Kacey, this is for you.

Dear Kacey,
Everytime I try to upload photos on my blog they come out as jibberish... it's annoying. I'm trying, I really am. I'd like to keep up with this here blog being that it's now AUGUST. Holy crap, it's August.

It's really hot here in the Utah but luckly my apt. stays mostly not hot - as long as I don't move around too much. Work is still work and sometimes I remember back to waiting tables and how much fun I had doing that with you and everyone at Boston's... ah the days. I need a visit pronto.

I bought some really ugly chairs that I'm going to have recovered (my goal is this month). The fabric is straight from the gross 70's but the shape of the chairs is rad. The new fabric is dark gray with a white botanical print.

I've done lots this summer: St. George and Zion National Park for my birthday/celebrate Naomi getting her Ph.D, Island Park and West Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, got a new night stand and painted it the perfect yellow, played in a golf tournament where I won the women's longest drive contest. Hiking, biking, running, fireworks (made some fireworks of my own too... woot). We all bought season passes to the local amusement park (that's kinda neerdy cuz the only other people that have passes are still in jr. high not 27-30 year old single people! HA!!), lots of dates and summer fun!

so much has been going on this summer and it's almost over. I love the fall so bring it on baby!!!

Miss you! When can I come up and visit? When are you and your sis gonna come down?

Sunday Night Blues

I feel very uneasy tonight. I don't know why. I just got home from a great weekend away in Jackson Hole, WY. Geez! That place is BUH-Utiful! Maybe it's the standard Sunday Night Blues that get me just about every week. Knowing that tomorrow brings work and no play. Bummer. BUT. I did have a nice weekend so I shouldn't complain too much.

I hate uneasy. I hate that things outside of my control make me uneasy and that I let them. It's like that feeling you've forgotten something important or that sick feeling you get when you missed your alarm on the ONE morning you just COULDN'T miss that alarm. Does that happen to you? Do you let the thought of something sad get to you to the point that it makes it hard for you to relax eventhough you can't do anything about them? I try to avoid this feeling by being rational but at times I'm just not. So what if you failed that test, got a ticket, ran out of money for the week, so what if he didn't call, who cares if you dented your car, have stress at work or want to make things better and cant.

I think I'll read a talk from the Ensign.

It all blows over. It does.

xoxo

******HELLO! Anyone there?*****

Do you see the date today? Do you see the date of my last post? Yes, it's been that long since I've been able to post on my blog. I just got the internet installed. I mean JUST, I can still smell the "I've been working in the heat all day" comcast guy in my apt. I've got lofty ambitions to keep you all informed of the great summer I'm having and plan to continue to have. But not right now.

Stay tuned. But just know, I've missed you.

Well, I 'spose I should get at least one post in in February. Work is SO MUCH WORK!! I had 36 hours of overtime on my last check- and we don't get paid overtime till after 48 hours in a week... you do the math.

I literally have nothing to report except that I still like my job. It's still hard, but now it's hard in a different way. At first it was hard because I didn't know where to find the info I needed. Now it's hard because I'm still learning to manage my work load. The northeast is a super busy territory and everyone that calls truly believes their project deserves to be put at the front of the line. Well, I'm getting the hang of it and I hope they keep me around.

OH!! Here's something non work related, I applied for an apt. yesterday. My very first apt. BY MYSELF! It's the most perfect little place, I love it already and hope I get it. I forgot to put a couple pieces of info on the app and woke up in the middle of the night in a panic thinking "oh no! they'll never approve me for the place because I didn't put my license plate number on the app!!!" Irrational? I know. I'm a little anxious/tired/overworked/crazy lately.

Well, one post in Feb. not bad.

Love you all!!!!

I'll post a picture of my new fabulous place soon!

XOXO

I'm Official

Alright folks. I'm at the end of my 2nd week at my new job and I really really like it. It's hard. I cover the northeast US and the Caribbean. No I don't get to travel. Too bad! I'm so tired. Moving is a lot of work and I haven't had to be up before 9 am for like the last 11 months... hence the lack of details and posts.

Ciao Seattle

I moved. Again. This time back to the ol' beehive state. Yup, I sure did. Over Christmas I interviewed with a great company and wouldn't ya know it they liked me enough to have me come in everyday so they can send me a paycheck.

More details to come....

Christmas Recap

Christmas was a much needed break and I took advantage of it! The 14 hour drive was worth the guilt-free naps all week.

There were:

Babies turning 2
Daddies having hard times with their babies turning 2...

Balloons and static...

Aunties and babies hanging out...

Babies learning to use the iPhone...

...and the camera... with grandpas help...

Freezing cold nights at the Zoo Lights...

Old friends....

and even older ones!!!

Now here's where it gets good.

Adam and Lisa showed us their 'blowface' game/something they do for fun.

Talk about a fantastic way to make everyone laugh- EVERYONE.

Brace your self for some seriously ugly faces:

We all had a great time and took about 60 pics of ourselves doing the ugliest faces we could.

You should try it sometime.

Christmas was fantastic.

Santa brought me something great- a new job!!! Yay for me.

So. I'm moving. Again. Back to SLC.

Ciao Seattle.

after a not-so-brief hiatus

Well, here's the latest:

~ I moved to a house in Seattle with some girls from my ward. There will be no pictures of my new place because after a month it is STILL a mess (I know mom, you're not surprised are ya?).



~ I've become the un-official/official wedding planner for my friend Kacey. Mostly I just spout out all the ideas I'd wanna do for my own wedding.



~ I remembered why I don't like having TV available where I live. It SUCKS YOU IN.



~ Got the following Christmas picture from my lil bro who's over seas. He's in the middle... my guess is that he stole that sweater from the PTA president.





~Kacey and Dusting had a 'Christmas Festivus' party. It was a blast!! (see below for the proof)

This is Olive. She was having a rough time that afternoon but it seems she found the 'keg-erator' and from then on she was just fine.


Channeling my inner Frenchman.

These are the great friends I've made at work: Dom, Moi, Kacey, Katy and Jess

Ole!

Creativity with a stack of stick on mustaches... the possibilites are endless!!

And then Santa showed up! I don't remember the last time I sat on Santas lap.

But I can tell you that I've never sat on my bosses lap (as Santa or not).

We had a great time!! Thanks to Kacey and Dustin/Santa!!!!

Time Warp

I've been living in my new place for 2 weeks as of today (well 34 mins ago it was today). And in that time my sleep schedule has migrated. I stay up later and sleep in later. It's weird. Like right now... it's 12:37 am. I should really hit the hay.

Maybe it's the airbed.

Wishful Thinking

I've been daydreaming lately about a few things...

Maybe a visit to San diego?

A perfect necklace from my friend Tiffany. And you better believe I asked my special santa for this one... a girl can dream right?

Oh, be still my heart. This necklace (and all the others for that matter) from MD Sparks on ETSY



This perfect yellow sideboard would go very well with my new bedding. (not to mention

that I don't have anywher to put my clothes at the moment)

Oh, yeah! I'm moving again.

There ya have it.

This year was the first year I was without my own family.
So I borrowed this one:

Definitely some of the best turkey dinner I've had in the last few years.

Dave and I (how'd ya like me new hair color??)

Look at this lil gem!! He spent about 10 mins trying to get at some dessert.

Late night monopoly with Dave and Clay.

If you look closely you'll see Dave has mortgaged ALL his properties, I've done a couple of mine and only have about $33 to my name. Even after Dave and I cheated we still didn't win.

Well... there ya have it.

Two Quickies...

Here are a two projects I did in the last week.

Numero Uno:
Zina mentioned that she wanted a autumn garland table runner. I thought I'd get her one as a thank you for the last 7 months of living in her house but had little luck. THEN. Joann's had all their "Autumn Inspirations" 70% off and I was like "I'm in." Here's what Zina has on her table now....

All that was only $20, even the vase.

Numero dos:
A few days ago I came upon this blog which lead me to this post and ultimately to this tutorial. I fell in love with the little pouch and knew it was just what I needed to make to replace my sorry, too full bag with all my nail stuff in it.
Behold the glorious results....

The linen on the outside is printed with silver metallic (a sample from me old work), and the lining is the leftovers from my flower pillow.

I went from this:

To this:

It was really easy to make. I've never put a zipper on anything but I did today. The whole thing took about 2 hrs. but it'll be quicker next time.

Turkaaaay Bowl!!

Last Saturday was the annual Turkey Bowl. I must say, I don't think I remember every competing in a turkey bowl and especially not in one of this magnitude.
There were 32 teams from the region (all the stakes and wards were eligible to play) and these people take it very serious. I mean... I'm athletic and very competitive but when I met my team Saturday and we started running plays and drills and I was told "no breaks till you get it right..." even I started to doubt my ability to live up to the TB hype.

But I mean c'mon... who we kiddin' here? Of course I dazzled everyone with my speed, agility and amazingness.

Somehow the church secures Husky Stadium for the evening and from 4pm on this place is crawling with Turkey Bowl-ers. 3 Fields, double elimination and a trophy. This is serious.

Here is our team "4th Reload" Not sure what the significance of that name is, like I said, I met all these people about 15mins before this picture was taken. We have Kyle, Art, Jenny, Morgan, Danny, Eric, Sam, Heather, The Shelb-A-Tron, and Coralee.

My Seattle friend Stacey and her Washington "mom" Laurie. They cheered for us after Stacey's Tutu team was out in the second round.

Action shots...

The team we're playing in these shots was a team from my ward. One of their players was talkin' a lotta smack so it gave me great pleasure to catch a pass and run it in for a touchdown which aided in our win over them!!!

Ward friends/the team from my ward. See the tall lurpy guy? That's who was big talking... so glad we beat them!

It was a BLAST!!! I'm fully recovered from my "almost concussion" and feel pretty good that I caught two passes that ended in two TDs and one 3 point conversion (girls get extra points). We ended up taking 3rd place overall. Not too shabby.

A Christmas Gem.

Alright ya'll. Prepare yourselves.
Today at the Everett Mall (if you're from around here you know that any sentence that begins with "Today at the Everett Mall..." can only mean you're in for a real treat. It's like saying "Today while I was in Riverdale" or "I was at the Valley Fair Mall and...")
Ok, anyway...
Today at the Everett Mall I was picking up some presents for Christmas and there was something special that caught my eye.
I don't even know what to call these... things. It was hard to pick just one or two to photograph. I really wish my phone had video so you could see the real beauty. And there were SO MANY to choose from.

While I was taking the pic of the horse one the lady came over to me and I had to pretend like I was interested in them- I felt dirty afterward. She did her best to sell me on one, "this one is only $22.50"

They're lighted from behind and have that starburst pattern in the background. Behind the starburst is a spinning thing with multi-colored spirals so it looks like the starburst is radiating. It's just a true gem...

Take a closer look at the horse one. Regular horses at the top then BAM! Zebras in the bottom with that convenient clock. Oh, and a bald eagle. Do bald eagles and zebras live in the same places?

My New Addition.

Last week I woke up with the need to make a pillow to go with my new bedding. (Oh, did I mention that I got my new bedding? I blah blah blahed about it awhile back and started saving the moola and now my new bedding and I are loving life). It just needed something else so I started this lil guy....

White felt petals, an iridescent button in the middle and some satin ribbon around the belly. It was SUPER easy to make- I didn't have a pattern or anything. I traced circles on teal fabric to make sure the petals stayed in line, very lightly glued them down with Tacky Glue to make it easier to sew, sewed them down and POOF. Done.

Cept now, I think I wanna make this pillow.... it's even shown in the perfect color.

Shelby Street

I suppose if Seattle had anything remotely close to a logical address system/street organization I'd have never found this charming little street overlooking Lake Washington.

(the fact this single street post has 3 street names and none of them at right angles to each other is exactly what I'm talking about)

November 1

This area is- so I'm told- is usually a bit more... moody as weather is concerned. More so than Seattle proper. Sunday morning I looked out my window and this is what I saw. I'm lucky to have such a view.

Waiting tables in a leotard.

I got to work on Halloween which turned out to be pretty fun. Nothing starts getting crazy on Oct. 31st till later anyway.
I thought I'd resurrect my 80's work out alter ego from my high school MORP outfit this year. It was perfect, better than before! People just looked at me and smiled like "oh. my. is she wearing that in public? while she's working?" it was AWESOME! I L-O-V-E wearing costumes that are borderline humiliating, so much more entertaining.
Yes, I waited tables for 5 hours in this get up...

Me, Trish and Rainee

Me and Kyle. Ugliest big woman I ever saw.

Nate and I. Definitely my fave outfit for the night.

Chris and I. He trained me (and I trained Nate so...)

Me, Kacey the T-I double guh-errr, and Olive the Chicken (the sicky ear ache chicken)

Jen the "mile high captain" and I. Ya know, I don't think she really even has her pilots licence.

Me and Blake the PIMP

After work I headed down to Seattle for a house party.

On my way I ran into Little Red Ridinghood who'd had a run in with the wolf.

Oh. whup, wait.. no one was ready... take another one.

There we go. These are some wardies.

My Everett friend Elaina.

And just for old time's sake...

the original 80's work out outfit. I wore that to a school dance, oh, yes I did.