Poolside sharing

Now that it is summer and it's blazing hot our apartment's pool is open. Jordan and I went swimming tonight with our friends Lesley and Elliott, and we were taught a valuable lesson in pool etiquette: All your belongings are up for grabs.

For example, if you bring your own water paddles and paddle ball, this does guarantee that you will be the one playing with it. Our friends brought their set and literally as soon as we got in the water, this 8ish year old boy said, "Ooh! That looks fun. Can I play with that?" We politely told him that we brought it to play together, but this was not the answer he was looking for....so he tried again three minutes later. "Hey guys, can I have a turn?" "Uh....sorry we really wanted to play this together."

Ten minutes later Jordan and Elliott gave the paddles to me and Lesley to play. Apparently this was seen as another window of opportunity for the boy. "Did you know I'm really good at tennis?" "Oh you are?..That's neat." "So...can I have a turn with those?" "Sorry, we're still using them." I was pretty annoyed and was hoping for get a parent to intervene soon. I asked the boy if he was swimming with his mom and he smiled and pointed to a woman who was right behind me, smiling at us. Really, lady? You have no problem with your son pestering strangers for their property? Ugh...

In between his intervals of begging to use our stuff, the kid would swim under water with goggles on. At one point while he was under water, a different boy (I'm guessing age 7-9) came up to me and asked, "Can I wear his goggles?" "HUH? uh, no. You can't. I mean, well, you have to ask him, I guess." Sure enough, as soon as the boy came up for air the second boy asked if he could borrow the goggles. The boy looked defeated and handed them over, as if he had no other option than to say yes (which was most likely why he did not seem to comprehend us saying no to him.) Now, where was that boy....oh yeah! "So, is it my turn yet?" "No, we're still playing." Then kid number 2 (goggle snatcher) wanted in on the fun. "Wow! Can I play?" AUGH!!!! Their plan eventually worked - we got worn out by the compulsive asking and gave up the goods.

It didn't take long for me to see where this learned behavior came from. A group of adults had a big floaty raft in the pool. Two women (not from this group) swam up to us and asked, "Whose raft is this?" as they hopped on it and played with it without any hesitation. Another lady asked loudly, "Whose floaty be dis?" as she grabbed it and placed her baby in it. Whaaaaat?

So people of earth, I ask you to NOT let your kid take strangers' pool toys. It will lead to an ongoing social pool cycle of mayhem. This really needs to end. That is all.

Sew crazy!

Last week I bought a sewing machine on a total impulse. BEST impulsive shopping I've ever done. I bought it online on Monday and it was at my doorstep by Thursday. Since then I have had so much fun sewing* stuff. I've been going nonstop.

This is my sewing machine:
And no, I did not find it in the Barbie isle. The flowers are dumb. I think whoever created this machine thought that only 10-12 girls would need such a ultimate beginners model. Oh, well.

The machine IS great for beginners too! I highly recommend this baby to anyone who is even curious about sewing. The best part is it didn't even cost that much. Ka-ching. Now I have more money to spend on replacing my missing camera :(

(Seriously, Seattle family members....has anyone seen it? Anywhere?)

Without said camera, I can't take pictures of my beautiful** creations. Basically all I have made are throw pillows for our living room and peepee teepees for baby gifts.Wish me luck as I tiptoe into harder patterns...

*attempting to sew...often messing up and whining.
**beautiful is widely subjective. A more appropriate adjective would be "....eh.."

Happy Birthday, Dad!!

Today is my dad's 59th birthday and I wanted to give him a proper (and punctual) shout out!

Basically, I have the best dad ever. My dad has always been super involved in everything that my siblings and I have done. In elementary school he would MC the school talent shows. He often would coach everyone's baseball and softball teams (except for me because I was far more interested in collecting Barbies than playing team sports). In middle school he never missed a single screechy orchestra concert.
In high school he was always super involved in different committees. For example, (much to my dismay back then) he and my mom were chaperons on my choir trip. Most of the parental chaperoned were quiet and "behind the scenes" where my dad was out being chummy with all the kids, performing songs that he wrote to my peers (I could have died!) and more. My senior year he was on our graduation party committee. He went to every single cross country meet (except for one- and he was frustrated that he couldn't make it.) He made me lunch all through high school and would decorate my lunch bags on the days I had a XC meet. The lunch bags were known as Spirit Bags and would be read by all of my friends.

My dad has always been very selfless in our family. For example, my high school was one mile away- very walkable. Dad worked in Bellevue, which was a twenty minute drive from our house at LEAST. However, when I got my drivers license my dad would take the bus and bike to work so I could have a car to drive up the street to school. He happily sat through many mall experiences and chauffeured me and my friends around on weekend nights where he would probably rather be at home.
When I was a kid I never realized how much more involved my dad was in my life compared to other kids. I just assumed that all dads were like mine. Now I can see how special my dad is and how lucky I am to have him :)
My dad is always up for fun and a laugh. Every family vacation is filled with taking gag pictures, such as this one:

In my sister's wedding my dad insisted on having a choreographed daddy/daughter dance that included "the Elaine" and most of Napoleon Dynamite's dance moves. Dad loves to make home videos and has a talent for making them entertaining to all. The first catchphrase that comes to my mind when I think of my dad is anytime someone asks,"Hey did you get a haircut? He ALWAYS replies, "No...I got them ALL cut!"

So Happy Birthday, Dad! Thanks for being the goofy, quirky, hard working lovable guy that you are.

*FYI- my mom has also always been super involved in my life too and did lots of stuff mentioned above. I just focused on dad because it was his birthday. I didn't want to imply that he did it all by himself :D

Seattle and Salvation Army

After graduation my parents took me and Jordan on an incredible church history road trip. Since my camera is gone, I am waiting for my dad to send me some of his pictures of the trip (did I mention I miss my lost camera??) so I am going to wait until I get his photos before I blog about the trip in detail. Stay tuned....

After our vacation with my parents, Jordan and I flew to Seattle to visit more of the fam. We built legos, played Star Wars, built forts, swam in 3 ft of water, limboed, played London Bridges, set up a Snow White puzzle multiple times....oh, and we played with my nieces and nephew too. :P I love being an aunt! Jordan is the cutest uncle too. He loves loves loves our little kiddos; it's so adorable. He's gonna make a great baby daddy someday.

One really cool thing that we did in Seattle was help out with a charity put on by Salvation Army. They organized "One Million Meals for Haiti" and asked for volunteers to help assemble food packages to be sent to the Haitians. My parents, Molly and Brad, Jordan and I all went to help out.


My, what a sexy bunch! They were supposed to give me an apron, but I think I got a dress instead.

Here's a shot of the Convention Center in Seattle full of people assembling food.

Officially the most UNflattering picture of us!

The whole center was packed with energy. You could tell everyone was having a great time. It's easy to forget how fulfilling service can be.

Attention anyone smarter than me....

Ok, so I really want to blog again, but I am having beef with blogger. For the last 2 months or so, whenever I try to add a picture onto my post it comes out in computer lingo. Before, it would just show the picture and I could place in my post. Now it does NOT show my pictures and instead throws up a bunch of jargon such as kgjfkgfhgkjfhgjkfhfancycomputertalk....and so on. I thought it was because my computer was stupid,but it also happens on my school computers and our fancy new laptop...so it's my blogger's problem (or something?). Is this fixable? If so, hoooooow?

Sincerely,
Me, the incompetent computer gal.

Too cool for school

May 7th was my last day of school EVER! Woohoo!! My mom flew in that weekend and then I graduated from OU on the following Tuesday, May 11th (whoever thought it was a great idea to have a graduation on a Tuesday should be given an atomic wedgie. The graduation seemed a little long, but it was nothing compared to my BYU graduation, so I didn't mind. I'm glad I went. Unfortunately, my camera evaporated while I was Seattle last week so I don't have any of the pictures to share in this event. :(

At my graduation, I was able to reflect on the past graduations that I have had. It all stated in June of 2004 when I graduated from high school....


I was super excited, but mainly it was because the three of us plus one more friend were going to Disneyland in a mere 72 hours from then. I also remember my dad making a point to let people know he was NOT proud of me for graduating high school because "graduating high school is just something you DO! EVERYONE should do it!"

So in order to win daddy's pride- er, I mean get more smarter, I furthered my education. Being totally unsure of what I wanted to study and terrified to leave home, I went to Bellevue Community College for my next "degree". I had one goal at BCC- to get OUT! So many people in my single's ward were at the same community college for 4+ years. I did not want to fall into that trap, so I went full time for two years and graduated with my Associates degree in general studies. My school did have an official graduation but I had better things to do than celebrate graduating from my community college (like say, watching a rerun of Full House) so I didn't have a graduate picture for that school. But I think it would look a little something like this:

During my cherished BCC time I applied to BYU for further smartering. I was in the wonderful world of Provo for three years and in April 2009 I graduated with my BSW (and a handsome fiance!)
This was probably my least favorite graduation. Don't get me wrong- I happy TO be graduating but it was the LOOOONGEST ceremony AND it was the same day as my grandma's funeral. Rather than soaking in the long boring moment, I was constantly checking my watch* to see if I was running late and praying that I could go next. After I got my fake diploma and walk on stage (which I will admit was pretty cool), I had to shuffle through a bunch of people and find my parents.

This past year I obtained my Masters of Social Work!! Even though the ceremony was not the most exciting, it was such a great feeling to know that I was about to graduate for the last time EVER! I also got to sit next to my friend Bianca, who I sat next to in almost every single one of our classes.

I am so grateful for how obtainable education has been for me. There are so many cultures in the world (and even in the country that makes school difficult or almost impossible for some. I am thankful for a sweet husband who happily put his own education on hold so I could finish mine. I am so SO thankful that Jordan worked so hard this past year so that I could be blissfully unemployed during graduate school- it made a world of difference.

We took tons of pictures that I hope will emerge when/if my camera ever comes back to me. The best pictures were of my cap and gown. Apparently in Academia, the smarter you get the stupider you look. I these long wizard sleeves and and an even longer hood! I looked like someone took ever character from Harry Potter and smooshed them together.

So now I am done and out of wizard attire. As for Jordan, he has a brand new white coat and began PA school four days ago! So we have one more graduation to sit through in two years and then we can wave goodbye to student life!


* by watch I mean cell phone. Honestly, who wears watches anymore?