thankful thursday



things i am thankful for this week:

**a five year old girl:





**this magnificent and spectacular ginormous cupcake birthday creation:





**a loving & talented aunt megan, who creates our b-day masterpieces and saves us from the dreaded fate of an albertson's cake:





** catties. they will love you even when others think you suck:





hb mia!




my baby turns 5 years old today. where has the time gone?


she has brought me so much joy. i love hers.


mia: stop growing older! stay my little baby girl forever!


vegas escape: "tonight's the night we make hisssstorrrrryyyyyyy..."


we had a night out with some two of our favorites, and it involved ALL of the greatest things: lumberjack food portion sizes, vegas lounge-lizarding, almost-courtney love sightings, "sluts on a ship" performances, ginormous psychedelic snails, & the belting of classic styx songs. (who knew dennis de young looked like such a 70's porn star?)


we got to check off another swanky place on our 'vegas list' while staying at THEhotel--

we loved how 'sexy & grown-up' it was. too bad kami & i couldn't take advantage of said sexiness in our school-marm cardigans.....

seriously. NOBODY wears any clothes in las vegas! (which is why kyle & russ enjoyed their night SO.)

we were able to feel a bit of the vegas nightlife vibe whilst lounging on the leather couches in lavo and were completely thrilled when we were told that we could go on up to the nightclub section to see courtney love, who had just shown up.

we were equally just as bummed when we got up there and did not see hide nor hair on courtney's crazy little head. as well as feared for our lives when realizing that, in the event of a fire breaking out, we were SCREWED. we estimated approximately 1 bajillion people in a space that should have housed 150.


heartbroken.



my parents left today for costa rica for 18 months and i'm feeling blue....


they are excited and i know that serving a mission for our church makes them so happy, so i am happy for them--i just wish that it was more like 18 days. i think that would be much more doable.


i love my parents and am so grateful for the wonderful example they are to me and everyone around them--i am proud of their lives and am grateful for their love.


so, today i give myself just a moment to be sad and to mope a bit and feel sorry for myself. and then it's onward & upward!


(being sad today included creating teen-angst broken heart collages. good stuff!)

thankful thursday



things i am thankful for this week:



**the 2nd row (SECOND ROW!!!) tickets tiburon scored to john mayer in slc in august.

it's always nice to have somebody handle your business for you. AND score you the sweetest perks while at it. me so lucky.





**speaking of tiburon, she sent me the best surprise in the mail--and it was pink.



it went right the back of my car next to the depeche mode. it completes me. which is sad and somewhat pathetic to admit, but if you know me, then you know that i can be somewhat irrational about my music. as well as car decals.

unfortunately, it was time to say goodbye to my faithful pink girlie-skull decal. it had run it's course and served it's purpose. but i shed a tear as i peeled it's little corpse from my window--the end of an era.



**for my sweetest neighbor who works hard growing these beautiful roses. which then climb up her property and beautify mine. it's a total bonus for me--all the enjoyment and NONE of the upkeep. WIN/WIN.






**this card from vanessa, who enables my love for catties. she rules.




**this flower ring that is currently bringing me exceedingly great joy whenever i look down upon it. (but NOT my hands, which i had to treat with the 'SOFT FOCUS' option on picassa so you would be spared the horror.)

it sucks to get old.





**for this guy and his motorcycle, which take me on rides in this beautiful weather. there's nothing better in the whole wide world. i love him.



happiness is....


....getting a ride on your cousin's scooter.

WHILE WEARING NO PANTS
.

babysitting mia


this is mia & her little buddy from preschool, pierce. or, if you by chance speak mia, "PEAWSE".

they became friends and thought it might be a good idea to perhaps set up a play date--but poor pierce was in a quandary: mia was a GIRL.

so pierce pondered: how does one go about playing with an (eeeeewwwwhhh!) girl and still save face with the other four year old boys?

and then he came up with a brilliant solution--

he asked his mom if he could "babysit mia."




BRILLIANT!


so, we set up a "babysitting opportunity" at the park with pierce & some additional buddies:





and they lived happily ever after with pierce on the clock and in control!


1 down, 8 to go




yesterday i got in the car with mia to go pick up the kids from school.

i just happened to be on the phone with my bff kamari, who had pulled up down the street at my other bff's house. i told her i was pulling out of my driveway and would stop to see her for a moment.

i pulled up, she got out of her car, turned to face me and screamed, "YOU HAVE A CAT ON TOP OF YOUR CAR!!"





apparently "maaaahhhhhhtin" had been chilling on my car roof and hadn't really bothered to climb down when i backed out of the garage.


i'm wondering how far he would have made it......?

go fly a kite--


the girls got some pretty fly kites for easter.

so when the wind kicked up a bit last sunday afternoon, we knew our time had come:



best part about going to the park? your mom lets you pick out and wear whatEVER outfit you want. which looks equally good coming AND going:



second best part: the wholesome goodness of tiger's blood frazil.



it was a perfect afternoon for flying a kite.

SWIG


some smart cookies here in santa jorge have TOTALLY figured it out and opened up the super-fly, totally radical drive-thru (!!!!) drink store.

it's called SWIG.

i'm in love with it. i might even want to have a commitment ceremony and matching tattooed ring fingers (something classy and refined--perhaps barbed wire with the word 'love' entwined?). it's pretty much the best idea in the whole wide world, & something that i've talked about doing over the years.

unfortunately, i realized long ago that mindi + cash register= MASSIVE FAILURE. which makes me ever so much more grateful to these genius pioneers.



how great are these chairs? i've already sat in them twice. & it changed their lives.




i'm a chick, so the presentation of the drinks totally appeals to me: clear cup, the GOOD crushed ice, and a colored straw. perfection!







not only do they have my beloved diet dr pepper, but they have shaved ice, (a throwback to my youth and evenings spent on the lawn of andelin's gable house, enjoying my 'mauna loa') bubble teas, smoothies, and best of all: COOKIES!!!

i would highly recommend getting one of the sugar cookies that they frost right before handing it to you. the chocolate chip & oatmeal chocolate chip are divine as well.



we stopped there with my family last weekend--and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.



so, if you are in this neck of the woods, you need to run, RUN! FAST LIKE A BUNNY! over to swig @ 989 east & tabernacle. you should also become a fan of them on facebook. all of the popular and pretty kids are doing it.


tell them i sent you----but only because i want them to love me best.

thankful thursday



many things to be thankful for this week:




**for the first motorcycle ride of 2010! we busted out the bike yesterday afternoon in the 78 degrees and rode blissfully for an hour--



we drove out to sand hollow resort, as our bestie, colby, runs the show out there--

and what a TRULY spectacular show it is :



the other thing to be thankful for? the fact that the police officer who pulled us over out there for (allegedly!) going 10 mph over the speed limit was feeling charitable:


we were let off with just a verbal warning. and, in return, he received our everlasting love & solidarity. like on the level of devotion we usually reserve for officer francis ("frank") "ponch" poncherello.




**speaking of beautiful weather, it could not have been nicer for "the abbeys" track & field day--


being a candidate for "worst mother of the year", i will admit that this is probably right at the top of my LEAST FAVORITE school activities. but, with the sun shining, there couldn't have been a better place to be than right there, cheering them on~

jody & i were just bummed that we weren't wearing our teensy, tinsy bikinis to take advantage....(i guess NEXT time.)





my radical breakfast club print that just came back from the framers--

the best part was that the mat, frame, & 'putting together of' this soon-to-be priceless family heirloom was a whopping 13 bucks! ( and you didn't really think i was serious when i said i was gonna order it, did you?)

it just brings me immense joy.





& speaking of immense joy, just feast your eyes on the magnificent two cats charm that my friend, michelle turned me on to for my pandora bracelet--it's life-changing, no?




**& speaking of kitties.......we are positively IN LOVE with the catty-themed blanket that my mom sewed for our family. she must know us well, hmmmm? cat & kids alike worship at the foot of this little gem--and we thank our 'shrama' for leaving us something to warm & comfort us until she and our 'shrampa' come back to us in 18 months!

we love them so~


*glee, back in full force this week--so many great things coming up, but i can hardly wait for next week's madonna-themed episode. the video above just makes me want to be sue sylvester in real-life. but only so i can spit out awesome lines like: "i am engorged with venom. and triumph."

how much did i love the cheese-ball, over-the-top remake of "hello" by lionel richie? like WAY much.



the "twenty dollar or under" concert rule: muse, las vegas 2010


{all i had was my camera phone--my apologies for not being worth my blogger-salt}



last saturday night was an experiment. and it worked out in the most SPLENDID way possible--i am still wearing my huge grin from the positive testing of the "twenty dollar or under" concert rule.


we first caught wind of the tdoucr when we scalped tickets for the depeche mode concert at the pearl theater in las vegas in august--

we were desperately trying to buy tickets at face value or under ($175 that night--ouch!) and had asked nearly every ticket seller within a billion mile radius if they would sell their tickets on the cheap. (you can imagine how well THAT went over.) the concert was nearing start time, & we were moving into full-panic mode when we noticed a thin, well-dressed man in his 50's standing against the wall, talking to one of the scalpers.

we walked over and asked him if he was selling--he replied that no, he was actually trying to BUY a ticket as well, and were WE selling? we told him that, alas, we were not--but that we were willing to drop a good chunk of change on one of the general admission tickets. he then informed us that his budget for the concert was 20 dollars. or under. preferably FREE.

he must be joking! we laughed and said, "yeah, good luck with that one!"

but he then proceeded to tell us that he lived in las vegas, and had been to thirty plus concerts in the past two years, all for either verrrrrrrryyyyy cheap (hence the 20 dollars and under tag) or completely free. and then he let us in on his secret: if you just showed up at the venue, you had done 75% of the hard work. then, by standing at the entrance and letting it be known that you were in the market, but on a strict budget, another 15% of the hard work was done for you. the last 10% was waiting it out, sometimes past the start of the concert and into the first few numbers, until somebody would usually show up, comp your ticket, or sell it for pennies on the dollar.

"the true secret to all of this," he waxed eloquently, "is to be prepared to NOT see the concert. but i am here to testify: there hasn't been a concert that i've shown up to in the past 12 months that i haven't gotten in to."

we were fascinated--but skeptical that his little master plan would work for that particular concert: depeche fans are rabid, irrational beings when it comes to live dm (us being the exception, naturally!) and the pearl venue was small (less than 1500). not likely.

so we said our goodbyes and headed into the concert, happy to have our tickets clutched tightly in our sweaty little fists. we were totally FINE paying the big bucks.

that is, until we were leaving the concert 2 hours later and ran into our friend, who was exiting the concert as well..........since he had been COMPED his tickets at about 2 minutes before showtime from one of the executives of the head sponsors of the tour.

oh, the humanity!

needless to say, ever since that night, i've felt that my life has been incomplete as i have not had the opportunity to truly test this theory.

so........when we saw that muse was coming to mandalay bay last saturday night, we knew it was time to make our move:


in attendance that night for testing the tdoucr was jared & jody, stevekemp & kamari, and russ & mindi.

we arrived at the scene and were dismayed to see that there were no sellers. no scalpers. not a ticket to be found....

whiskey. tango. foxtrot. ??!!

we were informed that security had been there just minutes before and run the illegal ticket sales out of town on a rail. (which i've never, NEVER seen at a concert before. so of course it would be this particular time. it just makes sense, does it not?)


we kept at it, hoping to find someone willing to sell, but i must admit: it was looking mighty grim.

we were just about to throw in the proverbial towel when stevekemp arrived back from casing the casino--and i have to say: him waving six tickets was truly a beautiful sight to behold. it was pure JOY.


the best part of this story? the fact that stevekemp talked to somebody who knew somebody who was tight with somebody else's second-cousin's sister-in-law's home-teacher's assistant-manager's best-friend from fantasy-football-league there at the box office......and the tickets were FREE.

(not a lie.)

& the even better part of this now-too-lengthy story? they were in a suite--complete with our own bathroom, private viewing patio, and lounge area.



it completed me.


we missed the first two songs, but we were greeted by this when we walked into the arena:
(you're welcome for the 7 seconds of technical awesomeness that my phone can capture)






muse rocked--and so did we....


the morals of this story?

it's not what you know, but WHO you know. and who THEY know.

never buy concert tickets if you think there is a possibility that somebody who is basically working for satan can hook you up for free.

rich or poor, it's nice to pretend that you have $$$ by finding somebody to enable you.

dreams do come true, and not just for members of the 'make a wish' foundation.

if you are a rock star, you can wear sparkly pants & shiny shoes and totally get away with it.


the end.