Remember Christmas?

I don't.

And, since it's officially autumn and The Holidays will soon again be upon us, I thought should finally post some photos from 2010 lest I forget it forever. Here goes...

This Christmas was spent in Utah with my side of the family.

Christmas morning:

The Grandparents in their new snuggies.

My baby when she was still a baby. And not the tantrum throwing, opinionated, teething, running creature she is now. (She's a cute monster, though.)

Just woke up faces

Looking lovely. No makeup and bed head. Enjoy that unknown blog stalkers.

Ryan and I in our blanket/ponchos. That blanket was my savior during my two bouts of mastitis btw. Nothing like a quasi-sleeping bag to get a girl through feverish chills and burning boobs.

A tired Ryan tries to to wear everything he received.

Mom and Becca.

(For some reason I don't have photos of my dad or Anna...not that my dad minds, I'm sure.)

Then we met up with my dad's family at the cemetery visit with his parents. Or at least to stare at their graves. We all then gathered at my Uncle Greg's where there was a pinata, lots of food, some football, and some drinking games (minus the drinking):

Brett, Anna, Becca

Daxton...

Me and my girl...

Dad and Megan (I think)

More cousins

Sweet Dee and her Grandpa

Kenny helped Lola take a swing at the pinata...

she did NOT like it.

Kenny and Ryan

Dad and Aunt Pam.

Again, no pictures of Anna. Weird.

We then met up with my moms family for more food, games, and a talent show. I don't have photos. Bummer.

And finally, a few days later Kenny and I went up to Logan to visit the Parkinsons...

Steve and Lori (with Lola)

Dallin

Riley

Steve.

Casey.

More Riley.

Drew.

And Madi.

This is where I'd put the photo of Laura - if I could find it on my hard drive.

I was worried that in taking this long to post about this I would "lose" photos. And I did. Somewhere on a hard drive is pictures of Laura P. and Anna N.; I can imagine the photos I know I loaded and yet...they're gone. And they were good photos, of course. They're pretty girls, after all. Someday I'll find them. (I hope.) I also wish I had photos of all the friends and cousins we got to visit and of our trip to Park City for some wonderful snowboarding. THAT was wonderful (even if it did lead to one of those bouts of mastitis mentioned above). Ahhhh, memories.

Anyway, There's Christmas! Finally! It was pretty jam packed, but awesome. Just today Kenny mentioned that he's looking forward to Christmas. I had a minor panic attack at the thought, but after looking at these I can breathe a little better. Yes, it's super stressful, but in the end it's all about the people we love. And it's good.

A late night and the cops.

Dear college-aged neighbors.

I'm sorry I called in the cops to end your little gathering this morning. And by morning, I mean the gathering that began at promptly 2am. Like clockwork. Every Thursday nigh. I know that's when the bars close and that your apartment, given its proximity to downtown, is an ideal gathering spot after bar-hopping.

I'm not sorry, however, that the noise has finally stopped. Perhaps we wouldn't have this problem if you'd simply close the doors/windows of your apartment while continuing your party. Perhaps if you reminded our friends not to YELL to you from the parking lot we'd be cool. Perhaps if you'd kindly keep the gathering in your unit rather than letting it spill out into the courtyard, I'd let it slide. We'd definitely be on better terms if your pals would refrain from hanging out directly outside my bedroom window to make phone calls, have arguments, or conduct inappropriate conversations.

I remember college. I remember the joys of late nights - specifically Thursdays as there was seldom class held on Fridays. And I well remember rolling my eyes at the crazy old people who'd yell at us. I forgive you for your youth.

I can't, however, forgive that you've turned me into that crazy old lady. The one who actually made a noise complaint with the local PD this morning. for thee first time after putting up with this 2+ years. The crazy old lady who then sat up an hour drafting a strongly worded letter to our property management addressing your many grievences. The crazy old lady who then has to rant about it on her blog. The crazy lady who will stew about it for a while yet until sleep finally returns.

I wish you could understand that Friday still means early mornings and responsibility for the rest of your neighbors. I wish you could understand that it's difficult to sleep at all in this heat. I wish you knew how much I struggle to sleep at all these days. I wish I believed that if you understood, you'd be more considerate. But I don't. Every Thursday it's the same. I'll forgive you for carrying on on Friday and Saturday nights, but not Thursdays.

So while I'm sorry I ended your soiree, I'm more sorry that it's 3am and I'm still not asleep. So while I sit here cursing your existence as I watch that clock tick ever closer to my 5:50am alarm, I hope you enjoyed your visit from the Men (or Women) in Blue.

Good night.

Lest I go an entire month without a post, here's an update.

Lola and I go to the beach. A lot. It's her happy place and "beach" is one of her few words I can clearly recognize. In fact...other than household chores, that's pretty much all we do. The park is too hot, and the AC in our apartments is weak. So to the beach we go. A lot.

We've done some traveling. A lot, actually.

• Zion National Park/Ponderosa Ranch for a mini reunion with Kenny's immediate family- highlight: hiking the narrows and finally taking some family photos
• Orem/Brigham City for a few days with my family - highlight: turning 28 and celebrating with homemade ice cream four nights in a row
• Logan for a wedding and more time with family - highlight: beautiful canyon drives and raspberry shakes at Bear Lake.
• Kern River/Sequoia National Park (Kenny only) for a scouting trip - highlight two days of river rafting. (I stayed home and hit up the OC fair and made preparations for a baby shower...super fun, but no river rafting.)

We've been busy. Lola's been spoiled rotten with attention and with things. Truthfully, while I miss everyone, it's nice to be home and get some sort of routine back. Plus, Lola was missing her beloved beach. Me too.

Some other things:

• Last night I got my first full night's sleep in almost four weeks. It took a major sleeping pill to accomplish this feat, but it was sooooo worth it.
• My shoelace got stuck in the rotating stairs at the gym yesterday morning. For a super long two seconds, I simultaneously that I was going to die/live the remainder of my days as an amputee until I yanked the lace free. Miraculously I didn't even fall off the machine. I'm super talented.
• Lola decided she'd try crawling again. Right through a pool of engine grease in someone's driveway. It was really gross.
• Date nights are awesome. Date nights with fun people are even cooler. (Most of the time.)
• Sunday Vegas traffic is a perfect depiction of what I imagine Hell to be like. Just more of an incentive not to end up there.

I'd add more, but I took another sleeping pill about twenty minutes ago and it just hit me. Must. go. to. bed.

Good night.

Dreams

I'm realizing that I can't eat high amounts of sugar in the evening if I want a good night's rest. Not only do i find myself tossing for much of the night, but during the time I actually am asleep I have some weird, unsettling dreams. While I don't remember most of them (although the weird feeling often persists throughout the morning) I did share one with Kenny immediately upon awakening. And he remembers it and keeps telling me to blog it for all to analyze. So here the super condensed version:

It's my dad's 50th birthday and I've pulled out all the stops throwing a huge bash. He's not really cooperating with much of what i've planned and he is even refusing to eat the decadent chocolate cake I baked for him myself. And so I spend the remainder of the party (of which the details are blurry) sneaking around and repeatedly ambushing my dad with a syringe full of the chocolate cake trying to inject it into his bloodstream. I never succeeded. And I woke up.

The same night of this dream I was woken by an asleep husband yanking on my arm. After pulling my arm free before he tore it from its socket, he then sat up, reached over and grabbed the comforter off of me and rolled himself up in it. Never waking up. Evidently he was having a rough night, too.

And now I must go. Kenny's at a meeting which gives me just enough time to whip up something sweet. I'm a glutton for punishment I guess. But as long as I don't share with Kenny then at least I don't have to worry about him dismembering me during the night.

The fourth, 2011

This is the only photo I have from our holiday weekend.
If this doesn't say it clearly enough, I'll spell it out: I was way too busy to take photos. Obviously.

photo stolen from Angie's Instagram

from left: Matt and Angie Sloan, me, and Jeff Thompson's arm

place: Newport Beach harbor. After that weekend I'm now positive that I need constant access to a private beach. With former NBA players as neighbors. It's pretty awesome. (Thanks again for hooking us up, Aunt Nora!)

Happy (belated) Birthday America!

High fashion?

Yesterday, the reigning king of street style fashion photography, The Sartorialist, told us to take note of a certain designer and then showcased a few looks.

I must say there were some good pieces and I liked the styling. And then I got to this photo:

And all I could think was: "Attention old Mormon Dads: letting your stretched out "g's" (white boxer briefs for the non-Mormons out there) hang out the bottom of too-short shorts is now considered high-fashion. Your children no longer have to be embarrassed."

And then I had a good laugh to myself.

Did anyone else's dad/husband rock this look? Usually straight out of bed? Just mine? Sorry, Dad.

Kenny suggested I update this little blog lest anyone go thinking I died of a bladder infection. So...here I am. I survived (but just barely; UTI's are the worst).

Other than that, not too much of note has really gone on.

By the way, I realize this blog has become little more that a "travel log" of sorts, i.e. "here's what we did, here's where we went, etc." And it's boring. At least it is to me. I was going through my archives recently and, while I'll admit there's nothing amazing in there, it does seem that I used to have a lot more to say. No, I'm being hard on myself. In truth most of those posts were written while at work where I was all too eager for a diversion and (given that I was in front of a computer all day) it was easy to blog any random thought that popped into my head. Most of these thoughts probably should have remained in my head... regardless, I do miss having a record of the (mostly banal) musings that I entertained (and continue to entertain). If nothing else, they make me laugh now.

Yesterday I read most of the day - i was determined to finish Jane Eyre. Why I had never read it is beyond me, but I finished and I can now be in that club. There were several passages I noted so that I could go over them again and let the words sink in a bit. Kenny calls me a nerd (with affection) and he's right. I am. However, I'm also a dumb kid who loves mindless entertainment. Case in point: the second I read the last sentence of Jane Eyre, I pulled up an episode of Phineas and Ferb and mentally checked out. And I enjoyed that almost as much as I liked reading all day.

Today, I got really into dusting/polishing. Like with q-tips and a toothbrush. Although I oddly derived some satisfaction from the process (as well as the result of course), I couldn't help but fantasize about selling everything, save one chair. My chores would all but disappear! I entertained this idea so much that I actually suggested it to Kenny upon his arrival home. He took his usual stance (we've had the discussion before) and reminded me that he really liked having a couch. He knows this because we went without one for four months the last time I convinced him to sell some stuff. (He eventually resorted on folding an air-mattress to resemble a futon.) I reminded him that I said I would keep one chair - for him. He sort of smiled before Lola stole his attention. I think I may ware him down. Anyone looking for an apartment's worth of furniture, keep your eyes glued to Craig's List. Any day now...

And here I leave you. Very much alive and UTI free.