Calling all Competitors!!

Did you know I played rugby at BYU? We were pretty good. I played before and after my mission. But after my mission I was much more interested in working on getting Marcelo here, so I wasn't as focused on the game.

But I LOOOOVE rugby. Marcelo and I keep talking about going to Europe one day so that he can see a Chelsea game and I can see ANY rugby game. And we're gunna do it. . Eventually

But in the meantime, we get our sports fix online and on TV and in person if we can. The BYU rugby team is pretty good, but there is just something about the speed and power of professional rugby. I think that's the the case with any professional sport, wouldn't you say? But I don't think I can pass up this awesome chance.

So, how excited are you for this? See, if you pay one price, you get to see TWO Rugby games. That's right!! One game starts at 1:15 and another one starts at 4 pm. See, you can go to one
(or both) of them and then be home for a cup of hot chocolate before it gets cold. And's it's at the Real Salt Lake Staduim, so it's close! I'm so excited.

So who's with me? Do I have any takers? Tickets are pretty cheap: You can still get great seats for $25. Or we can get the "still good but not great" endzone tickets for $15. Maybe that's not worth it to you. So I'll make you a promise: Whoever agrees to go with me, I'll come over to your house, make you dinner and explain the game of rugby to you before we go. That way you won't have to ask me right in the middle of a crucial play why they keep going into their little organized huddle thing, or why they lift up one person by the shorty shorty shorts and why they keep running with the ball once they reach the end-zone. I can explain all these things to you.

And if you pick up on the basics really quickly, I'll even go into the out of bounds on the fly/out of bounds on the bounce rule and what it means when it's done behind the 22 meter line. Come on!!! PUUUHHH-LLLEEEEEEAAAASEE??

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Tagged-The Good Kind

Kim tagged me to post the 4th picture in my 4th file. I've been really organized about my Evi pictures. So this one is right where it should be.

You know how all over the Boppy it's like "NO SLEEP!! DON'T LET YOUR CHILD SLEEP ON THIS!!" Yeah, I don't really pay attention to that. I figure that if she's sleeping on it and I'm 4 feet away, we are ok.

As I look at her now, i can't believe how thick and dark her hair was! Now it's all thin and really turning into her mommy's-Light brown with some red in it. Oh, and she has the bald spot on it now. She didn't have that before.

I am amazed every time I look at her just how beautiful she is. And no matter what Marcelo says, I take some credit for her looks. (Don't get him started. He thinks she looks nothing like me. Thanks honey!!) I just think she's so dark and beautiful. I really want another one!! . . . .Someday.

So that was the 4th picture in the 4th file on my jump drive. However, when I opened the file a different way, this picture ended up being the 4th one in the 4th file:



This is from my forthcoming "Blackberry Jam" post. I just haven't gotten around to doing it. This is a picture of blackberry vines. And This picture is to specifically show how close they look to Poison Oak leaves. You'll get it when I finally get around to doing the post.

Oh, and you should know that the only thing that got my child to stop screeching this morning was me turning up Juanes full blast. She's currently listening to "Para Tu Amor" and just chilling in her Exersaucer. And allowing me to do a blog post. Thank you Juanes!!!

And now, another little "tagged" post for your entertainment:

Must answer each of the questions below with one word answers. (I feel free to answer some of the questions in Spanish if I want. It's my blog. You get to make up the rules for your own blog and I won't say anything, ok?)

1.Where is your cell phone? Couch
2. Where is your significant other? School
3. Your hair color? Brown
4. Your mother? Sacrificing
5. Your father? Bastard
6. Your favorite thing? Food
7. Your dream last night? Cocaine
8. Your dream/goal? Ecuador
9. The room you're in? Front
10. Your hobby? Reading
11. Your fear? Failure
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Home
13. Where were you last night? Bed
14. What you're not? Thin
15. One of your wish-list items? Car
16. Where you grew up? Eureka
17. The last thing you did? Nursed
18. What are you wearing? Clothes!!
19. Your TV? Trash
20. Your pet? Rayita
21. Your computer? Addiction
22. Your mood? Frustrated
23. Missing someone? Judd
24. Your car? Gone
25. Something you're not wearing? Ring
26. Favorite store? Maceys
27. Your summer? Short
28. Love someone? Sometimes
29. Your favorite color? Green
30. When is the last time you laughed? Now
31. When is the last time you cried? Anoche
32. Listening to? Enrique
33. Waiting for? Holidays

So That's my post. I tag everyone. If you are reading this, you are tagged. And I'll be checking your blogs to see if you did it. And if you didn't? RECOMPENSA!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I've never been really into Christmas. My family doesn't have any traditions surrounding Christmas except one: we eat Chinese food on Christmas Eve. And if you really think about it, that's not too much. There's no Nativity re-enactment, no caroling into the wee hours, no reading of the Christmas Story in Luke, or even in the Book of Mormon.

We just don't do anything. I don't know if it's because of my father. See he was never into Christmas and almost always he would work on Christmas Day (he would get paid triple overtime to work on that day. So it was a win-win for him. He got to be away from his kids, spend the day bashing heads AND make money. So really it was a win-win-win)

Anyway, because we never really did anything cool on Christmas, I don't really feel any special attachment to the day. I mean, in the past Christmas was up there with the 4th of July or even like Halloween. I mean, free candy? Dressing up? Oh yeah, growing up Halloween was MUCH better than Christmas.

And then I started working for the she-beast. The succubus of fun. The black hole of holidays. When Lynn wanted a DAY yo go home to visit her VERY sick father (who might not see another Christmas), Jean didn't want to give it to her. (Surprise surprise, right?) And so holidays were never high on my list, other than for the reason that I got to get away from that horrible job. But I've always known that I had to go back.

But this year? This year, my friends, I get to ENJOY the Holidays. We will be starting with a little Halloween time. We have a baby to take around and everyone can ohhh and ahh at her and say she's adorable even though she's not going to be wearing a cute outfit. (I won't waste money on an outfit this year. She can't even walk!!) And we will spend some time with the ward and with friends. Maybe some spiced cider, friends?

And then we have some Thanksgiving time. The party is going to be coming here. Well, everyone but Sarah and Jeff. So 4 of the 6 kids and their families will be there. And guess where we will be having the dinner. Just guess. Not in my little rat-hole apartment. No-sir-ee. We are going to MaxKyle's huge house. All his roommates will be gone and we have the whole place to ourselves. We can get buck WILD with the turkey (and side dishes) and watch their large screen TV all day. I'm very excited.

Plus we don't have to worry about the "two dinners" like we tried to do last year. If you remember, last Thanksgiving was the first time there was a "division" of activities between my parents. We tried to do something with both of them on that day, but it didn't really work out. So this year we aren't even pretending. There will just be one activity, one meal, and my dad can just sit alone and think about the fact that he has pushed all his kids away from him.

And then, my friends, Christmas. But wait!! First we have some Birthday celebrations! First there is Allen and then there is Reagan. And I'm very excited to sing all the songs to both of them. And of course there will be cake. And probably some presents. And some more cake.

And then to Texas for a REAL Christmas. There will be nativity re-enactments. And Chinese food. And fondue (Chad's tradition) and maybe some Christmas Day Hot Tubbin'. I don't even care about presents. They really don't matter.

The best present will be that I will have a Summit-Free Christmas. I don't have to worry about getting a present for everyone in the office. See everyone in the office always leaves it to the assistants to figure out what they will get Jean. And we are in charge of buying it, and paying for it and wrapping it and then *hopefully* we get paid back from everyone. And then there could be a bad situation like last year where Jean decided not to buy presents for the agents and then they call me and are like "uh, are we getting presents this year?" and it's SUPER uncomfortable for me. BUT I DON'T HAVE TO DO IT THIS YEAR!!! I should call the new assistant and let them know what they have to look forward to. I really think they should be warned.

But It's not me!! It's not my responsibility. I get to sit back and live it up at the houses of others and just enjoy being with my family. You know, what the holidays are all about! It truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

Toilet Troubles

I don't clean toilets. I don't know if you have read on my side bar that I spend my days trying to get out of cleaning the toilets in our house. I don't do them. I will do everything else in order to get out of cleaning the toilets. I will wash the showers, scrub the floors, clean the sinks, do the mirrors, wipe the walls. I'll do all the laundry, fold it and put it away. I'll do all the dishes, make dinner and then clean the kitchen. I'll vacuum all the floors bathe the dog and then put the baby down for a nap. I will do all of this and and all Marcelo has to do is clean the toilets.

(Actually I don't put Marcelo's clothes away. I just fold them and put them in a basket for him to put away himself) But I do all these other things and I HAPPILY do it in order to get out of cleaning the toilets. That's how much I hate cleaning them.

Old roommates will remember that every time we would have cleaning days, I would trade with the other person who was doing the other bathroom and I would do their shower AND their sink in order to get out of doing the toilet. I cannot emphasize how much I hate cleaning toilets.

Why? Did I always have this aversion? Yes. It comes from growing up in my house. Let me tell you a story. See when we first moved into our house back in 1993, we put in new vinyl flooring in the bathroom. We actually hired a professional to do this because at the time we didn't know how to do it ourselves. And I don't know if you know how easy they are to install. I have probably PERSONALLY installed about 15 of them. And I can tell you that it is NOT difficult to remove and re-install the toilet. But this bonehead decides to CUT AROUND the toilet.

And of course, we needed a new toilet in about 5 years. Why is that? Well, because of the BFTT's of course. What are the BFTT's you ask? Well, those are the Bingham Family Toilet Troubles. And boy do we have them. We are notorious for clogging toilets, spending great blocks of time in the bathroom on the toilet and more than one of us have had a serious "explosion" issue at one time or another.

But back to my story. I'm sure we got the toilet because we were clogging the previous one so much. But there was a slight problem: The base of this new toilet was a narrow oval. But the previous toilet was a more boxy angular one. And because the vinyl had been CUT around, this mean that there was now plywood exposed at the base of our toilet.

Again, maybe you are all thinking "So what?" Well, there is one more thing you need to know. the 3 men living in the house had no aim whatsoever when it came to peeing in the toilet. Actually, my father was a raging diabetic for probably 6 years and he never knew. He would just keep getting up 4-5 times a night to go pee. (You would think that the fact that he wasn't pregnant but still peeing as much as a pregnant woman does would've made him realize that something is wrong) Anyway, in order to keep from waking up all the way, he would just whip it out and start peeing in the general direction of the toilet. He would listen until he could hear the sound of his pee hit the water and then he would know where to continue to go.

I'm not making this stuff up. Every morning there was a puddle around the toilet. We actually used to have a trash can next to the toilet by my mom moved it after she would routinely find inches of urine in it week after week. And it would mold over. It was really nasty. AAAND it would seep down into the plywood and just sit there. The plywood would soak it up and there was no way you could get it out. You would scrub and scrub and it didn't matter. Actually, once you cleaned the bathroom, the moist wood would release the odor that had been"fresh locked" in and it would be terrible. Who else's bathroom smells worse AFTER you clean it? But ours did.

And of course the boys never had to clean the bathrooms. They never had to clean up after themselves, so they never worried about peeing on the outside of the toilet. Our bathroom always smelled of urine. ALWAYS. 365 days a year. And we only had one bathroom, so there wasn't like any other option to where we could go to pee. Because of this, I became the world's fastest peer. I can be in and out of the bathroom in 40 seconds, and that INCLUDES the washing of the hands. There is nothing worse then sitting down and having the dank old smell of urine waft up to you from the floorboards.

So basically, I don't clean toilets because of the smells associated with them. But I have a wonderful husband. He NEVER MISSES the toilet. Since living with him, we have never had a toilet that smells like stale week-old urine. And even if we did, he would clean it up because, well, did I mention that I don't clean toilets?

And finally,the other toilet trouble we have is that we tend to drop our phones in the toilet. It must be a family habit. My mom has lost 2 in there in the last 6 months. And Jules just lost her phone in there last week when she was home. My mom could fish hers out but not Jules. Hers was REALLY lost. It got jammed in the pipe and they had to buy a new toilet cause it wouldn't come out.

Ha! Now that's a REAL toilet trouble.

Marcelo is my name: Sabotage is my game

My husband is great. Sometimes I just sit and think I am the luckiest woman around. He's funny and handy and is willing to work. HARD. He has never been afraid to come to a strange country and start over from the beginning and make a life here. I mean people grow up here and are doing worse then he is.

But that's not the point of my post. Sometimes there are things that he does that make me want to rip his face off with a potato peeler. One is that he doesn't think I know what I'm talking about. Like with our kids. He will disregard what I'm saying and think that he has the answers. It really REALLY bugs me.

So you all have voiced your opinion to how great it is to have your baby sleep at night. I agree. I wasn't naive to think that I wouldn't ever have to listen to my kid scream again. I know that kids get sick and routines are broken and then you have to go back and start over again. Plus, I don't think she's 100% trained. I mean, I think she's just done good as a fluke. I didn't think that it was all over.

Good thing I wasn't counting on that. Cause it wasn't over.

Last night was bad. I couldn't get a burp out of her, but I put her down anyway. Well, a few hours later she woke up screaming. I immediately knew it was a burp, so I took mercy on her and picked her up. She thanked me by throwing up all over me. And then she wouldn't take the pacifier, and I knew this was going to be a bad night.

Well, she put herself to sleep after 5 minutes, and then she woke up 10 minutes later. And then she would go back to sleep and wake up 5 min later.She did this for about an hour. Marcelo was in the room and was listening to her every time she would start to scream. And he wasn't sleeping at all. After doing this awake/asleep thing for 1 hour, she finally woke up for good. And she was PISSED.

And I told Marcelo that I would be back to console her in 5 minutes. And then I told him I would be back in 10 minutes. At 15 minutes, I was in bed listening to her scream and Marcelo had HAD IT. At 15 min I got up to console her (when I "console" her, I rub her belly a little and stick her pacifier back in. No picking up, no talking. Just so you know what I'm saying when I say "console"). So she immediately spits it out and I say to Marcelo "I'm going away for 20 min. I'll be back then.

Well, either he didn't hear me, or he chose not to. I am sitting on the couch and all of a sudden, her voice changes. I'm confused for a second, and then realize that she's moving!! I jump up and right then I meet Marcelo coming around the corner WITH HER IN HIS ARMS!!! I was so mad and I whisper-shrieked "YOU AREN'T SUPPOSED TO PICK HER UP!! YOU ARE RUINING IT! THERE IS A PLAN, WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?" To which he replies "I think you need to feed her." I whisper-shrieked again "NO, I DON'T!! SHE'S FINE!! SHE CAN GO AT LEAST 5 HOURS ON THE AMOUNT OF FOOD I JUST GAVE HER. LOOK AT THE CLOCK. DO THE MATH. IT'S ONLY BEEN 3 HOURS."

He stopped talking to me after that. I went back, put her back in the crib, started the 20 minutes over again, and Marcelo slept on the couch where it was harder to hear her. He didn't have to wait too long. She only cried for the 20 minutes and then I consoled her, and then sometime during the next 25 minutes she finally cried herself to sleep. I don't know when it was. I fell asleep myself. And she slept until 5:45. IT WORKS!!! Yeah for the method!

He was ashamed this morning about not listening to me. He was especially chagrined when we went to church and told the story to our Sunday School Teacher Development class. And after the class, the teachers were all like "Oh yeah, you've GOT to do it." to which Marcelo admitted that he HATES to hear her cry and was looking for anyway to get her to shut up. So from now on he gets to can it when it comes to suggestions on her sleeping schedule.

Ok, one more story about Marcelo before I go. This story also involves our Sunday School Teacher Development class. See last week we introduced ourselves for the class, but we had to introduce our SPOUSE instead of ourselves. Well, he said some REALLY nice things about me. He said that I'm smart and a hard worker. And he said that we met met after our missions and have been married for 4 years.

I was a little surprised to hear him say that. I mean, maybe he meant to say that we met AGAIN after our missions, or that we started dating after we had met on our missions. I didn't think that he could've made that basic of a grammar mistake after so long here in the U.S. So when it was my turn to introduce him, I started off by saying, "Oh, he made a slight grammar error: we met ON our missions." And everyone thought it was funny that he had made that "mistake."

Well, later on that day, I brought it up to him. I said, "That's strange that you said that about us meeting after our missions. Did you mean to say that?" And he was like " Yeah, I tell everyone who asks that we met after our missions at a mission reunion. I don't want people to know we met on our missions"

I was absolutely FLOORED!! And I was like "Marcelo we were GOOD missionaries!! We didn't do anything besides MEET on our missions. There were no Emergency Transfers or secret rendezvous behind the mission office" (however, that kinda sounds fun now that I type it!) "we were good missionaries! Weren't you a good missionary?"

And he said he was. And I know I was. So I said we have nothing to be ashamed about. I asked him if he was ashamed of how we met, and he said no, but that it just sounded bad that we met there. I'm shocked that we haven't talked about this before. I mean, we've only been together 5 and a half years. Don't you think that it would've come up before now?

Finally I told him that if (and when) our kids ask, I'm going to tell them the truth. So he'd better stop lying to everyone else right now. But now that YOU all know the truth he can't pull one over on ya'll. And if he does, be sure to call him on it, ok? Thanks.

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

So I've been told I should put more pictures of Evi and some pictures of my new hair up here. I am obliging. So here they are. This video is kinda long, but I love how Marcelo is speaking Spanish to her.



So these are some pictures of her just playing around. After her bath and right before her walk:
















Look at her double chin!! Don't you just want to bite into her cheeks like a peach? Uugh!!

Her giggly smile just makes me want to scream with glee. We basically only dress her in green. I've been told she looks good in pink, but I think all babies look good in pink. Even boy babies. (It's his favorite color!) So there is no way you can convince me that THAT'S the reason that I should dress her in pink.















Don't you love how high-water those pants are? AAACKKK!!!! So cute. They are freaking up to her nipple line. And in these pictures you can really tell she loves her daddy.














And I love how her eyes sqidge up when she laughs good and hard. And finally this is a picture of my new hairdo. Pay no attention to the fact that I'm in my underwear. I'm always in my underwear, as you might have previously read in other blogs. So don't mind that. Pretend I'm just in a white shirt or something.

Also, don't mind that I'm still wearing make-up from last night, and I'm making a funny face. I was so tired of trying to take a good self portrait of myself that didn't accentuate my double chin or that didn't show too much of my underwear and that didhighlighted the hair, and I was just so frustrated. And this was the first decent one I found out of 50. Like I just kept snapping shots and this was the only decent one. I swear.


So there you have it!! That is my life!! An adorable baby that only wakes up ONCE in the night to eat, and an awesome hair-do. Did I mention I love my life??

. . . Now I'm a believer

I love Reagan. I mean, I love lots of people, but Reagan ranks right up there with Judd and wedding cake. If I had to choose between the three of them I don't think I could. I think my dream day would be sitting down in Judd's living room with Reagan on the brown couch, me on the red lounger and Judd on the main red couch, all of us watching our girls run around, and a big plater of wedding cake for us to eat. I would love that.

So back to my point. I got to spend 3 amazing days with Reagan. Her husband was out of town for a conference and she invited me out to her house to spend 3 days and 2 nights of heaven. There were cookies and panini's on garlic bread (with Jalapeño jelly) and spinach dip and trips to the gym and fusion classes.

It. Was. Heaven.

We had the best time. But the absolute best thing that came out of it was my child's nighttime habits. See, When I saw my pediatrician on the 8th, I asked him about when my child should be sleeping thought the night. He said that some kids already are. That made me feel badly. And he said that if she was getting up to eat, that was fine, but if she was getting up to just play around, then that was NOT good.

Well, that very night she got up and was just cooing and playing and being 100% cute. She sucks in her father and he plays with her at all hours of the night. When I stopped and thought about it, I realized that she was waking up 3-4 times in the night and that this just wouldn't do anymore. She didn't need that much food, and she was just playing (with her father of course) most of those times. I decided then and there that we have to stop this.

See, for a while, I didn't care if she woke up in the night. I mean, I'm a stay at home mom, what do I need to worry about? I can sleep during the day if I need to, right? And I really didn't care If she didn't sleep through the night. But Reagan said something that really stuck with me. She said that kids NEED a schedule and that they want it. I had to agree with her. All those kids that are trained to sleep instantly upon hitting the crib always seem to be happier. Like they know what's coming and their lives are a little less chaotic.

Anyway, Saturday night I decided to try it out. It was horrible. She screamed for an hour. And I learned one thing: Marcelo is TONS weaker then me. He was the one sabotaging the plan. He would come and stand over her crib with his arms folded and then look at me and say, "should I bring her to you?" HA!! What a wuss!! The next day I felt like crap because she was slightly hoarse. And I decided I couldn't do it. I didn't want her screaming all the time and I just couldn't. So Sunday I didn't let her cry. And she was up at 2, 4, 6 and the finally at 8 am.

When Reagan heard this she was not having it. She said that this was the time to get her on schedule because Marcelo wouldn't be there to fight it. I won't tell you all the ins and outs of that first night. But let me just say that 4:45 found me sleeping on the floor, bawling my eyes out, listening to my baby scream for the next hour and 45 minutes. I finally took pity on her and fed her at 6 am after which she slept just fine. Well. That was the worst day. She was TOTALLY hoarse the next day. Not just a little bit, her voice was GONE. I felt horrible, but knew this was the only way.

But every day since then has been so much easier!! And last night she only had to cry for 5 minutes, and she put herself to sleep! And I'm bundling her. She LOVES it!! It's her "sign". Once I pin her arms to her sides, she looks up at me with those doe eyes and she's ready to sleep. Oh, I love my girl when she's my little comatose caterpillar.

So, I'm a believer. She gets one feeding around 2 am (sometimes it's 1, sometimes it's later) but that's the last one. If she wakes up after that, she's all alone. I'll bind her again and stick in the "chupa" and let her go. And it's working!! Oh man, I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. And my baby will be happier for it. Well, that's what I keep telling myself when I hear her screaming.

Oh, and we gave her some food for the first time yesterday. Sweet potatoes. She makes a horrible face when she sees the spoon coming. I need to get it on film. Tomorrow we are going to try bananas and see if she likes those any more. But right now I think that her thrust reflex hasn't let up yet. Hence the fact that the food doesn't want to go down.

Anyway, I'm a believer of good sleep!! I wish I would've done this months ago. Thanks Reagan for being a good friend and making me do it!!

The Fall Conundrum

Heather wrote a post about how right now in Arizona it was 94 degrees and she was so happy because it was the perfect weather! I remember those days. See, when I was growing up I always loved my birthday. Even though my birthday was in late September, it was always warm enough to go to the lake. It really was the perfect weather.

The fact that we went to the lake even in the third week in September and it was wonderfully warm meant to me that it was summer. So I always thought that September was summer. It wasn't until I was in college that I heard someone refer to September as a Autumn month. And my mind rejected it for a while, because September was warm, and summer was warm, so September was summer!! It's clearly an A=B, B=C so A=C situation.

Since moving to Utah, I have come to realize that there ARE 4 seasons. In AZ you just have 2 seasons: 1)Hot and 2)Getting ready to get hot. And that brings me to my next story. An embarrassing little tidbit from my freshman year of college.

So like I said, AZ has no seasons. So things are either brown or light green. The green comes from the eucalyptus plants. What do you expect? It's a desert people!! Deserts are brown!

But then I moved to Eureka. Eureka is the opposite of Arizona. But I've already written a post about Eureka. Actually, Lisa said that it reminded her of Forks, WA from Twilight when I was describing it. THAT IS MY TOWN!!! When I started reading that book, I immediately thought of my town because that's just what it's like. It's green, covered with forests, there is a Native American Tribe close by. I'm not kidding. If there wasn't a Forks in real life, I would've put down money that they were talking about my home town.

But back to my point. Eureka is green all the time, every day, every moment of every day. All the trees stay green year long, and it's beautiful. I know I've talked about how the trees on the mountains go right into the ocean. It's great for someone like me who loves the color green.

So my freshman year of college I was a young and naive little girl of 17. I loved being on my own, and I loved being at school. I had never lived somewhere where it snowed on a regular basis, so I was looking forward to experiencing that.

One day I was walking home from my Friday anatomy lab and I was admiring the mountains and how tall they are and how they were so close. But then there was something wrong. I didn't know what was going on, but I knew just who to ask.

I walked in and found the person I was looking for:

"Catherine, What is going on up on the mountains?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, there is something weird up there. Like some little red dots or something. What's happening?"
. . .Pause. . .
[cue condescending tone] "Uh, those are the TREES, they are changing COLORS."

I felt like an idiot, and her tone let me know that I should feel exactly this way. It's not my fault that I've never seen the trees change color!! I mean, I've always heard of that happening *in theory* but I had never experienced it for myself. And having never seen it before, I didn't know that the trees turned at different times. I thought they all simultaneously turned red together. I think that's what threw me off more than anything: They were just dots of red among the green. It's not what I was expecting.

So if you are from my home town, I want to just clue you in on a little bit of information: The trees in Utah change colors pretty drastically, and they don't change all at the same time. Oh, and the people that grow up in Utah will make fun of you for not knowing this.

P.S. When my brother Jake moved to Utah out here 1 year ago we were driving around with him and I told that story. He wasn't paying attention to my story and only caught the moment when I said, "and then I was walking home and I saw something on the mountain. And I noticed there was something there." And RIGHT THEN he looked up to the mountain and said, "Hey, what's up there on the mountain? What's that red stuff?" HA HA HA!!! See, I'm not the only one!! Eureka will do that to you. You think all trees are supposed to be green always and you will question yellow and red trees forever.

Colorado pictures

Here are some great pictures from Colorado. I don't know if you really can get the hilarity of the situation from these pictures. Or my frustration at the lack of some other choice besides chocolate cake. And please don't look at my double chin. I'm working on it!!

So here is my brother, my sister, my oldest cousin and myself trying to put together the archway. Notice the look on my oldest brother's face. I guess these pictures DO show our true feelings about the situation.


We were all supposed to that thing where you put it between your legs and ride it like a broomstick pony. But my mom took the picture too soon. Blast her trigger finger!!

Anyway, here is a picture of all my siblings. My mom really wanted all of us there. Red stage curtain, anyone? Wood paneling? CHECK!!
And here is a picture of all of us:


My mom was picking lint off of me. That green blanket I brought was 100% fuzz. Classy.

And this is of course pre-haircut. I still need to post a picture of my hair. But I don't have anywhere to go, so I don't have any reason to do it. Someone needs to invite me over so I have some reason to do my hair.

So much to tell!!

I really have so much to tell, I don't know where to start. I guess I'll just start typing and see where it leads me.

Firstly: Julie is engaged. To MaxKyle. I know, shocking. Remember how we weren't allowed to even BE THINKING about marriage or SUGGEST that they might be getting married? Like on Thursday I was on the phone with my sister Sarah and Jules was in the room and I said, "NO PRESSURE JULES, but IIIIFFFF you were to get married where would you do it?" And she said Dallas. That tells me that they've already talked about where they would get married, but again, we were not allowed to ask her questions!!

And so Sarah hears this and says "Oooookay. So should I start buying some furniture now? Like give me a time line. Are we thinking December? Or the Spring? Give me a hint here. Do I need to start looking for extra beds on Craig's List?" And Julie says, "No, not at all. Not December. Definitely not December. We'll see about the Spring. But still probably not then either." And then she follows it up with her standard excuse, "We've only been dating 3 months!!"

Well That was Thursday. Two days after she came home. So Friday she went off to spend an evening with MK again, and my mom prepared to driver to Vernal in the next morning (to visit Jake, of course). Well, the next morning I TOTALLY eavesdropped on my mom and Julie's conversation right outside my window.

Sure enough, he gave her a ring that night. He wanted to show her that he was serious about her. He didn't expect to ask her to marry him, though. (according to him) But that seems really dumb. "Here is this ring, it's a diamond. It has a gold band, But I'm not asking you to marry me. Even though I want to marry you, but I'm not asking. I just want you to wear this ring, you know if you want to. Or you can agree to marry me if you want to. But NO PRESSURE." Weird.

I really like the fact that :
#1 He bought the ring without talking to her AT ALL. That takes some balls. He did a good job. It's a beautifully simple ring and she loves it.
#2 He didn't ask my dad permission. That just would've been a BAD SCENE. Kudos to him for not even going there
#3 He didn't talk to her about the marriage and then wait to give her the ring 1 week before they got married and THEN consider themselves "engaged." They are mature enough to call a spade a spade: They are getting married, so they are ENGAGED. I wish they could teach a seminar about this simple law of common sense to the idiot girls here at BYU. Hell, make it a whole course if you think you can't grasp the concept in a few seminar classes.

Jules was pretty sure she knew her answer. She's really level headed about things, so there wasn't really any giddiness and crap like that. But here's the kicker. We asked her when she's getting married and she says, "December" BWAA HAAA HAAA!!! So I guess Jules is level headed about most things except making declarative statements that she almost immediately rescinds.

So we are all going to Dallas for Christmas. It's going to be a party that might or might not be catered by Taco Bell. That's MK's favorite food, and he really wants the reception food to come from there. My mom might have a problem with that, we'll see. Oh and Julie is moving to Dallas. Lucccccky. I want to get out of Utah, too.

So a week later we were off to Denver. It was craziness as we were getting ready to go, but eventually we were on the road. The pathway there was pretty uneventful. Nothing to report there. But once we got there, ohhh buddy!!! I think I'm going to do this in my tried and tested "time line" post. Enjoy!!

Friday:
12:30: We get on the road traveling to Denver. Jake decides to bring his brand new wiener dog. She's 5 months old. I'm scared she's going to pee on or bite the face off my baby because she's still a puppy. Jake says he's going to buy a kennel and keep her kenneled the whole trip. I feel better about it.

2:30: We arrive at Price for a "snack break." We buy ridiculous amounts of cheddar popcorn, sandwiches, sunflower seeds and gummy bears. It holds us off until 8:45 pm when we stop for dinner

10:55 we arrive at the Hotel. Sarah had already arrived by plane and she was in the hotel. Here's how the rooms were divided: Me, Evi, Mom, Jules AND Sarah in a room with 2 double beds. I would complain about how tight it was, but Jeff & Tina and their FIVE kids were in the same kind of room. In another room was Nate, Denisse and MK. And then Jake and Clarin had their own room. My mom, Jeff, Sarah and Julie stay up really late talking and laughing. I really do like my family. If we aren't making fun of my mom, then we are making fun of each other. You have to have a tough skin in this family. And be prepared to be made fun of for the same crap over and over again.

3:00 pm: We finally go to sleep

Saturday:
8:00 am: Finally get out of bed. There is a free continental breakfast where we are. It's not a crappy breakfast, either. It's really good. Waffles (with one of those waffle makers that flips over) and cereal and bagels and toast and Hostess cupcakes. Because no breakfast is complete without some sort of lard filled chocolate cake.

8:30 am: While eating breakfast, my mom comes in in her bathing suit. Yup, she went for an early morning swim with most of Jeff's kids. See, my mom made SURE to get a hotel with an INDOOR, HEATED pool. Not only did it have that, it also was open 24 HOURS!!! I mean, what more can you ask for? My mom was in heaven. (I don't know if you are aware my mom has a little water addiction. Yeah, it's a main focal point in her mind always when we travel.) Don't worry, she wasn't only in her bathing suit. she had on a towel and a shirt. But she was definitely fresh from the pool.
While at the breakfast the mother of the bride informs us that she will be going to the chapel to do some decorating for the reception and that if anyone would like to come help her, we would all be welcome. In the history of declarative statements, never has a more understatement been made.

10:00 am: We drive to the chapel and unload. Who is there? Well, from my family it's Jeff, Tina and their 5 kids, Sarah Nate, Denisse, Me, Evi and Jake & Clarin. From Clarin's side it's her mom, her dad and her brother. Oh I was already worried about this, but I guess we just follow their instructions, right?

10:03 am: Wrong. As we get to the chapel, we notice that Clarin's mom has a "schematic" layout of how she wants it to look. Apparently, she borrowed the schematic and all the decorations from someone else. That meant that she really had no idea what she exactly had. And she had no idea what to do with it.

10:15 am: She shows the schematic to my mom

10:21 am: Still showing the schematic. Let me explain the schematic. You could look at it for 30 seconds and know what was going on. Yet she takes so long to explain it. She has this schematic in her hands and is explaining it for the next 2 hours. I am not kidding when I say this. For a long time our family was under the impression that there was some sort of complicated mechanical engineering diagram and description on that paper. When we finally got a look at it, it immediately became a source of mocking because of its simplicity.

Also, because the mom was explaining this horribly elementary schematic for 2+ hours, she didn't direct anyone else. We were all standing around waiting for her to give us a job. She never did that. She just looked to the schematic hoping it would tell her what to do.

10:30 am: After watching her look at that paper and walk up to random people and show them the paper, I decide to get to work on my own. I open a box. It looks like some sort of trellis or archway. I decide to put it together. How hard can it be?

10:50 am: It's hard. It's not a regular trellis. It doesn't have the normal archway shape. I can see that several of the bars have numbers on them and my RMYL degree helps me out in telling me that #1 is attached to #2 and so on. But not all the bars have numbers. And it seems that while there are 4 bars with a #1 on them, there are six bars with #2 on them. So there are 4 legs or 6? Can I see a picture? Are there instructions anywhere? Anything? I am afraid to ask the mother for fear she might show me the schematic again.

11:04 am: Sarah and I give up. We tell the mom that there just won't be a trellis. We are sorry, but there is nothing we can do without a picture or some idea of how it's supposed to look.

11:05 am: Clarin's brother walks over and tells us that he knows what it should look like. Not only that, but HE HAS ASSEMBLED THIS EXACT TRELLIS PREVIOUSLY and do we want him to tell us so we can put it together?

11:06 am: I am so frustrated that I walk away without a word to him. I think he gets the hint. What idiot sits and watches you struggle for 45 minutes with something for which he has specific knowledge of it's assembly? So mad

11:30 am: There is some sort of stringing of wires going on. All according to the schematic of course. Then they realize that the schematic was crap and so we have to take down all the wires and basically start over again. So after all that schematic praise, we throw it out and make out own plan

12:20 pm: Jules and MK go to find a gas station. They *SAY* it's so they can get a drink, but I think they needed to make out again.

12:25 pm: The other mom is still trying to use the schematic to decide where to put the tables. I am just now noticing that there is NO ONE else helping. There are no ladies from the ward, there is no one at all but my family. I ask my mom why and she said she thinks it's because they don't live in this town. WHAAAA??? Why are they having it here, then? Apparently because they USED to live here 3 years ago. So imagine if I were having a baby. I used to live in Logan, but now I live in Spanish Fork. Well, Instead of having my shower in Spanish Fork, I have it in Logan. Do you think people will drive 3 hours to come to my shower? Especially when they only have a few weeks notice? Especially if this shower takes place at the exact day and time of the General Relief Society Broadcast? Yeah, I wouldn't have been there either. So that's why we had no one to help.

12:30 pm: Jeff, Nate and Denisse have given up and are in the foyer hanging out.

12:45 pm: My mom realizes that we are only like 20% done, and of that 20%, her family has done EVERYTHING. She knows that if her family checks out, nothing is going to happen. She goes and naggs everyone to get going

12:47 pm: While standing on a table to drape tulle on the wires hanging from the ceiling (don't ask, I don't want to explain it) I fall off the table. Luckily I wasn't holding my baby. But I do make a fool of myself. And then I felt dumb.

1:15 pm: Food arrives. We eat and pretend that we aren't where we are right now. We don't see an end in sight.

1:20 pm: A friend comes and starts to help Clarin's mom put lights and Tulle and Ivy on the trellis. They seem to be doing a lot of yakking, very little decorating.

1:30 pm: Someone else arrives and starts ironing tablecloths. There are only 7 circular tablecloths that she has to do. It take her 2 and a half hours to do this. I am not kidding.

2:00 pm: I notice that after 40 minutes Clarin's mom has only been able to put on strand of lights on. I am frustrated. Why can't she work and talk at the same time? What is the matter with this family? Where is the father? Oh, he's taking a nap on the couch. Where is the brother? Gone, just gone. Friends? One is yakking and distracting the mom and the other is taking a butt-long time to iron 7 small pieces of fabric. We have the tables up but are waiting for cloths to put on them. Clarin went ad bought stuff to make centerpieces and it is taking her about 45 min to complete each one. And I have just heard a rumor that there will be no food. I am not looking forward to the evening. I want this to be over.

2:00 pm: I start to look around for crap I can do so I can get out of here. I also start to think up excuses to get us out of here. Baby is a good one. I can also pretend to get the runs really badly. Nothing gets everyone movin' like a diarrhea scare.

2:20 pm: Clarin's mom gets up to show that damn schematic to one more person. I pounce on the trellis job that still only has one thing of lights on it. I finish the lights, the tulle, and the Ivy in 10 minutes. AND I was talking to my sister the whole time. IT CAN BE DONE!!! WHOOO HOOOOO!!!

2:30 pm: We realize that Clarin is having problems with the centerpieces. I come in a save the day (of course) Just kidding. But I walk in and in 15 minutes I have done 3 centerpieces. AND I was babysitting my crazy nephew Maxwell and my niece Rayce who was being difficult and grabbing things out of my hands. Even with all those distractions I was able to get three done. What is wrong with this family? Whatever

3:00 pm: We finally leave. Naps are taken, pools are swum in, and showers taken. It's lovely. I want Tina to cut my hair, but she doesn't have time to do it. She instead says that she'll bring her scissors to the reception and during a quiet down time, she'll cut it there. I'm excited.

7:00 pm: We go to the shower. Sure enough, there is no food. NO FOOD!! You are having a reception at a DINNER TIME and inviting MORMONS, an you don't have food? What is the matter with you? All they have is a tray of fruit. And not a fancy spread either. We are talking grapes, melon and pineapple. We are not pleased. Oh, there also is a chocolate fountain. But the *brainiacs* that compose her family decide to assemble and fire the thing up without reading the instructions. This meant that there is never a smooth flow of chocolate and things get stuck down inside the motor and frequently clog it up. OH, and here is what they have to dip in it: Graham crackers, Nilla Wafers (which are just blonde graham crackers!!! Try a little variety people!) and marshmallows, which I don't eat. I did not partake. I am angered

7:30 pm: My rage does not abate when I realize that there is ONLY flavor of cake: chocolate. I SPECIFICALLY ASKED ABOUT THE CAKE SITUATION AND I WAS ASSURED THAT THERE WOULD BE SOME OTHER CHOICE BESIDES CHOCOLATE. Flames shoot from my ears, molten lava flows from my mouth. I am mad. This evening and weekend as a whole have JUST been ruined.

I could put up with annoying people on the 8 hour drive there, I can put up with incompetence in reception decorating. I can even put up with the lack of food (when there is a promise of non-chocolate cake here and a real meal after we leave). But I will not, I SHALL NOT accept the cake situation. Who does that? I mean, who buys a GIANT chocolate sheet cake and THEN makes her fancy two-tiered decorated cake ALSO chocolate? UUUGHHH, I was so mad. It officially ruined everything and I wanted to leave right then.

I was not the only one. Our family make up well over half the guests there. There was no dancing, silly music and crazy people. My family was DEFINITELY the fun table of the evening.

8:00 pm: I get my hair cut SHORT. Whacked would be a good way to describe it. I love it. You might even get to see a picture of it. We'll see. . .

9:00 pm: It's over. We are done. We start to put up the chairs.

9:05 pm: Clarin's mom comes over and asks Tina who told her to do it. Tina says, "I just do what I'm told" basically pushing the blame onto some other phantom person. The mom is still upset. She says, "Well, since it started late, we are going to go until 9:30." WHEN WILL THIS TORTURE END? Ughhh!! Let us out of our misery already.

Nathan decides to clear out the chapel his own special way. He decides to "smoke them out." And how will he do this? Why with the BFTT's of course!! He picks a group of people standing around and he goes in and pretends to joint the conversation. About 10 seconds into it, he turns around and puts his bum in the center of the circle and then lets out a silent but deadly gas explosion. And then he just walks away. Oh boy does it work!!

And he had us all in hysterics. Watching everyone clear out and then in just a few minutes the smell was everywhere. And it lingered like you wouldn't believe. And he did it over and over again. It was the best part of the night.

9:30 pm: We finally get out. And then we get to go have some real food. And the weekend was basically over. And not a moment too soon, if you ask my opinion.

So that was a really long post to basically say the following: My family is hilarious and chocolate cake sucks. Man, I am still mad about that. I think that I will go to a cake store and sample the different kinds of cake just to gt some good cake. I'M PISSED ABOUT THAT CAKE!!! Who wants to eat some cake with me? I promise it won't be chocolate.