Unlucky?

For your listening pleasure while you read:



You're welcome.

I'm sitting here making my Easter M&M's into flowers before eating them while I look at the pictures of my day deciding which ones are awesome enough for the blog. I'll bet you didn't know I take more pictures than I post. True story. Only the best of the best make it to the blog.

Aundrea would be proud of my flower - except that all the m's are facing different directions (because *shrugs* I'm cool.) and that I only got one sheep face in my whole thing of M&M's tragic isn't it?

After an exceptionally fun morning at the zoo, Josh called to see if I wanted to go to the Get Outdoors Expo for free right now. Remember how he loves the free stuff? Expos were built around that man.  So we did.

That's where Tommy became a walking billboard

The sticker on his butt says "Leaving Your Mark is Overrated" it's from the Leave No Trace people.

We think we're funny. Also we won a free toilet seat to put on the top of a 5-gallon-bucket and talked to the people who sell cardboard boxes and biodegradable bags to "do your business" in. Now that the irreverent part that makes my mom cringe is over, we can move on to the other cool stuff.

Like when Josh climbed a rock wall.

And when Tommy pet the therapy dog (who is not as creepy as he looks).

And when the bike dude showed off his jump-up-on-a-tower skills.

Show this picture to a dude, see if he cringes. It's fun.

But the best part is how we came home with an enormous bag of hud some of which is actually valuable. Like the totally awesome VestPac which we won on account of our adorable billboard-child. Not to mention more stickers and flyers than even Tommy can get sick of. Also, I hold the current "sleeping bag stuffing" record at NatureForKids. 7.1 seconds baby! I can stuff a whole sleeping bag and pull the drawstring in 7.1 seconds. I might win something for it, if not I might be sad since I am now the official sleeping bag stuffer of our family. We won't talk about how long it took Josh.

It was a wildly successful outing.

Say what you will about Friday the 13th, but we've had an incredible day.

Winner winner!

And the winner of Forty Freakin' Dollars at CSN Stores is........


Aubrie! Who by the way, "can't live without square white dishes. I have an unhealthy obsession with them. Just ask Corey :)"


If you wanna know what to cook some time, you should check out her food blog (featuring lovely food on square white dishes). Or get to be friends with her so she invites you to one of her killer theme parties (featuring food on square white dishes). At the very least you'll like stalking her blog because she's funny and genuine and kind. But if you're really really lucky she'll be your friend in real life too. She's a keeper that one.


So Aubrie, send me your e-mail address and we'll get you some free money!

My dining room and a giveaway

I'm not much for interior design. Or even decorating. I can appreciated a beautiful space, but I cannot for the life of me put one together.

But there is one area in my house that I positively love.

And it's the dining area.

My brother in law painted the beautiful work of art for me. Which means it's a custom painting by a real live artist. Which means I'm cool.

And Josh and I picked what I think is the perfect dining room table (although it's entirely too large for such a small place....I don't care) and as a general rule we only have fun there. It's where we play games, and eat REAL meals....like once a week - all other meals are eaten on our laps on the couch or at the bar. And we never do anything lame at that table.

However, the table is entirely too large and when it comes time to sell this place it'll have to go to a storage space and we'll have to get something more appropriately sized.

So I'd love new dining room furniture like what they have at CSN just so it would be the right size and perfect for the area.

As much as I love this space, there is one thing I do not love, and that's the light.

Because ew.

So I desperately want one of these. Maybe someday I'll get one. When we're rich and famous.

In the meantime, one of you lucky readers can win a $40 gift certificate to use at ANY of the CSN stores. They have everything from baby stuff, to dining room furniture, to bedding, to fitness equipment, to cookware. Think Walmart without the groceries, or the icky people standing in front of you in line, or the lady who sneezes on your bananas.

So you wanna win forty bucks? Here's what to do:

1. Be a follower or a subscriber and leave a comment telling me you are.
2. Post about the giveaway on your blog and come back tell me that you did.
3. Go to CSN and tell me which store you love the best - or which item you simply can't live without.

Nobody is exempt, but when I post the winner if you don't contact me I'm givin' it to someone else. So come back to see if you won.

You can enter until Sunday, August 1st at midnight. I'll announce the winner Monday morning(ish).

A giveaway

Remember when I ran that diabetes run? Well I won something in the raffle at the end. And being the kind of giving person that I am, I'm donating it to one lucky giveaway winner.

OK it's not because I'm giving. It's because I'm a pansy. Remember the time I got a mullet from a lady at a fancy salon? No? Go back and read about it. Then laugh at me. And we'll all mope because I didn't allow anybody to take pictures of the mullet and that is a tragedy. I've learned my lesson: some people don't belong in salons and I am "some people".

And so, one of you, my lucky friends, could win a free haircut and color from some chick named Mandi (with an "i") at Taylor D'Shaw Salon (in Murray). She's probably fantastic. She's not the lady who gave me the mullet. The gift certificate has a fancy logo (and we all know the importance of a fancy logo). They have great reviews on google. One of the services they list is "color correction" which is probably a good sign. You know if a place regularly fixes other people's mistakes that's a good sign, right?

I've almost talked myself into using it again, but lucky for you, I'm still terrified of salons.

So, if you wanna win a free stuff courtesy of Taylor D'Shaw/Utah Diabetes Center/rock-star-mullet-crazy-psycho-who-scared-me-away-from-swanky-salons-forever, here's what to do:

Be a follower and leave a comment. 

That's it. Just leave a comment. If you wanna tell me that you love me and think I'm cool it just might up your chances, but last I checked random number generators don't care about flattery. Meh, do it anyway, just in case.

But make sure you enter by Thursday at midnight so I can announce the winner Friday morning.

Giveaway

You should check out this dude's stuff (dresses & jewelry). And maybe you can win some for free (if you're lucky).

Then, when you come back here after seeing all the good stuff, you can tell me how much cooler I am since I'm related to the Rieras. William married my cousin, and she's awesome, and I'm pretty sure he's awesome too (you know...because he had the smarts to marry her...)

There. Now do you think I'm cooler than I was?

Did you know?

Did you know that goldfinches (the Washington state bird) eat upsidedown? Here's a video to prove it.



Did you know that Thomas still has no teeth? I swear if they don't come out soon I'm going in after them.

Did you know that I'm still waiting to recover from the lack of sleep from my Washington trip? Somehow it seems like you're not really allowed to sleep in 4 days later and claim it's because you're so tired from being up (and traveling) for 20 out of 24 hours.

Did you know that I'm terribly afraid of heights? And by "heights" I mean "being higher off the ground than I can naturally jump". Josh likes to tease me because if I get more than 2 rungs up on a ladder I think I'm going to die.

Did you know that today we have no obligations? It's Memorial Day and everybody is out of town, it's 5th Sunday and there is no Relief Society which means no meetings, no preparation for Sunday (only a little....) and no meetings afterward. Hooray for me!

Did you know that I have a new nephew? He's hardly new anymore, but lookit how cute he is!

Did you know that Hotprints lets you have one free photo book every month? Awesome.

Did you know that we painted a week ago and still haven't hung stuff on our walls? *sigh* we'll get there.

Free Stuff

Since I don't wanna share my lopsidedness with the whole world I'm working really hard on winning a free one of these. Also because it's cute, and I need to work on my cute factor. Thanks Nancy, for the tip.

Do you think I could "wear" it on a regular basis and not have to buy as many shirts?

If you want to win one too, you can enter, I guess. But the less people who enter, the better my chances are.....so.....you know, I'm not going to tell you to run over and enter the contest now. I'm also not going to tell you that I've been putting off posting it on my blog so you wouldn't have as much time to enter. :)

Shameless, I know.

But I will tell you (when I win) how much I love this thing, and tell you to buy one from her. I'm all for supporting the business, just not sharing my opportunity to win it for free.