Birthday in July?

Since I will be in Britain over my birthday this year, the family celebration for it was going to be combined with the August birthdays. BUT, since July birthdays were celebrated late this year, we were all combined together in one celebration tonight. Meaning my September 8 bday was celebrated in July. Lori's birthday card made me laugh as she wrote that she knows who is the favorite now since her birthday was pushed back a month and mine was celebrated two months early - but she was okay with that since I'm her favorite too. I'm hoping she was just joking about why she thinks her birthday was put off...it certainly got a laugh out of me though!

Mom made me my own cheesecake which was DELICIOUS! Lori created a treasure map for TJ which he loved...though was a bit confused on in following the clues...and it had a treasure chest pinata at the end with candy AND fun prizes. Way to go Lori! Cody even got me my favorite cupcake from Sweet Tooth Fairy - red velvet with lovely frosting.

One of the prizes from the pinata.

Chris wasn't quite ready for his glamor shot yet.

Double-Header

Mindy has been wanting for some time to watch some of the oldie-but-goodie movies from the days of yore. We were finally able to get together tonight to accomplish this. Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Strictly Ballroom. On the radar for next time is Dirty Dancing.

While watching, I managed to organize this old box of letters I had and put them into a three-ring binder. I got to review all of the letters Kemery, Jon, Dana, and Joseph sent me from their missions as well as all the ones sent to me by missionaries I was writing and guys I dated. So sad to see Jon's! Joseph's were very bittersweet. There are some times I almost wish you could go back!

I may have stolen these photos of Matthew from Lisa's blog because I thought they were so cute! Thanks Lis!

SYTYCD Starring...Jason!

I may have already done a few posts about SYTYCD before, but since Jason went to the filming last night and sat next to Marko's mom, he was featured prominently several times on screen. There were also 22 little blips of him as well.  Melanie's flying leap into Niel's arms was amazing! So trusting!



Day Off

I got today off work thanks to the Pioneer Day weekend. Since dad had his little foot surgery, he couldn't join mom and I in the pool. It made him the perfect candidate for camera man though! Mom actually raced me. This is a huge event as she doesn't like to get her hair or face wet. She has some joint problems that have made her feel like she should start swimming as her exercise, meaning she played around with me more than usual in the pool.

I had to give her half the length of the pool, only use my legs and no arms, and start swimming without pushing off from the side for our race. It was VERY close. She pushed herself so hard that she about drown on the last stroke and spluttered and coughed a lot afterward. Ever seen a cat in water? I laughed so hard I thought the neighbors were going to come running to see if everything was okay. It was like the close race for Michael Phelps in the Olympics where the swimmer ahead of him did one last stroke above water and he cut below and touched the wall milliseconds before the other swimmer. Mom won and she was very pleased with herself...once she could breath normally again.

Mom holding on to my feet to be dragged around the pool.

She started tickling of her own volition
while on the phone with Lisa. I swear!

Happy Pioneer Day!

Dad's favorite show on Sunday is Music and the Spoken Word. So, since they are in town, we went to a recording this morning on Temple Square. Since it is summer, they are being held at the Conference Center rather than the Tabernacle. Lots of Pioneer songs which was nice.

We tried out the Capitol Hill ward which I should go to if I wasn't in the singles' ward. The building is an old, unusual one with lots of random turns, corners, and stained glass. I'm glad I'm in the ward I am!

This trip was supposed to be a relaxing one for mom and dad. I think we can safely say that it is a success as mom took a four hour nap! Even dad did three hours! I just read and lounged around waiting for them to get up and made an awesome dinner. See - I CAN cook!



Crying Headache

After a nice relaxing morning, mom, dad, and I went to see the movie 17 Miracles at the Gateway. We stopped at Juicy Berry for some DELISH! frozen yogurt first and then headed in for the movie. You know the headache you get after a serious cry? Yeah, I've had that for the rest of the day. It abated somewhat while we were up Emigration Canyon for dinner at Ruth's Diner and disappeared during the Rook tournament. I made an amazing comeback and posted a huge score the last hand. Enough to take me over our goal and end the tournament...only to discover mom totaled 5 points more than me to end up with the win!

At Ruth's Diner



Decisions are the Worst!

I'm faced with the conundrum from the movie 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun' where the statement goes - 'decisions are the worst!' Two possible job transfers, both with serious positives, and no idea which one to do. Guess I'm just going to have to study it out a bit more...

Mom and dad have come up to spend the weekend with me at Packsley's Penthouse. They took me out to dinner at the Olive Garden and have relaxed a bit. I may have (thanks Rich for the linguistics lesson this week) even serenaded them on my guitar. I learned 'Home on the Range' to be able to sing it for dad.

Dad visited my podiatrist and had a little foot surgery of his own.
Now he has to soak it in Epsom salts every day.