Girls Gone Wild January 2007!

Last weekend I had a fun friend filled weekend with some of my gals! To be precise, I had a blast with Karen, Loralee, Michelle, and Cricket. Poor Cricket met me for the first time. Those of you that know me well... know she was probably shocked. To say the least.

The beautiful Chelle made this trip possible. Plus, she made the most delicious fajitas. Yum. Then she went running. I stayed in my sweats all weekend and ate junkf ood and drank beer. She goes running. Figures. Next time I say I am fat tell me to go run like Chelle.

Look at Karen. SHAME ON HER. Holding a pretzel like it is a cigar, and a beer! What will her family say? /shakes head Ok, I will admit it. The beer was mine. All mine. Yum. I have a habit of handing evidence of my alcoholism to friends whenever a camera shows up. HAHAHA. So if anyone in Karen's family sees this, no she didn't drink it. I did make her a virgin margarita though. I will admit that mine was tastier.

Karen also kept me up LATE. Later than normal at least.

Here is Loralee. I might add that if you are ever hanging out with her and mention how you miss doing your hair HUGE... she might come out of the bathroom like this. I loved it. I really laughed hard. I really want to have a totally 80's party.

I have a feeling Lor would win the costume contest.

Then just for fun...

Remember if you are my friend, you are fair game.

Then there is Cricket. She brought the cutest baskets of all time. She even gave me beer and Star Wars tattoos. Made me want to get a real one.

This weekend was a complete blast. It was nice just being a girl, and not a mom for a few days.

So I upgraded and am now out of "beta".

Yeah, so I upgraded... today. I guess the notice that blogger was officially out of beta made me decide to do it.

Anyways, I am very sorry to all my friends who have me on a rss feed. You would have just got a zillion new post listed. /gulp

Hope you forgive me...

I am totally posting again, but with another theme.

self portrait challenge... get more sleep

Here it is at 12:22 in the freaking morning and I am posting. What I really should be doing is sleeping. Duh.

Look at this picture... doesn't it scream sleep to you. That is water splashed on my face to wake me up. Did it? Nope. /sigh.

One of my New Years Resolutions this year was to get more sleep. I am not really following this one. Maybe I'll start tomorrow. Maybe.

Ok... this is the lames post ever. I do have an excuse though... look at that picture. Look at the bags under my eyes. I'll post about my lovely weekend tomorrow. For now I will go right to bed.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

R.I.P. Barbaro / cats DO kill babies, i have proof!

i think i speak for everyone in America, and i do mean everyone, when i say i was deeply, deeply saddened by the recent news about Barbaro, Horse Hero of the United States. men, women, people of all colors, wiccans, gays, trailer park residents and celebrities alike mourned the loss of this beautiful horse after his tragic story came to a close just 48 hours ago. may his Horsey Soul rest in peace.

now, on to MUCH more important news, like what dress will beyonce be wearing to the oscars? will ellen wear pants to host the show? i predict that YES, she will wear pants!

and HERE is the proof you have been waiting for. cats DO sleep on babies and they DO suffocate them. CATS ARE EVIL.

this picture just makes me LAUGH! isn't she just the prettiest little kitty???

A working girl doesn't do much else

I want to write a long and sonorous epic about the adventures and mishaps I've experienced since I last accessed our blog but unfortunately I am way too tired to take on such a task.

Instead I just want to say that I am very grateful Jess came up with this idea and both she and Bridge did all this awesome work to put it together. THANKS!

Now if only I had time to think about something other than the blankness that has filled my overworked mind...not to mention the toll on my beauty sleep. Wait! Who am I kidding. I'm not sure I could ever get enough beauty sleep to undue the genetics with which I have been (blessed?) given. And NO this is not a plea for compliments, I just happen to be feeling a bit down on myself lately.

That's what my weekend with T is for. We're going to pretend that we just escaped from Colorado City, AZ for a night on the town in wonderful St. George, UT. It should be a hoot. I hope to come back with awesome stories, and at least one half-assed ncmo under my belt.
Oh, and a picture or two of the wonderful landscape through which I get to drive. I'll try to spare you all the geology.

Thanks for reading!

make little moments count

i take things for granted. not very often, but even a little bit is probably not ok.

my daughter wanted to fall asleep next to me, then have me move her to her bed. so, after her bath, i tied her hair up in rags so it would be curly in the morning, and tucked her in. she is beautiful...and one of my greatest accomplishments, next to my son.

i have a great career, i finished my degree AFTER a crappy divorce and i am in a great relationship. none of these things matter without taking time to enjoy moments like this.

thank you, self portrait challenge for inspiring me to take this picture. otherwise, i would not have done so.

Farewell North Dakota

ND has been fab. They had what can only be called a heat wave while I was here. I think it got up to 30 degrees yesterday. Today it is around 20 but with the wind chill it feels more like -5. The Bismarck Airport is small, but very clean and modern. They have FREE wireless Internet! Without that, this post would NOT have happened.

I had a lovely pedicure (complete with french mani'd toes) in the mall. I bought a pair of wonderful Doc Martens sandals for very cheap. I guess people don't buy flip-flops in the winter. HELLO! I wll be wearing the same shoe size come May!

The people here are very friendly and the clients I came to visit were super. I must also give 2 thumbs up to the 2007 Toyota Camry, which was my rental car. Now, most people may not get off on driving a rental car, but I just love it. Keep in mind I drive a 1994 Honda Accord, and while it was truly fabulous in 1994 and even in 2002, it is getting to be NOT so fabulous in 2007. The heater barely works and a giant chunk of paint is missing from the rear driver's side door. The aesthetics I can deal with. The lack of heat: completely MISERABLE.

Another two thumbs up for the Best Western Seven Seas Inn, home of Mandan's largest indoor waterpark. Indoor, I reckon, b/c it is way toooo cold to swim here ever. LOL. I never did find the Seven Seas. Maybe next year. The food in the restaurant was yummy and they had a cute little lounge. I would also tell you the staff delivered Miller Lite right to my room, but I don't know if they bent the rules in doing that or not. So, I won't tell you that I ordered beer room service style.

I miss my kids and I miss my man, but it has been very nice to be away by myself, too. This two-day jaunt is the perfect trip length I have decided.

Well, my plane is about to board, so I gots to jam. Back to real life.

New Years resolutions I might actually stick with...

One of my New Years resolutions this year is to hang out with friends more. This is something I can probably stick with. Well, I guess it depends on my friends. Who knows... maybe they do not want to spend time with me. I know I wouldn't.

I guess you could say our possible resolutions this year would be:

Bridge: Hear No Evil
Jess: Speak No Evil
Al: See No Evil (notice she is peeking and might have a problem with this resolution... /wink)

This photo above was taken by me. Yeah, it really was. I am the girl on the left side of the picture... Mrs. Hear No Evil. I took this in my studio with my camera set on a tripod and with the timer set. I actually took 47 group shots this way. Yes, I counted. Not all of them turned out. Some of us look better in certain shots than others. Usually I am the one that looked like crap. I did have to run in there and all. These photos were taken to be posted up here on our blog. This one might actually turn out to be our banner. Let me know what you think about that.

the chargers LOST....and other random thoughts

my team lost. and i am devastated. i guess if you aren't a football fan, then reading this will be about as important as keeping up with the latest news on barbaro. if you have to ask who barbaro is, then you are really out of the loop, as he has been a top news story for the past 9 years. well it seems like 9 years, ok??!?

so anyway, back to the chargers. i have been a chargers fan for years... utah lacks a pro football team (among many, many, MANY other things...) so i adopted the chargers in 1996 or 1997. not sure when. for most of those years, this is a team who, for lack of a better term, sucked serious football ass.

this year, they rocked a 14-2 record. LT was named the MVP. and today, they lost to the stinkin patriots. don't these guys have some tea to dump in the harbor or something?

it is a dark dark day for me. i really want a starbucks chai...with skim milk. i am truly addicted to this stuff and wonder how i could duplicate it at home. does anyone have any ideas?? i DO have a Krups latte maker thingy and so i can steam milk. now how do i make the chai part?

i will be in warm, sunny, favorite-winter-vacation-hotspot Bismarck, North Freakin Dakota (this name change was approved by voters last november) this week. i can't wait. no, really! i can't WAIT. to be fair, the weatherman has projected MUCH colder temps for Logan this week than is projected for ND, but STILL. Can't these conferences be somewhere TROPICAL??? WTF is wrong with oh, say Orange County, CA? Or perhaps Maui? I would be happy with Miami! ;)

and speaking of weathermen...i should have been one. i can't think of another job where you can fuck up so much on a regular basis and STILL keep your job.

my next post will probably be from fabulous ND!! i think bridgy is in charge of the SPC this week...

i see you!

first off, uber apologies to everyone who visited our blog this week but could not post. stupid, stupid, STUPID blogger! we missed you.

i guess it is true that nothing is really free. :(

anyway... consider this a formal invitation to leave us (me, bridge and the usually absent al) comments!

i know you were here... i have my ways of seeing you! /wink, wink.

you don't have to sign up for blogger. you can leave anonymous comments...but you COULD sign your name! if we don't like your comment, we can always delete it.

we want to get to know you... so say HELLO!!

happy weekend!

SPC- the Back to Nature Barbie way...

ok, so now that i have a sweet new camera (thanks, B) I decided to take a few photos of myself. really, there's no one else around to do it, so why the eff not?
so. here goes.

There are many things I don't like about myself but I think my favorite visible thing is my smile. Some have likened it to The Joker's and maybe it is. What I think my smile says about me is that I'm generally happy with myself and my life. I'm comfortable with who I am and what I'm about.

My favorite non-visible things about myself are that I'm realistic (usually), honest (most of the time), down to earth, fun(ny) and very easy going.

I hate that I have a small beer belly, but if getting rid of it means getting rid of beer, then count me out! I hate that my hair is thin and straggly. I hate that my two best friends constantly try to get me to use hair product and wear make-up. But I digress. I hate that my two best friends are 800 miles away. /sigh... (I'm NOT moving back)

Mostly, I hate that I'm passive and give in to the demands and wants of others WAY to easily. I guess that comes from being the peacemaker in a 5 child household.

Oh, and I'm dissapointed that no one but jess or bridge ever comments on my entries (thanks guys).

Finally, for J and B. Two things you rarely see: me in make-up and loads of snow in Albuquerque (yep, that's the mighty Rio Grande flowing through the pic).

yet another reason i hate mornings...

i am not a morning person.

nope.

not at all.

the time my body gets out of bed and the time i actually wake up are not the same. not even close. today i rolled out at 7:30 a.m. i actually woke up around 10:00 a.m. lame i know. my poor kids and family.

the best courses of action in dealing with me in the morning go as followed:

1. try not to talk to me. at least not with anything important.
2. make me coffee. wow does this help.
3. make me breakfast NOW! jk... but i do love to wake up with breakfast already made. this only happens on weekends.
4. give me a massage. my husband once woke me up with a back massage. i still think of that morning as the best one ever.

this morning my daughter was driving me nuts. she had a nightmare last night about bees. the second i woke up she started talking at around 100 mph. no kidding. she kept asking me about bees.

let me point out that i do not have an extensive knowledge on bees. i know they fly, they are usually black and yellow, and they have a stinger that i always step on.

her dream was about poison bees. what are poison bees you ask? i wanted to know too. i really was wondering if she was talking about killer bees. so i asked her.

big mistake.

i guess she didn't know about killer bees. she is young, and her knowledge about bees is about as limited as mine.

now her questions started coming out at 150 mph. obviously i still haven't awaken, so i couldn't even contemplate on how to answer her.

anyone know about either "poison" bees or killer bees? it will make light dinner conversation tonight.

barbaro suffers significant setback

**forgive me horse lovers. in fact, if you are a horse lover, you may just want to skip reading this entire post.**

does anyone REALLY care that barbaro has suffered a significant setback?? does anyone even watch the kentucky derby or whatever horse race he broke his leg in? if you do, you MAY need to evaluate your life! ** the race was the preakness...if you care!

this is national news! on the MSN homepage! on FOX sports! On Yahoo!! what has this world come to?

illiteracy, high gas prices, the high cost of post-secondary education, drugs... all are apparently UNIMPORTANT. or at the very least, second to the health of BARBARO. a HORSE. not even a horse who can talk or count with his hooves. what has this horse done??

i wonder if journalists fight with their editors to cover the barbaro saga... "No really, Bob, YOU take the Superbowl coverage - I got Barbaro! Diane, you take that interview with Tiki Barber after his last game and Steve, you have a meeting with LaDanian Tomlinson (my FAVE football player, btw! GO CHARGERS) this afternoon. I want to check in with Barbaro's vet staff and I have a meeting with Barbaro's personal chef later today. I might want to get an independent stool sample as well to verify his diet. that chef seems less than honest. "

seems to me that covering the barbaro story would be the death of any journalism career.

for the life of me, i cannot understand why this is news. nothing else is going on?

girls just want to have fun...

i am catwoman. hear me roar! bridge is batman. together, we want to have more fun in 2007!!

she wants to be a super hero. she wants to have men in tights follow her around. she also resolves to get more cool gadgets in 2007. like a hand mixer, a "personal massager" (wink, wink) and an iPhone.

i just want to have catwoman's body. i also want to be realistic.

when was the last time you just let go and did something ridiculous? you know, like sticking just your face through a cutout of super heroes??

honestly, this picture is a resolution to have fun in 2007.

and in case y'all wanna check out the rest of our blog.. click here.

bathroom scale: friend or FOE? vote now!

i may have lost 6 pounds since i officially weighed in, but who the hell is counting? i officially started working out on christmas night, but didn't start the food diet until jan. 1.

i abhor the bathroom scale. getting on it is ALWAYS a crap shoot. i never know if the scale is a friend or a foe until i actually step on it. and then, i always do a mental assessment of what i am wearing, what time of day it is, did i recently use the restroom, did i just have a big lunch or a snack? THEN when the magic number finally pops up, i have SOME sort of justification for WHATEVER number it is.

if i am weighing in a bit heavy, it must be the shoes i am wearing. or the really big, heavy hoodie i have on that day. even if the hoodie is on the back of my chair and not even attached to my body. or i just drank too much diet mountain dew. or i should just try to go to the bathroom.

speaking of diet mountain dew, i have mentioned it like 37 times on this blog. i have YET to receive even a free 6-pack of diet mountain dew from pepsi. and i know they can afford it. i know they can.

back to weighing in. if the number is surprisingly low, well i have no idea wtf happens because that has NEVER happened!! i haven't seen anything lower than 152 in the past year. when i see a 4 in the second number spot i am going to justify it with a 24 oz. miller lite.

i can't wait. xoxo.

I will never use spellcheck again!

I got this email from my mother-in-law. In the past I have always been worried about typos. No longer. Check out the email she sent me.

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Self Portrait Challenge

i took this pic with my camera phone. resolutions worth mentioning include:

get more sleep.

wear my glasses more often (at least 3 days a week) to give my eyes a rest from the contacts.

brush my hair before pulling out a camera.

my name is jess...and i share this blog with my best gal pals. this is my first-ever self portrait challenge, so be nice.

my resolutions: blog more, wallow in self-pity less

It has been brought to my attention (in a NOT so nice manner) that I have been noticeably absent from our blog for some time now. Ok, it really was done nicely but I have to give jess a hard time because I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and doggonit, people like me (fullfilled resolution numero dos in title, YIPEE!!).
But honestly, I haven't had that much to say. You see, my life is incredibly dull and I don't want to put other people in an asylum by reading about it. I have a hard enough time dealing with my own life. Plus, nothing bizarre or out of the ordiary has happened to me lately. /fingers, toes, and legs crossed on this one....

However, after spending an incredibly dull, yet Packer winning, NYE (alone this year), I got to attempt to fall asleep to these wonderful assholes who reside in my neighborhood. I felt almost like I was living in the Wild West. Why ever would you feel that way? You ask. Well, at midnight (MST, NOT CST when bridge and jess prank called me, which was HILARIOUS btw) I was treated to multiple psuedo-vaqueros shotting off various types of gun in celebration of 2007. Let me mention that some of the said guns were of the semi-automatic variety.

Yeah, my neighborhood rocks! (Nowhere near Cleveland or Detriot ___ City.)
If only Bridge had invited me to her party earlier....

Just thought of one, no, wait, two more resolutions
1. travel more. what's the purpose of life if you can't enjoy it with those you love (doesn't mean I'm going to travel more to Logan but attempt to convince those I love- jess & bridge- to travel w/me)

2. learn to use my sweet new, Bridge recommended, camera (see above, and right). There will be more photos to come of the 6-8" of snow fall at my house. So, ya'll I have more snow in NM than you do at your house. Damnit, I left Utah for some reason, right... (reference first photo. THAT'S why I left Utah)

It is already 2007? WTF have I been?

Honestly this year has gone too fast. WAY TOO FAST. I now believe my mom and dad when they told me the older you get the quicker time goes by. Before then I thought they were full of shit. Silly me.

This year I was going to NOT have a New Years Party. I really didn't want to have one. Didn't want to take the time to prepare. Didn't want the clean up afterwards. Then I started getting phone calls.

Phone calls?

Yes, phone calls.

Random friends, to protect the guilty, would call and ask what they were supposed to bring. I really was confused for a bit. I had no clue what they they needed to bring stuff for. Until...

One friends said, "So what am I supposed to bring this year to your New Years Party?"

Then I got it.

I apparently was having a New Years party if I wanted one or not. Most of my friends had just counted on it. They hadn't made other plans. I am actually really glad they did this. I had a lot of fun. One year we had over 50 friends show up. This year it was small. This year small was good.

I didn't clean my house before. Luckily it wasn't too messy by my standards. Remember that I am crazy about cleaning. I even scrubbed one of my bathrooms grout for 4 hours this week. Yeah, I am a nut.

I really didn't have to go pick up anything for this party. My mom gave me a ham for the party. Lucky I know. A wedding I photographed the day before had lots of left over food and gave me cookies and these yummy wraps. Damn lucky is what I am.

So I had a party.

I swallowed some beer. Jess guzzled some beer. Then we both consumed even more beer. Then we tried to prank call AL an hour early to wish her a Happy New Year. Yes, we are lame.

We played some games.

We ate some food.

We played more games.

At the end of it all I looked at all the clean up and realized there wasn't that much. My friends totally helped me clean up most everything before they left. I love them all for this. All I have to do it sweep, mop, and vaccum. Lucky me!

I am sure I'll have my party again next year. I will plan it though. Looks like it is a great tradition, if I want it or not. HAHA. I will not call people on December 31'st to invite them. Not again. /whew

Some vital info:

• Jess is going to get her ass kicked by me for a "comment" she made. I already dropped ice down her pants, but it wasn't enough.
• I can run really fast after a wedgie.
• I can also chuck ice at person who gave me a wedgie.
• I swear a lot.
• I wasn't the person who swore the most.
• Everyone left at 2:00.
• My husband fell asleep with my son at 2:30.
• I went to bed at 3:30.
• I woke up at 9:00 am to get some aspirin. Stupid Champagne.
• I woke up today at 1:30. LUCKY ME!
• I am in a good mood.