Random Bit of Good Ol' Info...

Did you know that Keith Urban (country singer) is from Fort Collins (current location of the Bryce and Lisa M LaPierres)??? This is the little known fact I woke up to from my alarm, and of course once I heard this I just had to get up, even though it was 5:30!

^This is the famed man himself.^

And this is the town to which we owe so much interest. (aka Fort Collins!)

Instead of doing a bulk e-mail...

I figured more people would actually read these or consider reading these if I posted them up here. They're just cute/funny little stories I got from a friend. She got it via e-mail, but had printed them out, when she finished with them, she gave them to me.
Stories begin now:
I was driving with my three young children one warm summer evening when a woman in the convertible ahead of us stood up and waved. She was stark naked! As I was reeling the shock, I heard my 5-year-old shout from the back seat, "Mom, that lady isn't wearing a seat belt!"
On the first day of school, a first-grader handed his teacher a note from his mother. The note read, "The opinions expressed by this child are not those of his parents."
A woman was trying to get the ketchup out of the jar. During her struggle the phone rang so she asked her 4-year-old daughter to answer the phone. "Mommy can't come to the phone to talk to you right now. She's hitting the bottle."
A little boy got lost at the YMCA and found himself in the women's locker room. When he was spotted, the room burst into shrieks, with ladies grabbing towels and running for cover. The little boy watched in amazement and then asked, "What's the matter, haven't you ever seen a little boy before?"
While taking a routine vandalism report at an elementary school, I was unterrupted by a little girl about 6 years old. Looking up and down at my uniform, she asked, "Are you a cop?" "Yes," I answered and continued writing the report. "My mother said if I ever needed help I should ask the police. Is that right?" "Yes, that's right," I told her. "Well, then," she said as she extended her foot toward me, "would you please tie my shoe?"
It was the end of the day when I parked my police van in front of the station. As I gathered my equipment, my K-9 partner, Jake, was barking, and I saw a little boy staring at me. "Is that a dog you got back there?" he asked. "It sure is," I replied. Puzzled, the boy looked at me and then towards the back of the van. Finally he said, "What'd he do?"
While working for an organization that delivers lunches to elderly shut-ins, I used to take my 4-year-old daughter on my afternoon rounds. She was unfailingly intrigued by the various appliances of old age, particularly the canes, walkers, and wheelchairs. One day I found her staring at a pair of false teeth soaking in a glass..As I braced myself for the inevitable barrage of questions, she merely turned as whispered, "The tooth fairy will never believe this!"
A little girl was watching her parents dress for a party. When she saw her dad donning his tuxedo, she warned, "Daddy, you shouldn't wear that suit." "And why not, darling?" "You know that it always gives you a headache the next morning."
While walking along the sidewalk in front of his church, our minister heard the intoning of a prayer that nearly made his collar wilt. Apparently, his 5-year-old son and his playmates had found a dead robin. Feeling that proper burial should be performed, they had secured a small box and cotton bating, then dug a hole and make ready for the disposal of the deceased. The minister's son was chosen to say the appropriate prayers and with sonorous dignity intoned his version of what he thought his father always said: "Glory be unto the Faaaather, and unto the Sonnn, and into the hole he goooes." (dad couldn't stop laughing on this one!)
A little girl had just finished her first week of school. "I'm just wasting my time," she said to her mother. "I can't read, I can't write, and they won't let me talk!"
A little boy opened the big family Bible. He was fascinated as he fingered through the old pages. Suddenly, something fell out of the Bible. He picked up the object and looked at it. What he saw was an old leaf that had been pressed in between the pages. "Mama, look what I found," the boy called out. "What have you got there, dear?" With astonishment in the young boy's voice, he answered, "I think it's Adam's underwear!!"

hope you enjoyed! I have lots of pictures to blog still, but I have to wait until I can get my film developed.

This is a picture I took of our loot when mom and I went strawberry picking earlier this month (july). When we got back, we washed them, cut out bad parts and then froze them. I have been eating these frozen strawberries like candy!!! They are sooo good! I just made a smoothie out of them yesterday, it was pretty good too! In fact, I just had a good idea of what to do with them: defrost them, puree them, put that in popsicle maker containers, freeze again, and voila! delish strawberry popsicles that are HEALTHY!!! I'll let you know how they go.

Mama Mia

This was SUCH a good movie!!!! It was definately a little weird, but the soundtrack was really good! ...AND the movie was just too colorful(as in they used a lot of colors in the film) to not like it...it was like eye candy! I don't know what my photography classes and all of my digital media/tv prodution, etc. classes have done with me, but they definitley help me to recognize good cinematography when I see it, and ladies and gents, this was really really really good cinematography! Every once in a while I'll see a movie like this that uses color and filming techniques that just really make the story so much better to watch! IT WAS SO GOOD!!!! The story is a little weird, so be warned, but I liked it a lot!

On Blog Overload

I guess this is what I get for not blogging in a long time. These pictures are from my birthday party. It was so much fun! We had cookies (instead of cake...) and ice cream. SO GOOD!!!

We had lots of fun! It's crazy, I'm seventeen! WOO! One year closer to eighteen!

the fourth, continued...

the played Josh Groban and Pavoratti(sp?) at the fireworks! It was AMAZING! I was so so so excited when I heard Josh!

fourth of july!!!!

It's only the BEST holiday ever!!!!
I think the pictures describe it all.

Babysitting...

I was "hired" to babysit for a family in our ward all day for 3-4 days a week. they ended up not needing me anymore, but i had ALOT of fun with their daughter. I took her to the park at the White Elem. She wanted me to go down one of the twisty slides with her. I thought, well of course I can do that. But...well, my legs are a little longer than I anticipated, and I didn't tuck them in as much as I should have. So now I have a beautiful slide burn. They hurt!

She wanted to try on my "tea party" hat...and she looked soooo cute! I had to take a picture!
Mmmmm....and this ladies and gents is the lovely slide burn I was telling you about. SO PAINFUL!!!!!

Wishful Thinking

Renee, I don't think I'll be stealing any of your shoes any time soon.

Super duper good salad! It's delish!

Today, I was put in charge of making dinner. I knew we had chicken left over from a previous dinner and I really wanted to make a salad of some kind. So, not having any great manifestations of my own, I turned to the internet for some help. I found this recipe. However, I did have to make some modifications, salads are great in that they allow for some flexibility with the recipe, I used a creative license with this one. We didn't have celery and I wasn't in the mood for raisins. So...this is the new and quite improved recipe:

-chicken, diced and cooked of course
-craisins, about a handful or two
-3 or 4 handfuls of walnuts (granted my handfuls contain about three nuts...), chopped
-1/4 cucumber, diced (you could do more, this was just all we had left)
-1 red pepper, diced
-1 green pepper, diced
-1/2 a medium sized onion, diced
-2 apples, chopped/diced
-approx. 1 cup cooked pasta, cut to small pieces (depending on size/shape)
-parsley, chopped , to taste
-about 3 big globs of mayonnaise, or just to taste (aka that "salad dressing" stuff I grew up calling mayonnaise, but apparently it's just salad dressing, real mayo is gross!)
-salt and pepper to taste

mix and enjoy!

I was pretty nervous at first that adding so many different things would make it taste bad, but I was pleasantly surprised! It also tastes great in a pita. The days of finding great summer recipes is here and I am loving it! Yay for summer!

For my young makeshift photographer self, I think I should add a picture to this blog. How good is a blog without a picture anyways, right?
I took this at Horn Pond a couple of days ago, it was the prettiest, most picture perfect day EVER!! I think I'll post more pictures from that day later, there was a swan family there that let me get like three feet in front of them to take pictures. They were sooooo adorable!

And now the boring update on my life...
I have been trying to find a summer job for a while, but have had no luck. Literally, I think I've filled out about 20 applications. (I'm tired of it.) Anywho, I went back down to the theaters yesterday after not getting a call back and they set me up for an interview today! The guy talked to me for about five minutes and that was all. I handed him my resume, but he didn't even look at it. Oh well. It's really not the greatest job in the world, but I'd get free movies and...well, that's all the perks I can think of. And that is assuming that they actually do hire me. I am still waiting to hear back from about a zillion other places and I really really hope I get another "bite", so I can choose a hopefully "better" job that this. Apparently asking for a simple 9-5 clerical job is too much to ask for these days. The years of good summer jobs are over I think. Meanwhile, I have lots to catch myself up on this summer, including photography projects, jewelry making/repair projects, a list of about 30 books I want to read this summer, cake decorating self-reteaching to do, somehow get myself into some exercise routine that will theoretically continue into the school season (I'm open to any suggestions), a blog to keep up, colleges to check out/getting prepped for applications galore, and oh the many other wonderful things I hope to keep up this summer! If only I could just have a company pay me to do this, I would be one very happy camper.

more photography fun

i couldn't put all the pictures i wanted to on the last post...so here are some more favs...

photography fun

on saturday we had a photographer over doing pictures at our house. needless to say, it got me in the photography mood...so i put all those classes to use. it was the perfect day. i took a bit more than 200 pictures! i took more today, but those will have to be put up later. and, now that i think of it, i never posted my pictures from last summer, so those will make appearances up here to on a later date. these are a few of the good pictures...spring/summer is in boston finally!

wedding cakes!!!!

look what i found...

here

Who Loves Hit and Runs?....

Laree does (apparently). i'm not sure which was more of a wreck...me or the car i hit. either way, we had a morning-side yesterday at the sivers' house and i/mom thought i knew where i was going. well...i got lost and ended up in MEDFORD!!!!!! when i finally decided i was lost and could not find my way back, i found a parking lot and pulled in right next to a black car (this car is important later on). anyways, so i walked into this restaurant with tears formulating in my eyes (i didn't cry yet though). i was lost and now i was late, and i had no idea where i was (aka i was lost). so i walk in and asked if they knew of such and such a street and they started naming off about 3 of them. we finally realized that the street i was looking for was not in medford indeed, and that i needed to go back to winchester. meanwhile a cop came in and he found me directions to their house. not too bad things were okay now. well...as i was backing up to leave and find my way back, i turned too quickly and too fast and i tapped the front end/side-ish of that black car (told you it'd come back). then those tears i was telling you about that were just waiting to pour down came back, in FULL force. so i parked the car and got out. there was a pharmacy right there so i went in and called dad. once i calmed down a bit, i went back outside to write a note, but they had left already!! then i started freaking out because hello... a hit and run! they are going to think i was being dishonest, etc. or, they saw me in the pharmacy and realized it wasn't worth it talking to that emotional wreck on the phone (that was me by the way). so then i left and finally found the bishop's house and all was well. we had a good morning-side...i missed byc though, felt pretty bad about that. then it ended and i realized that after getting so confused and lost, i couldn't find my way back, so one of my leaders drove me back to the library and i could get back from there. it was an interesting day.







but on a brighter note, i got a ton o' color at the marathon! my arms are killing me, they're beet red!!!!

never mind

okay, that last post never actually happened. the day of i found out i wouldn't be housing her anymore, so now i have no trips to be planned... at least for now. Happy (belated) Easter!!

Spanish Exchange!!

so somehow, in a very fast series of events, i got kind of pulled into hosting a girl coming from spain for the school's exchange! i am so excited! her name is paula! it will be so much fun! i went over jenicia's house tonight and we planned our outings, tell me if you have any other suggestions!...
1. Burlington Mall/Rainforest Cafe
2. Jordan's Furniture
3. Beach!!!!!
4. Roller World (maybe...)
5. Wendy's (apparently this is a big hit)
6. Chuck E. Cheese
7. Lanes and Games
8. Good times
9. Plaster Fun Time

seriously, if anyone knows of any american places to take a spaniard, please let me know!

JOSH GROBAN

I've been in love with Josh Groban for a while, but i just recently got the polar express soundtrack from the library and these are 2 of my new favorites from it. one is josh groban, the other one isn't , but it's still so so good!

Church.

I gave a talk today! I think I should be all set until I leave for college. It was on the blessings of tithing. I really honestly can't remember all that I said, but I"m hoping the Spirit had me say what I needed to say. It was a good ol' experience.
We had a good sunday school lesson. my teacher showed us this video that I'm posting up here. It's pretty interesting. Our Young Women's lesson was on creating a spiritual environment in the home. It was nicely done, I have such good teachers!
We got home, I got on the blog and now we have an hour and a half until our dinner guests come over so I'll have time to do whatever(music, read, nap, write, all of the above...). Sundays are so great!