Thanksgiving Tag!!

Okay, this tag actually has nothing to do with Thanksgiving other than I am doing it on this blessed day of gratitude. And by the way I am really REALLY bad at doing tags and I sorta feel like I've been tagged a lot lately. Oops. Jessica reminded me with a comment on my blog and that just might be the only reason that I'm doing this one.

Anyhoo, here it is!
The Rules:
•Mention the rules on your blog.
•Tell about 6 things people don't know about you.
•Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them.
•Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

1. I've always wanted to have a collection of something. Like clocks. I'm a little bit obsessed with clocks but I feel like having 35 of them in one room would just be too weird. Is it though? If you tell me it's okay I'm totally gonna do it.

2. I rock at Amped, a snowboarding game for xbox. I pretty much beat Tyson all the time. Not every time, but a lot.

3. I've always wanted to write a book of poems for kids. Kinda like the Shel Silverstein ones but me instead.

4. I would illustrate the book myself because I am actually a fairly good artist. I took an intro to drawing class at BYU and really enjoyed it. I can't paint though.

5. I was on not one, but TWO billboards around town my senior year of high school. One for the musical and one for marching band. The billboard people gave me a little replica of the billboards with my picture on it for my home. I still have one of them.

6. I kinda like Britney Spears. Not like I want to be her friend or anything but I am totally drawn in to every detail of her life. I like seeing what her hair looks like for the day, her makeup, her weight, her clothes, her latte, her new music videos, everything. I don't search her out on the Internet or anything but if I "accidentally" come across details of her life I am totally interested.

And there you have it. Did you know any of those things already? Hopefully not.

And I tag any 6 of you who want to do this. Because I am currently obsessed with the intimate details of your life.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope you all gain more weight than I do this holiday season :) j/k... sorta.

Detox

I am addicted to the Internet.

I confess. And don't even pretend that you're not addicted too! I see ya'll on facebook all the time.

Don't lie.

However friends, I'm in Michigan. And:

Internet Addiction + Small town Michigan = Rehab

AND the cell phone service is spotty at best. And by spotty I mean that I might get one bar of service if I stand on my head with one hand in a bowl of water, one foot against a northeast wall and the other foot stuck in a light socket.

I am having a really good time though. It's so fun to see my family and get to spend time with them. It has been especially fun to have some quality girl time with Mom and Emily.

Emily and I had been talking for a couple weeks about dying our hair together when I finally got there and after a little convincing we got Mom to do it too!!

Here is the preview of our colors:

Emily is on the left, then mom, then me. Aren't we beautiful??

Here's the before shot...
And here's the after!! Don't we look so amazingly different and gorgeous!!?? Ok, well maybe I needed better lighting to show the actual differences in our hair colors and I suppose going from brown to brown isn't the biggest change ever, but oh well.

We had a fun time putting the actual dye in our hair. I had the most experience dying hair (since I lived with roommates and all I'm practically a pro) so I got to put the color in Emily and Mom's hair. They watched what I did and copied it on me. Good thing it turned out!!

My hair is darker than it was which nicely covered the leftover highlights at the end of my hair from like two years ago. Mom's hair no longer has any gray in it (not that it ever did of course) and Emily's hair is... purple. No it really is!! You just have to see it in the light to get the purple hues showing.


At any rate, the best part was doing it all together. And I can't wait to see what our next adventure will be!

Salt in the wound

Awkwardness.

That is my life.

So, today after spending a fun morning with the girls in my ward doing a super saturday activity I went to a special store to get some special underclothes for my mom. ;-) While there, the humiliation ensued. I was just finishing checking out (keep in mind that the counter was very tall) when the worker looked at me and said:

"So... when's the big day?"

Me: "???" (blank stare/what in the heck are you talkin' about?)

Lame Worker Dude: "Oh, well, um, I thought, that you..."

Me: "What?" (Do I know you?)

L.W.D: "There are just a lot of, um, and I thought, well, are you pregnant?"

Me: "No..." (uncomfortable smile)

L.W.D.: "Yeah, I guess I just saw a pregnant girl in line earlier and then thought it was you."

Me: "Oh." (that's right you did because I look darn good and not prego at all (unfortunately))

L.W.D.: "Um, sorry about that."

Me: "Right, ok" (and thank you for asking if I'm pregnant at this time in my life)

Sigh.

I was able to laugh it off for a couple of minutes but then I started to feel bad. That dude totally salted my wound.

Oh well. Tyson gave me two double stuffed chocolate filled oreos when I got home and that helped a little.

Let's talk about happier things... like CRAFTS!!

I love crafts.

I've been able to make a few cute little things this week which has made me totally happy. Please allow me to flaunt my crafty skillz.

My neighbor Amy and I make these cute letters after we got the idea from what our ward was planning do on super saturday.

When we saw the samples we figured we could totally do it ourselves so we turned on the finale of America's Next Top Model and crafted away.

I should have taken pictures as I was making these so you could have had a tutorial. Sorry, but I didn't want you all to see the murderous look on my face as I sanded the edges of these things for an hour and a half.

It was fun.

My other craft this week was learning how to etch glass to make cute ornaments at super saturday.

I admit I had no idea what the actual etching process would be. I was picturing myself with some sort of metal tool scraping the surface of the bulb while I struggled to not cut myself and/or crush the thin glass in my bare hands.

Turns out it's just a paste you apply to a stenciled area. Who knew?

And that concludes my complaining/craft time for the day.

I am off to Michigan tomorrow (hurrah!!!) to spend Thanksgiving with my family. I am super excited to go and will let you know all about our festivities there!

Best compliment EVER!!

While riding in the car on the way to the grocery store I may or may not have been rocking out (sound effects and all) to the sweetest rendition of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer ever made when Tyson said;

"Babe, you are Mannheim (Steamroller)."

Well, THANKS love!!!!!!!!!

I'll take that as a compliment.

Moab!!!! Part 2

Well I couldn't leave you hangin' out there with only part 1 of our fabulous Moab trip. So here's some more for ya.

Tyson and I found this charming little starter home as we began our hike to the delicate arch. We knew it was perfect the minute we laid eyes on it, but then we noticed something...

It comes with a Mother-In-Law suite!!!!!
Do you see it back there? So excellent you guys, if only it was in Washington. So sad.

But alas, Tyson and I were not here to look at real estate so we continued our climb in search of the most delicate of all arches.

It was about this point that I considered sitting on my bum and sliding down the slick rock back home. So tired...

Tyson and I hiked and hiked and hiked and hiked....

Until we reached an impasse.

A GIANT gorge.

Clearly we had lost the trail at some point and were now HOPELESSLY LOST WITH NO HOPE OF GETTING TO THE ARCH OR GETTING BACK HOME!!!!!!!!!

Just kidding.

We could actually see the arch from our perch atop the cliff, we just needed to find a way to get there...

Which is how I ended up clinging to the side of a mountain with every fiber of my being and every fingernail on my body. Felt like nails on a chalkboard. But the vertigo didn't really set in until I leaned back so my love could take a picture of me. Awesome.

And it only got worse as I looked up to take a picture of my sweet punkin' of love.

But never fear! It all turned out okay as I army crawled the last little way to the arch.

And then we found the real trail back to our car. The super easy trail that no one else had trouble staying on. The safe trail that did not include a death grip on slick rock in order to stay alive. The trail that had signs the whole way back showing us the way.

Huh.

Anyway, on our way back we were able to see some petroglyphs which were pretty cool.

The extremely informative and clever sign informed us that these petroglyphs dated back to sometime between 1650 and 1850.

Oh.

I was expecting something cooler... and older. Like 1350 or 1050 or, well, 50. Oh well, 1850 was still a long time ago.

And as a summary of our trip I leave you with this photo of some crazy yahoo who climbed to the top of a gigantic stone pillar. I was hoping he would cliff dive of that thing but he didn't. Just stood with his arms raised in the air.

I would never do that.

And that stone that you see behind him is not the ground but the top of another pillar.

Moab!!!! Part 1

Young McLowders went to Moab,

E-I-E-I-OOOOOOO.

And on their trip they saw some stuff,

E-I-E-I-OOOOOOO.

With an arch arch here,

And an arch arch there,

Here an arch,

There an arch

Everywhere an arch arch...
What? WHAT!?

We had to eat. Don't judge me!

(Okay secretly we actually had Burger King. Mickey D's is kinda icky.)

Meh.

That's how I'm feeling right now.

Meh.

I know I'm not the only woman in the world wishing she was pregnant,

but I hate that it feels that way.

I know there are people out there with worse problems than me,

but it doesn't ease the ache I feel right now.

I know this has helped me grow spiritually and emotionally,

but I wish it didn't have to come this way.

I know it's wrong to be jealous,

but that's my first instinct when I glance at others' swelling bellies.

I know this is just one bad day among many good ones,

but I still need to talk it out.

I know that I probably shouldn't post this because it's depressing,

but you are my girlfriends and I need your love.

And I know that this too shall pass.

Happy Halloween!!!

Love, the Lowders

(sorry it's a little belated.)

Nurse

Dharma Scientist

Hope you had a safe and happy night!