So last week I told you that I was going to the country to meet my boyfriend ED’s parents and see the farm he grew up on. I asked for your opinions as to what to wear and you did not disappoint! Your advise was spot on! I know this because I didn’t listen and wish I would have. Ah well! I always did have to learn my lessons the hard way.

Designer boots or no designer boots? That was my original question. You convinced me not to take them and I decided to bring my hiking boots instead. Well, I decided to, but I actually forgot to put them in my bag so I showed up bringing only the lightweight tennis shoes I had on. Doh! Strike one for the city girl!

Let’s see, what other advise didn’t I listen to? Oh, the whole get up early part. I half way listened. I got up about on time, jumped through the shower, did my hair and put on some light makeup. Little did I know that the day they had in store for me was one of manual labor. Luckily ED’s mother, let’s call her Mama ED, was kind enough to tell me to leave my fancy purse in the room (so I don’t get mud on it) and handed me a pair of leather work gloves and some sunscreen.

First chore – dig a ditch with a tractor.
Second chore – get tractor unstuck from the mud.
Third chore – dig ditch by hand.

Mostly I was on supervision duty along with stacking random pieces of wood from dead trees in the burn pile (score one for me not having appropriate shoes!). Luckily I had the guidance of ED’s 5 year old nephew to show me the ropes.

Fourth chore – set the field on fire.

After watching the field burn and pretending not to have anxiety about fire containment and whether or not the reported the fires to the proper fire burning officials, we stopped for lunch.

Although I was ready for a nap, I sucked it up and found a way to redeem myself by 1) learning to drive a tractor and 2) hauling tree branches that ED and his brother were chainsawing, onto the trailer bed and then onto another burn pile.

This post is getting quite long and there is probably no need to tell you EVERY detail so I’ll try and wrap things up.

Day two – the wind was incredibly strong so they decided that the days chores would be to cut down a tree that had fallen in front of their grandfathers farm “just across the way”. That’s right, because wind and sawdust go perfectly together. However, lifting heavy tree stumps was totally worth seeing the way ED can swing an axe. I literally had to tell myself to stop eye-raping him before someone noticed.

Joking and eye-raping aside, I had a great time. ED’s family is amazing. I finally understand where he gets his incredible work ethic. I am sore, bruised and exhausted. I got to see so much. Like regular horses, baby horses, all sorts of bunny rabbits (I even held one, but not the one with the red eyes because it looked evil…like it would chew your head off if you gave it the chance), chickens with feather shoes on and a crap load of farm cats and dogs. When I asked ED what the bunnies names and the chickens names were he told me that “not all farm animals get names.” I told him that on my farm, ALL animals would be named – even the chickens. Granted their names would probably be Shut-the-hell-up-noisy-ass-bird 1, 2, 3, etc.

Farm life is great but I’m glad to be home.

The end.

Blogfully yours,

Summer

P.S. Do I label this post as a vacation? That just seems not-quite right.

Dating debating, Vacations

My personal computer at home is a custom built PC laptop that I bought over 4 years ago with my ex-husband. Luckily in the divorce I ended up with it. Unluckily, I know nothing about it, or any other computer for that matter, outside of how to turn it on, close all the pop-up anti-spywear thingys and get onto the web.

Computer savvy I am not.

The other day I brought my laptop to work on a paper during my lunch break. I booted up, entered in my not-so-clever password and the bastard decided that it didn’t feel like working today. No, instead it felt like restarting itself over and over again, like it had some sort of compulsive disorder and no amount of sweet talking (my normal way of getting it to work) was going to calm it down.

Good news? The place I originally bought it from, Superior Computers, is still in business and has a lifetime service warranty! Woo Hoo! No out of money expenses for my computers therapy!

Bad news? I have been without a computer for 3 days! Holy cow I didn’t realize how dependent I have become on one. Luckily I have my lover the iPhone, only he has his “short comings”. I can’t exactly type up my 5 page essay for English (that is due on Tuesday!) on him, but he has been there in most other ways. Stroking my hair, telling me everything will be ok and playing me a happy song when I need it.

Now I know what most of you are thinking, “you should get a Mac,” yeah, well I can’t exactly afford one right now because this starving college student made a mistake on her federal witholding form and now has to pay on her taxes. So unless someone has an extra Mac notebook laying around they want to donate to help the cause, and by cause I mean me, I’m stuck with my manic PC.

Oh well, could be worse. I could be without a computer all together!

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Bag full of complaints

Dating debating, Posts Grandma won't approve of

I’m a little late to get this post up, but better late than never (story of my life!), right?

Last Thursday I went to my first Social Media Club of Salt Lake City (SMCSLC) meeting. I had a great time. Actually… I had social anxiety until I recognized some happy familiar faces, Erin (Finding SLC/Poor Penmanship) followed by Susan (Off The Chest).

Most of the time (surprisingly) I understood what everyone was talking about, although I still always end up with a worried look on my face in pictures. Good news was that I sat next to the lovely Roby Storms who kept me laughing and tried to answer my questions on the “harder” stuff like where to pick up the latest Social Marketing fashion trends or why mommy bloggers tend to dismiss other bloggers as unimportant.

Luckily my transition to nerdom has been underway for a little while now. I had my iPhone with me, which turns out is a good thing because it serves as a pass to get into the “cool kids club”.

All kidding aside, I had a great time. I am truly fascinated by the new revolution that is Social Marketing. For my industry, it is one of those ships that comes sailing through and you either need to jump on board or get left behind. I’ve obviously chosen to jump on board and I am looking forward to attending future events and to growing my knowledge which will (hopefully) make me a more marketable/sought after employee.

Cheers! Hope to see you at the next one!

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Nerdom, Out and About

I’ll be the first to admit, sometimes I fish for complements. It started when I was little girl. My Mother would take my sisters and I shopping for school clothes and when we got back we would force my Dad to sit there while we did a fashion show of all of our new digs. With each new outfit I would ask “Daddy, what do you think of this one?” and being the well trained man that he is (having a wife and 3 daughters did the trick), he would always respond that it was “very nice” or “cute”. If his enthusiasm wasn’t quite what I hoped for I would give him THE LOOK. You know, the look that says Dad this outfit deserves much higher praise and if you don’t recognize that I might just cry, or at the very least pout! To which my Dad would either validate with higher praise or give me a hard time because he is mean like that.

ED has not received proper training. He keeps insisting on this whole honesty thing. “Babe what do you think of this top? Do you think it is too tight or can I pull it off?” Pause… More of a pause… I give him THE LOOK… Still more of a pause! Finally, as I am already yanking it off to find something else, he starts in with “no, I think it’s OK. I’m just trying to thing of what everyone else will be wearing and yes, I think it will be OK.”

I realize that is a very minor example, but he is like that with almost everything. The other day I read a blog post from Wasatch Woman’s Magazine that was talking about honesty and giving opinions and it got me thinking further about this component to my relationship with ED. I have to admit that I really do like dating someone who has an opinion. He is constantly opening my eyes to different points of view and it keeps things interesting. I also know that he will never let me leave the house looking inappropriate, which truth be told is really a good thing. But every now and then, when he doesn’t give me the simple complement I am fishing for, when he over analyzes and complicates things, I look at him and say “could you please just lie to me? Right now I don’t want to hear the truth.”

Is that so wrong?

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Dating debating, sometimes I get on a soap box

Now I remember why I haven’t worn these shoes in almost a year.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! May your day be filled with the luck of the Irish and may your shoes not be 4 inch heels that are half a size too small.

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Holidays

I successfully survived the first weekend of my very first Spring Break as a college student! Since I am going back to school later in life, I never fully understood just how awesome Spring Break actually is.
My original plan was to party every night to make up for all the boring weekend nights that I have spent staying in to write an English paper or to study for one test or another. I didn’t really stick to that plan completely for 2 reasons.
1. I am no longer a wreckless 21 year old.
2.I am old(er) and partying takes it’s toll on me. Recovery time seems to take a lot longer.

Friday nights original plans were to go to a Wine Gala, but it was canceled for one reason or another. Instead I went to the gym then over to my sisters house, played card games with her boyfriend and passed out watching Knocked Up. WOO HOO! Party animal!

Saturday night however, I made up for it. My beautifully crazy friend Ariane had the rare experience of having a sitter for her 2 beautiful children and demanded asked me to join her for a girls night out. Everything that Ariane does is in grand fashion so it was no surprise that she was able to get us a VIP booth at Harry O’s in Park City for the Spring bebe fashion show. Since Park City is a good 20+ minute drive up a super winding canyon, she also got us rooms to stay at over night. Not too shabby, right?

I got all dressed up (in bebe of course!) and headed up with 5 other girls. Inspite the the fact that Harry O’s is known to be a bit of a meat market and that ED the boyfriend wasn’t thrilled about me staying over night with a bunch of single chics, I had good time. The fashion show was small but really cool to see, I got to dance my ass off all night which is awesome because I haven’t gone dancing in what seems like forever and last but not least, VIP booth = Champagne!

Girls night out are rarely without drama and of course this night was no exception. But the important thing is that even though we got less than 4 hours of sleep, we made it home safe.
I’ll tell you though, after a night like that I’m fairly positive that I will be celebrating the rest of my Spring Break by catching up on my DVR and snuggling with ED. There is far less recovery time that way!

Blogfully yours,
Summer

Out and About, Posts Grandma won't approve of

I can’t stop laughing. Just typing the title to this post is cracking me up. You see, my Mother is an incredibly religious woman. She dragged my, as well as my sisters, collective asses to church every Sunday. She was Young Woman’s president, Primary president, and held a million other positions. Growing up she placed a “Return With Honor” sign on both the front and back doors. She makes Sunday dinners every week and before anyone can touch their food, a traditional Mormon blessing is said.

So you can imagine my surprise when I read the following text message from her:

Mom: “So funny! I am at a church chili cook off contest right now. The winner of 30 entries is sitting at a table. He is my neighbor. I quickly got up so I could try a bowl of his chili. When I took my first bite I thought I tasted alcohol, I asked him. He grinned and said yes. I think that is so funny!

Me: “Wow mom! Not sure which is worse… The fact that there is booze at church or that you recognize the taste of it!”

Mom: “I’m a woman of vast experience.”

Who knew! St. Victoria had a crazy side to her at one time. I am thinking of ways to use this information to my advantage. I haven’t come up with any yet, but it’s just a matter of time.

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Loved One(s), Story Time

1. “Come on! Suck it up Sally! One more! It’s the last one that makes a difference! Hate me now – love me later!”

2. “That weight must have been to light for you, you hardly struggled at all. I’m going to up it by five.”

3. “No, the 15 minutes of cardio we already did was to warm up. We still have 30 more to go. Let’s head up to the step machines now.”

There were too many witnesses around to strangle him and now I am too sore to even try. He did make up for abusing me by spending 2 hours cooking me a fantastic dinner (rack of lamb anyone?), so I can’t really stay mad at him. Plus my arms are starting to get some killer definition… so I suppose I’ll keep him around for a little longer. At least until I’m ready for swimsuit season anyway.

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Random

K to the R stories, Story Time