Where were you 5 years ago today?

Five years ago today, I was with my family and my boyfriend Adam in Palm Springs when we heard the news that MJ had passed away.
While I'm sad that he's gone, I do love that his final concert was made available to so many that wouldn't have seen it otherwise.  And I love this tribute video. 


See last years MJ post here.

Wherefore art thou blogger?

First, I need to recommend this book to you.

I finished reading it on Friday and it is good!  And I should mention that I checked it out from the library on Friday, so now you know how good. 

I think you'll love it if you love twitter (like I do) and I think you'll love it even if you're not totally sure what twitter is.  Okay maybe it helps to at least know what twitter is. 

Also, I've been thinking lately about blogging and why I do it.  I used to do it to:
a. write
b. become popular (hey, I'm just being honest!)
c. socialize/get comments

I've never done it to make money and I really don't think I ever will.  Nothing against blogging for money!  I really wish I could.  But I know it wouldn't be worth it to me.  The thing I hate most about blogging is promotion.  This is why I've been blogging for three years (actually more but three years of real effort) and only have like 50 followers (if you add them all up from various locations)

So I wanted to evaluate my current reasons for blogging.  I still love writing, but when it comes to being creative, lately I've been channeling that into my sewing, so it's lower on the list than it used to be.  I really don't think I'll ever be popular.  I'm just not willing to put the time in to promoting my blog.  That's okay with me.  And I still love making friends and getting comments, but I'm not thirsty for friends and social interactions like I used to be.  I've made a LOT of good friends here, and I would love to make more, but I don't NEED to. 

That pretty much sums up why I'm showing up here less and less.  The main reasons I hang around are:
a. I might regret it if I don't.  Someday I might really want this space to be here and so I keep it up.
b. I still have things I want to say, recipes I want to share.
c. To stay connected with the blogging community. 

There you have it!  I know that the more I blog the more I have to say (funny how that works) so I know I just need to do it more often, but right now I'm just enjoying my kids, enjoying the summer and trying to get my etsy shop off the ground (seriously hard.  See above: I hate promoting myself)

Wacky Wednesday

This picture was not Wednesday, it was Thursday.  But just pretend we're at IKEA instead of Lowe's.  It works.

Do you ever have those moments that are so crazy and secretly you're excited because you'll have something to blog about?  Wednesday was that day.

Wednesday morning I decided to take the kids on a walk to drop off things to my neighbors.  We get fresh air, I don't have to buckle car seats and my friends all live really close, so it's a win-win-win.  When we walked out of the garage there were like six police officers in my neighbor's driveway.  I said "good morning" because I didn't want to pretend they weren't there. (for a second I was worried they were there to get me for not making full stops at the stop sign, but then I realized I'm maybe a little paranoid)  They were still there when we got back.  When my neighbor on the other side started texting me (because there is no parking on our street and yet there were two police trucks parked in front of her house) I told her that the cops had just left and there was a no trespassing sign on the garage and window.  After sending that I realized that I maybe didn't clarify whose garage and window.  "Not your house!  The neighbors on my other side!"  I mean, it was only a few seconds, but what a stressful few seconds that would be if you thought it was your house!  So I guess they just got evicted (which I feel really badly about, but also hopeful that someone I can be friends with will move in next door!)

After our walk I decided that IKEA would be a good idea.  I had some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket and you don't have to try on home decor in a dressing room before you buy it.  Plus we can eat there and I don't have to clean up lunch.  Off we went.  Olivia got to go to Småland and Axel and I knocked out the shopping.  Then we ate lunch.  Or Axel and I ate lunch, Olivia licked some ketchup off a meatball. I guess Småland didn't qualify as letting Olivia play with toys because she kept telling me I promised.  So I let the kids play with the display train table.  There was a guy there with his son, probably Axel's age.  I didn't really pay him any attention. . . at first.  But you know how it is when you're watching your kids play and it's nice to make Smål small talk with other adults?  Yeah, this guy would not look at me.  Sometimes it was really obvious he was looking anywhere but me.  That's when I remembered that we used to be neighbors and that we went out on a few dates back in my Provo days.  After about ten minutes he picked up his kid and left.  Do you think he noticed me earlier and was intentionally not looking at me?  Why???  So weird. I really would have said Hi to him if he would have just glanced my way, but it felt awkward to start talking to someone who obviously didn't want to have a conversation.

Looking back, we might have been there a little long at this point.  But I really did want the stuff I had in my basket, so what choice did I have? We got in the longest possible line (it looked deceptively short when I chose it--they always do) and when we were one away from the checkout Olivia had to go to the bathroom. So I ditched the cart and we ran to the potty. When we returned the lines had doubled! But we dutifully headed to the back of the line. A few minutes later a woman approached me and said she and her son would take my spot in line and I could have hers (she was at the front of the line next to us). I almost cried, it was the nicest thing.

So the moral of the story is: Pay your rent (or don't do drugs? who knows), make eye contact with former girlfriends and do nice things for strangers.

Sorry so sloppy and short long.

Unfortunate pictures from middle school

Yesterday, my blogging friend Jennie posted a picture to instagram of herself in middle school and herself now.  It's always fun to see unfortunate pictures from people's youth compared to how beautiful they turned out as an adult.  I told her I put the bad middle school pictures in my wedding video for that very purpose and she wanted to see it. 

So here they are!  (These are not ALL the pictures from my wedding video, but ain't nobody got time for that!)

Me and Jessica.  Jessica actually looks really cute in this picture!  I on the other hand. . . well no wonder boys didn't want to dance with me.

Jessica and Missy look freaking gorg in this picture, but dang those bangs were rough on me.

Yep it's just the bangs again.  And not Missy's best picture either.  Sorry Miss.

And some good pictures for comparison!

Missy and I at her wedding, so you know how beautiful she turned out.

And me on my 18th birthday.  With bangs.  So I guess they weren't always the devil.

What would you do. . . with GOLD?

The second Wednesday of the month is What Would You Do? Every month Aubrey and I choose a theme and challenge each other to make a project, a recipe or style an outfit in that theme.  Last month was "flowers" and this month we decided to go broad and chose a color.  The best color: Gold.  For next month we've chosen spray paint, which is kinda funny, you'll see why in a minute.
Gold is so hot right now.  I did not see that coming when I was in high school.  Silver/white gold for the win, do you remember?  Silver is still awesome though.  I think we've finally realized that metallics in general are just awesome.

I was hoping that this blogging prompt would encourage me to get Olivia's room painted, but it didn't.  I'm going to paint her room white with some gold designs (It will be a surprise for you, but also for me!  I'm undecided on what design to do)  But I did have some frames from my sister in law that I wanted to paint gold for the wall that's going to stay plain white.

They were super pretty, just a little dreary for a girls room, don't you think?

When I went to take the art out of the frames I came across a little hitch.  They were glued shut, not really made to be taken apart.  I tell you this in case it happens to you.  I just ripped it apart, I had nothing to lose, and it worked out okay.  The glass wouldn't come out of the second frame so I just taped it up with some brown paper and blue tape.

Glued shut!

Blue tape and brown paper to protect the glass.

Also, I should save this for next month's spray paint, but here it is anyway.  Did you know you can spray paint mats?  I found out this tidbit of information reading the comments on an interior design blog several months ago.  I was skeptical but I gave it a shot and voila! 

Now I just need some art to go in them!

I measured SO CAREFULLY when hammering the hooks in to the wall, but apparently the picture wire isn't the exact same height on the frames.  Since I'm babysitting a 6 month old in TEN MINUTES I called it good and snapped a picture. Will fix later!

Reminder that next month we're doing "What would you do with a can of spray paint" We would love to have you link up!  And feel free to link up any posts you have featuring in the color gold!  We want to check them out!

An InLinkz Link-up

The best birthday with 0 pictures (just kidding, I found one)

How do you know if a blogger had a good time?  They have 1000 pictures to prove it.  How do you  know if a blogger had a REALLY good time?  They were too busy having fun to take pictures. 

Thanks to Adam's smart phone, I have a few pictures from the park. This blog post wont be pictureless! 

That was Saturday.  Just a perfect day.  Loosely planned and everything just worked together perfectly.  And the weather???   Heavenly.

I started to tell you all about it, but it became too much "and then, and then, and then. . . "  Which is why I don't blog about my day to day life because I don't know how to write about events smoothly.  So here is a bulleted list.

• Waffle Love food truck for breakfast
• Quick change into swim suits and then swimming and lunch at the Black Ridge Reservoir.
• Naps for the kids and art projects for me (check out my post on Wednesday!)
• Skype with my parents
• Dinner at Noodles
• Play time at the park (evenings at the park are where it's AT!  Not too hot, and the kids can get worn out just before bed!)  
• My brother Rob called me while we were at the park.  He's coming to Utah for TWO WEEKS!  I am so excited.  We never get Rob to come up here.  (I guess I should note that he's coming for work, but still!)
• My sister met us at the park (she was in town for a wedding) and we went on to snow cones.  My brother stopped by my house while we were at dinner and texted me.  I was so sad we missed him!  But while we were eating our snow cone Adam said "Hey, there's Andrew and Martha."  We totally thought he was kidding, like it was just a look-a-like or something.  But no!  It was them!  Such a fun coincidence!!! 
• A grocery store run at 10pm and I met my future best friend in the check out line.  She was so cute and we were laughing so hard about who knows what.  I don't know her name, and I probably can't pick her out of a line, but I just hope I come across her again someday.  

And that's it!  Seriously, I cannot believe how much we fit into one day!  Props to Adam for making it all happen :)  

(Don't forget that Wednesday is our What Would You Do Wednesday!  This month's theme is the color gold.  What would you do with gold??  Paint?  Wear?  Decorate?   Link up so we can see!!!)

Birthday Eve

What can I write about today that doesn't have to do with my birthday?  I could pretend that my birthday isn't tomorrow, but I'm the kind of girl that celebrates for the whole month, so ignoring it on the blog isn't really my personality.

On the other hand, what can I write about that does have to do with my birthday?  Last year I turned 30 and wrote a post about 30 things I'd done before turning 30.  But 31?  It's a prime number!  It's not catchy or cool. 

I can't tell you about my awesome plans, because all I want to do tomorrow is get some spray painting done, swim a little with my family and eat a snow cone.  I've learned that keeping it simple and easy is the best way to not be disappointed. 

There's no point in recapping the year when I like to save that for the start of the new year. 

But all in all, life is good.  I've got kids that are finally out of the baby stage and a house that is slowly but surely coming together, summer is here and the livin' is easy. 

Happy birthday to me!

Five Little Confessions: Driving

When you're 16 doesn't the world seem to revolve around driving and dating?  Well, it seemed like such a huge deal back then, but that was almost 15 years ago!  Crazy.  In any case, I'm going to confess to you all about my driving track record today.  Enjoy.

1. I got my drivers license two months after I turned 18.  It didn't make any sense to spend money on driving school when I wouldn't have had a car to drive at 16 anyway, so I waited until 18 when CA didn't require me to take drivers ed anymore.

2. I failed my driving test the first time I took it.  But thankfully when you're over 18 you can keep taking it one day after another. (When you're 16 you have to wait a week in between each test)  So I took it the next day and passed.  That afternoon I left for Provo to start at BYU.

3. I got into my first and only car accident when I was 19, when I was home for the summer.  Of all the thousands of people in Lancaster CA, I ran into my best friend's "ex boyfriend".  Of all the luck.

4. The only two cars I've owned have been stick shift.  Do they make stick shift minivans?

5. I like to drive on long road trips with just me and my two babies.  Okay, maybe I don't like the drive part, but I do like taking trips even when Adam can't take off work.

An InLinkz Link-up

Wanna watch the Bachelorette with me? Episode 4

I haven't been blogging the Bachelorette this season because it just got to be too much for me in seasons past.  But when Aubrey and I decided to watch last night's episode together I figured I might as well throw one up there for fun!  Confession, I only watched the first episode and last night, so I missed two weeks in there and it was hard to follow.  I need to go back and watch the other two episodes if I'm going to continue on.

On Andi: Is that a scarf or a baby blanket?

Rub a dub dub, six boys in a tub.

Dylan one-on-one
EIGHT YEAR RELATIONSHIP???  When did you start dating?  When you were TWELVE?

Dylan wants to be wearing a shirt that says "Ask me about my brother's funeral"

Andi says "Not bad." And I say, "Not good either."

Dylan starts to share his story after Andi beat it out of him.  She doesn't look interested, she looks like she's questioning him on trial.

Sitting across from each other doesn't really lend itself to heart felt conversation.  They might as well be on opposite sides of a banquette table.

Dylan has been through so much.  I don't understand why people who are so broken think it's a good idea to come on this show.  

Andi says she tried to keep it together in front of him, but it comes off as unfeeling.  If you're going to date someone, you should feel comfortable expressing your feelings.

Group Date
Let's go with the usual formula. 1 guy + 10 girls (or vise versa in this case) + any sporting event + winners stay, losers go home.

How come one team has real jerseys and the other team had to write their own numbers on?  Did the budget run out?

Funny how excited Patrick was for a five on one date.  Perspective I guess.

The Rosebuds win and the Five of Hearts mope around the stadium in a montage of sad music.

Josh goes on a little rant about losing.  Suuuuuper attractive.

Eric is my favorite and it makes me sad to know he's not around anymore.

In all the seasons of this show I've seen, they've never talked about the Mormon religion.  When contestants have been former members of the church they've usually skirted this issue or used words other than LDS vocabulary.  I wonder if they're editing it differently because he's passed away.

Marcus one-on-one
Look, my husband rocks a goatee, but some people just can't with out looking like a creeper.  Marcus is one of those people. 

M: Can we kiss in front of them?
A: No.
Good call girl, good call.

Andi: Is there a single bad thing about Marcus?
Me: YES!  That goatee!!

Cocktail Party/Rose Ceremony
THAT DRESS.  Yes.

Stealing Andi from the guy who hasn't had any time, when you already have a rose. . . NOT COOL.

Andi and Eric's fight is incredibly uncomfortable considering the outcome of Eric's life.

Now we sit down and discuss Andi's feelings about Eric's passing.  And this rubs me the wrong way because I'm sure A LOT of other people are more affected by it than Andi is.  She only knew him for such a short time.  But it IS good that they didn't just leave it as is.  So. . . mixed feelings.

Tonight's episode was kind of heavy, don't you think?  Let's go check out what Aubrey had to say about it!

An InLinkz Link-up