Nothing to Say...

I'm definitely out of my blogging element these days. Been busy playing Mommy to these three little monkeys. We've been having fun, going swimming, playing at Lagoon, going to the movies, not cleaning the house, and not doing laundry, and not replacing the carpet in my bedroom closet, getting feet poked with the exposed tack strip. You know, typical summertime stuff.

So, I'll just post some pics.

Well, DUH!!

Maybe we wouldn't be in a recession if more people watched SNL! Brilliant!

Random Sherisms and Random Tunes, revisited.

How many weeks has it been since I've done a random post? I don't know.

I have a lot of things I was going to talk about. But everyone else already beat me to the punch, and said it much more eloquently than I could.

For instance, I recently had a minor flood in my house. But, it never occurred to me to name the incident after a famous fountain in Vegas. Apparently, Motherboard and I ordered from the same menu this week.

Last Monday, after taking the kids swimming, I let them all have a bath in my jetted tub. During which, I was teaching my brother, Charlie, a piano lesson. Suddenly, TJ came running into the living room, dripping wet, saying I needed to turn off the water, and that the tub was overflowing. I told him to just go turn it off, thinking it was just the faucet (not Farrah). I went in, and the jets had been turned on, and were shooting EVERYWHERE! Water shot all the way into the back of my closet (that's probably about 10 feet!) All of my shoes were filled with water. There was about 2 inches of standing water on the floor. The carpet in my closet was soaked. Oh, and there was water leaking into the smoke alarm, and through the ceiling in my basement. Yeah. I was just way to pissed off to think of anything funny to say about it. Still am.

Because right now, I have a disassemble smoke alarm, so if our house burns down, we'll all die, and I have no carpet in my closet because it wouldn't dry, and it started to stink, so we had to pull it out. And my kids have more than once stepped on the tack strip and poked their feet. I'm still pretty peeved about the whole ordeal. So, no funnies here.

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I was also going to talk about how I'm already sick of hearing about Michael Jackson, and how I'm bugged because I couldn't watch 30 Rock reruns last night because the damn Today show was too busy reporting who knows what about the Freak. And how he totally stole Farrah Fawcett's thunder. I mean, she died first. It should've been her day! Not his.

Yeah, but then Melissa wrote a whole post about it. And it's just way funnier that I could even think up.


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I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Well, not me, really, but my kids did, and that just put me on the wrong side. I slept in. My visiting teachers were scheduled to come over at 10:00 this morning. My house was a disaster. Peter decided to have a melt down. Something about how I helped her wash her hands in my bathroom, but she went potty in the other bathroom. (Yeah, I think she might have OCD. I'm worries). So, in reaction to Peter's meltdown, I kind of, sort of blew my top. Five minutes before the VT-ers were supposed to be there. I sincerely hope they weren't standing on my porch waiting for me to stop screaming at my child before they rang the doorbell. So, the last thing I wanted this morning was for some of my neighbors to come in to my chaotic home and see what a train wreck I was. For the record, I don't like to pretend. What you see is what you get, and it is incredibly hard for me to be pretend to be polite when I feel like screaming. But, I still invited them in. And vented a little.

Can I just say, it seems my visiting teachers always come at moments like these. And I'm pretty sure it is divine intervention. It was just what I needed. To be forced to sit down and have a conversation. It really calmed me down, and calmed my children down. My visiting teachers are two amazing women. I love them dearly. It is obvious that they had the spirit with them today. I know they don't read my blog, but I just want the world to know who much I love and appreciate them.


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I am doing a radio interview next week with Greg Hansen, on Your LDS Radio. It's next Friday. The new music interviews air on Tuesdays. So tune in, and listen!!

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And now, I have two little girls waiting for me to spend the day with them. We have all sorts of fun things planned:





As you can see, we have a full day planned!

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Here are some tunes!

1. Stranded - Shawn Colvin
2. Unknown - Chely Wright
3. Better Together - Jack Johnson
4. Romeo And Juliet - Dire Straits
5. Someone to Love - Queen
6. Can't Stand Losing You - The Police
7. Punishment - Shedaisy
8. Emma Jean's Guitar - Chely Wright
9. Never Know - Jack Johnson
10. Love Is On The Way - Saigon Kick

Bonus: Half Enough - Lorrie Morgan

Wordless Wednesday

WBR 2009: Insanity Prevails!

This weekend, I was joined by 11 other INSANE runners, to participate in the Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay. This was my 2nd year in I hope many years to come running in this crazy race.

I enjoyed every second of it, despite, pain, rain, sitting in a van with 6 other stinky, sweaty people, no sleep, and braving the overflowing port-o-potties.

I ran with basically the same team as last year. Last year, our team was named Erv's Angels, named for our 13th team member who passed away from lung cancer shortly before the 2008 relay. To read the story about Erv, go here.

Laurie, our team Captain, running her 1st legUncle Boy Toy, on his 1st legS, running her 1st leg

My good friend, Laurie, our noble team captain, put together our team, with her sister (C) Mom (S) Aunt Head Cheerleade and Uncle Boy Toy (the only dude in a van full of ladies), and me, and Melissa, in van 1, then in Van 2 (our couples van) was our friends the M's, K's, and C's. I was with these guys in van 2 last year, and had a blast. They sure know how to have fun. I was reminded of their interesting sense of humor when we showed up to the first van exchange, and Mr. M, and Mr K were both strutting around in speedos and mullet wigs. I took pictures, but was threatened with my life if I posted them, but I just couldn't resist. I'll just have to suffer the consequences.

Mrs. K, Mr. M in his party jacket, and Mr. K (da Bomb)

I was the 6th and last runner in our van. So, I had lots and lots of time to wait and gets psyched up for my run. My first leg was a 6.7 mile stretch down Avon pass. I was expecting downhill, so when I hopped out of the van, and in a hurry, too, because runner 5, C, who is a professional runner (for reals), and insanely fast, beat our van to the exchange, I was not prepared for the first mile running straight uphill.

I started slow, but then the hill crested and thus started the downhill stretch over a single lane dirt trail covered in rocks, divots, mud puddles, and lots and lots of dust. The race bible dubbed this leg as "very hard" calling it a "knee jarring" downhill slope.

I loved every second of it. I LOVE running downhill. And I set a new record for myself. Because of the uphill at the start and finish, my average wasn't great, but I did get my fastest mile I've ever done. Ever. 7:35. I'm pretty happy with that. And I still averaged 9:13 for whole leg. Not too bad on an sprained ankle, and lack of training.

Me, handing off to Mrs. C, after my first leg

Me and Melissa being silly before her first run.

Mrs. M, from Van 2, running her 1st leg

After our 1st leg, we headed up to a cabin, owned by Laurie's bishop. It was nicer than my house, seriously. The view was gorgeous. After a nice cold shower, food and a little rest, we hopped into the party van, for the next exchange.

Again, I waited with anticipatory nervousness for my upcoming run. This one was the doozy. 8.1 miles straight up hill. I was freaked! But, I got a nice text from Becca saying she ran it last year and it was her favorite leg so that set my mind at ease. It also helped that I was running it at 1:00 AM, and I couldn't see crap, despite my nifty, sweat covered head lamp (thank Boy Toy for sweating on it for me). I couldn't whether was going running up, down, upside down or backwards, but one thing I know for sure it that I was running S-L-O-W!!! Every time I looked down at my watch to check the pace, it just keep getting slower and slower. I guess that means I was running up hill. Between mile 6 and 7, the hill was brutal. I finally gave in, and allowed myself to walk a little bit. I was sooooo happy to see the finish. I handed off to Mrs. C from Van 2, and crashed in the van, so glad to have survived leg 18.

After my run, and our exchange we head to South Summit High, where we were allowed to shower, and crash in their gym for free. We discovered that of course, there were only communal showers in the locker room, but it was 3 in the morning, we were tired, cold, dirty, and desperate, and hot shower was just too tempting to pass up. Talk about revival of 7th grade gym trauma! But, in case you wanted to know, I have now seen more of Melissa, than I ever wanted to. Are you jealous?

Isn't she just beautiful?

After what my husband lovingly refers to as my lesbian experience, we crashed on the gymnasium floor with 150 other stinky, tired runners, and surprisingly, I zonked out for about 2 hours! Two blessed hours of sleep after running 15 miles. That cold, hard dirty gym floor was like heaven!

Melissa woke me up about 6:30, we got up, rolled up our gear, drank from chocolate milk, waited in line for 30 minutes just for the chance to actually use a toilet with plumbing, then waited for Laurie (our runner 1) to come to the exchange. Her two daughters were volunteers at this exchange. It was fun to see them dancing around, and entertaining the runners.

They had my initials on the mountain in South Summit. I'm not sure why, but I guess, I'm more famous than I thought. p.s. Nice hair.

Melissa rocked her last leg. She had to run 7 miles straight uphill in the rain, and every time was passed her, ringing the cowbell, she gave us one of her huge winning smiles. That girl is amazing. She was on fire the whole way.

We finally made to the my leg, and of course we had to haul again, because C's last leg was short and she can run like the Flash, but my last leg was only 3.1 and I was happy to be running my last leg and that it was easy. I pushed myself with everything I had left in me, and sprinted hard as soon as I saw Mrs. C waiting for me at the exchange. I just had to holler, because I was DONE! YIPPEE!!

Unfortunately, my very supportive, dedicated team were busy chatting and missed me running to the finish, so we tried to reenact my last run. I look drunk.

While we waited for Van 2 to finish their last legs, we all took a very needed break, and went out for breakfast.

Then, we trekked to the finish line to wait for Mrs. M to come to the finish line, so we could all run in together. If you want to see a video go over the Melissa's blog (I'm too lazy to swipe it from there and load it here).

I had a fabulous time running, and hope to get to do it many years into the future!!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow...

Just one benefit of all this rain......

Father's Day Sale!!

From now until this Sunday, Father's Day, I am holding a special Father's Day CD Sale!

If you purchase a CD from my website (not from CD Baby or you'll pay full price), you will receive a special 25% discount! That's only $9.75 plus tax and shipping! That's a deal folks!

Just pop on over here, and click on the paypal button.

I have been pleasantly surprised by the outcome of CD sales thus far. I've already sold (and given away) almost half of what I'd ordered. I just can't believe it! And it's not even in stores yet!

I'm sure it won't be too long before they're all gone.

So hurry, and order yours today! If you're in Utah, shipping usually only takes 1 day, 2-3 days for outside Utah, so order now!!

Falling Behind....again

My fam (minus a few people, who are either on a mission in England, too large with child to drive or came down with a bug on the day this pic was taken, or just had too much teen angst too hang with his family)

It's amazing how when you try to take time away from blogging, suddenly you have a zillion things to blog about. And I realize that my blog has reverted to nothing better than mere "this is what we did today" posts, but as I've said before, that's why I started my blog to begin with.

I've thought time and time again about starting a new private blog for all of my family affairs, and all the boring picture posts of my kids I know you all just skim over and don't read. (Whew! I know, I'm the queen of run-on sentences). The reason I haven't done that is I'm just too lazy. I can't fathom having to manage both. I don't know how you all do it.

Some of you have a regular bloggy blog, then a family blog, then a blog about recipes, then a blog about church-y stuff, then a blog about nutrition, then a blog about how to have a better sex life as a married mormon chica. Seriously. How do you keep up with it all? (p.s. you are welcome for all the linky love). I've hit the mark-all-as-read button too many times than I'd like to admit in the last few weeks. Just when I think I've gotten on top of all the blog I read, I log in to reader, and there are 800 more unread posts. I've gotten to the point, that I read my special folder marked (and I kid you not) "Blogs written by people who I think are my actual friends." I read those, comment (sometimes), and then skim through the rest (read: like 10 more), then mark all as read. I'm seriously considering doing some unsubscribing. I just don't know who I could cut out.

Anyway, I don't know where I was going with that. I tend to vomit thoughts uncontrollably when I get on my blog. Oh yeah, I got on to post pictures of what we did all last week. Sorry, if you think that's boring.

Last Monday we took the monkeys with my sisters and their monkeys to the Dinosaur Museum. We go there every year. But the kid seem to love it. Only this year, it occurred to me that every year their favorite part of the park is the swing sets and slides. Don't know why I drive all the way to Ogden, pay $20 for the family to go to the park.

Wednesday night, Peter had a dance recital. Her little cousin M, is in her dance class. Look how cute they are! I took a video, but I'm too impatient to load it.



Saturday night, KJ had a recital for her children's choir. It's a lot like Sunshine Generation. She even had a solo! She did such a great job!


Sunday, we drove 4 1/2 hours down to Hatch, UT (if you've never heard of it, well, neither had I, until I met my BIL) My sister's hubby is from there, and they blessed their twins on Sunday. So, we drove down bright and early, went to church, ate some food, visited, then drove the 4 1/2 hours home. Nothing like 9 hours in the car in one day. We would've made a weekend of it and stayed down there, maybe gone to St. George, except for KJ's performance on Saturday.


My sister and her hubby are seriously the most gorgeous couple, don't you think?

One of Tyler's brothers' wives and I have a little battle going for "favorite aunt." I think I'm winning.

Aren't they just beautiful? I asked Kristen if I could keep one, since she doesn't need two of them. But, she seems pretty attached to both of them. I guess I'll just have to settle for only seeing them twice a year, until they move back to UT.

TGIF: Random Sherisms and Random Tunes

First item of business: Today is MOTHERBOARD'S BIRTHDAY!! Go wish her a happy one! While you're there you can enter her giveaway. She's giving away an Ipod for her birthday! Can you believe the niceness of that person? Seriously.

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I know I said I was going to take it easy after all of my computer drama from last week, but for some reason, I just can't seem to pry myself away from this stupid machine.


Why is the computer so addicting? There has got to me some kind of voodoo spy ware inside the Internet that sends subliminal messages into our brains that says MUST SURF INTERNET! CAN'T LOOK AWAY! MUST CHECK EMAIL 12,000 TIMES A DAY!

Do you do that? I'm a little embarrassed to admit that, yes, I do. I have 4 different email accounts. I know. And I'm a little obsessive/compulsive about checking them. Especially on days that I post on my blog. I have to keep checking to see if I got comments.


It's ridiculous. Just when I get myself convinced that I don't really care about followers or comments, I find myself constantly checking. Or following random people on Twitter, so I can have more people following me.

It's pathetic.

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I twisted my ankle on Wednesday. Doing step aerobics. I know. How embarrassing. But, now, it's all swollen and hurts. And I'm supposed to be running the Ragnar relay in one week. The 178+ mile relay race from Logan to Park City. Sounds fun, huh? We even run all through the night! I'm getting excited just telling you about it. Last year was AWESOME! I had the time of my life. Only, then I remember, how I already have an injured hip, and now an injured ankle, and I'm not sure how well it will be for me this year. But at least I can go party it up with my team mates and hope they aren't mad at me for being slower than tar.

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So, since I haven't been running all week, I got up this morning, and decided to do some Yoga. So, I got dressed, got out my Yoga mat, searched through my DVD's until I found my really old, really irritating DVD of Denise Austin's Yoga Buns. (Have you ever done a Denise Austin video? She super cheesy. It's almost more than I can stand).

So, I loaded the DVD in, turned on the TV, and then, Peter said she was hungry, then TJ. Oops. I guess I should feed the kids before I exercise. Then somebody wanted to watch a show. Then the doorbell rang, and we had a slew of neighbor kids in the house. Somehow, I ended up here at the computer, instead.

Basically, I never actually got around to doing the Yoga. And now it's noon, and I have stuff to get done. You know, like showering, and actually doing something with myself today. Maybe step out of the house in this beautiful non-rainy day.


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A lot of you have asked me how to get an mp3 version of my album. And I've been telling people to just be patient, it is coming. Well, wait no longer! It is here! You can purchase my album on mp3 from CDBaby. And I just signed up today for positivemusicanddownloads.com. It will be available there, shortly.

And the songbook is coming soon. Now that I've got my new computer, I've been spending some serious time transcribing. Look for that soon!


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Ha. When I logged in today, I didn't think I had anything to talk about. Amazing how much crap rolls around in your brain without you even realizing it.

Well, I'm off to do stuff, and go out on a hot date with C tonight! Yeah!!


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TUNES!!!

1. Situations - Jack Johnson
2. Pienso En Ti - Shakira
3. Just Another Heartache - Chely Wright
4. East Northumberland High - Miley Cyrus
5. Death and All His Friends - Coldplay
6. Baby, Now That I've Found You - Alison Krauss
7. Another Rainy Day - Corinne Bailey Rae
8. Language or the Kiss - Indigo Girls
9. If you Leave Me Now - Chicago
10. Crucify - Tori Amos

Bonus: Stop This Train - John Mayer

Posting pictures. Lots and lots of Pictures...

I'm so behind on posting that I don't even know where to start.

I should probably go all the way back to before Memorial day, when TJ graduated from preschool, and both he and Peter had an end of the year program. That's when my digital camera was suffering from a bout of being drowned. (It's recovered now, thank Allah). So, I took some mediocre pictures with my $3 disposable. Good job TJ and Peter!

And of course, TJ's karate belt test. He tested to his Green belt. We're so proud.

The disposable also had a few pics from my concert.

Do I look bored in that picture? We were rehearsing before the show.

Spence (I mean Elder J) and me

And one of me with Bryantman in Indy.

I've learned the hard way, how grateful I am for blogging, and that some of my valuable memories have been preserved on the interent. Because almost ALL of my pictures were lost when my computer crashed. I am devastated. So, I'll be posting A LOT more pictures from now on. Just for the simple act of backing them up on the internet.

That said, I finally got around to looking up my marathon pics. I'm sad to say how much fatter I look in these pics compared to last year's marathon pics. Don't believe me? Just look...

Okay. This is me running the 2008 Ogden Marathon. That one below is me sprinting to the finish line. I look strong. You can even see my leg muscles. (I really like that picture).

Okay, now this is me running the 2009 Ogden Marathon. My legs are obviously bigger.

And this is me "sprinting" to the finish. You have to admit, I kind of look special needs or something. What's with the pigeon toed spina bifida pose? (No offense intened to people with special needs , spina bifida or pigeon toes)
and sorry, the pics are small. I stole them from Zazoosh. I'm too cheap to buy pictures of me looking fat and retarded. (again, no offense).

Saying no offense clears you from any liability right? It's like you can say the rudest thing in the world, but as long as you say no offense, it's meaningless, and the person can't feel bad. Right? Same goes with "just joking."

Okay, moving on.

KJ had her end of year first grade program last week. By then, my camera was working, so of course, here are some pictures. She was so stinkin' cute!

Here is KJ with her teacher, Mrs. H. She absolutely LOVED her. She was a great teacher. She's moving to 5th grade next year, so KJ is hoping to get her again in a few years.

Friday was a pretty crazy day. Besides being the last day of school, it was Peter's 4th Birthday. I know! Can you believe my baby is 4? How do the years go by so fast? So, we had lots of fun activities planned for Saturday. First, we met my sisters and cousin at the park for a picnic lunch. (My baby sister is in town from OK. Can I just say, I am totally in love with her twin babies. I took a pic of me with them on my phone. I'll have to post it later, I don't have picture mail.) After we got rained on in the park, we headed over to the last-day-of-school party of the century at Motherboard's house. That girl knows how to party!

That's TJ in the upper right corner in the yellow. That's MB for letting me steal your picture!

Next stop we took Peter, and some of her friends to Chuck E. Cheese for a birthday party. Reminds me why I hate throwing birthday parties. HATE it. Mostly just babysitting other people's kids. They annoy me. (Again, no offense, to other people with kids). Peter seemed pretty happy, although she was terrified of Chucke.

After the party, we took the fam and our friends' family to the Bees game. C gets the suite through work, so we partied it up. I don't know if I've mentioned before, but I love baseball. It's my favorite sport! Bees finally won 6 to 5 in the 11th inning (that's like double overtime for you non baseball people) Then there were fireworks after the game. We told Peter they were just for her birthday. I think she felt pretty special.

Okay, so then Saturday, Motherboard and I headed down to the Covey Center in Provo for the Marvin Goldstien concert. I'm so glad I survived the drive down, what with MB's whining about being carsick, and the back seat driving. Seriously, you've never experienced back seat driving until you drive with MB in the car. (No offense MB. Love you!!)

There were all sorts of "names" there. Kirby Heyborne MC'd, Kenneth Cope, Jessie Clark Funk, Daniel Beck (who, it turns out, I knew in college, and he remembered me!) and lots of others. We saw Anne Bradshaw, and after overcoming starstruckedness, I got up the nerve to introduce ourselves. She was just lovely. I was so glad to have met her in person. Kirby Heyborne, was hilarious, and told MB what a great job she did in the audience. MB didn't miss a beat. She's quick and witty like that. I was so star struck, I was a stammering fool. Which leads me to the highlight of the night. I walked up to Marvin Goldstein, and tried to tell him how much I enjoyed the show, gave him a copy of my CD, and told him I'd love to hear what he thought. I was a blubbering idiot. I was so nervous. MB was totally laughing at me. Luckily, I had given my camera to MB beforehand, and she had the presence of mind to ask him for a picture with me.

In retrospect, I wish I'd gotten more pictures. Oh well. The concert was amazing. I loved every minute of it. I had mixed emotions as an artist. Part of me was dying to get up on stage and perform with so many amazing musicians. And part of me was humbled, and I found myself wondering what the heck I'm thinking trying to break into a business where there are already so many talented people. What chance do I have?

Yeah, it was a pretty wild week! I've got more pictures, but I figured this post is getting pretty long. And I'm starting to stink, because I haven't showered yet, because I thought I should sit and elevate my foot, because I rolled my ankle at the gym today. And by golly, it really hurts.

Bye.