Long Time Comin'

We all knew it was coming. Wes couldn't have been less interesting or less interested in Jillian on their date. It was like he had given up and wanted to go home. I was shocked that they still had the rose ceremony. But if they hadn't had it, we wouldn't have gotten Wes' nasty statement to the other guys about how much sex he is going to be having when he gets home. And then of course, we got to enjoy his uber-classy exit interview in the limo.

Let's get to the good stuff.

Kiptyn. I like Kiptyn--what's not to like? He's cute, funny, sweet, mature, but sometimes he's a little too polished. And he is just not in love with Jillian. (She knows it too.) I am guessing from the teaser that he is the one in the end that withdraws himself from the show or tells her he can't make the commitment. I thought his family were snobs and I can't get past that.

Reid. Reid grows on me every week. I really like Reid--they seem to have a lot of chemistry and he is funny and cute. Reid had the best family and that makes me like him more. I loved his look of disgust when Wes made his comment about getting a lot of sex at home.

Ed. Ed is the front-runner. Ed tells Jillian all the things she wants to hear. He is cute, tall, and has a good job. The only thing that drives me crazy is how he stares off into the distance when he talks--look at her--dang it!

Now, the important stuff. I loved Jillian's clothes in this episode. I loved Spain and I think it is my next dream vacation spot. I respected Jillian for not sleeping with the guys (at least on this date.) I'm sure that she'll pull the trigger in Hawaii. I seriously thought the funniest part of the whole show tonight was when Wes and Jillian had been having that terrible conversation and the fantasy suite card shows up. After reading the card, Wes looks at Jillian and says "I think we should do it." Of course you do Wes--that's why you're Wes.

Looking forward to next week. She's got some good men. Aloha.

Red, a Litte White Trash, and Blue

I love the Fourth of July and I love it even more when it falls on a weekend. We started celebrating on Thursday and didn't finish until Sunday (when we couldn't wake up for 9:00 church!) Here is how we celebrated our red, white trash and blue Fourth of July:

Sam left early Thursday afternoon to take the kids camping. He did it all--prepared the food, packed the jeep with the gear, kid's clothes, etc. I am a huge fan of camping--as long as I don't have to go!



Ryan and I met my Aunt Pandy, cousin Kelly and her darling little girl, Bailey for lunch. Ryan and Bailey were born three weeks apart:

Bailey putting the moves on Ryan:


That afternoon, Ryan and I hit the outlets in Park City where I blew the wad at Hartstrings and Gap outlet. We then enjoyed dinner at McDonald's. I eat at Micky D's a lot with all three of my kids but somehow it feels trashier when it is just you and an toddler enjoying a ten piece nugget and fries.

Saturday morning we headed out to the East Millcreek parade. Every year my mom and 90-year-old Grandpa build a float for the kids to ride. My brother Rex and his kids were in town and they rode with us.





My dad bought these babies just for the parade!


My cute grandpa--he is a WWII vet and survived the Bataan Death March. He got to ride in a convertible during the parade:


Sammie petted every dog in the vicinity:

We came home and Luke and Sam played the wii for about 5 hours straight, (which thrilled me--let me tell you--that is another post.) Finally, we went up to my mom's for a BBQ.


My mom goes all out on the food. Ashley don't be jealous. Even the jello was all pimped out:


I love this picture of Sam laughing and probably telling a lewd joke:


Ryan got dirty at dinner and we pulled his shirt off. This is where things really go white trash:


My brother Rex pulled out the fireworks. We got in a debate about whether firecrackers are trashy or not. I just loathe those big stands they put up in parking lots with all the fireworks. I especially hate the idea of driving to Wyoming to bring home the big daddies. So hessian. Anyway, I digress.


Rex light'n it up:

Rex admiring his handiwork:


The kids in awe:


Of course, the sparklers. Miraculously, no one got burned this year:

It went downhill from here. We headed out to see fireworks and waited and waited and waited. Finally at 10:20, we left and went home. The kids were exhausted. Can't wait for next year!

If You Don't Know Me By Now...

If there is anything you should know about me, it is that I love to coordinate my family, especially for pictures. It is my husband's cross to bear. I know that right now, everyone is doing the urban pictures with their families wearing random outfits that all sort of go together but don't match. I'm not ready to go there yet.

So here is where you come in. Please tell me which of the three ensembles you like the best. Yes, I laid them all out on my bed and took a picture. I'm compulsive. They are all a little different. My dress is different in the last one and Sam's shirt is different in one. Luke is wearing plaid shorts in one, etc. Also please tell me what kind of backdrop for this photo--it will be outside, but where? You can also tell me you hate all three of them--but if you tell me that, you better be prepared to tell me exactly what to wear and where to get all of it.

Please also tell me if Sammie's pettiskirt is too torquise and doesn't match the aqua the rest of us are wearing. If that is the case, we will scrap all the aqua and find stuff to match her skirt! Thanks in advance!

#1


#2


#3

(I Was) the King of Pop

When I was in High School, I dressed up as Michael Jackson and performed Thriller with some of my friends in an assembly. This was back in the day when painting my face black was still okay--or I thought it was. I loved Michael Jackson back then. In fact, since he died, my friends have been wondering why I haven't posted about it.

I know I'm totally late in posting this. The reason is that I have been trying to find the old VHS tape of my performance to put on my blog. My mother spent the better part of her weekend digging through old tapes trying to find it--to no avail.

When I was at BYU, my roomates and I performed the dance again for a talent show. These are some really bad pictures (and I had on brown shoes--which sucks!) but you get the picture. My roomates were dressed up as the Jackson 5 and did a number from his early days and then I came out and we did Thriller. I'm sure this got me a lot of dates.

My cousin Liz made a really good point on her blog last week. She was talking about Michael and she said she can separate his personal life from his art. I can too. Yes, he's a mess. Yes, he did questionable things at his Neverland ranch. Yes, he's deformed himself with waaaaay too much plastic surgery but will there ever be a better dancer? No. He took the world by storm in the 80s. I loved "Beat It." I loved "Billy Jean is not my Lover," I loved the "Smooth Criminal" video. I have the entire Thriller video memorized--who doesn't?

My point is--you gotta give Michael some love. He is a legend.

Stupid Girl

I am physically ill right now. Wes? Are you serious Jillian? Wes is such a liar. I have never had so much annoyance for someone on tv (other than Joy Behar from the View.)

Wes is so shifty, conniving and he's not even into her. Wes keeps saying "I'm not a good liar." He's not. I don't know why Jillian can't see right through him. I don't even like Jillian anymore. When she went ahead to meet his family, I lost all respect for her. Quite frankly, I don't even care if Wes has a girlfriend. I just think the guy is smarmy. Even though the whole confrontation ("the most dramatic in Bachelor history") with Jake was so staged, Jake is honest, reliable and real. He had real feelings for Jillian and would have treated her like a queen.

I loved Jesse. I loved his family. He is a man. He is darling. What a loss.

Ed does nothing for me anymore. His coming back was soooo scripted and played. Lame. I liked Reid better on this episode. He had the best family. Kiptyn strikes me as a little too smooth and perfect. His mother is C-R-A-Z-Y.

And Michael. Poor, poor, sweet Michael. I know I wanted him gone but the little guy has grown on me. He LOVES her. She dumped Michael, Jake and Jesse--the three guys the most crazy about her. She is a stupid girl who is going to get hurt again.

One thing I have learned from watching years of Bachelor/ette is that a person's true character is revealed in how they conduct themselves in their exit interview. Jesse and Michael left with class.


Yuck, yuck, yuck. I hate the show. I hate that I'm even writing this post and I hate myself even more that I'll be tuning in next week to see more of the disaster. Now I'm rooting for Wes--just so she can have him in all of his smarminess.

P.S. can you even imagine how this is going to backfire on his music career?

p.s.s. How dumb was that "phone call" that Jake made to Tanner right before he talked to Jillian. Come on producers--do I look that stupid? On second thought-don't answer that.

Eleven Ladies Lunching

I went to lunch with ten very fun ladies this week. (Marni left before we got the picture.) I love nothing more than sitting down to yummy girl food (salads, soup, sandwiches, mint brownie) and laughing about all the latest gossip and silly stuff women talk about. I swear I could be disfellowshiped for half the stuff I say when I get a few diet cokes in me.

Earlier in the week, I went to a picnic lunch with four of my friends from my old ward. It had been years and years since I've seen these girls and it was so fun to reminisce about the old stories--I would say "Remember when Robbie Brown ate the stick of butter at the etiquette dinner when we were fourteen" and they remember! Old friends are the best kind!

Last night, I finally got the blog links on my side bar up and going. Give me a break, it's only been 9 months since I started my blog. Anyway, I realized that as many of my friends went private, they basically fell off my radar. Bloglines doesn't pick-up private blogs and thus, I was really bad at checking all of them regularly.

But last night, as I was adding the private blogs to my sidebar, I checked up on my friends. It was as if I was having a virtual lunch with all my friends who have private blogs. We laughed and talked about the crazy stuff our kids are doing and caught up with each other. I vow to never get that behind again on checking private blogs--I have no excuse now that they are each just a click away.

That is what I love about blogging. You can stay in touch with people in a way that is not possible through just emailing or facebook. You really get a glimpse into their lives. I have met some really fun girls through blogging--people I would have never met any other way and now they are dear friends. (yes, I just said dear friends--like I'm seventy years old!) So all of my friends without blogs--Lori, Lisa, Noelle, Kristen, Joy, sister-in-law Sarah, sister-in-law Katie, cousin Kelly, I could go on and on--get cracking!

Snowbird in the Summer

Last night, the kids and I drove up to Snowbird to pick up this big, stinky, sweaty guy wearing spandex. If you read my sister's post about my dad a couple weeks ago you will realize that this it the exact opposite of what my mom does with my dad. My dad runs downhill and she picks him up at the bottom. In our case, Sam rides his bike up Little Cottonwood Canyon and I pick him up at the top. (He is a big fraidy cat and hates riding down that canyon.)

We do this at least once a week for the entire summer. I usually stop at Subway or Blimpie and pick up dinner and we have a picnic on top. If you haven't been to Snowbird lately, it is really fun. They have inflateable toys. We are usually the only ones there and they let my kids bounce for as long as they want.


They also have a poor man's alpine slide which is actually pretty fun. There is a zipline too and I keep begging Sam to let me go on it so I can pretend I'm on the Bachelorette. He doesn't want to pay for it.

There is also a mechanical bull that Sam keeps begging me to let him ride. I won't allow it. A man riding a bull in spandex shorts is just not right.


Ryan was really happy eating a hunk of bread.


He dropped it and a squirrel ran over and grabbed it and ran off.

Ryan was heartbroken and I got to console him. I love this little man-child. He is so cute right now, I could spread him on a cracker and eat him.

Does anyone else visit "the Bird" in the summer? I now make it a point to only visit in the summer. One fall, Sam dragged me to do the "Hidden Peak Challenge" at Snowbird. You basically race up the entire mountain and ride the Tram back down. I finished third to last behind a 70 year old man and a guy with a prosthetic leg. Sam still brings it up to taunt me. So I guess I don't feel bad telling you that Sam about passed out riding the tram back down the mountain the day of the race! He doesn't like heights or speed.