8 Things...

This is my last post today, I swear.

I hardly ever do these things, and I don't think Amber meant to tag me(you would use my married initial, right??), but I am not completely sure; regardless, it sounded like fun, and 8 is my favorite number, so here goes:

8 TV shows I watch
Top Chef
The Biggest Loser
Dancing with the Stars
Samantha Who
Law and Order SVU
Heroes
Oprah (occasionally)
Ellen (occasionally)

8 Favorite Restaurants
Costa Vida
Senor Rics
Ale House (Orlando)
Bennegins (but it's closed here, so sad)
Outback
Amura Sushi (Orlando)
Panera
Coldstone Creamery

8 things I did yesterday
made cinnamon rolls for breakfast
watched the Thanksgiving Day parade
helped my family look for Black Friday Deals
gave my son a bath
curled my hair
ate Thanksgiving Dinner
took pictures with family
drove home

8 things I look forward to
Christmas (most of the following are kind of linked to Christmas as well)
the cruise we're taking next month
seeing Joel's family for Christmas
seeing my cousins for New Years
1pm church (Though I'll be sick of it by February or March)
Growing our family somehow
my business growing
Joel finishing school

8 things I love
Family
Friends
the Gospel
my job(s)
sleep
travel
warm weather
being a mom

8 things I can't stand
driving on icy roads
doing smelly dishes
ignorance
when my computer doesn't work
potty training
endless laundry
idleness
rudeness
rap music

8 things on my wishlist
more kids
seeing my extended family more
a house
new clothes
my business doing well
a good vacation and everyone being happy on it
eventually I would like to get my ear fixed
being able to travel more

8 people I am tagging ( have no idea if or when anyone will do this!)
Jeanine
Becky
Jeannie
Jamie
Kelly D.
Patti
Melissa B.
Janisa

Thanksgiving

We had a pretty typical family Thanksgiving. Denise was visiting from Utah. We spent the night so Joel could participate in the Annual Aurora Highlands Ward Turkey Bowl, at which my father got a black eye; and the youth beat the older guys for the first time in many moons, largely in thanks to Mitchell and his friends, who actually play footbell. We girls made cinnamon rolls, watched the Macy's parade, and looked for Black Friday Deals.

Lorae and her family came over for dinner. We had roasted turkey, fried turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, yams, greens, green bean casserole, lorae's mac and cheese, rolls, gravy, and of course, pie. I may be forgetting something else. There was a lot of food!

Being me, I remembered to bring my camera, but neglected to actually take it out to take pictures. So, these ones are courtesy of my sister(s):
Here's one of all the sisters. Everyone curled their hair, so I had to too. Of course, it looks much better on all of them. But remember, I cut and color all that hair!

Then we had to add our Mommy

Here we are the night before at the Mall, when we took C to see Santa. Jaime also bought him a Koala Build-A-Bear.

Here are all the girls at Thanksgiving, when we added Lili and Lorae.

Here's the whole immediate family. Back row: Jaime, Denise, Mom, Dad, Me, and Shauna; Front rown: Steven, Mitchell, Joel, and of course, Christopher.

Pixos

Well, we decided at the last minute to take C to see Santa the day before Thanksgiving. We went to Cherry Creek Mall as usual, but this year we were with all of my sisters, and a friend of Shauna's.

Does anyone remember last year's picture? Neither Christopher OR Santa were smiling, so this year is definitely an upgrade! C told Santa he wants Pixos. I had no idea what they were until a couple of weeks ago. I still don't really know how to describe them, but he's been obsessed ever since he saw a commercial for them on TV. He's a little distressed that we forgot to tell Santa we'll be in Florida, but I told him we can write a letter to let him know. This Christmas stuff is kinda fun with a kid his age.

We also put up the tree. Pics of that coming soon.

Twilight

I really, really wanted to like this movie, ya'll (sorry, it slips out once in a while and I just have to use it)! But I didn't expect to. I'm always disappointed by movies based on books I've read. I love books. I also love good movies, but somehow when you read about it first, it just never matches the movie you make in your mind, I suppose.

But I'm really bummed because this is the one chance to make a really good book a decent movie. And what we got was a low-budget (the sparkling effect looks like when Comcast doesn't come in right!), not-so-greatly-acted (They're both supposed to be wry and sarcastic, not sullen and depressed!!) movie. Harry Potter cut way too much out for me and focused on the wrong story lines, IMO, but at least it was made well (tho it did take a couple of movies for those kids to not be completely awkward!). It probably didn't help that I was surrounded by the crowd I was surrounded by. But I should start at the beginning....

I went with my 2 sisters, Shauna and Jaime; 3 students from the high school Shauna (and I) work at; one of my beehives and a good friend's daughter, Morgan; and my friends Denise (who had never read the book), and Kelly. Shauna, Taylor, Morgan and I went to a late dinner at Chili's, and then Morgan and I went to the theatre while the others went to get treats at the grocery store. Everyone was meeting us at the movie. We got to the theatre at 10pm, and there were about 40 or so people (mostly teens) in front of us. They let us into the theatre a little after 10:20. The theatre was half full as soon as they let us in. The dozen girls behind us were definitely LDS, and I wanted to start singing YW camp songs and see how many people joined in, but I resisted. Everyone else got there slowly (Kelly gave us a scare, she got there right as the movie started because her poor husband had to work RIDICULOUSLY late. Poor Simon!) I ended up sitting between Jaime and Morgan for the movie.

Now I have to take a moment and talk about my sister Jaime. Is anyone more hilarious? I mean seriously. She is so blunt and just does not put up with anything she thinks is crap. I love that about her, probably because it's SOO not me! I'm so sensitive to everyone around me, and very careful about being.......um, PC I guess, not offending anyone. She is definitely aware of those around her too, in her own way- if she's on your side she's fierce- but she'll just tell everyone how it is, at least how it is in her opinion. I laughed a lot during the movie because she was just rolling her eyes. At the movie, and the ridiculous reactions of the girls around us....everything. She cracks me up.

On the other side, Morgan was pretty funny too. She is not your average 12 year old, and she was not impressed by most of the things ALL those other girls were. Although she was swooning quite a bit over the guy who plays Edward, whom I am not crazy about. More about that later.

Those girls (whenever I say this, I mean, the majority of the theater), sighed, giggled, squealed, or gasped EVERY time a new character came on the screen. As if they haven't been seeing pictures and clips of all of these people for the past 4 months!! They also clapped at a couple of extremely odd times.

I'm trying really hard not to spoil anything for anyone who may read this prior to seeing the movie, but I have to log a couple of observations. 1) Robert Pattinson (Edward) does some SCARY stuff with his eyes, thus making it very hard for me to swoon the way I really want to over Edward!! He also is a little too sullen. All I kept thinking was how he said he played Edward as manically depressed. Eww. Tortured soul maybe, but manic depression?? 2) Kid who plays Jacob, hair, all wrong. Seriously. 3) Kirsten Stewart (Bella), lighten up, for goodness sakes!! Depressing, depressing, depressing. She's practically monotone. And with both of them playing their parts SOO seriously, the romantic stuff really gets lost. 4) special effects, not so special. 5) make-up, bad. 6) After all the stuff they cut (which I understand, I really do), the spider-monkey thing??? Please. This is not a spoiler, because it's even in a trailer or two. 6) If you hadn't read the book, it just didn't make sense. Denise was totally confused, and I don't blame her.

On the other hand, I thought the guy playing Bella's Dad was a bright spot. And maybe Rosalie. The rest of the Cullens barely had anything to do. Some of the school kids were pretty entertaining.

Hopefully, they'll get a much bigger budget for New Moon. We're probably stuck with the actors, though. PLEASE at least let them improve the way the Harry Potter kids have. Let us all pray.... Anyway, just my 2 cents.

Savage Boy- starring Christopher

K, call me stupid, but I couldn't figure out how to post a video as an actual post. I know it's possible, and if anyone wants to share the secret with me, please do.

So anyway, my siblings, Jaime and Steven, are in a film class together. They made one of their recent assignments, doing a dream sequence, with Christopher as the star. It's on Facebook and Youtube, but I thought I'd post it here so everyone can see it. He was difficult to work with, from what I hear, so I don't think we have a child star on our hands. But Jaime did a great job editing and it's really cute! He actually won't watch it anymore. He got scared of the stuffed animals roaring at him during filming, and now he has a new clause in his contract for any film he makes not to work with them. Haha, just kidding!

So anyway, since I'm technically challenged, it's at the very bottom of this page!

Halloween Night

Who can tell Kristen just finally got to upload all her pics on the new computer??? OK, ok, put your hands down. Here is my documentation of actual Halloween Night C enjoying a sugar cookie after Trick or Treating.

C hiding behind his cup, and Lily in her Snow White costume. Ironic, huh? : P

JoJo was a ninja. Here he is with his sister.

Had ti\o include this one even tho C didn't cooperate. Joel was the Man in the Yellow Hat from Curious George a couple of years ago. And since C decided to be a monkey this year, he resurrected it. Aren't they cute???

Day at the Zoo with cousins!

We went to the zoo in mid-October with my cousin (in-law, if it matters) Jeanine and her kids. We always love to hang out with them and we had a lot of fun. Here are some pics.

The kids all wanted to use my camera outside the main monkey house, so here is (I believe) Jason's attempt at taking a pic of me and Abby.

This was by photographer Abby

This one was Zander

And I took this one of all the kids. Clark-the-baby-we-barely-knew-was-there (so quiet!) is in the back of the stroller, and Jason is in front hamming it up. C is sitting between Abby and Zander. Fun bunch!

How C compares to penguins in height.

Lolabelle Salon, Ltd.

So here (finally) are some pics of the salon. This is the front door. You can't really read anything, but the circle up there says Lolabelle and 15, which is my studio number. The door also says Lolabelle, that one you can read if you're looking for it.
This is my product shelf and side and back wall. I sell Paul Mitchell and Pureology products. You can also see the fridge and some of my tools, and one of my waiting chairs.
The sink, backbar, cabinets, and everything reflected in the mirrors : )

I wish I was there more and busier, as I've stated in the blog before, but I love having this space and feeling really active in the industry again. I'm way excited about the future and really getting going. I officially opened October 20th, and my first client was one I've been doing for a few months now. She's the wife of a paramedic I work with at Coors Field. He helped me a LOT in getting started, as he's getting his masters in Taxation. They were so sweet, they brought me flowers (You can see them on the top shelf about the sink), toasted the occasion with sparkling cider (the bottle of which- after C drinking most of it single-handedly, is also near the sink in the pic), and both signed an official "first dollar". I couldn't have asked for a more awesome first day!

I also had a great time decorating the place, with a lot of help from my friend Charlie who is an UpperCase Living rep. I ordered the stuff on the walls, but she's completely responsible for the cute seasonal stuff around the place. I love how the paint turned out. If I didn't have 5 jobs already, I might try interior decorating! : P

patchwork thoughts

Like the title says, this is just a random post to catch up a little bit on everything.

1) The salon is getting busier, which is great. But I still would like to be there more, and more regularly. But it's been really good for me altogether. It's forced me to talk to new people, both in attempting to get more clients, and meeting more people in the industry. The people who work around me are great, I'm having a blast getting to know them.

2) I've been subbing at the high school a bit the past couple of weeks. Which means C has been spending time with Grammy and Papa. He never wants to leave there. Monday when I picked him up, he was helping rake leaves. I have pictures of this somewhere. They did the front lawn and the next-door neighbors (who just moved in and are friends from my parents' ward). C was so proud to help. He thinks he's Papa's little shadow and can help him with everything.

3) Just one month now til we leave for vacation. I am SO excited. It's taking everything I have not to post everyday about Disney and cruising and seeing both families for Christmas. I can NOT wait.

4) I hate computers. I have become so dependant on them. We just got ours back, which means I still have to load everything on. Thus, there are no pictures yet, even tho they are waiting in the camera. If I don't check my email, facebook, family website, and friends' blogs everyday, I am lost. Not to mention Joel is going to college online and needs to do schoolwork almost every day. My parents gave us their old laptop to get us through, but it's just a pain to not have our computer with all of the programs we need on a consistent basis, and I can't figure out why it keeps happening!

5) I've been doing the Grocery Game. I never thought I would actually do it, but I joined up and have already saved a lot of money. We spent $54 on over $100 worth of groceries the other day. And it will get much better, because I didn't even have most of the coupons on the list because I haven't been clipping them long enough.

6) I've been flirting with the idea of getting rid of everything we've saved of christopher's. Our storage space is full of all of his clothes, toys, and baby stuff (swing, highchair, carrier), and I just think 'why are we keeping it all?' but every time I really think about it, I cry and feel like doing that would be totally giving up on having more kids. Which is kind of dumb, because we're much better off than when we had C, and if we had to get new stuff, it would be fine. But I'm a completely sentimental person, and I want them to have some of the same stuff. I wish I knew what was going to happen. A good friend who completely understands my situation suggested I just go through all of the boxes and save a few special things I really want, which may work for me. Any other ideas?

I think that's about it for now. I'm going to try to make progress in my catastrophe of a house. Tho I just read an email my dad sent that just made me want to throw everything away. If only I could really do it!

Proposition 8 in California

In the same vein as my last post, this is mostly for remembrance purposes.

The past couple of days, since the election, people have been protesting outside some of our temples in California. There have also been reports of vandalism, and calls for murdering supporters of the issue, since it passed. I find this ludicris. Our local newspaper had a picture of a woman outside of the Fresno temple, holding a sign which said "Mormons have 10 wives, why can't I have 1?" First of all, do your stinking research! It's amazing that they're saying w're ignorant and unaccepting, and then would say something so uninformed. But more than that, news stories show them doing mock wedding ceremonies and writing "hate" crossed out in chalk. This is not about hate, or beings freaked out by same sex couples. It's about protecting something we deem sacred. I love my gay friends. And I want them to be happy, and in healthy, secure relationships. However, without the protection this proposition gives, there would be effects that our beliefs do not support.

Also, aren't these a lot of the same people calling for unity, equality, and acceptance?? This decision was made by the same system we used to decide everything else that day. It was voted on by every Californian who chose to vote. Not to mention Florida and Arizona, who both had similar propositions on their ballots. Obviously, protecting marriage between a man a woman is important to a lot of people, and not just Mormons. Just because they find out that members of the church donated a lot to a cause they believe in, they decided that they're the people to target their anger at. Generally, they won a lot of things that day, and they may even win this sometime in the future. Something tells me it's not going away.

Anyway, I hope all of the Saints who are out there will be safe. Our buildings can be fixed or replaced, but people being hurt for supporting an issue is really unacceptable. I just wish that people would be honorable and do the right thing, especially when it's what they preach most of the time.

OK, climbing down from my soapbox now...

Election 2008

I thought I should probably blog about the big news of the week. If for no other reason, because it IS historic, and maybe I or my child(ren) or grandchildren will want to know how I felt about the whole thing in the future.

I make no secret of the fact that I did not vote for Barack Obama. But I knew he would probably win, for several reasons. My reasons for not voting for him are also many. His healthcare plan makes me nervous. I completely disagree with him on the subjects of abortion and infanticide. I also have concerns about whether he knows how to carry out his grand plans. But now, we will see. And certain things about having our first (partially) black president appeal to me. Our country has definitely come a long way. The only reason I thought he might not win was because of how prejudice a lot of people still are. I have no qualms about having a black president, I think in concept it's great; he's just not one I agree with. In the very beginning, I found him very intriguing, and not being thrilled with McCain, I wanted to look at both candidates very closely.

I think my bottom line is: I believe that people who work hard deserve to be rewarded, and that we should all be held responsible for our decisions. My family is certainly not in one of the upper brackets of income, and therefore will (supposedly) benefit from Obama's tax plans. However, I don't necessarily think wealthy people and big businesses should be taxed more to make up the difference. Most of those people went to a lot more school than I did, and have a lot more in student loans to payback. And as for the accountability part, I think a lot of things that liberals stand for disregard that. It's like "Here, go have sex unprotected and whenever you want, we'll create the morning-after pill and legalize abortion for you!" and the idea of universal healthcare kind of falls under the same category.

Anyway, I don't expect everyone to agree. That's what makes our country great. I just wanted to remember specifically my thoughts on the situation. I am anxious to see how the situation unfolds. It was definitely exciting to watch the news and see the people so passionate about what they had come together to do. And I respect their beliefs and their excitement, and in a lot of ways, I hope they're right. We shall see!

Let's go, a GNO!

For those of you not familiar with the Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus??) song, GNO stands for Girls Night Out. We had a great one a couple of Saturdays ago and I finally got a new computer and gathered some decent(ish) pics. A friend in the ward, Kealey, invited a bunch of us to an annual fundraising event for Volunteers of America called Western Fantasy. It's something her parents regularly support but were unable to attend this year. So, thanks to them, 10 of us had a fun Girls Only night out! Most of the girls are from my ward, and there was also a relative of Kealey's and a friend of hers from college. It was a lot of fun, we got to dress up country style. It's held at the Stockshow complex and there's dinner, silent auction, and entertainment.

Probably the coolest part- the concert. The main guest was Dierks Bentley. Not necessarily my favorite, but I love country music, it's about all I listen to in the car now, so I was surprised to find I knew all the songs he played but 2 or 3. It's a really great intimate concert setting, so here I am right next to the stage.

Addie, myself and Stacey at our table.

Andrea, myself and Stacey.

Here's all of us, and you can finally see that Stacey was VERY pregnant! From l-r in the back: Addie, Kristin, Andrea, Kealey, and Bree (sp?) front: Jessica, myself, Michelle, Stacey, and Emily.

So, thanks again for including me, Kealey! I had a great time. It was a great group and a really fun thing to get to do!

6 years and counting....

Yesterday Joel and I hit 6 years of marriage. We celebrated Saturday by going out to the Cheesecake Factory (love that place!!!), he also got me a CD I really wanted, and a couple of DVD's. I got him a nice Rockies polo and some new shoes. I'm such a dork, but no matter how much I want to get him something cool, practicality always wins out for me, and he really needed shoes! : P I know 6 years isn't a lot to some people, but it's a while, and we've definitely been through a lot!

I don't talk about my dear husband nearly enough, so I thought I would list some things I love about him.

1) He works really hard. He's working full-time AND doing school online right now, and I know he wasn't thrilled about that prospect. But he's been doing a great job. I just hope I've been as good as I've tried to be about giving him all of the time he needs for school at home. It's so hard some days not to just throw my hands up as soon as he gets home and make him deal with Christopher, but I'm really trying to be as supportive as I can. He is doing it for our family, after all.

2) He's always the first to apologize and forgive. Sometimes, this just makes me more angry, but I'm working on it! I just don't switch gears as fast, but I realize it's a blessing to me that he does.

3) He always puts me first. I have a hard time with this one too. I always have to remind myself that it's our partnership in marriage and with Heavenly Father first. It's so easy to put C ahead of everything else, because I think "well, he's the young child that I'm responsible for, and Joel is grown and should be able to take care of himself". I'm trying to learn that he and our relationship need nurturing just as often, if not more, than Christopher. Not sure this makes sense to anyone else, but it does to me!

4) He really is my best friend. No one gets me like he does, and he takes my side so automatically and vehemently in things that sometimes I'm taken aback. There's no one I'd rather spend my time with. And I guess it's a good thing, since we're stuck with each other for quite a while!