thankful thursday

things i am thankful for this week:



*the chance to see my blogging bff vanessa this weekend. i {heart} her.

she'll be in santa jorge with her pharmacist hubby, elton. i think he is bringing me illegal mexican fen-phen. it's gonna be EPIC.





*a 12 year old girl.

chandler was so excited for the big bday this year--she was celebrating her last "hurrah" (no official birthday parties after 12 at this house. unless you are turning 40. and then you get an awesome surprise one!) she walked around for 2 weeks with a clipboard listing all games, activities, & time-frames.

aunt megan made the most delicious oreo cake. presents were gifted and admired:




eleven teen and pre-teen girls in one basement for the night:

(jealous much?)




birthday invites, streamers, & prizes: $35.00

pizza, drinks, & snacks for eleven: $60.00


having your parents cave and give you a cell phone against their better judgement:

PRICELESS.








*parents who are wonderful examples to me.

mom & dad are leaving on an 18 month mission for the church of jesus christ of latter day saints. they are going to be serving in the temple presidency in costa rica!

i am so proud of them and what they represent--they have been the most loving, caring, intuitive & giving parents, and i am grateful for their influence in my family's lives.

i'm not so hot on them being several continents away, though. so for now i am going with the idea of it being an outstanding vacation opportunity when we go visit them.

i hope it takes.





*& finally, for the fact that i don't need this.

YET.

"does barry manilow know you raid his wardrobe?"

when i started blogging, one of the very first things i did was compose a list of my favorite 80's movies. i love them passionately.

so it shouldn't be a surprise that i totally ordered one of these breakfast club prints today:


it was a no-brainer. it cost 10 bucks! (a bargain, by any means!)



can't wait until it comes.


one of my favorite quotes from the movie is when bad boy bender finally admitted his feelings for princess claire. then he came to this logical conclusion:

bender: remember how you said your parents use you to get back at each other?

claire: [nods]

bender: Wouldn't I be OUTSTANDING in that capacity?

raggedy annes

last week my mom emailed me this photo. and i had NO idea who it was.

i called her and asked who the little girls were--she informed me that it was me & loni in our raggedy anne halloween costumes, taken about 1975ish.

i was floored--i looked and looked at the photo and saw no resemblance to either her or i. i also don't remember the costume, and had never seen a picture of myself or my sister in the costumes.

it rocked my world a bit. i'd figured that i'd seen just about every image from my childhood.

guess i was wrong.

i'm thrilled to be mistaken, however--i love that i get a new little sneak-peak into my young life. plus, it shows what a RADICAL sewing ninja my mother was! (she was pretty incredible. no store-bought costumes for this young lady! what in the H happened to me? pathetic.)

a tutorial in pseudo-suburban gang signs

this was my very favoritest photo that we took whilst on our hike the other day.

which shouldn't shock you, as it has us all throwing our 'gang signs'.


what SHOULD shock you, however, is the fact that NONE OF US ARE GANG MEMBERS.

crazy, i know. but we're just a bunch of suburban dwellers and their offspring. (you would have never, ever known, would you?)


i realize that many are not familiar with our beloved gansta sign of choice--it represents our hood. the mean streets where we come from. our PROJECT, if you will.

LITTLE VALLEY.


i thought it might be time for a quick, easy tutorial of pseudo-suburban gang signs and how to properly throw them.


to represent for LV, you would do so in this pleasing manner:

i should also give mad props to the creator and master-inventor of the LV gang sign:

what tickled me to no end, though, was the fact that almost EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON. , young & old, knew exactly what to do when it came time to throw their very own unique and special sign.


so, in addition to the beloved LV, we will also accept the following:













& my favorite. the one which is most near & dear to my heart:


teach them young, i say.

hb chandler!

hb to my chandler!

twelve years old is not THAT old, you realize.........right? (yeah, RIGHT.)

we love you, chanandler bong!

non-sierra club hike

i can tell that i am getting old.


why, you ask? (at least that's what i'm PRETENDING in my head that you said. i realize that the more correct answer might be, "DUH.")

because i am starting to have late-in-life guilt about living next to something as magnificent as
snow canyon, and the fact that i've been there about 2.5 times in the past 10 years.

and because my children haven't been. but by golly they know the inside of the movie theaters really well!

so this year, on president's day, we decided to celebrate the glorious births of washington and lincoln by hiking en masse to white rocks.


baby dole & his daddy were ready & willing:



the day was absolutely perfect--60 degrees, sunny, with a slight chance of massive amount of offspring:



there was a large sand-dune hill that the kids enjoyed running down. soon, there were all sorts of daring feats of bravery, technique, incredible skill, as well as death-defying acrobatics:



we mothers took a deep breath, turned a blind eye to the sand/dirt/mud, and let the kids get bananas.

our friend amber even violated her first commandment of sand dunes and let her children wear clothing. WITH POCKETS. (living on the edge!)


dannielle brought her fancy big camera with large neck-strap attached as well, so she got a photograph of the photographer:


the day was lovely. we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

but you can always count on somebody, somewhere, who wants you to take a photo of his wood:

hb dad!

{derrill & mindi-- 1974}

hb to my wonderful father--

i love you! (and your volkswagon bug.)

thankful thursday

things i am thankful for this week:



a husband & father who thought to bring roses to all five of his women on valentine's day:




*a birthday girl who celebrated 9 years on valentine's day with a cake made by our aunt megan:




*a cartoon from these guys that made me giggle:




*the documentation of "how women have a planning meeting". (translation: LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS OF FOOD.):



*these lovely ladies who's company i enjoy on a monthly basis:



(girl's club. established 1998. still going strong.)

i {heart} west palm beach

i couldn't have been happier with the destination of my surprise birthday trip--west palm beach, florida was breathtakingly beautiful. (the photo above was taken from our hotel balcony--it was a little rough waking up to that in the a.m.)

we stayed HERE and absolutely loved it.

we also had a chance to visit the historical breakers hotel & were awed by the beauty & historical detail.

we even thought really, REALLY hard about crashing the really high-falutin' wedding reception that was going on in the courtyard--sadly, we did not have the bzalls to pull that stunt off.




my 40th birthday was one of my favorite days, ever--that night we had a lovely dinner and had the waitress snap the only photo of the two of us. (seriously, we are so lame--we have phobias about having to "put somebody out" to take a picture of us. we have got to get over that. or else resign ourselves to pathetic solo vacation photos for the rest of our existence.)



since i have milked out my big fourOH! for about 3 weeks now, this will be the last mention of it. EVER. so just give me a moment.....




in the "places to go, people to see, things to do" categories:


our favorite restaurant was, by far, rocco's tacos in downtown west palm beach--the food was amazing & the atmosphere was one big party. we luffed it so much that we ate there twice. if you are ever in the area, we would suggest it. HIGHLY:




we loved to wander around cityPlace --it's a big, outdoor shopping, dining, & entertainment district which is reminiscent of an italian town center. it's romantic and quaint and we spent nearly every night at a different spot here:



two different nights we danced until the wee hours at sky 309--

it is the only outdoor, open-air restaurant/bar in west palm beach, and it was amazing. they had great music, a large dance floor, and the best part was that we could sit anywhere, in any booth, and it was F-R-E-E. no cover charge, no 300 dollar bottle service fee, zip.

we were able to sit and people watch, groove to great tunes, and stuff our faces all at the same time. it was the TRIFECTA. and we were all over it:



we have so many great memories of this particular trip. west palm beach will always hold a very special place in our hearts:



of course, a blog called WORD TO YOUR MOTHER could not possibly leave the area without getting a photo-op in right here:


A1A BEACHFRONT AVENUE!!

hb abbey!

hb to my little valentine baby!

9 years old is certainly VERY grown up--we can't seem to keep you a little girl.

dad & i love you very much!

40 songs you can turn your head to the wall and die to

since i so like continuing on in the theme "it's all about me", i think i'll do just that--

one of the best birthday presents i received was this one-of-a-kind, special-edition, limited quantity, highly-coveted cd: 40 songs you can turn your head to the wall and die to.


seriously, how cool is this?



i was so thrilled--both with the song selection (excellent) and the time, effort, and thought put into this little project. it made me so happy!

thank you to my long-time-loves kamaray & stevekemp. you two killed it.