya, actually, even though I'm wearing a shirt that apparently looks like a maternity shirt, I am NOT pregnant." However, this shirt is too cute to shelve and so you will be seeing it again.

Everyday People

Everyone knows Arrested Development is like THE funniest TV show ever. (If you need proof, you can borrow it from us). The other night I was watching random clips on YouTube and came across this video. I totally had this CD and Arrested Development was one of my favorite bands in junior high. I mean how could you go wrong with hits like "Mr. Wendell"...(don't even try to pretend that you don't know that song.) In fact, I may even still have that bad boy somewhere. Although I jest, the funny thing is, when I watched this video I still totally like this song. I guess I haven't really progressed all that much....(musically or otherwise) since junior high.

Reasons

Here was a good reason to finally spring clean and pack away all of those jackets. (Romey was starting to enjoy her nest on the chair)


And not that any one ever needs a reason to shop at Target, but this cute diamond ring dog toy has the funniest tag attached.

DUNZO!

So, I came home from work the other day to find this:


Patrick's house was bulldozed to the ground in one day. It is a pretty amazing sight to see. I was worried about noxious fumes for a minute, but I don't think they would keep the foundation if it was really contaminated, so let's hope not. This is truly a happy day. Don't get me wrong....I definitely miss scary druggies hanging out, f-bomb rap blaring through the window, Melissa and her other 350 lb. friend in bikinis on the front lawn, watching Melissa and her boyfriend practically having S on the porch, and Patrick's little picture book of the surgery he had after his sister ran over him with the car. But alas, I have those treasured memories to tide me over.

In even better news, we celebrated my Dad's 49th B-day at my FAVE restaurant Cucina Toscana. It is seriously the best. Peter and I purposely order all of this extra food so that we will have some leftovers. Wow, we sure know how to treat my dad on his birthday (by giving him a nice big tab).

A Classic

The other day I just felt like listening to this song...because I like it a lot. If you've never heard the Natalie Merchant cover, I might actually like that one more. But you gotta love Neil. Especially in this 1989 clip.

The Babe

Here is my cute little bro's "Spring Picture". He isn't called Babe for nothin.

Easter Family Party

Get ready for picture overkill. We had Peter's family Easter party this weekend. Here's the sign my niece Olivia made for the big event: (apparently this was a Barbie Easter party)


There were 5 families with little kids there. The girls were grossly outnumbered 15:2



Some of us chose to sit on the sidelines and watch the madness from afar:



Our cute niece Ellie & nephew Paul:



And of course, the whole point of going to these types of things...my mother-in-law Pinkie is the queen of domesticity and whipped up this delicious trifle that was oh so good.

The Sunshine State

I just got back from a few days of some fun in the sun visiting with good friends. I realized that I took maybe 2 pictures the whole time. We went to the beach, talked, ate, talked, did a little shopping, and ate some more. It doesn't really get any better than that. Although my stomach is suffering from a little bit of what I would call "The Easter candy binging revenge".

Blue Light Special

Sometimes there is nothing better than getting a bargain. I've been wanting one of these, but as you can see they are a little out of my price range.

So this afternoon, I found this little number on Craigs List. Albeit a far cry from what I was looking at, I think it has some potential. Maybe a cute pillow and throw?


Anyways...the best part of all and the reason why I am still smiling? $10 bucks.

Spring Fever

I love this time of year. I'm not going to wax poetic or anything, but there really is something great about spring that is refreshing and that makes you want to get organized and get busy. Friday night I had a rare burst of energy and felt like doing some yard work. So I bought some bushes and planters for these:


And of course, this is our one and only yard ornament:


Conference is always fun because my cute cousins come over and we eat good food and hang out.


Peter & Babe:


Easter bunny sugar cookies:

Doggy Love

So...if you're not a dog lover, you probably hate this blog. But I love dogs and I like to look at cute pictures of them. Here's a few pics of Romey and Mele hangin while we were watching conference.

Rain

It's totally pouring here right now. It makes me miss Oregon...sounds weird, I know. I listened to Patty a lot in Oregon. She has such an amazing voice.


On a side note, if you haven't been to Great Harvest yet to get their sugar cookies, get going! They are soooo good. Romey and I just walked a 1/2 hour in the rain so we could get the last 3. Totally worth it.

Call me crazy...

But I'm excited for this movie. This picture makes me laugh so hard. Not only is Gob in this movie, but Jenna Fischer is, too. Hopefully it will not be a huge disappointment.

What's in a name??

I'm not sure if this is one of those Utah phenomenon things, but since we've moved back , I've noticed that there are some really weird names here. Obviously this is totally my opinion, so if you choose to keep reading, prepare to get offended.

I know that my name is not your run of the mill name. I don't have a problem with weird names...(within reason). I don't mind when girls are named traditional "boy" names like Sam or Michael. I think that's cute. And of course, there are lots of unisex names: like Tracy, Kelly, Pat, even Courtney. The strangeness I speak of and am continually encountering in Utah is turning man names into girl names. What do I mean, you ask? Well, let me give you some real-life examples (i.e. these are all people that I know or have met).
* Cliffette (I'm assuming her dad's name is Cliff)
*Nelladet (made by spelling her dad's name ted allen backwards)
*Donette
*Jeaneal (mom's name Jean, dad is neal)
*Retta (male family name Rett)

WTFreak? Some of these are worse than others. Advice to future parents out there: If you can't agree on a name for your new baby girl, don't just take your husband's name and add -ette, -a, -elle, or some other suffix. You will end up with a ridiculous name.

I wait for something good, for something great

Here is Ben Kweller's new video. It's pretty entertaining. This is his 82 year old grandma dancing around. He filmed it in the gym at her condo. All I have to say is that I WISH I had this much energy. And I couldn't help but notice the mini-tramp. My grandma definitely has one of those. Does yours?

Are you kidding me?

Today I read an interesting article regarding a study that a psychology professor has done. In it, he says that there is a direct correlation between cruelty to animals and domestic violence. He cited that 71% of battered women in a shelter said that their partners had threatened or hurt their pets. The article also said that sometimes abusers will purposefully abuse a pet in front of their kids to intimidate them. In one case, a man bludgeoned a kitten with a hammer in front of his wife and 4-year-old daughter.

What kind of a sicko would do something like this? Although I found this article interesting, it certainly isn't surprising. Everyone knows that people who abuse animals have major problems. Isn't that how all of those serial killers start when they're young? The bottom line is that people that hurt their pets are bad and horrible and I hope that eventually they get their due.

Here is a really sad pic of a case in Utah where a dummy beat and blinded his wife's dog and then stuck it in a 200 degree oven. He is currently serving 4 months in jail.



p.s. so it looks like I've moved on from kids to pets

Sittin', Waitin', Wishin'

This is the reason why our front windows always look like a giant monster with a muddy face came and slobbered all over them.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Happy 28th Birthday to Peter! If you don't know Peter very well, you can get to know him in the next 5 seconds. Here are some of his favorite things: Sports, Romey, Baths, Popcorn, Italy, Rich Chocolate Cake, and Sleeping In. This weekend we will be combining all of his favorite things with a trip to Cucina Toscana on Friday and one to Michelangelo's on Saturday, a Jazz Game, Mandy's delicious chocolate cake recipe, some TV time with a big bowl of popcorn and cuddling with Romey, AND I will let Peter sleep in without incessantly bugging him on Saturday and Sunday.
If one day we can produce anything that is half as cute as Peter was when he was little, then we will be ecstatic. Happy Birthday to my love.

Favorites

I know the LOTR post was probably screaming "biggest dork alive" to most of you. So, if you're not interested in more of where that came from, I'm giving you fair warning to stop reading now.

When I was little, I remember loving the movie The Last Unicorn and always crying because it was so sad. So, apparently geeks like me exist everywhere. Here is a video of The Last Unicorn and even better, someone had the ingenuity to set it to one of my fave Regina Spektor songs. I realize blogging is a big time sucker, but how do people find the time to do stuff like this? And more importantly, what am I doing tracking stuff like this down AND watching AND posting about it? And why am I getting sad watching this?

Going in for the kill

I seriously thought this was so funny. Luke was about to have a heart attack because Romey was inching closer to us. This was his first time being around a dog. Have you ever seen such huge eyes?


Here's the vicious beast herself: