Holy Colee!

"They" say you can't go wrong with a crockpot. Yesterday I proved "them" wrong. Flavor was not bad, but the chicken was definitely over done. My friends are nice though - so they ate it anyway. Sometimes I wonder why they keep coming, other times I figure they can't resist the temptation of finding out what simple thing I can muff up this time....Dinner group is on hold for a while whilst we do a little traveling. I get to go home for a couple of weeks and hang out with my family. Everybody cross your fingers and hope that my new internet card works in Dingle :)

Anyway, Lewie's up next on the cooking roster. Woohoo BBQ in Provo!!!

I may be getting old, or even more boring, I'm not sure. I spent my Memorial day visiting my grandparents, fighting minor fires at work, and cleaning my kitchen floor.
After her 2 naps on Monday, VeAnn and I finally decided to take our chances on finding other friends who might be home. We were pleasantly surprised :) I've never had anyone seem more excited to see me than Chris was when I knocked on his door. It was fantastic, really. We got Troy to teach us how to play Bocci and Barry joined us, then we made cookies and Chris did a very tasty job of that.... After that we decided 11 o'clock was a good time to start a movie so we brought them to our home and watched Bewitched. Not Will Ferrell's greatest, but still highly amusing. Okay, maybe the boys are more amusing than he is...
Today I am tired.

Today I am adding to the list I am thankful for 2 things.

Sleep. You might think this should be on the list already, but I have recently not been able to participate in this much taken for granted activity. Last night I crashed. I fell asleep about 11 and remained unconscious until 9 this morning. It was fantastic!

The sales people at the Cingular store in the Fashion Place Mall. I did a stupid thing and used TeleSales to order a wireless card for my laptop, but the card was malfunctioning so I repented and went down to the store. They were able to give me a new card and they helped me install and ensure the card was working before I left. This is my second experience with this team. They were also very helpful when my friends were shopping for mobile phones. So, if you happen to have a Cingular phone, and need help with any part of it- I highly suggest this group.

I love going to the midnight showing of opening night movies. There is just something about a crowd of people who will stay up until 2 AM just because they are THAT excited about what they have come to see. They react better to previews, they interact with the THX blurb, they clap and howl when the movie starts, and by the time you leave you forget you've got to be up for work in 4 hours.

I saw X-Men 3 last night. I figured I haven't been sleeping for a month so I might was well put it to some use. It was kind of a last minute plan that I got sucked in to before I could even get in the door at James and Heather's last night. I don't mean sucked into as a bad thing, in fact, quite the opposite. I've been pretty excited about this one since I started seeing previews for it. I am not an X-Men reader, but I do enjoy the movies quite a bit. This one was not disappointing. Beast was cool, Phoenix was disturbed and let's face it, Wolverine, always a winner. All in all, I would suggest seeing the movie, especially if you liked the first 2.

I LOVE having people over for dinner. I am not going to lie about it... it just makes me happy. Tonight was just such a night. Dinner was ok, but the company was fantastic. I'm telling you- fantastic. If they keep working at it- they could make it into my top 5 apartments of people, easy. Of course, I am assuming that they want to be on the list....Those of you already on the list- you know who you are - need not be afraid, there's plenty of room for all of you.

I am not sure how we ended up playing an indoor game of pillow volley ball, but we did. Of course, I lost two pillows to the game, so it will be a while before we play again ;) We didn't even torture them with the American Idol finale.

After dinner, the girls and I joined our ward friends at the bowling alley. I didn't do so hot, not terrible, but not my best. VeAnn was the highscore for our house, and she got a 110 - so what does that tell you about Bethany and I?

Taylor.... I am voting for Taylor. It's not because I don't think Katherine can sing - cuz she's good, I just like Taylor. Tonight is the first time Katherine has given me any kind of personality to like.

Now you know. I am not predicting a winner - simply telling you where my loyalties are. :)

Last night Barry made dinner. And a lovely job he did of it, too. It was so tasty that when Troy came home, there was nothing left for him. When he went to find something to eat, he decided to stop at Redbox and find something to watch, as well. He took Bethany along to help pick. They were SUPPOSED to be picking a scary movie. Instead they came back with "Rumor Has It." Take it off your netflix queues, kids. Other than Mark Ruffalo, the show has very little else going for it. Of course, I wasn't really concentrating on the show so much as the boys' reaction to it. That and Troy's inability to get comfortable were pretty distracting. But let's face it, I have not had much focus on anything as of late.

We also watched the rough draft of Troy's dating documentary. This was HIGHLY entertaining. I'm excited to see a finished project.

Today we tried to go help do building clean up at the church, but the family stake that is there was pretty on top of it, seeing as how it is their stake conference tomorrow. Other than that it has been a pretty quiet day. Oh, Matt texted me from the top of the Empire State Building. I am super jealous. I need a vacation. Anyone up for a trip? I have a buttload of PTO and no one to spend it with ;)

Ok, it's probably not "completely" different....

Today I would like to talk about dancing. Yes, dancing. First of all - let me say, I am a fan of the actual act. I get caught chair dancing regularly at work. I get funny looks on the freeway that tell me other drivers don't find my car dancing as amusing as I do. I dance while I cook, while I talk on the phone, sometimes while I type. I enjoy a night out dancing with the girls. I'm not great, but my rhythm is not bad enough to be embarrassing.

I also enjoy watching other people dance. I don't know enough about it to be a judge on Dancing With The Stars or anything, but when they know what they are doing, it is entertaining.

DANCES - are an entirely different topic. Dances I do not enjoy. Dances are uncomfortable. I am pretty sure dances were invented to make people feel awkward. If you are a boy, you have to get up the courage to ask a random stranger to dance. If you are a girl, you have pray someone is crazy enough to think you are cuter than the girl standing next to you.(Sorry about the traditional gender role stereotypes, but I'm painting a picture here.) Then, assuming you have been lucky/courageous enough to be dancing, you have to try and hold a conversation that is at least semi-interesting while yelling over the music. I mean really, who came up with this plan?

So, in conclusion - Pro dancing, anti dances.

OK... I'm better. You can go back to your day now.

You could cut the tension with a knife. The contestants were spirited, but you could feel the nerves in each of them. Hours and hours of preparation would be culminated this evening. The track was in place. The electronic eye had been tested. The brackets were drawn. It was time. Tonight was the night.

OK, really- my ward had a pinewood derby for Family Home Evening tonight. My car was pretty sweet. My aunt and my mom helped - but mostly I did it. Either way it was a tribute to girls. She was shapely and purple :) I only lost to one other car, but they kept putting me in her bracket, so I took 5th. I have come to grips with it, because the girl I lost to totally won.

My favorite cars were the one that was decorated with homestarrunner and the one that was shaped like a tube of toothpaste. There was some quality time spent on them. Mostly I think we all just had a lot of fun.

Yesterday was Mother's Day. Moms are awesome. Who else worries about you all the time, tells everyone all your news, takes care of you when you're sick, gives you advice you will probably ignore, thinks you're perfect no matter what you do, always comes to the important stuff, makes your favorite dinner for your birthday, and never worries about her phone bill?

I think moms just get better when they become grandmas. Then when they get to see you it's a treat and they have to learn about everything you are doing so they can tell complete strangers how smart and successful their grandkids are. You are not allowed to leave the house empty handed, and of course you just get better looking everytime they see you.

Today I am in Dingle. I won't lie. Home is my favorite place to be. Today I am camping out with Tylyn and Heather. We are playing in the sprinklers and watching movies while their mom is at work and their dad is busy with projects. Tonight I get to go visit with my nephew for his birthday. I can hardly believe he is 7! He got new boots so that he can dress like the other boys in his primary class :) Now if we could just keep him on a Sunday so he can have a chance to wear them ;) They are actually pretty stylin, Dav- you would be proud :)

Are You Normal?

My Normalcy Quotient is: 49 out of 100.

My quiz results make me a Wonderful Eccentric

"You've earned the title of wonderful eccentric, and while you're not a wild, gun slinging maverick, you certainly like to follow your own way. Of course, you probably don't think of yourself as eccentric. As Einstein might say, 'It's all relative.'"

Take this free personality test by going to www.chatterbean.com/runormal/

Last night we got to know a little more about my new friend Barry. You ask, "What did we learn?"

1 - He's patient enough to sit thru Gilmore Girls.
2 - He doesn't like to dance - AT ALL.
3 - He's a big reader.
4 - He likes to road trip.
5 - His degree is in Physics - ugh (yes he's really that smart).
6 - His "internship" sounds like it would be a cool for real job.
7 - He's a pretty savvy food person.
8 - He has a great laugh.
9 - He thinks highly of others.

Ok - there's more, but you should probably just talk to him yourself.

American Idol was a little disappointing last night. Chris' second song was boring. I am never bored by Chris, so this is a bad sign. Katherine decided to have a personality, but unfortunately distracted from her singing ability. Elliot sang well, but not superb; and Taylor, well, I missed his first song, but his second was also just a little, well, meh. I have a theory on how tonight will go, but I am not as firm in my belief as normal. We shall see - we shall see.

Saturday I played DDR for the first time. It was more fun than I expected. I also found out that there is a Karaoke game - yes game. It's probably a good thing that I don't have the game system - just for this reason. I totally turned into one of those girls I hate - you know the ones I mean - the kind that can't really sing, but won't give anyone else the mic.... Yeah, luckily I did realize I was doing this and was able to walk away.

Today we went to church and then there was a fireside. I am not sure how I let myself get talked into all this stuff, but it was actually pretty fun. After we kid of just hung out with my current favorite housefull of boys. They make me giggle. Probably more than I should, but oh well.

Overall a pretty pleasant weekend :)

Last night I got a lesson in timing. We went to a party to which we thought we were fashionably late. There were like 10 people there. We stuck around for about 45 minutes before we bailed. As we were driving away, in walked the 3 boys that we had been hoping would show up. So, we came home, but went back after about 5 minutes. When we got back the party had actually started. It ended up being quite an enjoyable evening.

Lesson learned - showing up at a party any earlier than an hour late is like showing up early to the dentist. Just don't do it.

So last night we went to Jacob's for a friendly little game of foosball... Now what actually happened was very little foosball and a lot of the boys trying to show off their ping pong skills. It was great. Bethany held her own for a while, but in the end, Jacob smashed us all. I guess that's what home court advantage gives ya ;)