Valentine's Day

On Monday, I received a Valentine from the sweetest boy I know (too bad he's only six).

Birthday Celebrations

On Friday, my fabulous friends took me to The Melting Pot for my birthday. I have the best friends ever and this post is part shout-out to them and part celebration of me. First of all, the shout-outs.

Lesli - Thank you, thank you to Lesli for making the reservations, driving, and paying for the valet. I also appreciate the fact that you wanted to give me a sentimental, heart-felt gift.

Christi - Thank you, thank you to Christi for picking up my portion of the tab. It was much appreciated. Also, thanks for cracking me up the best line I've heard this week, "If it weren't for you, my life would be really boring instead of just sort of boring."

Alina (I love this picture because Alina is using her fondue fork to eat her salad even though her regular fork is right next to her plate. HaHa) - Thank you, thank you to Alina for the perfect gifts. Being my oldest friend, of course, you would know that a bag of black licorice and a book titled, "The Girls' Book of Glamour: A Guide to Being a Goddess," are the perfect gifts for me.

And now, the celebration. We had a ton of fun and ate a lot of delicious food. I love The Melting Pot because you're there for a couple of hours. That gave us a lot of time to laugh. Here are a few more pics:

Me with the book Alina gave me. Seriously, perfect gift. Plus my second favorite line of the week was the inscription, "To Mandys, The Most Glamorous Girl I Know! Heart, Alina" I'm telling you, this girl knows me.

Me & Christi with our delicious vegetables and cheese fondue.
Behold the Power of Cheese.

Lesli & Alina - Two of the Cutest Girls I Know.

Consignment Shopping

Every few weeks I like to visit Home Again, a fantastic consignment shop by my school. Today, as I was running errands, I thought I'd stop in and see all their new things. As I was circling the store, I found an awesome stained-glass window that literally took my breath away. I looked at the price and decided I needed to think about it. So, I continued to circle the store, the whole time obsessing over the window. As I walked around, I came across a second window on the other side of the store. This window came from the same person, but had a much lower price on it. When I asked the store clerk, she told me that they were from the same person and that both of them should be marked at the lower price. My reply, "Perfect. I'll take both of them." I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet. I thought they'd make a great headboard, but I only have one guest room and have already decorated it using windows from the same shop (see HERE). I thought for now I may put one in my bedroom and one in my bathroom. I still have to mull it over. Anyways, without further ado, here they are:

Nintendo Nation

Last week at Sunday dinner, my mom passed around a paper and pencil and asked us to write down what we would be willing to bring for the Super Bowl party. As it was being passed around, the normal things were added to the list: chips/dip, fruit, dessert, tortilla roll-ups, etc. When Zack got the paper and pencil, he added his name to the list and wrote "DS." Well, he wasn't the only one who ended up bringing his DS to the Super Bowl party.

Zack & Louis

Mitch & Zack

All Three Yahoos

Cooking

So, I'm trying to cook more. Those of you who know me well, know I hate to cook. So today I decided to make taco soup. I love soup so I thought this would be an easy no-brainer. It turned out okay, but not that great. It was a little too tomatoey and didn't have enough hamburger in it. This would usually be the time when I would say to myself, "See. You tried to cook. You wasted money and good time on something and it didn't even turn out to be that good. Next time, just order take out." Well, I'm not going to be so easily deterred. Next time, I think I'll double the hamburger. I'll also need to either reduce the tomato paste or the amount of stewed tomatoes. I'm thinking I may get rid of one of them altogether. We'll see.

If you have any good, easy recipes, send them my way so I don't revert to my take out menus.

The West Wing

There are so many things that make The West Wing one of the best TV series of all time, I don't even know where to begin. First, it's smart. Really smart. Second, it's funny. Again, really funny. Third, it's dialogue is fantastic. The dialogue is fast-paced and plays out like a rapid tap dance most of the time - a dance filled with intelligence and wit. Fourth, it's a serious, thought-provoking drama about real-life political issues. Finally, the cast and characters are pure perfection. They deliver the balance of seriousness, intelligence, and humor. I loved these characters. I wanted President Bartlet to actually be the president. Even my father, a lifetime Republican, has often stated that the United States needed a president like Jed Bartlet. If you've never seen the series, put it on your Netflix queue now. There are too many scenes to say which ones are my favorite, but here's a little sampling of some of the best.

Lord John Marbury, Great Britain's Ambassador to the United States, is one of the funniest smaller characters. He only appears in 5 episodes, spread out over seasons 2-6. My favorite thing about him is that he thinks the Chief of Staff's name is Gerald. Even when CJ replaces Leo as the Chief of Staff, he calls her Gerald. In this scene he's commenting on how much he likes the First Lady's breasts.



Ainsley Hayes is also another one of my favorite smaller characters. She's a blond, Republican from the South who comes to work for the White House Counsel. She's only in 12 episodes, spread out from season 2-7, but she makes a big impact. Here she is in her office (also known as the steam trunk distribution room) dancing in a bathrobe after sitting in wet paint.



Ainsley Hayes' first scene. Smart and Very Funny!!



I love Season 4. It's my favorite. This scene is from the episode Red Haven's on Fire. In it, Toby and Charlie make bail after being arrested in a California bar fight.



In this scene, the President learns that Toby and Charlie were arrested in a bar fight. I love this scene because it is filmed entirely in motion. A lot of scenes are filmed this way throughout the series. I love to see them the witty dialogue as they stroll the corridors.



Another scene filmed in motion. I love this dialogue because it rings home. I often say democracy is such a good idea, in theory. Unfortunately, there are a lot of stupid voters.



This is one of my dad's favorite scenes. It's from one of the Thanksgiving episodes (The Indians in the Lobby) where the President calls the Butterball Hotline.



This scene (it's actually several scenes edited into one video) is from my favorite Thanksgiving episode (Shibboleth). In this episode, Charlie is on an endless search for the perfect carving knife. I love the relationship that Charlie and the President have throughout the series. This scene captures a piece of it.



And I saved the best for last. I LOVE this scene. It's from my favorite episode, Privateers.

I'm All About Goals

I love to make "to do" lists and set goals. What can I say, I'm a goal oriented person. Six weeks ago, I set a very lofty goal. And when I say lofty, I mean time intensive. The goal - Watch all 7 seasons of The West Wing between Thanksgiving week and the New Year. That's a lot of TV. How much TV, you may be asking? Well, 154 episodes, or approximately 6,930 hours of TV. Now you may be thinking, Impossible, but I beg to differ. All goals require planning. As you may recall, "A goal without a plan is just a wish." So, I made a plan. I divided up my 6,930 hours of TV. Over a 6 week period, it was approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes of TV a day. Now, that doesn't seem too outrageous. Now to be realistic, there were going to be some days I wouldn't be able to watch any TV, but there were also going to be some days were I would watch more than my allotted 2 hours and 45 minutes, especially since I only worked 3 out of the 6 weeks. Well, I'm proud to report my goal is complete. I just completed the series finale. And what can I say, I love The West Wing. In the next few days, I will be posting on why it's one of the best TV series ever. Stay Tuned.

Christmas Chimes

My Grandma broke out the Christmas Chimes again this year. Just like last year, the kids were interested in them for half-a-second, but us adults played and played some more. Here we are trying to perfect our craft:

Here's one more with the kids and the adults making some sweet Christmas tunes:

Christmas Time

My Fantastic Family

Me and Amelia in our matching PJs.

Amelia in her Christmas PJs and a cute bow.

My only Christmas Present

Me & Megan in the big chair.

Me & Jackies in the big chair.

Sleep Over

On the night before Thanksgiving, I had Zack and Mitch sleep over. Zack has slept over tons of times, but I'd never had Mitch stay the night. Luckily, everything went well. I didn't take very many pictures, but here are two of us making train cupcakes.

I love this pouty face of Mitch. I told him he couldn't eat any more Good & Plenty. They're his favorite. He calls them the Spicey Candies.

Zack wanted to use my camera so he took this picture of me and Mitch.

Day Dreamer or Liar

Yesterday when Jeanine and her family came over for dinner, Mitch was wearing sunglasses. My mom noticed them and asked Mitch about them. The conversation went a little like this:

My Mom: Mitch, it's dark outside. Why are you wearing sunglasses?

Mitch: 'Cause we went to the beach today.

My Mom: You went to the beach today? (said with surprise and raised eyebrows).

Mitch: Yeah. And a crab bit my toe!!

He then pointed at his toe, became distracted by toys, and ran into the toy room. My mom and I looked at each other and laughed. Later on at dinner, I thought I'd bring the topic up again. This time, the conversation went a little like this:

Me: Mitch, did you go anywhere fun today? Like the Beach?

Mitch: Yeah, I went to the beach and a crab bit my toe.

Me: A crab bit your toe? Were you swimming in the water?

Mitch: No, I was just looking for sea shells and I found one this big. (stretches his hands as wide as they go).

So you decide, Day Dreamer or Liar?

Halloween

Me as Rosie the Riveter.

Amelia as a Gnome, or as we like to call her, "Gnomelia."

Me with an angry Gnome.

Me & the Fruit Loops . . .
I mean, a vampire and a jedi.

Pumkins & Pizza

On Friday night my family held our annual Pumpkins & Pizza night. It's pretty self-explanatory, but we ate pizza and carved pumpkins. Here are a few pictures of the festivities.

Me & a couple of Fruit Loops with the carved pumpkins.

Louis & Mindy

Carlos, busy at work.

Zack & Jeanine (seriously, what's up with Zackie's face)

Me & Mitch goofing around.
We finished our pumpkins before anyone else did
so we were taking silly pictures. What a goofy face.

My pumpkin & Mitch's pumpkin

Of course, we had D-Backs Pumpkins.
Louis' pumpkin & my dad's pumpkin.

Carlos' pumpkin.
This one of Michael Meyers is my favorite.

Dougie's pumpkin of Stewie is my second fav.

All of the pumpkins. We're quite the family of artists.

Potty Training Tale

Mitch is almost potty trained. He's been going on the potty for several months now, but still needs a little assistance now and then. Today everyone was at my mom and dad's house carving pumpkins. Mitch had to go pee so my mom went to help him. He went pee and grabbed a little toilet paper to wipe the last few drops. After doing so, my mom told him to throw the toilet paper into the toilet. He replied, "I have to wipe my nose first." My mom screamed "Noooooo!" and tried to grab the toilet paper from his hand, but too late. He had already wiped his nose with urine laced toilet paper. The funny thing is, he didn't seem to understand why it was a big deal.

Book Club

So I joined a book club and I love it!! I know it may seem odd that I'm so excited to spend my free evenings discussing books. I do it all day long, after all. The big difference is that my book club is with adults and we read books written for adults. This past week we read "Sarah's Key" by Tatiana de Rosnay. Two thumbs up - I highly recommend it. Next on our list - "Year of Wonders" by Geraldine Brooks.

There's Been a Murder

Yesterday I attended Alina's Clue Murder Mystery Party. It was a great Halloween party, based on the beloved child's game, Clue. Each party goer was to dress as a clue-like character. I went as Bartholomew Black - a mysterious gay party goer who prefers to go by the nickname "Tholom" (said with a lisp).

For all of you who have forgotten the Clue basics, here's a quick refresher course. The game consists of three decks of cards - the murder suspects, the murder locations, and the murder weapons. A card is secretly chosen from each of the decks and put in the confidentiality envelope. The remaining cards are then divided between the players. The players then use their cards and clues they are given from other players' cards to determine the murderer, the murder location, and the murder weapon (or the cards that were placed in the confidentiality envelope).

Alina had turned each room in her house into prospective murder locations. She had also assembled a cache of murder weapons, including the candlestick, rope, and revolver. She had taken photos of each of the rooms and the weapons to complete the decks for the murder locations and the murder weapons. All that was left was to complete the deck of the murder suspects. To do so, she took a picture of each of us "suspects" as we arrived. Once all the cards were completed, it was time to begin playing. We had a great time trying to solve the murders. I wish I had taken more photos. There were about 15 suspects and we all had great costumes. I wish I had pictures of all of them, but alas. Anyways, here are a few photos:

Me aka "Tholom" with his game card.

Jeeves and Senor Negro are behind me.
Notice Senor Negro is holding an actual kitchen knife -
This was not a weapon from the game . . . Scary.

The Hosts - Mr. & Mrs. Peacock

Miss Ruby, Ms. White, Mrs. Peacock, & Tholom
with our murder weapons of choice.

Snugglet

I couple of weeks ago I went to Idaho to meet Baby Amelia aka Snugglet. When Kyle and Megan had their first ultrasound, they thought Amelia looked like a chicken nugget so they took to calling her nugget (to view Megan's post about it, click HERE). Now that she's here, the nickname has evolved into Snugglet. She is a sweet, little Snugglet. Enjoy these cutie pics. To see some more, visit Meg's blog: Blah Blah Blog.

Look at that cute ruffle butt.

This is how I spent most of the weekend.

I love how suspicious she is in this photo.

Greek Festival

I love the Greek Festival!! I look forward to it every year. If you have never been, you must put it on your calendar for next year. On Thursday, Alina, Lesli, and I went to the opening night of the festival. We got there about an hour after the ribbon opening ceremony and already it was packed!! We had to wait in the food line for over 30 minutes, but it went really fast considering the large number of people that were ahead of us. The festival is always so well organized. Here are a few pictures of us after we've feed our faces.

Me and Alina.

Lesli and Alina.

Me and Alina cracking up over how funny we are when we get together.

Labor Day Vacation

Well, I'd been back at work for two weeks and was in desperate need for a vacation when Labor Day Weekend came along. When I went to work on Friday, I made sure that my bags were all packed. After work, I immediately left and headed for the airport. I jumped on my flight and an hour later I was in Phoenix. Sweet!! My dad and my grandpa picked me up and we went straight to Chase Field to see the Diamondbacks play the Astros. I'm not a huge fan of myself in this picture, but my sweet grandpa looks so great, I had to include it.


On Saturday I headed back to Chase Field, again to see the Diamondbacks play the Astros, but this time my mom came with me and my dad. My mom's not a huge fan of baseball. In fact, by the 7th inning, she's ready to go, and if it goes into extra innings she has a kanipshin. But Saturday she was very excited. Saturday was the 12th annual Hispanic Heritage Day at Chase Field. There were going to be mariachi bands, dancers, and the like throughout the stadium and my mom was excited to see it. But the biggest reason she wanted to go - Miguel Montero bobbleheads. My mom loves Montero. She thinks he has the cutest smile ever and she couldn't wait to own a bobbly-headed version of him. Here's a pic of me and my mom with our free bobbleheads.

Sunday was dedicated to a day poolside, but Monday I was back at Chase Field to see the Diamondbacks play the Giants. I was really excited for this game because I love Giants' catcher Buster Posey. I'd seen him play earlier this year, but really wanted to see him again. This time my cousin, Cody, joined me and my dad.

As soon as the game was over, I had to head to the airport to return back to SLC. Stupid work - it ruins everything.

Baby Amelia

So, I'm officially an aunt. Baby Amelia was born last week on August 30th. I can't believe my brother is a dad. When did we become real adults?! I know we're now in our 30s, but it seems like we've been pretending to be adults up til now. Well, he can't pretend any more. He has to take care of an another person. A little person. A beautiful, little person. A precious, beautiful, little person.

So, when Baby Amelia was born, I bought and sent her a Sock Monkey. I knew Kyle and Megan would love it and believed Amelia would too. She'd have to - it'd be in her genes.

So, Kyle sent this picture to my phone with the following message: "Aunt Mandy, Thanks for the sock monkey. I live it. Love, Millie." (Italics and Bold added for emphasis)

A few minutes later, I got a new message that said, "I mean, I LOVE it. Give me a break. I'm only 4 days old and this texting thing is new to me. Crap, I gotta go - here comes Mom." Hahaha - I loved it!!


So, I haven't met Baby Amelia yet, but I'm going to see her tomorrow!! Yay!! More pictures to come.