#28

I cannot sleep with socks on my feet.
also, i like the sheets to be freezing cold.
I wish they would stay freezing cold all night.
and just to make sure I don't get too hot, I usually sleep with one leg above the covers.
just one leg though.
not both.

**That's it! this is the end!!**
i couldn't be more happy.
honestly, there is not one more thing I could possibly talk about.
remember to comment (yes-up to 28 times) on each of the numbered posts.
and don't forget to enter on Juli's, Jillian's, Lyndi's and Launi's blogs as well!
happy commenting!
good luck!

poor miles

has a mom who takes far too many pictures of him.
and this is how he feels about it:

#27

my favorite book of all time is
the kite runner by khaled hosseini
i think it is beautiful and sad and touching and everything that a good book should be.
read it.
and just try to hold back the tears when cute little Hassan says,  
"for you, a thousand times over."


**tomorrow is the last day to enter the giveaway!!**
make sure you comment on any of the numbered posts before I wake up on March 1st.
and just as a small incentive...
here are some earrings I made last week that just might make it into your package.

my worst nightmare

came true.

We live in the basement of a 5-story, gigantic house.

This gigantic house has a security system that is armed 24/7.

when we come home, we have 30 seconds to punch in the code, or the alarm goes off.

usually we punch the code in after, like, 5 seconds.

it beeps loudly until you do.

so it's normal for me to hear that loud beeping when Wade comes home.

its also normal for me to hear him punch in the code as soon as he walks in.

I had just put miles to bed.  He was sleeping soundly.  I was finally sitting down to relax for the day and I heard the familiar beeping from upstairs.  I waiting for the code to be punched in.  But it was taking longer than normal.  I waited a little longer, wondering if maybe Wade just had his hands full or something.  Still no code.  The beeping started to get faster and louder as a warning to hurry up and punch it in.  I ran upstairs to see what was going on and there was no one there.  Just before the alarm began to sound, I heard sounds coming from the floor above me.  I could also hear the wind and the rain from the storm outside, as if a door or a window were open.  I didn't have much time to think.  I frantically ran downstairs, ripped Miles out of bed and grabbed my phone and made a run for it.  Out into the storm, barefoot, no jacket, with my confused little baby who was getting soaked by the second. 

this is not my picture. (thank you google images, once again.)  but it gives you a good visual of a brownstone...

there are two entries, one underneath the stairs and one above the stairs.  We never use the one above the stairs.

As I ran past the outside stairs, I looked up to see the two front doors wide open.

I rang the neighbor's doorbell over and over but no one answered (at least not quick enough for me), so I ran to the neighbor on the other side and rang their doorbell over and over.  In the meantime, I had managed to call 911, {which called UTAH's 911! hello! whats the point. don't worry, they transferred the call.} The neighbor answered and hurried me in from the storm, but I couldn't quite spit the words out.

"Someone's in my house. I think someone's in my house. The doors are open above the stairs. The alarm went off," all came out in very choppy sentences. 

the alarm company also notified the police, and a few minutes later, about 9 of them showed up.  I handed Miles over to the neighbor and went outside to meet them.  They didn't say much before they all swarmed the house like a crazy movie and went in screaming, "BOSTON POLICE!!"

they didn't find anything.

nothing.

no one.

to help me feel safe, they walked me through all five floors. yes, I was accompanied by 9 police men as we walked through each floor and looked under every bed, in every closet, behind every shower curtain, to make sure I knew that there was no one in my house.  I still stayed with the neighbor until Wade could get home.

I don't know who opened that front door.  I don't know how.  I just know that I'm so grateful my little baby is ok. 

also - that i never want that to happen to me ever again.  how long do you think until I will be able to sleep at night?

#26

am i done doing this yet?!
I am running out of things to talk about.

one year for Christmas, my cute mom gave me a sewing machine.
this was back when I was younger and stupid and pretty much a spoiled brat.
{i can't believe I'm telling this story! it's so embarrassing and sad}
I cried when I opened it and said,
"why did you give me a sewing machine? I don't even know how to sew."
and then my mom cried and she said she thought I would like it.
i basically ruined Christmas that year.
so we took it back.
and I got the money instead.
and who even knows what I spent it on.
all I know is, I wish I still had that sewing machine.
because my older, wiser self wants one really bad.
and my heart still hurts for being so mean to my mom.
oh the things I wish I could take back.
and how lucky am I that my mom still loves me?

i'm so sorry mom. i love you a lot a lot a lot.

#25

I have a small obsession with candles.

some girls would spend all their money on shoes, or clothes, or makeup.
i just want candles.
its just one small thing that makes me happy.
I like to burn them all day on the coffee table.
(which I'm sure will end when miles starts becoming mobile...)
and on the kitchen table during dinner.
not to be romantic.
just to be happy and smelly. the good kind of smelly.
lucky for me (and wade), this small obsession is a cheap one.
ikea rocks in its (cheap) candle selection.
and they smell so good!
i have a candle holder that holds 7 tealights.

and i think its basically awesome.
and i'm done talking about candles.
but i could keep going if i didn't think it was going to annoy the heck out of you.

#24

On my wedding day, my bridesmaids gave me this:

dolce&gabbana

light blue

so I would remember my wedding day every time I wear it.
and i do.
such good memories.

melt my heart

These 2 boys are

the center of my universe.

#23

I can never listen to an entire song all the way through. 
I just get sick of it.
I usually change it after like a minute...
and drive every one in the car insane.

#22

i am a tv junkie.

the office LOST flash forward the biggest loser american idol survivor the amazing race
a few of my favorites.
and when those aren't on, you better believe HGTV is running all day.
you know, so i can dream about a future of decorating bliss.

posture

so there i was, standing in the kitchen, minding my own business and washing the dishes (again with the dishes already! one would think i'm obsessed) when wade, who was in the bedroom and out of sight folding laundry, comes strutting his stuff into the kitchen,

in my sports bra.

apparently while folding laundry, he had gotten somewhat bored and a bit curious. and yes, he put on my sports bra. and then excitedly came to tell me that 

"This was the end of all (his) posture problems!"

pretty sure last time i wore a sports bra, i was running 4 miles, and it actually created a posture problem to begin with.  but if he wants to strap himself tightly around the chest and shoulders just to sit up straight, more power to him.

and in case you are waiting for a picture, there isn't one.

my deepest apologies.

#21

when i was 17, i went to kenya.
it probably took about 2 years for me to stop talking about it on a daily basis.
(i have so many stories to tell and feelings to share about this... maybe i'll blog more about it someday.)
it made such a huge impact on my life.
it changed the way i saw everything.
it changed the person i wanted to be.
it changed the way i felt about the world and the people in it.
it showed me that the human heart is capable of loving so much more than i thought it could.
and while the conditions these people live in is very, very sad, i do not pity them.
i wish that i could give them everything they need {water, clothing, food, shelter, parents}
but...i think that would change who they are.
i think they are so kind, and humble, and happy because all they have is each other.
it's all they have to live for.
i am not suggesting we all starve ourselves and sleep on the streets,
but maybe if we didn't get so caught up in the monotony of our lives
and paid more attention to our relationships
we'd all be a little better off.

I still miss kenya.
But i took lots and lots of pictures to make sure i would remember their faces.

fyi - i obviously did not take a blow dryer or curling iron with me. i was roughing it!

(which is easy to do, i guess, when there's no electricity...)

#20

back in the day, before i ever even existed,
mother and father were newlyweds and very poor.
like most newlyweds are.
and they had to find their own source of (cheap) entertainment.
which just so happened to be ms. pacman.
in an arcade.
and it only cost 25¢.
according to father, mother could last for hours on just one quarter.
he would often joke that mother was quite a cheap date.
but really, you should see the lady play.
she is very quick.
and could outsmart all the ghosts.
and eat all the fruits.
and still manage to come out alive.
believe me. i've seen her rack up the points.
and so i was once determined to play ms. pacman as good as my mother.
and i practiced a lot.
(only on a computer this time.)
and liked to brag that i was a ms. pacman superstar.
but that is a lie, because mother is the true superstar.
but i am 2nd place superstar ok?
superstar or not, thanks to my parents love story,

i truly love ms. pacman.

dear auntie viva,

i'm so happy you came to visit me.

i'm real sorry that i was grumpy the entire time you were here.

i had an ear infection and my ridiculous parents didn't even know.

but hello! that's why i was screaming all day!

anyway, thanks for being my valentine while mom and dad went out.

i quite enjoyed watching the olympics with you.

and i think you make awesome cupcakes.

also, thanks for changing my poopy diapers and taking care of me while my mom was throwing up.

(and then cleaning up her throw up... sheesh auntie viva, that's worse than my diapers!)

so i'm pretty sure that was your worst vacation ever, but you probably couldn't have come at a better time.

i know my mom and dad really appreciated your help at this new parenting thing.

i promise next time you see me, i'll be on my best behavior.

love, baby miles 

 

#19

Every time I get something out of the refrigerator, I leave the door wide open.

I think, in my mind, I just know I'm going to have to open it again to put that thing back.

and I also think that I'm going to be really quick with that thing.

but it always ends up taking longer than I thought.

and i turn around to see the refrigerator door wide open behind me.

I've done it all my life.

my father used to get very frustrated with this little quirk of mine.

but i still do it.

don't tell me i'm wasting energy and killing the environment.

because i already know that.

(we won't even talk about how i leave the water running while i brush my teeth, or how i buy water bottles by the case at costco and drink like 4 a day and don't even recycle, or how i don't take my own reusable bag to the grocery store and instead double up on the plastic sacks so they make it home on my long walk without ripping.)

I'm not telling you this because i'm proud. 

its a sad fact, really.

so maybe i'll do better.

starting with my water bottle that i'm drinking right now.

#18

my senior year in high school, i had a nervous mental meltdown, which i like to call an identity crisis.

I was seriously so unhappy and so confused and I wanted a change.  I hated my classes, I hated my school and the cliques and the fake people.  So during the first week of class, I had a genius idea that was sure to change my life around.  Within 2 hours, I had decided to transfer from Timpanogos, to Mountain View, received permissions from both schools, registered for classes, and officially became a student at a new school.  MY SENIOR YEAR.  uhhh, what was I thinking? Talk about a spur of the moment decision.

The next day, I went to approximately 1.5 classes when I got sick to my stomach and realized I had made such a stupid decision.  I missed those classes, and my clean school and my friends and the "fake" people who really weren't that fake and I had another nervous mental meltdown and walked right out of the middle of a class and called my mom crying.  She told me I better buck up and deal with it because I had gotten myself into this mess and she wasn't getting me out of it.  Well I went straight back to Timpanogos and begged and pleaded to come back.  I think my exact words to the counselor were, "I did a really stupid thing," through many tears and sobs and she whisked me away right back to her office, expecting to hear a lot worse than what I had done. :)  She went through my old schedule and figured out exactly what I was hating so much and she got me into classes that were already full, classes that taught things I actually enjoyed, 

classes that turned out to be my favorite.

(creative writing, AP photography, psychology).  

And guess what? It turns out my high school really wasn't that bad.  The grass is always greener... unless it's at Mountain View. (ha... sorry all my bruin friends. i still love you.)

oh and don't worry.  I was only at Mountain View for 2 hours.   

But it was just long enough to get my school pictures taken and wind up in their yearbook.

Long story short: I'm in two yearbooks.

my baby is a cupcake.

can't you see the resemblance?

(cupcake made by miss jennifer banks who is here visiting this week! hurrah!)

#17

I was never allowed to eat cookie dough growing up.
my mom said the raw eggs were bad for us.
and then my best friend jenn finally convinced me that i wouldn't die if i ate it.

and she got e.coli.
(she still doesn't know where she got it from. but i'm going to say it was the cookie dough.)

#16

I've always loved Halloween
but I hate dressing up.
It's probably just the candy that I love.
So maybe I should just say:
I've always loved candy.

I would love to say that this is my candy... but it is sadly just a google images photo. I'm on a diet, people. there is no place for this in my life anymore.

#15

I truly wish I could be a  photographer/wedding planner/floral arranger/hair stylist/author/interior designer/seamstress/flight attendant/graphic designer
but I've never seen a job posting for that.
nor do I believe I have ever found a college that offered that as a major.

#14

I never thought I would fall in love with my future husband while folding pizza boxes...

I had always pictured it so much more romantic in my mind. 

I was a server, he was a host.  We would chat it up during our spare time at work while folding pizza boxes...to attempt looking like we were "busy."

romantic or not, I'm so lucky it happened.

wade and i at the restaurant where we both worked in 2008

Happy Valentine's Day!

#13

when i went to nyc for the first time, we went to 'top of the rock' which is an observation deck on top of the rockefeller center.  I was determined take a cool picture of the city, but the stupid plastic windows surrounding us were making it quite difficult.  It was also getting dark and I needed a flat surface to use as a tripod. There were tiny slots in the windows though, and i got a genius idea.  My camera wouldn't fit through, but if i took the lens off, it would. so I disassembled my beautiful, expensive, love-of-my-life camera, stuck it through the slots, and re-assembled it on the other side of the windows, with my arms all twisted and crazy, and set it on the cement edge... 

Yes, 70 floors up and 850 feet above ground. not to mention the wind...

I know it was crazy, but I like to think that 

it was worth it.   

 

#12

when i was like 10, I was babysitting my little brothers and wanted to be extra helpful and surprise my mom when she got home.
I loaded all the dishes into the dishwasher and then searched under the sink for dish soap.
I remembered seeing commercials on TV for jet dry...
you know the liquid stuff you pour in the hole on the dishwasher door?
well i found some "jet dry" (only it was liquid dishwashing soap) and
poured as much as i could squeeze into that hole.
when my mom got home, not only was she surprised, she was also mad.
i had not been helpful at all.
there were *BUBBLES* spilling out of the dishwasher and all over the kitchen floor.
it was like a movie!
a horrible, disastrous movie.
it took a lot of dishwashing cycles to clear them all out.
and a lot of mopping.
and i may or may not have sucked a lot of the soap out of the hole with a straw...
being careful to stop sucking in time to not eat it.
my poor mother.
it seems i have a problem with washing dishes.  maybe i should be banned from doing them? good idea.

#11

my dad used to say, "you can pick your friends. and you can pick your nose. but you can't pick your friend's nose."

what about little brothers? 

Because I used to pick cooper's nose all the time.

don't worry.  i was like 2.  my mom has it on video - maybe i could show you sometime :)

Last night, i made the weirdest dinner...

pretty much just threw everything i could find into a glass dish and then baked it for an hour.

i told wade to be ready to order chinese.

it was disgusting. (but healthy!) we ate it anyway.

and then wade stared at the leftovers and said, "maybe we should throw that away."

and for wade to say that means it was really bad. 

because he is king of mixing all the leftovers in the fridge and eating them all together.

#10

this was last night. in the ER. because miles screamed all day yesterday. and of course i didn't call the dr. until 10 pm and they told me to take him in.  we were thinking ear ache, flu, sore throat...something.... nope. just

acid reflux.

the poor kid didn't sleep all day, and by the time we were seen in the ER, it was 1 am.  and they gave him maalox. MAALOX. who would even think you could just give a baby maalox? oh well. it was magic. and he went right to sleep. so i am tired. and that is why you are not getting a fact today. just a cute picture of my baby who is adorable even when he's sick.

#9

I used to sleep at night with my cell phone in my hand. 
and I used to text 8,000+ messages a month...(sadly, that number is not a typo)
now my family gets frustrated because I'm so hard to get a hold of.
i'm really glad i got over that.

P.S. I ran two miles and now I can't walk. this is progress right?

#8

When I lived in the dorms, we didn't like our neighbors that lived below us.  So I would make obnoxious noises in the heater vents, just to bug them. 

(I know. I'm so immature. I would like to say that I've grown up a little bit since then, but I can't be quite sure.)

In other news...

I do believe Wade and I are the only people in the country who didn't watch the super bowl.  We watched The Sound of Music and took some greatly needed naps instead.

also, my sister-in-law Susan forced asked me to run a half marathon with her in May.  I'm joining a gym and I start training tomorrow. I. am. scared. out. of. my. mind.

mr. miles is

3 months old

today.

I can't get enough of him.

#7

For prom my junior year, my date took me to a really fancy and expensive restaurant.  I think my food alone was $50 dollars.  After we left dinner, I started to feel kind of ill.  By the time the dance was over, I was struggling to keep a smile on my face and really just feeling awful.  Luckily I got home in time to change out of my dress and tell my parents I wasn't feeling so well.  They both went to bed and then I started puking.  My dad came downstairs to find me hovering over the toilet.  He started laughing and said,

"How much did you say your food was?  I wouldn't tell your date about this..."

I slept on the bathroom floor that night.  But I never did tell my date that I flushed his money down the toilet (literally).

#6

I absolutely hate washing my make-up off before I go to bed. 
I rarely do it.  Don't call me gross.  I still have otherwise good hygiene ok?

That being said, I want to start washing my face, so any of your favorite skin care product recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

by the way...
**it still counts!!**
as long as you comment on any of the entries by the end of the month, you're entered! you don't have to do it on the day posted. (does that make you feel better arlene? :) )

#5

my freshman year in college, we took turns doing the dishes on different nights of the week.  on my particular night, there just so happened to be A LOT of dishes piled in the sink and all over the counters.  I did my duty and cleaned every last single one of them.  When I got to the last dish, my roommate walked in and said,

"Why are you washing the dishes with the TOILET BRUSH?"
and then everyone ganged up on me and made me wash them all again.

in my defense, i truly believe you should not store the toilet brush under the kitchen sink...

#4

When I was younger, I was convinced my GRANDPA Fisher was once a girl.  He would begin stories by saying:

"When I was a little girl like you..."
He was teasing, of course, but I was so confused.

Grandpa has since passed away.  But this is one of my favorite memories of him. :)

#3

ever since I dyed my hair brown 2 years ago, people have questioned my ethnicity.  I've been confused with indian, puerto rican, and italian.

since then...i've layed off the tanning a bit.

my favorite experiences with this were both when we lived in the north end (a highly italian community). one little old man pinched my cheeks and told me that indeed, i was italian, at least from the nose up.  another little old lady that was missing all her teeth and talked like a parrot, got very frustrated when she told me i looked spanish and i told her i was from utah. "UTAR? whats utar? no. i mean, what language are you?!"

just for the record, I'm white. but coming from the land of utah could very much mean I'm a foreigner... at least to people on the east coast who don't even know utah is a state.

#2

I once, in all my young glory, got on the back of a blind date's motorcycle.
wearing shorts.
I still have the scar to prove it.

(don't judge the grundgy winger's get-up. i used to live there and went home in my spare time.)