Time worth wasting

Trust me when I say this will be time worth wasting on the computer. So put those children to bed and gather your spouse around -- it's business time!






Our other favorites:
Abli (The racist dragon)
Issues (Think about it)
Jenny

The story

So my friend Erin very nicely reminded me that it's been a little over a month since my last post. Whoops! Ever since going private, I have really slacked on the blogging. It's really weird. When you're public, it shows up on people's blog rolls that you've posted something new so people check out the blog pretty quickly. You pretty much get an instant response to your blog. However, when you're private that stuff doesn't work. People forget to check your blog for a while and sometimes you'll have a post up for days before anyone will notice. I know I know.... lame excuse, but hearing what people think about what I posted is half the reason why I do this. So yeah, that's what I've been the major slacker.

But anyway, here's the best story posted about the leg picture:

Peggy and Reed said: "Actually I thought the JFK story* was FUNNY. But knowing Shane, he just wants to surprise you for Christmas. Do I dare tell you? It might ruin the surprise. He is making you one of those lamps. You know from the movie Christmas Story. He is trying to disquise it until it is done. It will have the fishnet stocking, the lamp and everything. He just put the man's pants and shoes on it to confuse you! Can't wait to see the finished product."

(*JFK story by Marlena: You bought the leg of JFK on ebay!!..Congatulations on your purchase!!!)

I just died when I read Peggy's post because literally just the night before Shane asked me, "What would you think if for christmas I got you a leg lamp -- you know, like the kind from A Christmas Story?" Of course I would think it was the greatest present of all time and then worship him as the all-time gift giving god. So yes, to my amusement I woke up the next morning and found that post by Peggy. Brilliant.

So here's the real story:

The kids and I had just arrived at the pool for Isabelle's swim lessons. We walked into the locker room to get Isabelle dressed when I stopped immediately after seeing THAT. I was so shocked at what I was seeing, that I couldn't move. It was so............... curious. Apprently it's not strange to young children to see a fully clothed bodiless leg, because the kids never even noticed. They were only upset that I wasn't moving them closer to the pool. At that point I faced a real dilemma: To take a picture or not take a picture. You see.... I HAD to have that picture. I NEEDED that picture. Yes, I did realize that it was horribly insensitive to take that picture.... but then again, when was I ever a sensitive person? When Kelly was 3 and wasn't paying attention while walking and walked straight into a stop sign really hard, I laughed hysterically for a good 15 seconds before noticing all the death stares people were giving me. I guess the screaming child should have been tended to first.

So you see? No history of sensitivity here. But there was a bigger problem at hand. Sure I could take the picture, but was the owner of said leg nearby? Would she hop out at just the moment that I was taking the picture and giggling to myself? How would I explain to two children why a one-legged lady was yelling at me? How would I explain that we were banned from the pool for life? Was it worth it? Obviously the answer in my mind was yes. And no, I wasn't caught. But I actually did end up meeting the one-legged lady later in the locker room. Nice lady. Not sure she'd be so nice though if she knew that I had a picture of her leg. Hmmmmm........ I just crossed that line of creepiness, didn't I?

Let's play a little game

So just for fun, we're going to play a little game. I took this picture two days ago and I can't stop looking at it. So what I'm thinking is I would like to hear what YOU guys think the story is behind this picture. I'll post the real story AND the best fake story later. Game on!

Swimmin' Isabelle

For the past couple of months Isabelle has been taking swim lessons at a local pool. I am completely and utterly amazed at the progress she has made so far. At the beginning of this summer, she was still terrified of getting a single drop of water on her face. Bath time was ALWAYS a scream fest. Anyway, at the beginning of the summer, we had one of the young women in our ward giver her some private lessons to help her get over her fear of water. In the beginning I wasn't allowed anywhere near the pool because she would scream bloody murder if I was there. Well, the lessons paid off and Isabelle quickly got over her fear of the water. We spent the rest of the summer just playing at the pool. She still didn't like to swim without her floatie, but she had no problems putting her face in the water anymore. When summer ended and kelly went back to school, we needed something for Isabelle to do during the week. Preschool was too expensive and every other kind of class (dance, gymnastics, etc...) were outrageously expensive as well. Then we stumbled across these swim lessons that were SO cheap and the class sizes were small. So far it's been fantastic. The two other kids in her class are super sweet and they all get along well together. The other moms that go there are super nice as well, so that's always fun.

So yeah, Isabelle's doing great and I hope you like the video!

Points to ponder

So my poor little Kelly girl is sick. She woke up this morning puking into a bowl. That was exceptionally considerate of her since cleaning up pukey clothes/blankets without a washer and dryer can be really annoying. We are very lucky in that our kids hardly ever get sick. We attribute it to Isabelle's diseased little pillow she carries around everywhere. It's the most disgusting looking thing you've ever seen and it's always smooshed to her face. But I'm tellin' ya, it's better than vaccines! But anyway, Isabelle and I didn't feel like cooking lunch since we had been helping Kelly all morning, so we decided to order chinese. While we ate, I looked over at the couch and it struck me that Kelly was actually sleeping. No kidding, I actually got up to check to see if she was breathing. You see, Kelly was never a good sleeper and she's an even worse napper. She quit taking naps at the age of 18 months -- no lie! Even the accidental naps on long road trips stopped well before her 2nd birthday. So while Isabelle and I are eating I remembered when 2 years ago Kelly fell asleep on the couch during the day. She was waiting for Shane's parents to come for a visit. Her and Isabelle kept talking excitedly about when they were going to show up. I left the room to put some things away and when I came back 10 minutes later, kelly was on her back on the couch with her eyes closed. I completely freaked out and ran over to her thinking I was going to have to start CPR (I'm not kidding folks.... these were my true thoughts!). Right when I was about to shake her, she let out this big breath. The darn kid was SLEEPING! She was about 4 or 5 at this time and I swear to you, the last time she had napped during the day was easily 2 years prior. Totally freaky.

So as I am remembering this story, Isabelle picks up her Hunan Beef and says "Mmmmm... this is some GOOD brown rice!". To continue with her joke, she picked up her brown rice and said "This crab rangoon is DE-licious!" All the while giggling to herself. At that point my mind wondered and thought "What if you could raise your kids totally secluded from the outside world and you taught them all the wrong words for things. So instead of calling beef "beef", you called it rice instead. It's still english, just totally mixed up. But what if you did that with LOTS of things?? "I need to go wash my hair with syrup in the barn" and so on.... Then, when they reached school age, you plopped them in public school and watched the story unfold.

I'm scaring you, aren't I? Well, do you expect much else from me?

Well, you can expect this: I was already partially through this post when Kelly woke up. I really wanted to get a picture of her sleeping (you know, for dramatic effect). So yeah, I told her to pretend to sleep so I could get the pic. Yeah.... that's what you can expect from me.


Well, on a happier and less weird note, Kelly had her birthday this past week. She turned 7 years old! Can you believe it? Next year my baby will be getting baptized! Anyway, this year we decided to really scale back on the celebrations. We normally do a pretty big party at a park, but it was time for something smaller and easier on my sanity. Kelly was allowed to pick one friend to come and she chose her best friend Emma from school. Since we're really good friends with her family, we invited her older sister Bailey to come as well. Kelly really wanted to go to the park to play, and so we did. Well, for a little while at least. Right after we got there Isabelle had to go to the bathroom really bad. The bathrooms were stupidly locked (why have public restrooms if you freakin' lock them all the time?!?!?!?!) Anyway, Bailey and I tried to convince her that peeing behind a bush was cool. She eventually gave in and gave it a try. Well, she did it alright. But unfortunately I didn't aim her right and she peed all over her pants. Ugh.... I tried not to laugh too hard because I knew she was embarrassed. I guess there goes my chances of not scarring my children for life.

So anyway, Kelly had a lot of fun even though we had to bolt from the park early. Happy birthday sweetheart!

Halloween party time

Our ward had a halloween party this past weekend and the kids had a ton of fun. The girls enjoyed getting dressed up in their costumes and getting tons of free candy (I mean, come on... who wouldn't???)

Kelly is a black kitty cat. I know she looks like a mouse right now, but she DOES have a cat tail on!


Isabelle went as a pink bunny rabbit. I'm not sure why she wanted the weird smiley face painted on her, but she was adament that she needed it.



Shane went as Gob the Magician. I'm going to assume most of you don't know who that is. He's a character from Arrested Development. Basically Gob is the worst magician of all time. Shane kept doing stupid card tricks all night that didn't even work, but the kids thought they were so cool. My husband IS cool! (And for those of you who DO know who Gob is, we even brought a CD player to play his theme music -- The Final Countdown!)


I wasn't sure what I was thinking when I got this costume. Yes... I am a california raisin. Okay, I guess I DID know what I was thinking when I bought that costume, but my thinking was definitely flawed. I saw it in a thrift store for $4 and thought "Hey! That's an easy costume and really really funny!" I was especially sold when it came with it's own "I'm drug free" ribbon. So yeah, in theory it was a great idea and very funny. However, in practice it was NOT a great idea and NOT very funny. It smelled really bad even though I washed and febreezed the heck out of it. It's made of foam, so it wasn't exactly breathable material and the two eye holes it gave me provided very little vision. The only thing funny about it was that it scared the little kids half to death. Literally. I had two 3 year olds that were seriously on the verge of crying I was freaking them out so much. That possibly could have been worth wearing it.

Well, before I go I will leave with you a short video of Shane doing one of his card "tricks". I wish I could have gotten a video of some of his funnier tricks, but this will do. I think the Young Women were slightly confused by the trick.... lol!

Gallrein Farm

Last weekend my dad invited us to join him at the Gallrein Farm (I think I spelled that right). Anyway, it was loads of fun picking pumpkins, riding a horse-drawn hay ride, riding ponies, and playing in the hay. Oh, and don't forget the awesome music! (My dad and his friend Joe provided the music that day)





If you look really close, there is a worm in that sucker. And yes, it's supposed to be there. For some reason my dad thought the kids or I would like it. Um.......... So yeah, if anybody wants a sucker with a tasty worm in it, give me a hollar! I've got one I can spare.

Mark Wahlberg talks to animals 2

Have you ever seen that SNL skit called "Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals"? Shane and I thought it was SOOOOOOOOOO funny that when we went to a petting zoo today, we just had to make our own! And yes, we know we're ginormous nerds.

These are a few of my favorite things

Seriously, So Blessed


and


Cake Wrecks



Many thanks to Tracy and Emily for enriching my life in the most beautiful of ways. I'm pretty sure I'm complete now.

Just the good stuff....

So if I haven't mentioned it before, I'm going to mention it again - Kelly's school is AWESOME! The school offers Tae Kwon Do after school 2 days a week for only $20 a semester. How awesome is THAT? So far Kelly is loving it. Several of her really good friends are in the class and she loves getting to hang out with them after school. She's only gone three times so far and has learned a lot from her instructor. Maybe I'll get a chance to sneek in and take a video of her in action. She's so cute when she punches! lol!

Okay, so something else that I didn't get a chance to post about was Shane and mine's 8th wedding anniversary. That's right -- 8 years ! We had a really nice anniversary weekend. My sister-in-law watched the kids for us the whole weekend so we could have a break. Shane planned the whole thing and did a fantastic job! First we got all dressed up and went to a Mediterranian restaurant to eat and watch some live Flamenco music and dancing. That was really really cool. The food was incredible and the dancing was fun to watch. Shane and I couldn't help but laugh when we told the waitress that we wanted water to drink and instead of just bringing us a glass of tap water, she asked what kind of water we wanted. Well, the spring water was really nice (though it tasted just like regular water), but it came in a really cool bottle.

But anyway, after dinner we were both EXTREMELY tired and didn't really want to go out and do anything else. Instead, we went home and Shane pulled out his next surprise: a Wii! No, he didn't buy it for me. He borrowed it from a friend. We had SO much fun playing all of the sports. I kicked his butt at bowling which made the night even better! The best part, I think, was when I gave him his gift. Now, Shane and I aren't exactly the most romantic people. We're just too nerdy and goofy for that. So when I saw Shane's gift at a local thrift store, I knew I HAD to have it. It was like a choir of heavenly angels were calling to me -- beckoning me -- to buy it! Behold, the greatest present of all time:



I mean, come ON. Who DOESN'T need a 2XL Notorious B.I.G. shirt with a crown made out of glitter paint? And the best part? I didn't add the crown. That baby was already on it! I am the coolest wife of all time.

Everybody's got a little gangsta in them!

We have the POWER!

Woo hoo! We have power again!!!! I can't even begin to describe how nice it is to be able to have lights on when you pee. Okay, that was probably too much information, but you got it nonetheless. Above is a picture of the tree that fell on our power lines. The tree is actually still on the ground, they just chopped off the top so they could fix the lines.

Our power was restored late Saturday night (day 7) and we couldn't have been more excited! We did, however, learn a lot of good lessons but we also learned that we were also pretty well prepared too!

My friend Keri wanted to know how we "survived" through all of this (I say "survive" lightly since it really wasn't THAT bad. It wasn't fun, but it wasn't bad). First and foremost: We had friends with power. That came in real handy since we didn't have hot water to bathe ourselves. I tried to wash my hair in the sink one time with cold water and I think I came out greasier looking than I did beforehand. It's really hard getting your big head under a faucet! So yeah, it was really nice having friends who would let the kids and I come over to bathe ourselves and use the computer for a while. By Wednesday, however, we were really tired of constantly going over to other people's houses. I didn't realize how unnerving it can be to constantly shower somewhere other than your home. I have definitely discovered that I am a homebody.

Another reason this wasn't too bad was the fact that most stores and restaurants were open pretty quickly after the storm. You could still go out and get something to eat or whatever else you need. THAT was REALLY nice! It also helped that we were really prepared as well. My mom and mother-in-law are to thank for the nicest things in our emergency stash that we used: A red cross radio that actually picks up the sounds of TV stations (that's right, I could still listen to Oprah) and those shake flashlights. The radio was awesome. You just cranked it for a minute and you had power for quite a long time. It even had a really bright light so the kids could walk around with it wherever they went. The other wonderful things we had in our emergency storage was a TON of candles. I had bought 6 sterno emergency candles a long time ago and I'm so glad I did! They are really really bright and last forever! Plus, they are unscented so you don't have to worry about any overwhelming smells. We also had a bunch of tea lights and of course scented candles, but they weren't used as much. I also had a bunch of old pie tins to set everything in to catch the wax and everything. Don't forget to always make sure you have tons of matches and lighters that are stored with your emergency stuff. That was nice knowing we always had enough. The next great thing in our storage was sterno canned fuel and sterno stoves.


While it's not very good for "cooking", you can do lots of things with it: you can easily and quickly heat up canned foods like ravioli and soups. You can also fry eggs and make pancakes (albeit one pancacke at a time, but pancakes nonetheless). Ramen is also a go on this stuff. The cans are really cheap at wal-mart and last a really really long time. the key here is to ALWAYS cook with a lid on your food -- everything goes sooooo much faster. It takes a really long time to get water to heat up and kinda boil. I needed to heat up a bunch of water to do dishes and it took a while longer than you would expect. What's really nice about sterno canned fuel is that it is a clean burning fuel. You can safely store it (I have been storing 10 cans for 4 years and they still work great) and you also don't have to worry about using it indoors (unlike charcoal).

We also already had a bunch of small LED flashlights. These things are fantastic! They only use one AAA battery, but they last FOREVER and give off a large amount of light. We bought a bunch at wal-mart a long time ago never realizing how great they would be for emergencies. Every time we left the house, I would put two of them in my purse so we would be able to see where we were going when we got back at night (our apartment is at the top of the building). Since each flaslight is only about 4 inches long and a 1/2" wide, it was very easy to carry. Plus, since most people keep the larger flashlights in their home, size "D" battery's were the first to go in stores. There were plently of AAA batteries left however.

The one thing I learned from that I need to be better prepared for is to always have a supply of "ready to eat" type of foods. I always have 2 giant boxes of ramen and about a gazillion jars of peanut butter, but you need other things too. I didn't have any cans of soups or ravioli because we never eat those things. However, when your power goes out and all you have to cook with is a sterno stove, that's what you eat! So today i'm going to make sure we have a stash of those things just in case we are actually stuck in the apartment next time. If we had been stuck, we would have had plenty of water and food, but we just wouldn't have had much variety.

It was really nice knowing that we were pretty much prepared for such an event and looking over all of my emergency supplies, I'm happy to report that we are already prepared for other kinds of emergencies. It was definitely comforting to know that we were going to be OK during all of this with little stress.

Still no power :(

Yep, that's right folks... 5 days and still no power. Maybe we'll get it this weekend. Ugh.

I'm still alive, but without power...

Okay, so I know it's been a long time since I've posted. Lately, I've had a good reason. Sunday afternoon I walked out of the church building to high winds and large trees swaying everywhere. As the girls and I drove home, large trees were down, power lines were snapped, and the wind was picking up. Apparently we were getting leftovers from Hurricane Ike. It was pretty scary there for a while. We have HUGE trees right next to our apartment building that are just too old to take hard winds. One big tree had already fallen over taking the power lines and the transformer with it and all of the other trees were swaying hard and popping. Ack! So yeah, since then we have been out of power and hot water and it's been -- interesting. Fortunately we have AWESOME friends who have been letting us fix meals at their house and using their showers. We're a little tired, but we have a long way to go. As of right now we're pretty sure we're not getting our power back until next week. Over 60% of Louisville was without power on Sunday, and with a city of over a million people, it's going to take a while. Fortunately all of the Hospitals are up and running and within a day or two school will be back in session as well. Well, my brain is fried, so I'm going to go. Take care everyone! Hopefully we'll be up and running soon!

My New Hero

I have officially found my new hero! Please watch the whole thing, you won't regret it! I laughed SOOOOO hard! Oh, and watch it in High Quality, it's so much better!

Grustie for all

This morning as I was getting ready for the day Isabelle casually asked me if I gave birth to myself. Trying not to laugh too hard I asked, "What makes you think that?"

"Well," she said, "You're a mommy and don't have parents, so you had to give birth to yourself."

I then told her that my parents were her Grandma and Grandpa. This seemed to only confuse her more.

"But that makes you a child! And if you're a child, you can't give birth!" she exclaims.

I then said, "Well, everybody has a mommy and daddy -- even Grandma has a mommy and a daddy!"

"Oh?" she said. "What's her mommy's name?"

"Gustie"

"Grustie?"

"No, Gustie"

"Grustie? Hmmmm..... I think everybody should be named Grustie. Daddy, Trevor, and Kelly are now named Grustie."

"Sounds good to me" I said.

Small Crayon Tote

I saw this on Craftster today and I just thought they were soooooo cute! I'm thinking about making some for stocking stuffers (that's right, I already have Christmas on the brain). Here's the link in case you want to make some too!

Small Crayon Tote Instructions

Oh, and sorry I haven't been posting much.... I guess I've really gotten out of the habit with summer and all. Also, I've been doing a LOT of knitting which I would normally be showing off my progress and finished projects, but they are all Christmas gifts. If I show them off now, then the recipients will see them! So that's another reason for not posting much.
Here's a cute little picture Kelly took while I was knitting one day. I thought she did a pretty good job! There's no cropping or anything done to it.



On another note, Kelly started her 3rd week of school today. She's loving every single moment of it. She has a great teacher, goes to a great school, and the best part is she's in a class with her best friend from Kindergarten. Sometimes I can't believe how big she's getting. She turns 7 in just a couple of months which means in a little over a year she'll be getting baptized. How is that even possible? Here's a picture of her and Isabelle on the first day of school:



Kelly calls this dress her "Sunshine" dress because she says it looks like rays of sunshine coming down. What a cutie. I'm one blessed Mamma!

** P.S. I accidentally lost all of my links to people's blogs. I think I did a pretty good job of finding the majority of them. However, if you notice that your blog is not listed, please let me know!!!!

Going private

After a lot of thought I've decided to go private. So if you're still interested in reading the blog, I'll need your email address so I can add it. For those of you not familiar to blogger, if a blog is set to private, you will have to sign in to be able to read the blog. You will sign in using your email address. So yeah, if you still want to read the blog, just send your email address to:

okkelly@hotmail.com


That includes you too Janae!!! :-) The blog will remain public for several days to give everyone a chance to send me their email address. Thanks!

The end is here....

Well, it's been a great summer. Kelly starts school again next Tuesday and the late nights hanging out with friends must come to an end. Shane got to go on a overnight canoe trip with his young men:




I got to go to girls camp:



We went to a LOT of baseball games:


And of course, we did a lot of swimming!




Hope everyone else can enjoy the last days of their summer!

Vacation pt.2

Before I talk about the 2nd part of our vacation, Danica had asked about the Banana boats. I had never heard of banana boats before that day either, but it will definitely not be the last time I eat them! All you do is take a banana still in the peel and make a slit down the center lengthwise (making sure you don't pierce through to the other side). Then shove inside any type of these toppings: Chocolate (chips, bar, whatever you have on hand), peanut butter, and marshmallows (mini or cream). It will be pretty messy since you obviously can't get all of it inside the banana. Then, you wrap your banana up in foil and lay it on the hot coals next to your fire. After it's completely heated through and your chocolate is melted, it's time to eat! Just eat the insides of the banana with a spoon! It's sooooooooooooo amazingly good!

Alrighty then, on to the rest of the vacation:

After spending time with Shane's family, we then started the long drive to Michigan.



Along the way we stopped at a couple of different places. In South Bend, IN we stopped at a really cool chocolate factory to do a tour. I only say it was "cool" because the tour and the samples were free. However, the tour was really lame. Since there was no one working in the factory that day (it was saturday), there was nothing cool to see. Just a bunch of empty conveyor belts and boxes. But hey, the kids still thought it was cool. After that we drove another couple of hours and then stopped in Holland, MI. At first we were going to visit the Little Holland park thing, but it was going to be almost $60 for us to get it! It was kinda cool, but not $60 cool! So we decided instead to check out the outlet mall that was right next to it. The kids had to go to the bathroom, and the only bathrooms in the whole place were located inside a laser tag/game business. I'm glad we stopped in though. We bowled a little bit, played some air hockey, and did some miniature golf. While playing air hockey, Kelly exclaimed very loudly "This is the best vacation EVER!" Best $14 ever spent.

After playing around, we drove the rest of the way up to Hart, MI to meet up with our friends the Romney's. They have a distant relative who lives there and was willing to rent out a small trailer they owned for just $5 a night. Check out that beauty:


Now come on, how freakin' awesome is that??? LOL! OK, it wasn't freakin' awesome, but it was cheap and really really funny for memories sake! I really wish we had taken some pictures of all of us crammed inside. The trailer was really built for just 2 people and we had 4 adults and 3 kids in there. Oh yeah! We really only slept in the darn thing. It was just too small to do anything else. It was nice really nice, though, having our friends there. In the evening when we would put the kids to bed, we would stay up playing card games and just DYING laughing at the stupid voices that Justin and Shane would make up. Just so you guys know, if you ever want to watch the funniest game of scum or phase 8, just play with Justin and Shane!

The rest of the vacation was spent going to Lake Michigan, cooking out on the grill or over an open fire pit, doing the touristy thing, and just having fun with the kids. The whole trip was soooooooooooooooooo relaxing and it just made it better that the kids just kept saying over and over again, "This is the best vacation EVER!"

Vacation pt.1

Okay okay okay... I know I've been quite the blogger slacker this summer. I'm not exactly sure why, I guess the laziness in me was just starting to come out. Oh well, I'm here now and hopefully I'll keep it up again.

So almost 2 weeks ago we left for our summer family vacation. It was SO much fun!!!! Our main vacation was going to be spent in Michigan, but since Shane's parents house was along the way, we decided to leave a couple of days early and spend some time with them. The nice surprise was that his Aunt Karen and Uncle Von and his cousins Mandy and Kristy were there visiting as well! We hadn't seen them in a couple of years, so it was nice to do some catching up!

Isabelle cooking with her Aunt Karen

mmmm.... banana boats! I had never had this awesome dessert before and now it's my new favorite!!!!

Okay, a couple of funny things about this picture: I thought it was really cute that 7 adults came outside to brave the heat and humidity to play kickball for two little girls. Too sweet! But what's really funny is that when I first met Mandy I was convinced she was adopted. I mean, come on, she totally doesn't look like the rest of the Taylor kids -- am I right people? Anyway, I knew I was wrong when I saw this picture of her and Von banishing Kristy to the outfield. It's like she's Von's "mini-me". Definitely a Taylor.

I'm baaaaaaaack!

Okay... so I took a slight hiatus from blogging. I think I just got so stressed out from preparing for Girl's camp and actually doing girls camp (more on that at a later time) that I just needed a bit of break from everything. Apparently while I was gone, I have been tagged twice by some pretty fun tags. Today I'm going to do one from my friend and old roommate Tamara. Basically it's just showing pictures from your past and the story behind them. Oh, and just so you know, if you click on any of the pictures, you can get a REAL good look of everything!!!! :-) Okay, here goes:

Photo #1: 4th grade class picture
I'm the little beauty right in front in the gold outfit with the parachute pants. Remember when parachute pants were cool? OK, they were never cool... but I sure loved them! I even had a green pair. Sweet.



photo #2: This picture is of me, Tam, Marlena, and Julie at Ricks. I'm not exactly sure how to explain this one. For some reason we found anything butt related really funny.




Photo #3: This was a game we played at Marlena's birthday party -- pin the hand on the butt! I told you, we had a weird fascination with butts at the time. This is a picture of Troy playing. Aaahhh.... Troy. good times. If I recall correctly me and Julie actually found a little kid and traced his hand for the game. So unbelievably sad.....




Photo #4: This is a picture of a friend and me lip syncing to Milli Vanilli. Yeah... I was cool in High School. BTW... that is a mop spray painted "black" on top of my head to look like dread locks. It was really really gross, but the skit was funny!




Photo #5: After my first year at Ricks I went on this program called "Discovery". It was super super super lame. Basically we camped all around Utah, Idaho, and Nevada for a month and 1/2 all while doing 9 credit hours of classes. We had so much school work that you really just spent the majority of your time in your tent studying rather than hiking and stuff. Lame. Anyway, once in a while we would get out and find something fun to do. This is one of my favorite pictures from discovery. My friend and I stumbled upon this old Outhouse. Now, this was not just any outhouse. This was a two-seater outhouse. You know, in case you and a loved one don't want to be apart for more than a second. And the best part? In the back it had a sign that said "Beware of black widows". I remember we were terrified to take this picture thinking we were going to die at the hand of those black widows. So worth it.



Photo #6: A good majority of you guys are in this one. Remember when we did sumo wrestling for FHE???? Okay... lets see who's in here -- Keri, Danica, Sandy, Amber, Heather, Radene, and Daniel (I'm pretty sure Radene and Daniel are on blogger????) My favorite memory was when they called out Danica and Steve Wood to compete against each other. Danica is super short and Steve is super tall. Out comes Danica stuffed to capacity bouncing around all over the place and then totally pounced on Steve and took him down to the ground!!!!! I don't think I have ever laughed so hard in my life!


Photo #7: This is from an 80's dance at Ricks. For those of you who know Shane, he's not the type to get dressed up. He's not exactly an attention-grabber kind of guy (unlike the girl he married). Anyway, Heather and I begged him and Steve to go to the dance but they didn't know what to wear. I told them to go as Run-D.M.C. -- you just wear some track suits and some gold chains. Pretty simple. Well, when we were at DI they found this horrible wind breaker that you see me wearing. They dared me to wear it to the dance. Of course I accepted. I also took it to the next level. I crimped my hair, teased it, wore bright blue eye shadow, hot pink lipstick, and super pink blush. I was hot. Well, Shane didn't exactly think so. He later told me that that was the only time he ever found me unattractive. Nice honey.



Photo #8: This was taken during my lesbian haircut days. Yes I know... what was I thinking? I don't think I really was thinking clearly at that time. Ew... I want to vomit just looking at it.


photo #9: This is a picture of me 6 months pregnant, barefoot, in a robe frying hamburger. I am a true Kentucky girl.



These are picture of me and Shane when we worked for the Salvation Army at one of their summer camps. We actually got engaged at this summer camp. LOL!!! Anyway, I was a lifeguard there and Shane was a camp counselor. I remember when Shane asked my dad if he could marry me and my dad said "You want to marry my daughter and you do WHAT for a living???" Good times. Anyway, I just totally remember how skinny he used to be and how I just thought he was the hottest thing that ever walked the earth (still do)! Love you babe!



photo #10: This is a great picture. This is our 2nd apartment. It felt like a mansion because it had two bedrooms and it was just the two of us. Anyway, we wanted to decorate the 2nd bedroom, but being broke college students we had to do it on the cheap. We found all of these super old outdated maps at the DI for like 10 cents. We put those up along with army men every where and called it our "war room". The best part of the room you can't even see. As a wedding present, my grandma for some reason gave us a a WWII and Vietnam war veteran commemorative blanket. It had a picture of two soldiers with planes flying over head saluting an american flag. Perfect for the war room.

Well, that's it! I won't tag anyone in particular. Just do it if it looks like fun!

Gettin' my ears pierced!

Okay Jennifer and Britany -- I finally did it! Monica wouldn't let me chicken out this time. I'm pretty sure I would have been strangled by her if I didn't do it. Can you say peer pressure??

Get Yer Free Doughnutt!

It's a sweet blessed event today.... Get yer own free doughnut from Krispy Kreme today only! Woo hoo! I love Doughnut day!

The fonz and the HONK!

This is real people.... a bona fide PSA from back in the day. Gotta love the Fonz and his new friend Tanya!

We won!!!!!

Yesterday we went to the family story time at the Library. We usually don't go to the family one because it is at night and it's an hour before the kids bedtime. However, we went this time because someone from the cast of The Little Mermaid was supposed to be there to read to the kids. We had no idea, however, that they were going to have a drawing to win 4 tickets to the Derby Dinner Playhouse to go see The Little Mermaid. When they did the drawing first, someone else got picked. However, the mom felt bad because they had actually just gone to the Derby dinner playhouse the weekend before and wanted someone else to have a chance to go. So they re-drew and they pulled out Kelly's name!!!! We're soooooooooo excited! Apparently the Derby Dinner Playhouse is one of the largest and oldest continuous dinner playhouses in the country. Pretty cool, huh? So yeah, our tickets include parking, breakfast (or lunch, depending on what time we want to go) and then the play. The kids are totally excited and so am I!!!!

Mighty Big Weekend and Tasty tuesday

This past weekend was filled up to the rim as usual. I think Shane and I are trying to make up for the first 5 years of our marriage where we had no money or friends to ever go and do ANYTHING. Literally, we did nothing. So for the past 2 1/2 years we've been packing it in to make up for it. This past weekend was no exception! On Friday we got a sitter for the girls and we went out to eat at PF Chang's with some of Shane's clients from work. They were so much fun!!!! They were a "younger" couple from India (I say "younger" because they were both older than us, but younger than the people we usually hang out with!!! lol!). The guy is a nano technologist and his wife has her masters in something smart. They both speak several languages and were really hilarious. My favorite part was when his wife commented on how even though her husband is Indian, everyone always thinks he's Hispanic. From that time forward we kept calling him "Jose". It was pretty funny!

On Saturday we decided to take the girls to the Science Museum. We had received some free tickets a while back and were just now getting around to using them. The girls had a blast just running around everywhere and getting their hands in all the good stuff. We also got to watch a movie at IMAX -- it was something about fish. (Very descriptive, I know) . The girls enjoyed the science center a lot, but I still don't understand why anyone would pay full admission for it. It's not THAT cool. Anyway, here are some pictures:





Sunday was filled with meeting after meeting and fun walks. But also, it was filled with finishing up my brother's birthday present. This is the same brother that gave me the awesome Jean Luke Picard plate. Monday was his birthday and I really wanted to have it finished for him. Now, as a fair warning, I think my brother and I have a very different sense of humor than most. Just about anything dealing with poop and farts makes us giggle. So yes, fair warning to what you are about to see:

Knitted toilet paper and crocheted poop!

I love the picture of his cat sniffing the poo.... it totally cracks me up! The best part is that the poo is stuffed with this rose petal scented stuff, so it smells really good! I'm a freak, aren't I??? I'm definitely not classy, that's for sure.

Alright alright alright... I'm done with the "potty" humor. For now at least. Well, if any of you are still interested, here's the recipe for today's Tasty Tuesday:

The recipe for today I got from a friend of mine a long time ago. I'm not sure if she made this up or it is a widely known recipe. All I know is I really like it and it's pretty easy to make. Also, if you haven't noticed, we eat a lot of chicken in this family. We also like to eat things more "mexican" in nature. So here it is:

Green chili Chicken Tacos

6-8 chicken tenderloins
1/2 red onion (more or less depending on your taste)
1 can chopped green chilies (for some reason, the wal mart brand tastes disgusting! This is one of the few times I spend extra to get the name brand!)
oil for frying
cheese (cheddar or colby jack)
taco sauce
sliced green olives
taco size flour tortillas
Sour cream (optional)

Cook chicken, onion, and green chilies in hot oil until chicken is cooked thoroughly. then, cut the chicken up into bite-sized pieces. Place cooked chicken mixture and place on top of flour tortillas. Use the rest of the ingredients as toppings. Serve with Spanish rice and refried beans.