Brette's Blog

365 seconds

2012-01-19T23:18:00.000-07:00

i really want to do a recap of 2011 and see how i did on my resolutions and post my new resolutisons, but first things first...

i'm obsessed, literally obsessed, wiht this idea. this girl took a little video each day during 2011. at the end of the year she took a 1 second clip from each day and compiled it into a little movie. a 365 second video of her life in 2011. i really am going to try it but i need something to keep me motivated so it doesn't end up like my daily photograph project that lasted about 3 whole days... and what motivates people better than competition? in my case, almost nothing.

that being said... who wants to do this with me? (maureen, i'm counting on you!) whoever does it longest gets... um.... uh... the longest movie! it'll be fun. way more fun than a journal or a blog, or even a daily photogaph.

check out her video here there's no way you'll not want to do this!

(and don't judge me for reading perez hilton)

my big break

2011-11-29T20:12:00.003-07:00

last week the lethbridge police played a hockey game against a bunch of retired nhl players. it was kinda fun. but the funnest part is this photo from the lethbridge herald. it's theoren fleury. he used to play for the calgary flames.

take a closer look

nope, i'm not a nerd who randomly submits photos to the local newspaper. i was asked to take a photo for the paper for them since none of their people could make it. i'm pretty much famous now.

maybe i should take up a career in photo journalism.

really?

2011-08-29T22:14:00.001-06:00

really.

pre july 1st

2011-08-19T11:50:00.005-06:00

i had the whole last week of june off so i went out to hill spring before the first. Leslie was out there so we got to hang out. it was fun.

of course we had to go to glenwood for ice cream. it was delicious and cheap as always.

jake started with the hair pulling right away. he was a bully the whole time.

but he's so dang cute he gets away with it.

we played with the cat and the raccoon because we're such a pet loving family.

we flew a kite one day. too bad the string broke and the kite flew into the feedlot.

luckily mom saved the day

then we had a gourmet marshamallow roast. there were so many different flavours of marshmallows, including mint chocolate, strawberry, pina colada, banana and toasted coconut, and they were all D!

we also humoured leslie as she found foods for a fear factor thing the nish's were doing. dad did a little better than i did. i spit out an almond because i dind't know what it was and i was too nervous to bite it!

it was a fun week. the perfect way to lead up to the first! (and seriously, does anyone know why i can't get this to not be underlined? can i say one more time how much i hate blogger?)

vegas

2011-07-29T19:32:00.006-06:00

vegas was sooo much fun! i've been to vegas probably half dozen times but i've never done as much as i did this time!

i did not double my life savings (i'm sure i could have if i'd spent more time there),

i did not see the sisterwives

i did not get sunburnt!

i did win a bit of money gambling.

i did drink margaritas (virgin style) at jimmy buffett's margaritaville.

i did go shopping.

i did lay by the pool every morning.

i did get attacked by a lion.

i did go to a show.

i did do a gopher face behind a hedge.

i did lay on a fountain and pretend to be a fish.

i did get told i look old and i need to buy some skin cream.

viva las vegas

2011-06-16T17:48:00.004-06:00

i'm leaving for vegas tomorrow. don't have much planned, but i really hope the following things happen:

- i tan, but don't burn

- i see, and get a photo with, the family from sister wives

- i at least double my life savings playing cards

i don't think i'm asking too much.

i'll let you know how it goes.

U2 360 2011

2011-06-11T10:13:00.004-06:00

i was a little nervous about going to this concert. for two reasons. 1) i bought the tickets off a website i'd never heard of. when i got them in the mail the tickets said June 23, 2010. the concert was on June 1, 2011.

2) we decided to get general admission on the floor. i had visions of massive rowdy crowds pushing and pushing and i imagined myself being trampled to the floor with people's drinks being spilled all over me.

they brought their own stage. it was MASSIVE. it looked like a huge claw.

the stage was a big circle then a big space then another stage thing. it was like a little walk way with gates that connected them.

we learned that the first 2000 people got to sit in the space between the two stages, aka THE INNER CIRCLE! we drove to edmonton as fast as we could but got there too late to get a number and accepted that we'd be in the outer circle. we stood in line for literally hours. in line they were handing out balloons. to blow up and toss around during the concert.

finally we got in. they gave us a wrist band and we were at the front of the outer circle. it was already so crowded. i stood there longingly looking at the people in the inner circle. they had so much space. they were able to move around freely while i was standing there with so many people already pushing to get to the front.

the only good thing about the outer circle was seeing baby bono

then somebody asks us what we're doing. they said we had a pink wristband and that meant we got to go to the inner circle!!!

we were so excited!

this was our group. it was a good group.

the inner circle was heavenly.

we seriously had such good seats!

so spacious. so close.

the fray opened up. i love the fray.

then U2 came out. they were soooo gooooodd~ i'm not even a huge U2 fan and i only knew about half of the songs, but i seriously loved it.

if you ever have the chance to see U2 in concert, i highly recommend it.

consider this

2011-05-17T22:49:00.002-06:00

i read that last week and i can't stop thinking about it.

Stella & Dot vs. Zad

2011-05-06T10:53:00.005-06:00

lately everywhere i turn there seems to be a jewelry party. i've resisted in buying anything yet but i've decided i love stella & dot. they have such cute stuff! there's one necklace in particular that i absolutely love. and if it wasn't $250.00 i would probably buy it.

but i can not in any way shape or form justify spending $250.00 on it. i've looked on ebay and it's $170. still too much.

there's also some bracelets that i really want. but they're $60.00. i hate that it's so expensive.

so yestereday while i was sitting at the hairdressers i was flipping through a magazine (she was taking forever so i had quite a bit of time to flip through several). i was looking at one people magazine and i saw a necklace that reminded me of the stella & dot one! it said it was from a place called zadretail.com. immediately when i got home i looked it up online and i quite like it! the fact that it's only $24.00 makes me love it!

then i got to looking at the rest of their jewelry and saw these bracelets! they are only $15.00!

maybe the quality will be poor. but for that much savings, how could i not try? i just bought the necklace. after what shipping and tax would be on both, i saved $225,70! not bad eh?

(again, this dang blue underline. hate it)

birthday crabs

2011-05-04T19:05:00.009-06:00

this was mandy's birthday party and instead of going out for supper with close friends then coming back to my house for cake with lots of friends (which seems to be the birthday norm) we decided to cook supper and eat before the party came over. mandy's favourite food is crab so we decided to be adventurous and cook some!

before

after

my worst part by far, in fact i refused to help - i mean i busied myself with other work - was cracking it open and pulling the meat out. for some reason i really hated it. poor poor sebastian.

i mean look at him. he was trying so hard to crawl out of my kitchen sink. how could i possibly rip off his limbs, pull out his insides, lather him in butter and eat him? does anyone know the number for PETA?

luckily there was cake to take my mind off the murderous supper.
kristy made it and it was honestly so good! she called it temple cake. i guess they make it at the temple cafeteria. it had coconut and pineapple and slivered almonds. it really was de. and i have no idea how to make this not blue and underlined. yup. i still hate blogger and crave a more user friendly way to blog.

after cake we had a little synchronized dance party. my house isn't ideal for playing but it was still fun!

then after everybody left we busted out the pseudo bubbly and made a toast. and drank the entire bottle. between the three of us. don't judge.

despite my house having a slight seafood smell, the party was a success!

for some reason i absolutely love hosting birthday parties.

you make me blush

2011-04-28T21:55:00.001-06:00

story of my life.

the kensington

2011-04-21T18:13:00.006-06:00

for some reason i've decided to start wearing a watch again. i used to wear watches all the time. i remember a long time ago making and selling choke cherry syrup so i could have enough money to buy a watch i wanted so bad! my very first baby-g. it was so cool! it had all the usuals; an alarm, a stop watch, it lit up when you hit a button AND when you turned on the light it would have a little dolphin in the top corner that would swim around and do a flip. and you could change the light to be either red, green, or orange. that makes it pretty cool. but the best part about it: you could store phone numbers in it! this was long before cell phones so the easiest way to store digits was to enter it into my watch.

i still have that watch. and have worn it a few times in the past couple months or so. but i decided i needed a new watch. so i followed in leslie's footsteps and got a nixon. i originally was going to get the kensington, but when i got to the store, i fell in love with this beauty:

i really do love it and wear it every day. literally. which is why i feel like i need another watch. i can't wear the same accessory every single day and i can't stop thinking about the original one i wanted to buy:

the colour is called seafoam green. but it's extra cool because the colour wears off and it's black underneath. so where it hits or rubs regularly, the green wears off and turns to black. sounds weird, but looks so cool!

neither of these watches do anything fancy like have flipping dolphins or holds phone numbers. but i really do love the first one and am looking for any excuse to buy the second one.

me and leslie made a deal to not eat sugar. i said if she caved first, i'd buy it. sadly, i caved first. then i applied for a new job and said if i got it, then i'd buy it. i didn't get it. so now i need another excuse. any suggestions?

spit talkers

2011-04-13T19:53:00.003-06:00

this is a serious post. i legitimately need some advice.

have you ever been talking to someone and they accidentally spit on you? this has happened to me a few times. and i really never know what to do.

i usually ignore it so i don't embarrass them. i really just pretend like it never happened. if the spit lands on my face (yes, that has happened), i leave it there and wait for an opportune moment to wipe it away. it's sick. i know. but i really don't know what else to do. if i immediately wipe it away, they'll feel dumb. i suppose i shouldn't care if they feel dumb. but i feel bad...

anyway, this happened to me today. i was talking to an accountant asking them questions about doing my taxes and he said something and spit flew across the room and landed on the sleeve of my sweater. as per usual, i decided just to ignore it.

unfortunately, he didn't. he said "i just spit on you" and he leaned over and wiped it off my sleeve! is that as weird as i think it is?

please tell me what you do in a situation like that.

15: Something you don't leave the house without

2011-03-22T19:53:00.002-06:00

this 15 day challenge only took me 25 days! i'll be honest, i thought it'd take much more than that if i finished at all. i'm quite proud of myself.

as for something that i don't leave the house without... i'd have to say keys. it was almost cell phone, but i don't take my phone to church (yes, i am proud of myself for that). then i was thinking my purse, but just tonight i went out without my purse. 90% of the time i go anywhere, i drive. the other 10% of the time i bring my keys so i don't get locked out of my house. so i would have to say that yes, i don't leave the house without my keys.

i'm sorry that the very last post of my 15 day challenge is so boring...

Day 14: Something you miss

2011-03-22T19:52:00.000-06:00

there are lots of things that i miss.

i miss palm trees.

i miss not having a car payment.

i miss members of my family who i don't get to see very often or ever.

i miss certain people from my work who i don't work with anymore.

i miss summertime.

i miss playing tennis even though i've only ever played it once in my entire life.

i miss last week when my bedroom was clean.

but what i really miss is being a kid. i never realized how much i loved being a kid until i realized how much i don't love being an adult. lately the pressures of life and work and money and relationships have been weighing on my mind. as a kid, all i did was play with my friends. i had no responsibilities. i didn't think about my career. every time i met a boy i didn't immediately wonder if he's potential marriage material. i was blissfully naive about everything. i didn't ever think about money. it was awesome. who wouldn't want to be a carefree kid again?

oh, and when i say kid, i mean an 18 years old.

Day 13: a bible verse

2011-03-21T19:54:00.001-06:00

i'll admit that i don't do a lot of bible reading, but i do have a favourite bible verse.

but before i tell you what it is, i'll tell you why... in 2006 i packed up and moved to california. within minutes of being there i thought i had made a HUGE mistake. i didn't know a single soul. my school hadn't started and i was too shy to make friends at church. i didn't know my roommates and they were all busy with their lives so i was home alone all day long. as much as i loved lounging by the pool, i literally had never felt so alone in my entire life.

you know when people say they just randomly open up their scriptures and they just happen to open up to a verse that hits them so hard they're certain it was some kind of divine intervention? i used to always roll my eyes at those people thinking that they're just saying that to prove how spiritual they are. then it happened to me. i let my book fall open to any random spot and i started reading. this is what i read:

be strong and of good courage;

be not afraid,

neither be thou dismayed:

for the Lord they God is with thee

whithersoever thou goest

Joshua 1:9

after reading that i realized that i wasn't really alone. it got me through the first little while of not knowing anybody. then i made friends at school and i introduced myself to people at church and made some awesome friends there. i got to know my roommates and made friends with them. everything turned out so good. all i needed was a little encouragement from the good word.

Day 12: A picture of something that makes you happy

2011-03-17T18:05:00.000-06:00

warning: picture overload... i have a lot of pictures of a lot of things that make me happy. i literally could have added 20 more, but i narrowed it down a bit. these pictures are in no order whatsoever.

this picture of me and bobbie geo makes me happy. she came to visit me in san diego and we laughed so hard this night. my friendship with bobbie geo makes me happy.

not only do these kids make me happy, the outfits they're wearing make me happy.

my sisters make me happy. i love them.

the look on spencer's face makes me happy.

there are no words to describe how happy this picture makes me.

and this one makes me equally as happy.

i'm just happy that i didn't crash my car in this picture.

this picture makes me happy that i didn't die that weekend. i met a boy on the internet and he came to visit me with a friend of his and we took a road trip to vegas. the other girl is a girl who i had met just that week. it turned out well, but probaly not a wise decision.

this hair makes me happy.

this hair also makes me happy.

this face makes me happy.

this face makes me equally as happy.

haha. it's obvious why this makes me happy.

the bear and the attic will forever make me happy. eat your heart out jennie!

Day 11: Recent photos that inspire you

2011-03-16T20:03:00.000-06:00

i don't have a lot of photos that inspire me. but i found a couple.

this one inspires me to take more pictures. when i took this picture i was using my camera every single day. literally. i would go for walks or drives and take pictures of anything and everything. lately i haven't been taking any pictures. i see this photo and remember what it's like to use my camera and i want to be like that again.

this picture inspires me to be a better person. i love my family and they make me want to be a better person.

and yes, i stole that family picture from leslie's blog...

Day 10: a photo of somewhere you've been to

2011-03-15T17:34:00.000-06:00

today should be the day that i'm done my 15 day challenge... sadly, i'm a slacker.

but to pick one picture of one place i've been to is too hard. so this is a bunch of pictures of a few places i've been to.

the first place is the most recent place i've been to. sadly it was almost a year ago: laramie wyoming.

wyo (as the cool kids call it) was actually pretty fun. we did a lot of shopping, sightseeing, and laughing.

we went to independence rock. which was really cool.

we also went to devil's gate which was near martin's cove where the pioneer's stayed to wait out a storm.

the second place is one of my favourite places. ever: san diego. san diego will always hold a special place in my heart. i really did grow a lot during the short time that i lived there.

this is la jolla which was my favourite place in san diego to go. i went there at least weekly. usually 2 or 3 times a week. just to walk around and take pictures or sun tan.

the third place was such a fun trip: hawaii. me and bobbie geo went a few years ago and it literally was the perfect holiday. all we did was sun tan and shop.

this was the view from our hotel window.

this was from our hotel, but not our room.

and these are just some fun pictures that i took that i love.

i can't say that i have a burning desire to travel, but every place i've been to i've loved. if i had more time and desire, i'd also put pictures up of a few more california trips, our new york city trip, mine and leslie's pageant trip in new york, one of my many vegas trips, and a few memorable utah trips.

Day 9: Advantages and Disadvantages on being single

2011-03-11T12:48:00.001-07:00

this one is a hard one! i've been thinking about it a lot. here's what i've come up with...

advantage: you never have to tell anyone what you're going to do.

disadvantage: you don't have someone to tell what you're going to do.

advantage: you can easily go days without seeing anyone other than work people.

disadvantage: you can easily go days without seeing anyone other than work people.

advantage: you don't have to buy gifts for anyone on holidays.

disadvantage: you don't have anyone buying you gifts on holidays.

ok, those are lame. but there's lots more benefits... you can be financially irresponsible and it doesn't effect anyone but yourself. you don't have to cook supper if you don't want to. you can flirt with whoever you want to and hang out with different boys every night if you want to. every time you go shopping you don't have to worry about buying stuff for anyone else. you can spend 100% of your money on you. you can pick up and move to california if you want to. you get to go to a single's ward. yup, all very selfish reasons.

there's lots of disadvantages too. being single can get a little lonely at times. you can for long periods of time with no physical contact with another human being. um...that's all i can think of right now. ...i haven't been in a relationship in a while so maybe i'm just forgetting all the advantages of it!

all in all, i enjoy being single but wouldn't complain if i found a man to not be single with.

Day 8: What's in your purse

2011-03-10T18:00:00.000-07:00

the contents of my purse are really not very exciting. but this is it:

i normally would probably have more garbage and junk, but i just got a new purse so it's fairly clean. i've mostly got the usual things. wallet, lotion, dental floss, camera, lip gloss, cell phone, hairspray (is hairspray normal to have in one's purse?), mints, pressed powder, a mirror, a fruit bar, pens, camera... the usuals. i also have my keys and ID card for work, i've got my business cards, tampons just in case.

my favourite thing in my purse might be the 3 flash drives. why would i need 3? i have no idea. or two lip glosses? is that really necessary? is an entire notepad a little much? maybe. but it comes in useful.

so there you have it. that's what's in my purse. i think everyone should do this post. i'm curious what you all have in your purses.

Day 7: Put your iPod on shuffle, first 10 songs

2011-03-09T18:00:00.000-07:00

this could be interesting....

out of 2800+ songs, these are the first random 10:

1. Johnny Cash - Highwayman

2. The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Kins and Carroll

3. Julie Roberts - Men and Mascara

4. Debbie Gibson - Heaven is a Place on Earth

5. The Hives - Love in Plaster

6. Jacks Mannequin - The Lights and Buzz

7. Something Corporate - Watch the Sky

8. Jem - Flying High

9. Death Cab for Cutie - Passenger Seat

10. Brooks & Dunn - Play Something Country

as you can see, i've got a fairly wide variety of music on my ipod.

day 6: a photo of you when you were a child

2011-03-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

these pictures are all really random, but they're kinda fun. for me anyways. probably boring for you...

i'm not sure why i'm sleeping in a box.. but it looks comfy!

me and les.

me on my first birthday i'm assuming. i'm also assuming there was another cake for weston as we had the same birthday!

Day 5: a photo of the last item you purchased

2011-03-07T19:41:00.000-07:00

ok so i took the weekend off. this is a 15 day challenge minus weekends.

the last item i actually purchased was a loaf of bread. but that's really boring. so i'll do the last fun item i purchased! i went to blackfalds last weekend to visit shan and her fam and we did a little shopping in red deer. i got some really cute shoes. i got a bunch of other stuff too, but i think my shoes might be my fav. they're really summery so i haven't worn them yet, but i will soon. with my pink skirt and a cute white top. with my hair curled and bangs pulled back with a headband with pearl stud earrings with my "earthly riches" eyeshadow from mac highlighted with "retrospeck". (i may or may not have thought about this a lot).

i love them so much you get a close up

aren't they really cute?

wanna hear something sad though? these are the first photos i've taken in 2011 with my big girl camera...

Day 4: The next plan you have coming up that you're really excited for

2011-03-04T18:52:00.000-07:00

there's a lot of things coming up that i'm excited for. there's the ysa roadshow tonight (which should be really entertaining) and bowling after (i'm really into bowling lately...), then there's PBR (pro bull riding) tomorrow night. i'm getting my hair done in a couple weeks. then there's the ysa talent show. and there's my birthday (which happens to be on friday the 13th!!). but what i'm REALLY excited for is june. for 3 reason.

1: on june 1st i'm going to see U2 in concert! i'm so excited for it!

2: on june 17th i'm going to vegas with some friends!

3: the entire last week of june i don't have to work!

so those are a few things i'm looking forward to.

Day 3: A photo of me 5 years ago

2011-03-03T18:19:00.000-07:00

this one is kind of random. 5 years ago i look pretty much the exact same as i do now minus the tan.

i was living in san diego (which feels like it was maybe 5 months ago, not 5 years).

but this was me back then:

maybe this isn't the greatest photo, but i love it because this was my life them. lazing by the pool and/or the beach. this is outside my apartment. notice the palm trees. i love palm trees. i've been looking for one i can put in my office to spruce it up a bit. and when i say office, i mean cubicle.

i really do feel like i look the exact same though. basically same hair and everything. i even still wear that swim suit... i may or may not have used that bottle of oil this past summer...

Day 2: Nicknames

2011-03-02T17:35:00.000-07:00

i dont' really have a nickname. at least not one that everybody regularly calls me. and i'm ok with that. but i do have a few that certain people call me.

first: burdock. yes, burdock. for everyone who does call me that, you know who you are and you know why. i don't feel the need to explain.

second: gibber. i suppose it's obvious where that one comes from. a few people call me that occasionally, but only one person always calls me that. that is my old boss. he always calls me gibber and i always call him carriere.

third: hill spring. there is one guy at work who calls me hill spring. always. and nothing else.

fourth: trouble. a few different guys at work call me trouble. i'm not sure why...

fifth: burt. that one is kinda a funny story. only one guy at work calls me that. and i'll tell you why. one day at work i was standing at the records counter talking to mike and this lady comes by and says "hi burt, can you get me an envelope" i look at her for a second wondering if heard her right. she doesn't correct herself so i so i get her an envelope. when she leaves and i look at mike and say "did she just call me burt?????". he laughed and has called me burt ever since. until last week when mom thought it would be a good idea to tell him to call me burdock...

there's also brettski, bretanica, brette-lee, gibblet, BG, and many more variations of my name...

Day 1: 15 facts about ME

2011-03-01T18:00:00.001-07:00

ok... here it is. 15 things all about me!

1. sometimes i actually forget how old i am. when people ask i usually say i'm 25. i say it often enough that i actually forget how old i really am.

2. i like the smell of skunks. i truly believed that people are raised to believe that skunks smell bad so they instantly judge them without trying to decide for themselves whether they smell good or bad.

3. i have lived with more than 35 roommates. i'm too lazy to actually count right now. but i know it's more than 35. that's a lot of roommates!

4. i absolutely despise making decisions. whether it's what to wear today or what to do with my life, i hate deciding.

5. i have a REALLY bad gag reflex. and it's getting worse the older i get. there's 3 things that make me gag really bad. one is stinky diapers. i literally dry heave if it's a really bad one. two is curdled milk. if i see chunks in old milk, i will gag sooo bad! three is the filter in my dishwasher. you know the little filter that catches big chunks of food that didn't get rinsed off? cleaning that out is sooo nasty to me!

6. i love to go for drives. just driving around aimlessly and seeing what i see.

7. i'm really competitive when playing games.

8. it honestly bugs me so bad when people accuse me of cheating at games. i don't cheat. i like to win fair and square (what does winning square even mean?). people accuse me of cheating at rook all the time, but i can say with 100% conviction, i don't cheat at rook. i also believe that if people aren't holding their cards discreetly and i happen to see them, that's not cheating. it's not my fault if you can't hide your cards!

9. i don't really get mad. and i don't yell.

10. i've had the same employer for 8 years now! i truly madly deeply thought i would never be working at my job for as long as i have been! i thought for sure 5 years tops. but life doesn't always work out how you think it should.

11. when i hear a song i love, i'll listen to it over and over and over. and over. aaaand over. i listen to that song and only that song until i'm soo sick of the song that i don't listen to again for months. currently that song is "jar of hearts" by christina perri. i think i'll be done in a few days.

12. my favourite holiday is not christmas. everyone's fav holiday is always christmas. but first of july is way better. and i'll tell you why. reason number 1: the weather. how could the best holiday be so cold? reason number 2: my sisters have to spend christmas at their in-law's half the time or they just choose to stay at their own house. so i don't get to see them as much. first of july they seem to spend all week in hill spring! reason number 3: cousins! i don't get to see many cousins at christmas but tons of gibb cousins make it to hill spring for first of july every year! number 4 (the obvious): beef and beans. who wants a turkey dinner when you can have beef and beans...

13. for some reason it's next to impossible for me to keep my room clean. i really shouldn't be telling you all this. but i've never been able to keep it clean. once i slept with something hard at the bottom of my bed for almost a week. finally i looked to see waht it was and there was a book, a box of kleenex, and a hammer. yes, i slept with a hammer in my bed for a week and didn't hardly notice. the cleanest it probably ever was, was when i shared a room with karen. i don't remember much about that room other than our bunk beds, but i feel like she was clean so i had to keep clean too.

14. i have a shopping addiction. i really do. i have major cravings to go shopping and to buy things. i often buy clothes and only wear them once. it's not good.

15. i LOVE to sleep in! more than anything. even if i'm not sleeping, i love to lay in bed and know that i don't have to get up. i sometimes will lay there for an hour just thinking. about nothing really. just enjoying knowing that i have absolutely nothing that's making me get out of bed.

and there you have it. 15 random things about me.

challenge

2011-02-28T19:03:00.002-07:00

after shannon started her 15 day challenge, i decided to do one of my own. i looked online for different ones so it wouldn't be the same as shannon's. but i could only find 30 day challenges. so i just picked my fav 15. i suppose i could have done a 30 day one, but lets me honest, 15 is plenty.

so this is it. my fav 15:

Day 1: 15 facts about you

Day 2: Nicknames

Day 3. A photo of yourself five years ago

Day 4: The next plan you have coming up that you're really excited for

Day 5: A photo of the item you last purchased

Day 6: A photo of you when you were a child

Day 7: Put your iPod on shuffle, first 10 songs

Day 8: What's in your purse

Day 9: Share your thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages of being single.

Day 10: A photo of somewhere you've been to

Day 11: Recent photos that inspire you

Day 12: A picture of something that makes you happy

Day 13: Bible verse

Day 14: Something you miss

15: Something you don't leave the house without

what's you're price?

2011-02-16T19:58:00.004-07:00

today at work i got talking to a guy who just shaved his head. i told him it was a good look for him. he then proceeded to tell me i should do it. i laughed obviously thinking he was kidding but then we got into a serious conversation about what the minimum amount of money it would take to get me to shave my head.

i really cant' stop thinking about it. he offered me a hundred and i immediately said no way. then he went to five hundred and it was still an easy no. when he got to one thousand dollars, i at least thought about it before i said no.

i would easily say yes to $10, 000. probably even $8000. i would easily consider $5000. anything lower than $5000 would take some very serious consideration. anything under $1000 is a definite no.

i really do have ton of stuff i should be doing right now, but i figured thinking about what i would look like bald is more important. so here we are.

so i ask you this: what is your price? what's the minimum amount of money it'd take for you to shave your head?

speedy

2011-02-13T18:02:00.003-07:00

ever wonder why i hate dogs? well let me tell you. it all started when i was probably 8 years old. we had a dog named speedy. he was the meanest dog i've ever met. he was HUGE with mean eyes that would watch me everywhere i went. he barked so loud and he was always growling at me. every time i went outside he would chase me down and practically attack me. he was named speedy for a reason which got me movin my little legs as fast as they would go. i swear he would just wait for me to leave the house so he could torment me. when the bus would drop me off after school i'd ask weston to get off first so he could distract speedy so i could run into the house. sometimes he would, sometimes he thought it'd be funny to see speedy chase me. i'm not sure why speedy didn't chase anyone else. he seemed to only like to pick on me.

i've got proof.

that is speedy himself chasing me.

it's clearly obvious why i hate dogs. wouldn't you after a beast like that chasing you?

dad's bday

2011-02-07T07:46:00.000-07:00

i know this post is quite late (3 months to be exact). but i'm finally going through my pictures and thought better late than never.

my dad's bday was in november and my entire family happened to be home. so of course we had to make a big deal and have a big party complete with huge ice cream cookie cakes!

hill spring got a fancy electronic billboard and we really wanted to wish my dad a happy bday on it, but conveniently for him, it wasn't up and running yet. so we made a good old fashion sign.

i'm happy we were all there for dad's bday. even though he doesn't seem to love all the attention, i think he secretly does. especially with all his grandkids around.

we wrote down things all around the sign about what dad is. he has so many good qualities we could have easily filled up that entire sign. i couldn't ask for a better dad. i literally don't know anyone more giving and selfless and completely humble about it.

love you dad!

new year's resolutions

2011-02-05T10:23:00.003-07:00

is it too late to write down my new year's resolutions? probably.

is it necessary to share them with all 3 people who read my blog? probably not.

am i going to do it anyways? yes.

1. cut sugar out of my life. except for my birthday. which i'm already looking forward to (the big two five this year!).

2. clean my bathroom once a week. that really shouldn't be that hard. but for some reason it is.

3. keep my bedroom relatively clean. again, shouldn't be that hard...

4. embrace change. i hate change. but change is good. so instead of fearing it, i'm going to embrace it.

5. learn something new. my thoughts so far are to learn magic or juggling, or the harmonica, or card throwing. card throwing is actually really cool! check out this guy doing it.

6. be nice to people. 4 years ago i had a roommate tell me that i wasn't nice to people and that's bothered me ever since. we all know those people who everyone says "that person is SOOO nice", well i want to be that person. kinda like emily on the bachelor...

7. write in my daily journal daily.

(yes, i'm making up most of these goals as i go along)

8. make supper at least twice a week. i know twice a week doesn't sound like much, but i struggle. i often just eat cold cereal or a cheese bun. but i'm going to start cooking an actual supper.

9. eat my meals at the kitchen table. not on the couch in front of the tv.

10. stop texting! or at least drastically cut back. i literally don't know how to talk on the phone anymore. i have one friend who i've never once spoken to on the phone. we only text. every time i have to phone someone now, i get so nervous! i used to be so good at phoning people. now i have major anxiety every time i have to.

these are a few of my favourite things

2011-01-31T19:53:00.000-07:00

there's a blog that i love. it's somebody who i don't know. had never heard of her. but one day i was looking at her blog and there was a picture of my aunt rhonda! it was weird. it turns out that this girl is dick's granddaughter. i seriously love her. her name is amy.

her blog is mynameis-amy.blogspot.com

she used to be really good at updating her blog. she's been going through some personal stuff (i really feel like i know her! haha) and she deleted her old blog and doesn't update her new one very often.

but i love amy's style. her hair, her makeup, her clothes. i wish i could be like her.

amy occasionally does blog posts of things that she loves. when she sees a picture on the internet that she loves, she saves it then posts them once she's got a collection. i've decided to copy amy and post some of the pictures i've come across that i love.

i love two things: the colour white. and ruffles.

i'm obsessed with this wall!

one thing my little condo is lacking in huge is closet space! i would love love love this closet. and this many shoes. and a chandelier in my closet!

one day when i have a big enough house/bedroom, i will have a super fun bed. complete with a fantastic headboard like this!

or this

two things i love about this bedroom. one is the obvious, the bed on logs! love it. and the other is the clothes hanging on the wall! for some reason i love it.

i really really want a bedroom big enough to put fun things in!

i want this

2011-01-29T22:57:00.000-07:00

i really want this.

a cell phone case that looks like a cassette tape.

movies

2011-01-19T18:40:00.005-07:00

2011 is turning out to be the year of movies for me. it's 19 days into 2011 and i've been to 5 movies at the theatre. two of them may or may not have been on the same night... i don't remember what order i saw them in, so here they are in order of least fav to most fav:

this movie was kind of slow. definitely wouldn't see it again. it was fine, but nothing special.

i had never even heard of this movie before i saw it. so i had absolutely no expectations so i wasn't disappointed. there was a bit of comedy, a bit of drama, a bit of action. it was definitely a western. apparenly it's a remake of a john wayne movie. who knew...

this one was really quite good. i absolutely loved the music in it. but don't ask me what songs they were. i really don't remember. but i'd see this one again.

is it weird that liked the cartoon? it was cute. the songs were catchy...

i pretty much loved this movie because of the music. tim mcgraw's character bugged me, but the other guy in it was really good. and i really like leighton meester. although it was weird to see her in a nice girl character.

what movies have you seen this year? anything worth recommending?

nye x 3

2011-01-13T17:50:00.002-07:00

last year my fam had a new year's eve party that they literally didn't stop talking about all year. this year i decided to stick around for a while and see what all the fuss was about. i must say, it was quite the party. nye gibb style is worth sticking around for.

the party officially started when shannon and her "stuff" arrived.

the kids spent the day making noise makers.

and the adults spent the day figuring out a way to make balloons fall from the ceiling... i will admit that i'm quite sad i didn't get to see the balloons fall at midnight.

after we ate this delicious food, we played a few games. a few super fun games. including a very competitive round of musical chairs...

and skylie taught me how to "smize"

after the family party, i went in to lethbridge for the countdown. it was... quiet. but fun. i went to brock and myranda's and played rockband. then watched a movie. then played more rockband.

mandy was sick that night so she didn't get to ring in the new year, so we decided to have a pseudo nye party a few days after the actual new year. it really was so fun. we played my new favourite game on the wii called just dance.

in case you've never played it, you have the controller in your hand and you just mimic what the person on the screen is doing . everybody does it. in sync. yes, all these boys are supposed to be doing the exact same thing...

nye wouldn't be nye without christmas crackers...

there was some fantastic prizes in the crackers. i got a compass which i traded for some dice. we then played a rousing game of greed. we may or may not have made our own rules. ok, i may or may not have made my own rules...

brock got either a tiny magnifying glass, or a monocle. call it what you want.

i'm not sure why i kept my crown on for all of these pictures...

but all 3 of my new year's eve parties were really fun! and you'd think that with a new year's eve party blog post, you'd throw in a few resolutions, but i haven't quite decided on what mine will be this year. and yes, i know it's already two weeks into the new year, but i will get them pinned down. soon. and i'll blog about it. for the sole reason of having some record and accountability.

christmas

2011-01-07T19:19:00.007-07:00

i'm so unbelievably sick of seeing that youtube video (not the video itself, just seeing it on my blog) so it's time i do a new post. and because i have things to blog about from two months ago but don't really care about chronological order, i'll start wtih christmas.

christmas was so much fun this year. it was a very much needed break from work. even a guy at work said he was happy i came back from christmas holidays more relaxed. he said i was getting quite grumpy... oops. but it was quite relaxing. for the most part. christmas eve tracie and leslie were there wtih their families, grandma and grandpa, aunt patty and uncle john, jennie and ashley and all their kids. so there was a lot of young kids there. but it was fun.

of course there was so much good food!

summer with the biggest smile ever.

me and skylie with our beautiful crowns!

of course we had to have a program with a couple accordion numbers.

and an appearance from santa!

and micah, a very cute wiseman!

and summer, a very cute mary.

i love this picture. we've got the angles in the back. the wisemen presenting their gifts, and my dad reading the christmas story. a little bit of everybody.

mary and joseph.

ashley and leslie holding two of the cutest little sheep i ever did see.

and then the kids had to open christmas jams that my mom made. some of them were a little big... as you can see on jake. haha he struggled a bit.

along with the jams the kids opened their presents from us before they went home. i made haylie and micah cute pillows with their names on them. i'm kickin myself for not taking pictures! and skylie was quite excited about what i got her. saying skylie loves me to put makeup on her is an understatement. she asks me every single time we're out in hill spring to put makeup on her. so i got her her very own makeup for christmas. it was a big kit with eye shadow, lipstick, blush, nail polish and much more including brushes. she really did love it. haylie had a present for me. it was so funny it was literally the smallest wrapped present i've ever seen. it was so small but i loved it! it was earrings that she had made for me! they really are quite cute.

that night i still wans't feeling good so i drank some neo citran. mom thought it would be a good idea for me to take a couple nyquils too. so i did. i slept really good that night! and the next morning. i had such a hard time waking up when mom woke me up. i seriously could hardly open my eyes. i got up to open presents and eat breakfast but i literally could not keep my eyes open after. i had to have a nap. later that day we went to uncle john and aunt patty's for supper. it was delish. after supper they introduced us to "just dance" on the wii. i danced against grandma to girls just wanna have fun. it was quite fun.

the rest of the week my sisters were at their in laws so me and my mom just hung out. played a lot of TTR and sequence. it was fun. and quiet. very quiet. especially compared to when shannon got there for new year's eve! more on that later.

but yes. it was a very good holiday. just what i needed. ask the guys i work with...

we won't fight unless we're provoked

2010-12-03T11:14:00.004-07:00

i seriously can not get enough of this video. i've watched it probably a hundred times. i'm not huge on youtube videos, but a guy at work emailed me this link one day and he said this video reminded him of me... i seriously have no clue! unless he just knew i'd laugh really hard at it.

it's so random that its just my style. enjoy. and i wont' be offended if you don't think it's as funny as i do.

stitchin

2010-11-28T21:38:00.000-07:00

i love craft club. our club has only met about 3 times in the last 2 years, but it's lots of fun when we do meet.

we met a few weeks ago and made fabric flowers. they were fun. i had such good intentions of doing cute things with the flowers i made, but sadly they're still just sitting in my room doing nothing.

dazed and confused. or at least confused

2010-11-26T09:58:00.000-07:00

i don't think i've ever in my life worn lipstick seriously before. i had to wear it once when i worked at the body shop to show off a new colour they got in, and i may have worn it once for a very fancy new year's eve party at my parents house, but i've never worn it seriously. i'm a gloss girl. i've always liked wearing really shiny lip gloss. that is until i saw an episode of "what not to wear" on TLC last week. if you've ever seen the show then you know that after the person gets their shopping done, they get their hair done by nic and their makeup done by carmindy. carmindy always gives tips and teaches people how to put on makeup. one tip carmindy gave will probably stick with me forever. she said to NEVER wear lip gloss on a date. the reason being that no boy wants to kiss lips caked in gloss. makes sense i guess.

so not knowing what to put on my lips if i can't wear gloss, i read an article called "13 first date hair and makeup ideas" (yes, i regularly read articles like that. don't judge me).

there were a couple good ideas like having a cute hair accessory or wearing blue eyeshadow instead of black. then it talked about lipstick. hoping i'd get some good tips, i anxiously read on.

one tip was to have bright bold lips like this:

and another tip was to have monochromatic cheeks and lips

like this:

so which is it? if i shouldn't do gloss, do i do bright bold lips or neutral simple lips? thoughts?

she's got the look

2010-11-21T18:55:00.001-07:00

i really do have the most beautiful sister's. so much so that we just had to do a photo shoot with them last time we were all home.

i really think these photos will further my photography career.

i'm the funniest person i know

2010-11-18T23:42:00.000-07:00

leslie and jake came home a couple weeks ago. tracie, my mom, and me went to great falls to pick them up from the airport. we were all really excited to see them. jake especially. we all surrounded him the second he was in sight. this was his reaction:

Luckily he warmed up to us and soon he was smiling away and posing for the camera:

we did a lot of fun things that weekend. but there are two really funny things that stand out. one was the prank we played on the girls after they fell asleep

it honestly was so funny while we were doing it. i'm shocked they didn't wake up.

i was still sleeping when they woke up, but luckily they laughed about it and didn't get us back. well get me back anyways.

the other funny thing we did is still to come...

spook alley

2010-11-16T21:06:00.000-07:00

the friday before halloween i went out to hill spring to help out with their spook alley. i must say i was kind of impressed with it. they had a VERY scary witch. a fog machine. a zombie soldier in a graveyard, i'm not sure waht darcy was, but he jumped out and scared people. there was a guy with a white face missing an arm, lockers suddenly opened on their own, they had a scary lady playing scary organ music on an old mouse infested organ, and lastly, two mad scientists operating on someone.

i still hate blogger and can't figure out how to upload the pictures in order, so these pictures are all backwards...

sharp shooter

2010-11-14T20:21:00.007-07:00

this weekend my friend mark took me to the police shooting range. he brought his gun and he taught me how to shoot. it really was so fun. i'm a terrible shot, but it was really fun.

i didn't bring my camera, but to help you imagine it, mark looked something like this:

and i pretty much looked like this:

maybe i'll convince him to take me again and i'll actually bring my camera.

what will you be known for?

2010-11-09T21:47:00.002-07:00

a family favourite treat in the gibb house has always been puffed wheat squares. when i was in school, it was always the standard thing to bring for a treat at school parties. it's been a treat at the first of july for as long as i can remember. it's the treat we make every single time if we need something on short notice. it's the treat we make when my cousin kevin comes over and he needs something to pour his milk over. not to mention the sunday night treat we had every single sunday i can remember growing up.

i think it's safe to say that my family has made puffed wheat squares so many times that we have the recipe perfected. perfected so well in fact, that that is what we're known for. don't believe me? check out this conversation i saw on facebook tonight.

Maryanne Gibb Scott
It took me over 10 years to make a good rice krispie square- but now I am obsessed with puffed wheat squares- what is a good recipe?
2 hours ago · · Comment
- Angie Stevenson My mom has a recipe with eagle brand milk in them , they are so soft and chewy ! Yum yum !!
  2 hours ago ·
  Jana N Kevin Ballard
  I like puffed wheat squares better than rice krispie squares any day! I don't know how my recipe compares to others, but it seems to do the trick!
  
  1/4 cup butter/margarine
  1/2 cup corn syrup
  1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
  ...See More
  about an hour ago ·
  Brianne Whittaker Brette Gibb has a good recipe, Candace always makes hers and I think it has marshmellows in it.
  about an hour ago ·
  Darilyn Edwards
  i LOVE this recipe. its divine! :)
  1/3 cup butter/margarine
  1 cup brown sugar
  1/2 cup corn syrup
  3 tbsp cocoa
  ...See More
  about an hour ago ·
  Amy Paul Hubbard Mmmm puffed wheat, way yummier than Rice Krispie squares.
  about an hour ago ·
  Desi Cosman ask Sister Gibb, she makes the best puffed wheat squares ever!
  32 minutes ago ·

i'm sure jana and darilyn's recipes are just fine. and eagle brand milk might be delicious, but brianne and desi know it's not necessary. just ask the gibb's.

i hope it's one thing we're known for.

birdie 6

2010-10-17T23:29:00.000-06:00

i don't remember a time in my life when i was too young to play rook. i couldn't tell you what age i started playing at, but i must have been young.

when i was young, i remember playing with my family lots. sunday evenings. even my dad would occasionally play.

during college i made some friends and we would play ALL THE TIME. like every night. it was me, jadey, jake bevans and dustin thompson. we even had team names. we'd call ourselves the "honkeys". we can thank jake for that name.

when i moved to edmoton we played rook ALL THE TIME too. me, maureen, jolene, randee, shaun, kendal and shauna would play. not all of us all the time, but 4 of us would get together and play. when we started randee hated rook. with a passion. we taught her how to love it.

when i came back to lethbridge all my friends i played with before had moved on but i made new friends and we played sporadically. but they didn't love the game as much as my friends before did.

luckily things are different now. now we play. lots. not quite all the time, but lots.

i don't remember when the tournaments started. it could have been when i was in college. it could have been in edmonton. i really don't remember my first rook tournament. but tournaments now have become a regular thing. and i love it.

i don't have a specific group of 4 or 6 people i play rook with now. it's kinda weird (but a good weird) but when we play, everyone and anyone is invited. i could play rook every night for a week and not play with the same people (i may be exaggerating slightly). but we need lots of rook fanatics for a good tournament.

the tournaments consist of 16 people, 8 teams, 4 games, and only 2 winners. not to mention the occasional cheering squad, the occasional need for a referee, regularly being accused of cheating (i will go to my grave swearing that I DON'T CHEAT), and always lots of food and lots of fun.

of course at a tournament there has to be a trophy. rook is no different. we've got a few different trophies. we've got a big trophy that i can't find a picture of and i'm too lazy to go take one. it's been through a lot. maybe i'll tell that story another day. but it's the trophy that nobody gets to keep. whoever wins the tournament gets to keep it until the next tournament. then we've got an MVP trophy. each player gets to vote for who they think was the most valuable player. whoever gets the most votes, get the trophy. until next time. that one gets passed around too.

for a while those were the only trophies we had. until this summer. me and mandy went to a garage sale and were given an entire box of trophies! we took them and transformed them into rook trophies.

our most recent tournament was when maureen was home visitng from korea! it was so fun playing with her again. we weren't partners, but we did get to play against each other. in the championship game! i had an awesome partner: lindsay. she was the perfect partner for me. she knows how to play well, but she hates taking the bid. which is perfect because i love taking the bid! mike was watching and getting some pointers. judging from his expression, he will never love the game like i do. he looks more than slightly bored...

maureen REALLY wanted that trophy.

but in the end, me and lindsay won!!

while there are lots of other good games out there that i love playing, i will always have special memories of playing rook.

you again

2010-10-13T22:13:00.004-06:00

i just got home from the funniest movie i've seen since i saw "Get Smart".

me and tiffany went and saw "You Again" and i seriously laughed so hard. i don't want to give anything away, but there's one part where this guy starts singing an Air Supply song. i literally had tears in my eyes i was laughing so hard. the worst part about it was there was only about 6 people in the theatre so everyone heard me. and knew it was me. and for some reason i was the only one laughing... maybe it wasn't as funny as i thought it was. maybe i was just in the perfect mood to see that movie. either way, i highly recommend it.

one week post op

2010-10-12T22:14:00.006-06:00

one week after my surgery and i can still see!

me and my mom went up to calgary on tuesday morning. i got there and had an assessment done to see if i was even eligible to get the surgery at all. they did a TON of tests. i was there for two hours getting different tests done. the shape of my eyes, the density of my eyes, the curvature of my eyes, they way the light shines off my eye, my depth perception (got to wear cool 3D glasses), and of course they had to find out exactly what my prescription was. then they had to dilate my pupil to see if my cornea was thick enough. or something like that.

then we went shopping. i didn't get too much (just a new eyelash curler from MAC that i'm really excited to use!) but mom got so much cute stuff! so much. very cute.

that day i said goodbye to my glasses forever!

then on wednesday we went back to Gimble's office for the actual surgery. i was there for two hours again but it was mostly waiting. mom dropped me off and the nurse there seemed surprised she didn't want to stay and watch them do the surgery. i wasn't surprised. nor do i blame her.

the surgery itself was the weirdest feeling. they froze my eyeballs so i couldn't feel anything. then they put this ring thing on my eye so i couldn't blink. then they got it all lined up and just did it! they had one machine that held my eyeball perfectly still while they cut the "flap" then the swiveled my chair over to the next machine that actually did the lasering. you know the smell of branding? well let me tell you that when you can smell that smell and know that it's coming from your eyeball, it's not a pleasant.

the surgery only took about 20 minutes and when they were done they put "moisture chambers" over each eye. they were basically big bubbles over my eye (imagine frog eyes) to keep the moisture in (and to wear every night to protect myself from jabbing out my eyeball and breaking the "flap" off in my sleep). they were completely sealed and fogged up very quickly. thus leaving me pretty much blind so i wasn't sure if the surgery had worked or not.

we went back to aunt marge's. i had a nap for two hours. woke up, took off the frog eyes and could see perfectly! it was amazing.

there were 3 medicated drops i had to use and one drop for night time and one more drop that i had had to put in literally every 20 minutes.

i officially just took my last eye drop, i only have to wear the frog eyes for one more night and i wore makeup for the first time today! i feel like i'm completely back to normal. oh, minus the sick bright red bruise on the white part of my eyeballs that everyone stares at when they talk to me. hopefully that'll be gone in a few more days.

i still think to myself that i need to take my contacts out as i'm getting ready for bed. then i realize i'm not wearing them. or i'll have a sudden annoyance that i'm wearing my contacts in the shower (i hated showering with my contacts in). or i'll wake up and be able to see and think i left my contacts in overnight.

technology now days never ceases to amaze me.

so long sweet summer

2010-10-10T17:06:00.013-06:00

september long weekend! the end of summer and beginning of fall. it was so much fun this year. we did something we haven't done in a long time. something we need to do more often.

we went for a walk down to "the waterfall". when we were younger and all the cousins were at the farm, we used to go to the waterfall. my mom decided that her grandkids need to appreciate the waterfall so we went for a little walk. it was so much fun! perfect way to send off summer!

right where we had to cross the barbed wire fence, there was really mossy flat rock... there was more than one tumble.

kash has this grin every time he sees me with my camera. it's like he can't help pulling that face.

even nixon was having fun putting his hands in the water.

they caught so many snails. it was kinda gross.

but skylie caught something even more gross. a leach. yes, a blood sucking leach.

at first the kids were all content just putting their hands and feet in the water. suddenly when matt and steve showed up, they were a little more adventurous.

and grandma just lovin life

i love life when my fam gets together. leslie we missed you!

i'll say a little prayer for you

2010-10-03T20:58:00.006-06:00

after years of wanting it, i'm finally getting it. laser eye surgery! i'm going up on tuesday for my "pre op" and the surgery itself is on wednesday.

after i'd made my appointment Dr Gimbel's office sent me a package in the mail. in the package was a "prayer request" card.

a prayer for surgery to go well is never a bad thing. i'll take it!

hopefully all goes well!

wish me luck!

Calaway Park

2010-09-30T20:44:00.000-06:00

my goal of 3 posts a week might turn into 3 posts a month. at the rate i'm going, that's about all i'll get to. and if that's the case, i figure i can't not post anything that has even the slightest potential to be blog worthy. i don't have a lot in my life that is blog worthy so even if something happened a few months ago, i figure it's not too late to blog about it. and when i say blog about it, i mean post pictures. lots of pictures.

this summer (i honestly don't even know when, probably in august sometime) my mom and tracie and leslie decided to go to calgary and go to the zoo one day and calaway park the next. they planned it during the week to avoid the weekend crowds which made sense, but made me have to take time off work. i decided to only take one day off and to skip the zoo and only make it to calaway. luckily shannon didn't go to the zoo either so i wasn't the only one missing out.

calaway was really fun! here's some pictures of the day. and i apologize there's so many...

the supper that saved lives

2010-09-29T23:23:00.004-06:00

today mandy decided to donate blood. she got there and found out she was low in iron so she couldn't donate. so i decided to cook her supper. something wtih lots of iron.

steak

it was seriously so good. busted out the bbq for the first time all year. made stuffed potatoes and a veggie salad with dark greens (apparently dark greens have more iron)

literally the most delicious supper i've eaten in probably a good 3 weeks.

i guess that's the price to pay to save up to 4 lives.

(les, i know this post is lame, but it's the best i could do in 4 minutes and 27 seconds. but i did download my pictures from my camera so i'll have something better for you tomorrow!)

this is me not trying to be a photographer...

2010-09-16T15:21:00.000-06:00

my friend dana asked me to help her photograph a couple weddings with her this summer. one of them happened to be a guy from my hometown so that was kinda fun. at his wedding they had a videographer there too. he is sooo good and so much fun to work with! he even let me use some of his equipment!

his name is Chris McClain. he lives in salt lake and does lots of wedding videos there. but this was his first one at the cardston temple. he was really excited for a change in scenery as he mostly does videos at the salt lake temple. before he was doing wedding video's he filmed movies like pirates of the caribbean and transformers. seriously. now he does mormon wedding videos.

i personally think weddings are a foolish way to spend thousands of dollars, but if i marry someone rich and thousands of dollars didn't mean anything, i'd have a big wedding and hire chris to video it. he was so personable and has awesome ideas. i want to be like him when i grow up.

here's some of my favourite pictures i took that day (it's just a weird coincidence that my top 3 happened to be black and white). oh, and i don't know wedding picture etiquette. am i allowed to put these guys pictures on here before they've even seen them?

i think the picture's are pretty decent, but if you want to see something AWESOME, chick here to check out chris's video of this wedding! and visit his website at www.cmcclainproductions.com to see more of what he does.

one year

2010-09-12T17:08:00.000-06:00

It's my anniversary! i've officially been a blogger for one year. when i first started i was all gung ho (um... how do you spell that?) and had a goal to do 3 posts every week. simple math says that would be 156 posts per year. well, one year later and i've got a total of 59 posts. so...just under 100 shy of my goal.

i've decided that 3 posts per week isn't unreasonable, it's just that i'm busy and know i won't make the time to do that many. so my new goal is 6 posts per month. that's not too bad. it's more than one a week, but if i get busy and don't do one a week, i can catch up on the next week. hopefully i can get it!

san diego

2010-09-10T12:36:00.002-06:00

in case you're wondering, the new picture on the header of my blog is what could possibly be my favourite city. hill spring is my favourite village. cardston, by default, is my favourite town (do i know any other towns besides coaldale?). but san diego is my favourite city. i took this photo from coronado island while i was living in san diego. i love it. it's 7 pictures stitched together to make a panoramic.

top 10 reasons (in no particular order) why i love san diego:

1. the perfect weather

2. living there was something new and different.

3. i lived on the same street as the temple

4. la jolla cove

5. the roller coaster at mission beach

6. having a navy seal as a home teacher

7. shamoo

8. extraordinary desserts

9. the dr. seuss tree

10. sand and solitude.

and some of my fav san diego pictures...

10 years and counting

2010-09-08T14:12:00.000-06:00

i honestly can't believe it's been 10 years since i graduated high school! but it must be true because i had my 10 year reunion this summer. high school itself seems like forever ago but college and moving out on my own for the first time and living with my very first roommates seems like it all just happened.

in the last 10 year's i've

lived with 34 roommates (probably more, but that's all i can think of right now)

became an aunt 12 different times

gone on vacation to 9 different states,

had 8 jobs

had 6 church callings

bought 3 cars

what's a blog post wtihout pictures?

this first picture is me and all the girls i lived with my first year out of college. funnest. house. ever. 7 18 year old girls living under one roof. it was so much fun.

all of my class that made it onto the float.

and this is us today. hopefully looking better than we did in the year 2000.

here's to hoping the next 10 years only get better

safety second. fun first.

2010-08-14T11:48:00.004-06:00

i spent the august long weekend at my parents house. we had fun as always, but a hightlight may have been steve having to prove how brave he is. apparnetly someone dared him to jump off the "bucket truck" into the reservoir. if you know steve, he can't not take a dare. so here we are...

you can't really tell in this first picture, but he's looking up nervously at the power lines as my dad raises him higher and higher. don't worry, he didn't get too close. safety first. right mike?

in this one he's looking a little nervous thinking this is higher than he realized...

but he has no choice now so here he goes!

then briggs wanting to be just like his dad decides he has to do it too!

i can't believe he did it! no way i would have.

two of my sisters and their "babies" watching the boys jump. they're cute.

and this one just because it was cute.

Micah usually hates me taking her picture. she covers her face and she hides. she wasn't posing for this picture but as we were watching the boys jump i must have said something funny (?) and happened to snap right when she looked. but i love it! she looks so happy and cute!

36 things every single girl must do.

2010-08-03T22:30:00.001-06:00

i came across an article online today that i loved. it was "36 things every single girl must do"

there were things i have already done:

1. go to a movie alone. did that while i lived in california. it wasn't as awkward as i thought it was going to be.

4. take out the trash, set a mousetrap, do your taxes, build a bookcase. i take out the trash regularly. i have done my own taxes. and i built my very own book case a couple years ago (well, at least assembled it). as for setting a mousetrap, the only time i've ever needed one set, i let a man do it. lets hope i never need one set again...

10. learn to stand up for yourself. this is something i've been working on for a while now. i've become quite good at it if i do say so myself.

and there was things i hope to do:

8. quit your job. it feels so good to take a job and shove it (and not be affecting anyone else's lifelihood). not sure what i want to do after i quit but i feel like it'd be so empowering to quit...

9. fly to a foreign country by yourself. maybe i'll go visit maureen in korea after all...

15. go out with an older man who takes you somewhere nice and makes you feel like a million bucks. ok he doesn't have to be an old man, but i want to go on a date somewhere nice where i have to wear a dress and he has to wear a tie and a jacket.

28. throw yourself into something time-consuming, like learning a foreign language. not sure exactly what this will be for me though. if anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

i read a book recently called "30 things to do before you're 30". that combined with this article has got me thinking about goals and things i want to accomplish by the time i get married. now is when i should be doing these things, i've got nothin but time. so i've been working on making a list of specific things i want to do before i get married. a bucket list for my single life. once i finish it, maybe i'll share it on here.

anyone else out there (single or not) ever go through this? if so, what were some of your things you did?

2010-07-25T20:13:00.007-06:00

i just read this on perez hilton and could not be more excited.

"If your were a girlie of the 80s/early 90s, you belonged to one of two camps: lovers of Babysitter's Club or Sweet Valley High.

If you were Team Sweet Valley, you envied the BBC girls for their fun trips and sense of fiscal responsibility. If you were a BBC girl, you envied the Sweet Valley girls because they were cooler. Period.

So for you, Sweet Valley girls, we bring you good news - the twins are back!

Francine Pascal has traveled 10 years into the future with the characters that made her a millionaire and is starting a new line of books about Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield.

We don't want to give too much away, but let's just say things are not what they used to be for the girls. For one, they both don't live in Sweet Valley (GASP!)and as we understand it, they don't even like each other anymore! (Double GASP!)

The first of the new line of books, Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later, is set to hit the shelves in 2011."

even though i loved the BBC girls, i was still a fan of the twins. i can't wait for March 2011.

God's Been Good To Me

2010-07-18T19:27:00.001-06:00

this is my first of july slideshow for those of you who missed it!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

first of july in a nutshell

2010-07-15T17:52:00.004-06:00

this is all i had planned to blog about the first of july. but after reading leslie's, i really feel like i need to do more! but for now this is it. just the highlights...

the family ball tournament almost got rained out but after the rain stopped, they decided to go ahead with it. it was really fun. we had two gibb teams and we worked it out so we could play each other. it really was so fun. jordan was clearly the secret weapon.

hill spring also had a rodeo this year. it honestly was so fun. they had a bunch of actual events but then they ahd a bunch of kid stuff. greased pig catching, chicken catching, and sheep riding. i took sooo many pictures. maybe i'll do another post later with more.

this is us genuinely having fun. it might have started out pretending just to get a picture but it turned into real fun. there was a lot of laughing that week. especially when tracie tells a story!

sisters! who needs family pictures taken when we can snap these kind? i love my sis's and i love that we all get along so well.

the triathlon. tracie shannon and leslie did so good in the triathlon! they dind't win but they didn't lose so they achieved their goal. but even if they didn't win, i thought they did good. leslie rode the bike, then tracie rode the bike and shannon ran. i got to see leslie swim the whole thing and i got to see shannon run to the finish, but i missed all of tracie's. little did i know we could drive right along side her. oh well, next year i guess.

i honestly can't remember the last time i rode a horse. but i copied leslie and made a list of summer goals and riding a horse was one of them. i didn't ride it very far or for very long, but i rode it.

my mom got some new little pet pigs. pet. pigs. she went out several times a day to check on them. she was so excited to show them off when we all got home!

new house and a new car!

2010-06-21T08:59:00.001-06:00

my friend mandy bought a new house! and what better way to celebrate than with pseudo champaign! mandy is one of the coolest girls i know. she's (ahem) 25 years old and just bought an amazing house! i'm really so jealous of her!

after kristy finished off the bottle we went for a cruise in marks' new car! he got a 2010 camaro. it's pretty sweet. i wish it was light outside and i could have gotten a good picture of it.

for some reason i'm lucky and got to sit in the front...

mandy and kristy decided to pretend like it had so much power that when mark punched it they got pushed back in the seat. mark did punch it and kristy is not pretending in this picture.

being 25 years old and single has it's annoying moments, but when you've got a full time job and no spouse or kids to spend your money on, you get to buy nice houses and sweet cars!

Eleanor Blythe

2010-06-17T22:39:00.004-06:00

i dont' consider myself a baby photographer in any way shape or form. that being said, when my good friend melissa asked me to take pictures of her little baby, i couldn't say no. melissa and i have been friends for a few years now and i love her! she's always so upbeat, happy and fun. no wonder she married a guy as awesome as sam. their personalities compliment each other perfectly! a couple months ago they had a little baby girl. she was sick in the hospital for quite a while but she's home now and doing great. she is the cutest baby girl i've seen in a long time.

we didn't have any cute backgrounds or little toques or props, so they just look snapshotty, but i still think they turned out cute...

who wouldn't love a land made of candy?

2010-06-17T21:22:00.003-06:00

is it weird that i've never in my life played candyland before?

for some random reason we busted out candyland the other night. it sounded funner than it actually was. the best part about it, we learn that there's no words on any of the cards, just colours and...wait for it... one of the guys we played with was colour blind! haha.

**disclaimer** i'm not making fun of colour blind people. it was just funny that this game was all about colours. he laughed.

flour? who needs it.

2010-06-17T20:32:00.006-06:00

a few weeks ago i was determined to master the chocolate chip cookie. in the past several years i've tried hundreds of chocolate chip cookie recipes (um... maybe not literally) and have never been able to make good ones. so this particular day i found an oatmeal chocolate chip recipe and thought i'd give it a try.

in my opinion they turned out pretty good. but i wasn't sure until my friend mark came over and literally ate about 10 of them. he confirmed that indeed they were good. he even went so far as to say they were just like his mom made them.

everyone knows the way to a man's heart is through his stomach so i decided to make another batch. i had the recipe on my computer so i wrote it down on a crumpled piece of tissue i found on my bedroom floor. when i got upstairs and was mixing the ingredients i thought it seemed a little odd that it didn't call for flour. i figured because there was so much oatmeal it didn't need flour. even when the cookies seemed really sticky, i was confident they would turn out because last time they were so good. so.. i just added a little more oatmeal.

needless to say, the cookies didn't work out...

(i look happy they didn't work out, but it's only because i can't look sad without looking haggard at the same time...)

if you like the taste of sugar creamed with butter mixed with oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies, i recommend you make this recipe minus the flour...

Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (just like mark’s mom makes ‘em)

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3 cups quick-cooking oats

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended. Mix in the quick oats, walnuts, and chocolate chips. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

really important

2010-06-10T17:10:00.001-06:00

i was watching a tv show the other day, can't remember what it was, but in the show there was a song and in the song it had a talking part. and during the talking part they said how when people talk during the song you know it's really important. i don't know why but i thought it was really funny.

all week i've been listening to this cd that i bought at a garage sale on the weekend. i literally haven't not listened to anything else ALL WEEK. i kind of love it. one of the songs had a talking part and it made me laugh thinking of the show. here's what was so important they had to say it instead of sing in:

there's a lot of talk

and speculation

about our situation

but when it comes to how i feel about you

i don't need any help

i'll tell you myself

if anyone can guess what song that is, they'll get a prize! tracie, i'm counting on you.

Blogging VS Facebook

2010-06-09T12:37:00.004-06:00

comments on pictures from May Long on blog: 2

comments on pictures from May Long on FB: 34

don't get me wrong, i do enjoy blogging even though i don't very often... i just laughed when i got all those facebook comments.

may long

2010-06-03T17:19:00.001-06:00

for may long weekend my entire fam got together at my parents house. it was a little chaotic at times but it was really fun. i didn't know shannon was going to be there so that was a fun surprise.

we did something that we've never done on the farm before. built a tire swing. leslie's face in this picture is priceless.

we made haylie climb the ladder to tie the rope to the tree.

after several tries, mom got the knot to hold.

and here's the final product.

another fun thing we did was go for rides in the "bucket truck". my dad bought this new truck with a cherry picker on it so that he'd have something to entertain us with when we all came home. wasn't that nice of him?

this is the view from above...

and all the people down below.

pretty much every time without fail that i spend the night at my parents and tracie's kids are there too, Skylie asks me to put makeup on her. i always put a little eyeshadow and some blush. this time i put on some mascara too. i just put it on the top lashes and she looked at me like i was an idiot and told me it goes on the bottom too. then we found leslie's precious hair clips and Skylie put them in her hair. i had no idea these were so precious to leslie. she was not happy that we used them... sorry les.

i told summer and skylie to smile pretty for the camera. this is what i got.

chase knows how to smile though

summer looks so big here! she looks so grown up!

nixon looks innocent here, but he was a bully to jake all weekend...

on monday we went to the river to roast hot dogs. for some reason leslie tracie and mom thought they could lift this big old log. they couldn't. maybe if i woulda helped them...

mom literally has the perfect marshmallow perfected. they were so good. and messy.

we had a little time to relax after eating before the walk.

we went on a walk to the "waterfall". thank goodness skylie got a walking stick for me.

kadie found a robin's egg.

at the end of the day sylie's face looked like this.

and kash's hands looked like this.

and briggs just needed a little nap.

i love it when my whole fam gets together. i have the funnest family. even when it gets chaotic and the kids are loud i love them.

i fell in love with the 80's

2010-05-30T14:00:00.005-06:00

this is really random but i literally can not get enough of my hair. this was for an 80's dance we went to. the getting ready was probably more fun than the dance itself.

i really do wish i would have been in high school in the 80's. i think i would have loved it. especially the music and the hair...

Laramie Part 2

2010-05-30T13:23:00.006-06:00

i'm FINALLY getting around to posting about the rest of our laramie trip. this was the first day after we got there. me mom dad and tracie were driving to Martin's Cove to meet up with leslie and mike. as we were driving i noticed this weird looking "hill". i pointed it out to dad and when we got closer, we realized that this "hill" was actually Independence Rock.
we stopped for a minute. just long enough for dad to find some agriculture something. we didn't stay long because we were already late meeting les and mike. so we started driving. not sure where exactly where we were going. we typed martin's cove into the GST i mean GPS and it told us we had arrived at our destination but we were still on the highway in the middle of nowhere. so we turned on the next road hoping that would lead us to it. this is the road we took... not sure why we thought this would lead us there. but... IT DID! so we got there and it was so cool. there was a visitor's centre and lots of cool stuff. after all that we went on these rhino's that took us right up to the cove.

this is our tour guide. he was pure country. it was perfect.

i think this is such a cute picture of Jake and his grandpa. love it.

i know this one is huge, but this does it the most justice. this is Devil's Gate. it was right there by Martins Cove. it

after we were done at Martin's Cove we went back to Independence Rock so we could look around a little more.

when we got up close to it there was a sign that said we could climb it. i'm not gunna lie, i was a too nervous to go all the way to the top (it was really steep!) so i only went a little ways up.

mike had no fear. he ran all the way up...

the entire time we were there we could see a starm brewing. it suddenly hit and this is what we looked like by the time we got back to the car.

it was such a fun trip! les and mike were perfect tour guides! thanks for putting up with us! maybe we'l have to come back down next year!

Laramie WY

2010-05-02T16:31:00.007-06:00

i'm finally getting around to posting pics of our little trip to laramie wyoming a few weeks ago.

as much as leslie was worried that it'd be a boring trip, it wasn't at all! it was actually really fun. me and tracie and mom and dad all went. we left on a friday morning but we weren't meeting up with leslie and mike until saturday morning so we took our time getting there. we saw a sign for the Big Horn Battlefield something or other and something about general custer or somebody. after much discussion about who exactly custer was, we found the museum and decided to stop.

it was really windy.

here's the general himself.

we'd been driving next to this train for a while so my mom was really excited that when we stopped at the museum we'd gotten in front of the train and she was able to count all the cars! i don't think my mom can ever see a train and not want to count the cars! and that's why we love her.

we stayed in a hotel in Casper that night. and in the morning we went to Martin's Cove (more about that later...) and met up with leslie and mike and jake. immediately we all busted out our cameras. jake was probably terrified.

for some reason i couldn't stop laughing at jake's hair... and i hate that this is pretty much the only picture i got of him; i'm not sure how that happened.

on sunday night we drove to a town appropriately called Castle Rock because of the rock shaped like a castle (use your imagination) in the middle of the town. or at least that's what we decided. whether it's true or not will forever be a mystery.

when we got to the hotel that night leslie was in heaven picking up brochures. she was excited about all the fun things to do in wyoming (i highly recommend everyone go to wyo and visit leslie. she will know all the fun places to go and have a pamphlet for everything. EVERYTHING.) her excitement quickly diminished when she saw the surprise jake had for her.on monday morning we went shopping at the outlets. NINE HOURS LATER we decided we'd spent enough money. before we started on the 2 hour drive back to laramie, we went out to eat. we pretty much saw a celebrity. leslie is convinced that this boy is on a youtube video...

after we'd eaten supper, (and after jake left leslie another surprise) we somehow ended up ordering dessert. i'm confident the server was judging us for ordering the mile high ice cream cake thing....

the next day we laid out our purchases to show each other (and to remember what we'd even boughten) and tried not to think about how much money we spent...

breakfast is my fav meal of the day. i could eat breakfast foods for every meal and be happy. so i was very excited that the hotel we stayed at had a really good breakfast (waffles every day = heaven). this picture was at 6am the morning we left to come home. dreading the car ride home.

this is out of order but on sunday on our way to castle rock we decided to take the scenic route. it was a really pretty drive. this picture doesn't do it any justice like pictures never do, but this wall of rock goes up so high and it's pretty much straight up. leslie's favourite thing about it is the sign that says "in case of flooding, climb to higher ground" or something like that. unless you're a really good climber, there's no way you're making it to higher ground. i'd like to see leslie hauling jake up that mountain side.

wyo was the epitome of pure country. i'm not saying that's a bad thing. in fact i really wanted to fit in. i'm happy to say that i rode a horse while in wyoming.

cute picture of mom and tracie.

if you've read tracie's blog, you've already learned that there's more antelope than people in wyo. this picture isn't very good but there's 2 antelope there. and taking this picture i too felt like a tourist in waterton...

i never did get a picture of all the red rocks but it seemed like everything in wyo was red. the change in the pavement on the freeway between montana and wyoming was so funny to me. in montana it was normal, then as soon as we got to wyo it was super red.

and this is mom hogging all 3 pillows on the ride home while i just used the seatbelt as a pillow...

there was a lot of laughing. a lot of shopping. a lot of eating. a lot of ttr. a lot of picture taking. and a lot of fun. it was definitely worth the 14 hour drive. leslie is a phenomenal hostess! she had diner waiting for us more than once. who knew she was such a good cook! and mike was good to put up with us and our laughter! and i'm quite confident that jake misses us. a lot.

tracie's better at remembering all the funny things. i only remember what i took pictures of. check out her blog here for the funny memories.

my day

2010-04-14T16:02:00.003-06:00

huge snow storm yesterday.

went to a friend's house last night.

get there and realize i don't have my phone. figure i left it at home.

get home around 2:30am and my phone isn't at home.

drive back to my friends house in the blizzard searching for my phone.

cant find it.

come home. go to sleep.

7:30 my roommate wakes me.

the power had gone out. i'm supposed to be at work at 7:30.

the power's still out so i shower, but don't wash my hair because i don't have any way to dry it.

get to work looking extremely haggard.

there's no power at work.

luckily we have a generator.

unluckily, the generator doesn't run the computers in my area.

literally sit around for 3 hours expecting the boss to send us home.

he doesn't.

try to get some work done but i'm so exhausted from getting no sleep and so upset about losing my phone that i'm literally on the verge of tears all day. one or two may have spilled over.

call telus then apple to learn that if i find my phone (which undoubtedly has major water damage) i can send it back to apple and get a new one for $229.

if i can't find it: $799.

i skip lunch because there was nowhere to go for lunch; literally the entire city had no power. nothing was open.

no breakfast. no lunch. i'm starving.

the highlight of my day: because i didn't take lunch, i get to leave an hour early.

go back to my friend's house in hopes of finding my phone now that some of the snow had melted.

no luck.

SURPRISE!

2010-04-10T19:12:00.005-06:00

It's kaits bday this week and her parents bought her a plane ticket home (to winnipeg) so i decided to throw her a surprise bday party on thursday night before she left. so wednesday night i texted and facebooked everyone i know and told them they'd better show! Brenna made cupcakes, i bought decorations and all the typical birthday party stuff you'd see at any 5 year old's birthday party including pin the tail on the donkey. fun times. kait got home from work at 8 so i had everyone there just before. she was very surprised!

we had the cupcakes in the shape of a K P. her initials.

roommate picture!

this is scott. no offense, but he's one of the weirdest people i know. for example, he somehow blew up a balloon then put his hand inside of the balloon then drew a face on it then put a hat on it... but as weird as he is, we accept him anyways.

we had this fun little game where you had a pipe thing that you blew into and your breath pushed this ball into the air and somehow it just stayed there and didn't fall. good times. it was decided that scott has the longest breath, then me then kait.

this is kait and her cousin matt. matts goal of the night was to shove an iced cupcake into the birthday girls' face. sadly, it never happened.

have you ever seen the tv show "minute to win it"? i saw it on tv the other night and i'm a little bit obsessed with it. it's a bunch of different challenges you have to do in under a minute. so we decided to try them. this one was you had a deck of cards on a POP bottle with the joker on the bottom of the deck and you had to blow every single card except the joker off the bottle and not let the joker fall off. it was really hard! but...

scott did it!

PBR

2010-04-09T23:37:00.005-06:00

this happened quite a while ago, but i lost my camera and only now found it.

the PBR (i think it stands for pro bull riding) has become an annual thing i guess. it's always a good time. my cousin aaron rides in it so it's fun to go watch him.

every year is pretty well the same. they always start out by lighting up the arena.

then all the cowboys walk out and there's fireworks.
i guess it's the same every year because it's actually really cool. i like the big dramatic entrance.

this year i went with my roommate and her friends. on the left is kelsey, then kait, then me. somehow kinsey never made it to the picture. yes, kelsey, kait, and kinsey. i felt like the odd ball because my name starts with a b.

there was a celebrity there! an actual olympian from the 2010 olympics! Melissa Holingsworth. kinda cool. i'm not a huge olympic fan and i don't remember what sport she does. but i had heard of her before her being there. only because a guy from work had pulled her pictures up on the internet a couple days before to show me how hot she is...

i think this is my fav pic of the evening. that bull looks so funny to me! and as you can tell by the fantastic quality of these pictures i am an excellent photographer!

of course had to go get a pic with aaron after. all the cowboys go out into the arena after to sign autographs and pose for pictures. he didn't quite win this one, but he did make it to the second round. which is more than most of them can say!
did you know the very first recorded rodeo was in the 1870's?? i wonder who was the first person to think, "hey, lets see how long i can sit on the back of this bull for..."

kids

2010-03-23T10:09:00.010-06:00

i just posted a bunch of pics of jake, but i do have 11 other nieces and nephews that are just as cute. and even though i love them all, i somehow only ended up with pictures of the youngest ones...

summer is sooo cute! i know she's not smiling here, but her little smile makes my heart melt! i absolutely love how long her hair is! good luck tracie when summer is a teenager!

little nixon is getting so big! he's soo good too! he was smiling almost the entire weekend! even though shannon said he wasn't as happy as he usually is due to his teeth coming in...

marlie wore this witch costume all afternoon on saturday. it was so cute! and even though she can be a bit, um... temperamental, i still love her!

spencer and marlie are seriously adorable! it seems like every time we're in hill spring they love to have me take their picture then they immediately run over and want to see the picture. then they'll run back and pose again. i think these pictures of the 2 of them are so cute! i love spencer's look in the first one. it looks like he's already a protective older brother!

skylie the photographer to be. tracie is such a good mom. i don't think there'd be any chance i'd let my 4-year-old play with my dslr camera!

i promise i can not get enough of kash! he is seriously the happiest kid. i love how he gets to grama's house and just runs as fast as his little legs will take him to grampa. i also love how he loves to pose for the camera!

Jake

2010-03-22T22:17:00.003-06:00

this last week mike had the week of school so him les and little jake came home. jake is soo cute! it was fun to see them again. i hate that they live so far...

i took a ton of pictures over the last 2 weekends. mostly of the kids. i'll post more later.

my ever changing hair

2010-03-18T21:48:00.005-06:00

it's that time again to change my hair but i really dont' know what to do with it. i can either buy drugstore dye and keep it how it is now. or i can go to a hairdresser and have her do it like one of these:

and i'm thinking colour only. not so much the cut. even both of those cuts are super cute!

the more i look at them, the more i'm leaning towards the first one. but if i go blonde, hopefully the summer will make it stay blonde and i won't have to keep dying it...

thoughts?

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365 seconds

my big break

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consider this

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15: Something you don't leave the house without

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what will you be known for?

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birdie 6

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so long sweet summer

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this is me not trying to be a photographer...

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36 things every single girl must do.

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Maryanne Gibb Scott
It took me over 10 years to make a good rice krispie square- but now I am obsessed with puffed wheat squares- what is a good recipe?