freelance fireworks hall of fame

ohhhhhhhhhh, my. check this out--i was finishing katie's scrapbook for her birthday (yes. you read that right. i think i am currently experiencing post traumatic stress disorder. not pretty.) i came across this picture that is priceless.


but it's not because of my two darling girls in the front, eagerly anticipating a sparkler. oh, noooooooo--it's because of the three dads you can see behind them, huddled together around the open flame, giddy at the anticipation of BLOWING THINGS UP. some things never change, huh? i know that right now all you ladies are nodding your heads, saying, "yes."

so, paying tribute to all you dads who will be unleashing your inner pyromaniac this friday, i give you rhett and link's "FREELANCE FIREWORKS HALL OF FAME"

god bless america.

do you like free stuff, or NOT?

if you have not entered THIS giveaway yet, then i think something might be wrong with you....

you have until midnight tomorrow (tuesday night) to right this wrong. DO IT. NOW.

oh, baby! instant infant cardboard cutout

she just got one. and she just got one. i figured that i better get one, too. i like how this one is "cute as a friggin' button and matches most decors!"

do you ever feel like this??

this is how i have been feeling for the past 4 or 5 days--my life has been a little nuts and i can't seem to keep up! i checked my google reader today and it told me i had about 90 million posts to read and i thought i might have a small panic attack. so, blogging bff's bear with me--i will get my crap together quick and be back at it. i have things in my drafts that i'm posting, but please don't cry yourself to sleep on your big 'ole pillow tonight thinking that i have lost my love for you. it's still here, just buried under a heap of JUNK!!

HB STEVE!!

the man. the myth. the legend.

hb stevekemp

"how many browns do you have?"

i have a little "dark meat" in me. so does kaitlyn. we know it comes from our great grandfather, but the nationality is a little bit in question. we think he was latino. but then sometimes grandma would change her mind and throw out greek.....anyway, it's picks and chooses people here and there in my family. it got my dad, skipped my older sister, got me, skipped my younger brother, got my youngest sister, etc. you get the idea. my blogging bff jori just adopted an adorable little african american baby and it got me thinking of this story--

in my own little family, we have "two browns"--here's how we know:

about 4 years ago we had my cousin allison's daughter, india, over to play with chandler. india is the most exquisite shade of copper brown as her dad, vasu, is from (you guessed it) india. allison and vasu also have a younger daughter, sienna.

that night we loaded up all the kids plus india to go for a ride in our sweet miniature van. india and chandler were sitting in the captain's chairs right behind me and the rbc, and we could hear their little 5 year old conversations.

just then chandler asks, "india, how many browns do you have?"

india says, "what?"

and chandi says, "you know, brown people. how many?"

right at this moment i look over at russ who is simultaneously horrified and ready to kick some SERIOUS butt. he mouths, "OH. MY. GOSH." to me and was just about to reprimand chandler for being so rude, but i held up my hand and whispered, "wait. just wait."

india says, "oh, BROWNS! we have 3 browns in our family. how many do you have?"

to which chandi replies, "we have two browns and three whites."

politically correct? ummmmmm, yeah--NOT. but by breaking it down to the easiest of terms, she managed to sidestep all the hatred and bigotry and rules that the world demands that we follow, and make it straightforward and simple & sweet.

i absolutely love telling this story because i think it would be so much better if we could all just reason like children did. i think it could solve so many problems. my hope? that we can all be "color blind".

here are the two "browns" in my own family: me and megan

and a photo we took a couple of years ago to actually show the whites and browns: l to r--loni (white), mindi (brown), ryan (white), michael (white) and megan (brown)

so, how many browns do YOU have? or whites? or yellows? or pinks.....?

really useful magnet sets

for the record: girls are smelly and stupid, too. i just want katie to embrace this theory for only 8 more years--



yeah, right.

just in case you forgot:

and because everybody loves a "kentucky waterfall" glistening in the sun:

"i'm pretty good with a bowstaff...."

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!! to start it off right, make sure you click here
(esp. for you, tori!)

thankful thursday

this week i am thankful for:

good friends and good family

the fact that our ghetto rec center is getting new spin bikes--yahoo!!

that my baby turned 14. and is going to her first stake dance on saturday night. yikes.

for a mother who loves me always and still calls me her baby

that my husband takes my car and gets it washed for me on saturday afternoons. i wuv him.

eat a big mac. PLEASE.

courney love: you crazy, crazy crack ho--eat a sandwich. or five. edward likes his vampires with a little meat on their bones.....

i hope guys don't make passes....

at our girl who wears glasses! wondering how long until the novelty wears off......any bets?

shallow thoughts:why record the WHOLE program?

when we were in hawaii, we went to the polynesian cultural center. they had an evening show that was awesome--it highlighted dancing and performers from all of the islands surrounding and including hawaii.

they had to announce about 15 times "no flash photography, please!" and then they would repeat it in japanese, twice. recording the show was not forbidden, though, and as i looked around i was amazed at how many people were recording. THE ENTIRE SHOW. WHICH WAS 2 HOURS LONG.

the rbc's latino employees love to do this at the annual company christmas party. we will gather for dinner, white elephant gift exchange, and then some group games. it never fails that every year at least 8 to 10 of them record the entire experience, from beginning to end. it's usually almost 3 hours long. over the years i've developed different theories, but usually i just figure they have family at home in mexico that they would like to show it to.

which brings me to the point of this post: do people REALLY go home and watch 2 hours of shaky, hand-held recorded footage of the polynesian cultural center show? do they invite friends and family over to show them, too? i can't even imagine that the family at home in mexico wants to watch 3 HOURS of people opening presents or sitting in their chairs, waiting for the next person to karaoke. where does all of this footage end up? couldn't they record 10 or 20 minutes here and there, like only the good parts? i know that we have footage of our children that our kids love to watch, over and over again, but it's short snippets of this day and this birthday and this christmas. if it's even more than 4 or 5 minutes of a dance recital or school concert, they get antsy and want to fast forward to the next scene.

i could be up in the night. i figure if i am, you are gonna set me straight.

air supply: master thespians

this video has a special spot in my heart as air supply was the first concert i ever saw--i was in 8th grade and went to see them in the S.U.U. centrum with my mom and dad and my sister. good times. i also remember recording this on "friday night videos" on a beta tape and watching it, along with my other collection of must haves with my friends.

but i have to say: there are soooooo many bad things that are awesome that i don't know where to start, so i'll just throw out a mess of thoughts i had while re-watching this classic:

tightest blue leather pants and member's only jacket with sleeves pushed up. hairy chest with jacket unzipped all the way and gold chain. yellow ladies leather jacket with shoulder pads that makes her look like a line backer. flashbacks set with the fuzzy camera lens. acting that is beyond compare. best ending kiss. evah. could be the greatest 80's representation of soft rock love story ever told. love how they make air supply look like they were concert gods and rockin' it out.

really, you must see this for yourself. ESPECIALLY if you are a youngster and have not been trained in the ancient art of air supply appreciation.

you must click HERE

chicks dig motorcycles

guess this rules out depeche mode for my 40th birthday....

read this in gawker:

Russian billionaires: they're powerful, they're flush with profits from semi-monopolized industrial concerns, and they're ready to party. So they think nothing of paying outrageous sums to international pop stars to come play private parties for them and their closest friends. The most recent example is poor drug-addled soul singer Amy Winehouse, who will be pocketing a cool $2 million to play a show for the girlfriend of billionaire politician and businessman Roman Abramovich. All $2 million of which will surely be spent to further Winehouse's ongoing demise. The point is, she's not the only superstar who's been seduced by a gig like this. Soon you won't be able to see anyone from Madonna to Rihanna without a plane ticket to Moscow and tight connections to the vestiges of the Kremlin's power structure. It's a trend!

George Michael, 75-minute concert on New Year's eve, 2007, for nickel billionaire Vladimir Potanin. Price: $3.5 million

Rihanna, 40-minute show for billionaire Oleg Deripaska on New Year's eve, 2008. Price: $500,000.

Jennifer Lopez, 40-minute birthday party show for billionaire Andrei Melnichenko in April, 2007. Price: $1.2 million.

Christina Aguilera, three songs at Andrei Melnichenko's wedding in September, 2005. Price: $3.6 million.

And to put it all over the top, Madonna is reportedly considering an offer from "an unnamed Dubai-based tycoon" for a one-night private performance. Price: $10 million.

Fortunately, you can still hire Pat DiNizio of The Smithereens to play in your living room for $2,000.

guess this rules out depeche mode for my 40th birthday. i'll have to go with plan B:

$29.99. plus tax.

funnyfunnyfunny randomness

no words.

i think chaka kahn has being hanging out with THESE girls......

{thanks, more cowbell!}

hook a bloggin' sista up....

look at this face. shouldn't it be on the cover of "parents" magazine? well, help my friend devri's daughter do just that--she is entered in the cover girl contest and you could hook our fellow blogging sista out by clicking HERE and voting. you have to register for an account to vote and i timed it--it took me about 2 minutes to type in my address, user name, password, and to uncheck the "get parenting emails" box and to rate this little tongan princess 5 stars.

you hold the power, fellow bloggers! use it for good!

HB KAITLYN!

no way can i have a girl who is turning 14 years old. or, "WAY."

hb to my little katie bird who was my first born beautiful little indian baby. she had a head full of dark, curly hair and the prettiest olive skin. i was a young, vain mother who was worried about birthing an 'ugly child', so i can't believe that someone upstairs didn't teach me a lesson by sending me an unfortunate looking baby. instead, i hit the jackpot and was totally in love.

being first child,kaitlyn has been the guinea pig, which i want to apologize to her publicly for. katie, we haven't been perfect parents, but you know how much your dad and i love you, and we hope that fact will make up for all the different ways we've scarred you over the years.

katie is such a sweet, compassionate, good girl with a great head on her shoulders. she has a little bit of her mother's obsessiveness about things periodically going on. over her years she has been obsessed with all things: titanic, moulin rouge, phantom of the opera, twilight, maximum ride, prison break, and someone with the initials b.s.

kaitlyn gets as brown as a bear in the summer--one of my favorite stories is when she was about 6 years old, her little friend kennedy was talking to her mom about what they'd learned about martin luther king, jr, and the civil rights movement. kennedy said to her mother (kristin), "mom, i'm so glad that we live in this time and not back then, because i wouldn't have been able to sit next to katie on the bus."

katie, i love you so much! i am so glad that you were sent to our family! you make us proud of all the great things you accomplish. i'm sorry that you have a mother who likes to embarrass you while you roll your eyes and say, "mom! you are such a dork!" hb sweetie.


we celebrated katie's birthday with a dinner last night--here she is with her wanksta uncle neal:

aunt megan made you the cutest ginormous cupcake cake:

lots of love from your "peeps":

bloggers of the world, UNITE!!!

HEY!!! who wants to go to dinner?

i will be in salt lake on july 21st to go to the john mayer concert with my blesbian bff tiburon. i would beyond LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE if we could get together for dinner so that i could meet some of you that i stalk relentlessly. (just not the ones with the restraining orders against me. that will be the NEXT night.)

so, tib and i thought that we would shout this out to you way in advance so that in order to attend you can cancel weddings, funerals, the births of your babies, etc.

we have to get going super early as the concert starts around 7ish and tiburon has to be there early to show mayer what he is missing out on, but we will take you WHENEVER.

WHEN: MONDAY, JULY 21st

WHERE: TAYLORSVILLE CAFE RIO

TIME: 5:00PM

who's invited, you ask?

bloggers who heart puppies:

emo bloggers:

bloggers who own kitties posessed by satan:

bloggers who like roses and poetry:

bloggers who speak espanol:

hoochie mama bloggers:

bloggers who collect bears:





bloggers who collect 'precious moments':

and, finally, bloggers committed to cats and dog living together in peace and harmony:

basically, anyone and EVERYONE is invited. i have a feeling that there will be lots of cameras there, ready to shoot photos and post them with captions and graphics--why waste a blogopportunity, right?

so, whatcha say? are you IN?

P.S. both amy and holly have talked about getting tickets to go to the john mayer concert and sit in the "lawn seating"--i think (?) there are tickets available for around $45 dollars--contact them if you would like to keep the party going....