Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Quotable Friend Cont.

I told you, dear reader, about Elmo. I recently had a chance to talk to her again. We reminisced on some of her blonde-moments. I would like to share them with you.

ELMO: *deep in thought*.... *showing sudden annoyance* "That's so stupid how they do it out of planes!"
HER MOTHER: "Um... What?"
ELMO: "Fly fishing!
That would be so expensive, and really hard..."

(setting:coming back from body worlds)
ELMO: "I wonder what they do with the skin..."
ME: "Maybe they study the skin cells"
ELMO:*exasperated* "Emily, there's no such thing as skin cells.."

(setting: We were talking about Kanye West and what the president called him)
ELMO: Wait, what did he call him?
OTHER PERSON: "Jack-apple" (the real word was not appropriate for a temple recommend holder to say)
ELMO: ..... Why'd he call him that?

That's all i've got. I hope you enjoyed these as much as I have.

Recap of the Weekend + Monday


This time of year is always fun for our family. My Dad's birthday is on the 27th, mine is on the 28th, and Noah's is on the 6th.
My Mom's birthday is randomly placed in February.
Anyway, this past weekend has been filled with exiting encounters and experiences. Exhibit A: The Jelly Belly RV (9/26/2009)

That nigh on made my day. The owners of the JB-mobile worked for the Jelly Belly company, going all across the east coast "bean-boozeling" unsuspecting candy lovers like myself. I got pepper. They were (and are) very nice and let us see the inside of the JB-mobile. After we got out, we immediately went into the store and bought 2 pounds of assorted Jelly Beans. There were (and are) a lot to choose from:



Exhibit B: My Dad's birthday (9/27/2009)
We had originally planned to wear all black, but seeing as his birthday fell on a Sunday, we didn't want people to get the wrong idea. We had a delicious dinner at home and invited the Grizzles over. My Dad has been 29 for a pretty long time. You would think that he would get tired of the age after 11 years. =)
(That's banana pudding, courtesy of Sis. Grizzle. Thank you!)

Exhibit C: The Mystery Chalkers (9/27/2009)
During a fireside, someone came and chalked our driveway. This is part of the result. Thank you mystery chalkers.




Exhibit D: My birthday. (9/28/2009)
This is me at Yogurtville, right bfore I "blew out" my candle (which, coincidentally, is the same candle my Dad blew out).
P.S. Sorry about the weird line under this last part of the writing.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Quotable Friend


I have a dear friend who shall remain nameless. For the sake of the story, we'll just call this being "Elmo". I was at Elmo's house recently and I told Elmo about a movie called I am Sam, about a mentally retarded man fighting for custody of his 7-year-old daughter, and in the process teaching his cold-hearted lawyer the value of love and family. It is a very sweet movie and by the end of it I was a mess. I told Elmo this and E (who is 14) said that she (ok, let's just throw it out there) was crying by the end of it too. She looked at me and said a extremely pitiful, but somewhat wistful voice; "I wish my Dad was retarded...."
She was completely serious.
I love her.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Love at (someone else's) Home




Aren't french bulldogs supposed to be vicious, terrorizing guards? Sophie (the bulldog) guarded, but it was more to make sure that her (seven!) kids were alive and well than to defend the castle.

And I thought Jon and Kate had it tough.

(From top to bottom: Panda Bear, Uno, Bandita, {on the left of B} Bella, {to the right of B} Snowy? To the far right is domino, and then there's Little Tex)

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

This feels like Washington...



In my portion of Texas, it has been soggy for four days. This is extremely contrary to the normal Texas weather. At this time of year, usually it's about 100 degree's off and on. If we're really lucky, we get nice breezes and 70 degree weather. Usually. But this is not normal. According to the local weather station:

Cloudy. A chance of showers. An isolated thunderstorm is possible in the afternoon. Highs in the upper 70s. North winds around 10 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.

It's been very muggy these past few days. It is not uncommon (under these uncommon circumstances) to have rain three times a day. Sprinklings of course.

When I was little, I thought that when it rained, it meant that God was crying. And coincidentally, the raining started on the 11th.

My garden is loving the rain. I think all of the plants are appreciating the rain. The thunderstorms are a bit frightening, and our puppy gets scared, but the after effects of the rain are lovely. The silver lining in all of this (other than happy plants) is, that this is perfect weather for reading.

We had some friends come over yesterday (they just missed the showers) to walk, and talk, and raid the candy-jar. I have no pictures from the walk, but I do have some pictures form after the walk, when the effects of the sugar are starting to kick in. :) We love them.











That's a umbrella she's tossing up. ; )

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

This is a first... and last

Reader, I went dumpster diving. Not in a dumpster, but in my trash can. That's kind of the same thing though, and I can't thing of any other title to call it. "Trash tracking"? "Scum searching"? I think dumpster diving is most fitting.

I heard a ringing noise (like a telephone) coming from the trash can, so I opened the lid to confirm. I confirmed. I informed the head hauncho of my discovery, and he informed me that that was $50 going in the trash. So my options were either pay for it, or dive for it. Noah was put at risk of losing $25 if he did not help in the search too. So we searched. And we came to some conclusions.

1. We need to tie the trash bags off when we put them in the trash can.
We tried to take the bags out and then pat them down, but things just kept spilling out when we took the bag out. It looked to me like a quarter of the trash from each bag came out when we snatched them.

2. We need to always, always put things in a trash bag.
There was melted slushie, and dead/rotten things, that had just been thrown in there because that was the closest trash can. Not to mention little trash cans that don't have bags. So in addition to the sticky slushie, you get used tissues, and half-eaten candies stuck to your hands. Blech.

3.We need to be more careful of what we throw away.
I have no idea how that phone got in there. But it did. And now it's gone. We concluded that it had gotten some unknown substance in it and therefore, it wouldn't be useable.
We still had to pay for it.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Do you see what I see?


I see treasured memories in the form of objects

I see a whole wall of bookcases filled with the accumulation of years of faithful book fairs and "field trips" to the book store

I see a dog, worn out from playing with three-year olds all afternoon

I see a miniature rocking chair with the sole purpose of amusing such three-year olds

I see family photos from past years

I see two pairs of scriptures, still on the fireplace where Noah and I put them after we came home from seminary

I see three game controllers still left out from their last use

I see my Dad and my Brother coming home after a long day of construction work on their "super blind"

I see shoes scattered all around the house, taken off as remembered

I see a sink over-flowing with dishes owing to it's caretaker's clever but short-lived excuses

I see books scattered everywhere, originating from the book-wall

I see about ten copies of the church news and ensigns stacked on the coffee table, the reader valuing them too highly to throw them away

I see a "Barbie pink" purse on the couch

I see my Brother sifting through it in search of my mothers cell phone

I see three blankets, carefully folded by the most recent user's enthusiast, after a brief afternoon nap the previous evening

I see our big dog on the porch, watching squirrels chase each other

I see our newest cook book sitting on the table, tempting me with such recipes as Lemon-Blueberry cream pie, and Alfredo stuffed Chicken

I see a camo-patterned bag, stuffed full of thing you just might need while waiting in the blind

I see a vase full of white daisies, still fresh after two days

I see a box full of jars of peach jam, still waiting for a place to be deposited

I see some of our "food storage" piled in the corner, trying to be hidden by a large bench

I see a "diary" consisting of seven pieces of paper, as carefully cut, colored and stapled as a five-year old can, waiting to be written in

I see semi-new text books, waiting to haunt and delight all of us

I see a photo album, blending in on the coffee table with the magazines, filled with pictures of our most recent expedition

I see a very well lived in house