Blogging from Italy...

.... JUST because I can.

I was going to simply change the status on my facebook, which is a little bit less braggy, but I canàt find the "at" sign on the keyboard.

I had gelato for the fourth day in a row, too.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

My fifteen minutes for 0.75 euro is almost up. Enjoy your American turkey, I am surely jealous.

The night before Christmas

I've been counting down to this date for EVER it feels like... and now it's actually here.

Tomorrow I fly to Barcelona with my G&G, meet up with Natalie, and begin the cruise of

 dreams.  This little paper has hung in my walk-in closet for over 3 months - and here we are!

Quick run down for family history's sake:

• Adrie starting singing "stories, stories" and hitting her fist into her open hand.  Any guesses on where she learned Book of Mormon stories?  Wasn't from me!
  
• I had/have Shingles.  Wasn't the worst experience of my life, but definitely a long, drawn-out exhaustion + itchy sores + numb midsection + achey joints = sucks.  Particularly with the cruise of dreams looming.
  
• After begging for the "Lie-King" for months, I finally borrowed it and Adrie & I watched it twice in one day.  (No energy from shingles = lazy parenting.)
  
• I ate a whole jar of dill spears yesterday
  
• I bought another jar for tonight
  

Life is good!  Enjoy your Thanksgiving Turkey while I am eating Gelato in Sicily!

PS - here's a picture I stole from my cousin Corey, since I haven't taken any of my own recently:

Tagged by Fives

Five things I was doing 10 years ago:

1. Waking up at 4:44 am to get ready for zero-hour Jazz/Madrigal choir
2. Monopolizing my [younger] sister's friends
3. Ditching school whenever something better came up
4. Being grounded a lot (see #3)
5. Working at MSA every afternoon

Five things on my to do list today:

1. Feed Adrie breakfast & get her to Mindy's
2. Feel well enough to make it to work today (I didn't make it 'til noon)
3. Lead Group Therapy
4. Make it to enrichment - "Thanksgiving Dinner"!
   
5. Find comfortable headphones for my cruise

Five of my favorite snacks:

1. Cheez-its and Coke
2. Ruffles with Ranch Dip
3. No-bake Cookies
4. Toffee Crunch Ice Cream Bar
5. Chips & Salsa (with cheese & sour cream)... mmm I'm hungry  (see #4 above - I will persevere!)

Five jobs I have had:

1. File room girl at MSA (four years, started at age 14)
2. Customer Service call supervisor at MSA (three years)
3. Trailwalker for Anasazi
4. Therapist (LDS Family Services, Wasatch Youth Outpatient, Heritage)
5. Mom

Five Things I would do with a million dollars:

1. Buy some really nice clothes.  Reeeeally nice ones.  Without looking at the price tag.
2. Buy a brand-new SUV Crossover with leather seats.  Honda Pilot?  Mazda CX-7?  Toureg?  Who knows.
3. Buy a nicer camera, an assortment of lenses, and more photography classes
4. Put the rest in the bank and drop to working part time, just for fun
5. Take my entire extended family on the Disney Cruise.  Friends, too.  Anyone wanna come?

Five things that made me laugh this week:

1. Adrie saying "Kinka-bell"  (Tinkerbell)
2. My own embarassing dating story(ies)
3. How many text messages I manage to exchange daily, many of which make me laugh
4. Tiffany's dating stories (and blunders)
5. Being called a "dumb broad who doesn't know s#*!" by one of my girls.  

Five people I tag to answer these same questions:

1. Natalie
2. Jody
3. Mindy
4. Kendall
5. Alexa

Why technology and dating (and dummies) don't mix:

Summary of email to Boy A:  I profess to be too busy to worry too much about dating right now, hoping to explain why I haven't called him yet though he gave me his number a week ago.  

Phone call with Boy B:  First call ever, we chatted a long while.

Text from Boy A:  He says hi, thanks for your email, let's keep in touch for when there's time.

Text to friend Tiffany about Boy B (she is also juggling this single-mom-dating-thing):  "We talked.  He sounds pretty good... but he laughs a lot.  A LOT.  Argh why am I so PICKY!!!"

I press "send"... and in a panic see that it's going to Boy A,  NOT  Tiffany.

I press "Cancel"

cancel

cancel

cancel

cancel

CANCEL...

.......it sends anyway.

My fingers freeze and forget how to text as I rapidly try to undo what I've just done.  I can't figure out how to spell words, the caps get all screwed up, I accidentally cancel and have to start over - THREE times.

I finally text to Boy A: "Okay, most embarassing thing in the world, that was meant for my sister.  Ignore it!"

at the same time I receive text from Boy A: "Ok, this is funny, I'm pretty sure you sent this to the wrong person.  But pretty funny!"

I profusely apologize again and text how embarassed I am and he says no worries, "How often does that happen to anyone?"  I joke about telling the story to his coworkers.  

Boy A texts:  "No kidding.  I just know I shouldn't laugh too much when I talk to you and you are really picky."

I jokingly respond (my face is bright red and I keep saying "OhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygosh" into my pillow) and then:

Boy A's final parting text:  "It's all good.  I promise I won't bring this up again until after your busy season :) "

You just might cry a little bit

We all have blogs we stalk, right?  Well, here's one of mine - and I'm finally featured on it!

Seriously, Tiffany did the most beautiful job of family photos for me and Adrie.  If you don't want to wait for your Christmas card from me, check out the sneak peek here.

In other news, I paid a whole $9.99 for Ingrid's new Be OK album and I am majorly disappointed.  There are a handful of new beautiful songs, but more than half of the album are remixes, acoustics of old songs, live club weird songs, and covers.  Blegh.  Shame on me for not doing my research better.  And it hurts that when I finally actually PAY for music I'm disappointed.  Back to mooching off people for me :)

2 weeks from today I will be in Barcelona embarking on a 7-day Mediterranean Cruise.  You have no idea what a stressful event planning outfits and packing for this adventure has become.  I just spent 3 hours wandering around the mall and couldn't even decide what I needed.  I'm going to spend tomorrow afternoon laying clothes out across my bed while trying to plan 7 "dressy as I can stand while remaining comfortable" outfits.  I don't think I own that many nice clothes.  I have to stand next to my fashionista sister Natalie in pictures... Help!

PS - on my "I'd love to borrow" list is:

• an evening dress (yes, really.  Who has a still-in-style prom dress lying around?)
  
• a neck pillow for the airplane - you know, like those little tube-around-your-neck things.

Any takers?

The Wild Friday Nights of a Single Gal

It's 7:09 pm and I'm climbing into the bathtub with my orange fanta and a book about War.

It's good to be me.

We tried! Thank you Kendall for diligently attempting to capture some pictures of us. 

Some of my favorite things right now (2 years, 1.5 months old):

• The way she pronounces words so uniquely, as only a mother would understand I suppose.  For example, "Close the door" sounds like "Kiss a Deer."  Go on, say it out loud - that's how Adrie tells you to close the door.
  
• "I do it."  She knows exactly which buttons to push for turning on her air filter (white noise while sleeping), the space heater in her room, and she insists on turning off her own light.  
  
• She guides me right through her bedtime routine, all the way to "Sing?  In my bed." and then "Sit down" (I have to sit on the floor next to her crib while I sing.)  She knows her routine!
  
• She is especially attuned to the emotions of others, like "Mama sad?  I kiss it.  All better."  She says "Baby sad?" anytime she hears one, even far away.
• ANY time someone says "Jesus Christ" at church she says "AMEN!"  The newlywed couple next to me in sacrament meeting was cracking up today.
• It's not supposed to be funny, but I really do find entertainment at how emphatically she says "NO-mom", like it's one word.  "No-Kendall." 
• Sometime's she'll say "Adrie Aweena", like her name is going to be Alaina for a little while.  Today she's been saying "Mom - Jonah."  It's fascinating to watch her little mind try to play pretend.
• Her good eating habits have flown out the window, and it's a battle to get her to eat anything.  She begs for juice all the time and I'm trying to curb that habit.
• She is obsessed with candy, however.  More than I think normal kids are?  She asks for it out of nowhere and will eat from her Halloween tub until I hide it away.

All in all she's my doll and I love her more every day!