Baby Sister has a Birthday!

Ok, so she's not a baby. She was turning 22. Oh, and this was almost 3 months ago. That's how behind I am on blogging. But her party is definitely worth mentioning because it involved go karts, gorilla masks and giant ice cream cones. And Lord Voldemort. Really, my friends, does it get any better than that?

Here are the invites. Well, the back. I forgot to take a picture of the front. Fail.

We had a campout. Thus the smores stuff. I felt that needed further clarification.

 That's her. She fine. We share the same genes. And that's my finger. Not the bad one though.

Just us cousins bein' cute.

Next we had a treasure hunt. Just a lil' old FREAKING AMAZING-RACE style treasure hunt made by yours truly. I even made up the poems. Me and Google Poems. Ok, so that's not a real thing; but it did sound like something Google would have. Did I just successfully use a semicolon?

The hunters had to answer a bunch of riddles and complete challenges to move on to the next clue. This one was a personal favorite:

The hunters were completely at my mercy as they headed to Boondocks to find their tickets under the name Lord Voldemort. They got some strange looks asking for them. That was the idea. 

What is a Kong cone, you ask? Here, let me show you: 

BAM!!

Oh yeah. This is real life.

The aforementioned photo op required the following prop (there I go again with the rhyming; you can't stop it):

Seriously, you can't put a price on this sort of entertainment.
We finished off the evening with a campfire. Naturally. Only I had a really hard time finding a fire pit. Naturally. So...

We used an old wheelbarrow.

Naturally.

I am related to the greatest people in the world.

They see me rollin'

Baby so serious on the tiny bike...

Haters don't be hatin'

Bees are scary

This is what a bee looks like outside:

This is what a bee looks like in my bedroom:

Uninspired

I haven't posted on my blog in a long time. Why? It's not that I have been busy exactly. I haven't. In fact, I've had an exorbitant amount of free time on my hands lately. It's mostly because I feel bland. Colorless. Uninspired.

Don't get me wrong, I have a list of projects that I would love to embark upon a mile long. And the files on my computer are brimming with inspiration. But nothing can get me to start. Have any of you ever had this problem? I can't put my finger on it.

Remember the scene from the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy opens her door to Oz for the first time? I always loved that the movie was in black and white before this scene and then it instantly becomes spectacular color.

That's the best way I can describe the feeling I have. All the world around me is in spectacular color with inspiration practically banging down my door. Yet here I sit... in black and white. The color surrounds me, but I can't find a way to draw it in and make it mine.

So I continue walking around a black and white figure in a world of color.

Uninspired.

Very mature for our age...

Have I ever told you that husbandman and I are very mature for our age? When we go to Walmart, we like to pick out clothes that are sophisticated and classy. We take the way we present ourselves in public very seriously.

Apparently you pull the shirt over your head and there's a zombie face on the inside. How do we find stuff like this, you ask? I really... really just don't know.

On a more mature note, this is what happens when you let the roll dough rise for too long.

I am literally a model housewife. Move over, Martha!

The Toilet Monster

I bought this guy to scare husbandman. I can't wait until he gets home!

A Note to Finals

Dear Finals,
You are an evil genius.

Every year you have me thinking that you're really not that bad and that my last-year self was just being dramatic. Now you've got me crying over dog food commercials and guzzling very questionable orange juice. I'm beginning to think selling my soul to the devil is a reasonable bargain for getting me out of my Quantitative Research and Statistics final. You have caused me to forsake my marathon training in favor of the three tubs of cookie dough in the fridge that husbandman bought from the kids for a school fundraiser. And I am not being dramatic.

I mean, who even needs a college degree, really? Bill Gates didn't have a college degree. You go, Billy! Way to show finals who's boss! I could totally do what he did, right? I'll just become independently wealthy.

Ok, I'll work out a Plan B just for backup.

Sincerely,
Completely Unmotivated Almost-Graduate

On a side note, don't you think we make an astonishingly attractive couple??

Oh, What a Beautiful Day

Today was a beautiful day! We spent a lot of time with some good old-fashioned elbow grease trying to get our car clean in the aftermath of this. It was a big job. But I didn't care because we were outside and it was such a gorgeous day! It made my heart sing and rainbows and unicorns shoot out of my fingertips. It was that great.

We took puppy along. He liked being outside too. He disliked the sound of the vacuum. So he sat over there.

A Mysterious Message

This evening I was just sitting on my couch working on my laptop when I thought I heard the gate open outside. Bandit started going crazy and barking like a maniac. I waited for a second but there was no knock on the door. I even looked out the window but no one was there. It was an incredibly windy evening. It must be the wind, right?

A little while later I opened the door to let Bandit out and I spied this taped to my door...

 It was a mysterious note addressed to Britt and Braden. Packaged very lovely too, don't you think?

Here is what it said...

It is a few lines from Poe's "The Raven" and some instructions to meet at Cafe Rio on April 2. And we have to wear costumes.  

At the bottom it reads: H2 will be here soon.... watch for more. 

Mysterious, no? I haven't the foggiest idea who it is from. Although I should also mention the other notes that have come before. 

Back in October, we received a similar note in our mailbox with the first stanza of the Raven and a message to look for more clues... behind the chamber door. We checked every door in the house and we could never find anything. I called a few suspects but no one had any idea what I was talking about. We gave up and forgot about it. 

Fast forward to Christmas Day. I'm sitting there opening presents with my cousins and my aunt pops in this DVD that she found that said simply: PLAY ME. Come to find out, all of my cousins had gotten messages in October too. It was this video very similar to the one in the movie "The Ring." It was just a bunch of random creepy images and the message at the end about meeting at Cafe Rio in April. 

I am completely baffled by this mystery and I have no idea what to expect. Costumes in April?? WEEEEEEIRD! What could we possibly be doing? April 2nd could very well be the day that I die. 

What do you think, friends? Any master sleuths out there that can solve this mystery? I'll keep you updated if I find out anything else.

Britt

Hugs and Kisses for the Mr. and Mrs.

Once upon a time, there was a husbandman who plum forgot to make dinner reservations for a Valentine's Day date night with his lady love. It was one of her favorite days of the whole year and he wanted to make it extra special. So he called every restaurant within 100 miles and finally found one that would seat the lovebirds at 5:00 that evening. He was instantly forgiven for his lil' blunder at the sight of all the deliciousness that was brought to the table for two...

The wifey was extra happy because this was the only day of the year that the husbandman would let her call him "Honey Bunches of Oats" five times in a row. 

She was so happy that she even gave him a present complete with paper flowers she made herself...

It was some cool buckles for him to wear on his belt.

Then he thought, "Oh gee! I'd darn better get her a present too!" 

He was super proud of his mad wrapping skills. It was the best present he had ever wrapped. Presents he had wrapped in the past mostly looked like a car had run over them. 

It was a cool new gadget for the wifey's camera to play with! What a thoughtful gift. 

What a happy holiday of LOVE. <3

XOXO

Oh "Chute!"

Today I was an awesome big sister. My little brother has a science fair project due tomorrow and, being from a family of mega huge procrastinators, he hadn't even started it yet. So husbandman and I decided to help him out. We ended up having a really good time!

Lil' bro's experiment involved dropping eggs strapped to parachutes off of the roof! How stinkin' fun is that?? Then we measured the splat radius to determine the effectiveness of each parachute size. We fashioned the parachutes from some trash bags and duct tape and string. The experiment worked surprisingly well. One of the eggs even survived the landing without a single crack!

(Sometimes I draw cute faces on eggs when I'm really proud of their accomplishments)

Husbandman was the brave soul who volunteered to make the journey up the ladder and launch the doomed eggs to the designated cardboard landing pad. The pad had a total area of one square foot. None of the eggs actually landed there. :) I was the designated photographer/ gooey-eggy-mess-cleaner-upper. It's funny how often those two coincide.

Check out husbandman. It's not easy to pose so well on a rooftop holding a parachute with a precariously-perched egg specimen. He's got mad posing skills.

Ok yes, we're five. But doesn't he look super cute in his new jacket? Yep, yes, yeah he does. Feel free to leave some bloggin' love just for hims. Cause you can clearly tell from these pictures that he deserves it.
Britt

*Note: Do not attempt this at home. You could be injured or seriously killed. The people in these images are untrained crazy people and it is not recommended you copy them. Doing so could be detrimental to your health. For real*

This is my motto for 2011. Happiness is not a destination. I can be happy right now. Not when we save all our pennies and move out of this closet we call an apartment. Not when I find fame and fortune with my new business. Not when I fit into my skinny pants. Now. Life is amazing and I don't want to miss one second. 

In addition to this new life makeover, I want to try to blog at least 4 times a week. I have been the worse blog neglecter ever. I've also added my mighty life list to our blog. This is basically my bucket list. Let me know if you feel like doing any of the crazy things listed on there with me. I would love it.

Have a happy life!

Britt 

Ecstatic Yuletide!

Merry Christmas! 

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

This is our baby in his Christmas sweater. Yes, it's true, we have become those people. He hates it. This face is saying to me, "Mama, why on the blessed earth would you force me to wear this indecent ensemble? It's just degrading." 

"But puppy, you look so cute in your sweater. So cute it hurts! And at least we didn't get the argyle one that Daddy wanted. Let me take your picture in front of the tree."

Bandit would like to ask that no one comment on his nose and the shininess you see there. He didn't have a chance to powder it today and he's a little sensitive about it. Safe topics for commenting: the sparkle in his eyes, the lovely reddish color of his winter coat (he grew it himself) and the way his sweater brings out the black in his eyes. 

Also up for discussion is the "scientist's" version of the Night Before Christmas. Check it out here. I'm pretty sure my sister and I are the only ones who think it's funny. 

I particularly like this line: The prepubescent siblings, comfortably ensconced in their respective accommodations of repose...

And this one: Ecstatic Yuletide to the planetary constituency, and to the selfsame assemblage, my sincerest wishes for a salubriously beneficial and gratifyingly pleasurable period between sunset and dawn.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Britt

Merry Christmas 2010!

Magic Surrounds Me...

Hello friends.

I actually don't know if anyone actually ever reads this blog, but if you do, I consider you a friend (unless you're a weird, creepy internet-stalker type, but even then I'm sure we could share a few laughs).

So... I am not sure if any of you are aware of this, but I have been struggling a lot for the past couple of years-- with a big, heaping platter of things. In fact, it has just been very recently that I feel I have reduced that platter to a manageable-sized dinner plate. I'm not trying to throw a pity party. I'm just trying to explain "the change" I have gone through recently (oh my dang I just read that and it sounds like I had plastic surgery or something. No that's not it!). I just had a truckload of icky dumped on me and I'm to the point where I finally have most of it off and I can begin rebuilding.

I had no idea what a toll these trial-ridden years had taken on me until now. I feel like they changed so much of who I am and how I have been living my life. I have lost a little and gained a little too. I am stronger and tougher, but with that toughness has come a little bit of pessimism that wasn't there before. I've cried enough tears to fill an ocean it seems and in that pain, a little part of me died, or at least because incredibly ill and possibly bed-ridden.

Well now I'm sitting here enjoying the first rays of morning peeking through my window and I'm taking a huge optimistic breath. I am going after that little part of myself that I lost. I am bringing me back. I'm going to enjoy life again and every precious moment that it brings my way. Even though it's Monday and we usually don't get along very well, I don't mind. :) I am going to take the bad with the good and make it into something extraordinary. It's not always going to be perfect. More like perfectly imperfect. To quote one of my favorite songs from the TV series One Tree Hill, "... and if I cry a little, die a little, at least I know I lived..." I am going to enjoy the magic all around me. I am going to be inspired. And I am going to live.

In keeping with my new, fresh and blindingly radiant outlook on life, I am going to turn this Monday into a "day of inspiration." So this is what is inspiring me today:

I am obsessed with Harry Potter. I love it way more than I believe is acceptable for a grown adult to love a children's series. I cried when the first book came out because I was twelve and already too old to be accepted into Hogwarts.

Magic surrounds me...

Yes, I actually do have this note on my light switch. Even if I can't magically make my wand glow, I think Muggle inventions like light bulbs are pretty awesome.

My brother took this photo yesterday in downtown Salt Lake. City Hall is the source of this Monday's day of inspiration because I think it looks just like Hogwarts.

See? This is the one in Orlando. Brade and I saw it being built on our honeymoon and have vowed to return. Learn all about it here. But don't blame me if it makes you really, really excited. It is my heart's dearest desire to live there for at least seven years and complete my magical education. I wonder if Universal Studios has an openings for deranged fans...

Harry Potter inspires me to believe in the magic that surrounds me and to see the world in all its wonder. Enjoy the precious gift life brings. Have a happy week!

Britt

My Birthday Surprise

Fo my birthday, my adorable (COMPLETELY ADORABLE!) husband kidnapped me from class and took me (blindfolded) to the Anniversary Inn for a little mini vacation. I was so excited that I swear rainbows and singing birds came flying out of my fingertips!

We stayed in a room called the Sultan's Palace:

Later we decided that our primary mission in life right now is to become connoisseurs of sushi. We found this great place called Rice Fusion and Sushi Bar.

photo by me (camera phone)

Yum yum yum! The sushi was amazing!

photo by me (camera phone)

Then we got back to the hotel and I asked Brade if they had wireless internet. It was down. This was unfortunate news because I had a midterm paper due the next day. Ug.

Homework should be outlawed.

Maybe I'll tell my teacher my dog ate my homework next time. He does eat our mail.

5 Reasons I Don't Want to Write My Midterm Paper:

1. It's stupid.

2. It's my birthday.

3. The hotel internet is down.

4. I don't want to.

5. There's cheesecake in the fridge.

Love you all! Thanks for the birthday wishes.

Britt

In Memory...

Happy Memorial Day! Thank you to all of our troops who put their lives on the line every day so we can live in a free country. Because freedom isn't free.

photo by me

Wants vs. Needs- A Fine Line

Do I want this, or do I need this?

This is called the shoot sac. I want the flowered one.

It has places to hold all of your lenses while you're shooting so you don't have to hold them with your bra straps. I think I need this...
The problem is that this little sac costs a pretty penny.

Maybe I could just make my own...

Anyone know anyone handy with a sewing machine willing to help a budding photographer in need? :)