Kristin's excellent adventure!

Guess what….I volunteered to ride my bike 75 miles all in one day at the end of June. It will be the farthest I have ever even thought about riding in a single day. It could end up pretty bad. I’m talking blisters and major chaffing, but I am going to do this. I NEED YOUR HELP THOUGH!

Why would I or anyone for that matter volunteer to do this? To find out click here.

P.S. I need your help, did I mention that. Please click the link, because I do need your help, like bad.

P.P.S Without mentioning any names, many of you have read and have been entertained (for free) by this blog for a long time, many of you without bothering to leave any comments (Aunt Tammy). By clicking this link and following the instructions, you will show me that you support me and my blog and my causes.

P.P.P.S Click this link. I really need you to.

Phone Guilt

Not that anyone really cares, but...,

Guilt plays a big part of my life. I feel it for the strangest things. I have pretty much been feeling guilty since I found out I was pregnant with Alyssa. It's never really stopped. (On the flip side I feel pride when I do right things, so it's not all bad)

Anyway...My cell phone carrier, T-Mobile, has been texting me the last few weeks telling me that I qualify for some loyalty program because I have been a customer since 2003 and as a bonus to them I pay my bills on time (since I have been married to Steve). I finally got around to calling them and found out that for the same price I am paying now $49.00 for 600 minutes, that I can have unlimited minutes.

It didn’t take me very long to agree to that! And I didn’t even have to renew my contract. You rock T-Mobile!

Here is the problem though. I have been playing the don’t-go-over-my-minutes game for so many years now. I can’t shift out of that mode. I feel guilty for using so many minutes. But hey, they're free right? Right!

I am ALWAYS on my phone now (not like I wasn’t before). Because I spend so much time on the phone, I subconsciously feel like I am doing something wrong. I am constantly afraid in the back of my mind that I am going to get whopped by a huge overage charge like I have a few times in the past. It hasn’t happened many times, but when it happens it’s painful.

It is so nice to have unlimited minutes though, so I am just learning to live with the guilt. Maybe it will fade over time, I’m not sure, but that’s my hope.

Anyway…Call me!

Amy's Wedding

Many of you know I have been helping my friend Amy with planning her wedding. We've been working on this for months and today, was the day, and what a day it was. PERFECTION in almost every way. Take a scroll through and tell me what you think. and no, you can't hire me. This was a one-night-only labor of love.


Butterflies were a BIG part of this beautiful wedding. Notice this live butterfly enjoying Amy's Boquet.


Notice this butterfly enjoying Alyssa. Notice Alyssa thrilled yet very uneasy about this cute little creepy-crawley.


All the kids had the time of thier lives catching, chasing and holding all the flutteries all over the yard.



The center pieces were jars with flowers inside and two live butterflies inside.


Here is a look inside our venue. It really was lovely when all was said and done. It was just what her and I had envisioned.





The Cupcake tower was the crown-jewel of this wedding and it was everything we hoped it would be. I mean look at these cupcakes. I've never seen thier equal.






We had a delicious Chocolate fountain with delicious dipping items. I was as delicious as it was beautiful. The vendor we used was FANTASTIC!!




This is the cupcake creator Lesleigh. If you want to see more of her unbelieveable creations check out her blog. Cupcakesbyles.blogspot.com She was totally rad and dependable. She went above and beyond and delivered them to our venue even though I know she didn't really want to. You are a rockstar cupcake maker Lesleigh!



As much work as all of this was, the truth is, I really enjoyed it. It got really intense at times but with diligent preperation we pulled of the entire day pretty much with out a hitch.

Amy deserves much of the credit. Most of the prep work was her doing, and I'd say most of the big ideas were hers.

Hope you enjoyed the day it was all you hoped for and more. To me it seemed like a fairy-tale wedding come true!

G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S !

I know you are all jealous of my glamorous lifestyle. I recently got to spend half my day at our local landfill. I was there covering a big community news story for the paper. It really was quite interesting.

They have installed a new way to generate electricity (which I am a big fan of) at the dump. What they do is suck out methane gas from the capped portion of the landfill though a well and pipe system.


Here is a well. They have 83 wells total, all sucking out the gas made from decomposing trash.

Then the gas gets piped and put it into this thing behind me here…

This is a methane gas filter, compressor, dryer. It basically turns the gas into fuel.

Then the fuel is moved into this thing…


This thing burns the fuel. What you see behind me are three bus sized engines that burns the methane gas, turned fuel. The engines then produce electricity that is transferred to a nearby substation, which is then put on to the power grid and powers 3000 homes in Murray.

Pretty cool eh? What will they think of next.

Also…and I know this is the part that will make many of you jealous…with my media credentials, I was given unprecedented access to the landfill. I was shuttled to the top of the landfill to see down into it.

Through the magic of technology (my camera) here is what I saw.

It was disturbing actually. The little truck you see at the bottom are the same trucks that are the size of your house that pick up your trash ever week.

I never knew how many there were. There were hundereds of them that passed though durning the two hours I was there. I really was disturbing to see that much trash.

I made me want to be much more conscientious of what I am throwing away. If we could all reduce our trash by 30 percent by recycling or reusing, it would make a big old difference.

It really is something you have to see to believe. Everyone should go to the landfill, but if you go, make sure they don’t hear you call it a dump, they are sensitive about it. It’s a landfill, not a dump.

Seriously though…take your kids, they should see why it is important to recycle. You just can’t believe all the trash and everything that goes into to throwing stuff away.

Eureka!

No really, Eureka, we went there.

Steve is now gets every other Friday off, so we like to do something we normally wouldn’t have done on that day. So last last Friday we drove to Eureka. Where is it you ask? What is it by? Answer, I don’t know, and nothing. But can tell you how to get there. Drive down Redwood forever until it comes to a T intersection, way after you’ve been around the whole lake. Then make a right follow the signs, 9 miles to Eureka from there.

Neither of us had ever been there so we wanted to check it out. I wasn’t expecting much, but I was surprised. It was really cool, in a ghost-town sort of way.


This is what main street in Eureka looks like. It looks like it is all boarded up, and it is, except for one antique store. There are also two gas stations.


It is an old mining town, way past it’s prime, but still charming somehow. Maybe charming is too much, interesting anyway.


This is the mining head. It’s big. The coolest part is it continues underground. The sign says it goes under ground 3000 feet. They used to use it as a pulley system to haul men and mining equipment down into the mine.


We went inside one of the gas stations. It was like 1983 inside. Like stepping into a time machine. They sold candy and nachos and all likes of random things such as old green vases, Mr. Coffee maker, rubber cement, connect four. It was kind of like a living garage sale.


This is what most of the houses in Eureka look like.

There were some cool mining things to see. If we’d come on a different day we could have gone to the museum. The lady at the gas station said she would have called Hank or whoever runs the place to come open it and show it to us, but apparently, he was out of town.

As far as I can tell, the whole town relies on the traffic they get from the week-end warriors who pas thogh and buy gas on their way to the dunes. I guess you pass though there to get too Little Sahara. The gas station also sold a bunch of accessories for dune buggies.

Anyway…it’s totally worth seeing and is just under an hour’s drive from here. If you want to see something you’ve never seen before…Eureka is the place. I really see it as a destination on account of the totally awesome gas station there.

Happy Birthday Sunny!

I can’t believe it’s been a year since the peaceful day I pushed you out into the world (drug free).
































We had a fun party for you with all your grandma and grandpa cousins and cute little sunny cupcakes. You got some fun little things for your birthday. I hope you’ll have a fun time playing with them for a long time.




What a year it’s been. You have been a fun and welcome addition to our family. Your sister has had a ball playing with you. Even after a year, she still gets excited when she sees you each morning.

It has been so fun to watch the two of you play interact together. My favorite is when you crawl over to her and try and invoke a wrestling match. She loves to roll around on the floor with you to make you giggle.

I have loved holding you even though, for the most part you straight-arm me and don’t let me get very close. It’s okay if you need me to be at arm’s length, everyone needs their space (babies usually don’t, but whatever it’s cool, I get it).



I can say this now because it’s over, but a couple months ago, when you were sick and threw-up for 10 days straight, and had no energy except to lay on me, I secretly enjoyed it. I enjoyed cuddling with you and I felt like you really wanted and needed me. I felt like I got to know you a little better. I think you enjoyed it too, because ever since then you have let me cuddle you a lot more often. I love that. You also learned how to say mama during this time, so that was special to hear you ask for me like that.


I have enjoyed saving your life thousands of times when I pulled all that stuff out of your mouth that you ate and otherwise would have choked on, including these tulips you were eating during your one year old photo shoot. I hope that someday you will stop eating non-food items, you probably will, I am not that worried.

I love that you have a high preference for Italian food. I think it is unusual for babies to love Italian food the way you do. Maybe someday you will eat things beyond spaghetti, lasagna, tortellini, and mac-n-cheese, but for now I will keep making them for you because otherwise meal-time is a very scary occurrence for me where you throw your food and bang your milk cup and flap your arms which makes food splatter all over my clean walls.

I love how you love your little sunny blankies I made for you, even though it’s frustrating that you somehow have the baby ingenuity to untie the ties and eat them and then toss them out of your crib over and over. I don’t think most babies can do that, so right away, I think that puts you at the head of your class.


I love taking you for walks with your sister in our double stroller. You just love to be in your stroller outside. I love how you get so excited and love to see animals. You probably always will because we will likely never have an animal living with us at our house. You never complain, even if it’s cold. The two of you love sitting by each other and seeing the world.


You also love to be in your Snuggly baby carrier strapped to me or daddy. It’s fun (for a while, but then it breaks my back) to carry you around like that and let you see the world that way. I love how you are so happy to stay in there for hours.

I love that you love to kick. You used to kick constantly when you were inside me, and you have never really stopped. We love how you are always providing a cadence wherever we go. We never wonder where you are, because we always hear the kick, kick, kick of your little legs.

We love to hear your little voice. It is so sweet. You love to jabber, jabber all the time. You even say a few words. You’ve said nana (banana), bampa (grandpa), da da (bye bye while you waive) and cheese (whenever we take your picture) it’s so cute. We hope you start telling us lots more things soon.

Your favorite thing to do besides ride in the stroller is take a bath. You are always happy in a warm bath especially with your sister. You love to splash and kick those legs ninety miles an hour and chew on your tub toys or your wash cloth.

Like Alyssa, you love being down-town, although you are not very patient while we are in the car driving there. Once we are there though, you are in seventh heaven. You squeal and point and yell and seem to love all the sights and sounds and general business. Most babies would be un-easy with all the commotion, not you or your sister though. I see both of you leading a very urban metropolitan lifestyle when you grow up.

We love to see you enjoy music. You are a cute little dancer. You feel the groove and show us by the way you move whenever you hear a song you like. Your favorite song is Viva La Vida by Cold Play. For a long time that is all you would put up with listening to in the car. I can’t blame you though, it is a great song. In fact, that whole album is great.

We love you so much darling Sunny. We can’t wait to see you learn and grow in so many new ways. Happy first birthday baby!

Beautiful Amy

Lovely