I Hate YOU Snow

Seeing as Daniel sucks, and is refusing to blog about Hawaii, I guess I'll have to end my blogging hiatus.

Let me start off by saying that I think snow is beautiful to look at. Then let me say that driving in snow is THE WORST. This was my first time driving our new car in a snow storm and apparently Hyundai thought it would be a good idea to have a flashing warning light that says "ESC" appear every time your tires lose traction. It's not enough that I am already scared (and very aware) that my tires are not gripping the road? Now my non-4WD car is telling me it's not worth it, just bail out. "ESC"!! That being said, I arrived safely at work and all is well. Until the next storm...

In other news, Daniel was put in the bishopric of our ward on Sunday. We both think they must have gotten him confused with someone else, but we are excited. In the words of our former bishop, he is going to "rip it up!" How you "rip it up" in a church calling is a little beyond me, but it must be possible.

I leave for Boston in 2 days!

Daniel's Trip to Hawaii

I am refusing to blog until Daniel posts something about his trip to Hawaii where he got to stay here:

And I forgot to put on deodorant today. Oh well. There are worse things in life.

Loser Squared? A Good Thing

This is what the parking lots outside my office window look like today:

Yeah, apparently I didn't get the memo that only losers come to work here the day before Thanksgiving. I am a loser.

In other news, Daniel's flag football team lost last week in the elite eight round of the tournament. He is a loser.

Loser X Loser = Loser Squared
BUT...
Could a loser squared family (us) ultimately represent something positive?
I think I can safely assume that being a loser represents something negative. However, a negative multiplied by a negative gives you a positive. Thus, having both members of our family be losers is a good thing!
Here are a few reasons why:
1)I am at work, with no one else, getting paid to blog.
2)No more freezing football games

I am thankful for...

THIS

Letter to the Womb

To Lexie and Nick's Unborn Baby:

First, I'd like to be the first to say to YOU, personally, congratulations on being conceived. It is already clear how stubborn you are because your creation took, well, a lot of hard work. We'll leave it at that.

Don't get cocky just because you were conceived. You are strange-looking at this stage of your life. You probably only recently lost your tail and I can almost guarantee that even Steve Buscemi is better looking than you. While you may have arms and legs, you probably don't even have eyelids yet! Yeah, come back to me when you can blink!

Now on to some advice. You better appreciate the time you have right now. You don't have to do a single thing for yourself. Your mother/placenta do it all! You've got a pretty sweet deal. Don't forget it. (Don't you forget it either, Nick.)

Lastly, I'd like to request that you refrain from any bad behavior between the dates of January 15th and 19th of 2009. This includes, but is not limited to, the following behaviors: any extreme shifting causing discomfort to your mom, zapping all her energy, giving her strong aversions to delicious foods, and anything else that could affect my trip to Oregon. While that may seem selfish, I have known your mother longer than you so you have to do it. That being said, if you fulfill your end of the deal, you will be met with many presents from me upon your birth in May.

Thanks Cottle fetus! Oh, and when your father tells you that it's normal for a grown man to twirl, skip, and dance like him, he's wrong.

Can't wait to meet you!

Love, Carly

Addendum

Remember my post on how awesome the police log is in Belmont? Well here are some recent gems from the log:

8:08 a.m. A Stony Brook Road resident reported someone drove over his lawn, for the third time in two years. He believes it was deliberate.
3:54 p.m. An Orchard Street resident reported he believes his landlord and landlord’s daughters may be photographing him and his children in their backyard.
7:56 a.m. A Hillside Terrace man reported damage to his Honda Civic. The car was resting on bags of mulch and rocks and had been stripped of all four tires and rims. The rims were valued at about $500. The man said he heard noises from outside between 3 and 5 a.m. but did not investigate.
The man called police about an hour later to report a series of unexplainable events over the past five years. He reportedly said cell phones and other phones in the house were targeted by a GPS device that caused them to continue to ring after the batteries were removed, a phenomenon that Verizon technicians were unable to explain, as cell phones cannot receive incoming calls or ring if they have no source of power. Police are investigating.
12:03 p.m. A Pleasant Street resident and physician in Boston reported the mother of one of his patients, a Malden woman, attempted several times to deepen their relationship to a level he was not comfortable with. Police contacted the woman, who said it was a cultural misunderstanding, and that in her native country doctors have a more personal relationship with their patients. Both parties were satisfied.

"H - a - double l - o - double u - double e - n" Spells Halloween

Another Halloween season has come and gone. Here is how we celebrated:

1. Carving pumpkins.

Before:

During:
After:
The best Marauder ever.
Make sure you check out how weird Daniel is in this picture. He is obsessed with making random objects into mustaches. Maybe that's because he can't grow one himself. Oh, snap.

2. Attending a Haunted House (yard?)
One of my co-workers goes all out for Halloween. She decorates her yard with all kinds of creepy things. She spends thousands of dollars on the whole production. This picture shows the cemetery section of the yard, which is just a small part. The fog machine made the picture look all fuzzy.I wanted Daniel to make a "scared" face, but all he did was this stupid pose. I was mad. Still am.

3. Handing out candy

After complaining about the lack of trick-or-treaters at our apartment, the Gaineses offered to let us hand out candy at their house, a hot spot for candy collection. Anna (daughter Gaines) was adorable in her pumpkin costume, but Daniel was a little creepy. We were impressed with the morals of some of the trick-or-treaters. One kid, after seeing Ben in a Red Sox shirt, said "I hate the Red Sox. I don't want your candy." He really didn't take any! Apparently Jerry Seinfeld was wrong; not all kids are only thinking "get candy, get candy, get candy".

4. Dressing Up.

Garlan came over dressed as some sort of a grease monkey/wide receiver/tough guy. His jumpsuit was huge. This is me as a headless mechanic.
Daniel dressed up as fat guy in a little coat. He always thinks it is funny to try to put on Carly-sized clothes. This time it fit even less than usual. I found a button on the other side of the apartment a few days later.

Hope you all had a happy and razor-filled-candy-less Halloween!

Tag, Picture Version

Lexie forced me to post the fourth picture of my fourth picture folder. Here we are as total posers. This picture is from December 2005, our first holiday break as a married couple. We went to Texas and while there, the Nielson's family friend allowed us to use his ranch. It was my first time seeing and actually shooting a real gun. It was exciting, although I have no desire to ever shoot a gun again. We were supposed to pretend we were hardcore ranchers/hill-billies/hunters/whatever you want to call it. We just kind of look silly. I tag: COURTNEY NIELSON (I am going to make inappropriate comments on your blog/facebook wall every day until you do this), Margaret T-P, Kimberlee L.H.V., Jennnn (Singer), and the Palmers

"And D, we live on the most boring street in the whole United States of America, where nothing even remotely dangerous will ever happen. Period."

Belmont, my hometown, was once called the most boring town in Massachusetts by the Boston Globe. Perhaps it is because there are 14 banks, no fast food restaurants, and no alcohol-serving restaurants that Belmont received that label. Neighborhoodscout.com writes, "We found that the crime rate in Belmont is one of the lowest in the nation for its size. This means Belmont is one of the safest places in America in which to live for its size, a very important finding." Now, I am not saying this to complain; Belmont is a great place to live.

You can only imagine the amazing events reported in the fire/police log, which is printed in the weekly newspaper. The following come from the log over the past month.

Typical Fire Department Day (this is everything they dealt with that day):
10:17 a.m. A fire alarm malfunctioned at the Belmont Springs plant on Country Club Lane.
12:31 p.m. A smoke detector malfunctioned at Watertown Savings Bank in Belmont Center.
1:24 p.m. A smoke detector malfunctioned in a Maple Street residence.

The police log has old reliables (patients escaping from the mental hospital, "serious" traffic violations/car accidents, teenagers getting arrested for drinking):
3:55 p.m. A 27-year-old Hingham man was reported missing from McLean Hospital. He was located around 9:30 a.m. the following morning in Weymouth.
8 p.m. A 16-year-old Winchester girl was found to be intoxicated at the Belmont-Winchester football game. The assistant athletic director from Winchester arranged for her to get home safely.
7:51 p.m. A Belmont man driving a Mistubishi Eclipse was cited for operating with defective equipment and failing to use a seatbelt following a traffic stop on Beech Street. The man reportedly drove by a police cruiser with his stereo turned up so high the cruiser vibrated from the bass. The car also reportedly had a defective license plate light and a broken tail light.
5:36 p.m. A Belmont man driving a 2006 Hyundai was turning into the parking lot of a convenience store on the corner of Brighton and Pleasant streets when his car was reportedly struck by a Charlestown woman on a bicycle. A witness said the woman looked down for a minute then collided with the car. She was treated at the scene by the fire and rescue and taken to Mt. Auburn Hospital for further care.

Then you have your unexpecteds (crazy people, paranoid people, funny things stolen)
9:43 p.m. A Walnut Street resident reported a man jumping up and down on a car. Police found the man wearing only boxer shorts and with cuts on his face. He was reportedly unable to supply police with his name or address, and was not carrying any identification. He was taken to Mt. Auburn Hospital for treatment, and hospital staff reportedly refused to release his name to officers.
4:56 p.m. An A Street resident reported receiving unsolicited e-mails containing references to child pornography.
10:18 a.m. A Ross Road resident reported a man parked his black pick-up truck outside her residence, got out and started taking pictures of the house. She said he came to the door and said he really liked the work they had done on the house, then left. He is described as a white man, in his 50s, about 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighing 185 pounds.
9:30 a.m. A set of keys and a pumpkin were reported stolen from the lobby of a Lexington Street condominium.
10:05 p.m. An Arlington man reported he parked his Honda in front of the Payson Park Church around 7 p.m., and returned to find his trunk open and two trombones, valued at $2,500 each, missing from the car. There were no signs of forced entry to the trunk; police believe he may have accidentally activated the push button on his key chain, causing the trunk to open and allowing someone who passed by to help themselves to the instruments.
2:49 p.m. A Belmont woman was driving on Winter Street when her car was struck by an orange thrown from a school bus. She followed the bus up Winter Street and spoke to the driver when it stopped to let students off. An eighth grade student was identified as the pitcher and administrators at the middle school will follow up.

I just love the funny things reported and the level of detail provided to the Belmontians. I was a little disappointed in the selection to choose from. One of my favorites from high school was a woman calling the police because teenagers were laughing at her. If you ever want to read the Belmont Police/Fire log go here.

YOU ASKED FOR IT, YOU GOT IT

For those of you who seem to be concerned about our recent lack of blogging I will compensate for the inactivity with a day-by-day summary of everything we have done the past 2 weeks. Enjoy!

Monday, October 13th:
-I had an 8 AM eye doctor's appointment. The doctor confirmed I have some strong indicators of glaucoma (namely, my damaged optic nerve) and I need to visit an optometrist more frequently than tri-decade-ly (that is, three times every ten years). Good news? I don't need new glasses.
I don't have high pressure, just optic nerve damage.
-Daniel had a farewell breakfast with Whitney and Courtney.

Tuesday, October 14th:
-Daniel had a dentist appointment to fill the cavities on the right side of his mouth. He survived. -We had a run-in with an intramural supervisor who would not let me sit by the team because it was a "safety" issue. "You have 5 seconds to leave!" is what he yelled at me before the game had even started. I got his name (John Crespo, anyone know him?) and I still need to file a complaint.

Wednesday, October 15th:

-Both of us went to work.
-We probably ate dinner.
-Red Sox lost

Thursday, October 16th:
-I was at the gym when the Red Sox staged an amazing comeback in the 7th inning of game 5 of the ALCS. I stayed on the treadmill for an extra 30 minutes for fear that getting off would halt the Sox' rally.
-BYU g0t destroyed by TCU.

Friday, October 17th:
-Daniel's intramural softball team finally won a championship! And he didn't play half-bad. He is already becoming more of the husband I want (that joke goes along with this post). Here are the 5 guys that have been in 6 (yes, SIX) championship softball games and lost.

Here are the wives that have watched those losers.
-We celebrated by going to Red Robin with everyone.

Saturday, October 18th:
-Daniel had his first Saturday practice of the season and then undoubtedly watched college football for the remainder of the day.
-Watched the Red Sox win with the usual crowd. Ate Papa John's

Sunday, October 19th:
-We got to have dinner with the Andersons and babysit Elly (she did not disappoint!)
-The Red Sox ripped out our hearts

Monday, October 20th:
-We had FHE with Garlan

Tuesday, October 21st:
-I went to the gym
-Daniel had another date with the dentist for the cavities on the other side of his mouth

Wednesday, October 22nd:
-We went to the temple with Garrett and Kaylie. Afterwards we had some Turkey Harvest Croissants (MOA Cafe, anyone?) and ice cream. Garrett and Daniel stayed up late talking.

Thursday, October 23rd:
-Daniel went to his co-ed intramural basketball game and I went to the gym

Friday, October 24th:
-Watched "Baby Mama"- a GREAT movie

Saturday, October 25th:
-I cleaned a lot
-Daniel watched football with Garlan and Garrett
-I started getting a cold

Sunday, October 26th:
-Taught primary to one kid (Kiana) who is awesome
-Ate a delicious meal which included my favorite, mashed potatoes

Keep in mind that we both work every day and I am participating in a walking competition on UVU campus and I force Daniel to go on long walks with me frequently. You can add: work, eating, showering, and walking to almost every day.

(Courtney: I expect you to memorize this. I will quiz you the next time I see you. Open ended too; none of that multiple choice BS. )

Dentist Challenge

Carly: no cavities, but I need to floss my back teeth better
Daniel: Let's just say he has to spend another 4 hours with the dentist over the next few weeks. He's embarrassed. Don't rub it in like I have been.

Good news?
Cost: $200. That's pretty good for 11 cavities.

Winner: Ben Gaines, the only person who took a guess. He'll get an amazing prize.

Specimen of the Day: Tueller-Proffitt Family

For the first time EVER we are featuring a whole family as the specimen(s) of the day. Today we are featuring the Proffitts. They have multiple things to celebrate this month including the recent addition of Teichert to the family, Margaret's upcoming 24th birthday, and most importantly, they saw US last weekend! Be aware that much of this features Margaret Elva, as I have known her the longest and spent the most time with her.

Names: Clark, Margaret, Booker, & Teichert Proffitt

Occupations: Lawyer, mom/announcement designer, big brother, little brother

First Meeting: Margaret- Right before junior year of high school we went to a free Mighty Mighty Bosstones concert in downtown Boston with a group of kids from the ward. Margaret (who had just moved in) was invited for two reasons: first, because we wanted to make her feel welcome, and second, because according to a few of the boys "she was hot". Clark- I met him my sophomore year of college. Upon finding out he was from Mesa I asked if he knew a few LDS people I knew from there. At the time I didn't know that Arizona is basically an extension of Utah so Clark had to explain how many Mormon people live in Mesa. I have never made that mistake again. Booker- A few months after his birth the Proffitts trekked to Utah. I think he cried a lot. Shortly thereafter Daniel started bleefing with Booker (see here, here, and here). Teichert- We got to meet the newest Tueller-Proffitt family member last weekend! He was a perfect gentleman and slept in his carseat the whole time, allowing us to eat a tasty Magleby's breakfast/have a great conversation/play with Booker.

Fall 2006- Our first introduction to Booker
Spring 2007- Bleefing begins

Favorite Memory: Freshman year at BYU we went to a somewhat intense concert with mosh pits and crowd surfing. Margaret found her way back to us after one her "surfs" and said someone gave her a wedgie and ripped her underwear. She laughed about it like only Margaret would. Either that or when we went to Vegas and rode the Stratosphere. I was terrifed and screamed bloody, like super gushing/spraying blood out of arteries, murder. Margaret couldn't stop laughing at me. Then some creepy guys offered us free tickets to ride again. I was too scared but Margaret went and then we ran away before the creepy guys could find us.

Best Roomate Ever: Margaret and I lived together for a year in college. She was constantly cleaning up our messes.

Proof They Are Cool: Well, among the many reasons, Margaret and Clark came to our wedding in Boston ONE WEEK after they were married in Salt Lake. Want more proof? Their kids are cool. It is almost impossible to have cool kids without cool parents.

Proffitts circa 2005 Waiting around during wedding picture-taking
Cool kids

Favorite Toys: A shark (Obviously, since we gave it to him). Although, apparently Booker has taken to attacking Margaret with said shark when he wants the attention she is giving Teichert.

A Shared Issue: Margaret and I both have eyebrow plucking/yanking issues. When we get stressed, or for no reason, we pull them out. Margaret may have conquered the problem, but I am still working on it. Trichotillomania is a real disease. A post on that is forthcoming.

Favorite TV shows: Reality tv shows like ANTM (although Margaret may have matured now that she is a mother of 2) and animal planet (see Booker loving animal planet here).

Best Face: Booker's stink eye. See below. When we saw them last weekend I asked Booker what he was doing. He gave me the stink eye and said "cookies" very forcefully. He then promptly put those cookies down the hole in his new shark's mouth.

Favorite Activity: Clark- taking the bar, Margaret- cleaning/hanging out with little people (aka midgets), Booker- making a mess, Teichert- pooping

Websites: Parent Proffitts and Child Proffitts

Why We Love Them: They are hilarious, laid back, kind, and cool people. We wish they lived closer!

Dirty Mouth? Orbit is NOT Enough

While Orbit may provide a "just brushed clean feeling", it apparently cannot compare to actually brushing (and flossing) your teeth. We went to the dentist this morning. First time in 3 years for me and 5 years for Daniel. The joke's on us. Between our two sets of pearly (or yellow-y) whites 11 cavities exist, 2 cavities may come into existence soon if flossing is not improved, and a mouth guard to protect nightly teeth grinding is needed. Guess who has what? Better yet, guess how much it is going to cost us? Answers will be posted in a few days. Prizes for the winners.

On this day in 1994. . . .

Just to push Daniel's boring posts further (or is it farther?) down the page, I am doing another installment of journal entries....DEBATE EDITION.

1. October 25th, 1994- Hi! How are you? I'm fine thank-you. Tonight we watched the debate between Kennedy and Romney. It was kind of boring. I have no idea of who will win. Well I guess that's not true. I think Kennedy is going to win. Then I'm for Romney. So I want Romney to win. I hate Ted Kennedy. He critisized my religion. Ted K. is an IDIOT! Everyone knows it. Face it people! Ted has always been an idiot and always will be. Ted sort of looks like Mr. Lapine. They definitely don't act the same. Thats for sure. Well got to go. Bye-bye! Love, Carly. Happy Halloween!
2. October 26th, 1994- Yello! Whatz up in the hood? Today I had drama. One of my skits in drama is a talk show. It's about food. I'm the talk show host. Should we call it, the Carly John show just like the Ricki Lake show? That's what I want to call it. Alicia is grinding her teeth. It sounds so weird. She was also whispering. She is weird. Tonight I watched some of the debate between Gov. Weld and Mark Roosevelt. Roosevelt is a twit. That's what Dad says. I hate Roosevelt. He talks so weird. My hand is hurting so much. I have a blister between my thumb and pointer finger. It hurts too much. Gotta GO! Bye-bye
3. October 27th, 1994- Tonight I watched the debate between Mitt Romney and Ted Kennedy. Romney dissed Kennedy so bad. When they had their closing statements or whatever, Romney said "I got to go around the state of Mass. for about a year now. I went to Springfield, bla, bla and bla. When I went to Rochester a man walked up to me and held a sighn in my face and said," "This is Kennedy town.""I looked around and saw boarded up houses and buildings and I said, Yes, this is Kennedy town." That dissed Kennedy so bad. I'm having a Halloween party tomorrow at my house.

Wow, I watched 3 debates in 3 days. And wrote in my journal about them. What a weird 10-year-old.

I want to be like Carly...And I miss Manny

Carly is a way better blogger. That is a fact and I think we all know it. In fact I might even call her a blog all star or maybe a blogstar? That brings me to this point. I need to come up with some gimmicks like her. If I don't step up my skills soon then I may begin to feel inadequate as a husband due to my inability to blog for my family. Between that and Carly calling me today just to tell me my last post sucked (a direct quote) I feel like I need to improve and improve now. I really liked my last post because I love sports and I really get into them and my teams, but apparently that only translated to the one and only Ben Gaines who seemed to enjoy it too.

You might say that I should just do similar things to what Carly does, but here are my problems with each thing. I didn't ever keep a journal so that's out the window (and even if I did I never would have been cool enough to close each entry with, "I love to read. I love to write. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.). I don't have enough friends to have a specimen of the day. And to top it all off I have a 3rd graders ability to write, but I would say more of an above average 3rd grader. I mean why sell my self short?. So if you have any ideas, other than not blogging because I started this whole thing after all, let me know. I need the help because i can't compete with skills like these seen below. We can call them fitting into a breadbox skills.


After all of that I still feel like I need to include this...Instead of writing another really long blog about sports that only 2-3 people will enjoy I will simply say that I miss Manny and recommend this article by the Sports Guy.

I could try all day to explain why I still like Manny and why I will be upset when he signs with the Yankees, but I couldn't do it better than that article so I will let that speak for me.

Let's go RED SOX

**If you don't care too much about sports this will probably be boring, but if you do then read on because you will understand.**

Ok it has been a long time since I posted, but today is the start of an important yearly event, the baseball playoffs. I figured that I would come out of blog retirement (ok really Carly has been holding me captive like in the movie misery so I couldn't blog, but I managed to escape and find a computer) to urge on the Red Sox to another world series ring. I feel good about the Sox despite their injuries, I think they will do it again this year. And if you think other wise then you are what one might call an idiot. I mean how can you root against a team that has guys like these.

I can't help but think that they will win it again this year. You might say why do you think that? Well I am glad that you asked my friend because I am more than willing to tell you. All my life the teams I have rooted for have ranged between super crappy and average (with the exception of the Cowboys and even they were crappy for a long while). Growing up the Mavericks sucked which is the nice way of putting it and why I found myself adopting the Sonics (sorry Garlan I mean the Thunder haha) so that I had a good team to root for. I also rooted for the St Louis Cardinals who were no more than a tease. BYU football was good for the most part (minus the Crowton years...did those really happen?), but they never quite made it to the big time games (the cotton bowl was good, but that's about it). Texas football was pretty crappy too until Vince Young showed up and made USC look stupid.

I could go on and on since all I am good for is useless sports knowledge, but I guess the point I am trying to get to is that for the first time in my life all my teams are making me happy to be a fan.

The Red Sox have a chance to go back to back. How can that not make you happy. (Side note: As a husband of a true Bostonite I feel I have every right to be a Red Sox fan. I still like the Cardinals, but it is hard to not get sucked in by Fenway, Boston, and fans that are as crazy about sports as I am. You can call me bandwagon and that is fine, but I genuinely follow the Red Sox. I am not some playoff fan, I follow them game in and game out. Enough of this though, I shouldn't have to defend myself.)

BYU and Texas football are both in the top ten and look really good. They may both go to BCS games and maybe one could make it to the National Championship. Now this might not last, but at this very moment I could not be happier with my two college teams.

The Cowboys are legit super bowl contenders again. I got spoiled as a kid and didn't appreciate all of the 90's championships, but the Cowboys have a new group of poor citizens that will hopefully get the job done. We finally are following the 90's blueprint of getting social misfits. Michael Irvin, Leon Lett, Deion Sanders I would like to introduce you to Adam Jones, Tank Johnson, and TO. That's one recipe for success that you can't argue with.

The Mavs make me nervous, but they will probably make the playoffs and since the season hasn't started they can't make me too upset yet. They have ripped my heart out time after time in the past against the Kings several times and then that whole finals debacle, but at this very moment they are undefeated (0-0) this year and I like that.

I really could keep going on about sports for forever, but I have never had a point in my life as a sports fan where all of my teams aren't making go crazy. With that said I felt I needed to enjoy this moment before I get all upset at the Red Sox tonight or remember that Texas still has to play OU. There is nothing like sports and maybe I am a loser for rooting for my teams and letting their success dictate how happy I can be in the hours following a game, but when they win it makes it all worth while and you get to have moments like these.

Specimen of the Day: Elly

Our second Specimen of the Day was unanimously voted as my cousin's daughter, Elly. Besides her just being pretty much the most darling little girl ever, we need to up the cute kid factor on our blog to attract more viewers. Since we don't have any of our own, we are featuring Elly. We just met her for the first time when they moved to Provo a month ago. Between babysitting her the other day and perusing her mother's blog, I now feel like I have known her for years (basically her whole life).

Name: Elly, Bubba, Bubby (she calls herself this), etc.
Age: About 18 months (That is 1.5 years for those of you who struggle to convert months to years)

Favorite person: Lacy, her mom

Favorite food: basically everything as far as I can tell- she's not picky

Favorite treat: chocolate milk, but only if it is in a bottle. She doesn't drink anything else out of a bottle. When they moved into their new apartment she saw the bottle and decided it was for chocolate milk.

Favorite activity: Changing her doll's/stuffed animal's diapers
Cutest thing said in our presence: "This is my strawberry shirt. It is so cute." OR After pretending Daniel was sick, she picked up my phone and said, "I will call the doctor. What is his name?" OR As we walked back to her room to change her diaper (she came voluntarily!) she turned to Daniel and said, "See you later, Daniel." Basically everything she says is cute because she is 1 1/2 and she talks really well.

Why she is awesome: She loves to sing/dance/pretend with her toys. For example, when we were babysitting she kept pretending her toy vacuum was broken. She would push it for a few seconds and then lay it down and inspect it until it was "fixed". But just check out some videos of her from Lacy's blog and you'll agree: singing ABC's here, singing Pattycake here, pretend eating here, and eating raisins here. Here is a video we took while babysitting her the other day. She gets distracted by the camera while singing ABC's and asks to see herself.



Lacy, hopefully you don't think we are too creepy, but we might just have to kidnap your daughter. Or at least borrow her sometimes. But maybe we shouldn't, because Daniel will think all kids are as awesome as Elly is.

GRACIAS

Thank you everyone!! Check out my loot:

• Carolyn Nielson the first sent an amazing, color-coordinated box full of gifts. Just as before, when she read my mind by sending the scented candle I had been searching for, Carolyn sent the perfect shade of nail polish I have been trying to find. On top of that she sent the newest Jack Johnson CD (awesome), tasty chocolate and cookies, cards I can maybe pass off as hand-made, and other things.
  
• The stunning fall flower arrangement was sent by my parents. We almost didn't answer the door when it was delivered because Saturdays are prime solicitor days in our complex.
  
• Courtney brought me my favorite Coldstone ice cream (impressed she remembered which one) and some gorgeous earrings. You know something is beautiful when Daniel says a couple hours later, "Seriously, those earrings are really nice."
  
• Daniel and I made a birthday trip to FYE and ended up getting 3 DVD's, a TV series, and 6 CD's.
  
• Other birthday loot not pictured: a bunch of phone calls from people I love, 2 whole blog posts, blog comments, and the most important: facebook wall comments.
  

And to Shaun, you were right, I only included the journal entry where I mentioned my birthday to make more people aware it was coming. Well, it worked. So there.

I am freaking old!! Oh, and Daniel wants me to tell you all we saw Obama in FYE.

On this day in 1993...

More word-for-word excerpts from my journal around this time in 1993:

1. September 19th, 1993- I'm so excited TOMORROW is MY BIRTHDAY. Meredith and Anthony didn't get me anything though. I don't think they care about my birthday. I think they are jealous that I get to go to CALIFORNIA and they don't. Well, for they're birthdays I won't get them anything either. So there MEREDITH and ANTHONY!!! Ha ha! See how they feel. NOOOOTTTTTTTT!!!!! Everybody I know cares about my birthday. But umm umm umm, oh yea, now I remember. I'll probably be too busy tommorow to write to you. See-ya big guy (as Anthony says).

2. October 20, 1993- Today is Sunday. I'm back from California. It was really fun. We went to Disney Land. You won't believe this but Grammie and Bobpa went too. It was the funnest thing of all. Casey and I went on Thunder Mountain three times! Two times alone and once with Grammie, Bobpa, and Ant Fran. We went on Space Mountain two times. Now that was the awesome ride. It was the best ride in Disney Land!!! I'm not kidding it is.

Just so you know, these excerpts are provided to up the comedy level of the blog. Feel free to laugh. I won't be offended. Well I will be if Meredith and Anthony laugh, because they don't care about my birthday. Never have, never will.

Specimen of the Day: Lexie

**In order to avoid having this blog become birthday shout out central, I am starting a new segment: Specimen of the Day. If you happen to be featured on Specimen of the Day on or around your birthday that is purely coincidental. **

Today's Specimen: Lexie, Lex, Lexicon, Lexican the Mexican, Lulu, etc.

Relation: amiga (Lexie will know what that means. We took a beginning Spanish night class from UVU together.)

Relationship history: We first met in November of 2001. We were both intimidated to meet the other.

Her favorite activity: gossiping with high schoolers

Her favorite person: either Nick or Felicity

Favorite memory involving said specimen: Making fun of our husbands on an awesome cruise vacation, dancing in the club sans husbands on said cruise vacation, staying up until the middle of the night talking about our future children's college GPA's, falling down while trying to take a shortcut on a hike that was no such thing, oh wait....and living in a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom, basement apartment with 2 married couples.


Best thing she has ever said: "idiots"

One of her best ideas: Putting lounge chairs in the kiddie pool

One of her favorite quotes: "Oh, he's anti-Christmas"

Why we love her and you should too: most. awesome. person. ever.

She's fake laughing here. She wanted everyone to look at pictures and remember how fun Meredith's bridal shower must have been.

Congratulations, Alexandra. You are Carly and Daniel's first Specimen of the Day!

A somewhat vapid post

What is white and navy and powder blue all over?

Any guesses?

No?


Our new bedding! It makes me actually want to make the bed. Sometimes. I am sure Daniel feels the same way.

Make New Friends, But Keep the Old

I must acknowledge the birthday of my oldest friends, Jennifer Ann and Julia Mar. It has been over 20 years since we first became friends. So you see, by oldest, I am referring to my longest lasting friendships.

Here are a few snapshots from over the years: (Please excuse the flashes in the middle of the photos. Due to my lack of an available scanner, I actually took pictures of pictures from my scrapbook. Very resourceful.)

My 5th birthday party. Since Julia and Jennifer are exactly one week older than me you can basically consider this their 5th birthday as well. Apparently wearing dresses with sneakers and high socks was all the rage in Belmont in 1989.

Our joint 17th birthday party. We went to see Mamma Mia! This is a whole page from my scrapbook; you can click to enlarge.

A collage of some pictures from our childhood I put together for their 16th birthday. Again, click on it to enlarge.


I love these two.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLARK TWINS! I have so many memories of your birthdays from playing Huckle Buckle Beanstalk, to my awesome presents to you (cow mobile? painted block cut outs of your names (when Jen was in her Jenn phase)? pillsbury dough boy shirt?), to watching Lady in White at your sleepover party on Friday the 13th.
You are two amazing women. Thank you for staying a part of my life for all these years. Please enjoy your birthday tomorrow!

Firsts and a Last

We have had a few firsts recently:

1. First piece of art We picked up this beauty at the starving artist sale in Provo. It is actually quite large (34 X 26) and it was a great price (we are talking under $75). Let me know if you want to come with me the next time they have this sale!

2. First week at my first grown-up jobMy officeSee, it even has my name on itNot to mention an amazing view. Another first, I forgot to eat lunch yesterday. This is my office today covered in the paperwork, invoices, receipts, etc., that built up in the 3 months before I started. Yes, there is a bagel on one stack of papers. I was not going to forget lunch again.

3. First zucchini cake
As Daniel mentioned, we got fresh vegetables from my grandma's garden last weekend. One of these was a zucchini. I tried out Grandma's recipe for zucchini cake and it was delicious! Too bad I don't have a picture of that; what I DO have a picture of is another tasty dessert I made recently. That, my friends, is an ice cream sandwich cake. No cooking required. You layer ice cream sandwiches with cool whip and your candy bar of choice between each layer. I use Heath Bar; I think it retains it's crunch and taste the best when frozen. The trickiest part of this delicious treat is getting the temperature of the cool whip right. It must be spreadable, but retain its shape and keep the structure strong.

4. First plantar fascia injuryDaniel injured it playing basketball. Too bad it was one day after my dad, the podiatrist, went back home. Don't worry, he is recovering nicely. At least we have health insurance now! Let's hear it for being able to go to the doctor if we need to! (I haven't been to a dentist in 3 years!)

And a last:

A good-bye to Jared. He has been a roommate, groomsman, and a good friend. Jared has been there from the start of it all; he was present the first time we met, over 5 1/2 years ago. Jared is moving on to bigger and better things in the hometown of another good friend of ours, Rice-a-roni. We had a farewell dinner with him last week at Red Robin. Good-bye Jared! Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair! I hope you meet gentle people there.