Another Friday

Ah, the weekend. Troy's at a football game (I hear it's not going well) and I'm enjoying my Friday Night Freedom. I went to a birthday party for my friend's son. It was a pirate theme and I made myself a little bandanna. There were a lot of other friends there and it was nice to see everyone and chat. Actually, I'll see a lot of them tomorrow at a baby shower. I just finished making and wrapping my gift. It's just a blanket, but I like the colors. Hooray for going out of town to find fabric. Anyway, the new mom and the birthday mom are part of a long-time family in Blythe. The matriarch is our ward choir director and is trying to get me to come back to choir, but I just can't. Ever since Carrie's funeral, I don't really sing. Well, I'll sing along with the radio and in Primary, but I have a really hard time singing the hymns in sacrament and the one time I went to choir it wasn't any better. My heart just feels heavy when I think of making the words come out. But you can't really explain that to someone, especially without tears coming to the surface. I don't why singing is the part of me I lost with her, but I just can't do it anymore.

It's strange that sometimes Carrie's death just seems like a fact--that's the way it is and it all seems very distant. Others it's so fresh I can smell the flowers that filled our house and the way my clothes felt on my skin as I stood next to her casket.

Last week I realized we'll have to take Carrie's name off our rotating Christmas list. As traditions pass and milestones are marked, we're losing her. Our family is slowing becoming one less.

Happy Birthday!

Yay for Randy! He's 60 and I don't have to cook tonight! Hopefully his birthday isn't as traumatic as the ones in this video.

I Hate Waiting for Repairpeople

Yes, I'm here waiting for the electrician to come fix the florescent light in our kitchen. He was supposed to come last week, but we were late getting off work and probably missed him. However, we were home nearly 10 minutes before the appointment today and 39 minutes after he was supposed to show up we're still waiting. Hello, like I don't have things to do? Troy has to go back to work and I need to run errands. Blah blah blah.

P.S.--The PV Yellow Jackets suffered their first loss on Friday in the San Diego Christian Patriots. They have a super good team, but we only lost by 2, so I'm very proud of our boys. Oh, and the Titans won, too. What a weekend!

Kids Robot Dance

I just laugh so hard! I guess I'm becoming a commercial fanatic!

Old Navy Commercial

I LOVE the song on this commercial. See my TAGGED post for an explanation.

I've Been Tagged by Kamie

I've Been TAGGED!!Here's how you play. Once you've been tagged, you have to write a blog with 10 weird, random things, facts, habits or goals about yourself. At the end, you choose 10 people to be tagged, listing their names and why you chose them to be tagged.

Okay, so Kamie tagged me a while ago, but I haven't taken the time to sit and think of 10 things about me. But because Michelle is mad at me now, I'll do my best.

1. I LOVE that song on the Old Navy sweater commercial. Sweaters, who cares? In fact I really don't like them, but I stop everthing I'm doing when the commercial comes on so I can listen to the song (see my other post to watch the video). I just did a little googling and found out the song is called The Way I AM by Ingrid Michaelson and it's now on my playlist. Yay!

2. I love to read but sometimes it takes me three weeks to finish the simplist book because I just can't get into it. However, once I start a book I have to finish it. Over Christmas break last year I read the dumbest book in one evening because I just had to finish the stupid thing. I feel stupider for reading it. This is the book--don't even start it if you are like me and have to finish. Actually, just don't start it.

3. I love living outside of Utah. I miss home and I miss my friends and the scenery, but I love living in a town with only one ward and lots of people who are not members. It just makes the ward a lot closer.

4. My favorite pro football team is the Tennessee Titans. I think I like them because they were the underdog in the first Superbowl I ever watched and they almost won! Plus I like the colors of their uniforms.

5. Man, this is hard. I think I've always been a sucker for the tragic element of things. I love movies, books and music where the ending isn't happily ever after. Ooo, like Pirates 3 and Thomas Hardy novels (even though they take a while to get into). Good stuff.

6. Being the oldest child is not all it's made out to be. When I accomplished something let getting good scores on college entrance exams or graduating from college, I was very pleased with myself. But once I set the benchmark my younger siblings always surpass it. That's right sis and bro did better on the ACTs and sis plans on getting her masters and bro is going to be a doctor. I just can't win. But I love them lots. :)

7. I love beachy and acoustic music. I didn't think that was too surprising until some kids at school told me they were surprised I like Rooney's When Did Your Heart Go Missing and Dashboard Confessional. One said he pictured me as a violins and harps kind of girl (which I do enjoy, but it's not my usually my first choice).

8. Okay, this is a big confession, but I get hooked on a lot of reality TV shows. There are a lot that are too out there for me, but I do get sucked into a lot of stupid stuff. I don't know if anyone remembers Paradise Hotel on Fox many summers ago, but Troy and I were hooked. Now I love A&E reality like Flip That House, Intervention and the First 48. Oh, and VH1 is a regular channel in our house.

9. I'm not really a good blogger, but I love to look at other people's and I figure it isn't fair for me to snoop when others can't do the same to me. But it's fun to tell my stories and stay in touch with long lost friends (aren't those pretty much the only ones who ready this).

10. Yay, nearly done. Um, this isn't really random, but I really miss my sister. It's weird because we weren't as close as we were with our other siblings, but there's still a big whole inside. Sundays are the worst because I have an hour in sacrament meeting to just sit and as much as I try to focus on the speakers, my mind thinks of her and how it felt right after she died. Strange, but today I found myself wishing I could go back to right after she died (obviously if I had my first choice it would be before she died, but stay with me) because although the feeling in my house was sad, it was also filled with support--both from each other and from everyone in town. Now we've all moved on and forget that the emptiness is still there, sometimes even within my own family.

Okay, finished. I don't have many blogging friends, especially that look at this blog, but just in case:

1. Kara because she's always full of randomness.

2. Lacie because I miss her and could use a dash of Lacie Jo.

3. Mande because she always comes up with very interesting and thought-provoking stuff.

4. Troy because he's obligated.

Umm, that is really all the friends I have, so if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged and let me know so I can read up on you!

Major Annoyance

Okay, I was going to post this on Saturday, then I was going to post it on Sunday, but now it's Monday and it's still a good story. Saturday morning I woke up to the sound of metal screeching again cement. That's right, the landscapers were outside doing their weekly thing. Annoying, but tolerable. Then the guy with the blower comes by and let me tell you, he is thorough. Because I was still in a semi-stupor I don't know how long he was working on the sidewalk in front of our apartment, but it was a VERY long time. A little later in the morning he comes by again. I don't know what machinery had been by since then, but there was grass on the sidewalk again. At that point I was officially bugged. Honestly, that thing is loud and even when you're not trying to sleep, it pretty much stops anything else you had going in. Literally as soon as he moved on the lawn mower came through. Uh, hello? Why did you blow the clipping off the sidewalk just before the lawn mower comes to cut the grass. Needless to say, our friend came by a THIRD time. By now I was way beyond bugged, but I thought, "Hey, this is something I can post about," so I got my camera and took a sneaky picture. Ha ha. That's right, those are my blinds framing the picture and the window screen providing a nice filter. I may have been angry that they had to clean off the sidewalk three times, but I certainly didn't want to get caught taking my angry picture. Anyway, it's now two days later and the sidewalks are still clippings free.