I wish I could be a kid again!

I just found the COOLEST website. It's all about crafts for kids, making things out of cardboard... which is something I did all the time as a child.

In fact... One time when I was about 10 years old, being the money hungry child that I was, I had an idea. One of my parents had just gotten something that came in a HUGE box. One big enough that I could get in. So what did I do? I poked a hole in it that was about my eye level (while on my knees) and then made a little slot with a bag on the inside to catch the money that was put through the slot. What was the money for you ask? Oh, well I'd made myself into "The All-Seeing Eye" which was what the hole was for. I'd put my eye up to it, and when someone put money in the slot, they could ask me one question. It worked much like an 8-ball. I had to put notes on the box like "Don't stick your finger into the hole" and what not. My dad thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. We have a picture of me in the box, and him kneeling down by it. I'm a little embarrassed by this story... so we'll leave the picture out.

Back to the website... they do things like this! Talk about cute! A big mailbox in the living room, and then individual mailboxes on each door... I wish I'd known about that like 15 years ago, because I'd be all over that. But think about it, how cute would it be to have a family home evening or a Super Saturday with your family, and you all put together the big mail box, then make your own little ones, and decorate them all. Then, you write nice letters! Write why you love them, something that they do that's helpful... I mean, it's even a good idea to do with your husband. It's always nice to have a little reminder, no matter how cheesy.

Needless to say, I'm more excited than ever to have a family. I just hope that I remember these awesome things! Maybe.... I think I might start a binder of things to do with kids when I actually have them... I mean... who knows? We might not have internet by the time I have kids. We might have a chip in our heads that just feeds us information... You never know.

Hahaha oh my

I found this on pinterest, and man alive, some of these make me laugh so hard! Like 1-3, 5, 7, 9... really, they all made me chuckle a little bit.

3 Weeks Down

So, as much as I love summer... it starts to wear on me. I get so bored! I try to entertain myself. I've covered lamps, I started a wreath, I have a quilt in progress, I've got a pile of books to read.... but sometimes I just want to get paid. I didn't find a job for the summer, so I kind of stopped looking. I've got my job at the school waiting, and get this, I'm going to be the PE teacher. Hhahahahahahaha. So weird. I'm really excited though. Maybe it will help me lose more weight. I'm thinking I should start running or something, because pretty sure I will have to run a mile with the kids. And how embarrassing would it be if I killed over while doing it? So yeah.

Anyway. I'm just chugging along. Peeling my shoulders away. I'm not sure if there will be anything left by the time I'm done with them. That sunburn was a lot worse than what I thought. Justin said 'ew' to my shoulder when he saw it. Such a sweetie face.

But back to summer. I read 3 books in about 5 days (The Hunger Games) and then I read a couple of Mary Higgins Clark books, and like I said, I covered a lamp. My sister started to help me cut the pieces to the quilt, which by the way is harder than it sounds. I started to cut my first rectangle, and had the ruler thing held down, started to roll the cutter, then it all moved. I yelled, Christy started laughing, and I was done.

AND THERE IS A LITTLE BLACK FLY THAT KEEPS FLYING AROUND MY HEAD AND I COULD LOSE IT AT ANY MOMENT!

In other news, I've fallen in love with Criminal Minds. And kind of Without A Trace. Essentially, Ion Television is the greatest. I watch it all the time. My boss always jokes about how I should have gone into criminology or something like that, because this stuff fascinates me. I read Ted Bundy's story, The Stranger Beside Me. It's his story from the point of view of his friend. Ann Rule worked with him at a suicide prevention hot line. She knew him before everything with him started... Just the workings of the mind intrigues me. How someone can snap like that, and still carry on in their life, as a normal person. I think that's why Criminal Minds has caught my eye. They go into detail about the type of person, and all the different details about them. I don't know how much of it is true, but it sure caught me.

Well, if anyone has an idea as to what else I could do with my summer, I'm open to suggestions. =)

Summer feet

I found the coolest stuff to paint your toes with. Sally Hansen something or other. But so far, I love it. And I love how tan I look compared to Justin :)

Sun Burn

Ah man. I got a killer sunburn at Cowabunga Bay yesterday. BUT MAN ALIVE IT WAS FUN! It's freaking expensive to get in, even with $6 off, but it was totally worth it. My front side is burned, but that's all. The chairs don't lay back. And grass is limited. But the slides were pretty great, the lazy river was also pretty great. Here are the slides, and what they all look like. It's such a fun place, and it was actually really eye opening.

My sister and I were talking about the different body types that were there, and how most people don't care what they look like. They're just there to have fun and get some sun. In my family, I'm pretty sure I was the only one who wore a tankini that showed my tummy. My sisters were always in the one pieces or tankinis with shorts that show nothing. We were talking about how it was either because of our morals, or our lack of confidence or what. But we've just been the kind of people that hide our goodies. I don't know.

June 16th was my anniversary with my hubbestie. Two years. It feels like it's been forever, but in a good way. I basically can't remember a time with him not there. It's too hard to imagine. I'm totally okay with that. We celebrated by going to Park City and stayed at a nice place that we got a steal off of groupon. The next day we went to the outlet stores and purchased some things there. Then we went back home and napped for a couple of hours. The next morning we went to the Dugway geode fields. We spent a couple of hours in the wrong spot, but we figured it out and started to dig in the right spot. We didn't find anything, but also didn't know what we were doing. It was still a lot of fun, and we're definitely going to go back. I love that Justin and I have the same interests. That we want to do the same things. And most importantly, that we have FUN. No matter what situation we're in, for the most part, we can laugh and enjoy each other. Granted, there are times when I get a little hangry (hungry=angry, thanks Justin), but we still love each other. Happy Anniversary Justin!

And then, in honor of Father's Day, I wanted to tell a funny story or two about my dad =)

#1

So when I lived at home, my room was in the basement. There was one night that we'd all gone to bed, and all the lights were turned off. I was hanging out downstairs and decided that I needed a drink of water. I didn't turn on any lights because I didn't want to disturb my parents... so I started to feel around trying to find the couch and table so I didn't hurt myself. I found the first couch, and then the table, I just had to find the second couch. I was reaching my hand out to feel for the couch when I touch someones shoulder. Well.... if you know my dad at all, he's easily startled. SO. He screams, I screamed, he screamed, I screamed, and ran into my mom's room, who while all this is happening, she's yelling "what's going on in there?!" -SIGH- I'd interrupted my dad while he was praying. hahahaha

#2

My dad is deathly afraid of spiders, and he also has this morning ritual where he goes into his bathroom and grabs the mug by his sink, rinses it out, and then fills it up and takes a drink. He normally does this before he has his glasses on. So my mom thought it would be funny to put a fake spider in his cup. It was a bell that had legs poking out of it, that kind of rolled around. The next morning, my dad got up and started his ritual. Filled the cup up and then poured it out. Well, the fake spider was rolling around the sink... and my dad started to yell up a storm. I'm sure there were a few cuss words in there, but he was yelling loud enough that my brother heard him from the other end of the house, and came running. Meanwhile, my mom is in bed laughing her head off.

I love my family.

Bah!

Does anyone else struggle with loading pictures onto blogger? They always upload to the top rather than where I want them to, and trying to type under them... don't even get me started on that. Honestly.

Mind? Where are you?

So, Justin and I have one of the coolest bathrooms ever. I mean, COOL. I'll post pictures at the end of the post. Well, we bought some things to put up in our bathroom, and we just use push pins to hold things up, haha, so don't look too closely. I opened the drawer that they are normally in, and couldn't find them, so I went to the other desk, checked those 3 drawers, and they weren't there either. So, then I went to the nightstands, and checked the 4 drawers there. Then I got distracted and was looking at the things I keep in my nightstand. 10 minutes later I couldn't remember what I was looking for. Well, I stood up and looked around for a minute or two, grabbed my blankie, and then came back out to the kitchen. Stood there for a minute. Then I finally remembered what I was looking for. So I came back to drawer #1, and TA-DA. Right in the back. Sigh. My obliviousness really hinders any progress I want to make.

Anyway.... here is my bathroom. And yes, these are all the real colors.

My bathroom used to be more green, black, and white, but then I found this clock at Target for $3, and I couldn't resist. Then on a trip to Fairview, we found the tin posters, and they fit right in. Thus, making our bathroom super awesome.

My bookshelf

I love my bookshelf.

I love all the things on it, all the pictures, all the decorations... everything. One of my FAVORITE things on my bookshelf are these books...

Book #1-

Book #2-

Book #3-

Book #4-

Book #5-

Book #6-

Book #7-

Book #8-

Book #9-

Book #10-

If you haven't read them, I highly suggest that you do. they're the diary of a British girl, and man alive, are they hilarious.

You're welcome.

The before

Continuation.

So, here are the fabrics and the lamps that I did. I forgot the 'before' pictures of the lamps, so you'll need to imagine them being orange first. Something else that I've done recently is made pillow cases for Justin and I to use. Some that matched a little more, and gave us a couple more to use.

The Fabric

The Lamps

The Pillow Case

Oh, and by the way...

It's getting crafty up in this hizzle. My friend posted about a wreath that she just did, and I loved it. It's a bean wreath! How cute is that? Well, since it's the summer of awesomeness, I'm going to start making things for our basement/home. On my list so far is this....

• Quilt- easy peasy one, because this is my first time


• Covering lamp shades- I bought the lamps from my friend, and just need to cover them with something that matches our decor


• A bean wreath- it was so freaking cute, I need one of my own


• Staining or painting my coffee table


• Whatever else tickles my fancy

I'm really excited. I have all the fabric for the quilt, and I'll start cutting it soon. I'm going to post pictures of the fabric so you can see the cuteness it radiates, and I'll post some before pictures of the lamps. But, seeing how I'm coming up on my 2 year anniversary, I was thinking that it's time for me to start being able to do things on my own. Being able to make my house look like a home. Not that doing these things are the only way to make a home... I just don't have the money or the room for the things that I want. So, I'm going to improvise and use what I have. Maybe get a few things on the side. But along with the crafty side of growing up, there is the side of cooking, like with a crock pot. Gotta learn some different recipes for that, because Justin and I will get sick of barbecued pork loin pretty quick. We went to the store the other day and stocked up on meat. Steak, pork loin, and hamburger. So, needless to say, I need some ideas. I googled a little bit today, but was really only half-assing it, because I wasn't feeling my A-Game today. Anyway... I still do my e-mealz but Justin and I suck at going to the store, and suck even worse at printing the menus off each week. We've been a member since January, and we have 10 menus printed off. Oops. Just a quick update on those, because I know some of you might care =)

• There are different menus to pick from, like fat-free, gluten free, portion control,vegetarian, low-carb, etc.


• There is a meal for each weeknight, so Monday-Friday. Along with the menu, you get a shopping list.


• You can choose a specific store you'd like to shop at, like WalMart, Kruger, etc.


• Some of the meals we've had are Pasta e Fagioli, White Bean Chili,Creamy Chicken Broccoli Bake, 3 Cheese Manicotti, Baked Spaghetti Pie, Winter Veggie Pasta Toss, Taco Cornbread Bake, Black Bean Soup, Spicy Shrimp, Huevos (hahahahaha huevos...) Rancheros.

We've made most of those things, but not all of them. The ones I listed are from each different menu. Most are really easy, like under 30 minutes. They use basic spices, basic ingredients, and so on. I've really liked making the meals, it's just a matter of staying faithful to them. Which we struggle with.

Golly. I was thinking this would just be a short, easy post... and man, did that turn out differently than what I was expecting. Heh.

I guess I'll update.

So, it's been a while. Let me think... what have we done?

Well, we've gone ghost towning on a few occasions, gone to the cabin, camping, met up with friends... things like that. I can't even keep it all straight. There have been a lot of vacations, a lot of changes, and a lot of snow.

It's now summer for me. School has been out a couple of weeks now, and boy, have things changed. Next year, I'm going to be... get this... the P.E. Teacher! Ba-dun-ching! Kathy is going to get the curriculum Chad used last year, and I'm going to have a look at that, and create from there. What are the odds. How weird is that going to be?

--Pictures from Ghost Towning--

--Pictures from Geocaching--

--Pictures from Moab--

--Pictures from seeing Carrie--

--Pictures of our weekend with the Wingates--

For some reason I don't have a good picture of Adam and Nicole, so I'll get a good one on the next trip =)

This Thursday is the 16th. Which means I've been married to Justin for 2 years. WOW. Time flies by whether you like it or not. We've been able to travel around Utah quite a bit. It's been a lot of fun. We've really grown in the time too. Adjusted to having two people, learned to sleep with another person in the bed, things like that. We love to hike and to send time together. Which is why for our anniversary, we're staying in Park City Thursday night, looking around Friday, and then on Saturday, we're going to go look for geodes. Haha. We like it =)