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Archive for February, 2009

4 hours with a 3 year old

February 10th, 2009
7 comments
Saturday I woke up and had the day all to myself. Only problem with that is I’m not paticularly good at it. I scheduled myself a massage and while Miss Boney Fingers was jabbing away at my aching muscles I thought about how I should spend my day. For some reason my adorable niece Brielle kept popping into my mind. I hadn’t seen her in forever. A few days earlier my sister had called and put her on the phone “Do you want to ride the train with me Summer?” Just like that. She is speaking in full clear sentences! To clarify as to why she was asking me about riding a train, last September Karina and I took her 2 kids (“our kids”) and Brielle on Utah’s public transportation system called “Trax”. I guess my sister had driven past it and Brielle couldn’t stop talking about it. It’s amazing the things kids remember.

When I was finished being torchered by my sadistic massage therapist I called up my sister to see if I could borrow her daughter for a few hours. She was thrilled because she and her BF needed to do “homework”. When I picked up Brielle she couldn’t contain her excited because we both had on boots and hats which made us twinners.

As we left my sisters 2nd story apartment, Brielle sang a familar song I had so cleverly taught her once when I didn’t have the ability to carry both her and grocierys “Stairs, stairs, stairs. I love stairs!” yet another thing I can’t believe she remembers.


I took her to a bunch of really fun places, like the dry cleaners, the grocery store and the mall. She was a trooper through most of it. I will say that picking out the perfect Valentines card is near impossible with a 3 year old interrupting you every 30 seconds “can I have a teddy bear?” OK. Only if you are good. “I want some candy” No, you are getting the teddy bear. “I don’t want my coffee anymore” There goes $3 out the window. “Hold me” Give me one more second princess. “I don’t like this store anymore!” Until finally I choose a card, grab the stuffed animal, throw down some cash, bolt out of the store and head to my parents house for some back up support.

Honestly, how can something so adorable be so incredibly overwhelming? I watched her for a total of 4 hours and that was enough. Her way of thanking me for buying her a teddybear, putting makeup on her and letting her wear my jewelry, was to give me material I will use to blackmale or at the very least embarass her in front of a cute boy one day. I suppose you could call it a messed up parting gift of sorts.

“SUMMER! Can you come into the bathroom? I need HELP!”

I walk in and she tells me she needs me to wipe her. She jumps off the potty, turns around, puts her head down and her poopy little bum right in the air. Completely unabashed with a smile on her face.

Renting a kid is fun, but I have to say, the best part is getting to returning them.

Blogfully yours,
Summer

Loved One(s), Story Time

Everyone else is doing it.

February 5th, 2009
6 comments

Last night I hit the gym, studied for my math test, revised my essay and watched the first 2 episodes of Heros (season one) with the boyfriend. I was a blogging slacker so I’m taking the easy way out and posting what I already posted on Facebook… although numbers 8 & 9 don’t really count.

23 Things about me.

1. I talk to my cat. I can’t leave the house in the morning without telling her goodbye and to be good.

2. I still bite my nails. It’s one of those nasty nervous habits that I have never been able to shake.

3. I ate Indian food for the first time in my life last Friday. It was amazing.

4. I started getting gray hair about 2 years ago.

5. I own my car. Paid it off last summer. I can’t tell you how much I love not having a car payment.

6. I was once told that I didn’t know how to be alone so I spent a year being single. Best unspoken challenge that I ever won.

7. I’ve never had a boyfriend with brown eyes.

8. I’m a blogger. My grandmother is my biggest fan/reader.

9. I recently created a blog category of “Posts grandma won’t approve of”

10. I hate seeing wrinkles. I spend way too much money on face potions and lotions.

11. At any given time I have 8-10 tubes of lip stick or lip gloss in my purse, mascara and powder. It’s slightly ridiculous.

12. I’m pretty sure my tech guys at work only tolerate my computer ignorance because I amuse them.

13. I have more condiments then actual food in my fridge.

14. I am never happier then when I am in the mountains; be it hiking, skiing, snowshoeing or camping, it is my happy place and gives me my sanity.

15. If I didn’t have to work I would donate all my time to charity and write a book.

16. I love being back in school. Over the Christmas break I missed it.

17. When I was a little girl I had a lisp and talked like tweety bird – one of those stories my Dad still loves to tell just to embarrass me.

18. I got divorced 3 1/2 years ago from my High School sweetheart. We are still friends to this day though.

19. I am very close with my family. I eat Sunday dinner with my parents at least 3 times a month.

20. I have beautiful-amazing-talented

-strong-girl friends in my life. I would be absolutely lost without them.

21. I recently started to date a man I am crazy about, which is awesome cause he is crazy about me too. ;)

22. My natural hair color is a very light brown… I think. I haven’t seen it in 12 years.

23. I don’t watch scary movies. The Sixth Sense gave me nightmares so you can imagine what a horror flick would do.

24. I love music and concerts. I go to at least 6 concerts a year.

25. I am incredibly friendly and always like to believe the best about people. I do not understand mean or rude people. They suck.

Blogfully yours,
Summer

Just me, Random

Sometimes you just need someone to tell you that you’ve done a good job

February 4th, 2009
5 comments
Last night I finished writing the first draft of my reflection paper. It is my first college English paper, written in MLA format and following all of the writing rules that we have learned so far. I have been working on it for about a week and I finally finished it at 10:30pm the night before it was due. I read through it several times and got really excited. My first real college paper! A piece I am calling “Starting Over”. I was so excited that I wanted to share it with someone. But who would think I wasn’t crazy calling them so late to read them a 4 page essay all about me?

The boyfriend had already gone to bed and so had the Russian BFF. I tweeted about it to see if anyone was online. My beloved friend and fellow college student Sarah, who I almost just called, responded but it was after I had already given up on Twitter. So I called the people who I knew had an obligation to be there for me, my parents.

Me: “Hi Dad, is Mom awake?”

Dad: “No she had to be to work at 5 this morning so she is asleep. Is everything OK?”

Me: “Yeah, I just thought she might find my college paper interesting and was going to make her listen to it. How do you feel about listening to it?”

Dad: “I could do that.”

Me: “Are you sure? It’s like 4 pages long, but I am really excited about it.”

Dad: “Sure.”

So I read my essay that I had poured my heart into to my Dad over the phone. Being the wonderful parent that he is he gave me his full attention and when I was done he validated that what I wrote was indeed good. My Dad is not the type to get all worked up with praises, but if there is one thing having all daughters has taught him, it’s to sense when his girls really need to hear those praises. He told me my essay was well written, that it had just the right amount of personal information but not too much and that he enjoyed how it ended on such an upbeat note. I know that he is my Dad so he is all but required to say nice things, but it was still so wonderful to hear.

I suppose that every once in a while even the strongest of people need to hear that they did something good. Thank God for parents who tell you that you’ve done just that.

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Back to School, Loved One(s)

A cautionary tale

February 3rd, 2009
8 comments
Saturday night I dragged Karina the Russian and the boyfriend (I still do not have a name picked out for him) to Port O’Call to see Royal Bliss perform. For my non-Utahan readers, Port O’Call is one of our oldest bars and it is being forced to shut down because the government wants to put a building there. Also, Royal Bliss is Utah’s local band who recently released their first major record label CD. I love the band, have hung out with them on more than a few occasions and seen them in concert at least a dozen times. This particular concert was very important to me as it would be my last time ever to set foot in Port O’Call and one of my last opportunities to see Royal Bliss before they become huge rock stars.

I swear it was like pulling teeth at first to get everyone on board to go. Karina was able to get a baby sitter and even though she has a bit of a grudge against the sexy guitar player (long story), got excited to go out. I had to take the boyfriend to the gym and give him a good workout before he was able to get excited to go (get your mind out of the gutter). My sister Staci and her BF Cody were suppose to come and she actually WAS excited to go, but she got sick.

So the Russian and the sexy nerd couple headed to the show. We ended up having to pay double the amount of the tickets because they were sold out. Thank god for exercise because the boyfriend stayed happy to make me happy. We made it upstairs and were watching the show. Of course the boys of Royal Bliss did not disappoint. We ended up standing behind a slightly older man and woman who were incredibly drunk. Now, I am not going to be a prude and say there is anything wrong with having a really good time and I’ve had more than my share of times being the drunken fool. But when you get to be so drunk that you are spilling drinks on people, dancing into them, starting fights in the women’s restroom and causing my BF to want to punch you in the face for grabbing me, it’s no longer cool, it’s sad.

I made Karina swear to me the next morning over breakfast at Mimi’s that we would never let each other get like the ridiculous older drunk woman or her friend (or whatever he was). Seriously, it’s not cute at any age, but to be 40-something and falling over drunk, I never want that to be me. Luckily I now have Karina’s solemn oath that it never will be. Yet another reason why I love her.

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Concert whore, Out and About, Posts Grandma won't approve of

What’s in a name?

February 2nd, 2009
4 comments
It has been brought to my attention that “ED” may not be the best code name for the new boyfriend. I originally named him that because it stood for Environmental Dating. It never occurred to me that the initials E.D. would have a few more commonly recognized meanings. Thank you to Sarah for pointing out that “Erectile Dysfunction” is it’s most commonly known meaning and actually makes my post funnier when read that way. Thank you to Kel for pointing out that a common medical term for E.D. is “Emotionally Disturbed”. Now, I hate to admit this, but I didn’t think twice of calling him ED. In fact, I thought I was being so clever. Good thing I have friends to prove me wrong.

Over the weekend I have been putting some thought into what to call the new boyfriend. Should I just use his real name? Should I change the spelling to be Ed? Should I leave it ED as a reminder to my stupidity and for cheap giggles? While at lunch on Saturday with Karina the Russian I was telling her about my name problems as well as talking about all sweet cute things the new boyfriend has been doing and how he is talking about taking a trip together this summer for both of our birthdays. Her response, “Oh honey that is so great! He really is such a planner. In fact, you should call him Franklin Covey because he is such a planner!” Ya gotta love Karina. She never fails to make me smile.

So what am I going to call him? I have no idea. Maybe just expect that I will call him any number of combination to the above. Then again, maybe I will stop writing about him. Who knows. I’m crazy like that.

Blogfully yours,
Summer

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