since i've been gone

Gee, I love technology :) I am typing this post from 30,000 feet in the air on my way home from Idaho. I had a fab time (of course) but didn't take many pictures (my real camera was hiding when I was packing). My apologies for the text overload - I am just trying to paint pictures for you with my words :)

> most of my days started off with a snuggle from this pup:


I need a dog.

> girls night with my sweet cousins. They are pretty much my favorite people to be with. Thanks to Camille, who is the youngest by far, for driving us to Ririe and back without any 'hang on for dear life' maneuvers :)

> working a shift at my parents' store. I've still got the retail touch apparently - I sold the smallest pair of women's Harley Davidson steel toed boots and convinced a guy to buy a shirt because I liked the color of it . . .

> mowing the whole lawn twice. Life was much less sweaty when Dave mowed the back lawn and I only did the front.

> playing in my first Jack's Pack softball game. I think my grandpa got a kick out of me running to first with my eyes closed because I was afraid the ball was going to hit me. I am so athletic :) Haha!

> road-tripping (via airplane) to visit Dave and Jessie in Mesa. Dave took me shopping in probably my most favorite mall to date. EVER. Maybe it was the company too . . . To show him my gratitude, I watched him and my mom relandscspe the front yard in 100+ degree heat. That is best sister ever material :)

> finding a plant in the bathroom after our weekend in Mesa. Thanks Dad, I guess?



> watching the best fireworks west of the Mississippi. Seriously, going to Idaho Falls on the Fourth of July should be numero uno on everybody's bucket list. Words cannot describe the experience - just ask Cody; he thought I was being overdramatic until he tried it last year.

> throwing a baby shower via Skype for Jessie. Good food, cute presents, nice chats - practically perfect, except the guest of honor was in Arizona instead of Idaho . . . but when life gives you lemons, you might as well make lemonade

> or lemon bars, which were part of the spread my mom and I whipped up of my cousin Katie's wedding. In one day, we made 300 cookies <4 different kinds>, 50 lemon bars, and 50 mint brownies. I am baked out.



> we wedding-ed it up with Katie & Luke. I am so glad I was able to come celebrate with them - I only teared up a couple times, just to shake people up. Or maybe I am becoming soft in my old age :)

> silly me, I almost forgot to mention our two sets of guests! My Uncle Rod & Aunt Susan from Seattle visited for a few days. And then our pals Marcus & Brittanie brought their sweet babes to stay overnight. As a result, I was informed by Reagan <5> and Ainsley <3> that my hair is CRAZY in the morning. I guess toddlers tell it like it is!

Signing off from somewhere over Nebraska,

{almost} famous

Just in case you haven't heard from my family or other assorted random observers, you should check out mittromney.com. Somebody's familiar face will be beaming at you there!

blogsplosion

Warning: Several long and possibly boring blog posts follow - enjoy!

St. Louis Getaway

Did you know that the Louis part of St. Louis is incredibly hard to spell? In all seriousness, I misspelled it both times when I was typing the last sentence. Thank heavens for spell check!

Cody & I headed to St. Louis for Memorial Day. We had a fabulous time.


Our weekend started in Nauvoo for the sealing of some friends in our ward here :) We are so happy for them. After Nauvoo, we hit the road for St. Louis - this picture is supposed to show how full the Mississippi is. The water was about 2 feet from the road for the first 30 minutes of our drive - long enough to take even more boring pictures.





Isn't Illinois beautiful?

When we finally made it to St. Louis, we:


went to the zoo and saw penguins,


lots of penguins,


PUFFINS!!!!! (Puffins are my favorite animal, courtesy of a grade-school science report),


zebras,


giraffes & ostriches in the same exhibit,


giant snakes native to Peru,


and crocodiles eating rats.

We also went to the City Museum. It involved several of my least favorite things:
spiral staircases, heights, small spaces, and disorganization. I was a wimp (or cautious, depending on how you look at it) the whole time, so Cody took these pictures to document my bravery:









Then, we went to the Cardinals/Giants game. The Cards stadium is gorgeous!



We secretly cheered for the Giants. I am sure they felt these good vibes


because one of their players hit a grand slam! And nobody even clapped :( A couple innings later some player named Pujols hit a solo home run and fireworks exploded from the scoreboard. Talk about a double standard! The Giants ended up winning and we ended up on the jumbotron. Who could ask for anything more?

Thanks for the fun weekend St. Louis! (And Cody! And travel agent Dave for consulting with me a billion times when I was planning this trip! And Facebook friends for all of the recommendations of fun things to do!)

miscellaneous may memories

This post is brought to you by two totally unrelated things that happened in May.

PART ONE:


We had an epic weather day - tornado sirens; hailstorms; flash flooding; house-shaking thunderstorms - just normal Iowa spring weather :)


Cody sang me several renditions of 'My Favorite Things' during the thunderstorm, but ditched me during the hailstorms to collect the half-dollar sized hail pieces.


And I took pictures from safely inside our undamaged house.

PART TWO:
We hung out with Mitt! And hopefully more presidential candidates . . .
One sweet perk of living in Iowa is that politicians actually care about getting your vote. What a novel concept! Consequently, there are plenty of opportunities to meet the candidates - rub shoulders with them - and get a real-life, in-person chance to form an opinion of them. But I digress . . .


Our fabulous neighbors invited us to a BBQ for Mitt Romney last weekend. We headed up to a beautiful farm - the main event was inside the neatest barn I have ever laid eyes on. We walked in and Mitt was right there - just hanging out & chatting with people like nobody's business. Of course, Cody walked right up to say hey - without me. I was too star struck to move :)


I did get myself together in time to sit behind Mitt during his speech, get my picture taken with a Mitt campaign sign & try to push my way up to the man himself (which resulted in the above picture).
Overall, I was very impressed with my first presidential candidate experience. Mitt seemed down to earth and very determined to have a better showing this election. Good luck Mitt! Maybe next time you visit we can get a better picture - and I will do my part by actually brushing my hair before our next rendezvous :)

pink eye

{fyi - there are pictures of a grossly infected eye in this post - in case that makes you squeamish}

Last week, I woke up for work & my eye hurt like crazy. I thought it was only my allergies - then I looked in the mirror. This is what I saw:






Definitely NOT allergies . . .

Luckily, our neighbor is an opthamology resident and gave me the scoop about how to recover fully from the wrath of pink eye.

Just in case you ever get pink eye, here is what you need to do:
- stay home from work for 3 days. This is particularly important if it is the last week your schools are in session and you really need to be at work.
- encourage your spouse to sleep on the couch (because the little germies are all over the king size bed & pillows . . . so you can have the bed all to yourself); stop working on anything important to his schooling so he can check on how pink your eye is every two and a half minutes; and bring you frosties at least once each day
- every hour on the hour, call your mom to whine about having to stay inside when the weather is beautiful outside. Consistency is key on this step, right mom?
- sleep 12 hours each day (10 at night, with a 2 hour nap in the afternoon)
- watch your teeny-bopper crush win American Idol :)

this is why I love my dad