Photo of the......

Too tired to blog so I thought I'd do the photo post.  I love this one.  This is at Laughlin in July 2004.  Ryan had just turned 1.  In this pic I'd just gotten him up from a nap.  I love sleepy babies.  So adorable and cuddly.  Can't wait to see his face this week.

On an FYI note.....my blogging this week will probably be lacking, I know it kinda has been lately anyway.  I've got a lot to do before I fly to California Thursday, but hopefully will have some time here and there to post!

D&C 88....don't sleep late

Tonight I was reading my three chapters out of the Doctrine and Covenants and one of them happened to be 88.  I was quickly taken back to the seminary days my sophomore year when we were studying the D&C and all the cool combat rhymes (okay, let's face it, this one and "D&C 25....sing spiritually alive" are probably all I remember from that year.

But anyway, it totally brought me back to the fun carefree days of being 15 years old and in Brother Mullin's class (who was such a rad teacher by the way.)  I remember how we'd always add in someone's name at the end of "don't sleep late."  A lot of times it was mine, woops.  I can still hear the monotone, "D&C 88....." followed by the condescending, "don't sleep late....RACHEL!"  Oh man, those were good times.  Mark and Cindy, I'm sure you can relate.  We need a little reunion, and a little Hear and Hearken action.

Extra! Extra! Read all about Rachel's purchases!

It happened to me too, Katie.  Tonight Curtis and I are going to the movies.  He had to go to a work dinner and was running late so he gave me his credit card info and asked me to buy tickets online so we could make sure we got seats.  No problem.

Now I'm sitting here, waiting for him to pick me up, so I decided to do a little facebooking.  What's the first thing I see when I log on and check out the news feed?  At the very top there's a notice that I bought tickets to see I am Legend.  Wow, I didn't realize I'd okay'd facebook to make public my purchases, and choices of entertainment.  Good thing it wasn't some racy R-rated movie I'd be embarrassed about!  Don't worry, I promptly changed my privacy settings.  The lame part?  I read about this happening to Katie last month and didn't even think for a second it would happen to me.  Duh.

Photo of the....

I stole the idea of doing photo of the "week" from M&M, who stole it from my sister's husband's brother's wife, who does a real photo of the week.  I think that's fun, and want to join in, however don't think I'm disciplined enough to actually do it weekly, so it's just going to be photo of the "whenever."  Enjoy.

This photo is of me with my college BFF, Shantay Lewis, soon to be Shantay Nelson.  She's getting married to Sam Nelson in Boise on Jan 26th and I couldn't be more thrilled for them!!  Shantay is my bff, twinner, and wifey (basically we're soul mates, I mean, come on, BOTH born on 6/4/83 and best friends?  How does that happen?  I don't know anyone more like me, who just truly gets me.  We're totally twins separated at conception.)  This photo is from Oct 2006 when she came to visit me in California.  It was a quick 48 hour trip but we had SUCH a blast.

Can't wait to see you next month wifey!!!

the faux hawk: a west coast thing?

Today at work I showed three coworkers (all of whom are east coasters) a picture and the guy in it had a faux-hawk.  The first reaction from every single one of them?  "What's with the hair?!"  Each time I said, "What?  It's a faux-hawk."  They were also all above the age of 35, so I figured they might just (dare I say it?) be too "old" to recognize the style.  The third person I showed was my boss, who turned it into a public discussion with whomever was around.  Everyone was trying to tell me how lame it was, and I couldn't get over how they felt.  A guy on my team, Chris, walked by, and I thought he could bale me out.  He's 26, cool, cute, and also from the east coast.  I said, "Hey Chris, do you know what a faux-hawk is?"  His response was, "Um....I think so....isn't it where the front of the hair swoops up?"  I was baffled.  I then came to the conclusion it must be a west coast thing.

On a different, yet similar "am I in the twilight zone?" note.....last week I was talking to two coworkers about what Mormons "can" and "can't" do.  I then mentioned "Well, we all have our agency."  This was met with, "You have what?"  I again said, "Agency."  She asked what I meant.  Confused, I said, "Um, it just means, you know, we have the freedom to choose."  My boss then walked by and he didn't recognize the use of the word either.  I then thought aloud, "Is that a Mormon word?"  Being something I've heard my whole life I thought certainly it couldn't be, and I looked it up on dictionary.com.  There wasn't anything to express what I was trying to say.  I guess it is a Mormon word??  

Readers-weigh in.....I'd like your opinion on both matters please...

Halloween in December

I just realized I'd mentioned about a month ago how I spent my Halloween, but then never uploaded the pictures.  

This first picture is just in midtown across the street from my work.  I was running to grab something for lunch and saw this guy just chillin, it was the funniest thing!  You can see his real legs at the bottom of the picture, and his hand on the right on the outside of the box, but that's his real head.  So clever!

The rest of my pictures are from the Village Halloween Parade.  I've been hearing about this event forever.  When people at work would remember it was my first Halloween here they would get this look on their face and with wide eyes say, "Oh yeah, you have to go to the parade."  

Here's a few facts about it:

• It attracts over 2 million spectators
• It's the nation's largest Halloween celebration
• It's listed in 100 Things to Do Before You Die

So Chelsie, Sarah, Mike and I headed down to the Village to check it out.  It was a total zoo, but we had a blast.  Yes, this skeleton is wearing lipstick and a bra.  

*Disclaimer....some of the following images are suggestive....but I've kept the craziest pictures out.

That is genuine enjoyment if I've ever seen it, haha.

There were a lot of lame costumes since anyone who wanted to be in parade was allowed, however there were some really cool costumes as well, like this giraffe.

Yes, that's a guy...

Yep, another guy

I thought this girl was really cute, she was just dancing on the hood of a taxi.

Another guy

Check out the heels that guy in the gold is sporting.

Cute little Mini dressed up!

This one scared me.

This reminded me of the year Brad dressed up as a Telletubby.  Hahaha.

This was really creepy.  There was a huge pack of these people in their blank masks, slowing walking in silence, with black shirts that said ARREST BUSH.

That's Hilary Clinton with blood on her hands.  Obviously there were a lot of political statements being made.

Naomi Campbell and her maid.  These two guys reenacted the cell phone throwing incident over and over.

Another guy.  This was just as I was walking past to leave.  He totally posed for me.  Yikes.

We were on 6th Ave at W4 Street.

Al Gore with a blow up world.  Sorry the quality is so bad.

Obviously there were countless drag queens.

The skeletons again.  These things towered at about 15-20 feet.  They were pretty cool.

Happy belated Halloween!

Happy 80th birthday Grandma! (Dec 3rd)

So this is a couple days late but I had to post about my grandma because she just had her 80th birthday!  There aren't words to do justice to explain what a sweet and wonderful lady my grandma is.  I was so blessed to be able to have my grandparents living only a few blocks away while I was in college.  To say my grandma is giving is quite the understatement.  She had me over every Sunday for a delicious dinner.  Anyone who's been lucky enough to indulge in my grandma's fabulous cooking knows what a treat this is.  She always would comment that her cooking skills were headed downhill, but I don't know what she was talking about because everything was always so good.  I could go on and on about how wonderful she is, so I decided I would make a list of just some of the great qualities about beautiful Jean Hope.

• All meals at her house are a production with place mats, all sorts of options for drinks, side dishes, etc, even if it's just breakfast.
• She is the best host.
• If I ever needed anything while in college, she would get it for me.
• She always sends prompt birthday/holiday cards with perfectly crisp dollar bills in them (and by crisp I mean she goes to the bank to get new dollar bills, and then irons them before she sends them-so cute!)
• She always would make the best homemade rolls, and would send me back to my apartment with a bunch to keep in the freezer.
• Dinner always included dessert.
• She can sew anything.
• She knew my favorite places in the eastern Idaho area (like Johnny Carino's) and would find me coupons for them.
• Her house is always perfectly organized, not a junk drawer in sight.  It's so nice and peaceful to relax in.
• She's not only a sweet grandma to me, but to so many of my friends.  There are countless numbers of friends from college who've eaten dinner at her place.
• She's so supportive (the picture above with us and my grandpa was at my college graduation dinner.)
• She writes the best poems.
• When I was little she would always paint my nails when she came to visit.  She always had cool colors like hot pink, blue, and yellow.  This was LONG before these colors became popular.  She would always do fun designs like polka dots on my nails.
• She's one of the most thoughtful people I know.
• She loves to shop!
• She loves to use the computer and email, and I think she just got a digital camera too!
• She would do absolutely anything for anyone, and has always been a wonderful example to me.

Like I said, these are just some of the great things about my grandma.  She is such a beautiful person inside and out.  I love you Grandma, happy birthday!!

I can't wait to see this boy

Dear Santa.....

A girl can wish, right?