3 is a magic number

The Christopher and Tasha co-ed baby shower is tomorrow night. I think we'll manage to have some fun...

on repeat

Again! It just happened again! Same Foreigner song, same me starring out the window, but this time it was the receptionist who caught me...waving her arms to get my attention.

I can't listen to this song at work anymore. I wish Wynonna had never sung it on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (yes. yes I watch that show) and inspired me to buy the original.

canyon arrow

My grandparents own the house in Logan where my grandmother was born. They don't live in it, it's currently a guest house for visiting friends and family, but it has played host for all kinds of family events for as long as I can remember so Cache Valley feels comfortable to me and I figure its about as beautiful a place as there is on this earth. Once you pass Davis County, the lake and mountains are beautiful and Sardine Canyon takes my breath away in any season. On your way into Logan, as you peek out of the canyon and over into the valley...well I just love it every time.

My grandparents have lived in California and St. George during my lifetime and while I'd visited (and loved) those other places, it was just a few years ago in the autumn when I caught up with them in Logan for a weekend visit. With them I went to the wedding reception of a distant cousin and sat and laughed at a table outside with people I didn't know well but who, remarkably, came from the same place as me a generation or two ago. I went for a run in the quiet neighborhoods surrounding the old house. We ate salmon tacos under that big blanket of a sky at a local restaurant in the cool fall air. My grandma told me about the car rides she used to take with my grandpa when they were dating and my grandpa talked about how quickly he fell for her. My grandparents are a delight; they are hip and young acting and have always been so much fun to kind of show off. But suddenly, their whole lives felt more real...alone with them in those few days their stories of life felt so real to me and I think finally as an adult I could look at them beyond being my grandpa and grandma.

The weekend really stayed with me and I have since found myself looking for ways to spend more time with them to soak up who they are. Last Memorial Day I went again but was with just my grandpa. He took me to his tiny hometown of Clarkston just North of Logan and with his siblings we laid flowers on the graves of my great-grandparents at the little, windy hilltop cemetery there. My grandpa then drove me around showing me where he had lived and the places where he used to cause trouble and I heard more about his live and how much he loves my grandma. Sitting at lunch with great-aunts and uncles and watching them all interact I thought about a grandchild of mine hanging out with my brothers and sisters sometime far down the road and I was overwhelmed by the circularness of the family that came before me, the one ahead of me and the physical places that have been at the root of our generational bonds.

This year Elizabeth and I together spent a lovely little while with them for the Memorial Day weekend. We stayed up until 1 o'clock with our grandparents and then slept in my favorite bed in the guest house. We were told multiple times that there was plenty of Diet Coke in the fridge. We went to the Logan cemetery with a couple of my grandma's brothers to visit the only great-grandparent I ever knew and in the course of our stay my grandpa kept his arm around one or both of us almost constantly. It was rainy enough that the bikes Elizabeth and I took never even made it out of the car, but oh well...that place and that couple of old people are worth it a million times over.

agent provocateur

My boss just caught me having a moment with Foreigner. Earbuds in, I Want To Know What Love Is full blast, staring out the window, 15 seconds of him trying to get my attention.


Embarrassing.

goodnight moon

I am going to bed. One day I will write an ode to my bed and the sleeping I love therein. But tonight, let it suffice-ith to say that two feather comforters are better than one.


Also, season 1 of Friday Night Lights came today and I was so happy that I didn't even realize how ridiculous it is to take a picture with a box of DVDs (but that is the face of bliss by the way).

click click click click

Let's do some photos again.


These are my summer house plants as of now.


This is dominoes.


This is why I like the bus.


These are the adorable kids Janelle and I wanted to steal at The Living Traditions Festival.


This is my sister with a matching tongue and shirt.


This is me wondering what the side of my head looks like.


These are the flowers outside the grocery store that look like they committed suicide after the wind storm last week.


This is the amazing lime chocolate I ate this afternoon from Caputo's Deli.


This is the Mormon movie my neighbor Dave just had us watch, which is exactly as awesome as it looks from the case.

gently take my skull for a ride

This Indiana Jones week has worn my old body out. But also, fun! We haven't started anything before 11:00 so I passed out like 1/2 hour into The Last Crusade the other night (which was fine cus I'd watched the second half on Sunday). I had to drink my weight in Diet Dr. Pepper yesterday to prepare for the 9:45 screening of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull we went to last night but boy was it worth it because Christopher actually did this.


The movie was fine, the jungle Tarzan branch swinging part should not have been allowed and hello, aliens? There were some eye-roll parts, but you know, whatever...Harrison Ford was awesome and I think Shia LaBeouf is a great choice for the future of Indiana Jones. Plus Marion!! I didn't know she was in it and I thought how she fit was really great.

But perhaps the best part of the evening came after the movie when everyone enjoyed what we will call "Stranger Corn".


Enjoying Stranger Corn, opened up Janelle's mind and eyes and she zeroed in on a giant candy bar in the theater (it wasn't opened, she had opened it at this point). It was like a Bible story candy bar because that Milky Way just kept feeding everyone and didn't run out.


This one is just (mostly) a joke. (For what it's worth, Kristen does always try to get Logan to think when we egg him on to do potentially harmful things)


And then outside we realized my brother must be an alien!!!!!!!!!!

things that make you go hmmmm

When my phone rings and it's a number I don't recognize I am always struck with fear. I worry it is a bill collector (though I have no outstanding bills for collection). I worry it is work with a disaster I have somehow created (though I am generally disaster free). Or I worry it is someone else from some unspecific place calling to get mad at me for some unspecific reason.

Usually unidentifiable numbers leave messages and the callers are people from church or friends calling from work numbers or something, but my oh my does it get my nerves going before I place the face behind those 10 digits.



Hopefully though I'm not the only one?

the devil is in the details

You know how sometimes a thing that seemed totally awesome to you as a kid goes totally the opposite way when you revisit it as an adult? I'm looking at you Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. It's great, I mean, it is an Indiana Jones movie, but that Willie woman character BUGGED. I hope George Lucas doesn't Jar-Jar Binks up the newest movie and we can just count this one as the worst of the bunch. One more condescending 'hey sweetheart' out of Indiana Jones and I would have punched the television. I mean in the first one the only female character, Marion, is crazy...but she's like just a crazy person crazy, she not annoying and she's not a stereotypical version of a woman crazy.

I do think Short Round is great and I love how adorable it is when he and Indy hug after Indy has been possessed by the mysterious voodoo potion. I also love that Harrison Ford is without shirt during that whole scene. The ripping hearts out is still awesome as is the bridge fall with the crocodiles eating everyone. And I suppose Indiana getting all those kids out of the slave labor mine is nice. However, I am now looking even more forward to Nazis and Sean Connery tonight.

feathers and doom

To prepare for the new Indy flick on Thursday, I'm watching the first three in order. Especially now that I am an anthropology major and I know everything about ancient civilizations and archeology!

I know I've seen them all, but except for the freaky-deaky out of body beating heart that scared me to death as child, Nazis, something getting thrown out of a plane at some point, child slave labor, face meltings and "Dr. Jones! Dr. Jones!", I don't remember much. I do however, have in my brain that I really love those movies. I wonder if it's because in my mind the Indiana Jones movies are wrapped up in being a little kid and watching them with my family? I know for sure Logan and Christopher and I would watch them in elementary school when we weren't watching Iron Will on Friday nights...so they must be pretty good.

I watched Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark last week and it all came flooding back. The snakes, Sallah, the chases, the fights and the white dress Marion Ravenwood wears; it's all so exciting. And that movie score...sheesh, they don't make them like they used to.

Tonight is Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (my favorite I think because I remember loving Kate Capshaw's character) at Christopher and Tasha's house and if we can all stay awake, might even push through The Last Crusade. I can't wait!

set out running

I walked into my office this morning and it was like walking into a basement furnace room. Apparently something went kooky with the air conditioning over the weekend. Fans are out all over the place humming away and the receptionist set out cold drinks but I still feel the heat. My friend Dainon sent me this song last week. I got sunburned on Saturday. All our windows and doors were open last night.

Even if it rains or cools for a spell sometime in the next few weeks...it. is. summer.

dress me like a clown

I was at my mom's house tonight and she showed me what I thought was the best invention ever.


It's a reusable lid you stick on the top of a soda can that isn't empty so you can keep it like, overnight without it going flat. So amazing! In an excited hurry I put it on my Diet Dr. Pepper...and then tried to get it off.



Then my mom tried, then her husband tried, then Elizabeth tried.


It wouldn't come off, it just ruined my drink. Worst invention ever.

tv waves

My life would be awesome right now if I'd ever been a Sex And The City watcher or a Lost watcher.

Those are like the only two shows in the past 5 years that I've never really watched. But my summer semester is done in June so I guess July and August are wide open for TV!

sleeping diagonally

I'm usually a pretty great sleeper. When I'm really stressed out or worried, those feelings sneak into my unconsciousness and disrupt the night, but getting to sleep is usually pretty peaceful and quick for me.

I used to take forever falling asleep thinking about a million things, but after a summer semester of school years ago that really wore me out, I worked hard to focus on getting to sleep in a timely manner. There is NOTHING productive or useful that comes from laying in bed wide awake worrying about grades/work/life/boys/credit/insecurities/weight I need to lose/friends/whatever...so once I really focused on that, I've since generally pretty much been able to put my mind to rest when I slink into bed (plus now my credit is awesome and I totally don't make any life mistakes at all so it's easy!).

The past few nights however, I keep seeing 1:00am come and go because of a brain that won't. stop. thinking. Stinks, I didn't realize how easy I've it. A big sorry to all the people I know with legit sleeping issues. Maybe I'll start making late night phone calls though if this persists...

great expectations

I just finished this book this morning.


The last semester of my junior year our final reading assignment was to choose a book from a list Ms. Helotes gave us. Catcher in the Rye was on the list and I figured I'd get to it eventually so I choose This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff instead. I fell in love with it, so I'm glad I read it, but I can't believe it's taken me almost ten years and a book club to finally get to Catcher.

I loved it though, I thought Holden Caulfield was maybe overrated as a character when I started, but that kid...he killed me!

Who else has read it?

momsong

I have a really pretty great mom, for lots of reasons really, but also because apparently she knows how to put up videos on YouTube. Alright Jayne!

So this is what I missed on Mother's Day. She's so cute, I love it when she laughs.



I'm sure sometimes it's exhausting how much Cliffords are all "We're awesome! We love each other! We're so funny!" But we really think those things and I personally think Logan and Christopher are an especially great combination.

trying not to think about time

I thought my California trip was going to be the best ever because when I got in we went to San Pedro and there was a movie crew filming THE FOURTH THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS MOVIE!!! I don't know what it will be called and I know Vin Diesel and Paul Walker are long gone, but as long as it is both fast and furious, I don't care about anything else.

But then I woke up the next day and after we watched the third Pirates of the Caribbean, which has too much Kira Knightly and is severely lacking in actual plot, I threw up all over the place. Fun! So this is what the rest of the day looked like.


Luckily I felt some better on Saturday so Jacob took me to a vintage dress shop hidden in the depths of LA.

No boys allowed because you just had to drop your clothes if you wanted to try stuff on. I didn't end up, but I did pay way more for this belt than I should have. I wish I had the guts to be like "oh thanks, nevermind." But I don't.

We also saw two California favorites, Becky and Corey with their trademark photo faces.

And went to The Fall (which was cool) in a theater OF THE FUTURE.


Another thing, the two times now I've been at Jacob's for Sunday family dinner everyone speaks Spanish to each other which is weird cus I feel like a new missionary again with the not understanding and whatnot. But then I remember I get to kiss and don't have to wake up at 6:30am and can listen to whatever music I want, so it's cool.

a sun came

I am in California for the next few days! This is my second time here in the past two months and the trip marks the forth time Jacob and I have seen each other in the four and a half months since he moved here. I don't feel much like posting details about him often here but let it be known that in my book he does in fact rank above bike riding and the other things that generally occupy my time.

We had been dating four months when he moved in December and while the idea of doing the long distance gig wasn't super exciting to either of us, neither was ending things, so after figuring out how it seemed to flow best for him and me, here we are flying back and forth as much as possible to spend a few days together. While of course I'd rather be able to see him much more daily, I have developed a total taste for that airport pick-up...there is nothing else on the planet like that moment of seeing each other for the first time after a long while apart. It helps make up for the crappy-ness of living in different states.


And also, California is awesome.

my american idol

Guys, I just drove past this.

Since I work in Murray I totally feel like I get to jump on the David Archuleta Murray Pride wagon. Yay David Archuleta! I hear there is going to be some sort of extravaganza at the school tomorrow BECAUSE DAVID WILL BE BACK IN UTAH FOR THE DAY!!! Maybe since Zac Efron is in town he could show up too and everyone's heads could explode together on the football field!

a little bit cooler

Yesterday I ate a box of Trix. I was then listening to The Cool Kids while running errands on my lunch and I felt like I could really appreciate the things those guys talk about:



So I'm sitting on the couch holding the remote
Flipping channels, I'm a rebel eating a bowl
Of them fruity pebble, fruity pebbles, fruity pebbles
How gangsta is that. not gangsta at all?
Aw you judging me dogg? please you shop at the mall
Me I shop at boutiques, limited quantity sneaks
Where do these quantities be? maybe they all on my feet



But I don't have any cool sneakers actually...and I shop at Old Navy...maybe it was really just the cereal mention I can relate to.

night sight

Last night was one of those nights when everything felt right.