I CALLED IT...ED!

ED! Welcome back handsome!

But come on...you could do better than Jillian. She bugs the crap out of me. (It is all I can do to finish watching the season...I am so over her!)

Not only is she a whiner, she is the worst actress on the planet. I realize this is reality television and ultimately there is no acting, but give us a little something. You honestly can't be this transparent, boring and such a bad fake crier in real life!

Now Ed. I realize that ABC put you up to this. And I admire your aspirations to make a big impact on the show and bring the drama. There's a good chance she will choose you...for so many reasons.

1) you act like a man

2) you are the only one on this show that acts like a man

3) you left for your "career" - at least you had a good excuse

4) you are handsome

5) you are oober handsome

6) you are not slimy Wes

Speaking of slimy Wes. The man grosses me out. I don't get it...is she bind?

He is not even that cute! He's sort of nasty. No really nasty.

What is up with the tat? You are in a (bad) country music band. You are not a rocker.

Oh, and about your band. I will never buy your music. You can't sing. And even if you could, you are an imposter...you pretend you want a relationship so you can have a booming musical career. Not on my dime liar.

The fact that Jillian pretends she is OK with your music career makes me want to vomit.

I hope she does pick you...you deserve each other.

then Ed will be all mine...

muhahaha!

Stroganoff

In case you are wondering, it is NOT the best idea to substitute heavy cream for sour cream in the recipe for stroganoff.

Sure, it appears to look like regular stroganoff and your first or second bite you actually think it tastes like regular stroganoff.

But by the time you get to the fourth or fifth fork full you realize with all certainty that you should have indeed driven to the store...that is incidentally 20 seconds up the street.

I think I might vomit...please excuse me.

Show Your Helping Hand

Last week I saw this ad:

Yesterday I was at the grocery store and saw that Hamburger Helper was on sale so I bought a few boxes (you know...for the cause). My parents never fed us H.H. and now I know it is because they love us. I tried something cheesy with elbow pasta. It was THE nastiest thing I have ever tasted. I am serious, this is not a joke. Can I please just give the starving children across America some of my oatmeal and brown sugar? I simply cannot pretend I am anywhere near OK feeding them H.H. I dumped it in the trash. Sorry starving children. I'll work on finding another cause upon which I will place my stamp.

Birthday Wishes

You don't have much time to shop so I figured I would give you a list to make it easy.

THIS watch would look fantastic on my wrist!

I saw it a few weeks ago when I was searching for bad ad examples for class.

I didn't like the ad, but that watch...wow! And it doesn't need a battery. hello!

There's a place...somewhere in my future...where I will get to own a property like THIS.

Isn't it lovely!?! It is located HERE.

Be sure to click on the link(s) above so you can see all the lovely details.

THIS little gem would be a much bigger prize than one might realize.

You see...I have a really great camera, but it is a bit larger than one would want to carry around for your daily snips-n-snaps. The really sad thing is...that I already bought a small, throw in your bag camera and I seem to have misplaced it. I don't think I had it for more than a month. And I don't have money so I am FREAKING out that I can't find it. I really wish I could find it. But a new one would due just fine.

...more later!

Farrah Fawcett

Today is a sad day, Farrah Fawcett has passed away.

She battled cancer for about three years.

More To Love...

It was only a matter of time...

...before someone produced a find me love reality show for chubby people. I can say that because I'm not skinny. But hello? There is no chance in H.E. Double Toothpicks I would sign up for a show like this!

Yes, I will probably watch it, but star in it...not a chance!

Happy Birthday DAD!

I know, right...he just got to celebrate Father's Day and now it's his birthday! Lucky guy.

Happy Birthday Dad...you are amazing!

Thanks for...

stopping to pick me up when Anne pushed me out of the truck.
letting me "help" at the new house on Saturday mornings.

...and buying me laughy taffy on the way.
waking me up for Seminary.
taking me on High Council assignments.
teaching me to be (mostly) self reliant.
hauling all of my belongings up to my 2nd story apartment...

again & again & again...
hauling my crappy washer out.

hauling the new washer in.
buying me new tires.
great advice.
loving my mom.
loving me.
loving the Lord.
encouragement.

watching over me.

and...

and...

and...

Here with my beautiful mother, my handsome father.

And would you guess he's wearing a Mickey Mouse tie too?!

Happy Birthday!

xoxoxo

Oklahoma...

...where the wind comes sweeping down the plains.

Awh, sweet Oklahoma was a lovely retreat to one of my bestie's weddings, Megan. She married the most amazing man, Jason, that treats her like a queen. I am super excited for her and have gobs of photos to post soon.

However, tonight it is simply too late, so it will have to wait until tomorrow, perhaps Thursday.

So, for now...congrats to my bestie Megan and her bestest Jason. Oh how I love happy middles.

Dad...

Happy Daddy's Day...

love you!

Tomatoes

I know I have already blogged recently about my (wonderful) container garden. My back patio is small, but I don't go out there during the summer because it is so hot. Come to think of it, I don't really go out there ever. Anyway, that small patio is being taken over by my garden. And LOOK...I have MORE tomatoes popping up every day! This is so exciting.

My bell peppers look like they are starting to spring up and the cucumbers are just blooming, so they will both be a little while longer. Oh, I am so excited!

Dinner with Kristin & Rock...

My friend Kristen is in A-town and we met up for Mexy dinner tonight with her little Rocklin. He's such a cutie! And we had a really great time catching up on life outside of blogville...that's how we keep in touch since she moved ALL THE WAY TO ARIZONA!

We didn't have near enough time to catch up on all that was going on, but we promised to do better!

Happy Birthday Katie & Caroline

i. am. dying.

After spin class yesterday, today I am dying. Literally I am sure. My body hurts in every way possible. There may even be new ways my body is hurting, it's that bad. What was I thinking? I certainly didn't make it to the 6:30 a.m. class today...I hardly made it to class at 8 a.m. Maybe I should skip spin class today and just aim for regular ol' boring treadmill. Or not. Spin again next week.

Exercise

I've seen the pictures, I know that girl exists. Sure, she was around when I was younger...maybe a lot younger...but she was there, I have proof!

So why can't I find her? That girl...the skinny one.

I am a big fan of THIS blog and read the Brunette Bombshell religiously. She talks about her weight problems...not a lot...but enough. She mentions watching Opera and being inspired to talk about her challenges, but watching Opera doesn't do that to me. As a matter of fact, it does exactly the opposite...I don't need help finding the roller coaster, pretty sure I can do that all by myself.

She also talks about reading a book once that tells how giving a name to your eating disorder will separate you from your disorder and help on the road to recovery. I don't know much about eating disorders...or if "overeating" qualifies as an eating disorder, but I'm going with...yes. Maybe I am saying "yes" because I just want to name it...but whatever.

So...a name. BB (that's short for Brunette Bombshell) said most people call theirs Ed. She thought Ned sounded better...smaller. I don't like being the same as everyone else, so I can't name my issue either of those. Here are the ideas I have so far:

Jack - you know...because eating disorders Jack you around. However, I have a positive name association with that name, although spelled different...so this one is out.

Forrest - this one works well as a metaphor...I want to get out of the freaking fat forest!

Lance - if I was addicted to Lance crackers, this might work, but I can't stomach the idea of putting a dry crusty thing meant for birds in my mouth. I've eaten less than 6 packages of Lance crackers in all my 34 years, 11 months and 20 some odd days.

Lloyd - There are 2 L's...like I need 2 L's...like I need 2 helpings of chocolate cake!?

I don't know...I might need to wait to be inspired.

In the mean time, tonight I took some initiative and decided to go to the gym. As I was making my way to change my clothes I passed all of the new exercise rooms. There was a huge renovation down where the pool used to be and I had yet to go to any of the classes...tonight seemed like the perfect day to change that. I saw a spin class just starting so I hurried to change and rushed right in.

Right into HELL!

Seriously.

This is not a joke.

I have participated in a number of the spin classes offered at KSU (as well as other places), but it has been a while. I walked in and picked a bike close to the door. I made a few adjustments but knew automatically that it would not take long for my butt to remember the pain this class would cause.

Now let me rewind here for a second...before we had these new fancy exercise rooms they would kick the guys out of the (huge) basketball gym (they were THRILLED about that) and drag in our cycling bikes. Sometimes they would bring in a big fan, but not always. And they had a sound system on wheels too...clever, effective and it just worked.

Well...the new spin studio is just a titch different. The room is about 30' x 40' with bleached hardwood floors and high ceilings. I'm pretty sure the bikes are the same as the ones that where wheeled in previously...but now they are permanent and sitting on rubber mats. The instructors bike faces about 30 or 40 bikes used by those taking the class. HERE'S THE CATCH...those 30 or 40 bikes, in this beautiful new room, sitting, waiting for the 30 or 40 people just begging to be tortured ARE FACING A HUGE WALL COVERED ENTIRELY BY MIRRORS!

I've been in spin classes with walls covered in mirrors before, but they turned the lights down and had a nifty disco ball. This class had the HUGH WALL COVERED ENTIRELY BY MIRRORS AND THE LIGHTS ON THE ENTIRE TIME! I'm sure there is a perfectly good explanation for this...maybe feeling AND watching your fat bounce up and down is more effective than just feeling. And I'm sure watching yourself in the mirror helps keep your posture in check. Or at least that is what I tried to focus on to stop myself from bursting into tears. It was a tough hour, but I made it. Well...I was 10 minutes late and she ended a good 5 minutes early...but I made it! our instructor said we rod the equivelent of about 15 miles. Since I missed the 10 minutes at the beginning let's just say I road 12 miles.

So, I know it's ambitious but I checked out the class schedule and there's a class from 6:30-7:30 a.m. The perfect time to allow me to get to my 8 a.m. class. Maybe there will be less skinny, athletic and perfect women in the 6:30 a.m. class.

I can't imagine I'll make it...but at least I know there's a class. Right?

I'll figure it out.

Right?

Nikobee...

My sister Nicki has her own company of spinning fiber, hand spun yarn and fiber tools. She has an Etsy shop HERE. With some really great stuff.

She is part of this Phat Fiber sample box club and although I don't claim to understand how all of it works, it seems really cool. Fiber-junkies contribute samples of their stuff to this box and...well, that's about all I get. I know someone either buys the sample boxes or they receive them because they are part of this group. Anyway...here's this months sample box contents:

Madeline's 1st Ballet Recital

My niece had her first ballet recital today. She did a great job, it was fun to be there and watch. So...mostly for those family that couldn't be there...here is a slide show for your viewing pleasure. If you're not family, feel free to enjoy as well.

Goals: Abbi's blanket

So...back on THIS post, I listed some short terms goals. I have already mentioned that these are a work in progress so they are coming along, slowly but surely. Tonight I can check one more off the list:

• Finish Abbi's blanket

TADA!

Mom had the idea of adding the pink strip in the center and I think it really adds a lot to the blanket. The white yarn is super soft and the pink is not so much...but Abbi picked out the pink all by herself, and there was ABSOLUTELY NO changing her mind. Hope she likes it!

Now on to another niece or nephew blanket...who will it be?

Fruits of my labors...

Look what sprouted up today:

He's just a little guy and so far he is all alone, but that's OK...I'm sure he will have some family join him soon.

ice cream...yum!

Happy birthday little sis!

Goals...

Back HERE I made a list of goals, I knew I would not accomplish all of them during my few days between semesters, but I am managing to tick down the list slowly.  With any luck I'll only have a few dozen things left to do by the time I graduate in December.

For now:

• Finish reading James Patterson's Sundays at Tiffany's

I just, moments ago, finished Sundays at Tiffany's, it was marvelous.  James Patterson is a wonderful author and so far I'm pretty much hooked on his work.

• Start a new book

Well, I did START a new book: Po Bronson's Why Do I Love These People?  I can't remember anything about the 7 pages I've read thus far, so I will likely have to start it again.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

I'm still working on all the other items on the list...it's a process!  That's why it's called a working list...!

Addiction

The first step is admitting you have a problem.  Well, the real problem is that the WB took Veronica Mars off the air.  I know it's been a few years and I should really be over it by now, but I am not. Now that I think about it, my frustration might stem from the fact that there is little good T.V. watching these days.  I wouldn't normally know this except for this semester I have mostly morning classes and that leaves a lot of time (with no job) for surfing...I mean studying!  

Luckily there is Hulu...and I can rewatch VM from the beginning!

New Moon...

Twilight becomes more and more of a disappointment each time I watch it, that I have not really been looking forward to New Moon.  That is, until now:

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON trailer in HD

Edward still looks a little too made up for my taste.  I realize he is supposed to be pale white...that vampire look...but looking at him on screen makes me want to give him a make over.  HOWEVER...I can deal with it for now, as long as I get to watch Jacob.  Wow.  

And can I say it's about time that we saw some of those exciting new special effects features!  For crying out loud, everyone raved about the fight scene in Twilight and I just kept thinking...is that it?  But when Jacob morphs into the wolf...WOW!  I am super excited. 

I am a little worried though, I was super excited about Twilight back in the day of the first preview too...here's crossing my fingers for something better.