You of all people know we've discontinued that promotion.*

Congratulations to Amber and Sarah! You both received 10 blog bucks for correctly guessing the last blog post's title!

So - today is my birthday.  Not sure how I feel about that.  I swing between hoping everyone forgets it and not wanting it to go unnoticed.  That's not just this year - that is EVERY year since I was a teenager. 

To "celebrate" the big day, I have written my Manifest Donbro.  Over the past few months I have been working on having more faith in the course of my life, learning who I am, and overall finding contentment and peace.  Over the course of this time I have made some decisions about how I am going to live my life and the type of person I want to become.  I don't have these things down - I'm far from it, but these are things that I want to work on, for the rest of my life.

Manifest Donbro

I will not let others make my decisions for me.  I will make up my mind and stay with my decision.  If I make the wrong decision, I will fix it - but the fear of being wrong won't stop me from making a decision.

I will not allow others to bring me down, I strive to lift up others and will surround myself with people who want to lift or be lifted - not those who want others to come down with them.

I will make the most of each moment.  When faced with a letdown, I will turn it into something positive (when life hands me lemons - I'll learn to juggle cause I don't like lemonade).

I will learn what is needed,  If I do not get the most out of each experience, I only have myself to blame.

I will leave everything better than I found it, including and most especially people.

I will not give something to someone if it does not belong to them.

I will seek my purpose, piece by piece and fulfill it...piece by piece, until I am the person the Lord knows I can become.

I will take time each day to sit in silence. 

I will continue to seek knowledge.

I will forgive myself for each time I fail.  Failure brings weaknesses to the surface, creating the opportunity to remove them.

What would be on your manifesto?

Happy Birfday!*

My Birthday Weekend.

Despite being sick during my birthday weekend I still tried to have a good time. I started off the morning with breakfast from my roommate, Kami. With the help of some others (like Vivienne and Ryan) we had a pancake, egg, bacon, sausage, crepe, and hash brown breakfast.

The first pancake! Given to me in honor of my birthday.

Breakfast was followed by some friendly Mario Kart competition.

And some board games. Then I was able to rest for a little while until Ryan got off work and we went to O'Charly's for dinner. I was so excited for the rolls, fries, and chicken tenders but by the time I made it through the fries I was stuffed/not feeling well. So I got the chicken to go and we went back to the house to hang out with Kami and open presents.

One of these things is not like the other...that's my umbrella to the left, I've had it for years. Kami noticed that they matched and I brought it up to Ryan and he said it's why he bought the wrapping paper. I believe him too, he's the type who notices these kind of details and likes to link them.

P.S. up in the corner you can see a red vase, Amber sent me the most beautiful flowers. I've never had flowers sent to me before.

Before I could open gifts though I insisted on having cake first (not because I'm a brat who was like, "where's my cake!?" but because Kami had made me one and birthday cake comes before the presents).

Here's the birthday crew:

The cake had an accident though - the icing stuck to the lid of the pan. I thought it was fabulous!

My little bald cake!

After I blew out the candles, Ryan tried to fix the icing.

I ate a piece, but again, not feeling well, so it was a small piece.

Sunday was not a good day health wise, that's when I went to patient first. I didn't eat breakfast but I tried to eat some dinner at Joanna's (Ryan had to finish off my plate cause I couldn't do it).

Joanna made the most incredible cake - as she always does (Batman, Spiderman, a well, Captain America) and now...

X-Men!! It was so much better than I had even anticipated!! So even though I didn't eat dinner - I made sure to have some cake.
I didn't really eat two pieces, I think I was trying to make Tommy nervous. Before dinner he kept talking about the cake and his mom, Joanna, said, "What if Aunt Jess wants to just take the whole cake with her because she's not feeling well?" and he seemed a bit sad about this. He said the prayer for dinner and he said, "Please bless that we can all have a piece of cake." How can you say 'no' to that!? I ate the cake and as with most food for the next couple of days, regretted it. Luckily, Jo gave me a huge slice (the 29) to freeze for later, so when I was feeling better I chowed down!

All things considered I think this year was a win. A good start to being my favorite number (ahem - 29 is my favorite number) for 365 days!

P.S. Do YOU have a favorite number? My b.i.l. thought that was weird.

I never thought I'd say this again. I'm getting the pig!*

Welcome to Weekend Palooza!

What a weekend! To start it off I had dinner with Marissa on Friday night after work. Marissa is a new friend, it all started with my new Visiting Teaching assignment in December and I have to say, I'm happy with this one. I've known her for a while and once we were both at a game night where she kept laughing at what I said, so I kind of knew then that I wanted to be friends with her. Dinner was pretty much like that, we both were laughing and telling stories and having a good time.

Marissa's birthday was Sunday, so Saturday night she was having a joint birthday party with Brother Ben and his twin sister Brittani (who were also born on the 20th). Marissa told me how her friend was coming down from D.C. and he worked for the NRA so somehow we decided that I needed to pretend that I was a member of PETA. Joking around about it at dinner was easy enough but I warned her that when the time came I would probably be unable to play my part...I know me, I have these brilliant ideas and can't follow through because I get too nervous. We shall work on this.

Before dinner finished I let Marissa know that if she needed any help (i.e. baking cupcakes or something) then to just let me know.

Saturday morning I woke up around 6:30 with a stomach ache, it's nothing, probably just my appendix about to explode. I stayed up because I had to get up at 8 anyway (and because it really hurt). I had a basketball game at 9 and I was riding with Lori and Ashley. The game started off well (I was feeling better at this point) and we were only about 4 points behind. Then our fan club arrived and everything went down hill. I told Orin (the president of our fan club) that he is bad luck. Highlights: I stuffed Katie B. and hit nothing but ball, but they called a foul on me (I had a total of 4 fouls called on me). One of the girls from the other team was surrounded by three of us from my team, she panicked or something but she threw the ball right at my chest. I was so shocked I didn't even grab for the ball, I just couldn't figure out what happened. (Katie said that they randomly break out into dodgeball and we should do that at our next game - they won't call anything...I know for a fact).

Lori dropped me off at basketball and before I could even finish preparing my breakfast (Captain Crunch), Ben (not Brother Ben) and his friend James showed up for soccer. We drove to the park and had a pretty good group. I suck at soccer though, I won't try to even pretend I'm any good with it. I'm not good with the feet and when the ball comes anywhere above the waist I just want to reach out and grab it. That's a no-no in soccer. I hate it when I am really bad at a sport. And...my ankles are killing me, something about tripping on the ball anytime I tried.

From there I went to lunch with Ben and James. It was James' birthday so we went to Red Robin. Did you know you can buy their lemonade glasses for $4? I learned that and I bought one. It was really windy this weekend and when we got out into the parking lot the balloon they had given James began to attack Ben, first the ribbon tried to cut his throat, then the balloon itself just started to beat him in the face. He tried to run, but I was holding the balloon and ran with him so it would keep attacking him. It was the funniest thing but I have a feeling only funny if you were there.

Then I came home, took a shower and went over to Marissa and Lori's house where I made rice crispy treats and was forced to draw a poster...I don't do posters. But it was fun, I feel like I should have done more considering the amount of time I was there, but that's it. Treats and a poster. The party was at Brianna's house, so the girls had to leave to get there early and set up. I was planning to go to the party late because I never go to those things on time, but I went early to help them. First I ran to the store to find glasses and animal crackers (P.S. the party was celebrating nerdiness).

Ashley and me in our nerdiness

Brother Ben and I got to work on blowing up balloons. This is not a favorite past time...at all. I feel like my eardrums are going to burst and in Brother Ben's case...I worried he was going to have a brain aneurysm. I have never seen someone's face turn so red while blowing up balloons. He wanted to blow up a balloon within a balloon. I told him it couldn't be done. I didn't believe him, I had no faith he could do it...

He proved me wrong:

Again:

There's two in there

And again:

Three!

The party was a great success. I played some Mad Libs, Bananagrams, I helped put together a puzzle of the United States, I "slapped in" in the world's longest game of Egyptian Ratscrew, I played speed, I "unzipped" someone (this is a mental thing where you tell them to not let you push their arms down, they succeed at first but then you "unzip" them and they can't keep their arms up - if you are interested I will show you...ew, maybe we'll take a video and post it), I threw a deck of cards (cooler than it sounds). I stayed a lot longer than I thought I would.

I didn't pretend to be a member of PETA but at every chance I mentioned how I love animals. Before I left I tried to help clean up, Brianna didn't want to pop the balloons so I pulled out my technique of popless balloon popping, which Brianna helped me to discover an even easier way. So I sat there, collecting balloons and putting them out of their misery. Finally, I left. I forced my eyes to stay open the whole way home because let me tell you, they wanted to close. My mom told me once that the people who fall asleep while driving don't even realize it, they thought they were okay, so I felt like knowing that I could fall asleep while driving was to my advantage, at least I knew I wasn't okay, so I would fight it more.


I made it home safely. I slept in later than usual on Sunday and was tired the whole day. I went to church, went to my family's house for dinner and stayed there until close to 8. Then I came home and fell asleep on the couch...I really did, I slept there all night without waking up and going to my bed. I haven't done that in a long time.

I had Monday off, but that's going to have to wait for a different post, because this one is already long enough! For those of you who made it to this point, congratulations!

I saw an opportunity and I seized it.*

Best e-mail of the day - sent to me by my sister, Martha:

Dear God,

This year I'd like to have a fat bank account and a slim body. Please don't get them mixed up like you did last year.

AMEN

Just thought I would share.

Also - it's time for the unofficial unveiling of my birthday cake from this year:

That's brilliant, Joanna!

Pull my string! The birthday party's today?

I was talking to someone once (and this is a testament of my bad memory - I have no clue who it was) about why time flies as we get older. The reason time seems to fly by now that we're older is because we have more life under our belts. When you are ten years old, one year is a very long time, you've only lived for 10 years, so one year is a tenth of your entire life. The older you get, the smaller significance a year has. It goes from one tenth, to one twentieth, to one thirtieth, and so on. It makes perfect sense to me.

So it should come as no surprise that I feel like yet another birthday has come with lightening speed. Wasn't I just 19?

It seems a shame that when you are young you can't wait to grow up, and when you are grown up you wish you could be young again. Don't get me wrong, there are certain periods of life I am fine being over and done with...middle school for example. Done and done, don't remember much of it and I hope it stays that way.

I kind of miss the days of being five years old with my main concern being my sister's not wanting to play with me, but that's life. We go so long wishing to be older than we are. I didn't ask for this full time job thing, bills, and responsibility bit. I didn't ask for the stress that comes from boys, work, bills, fender benders, getting older, and major life decisions. ...I just wanted to be old enough to drive. What happened there?

However, I am happy to report that I still have no regrets. There are things in my life that make me very, very, sad when I remember them, but they are still not regretted. I can see the value in even the saddest and stupidest mistakes and for the fun ones that didn't end badly I say, "No harm, no foul, it was stupid, but it was a blast." I truly believe that even the self inflicted heartache that accompanies mistakes has taught me great lessons about myself.

The funniest thing about life is that, if you're paying attention, it teaches you how to survive the next thing coming your way. It's like when I was little and I would complain about homework or something like how difficult third grade is, and my sister would say, "You think that's hard, wait until you get to fifth grade." These things come at us little by little so we can kind of build an immunity to the bigger things coming. You wouldn't run a marathon without training right? So think of whatever you're going through as your training so that you have the endurance for race day.

And now I have completely spewed stream of consciousness...forgive me in my old age!

P.S. It's my birthday today, I'm not just randomly thinking about aging. I normally only do that on my birthday - or when I date younger men.

You have been weighed, you have been measured and you have been found wanting.*

I really got to test out my new "Emotional Intelligence" skills yesterday. I took my time responding to the other person and to really think about what I was going to say. It oddly started to feel like chess...I would think about what I would say, then try to determine (before I said anything) what their response to that would be. I avoided several "Jessica" remarks, the kind that bring tears to the eyes of the strongest men. But I also refused to be manipulated by this person, who has often gotten out of trouble by making me feel sorry for them. At the end of the conversation I simply said, "You're going to be okay." And left it at that.

That paragraph makes me come across as calm. Please don't be mistaken, I was a nervous wreck. There are reasons that a book called "Emotional Intelligence" caught my eye - I had measured myself as lacking in that department. But I would like to add something for myself, in the future. Just because you see the big picture, remember that others don't always. I kept trying to explain my position to this person and when they responded it was as though they hadn't even heard me. That was the hard part, not blowing up at them for not even paying attention. I know they wanted to "fix" the situation (basically, if you must know, I am eradicating this person from my life, and I feel good about doing so, this is the right decision for me) and they wanted to fix it fast. I imagine they felt the pity card would get them out again, but I can't keep sacrificing my feelings for the feelings of others. It doesn't do anyone any good. Besides, I deleted this person from my phone, camera, and Facebook a month ago and they are now just noticing. I mean, they really will be okay without my friendship, just as I am okay without theirs.

I'm sorry I can't provide more detail, even if I wanted to divulge everything it's months and months of storyline, drama, and heartache. I really don't have the time to go through all of that, and I don't know how to sum it up for you guys. So, I really am sorry about it.

To lighten the mood...how about a story. Today is Theresa's birthday at work. Wanda got balloons and a card and I picked up bagels for the "birthday group". As I was preparing to send the e-mail to the group so they would know what time to come and eat I thought to check Theresa's calendar and make certain that she could attend at the time we were thinking of...that's when I noticed the big purple line through the day indicating that she was out of the office.

Bummer.

So I sent an e-mail to the birthday group nonetheless:

Someone (and by someone, I mean me) forgot to make sure that Theresa would be in the office today for her birthday. We have bagels to celebrate…due to bitter disappointment, we will not gather in a group, rather they will be in the HR Conference room. Enjoy.

Le Sigh.

In this family, the man with half a brain is king.*

This past weekend was Kathryn's birthday celebration. Friday was the actual anniversary of her birth. The people at her work put up a vexing paper balloon (there were real balloons on her desk but this paper balloon seemed to bother her). It was just on the front door, but she kept taking it down. At one point we left the office together and I snuck it back on there without her noticing (the joys of long arms). Then we got the idea to put it up high...you know, cause she's short. That didn't stop her from tyring.

Ever the dutiful sister...I took a video.

The best part is, she keeps stopping because she thinks she sees someone coming, so she doesn't want them to see her jumping and think she is weird. Rather she stands like a creeper in front of the door...that's better.



Saturday we celebrated the birthday with dinner and cake.



As you know, in our family no Birthday cake gets by with just "Happy Birthday." This year I went with "Fragoosh." Something my big brother, Matt, said one of the times we were out in Utah and Kathryn really picked up on it. When I mentioned it to Joanna she said, "Do you think she'll remember it?" Kathryn had been saying it lately, which is why it came to mind...but then during dinner she said it. It was perfect, and Joanna and I got a laugh out of it. Yeah...I think she remembers it.

Jacob was excited to blow the candles out so Kathryn let him (I think she let him) and so we re-lit the candles and she got to blow them out this time.

Kathryn's face upon seeing "Fragoosh"...okay, okay, so this is the second try, camera didn't go off right the first time.

We all chipped in and got Kathryn an iPod Nano for her birthday. She has wanted an iPod for a while but just hasn't gotten around to getting herself one. That's okay, because it makes for an awesome birthday gift.

Happy Birthday Kathryn (Frieda!)

Mind his fontanel.*

Warning: I wrote this blog yesterday, but wanted to add pictures and I'm too lazy to make it look like I just wrote it. Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMBER!!!

Happy Monday folks!

I found out officially, without a shadow of a doubt, that I cannot sit for the PHR exam. I have to be honest here, I am a little more then relieved. Granted, finding motivation to do the reading for the class is going to be difficult, but I have to keep going to the class if I want my money back...and I want my money back.

This weekend was pretty fun. I needed a fun a weekend, I needed some stress relief. Saturday morning started out with a run with my sister. I like running and yet at the same time I despise it. How is that possible? I think I like the feeling of accomplishing running, of being done with it. 'Way to go, you ran a few miles today and now you are sore and sweaty.' The actual activity of running makes my lungs feel like I swallowed gasoline and set them on fire...okay, okay, they only feel that way if it's been a while, or it's cold, or there are rough hills...

From there I ran one errand. That's the sweetest part about this weekend, I ran one errand the whole weekend. I went to the phone store with my dad and sister and put my dad on my family plan. Then that was it. No more errands. I could get used to that.

Elaina and her friend Bill and I went to lunch at the Galaxy Diner. Galaxy/Redneck Diner. I doubt the "Cardiac Arrest Burger" was named because it seemed like food you would eat from another planet. The place is a like a more popular Waffle House if you ask me, and I did fear a little for my life. The waiter seemed to have forgotten us for a long time and someone else's waiter took our food. But the food was good and the company was too, we shared embarrassing stories. Well, Elaina shared other people's embarrassing stories, but they were good ones.

White board at the Galaxy Diner

Then we went and got Brianna and Heidi and went on a picture scavenger hunt. The best part was when we finally got there, we got out of the car and Elaina says, "Yeah, I don't really have a plan." So instead we toured the Canal walk and pretended we were tourists in Venice. Downtown there is a pipe that goes over the river and on top of that pipe there is a walkway. I don't know the purpose, but we saw it, so we walked it. It goes on and on and then just stops in the river. Very exciting.

The sign before walking on the pipe, and pictured below is Elaina's reenactment.

Bird's Eye view of the pipe.

Elaina and me in Venice!


Saturday night we went to the adult session of Stake Conference. I was pretty beat by this point because I had only actually slept about 2-2.5 hours Friday night, I had gone running, and I had been walking or driving the better half of my day. But it was good, and worth going to, even if it's like a 40 minute drive. (Speaking of which, I drove 200 miles from Friday at lunch when I filled up to Sunday night when I drove home from my parent's house...ouch).

Sunday we had more Stake Conference, but the plus is that it starts at 10 and ends at noon, or more 11:40 which was weird. Church is normally 1-4, so this was exciting. I went to my parent's house and talked to my cousins for a bit and then we got a game of boggle going, I love boggle and it's not just because I'm good at it...or maybe it is because I can't actually think of why else I love it.

While we were playing my nephew, Jacob comes into the room. I get him to come over and give me a hug and noticing he is the only one in his little family unit that has entered the house, I jokingly ask him if he walked and he said, "Um...yeah" and nods his head and walks off. Finally his family came in.


Tommy cracks me up too. My mom made cake on Sunday and it had half chocolate and half white icing. Tommy told his mom, Joanna, that he wanted white and Jo confirmed and he said, "Yeah, I like the white stuff." So Joanna started to get a white piece and he got all upset and said, "I want the brown." Joanna said, "You said you wanted white." His response, "Because I want the brown." This isn't unusual for him, he does it all the time, but it cracks me up.

And...I held Ava. I rarely hold newborns and considering that she is like a squeaky toy whenever I move I get nervous holding her. I don't want to cause damage or anything. I think yesterday was the first time that she actually saw me, she's always been asleep before. I think she likes me. I mean, how could she not?

Crazy Baby!!!

I'd better not hear of anyone touching your squeakers.*

First off...let me say 'Happy Birthday' to my sister, Martha, and my nephew, Jacob. Yes, they share a birthday. Since they are in two states it's probably the best that either of them have ever done with sharing...kidding...kind of.

Yesterday I had the home inspection done...on my house. My house. So close I almost feel the urge to pack all my stuff up. This time next month I will be only a few days away from closing and getting the key. Yesterday when we went to the house for the inspection Realtor Carol handed me the keys so I could go ahead and get in and show my dad around (he had yet to see it). It's funny, because a key is a key is a key right? But these keys felt different, I coveted these keys. I wanted to go get a box of my stuff and put it in one of the rooms...like licking your food to claim it. The box seemed more sane then licking the keys.

Good news, my dad approves of the house. After a little kicking and pushing on things he decided that it was good. It's a good feeling to have Dad approve of my decision, especially since we were already moving forward with things. The inspection went well, nothing too major, just basic stuff that I would want my house to have anyway and Dad says that we can do it all pretty inexpensively. After the inspection I followed Realtor Carol back to her office, because upstairs is where my loan guy is. So I went up there, he explained all this math information to me and I actually understood it! I suppose I might be a little brighter then I give myself credit for. Then I proceeded to sign my life away.

I love this house. Look at that counter space! I tell you, two years with hardly any counter space and no garbage disposal can make you go crazy. I have to buy this house, for my mental state of being.

Other then that I have nothing interesting to say. But considering that I am buying my first home, I think that's okay. I don't need to worry that I am uninteresting because I am busy worrying about other things...like avoiding any snags in the final stretch.

A brief shining moment, and then that mouth.*

Yesterday I had a second birthday celebratory dinner at my parent's house. I'm not sure why we've done it twice, other than the fact that Thursday was rushed and my brother and sister couldn't be there. I'm not complaining, birthday cake is no enemy of mine. Along with dinner and cake we had the Missionaries over, and my friend Natalie. After cake the missionaries did a spiritual thought, as they usually do, and the junior companion said, "What is prayer?" we were all quiet for a moment (this is how my family is, we talk and talk and talk until someone asks a serious question and then we all look at each other before we dare answer). In this slight gap of sound the other Elder said, "Baby don't hurt me." Which got us all laughing (my thought process is it came to his mind because of the song where the lyrics are, "What is love? Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more." exchange 'love' for 'prayer'). When they were getting ready to leave I leaned over to Kathryn to confirm what he had said (it's unusual coming from a missionary) and she said that he said, "Maybe you didn't hear me." So then that got us all debating. Joanna and Mom are with me and we were sitting closest, Kathryn and Natalie are against me. It's the great debate. I'd ask him next time I see him, but chances are, I won't see him for a long time and by then he won't remember. We'll have to forever wonder.

Other things this weekend: I made an offer on a house (duh, it was the last post). They made a counter offer, we made some ratifications to their counter offer, and right now, we all agree. The home inspection will be done tomorrow as well as a visit to the loan guy.


My mom's fish died. Well, we're not exactly sure when it could have been yesterday, it could have been weeks ago. Whenever we think he is dead he moves. Joanna said we probably just saw him moving in the current and assumed he was alive. I always thought he was dead, at one time I thought they had flushed him but left an empty tank, until my sister pointed out that he was still in there. Yesterday he looked a little like a color drained Chester Cheetah (sunglasses mostly). As pictured below.



















Uncanny. And yes, I took a picture of a dead fish, and when my brother gave me grief about it I told him that I am a famous blogger now, I have 32 followers and they probably want to know my adventures with dead fish. Right?
My roommate threw me a surprise party on Saturday night. She got Elaina to 'distract' me, so we went to look at the house and then drive all over town. Elaina even got her GPS to say it was taking us to a nearby Wendy's, when really it was leading us further and further away from home. I don't know how she did it, but she did. We didn't actually follow the GPS once it made us pass Broad street (the main drag), and then it said we were at Wendy's but there wasn't one in sight. I already picked up by this point that something was going on. I picked up on it when I got home and let my dog out and saw Double Stuffed Golden Oreos, a pack of candles, and a bag of balloons. But I played as though I hadn't seen them. I didn't give Elaina as much slack. We pulled into the driveway and I asked her if she had been paid to distract me, she laughed nervously and said, "What? Never?" She's not a good liar, but I've never called her on a lie before so I couldn't call her on it with any degree of certainty, that is until we got out of the car and she started for the front door (the back one goes right into my room). I said, "See you later", she sounded dejected and I said, "Oh, were you supposed to try to get me to go through the front door?" I got the same laugh and I'm pretty certain a "What? Never" again. We got in and I looked up into the kitchen and Jim was watching us from behind the fridge (creepy), but that didn't give anything away, I had invited people to come over and watch movies (I had no idea I was playing right into Anne's hands). So he came down and said something about the movie. Then Anne called me upstairs for something (that's unusual). So I finally went upstairs and everyone yelled "Surprise!" And it was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures from my birthday celebrations throughout the week.

So strong like Sodom and Gomorrah*

All's quiet in blog land. At least that's what my blogroll is telling me...though sometimes it lies.

Yesterday I mowed the lawn. In between mowing the back and the front yard the neighbor boys came over to play with Chubbs. Jacob (the oldest) informed me that tomorrow (today) is his 10th birthday. When I met the kid he was 8 about to turn 9...strangely feel old now. They told me about their fun day with their grandpa, crashing bumper cars and getting laughed at (because they crashed) by African Americans. No joke, Jonathan said, "And then this African American kid". I guess it just caught me off guard. Anyway, so then they run off because some other neighbors have come out of their house and they have a little grandson, so they all go to play in the cul-de-sac. When they did I decided to mow the front lawn. Then they came back over after I was done and asked if we could take Chubbs for a walk. I almost said 'no' because I was tired and it was already 7:30 and I hadn't eaten dinner, but I decided what the hey?

I let Jacob hold the leash but reminded him that it was important not to let go of it. No matter how funny it is to watch Chubbs run off it wasn't actually funny because he (Chubbs) gets in a lot of trouble when he runs loose (i.e. the cops getting called on him). We walk all the way to the middle school and back which is a mile so I'm impressed with the boys. On the way back Jacob starts talking about how he wants to get home so he can get plenty of sleep and not sleep in tomorrow because he was getting chocolate chip pancakes. He's had chocolate chip pancakes once in his life at the 3rd street diner which serves breakfast all day long. But this is the first time that his mom will be making them for him. (Yeah I learn a lot from them). Then a jeep passes by and it's my neighbor's son who is in college (so I guess he's my neighbor too but only in the summers and during holidays). So then they start to say how cool this neighbor is, but do I know Anna? Her grandson lives with her and he tries to be cool with tattoos and piercings and a chain around his waist and spikes on his bracelet (Like Chubbs' collar). This is the point where I realize that I should never talk too much in front of these kids, they remember everything and they tell all to anyone who will listen.

So we turn on to our street and Jonathan says to Jacob, "Mom bought me a present to give to you." And the following conversation ensued.
Jacob: Tell me
Jonathan: I can't
Jacob: whisper it in my ear
Jonathan: No, I'm not supposed to tell you
Jacob: You suck. (Jacob to me) Do you want to know what I am getting?
Me: Do your parents know you know because they are right there. (pointing ahead a couple of yards). But are you getting a Wii? (he told me he asked for one).
Jacob: I haven't opened my gifts yet.

End of that portion of the conversation. So I don't know if he really doesn't know or what he would have said if I had just said I wanted to know what he got, or if he was playing dumb because the folks might hear.

Anyway, that's my evening. Sorry if it was boring to you, but I felt like it had been a while since I blogged.

Well, what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn't one today.*

Okay, this is supposed to be all about today because this day is forever long and Kathryn will agree feels like more than one day...feels like several days. But it's about time a day off felt like that rather than one work day feeling like a week. But despite my desire to just write today I forgot to write Thursday...so old business first then new business.
Thursday was Kathryn's birthday, so we went to some restaurant that she likes to frequent. She lured me in with the prospect of chicken fingers so I joined the group from her work and went to lunch. Chicken fingers = chicken nuggets and processed chicken was so 15 years ago for me, so I opt for the burger instead. Now have I mentioned this is a Mexican restaurant. I say this so you'll cut them just a little bit of slack . The burger comes up and I go to check and make sure that it has nothing on it and this is what I see.


I'm a little confused because I thought I ordered a burger...not the reconstituted remains from when they cooked the meat for the tacos. The thing isn't even a patty and it looks like someone picked out a chunk of it. If this weren't enough, Natalie (she works with Kathryn and I think she was meant to be my baby sister, but even though the genetics aren't there we call her our sister anyway) points out the bun.

This is the best I could get with my camera for some reason. Point being - it is probably best for your bun to be a consistent color all the way around. That green/gray haze would be mold. So everyone at the table of course is brought up to speed of my situation (one of those people being my mom) so the waiter comes over to ask how everything is and my mom says, "Good except that moldy bun" and then she makes me show the guy. So he apologized and takes it back to get a new bun. As soon as he is gone my mom says, "If it were mine I wouldn't have said anything." Just so you know, I wasn't going to say anything either because I wasn't going to eat the bun, or the whole burger, but when I got a new bun I felt obligated eat everything.

Thursday...done. This morning I woke up at 7:05 and got ready to go run a 5k. I know, it's no 10k or anything, but it's big for me because I didn't train any (despite plans to do so). Only thing you care about is my time, I understand. 32 minutes. I like to shave off a couple of minutes because the timer for the 5k only shows you the time since the race started, but if you weren't the first person across the time is not your real time. Then I walked for a bit too (I'm not taking time off for that, I'm just admitting that I did have to walk a bit). I'm just excited how close I am to a ten minute mile.

To reward myself we went to breakfast at Boychiks and I got this sausage biscuit. Talk about perfection.

Notice the biscuit to sausage ratio. The coverage is amazing. Sometimes you've got to eat some biscuit to get the the patty, but not with this one. The top has a slight buttery taste as well. Not overpowering, but prevalent enough that it tickles your taste buds with goodness.

Oh and Kathryn and I aren't lemon on the cup of water kind of people. So Mike got the pleasant surprise of having three lemons.

So I came home, cleaned myself up, and then went with Kathryn to see Terminator. LOVED it. Still like Star Trek the best out of the "rehashed" movies (X-men origins, Star Trek, Terminator).

Then I came home and went crazy. Baking, cleaning, reading, eating, sleeping. All in excess. OH and a giant spider tried to kill me when I first got out of the shower. I grabbed my towel, had dried an arm off when the spider jumped out, landing on the ground. He was bigger than normal but not the biggest I've seen. I may or may not have screamed a little, but seriously what kind of comacazy spider hangs out in a bath towel!?

Anyway. I made two cakes today, you can read about one of them on my baking blog which is to the right...yup, I have more blogs, because I go crazy sometimes and blog and blog and blog like I'm going to die tomorrow. Then sometimes I don't blog at all. But anyway. I also washed the cover to Chubbs' bed. He likes it. My favorite is when he does this.


It's like the top of his head itches or something. I just love when he does it and today he kept doing it when I patted his bed so I actually got to take a pic or two. Then he passed out...and it didn't take long for me to follow.


I slept from about 7:30 to a little after 9 which is why I am blogging at 11 o'clock on a Saturday night...with that, I'm going to do something different like read or something. Goodnight and Good Luck*.

Wayne Chung

Today we celebrated my sister, Kathryn's birthday. Her birthday isn't until the day that Terminator comes out in theaters, but the family can get together more easily on Sundays...and we might go see Terminator since Hollywood gift wrapped it for her, cause seriously what kind of movie opens on a Thursday?

Wow, jumping into digression right away today. My job for lunch today was to provide the birthday cake. Now in my family we don't really like the typical "Happy Birthday" written on the cake. We try to use movie quotes or little sayings that we think are funny. For my dad's birthday we had "Thirty, flirty, and thriving" though he was in his 60's, we've had "Congratulations on the new hip" and "good luck with the hair plugs". Things like that. So a few years ago I actually wrote down what I wanted to write on Kathryn's birthday cake last year, however I forgot and her cake came to her simply saying "Sorry..." the people at the bakery thought I was trying to make amends and then I told them that it was a birthday cake. Then a few months ago I found the post-it note that I had written the birthday message on, "Everybody Wang Chung Tonight". So this year that's what I planned to do.

So yesterday I went to the local grocery store (the store where cake dreams are made of). I waited for the bakery person to come and assist me and when she asked if I wanted something written on it I said, "Yes it's going to be weird." she smiled and I said, "Wang Chung Tonight" Because it was a round pound cake and I realized the whole message wouldn't fit but Kathryn loves the pound cake ones (which are only round). So I spelled "W-A-N-G" for her and then began to spell Chung but she said she would write down the first word first. So when she was reading I said, "C-H-U-N-G". She finished writing rather quickly and I knew she didn't write the "tonight" on the cake. So she prints the sticker and gives it to me and I start to walk away, only glancing quickly at the cake to confirm that "tonight" is not written on the cake.

Then I focused on it a little bit more and this is what I saw...

That says, "Wayne Chung". I immediately started to laugh and I go up to the register knowing full well the cashier is going to read it and have questions because this is what happens every time I get a cake. And you know? A lot of cashiers are trained to look at it, so they can make small talk with their customer. Anyway, so the cashier does read it and asks who Wayne Chung is. I laughed and told him that the woman in the bakery misheard me, but I like the mistake so much I decided to keep it. He laughed and then the customer behind me is looking at the cake and says, "Who is Wayne Chung?" and I told him the same thing and he says, "You don't even know him?" and the lady behind him is asking him what is going on and he's like, "The cake says Wayne Chung" and the lady says, "Who is Wayne Chung?" and the cashier finally says, "She probably wanted Wang Chung, like the song" Yes sir, that is what I wanted. Also made famous in our family in 13 Going On 30.


So that is the story on the cake (the cake that is now my most favorite cake of all time). I just have to figure out who Wayne Chung is.


Anyway, I made this for Kathryn for her birthday, I've been working on it for some time. I made a menu and everything and burned it to a DVD, but I can't put everything up on the blog...just the video part. Hope you enjoy.

He has been sent first to tempt you. But it's not too late. You must push him from you, expel him! Trample down the perversion of nature!

So today Money sent me a link to the coolest set of "My Little Ponies" that planet earth has ever seen!!!!

All of them are so much fun, but really the winner would have to be this little guy.

Looking at the pictures is almost like a game too, "Can you name the Hollywood reference?"

Gimme! Gimmie! Gimmie!

So, for review "The 2010 Birthday List":

• Shiny, pretty, dishwasher safe chop sticks
• The Edward Scissorhands My Little Pony