Bring It On

Glad I'm not there, but it looks cool, huh? :)

So, the end of 2009 brings not only the end of another year, but the end of yet another decade in my life. Hard to believe that the last end of a decade was actually the end of a Century as well! Holy crap, has it really been 10 years? But I still remember what I was doing this day, 10 years ago!

Not terribly exciting, though. I was in the first few months of my mission in Switzerland. So, as you can imagine, New Year's Eve as a missionary isn't too crazy, but our ward was having a party to bring in the New Year, fire works and everything! Dang, those Mormon Swiss really know how to party! And of course there was excellent food, as always (the chocolate is just for the tourists...and me).

And who remembers the Y2K scare? Um, yeah, that was embarrassing, wasn't it. Not much came out of that except the realization that mass media has the ability to put fear into the hearts of men. And to that I say, "No one expects a Spanish Inquisition!" (all hale Monte Python)

So, tonight we celebrate J's 10th birthday (that was really yesterday, but because of visitation schedules he is ours today and the rest of the weekend...) at Chuck-E-Cheese with an insane amount of other people, I'm sure, then let the kids watch the East Coast version of Rock'n New Year's Eve (because it's over at 10pm) and all go to bed happy. Then we'll wake up to a new year, more new snow and a warm breakfast. Maybe I'll trick them and cook oatmeal :)

Good Bye, 2009. You will be a great memory but I look forward with great anticipation!! xoxox

Happy Independance Day

To show my pride for my country, I'm going to do something special...post something selfish and all about me! :) Just being sarcastic. Even though this is a photo mosiac about me, I gleaned the idea from my sis and another friendly blogger. Enjoy!!

P.S. You can do one too! Just follow the directions at the bottom!

1. Rachel and the Lake, 2. cheeseburger with onion rings, 3. Pocatello High School, 4. yellow hill (a.k.a. find the bee), 5. christian bale, 6. Diet Mt Dew Machine Panel, 7. Sorrento, Italy, 8. we fell in chocolate over love, 9. mom n baby, 10. Family Hands, 11. Day 102 Florence Nightengale We salute you!, 12. 2115

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name. (kid version: favorite animal?

A Day at the Zoo...

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Okay, more like 2 hours, but by 1pm (even though I brought food to eat) everyone was tired and cranky. Plus Lydia ate everyone's sandwiches. It was fun to get out anyway. Evidently, so did half the Salt Lake Valley that day. The Conservation Carousel opened this month. All the carousel things are animals (go figure). It's pretty neat, and for a minimal donation ($2,000 starting) you can sponsor one of the plastic/metal animals! There are only 4 $10,000 animals left! Sign me up for the Badger! They're resilient creatures. :)

Ahhh, good memories!!!

All growd up

I received a letter in the mail the other day from a very dear friend. Odd, I thought. No one sends things 'snail mail' these days.

Then I opened it and almost died laughing.

She had cut out the ad for the NKOTB summer concert in San Antonio and mailed it to me with an invite to stay at her house if I needed. :) Thanks, Melissa!!

Yes, sixth grade, 1990, I was invited by a class mate to go to Salt Lake and see NKOTB in concert! I was just surprised my parents let me go. I wasn't all that in to them at the time, but I have to admit, for a 12 year old tween, it was an awesome concert. :)

I was also surprised that this person asked me to go with her. At the time, we weren't really close, but after that we had a few years where we were inseparable. Then we drifted apart in high school. As I've kept up with her blog, there is alot of stuff I never knew about her, even in all the years I've known her. So, I think, why did she keep all that from me all those years, or is she just now coming to terms with her issues? Sometimes I wonder if you allow things to get twisted so much that you can make yourself believe anything.
And to think I thought I knew someone...sheesh.

ANYWHO...no I don't plan to go to the concert this year, either in San Antonio OR Salt Lake, but thanks for the offer, Mel! I'm sure we'll all get our NKOTB fill this summer.

Meeting at Artist...No Strings Attatched

Ingrid Michaelson and Daryl

Very seldom do I win anything or even get to meet someone famous (not that I care to meet famous people, but if they are a good person, it is kind of neat).Even more seldom is when I meet said famous person and I enjoy their company. But Daryl won tickets from a local radio station to go to a Meet 'N Greet with Ingrid Michaelson (I have a song of hers on my music browser on the very bottom of this page) before her concert tonight. We were able to be a part of a small group and listen to her play songs from her new CD. She was so enthralled with some of the little kids in the group that she became distracted some of the silly things kids do. One girl was tapping the rhythm on her dad's bald head.

She is very talented, has great voice tone and control and range, but not annoyingly going up and down. Her sound is kind of blues meets Indie. Not that I'm trying to be Randy or Simon (that's a blog for another day) but I enjoyed every song on the CD on my way home.

ANYWAY,

after the song performance, there was a drawing for concert tickets -- 3 sets. We thought we almost won a set once when she pulled the name out and said "Der....rick." That guy was excited. The last drawing was for a Wii game system. I never expect to win anything, especially anything of value. And I didn't win anything...

Here is Daryl with Parker, the DJ from whom Daryl won the tickets and what you can't see in the picture because I stupidly didn't make sure it was in the frame...

WAS THE Wii GAME SYSTEM!! That's right, folks. My husband is the luckiest guy EVER!! He actually won! We just sat there, looked at each other, "Really?" So cool!

Well, I guess that means we are gaming people now. As long as I tried to put it off, I can't really turn down a FREE system! Tennis and bowling and even golf, here I come! Maybe by Christmas we'll be caught up with the rest of the world and have Guitar Hero...but by then there will be another game that will craze the country that I'll put up resistance for...or just borrow it from my brother! :)

P.S. He even made it to the Priesthood session (hence the dress shirt in the picture). What a guy, hu? :)