Tagged

Well folks, the tags are flying around like fireworks on the 4th of July (heh heh, did you like that one?) and I've been tagged once again.
Here goes!

4 places I've lived:
1. Schaumberg, IL
2. Mt. Pleasant, MI
3. Provo/Orem, UT. We all know it's basically the same place.
4. Vancouver, WA... I'm not sure if what I'm doing here counts as living or not, maybe hangin' out?

4 shows I watch:
1. So You Think You Can Dance!!! Gooooo Chelsie! (Hightower)
2. The Next Food Network Star/Any food network challenge/Anything on food network. I like food ok?
3. LOST. This is only at #3 because it isn't "in season" right now. Good show.
4. If Alias was still around this would take 4th for sure. But since it isn't I choose The Bachelorette as lucky no. 4. Go ahead and laugh, you watch it too.

4 jobs I have had:
1. Selling T-shirts door to door. Worst job ever. Never do it. Never let your kids do it. Never.
2. Hostessing at Tucanos. Yummmmmmm
3. Serving ice cream at the BYU creamery. Most delicious job ever.
4. Secretary at an optometrist's office. Way good job. I'm sad it's over!

4 places I've visited:
1. Cozumel Mexico
2. Cancun Mexico
3. Sarasota (?) Florida
4. Anyplace within driving range of Michigan that includes at least one Mormon historical site.

4 blogs I read regularly
1. The friends and family blogs
2. Pioneer Woman
3. Fat Cyclist (I didn't know you read this one too mom!)
4. Thinking Inking

4 favorite foods
1. Anything from Red Lobster (mmmm.....)
2. Papa John's Pizza (aaahhhh.....)
3. Mrs. Cavanaugh's Chocolate (ooohhhh....)
4. Chicken Braid (ok, who started this? Now I'm starving!)

4 places I would rather be: Let me preface this by saying I am quite happy where I am but these are places I would also like to be.
1. Cancun Mexico
2. Mt. Pleasant Michigan
3. Pusan Korea
4. The Olympic trials (weren't expecting that were ya?)

4 things looking forward to next year:
1. Graduating!! Holla!
2. Tyson getting a "real" job
3. Moving to wherever Tyson gets his "real" job
4. Hopefully, cross your fingers, do a rain dance, pretty pretty please, having a baby.

4 things I do in my spare time.
1. Well, you're lookin' at it
2. Scrapbooking
3. Crocheting
4. Reading

4 favorite things to do with kids/family
1. Take walks on Sunday afternoons
2. Play a game
3. Rollerblade
4. Snuggle up (to Tyson of course) and watch a good movie... or So You Think You Can Dance

Well friends. There you have it. Now I tag... anyone really. If you are in the mood to blog but have had a really boring day, this is the tag for you! If you feel like talking about yourself for just a few minutes, have at it! If you need an excuse to daydream about the places you would go if you just had the time/money here's your chance! If you want to remember your favorite foods, get a craving, and not be happy until you've satisfied it, you go girl! This is the tag for you.

I love Washington

And Washington loves me.

Well, I made it safe and sound to the lovely evergreen state. Sorry it took me so long to blog but it took us awhile to get a wireless router and I didn't want to spend 10 hours on my in-law's computer, just 3 or 4.

So now that I'm here my first order as blogmaster of my new Washington universe is to entice you all to come to me, as opposed to me ever leaving here again. I will do this by exhibiting various artsy fartsy shots of some of the gorgeous plant life my mother-in-law has cultivated around her house.

Things just seem to grow around here. Everything is so green and beautiful and life springs forth from nothing! There is even a plant growing from the gutter on the roof of the house. This is not like Utah where you can water your plants, talk to them, teach them Spanish, do yoga with them and they still die. Nope Washington is not like that at all. It even started raining when I was taking pictures; I thought that was fitting.

Speaking of pictures... someday I promise to get a fancy camera and photo shop and take a class or two on photography so that my pictures somewhat resemble a high quality photo, but for now this is all I've got. Sorry.

It was right about here that I stuck my elbow in some birdie doo trying to get my "perfect" shot. See, Washington is so wonderful that I didn't even mind.

Signing off,

Blogmaster of Washington.

Come visit me.

My Missionary

So this has to be a quick post because I'm leaving for Washington in just a few hours (yay!) and I have a lot of stuff to do! But I did want to put these pics up for the fam in Michigan and anyone else who wants to see Adam on his way to the MTC.

He got here yesterday and so one of the first errands we needed to run for him was getting him ties! His favorite was the yellow one.

After making sure he had everything he needed we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a delicious dinner. Every time I asked Adam if there was anything else he wanted to do on his last day of "freedom" all he said was that he wanted to visit his Grandparents. What a sweetie.

Grandpa pretends to be tough but he's a softie at heart. He was kissing my cheeks 2 seconds before I took this picture.

Since Adam was already set apart before he came there was a limit to the things we could do last night. So instead of sitting around staring at each other we decided to play a couple games. We first battled each other in Mancala where we each won a game and called it all a tie. Then it was Simpson's operation time. Adam's concentration was unmatched by all playing the game that night.

Got it!
He beat me by only $200 (a small margin indeed) Darn that cute little missionary!

We thought it would be a good idea to get a shot of us both before leaving the house. This is what happens when you don't have a tripod. You can't tell but he is holding my hand in this picture. I miss him so much already!

I thought the clock behind him looked like a halo. Appropriate, no?

The Man himself

Us.

I told him to make a silly face and lo and behold we did almost the exact same thing. Ha ha!

Mom was great to send him with a checklist before he came out to make sure we didn't forget anything. Notice the little postscript she wrote at the end...


Doh! We forgot to pick his hangers up from Grandma's while we were there last night. Luckily I had a bunch in my trunk (random) and so he opened up his suitcase out in the parking lot and stuffed them in.

There was some sort of training going on for a new mission president at the MTC so we actually met at a church by the stadium. I was impressed at how quickly they were able to move the missionaries through their checkpoints.

A volunteer showed us how to clip Adam's bags together. He felt like he was pulling a train.

Waiting for his name tag.

Getting some vital information from a short little lady that you can't see at all in this picture.

Adam called me Mom #2 the whole day since I was filling in for our own mother and so I got the privilege of putting his name tag on.

It was a little harder to get on than I thought it would be.
Adam and his Grandparents
Us. Again.
Here he is, ready to go.

And one last shot. By the way, he is 6'4" in those shoes. I'm pretty sure he'll stand out in Taiwan, what do you think?

P.S. Many of you may have noticed something different about me. Yes, I did part my hair on the right instead of the left side. This is a big change for me but I'm sure we'll all adjust.

P.P.S. Adam asked if I wanted him to kill Sammy. I said.... No. Tyson, I am not the same woman you married. I hope you can come to love the new me. Moral: never name household pests. It will not bode well for you.

P.P.P.S. This was not a short post like I said it would be.

Insomnia

So let it be written that I cannot sleep without Tyson.

I'm not the best sleeper even with him around but when he's gone I'm easily up until 2 or 3 in the morning even when I have to get up at 6:30 a.m. So if you are wondering why it looks like this was written in the middle of the night, it's because it was.

Ok, onward! I'm not sure what it is about blogging but I always feel the need to expose my shortcomings to the world via the internet. I guess I just have this compulsion to purge my soul through web confession. Plus I have a secret hope that I am not the only imperfect person in this world and my failings will make you all feel better about your own teeny tiny faults. C'mon, we all have them. Right?

So here goes.

The Spare Room.

I weep and wail and gnash my teeth for five minutes every time I walk in here because I know I'm going to have to clean it sometime and I usually step on something sharp along the way.

I tried to convince you all earlier that the laundry "room" was the worst in the house but it's not. This one is. We really do clean it a lot but since we don't go there very often it becomes a catch-all for everything that has no place else to go. But since Adam is coming over tomorrow I need a place for the air mattress. And I really hate leaving a messy house behind when I go on vacation or whatever it is I'll be doing for the next month and a half.

However, there were a couple obstacles I had to face when cleaning the room. Well first, look at it, just look at it! Ok, stop looking now, my hands are sweating with embarrassment. We've established that it is a nasty mess and I don't want to clean it. Done.

Next obstacle: Spider

I. Hate. Spiders. I really really hate spiders. They make me gag and I hate them. We never get spiders in the house but of course the second Tyson leaves they invade. I've already killed two and then when I finally muster up the gumption to clean this room there is another one on the ceiling. The only thing worse than killing a spider that's on the floor is killing one that's on the ceiling. There is so much chair balancing, and awkward stretching, and the risk of the spider attacking from above while you are in this vulnerable position. I'm pretty sure I would die if a spider jumped into my hair from the ceiling.

So folks, I got brave and let the spider live. Yes, I cleaned that dang room with a spider inside. Granted every time I walked in I hovered at the door until I spotted it so I could keep an eye on its spindly little body and avoid walking into its jumping range, but I faced my fear. And you know, by the end of it all I was greeting that spider at the door and calling it Sammy.

I think it has become clear to us all that I am not entirely sane when living alone.

End result: Good enough for me!

And now I'm off to bed... Maybe.

Aladdin

So last night I... No, two nights ago (that was weird) I went to see my darling adorable nieces dance in the ballet version of Aladdin. Oh they were so good! I loved watching them flit across the stage in all their ballet glory.

And then the 3-year-olds came out.

Oh my. They were so darling I shed a tear and decided immediately that I was going to have twelve-tuplets, dress them up in sparkly fluffy tutus, and make them dance for me. So cute!

One of the best dances they did began with all of them holding onto a giant stuffed snake. Walking with that huge thing would have been awkward for anyone but when you're only 2 feet tall it must seem especially difficult. So of course one girl tripped and fell, and then another, and before you knew it there was a domino effect of tripping tutus all over the stage with that snake all tangled in between.

I loved it.

So you could say I was quite entertained for about the first 657 dances... then the cold started to get to me. It was really hot outside that day so at first the ever blowing ac felt really good, however, some minutes later I had goosebumps. Goosebumps that lasted for the next two hours. I actually opened my program wide measuring it to see if I could use it as some sort of blanket to shield myself from the wind. No dice.

It was ok though.

I still want twelve-tuplets.

Amen.

Today

Today was not really an eventful day but I feel like talking about it so I will.

I woke up to my alarm at 7:00 and then promptly fell back asleep until my friend called at 9:00 and got me leaping out of bed. I didn't hesitate to lie when she asked if she woke me up but I think I got busted when my initially high fake voice was replaced by a scratchy raspy version of me as we kept talking. I really wanted to come clean after I realized my voice was out of control but it seemed too late at that point. Sorry! I feel kinda bad about it.

After that minor fiasco I thought it might be time to shower after but about halfway through I couldn't remember if I put conditioner in my hair. So I took a gamble and did not put any (more?) in. Gamble paid off! Hair was lovely today. Kinda. Minus the bangs. I guess they weren't really feelin' it.

So... blah blah blah... Homework... blah blah blah... Class... blah blah blah... Work. Speaking of work how do you guys feel about mothers feeding their children in public? Like... not from a bottle, if you get my drift. I normally don't mind it as long as there is an element of modestly involved but today I felt distinctly uncomfortable as a woman nursed totally exposed not 1 foot from me.

While she tried on glasses.

It was a very awkward moment for me... almost as awkward as when I dropped a french fry between the seats of my car today and then looked around to make sure no one was watching before I fished it out and ate it. I felt an unexpected wave of shame then, and I feel it now. Hey, let's all be grateful that I didn't just leave it there!

Ok, well it's late and I'm tired and my throat hurts and my stomach hurts (probably from that rogue fry) and I can't do anything about it because this happened a couple weeks ago and I haven't replenished my supply since then.

Desperate times.

Anyway, since life is pretty ho hum these days I guess you're just going to have to put up with my rambling soliloquies for awhile until I do something noteworthy. Like sing in church. Ha! Get it!? Noteworthy! Heh... ho ho... hee hee hee....

no?

Ok, well anyhoo, I'll probably delete this post after I read it in a well rested state tomorrow and realize how dumb it is. But if you are one of the lucky ones to catch it before it's gone, count your blessings!

I'm bored.

Yep, that pretty much sums it up. And because I am bored this will inevitably be a boring post therefore it is optional for you to read. I'll let you decide. I was just in the mood to write something.


Things have actually been going ok in spite of Tyson not being here. I still haven't found that hideous moth that scared me the other day so I have to concede that it may have been a figment of my imagination. I just didn't think I was that desperate for companionship. You think I would have imagined a puppy or a pony or something more cuddly.

I took the praxis today. It is a test that all educators have to take before they can teach and they have a bunch of different ones depending on which content area you are in. Well let me tell you what. If there was ever anything to make you feel like your 7 years in college were a waste of time where the only thing you gained was 10 lbs, this was it. I pretty much felt like I knew nothing, but after thinking about it for awhile there were a lot of questions that I think I answered correctly. It was way hard though. But at least it's over! Now I can stop worrying about it for awhile!!

I have also contacted every girl I know and have had fabulous lunch and movie dates with them. Thanks for keeping me company ladies!

Well, I think it's time for me to give myself a pedicure so my toesies look cute for church in some summer sandals but first I have a few questions that have been plaguing me these last few days.


Why won't the predictive texter on my cell phone allow me to spell such things as "lol", "blog", "ttyl", "idk", or "Tyson"? These are (perhaps with the exception of Tyson) words that the cell phone invented! Why won't mine do it?

Why do these bottles have to look so much alike? I live in constant fear that I will deposit the contents of the wrong one on my head.

How old is too old to work at Wendy's? I went through the drive-thru the other day and a very pleasant man greeted me over the intercom. When I pulled up to window 1 I found that he had to be at least 65. I was shocked if you want to know the truth. And then I pulled up to window 2 and found what I could only presume to be his better half giving me my food. You know, my personal preference would be to not work there, but they seemed happy. More power to them!

Well, thanks for letting me talk!

Love,
Mari

A sunset, a closet, a portrait

So last night I saw a glow outside my window and when I went out I saw the most beautiful sunset! This picture does it no justice because I am in no way, shape, or form a photographer but it does show a little bit of the glorious pink that was in the sky.

After taking 700 bad pictures of a sunset and one good picture of a sunset I went back inside to clean and a sneaky, nasty moth flew in with me. It flew past my head and straight at the light - you know how moths are - and I froze for 3 straight minutes trying to decide what to do. I hate moths. They always fly in my face or in my hair or something freaky like that. Then they get their little moth dust all over the place {shudder} and it's so gross!! Well at any rate, it flew down under the table and disappeared! It's gone. Totally gone. I haven't seen that nasty thing in 24 hours. I'm not sure if it died somewhere, {double shudder} or if its gonna show up in another 2 days and freak me out, or maybe there was never a moth here in the first place and I was tricked by a leaf or something. Who knows?

So after the moth incident I turned to this:

This is our laundry room... closet. It has been a mess in here pretty much since the first day we moved in. Proof: those boxes up there, including the one with the hammer sticking out of it are also holding wedding announcements. 3 year old wedding announcements! For heaven's sake, why did I save those? It's not like we're gonna send them out again.
And now...

Ta da!!!

It looks so much better! One goal for my Time Without Tyson (TWOT) complete!

And now I've got a few glamour head shots of myself mostly so Tyson doesn't forget what I look like. (and if I took 700 shots of a sunset you can only imagine how many I took of myself, heh heh)

This next one is an ode to America's Next Top Model. I really think I've perfected Tyra's squinty-yet-open eyed look. So fierce! You should really see my catwalk.

Ah, the Pièce de résistance.

I miss you my love!!!

Memoirs of a road trip

Well, I'm back from my whirlwind trip to Washington to drop Tyson off for his internship. We left Friday afternoon, got there Saturday night and I left early Monday morning. Really early. Everything went really well, no problems driving or flying thank goodness! Here's a couple of pictures for ya. Sorry that there aren't really any of me! Or anyone else for that matter. I did a good job taking pics until people were around so we've got a lot of landscape and object shots!

This guy is lucky that his anonymity was preserved by my slow reaction time because he was reading while he was driving on the freeway. Reading! And it wasn't like he was reading a map, he had a novel in his hand! We were eager to separate ourselves from him and avoid any destruction his negligence could cause.This is a rare shot because the mountains in Utah are almost never green. It was so nice to see them all lush and gorgeous.
Speaking of gorgeous... Hey there mister! Tyson was a stud out on the road. He drove almost the whole way himself and didn't complain at all. I graced him with a most excellent back rub for his efforts.

We spent the night at Tyson's grandma's house in Rupert, Idaho (a booming metropolis) and even though the weather looks fabulous in this picture it was only 35 degrees outside! Brrr.

We also took the time to visit Tyson's grandpa's grave while we were there.

Ooh, a rare shot of the photographer herself. I prefer to be incognito in the glare of the window as I had no makeup and greasy hair during the whole trip. I wanted to make our separation easier for Tyson by being as unattractive as possible in the days before we had to say goodbye.

Although we really really wanted to visit the international museum of carousel art... (huh?) we just didn't have the time to stop. What a shame.

Before I knew it I was back on the plane home. The flight was pretty basic: old guy sitting too close to me; wing shaking so much that I had a vision of it falling off mid flight; that unnerving feeling where you know the pilot just put the brakes on and you're about to drop like a rock... Just your typical flight!