My brother is engaged

I wish I was online more so I could lament about my brother and his choice of fiance.

Her name is Kourtney. They have known each other since June. They are getting married in February. She is eight-freaking-teen and looks like she was attacked by MaryKay.

I should be nicer, but the first time I met her, she had icky chipped green fingernail polish that was the same color as the EYESHADOW that went all the way up to her eyebrows. Um, can I just say, ew?

So, I don't really have a lot to say when it comes to fashion but if you're trying to impress your future in-laws is green eyeshadow by the pound really the way to go?

So I'm a little moody. My family has these 'girl's weekends' where my sisters, mom, and I get to get together and have fun. I planned it for the first weekend in November. I find out yesterday from my little sister that my mom has invited Kourtney (without telling me) so I now have to plan for 5 instead of 4. If that doesn't make it bad enough, its Kourtney's birthday so I have to make a chocolate cake for her instead of the pumpkin bars that were going with our fall theme. (BTW, JeriLynn, I'm making your curry pumpkin soup recipe, thank you for blogging that like over a year ago.)

*sigh*

I feel all of this indignation but thus far anyone I've complained to has made me feel like a selfish brat for not kowtowing to my mother and this eight-freaking-teen-year-old that I'm supposed to love just because my brother does. She isn't planning on going to college now that she's getting married, how am I supposed to relate to her?

I miss you all, I sorry I don't post but I don't have the Internet at home or at work so right now I'm at my parent's place. (My dad is usually on the computer but his brother is getting married in Boise today for the 4th or 5th time so they're out of town.)

You guys are boring!

Okay, so I'm guilty, too. Yeah, so my life is pretty normal day-to-day. Most of what I do involves taking care of someone else. I like my life. I get to watch my daughter grow. I get to teach her colors, animals, how to read, how to shake people's hands. I can listen to her language develop. I can run through fallen leaves with her and teach her how to correctly pet animals. Oh, and I get to listen to Dr. Laura and Rush Limbaugh and talk radio all day long. If I want to. I don't listen all day. But often.

Liesl is talking-- finally. She says "Dada", "Mamma", "whaztha?", or, rarely, "whoztha?", and I think even "dah" for "dog." She also grunts to moo, bark, meow, oink and say whatever rabbits say; and the new one this week is "baa," which she correctly associates with sheep. She's finally taken to lugging around the green and purple (stuffed) seahorse we brought back from Baltimore, and the elephant she loves she still loves much.

Also, she's got 16 teeth. That's all her baby teeth except her 2-year molars. (So she has 4 of her baby teeth left to go.) Most babies her age have four or five or six teeth. Nope. 16. That means that she can chew food and things most other babies choke on. But it also means a lot of bloodly lips.

She stuck her finger in a small motor a week ago. Luckily it was a weak motor and stopped rotating because of her logged finger. Also, luckily, it only got a little scraped up. It was still a scary experience to have to pull her finger out of a motor.

Me and Liesl went camping a couple weeks ago. Liesl liked it, but she dragged Elephant around outside more than I wanted her two. Elephant will never be the same. . . .

Tuesday, me and the hubby went to the Collective Soul concert. It was okay. The lead singer behaved in a way a good little girl like me wasn't used to. However, the music was good, and the concert didn't last forever. I prefer Martina McBride.

Well, that's all so far. The hubby will get his military assignment in two weeks, so you can all expect to hear from me again. (And unless you guys get your rears in line, you'll have to read two of my posts in a row! Do you really want that?!)

xo-J

there is a hidden message in this picture....

This is what I go to work and do. Write messages with nail polish bottles. It's not much...but apparently it is more than whatever you folks are doing! Okay so maybe we just did that one day because we thought it would be funny. And it was.

Just thought I would post something to keep this blog alive....because it's pretty dead right now.

TOONE

Hey Everyone, I just signed up for Room 101, my first blog ever, so be nice and tell me what I should do with it! :)

I wish the best of luck to the travelers and the movers! (I'm jealous and may need to find myself an Island internship!)

-Toone

Day One Solvang, California

Okay kids...Jerilynn is in charge now...so look out! On a side note we should look into inviting more alumni of our program to this little blog to see how they are doing.

So I'm not quite out to the caribbean yet. While I am waiting for my paper work to go through in the Cayman Islands, I am filling in for another girl in Solvang, California. She couldn't come out here until september so I got to come out here for a couple of weeks instead. I traveled out here with another girl in the progam and we came across some pretty sketchy roads and gas stations...kinda like the ones where serial killers live because they are in the middle of nowhere and they can murder tourists without anyone knowing.

But today (sunday) we went out to the beach! Yes. The beach in california...tell me who isn't jealous? And we saw of pod of whales (killer whales maybe?) their little fins coming out the water. We think they were babies. And we walked down some railroad tracks. And took pictures...which I will now attempt to upload here for your enjoyment!

Hello

I saw Jerilynn at the grocery store and now I feel guilty for not posting. I think it is a good idea to e-mail everyone the address. I don't think Vanessa knows it but I gave it to Wilson when we spoke last week. (Yes, he is alive, working for Coldwell Banker's marketing dept while taking classes at SLCC on graphic design and living with John, his bf of about a yearish off and on, which is going well.) I'm glad someone heard from Hollie. I can't find Amelia's address....again. Who has it? Where's Mandy? Vanessa and me are breeding my little bro with her little sis. Belle got spayed and I was so worried I had an anxiety attack. That's pretty much all that's happened! Love!

the caribbean baby

Awesome idea Jerilynn! I just made you into a admin on the blog...and I'll let you figure out how to do it...cause you are much better about posting and writing on here than I am.

So for those of you who are paying attention to this thing, I just got an internship with Del Sol (delsol.com) and I'm going to be heading out to the cayman islands to work for about 8 months. Surprise! Yeah I'm pretty excited about it. And I am totally going to learn how to scuba dive while I am out there. And I'm going to chill on the goregous seven mile beach and stare into the ocean...and live on an island! I might even get caught in a hurricane. I'm leaving on August 18th....which is a week from today. Yup...pretty cool.

Welp. See ya!!

Hello? Hello?! HELLO!!

Hey, where is everyone? Has anyone heard from Amelia?

Anyway, I haven't posted because nothing much has happened. Okay, that's kind of a lie. Liesl has been walking for a couple months now. She loves being outside. She turned one two weeks ago. I cannot believe how fast this year has gone. It's amazing to me.

We just took her to visit/meet her Grandpa in Richland, Washington. That was fun. For me and Jay. Unfortunately, Liesl has been sick for about a week now. She was so cranky and ornery and just wanted to sleep. So she did sleep. We went to a Martina McBride concert. I've never been to a concert before, and let me tell you, it was joy. My heart was singing I loved it so much! Mostly because I love Martina McBride. Anway, that was totally awesome. We also went skiing and boating, and that was excellent. I skied under a couple bridges, which was totally cool because I love big bridges.

Elsie, why don't we email everyone on the blog list and tell them where the address is. Then they can at least post comments. I miss hearing from Vanessa.

I talked to Hollie the other day. I thought she lived near Boise, and we were going to stay with her to cut our drive time into two days. However, she lives on the other side of Idaho, so that wouldn't have worked. She sounded well. She says her work has such high security procedures that they don't even let employees access the Internet there (and she doesn't have the Internet at home).

Anyway, this has been a busy summer. I miss hearing from you guys. Please post!

xo-Jeri-

I will miss you too Amelia!

I can't believe it's tomorrow! You probably won't even read this right away. I will miss you dearly. Thanks for all the Christmas cards you let me take. I loved all of them!

xo-JeriLynn

a new era of blogging begins....

wait...I'm in charge? Are you sure you want to do that? Is that really a wise decision?

AT LAST! MAWAHAHA!!!! Now I can do stuff to your blogs. Be afraid...be very afraid. Okay so I don't really know what I would do to your blogs. But the threat is still there...that I can something and you wouldn't even know. Does this mean that I need to get on here more often? Post random things? Demand taxes? hmmm.....

So happy anniversary to you Chels! It sounds like it was awesome...and you would be the type to treat your dog as your child.

Amelia. I'm going to miss your guts...and try to write to you at least once I promise!!

Belle

Sister Chesley,
I need your address!!! Oh, I'm alive everyone! I've just had nothing to post about for a while. Now, however...I do! Saturday was my one year anniversary. Can you beleive it? I can't. It was glorious. He took me to the Anniversary Inn and suprised me with the Italian Gondola room, since I LOVE Venice. Go to www.anniversaryinn.com. It's the 5th south location and room #30. He made me close my eyes and when I opened them I immediately started bawling. He also ordered the anniversary package which included roses, sparkling cider, cheesecake, and personalized champagne flutes. THEN we went to Bucca di Beppo, because it's Italian and we went there on our honeymoon. After that we went back to the room and I squeezed into my dress and we ate our top tier of our wedding cake...which was suprisingly good. Then we exchanged gifts. I wrote him a book about our first year of marraige and he made me a slide show...available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uabvszBkWS0.

I spent the whole weekend bawling. It was perfect. So then, in the morning, just when I thought it couldn't get any better...he suprised me with this:

Isn't she adorable? Her name is Belle. Send me your addresses...I'm sending out baby announcements and I don't care what anyone says. I'm going to be one of those weird dog people and I don't care! More pics of her are on facebook. Jerilynn, we'll get together soon...but it may be a while...summer's kinda crazy! Much love to all!

Love,
Chels

er...

okay, i figured out how to transfer the admin. powers... and i promptly experimented and gave them away to Elsie. i could've left myself on as and administrator still too... but i just had to see what would happen... and now i am powerless. that's okay, as long as Elsie doesn't mind. but Elsie, if you get sick of it, just log in and switch it to somebody else.

it's easy--
go to the Settings tab, then the Permissions tab, and click on the 'guest' link by someone else's name. you can give it back to me if you like, for a few more days... but that seems a little pointless, since i'm leaving quite soon. bicker about it amongst yourselves. i'll be back in 18 months to check on you.

so, there you go. Elsie is the new boss of this place. for now.

Hawaii? the Caribbean?

So I interviewed for an internship with Del Sol. They make color changing apparel (go to delsol.com to check it out). Basically I would get to go to Hawaii, the Caribbean, Mexico, key west, or etc and work in their stores. I won't know until the 20th if I get the job or not. It's not really technical writing...at all. But I get to go someplace tropical. Plus....I think I need a break from the 9-5 cubicle life. I don't know if I really like cubicles. Speaking of cubicles, I recently read a book that is basically a chick flick called "The Cubicle Next Door". It was a little bit funny and mostly like cotton candy for the brain? Hollie, I think, would enjoy it :)

Anyway....that's what I'm up to. I'm also looking for tech writing jobs...I guess. But if anyone finds any in Europe? That would rock my socks.

I think I want to travel.

ps Y'all shoulda seen Hollie's reaction when I was banging on the window yelling her name as I was passing her. It was awesome. Something along the lines of "what is that maniac doing?" Then she realized it was me....and didn't really look that relieved. priceless really.

jerilynn is right. there's only one week left...

it's time to decide who wants the glamorous job of person-in-charge-of-the-blog. right now it's just me, but i can hand off the power to whoever thinks they can handle it.
speak up now, or i'll have to pick someone randomly.

hrm. actually... now that i look at the permissions, i don't know if there's a way to switch the admin priveleges... so.... maybe you'll have to just manage without. i'll see what i can find out.

i'll post a longer more interesting post later this week.... now i've got to get back to packing.

Hello from JeriLynn

Hey everyone. I decided to post once more for Amelia's sake, since she'll be leaving in a week.

I never told you guys about our trip to the East Coast, other than that I went. In May, Jay and I went on the rock-awesome 9-day trip to DC/Gettysburg/NYC. It was totally fun and I lost the last 5 pounds of my baby-fat. It was dirt cheap, too, since we paid around $900 for the both of us-- and that included EVERYTHING! It was with a military history class at USU, and so we travelled everywhere in 12-passenger vans, and we stayed in barracks (so it wasn't exactly a romantic get-away). We had so much fun, though we missed Liesl like nuts. But obviously we all survived.

We spent two days in DC, one in Gettysburg, one in Philadelphia, one in New York City, one in Baltimore, and then there were a couple travel days and down days in there, too. We were only in NYC for 8 hours, but we saw most of Manhattan. We saw the arrest-scene for The Bourne Ultimatum being shot, kitty-corner to Ground Zero. That was a highlight of the day, since we are Jason Bourne fans. Any of you watching that movie (which comes out August 3rd-- one month from today), when the CIA agent is being arrested and they drive down the street, Jay and I are standing just out of the shot as the car hits the street corner. You won't see us in the movie because we weren't extras, but we were quizzing the security guards on their Bourne Lore.

So not much else is going on for now. Liesl's walking all over the place. She's such a good, great baby. She's in swimming lessons now, and she can nearly get out of the pool by herself, although she can't swim alone.

I haven't heard from any of you in a while. Chelsi, what's up with you? I haven't seen you around in a while. I still plan on having you over for dinner sometime.

Anyway, hugs and kisses.
xo-JeriLynn

Small universe

So almost a week ago, I was driving to a company barbeque (aka the guy's I work with excuse to drink a lot of beer) when the car next to me has someone in the passenger side acting like a crazy person.

I was distracted enough not to realize at first that I knew this person.

It was ELSIE! In my neck of the woods!

Unfortunately neither of us had the time to hang out.

So, if anyone happens to be in the Blackfoot/Idaho Falls Idaho area, feel free to call we can hang out, you can see my house, my cell number is still the same (because I fail to see the point in changing it).

job opp

Hey all,
There's a full time tech writing job open in the Salt Lake area for an educational software company. The person hiring got me my current job and he's great to work with. The work mainly consists of installation guides, quick start guides, and probably a little editing. If anyone is interested or if you know of good tech writing alumni in the Salt Lake area looking for a job, please let me know!
Thanks!

sleeping and things.

Hollie, you had a cameo in my dream last night. we were at a fancy dinner party on the top floor of a very posh chinese restaurant. it was pretty nice. possibly more of you were there... but i remember Hollie particularly because of the mysterious boy she had with her... later on in the dream he ended up chasing me all over town because i'd picked up his violin in a deserted bathroom and decided to keep it. it was a pretty exciting dream.

oh, maybe i'll mention this while i'm here: the swapmeat. design firm in chicago is trading stuff. i've been making postcards lately so i may send a few in, if i can find any good ones i'm willing to part with. it's a pretty fun idea, so i thought i'd share. if you have any cool jewelry to send, Hollie, you should do it.

anyway... yeah...

happy tuesday, all

Sicker than a dog but getting better!

Hey everyone. Me and Liesl are sick, sick, sick. Okay, maybe not that sick, but it's not fun. A week ago, we went camping with my dad's family. I came down with a bad head cold. Then Liesl got gut sick. Then I did. It's not fun. Luckily, the cold is passing by, but the gut sick stuff is quite contagious and uncomfortable. It turns even the best baby into a cry baby. Poor girl.

That's about it on my part. My house is a mess. I'm going to get my hair cut (not short) tomorrow. And. . . I hate cooking. Also, I put makeup on for the first time in a week.

New York City sticks to your ribs like oatmeal.

XO! I miss you all!

Mandy and I want to share some lovely pictures with you. For your convenience, they have been labeled. Really the only thing we have to say is that we are alive and well and loving that have an office + a four-day work week.

-cheers

p.s. The "couch" actually exists, it just didn't exist at the time of the picture.