new read

i have a new blog addiction.  i get a new one usually bimonthly (i think i just wanted to use that word in a sentence).  

HERE is my new one. 

evidently, she/her blog is very famous.  she got fired from her corporate job for writing about said job on her blog.  i don't want to tell you anymore about her, i will let you discover (except that she's southern, raised a mormon, and pregnant with #2, and awesome--has a great daily style section with terrific suggestions).  

enjoy. 

just some stuff

8 TV Shows I Watch:
1) the office
2) arrested development
3) six feet under
4) gilmore girls
5) really crappy shows (rob and big, for example)
6) curb your enthusiasm
7) 30 rock
8) little house on the prairie

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1) moe's
2) any hole in the wall thai place
3) california dreaming
4) chickfila
5) any good sushi place
6) the new beginnings kitchen
7) any local places wherever i'm living
8) north main deli


8 Things that Happened to Me Today:
1) Got my eyebrows ripped off (just waxed, and not totally off)
2) Almost passed out after working with my parent's trainer. 3) Got a manicure.
4) Got in an argument with my mom, like six times.
5) Made up with my mom six times.
6) Did a little non-christmas target shopping.
7) Made dinner for my parents.
8) Currently watching The Biggest Loser.


8 Things I Look Forward To:
1) Josh flying in on Thursday.
2) Cooking mexican food for the fam on friday night.
3) Coffee with a few friends over the next few days.
4) Driving up to the cabin in the rover, with the bros and the JAKE.
5) Going to find our Christmas tree.  
6) Going to Florida, meeting the Thomases, and going to Disneyworld.
7) Seeing Beulah and the Connollys!!!
8) JarMar's wedding.


8 Things I Wish For:
1) Hair and makeup done for me every day.  
2) Miraculous cleanliness.  Not obsessive, just effortlessly clean and organized.
3) Free air travel for life.
4) A completed undergrad.
5) The grace to stop floating through my remaining time with pregnant teens.
6) A Beulah snuggle, RIGHT this second.
7) Safe arrival for Connolly Baby #3. 
8) New house for my parents.

I would liiiiiiike for:

Jared

Leigh

Jess

Laura

Nick

Maria

Josh

Faythe 

to do this as well.  Do it.  

straight up pride

a film by my younger brother

starring my older brother

christmas questionnaire

1. Fresh Tree/Fake Tree? i really love fresh trees.  i have great memories of going to mall parking lots, or little stands by the side of the road and picking out a tree as a family.  i remember one year we stopped at sonic on the way home, with the tree coming right up through the center of the minivan. nothing like a foot long cheese coney.

2. Favorite Ornament- that's a hard one when i haven't seen our family ornaments in a while.  any of the really old ones, or the crappy handmade ones.

3. Favorite Christmas Song- merry christmas baby by otis redding.  is it wrong to think a christmas song is a little sexy?  probably.

4. Favorite Tradition- for a long time the three of us kids would try to sleep in the same room on christmas eve.  the older we got, the less fun this became.  i remember one year in particular where i woke up to jared snoring/grinding his teeth, yelled at him, and made him leave the room.  merry christmas.

5. Favorite Gift Ever Received- good question.  i have gotten some good gifts over the years, but i also have to say, i have gotten some humorously bad ones.  but i'll stick with the good, oh, got it, i found our family dog, jake, the day after christmas my junior year of high school.  best gift ever.

6. Favorite Christmas Meal- sometimes we try to spice things up and do christmas hamburgers or christmas lasagna.  maybe i'll try to convince my family to do christmas curry this year?

7. Favorite Christmas Cookie- gingersnaps.  or any cookie from specialty's (please see post below).

8. Favorite Place to be- beside a fire with family.

9. Favorite Memory- i have fun memories of our grandparents coming into town a few days before christmas every year when we were young.  that yearly trip to the airport was so exciting, and it always meant that christmas was really here. 

10. Favorite Christmas Movie- oh wow, too many to name.  i just packed my suitcase full of all my favorites to take home with me.  but, what could outrank watching the booby trap scenes of home alone with my Dad?  you will never hear anyone laugh louder at anything.  

a good time waster

you know those little baby generator things you see on movies and stuff?  well, there's a website now where you can upload photos, and generate what your baby would look like with whoever you choose to upload.  to be honest, they all sort of look the same, with a few scary inbred ones thrown in for good measure.  

so, have fun with THIS.

strategic piles

jess and i headed up to seattle today.  and in spite of the rain, soaked shoes, and potential bomb threat evacuations, we had a great time.  

starting out here, for some northwest stocking stuffers

then on over to beecher's for some cheese.

up the hill to h&m

around the block to specialty's for a hot chocolate chip cookie (best you'll ever eat)

now, after a quick workout and finishing up my trip preparations with a target trip, i'm watching the biggest loser and slowly beginning to pack.  i have several large piles decorating my floor, clothes to take, clothes to leave, darks, lights, colors, towels, gifts, shoes, anything you could imagine, put into piles and waiting for the right time to be thrown in a suitcase, weighed (cross your fingers for less than fifty pounds), and tossed in an airplane, and off to the east coast.  

this morning

we watched this at church.  really interesting and motivating.

"small as a wish in a well"

it's a quiet saturday around our house.  the air outside has turned a little colder.  nick and jess have gone to a conference in bellevue.  elias is quietly reading in his crib, and glory is napping.  beulah is down the street running in a field with her best friend, tucker.  more and more, the smell of burning wood is filling up our little world.  every time i walk down our street and around the corner, i take a deep breath and think about the appalachians, and how i can't wait to drive up that last hill to our little cabin.  

last night, i popped some popcorn, and threw a bunch of pillows on the floor, and for every kernel i ate, i threw one over to beulah.  and watched this movie.  

i'm coming back, i think.

i was thinking today about why it has been so hard/not fun to write on here anymore.  i think it is because i've psyched myself out.  i used to write much more honestly, and much more..frankly.  mostly because i really knew the five people that would stumble across my page.  but now, i guess i've sort of felt like my parents read this now, people from new beginnings read this, people who don't know me read this and make opinions about who i am.  and so i froze.  

i am going to make an attempt to go back to old ways.  i used to use this as a stream of consciousness dumping ground, and i liked it that way.  so..it's not going to be profound or skilled writing, most likely it will be silly stories about me falling or my dog being silly.  

hopefully, i will thaw.  

one more thing, a favorite clip from a favorite holiday movie: