Car information

I did buy a car. I know most of u already know this, but I thought I would put in pictures.. this has to be quick cuz I already came in late to work cuz I dropped the parents off at the airport this morning (they got to their gate with an hr to spare.. phew! :-) Yes, it was my fault they got there so soon). So I'll just give u a picture or 2.

Part of the reason I wasn't as thrilled as I thought I would be about the Forester was that it was so much bigger than I remember Dad's! It was true they have gotten bigger from last year by a couple inches, but are actually lighter.. here the sales man is putting the Impreza and Forester side by side so I can see the difference.

Here I am debating and debating and negotiating...

I just realized I don't have any pictures of the car I bought!! OOPS!! I thought I did. Here is the car I drove, but I actually chose a blue Forester the same color as the Impreza in the picture above.

Already feeling buyers remorse, but I knew I would feel that regardless of what I bought! This buyers remorse is more for the fact that I shoulda been more environmentally responsible, but if I had gotten the other choices, I would be feeling buyers remorse for not getting what I wanted!

I really am excited about the car.. but I'm sad Mom and Dad have left me. I shoulda been more upbeat on this enstallment... but too bad! I was excited to tell everyone here at work, although Angus was upset about me not buying domestic... like I knew he would be.

Oh yes.. one more thing. I did spend the entire day looking at cars... I had driven a Matrix previously in Santa Fe (the largest volume import toyota dealership in the west here in Vegas couldn't find their automatic 1.8 liter Matrix's!!) and I drove a Mazda in the morning. Then we were at the Subaru dealership for about 6 hrs. I think I debated long enough.

Parents are coming tonight!

I wanted to take a picture of my parents arriving at the airport and blog about it tonight, but unfortunately dial up at home makes for no picture uploading. (Even if u wait 50 years, it doesn't upload). I'm so excited for them to come! With some trepidation. I always get this way before I go on a trip or if people are coming to visit. What if they don't have fun? What if nothing works out? What if the bird bites them and gives them bird flu? What if they get sick? Or they hate what I have planned? Wait... what do I have planned?!?! And then I start to think it would just be better if I didn't go or they didn't come. I have to admit I was more excited yesterday than today. Of course, this situation is a little different cuz I'm supposed to decide on a car and then buy it. Talk about stressful!! What if I get the wrong car for me? What if I spend all this money on a new car and then lose my job cuz I'm blogging all day? What if the car turns out to be a lemon? Ahh!!! I told my father we would do the car stuff on Friday (I'm taking the day off. YA!) and the fun stuff on Saturday. He was quite surprised and said the car stuff was fun. For him! He's the one that took my brother-in-law and nephew down to Santa Fe to test drive cars for me. Not quite sure how that works, but I'm sure they were thinking of me the whole time. Wasn't that sweet of them?
No.. I really am glad my Dad enjoys this stuff so he can do all the research and I can benefit from his knowledge. Just like how I use my brother Jared for my electronic and computer needs (I would use Aaron, but he's just not as available.. or helpful).
Anyway.. I know my parents love me cuz they want to spend 4 days out of their lives dedicated to me. Having someone love u makes it very easy to be excited to see them! U know they will be interested in ur house, ur projects, seeing where u spend ur time... or at least pretend to.
Stay tuned for the revealing of the car and pictures of fun with the parents!

Tagged by Mauvia

Link the person who tagged you
Mention the rules on your blog
Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them
Leave a comment on each of the tagged bloggers blogs letting them know they have been tagged.

I was tagged by Mavia http://bmztsorensen.blogspot.com/, a wonderful friend from my Ricks years (If I said BYUI nobody would know what I was talking about). Its so nice to be able to keep in touch through blogging cuz I am so bad about emailing and phoning.

Tagging is not my favorite thing, but being tagged is great! Specially when I get to talk all about myself. Not that I don't do that anyways, now I just have an excuse.

Here is my list.

1. I don't like other people putting things put in my dishwater. First of all, I don't like doing dishes at any time, let alone after a meal. Putting things in the water (I once had a roommate throw in a knife!!) is like acknowledging that I should be doing them rather than giving me a big hurrah for achieving such an awesome goal of actually hand washing anything.
2. Any silence between people is usually uncomfortable for me, except in the temple or at church. This is why I am a talkaholic. When Melissa first met me, she told me she had never met anyone that could talk as much as me. I decided to take it as a compliment :). And of course, my favorite subject is me. I also don't like it when people are mean to each other around me.. talk about uncomfortable! Only I can be mean to others.
3. I hang up puzzles on the wall without glue… actually I hang anything up on the wall… hats, blankets, pots, crocheted backpack full of fingernail polish. I shoulda been a Shaker with those pegs all around the house so I can hang things on it. I am unmarried… so I'm probably a good candidate to join. Of course, that whole idea that Christ came back as a woman would be VERY hard to swallow.
4. I am an idea stealer. All my idea's come from someone else. Blogging? Bethanie and Amy. Favorite book? Mother. Favorite scriptures? Bethanie and mission companion. Cool things I like to talk about in the BOM? Books about the BOM. Lesson activities? Mission and previous teachers… decorating ideas? Better homes and gardens…. Perfect house ideas? A conglomeration of houses I've lived in and seen… Career Choice? Father. Car Choice? Father. Current favorite movie? Birgit. Current exercising craze? Melissa. Crocheting love? Mother and pattern books. Cooking? Emily. Clocks all over the house set 7-8 minutes fast? Mother. All crafting ideas come from something I've seen or read. Beatnik party? Jeanette Lyman. Adopting? Emily. Building a castle? Bethanie. Garden? Mom and Emily. Dance? Mauvia. Football? Chelsea.... I could go on and on and on and on.
5. I LOVE yellow. I have an affinity for yellow. When I do my laundry I have my whites, darks, brights, and yellow. If I'm doing sheets and towels, its two batches of yellow. When I was at Emily's I was drawn to her yellow flowers and those are the flowers I have (killed) in my garden. All three bathrooms in the townhouse are decorated in yellow. Emily told me if I buy another yellow shirt, I have to throw one out... hasn't worked for me yet cuz I wear all my yellow shirts!
6. I love crocheting doilies and still buy pattern books or print out patterns for them off the Internet. Nobody knows what they are or what they are used for or why anyone would ever want to do one. Its just so much fun to do something new each round and its never anything like doing a blanket or even booties. You get to do crazy double triple crochets and popcorns and rolls, the bigger the better… and figuring out what exactly the pattern is telling u to do is half the fun. I'll admit since I don't get as many admiring oos and ahs from doilies I haven't done any in a while, but I still love them. I think if I found homes for the 20 or so I have in my hopeless chest I could do more.

Could anyone use a doily... or 2?

FYI, Useful Information

I just wanted to give you a tidbit of information that I learned this weekend while cleaning my house. Just to give you some background, my parents are coming to visit this weekend(!!! I am SO EXCITED!!!) to help me buy my new car (my father feels a great responsibility for me... plus he likes to buy new cars!) so I have been trying to get my house ready. Unfortunately, I kept getting distracted with doing the big things like cleaning the whole fridge and cleaning out the whole laundry room, not to mention crocheting and all the other things I had planned on doing this weekend. Sigh.. I always have grand ideas and no follow through! Still, I'm pretty proud of myself for what I did get done. All that's left is the car, garden, and vacuuming. So... back to the information for u. I decided to spray my garage with Raid as well as outside around the windows and door.
Here is the tidbit. Are u ready? Don't spray raid around your air handler (handles the AC and heat) in the garage thinking that you can go back into the house and the smell will stay there. I went inside and and realized the smell was slowly starting to radiate through the house... oh ya, the AC is on! Duh! I turned on all the exhaust fans in the bathrooms and laundry room. I was most worried about Spree cuz birds are filled with air, including their bones and are pretty sensitive to fumes. I put a candle on his cage and lit a couple of others through the house. Once the AC went off, no more smell, but I knew during the night it would go back on again, but by then some of the smell will have dissipated in the garage. Now don't get me wrong, it wasn't that bad cuz of course most of the AC air is recirculated. The system is just not entirely air tight, especially in this older town home. It was really annoying.
Now u know.

Biking to Work

I just wanted to show u a picture of me in my cool biking outfit. Unfortunately, I wanted a picture of me on my cool bike, but Spree wouldn't hold the camera. Dumb bird doesn't know how to operate a camera. All he had to do was push the button when I said. What good is he? As u can see from the picture, I like biking enough to get the outfit but not dedicated enough to have the body.

OK, so that looks really silly cuz I'm in the downstairs bathroom... too bad!! I pulled the shorts up so u can see I'm a real biker with spandex. I wear shorts over my spandex padded bottoms cuz I'm not that brave yet. Nobody really wants to see my lower half in spandex, especially me.

Wish me luck riding home. I'm gonna try and avoid heat exhaustion this time. It's only gonna be 101 today I think and I'm riding back earlier than last time.

PS.. I'm here at work cuz I went to a PE review some guy here at work put together but I'm leaving early cuz... its really dumb! Not helpful at all. (I suppose I shoulda guessed since this will be the 5th time he's taking it) I'm glad I got the handouts, but I think that's all I'll do from now on. At least I got a bike ride in before we swim tonight!

Swimming

Last night I went swimming with Melissa in preparation for the Kokapelli triathlon (in 2 weeks... AHHHH!) and I beat her! Ya for me!!

OK, so she had an coughing attack and was having a hard time finding her breathe, but I still beat her. Apparently the poor soul had trouble the rest of the evening and into the night. I told her she needs an inhaler like me but she just might have to borrow mine before the race. I was all excited to show Emily my inhaler when I was visiting her, but she said she had never had one! I thought all the sporty people in my family had had to puff before games and meets. Asthma runs in the family... we got it from our mother who puffs steroids and gets allergy shots... or so I thought.

Maybe I just need to exercise more.

The sad part about that very first sentence is that last year I did use to beat her. Now she's gotten better and I've gotten fatter. I should never have let her borrow that CD I bought that teaches you how to swim!

Hopefully we will be able to practice open water swimming this weekend out at Lake Mead. It might be hard to schedule around the football game, morning bike ride, PE review class, doing a deep clean of the house before the parents come next week to help me buy a new car, clearing out my 'garden' (dead plants), looking into finance for said new car as well as getting Suzy ready to sell to Jared, and preparing a YW lesson.

Believe me when I tell you open water swimming is VERY different than in a pool. Waves keep trying to get into your mouth and you can't see 2 inches into the dirty water. Learning to sight is even more tiring than the actual swimming! Mm.. maybe I'll skip it and just run into the boats along the way. Last year at Kokapelli I got stuck up against the rope holding the buoy in the water. It was actually kinda funny cuz the guy in the canoe there heard me say 'I'm stuck' (because we all keep a running commentary of our lives, its just that most people keep it inside their heads) and got a little nervous for me. I just pushed it out of the way (it was one of those blow up kind, not the real ones that are too scary to get next too... who knows what is under there and where it goes.... shivers.. scary) and went on with the other splashing bodies. Those Ethiopian ladies... it can get a little rough.

PS.. Mauvia, I haven't forgotten u tagged me.. I'm still thinking of what quirks I have. I've only thought of 2. Everything I do is perfectly normal! :-)

Booties

First off, before I display my beautiful handiwork, I just wanted to mention my activities last night. I was so proud of myself for using a lot of the produce Emily sent home with me in a dish I cooked up. I didn't take a picture of the final concoction (Very pretty and tasty), but I wanted to show u my counter filled with good things. Thank you Emily!

Emily mentioned yesterday that Jen Wilson (a former Cherry Chub) had had her baby right after Sarah Jarvis did. I was actually quite sad that someone hadn't told me earlier because now the baby booties are probably going to be too small. Sigh... I want all to be impressed and enjoy what beautiful crocheting wonders I can produce! If people tell me when they have a baby and give me an address, I will send what I have. This way I can create even more. Fill the world with my wonderfulness! Of course, you would think I could keep up better on the future offspring of my friends and family, but that fits into the same categories as names. I can't remember worth beans.... or gold.

Here is what I sent to Jen... or should I say Ruby, her daughter. I did a little bit of a photo shoot last night with a blanket and a lamby in the background.

Very cute, if I do say so myself. The sandals are a staple in my library of booties, but the sneakers are newer. I usually do a loafer type with a button and I used to do white ones with little hearts on top. Mm.. I wonder why those went by the wayside... They do come out a little bigger than the others. I designed some MaryJane type ones (based on another design I have... I'm not cool enough to come up with my own) and I've done a moccasin type. Booties are how I got into thread crochet because when I originally looked for bootie patterns, all I could find in yarn were those ugly, thick, fat monstrosities. I decided if I wanted to make cute booties, I had to learn to do thread. My first thread experience had not been good at all (think cup shaped thin layer of threaded knots that was supposed to be a doily), but through the bootie experience I learned you needed to have the right thread matched with the right hook. Now my crocheting is awesome! A moment of silence to think of the wonderfulness. ..... OK, go on about your business.