We did it!

We did it! We finished the month! Although it could have gone worse, there were definitely some days that we struggled. But we finished, and here's a celebratory picture of Gecko!

Angry Fella

Today I was watching the fellas as their mom was at the dentist, and after a walk to the gas station (literally this is their favorite activity, I don't understand it but they love it) we were inside getting warm and enjoying our treats. Darth was lightly caressing my leg with his foot, which I don't think he realized he was doing it. I sent a pic of him doing that to his mom and to Husband, and Husband wrote back "ah I don't think he's scared enough of me". I told Darth to make an angry face to send back, and he supplied me with:

To which Husband replied with an angry face back, and when Darth saw it he's like, oh why is uncle mad at me?" In one of the cutest small voices I've heard, so I had to work overtime to reassure him that nobody is mad at him, and everyone is okay. But look at that angry face! So cute.

Dancing Fools

I have a small dancing Santa in the living room. You turn him on, and he plays "Rockin' around the Christmas tree" as he moves side to side. The fellas tried to mimic the Santa, and it was so funny. I just love when they do this cute stuff. 

The Giant Cow

Oh my goodness, has everyone seen the giant cow? There was a story that broke on the internet today, about a giant cow found in Australia.

My brain cannot handle this!

Haircut Day

Today, Cookie was getting a haircut. I helped her into the giant truck, and then on the way there, I saw her in my mirror and almost cried laughing at how cute and small she looks. I love that you can barely see her but its amazing.

I forgot to snap a pic of her afterwards, but she always looks the same and is as cute as ever.

Ah...nothing

Well, it took a bit, but I have absolutely nothing to day. School starts tomorrow, the house is decorated, homework is caught up on, my journal is caught up on, I got nothing to do. Today was just a chill day, dreading the return of school.

Enjoy this pic of the goose, for fun.

Time to Decorate!

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, it's time to decorate the house! Last night after dinner we put up the tree, for ease of today, and then this afternoon I got to business. It only took a few hours to get everything up, and it looks great! (in my humble opinion)

 (It pains me that you can't really see the JINGLE up here, but alas, the other stuff takes away from the visual but I still like it)

 We can't find the thing that holds the star to the top of the tree, so its just sort of ... resting on there

Happy Nearly Month of December!

Pizza?

Today, we went Black Friday shopping, and at the end of the shopping day, we were having a small snack, and Gecko expressed that he wanted some pizza for dinner. His mom wasn't near us, so I told him to say it into a video and we could send it to her. It ended up being the cutest video! 

Then later, as we were eating our delicious pizza, I just had to record him eating it because it was just about the cutest thing I had ever seen. 

PS I hope these videos are in order, I was having a struggle with the upload!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I started with the standard race, which I got 4th place in my age group, not too bad for having not run fast with this cold I've had!

After the race, I had breakfast with some siblings, who would be at other Thanksgiving dinners that evening. Tiny Darth held new niece Ken, and so cute! Look at these jokers, what a pair of cuties. 

Hope everyone had a great day today! 

Unlucky Day

Y'all, this was a straight up garbage day. This morning we woke to finding out that our Wi-Fi was broken and not working. So Husband had to spend the entire day (minus maybe one hour) on the phone with our internet company, trying to fix it. Finally, at about 6:00, my brother in law (who works in IT) had to come over and also help us fix it and we finally got it 'sort of' working (not really) but at this point, I had given up on any Wi-Fi at all. Blergh.
In addition to this, I also had a development with my car. It started to do a lot of jerking and whatnot, so I brought it in to the mechanic. He found what it was, he said, but it was something that a dealer had to fix, not him. Great. So I drove it carefully to the dealer, and then found the same problem, an issue with the timing chain. Great. So they gave me a loaner car, and said they might be able to get to it by Saturday. Great great great. So I took me loaner truck that was GIANT and came home.

This thing is a BEAST! I struggle to park it and its so big I almost don't know what to do with myself. Let's hope my car is done sooner rather than later !

School's Out For the...Week...

Ah, today starts the second day of having no school. I do so love that school gives me the entire week off! Yesterday was dedicated to doing errands and whatnot, and then today was dedicated to catching up on homework. Is that super nerdy? Oh heck yeah. But I have an 8 page paper due for my film class in the upcoming weeks, as well as a final business report in my entrepreneurship class, so I was like, yeah, I'm gonna get started on this. And then, after we come back next Monday, we only have 2 weeks of classes before finals and we are finished! I am honestly so excited and happy, we're so close to the end of the semester!
We can do it, guys!

Happy birthday, Mama!

Y'all, it's my mama's birthday today, so let's all wish a happy birthday. We went out for dinner, at the delicious Cracker Barrel. We all wanted to try the chicken-fried turkey and let me tell you, it did not disappoint! Chicken fried things are just my favorite things, let's be honest, and it was nice to celebrate the day with delicious food and amazing people. Happy birthday!

(this is an unrelated pic of Gecko taken today, enjoy)

Flips!

The fellas were over tonight, and Darth decided to show us how he can do a somersault. Gecko said that he could do one too, and the results are the best, please enjoy.

Christmas Card Swap

Today was our Christmas card swap, which means we do a Christmas card and a neighbor gift. Everyone always has such good ideas! I always feel so lazy with mine haha. But I tried to arrange them artfully for a great pic.

Now I have one full year to think of great ideas for next year!

Nail Time!

Today I was watching the fellas whilst their mom was at the doctor. After we walked to the park and had a fun afternoon, we came back inside. Darth said that he wanted to paint his nails. I said sure, and pulled out all the colors he wanted. He wanted a different color on each hand, and then of course, Gecko wanted the same thing. It looked great.

He loves his nails, and keeps showing them to everyone he sees.

Deserved

My last class of every week is Thursday, I never have classes on Friday, which is really nice, having a 4-day week. So today, I decided to treat myself to some Chip Cookies. 

Never had Chip? It's delicious! Basically you hit up their website, https://www.chipcookies.co and order some cookies. They will deliver them warm to you! And they have a new flavor in addition to their standard chocolate chip every month, so that's fun. 

Anyway, I tried the flavor of the month, Pumpkin Nutella. I decided to write myself an encouraging note on the package. 

These were pretty good cookies, but not great. I think it's because this is the first time my cookies were delivered to me cold, and that was such a disappointment. They're much better warm! But give then a go, maybe they were just having an off night. 

What's Making Me Happy This Week

Okay, y'all, the thing making me happy this week is podcasts! Since I got that super bad cold this week, and have had to run inside, I don't listen to podcasts on my runs. I listen to them outside, but when I'm inside, I need the visual of a TV show/movie to help keep my mind off of how boring running on a treadmill is. So I haven't had a chance to listen to my podcasts, and I miss them! Here's a list of the ones I love:

• How Did This Get Made

Basically, this podcast talks about really crappy movies, and dissects them in a hilarious manner. Would recommend, but if salty language offends you, steer clear. 

• Unspooled

These guys talk about the AFI Top 100 movies of all time, dissect the movies, and talk behind the scenes stuff. Basically the exact opposite, quality-wise, of the above podcast. 

• Pop Culture Happy Hour

This is an NPR podcast, they talk about all things pop culture - books, movies, music, TV shows, everything. It's a delight

• Screen Dive

This is another movie podcast (yes I know I have a type) and this one talks about Fox movies. Not as good as the other ones, but still pretty good. 

• Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me!

This is another NPR one, it just talks about the news of the week, usually presented in various quiz formats. 

Anyway, if you like podcasts, give these a go. And if you've never listened, here's your chance! 

Sick!

Alas, we have returned from our vacation sick. We caught some pretty wicked colds. I don't know where we caught them necessarily, but here they are. I can't believe that I got sick, as I was already currently in the middle of a cold! So it feels a bit like I have a double cold, and it's just so unfortunate! And it's even worse, because this week in school I have about 200 presentations to give, so there is no rest for the weary (sicky?) this week. Luckily next week there is no school because of Thanksgiving, so I will take advantage of that next week, and rest my poor sickened body.

Stamps and Chats

After having to walk up at like 3:30 this morning to make our (DELAYED!) flight home, we got home safe and sound. After school and everything, tonight was stamp and chat! We made some cute cute cards, and we even got our hostess to swear! That's never happened, but we had such a great time and it was so great.

When the night was over, I was ready and willing to go right to bed !

Last Day in Disney

Its our last day in Disney, so sad to end! The babies and everyone else we were with went home this morning, so it was just the two of us today. We started off in Cali, and met Goofy, of course we had to take a pic. 

 Then we just rode rides all morning, and then in the afternoon, I was surprised by an afternoon tea service at the Disneyland hotel! It was so great, what a lovely surprise.

In the evening, we toured around the new Star Wars place, meeting miscellaneous people. 

We may have joined the dark side? Or are we spies for the light side? Stay tuned...

More Disneyland Fun

Another great day here in Disney. Today was a bit busier than yesterday so we didn't get to have quite as much done, but it was still a good time. We did most of our time in California Adventure today, what a great park.
First, we met Woody!

 And then, Mrs. Incredible...Elastigirl...I honestly don't know what to call her!

Poor Samwise was playing where she shouldn't, and fell and bonked her head. Her parents left shortly after this happened (we were doing a child-swap on a ride) and so left her in the care of myself and Husband. How do I solve a problem like a crying child? Ice cream. But she refused to hold it, so I had to sit there and feed her ice cream the whole time. It was pretty funny. 

 Later in the day, in Disneyland, everyone wanted to ride the teacups. I hate hate hate those, so I declined, but stayed off with the baby. So I decided to do some random pics with her. Here were are in the fake teacup.

 And then she tried to take the sword out of the stone, but she was unsuccessful.

 Later in the evening, back in Cali Adv, we got our picture taken in the new Pixar Pier, next to their cute new poster. I love all the new changes of the parks!

The Happiest Place on Earth!

Guys, I know I've said it before, but I sure do love Disneyland so much. It just makes my heart happy. Basically, here's just a picture dump of all the fun!
Here is Samwise and I, entering the park, look how happy this murdering-niece of mine is.

We got to meet the Fairy Godmother, how fun. 

 Aurora is my favorite princess, we happened to walk by as she was doing meet and greets, and slipped into her short line, and then we were the last people to be able to meet her, how lucky.

 Mike Wazowski!

 There is a delightful new treat at Disneyland, the Matterhorn Macaroon and it is delicious. V sweet, I recommend having some water nearby to help!

It was a great day! It happened to be pretty slow in the morning when we got there, so we were walking onto rides, and getting so much stuff done, it was awesome!

Disneyland!

Y'all I am in Disneyland! We tried to take a small family trip to Disneyland in the summer, but then due to some circumstances, we had to cancel that vacation. So then we tried to find a time in the school year to go, since my SIL had purchased a package that said she had to use these tickets by the end of the year. October didn't work, so we chose this weekend, so that we didn't have to hit it up during the holiday season and have lots of lines. So after classes this afternoon, Husband and I flew into Long Beach, getting in late enough that we didn't do anything at all, just walked to Disneyland and purchased our tickets for tomorrow (we were lazy or something and didn't buy them beforehand). It was super super windy, hoping that won't continue tomorrow!
Yes this pic is blurry, but eh I don't care too much.

One Week

Welp, we made it one week until I didn't have anything to say! Well, mostly it's because right now is sucked up by school projects and loads of homework, so any free time goes right to that. But tomorrow starts some fun times, so lets look forward to that !

Go Vote!

Y'all! It's Voting Day 2018! Now that its the end of the day and the polls are closed, I hope that everyone took the opportunity and exercised their right to vote. I did mine by mail, early, and that was amazing. I loved having the opportunity to look up the candidates as I voted, to make sure I was voting in people that had my best interests in heart and mind. I hope everyone voted, I certainly did!

What Makes Me Happy This Week

I listen to podcasts, guys. I started over the summer, in Ireland, and now my list of podcasts has grown. There's one I listen to, Pop Culture Happy Hour, and they do a thing every week where they say what's making them happy this week. I think I'll start that. Since I have to blog every day, this will be a good way to let everyone into what I love!

What's making me happy this week is a show, Outlander. It's a show about a time-traveling nurse from 1947, who travels back to 1747, finds herself mixed up in a Scotland/England war and ends up marrying a super sexy Scotland Highlander. Of course there's more to it than that, but there's the gist. The 4th season just started on Starz, and thanks to modern technology, Starz and Hulu have recently joined forces, so I can actually watch the show as it airs, and now wait for it to come to DVD or a free preview weekend of Starz so that I can see it! I have 5 episodes left of season 3 to watch, and then I can start the new one. It's going to be a little difficult with school constraints, but Thanksgiving is coming up in 2 weeks, and that'll be a great opportunity for me to catch up! Since this TV series also comes from a long line of novels, I am also trying to finish the 4th book before I get to the 4th season as well. I'm 60% through an 800-page book so I don't see it happening, but I'm sure going to try!

So that's what's making me happy this week, I would say I recommend it, but it definitely has some sexy scenes and a bit of language, so this is not for everyone.

Break Your Fast

Today my ward did a "Break the Fast", with it being Fast Sunday and all. Here's why this is weird to me. In my head, these things are done in singles' wards, to help boost attendance and to increase flirting between the members, leading to marriage. (Is this a cynical view? I don't know) But in our ward, people are already friends, nobody is likely to marry anyone else since we're a family ward and mostly everyone is married already, so to me, having one is a mystery. Maybe it's to make sure we're all friends? Man, I do not know. It was a delicious event, despite running out of both cheese and desserts before I got a chance to partake. But hey, that's all right, it was still a good time. 

I told you. When I started blogging every day, I told you that not all of them were gonna be winners and here we find ourselves. 

Pinners Conference

Today I went to the Pinner's Conference at the Mountain America Expo Center in Sandy. I had never been, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I assumed it would be sort of like...an in-person Etsy. Like there would be people selling their stuff, and overall would be a good time.

So really, it was mostly like that. But I didn't like it, the whole day was a disappointment to me! Like, I love Pinterest but this was just a weird like, farmer's market, I guess, where people were aggressively trying to sell their wares to me, so I don't know. The reason I went in the first place was for a school assignment, we need to go to two trade expos, and this seemed a good one. But honestly, the whole thing was a disappointment and I was sort of sad about it. But hey, now I know for next year not to waste my time going to this!

Really, I advise against it, this place was so not fun, and was so expensive!

Food Food Friday

On Fridays, I go out to breakfast with the kiddos and their parents. Today, we went to Gandolfo's, and in the restaurant there, there's a display with Krispy Kreme donuts. Darth really wanted one, and so I told him that if he ate his entire sandwich (which he's never done in his whole life) I would buy him two donuts. He promptly put the entire sandwich in his mouth.

Now, I know what you're wondering. Did he finish? The answer is no, he definitely choked a little and spit out the entire sandwich about 20 seconds after the picture. Since he did his best, I did buy him a donut.

Blog Month!

Y'all, it's National Blogging Month, where you're 'supposed' to blog every day. So here we go. These will definitely not be good every day, and with school, the content will be limited, but I'm willing to give it a try, so here we go! To kick it off, let's look at this great picture of Cookie.

Enjoy the month everyone!