How Bad Can One Guy Have It?

Well, today I learned that Lance, who I call my brother-in-law for short (technically he was Carrie's fiance and is now as much a member of the family as my siblings, but that's a lot harder to explain to people), totalled his truck today. He told my sis he was only going 25 mph but slid on the slick road and rolled it. For anyone who's counting, that's three of his vehicles totalled in 9 months. Add to that he's lost his fiance, two or three dogs and who knows what else . . . It would be too much for me to handle. I love the guy and hope things start working out better for him. He's not the internet type, but here's a shout-out to Lance and a prayer that things start looking up.

Christmas, Christmas Time Is Here

Well, Thanksgiving is past and Christmas finally approaches. Although I must say I'm not really feeling the Christmas vibe yet. I've got most of my shopping done, but when I buy things, I feel a little guilt in buying stuff. But then I say to myself, "Self, you HAVE to buy this because you are required to give a gift to your sister/father/mother-in-law/husband." Maybe getting our tree up will help. I'll let you know tomorrow.

It's Been a While

A little update: Thanksgiving was great but the vacation was too short. Strange that I'm complaining when most people didn't have Friday off and I did, but I'm finding that I'm taking a lot for granted lately.

My brother-in-law fixed the light in our kitchen. Our landlord thought I just couldn't figure out how to put in new bulbs, but I told him it was more. After being stood up by the electrician twice, we just learned to live with it. Over the weekend my bro-in-law looked at it and determined the switch was bad. Yeah, that's what I was thinking all along. I just saved my landlord $100 bucks. Well, I didn't, but my family did.

Today we got the carpets in our living room cleaned and it's amazing how much larger the room seems without our furniture in it. No wonder we were excited to rent this place!

What a busy week. Lastly, today I vacuumed my Christmas tree. Strange, I know. But the tape on the box gave way from the heat in our shed and the tree spilled out and got dusty. Now it's all clean and ready to go up.

There you have it, our weekly update. Now we're off to the grocery store for potatoes and milk.

All I Want To Do Is Vacuum!

Doy (that's a little something coined by my old college roommates basically meaning "This is pretty much the dumbest thing ever," although we used it all the time).

So my vacuum bag got full as vacuum bags will. This is the first time I've had to replace it since pulling my vacuum out of the box a year ago, so I checked the vacuum and it said to use a "U" bag. Okay, so I go to Kmart (because that's the only place to get vacuum bags here) and lucky for me they have bags that say "U" on them. Of course they're made by some random company, but the letter matches, so I figure I'm set.

I get home and yeah, it's not working. First I had to alter the cardboard hooker-inner-thingy so it would stay in and then the bags too long and then cheap-o Kmart bag doesn't have anything that will seal the connection between the vacuum part that spits out the dirt and the bag. So after vacuuming one little room I opened the thing to check the performance of the bag and although some gunk has made it into the bag, there's a lot just chilling in the outer bag compartment.

Doy. Family coming into town and no working vacuum bag? What's a girl to do? I will have to turn to the internet and make due until I can get a real vacuum bag. Unless any of my Blythe friends can tell me another place in town where I can buy an actual brand-name vacuum bag. Maybe I'll get lucky at Sears. I'm not holding my breath.

Re-Assignment

Well, on Sunday I said goodbye to my Sunbeams. This week I begin teaching the Valiant 10 class. I loved my little 4-year-olds, but frankly, it was wearing on me. I loved that all the lessons were so simple yet laid the foundations for important gospel principles, but I was almost feeling like I was losing my gospel perspective. I missed really reading the scriptures (yes, I've slipped on my personal study) and getting a specific message out of them. I think the 10-year-olds will offer me just that: an opportunity to get my feet wet again and remember how much we can learn from the prophets of the scriptures. Of course, I haven't actually taught the class yet so I may feel differently on Sunday afternoon, but after spending some time with the lesson tonight I'm very excited. Hooray for a presidency that's in touch with the Spirit!

Gifting

Today I'm thinking the worst part of Christmas and birthday time is trying to decide what you want. You know how everyone asks you "What do you want for your birthday/Christmas?" I never know what to say. Sometimes it's easier to decide what to give someone else than to decide what you want to receive. It's killing me, I tell you. Last year I told Troy to give me a cheese grater (nothing fancy, just something he can get a KMart) and this year I think it's going to be an ironing board cover. Real exciting, I know.

A Litte Change

Okay, enough of the Jazz template. Troy will be crushed. Actually, I've been so bad at posting I forgot it was up. I have, however, decided that Blogger needs to get new templates because I do not want to take the time to re-do all my page elements just because I get bored of my look easily. Hear that, oh watchers of the blogs? Either get some better templates or make it easier to use one from another site. It can't be that hard.

Need a Little Cheering Up?

My friend Michelle has the cutest/funniest video of her son on her blog. Check it out at http://shelle.wordpress.com/2007/11/08/361/ He's going to be a dancing phenom someday, I tell you.

Six Years Ago

Thanks for the info, Kara. I'll return the favor. No one is required to re-post, but it might be fun!

Six Years Ago:

1.) How old were you?: 19 (I really that to think about that!)
2.) Where did you go to school? Southern Utah University, as mighty sophomore
3) Where did you work? Hogi Yogi, yay
4.) Where did you live? Manzanita Hall with my favorite girls
5.) Where did you hang out? Pretty much my apartment and Stonebrook (at least I think that was the complex) and my sister's a little
6.) Did you wear glasses? Contacts
7.) Who were your best friends? Steph, Betsy, Jenn, Chel, Kamie & Michelle (the more I think about this time, the more friends I remember, so I'd better stop here).
8.) What car did you drive? Hmm, exactly six years ago, nothing. In a few more months I shared a 1988 Plymouth Voyager with my sister. Oh, old blue, you were a good beast.
9.) Had you been to a real party? Oh, goodness, long story. Nearly seven years ago to the day I accidently went to a marijuana party, but I was so naive I didn't even know that's what was going on. Thankfully Steph was a little more educated than me and got us out of there.
10.) Had You had your heart broken? Ever? Yeah. November of 2001? No. I was on the prowl. Oh, the memories!

Three Years Ago
1.) How old were you? 22 (again, my subtraction skills are lacking)
2.) Where did you go to school? Southern Utah University
3.) Where did you work? SUU Housing
4.) Where did you live? SUU Housing
5.) Where did you hang out? Basically just my apartment
6.) Did you wear glasses? Contacts
7.) Who were your close friend(s)? Let's see. Troy and Rhett & Sandee.
8.) What car did you drive? 2002 Ford Escort
9.) Had your heart broken? Not at the time. Troy's great.
10.) Single/Taken/Married/Divorced? Married

Today
1.) How old are you? 25
2.) Where do you work? The library
3.) Where do you live? California
4.) Do you wear glasses? Pretty much only for driving and when the desert A/C gets to be too much.
5.) Who are your close friends? Troy, my mother-in-law (I know, a little strange) and lots of people I know are there if I need them).
6.) Do you talk to your old friends? I'm getting better thanks to the wonder we call the internet. Thanks Al.
7.) What kind of car do you drive? FoMoCo. That's what we call the Escort.
8.) Has your heart been broken? I still don't get this question.
9.)Single/Taken/Married/Divorced? Still married.

Now was that fun or what?! When I started I was thinking "Six years wasn't really that long ago," but then all these memories come back and it seems like forever ago. Great fun.

A Little Bit of Everything

Wow, I'm feeling very cloudy headed today. I was all ready to enjoy a Friday evening to myself with nothing to do, but with a couple hours left at work, I remembered I have to go to a baby shower tomorrow. I didn't necessarily forget about the shower, I just forgot it was so soon. I've know about it for awhile, so I guess I just thought it was still a long time away. Not so. Anyway, I still had to make my gift and figure out what salad I was making. It had been suggested that I make a seven layer something salad, but I've never done it and wasn't in the mood to experiment. So I'm doing a scaled-down version of my Pepperbelly's knock off (which turned out very well, if I may say so). Anyway, it's now 10:30--that probably explains my cloudy head--and I need to go check on the chicken. I'm kind of at the point that I'm tired but wired at the same time.

I wish I had a funny story to tell, but I don't. The trunk-or-treat was fun. Troy and I were some of the first helpers there so we got to pick our game. We opted for the bean bag toss, but by the time it was over two hours later my hands were black from picking up the bean bags from the asphalt. Ick. And I was so tired. My legs were jello and are still recovering. I think I need to time it next year so I'm either prego or out of town.

One final note: Congrats to cousin Sam on getting married today and Happy 18th Birthday to Sarah. I love you! She'll never read this, but it's the effort that matters, right?