While You're Here...

Would you mind reading this story from my friend? Holy ridiculous!! Health care in this country is SO insane!!

Last Play Date

Yesterday Cameron had his best friend over for their final play date. (Although, there may be goofing off on Monday, but we're not totally sure about that yet...) I grabbed my camera and caught the two of them being their goofy selves. We're going to miss this family, and Cam will REALLY miss his friend.

Good luck on the move guys, we love you lots!

Thankful November

Good Friends

Over my life I have been truly blessed to have such good friends surrounding me. When I was VERY young, we lived on a street that had NO other people who lived around us. Oh, there were bars and stores, but no neighbors. I dreamed of living somewhere where I would have friends. We moved to a WONDERFUL neighborhood when I was almost 5, and I met my first of many good friends.

She taught me how to use my imagination. She accepted me for who I am. And even when we fought (which, by the way, was TOTALLY stupid....) we always made up and acted like nothing had been wrong.

In high school I had a VERY good group of friends. I believe that I would have been a VERY different person if I had not been a part of this group. They encouraged me in SO many ways. I can't believe that I was really so lucky to have these girls in my life. (The occasional guy would try to join our group, but for the most part it was all girls...) I don't talk to many of the girls anymore, but I do appreciate the example they were to me.

And now that I'm older, I feel SO blessed to have SO many friends. I have good church friends, I have good family friends, and now because of the computer, I have amazing friends all over the country and a few in other countries. I feel so blessed to have people who care about me all over the world.

Computer Friends

So I've mentioned before that I have friends that live IN my computer. But this last weekend they came out of it for a GWO (Girls Weekend Out).

This GWO was in Provo, so it wasn't too far for me to travel to, so I came out of my computer too. ;)

It was filled with lots of laughs (LOTS of laughs), late nights, frustrations (when you get 50 women together there are BOUND to be SOME issues), but lots and lots of fun.

The first night we were laughing SO hard (and some of us were getting goosed). We started a lot of weird inside-jokes. I was SO glad to get Jake down for bed that night (he came with me because he's still nursing...) I stayed awake until 2 am.

The next day was filled with hanging out at the host-house laughing, telling stories, and just having fun. That night I DID have a bit of an encounter (not going to go into details, because I've gotten over it, thanks to those same online friends...) and stayed up talking until 4:30 am. That night Jake also was having problems. He did NOT want to sleep, and cried and cried as much as he could. I was frustrated and on my final straw. SERIOUSLY, it was NOT fun. He ended up sleeping in my bed with me (which I usually don't do, but the kid was teething and getting his eye teeth) and I popped a button off of my nightgown because I had some good pressure with my boob. (LOL)

The last day was busy, but lots of fun.

Lessons I learned this time that I will apply at the NEXT GWO:

• DO NOT take a baby to a function that is meant to be relaxing. You won't be very relaxed.
• Take more pictures. You will find yourself on the last day taking random pictures and not getting pictures of everyone you wanted.
• Don't take things too seriously. Everyone is just as stressed as you are and you KNOW that you still love them in spite of their frustrations.

All in all, a fun time. LOVE my online friends (MOFs) and I'm SO glad I got to see them!

I've Been Thinking....

...a little about high school. Not that I'd EVER want to go back, but I'm having some good times remembering myself when I was in high school.

I ran around with a small group of friends, and I'd like to think that we were close. (Not that I REALLY remember ANY big blow-ups, but that we were pretty good friends.) We were by no means popular, but I don't really think we were UNpopular either. Maybe you'd consider us the religious crowd, or maybe even the smart kids. Most of us were in at least ONE AP or honors class, and we were even in the honor society. We had some who were in choir, some who played in band, and some who just studied their little eyes out. For the most part, we were VERY good kids.

The thing that made us different was the fact that we called ourselves Neptunians. Honestly, I don't remember exactly how the whole concept came together, I just know that each of us were from Neptune and that we were here to help take over the world. We each had a nickname, and we used our imaginations often.

We made lots of movies starring ourselves and our little mascot, the Super Wonder Whooper. The Super Wonder Whooper was a cow. He wore a cape, and he was cute. In our movies we'd act out random things: a dating show, the killing of Julius Caesar (aka Super Wonder Whooper), and other things that popped into our heads. We were happy, weird, but happy.

Sometimes when we got together we'd sit around and just talk about whatever was on our mind, and I know of a few times that we'd have a spontaneous testimony meeting/singing time.

I don't miss high school, but I do miss the close group of girls that I hung out with. For the most part, I have kept in contact with them all, but not nearly as much as I would have thought.

You may know some of my friends. Carrie (aka Loogie), Joanie (aka Psycho), Kathrine (aka Aids), Ellen (aka Slither), Lynette, Kim (aka Beaker), Tamara (aka Wierdo).

Love you guys, please forgive me for posting these pictures, but I had to keep them in my journal.

Love,
Dweeb

CONGRATS!!

It's an exciting day! My friend, Mattsmom, had her 3rd little baby today. A beautiful little girl!

Congrats mama and daddy!!

Playdate at the Park

One of my oldest, bestest friends came to visit yesterday and we had quite a fun time playing at a local park. We even got together with a few other of our friends who live here locally. The kids played, we talked and laughed....it was an all around GREAT day! :)

Here's a small part of our group...some of the kids were playing and didn't join us.

Cameron wanted to take a picture, so he snapped this one of me with Jake. Not too bad...although I WAS grabbing for the camera!

And this is Cameron with his friend Jasmine. These two twerps were due to be born on the SAME day....Cam was born 10 days early, and Jazz was born 3 days late.

PARTY!!

So I mentioned going to a party last Friday. I have to admit...I had a BALL!! I drove with a few other ladies to Salt Lake for fun, and boy, did we ever have fun!

For some reason, laying on the floor taking everyone's picture is a tradition....SQUEEZE!!

We even managed to have a "smelly" party. (The stuff I sell....ya know?)

Dinner was so yummy....Cafe Rio. Anyone heard of it!?

All in all, a fun night, that I WISH had lasted just a BIT longer! Thanks MOFs!!

Sending my Love

I just heard about something that breaks my heart. If you're reading this, and you KNOW who you are...I LOVE you and I'm sending my prayers your way!!

To My Best Friends

When I was little, I used to believe in the concept of one best friend, and then I started to become a woman. And then I found out that if you allow your heart to open up, God would show you the best in many friends.

One friend will meet your spiritual need, another your shoe fetish, another your love for movies, another will be with you in your season of confusion, another will be your clarifier, another the wind beneath your wings. But whatever their assignment in your life, on whatever the occasion, on whatever the day, or wherever you need them...those are your best friends.

(Taken from a handout I got at our RS Enrichment night.)

Meeting New/Old Friends

Meeting friends is SUCH fun!!

I feel really weird when I tell my family that I've got this friend, and well, we've never actually met face-to-face, we met online! *GASP* But now I'm at least ONE more friend closer to having more real-live friends!

I got to meet Miss Froglegs in person today!! I was THRILLED! She had called me last night, and left me this fun, bubbly message, and I was just squealing, "She's called!! SHE'S CALLED!!" Well, we ended up meeting this morning for breakfast. We had a ball! (Well, all except for her kiddo...he was bummed that he couldn't play football anymore.) It was like we had known one another forever (which, if you consider reading someone's inner-most thoughts daily for a year being "forever"...it has been!)

Then the pictures!! Come on...you've just gotta!! So, for your viewing enjoyment...US!

So we didn't QUITE hit it off right away....*mumbling* DELETE!!

Uh...she wants to eat me?

No, overall, it was fun! Like meeting a long lost sister!! Love ya!

Blonde Moments

I had a blast on my short trip to Utah yesterday and today. I went, mainly, for my good friend's baby shower. It's her first baby and I am SOOOOOOO excited for her and her husband. I've known the girl since we were in middle school....feuding, most of the time. But after a very rocky year we've been buds since. Her shower was lots of fun. I got to meet a bunch of her new friends and I had a strange sense of deja vu. See, when I hung out with her in middle school I was the weird/funny one, she was the serious/thoughtful one, and another friend was the smart/quirky one. She has found herself the same group of friends in her town. I'm just so happy for her! She's doing well and seems ready to have her baby boy soon! (Her husband is excited too!)
I figured that if I was going to go to Utah that I would try to spend some time with my sister. So that's the whole reason that I left yesterday. I was hoping that Steve and I could both spend time there together, and maybe catch a session at the temple. But his work schedule got messed up, so he had to stay and work while I was stuck going all by myself.

Yesterday I was talking on the phone with my friend who's baby shower I was attending to see if I could spend some time with her before the shower,when Steve rushed into the house and annouced that the car was acting up. I was a bit worried since I was supposed to drive the thing to Utah, so we ran all over town yesterday trying to figure out what was going on. It turns out that our car, like most cars in the world, is wearing down. Our pistons aren't quite working the way they should, so we are in need of a full tune-up. The mechanic was telling me that it would cost us up to $400 for all of the repairs....OUCH! So I asked him if it would be okay to drive until we could get it fixed and he said it was fine. But all that worrying and trying to get it fixed took all of the time I thought I had yesterday, so I didn't get to my sister's house until after 10:00!! Not only was I late getting there, but once I did arrive I got lost trying to find her home! I could have sworn that I heard my sister tell me left instead of right....oh, well. (I also got lost going to my friend's house...I guess I'm just a bad direction follower!)

After the baby shower today I hurried to my sister's apartment and we got cleaned up and went to the temple. When I was driving into the valley last night it was the one landmark that I could tell what it was....it has a green light and it's just gorgeous! Anyway, we hurried over there and went through. That building is just amazing! I can't believe that it's one of the first ones that the pioneers built when they got settled in Utah. It's just beautiful!!

When we were done at the temple I said good-bye and told my sister and brother-in-law that I was off. I had hoped to fill the van with gas (just in case) and I'd talk to them next weekend. I found a fairly inexpensive gas station and pulled in to fill up. I went to my purse to see if I could find my debit card. I COULD NOT SEE IT ANYWHERE!! I figured that maybe I had left it in my pants the day before, so I checked my suitcase...no luck! So I looked through my purse again, making sure I checked all of the pockets and pouches...it wasn't there! So I thought that maybe I had left it at my sister's apartment by mistake. I quickly called them and asked them if they had seen it...they looked, but couldn't find it. My brother-in-law asked me where I had seen it last...I think he was trying to calm me down...I was getting a bit frustrated and upset thinking that maybe someone had stolen it. I said that the last time I had seen it was when I bought dinner for myself last night at home. So I called my husband to have him walk to the restaurant to see if I had left it there, but he didn't answer the phone. So my sister called me back and told me that she had the phone number for the place and gave it to me. I called them, and sure enough, I had left the darn thing there! I was relieved, but frustrated with myself at the same time. My sister and brother-in-law were nice enough to lend me some money to get me home and I was off. But a "quick" trip to get gas ended up lasting over a half hour! I felt so stupid! After the gas was filled I said good-bye to my sister and she went inside to get the receipt. I left as she was getting it. The cashier asked my sister if she knew that the vehicle she was paying for was leaving without her. She said she missed her chance to say, "Oh, no..." then run out of the building chasing after me, but instead she said that we had different vehicles.

The ride home was long and uneventful....thankfully! And now I'm ready to collapse into bed! I love visiting my sister and my friend, but there's just something about coming home!