Prizes

The most exciting day for Laura at Kristina's is the day the book orders arrive. Today was that day. Laura wanted me to stop and read all of them to her on Kristina's driveway. I stalled her by letting her have her princess book on the drive home.When we got home I "made a lap" by sitting Indian-style (is this okay to say in our PC world?) and we started in on the pile of books. We had to read them all cover to cover. My legs were asleep by the time we finished, but it was a wonderful time!Today we also went to dinner with David and Mark at Cafe Rio. Can you believe another one of my nephews is going to college? Man, that makes me old.

We had a wonderfully successful trip to Target where I ended my long search for a green purse. I've been wanting a green purse for over a year and could never find the right one until tonight. YIPPEE.We also stocked up on warm clothes for Laura and a few shirts for Jason. But, Laura just really liked playing "cowgirl" throughout the entire store. Psst...there are cows all over Target if you go with Laura.

Sunday Fun

I had piles of support today for my talk in church. Jason made sure I got a new outfit (a lovely beige suit) to calm my nerves. Also, both sets of parents came: Grandma and Grandpa Fitzgerald and Grandma and Grandpa Breinholt to listen to me and to help wrestle Laura. Not surprisingly, Laura was better in church today than she has ever been.

I thought it was appropriate to make sure she was dressed super cute with all those grandparents coming. Here she is playing the piano in her church outfit. Don't you just love her singing and the bows?!

Fair Phew

Phew. The Senior Fair is over and I can breathe again. Jason was such a sweetie as I dealt with it. He helped with the setup and carried TONS of tables. And, he watched Laura while I worked crazy hours. Thanks, J. Here's the table full of bingo prizes.And, this is what I came home to after running from setup to YW. Isn't he just the best?!
The Fair went excellently. It was well attended and I was exhausted by the end. But, Laura thought the best part was what I brought home from the Fair. This was as many as I could fit in the car. It kinda looks like she's gonna float away.We then went delivering and dropped off balloons to as many of her little friends as we could find at home. She had a wonderful time giving them to everyone.

Book Club and Little Boo

Laura would like to let everyone know that Mommy is too busy. And, I sure agree. Though the trip was a grand time, I just haven't had enough Laura time since I got back. Work has been huge with the Fair this week, and of course Church is taking a lot of my time in the evenings. So, Laura and I tend to spend a lot of our time together like this chatting, laughing and singing.Last night's church activity was really enjoyable. It was our book club meeting about Leah's Shadow. The author came and shared a lot of really great insights. There was some good conversation and I really loved his testimony. It's great to feel the spirit at book club. Here is a picture of the author and almost everyone who came.I need to vent for a moment about book club: Why don't people read the book before attending? And, if you want to attend without reading the whole book, why must you dominate discussion about things that would be answered if you had just read the whole book? And finally, why can't we discuss more than just one part of the book? Okay, I'm done. I would like to let you know that this venting only has to do with a miniscule percentage of the group, but it really bugged me last night that the rest of us couldn't have the conversation we wanted to have because of that minority.

Finally, here is a darling picture of Laura and I having a little time together this morning. She was very upset that I was going to leave the house without a "hairdo" (ie: some kind of ponytail) so this is her fixing the problem.

Oblivion

One of the presents I got for my birthday was the game Oblivion. It's a Role Playing Game (RPG), which means you create a character and you play the game in a created "world" and decide what you what to do, how you want to play, etc. It's my favorite kind of game and Melinda did an AMAZING job getting it for me.

The graphics and game play are amazing and the storyline is probably the best I've ever played. But the two things that shine in this game is the AI and the game play.

The non-player characters (AI) have real lives. They go to work, they go home, they go visit other characters in other cities, etc. They have real lives in this real little world. It is amazing to play.

And the gameplay is phenomenal. They have successfully combined a "First Person Shooter" with an RPG (you actually control the fight scenes) and it makes the game play that much more exciting and fun. I would highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys RPGs and give it an A+ since it's the best RPG I've ever played.

On a total aside, Melinda brought me home a new pair of Rainbow Sandals from her trip to California and they are even more comfortable than my old pair. And these aren't' even broken in yet! I swear I'll be wearing these in the middle of December because they're just too dang comfortable to take off. If you happen to be in California, I'd highly recommend picking some up. You can also get them online at a bunch of places. Thanks, Hon!

Super Soiree

Diva days and lovely California have come and gone. And I'm sure glad it's an annual event!

Our days were filled with all sorts of girly things. We chatted and laughed until it hurt. There was much shopping of course. Here we are all buying shoes.
We also ate a really lot. There were lots of beverage runs and tons of eating yummy food. It is wonderful to eat right on the beach!It seemed we spent the whole time dressed in either our bathing suits or our Vixen sweatshirts. We kept getting asked what kind of strange group we were as we all matched in those white shirts. It was grand fun. Aren't they just darling?! Here we are showing them off at Knott's Berry Farm.Our trip to Knott's was probably my favorite activity of the vacation. The lines were super short and we just flew from big rollercoaster to big rollercoaster. I was a little dizzy by the end. Two of them were just insane and fun: the Silver Bullet that you can read about from Sheila's blog entry, and the Xcelerator where we went from zero to 82 mph in 2.3 seconds and then dropped over 100 ft at a 90 degree angle...it RULED. And we also got to go on one of my favorite coasters of all time twice: Ghostrider. Here are some of us catching our breath on the more mellow swing ride.
Needless to say, it was a GREAT time. You can see more pics at Sheila's entry about the weekend.

Birthday Spoiling

So not only have I been spoiled for my birthday for like 2 months now but, not surprisingly, I was also spoiled on my actual day. Melinda and I went to the Italian Place for lunch....mmm...steak and everything, Mom Fitzgerald made me dinner...mmm...ham, and the Young Women came over to our house for Mutual and sang me Happy Birthday and brought a cake. Ok, so I had a very food-centric birthday. Everyone must know me well!
I think Laura's favorite part was doing "Heavy, Heavy Hangover" with my presents. She was a natural and took quite a bit of pleasure in bopping me on the head.
Speaking of presents, I was also spoiled by everyone. Melinda spoiled me extra special with a new computer, new suits, a jigsaw, and a new game (just to name a few!). Mom and Dad Fitzgerald saw my post about Superman and bought me a book of all of the Superman comic strips from 1939-1942. It's totally cool and has taken it's rightful place in our master bathroom.
Mom and Dad Breinholt also spoiled me with a gift certificate to Macaroni Grill and an offer to babysit the Boo and give us a date night. What could be better than a date night with my girl?!

Thank you all for making me feel so loved. I really appreciate it.

Happy Birthday, Jason!

Happy Birthday, my love! Thank you for being the world's best husband, father and friend. I hope you have a beautiful day and remember to think back on your yummy wings any time you are feeling blue. I love you!

Reading Fool

I have been a reading fool these past couple days. I wanted to get this month's book club selection finished before the Soiree, and I also got a highly recommended book in the mail.

The book club book was Leah Shadow by Harold Moon. I finished it on Sunday night. It was an LDS novel; not a typical read for me. It was not particularly well-written, but it did make me think and helped me gain a new perspective. I'm sure I'll write more about it after the book club meeting where we meet the author.

The other book I read, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, was FABULOUS. It was the first book I've read in a while that was a real page-turner. I read the entire thing last night. I fell in love with the characters and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Thank you Stephanie for turning me on to this book.

I would tell you about it, but I'm afraid I would spoil it. And really, Steph's review is much better than anything I would attempt to write, so I'll just refer you to her. However, I will say that I strongly recommend reading it. And for you all that are in Utah and can't find it at any bookstore like me, I'm happy to lend you my copy.

Artsy Endeavors

As most of you know, my general attitude regarding art in my house is to buy a nice print (lately I've been obsessed with James Christensen and Liz Lemon Swindle), take it to a framer and hang it on a wall all by itself. No arranging or artsy-ness required on my part.

This weekend Jason and I framed quite a bit of art ourselves. It was remarkably difficult because none of the prints were remotely close to a standard size. Needless to say, it taxed my creativity.

I framed some drawings of London that I got when I was there years ago for Jason's office. I did that while he was out bowling. However, they turned out so good, we both think that they may end up hanging in our upstairs hallway.The other project was even more ambitious. We decided to frame some of our favorite Coke pictures from old calendars and hang them above the bay in the kitchen. (We stole the location idea from Mom...thanks).

We trimmed them all down to fit in the frames. The process was quite humorous as Jason and I danced around the kitchen table with razor blades to get them cut just right. But, I love how they turned out.

Bowling for Ben and Jerry's

Since Cory is leaving us forever this weekend (ok, he's just going back to Boston for his last 2 years of law school, but still...), we decided to get together for some "guy" time. For old times sake, we decided to go bowling and grab some lunch. As luck would have it we hit the "Fat Cats" anniversary special; 2 games and shoes for $5. Needless to say, we were thrilled.

Some of us bowled better games than others. I think this was Ryan's best shot of the day! J/K
While Brian was bowling out of his mind. His first seven frames of the first game were X X / X X X X. He was on fire and easily took the first game w/a score of 193. The second game was much closer for all of us (Brian took pity on us and the rest of us remembered how to bowl). We decided to finish off the day with a little "speed" contest which Brian incredibly won with a toss of 22.1 MPH. Who knew such speed could come out of such a scrawny little guy?

2 Down, 1 To Go

We FINALLY finished the updates to Laura's bathroom. It's bittersweet because we'll be starting in on ours almost immediately (ours is growing mold under the linoleum).

We began with the demo and painted before our trip to Florida. We also got the new light fixture and faucet in then. But we've really been pushing to finish lately due to the problems in the Master Bath. Here are the first steps to the remodel with Jason and Dad laying backerboard and Mom and I playing with Laura.Jason then got the backerboard screwed down (I was at YW of course) and then I sealed the seams. Here's Jason and Laura surprising me when I got home.
We then started laying tile. The space was so small that Jason and I laid the full tiles out first so that we could sit on them to get to the other tiles. Here I am after finishing that day!Then was the biggest and hardest task of all. The day when we cut and laid the majority of the tile. Mom and Dad took pity on us and helped us for like 6 hours. We ALL worked so hard that evening. I don't think the pizza we got them even comes close to adequate payment. But, it looks BEAUTIFUL.We then grouted. We have finally learned that grout dries much, much lighter than the swatch from the store. So, this one turned out just right. Here I am a grouting. Mom and Dad helped that day. We'll have to help them by doing some more tiling at the cabin.After the tile was done, Jason and I painted and installed new baseboards. Jason also hung new cabinet hardware, a towel bar and TP holder. And best of all, after a true battle, Jason and Dad were able to give Laura back her potty. She is thrilled.

Here we are with the nearly finished product. A little art and a storage thing we'll be stealing and refinishing from our bathroom.

Diva Days

I love receiving mail. We're talking REAL mail, not bills. I received my "Official Diva Package" in preparation for the Da Ladies Annual Soiree to Cali from Julia. See my excitement at receiving such fun mail!!!Julia went above and beyond with this package. Everything was wonderfully girly in classic pink. I ADORE girly things. We received treats, a pouf, a music CD, a DVD of last year's soiree, and a packet with a schedule (which I thought was perfect, btw) and packing list. Check out everything she did!!!
I also received my award from Girls Camp at our YW Activity last night. I was initially offended that they gave me the "premadonna" award b/c I hoped like heck they didn't mean the true meaning of prima donna being conceited. Fortunately, when they explained it, they meant that I just looked good (ie: I always looked girly even when hiking or hauling girls up and over the wall) despite the fact that I was camping. Here I am receiving the award.Finally, here is Laura being a girly girl with her friend Lily. Okay, it was just an excuse to get this cute picture of the two of them in this post.

Dream Date

I rarely remember my dreams, but I woke up the other day vividly remembering a very strange dream. I think it all started because I watched Last Comic Standing right before going to bed. It is a very enjoyable show, but if it were playing during the fall, I probably wouldn't watch it.

Anyway, back to the dream. I dreamed that I went on a date with Josh Blue. We went to Meier & Frank. We watched a movie while sitting on a blanket next to the escalators. It was very odd.

Can someone please remind me to watch the movie Superman before going to bed next time??!!

To Timp Cave

After nearly a month of planning and talking about going, we finally went on our hike to Timp Cave. I had no memory of going through the cave, though I know I went as a kid, and we thought it would be fun to go! We invited along some other friends (3 other couples came: Cory and Kristie, Brian and Emily, and Deelisa and Steve) who also had kids and away we went. In these two pics are everyone that came: Da Girls and Da Boys!The hike was long up the hill, but it felt good to be getting some exercise! And Laura seemed to enjoy the backpack. Thank you Jason for hauling her up the mountain!
The cave itself was SUPER cool. We learned all about things like stalactites and cave bacon and soda straws. It was beautiful and fascinating. Laura did really well inside the cave even when it got dark...we're talking REALLY dark. Here we are in the cave...if you look closely you can see a stalactite right above Jason's head. Not the one he or Laura hit their heads on, but you can see it.
All that talk of food made us hungry, so we took a rest and the kids ate before we headed back down the mountain.
We ended our hike with more food from JCW's. The kids shared cheese sandwiches and nuggets. As you can see, Laura wasn't so happy about sharing. But, she cheered up and left the restaurant covered in chocolate shake. Needless to say, calories were no object after that hike!