Stupid Neighbors

I went to take Charlie out for a walk, he stopped to pee on a bush. Then this raving lunatic comes running out of her house with a bottle of Febreeze and starts screaming at me to take my dog to sh*t on my own lawn. I was so totally taken aback by the whole, screaming/cursing/hot pink silk bathrobe/six foot tall woman lunging at me and my dog with the bottle of Febreeze, pardon the expression, but I didn't know wtf to say! If I hadn't felt so attacked it would have been funny, but the swearing and the screaming took away any urge to laugh. A couple of kids (early 20's?) came out of the unit right after her and told her to stop, asked me if I was okay and took care of the whole thing. They came and found me while I was wandering around the ground bawling my eyes out ( come 'on, you know I'm a basket case at this point, do I even need to explain?) and apologized again and were very nice. They said she just went a little crazy Febreezing stuff.

Remind me to stay away from that stuff. It's clearly dangerous.

Wordless Wednesday: Farm Fresh from Oregon

Wordless Wednesday: Flashback to 3rd Grade

The best one is the second one. LOL What's MORE hilarious about it is that I tagged my sisters in it on Facebook, thinking, this is funny! We are many, many years down the road from this, right? All siblings fight, and of course little sisters complain about being pummled by their big sisters. Of course, not all adult little sisters continue to be pummled by their big sisters, but whatever.

... They both UNTAGGED themselves from the picture and never said a word to me! LOL I know one sister is totally not facebook-compatible so I know she had to ask the other one how to untag herself so I am sure they both had a big hissy fit over the whole thing. Seriously? Can you not take a joke and think that something written over 20 years ago is worth a chuckle? When my mom saw what happened (because I commented when I noticed they untagged themselves, because I thought that was even funnier than the note Andy wrote) my Mom just about lost it laughing.

Some things never change.

AHHHHHH!

I HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How dumb are they to accept my application? lol Don't they know I'm crazy? Oh, wait... did I forget to mention that?

::happy dance::

Wordless Wednesday: Oregon Dog Parks are so Cool

Oregon dog parks are really cool. Pretty much like running through the forest free-reign. No fences..... just wild. Very neat. No way would I ever take my new beagle there. Ever. I'd never see him again!

(That's my Momma's golden retreiever btw. He's such a good boy! Not at all like my little monster!)

I want them to fit.

I have been watching this video over and over tonight. (I've seen it many times prior to this as well.) I don't know why other than... I just need to hear it.  I love this quote. It speaks to me. I hear it in me. I was talking to my mom about it today. I sent it to her a few weeks ago because I thought it would resonante with her as well. She was diagnosed with RA last year and has been struggling. She told me she cried when she watched it as well. "I am not my body," she quoted back to me. I think she got the message.

...I am only beginning to hear it.

I don't have my confirmation. And those clothes... for me, those dreams, I want those dreams... I want those dreams to fit. Someday. I don't know how to get there, and I can't imagine the path to take and the journey to endure, but I want those dreams to fit again. They don't right now. But a small part of me wants them to. But so much of me is hurting and broken still... I mourn for that woman every day.

I was raised in the Lutheran Church, and after being attacked at church camp as a pre-teen, spent many years in church with a raised eyebrow and secret feelings of atheism. (No belief in God.) Over time that came around to an identification with agnostic beliefs (Open to the idea of God, but wanting proof... in other words, no faith.) Slowly, over time my feelings have changed, but it has taken a very long time and continues to take time. I pray now, but it takes work for me. Hard work. I badly want faith and beliefs because I have seen how it enriches the lives of those who have chosen to take that path. With my background... it is hard work. But I can do hard things.

At least, I am trying.

Meet me on Monday!

 1. Did you watch the Superbowl?

LOL Um, the dog and I went to the dog park at 3pm and where there for over two hours, what do you think? (Because the game started at 330pm, right? lol)

We are watching the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet now though and the kitten half time show though!!! :D

2. What is the last book that you read?

After becoming a history major in college and being forced to read the worst, dryest most horrid, narrowist written history books- 500 pages a week, every week, and then going to law school, I really stopped reading for pleasure. However, since I found out about Matt, I started reading self help books. I pretty much had to. With something this devastating and shocking... You need to know what to do. What on Earth are you supposed to do when your world comes crashing down around you and the rug is pulled out from under you? These were the last three I read... Fun, huh?

I read this book every day. It is a daily devotional. When I was in the outpatient crisis program at kaiser they read us a passage out of it about ddenial and it just hit me. One day I was having a really hard time and I ended up in the office of one f the psychologists/case workers and she gave me this list of things to do. It said things like, Eat something 3 ttimes a day, sleep every night, and to read this book. I left that meeting, went to Borders and bought it. I've read it regularly ever since. I can open it at any time now, on a random day at a random page and find something immediately relevant to me. I just ordered another book by this author. It's been really helpful.

This book was harder for me to read. It was more real. It was the one I read last.

3. What is your favorite kind of cake?

Chocolate Chip cookie cake! It is a secret family recipe, and I will never tell you what's in it, but it is most similar to a 5 inch thick chocolate chip cookie but it has alot of peanut butter in it and you frost it with peanut butter. It is amazing. It also has some healthy stuff in it. Again, it's a secret family recipe so I'm not sharing. MUA HA HA HAHA!

(Looks similar to this, but that's definetly not it. Ours looks better. And again, the frosting is peanut butter, not butter cream)

4. Do you snore?

At a minimum I am a heavy breather. At most, my brother loves telling a story where I fell asleep on his couch and started snoring really loudly. His dog, puzzled, came over and started staring at me. He cocked his head to one side, then the other. Then he took a step closer and LICKED the entire inside of my mouth. I smacked my lips, and went back to snoring. He whimped a bit, gave me another HUGE tonsil make out session and THEN I woke up and started gagging while my family watched the whole thing, laughing hysterically.

CAUTION! FOUL LANGUAGE!

5. Do you play an instrument?

Piano! I took 4 years of piano from 2 different teachers. I did 2 years with one teacher and then I she really ticked me off during one lesson (pre-teen angst) so I informed her I never practiced my lessons anyway and didn't like her and she told me never to come back. (Wasn't I a dear? And yes, I wrote her a letter of apology and saw her for a period of time after that incident...) So we switched teachers (to the lady who played piano at our church actually, who I LOVED) and she tested me, since I had been playing for over 2 years, and she promptly started me back at level ONE because I was so awful! Apparently the first teacher didn't do a very good job with me... (she taught me finger numbers instead of notes and I had no idea how to read music...). So I spent another two years in piano building up to level 2 again, and then my piano teacher fell in love with the very married choir director at our church and quietly resigned her position because she couldn't be around him anymore and moved away. She wanted to do the right thing, but that also meant I couldn't take lessons anymore! Turns out though that the choir director had feelings for her and after a year or so he divorced his wife, tracked her down and they got married. Bizarre! (He also left our church because he was so ashamed.)
  

Utah in December

The first week of December I went to Utah to visit my BFF Kristin and her family. We were very busy, flitter-fluttering around Christmas shopping, going to (her) family holiday parties, we went to the BYU Christmas Party and met Santa and I can't even remember the rest. It was a whirlwind. I had hoped to do a few photoshoots while I was there, but it didn't pan out so much. I did manage to do one with some friends, and that was good! Now I just need to catch up on all my post-processing work. Yikes. I can never catch up on my work. I would do anything for some help!

















Joseph raiding the cupcake box... he's the only one we trusted to actually enjoy such high quality treats. The rest of the kids got cookies.







  Okay, it's not the best picture of the ones I shot (like 20 of this pose) but I picked a random thumbnail to include and I am too lazy to resize, upload and paste in the code of another one.. sorry!









  And yes Kristin, the other thumbnail of this pose of us was cuter. Dear Internet, Kristin (my bestie) and I always take all of our pictures together at the airport loading/unloading zone because we always forget to take pictures together during our trips. That's how we end up with these really attractive pictures of ourselves. Nice, huh?


Cutest santa ever!

Provo Snow Days

My bestie's kids building Holly the snow lady upon my demands. (I'm a very bossy houseguest.) I thought Lacey (the one in the pink jacket with the necklace) looked SO pretty in her little outfit I told her she needed her own little photoshoot because she had done such a good job picking out her outfit and accessorizing. You would never believe she was just five. I want her to be my stylist.