Oh, Yes I Did

I totally wore this awesome skirt to church today. It was a great find and it's really comfortable!
Now excuse me while I go snuggle the little boy lurking in that picture.

Did your grandma make this?

Did your grandma make this? If she did, tell her I really like it.

I can only imagine the hours of love she must have put into it. The places she wore it. The nice compliments she must have received. The stories it could tell.

I'm oh so glad she finally decided to part with it. And that it happened to cross my path. Because I really like it. And I'm going to wear it. It makes me happy.

TwittFaced

I bought this book on Amazon last week. They had me with the title. So clever! It's written by Jacob Morgan and Joshua Peters and is described as a "crash course in social media".
Because I am a Virtual Assistant, and because many of my clients could benefit from using social media to market their business, I have been learning everything I can on the subject.
I'm only half-way through the book so I will give you a full review when I finish. But so far, I have really enjoyed it. Mostly because I'm a geek, but also because the authors are real people and it's written in a friendly conversational style. It was a little slow at the start, but they really caught my attention when they mentioned that they KNOW social media works, because they wrote a book together and they have NEVER met in person! That intrigues me.
Nobody is paying me for a review of this book because frankly, no one cares what I think. So if I hate it, I'll tell you. If I continue to enjoy it, I'll share that too.
Now, if I can just find my highlighter I can get back to reading. See, I told you I was a geek.

Dinner: FAIL

"OOMPA LOOMPA DOOMPADEE DOO
I'VE GOT ANOTHER PUZZLE FOR YOU....."

I forgot to put the chicken in the crockpot this morning. It didn't even cross my mind until about 5:00pm. I had a little panic moment when I thought about dinner.
Never fear, I have a huge bag of blueberries in my freezer. And two more in the deep freeze downstairs. So I pulled one out and we had blueberry muffins AND blueberry pancakes for dinner.

We are all feeling a little like this:


We may all have to be rolled to our beds tonight. And juiced...oh my goodness!

I don't really like blueberries.

Tomorrow I'm going to plan a little better.


BTW: Does anyone besides me think that the Johnny Depp version of Willy Wonka is a tad creepy? Give me Gene Wilder any day.

Captain Obvious Takes on Epson

Last night while working in my office I ran out of black ink in my printer. I knew it was getting low, but I was trying to eek out those last little drops before spending money on a new cartridge.
It was finally over. Nothing left. Zilch. Zip. Nada. Blank pages spewing forth from my Epson.

I went online and found the best deal on "genuine" Epson Ink Cartridges (which at the time was from Epson itself) and placed my order.

No problems with the order. Everything went smoothly and my ink is on it's way to my door. WITH free shipping, I might add.

But when I got my order confirmation I saw this:

Order Confirmed
Here is your confirmation #WX-26785400100
You may want to print this page for your records.

Really???

I may WANT to print it, but I CAN'T! Hence my order.

Thank you Captain Obvious!




Note: Yes, I know that little message comes up every time. But it was particularly frustrating THIS time.

Resolution Shmezolution

I can't believe it's already 2010. What happened to Christmas? How did I miss New Year's Eve? Ok, I didn't miss them, but they sure whizzed by. Now I find myself at the beginning of the first full week in the new year.

Feels like a new beginning of sorts. Apparently it feels that way to alot of people. I laughed hard when a facebook friend posted this notice:

Hey! Heads up to all you people who think you are going to start working out this year. Do not show up and take my treadmill at the gym if you are only going to quit after two weeks. It just pisses me off. Stay home where you belong. I've got to get my workout in, and I'm actually serious about mine!

You GO Lisa! Exercise is a biggie for resolutions and I guess church is too.
We were a *teensy* bit late for Sacrament Meeting today and ended up sitting on the VERY back row of the VERY last over-flow. Maybe I should resolve to be on time to church. No, that's not gonna happen. (Not even with the 1:00pm block time.)

Honestly, I'm not real big on New Year's Resolutions. Maybe it's because I always have something that I'm working on. I will admit that during the course of each year I try and do at least one thing that scares me.
For example in the past I have:
*had a kid
*sung the National Anthem at a basketball game
*had a kid
*directed a beauty pageant
*had another kid
*signed up to do kitchen show home parties
*finally had a girl this time...yeah, we can be done!
*gone on a Pioneer Trek
*W.T.H another kid?
*signed up to sell cosmetics
*had a hysterectomy
*recruited a team of consultants and earned a free car
*decided that although I like to attend them, I'm not really that keen on throwing parties. So I sent back the free car (No, they didn't come repo it. I called THEM.)
*started "Virtual Assisting" company.

*Warning* Side-trip (side-trips are my specialty)
That last one was just last year and it has really taken off. I love my job. I love that I only have to depend on (aka babysit) me. Maybe someday I will have some employees, but for now I am thrilled with how things are going.

What is a Virtual Assistant you say?

I found this definition online:
A virtual assistant, or VA, is a highly skilled professional who provides administrative support and other specialized services to businesses and entrepreneurs, executives, sales professionals, and others who have more work to do than time to do it. Most work from their own home.

That’s the official definition, but for me, I stay busy with: data entry, computer file maintenance, graphic design (newsletters, flyers, postcards, brochures), mailings, sales tracking, email handling, website maintenance and in-office organization assistance. All of which are right up my alley.
*side trip over*

So this year, I need something to shoot for.....something that scares me, but won’t take up too much time. If it’s time consuming then my blogging suffers. I mean it.
And by the way, I will NOT be giving birth this year or ever again, (5 is my limit) so that is out. But other than that I am open to suggestions.

Do YOU like New Year's Resolutions? If so, what are yours? What big, scary, awesome, difficult, amazing, wonderful, fun things do YOU have planned for 2010?

No excuse

I really have no excuse. Not even gonna try to make one up. I guess it's just life....(Life: the thing that everyone can handle, but me).

I'll try and do better. Really, I will.

Excuses, excuses, excuses.....

Veronica hasn't been blogging much as of late because.......



(I really don't have a good excuse reason. Could you just make something up for me? I can't wait to read what you come up with!)

You Finish It

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but....."

You Finish It

"Good fences make...."

You finish It

"Hell hath no fury like....."

You Finish It

When I was in elementary school I read a book full of popular cliches, only they had different/crazy endings.
For example: "People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" ended up being "People in glass houses shouldn't.....undress."

I wish I could remember the name of the book, but it's been twenty three years a LONG time. So I've decided to throw a cliche or saying out into the blogging world every friday and let you finish them.

Let's start with:

"He who lives by the sword......."

Leave your ending in the comments.

P.S. I need a laugh. So, if you make me laugh out loud, I might just send you a prize!

I Might Be A Redneck

I'll admit it. I love the rodeo. What's not to love?


The sights,sounds(smells)and pretty much the overall feeling there is such a vivid memory from my childhood. I love watching the skydivers jump into the stadium. I always get chills when the last guy comes in with the huge American Flag.
When I was really little my Dad was one of those skydivers. Then in later years, he was the pilot of the plane that dropped the "jumpers". I remember going up in the plane with him one year. They took the back door off the plane to make the exit easier. We circled around then dropped the jumpers. Once they were safely on the ground we would swoop down and fly REALLY low over the stadium and tip the wing to say hello. (My Dad made me bring an empty wonder bread bag with me just in case. But I never threw up.)

The rodeo was always a "family thing" for us. I don't think we ever went to the rodeo without salt-water taffy and coke. And although we weren't drinkers, in my mind I can still hear the guy yelling "Ice, cold beer!" as he climbed the bleachers.

This year my parents invited us all (13 adults and 16 kids) to relive the good ol' days and join them at the Ogden Pioneer Days Rodeo. Not everyone took them up on it. Only the smart ones. And It.was.awesome. The stadium is surrounded by huge trees and you can see the mountains in the not-so-distant distance. It was so much fun to share my childhood memories with my own kids. They had a great time. We cheered and hollered for the riders. We laughed like crazy people at the rodeo clown. And we ate things we probably shouldn't have...like licorice and popcorn and candy and navajo tacos. Oh, and there was also cotton candy. Lots of cotton candy.
Who doesn't love cotton candy?

(Sadly, I forgot to bring the salt water taffy. I guess I'll just have to go again!)

"Charmed, I'm sure."

Remember these charm necklaces? I do. They were all the rage back in the early 80's. You would buy the plastic chain and then buy the individual charms. I vividly remember the "baby bottle", "tennis racket" and "whistle" charms. At my elementary school the teacher finally had to ban the kids from wearing them because they became a disctraction during class.(photo courtesy of Flickr)

Now that we're all grown up, plastic just ain't gonna cut it. We had to find a way more expensive more suitable substitute.
There are so many cute charms available, but they can get pretty expensive.

How about you? Have you seen these charm necklaces around town? Is this a bandwagon you could jump on? Have you already jumped? What's your favorite place to find charms? Do tell....

Love

Seventeen years ago today....I realized that I love you.

Don't Cry for Me Argentina

Last week we had a "Girl's Night" at my parents house. My sister served a mission in Argentina and she and her former mission companion (now honorary sister) agreed to cook us dinner. Argentine Style! (Here we have: sister #3, sister #4, sister #1, me, "missionary" sister #5, "missionary companion"/honorary sister #6, Mom. FYI: I didn't number them to choose favorites, it's by birth-order. I love you all equally!)

We had some YUMMY stuff! Empanadas with beef, hard boiled egg and onion inside. (these were my favorite!)
They even let us help (a little).

Here's what was on the menu: Empanadas, Milanese de Pollo (Chicken Milanesa), Tortilla de papa (like a frittata with swiss chard), Ensalada Rusa (Russian Salad *huh?* apparently very popular in Argentina) and for dessert.....
Bizcochuelo. This is a sponge cake that was topped with Dulce de Leche. Creamy caramelized goodness!

Thanks Sis! Let's do it again!

Happy 4th!

The Wall

My husband and sons spent 2 days building a wall.
It.was.huge.
It's for an activity at "Zion's Camp" (a church camp for 16-18yr old boys).
They say it's supposed to teach team work.
You see, there's no physical way to get up the front of the wall without help.

It also helps if you are a monkey.

And you have to freak your mom out by doing tricks once you get to the top.

Did I mention it is HUGE?

Now could you get the blasted thing out of my front yard before one of the neighbor kids climbs up there and falls off? (I have homeowners insurance, but it's not THAT good.)