DWTS - Week Two

Week Two Favorite Female: Again, Brooke Burke rocked the house. She is a natural and I think she may get really far in the competition.
Week Two Favorite Fella: This week I'm declaring a tie between Lance Bass and Warren Sapp. Warren is a big fella, but he can shake it. He may move into my favorite slot before too long. He reminds me of Emmitt Smith a few seasons ago and if your remember, Emmitt ended up winning the entire thing.

Week Two Female Flop: Do I have to say it again??? Cloris stinks. I have to admit that for an 82 year old she may be impressive, but she can't compare to the other less aged women on the show. And, I also have to say that Kim Kardashian came in a close second flop. The girls looks like she should be able to groove, but really, she can't.
Week Two Fella Flop: Rocco DiSpirito. Okay, so the guy can cook, but dancing may be stretching it a little.

Most Improved: Toni Braxton. I don't really care for her, but she did look like she could get better and better each week.

Viva Vacation

Kim and I left last Thursday morning for an adult only mini-vacation to St. George and Las Vegas. My sister Alyce flew in from Flagstaff to watch the kids for us and after we ushered them off to school, we were off for a few days of relaxing.
Day One: We pulled into St. George a little after 3 pm and by 3:30 we were on the golf course (now, you're not surprised are you?). Kim and I met April and Mike (Kim's sister and her husband) for a 3:30 tee time. Even April and I played...don't be too impressed. We aren't very good, but thought that at least we could stink together. Although I do have to admit that we both had some very nice shots including really nice hits over a huge gorge on one of the holes. April hit it over on her first shot. I lost about 5 balls before I barely made it over. We had fun and enjoyed being able to play and not hurry home to the kids.
Day Two: Kim was up again early to go golf with his brother, Spencer. I tried to sleep in, but my body clock just automatically wakes up at 7 am. So, I got up, turned on the TV and was asleep again within the hour. I did eventually go down for breakfast, but then I was right back in bed and stayed there until about noon. It felt nice. We really just spent the day being lazy in St. George. We visited Kim's sister and then saw his brother, but not much else.
Day Three: We checked out of our hotel and then drove to Vegas. We arrived there at about 10:30 and went straight to the outlet mall out by the Strip. It's a pretty big place, but we didn't have too much interest in all the stores, so we mapped out where we wanted to go and just went to those places. A few pairs of shoes and a new wallet later, we were done and hungry. We drove downtown and ate at the Bellagio buffet. It was excellent food and we ate enough to be done for the entire day. We found tickets for the Bodies Exhibition and went to the Luxor to see it. It was so neat - fully preserved bodies that showed all the major systems of the body. It took us about 2 hours to go through the whole thing and it was well worth the money. We saw the water show at the Bellagio and then went to a stand up comedy act with Jay Leno headlining. It was really funny - alot like his TV show - rated about PG-13. That show didn't end until midnight Vegas time and we still had to drive back to Mesquite where we were staying. We made it back at about 3 am and we were very grateful not to have to get up early the next morning.
Day Four: At about 12 noon, the kids started calling us wanting to know when we'd be home. So, we packed up and after a few stops, we were on our way back to real life. It was fun while it lasted....and, wouldn't you know that I let the entire weekend go by without even one picture of us together....

DWTS Update

Last Night's Favorite Female: Again, Brooke Burke....that girls got some moves. Misty May came in a close 2nd.
Last Night's Favorite Fella: I'm still going for Lance Bass, although the beefy Warren Sapp is growing on me.
Last Night's Female Flop: Poor Cloris...your time is ending soon, we hope.
Last Night's Fella Flop: Ted McGinley. Some men are not born to dance, or act for that matter.
Last Night's Most Improved: Rocco DiSpirito....a guy that can COOK and DANCE...what a combo!!

How Time Flies

Just as I was announcing my blogging block, I have thought of so many things to blog about. This one will be the last today, I promise. Today is the first day of fall. It is also my sister Katie's birthday. She would be 27 today! I can't believe how the time has flown. I thought of her alot today and really alot in the past few weeks. Even though she would be 27 today, I will always think of her as that sweet little girl with the gray front tooth. She was so unselfish and kind to all and really a great example to my entire family. I love her still and think of her often. Happy Birthday, Sweet Sister.

** I have spent the last half hour trying to upload a picture of Katie...unfortunately the only pictures I have of her are scans and I am not able to get them to upload.

Fall Favorites: Addition

As soon as I finished the previous blog entry, I went to the TV to wee what my wonderful DVR had recorded for me today...and low and behold I have now discovered a 6th Favorite about Fall: Drumroll Please....

#6: Fall TV Premieres!! Hello!! Dancing with the Stars premiered tonight and it is the official beginning to my fall TV lineup...Bring it on: DWTS, Biggest Loser (actually began last week), Grey's Anatomy, ER, Lost....my DVR is set and ready.

**As a side note, my Week One Favorites on DWTS: Brooke Burke and Lance Bass. They can groove, baby! And, Brooke Burke has 4 kids!! I'm missing something in my exercise routine, obviously. My Week One Flops: Jeffery Ross (who the heck is he?) and Cloris Leachman. Poor Cloris - the only thing she had going for her was her pushed up cleavage and the cuss words she had to have bleeped out on live TV. Stayed tuned for more Fav's and Flops as the weeks progress....

5 Fav's About Fall

I've had Blogger's Block lately....not really much exciting to blog about. Life remains busy with the daily usuals and nothing really entertaining has happened to tell the world about. The one thing that crossed my mind today is really how much I enjoy the fall season. I read an email today about favorites of the fall season, and so, I sit tonight to un-block my blogging mind and post My 5 Favorites about Fall. Here goes:

#1: The Back to School Celebration: Obviously. Really for me it begins with anticipation as the local Targets and Walmarts start advertising school supplies. I have always had a nagging need to buy new pens and pencils and folders as September rolls around - even before I had kids to buy them for. Also, the celebration is about having a quiet house. Just me and Natalie Sue. She will follow me around for the day, or not. She's pretty good about entertaining herself and has even become quite the helper. I no longer have to fold washcloths or cleaning rags. She has taken over for me. I have enjoyed these last few weeks, just me and her.

#2: Warm Days and Cool Nights: Self explanatory, really. I love that it gets warm during the day and I can open all the windows and then at night it gets nice and cool. No air conditioning needed.

#3: Changing of the Leaves: Not originally being from Utah, I have to say that I have really grown to appreciate the way the mountains look in the fall. The reds and yellows are brilliant. We also have the great task of raking and bagging our own mountains of leaves as we have a giant maple-ish tree in our back yard. Last year I think we counted 21 bags of leaves and several large trash cans full. Enough to play in over and over.

#4: More Clothes: With the cooler weather, comes more clothing to wear. I have to say that I am not a huge fan of summer mostly because I hate being scantily clad. I am all for big bulky sweaters, long sleeves, hoodies, and jeans. The only thing I miss dearly as the weather changes are my flip flops. I can't rightfully wear a full body armour of warm clothing and then wear my flippers. I will - at least until the snow flies.

#5 Fall Smells: It happened today, and really is what provoked my post tonight. I went to put a new smell into my candle warmer and decided on a "pumpkin spice" scent. That did it....I felt the urge all day to make pumpkin cookies or bread. It was even rainy for awhile and it would have been a perfect after school treat. Unfortunately, by the time I had time to think about it, the sun was back out and too warm to enjoy them. Why is it that I only feel the urge to make a pumpkin cookie in the fall months? They are perfectly divine any time of year, but somehow that smell only seems appropriate for fall.

Well, there they are. My five favorite things about fall. I'm off to think of more trivial things to blog about while I pull out my favorite recipe for pumpkin cookies. Yep, I'm makin' them tomorrow.

Extreme Room Makeover

Now that we have officially been in our house for 18 months, we have finally gotten around to re-decorating and updating Abby's room. Kim's sister, April and her two boys have been with us for a little over a week. She is a master decorater on a budget, so we "hired" her for the week. We started out with paint on the upper 1/3 of the wall. We had originally thought a soft pink, but when we got to Home Depot for the paint purchase, there sat a gallon of "oops" paint in a slightly Pepto Bismal-y pink....it was marked down to $5!! So, we bought that, and a quart of white paint and decided to make our own color. It turned out a little "pinker" than expected, but still went with her comforter, which we were using as a guide for color. So, we brought the paint home, did a little taping off, and shazam....in about 1 hour we had on two coats of pink paint on the upper third of the wall. The next day was wall paper day. I had discovered that you can purchase wallpaper that looks like beadboard....it had a little texture to it, and a little of a distressed look to it - best of all, I could put it up with a little help from April. It was cheaper that the actual beadboard with just about the same look. I bought it at Lowe's a few weeks ago and had to drive up to Sandy to pick up enough rolls to cover the lower 2/3 of the walls in Abby's room. I was excited at the prospect of getting a really cute look, without having to hire someone to put up the expensive real thing. So, on day two, April and I gathered our supplies, sent the kids off to school and began. The first sheet went up pretty smoothly. We soon figured out that the walls were not completely straight, and so with a few adjustments we were off to the second sheet. Now, April had wallpapered a little, and I had wallpapered with my mom many many years ago. We both thought that it couldn't possibly be rocket science and we had read the instructions, so we thought it had to be fairly painless. We were sooooo wrong!! By the time we had put up about 4 sheets of the wallpaper, we discovered that the stuff was just not sticking right. The glue was adhearing in some spots but not others, and bubbling up after we had smoothed it on...disasterous. We decided to trudge forward and get on as much as we could for the day and then go back and do some repairs and touchups when we were through. We finished an entire wall and then some and stood back to observe how it all looked. We were not satisfied with the final look, but thought maybe after it dried it would look better. We left it and came back down after dinner and discovered it looked even worse in the evening light. Ugh!
We came downstairs on day three and were completely frustrated with the whole project. We ended up tearing down the entire previous days work and decided to return to Lowe's, return the remaining wallpaper with a LARGE complaint and go with a creamy white paint on the bottom 2/3 of the wall. We spent the day doing the painting and sewing the curtains and the next day ventured to IKEA to look for the accessories for the finished room. We spent a good hour and a half walking through that joint. I'm not a huge IKEA fan anyway, but I thought for a "teenager-ish" looking room we would find all kinds of good loot. We walked out with a lamp and a picture holder for the wall. So, more shopping. We hit Target, Michaels, Roberts, and then finally Pebbles in my Pocket before we had all our items. And, I'm NOT a shopper. In the store, out with my product. Forget the window shopping. In, out, home. That's how I shop. Friday evening, a friend of ours sacrificed his date night with his wife and came to put up the chair-rail trim. We touched it up with caulk and paint and began counting down the hours until we could be done with the whole darn mess. Oh, and to top off the evenings project, our friendly neighbor tells us that the reason our wallpaper project didn't work was because apparently the paper won't stick to the wall if it has been previously pained with a latex paint. Apparently we should have used a primer of sorts on the wall before attempting to go all Martha Stewart-like. That would have been nice to have read in the instructions before we started!! We read the entire paper and in NO PLACE did it say that we should prime the walls. Apparently wallpapering IS rocket science.
On the final day of decorating madness, we moved out old furniture, moved in the newly refurbished yard sale furniture that I have been working on for about 3 weeks, moved the bed back in, re-assembled furniture, hung pictures, built a lamp, and cutsified the room. Total girl mania. On Saturday afternoon, after an entire week of work, we had the big reveal. Blindfold and all. I think that Abby was pretty happy with the result - it was just the colors she had wanted (pink and aqua blue). She had a cool new lamp and adorable jewel curtains. New furniture and new accessories for the desk and walls. So, a week of work and a few hundred dollars later, we have a newly decorated room for the pre-teen in our family to trash. A big THANKS to Auntie April who sacrificed a week at home and drug her poor children up to our house to give Abby a new room. Please mute the music and take a tour....