Sweet & 25 Things

Sweet - Having a sugary, agreeable flavor; arousing pleasant emotions.

January 31, 2009

These cinnamon bears are a birthday gift from our friends, the Clarks. I LOVE cinnamon bears, and this container they gave me is huge. They always give me the funnest gifts. (I have to write that - I think they read my blog! Kidding - you know I love you!)

My neice Kassie tagged me on the thing going on on FB right now about 25 things about you. So here is what I put up for those who are not on FB:

1. I don't like fish. In fact, so passionate is my dislike for fish that I don't think I could possibly like it EVER. It's like a mission at this point. I used to like tuna sandwiches, but as I've gotten older, I don't even like that so much anymore.

2. I love to type. Weird, I know. I sometimes type stuff just cuz. I am seeking professional help.

3. Also on the weird topic, I don't eat chicken on bread. It doesn't belong there. Chicken should stand alone! My brother thinks this is the weirdest thing ever, and bugs me about it all the time.

4. Staying with the weird, I won't shop at Albertsons because I don't like the shape of their shopping carts. I know, I know, I have issues. I also can't stand Albertsons turntable checkouts. I need a good conveyor belt.

5. I think everything "downloadable" on the internet should be free. Music, art, all things printable. Mostly just cuz I'm far to cheap to pay for anything.

6. I love to have lunch out because I don't like "home" lunch food. I don't like sandwiches and can only eat so much lean cuisine. Mac & Cheese and ramen are only for when I'm completely desperate. Needless to say, if I don't eat out, most of the time I just don't eat lunch. Sometimes I'll have an apple.

7. I love shiny things. I am also easily distracted by them. There was a Barbie that came out in the late 80s, when I was really too old for such things, called Crystal Barbie. I would decorate my whole house like Crystal Barbie was dressed if I could.

8. I don't read much, but love to browse bookstores. I can't get out of Seagull Book for under $60 - and that's even shopping their bargain table. I have tons of books I need to read.

9. I love paper. All paper. I can't get enough of it. Don't even get me started on shiny paper! Luckily, I have a job where I have easy access to exciting papers. I don't mean printed scrapbook paper - I mean real papers. Linens and vellums and felts, oh my! We have a paper at work that feels like microfiber. We just got a shipment of irredescent gold and pearl papers. I was a little bit giddy. My all time favorite is cream linen.

10. I love to sew. For myself, for other people, it doesn't matter. People who get gifts from me are unfortunately on the receiving end of this passion. I love to make pajamas because they are so fast. I love to sew on wool. I would buy fabric by the bolt if I could, and line it all up like in the fabric store because it looks so pretty that way. I have fabrics that I can't bring myself to use because then I won't have it anymore. Again, issues.

11. Dr. Pepper is the best drink ever made. The diet version is nasty. There is no other cola that is anywhere close to as good, but the 2nd runner up would be Coke. I usually like my soda at room temperature (my sister is the same way!). JCWs in American Fork has the best Dr. Pepper.

12. I don't like breakfast food for breakfast. I prefer Brinner. And if it's Brinner, it has to have the good bacon. Crispy, bordering on burnt. None of that limp bacon. I don't want to chew it. I want it to just melt away in my mouth.

13. I prefer to cook from scratch and from fresh ingredients. I like to make my own breads now that Grandma Wilson taught me where I was going wrong. I like to make my own barbeque sauces and such. I think I have grown to be a decent cook, considering when I got married I could only make spaghetti. Ask Lane about the baked tomatoes sometime.

14. I like music by Pink, even though she scares me a little bit. My taste in music has changed quite a bit over the years, and have even learned that U2 is pretty cool. I surprised Lane by asking for a Daughtry CD a year or so ago, and it is one of my favorites.

15. I love to stay in touch with old friends. Thank you FB! There are still friends out there I would love to find, but haven't been able to yet. It is so fun to find out what paths people's lives have taken.

16. My son Jack really cracks me up. He is so funny! (especially when he doesn't mean to be.) If you know Jack, I don't really need to add anything else.

17. I would rather have my feet rubbed than get a back massage. I can usually bribe Jack to rub my feet, and Lane got me a foot massager thing for Christmas (he flat refuses to rub my feet). There is nothing more relaxing to me than having my feet rubbed.

18. I have freakishly small feet for being so tall. I am up to a size 7 now. Pre-babies was only a 6. I still have a pair of size 6 shoes that fit fine.

19. I am "allergic" to cold and my hands turn red and swell up and itch like crazy if they get cold. Our family doctor told me when I was about 10 or 11 that I was allergic to cold, and it sounded made-up to me. A year ago I met someone else who was allergic to cold, but severely so, and decided it must be real. I made some rolls with refrigerated dough, and rolled 3 dozen rolls into balls in my hands, and was miserable for hours afterward. Who knew that was real? BTW - don't ask me to make rolls from refrigerated dough.

20. My favorite video game is Dance Dance Revolution. Who needs the kids? I'll play it alone! This is the funnest thing ever! We got our game at Christmas 2007 and played it for HOURS every day. It has to be the real DDR, though. The other ones we have (HSM and Disney) have really annoying arrows. It's too hard for me with my ADD to follow.

21. My favorite holidays are July 4th and christmas. I think Halloween and Valentines Day should be eliminated. I think Addie was born on Halloween because God has a sense of humor and knows how much I hate Halloween. I think Valentine's Day is just a holiday to make life more difficult for men. Both should be removed from the calendar.

22. My favorite place I've visited is Tulum Mexico. I've loved most of the places we have visited on cruises, but Tulum was the best we've been to so far. I also loved Grand Cayman, and I think I need to go back to Key West and give it another shot. I have heard good things, but didn't see them. I guess you have to get away from the touristy places. I also love Nauvoo, but I haven't been there since about 1988. I think it may be time to go back. I've heard it's changed some! :)

23. We swam with the stingrays in Grand Cayman. That was an amazing experience that I probably would never have done if I wasn't pushed. I tried to find excuses to not go do this when we were there, but kept hearing how exciting it was. I'm so glad we did it. We'll remember it our whole lives.

24. If I had to pick one favorite song of all time, it would probably be Piano Man by Billy Joel. When I hear this song, I sing it as loud as I can. I don't care who hears me. Everyone already knows I have issues.

25. I love Twinkies slightly chilled. Ding dongs too. And cake.

Fragrant

Fragrant - Having a sweet or pleasant smell.

January 30, 2009

The roses are from my sister for my birthday tomorrow. She also brought me one of those giant Hershey kisses. Flowers and chocolate - ummm, ummm. She knows me so well.

The bottom picture is Jack and his friend, Derek, playing Wii Playground. This is a paper airplane game that is really fun to watch them play - the players twist all around while they "fly" their airplanes. The delay on my camera is too long to catch them in some of their funniest poses. If you look close, you can see Derek's tongue sticking out a little bit, he is concentrating so hard. I came in very last in Wii bowling today. Must be old age setting in!

Swirl

Swirl - to move with a whirling, rotating motion.

January 29, 2009

I was trying out the new cookie recipe from my photo mentor, Tammy, and thought the dough looked interesting on the beaters. The cookies were delicious! The recipe was super easy and I was done in no time. That's the trouble with baking cookies - the actual baking part. This recipe only made 2 dozen, so now that that the first attempt has proven to be successful, I'll have to bake some more this weekend. I had to go to the DMV to renew my drivers license today. I just don't understand why - during the lunch hour, when the office is FULL - they only have 4 of the 11 windows open. I just don't get it. It's like our post office here in town. No matter how long or short the line is, only 2 windows are open. When that line is long, a person from the behind the wall will walk out to the teller area and survey the situation. So people get all excited, thinking that he is the manager-guy who will go back behind the wall and tell the other workers that more help is needed. But no one ever comes back. That is the same scenario every single time I go to the post office. No kidding. Same sort of thing at the DMV today. Some official looking guy in a blazer would would walk around behind the counter, talk to other people who were milling about, and I thought "Yea! They are gonna open another window!" Nope. They must have just been making Super Bowl bets, because another window never did open - but they did close one! It took 50 minutes to get done there, but considering my past experiences at the DMV, that's record time!

Ballet

Ballet - A classical dance form characterized by grace and precision of movement and by elaborate formal gestures, steps, and poses.

January 28, 2009

My old toe shoes from WAY BACK when I used to dance. I hang them on the wall in my sewing room as a reminder of something I used to love to do. My friend Jennifer and I got permission from our parents to miss school to go to SLC with our ballet teacher (her name was Laurie Walker - weird, huh?) to buy toe shoes. It was a terribly exciting and memorable day. I think I must have been in 8th or 9th grade. I later got another pair that I didn't get to use much before I gave up dancing due to terrible pain in my knees. The other pair doesn't have the worn out toes that these shoes have, so I like these ones better. Memories . . . from the corner of my mind . . . misty water colored memories . . . of the way were were.

Vivid

Vivid - Bright, brilliant, intense; having clear, lively, bright colors.

January 27, 2009

This is actually my take on this weeks theme: "new." I have had a hard time thinking of something "new" to photograph, since it's January and everthing is dead. So I thought of how every kid in the world loves a brand new, unused box of crayons. So that is my "NEW."

We enjoyed a dinner out this evening with Lane's parents. It is so cold! The temperature thingy in the car said 25 degrees. The snow will never melt with days like this! The inversion did finally clear out thanks to the storm on Sunday, so we have blue skies and sunshine until the inversion builds again. It gets so bad they keep the kids in at recess at the school.

I finished sewing my jumper today and have the matching jacket almost done. I just need to put the sleeves in and hem it. I think it will even go with my favorite black boots, that don't go with very many things but I just love them anyway! Every girl needs a frivolous pair of shoes - an impulse buy that only go with one outfit. The kind of shoes that you love, even though they are uncomfortable. I think I just went down a bad road, now I want to go shoe shopping.

Happenstance

Happenstance - an event occuring by chance.

January 26, 2009

This is the retaining wall in my back yard, and the fresh snow had gathered on the bricks where they alternate and stick out a little bit. I thought it made an interesting pattern. We got some new snow today, it's nice to have pretty, fluffy snow again, but it does make me think I'm over it now and ready for spring. February is almost here, and when I see that first purple crocus I'll know there is light at the end of the tunnel. But, boy, has it been COLD!!

Binge

Binge - Uncontrollable self indulgence; a spree.

January 25, 2009

Sadly, this is not staged. Just another Sunday afternoon of Mythbusters and Forensic Files. We got more snow today and last night. It's very wet and not accumulating quite so fast as the last storm, although it's been storming all day. We had a lot of rain preceeding the snow, so most of the old snow is gone, thankfully. Family Home Evening is tomorrow, I had better put something together. I don't think it's appropriate to have Wii night 3 weeks in a row! We are having "Brinner" (from an episode of Scrubs) so I need to go buy the "good bacon" tomorrow. We had Brinner once with the "good bacon" and now we can't go back to anything else. Packaged bacon is ok for being mixed in with stuff, but for eating alone - it has to be the good bacon directly from a butcher. There is just nothing quite like it in the world!