True Friend

A true friend will beat themselves up so you can get a job.

Mom's Cakes

I've heard that your life begins once the dog has died and all of the kids have moved out. I don't necessarily think that's true. I think it just means you're bored. :) Since all of us kids have moved out, the dog died, and my dad is in the Stake Presidency now my mom has had more free time on her hands. She signed up for a cake decorating class and has loved it! Last Monday was her last class. She has made some incredible cakes but this last one was amazing. The top layer is a rice krispy treat and the bottom layer is a Gluten-Free spice cake (my dad is gluten intolerant). She hand made all of those roses and leaves. Well, my sister Liz helped her with some of the leaves since she had so many to make before class. The pictures don't do it justice since it was taken with my cell phone. My mom invited all of us over last night to have some cake. Once we said we were having cake Zack grabbed a fork and jumped on the table. We had to quickly stop him from digging his fork into the cake before we cut it. This is a picture just after we stopped him.

Here is What I Hate About Being Fat

Thanks Cherie for sending this to me. It's hilarious and I really needed the laugh today. I hope you all enjoy this as much as I do. It's sad that I do sometimes feel the same way as the person who actually wrote this. Enjoy!! My friend Cherie got if from THIS blog and that blog got it originally from THIS blog-the genius behind it. I did ask permission from the originally author to post this so please do that if you are going to pass it along. :)

1) In my head, I'm totally a blonde, blue eyed, 23 year old ingenue, and it always surprises me when I walk by a mirror, like, AAAAAACK! (That picture up there at the top of the blog where I look almost average sized? Outdated by about 25 pounds.) (It's been a stressful year, shut up.)

2) If you are me, which I am, you sometimes feel the need to make jokes about how fat you are, which is just a HORRIBLE thing to do to people. I mean, way to make everyone feel awkward. If they laugh, they're jerks, and if they don't laugh, then it's like they're acknowledging the truth of the statement. What are they supposed to say? "You're not fat?"

3) Yes. That is what you are supposed to say. Even if your friend is 350 pounds, if she says "I'm so fat," the correct response is a quick, automatic, "You're not fat," with a change of subject. Don't worry. You're not enabling her. The thing is - she already knows she's fat. CRAZY TALK, I know. And if you don't say anything, or if you say, "Here, let me give you the number for Jenny Craig," she will drive straight home and eat another gallon of Ben and Jerry's. And yes, I agree that true friends should be able to say anything to each other. Just - not that.

4) I don't appreciate it when my skinny friends give me dieting tips. If I bring the topic up, which I don't all that often, because HELLO, it's not like I need to call attention to it, they will sometimes (gingerly and in a loving way) try to give me weight loss advice. This is annoying because, HELLO again, I know how to lose weight. I've lost my entire body weight, twice (spread out over time, obviously - I'm not MAGIC). I've read every weight loss/healthy lifestyle book known to man. I know about lifestyle change. I know about exercise. I know about muscle mass. I know, I know, I know, I know. I KNOW! I just... ...really like to eat.

A Few of the Diets I've Been On: Weight Watchers, Body for Life, Atkins, the South Beach Diet, Carbohydrate Addicts Diet, the Rotation Diet, the Cabbage Soup diet, and the Diet Dr. Pepper-Fasting-Chewing Gum diet.

Once I talked to a doctor about it, and she actually said, "What you need to do is stop eating so much and exercise." And then on a little pad she wrote Eat less, exercise more.

I stared at her. "Holy mackerel. I have never heard this before. I think you may have just unlocked the door to weightloss for all mankind."

No, I didn't say that. Actually, I just muttered, "That's harder than it looks," which led to talking about my unhealthy obsession with food, which led to her prescribing me an ACTUAL diet drug - phentermine. It was AWESOME. I lost 40 pounds in eight weeks AND I barely ever had to sleep. I was so productive, I can't even tell you. My throat was hoarse from never shutting up, all day long. But eventually Dr. Jerkface made me go off of it, and I gradually gained it all back. (Big surprise.)

5) Highland, Utah doesn't have fat people, other than me. I'm SPECIAL. But I love all of my skinny friends, and I never judge them for being all fit and healthy and semi-obsessed with running triathalons. My heart is big. I do not discriminate against the fit. I love ALL sizes (even the 2s and 4s! See? I'm a giver!)

But it would be nice to have a fat friend. It's sometimes nice to have a friend who is fatter than you, so that you can feel like the skinny one. This is a politically incorrect but still true truth. I don't do this anymore (LIE), but when I was younger I cycled between normal and chubby on a regular basis, and if I was with a fat friend, I'd constantly assess our relative fatness, wondering "Do I look like that? Am I that fat? Is she fatter? Or am I fatter? Huh. I think she's fatter." And if my friend was fatter, I felt way more comfortable out in public, because, yeah, I might be fat, but at least I wasn't as fat as her. And then lightning would come down out of the sky and strike me dead, because MAN, that's awful.

But anyway. I feel gross. I've gotten to my gross set point, and I'm ready for a change. (Yes again.) (The folks over at the weight loss blog I started and promptly abandoned are all snickering at me, I know. But I REALLY MEAN IT THIS TIME.)

So - LIFESTYLE CHANGE, HERE I COME. WOOHOO. Yippee. I'm SO excited. or something.

And now I'm trying to figure out how to go about this, so what I'm wondering is - anyone ever eaten a tapeworm?

P.S. I'm KIDDING, don't send me gross pictures. BLECK.

P.P.S. Don't worry fat acceptance people, I'm not down on myself because of my weight. I know that I am STILL FABULOUS. I'm a basically happy person. My weight is not constantly on my mind (um, food however...). It only bothers me every third Tuesday, when my jeans refuse to zip up. I don't let my weight define me, blah blah blah. Whatever.

Why is it?

Why is it that when you have a certain time to get dinner done and you're cooking something you have made before and it always takes you 45 minutes to cook that it takes longer then usual? A friend of mine at church just had a baby so I was making dinner for them tonight. I made chicken and rice that I cook with cream of mushroom soup. It always takes me 45 minutes to cook and it's perfect. Tonight, it took over an hour so I was late getting it to her. She said it was ok because they are late eaters and don't usually eat until 7pm so it was fine that I brought it at 6:45pm. But it's still frustrating that it took so long. I hope that it tastes good though. If it doesn't, I also gave whole wheat rolls, steamed veggies, sliced oranges and a banana cream pie so if the chicken tastes bad, at least there's other things I made that will be good. :)

The Oscars!!

Best Oscars Ever!! Hugh Jackman is an amazing host and should do it more often! I loved the musical numbers! I really like how this year they had 5 previous winners of the actor awards say something about each nominee. It makes being nominated just as important as winning. It lets each person be recognized and praised for their talents.

I was very excited to see Slumdog Millionaire win Best Picture. It completely diserved it! I loved that they had the entire cast come up on stage instead of just the Producer. I loved that they flew all of the little kids in for the show too.

I do have to admit that I was sad that Sean Penn won. I might be the only person in the whole world who feels that way but I'm not a fan of Sean Penn. I don't know if it's his acting or his politics that have given me that opinion. It's great to have an opinion and to stand up for what you believe but if that's all America knows about you, isn't that bad? Has anyone ever seen Sean Penn happy? Has anyone heard him say something that isn't political and against someone else? Just my little opinion. I think Frank Langella diserved the Oscar more. A lot more. He was phenominal!!

But it was a real fun night. We had a party at my sisters house with a ton of food! I had clear plates with the actor/actress nominee's faces shlacked to the back of them, we had Oscar coasters and the Best Picture nominees posters all over the room and lot more. My mom even made an Oscar rice krispy treat. It was awesome! It was a really fun night! I would have won the prize for guessing the most but since I bought the prize I didn't include myself in it. My mom won the winner prize and my brother-in-law won the loser prize, again. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUJ-7tCIHTU
Opening Number

Academy Awards

Don't forget to watch!! Slumdog Millionaire is going to take Best Picture!!

Happy Birthday Stephanie!!

Happy Birthday my Besty!! I love you very much!!!

Happy Birthday Stephanie!!

I wanted to publicly wish you a Happy Birthday!! I hope the day goes well and that no one at works causes you to committ murder on such a special day. I love you very much!!!I do have better pictures of you and some with us together at home. I'll post more pictures when I get home. Have a wonderful day!!!

Tag Tagerson

Here's how it works: The first five people to leave me a comment get something made by me just for them. It can be anything I want, I get to choose. It can be silly or serious, edible or not, but don't plan on anything alive. There are a few rules involved (aren't there always?):

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It will be done sometime this year (Don't expect grand things if it takes a long time. I'm just lazy!).
4- You have no clue what it's going to be. (The choice is mine! --insert evil laugh here--)
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange and/or silly.

The catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they've posted on their blog win a hand made, super creative, possibly lovely whatever in the heck I decide! Be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

Happy Valentines Day!!

Roses Are Red

Roses are red; daisies are white;

Valentine, you make every day a delight.

Violets are blue; daffodils are yellow;

Valentine, you make my heart jiggle like Jello!

By Joanna Fuchs

For Mom's

This is for my wonderful Mother and for all of my friends and family who are mothers. You are greatly appreciated and loved!!

Dance Your Tale Off!

This Friday my parent's stake is having a Valentine Dinner Dance. It starts at 6 p.m. with dinner then they will clear away the tables and chairs and the dance will start. My uncle's band will be playing and we'll dance the night away. If you're interested in coming, let me know and I'll give you more information. Oh! And it's all free!!

Also, there will be a floor show half way through the dance by ME! I'll be singing about 5 songs from the 1940's era with two of the dances having professional-esque dancers dance along. I even managed to talk Hutch into singing a song with me! It should, hopefully, be a lot of fun!!

Restroom, Not For Sleeping

Webster's Dictionary defines Restroom as "a room or suite of rooms providing toilets and lavatories." No where in that definition does it say "room to nap in". We have two women in my office building who don't understand that. One from this floor and another from another floor (yes, she travels to sleep in this bathroom). We have a little bench in the restroom so people can put bags or whatever on it and also to fill empty space but these two ladies don't understand that. I have walked numerous times into the restroom and one of them is lying on the bench sleeping. How am I supposed to use the bathroom when someone is sleeping? Besides the fact that they probably shouldn't be sleeping during work time. Also, how do you sleep while someone is going to the bathroom? Soothing sounds (and probably smells) are not provided in that room! So ladies, some advice: take a multi-vitamin for that extra boost of energy, get to bed earlier, take a walk around the block to wake yourself up. Just don't nap in a bathroom.

P.S. I Love You!

So last night Hutch and I watched "P.S. I Love You." Have you seen it? I cried. No wait, I bawled. I had a big pile of used tissues next to me by the time the movie was over. 10 minutes into it and I'm crying. It was a neverending cycle. I'd laugh, I'd cry, I'd laugh, I'd cry, etc. I had a HUGE headache after the movie was over. I really liked the movie too. :) But you really can't go wrong with Gerard Butler. Yum! There's something about the Irish. Back to the film. I also really enjoyed the cynicalism of Harry Connick Jr's character. I liked that there was a guy who was open and said how he felt. I know a lot of girls who hated his character. I just figure it was because everyone was so hung up on Gerard that they couldn't let Harry in. I did also like how it ended. How it's open ended and you don't know what's going to happen to her but you know that it will be good and that she will be happy. (I'm being descreit just in case I'm not the last person in the world to see it.) I also adored her friends! Hilarious!! And, I REALLY want to go to Ireland now. I wonder if I could get Hutch to pick up an Irish accent? :) Ok, maybe not.

What was that?

A good friend of mine, Rebecca, went to Egypt last year. She recently was looking at her photos from that trip and came across two that she had forgotten about. She sent them to me and I laughed hard. When she was on a bus there was a small truck next to them with an unusual load in the back. They are below: Yes, that's a camel! It's being hauled in a small Isuzu truck. Has to be one of the funniest things I have seen.

People are Great!

I know it's weird for me to say "People are Great!" because usually I'm the first one to say "I hate people." But the overflowing support of Shawn that we received on Saturday changed my opinion...well...at least for the moment. We didn't fill the theater like we hoped but those who did come, came with their wallets opened. As of that evening we raised over $2,200.00 for Shawn! Yeah!! Stephanie will have a better total later.

My sister-in-law took some wonderful pictures of the concert that I will post as soon as I get them from her. My wonderful husband also video-taped the concert. We are going to put it on a DVD for Shawn since he was unable to make it. I'll also post a few of the performances on my blog. I do have to say my sister, Liz, threatened my life about posting her and Steph's performance on the internet but then I showed her that Megan and Mandee had already posted it on Facebook and she decided she really can't hurt me if I put it on my blog. It's just not allowed on YouTube.

Everyone did such a wonderful job performing. I know I had a bit of a mistake in one of my songs but on the whole, the concert was wonderful! My parents and a lady from their ward said that that night was the most entertaining night they have had in a long time.

Thanks Stephanie for heading up this whole thing you are an amazing person. Thanks Liz for helping to keep Steph sane and for being willing to do anything for charity. Thanks Laren for your organization of the silent auction and for taking that project on. Thanks mom for handling the money and making sure everyone paid $10 :). Thanks Dad and Hutch for carrying everything. Thanks Ains for saying "Ta-Da" to me. (It was adorable). Thanks Tif J for your donations, for taking pics and for your help with everything! Thanks Elisha and DeDee for performing. You both sound great together!! And Elisha your voice is fabulous!! You blew me away! Thanks Kate for everything! You melted my heart. I love that you are the kind of performer where I know that you are feeling the meaning of the song and you bring the audience with you. Thanks Jennifer for being willing to perform at the last minute and your songs rocked! Thanks Bruce for bringing in the fun and the spirit of the evening. Thanks Walkers for letting us use the building, the donations you brought and for sharing the music. You all did wonderful! Emily and Bethany did such a wonderful job on such a fun song! You two were so cute!! Bethany you sing like an angel. It seems effortless. Great job!! Thanks Tiff and Z for your band. You guys are soooo good!! And Tiff, you sound wonderful! You have a great voice!! Rick you're hilarious! Need I say more? Jeffrey thanks for your willingness to host and bring the humor. It was a very memorable night that I'm sure no one will forget. Thanks everyone, you are blessed and loved for your willingness to help others.