we have a bird's nest on our back porch and mindi goes insane.

meet rio--she is currently living rent-free on our back porch.


and i am THRILLED!


i've always wanted a tiny wild birdie of our own, so when i saw this being carefully constructed on one of our stereo speakers i could hardly contain my excitement:

since i am a geriatric when it comes to birdies, i have to resist the urge to document her every move, flight-patterns, eating habits, and consistency of her poop.

i think it would be safe to say that i go to the back door to check on her upwards of (no joke) 20 times a day. which could allegedly be more times than i checked on one of my infants.

and i spend WAY too much time standing there, watching. (likeWAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY.)

i'm just really grateful that she built her nest up so high so that dave & martin can't mess with her, because i would be really peeved at them if they did.



what can i say? she brings me joy:

she spends a lot of time on that nest, so we figured there had to be eggs up there. since she built her nest so close to the roof, though, we had to climb up a ladder and stick my cellphone in the 1 inch of space between the nest and the roof to (fuzzily) confirm three babies:

we think she's the best bird, ever.

& the 80's child that i am is not afraid to admit that i've sung the lines
"moving on the floor now, baby, you're a bird of paradise...cherry ice cream smile-- i suppose it's very nice" to her multiple times.


{jealous, vanessa?}

thankful thursday on friday

so many things to be thankful for this week!

{jody, dannielle, kamari}

**what would a t.t. post be like during these months without me talking about the beautiful weather? if you are sick of me talking about it i won'teightydegreestodaydo it anymore......

but i SHOULD mention that it was perfect biking weather with my gals.





**this card that dannielle gave me this week--it couldn't be any more perfect.


until you get to the inside, and then it gets perfecter:





**the issue of dixie state college magazine that came out this past week with my mother on the cover:


i think she is adorable.





**a husband who takes out the trash. it's a big deal.

russ has been gone all week for work and i had to take the trash to the curb. it's only the SECOND time since i've lived in my current house that i've had to do this chore. (fyi? i've been in this home for 8 years......)


but i think that i looked very stylish as i did the job:





**great hotel hook-ups.

have i mentioned that i LOVE my husband's job in the hotel industry? the traveling perks are by far the best part.

i've thought for several months that i should compose an ode of love to the cosmopolitan hotel--but why should i when she does it so much BETTER?

i shant.





**& finally, have i mentioned how excited i was to meet mark from sytycd? cuz i was. MAJORLY. & who doesn't love a man in black eyeliner twice as thick as your own?

DO'S and DON'TS in las vegas on a girls trip or how i let tiburon bully me into these trips is BEYOND ME.

DO'S and DON'TS of a girl's trip to las vegas march 2011:



DO be prepared to eat:

and eat:

and eat:

and eat:

and eat : (and eat.)

DON'T be afraid of getting reallyREALLY close together to get a glamor shot:

DO go to an awesome concert headlined by one crazy lady:

DON'T be shocked by the insane amount of crazed fans that turn out. in FORCE:

DO recognize mark from sytycd and get in on some sweet photo op action:

DO bring multiple pairs of shoes to wear. and pose in:

DON'T worry about taking off your shoes and walking through the casino at 2:00 a.m: (your feets hurt too bad to really care that you are a dirty, filthy, filthy girl.)

DO seize any and every opportunity to straddle glass objects:

DON'T turn this guy down when your waitress peer-pressures him into buying a round of drinks for your table:

DO see beatles LOVE. it will change your life:

DON'T get used to staying at a way cool hotel--they will eventually kick you out:

DO insist that your husband installs a chandelier like this in your living room:

DON'T self park in las vegas. that's only for commoners:




****2019 UPDATE**** the biggest reason i went on these trips were for vanessa.  and then also because i liked jen.  she was fun and would contribute money and i liked her.  but VANESSA WAS WORTH IT.  

thankful thursday

things i am thankful for this week:



**that a photo like this exists in the world:


they just don't make 'em like rick james anymore, do they? bless his little corn-rowed heart....



**more little shopping lists created by the creative-spelling genius of a 5 year old mind:



{translation: get cosmic brownies at wal mart. get pop tarts!}



**the chance to embrace my inner-freak this weekend with peoples i love love (plus jentix) watching all of the outer-freaks watch a woman who has been known to wear a dress made out of raw meat.

but she has ALSO worn a dress made entirely out of hello kitties. which is pretty freaking awesome:



**speaking of hello kitty (or kitty hollow, if you speak mia) i heart the feline-themed gifts people bestow on me--one that i've enjoyed has been my crazy cat lady action figure. it sits on the shelf in my kitchen, watching over all:




**& finally, for this video which made me so incredibly happy--i would TOTALLY be a band geek if we played this stuff. AND had that totally dope teacher.

this is my favorite rage against the machine song. it brings out all my inner-grunge-angst as i'm pedaling my bike up a hill. and the fact that it's being covered with such intense JOY only makes it that much better:

{courtesy of wwMd}

i wanna run thru the halls of my high school or mindi goes to a john mayer concert.

i think i will sum up the whole john-mayer-concert-thing with one word: SUCCESS.

(i also thought of going with SYNERGY. but i'm not sure exactly what it means. i just like saying it.)


we had a random little group of lovely people and couldn't have enjoyed ourselves more:




i would also like to state for the record that i've never had such great seats for a concert. really.

since she is jm's other-lovaahhh-that-he-doesn't-know-he-has-yet, tiburon outdid herself by scoring the sweetest seats in the second row, smack-dab under johnathan himself.

we were so close that i could nearly see his pores*:

*did that sound creepy?





the advantage to being in such close proximity to said artist on stage was the fact that we had lots and LOTS of "face time". i think it meant quite a bit to john--i could see it in his eyes.



somebody was stupid enough to spend $$$ on some ginormous, flava-flav-clock-size buttons. (who in the world?....)

but they were the best $$$ somebody (allegedly!) invested that night because they were totally and completely radical:









and, they served their purpose well: they got us some time on the jumbo-tron with the band:






being this close also enabled us to suck-up to the camera-man and get .5 seconds of fame. (you should have seen vanessa work her charms. it was magical.)


tiburon captured this moment when john was chit-chatting to elisabeth (tib's sister) about her poster, and then you can see him scan down the line of all of the beautiful people.

it's the first 10 seconds of this video, so i suggest you invest in some high-tech software so that you can slow it way down and really enjoy our moment:





that also may or may not have been tiburon giggling like a twelve-year old school girl.



we had some AWESOME people-watching in the row in front of us.


this dude here was especially fruitful in the "YIKES!" department--he was approx. 20-25 beers in at this point, which was a bit touch and go.


but it helped him be a MUCH BETTER DANCER:







tiburon was in the absolute throes of ecstacy during the concert.


i tried to throw her off at one point by sending this text:


"WHAT DOES THE JM STAND FOR ON HIS GUITAR STRAP?"







she didn't take the bait. :(



all in all, i think the night was perfect: beautiful weather, beautiful music, beautiful company.


our boy nick even scored one of jm's picks after the concert was over:







the posse: michele, jj, elisabeth, jentix, mindi's head, tiburon, vanessa, stacey, nick, jody, & jill






the evening ended on the highest note possible when vanessa decided to wear my "party hair"--

because there is nothing like a hand-full of synthetic hair to make all of your dreams come true:

i think it looks quite natural.