You're being all selective 'cause you got a pony tail.

Merry Belated Christmas!

Things are going well here in good ole' Virginia. Christmas was pretty good for the most part but I'm not here to share what I didn't like about the holiday weekend, only the things I liked.
Our office closed early on Christmas Eve and I ran home and did a few little chores before heading over to the rents to meet up with my sister and brother-in-law (and nephews thrown into the deal too). ...um, I don't really remember Christmas eve that well so that's all you get for that day. Sorry, it happens when you get older.

Thursday morning I awoke to the sounds of Pat Benatar singing how love is a battlefield. I took a shower and got ready because this Christmas I was determined to look decent, especially since I didn't have the excuse of waking up and sliding down the stairs to open presents. I had to leave the house, briefly go out in public and then enter my parent's house. There was no excuse for a messy ponytail, mismatched PJs and a make-up-less face.

My dad had told me that breakfast was at 9:00, I told him I'd show up at 9:30. Which I did. Breakfast not only had been served, but any and all traces of it were being wiped away when I entered the room! All that remained was a sticky trail that my mom was wiping up and a half empty bowl of fruit salad. Now, the Jessica (D), sixth child, baby of the family, had to overeat just to eat side of me looked around and decided I wasn't hungry. I would be a Christmas Day Breakfast martyr and the family would hear about it for years to come. But mom insisted on making me some breakfast which now includes bacon nuked in the microwave between two sheets of paper towels (who knew?), some eggs that burned (my own fault) and toast. It was the best breakfast I've eaten in a while, beats a peanut butter granola bar.

I spent time with the family, which alternated as members and their sig figs travelled from the house, to in-laws, back to the house. I remained in the same place because my family (Chubber's and I) only had one family to commit to and we stayed the whole day. No, I'm not bitter about being the only single Donbrosky...nope. Finally everyone came over for dinner (at 2) and we ate. Then we opened the remaining presents (it was an all day thing as people came in and out).
We exchange names in my family because it's getting too big. My sister-in-law, Heather Lynn, had my name. She got me the Uglies series that I am interested in reading. I don't know how much I'll like them, but they had good reviews so I thought I would give them a try. I was pretty excited because I had only asked for the first one and she went ahead and got me the series. Mom got me The Office Trivia Game, which I picked out myself and put in the cart, but still excited to have.

Other than that I got a stocking full of my favorite candy and a 72 hour kit. Kathryn got me a popcorn tin since I am the only one "without a mate" as she put it. Thanks Kat. Sam got me bath salts, however I don't have a bath. I figured I'll save them for when I do have a bath, because one day I'll get that privilege again. That may be it, I can't remember. Never fear though, Chubbers bought me tons of stuff for Christmas. I got a pair of brown Converse (which I am wearing now), a new dress, shiny black dress shoes, Psych Season 2, and a ton of Candy Cane Hershey kisses because he knows I like them so much. What a great dog! Granted everything he bought came from Target over a month's time, but everything was also bought during incredible sales!

That dog is just too good to me.

This weekend was good, I got to spend time with my family (I played (and lost) a lot of Battleship games and I won Scrabble!), I got to eat more than I normally do (which is actually a very bad thing) and I got to just relax and not worry about anything. I also got to play ball on Friday and Saturday went to see "The Day the Earth Stood Still" with my sister and my mom. The movie is excellent and it's the perfect part for Keanu Reeves because he's not supposed to have any emotion!

Sunday I somehow got sucked in a show called Ninja Warrior, best I can tell is it's a Japanese show similar to gladiators except they never fight against each other. There are a few rounds, each with a series of complicated physical activities. Sunday's special was Women of Ninja Warrior. It wasn't like the show on Spike where they dub the voices and make it funny, this was some serious competition! 100 woman started off and only 2 made it to the final round. But only one (the returning champ) completed the course. There were English subtitles so I read them for everyone else in the room and let myself get carried away in the excitement..."four more dominoes to go! Can she make it? She made it! She made it!" Yeah, they had to keep their balance while walking across dominoes, each color was a little taller than the last and less stable. I couldn't have done it. I am in awe.

Well, that was pretty much my weekend, I'll post pictures when I get home.

It's amazing how exotic Wisconson... isn't.

I had a pretty busy weekend. It started Thursday night with basketball. Every Thursday (except for Holidays and then we try to play that Friday instead) we play basketball. It's mostly boys and I kind of prefer it that way. I wouldn't want a girl playing who is better than me!
This past Thursday I suppose I was playing pretty rough because I got the best bruises ever!!



This one on my wrist started out as a gross bump (we all know how I feel about my wrist). Suddenly it was a bruise, which continued to get darker as the weekend went on. So exciting for me. Now that it's in the healing stages it's not as cool.
Then there's the one on my knee...I don't recall what exactly happened for me to get either of these, but I know it was during basketball. It was a pretty intense night. One kid got a bloody nose (lucky dog), so at least it wasn't just me throwing myself around on the court...though I probably did a lot of that too.

Friday night a group of us got together to go see the new Will Smith movie "Seven Pounds". Due to some miscommunication rather than Christmas shopping at Target with some of the group I was at the boy's house playing Rock Band. It wasn't so bad, but I don't do the singing or anything, and I had kind of liked the idea of Christmas shopping with a group. But I got over it.


When we got to the theater most of the boys decided that they wanted to see "Yes Man" so they ditched and four of us went to "Seven Pounds". It was really good! I was totally confused for about half an hour, but you know, by the end I understood what was happening, so the next time I see it I'll follow better.

After the movie it was off to The Waffle House...I never thought I would find a place that made Denny's feel pristine. It was quite an adventure when the food came to the table...I wasn't sure if it would be my last meal or not.

I think the best part of the night was when Mikey realized that he had bought seven hamburgers (he shared with the group) and then at The Waffle House we had sevens drinks (but only 5 of us who went) and we had gone to the movie "Seven Pounds" and after eating at the Waffle House we probably only had 7 hours to live.


Here are the boys showing off their modeling skills. I don't know why they waste their time with day jobs and college.

Sunday was my Uncle's Christmas party. I wasn't going to go but last minute I decided to. It was after church and since my parent's were going there was no where else for free dinner! I spent most of the evening hanging out in a separate room with my immediate family...go figure.
In the picture before this one Ed had raised an eyebrow...a talent I have to work hard to even get close. As I tried to raise just one eyebrow my sister-in-law thought it would be funny to take the picture. What we get in the end is a photo that appears to be depicting a adolescent distaste for my older brother. Just wanted to explain why it appeared that way.

We kept trying to get Amanda to give a cute smile but she wouldn't, so I joined her in whatever pose she chose, and this was it. It's probably our most attractive photo opt together, if I do say so myself.

Back to work on...Tuesday (I took Monday off and got rid of that fridge...did I mention that it was gone within an hour and half??). On my way into work I pass this pretty water fountain, it was so cold on Monday and Tuesday (remember I describe it as "Rexburg cold" cause I think most of my "readers" can understand that type of description), the water in the fountain began to freeze. Since I was at a stoplight in my car this is the best I could do with the photo. Hopefully you can tell where the ice is, it's all that white stuff, the water isn't that powerful...it's a fountain, not a waterfall.

Today it is mostly melted because for some reason it's decided to go back up to 50 degrees. I wish it would make up it's mind so that I may properly acclimate.

Manic Monday

I have today off from work so I'm trying to be as productive as possible. A few weeks ago I got a fridge stuck in my room.


My sister was trying to get rid of it and my roommates and I need more freezer space so we figured why not? That night we had FHE at our house so we had plenty of boys to ask for help. It took them quite a while to get it into the house (first stop, my room). They ended up having to take the doors off of the fridge and then bringing it in. We got it into the little foyer right outside my room and we were going to try and get it into the laundry room. The door stop got in the way and since we are renters we gave up and left the fridge in my room. They put it back together and I wondered if I could live with a huge fridge in my room. In the end....I couldn't.

So today, my first task was to take that sucker apart and get it in the driveway and then put it on Craigslist as a free item. I took the doors off first.

Then I started to move it outside. It got temporarily stuck in the doorway, but I went out the front door and moved it a little, then back into my room (via the front door) and shoved it a little and walla! It's in the driveway.

I had to put the doors back on and let me tell you, taking stuff apart is a lot easier than putting it back together. I finally laid the fridge down to do it and when I thought I was done I realized I forgot a piece...I contemplated if it was important enough, and decided I wouldn't have any way of knowing, so I took the doors back off and put the piece back on. It wouldn't have been so bad except that it's Rexburg cold out there today and even with the gloves my fingers are numb. But all is well, the fridge is together in the driveway.

I planned a lot more time for this project, but I guess since I paid attention to how the boys did it last time I was able to do it quicker. Either that or I'm just a far superior being... but for the sake of my relationship status we'll just say I'm a quick study.

Now I'm going to clean my room, bake some cookies, take my roommate to the airport, wrap presents, do laundry, give Chubbs a bath, and try to find some other things to do with my day! :) Fun right?

December Happenings

At the beginning of this month we had out YSA semi-formal dance at the Richmond Marriott hotel. I went last year and had a pretty good time (at least I think I did from the pictures I had). So I decided I would go again this year. Here are a few of the pictures from this year. I didn't go as photo crazy this year as I had last year.

Emily T., me, and Whitney Z.

The R.S. Presidency: Natalie H., Kelli N., me, and Emily T.

Emily and me playing around in the lobby

Natalie, me, and Emily before we found Kelli.

Then last week we had our December enrichment. I was really excited because the numbers were pretty good. It rained all day long and was raining at 6:30 when I left to get there and really thought that would reduce the number of people showing up, but at our best I think we had about 15 people. Pretty good I think! For our activity we made little rice krispy treat houses.

Emily and Crystal working on theirs

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As you can see we had tradtional houses and teepees and...something else.

I love how much care Nancy is putting in to hers.

That's it for now, if anyone posts pictures I like from the dance then I'll copy and paste them in here for you to see my favorites. But as of right now no one has posted anything. Toodles!

Tagged

Cassie tagged me and I learned the hard way that you do what she tells you to do (though I don't recall her completing step five).

1. Link to the person who tagged you. (check)
2. Mention the rules on your blog. (check)
3. Tell 6 unspectacular quirks about yourself. (coming right up!)
4. Tag 6 unsuspecting fellow bloggers by linking to them.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they have been tagged.

1. I'm a blog-a-holic. Totally addicted to blogging, I have several blogs so that I don't inundate certain people with writing so much (except for those people who have access to all the blogs, I pity them in a way because it must get annoying).

2. When I really don't like something it makes me gag. i.e. last night we were watching some old devotional on BYU-TV after the broadcast and the microphone came up out of the stand towards the speakers face...it was odd looking, and made me gag, but it wasn't gross...just made me gag.

3. I can't talk to boys if I like them (you probably knew this but I wasn't supposed to tell new information was I?). I clam up, I try to give myself pep talks about how easy it will be to talk to them I've just got to ask a question to start it...but I can't do it! It's very frustrating.

4. I put things in order on the register belt when I go to the store (this counts especially at places like Wal-mart where you buy more than just food). I put the food in the front, the cold together and the dry together, the fragile things in the back. Like stuff goes together too (like I happened to buy a LOT of candy this past time (not for me surprisingly) and I put them all together and despite the easiness of the way the candy didn't end up in the same bag, though it would have fit). Then the none food products go in the back. Cleaning supplies together, dog stuff together, personal care stuff together, miscellaneous stuff together. Get it?

5. I cut my own hair. So if you thought it looked off or hoped I didn't pay for that horrendous hair cut then you know now why it looks that way (especially in the back). I've never really paid for a hair cut and I can't bring myself to start going to the Haircuttery and sit in the lobby for over an hour waiting for a trim. And I certainly can't justify paying a lot for someone to cut an inch off. So...I do it myself. I like my hair and in the end that's all that matters.

6. I like to sleep in and I do it a lot. Sleeping in when I was younger meant noon sleeping in now means 7:45. Except today was 8. Not good since I have to be at work by 8:30.

Fun huh?

People I'm going to tag
1.Claire
2.Ed
3.Kathryn
4.Julia
5.Martha
6.Marianne

Can I skip the last step too? I'll try to do it :(

It's Sunday. Sunday is usually my favorite day of the week, I mean, Fridays have potential but sometimes you just end up hanging out in your room lamenting your condition whatever it may be; no date, no treadmill, no potentials, and no Ben and Jerry's flavors that entice you.



Saturdays are just, they are good for something, I don't want to knock them, but normally Saturdays are not on my list of favorites. That's why I usually work on Saturdays because I know I won't have anything to do during the day and why not make some extra money? Maybe Saturdays are an acquired taste and it's just been so long since I've been able to utilize them that I've lost my appreciation for a day all to yourself.



But Sundays, Sundays are always good. As long as I go to church I have the guarantee of seeing at least one cute boy, even if there is no interest on either side, eye candy is always a good thing, it's why chick flicks thrive, it's why action movies have a good looking main character, it's why I didn't drop out of high school (okay, so I would never have dropped out, but it sure made it more bearable). Church is usually good and now that I'm a good girl and go to all three meetings I get a whole lot more out of it, usually feeling good when I leave. After church I get free dinner that I don't have to cook and I don't have to clean up afterwards (cause normally the fam doesn't wait for me to get to the house, they eat before hand and are finishing up cleaning while I eat...so it's bittersweet). After dinner I lounge around at the parent's homestead, falling asleep on the couch, talking politics with dad, boys with mom, trying to avoid playing games with the little ones (they cheat, they make up rules as they are going, they fight with each other, and they tend to forget it's their turn...quickly).

German Santa

German Santa came to visit us last night. Apparently he was supposed to come on Friday, but didn't. We were told to put a shoe out in the family room before we went to bed and then while we slept German Santa would come and put treats in them

My roommate (Anne), err, I mean German Santa is awesome!

Seal Team

This morning, my roommate Emily and I went and met our friend Emily (not to be confused with Roommate Emily) at the park for "Bring a Friend day" with her Seal Team. Seal Team is kind of what it sounds like, it's run by a former Navy Seal and the purpose is to get you in shape. I envisioned some drill Sargent in my face reminding me what a fat, tub of lard I am and forcing me to drop and give him 20.


I don't know how Emily and I got roped in to attending "Bring a Friend Day", but apparently we had agreed to it some time before and this week we got an e-mail from Friend Emily letting us know that "Bring a friend day" had been bumped up to this week. This week...Thursday, 5:45 a.m. be there at 5:30. Jigga Wha? 5:30 a.m. is not a time that I take much notice of because I am usually still encapsulated in my warm shell of blankets.


I did a practice run the night before (no not an actual "run", my main concern at this point was waking up). I went to bed around 9-9:30 on Tuesday night and set my alarm for 5 o'clock. Stupid dog that I no longer love (oh did I not write about how he ruined my Wednesday?) woke me up around 3:00 a.m. to go to the bathroom. I told him he'd better not do that to me on the next night or he'd find himself sleeping outside, I don't care how cold it is. When my alarm went off at 5 I woke up, but realizes that I didn't have to be up I turned it off, switched it to 7 and turned it back on.

But even with the practice I knew it would be different when it was time to go. Last night I had trouble falling asleep, like a kid on the night before the first day of school. I finally did fall asleep, only to be woken up a few hours later by that same dog I no longer love, at 11:30. I let him out and he decides he wants to play. I yelled some not so nice phrases at him as I stood freezing in the doorway and then ushered him back inside when he finally decided to grace me with his presence. (I suppose now I'll have to tell you the story...later).

When my alarm went off I had no trouble getting up, though I did decide that since no shower would be taken beforehand I would hit the snooze once and just rest my eyes. After that I was up and dressed and almost ready to go. Ready except for the way my body screamed that it hated me, my stomach hurt and I felt like I was going to throw up, I wasn't sure if it was because I was sick (turns out I'm not), or nervous, or if it was based on the sheer fact that I was up at 5:00 a.m.

We get to the park and Roommate Emily and I are standing on the outskirts of this huge team of people, all with their cool running outfits and seal team shirts and we've got out $1 gloves from Wal-Mart and I've got my wholly basketball pants on and Reebok tennis shoes that are beginning to fall apart (quality my rear). We tried our best in the dark to pick out Friend Emily from the crowd but it was useless, finally she found us. We had to sign a waiver form that said the word "death" at least 6 times. If the earliness of the hour doesn't kill you I guess the workout just might. I signed away any responsibility for these people and then we started our run. See, that's the problem right there, I assumed we ran most of the hour...we don't. Running is to keep the joints warm, and once they are warm it's time to do some blasted push-ups!

Then we stop, stay in the push up position and The Sargent (for lack of knowing what else to call him) has the guests stand up. We say who we are, what we do, and then what we do for exercise. I felt lucky that Roommate Emily was before me and she said she didn't do anything for exercise, because my answer was close...I play basketball (didn't mention only once a week) for exercise. I didn't feel the need to throw in the that I take the stairs everyday or that on special occasions I get to chase my dog around the neighborhood.

Then we do some push-ups, go on a little jog, which involved going up a flight of stairs believe it or not. I was a little relieved that I race the elevators on most mornings because this one flight of stairs was a breeze to the four I run up at least twice a day (that's right, I race the elevator, I have a semi-competitive nature, someone gets in the building at the same time as me but goes for the elevator I hurry to the stairwell and start running, but I don't skip steps, that's cheating. My record is about 50/50).

Then the Sargent has us bring it in, we all run to the middle of an open field (the one my ward goes to play ultimate Frisbee) and Sargent goes over the rules. We respond with a "who-ah" (I can't think of another way to spell it). We are a team so we call out things like, "log", "step", etc. Which is nice, I need help like that so I don't trip and embarrass myself. Then he calls up all the guests to the front. We each get a trainer to come up and work with us. Then we have a push up race...uh...I've done maybe ten push-ups in the last 5 years...total. So he tells us that between each pair we have to do 30 push-ups. So my trainer does them really well, I suck but I did at least 10, pretty sure it was around 15 but I may be too generous with myself. She does the other 15. That's how it works in the "races" whatever I couldn't do she did. It didn't start out with what I couldn't do, but you know, that's how it ended up. Each time we had a push-up race (and we had a lot it seemed) I did fewer and fewer, though I tried harder and harder. I didn't want her to have to make up for my slack. I must say though I didn't know I could do that many push-ups, but I feel certain that I didn't do them right.

At some point we did sit-ups. They had us sit on our partner's feet. I'm sorry, I didn't know this girl that well. Less awkward for me though, Roommate Emily had gotten paired up with a guy and she felt really awkward. But I finally sat on her the way I was supposed to and then she went going with her sit ups. My goodness she was hardcore. I counted 105 sit ups! Then it was my turn and I looked at her and said, "I'll be doing about 10." I don't have high expectations for myself and I knew I wouldn't be doing as many as she did, no way on earth. So I started, my elbows had to touch my knees and my hands had to stay behind my head and I did the first 8 no problem, then it started to feel like my intestines was going to explode like when you squeeze a water balloon and everything gets pushed in one direction. It didn't really feel like it was going to explode because that would have been much more painful. But I'm sure something was about to. I ended up doing 25.5 sit ups (yes, I count the half). My partner had made them look easier, but we were given 2 minutes and in 2 minutes I did 25.5 almost completely correct sit-ups (I cheated on a few)...that's sad to me. But then they had people who had beaten their old records stand up and announce what they had done the first time and what they did today. That made me feel good, a lot of them started where I was and a lot of them weren't where the female terminator (my partner) was. So she was an anomaly...thank goodness.

Then we ran, then we had a tree race (we both had to touch 5 trees and then run back and get in line in the order we finished). Then according to where we were in line we did a certain number of push-ups...but this time it was each. We were 11 and the cut off was 10...dang it. So we did 20 push-ups each. Then we ran.

After running for a bit we had another kind of race too; first we did three sprints towards each other, then three bear walks (okay, P.S. bears don't walk that way and neither do I! It was so hard, my knees kept knocking my arms out of the way and I would fall to the ground. The girl next to me walked on her knees every once in a while and she wasn't a guest so I didn't feel too bad), then we did crab walk which I was actually pretty good at (go gym class!) and then we finished it off with sprinting towards each other and meeting in the middle, or meeting at all, sometimes one person had to run further than the other (hint: it was never me). Then we took off running to do some laps. After we ran for a while we brought it in and did...you guessed it, more push-ups. After that we got into groups of 10 and picked the smallest person and held them up, each person holding up a part. For a moment fear ripped through me, I thought we would have to hold up each member of our group, I didn't want anyone holding me up. Also, if that was the case I felt we should hold up the biggest first and save the smallest for when we were really tired. But luckily for me we just find a person, hold them up and then we bring them down and do our stretches. Then we got to go home and my arms were killing me, push-ups go on my list of least favorite things.

I got into the shower and let me tell you, taking a shower has never been so arduous, I stayed in just as long today as I would on any day, but today wasn't because I was sleepy, rather I it was because I could barely move.

Despite how I may or may not have made it sound it was a lot of fun, and I'm proud of myself for doing it. I would like to continue on my own to try and improve how I do before showing my face again, but people are understanding and they all have a story about when they started and they all remember the limits they had. I would totally do it all the time except that the price is just too much for me right now. You have to do boot camp first and that's $250 and then you "join the team" for $95 a month (if you just pay month-to-month) and $70 a month if you sign up for 12-months. Maybe when the weather gets a little warmer and I've had time to stash the $250 I'll do the boot camp. We'll see.

Addresses

Hey all,


It's Christmas time and I need some addresses! So if you want a Christmas card from this tiny Donbrosky clan then you'll need to e-mail me your address @ Lildonbro@gmail.com Or you can leave it in the comments, but I figured you wouldn't want to just have it out there in the open. Or...third option, you just don't get a card from me. Your choice :)

Just like any other day...right?

The other day (okay Saturday if you must know) I went shopping with my sister and brother-in-law. As we were driving to The Barnes and Noble we saw a small car switch lanes suddenly in front of a bus. Not the brightest move, so of course we read the license plate, Kitygrl3, and proceeded to inform Kitygrl3 that pulling in front of a bus is not the brightest idea. My sister peeks in at the driver and says something about how these blond girls are probably the type of girls who don't think anything can happen to them (or something to that effect) suddenly my brother-in-law says, "Kitygrl3 is a dude." Naw! So we try to inch closer to see Kitygrl3 but at least from where I am sitting I can't tell, Brother-in-law Ben assures us that Kitygrl3 has some unfortunate facial hair. Finally the lights turn green and we get to inch forward just enough to see that Kitygrl3 is in fact a dude. A dude that could tell we were looking at him. You know how you can tell? When someone looks straight forward refusing to look over and acknowledge that they noticed you noticing them. He probably thought we thought he was hot when in all reality we were shocked a dude would be driving a car with the license plate Kitygrl3. Who knows what the other 2 kitygrls look like. We gave him the benefit of the doubt and said that the car belonged to the female passenger and he was the boyfriend.

After B&N we drove down the parking lot to Target. You know how the "new" Targets have the random, decorative only, red balls in the front? Example number 1:

I always thought they would be cool if they doubled as trashcans, you know, fight littering, go green, or something like that. Naw, they are just these random red balls in front of the store. As we pull up we notice a man crouched down on one, perched perfectly, smoking a cigarette. My sister and I both noticed him at the same time and wondered why he was perched like a bird on the red ball. We instantly called him the bird man, and Brother-in-law Ben called him the Birdman of Libby Place (since the Target was in the Libby Place shopping...center, hub, whatever you call those things). Makes me feel like I'm back at Alcatraz.

We go about our business and do a little light shopping (including a spectacular deal of Psych season 2, but just to prove I'm not completely selfish I also did my shopping for my Angel Tree angel). When we left the store (an hour later) birdman was still perched on his ball. We marveled that he could stay in that same position for over an hour (since he had obviously been up there before hand) and in retrospect I marvel that he was still smoking a cigarette, I know it wasn't the same one, but what skill to be able to balance on a red ball, pull out a pack from whichever pocket you decided to put them in and light a new cigarette? We almost drove by and got a picture but I didn't want to insult the guy, I figured there was no way to get a picture of him without him noticing. But maybe it could have been done, maybe I just didn't have the guts to get the job done. I'm sorry I failed all of you, if I ever see him perched at Target again I won't let you down!