The One with the New Moon Review

Don't worry, I won't reveal any spoilers for those who for some odd reason unbeknownst to me haven't seen the movie yet.

You know that feeling you get when you're reading the Twilight books that stays with you for several days after that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy and hopeful and you never think it will go away and all you want to do is walk around like a zombie muttering, "Twilight. Twilight. Twilight."?? That's how I feel right about now. My head is in the clouds. Or maybe I feel the way I do because I only got 3.5 hours of sleep....Either way, NEW MOON WAS FREAKING AWESOME!!!

I got off work at 5:30 and rushed home to eat dinner and put the animals to sleep. Then we picked up Blake and Veronica (Erica and Brian, the spouses of the aforementioned, were coming a little later) and headed to the Santa Anita AMC theater. We got there around 7:30pm for the 9pm showing of Twilight. What baffles me is that people were already lined up for their various midnight showings of New Moon. Why sit outside in the cold when you could be inside all warm and toasty watching Twilight? Plus, since we stayed in the same theater after Twilight to watch New Moon, we got the best seats in the house; everybody waiting outside had to fill in the leftover seats. Anyways, I'm just trying to say that I'm super glad we signed up for the double-feature.

Blake = our very own vampire; see the red in his eyes from drinking too much human blood? Or something... (3.5 hours of sleep people, my jokes aren't quite up to par on this fine morning...)Here's me with my fellow Twilight lovin' home girls Veronica, Jenny, and Erica. (Thanks for the shirt Marlene!)These are the husbands we had to drag tooth and nail to get to come with us. Haha. False. They actually volunteered. Guys like Twilight, too! -> not only a statement of fact, it's a Facebook group Chris has joined. What a catch :)This is the theater we shared our New Moon experience with. Excellent crowd participation. Always makes things more entertaining.
RIGHT!?!?
Intermission = potty break and audible gasps at the length of the concession lines.A few others showed up for New Moon like Brian (of Brian and Veronica), Kate and Pehrson, and Kim and Alyssa. The more the merrier!
Congrats on the new braces V! And I loved all your commentaries during the movies :)
What I especially loved about watching Twilight before New Moon is it totally put me in the "Twilight" mood. New Moon picked up right where Twilight left off. Alls I'm gonna say about the movie is, I almost converted to the dark side. Meaning, I almost converted to Team Jacob. That Taylor Lautner is a dang good actor (those pecs don't hurt to look at either :) Plus Kristen Stewart's acting was improved 100 fold. Overall, I'm in la la land and don't fancy coming back down to earth anytime soon.

I'm off to find an Eclipse countdown widget to replace the New Moon one! Can't wait 'til June 30th- only 222 days away!

The One with the Artistic Grandpa

All my life up until a few months ago I thought my artsy fartsy skills came from the maternal side of my family. My Malm and Grandma Doris are particularly in tune with their right brain. It turns out a good portion of my creative genes stem from my paternal roots. Right before we moved my Grandpa Taylor invited me over to look through his portfolio. Talk about mad skillz! :) I don't know how people created text before computers and Adobe Illustrator...actually I do know: they created it BY HAND. My grandpa worked in advertising and created many a poster in his prime. Each and every one was meticulously hand drawn, letters and all. And scattered throughout his portfolio were pieces of fine art, like this one:Watercolor and ink. Timeless. I can't wait to frame it and hang it on my wall of fame. I'm so happy to find out this lovely secret about my Grandpa Taylor - who knew?!

The One with Thank You MySpace...

...for live streaming the premier of New Moon that was in Hollywood last night. Hollywood. Just a couple towns over. Just the fact that I had the option of going to the New Moon premier is an overwhelming feeling. But I'm not much of a crowds person. Maybe I'll get up the guts to go to the Eclipse premier in June. It's gonna be nuts.

I wasn't planning on watching the New Moon premier on my computer last night. I had a lot of other things I needed to be doing. But when I was reading my blogs while eating dinner I came across a post on "Bella and Edward" that said "If the MySpace feed doesn't work, you can try UStream." One click and I could be watching the premier from the comfort of my own home? Too tempting. Click. I was there. And so were 102, 688 people. (Later on there were over 240,000...crazy Twihards!)
I watched the stars arrive. I giggled inwardly and laughed out loud. If I had been there physically rather than cyberally, I would have been screaming like this at the arrival of R. Patz too:

His interview was short and sweet.

I think people should have been making a bigger deal of the presence of Stephenie Meyer. Afterall, if it weren't for this very woman, none of this would have happened. Thank you Stephenie. I love Twilight.Kristen Stewart's interview wasn't nearly as awkward and uncomfortable as I thought it would be. Props to her.

Taylor Lautner played it cool. Oooh my computer screen is NASTY! Good thing tomorrow is cleaning day!

T minus two days and two and a half hours until I see Twilight then New Moon! I'm a happy camper.

The One with the Holiday Open House and the Grand Opening of Patina

A few fine folk around here have teamed up and are hosting a handmade holiday open house this Saturday. Here are the details (click on it to make it bigger):
I'll be selling some calendars, handmade books, cards, maybe some fabric flowers, and who knows what else. Whatever I can whip up in the next week will be at my booth. Other ladies will be selling prints, quilts, jewelry, fabric dolls, purses, baked goods, etc. There will be Christmas music and decor galore, door prizes, drinks and treats. Hope to see you there!

Speaking of handmade things, if you live in Utah (or you feel like road tripping!), my dear friend Nichole is having the grand opening of her new uber cute shop: Patina. It's this Wednesday the 18th and the address is 200 South Main St. Pleasant Grove, UT. Free cupcakes and a little handmade gift for our first 25 customers that day! Patina is a handmade market set up like a retail store where local artists/crafters can sell there creations. They rotate ten artists each week to keep people interested in coming to check the place out. Starting in January they will being having at least one class every week; from knitting and quilting to painting and bookbinding. Good luck Nichole! Wish with all my heart I could be there!!!!!!!

The One with A Day in the Not-So-Typical (But Hopefully Soon-To-Be-Typical) Life of a Puppy Named Joey

We have high expectations of our little Joey. We want him to like wind, rain, snow, water, the beach, the mountains, the desert, maybe even tornadoes. We want him to like taking baths, getting groomed, and getting his toenails clipped. We don't want him to bite or bark. We want to be able to take him everywhere leash-less. Basically, we want a perfect dog...Too much to ask? Probably. But we've found a reputable trainer who says he can make our wildest dreams come true.

And so we take our journey to 8 o'clock am on Saturday November 14th, 2009. Plan of attack: wash and dry the dog. I saw him get his very first bath two weeks ago and he didn't do too bad. He shook like a leaf in a hurricane while getting dowsed, and he howled like the wind when the blow drier was on his face, but other than that he wasn't too bad so we were expecting similar results today. Not so. As soon as we put Joey in the sink he started freaking out. I'm surprised our neighbors didn't call the cops on us. But if there's one thing we've learned it's to press on. We gave Joey a bath whether he liked it or not.
Then we dried him with a fancy shmancy blow drier (and I don't mean this towel). That was an experience...
Fast forward to 10am - we left the shady woods of South Pasadena for the ocean views of Redondo Beach to meet with our dog trainer.
Joey was an angel and sat on my lap during the one hour ride.
We were at the trainer's house (well, in his backyard) for two hours. We are super impressed and have seen positive results already. We've learned tips and tricks and what to do and what not to do. Joey got the bejeezes scared out of him by the trainer's male dog. Joey was getting a little too friendly (ie: trying to get milk from him...haha) and the dog snapped at Joey and Joey screamed like a little girl for 30 seconds straight. I thought he had been hurt but he was just scared to high heaven. Let's just say Joey minded his manners around that other dog the rest of the time.

The trainer wants Joey exposed to EVERYTHING. Bikes, trikes, automobiles, wheels, skateboards, people old and young, people with disabilities and people with too much energy, animals of all kinds (we're well on our way in our own apartment in this department), and terrains of all types. We're so excited, this is exactly what we want too. So we decided to go to the beach. Our mission was two-fold: expose the dog to the elements and let Chris see the ocean for the very first time since we moved here in August. What a deprived husband I have :)
Dogs aren't allowed on the beach (sad!) so we just walked him up and down the boardwalk or whatever the path is called.
Shhhhh.....
We couldn't walk more than five feet at a time without getting stopped by hoards of people. Typical conversation went as follows:
"Oooooooh my gosh! He's sooooo cute! How old is he?"
"Nine weeks."
"How big does he get"
"About three times as big."
"What kind of dog is he?"
"Shiba inu."
"A what?"
"Shiba Inu"
"A what??"
"SHIBA INU."
"Oh. OK. Oooooh he's sooooo cute!"
Moving on to the next bunch of gawkers.
It was a long day for Joey, what with the bath, getting yelled at and demonstrated on, then the bombardment of people at the beach. But he had a good time.
He slept on my lap all the way home then he slept for the rest of the day.
Presh-a-presh.

The One with Everywhere I Go, Movies Are Being Made

I have yet to see someone famous since living here (UPDATED: FALSE! I remembered that I saw Aaron Ruell aka Kip from Napoleon Dynamite one of the first Sundays here...), but I think my chances of such an occurrence happening are increasing because everywhere I go in South Pasadena movies are being filmed. I don't know what movies, I don't know how important or insignificant the movie will be, and I don't know who they're starring, I'm too chicken to pull over and ask.

I'd say the reasons for filming here so frequently are pretty clear: "South Pasadena is known for its tree-lined streets, historic California Craftsman-style homes, unique small businesses, and its outstanding public schools. This small town atmosphere makes South Pasadena one of California's most desirable locations. South Pasadena prides itself on its small town character. Less than three and one-half square miles in area, South Pasadena lies between the far larger City of Pasadena, of which it was once part, and the metropolis of Los Angeles. Small, proud and independent, the City of South Pasadena has battled for a hundred years to preserve its status as a distinct—and distinctive—community."

Movies that have been filmed here include Father of the Bride (recognize the house? It's only 2 miles away from our place!),Freaky Friday, The Terminator, Gone with the Wind, Halloween, American Pie, Legally Blonde, 13 Going on 30, Back to the Future, Bruce Almighty, and License to Wed. Notable television series that have been filmed here include Family, Boston Public, Nip/Tuck, Desperate Housewives, Cold Case, and Bones.

As for my movie sitings, I was on my way to Target this morning and saw some action.
I took Chris to the bus stop a different way than usual this afternoon and ran into more movie trucks. And then on the way home from dropping Chris off at the bus stop, I saw even more movie trucks and action. Three movie set sitings in one day! Crossing my fingers I run into someone famous soon.

The One with the Reality TV Dilemmas

There are six shows I watch religiously.

Biggest Loser
America's Next Top Model
Supernatural
Project Runway
The Office
LOST (can January come any faster??)

If for some reason I can't watch any episode live, there's this wonderful thing called the World Wide Web that allows me to watch what I've missed anytime I want. Who needs TiVo? :) Half of the shows I watch are reality shows. What can I say, they're addicting.

Supernatural is going great so far. It give me my "X-Files" style fix. The Office is funny as usual.And I'm still sitting and waiting patiently (or not so patiently) until January for LOST to start.
Meanwhile, it's the reality tv shows I'm having dilemmas with. On the Biggest Loser, I have NO IDEA who I want to win! I really like the "pink ladies" Amanda,and Rebecca.I really like Abby but she sacrificed herself so Amanda could stay. Abby's story is so inspirational. She had a five-year-old red haired cute daughter, an amazing husband, and a two week old baby boy. They were all killed in a car crash when some guy going 100mph crashed into them. Sooooo sad. But Abby said she accomplished what she came for - she learned to open her heart and love again. I hope she wins the stay-at-home biggest loser prize.

Project Runway - I am torn between who I want to win! I dig all the final contestants. Irina's stuff is super radical - but she's so mean that something she said ended up in Entertainment Weekly's "Sound Bites". The contestants call her Meana Irina. Besides her attitude, her stuff rocks.Carol Hannah is so cute and I would wear everything she makes.
Althea also makes totally wearable stuff. I love it all.
I'm torn. I'm absolutely torn. I'll be happy with whoever wins.

Meanwhile, for the first time in America's Next Top Model history (and it's been on for like seven YEARS), I am rooting for BOTH finalists. This is Cycle 13 and the theme is Petite Models - they're all under 5'7". I really like Nicole. She's 18 and from Louisville, Colorado. She's awkward, socially inept, and totally gorgeous.
I really like Laura. She's 19 from Stanford, Kentucky and she's got the accent and personality of a Southern Girl to boot.I've digged them both from the beginning and I'm so happy they're the two finalists! I feel like so many times in ANTM my faves have been kicked off early or they lost the final battle. Honestly and truly, I will be 100% happy with whoever wins. It's a good feeling, one I've never felt before with this silly yet addicting show. Entire seasons air every Saturday on Oxygen from 8am to 8pm. I love having it on in the background while I'm cleaning/working.

I watch too much TV.

The One with A Shop Called Ruche

I have a new favorite online shop. It's called Ruche and IMHO (in my humble opinion) it's got that Anthropologie vibe, but it's much easier on the wallet - always a bonus. I was looking at the Ruche Blog and found out they're located in Fullerton, CA - just a hop skip and a jump away. I emailed them and asked if I and a few other hip gals could maybe possibly visit their warehouse and they emailed me back within an hour and said YES! So, if you're interested in tagging along, lemme know. I'm thinking a Saturday in the near future. Check out a small sampling of their cuteness below.
"I'm in love, I'm in love, and I don't care who knows it!"

The One with Legitimate Californians

I've been procrastinating going to the DMV for good reason. I arrived at 7:45am and the line was already a block long. Once it opened at 8 I got inside the building pretty quickly and got called up to a window pretty quickly too; niiice. I handed my paperwork to the mysterious man behind the glass and he said, "Now you need to do this and that and this and that, give me $291, then come back when you've done all that stuff." Perhaps I shouldn't have procrastinated so much cuz they tacked on some hefty late registration fees. But the good news is I passed my written driver's test with flying colors (I was very worried I'd fail since I didn't study much at all) and my new California driver's license will arrive in 4-6 WEEKS. I thought he was gonna say 4-6 days. Haha. Then after driving all over town trying to find a smog check place (and coughing up another $50, just "put it on my tab"), and after getting the car inspected, and after waiting in line again, I was handed over a flashy set of license plates. I left the building at 10:45am. Three hours later. Not too shabby. I had been warned.

Bye bye Utah! It was good while it lasted!Hello California! So far so good!
Now all I need is a good tan and beach blond hair :)

The One with Joey's First Road Trip - Destination: Indio

What a memorable day we had yesterday! We packed more fun and games into 16 hours than should be allowed.

It all started when our friends Blake and Erica Bybee (plus don't forget baby Brooklyn) decided to take advantage of their family timeshare and booked a room at the WorldMark resort in Indio, CA. They invited us and a few other couples to tag along and spend an entire weekend hanging out and relaxing. We were down with the plan but due to extenuating circumstances, we were only able to make it up for one day out of the allotted three. That's okay, we came, we saw, we conquered.

We loaded the car with our designated dinner night resources, clothes, PJs, snacks, iPods, cameras, oh, and Joey!He was such a good puppy the entire two hour drive. He sat on my lap for a bit.
Then became a wee bit tired.
So he fell asleep in his bed the rest of the way.
Melts my heart I tell ya!
We drove past more windmills than I know how to count.
Indio or bust!
Indio is a beautiful oasis smack dab in the middle of the desert.Pets technically aren't allowed on the premises so we had to be fairly discrete about Joey's presence...Who could ever get mad at this cute face?First thing's first: pool time. Of course in our rush to get out the door I forgot my swimsuit. Blast. Luckily Veronica had an extra pair of shorts and a tank top I borrowed. Spanks!We took a few laps around the lazy river, waded in the wading pool, and caught some sun rays on our all-too-white-to-be-true-Californian faces.
I looked up and saw a palm tree and life was good.
Speaking of nature, I ran across a bunch of interesting flora while walking around. Like this. And this.
And this.
Back at the room we let Joey out of the secluded bathroom and let him sleep out on the deck. Funny story, so Chris had to drive Joey "off campus" to let him relieve himself and as Chris was walking him around a big ol' truck drove by. The truck stopped, backed up, rolled the window down and yelled, "Hey, is that a Shiba Inu?"
"Affirmative."
"Is it a male"
"Affirmative."
"Is he a purebred?"
"Affirmative."
"Is he fixed?"
"Negative. He's only 8 weeks old."
"I have a female and a lot of people want Shiba puppies so can we get our dogs together?"
"Uhhhh. Well, we signed a contract with the breeder that said we won't let him reproduce so I'm afraid not. Sorry!"

Shoot. We coulda made some extra cash had we not signed that contract.

So anyways, Erica and Blake got to cookin' their assigned lunch meal: creamy chicken and rice deliciousness. Here's the whole Indio party, from left to right: Blake & Erica (Brooklyn was sleeping), Melissa & Ryan, Veronica & Brian (Mariah was sleeping), Chris & the woman behind the camera, ME!
Then we went outside and played some Botchi ball. I won TWICE! See see see, that's totally MY yellow ball closest to the small white ball.
I was proud.
As the sun was setting we ate our frozen Costco lasagna then we headed back out for more good times.
The boys played an interesting rendition of ping pong.
Mariah wanted to get in on the action!Meanwhile I was trying to figure out how to blog from my phone so I downloaded an application from the Google Market, logged in, and posted. However, after I published my post and the list of recently published posts flashed across my screen, I realized none of them started with "The One with..."... I had just posted my "we're having fun at Indio, be back later" post to the South Pasadena Relief Society blog which I am technically an author of! Ahhhh! How embarrassing! Luckily, there was an internet cafe in the main building so I ran over there, logged in, deleted the post, and correctly posted on my own blog. I hope no one saw that post the 5 minutes it was live. And since it's a private blog it shouldn't show up on Reader or anything. Crisis averted. Hopefully. Sheesh.
We concluding the evening by playing a few rounds of Partini, watching some football, eating some cookies, candy, snacks and all things junk, and just hanging out. At about 10:30pm I nudged Chris and said we'd better skedattle. We were originally planning on spending the night, we had our PJs and everything, but the more I thought about traffic in the morning, the more I felt we needed to get home. And so we all decided to pack 'em in and move 'em out. We made it home by 12:30am and now here we are. Thanks for the great time Blake and Erica, let's do it again real soon!

The One with Indio

Please excuse my absense - I'm at a beautiful resort in Indio enjoying some R&R.
Back to regular blogging tomorrow!

The One with Vandalism

I arrived at work today at the usual time of 1:30pm, (thank you so much for letting me borrow your car Bybees, as our blasted car is out of commission at the moment, but that's another story for another day...) walked in, said hello to Nicole the morning receptionist, then I turned 90 degrees and noticed huge scratches on one of the huge front windows of the building. Yikes! Those weren't there when I left at 5:30pm yesterday but they were there at 8:30am when Nicole arrived. The nerve of some people. (Are people just having a bad week this week? After that rude comment I got and now vandalism... Cheer up world! :) Shortly after I took my position at my desk a policeman arrived to file a report. He talked with the owners for awhile then he came inside and took down all (I mean ALL!) of my information except my social security number (which I suppose he could have gotten from my driver's license). Name, age, weight, eye color, hair color, address, cell number, home phone number (ain't got no), driver's license number ("Why is it a Utah license? How long have you lived here?" Uh oh, I thought I was gonna get busted for not changing my driver's license yet...) I'm surprised he didn't ask for my blog URL, haha. I seriously felt like I was in trouble and I didn't do anything I swear!

I didn't take a picture of the full damage, just in case the person who did it reads this (not likely, I know, but better safe than sorry) and recognizes their work. That would be bad. But see those lines across the photo?
Those are the scratches etched deep into the glass.

This isn't the first time I've had to talk to a cop (I've been in a couple of car accidents, my bad), but hopefully it's the last!

The One with Childhood Memories

I'm a pretty nostalgic person. Perhaps that is one of the many reasons I love scrapbooking so much - I love memories. Awhile ago I was thinking about how funny it is that I'm back in California since I lived in California from when I was 3 months to 10 years old. Since living here, I've seen a few types of shrubbery that I recognize and haven't thought of in over a decade. In fact, as I was looking through old photos of my childhood in California days I found the exact shrubbery I'm thinking about - it's got weird fuzzy red things all over it:

Random, I know, but it triggered my nostalgia to the extreme. I started thinking about my old house, the house I "grew up" in, so I googled the address. Apparently the house was recently on the market because I found a YouTube video of it! I know this won't mean much to most, but here it is nonetheless, forever memorialized on my blog:

It's fun to see how some things have changed and how some things are still exactly the same. The tree in the front yard is ginormous now. Inside is the same kitchen (though it looks much different) where I once took out everything from everywhere and lined it all up:

That's the driveway...

...where there once stood a basketball hoop and tether ball post which one time I tossed the tether ball into the basket which caused the basketball stand to come crashing down (miraculously missing me and the car) because the post had rusted through.

That's the living room...

...where I had many-a sleepover and practiced piano with my "Sweaty-Betty" fingers.

That's the front porch where we took tons of photos and placed a plethora of carved pumpkins.

Basically, I'm so grateful for modern technology like YouTube and Google Earth which allows me to dive into my past and revisit old and fond memories.

The One with the Anonymous Commenter

Dear Anonymous Commenter,

Thank you so much for your comment yesterday which I hastily rejected, it made me warm and tingly inside:

"Seriously do you need to start each post with "the one with"? You're not original, it doesn't sound cool. It actually makes you sound like a pretentious retard. Seriously it's f***ing annoying get over your self"

Let's face it, sometimes we just have off days, so I hope that you have a better day today than yesterday. Maybe this will cheer you up:Sincerely,
Paige

The One with the Paper Pumpkin

I've got a project featured on the American Crafts blog today! I should have posted this hours ago... but better late than never I say.

A little bit about the paper pumpkin: It's no secret that I'm in love all of the new Elements by American Crafts. Pearl brads, glitter brads, jewel brads, glitter buttons...what's not to love? It's a fun challenge trying to find a way to use these new Elements on everything I make. For this fall-themed project I wanted to make a pumpkin with "bling" for a beautiful piece of front door decor.

Here is the GINORMOUS supply list:

12x12 Cardstock Chocolate (71047) – AC Cardstock, 12x12 Cardstock Apricot (71031) - AC Cardstock, 12x12 Cardstock Carrot (71032) – AC Cardstock, 12x12 Cardstock Melon (71033) – AC Cardstock, 12x12 Cardstock Mustard (71036) – AC Cardstock, 12x12 Cardstock Dandelion (71037) – AC Cardstock, 12x12 Cardstock Sunflower (71038), AC Cardstock, 12x12 Specialty Paper Dandelion Damask (71160) – AC Specialty Paper, 12x12 Specialty Paper Dandelion Pearl: Tweed (71196) – AC Specialty Paper, 12x12 Specialty Paper Apricot (71214) – AC Specialty Paper, Here Comes The Sun Paper (34982) – Blue Skies, Defense! Paper (34954) – Junior, Yay! Paper (34966) – Junior; Full Moon Paper (34777) – Halloween, Sleepy Hollow Paper (34794) – Halloween, Sizzle Paper (34701) Backyard, Faye Needleworth Paper (34730) – Craft Fair; Fire Drill Paper (34650) – Teen, Everyday Patterned Paper Box (34537) – AC Patterned Paper, Mini Jewel Brads Primaries (85270) – Elements, Mini Jewel Brads Brights (85273) – Elements, Medium Jewel Brads Primaries (85285) – Elements, Medium Jewel Brads Brights (85288) – Elements, Large Jewel Brads Tropicals (85302) – Elements, Pearl Brads Brights (85318) – Elements, Large Glitter Brads Metallic (85364) – Elements, Mini brads Tropicals (85377) – Elements, Medium Brads Primaries (85390) – Elements, Medium Brads Tropicals (85392) – Elements, Large Brads Tropicals (85407) – Elements, Glitter Buttons Tropicals (85422) – Elements, Glitter Buttons Primaries (85420) – Elements, Marzipan (89205) – Ribbon

Visit the American Crafts blog for step-by-step instructions and real photos!

The One with A Little Bit Personal

I don't really like to get very personal on here, some things will always be taboo (politics for instance) but there's a first for everything! So let's get to it, I know everyone is dying to ask, why don't we have a baby? First comes love (truly madly deeply!), then comes marriage (marriage is the best!), then comes the baby in the baby carriage (crickets chirping...).

I received a Facebook friend request last night which I accepted which lead me to reading her blog which lead me to reading a whole bunch of other people's blogs from her list that I knew. These people that I knew were from high school and I wasn't really friends with them per se, but they were LDS so I knew of them and we were acquaintances. Hi hey hello, you know, that sort of thing. But the more blogs I read, the more left out I felt. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. Is. Pregnant. Or. Has. At. Least. One. Baby. Why not us?

I don't really mind being asked, I ask myself the same question often. Why is it that I love animals so much and yet I don't get weak in the knees over newborns? Why don't I have that maternal instinct that some women seem to have an excess of (can I have some?)? I never loved baby-sitting. Don't shun me please, I'm just letting it out. Malm, you understand me, you were the same way. You say the only three babies you ever liked were your own, and I'm counting on that to be true for me too. Sorry to call you out :)

We've had excuses, even if some are a bit lame: We're still in school, we don't have any money, we don't have great insurance, we're only 24 years old, we've only been married two and a half years, we don't want our Disneyland passes to go to waste... But pretty soon it seems our excuses will run out. I know our church is all about families, and I know that my life is going to be so much more complete with kids, and I can't wait to start dressing them up and taking family pictures and going on outings and trick-or-treating and seeing the light in their eyes at Christmas when they're opening presents, etc. Lately, since I've been thinking about this a lot (which is a start right??), my mind drifts to how I'm going to let my parents and blog readers know when we're expecting, haha. It has to be creative, that's for sure. There's a lot to look forward to. Why hurry it up? Anticipation is half the fun!

Also in the excuse department, I'm scared of being pregnant - throwing up is probably my biggest phobia. I hate nausea. I don't like pain so the thought of giving birth terrifies me. But billions of women have done it, so I feel like I should just get over it.

There's also the possibility to consider that maybe we won't even be able to have kids when that time comes. Maybe ignorance is bliss.

So anyways, we feel the timing is almost right. Not quite there, but just know that we're thinking about it. Who knows - maybe this could be us in a year. Or two. Or three. Or four. Or more :)

LOL.

The One with the 500th Post Winner!

Thanks to RandomGenerator.org, I plugged in 1-80 and it spat back 26. I opened the comments, counted to 26 and the winner is my Freshman roommate, fellow bookbinder extraordinaire, and London-lover Elisabeth!!
So Elisabeth - email me your address (paigetaylorevans at gmail dot com) and I'll get this box o' stuff sent tomorrow! You know what's funny is last time I did a giveaway another one of my Freshman roommates, Paula, won. I've got lucky roommates. They should try the lottery :)

Thanks so much for playing along everyone, I sense a tradition in the making.

The One with the Best Halloween Ever!

Today was a good day. Probably the best Halloween I've ever had. Why you ask? Cuz I got a puppy :) We picked Joey up from the breeder's promptly at noon. (FYI - the breeder's name is Leslie Ann Engen and her kennel is called San Jo, just in case you want one :)
Everyone took turns holding him; he's simply irresistible.
We even stopped off at Ben Franklin where Allie was working her regular Saturday shift so she could say hello and goodbye.
He's going to be so red, I'm so glad.
Isn't this face precious? "My precious."
He was such an angel the entire six hour trip from Redmond, WA to South Pasadena, CA. He never barked or whimpered or cried. He either slept peacefully in his crate or sat there patiently while he was transported across the western coast of the United States. What a good little boy.
Bye bye Seattle!
Hello LA!
It seems he has already adjusted to life at the Evans'. He relieved himself immediately when we set him on the grass. He ran in and started eating Rachel's food which meant he was hungry so we promptly gave him his own puppy chow. He went to the bathroom again outside. Then he played with his new toys and followed us around.
Jadis is very curious about this new being in his presence. Rachel isn't too impressed, but she'll get better over time.
Now, out of all the comfy places he could be sleeping, he's crashed in the middle of the wooden floor.
Happy Halloween 2009! Hopefully next year I'll get to participate in the trick-or-treating aspect of the holiday. But this isn't too bad either :)

PS - I'll be drawing the winner of the 500th post giveaway tonight and will be posting the results first thing mañana! Good luck!

The One with the Eve Before All Hallow's Eve

This morning I created a post for the CARDS blog while I waited for Allie to get back from school. Then we went to the Shiba breeder and I got to see Joey and watch how to give him a bath, trim his toenails, and basically keep him healthy. As we were inside filling out some paperwork I glanced outside and watched him sitting right next to his mom. He loves her so much. I feel bad taking him away from his mom and two sisters. I know it's the law of the jungle, but still. Such is the life of a dog I guess. I hope he likes me. It still feels like he's the breeder's dog ya know, not my dog. Maybe when I finally get him home to South Pas tomorrow and get him settled in he'll feel like ours. No pictures of him today, I was busy following the breeder around and taking mental notes. But don't you worry, I have an inkling there will be plenty to follow :)

After the breeder session we went to the Halloween party at Google. Fun fun fun.

The food was good, the cupcakes were delicious, and our costumes were slammin'.

I cut the top off a pumpkin, gutted it out and then I ditched it. I wonder if anybody carved it, after all, the hard part was done.

Allie got a fun caricature made.

Then we went over to the Rands' house for another Halloween shin-dig. I love their chandelier.

It was fun to see everyone dressed up, conversing, and having a good time.
My sister "couldn't wear the same costume to another ward party" so she dressed up as a hippie. I mean an Indian. I mean a Native American.
I feel like Violet from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory right after she chews the forbidden gum in this suit... Anybody who can make this look good, props to you!

By the way, I'm getting a puppy tomorrow. Heeee!

The One with All Over the Place

So much has happened since yesterday! I hail from Redmond, WA at the present.

Yesterday after work I came home, finished packing, and we headed for the LAX airport at 6:45pm for my 8:45pm flight because I figured there wouldn't be any traffic and I'd have plenty of time to get through security and find my gate. "I figured there wouldn't be any traffic." Haha. That's the LAST time I "figure there won't be any traffic." There is ALWAYS traffic in LA. Note to self about that. But somehow we still got to the airport in plenty of time. I retrieved my boarding pass, didn't check any bags (cuz Alaskan charges to check bags, that's why I heart Southwest, but Southwest doesn't have direct flights from LAX to Seattle for some reason and I need the shortest flight possible for my sanity. So Southwest, get on that!), then I passed through security with flying colors and found my gate which wasn't hard, it was the very first one on the left. It was 8 o'clock at this point and I noticed my plane was already there and passengers were unloading. Sweet! Shortly thereafter we boarded the plane and got all settled by 8:15pm for the 8:45 scheduled departure time. One of the flight attendants announced that we should be able to take off shortly, just waiting on some paperwork, and to turn off all electronic devices at that point. 8:30 rolls around and again a flight attendant announced we should be able to take off shortly, just waiting on some paperwork. 8:45 rolls around and a flight attendant announces that the plane is having electrical issues (just what a plane-phobified person wants to hear!) and it'll be awhile before we get to take off. Bah. Out came the electrical devices. I don't really understand what was wrong with the plane, alls I know is they turned off all the lights at one point which was sorta freaky, and then they had to start the engines all weird, again, sorta freaky, but we eventually took off a little over an hour after the originally scheduled departure time. And I thought we were gonna get out of there early :) The flight was a dark and bumpy one - not my favorite. Luckily I had That's So Raven on my iPod to keep me distracted. 5.5 episodes later we landed safely in Seattle. My Malm and Dald were there, barely awake, to greet me at 1am.

This is a picture of the airplane wing and if you look into the light you can faintly see the rain (welcome to Washington!) hitting the plane at 400-some-odd miles per hour.

It's so great to be home. I woke up to grey skies and a curtain of mist pattering gently against my windows. Bliss. I'm not even being sarcastic!

I couldn't pass up the opportunity this morning to take a couple pictures of my cat Tip-Toe. I got her in 1994. Hey, I just realized her 15th birthday is tomorrow! Well whatdoyaknow!?! Tip-Toe has been around for a long time - as long as my 16 year old sister can even remember! And she still acts young and spry! Here's to 15 more years Tip-Toe!

I haven't been home for Halloween since 2002. Apparently over the years my mom has acquired a bounteous collection of Halloween paraphernalia because everywhere I turn I see something spooky. I love it! These are some pictures of her little haunted village. It lights up and makes scary noises and everything. I want one.

The cute front porch (with my sign to the UPS driver today to leave my expected puppy carrier package on the bench).

One thing I'm missing about living in Utah at this point in the year is a genuine fall with the changing colors of leaves. Fall is in full swing here so I spent a little time outside documenting Redmond in October.

It was chilly today. I wore five layers to keep warm. I was nice and toasty.

My meeting with the Shiba Inu breeder wasn't until 1:30pm so Malm, Allie, and I curled up on the couch and watched the first two of four hours of the made for TV movie Rose Red by Stephen King. It's a classic.

Finally the blessed hour arrived and we drove the short mile to the breeders. I still can't believe she lives so close to "my" house! We pulled up to driveway and were greeted by these massive dawgs.

There are Shiba's galore, as there should be at a breeder's place. This is a beautiful, full-grown, red colored Shiba. This is what our Joey will look like in a few months. I think he's just gorgeous.

FINALLY I got to meet our little Joey. He's so much cuter in real life than any pictures will do justice. I loved snuggling him and getting to know his personality.

His likeness to a cougar cub is uncanny! Are we getting a dog or a cat?

I've got another appointment tomorrow to see how to bathe him, sign all the paperwork, and fork over the cash. Getting a puppy is no joke! But I couldn't be more excited :)

Back at home Allie and I got ready to paint the town. Everything I'm wearing sans my pants and shoes is Allie's. Hey, why pack my own clothes when I can raid her awesome wardrobe?

We perused Redmond Towne Centre for a bit then met up with the 'rents at Outback Steakhouse in Kirkland. I got me some yummy fillet.

Looking forward to tomorrow which will consist of seeing Joey, attending a Halloween partay at Google, attending a Halloween partay at a family friend's house, and more!

Aaaand, don't forget to check out my 500th post giveaway a few posts down. Just over 48 hours until I pick the winner!