thoughts from SHAWNA

what goes up must (not) come down

2011-12-31T13:10:00.000-08:00

Remember how Molly and I were so excited for Dad to bring the bucket truck home so we could take the Christmas lights down?

Molly wanted me to go first. . . because we already knew I was a natural right??

So I climb in and expertly steer myself up to the upper left corner of the house and as I am reaching to take down the first of the lights, I bump. . . something?

Power goes off. . . and dad can't get it back on!

The pictures tell most of the story. . .

I sit around waiting in the bucket a while-

After Dad gets tired of one too many fireman jokes- he pulls out the ladder

Down comes Shawna!

Without even one ride in the bucket, Molly now gets stuck taking down some of the lights the old fashioned way- dad's make shift pole and hook (boo!)

Dad climbs into the bucket-

Dad climbs out of the bucket-

Dad fixes bucket!

And up Shawna goes again!

I held no hard feelings towards ole bucket. . . he did his job. . . eventually!

Molly however lost all trust. . . and never dared climbed on inside-

Maybe next year Molly!

Christmas at the Kellys

2011-12-29T10:41:00.000-08:00

Christmas at the Kelly's was great as always. Molly, Bryan, and Brooklyn got to be here this year, which was perfect. Bonnie, Cayden, Aubrey, and Puppy (Lil' Wolf) all spent the night as well as Doogle and I. It was a packed house! We tried to remember our Christmas Eve "traditions" as well as start some new ones. We had our spa time and gingerbread house building. The kids had a visit from the Pajama Fairy. And we ended the evening watching Dad's traditional Christmas eve night movie "Rudy."

(Not a Christmas movie-- not really sure how that got started so many moons ago!)

Christmas morning we opened presents and drank hot cocoa all before we went to church. .

Scott and his family came for a visit after church as well.

Good ole Santy Claus was generous to everyone.

It was a happy day.

lights galore

2011-12-28T19:11:00.000-08:00

This year I decorated TWO houses for Christmas. Mom and Dad's house was definitely a bit funner. I got to try out the bucket truck for the first time! I was a natural "driver." Though my house took a bit longer. . . it would have probably taken even longer if I had actually waited for the bucket truck to be driven up from California as dad had so kindly offered.

They both turned out fantastic though and definitely put both Kelly households into the festive spirit!

I'm officially a "Lousy Bowler"

2011-12-02T21:00:00.000-08:00

One day, back in August, I decided that I wanted to join a bowling league. So I did some texting and got some friends together and . . .

Team INCREDIBOWLS was born!

The first words that popped into my head on day one of league bowling were "white trash." It was nothing like my beloved BYU bowling league memories. I was ashamed that I had suckered three friends into committing to this with me. The first team we bowled against were pretty much scary looking and I honestly wondered how these people could even afford the $20 weekly fee besides all that beer they were guzzling. But they ended up being super friendly and helpful in how the league ran (obviously they were not newcomers like us). And by the end of the evening, I was getting a little more excited to go back the following week (though not completely).

As it turns out, the first team we played against were definitely the weirdest. . . believe it or not, several of the other teams actually seem somewhat normal. Or at least- not too scary.

We actually joined a 4-man team league but due to unfortunate circumstances (like Shawna being mean), one of our team members quit just a few weeks into the league. Of course, it was annoying, but we have hardly had any problems finding someone each week to step in for the night. As this 13 week session comes to a close, and the January session nears, I do find myself getting a bit nervous though. Afterall, we have had some excellent and most helpful substitutes over the past few weeks, but I am not sure that any of them are yet quite dedicated enough to commit the next 13 Tuesdays of their lives to the Redrock Bowling Alley.

The rest of my team are definitely in it for the long haul though. Its an unspoken vibe that I get (or maybe its because BJ went and bought a pair of his own bowling shoes and Holly has told me that a bowling ball has made it onto her Christmas list).

For Thanksgiving this year, we started a new tradition. . .

2011-11-28T19:37:00.000-08:00

Pie contest!!

The contestants:

Bonnie and Aubs went all out. . . homemade crust, new pear pie recipe. . . the works

Shawna had it a little easier. One of my sweet students (ok- lets be honest- one of my sweet parents) gave me a pie in a box: Homemade apple pie filling, the crumb mixture for the top, and the caramel sauce to drizzle on top of that. All I had to do was provide the delicious nilla wafer crumb pie crust and pop the whole thing in the oven!

Last minute entry- Cayden. After a silly orange/honeycomb pie failure, we booked it to Vons to grab a premade oreo crumb crust, filled it with some kind of ice cream that was chilling in the freezer, and covered the whole thing in the instant freeze chocolate. A ten minute pie for sure.

And Mom. . . she went to Costco...

Cayden got all into it. Immediately after dinner he got to work making ballots and a ballot box. Though he did refuse to put mom on the ballot. Something about store bought pies not being allowed.

Then a couple hours (and quite some nagging from Cayden) later, our stomachs had finally settled just enough to dig in to our very own "sample" plates.

It was a tough decision...

They were all so good!

(no worries- mom still got a write-in vote)

And the winner was declared. . .

But what does it really matter WHO won? It was the fun of the contest right?

Though I must say, I almost wept when my pie was gone. It was meant to be the winner.

I forsee this tradition living on in the future Kelly Thanksgivings. . .

What I was doing on. . .

2011-11-28T19:13:00.000-08:00

11/11/11

1. Flew out to Indiana!

2. Bonded with Brooklyn

3. Shopped with Molly

4. Took a few naps

5. Mikki comes to visit from Chicago!

6. Photo shoot by the clock at exactly 11:11!

7. Touristed around Indianapolis

8. Drank some delicious Frozen hot chocolates

9. Bowling and Chilis!

10. Said goodbye and went home :(

11. yahoo. . . first class!

Groupon hits again!

2011-11-10T20:38:00.000-08:00

I went mini golfing in a parking lot. Kind of weird, but it worked I guess.

The website claimed to be the only outdoor mini golf course in the city. So I pull up to the shopping center on a blistery cold and dark evening not really sure what to expect. And there it was, right there in the parking lot, a fenced in area where they somehow shoved together 18 little green putting holes. It was no Boomers. We had fun though.
I tried to get a picture of the set up. I was basically standing in front of the store. You walked out into the parking lot and there it was!

The boys (BJ and Ammon) doing some putting. Weird that I didn't notice that night, but they are totally matching. Funny.

And with Holly too.

I think we made it through the whole course in like an hour. Good thing. It was cold! My hands were numb. That's probably why I lost. :) Just kidding. I got 3rd. It would be embarrassing to lose to Ammon- he was terrible!

Rated i for intense!

2011-10-29T20:11:00.000-07:00

The hotel Circus Circus has a big pink dome enclosed adventure park that they spook up at Halloween time. Last week, my friend Jeremy took me for my first experience of Frightdome!

It doesn't open til after it's dark. They fog it up, and put lots of strobe lighting in it. Then there are tons and tons of scary people and clowns wandering around to spook you. They have 5 different "haunted houses" you can go through, plus all the rides are open as well.

Sadly, its not super easy getting good pictures in this atmosphere so I didn't really take many.

The first chance I got was when we went into the 4D show

right after the wet wet water ride- perfect!

The whole Frightdome is not recommended for anyone under 12, but the 4D movie seriously probably wouldn't scare a 4 year old. Lame. That definitely has to go.

We did get on a few rides early in the night, then went through 4 of the haunted houses before hitting the coaster one last time. On the way out, we passed a Frightdome hearse perfect for a photo opp.

The kind old man that offered to take our picture kept insisting on zooming. It was the end of a long, crazy night though, so sadly, zooming is probably what neither of us needed at that point.

Another year. . .

2011-10-23T11:46:00.000-07:00

Soup in Pumpkin bread bowls and building a haunted house, two of my favorite Halloween traditions.

(Even after pulling out the hot glue gun, we never did get that darn house to stay up)

On your marks. . .

2011-10-16T20:59:00.000-07:00

I went to California this weekend. I got there Friday night, and stayed with Bonnie and her kids the whole night helping her on a little project she was doing. The next day was busy. We made dinners in the morning, went to Cayd's soccer game after that, and then on to a late lunch. Somewhere between 4:30 and 5 Saturday evening, I remembered that I was supposed to ask dad to help me out on my own little project I needed to do. . . whoops!

So I found pops, and told him I needed a little stand made to hang donuts from, for a donut eating booth at a Halloween carnival I had coming up. In seriously like 10 minutes, dad had the whole thing whipped up! We had to go to the Depot for one little 57 cent part, but everything else he just had, even black paint to make it a little more decorative!

Of course that night, just a few hours later, us Kelly's were having our own donut eating contest... (we had to test it out!)

My dad is the BEST!

I was wrong

2011-10-13T21:55:00.000-07:00

With getting ready to leave town for one little night, I had so much to do that I misplaced my camera. which has since been recovered! So I used my phone to get one picture of my St. George trip number 2. Look familiar?

I drove up to St. George immediately from work on Monday. There, I met up with my friend Kellie and her friend Jen to see the play The Little Mermaid. I was much more impressed with this show than the last. They did a really good job with it. We stayed the night at Kellie's Grandparent's house and the next morning went to breakfast, did a little hiking, got some ice cream, then I was headed out. It was a fun little visit and it was nice to see Kellie again. Maybe one day I'll talk her into coming down to visit me some weekend. . . 3 years here and I've yet to have any luck. . . soon though I'm sure :)

Dinner is served

2011-10-08T17:30:00.000-07:00

I am not one to just cook food on my own for myself. Seems like a lot of hassle for one person. And to make a whole pan of something or other to eat for a whole week didn't seem like the way to go either. So honestly I started eating out A LOT. If I did happen to be at home for a night and didn't want to go out (or was feeling broke- which is quite frequently), I'd eat a bowl of cereal or some kind of frozen pizza pocket from the freezer. Dinner time in my house was rarely what we would call quality.

So over the summer, Bonnie was introduced to Dream Dinners. When I found out what she was doing, I decided to join in on the fun.

It's a place that has the ingredients out and ready and often pre-measured for several different kinds of dinners that you prepare in either 3 or 6 serving quantities. You measure and bag the ingredients yourself to basically make some quality frozen meals.

So I got myself a cute lil' ice chest, learned how to use dry ice, and head down to California once a month to make dinners for the following month. Everything I make comes in servings of 3, so I usually cook dinner one night, then store the other two servings in their own individual containers that are quick and easy to grab for lunch each day.

I still manage to find myself out to dinner a couple times a week, so it works out perfectly to have a few extra lunches ready in the fridge when needed.

Not to mention, Bonnie and I now have scheduled monthly bonding time. :)

These are some pictures of just a few of the many delicious meals I have made since! YUM!

One runner, one fallen

2011-10-04T20:20:00.000-07:00

Because September 11 was the ten year anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy, the city of Las Vegas put on a remembrance run in honor of the 3063 victims taken that day. One runner, one fallen assigned each runner the name of a victim to run in honor of.

Wilson F. Flagg was on American flight 77 with his wife when it was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon. He left two sons, and four grandchildren.

I definitely wasn't the fastest runner on the 9.11 K course, and might not have been in the most "runnery" of moods that day, but it was a neat experience to be a part of this event and to be thinking of someone other than myself as I made my way through the course.

We met downtown on Fremont Street and ran through the side roads in that area. Anyone that knows anything about Vegas knows that this is not known to be the best of areas. I went by myself, but at 4 am the only crazies in the area, were the crazies that were running... so I wasn't too nervous. After the run was over however, was a different story! I found myself on a downtown street by myself, not knowing which direction I was even going. As I passed a group of policemen arresting some old homeless looking drunk man, a big woman came running down the street hollering at the police to stop wasting their time arresting some innocent old man and to go find the person that were just violating her!

Yup. . . the regular crazies had come out!

Geesh, I hope I find my car soon. . . I mumbled to the only normal looking person nearby.

Me too! She answered.

I got out of there ok. . . I hope she did too!

St. George. . . part 1

2011-09-27T19:30:00.000-07:00

My friend Jeremy's mom got 4 tickets to see the play "Grease" up at the Tuacahn Theatre in St. George. His dad was going too so I got to be the fourth. I had heard great things about the place. It's a big outdoor theatre set up right against the cliffs in St. George.

People were right, the theatre was really neat. The play, unfortunately, didn't live quite up to expectations. They put on two plays a year however, the other one this year being "The Little Mermaid" which my friend Kellie has already talked me into meeting her there in a couple of weeks for, she is coming from northern Utah. Some friends I work with said that "The Little Mermaid" was an absolutely amazing play. So I guess I'll find out on Oct 10th!

Hopefully I take a few more pictures next time.

Yet another adventure

2011-09-25T16:00:00.000-07:00

To end the summer, Molly, Bryan, Brooklyn, and I drove up to Utah to do some long overdo visits before they had to head back to Indiana. It was a very FULL car with all their stuff, but we eventually made it!

Once in Provo, we were able to grab some deliciousness at the one and only J Dawgs. Then I dropped Molly, Bryan, and Brooklyn off at their family's house while I did a little visiting first with my friend Brittney and her baby, and later with Randi where we had a nice little gab session, ate some coldstone, and got one not so great picture before I went back to Bryan's brother's house late in the night. It was a short, but good visit. :)

The next morning, Bryan headed off with his brother for their own little adventure, leaving Molly, Brooklyn, and I heading back south to Provo to another food favorite, Brick Oven. Yum! Jenae and her baby Audrey joined us, along with our good pals Kellie and Brittney.

Way too much time has passed since the five of us girls had been able to get together. There was so much to talk about and catch up on, and not nearly enough time to cover it all. :( It was a fantastic visit however, and it was so good to see them all. Molly and I had to say our goodbyes first because we had to scamper off to the airport to say our own official summer goodbyes. :(

After dropping Molly and Bryan off in the early evening, it was time to fill my car with gas, and my cupholder with some coke because I had a long drive back to Vegas with just me. But shortly after departing Salt Lake, I got a (somewhat) expected call from Molly saying that her and Brooklyn could not get on the only remaining flight out that night. So back to the airport I went.

Now I had two travel companions to make the trip south with me but unfortunately, it was nearing one of their bedtimes and she was not a happy little passenger. So Molly and I made the executive decision to push back our departure time a bit and stop back in Provo at our friend Brittney's house to get Brooklyn a little more ready for the trip. Since Brittney's baby Macey couldn't be at lunch earlier that afternoon, it was nice to have a small visit with them. Brittney had everything we needed to get Brooklyn ready for the drive. She got a little bit of dinner, a fun filled bath, changed into her cozy pjs, and had a warm bottle. After that, we loaded Brooklyn back in the car and she fell asleep immediately. It was perfect!

I can't say that the remainder of our trip was quite so perfect. We were heading out of Provo at about 7 pm and Molly and I decided that since it was so late already, there was no harm in leaving a TAD later. So we swung by the BYU Creamery to get our favorite Earnestly Chocolate icecream, and a few minutes later we OFFICIALLY were on the road.

We hit a terrible rain and win storm immediately, as in, we weren't even out of Provo yet. That definitely started us off slower than we were hoping because we were already setting out so late. Somewhere around midnight we drove into good ole Beaver, Ut. We tried to get something to eat from Wendys, but after sitting in the drive thru for a good 30 minutes, we thought we'd have better luck at the only other open joint, McDonalds, and we left. We didn't leave quietly though, The poor overworked drive thru boy got to hear a bit from Molly as we drove off. It was pretty funny. Pretty much the same scenario happened at McDonalds. I don't know what was going on that night, but nobody could seem to get us any "fast" food. We were in Beaver for nearly an hour before we got to hit the road again. Definitely was not worth the short little pit stop we were expecting!

The remainder of the drive was pretty uneventful. We ended up in Vegas somewhere around 2 in the morning (3 am Utah time). We were exhausted! The next night Bryan flew back with hopes of taking Molly and Brooklyn home, but once again, they were stuck here. We enjoyed the last of our time together though, and on Tuesday morning they were finally able to catch a flight home. It was bittersweet. . . we all knew that they couldn't stay here forever. . . though some days it felt like they would. :)

an apple for the teacher

2011-09-20T17:39:00.001-07:00

Today a little biddy boy in my class came walking in with a pretty nice sized box. It looked heavy. In fact, it was heavy. He handed it to me explaining that it was a present from him and his mom.

pictures don't really do it justice. . . it's quite large

I open it up expecting to find some freshly picked apples? Afterall, it is an apple box. . . a very heavy apple box. . .

Nope, not apples!

Somehow word had gotten around that my favorite candies are reeses peanut butter cups.

I got everything under the sun in reeses cups. A shirt, stuffed animal, baking mix, cereal, white chocolate, dark chocolate, snack size, king size, mini size. . . etc etc etc.

It was quite the surprise. . . and completely made my day!

I have been so busy playing summer catch up on my blog though still not done that I have not even mentioned this school year yet. We are three weeks in and I really think I might have one of the best classes ever. No, not because they bring me some WAY nice presents, but because they really are a very sweet bunch of little 3rd graders. We have harder days than others boys will be boys but they are seriously some of the nicest kids you can come across.

I am really looking forward to this year . . . it is going to be great! and yummy too!

Yet another year goes by. . .

2011-09-19T20:49:00.000-07:00

Well . . . the Kellys made it through yet another river trip adventure. This time we brought grandpa along and baby Brooklyn too. Think those were both the youngest and the oldest to ever come along on our trip. They brought a few new twists to the mix, but luckily for us we have gotten pretty good at the whole river trip experience and everything went pretty smoothly.

We played in the water by day. . . and played in the casino by night. Not too bad of a way to end a summer vacation.

Where did the time go?

2011-09-11T21:47:00.000-07:00

This was the first summer in a long time that Molly and I would both be not working. So basically, we had been planning this summer since before Brooklyn was even born. When my school ended, I took off for Indiana for a little less than two weeks. Our days of hanging out, and pretty much doing nothing, started there. The party was then moved to California where we could spend time with the rest of the family. Molly and I spent the days with the kids and the backyard, and we spent the evenings with Bonnie or Mom and Dad, or both. Bryan flew in when he could.

And that was my summer vacation!

(besides a few trips here and there. . . we'll get to those eventually!)

did you say FREE?

2011-09-11T13:56:00.000-07:00

Anyone who is anyone knows that 7-11 gives away free slurpees on July 11, the official 7-11 of each year. As kids I remember getting free small slurpees, but as we grew up, the cups they offered on free 7-11 day got smaller and smaller. This year as 7-11 approached, I decided to see just how many free slurpees the kiddos and I could get. The challenge was on!

We hit 10 7-11's in Escondido alone. Two of them were out of cups by the time we got there. We had to give up after the 10 though. Because we had no more 7-11s to hit? Absolutely not! It was because whimpo Cayden started claiming that this was the worst day of his life! No joke. He was tired of slurpees! I told him at each stop that he didn't have to come in, Aubs and I could do the challenge on our own. But he was still done with it. So overall, we each drank eight 7.11 oz slurpees (plus we cracked and got some of the cheap corndogs to munch on too. . . to appease the boy of course).

I'd say that overall, we didn't do too bad. Though next year, we may have to start a tad earlier to beat our record (and may possibly have to leave the weakest link at home!)

the BIG finale!

2011-09-03T14:30:00.000-07:00

We had one final stop to make in Riverside, Ca. It had been such a long trip and we were so close to home, I honestly almost did away with it. It wasn't one of the most exciting stops I thought and I didn't really want to end on a dud. Unfortunately though, our previous stop had been the paper cup. Not really a finale winner either, so ultimately we stopped for our final "California Must-see."

Yup- it's a chair! President Taft's chair actually. If you aren't very familiar with history, I'll remind you that President Taft was our fattest president. Meaning. . . he needed a really fat chair to sit in!

And there we have it. The BIG roadtrip was finally complete. It took us a bit over an hour to get home after that. Though we had many fun adventures, and saw many amazing and cool things. . . our stops were just the half of it! I mentioned very little of the actual road trip. . . the hours, upon hours, and days upon days that we sat in the car going from one stop to the other.

I had somewhat worried that it would be a crazy trip. Kids would get bored. . . and adults would get annoyed. But this trip proved quite otherwise. We planned so many car trip activities, that most of the time actually flew on by. We had computers with DVD players, we listened to a whole book on tape, played madlibs, battleship, and hangman. Aubs made bracelets and Cayd played his little game system. We ate snacks and had long discussions about what we needed to do to OUR houses, to get us on the map for people to come visit (don't ask!). And we ALL participated in the great License Plate frenzy game.
The picture shows the winner of that one.

The final car picture I took makes me laugh, because it was not only til we were 40 minutes away from home that Aubrey finally passed out in the car. Besides that, no car napping the entire way! Something I very much did NOT expect.

So here is to a great roadtrip. . . and for the year ahead to plan the next grans adventure!

Still thirsty?

2011-08-29T19:00:00.000-07:00

Worlds biggest "paper cup."

Need I say more?

Riverside, CA

Back to our childhood

2011-08-29T18:51:00.000-07:00

As our trip neared an end, we headed into Norco, Ca. Just a mere hour from home! If I had only known these old friends were there this whole time, I would have made my way up there sooner!

The kiddos actually had never even heard of Gumby or Pokey. So sad. So this stop was definitely more for Bonnie and I. They were actually located right in the front yard of just a typical house. Weird. Though this is what inspired the conversation for almost the rest of the ride home. What can we put in the front of OUR houses, to put them on the map of odd places to see??

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. . .

2011-08-29T18:42:00.000-07:00

We woke up on our final day in Bakersfield, Ca. Originally, Bakersfield wasn't on our list of stops. But we had to side track there to find our "fireworks show" the night before. Bonnie didn't want to waste being in a city and not seeing a great site, so I played around on google a little bit. . . and this is what we found.

It's a building, shaped like a shoe. Originally a shoe repair? Now it's an old decrepid nothing building.

Now I remember why Bakersfield didn't originally make our list of stops.

Moving on. . .

Happy Birthday America

2011-08-20T19:19:00.000-07:00

One of the hardest things about planning a trip like this was the timing. We could map out a route and easily figure out how many miles away something was, but how long it would take to get there, and how long the actual stop would be was harder to calculate. We ended some days much later than anticipated while other days we got through things a lot quicker than expected. . . and July 4th was a prime example of that.

I can't say we actually got through things quicker than expected, I just gave us more time for this stop because it was something we didn't want to be late for. On almost every other night, we drove about as far as we wanted to, then just found us a hotel when we were done for the night. The stops weren't really planned out. But July 4th was different because I had to find us a city that was putting on a fireworks show that we could stop at to watch. Those typically end late, meaning we would sleep near the city that put on the show. So when I planned the trip, I had to guess where we would be about an hour or so before fireworks started. So I found a little city called Gustine, Ca that was putting on a show at the local high school. Sounded just like the type of thing good ole Escondido High used to do every year. Hopefully there would be booths selling some food and glow sticks, some music playing, and a nice grassy area for us to set out our blankets and relax for a little bit.

Well, we got to Gustine a bit earlier than I thought we would. You have probably never heard about Gustine, CA either, because basically it was nothing. It was in the middle of some kind of farming community which was basically the middle of nowhere. When we arrived, the high school had nothing going on yet, and it seemed like the whole town was camped out in the local McDonalds because it was SO hot outside. We joined the town in McDonalds but were kind of at a loss as of what to do next. We surely did not want to stick around for another 3 hours just to watch some fireworks that honestly usually aren't that exciting anyway.

So Bonnie finally made the executive decision to keep driving. Hopefully we could get a bit further and then kind of stumble upon a city a few hours south that was hosting a fireworks show. So while she drove, I fidgeted with her phone and tried to find us an alternate plan. We came up with one, and at about dusk (the typical fireworks start time) we rolled into Bakersfield, Ca for the night. I had found that something was going on at a local ballpark, so after driving up and down a road, continually missing the street we were looking for, we frantically stopped at a gas station to ask for directions. By the time we actually found the ballpark, Bonnie was officially annoyed with me because apparently every part of this bad night was MY fault.

And maybe she was right because somehow I misread stuff and the ballpark was NOT where fireworks were being put on afterall. It was a place however, that they open up to the public for whoever wants to go set off their own fireworks. They had some flags raised, a snack bar open, and some music playing and a little bit after we arrived and wandered around confused for a while (did we MISS the fireworks show?) random people went onto the field and began putting on their own shows.

This was definitely a new experience for us all. I've seen the "professional" shows. . . and I've set off my own little fireworks. . . but have never watched a bunch of strangers set off their own. I must say, it was not my favorite activity. Maybe it was the fact that most of the hillbillyish people of Bakersfield, Ca did not look like they could even read the caution signs displayed all over their fireworks let alone should be playing with fire! So I spent most of the night fearful of some stray firework coming and getting us. It just seemed a little too chaotic and unsupervised to me, but Cayd seemed to love it and I guess it was neat to try something new for this particular holiday. After about an hour or shorter of watching our fireworks, we found us Dennys to eat at and a nice hotel to sleep at. The day ended well and we all happily slept in our FINAL hotel of the trip.

Tractor, or building, or. . .

2011-08-20T19:15:00.000-07:00

BOTH???

Just a wee bit south in Turlock, Ca we discovered a building shaped as a tractor, or bulldozer, or whatever it is. It was pretty cool. But outside was still super hot. So we captured a few pictures and were off.

Cayds got a hold of the camera on this trip as well. Quite the photographer I must say.

Thirsty?

2011-08-04T08:58:00.000-07:00

Besides the capital building, there were two other sites to see in Sacramento, Ca. Both of them got the same clue.

Thirsty??

(which of course. . . we were!)

Our first site was located in a hotel right near the Capital building. We found a parking spot a ways away, then walked around the corner to the hotel. After we wandered the hotel for a while (which we didn't mind too much because it was nice and cool), we finally had to ask someone about our next site. And sadly we learned that it had been removed.

Apparently since bottled water became a hit, people don't use fountains much anymore so the hotel no longer found them necessary. Though I'm not sure if 9 fountains in a row were ever necessary!

Sadly, we were getting ready to leave the hotel when I realized that I needed some quick directions to our next exit. Now the hotel man thought we were really weird! We came in looking for a bunch of water fountains, which they no longer had, we then refused his kind offer of some free water bottles for our apparently thirsty little family, and then we ask him if he has ever heard of our next site, and how we were to get there. No- he had no clue what we were talking about, but he took the address and gave us the directions we needed. We thanked him prefusely. . . as he wished us luck finding our odd destination, and we headed out. And about 15 minutes later. . . we arrived!

Good ole Coke . . . didn't let us down!

Now the turnaround

2011-08-04T08:38:00.000-07:00

Some people might think we lucked out on this next day just a bit, but I just say that it was all very excellent planning! Because on Monday, July 4, we dressed in our matching 4th of July apparel (courtesy of Bonnie) and began our drive towards home. Because there were so many more sites to see, we decided to take a different route home so that we could continue on our adventures. And wouldn't you know that our excellent planning this July 4th holiday took us right to our state capital of California! Going to Sacramento on 4th of July seemed perfect. I pictured flags and banners along the city streets as well as maybe some patriotic music lightly blasting from the capital building. Perhaps a small marching band or a little all day fair to attend?

But sadly, I was mistaken. We made it to the capital building (which was not swarmed with people as I had somewhat expected) and took a few pictures. It was so hot, that we practically had to drag grumpus Cayden out of the car, and often found him wandering away towards the shade of a tree rather than enjoying the kodak opportunities. The only thing that kept him moving at times was the promise of an ice cream run after we were done.

Being July 4th though. . . everything was closed. No ice cream for Cayd :(

Bigfoot or Bust

2011-07-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

The next morning, all bright eyed and bushy tailed, the four of us grabbed breakfast from the local gas station and drove about a mile down the road to the edge of town where we found Bigfoot Rafting. We met our tour guide for the day whom Bonnie nicknamed "Jed" when she couldn't remember his name, and frankly according to her that's what he looked like.

We loaded into a jeep which took us down the road and to the river, hopped aboard our little raft for the day, and "Jed" guided us on our search for Bigfoot.

We floated down the river some, enjoyed the scenery, looked for clues of bigfoot, and busted our way through some rapids. "Jed" was a great sport and caught on quickly how into the whole Bigfoot thing Cayd was, so he would sporadically pull the boat over, and help Cayd search the area for signs of the beast.

We had some lunch on the river and then on our final stop, Cayd finally found his proof!

I must say, we were all pretty relieved. None of us girls really wanted to end the day by tramping through the forest on our own little hike trying to appease Cayd on this quest for Bigfoot.

So from all of us, thank you Jed!

We got back into town in plenty of time to continue our exciting adventures with a trip to the Bigfoot Museum.

We spent a good twenty minutes at the museum. Long enough to see some artifacts, hear some bigfoot facts, sign in the guest book, and get some amazing souveniers.

We walked back to the hotel for some clean up and down time. Then onto dinner!

Back to the gas station for some dessert, and on to the hotel for a movie.

I couldn't think of a more perfect way to end our day of Bigfoot adventure!

Welcome to Willow Creek

2011-07-26T13:44:00.000-07:00

This is it! This is what we came for. . . the city that revolves around Bigfoot.

Willow Creek, CA

We checked into our hotel somewhere after 4 pm on Saturday. Right from check in we realized that people in this neck of the woods were a little on the odd side. But we were only going to be there for a day and a half, how bad could it possibly be?

We decided to hit the town before dinner because we weren't very hungry yet. Unfortunately, the town was only about a street long and had very little to see. Bigfoot Museum was closed for the day and according to the lady who ran our hotel, we probably should have called in advance because basically they open and close whenever they feel like it. That's small town life for you.

We hit the bigfoot-shaped pool (but come to think of it, most typical pools can be somewhat considered foot shaped) meaning it looked like a regular pool. We met some more weirdos, hung out in the hotel a bit, hiding from the before mentioned weirdos, had dinner, and went back to our hotel where the kiddos ended the evening by watching some tv. Had to be all rested up for the next day!

WTTP

2011-07-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

Our next stop was obviously only about 63 miles north of the giant redwoods for a reason. . .

Must see # 19: World's Tallest Totem Pole - - - Mickinleyville, CA

The WTTP in all its glory, stood in the parking lot behind a grocery store. We hung around it for a while, Cayd climbed it a bit, we got some pictures, then we loaded up and headed out.

Next stop. . . Willow Creek, California. Our final destination. 3 days later and a little less than 1,000 miles up through California. It is here that we will begin our trek for the one and only Bigfoot.

Stay tuned

Tree- mendous!

2011-07-24T08:30:00.000-07:00

It was a good thing we stopped for the night where we did, because day 3 is when we basically started driving through the foresty parts of northern California. Stops were few and far between. We had a few planned stops for the day, but you never know what you can stumble upon!

As I was planning our trip out, I saw a neat place called the one long house. . .

In case you haven't already guessed, this is a giant redwood log that's been hollowed out and furnished with a secondhand bedroom set. Since it's mounted on wheels, Famous One Log RV might be a more appropriate title.

Hmmm. . . the wheel thing is what kind of threw me off. Apparently the One Log House gets moved from place to place on occasion and I didn't have the patience to try to figure out where it is currently residing. So imagine my surprise on day three when we are driving along the road and run right into the One Log House! This became our first unofficial stop for the day.

We then continued on to our planned next two stops which were located in the same little park in Myers Flat. Little park might not be the right term for this place though, because it's a park located in the middle of the Redwood forest. So the trees were HUGE. Big enough to say maybe drive on? Or drive thru? Two things that had definitely been planned into our trip!

Must sees # 16, 17, 18: One Log House, Drive on tree, Drive thru tree-- Myers Flat

When we stopped at the One Log House we were out of the car for just a few short minutes. Long enough to take a few pictures, and to peak into the house. When we got back into the car and were driving away, we noticed a weird "handprint" on our very dusty car window. It clearly wasn't a handprint though. It looked more like a bear claw! We don't know when or how it got there, but we did attempt many pictures of our own little traveling oddity.

Good grief

2011-07-21T16:11:00.000-07:00

With some yummy snacks in hand, we hit the road once again towards our next destination, Santa Rosa, Ca. As we neared our spot, the family wanted a clue as to what our next stop would be.

I ignored the question and instead kept asking them to "hand me" stuff from the back seat. I repeated it several times. Bonnie laughed as we drove by our next ginormous California oddity, but sadly the kids didn't get it. Cayd even complained that I didn't give him a clue. Geesh . . .

Must see # 14: Giant hand-- Santa Rosa, CA

The giant hand was located in the front of a mall entrance. So we drove around and found a spot to park and as we were walking towards the mall, we actually came across part of our next must see adventure!

Must See # 15: Peanuts statues-- Santa Rosa, CA

The city of Santa Rosa was home to Peanuts creator Charles Schulz. So now there are several statues located around town of his many different characters. We didn't visit with them all, but did find many of them.

At one statue, we were attempting a self timed picture that we could all be in (I must say, our family is pretty good at getting self timed photos). A kind lady walking her dogs came by though and asked if she could take the picture for us. Great! We said. Then she kind of looked around and told us that she didn't know what to do with the dogs while she took the picture. It was a little odd I must admit, but good ol' Bon had the perfect solution, and that is why there are a few extra guests in one of the photos.

In the same area that we found some of the peanuts statues, we came across this random scissor statue as well. We think it was a slide, meaning, we all took some time to actually slide down it, but I don't know if that is technically what it was meant to be. It was a fun little addition to this very statue crazed city we were in.

We then went to the mall and had some dinner. Originally I had planned for this to be our stop for the evening. But being that it wasn't too late, we opted to drop that plan and drove about an hour north to the little city of Ukiah where we found us a hotel which oddly enough, was located right next door to the slowest McDonalds in all of California. Eventually though, we did get our desserts and headed to bed.

What's your flavor?

2011-07-21T13:04:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons I have always wanted to visit San Francisco. . .

Must See # 13: Jelly Belly Factory - - Fairfield, CA

Not really located directly in San Francisco, but about an hour north east. They had a free sample bar as we waited in line, a free tour with our stylish new hats, and a free bag of Jelly Bellys after the tour! It was a pretty smashing deal.

Of course we spent some time in the store afterwards making some delicious purchases. YUM!

Moving on

2011-07-14T08:12:00.000-07:00

After Brisbane, it was finally time to head into San Francisco. Though I have lived in California for most of my life, I have never traveled the 500 miles or so to visit this city. This trip was the perfect opportunity to knock it off of my list of places to go.

San Francisco was a hard city to maneuver through. There was tons of traffic, and we seriously had to go through so much of the city to get to the bridge. That was the main thing we wanted to see there. We had compiled a small list of possible sites to find, but since we were under a bit of a time constraint for our next big stop, we didn't have the freedom to play around the city as much as we hoped. Ultimately we had to cancel the other planned San Fran stop (if someone has seen the cartoons drawn on toilet seats, I would love to hear about them), and didn't get to add the few we had hoped to. But we made it to the bridge. . . finally.

Because we couldn't stay long, and the bridge had a toll to drive over, we decided to park the car on the San Francisco side, take some pictures, and walk a bit over it. Unfortunately, communication between navigator and driver failed at a critical point and we ended up going over the bridge after all. So we enjoyed our mistake, and eventually made it to the other side, searched out a parking spot with the many other cars that were trying to do the same, and squeezed through the crowds to find our perfect picture spot.

Must see # 12: Golden Gate Bridge - - San Francisco, CA

Since we mistakenly drove over the bridge, we had to cross it again just to come back. So back over the bridge we went and then on to our next destination, with high hopes that we make it on time!

Serious? Another cemetery?

2011-07-12T20:07:00.000-07:00

Yup, as if one cemetery wasn't enough for a trip like this, I thought another one would complete the adventure. This was a cemetery like none other though, no tiptoeing around people's long lost pets, just their long lost, ripped out, fire hydrants that happened to be painted as people.

Must See # 12: Fire hydrant cemetery -- Brisbane, CA

The city of Brisbane actually paints all their fire hydrants that are located around the city. Once they need to be replaced however, they relocate them to this small grassy corner. It wasn't very big, and didn't have a ton of them. . . maybe 7 or 8? I guess they have pretty long life spans and don't have to be replaced very often.

So we parked, huddled around a few hydrants. . . definitely got a stare or two (brisbane was full of some interesting looking people), snapped some pictures, and were off!

Pfefferminz

2011-07-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

On day two, we didn't have to wake up too bright and early. Our next stop wasn't opened until ten o'clock and was only about 35 minutes away. So we grabbed some breakfast and headed on out.

Throughout the drive, the kids (and Bonnie) would ask for clues about the next stop. We kind of played 20 questions with it. I think this was one of two stops that was guessed ahead of time. Somehow Cayd knew that the only Pez museum is located in California and he sure was hoping he would get the chance to go. Because every time we would head to a new place, he would always guess the Pez museum, even if it didn't match the stinkin clues I was giving him! So of course, this was one of his first guesses that morning.

Must See # 11: Pez Museum-- Burlingame, CA

When we first drove by the tiny little shop in the middle of a little shopping center, I thought that this was going to be a bust. We parked, stuck one quarter in the meter (cuz 20 minutes would be plenty of time) and headed on in. The room we walked in to was very small, and filled with, you know it, PEZ. This apparently was the store. But for $2 a person, we could get into the museum, and have a personal tour. Yes! So we forked over the $8 to the weird Pez man and he led us into the museum. . . which frankly was another tiny room separated from the store by some little Pez curtains.

I must admit, the "tour" was quite interesting. We learned about the history of Pez, saw the original packaging of it, and then saw every pez dispenser that has ever been made. He told us which dispensers to keep our eyes out for (that's my new plan A for striking it rich) then had random other old toys that had nothing to do with Pez, but were from the same pez era? but honestly, I'm still not too sure what the other toys were really for.

We snapped some photos in the museum, then of course we had to get one by the world's biggest Pez dispenser (created by Mr. Pez museum tour guide himself)

Cayd and Aubs (and yes- even Bon) then had ample time to souvenier shop and find the perfect Pez dispensers to take home.

Bags and photos in hand, we finally left the museum and realized that we had definitely exceeded our parking meter time. Who would've thought? Luckily for us, the Pez parking men didn't ticket us and we were happily on our way.

Giant fun!

2011-07-11T07:45:00.000-07:00

Our last stop of the day was in Dad's hometown of San Jose, Ca. We had our choice of seeing the famous Winchester Mystery House (which I have been wanting to see for a while now) or a giant playable Monopoly game in the middle of a park.

Isn't there an obvious choice here?

Must see # 10: Giant Monopoly Board-- San Jose, CA

You can actually reserve the game board and wear giant goofy monopoly pieces on your head! Would've been awesome, but sadly, it had been a pretty long day already, and playing a giant game of Monopoly is not how we chose to end it. Instead, we found some of our favorite places on the board, shot a couple of pictures, and headed to our first pit stop (hotel) in our adventures through California.

We started day one at around 7:30 in the morning, and made it to our hotel in Santa Clara at about 9 at night. It made for one very long day. Luckily enough, it was going to be our longest day by far, and it didn't even feel like we had spent over 13 hours and about 550 miles traveling.

A is for artichoke. . .

2011-07-11T07:09:00.000-07:00

I am not one for really liking artichokes . . .

but this one can be my exception!

Must see # 9: Giant Artichoke - - Castroville, CA

I have never driven up the coast of California. The scenery was much different than traveling north towards Las Vegas or Utah. There were miles and miles and miles of different trees, and plants, and orchards. Apparently, Castroville is the artichoke capital of the world. Pretty crazy! We also happened to pass through "Split pea soup capital of the world" as well. . but didn't capture a photo of it.

The giant artichoke is located at a restaurant which menu features a variety of artichoke foods. Bon and the kids enjoyed some deep fried artichokes, while I just waited for our next Jack n the Box stop instead.

Now that's what we call ART

2011-07-11T07:04:00.000-07:00

Now that we got several of our sites out of the way, our first big chunk of driving had approached. Luckily, I knew, that there was going to be something fabulous waiting at the end of this next 3 hour portion of our drive.

No one else knew what we had in store, but I am happy to announce that it did not disappoint!

Must see # 8: Bubble Gum Alley - - San Luis Obispo, CA

We write our epitaphs on walls with gum, And though it may be meaning less to some, We have a symbol of our gummy youth, Whose walls may not tell some glorious truth, But eloquently speak of better times, Of cruising, shopping sprees, and nursery rhymes. If gum is all you see upon our wall, Your mind is closed, your spirit shrunk and small, Though memories of youth may never last, Gum Alley is our present to our past.

I guess this just goes to show, that anything can be considered a work of art!

We came, we chewed, we created, we captured, and then. . . we left.

RIP

2011-07-11T06:56:00.000-07:00

Half an hour later. . . we finally made it to our first rather disappointing stop. . .

Must (not) see # 7: Dead pets of the stars - - Calabasas, CA

Yup, on our fun road trip through California, we went to a pet cemetery. It wasn't supposed to be just any pet cemetery though, rumor has it that many famous people's pets are buried here, as well as some famous little pups from the movies. Unfortunately, I didn't read the information very well, and we discovered that this cemetery is quite large. 10 acres large that is. And 10 acres of dogs and cats and horses and lions (yes, there was a lion) and bird tombstones made for a lot of searching. We never did come across any of those famous pets, afterall, it was rather hot outside and the whole thing was rather odd. We did come across some fun names for future pets though and also discovered that many people have pets named Bonnie. Weird.

A pleasant surprise

2011-07-09T23:09:00.000-07:00

As we were driving down the road, almost to cube tree, we passed a little bakery with signs hanging up claiming the bakery to be a winner of Food Channels tv show "Cupcake Wars." As we passed by, Bonnie asked if we should stop, and honestly, I said no. Sorry Molly! I just knew that we had a lot of stops to make, and it was going to be a long day, and for some reason, cube tree was just one of the stops I was really looking forward to. I know. . . weird. Bonnie was persistent however and I agreed that since we were coming back this way to get back on the freeway, we could stop after cube tree. So we did.

(Unplanned but surprise) must see # 6: Hotcakes Bakery-- Culver City, CA

We parked and went into the bakery, which honestly was a little disappointing. They had one of the "winning" cupcakes labeled to try, but was a flavor that did not interest me in the least. But that was it! No pictures or signs or any form of memorabilia from being on, and winning a tv show contest! Seems so silly to me. The bonus though as you can all guess. . . a yummy, or more like 6, yummy snacks for the road!

Kodak fun continues. . .

2011-07-09T22:55:00.000-07:00

Someone cut a tree on their front lawn in the shape of a cube. It's pretty cool.

That's the only information we needed to add this destination to our list of stops! And for a bonus? Only 10 minutes from the donut shop!

Must See # 5: Cube Tree-- Culver City, CA

. . . And they were right, it was pretty cool!

Yum!

2011-07-08T15:07:00.000-07:00

Recognize this?

Must see #4: Big Donut-- Inglewood, CA

Though on the list of California odditites, there seemed to be several titled "Big Donut," we knew that Randy's was the one not to miss! Afterall. . .

Randy's is a destination with Hollywood star status. It appears over and over as a movie backdrop or in obliquely angled atmospheric LA montages.

Yup, who would've guessed that this trip would lead us to seeing probably one of the most famous donuts ever seen on tv?! Obviously we couldn't get the donut's autograph, but the owners (who happened to be working at the time) kindly signed a postcard for Cayden.

And since this stop was so cleverly planned only 120 miles into the trip, we were able to hit it somewhere around 10:30 in the morning. Perfect time for breakfast!

Little biddy part 2

2011-07-07T18:40:00.000-07:00

I thought I had done such a good job of mapping everything out, but we happened to completely miss the exit for biddy biddy church, then as we neared the next mystery spot, we discovered that this exit was closed. We didn't really have maps of the cities we were hitting, we were going almost completely off written directions. Bonnie started getting a bit crabby when we realized that for the second time in a row, we were going to have to pull over to find directions. I tried to keep everyone chipper, but of course the same thought was going through my head. . . are we going to get lost and search for directions for all our stops?

Well, after making a few circles, we ended up at our next location. . .

Must see # 3- America's skinniest house-- Long Beach, CA

If I do recall, Bonnie's mood was completely lifted after finding skinny house! It was so worth all those turn arounds! We felt a little silly hopping out of the car to take pictures, especially with the neighbor outside. But he was so nice, and told us that people are always stopping for pictures. He even gave us permission to move the garbage cans for a better kodak picture!

Now on to something a little bit bigger. . .

Little biddy

2011-07-06T12:25:00.000-07:00

When our trip first started getting planned, I told Bonnie of some of the stops we would be making, the kids however, were kept in the dark on everything.

The night before departure though, I did come across a few more must see places, which ended up making some of our destinations a surprise for everyone afterall.

So 70 miles into our trip (plus a few extra for turnaround purposes when we got lost), we pulled into a small random shopping center to find our next exciting picture op.
Must see # 2: Tiny Church in Parking Lot -- Tustin, Ca

It claims to be a 6 person church. We didn't get the opportunity to see inside of it, so I am not really sure if there are just 6 seats in it or what, but it seems rather silly to have a whole church for that few amount of people. However, it definitely served a purpose for our random trip, so we shot a few pictures, and moved on!

Crazy California. . . the beginning of our adventure!

2011-07-06T08:36:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Bonnie (my anti road trip sister) made some big announcement over facebook about a random roadtrip she was taking with her kids. weird. In search of Bigfoot. Ok. . . but where was my invite? She said she was taking a friend of hers, with his kids too, but I was welcome to come along. Me, in the back seat with four kids? No way! So I convinced her that I would make a much better travel buddy than he ever could and I was in! Bonnie had plans for a six day trip which would take us up the coast of California, to end up in a dinky little town to go white water rafting and to find bigfoot. That sounded like a decent start, but I was sure we could do much better than that.

So the planning began!

Soon enough. . . our "Bigfoot or Bust" road trip, turned into our "Crazy Caravan through California (with a stop to find Bigfoot)" trip instead. It was going to be awesome!

I undertook the planning for this adventure, which made me the navigator. With no other options, that left Bonnie to be our driver, and the kids in the back, to be just that, the kids in the back!

The goal of the trip was to see the most odd, the most interesting, the most weird, and a few important sites of the good ole state of California. So I scoured the internet for just that! I picked our stops, I created a travel plan, and on Thursday morning, we loaded into the car and were off!

And who would've guessed that our very first stop would land us smack in the middle of where we started?

Must see # 1: Grape Slide - - Escondido, CA

A grape-themed park, with a Fruit-of-the-loom zoom! Who knows what inspired the artist to associate fruit with children's amusement, but the result is a bunch of grapes with a slide and "twigs" for climbing.

We came, we saw, we kodaked it, and were off! Now the adventure begins. . . for real!

Doogle's new toy

2011-06-27T16:45:00.000-07:00

A girl in my class gave me a scarf as a goodbye present.

It was put in my backpack, and somehow Doogle sniffed it out.

I don't really wear scarves, so I let him have it.

I don't think he likes scarves anymore either. . .

Remember this?

2011-05-20T06:05:00.000-07:00

Over two years ago, I went and watched an Extreme Makeover house being built. I really wanted to go back later that week to yell "MOVE THAT BUS!" but they didn't inform us when it was going to happen and I missed it.

I have often wanted to go back and find the house after it was completely finished.

So finally- I did!!

It's in one of those neighborhoods of small beige track houses. . . I was with a friend who did not go with me to see it being built.

"Hey- I'll drive the neighborhood and see if you can figure out which house it is!"

Think he was able to figure it out??

Going, going. . . GONE

2011-05-16T16:57:00.000-07:00

Our third graders have been learning about butterflies over the past few weeks. With that, we ordered some butterflies and got to see them go from caterpillars into their caccoons, then hatch as butterflies. My class and another class has kept them in a little butterfly habitat that we have been sharing between each other, so today we decided that together, we would take them outside to release them into the wild.

So we sat the kids down on the little step- like seating we have outside, and up in front, we opened the cage. . .

And as the butterflies flew away. . .

several birds promptly swooped in and ate them all up!

It took us a few weeks to learn about the butterfly. . .

and about 1 minute to discover the food chain!

It's the most wonderful time of the year. . .

2011-05-14T08:01:00.000-07:00

You know it's almost the end of the school year, when these little babies get sent home with the kiddos. . .

Happy summer in 17.5 days!

I know- the papers seemed to go home a bit prematurely, but I am still celebrating.

Long overdue. . .

2011-05-08T15:30:00.000-07:00

Then Now

Every time this gets done, it's like he becomes a whole new puppy.

A new Kelly tradition?

2011-04-08T00:16:00.001-07:00

Several months ago, ma and pa decided that they wanted to sponsor a few scholarships for two of the local graduating seniors from good ole Escondido High School. The original intentions (or at least what I thought the original intentions were) that they were going to go to a football playing boy from mom and dad, and a cross country or track running girl from Bonnie, Molly, and Shawna. Because of technicalities however, the only requirement this year was that we were to pick a boy and girl both involved in sports (though of course running was going to earn them golden points from the Kelly girls anyway).
So the school sent Mom and Dad a bunch of packets which included the autobiographical essays, letters of recommendations, grades, names, addresses, financial status, basically anything you can want to know about these kids- were probably all included.

And of course, the names of the recipients of these scholarships had to be submitted one week before spring break, when Molly and I already had a trip scheduled to go out to California. Therefore, Molly and I dubbed the first weekend in April as "Scholarship weekend" and we met up with the family in Cali for a quick weekend retreat.

Though the three of us spent several hours reading about, and laughing with, and crying for (ok not really), ranking, and ultimately choosing two "winners," we still found time to squeeze in other exciting adventures. . .

Lunch with Aubs and her friends, before we hit the nail salon for some much needed pedicures.

Brooklyn's first hot tubbing adventure (that lasted maybe a good minute).

Cayd's baseball game.

Setting up, and playing with the newest Kelly backyard toy!

And spending quality time with the baby we don't get to see enough.

Choosing the scholarship kids was much harder than I anticipated. We all had different opinions, and wanted to help so many of them. It made me realize how lucky I am (though I really already knew this) that I had such a good upbringing and such a great family that would do anything for me. There are a lot of kids out there that have overcome so many sad or scary things in their short lives so far. For some examples, to help us "remember" the different papers we read, they ended up with labels such as "dad with cancer," "alzheimer's mom," "druggy mom," and "hungarian immigrant." Nothing that I could have remotely related to when I was that age. . . or even now!

Of course, to go with some of the sob stories, we did have a bit of fun teasing some of the very dramatic teenage girls we got to read about- as with the somewhat "odd" kids as well. Though I strangely enough loved "theatre boy with my matching birthday" and we didn't know whether to laugh at or cry for "girl that felt like she grew up in a prison," it was a tough decision and we didn't want to end up making the wrong choice. After several discussions and rereads, we ultimately did a little facebook "stalking" and are satisfied that our final picks are not "freaks."

I am proud to be the daughter of two parents that would choose to involve us in an activity like this, and I hope that it is a new Kelly tradition that continues.

It's about time

2011-03-27T18:48:00.000-07:00

Every time something happens to my car (which is quite regularly) I swear that it is the final straw and I am going to get a new one.

Then I don't.

And a few months later, something else breaks. And I swear I am going to go get a new car.

Then I don't.

And a few weeks later something else breaks. And I swear I am going to go get a new car.

Then I don't.

And a few weeks after that, it happens yet again. . .

and this time- I did!!

It's a Honda CR-V. I showed up to the car place "just to look" because I really had no idea what I wanted.

and looking turned to buying. . .

Good bye little blue bug!!

Oldie but goodie. . .

2011-03-19T23:46:00.000-07:00

I was browsing through some of my pictures and came across this one. . .

a few months ago I was kind of dating a guy. One night in random conversation he told me that it was surprising that we were dating. Afterall, I wasn't really his "type."

My next question of course being what exactly his type was. . . in which he responded

"I usually date brown haired athletic girls."

. . . I should have known from that point on that I was probably better off without him.

(and if you couldn't figure it out. . . I'm the brown haired girl on the left)

More specific huh?

2011-03-17T22:23:00.000-07:00

60 minutes. . . think you can endure anything huh? Not so easy. . .

Several people have asked me to be more specific on what each workout consists of. Though I will not keep you informed everyday. . . I will give you a few examples of some of the classes I have attended. Keep in mind. . . some of it may not sound so tough- but its just one of those situations that you cannot fully comprehend until you are there. So you'll have to believe me when I say- it's tough!

Each day, we start with a mile run around the park. So on day one, upon finishing my mile, I was partnered up with a girl and we basically had to lift this long plastic pipe filled with rocks or sand (or something insanely heavy) back and forth over our heads from shoulder to shoulder. Then we had to hold it over our heads for seconds/minutes at a time. Then we (finally) got to drop the pipe and were down on our bellies for 10 push ups then onto our backs for 15 sit ups (yes- sit ups, NOT crunchies). Not too tragic huh? Till we repeat that set 15 times. . . yes 15 TIMES! Then we circled up and did a variety of ab exercises while he pulled a few people in at a time to lay on the ground and bench press a good ole bootcamp style log. Yup. . . I bench pressed a log.

Day 2 was cardio. We ran our mile, and then upon finishing, had to turn around and run back to find the last person, before getting to turn around and go back. When I got back, he had us in a circle doing jumping jacks, high knees, mountain climbers, etc etc. While we are doing that, he is explaining a 5 pt course where we would run sprint, then bear crawl, then sprint, then run backwards, then sprint from cone to cone to cone. Then you repeat. So we go right from our circle to doing that several times. I'm not good with distances, but the other end of the park is maybe the length of a football field?? So randomly he'd say- "sprint to the cement path!- and hurry!" (by that time nobody is really sprinting- but that's ok). Then you would come back and go right back into that 5 pt circuit. Then we lined up to do some sprinting, crab walk, and wheelbarrow relays. We did some suicides (basically more sprints) and randomly he would just say "sprint to the cement path- and hurry!" And off we'd go. (That happened probably 4 times throughout the workout).

The leg day was seriously the worst. We ran our mile and when we returned he had tires sitting out waiting for us. Picked up a tire and were told to hold it over our heads to do 150 squats. Yes- our warm up was 150 squats! When that was finished, you got to put the tire down, but did lunges until everyone else was finished. Then we circled up and did (2) squats, then some kind of minute long leg exercise then we did (4) squats, then some kind of minute long exercise. We continued that pattern til we were doing (36) then (38) then (40) squats. Then we were frog leaping up a hill doing a squat in between each leap and at the top of the hill we had to sit against the fence (no chair of course) for a minute or so.

Most days I don't know how I survive it. The thing about each day, is it is NON stop. He NEVER has even a 30 second break- you are running from activity to activity and there is always something to do next. It is exhausting!!

Currently, I can barely walk, barely sit down, and can hardly hold my arms up-- but I will forge on. . .

My first battle wounds

2011-03-15T21:47:00.000-07:00

Nothing too tragic. . . just some skinned up fingers (more on the other hand, however it is virtually impossible to take a picture of both of your own hands).

Here is my bootcamp update.

I am fully committed and LOVING it.

Ok- during the actual workouts, I sometimes want to cry. They are seriously insane.

But afterwards you just feel so awesome for surviving.

It's only been two days though.

I might reconsider in about a week. Or perhaps. . possibly tomorrow.

This morning I woke up and found a surprise on my porch. . .

2011-03-14T06:11:00.000-07:00

It was my grocery shopping!!

Yes, this most definitely does sound like another groupon find.

Dad got it for me! I got to pick "farm fresh" healthy food to have delivered right on my porch.

I managed to find some of those not so healthy purchases they offer as well. :)

They deliver to my house Mondays at the weee hours of the morning. Wouldn't that be a fun treat to start my week off each week?

The food is kind of expensive though. . . so it probably won't happen.

Maybe every once in a while just for the fun of it.

Afterall. . . I am now an official winderfarm customer-- the "cool" ice bag proves it!

Thanks dad!

Yes Sir!

2011-03-12T21:37:00.000-08:00

Dad kept buying me all those bakery, and cupcakery, and pizza groupons. As a result I had to buy this one.

Bootcamp.

Monday thru Friday, every day, after work, for the next month. I'm pretty excited. A bit scared too. I hope to love it. But I won't really be able to afford it after this. So maybe I hope to hate it a little too.

Not only did I talk a friend into going with me, but she actually let me count it as her birthday present. No worries, I gave her a water bottle to go with it. By the sounds of it, she'll probably be needing it too.

We signed our life away on a waiver already that was filled with all kinds of rules. Then my favorite part. . .

BREAKING THESE RULES WILL RESULT IN DIRECT PUNISHMENT, A GRUELING EXERCISE OF THE INSTRUCTORS CHOICE.

By next month, I will be a whole new Shawna (or maybe half the Shawna that I already am). Ha ha

That way, I can continue to enjoy those prized gifts from my dad. :0)

Fantastic February

2011-03-06T14:45:00.000-08:00

I can't believe February is already over with. It seriously feels like it just began! Everything is going pretty well over here. Work is good. Play is good. Nothing much to complain about. Here are some of my exciting happenings. . .

Doogle got a Doogle door! It has seriously made my life a million times easier. I love getting home late into the night and not having to take him out, and coming home from work late and not having a mess all over my floors. Doogle is doing great. He has really become a lot better puppy just over these past few weeks. :)

Remember my awesome pink fridge I got for Christmas that has been chillin in my garage? It finally found it's new home!

I puppy sat two weekends in a row. Bleh! One night, all the dogs actually came home with me into my little biddy house. It was quite the adventure, and my house was a mess afterwards. As a bonus. . .they were able to squeeze through the doogle-door which made life easier for me. Unfortunately, they were able to squeeze through the doogle-door AND jump the doogle gate so rumor has it they had made themselves at home and were chillin on the couch when their owner came home to pick em up.

I had my happy 28th birthday. A few different groups of friends took me out on Wednesday and Thursday, and then a friend from college came into town with her husband and we all went out Friday. It was a fun, but busy week. I didn't pull out a camera for any of the dinners which is kind of sad. I got lots of fun presents from family and friends. And got flowers from two different friends. . . it will be sad when they die, it has made the house seem so much homier having fresh flowers around. :)

And I got this fine kitchen toy from my parents. Here it is. . . in use!

My friend Ammon invited me over to make cookies. . .and insisted I bring the camera so he can make it onto the blog. Obviously he doesn't really read the blog- because then he would know that he has already made his debut. We made some cookies but then I got bored with it and decided to split up the remaining dough to have a cookie making contest. I thought I had it in the bag until he whipped out his Frankenstein cookie. I will admit. . . I was quite impressed. I really hate to lose though. . .

THE END!

Oh how the times have changed. . .

2011-02-28T21:17:00.000-08:00

I remember being in elementary school and dreading those horrid Earthquake drills. Climbing under your desk in the duck and cover position was just awkward. As a teacher for almost six years, I have yet to experience an earthquake drill with my students. . . guess there are too many other things to worry about these days.

Not only do we have a drill in place for if there were to be a toxic spill outside. . . but we also have two different lock down drills depending on if there is a "danger" inside or outside of the building. We have to learn how to hide children in corners and behind tables, we have tape and paper prepared ready to cover windows and doors and we learn code words that we must be able to immediately respond to.

Today we had a staff development day where we got to learn yet another new drill. This one involves students being outside when a danger becomes present and needing to be moved into the building quickly. It involves laying flat on their bellies, head smooshed into the ground. . . and actually army crawling (that's what it's called right?) across the playground until they are told to get up and run (all in complete silence of course). I'll admit. . . I laughed as I watched the training video. If watching one little boy perform this drill was that entertaining, I can't imagine watching a class full of children learning it.

I know it's not a funny topic. . . it's scary that this is the kind of situation we have to be concerned about. And it's sad that we have to warn little kids of these kinds of dangers. Who would actually want to come on campus and hurt these little innocent kids? What is this world coming to?

Some time in the next few weeks, some emergency head honchos are coming to "test" our school on this new safety procedure. If we happen to be the "lucky" ones outside when these people show up, we (including the adults mind you- we have to be protected as well) get to be the test group. The test group that are lying down, flat on the ground, and army crawling across the playground. . .

To think that the day has come that I long for a simple duck and cover earthquake drill. . .

Fortunately Unfortunately

2011-02-14T23:00:00.001-08:00

Grading papers tonight. . . bleh. . . so. far. behind.

Came across this story a boy wrote. Made me laugh. So I will share. The pictures are funny as well. . . you'll just have to use your imagination for those.

Fortunately Unfortunately

I want to go to Washington DC.

Unfortunately I was in Nevada.

Fortunately somebody gave me an awesome jet. It had 100 speed jet engine and rocket missiles.

Unfortunately when I was driving the engine stopped.

Fortunately I had a parachute.

Unfortunately I noticed there was a hole in mine.

Fortunately I noticed a bed.

Unfortunately somebody was in there.

Fortunately I saw a haystack.

Unfortunately there was a pitchfork in there. Great will I hit it? Nope, I hit my head on a brick wall. BONK! Owww that hurt. Now where am I?

Fortunately I have a GPS.

Unfortuantely the batteries dead.

So I walked to a sign that said Washington DC 3 miles ahead.

Yippee! I have made it!

So many questions. Seriously. . . why would there be a bed chilling in the middle of the open land with someone sleeping in it? "A" for creativity. . .

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T16:29:00.000-08:00

I was kind of dreading the whole Valentine's Day on a Monday thing. Seemed like a very chaotic way to begin a school week. But for the bright side, I did have the weekend to kind of get things ready. I went to a dinner party on Sunday, so I baked enough cookies for that, and for my little class. I also made the kids simple yet cute little Valentines.

We had a Valentine's Box contest this year. They were to bring a decorated "Mailbox" with them today and we voted on our two favorites. We got a variety of cute boxes this morning they were obviously so proud of.

Then part way through the day, a mom walked in with her "son's" box. I think the whole class sat in stunned silence for a second when she came carrying it in. So when they went to PE a bit later, I self timed a picture of me with the box, so that you have an idea of it's actual size. . .

Yup. . . you actually fed the dog your Valentines. Unfortunately, there was no way of getting anything out of him when the wrong Valentine accidentally got swallowed. . . oh well. . . I guess he doesn't get to retrieve any of his Valentines for 2-4 hours later?? Ha Ha

I have such a sweet little class this year. We all walked around and passed out Valentines at the same time, so most of them weren't at their "Mailboxes" when I went around. But as they spent the rest of our party time opening all their goodies, there were "thank yous" being said right and left.
All in all it ended up being a really good day. The kids were great, they had fun and were the most well behaved class I have ever had for any sort of holiday party. We ate cookies and passed out Valentines. . . that's it! But one boy still announced that "This is the best Valentine party I have EVER had!"

Among all the crazy Valentines treats from my class this year, I found this cute little letter.

After seeing countless facebook posts and text messages about "singles awareness day," it's refreshing spending this day with a bunch of nine years olds. They are the ones who really seem to catch on to what Valentine's day is really about.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Twinners?

2011-01-22T15:33:00.000-08:00

NOPE!

Just two random kids in my class with matching names and matching birthdays. Weird.

My new hair!

2011-01-22T14:45:00.000-08:00

Molly and I both bought an Indiana groupon a few months back for a Brazilian Blowout. The new anti frizz (amazing) hair treatment. Molly wasn't allowed to get it done while being pregnant, so we saved them for the long MLK weekend so that we could both go and experience it together.

I decided to make it an extra long weekend, so I took the Friday off of work as well, and flew out to Indiana late Thursday night. I arrived sometime around 9 in the morning Indiana time on Friday, and then Saturday was the big day!

We took some "before" shots of our hair. We probably should have gone in without doing our hair whatsoever just for the effect, but that picture would definitely not be postable, so this was my hair that I had done that day. I dried it and straightened it . . which can be quite the process.

We didn't get any pictures right after, but it was seriously AMAZING. The girl put the treatment in, washed it out and blow dried it. No straightner whatsoever and my hair looked better than it ever did!

After that we went home to pick up Bryan and Brooklyn then hit little Cale, Cooper, and Colter's 3rd birthday party. And there, someone took our picture . . . with my new hair.

The party was pretty smashing. It was held at a little kids' type gym place but they had this huge foam pit that adults were allowed to go in too! Or at least, there were too many adults at the party there was no stopping them! Brooklyn was making her debut with a few people, so Mol, Bry, and I were all baby free for the entire thing and got to go have a bit of fun.

And you can't go to a birthday party for some adorable triplets without posting a picture of them as well.

The rest of the weekend was great. I sadly had to leave Monday afternoon. . . but like always, it was quite the nice getaway weekend.
Now, about a week later, I still love my hair. It basically looks like it used to look- but seriously has taken off SO much time that I have to spend doing it. I basically dry it and go!

And of course. . .

2011-01-22T14:16:00.000-08:00

got some baby pictures as well!

Happy New Year!!

2011-01-14T20:19:00.000-08:00

New year's is long gone, but we got some cute photos, so I thought I would do a quick recap.

On New Year's Eve morning, the family woke up and went hiking!

Then Bonnie and I packed up the kids and hit Legoland for the 3rd year in a row. We got there a little later than we had planned on, but after just a few short hours, I think we were ready to go. The kids bickered and fought, Cayd drove us all crazy, and there were a million people there. We decided that rather than waiting in some long ride lines, we ate some snacks, then staked out the perfect spot to watch fireworks instead. We sat down and played some cards, but after someone (me) kept winning, everyone else finally quit!

After 6 o'clock New Years at Legoland, we went to Chilis for some delicious food, and then headed to Bonnie's house for the rest of our very low key evening. I think Cayden is actually the only one who stayed awake til midnight. He did a good job of waking us all up though to welcome the new year.

Hope everyone has a happy 2011!

Mail fun

2011-01-06T18:35:00.001-08:00

I got a tree survey from the Arbor Day Foundation in the mail today. . .

Here are some of my favorite questions. . .

Yes or No

1. Have you ever built a tree house?
2. Have you ever climbed a tree?
3. Have you ever played on a tree swing?
4. Do you ever relax in the shade of a tree?
5. Do you think in general, residents of Nevada care more or less about trees than people in the rest of the country?
6. Which ONE of the following would you say is the single most important function of trees?

What do they do with results like this anyway? Weird.

Meeting Baby Brooklyn

2010-12-31T22:17:00.000-08:00

Back in the day, when we knew that Brooklyn was due on Christmas day, I had no intentions of flying out to Indiana til mid January on the regular three day weekend. Flights would be expensive, and Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas not going home to California.
But once that little baby was born, mid January just seemed too far away! Why wait for a three day weekend, when I still had a whole week off of work?? So I booked a flight for the day after Christmas and Indiana bound I was!

I was in Indiana til Thursday. We basically did a whole lot of nothing. Which was great. Best kind of vacation in my book! Just as the pictures show, Brooklyn is absolutely adorable. She got her first "professional" shots while I was there and she did so well! Can't wait to see how they all turned out! We also took lots of pictures of Brooklyn in her new Christmas outfit that I bought her. It was so stinkin cute!

Molly, Bryan, and Baby are all doing great. Brooklyn was definitely the best Christmas present they got this year.

All of the Kellys are excited to meet the newest addition to our family (though she is officially a Kunz). With Molly not working for a while, we are bound to see much more of both her and baby (and maybe a bit of Bryan too!) Just counting down the days til little biddy Brooklyn is airplane ready!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-31T20:36:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas (A little late)

Like always, we had a great Christmas. We had our traditional Christmas eve night, and good ole Santy found the kiddos at Grandma and Grandpa's house Christmas morning like always.

I love coming downstairs Christmas morning. The tree is all lit up, and dad has hot cocoa made and ready for us.

This year, we all found a special surprise little present in each of our stockings, They were from Cayd. A list of things he will do for us. . . each were different and special in their own way. They were super cute.

And just a few little present pictures.

I did horrible on the picture taking this year. Sometimes too much is going on, and the moment is just too good to stop and deal with taking pictures. We did have a great day though. Santa Claus and mom and dad were great to us as always.

It was a fun, lazy, enjoyable Christmas Day. Scott's family joined us later in the day. Molly and Bryan and Brooklyn couldn't join us this year. . . we are looking forward to having them next year though!!

Counting down til TAX RETURN DAY!

2010-12-27T00:16:00.000-08:00

My car has been making loud noises lately. No surprise there. We are always having little issues. When mom finally heard it though, she decided it needed to see the mechanic pronto. She called him up and told him what was going on, and we took it in that day. A different guy heard us drive in though and met us at my car. He asked me to open the hood. Then we all stood around it. . . listening to the loud grumbling sound. He nodded his head a bit then said. . . "ok- you can turn it off now."

Holding my jingling keys up to him. . . "Well you see. . . that's what the problem is pal. It already is off!"

Yup. . . he definitely took another looksy under the hood after that.

X, Y, and Z! That's all folks!

2010-12-24T00:35:00.000-08:00

Near the beginning of our diet, we discovered that Z day was going to be Christmas Day. Nice timing huh? I told Bonnie that I was NOT going to be sitting around eating yams on Christmas Eve and if I was going to lose at the end, I would never even make it that far to begin with. So Bon came up with XYZ Day.

We came across some yumm-o treats the other day. .

But actual food. . . like satisfying food- we didn't have any of.

We randomly drove by, and ended up eating at the Yoshinara chicken bowl place. That's not really how you spell it, just how I say it. A yummy place that I remember from a long time ago. . . that wasn't as delicious as I remember. Oh well.

And what did we have for dinner? The final night of this so called diet??

Zouplantation!!!

Ok. . . we both knew that we were honestly cheating for the very last night. . . so call it a draw if you like. . . but we are just going to call it DONE!!!

ABC diet never again?? Well . . . that's what I said at the end of our first (and only so far) marathon. . . yet I feel myself drawn to putting on those running shoes again. Never say never I guess! Til then. . . thanks for following!!!

Diet- end Eve!

2010-12-22T23:22:00.000-08:00

Yet another rainy day here in California. As of this morning, it had seriously not stopped raining since I got here. Craziness. It was just going to be a lazy stay at home day with the kids, so I decided to whip out the good ole waffle maker for some breakfast! I have never actually made waffles before. . . but how hard could it be??

After three attempts. . . my last one turned out perfectly but a tad small (all the batter I had left)

So my breakfast waffles that I started making around 10:30- became my 12:00 lunch waffles instead.
Now do we wonder why I eat out so much?

W day continued with many werthers chewy candies for snacks, and don't forget the wedikings cookie Bonnie brought for me out of guilt from yesterday. THANKS BON!!

Then tonight we talked mom and dad into our crazy diet once again and they treated the family to the Wagon Wheel for dinner! What a great family I have!

After dinner, me, Bon, and the kiddos hit the mall for some more Christmas shopping! It was then that we went to the two places I have been WAITING for W day for. . . Wetzels Pretzels, and Starbucks for some White hot chocolate. We also hit the candy store where we got some wax soda candies and some sour warheads.
All these special treats were not just for anything of course but for our "traditional" Christmas light viewing night where we drive around and find some different fun neighborhoods to look at. Of course, the cocoa was drank practically before we got to the car, and the candy was hidden away in an unreachable purse. . . but it was still some good times.

The first picture was of course taken in honor of new baby Brooklyn Noel born just today!

And tomorrow is the big day. . . XYZ . . .

Happy V Day!

2010-12-21T22:49:00.000-08:00

I am not too sure that I actually read Bonnie's post right. If you remember correctly. . . yesterday I cook, then took a steaming container full of Uncle Ben's rice to her work. And today- I show up at lunchtime with a yummy veggie bowl from Panda for her (both days I might add with her two little children in tow). And then what does she decide to do on her first few Shawna free minutes? "Rushes out" to get milkshakes without me. I must say. . . I was a tad hurt when I read that.

Vanilla frosted donut for breakfast.

Vanilla wafers and vanilla cookies for snacks.

Veggie bowl for lunch.

Then a delicious "Vegetarian" burrito for dinner.

Not too shabby of a day. That is. . . until ma and I made an emergency trip to Mc D's for a vanilla ice cream cone. Who needs your stinkin milkshakes!!

Still love ya sister (and competitor)!!!

T was terrific. . . but U was ULTIMATE!

2010-12-20T21:46:00.000-08:00

We had a very nice Sunday. Had some morning toast before heading to church. Had some tacos and toffee for an afternoon snacks. Then mom made a very T friendly meal of tator treats, teryaki chicken, and texas toast! Very random. . . but terrific! We then dug up some trail crunch cookie dough so mom whipped up a batch for dessert! Living with mom can be the greatest!

U day started with a phone call from Bonnie saying that the Uncle Ben's rice pudding she had made the night before, was not the most fabulous breakfast. She asked me to swing by her work with some regular Uncle Ben's rice for lunch since she had to eat her upside down cake for breakfast instead. So I grabbed the kids, and a slice of breakfast (upside down cake too) and headed out with a tub of some Uncle Ben's rice. The kids and I met mom for a lovely day of Christmas shopping when I decided that a fatty bowl of rice was not exactly what I was in the mood for. So. . . I talked Bonnie into disguarding Uncle Ben and instead, we headed over to our favorite little mexican place Diego's where we kindly asked them to make us some "Ultimate" nachos. The lady kind of laughed at us, but did what was asked of her and for our amusement, referred to our super nachos as "ultimate nachos" for the rest of our visit.

Aubrey went to a birthday party tonight, so Bonnie, Cayden and I, went and got some Ultimate cheeseburger (minus the cheese) meals from Jack in the Box and stuffed em into Bon's purse to enjoy during our Yogi Bear movie that we were headed to.

Even with our ultimate jack meals in tow, the beautiful movie theatre popcorn smell just kept calling my name! Finally Bon quit listening to my pathetic whining about needing popcorn, and she hopped into line where we ordered an Ultimate popcorn bucket. She even let me get butter on it! I must say, Yogi Bear was probably 10X better with that glorious popcorn!

After the movie, I was pretty much stuffed to the max, but when Bonnie began snacking on the leftover "ultimate" Kelly Green Santa Shamrock Mudpie . . . I did indeed snag a few bites as well!

Can we say. . . cheaters??

R and K. . .

2010-12-18T22:57:00.000-08:00

Wow. . . I survived two somewhat tough days . . . so ready for this to be over.

Yesterday (Friday) was R day. I had some raisin bread toast for breakfast, and a romaine lettuce with ranch dressing salad for lunch with a roll my roommate brought home for me. It's been funny having people randomly text me ideas or bring food for me that starts with the letter of the day. Guess its been making lots of people think about food differently these days. Anywho I snacked on ritz crackers basically all day as well. We had our class Christmas party. . . there was so. much. food. I think almost every parent sent in some kind of cookie, or chip, or candy, or cupcake. It was crazy! And I didn't eat ANY of it. One parent at one point asked me if this is not really my "type of food," . . . if only she knew. . . she must have missed our Halloween party when I seriously sat in the back munching on cookies the whole party while the parents took over. So I guess it was good to have something to keep me from doing the same thing all over again. On my drive home from work I stopped by to grab some Rubios before picking up the pups and heading South for the winter!

I made it to California. I ate a few mini recess cups- but that's about it.

Today would have been S day. But if you recall, last week on K day it was my work Christmas party so Bonnie gave me a pardon and let me switch to S for the day, knowing that on my real S day I would eat K instead. Sounded great at the time, until I recently discovered that I switched K day from work party day, to family party day. Drats. Especially since Bonnie was going to be there, eating S foods, which is basically one of the easiest letters out there! She packed up some sugar cookies and strawberry mud pie, and knew that some kind of salad would be there too, so she was basically set.

This morning, I grabbed a Kellogs poptart on the way out the door with my mom. We headed to Costco where I was able to sample a kirkland meatball then get a kirkland kosher ketchup dog from the food court. That was pretty awesome. We went to vons where I picked up some special "K" crackers and a kiwi to accompany me to the party.

At the party, I enjoyed (or rather "ate" because enjoy would definitely not be the word to use) some K crackers. Bonnie walked around practically boasting as she ate her spuds and salad for dinner, while I ate nothing. Bleh. So then dessert comes around, which is what I was waiting for. I had a nice Kelly green sugar cookie and a piece of kelly mud pie. I know. . . stretching it a bit. . . but a Kelly did make it. . . so what the heck- I was hungry! I told Bonnie about my Kelly mud pie idea which she was not too fond of. I believe "nice try" was her actual quote to the idea. . . but I ate it anyway. Bonnie's strawberry mudpie looked a little interesting, but several people had it and said it was good. She said that she refused to try it though and the mint mudpie was so much better. It was then that I noticed an empty bowl in her hands that had obviously had some of the green mudpie. "What did you just eat?" I asked her. She gave me a duh kind of look and replied "KELLY'S mudpie!" "You aren't eating K today geek. . . you are on S!" That is when she screamed. . . she really did. . . I mean the party actually got quiet as everyone turned to look at her. She was pretty much in shock. I made fun of her a ton. . . and the ride home that evening she decided that SHE made the cake so SHE got to name it and it was now shamrock mudpie and I was the one that cheated. I think NOT! So anywho. . . I think we eventually agreed that the mint mudpie dessert would from now on be officially known as the Kelly Green Santa (she thinks shamrock) mudpie. So we both win I guess.

We hit the mall that night to do some last minute shopping. I was kind of complaining about my K day and Bonnie was saying how she had been waiting for S day so she could get some sweet fire chicken from Panda. So we hit the food court for some kung pao chicken and some sweet fire chicken to finish off our nights. Upon arriving though. . . we realized that TONS of Panda's food is S. So not only did Bonnie get her sweet fire chicken, she also got steamed rice, and stringbean chicken. She decided to pass on the springrolls. . . I once again. . . felt a little jipped. :(

Good bye letter K!

Q is for quesadillas!

2010-12-16T22:08:00.000-08:00

Breakfast- quesadilla

Lunch- quesadilla

Dinner- quesadilla

I started my day by hitting the local Del Taco for a breakfast quesadilla. Then I ran to the store to get lunch and found . . . well. . . a frozen quesadilla and some quaker quacks for my all day snack. I had a few different things planned for dinner actually tonight. Quiznos, or Qdobas. I haven't actually been to either place, but every time I have passed them lately I think- perfect for Q day! Well. . . being that tomorrow is my last day before Christmas break (yay!) there was MUCH to do tonight. I was running from store to store picking up stickers for parents' presents, goodies for our ice cream cone Christmas tree project, and I couldn't forget the grocery store for something to eat for tomorrow's R day! I still had the dollar store to hit, and I was getting somewhat hungry and though I have passed both places to eat at least a dozen times since this "diet" has started, I couldn't remember where either of them are actually located. I had some ideas. . . but I didn't want to be driving around all night when I had plenty of other stuff to do. Besides- I had a convo with Bonnie this morning who mentioned that Quiznos is overpriced and not very good. And I honestly don't even know what they serve at Qdobas! So I pulled into Del Taco for their dinner quesadilla instead since it was right on the way to where I was going. * On a side note- the drive thru lady at 6:30 at night was the SAME drive thru woman as 7 am this morning. "Weren't you here this morning?" she asked. Yes. . . now I am the crazy girl that eats at Del Taco for every meal of her day! Better avoid that place for a while! * And better yet. . . Bonnie chose to go to Quiznos anyway where it turns out they are not that overpriced, and it was quite delicious! Go figure!

After all my errands were done, I went to this Christmas "magical forest" with my friend Ammon.

There were different Christmas things to look at and to get your picture with.

Then we walked through a pathway of trees. People and businesses could donate money to decorate one of the trees. Ammon's sister and brother in law own a website business so they decorated a tree. Their business is called Orange Geeks (or something like that) so they decorated with oranges. And we found it. . . which was kind of fun. I liked the one made by the Station Casinos too. I think Ammon thought it was weird that I liked it. . . but I thought the big dice in the tree looked cool! :)

On my drive home, what should I pass? Qdobas. . . less then a mile from my house! Just my luck!

p. . . was a plus!

2010-12-15T21:29:00.000-08:00

On my list of edible letters, I am going to rank P up there somewhere near the top.

I started the day off with some little mini pancakes, but upon arriving to work, discovered breakfast being served. . . pastries! It was parent-teacher conference day today. No school for kids, conferences for the teachers. I held most of my conferences before and after school all last week so I only had two today. . . so I got to just do some much needed grading, and organizing and copying. But because it was conference day, and a few days before break, the principal brought in lunch for us. . . PANDA! Score. . . 2 for 2! I munched on some pringles and pretzels throughout the day, had some peanut butter cup ice cream for my dinner appetizer, then had a pizza pocket and a pear. I was going to celebrate my pops birthday on my own tonight with some pie, but thought better of it. . . afterall. . . this is supposed to be a diet right?

Happy Happy Birthday Dad!!!

N and O :)

2010-12-14T17:32:00.000-08:00

I got several things from the store this week that can kind of "transfer" over to the next day. . . getting a little creative here. . . watch for it!

On Monday my milk from my M day became Nesquik milk for my N day. Yum! I LOVE Nesquik. So I had some Nesquik milk for breakfast with a nutrigrain bar. I bought some Naval oranges for lunch (you'll be seeing those again shortly!) with some nachos and yet another nutrigrain bar. For dinner I had some noodles. And all day long I snacked on a LOT of Nilla wafers.

Sadly I think of too many things after the fact. I did buy a few "Naked" drinks. . . strawberry banana. . . but completely forgot about them in my fridge! So sad! I also realize I could have had nuggets rather than a large bowl of noodles. . . maybe next time. :)

O day was today. O day was going to be all about the oats and oranges! Not because I necessarily like oats and oranges. . . but because everything I could think of was either oats or oranges!
The Plan:
oatmeal- breakfast
oatmeal/orange/oatmeal raisin granola bar- lunch
orange chicken/orange for dinner.

The reality:
I did stick to oatmeal for breakfast. But upon arriving to school some friends said they were ordering Dominos for lunch and wanted me to join. They get some sandwiches from there all the time. I kindly declined stating "only if you can find something on the menu that starts with O!" Sure enough, somebody pulled out the menu. . .

That got me!

On my way home from work, I swung by and picked up an orange julius, then continued on to Panda for my orange chicken! Since I already broke the orange/oat rule with my oven baked sandwich, I went all out and got some oriental noodles and oriental egg rolls to go with the orange chicken.
I would feel a tad guilty about stretching this a bit too far. . . but after Bonnie's pizza K incident. . . and facebook snooping to see what's going on Friday with R night for her. . . it looks like anything goes!

Now it's Biggest Loser night. Not just any Biggest Loser-- but SEASON FINALE!! Meaning no more eating tonight. . . :(

ps. . . I know a girl that's going to be on next seasons biggest loser! Crazy!! Her name is Sarah. . . we should all tune in Jan 4 and see her!!!

Mmmmm

2010-12-12T20:52:00.000-08:00

Muffins
Milk
Mac n Cheese

That's what I lived off of all day. . . and am surprisingly quite satisfied!

Oh yes. . . and one M&M cookie :)

The apple does not fall far from the tree. . .

2010-12-12T08:56:00.000-08:00

Last week and this upcoming week, I get the pleasure of holding parent-teacher conferences. Like the students themselves, parents come in quite the variety. Some think there is too much homework, some think there isn't enough. Some want the teacher to me more stern, while others want her to lighten up. Some are ecstatic with B's, while others are disappointed. It really is quite hard to please everyone.

Usually they go pretty well though. After all, they are the ones who know these kids better than I do. Parents are pretty good at predicting what I am going to tell them. They see the grades coming home, they have had three previous year's of conferences, they know their own kids.

So instead of having a fun student story, I got a few chuckles out of parents this week. . . this one in particular. . .

I have a little girl in my class who is quite bright. She gets pulled a half hour for GATE each day (gifted and talented) where they are supposed to challenge her a little bit and keep her doing new things. She is not perfect in class however. . . she is a little slower on her work at times, meaning she doesn't get everything finished, and her reading score just barely made an A. . . so there is still stuff she can definitely be working on to improve.

But Mom comes in asking for extra homework. "[My daughter] gets her homework done so quickly. . . Neighbor kids bring home so many extra projects. . . are we going to start getting more projects for her to work on at home?. . . bleh bleh bleh."

"Well," I reminded her, "We do have our monthly book report projects that are done at home. One at home project a month is plenty for these kids."

"Oh yes I know about those ones. . . when's this months due again?"

"Today as a matter of fact," (smiling) teacher says.

"Oh my gosh. . . we didn't do it! She read the book. . . we just haven't made the puppet yet! We will do it this weekend and have it in by Monday!"

Yeah. . . you turn that in late on Monday. . . then I will be sure to assign your over achieving daughter two next month.

A little Late. . . here's L

2010-12-11T23:24:00.001-08:00

My cupboards are seriously filled with so much random stuff right now. . . I almost just made "L" day Leftover Day! But I didn't. . . just added to the clutter actually. :)

Lucky Charms- breakfast
Lean Pocket- Lunch
Lifesavors and lunchable for snack (yes- I love lunchables!)
Lasagna with Lemonade- dinner
Licorice- dessert

Today was a really busy day. I was out shopping for several hours and the last place I really wanted to stop on the way home was the grocery store for dinner. Then L&L Hawaiian Bbq caught my eye and I thought. . . why not?
Upon walking in however, It did not look appetizing in the leastl and I ended up walking out without ordering. To the grocery store it was.

S. . . urprise!!

2010-12-11T00:33:00.000-08:00

The other night there was a Christmas dinner that I skipped going to in fear of there being nothing served that started with the letter G. I faced a rather similar problem knowing my work Christmas dinner party was coming up this Friday night and nothing was going to be on the menu that started with the letter k. . . cuz seriously. . . what even starts with k?? I was feeling a bit bummed out because there seems to be so many once -a- year holiday festivities going on, and it felt dumb to skip them all because of something random like this.
I realize that there is a reason we have been calling this a "challenge," but I also was thinking maybe we were just plain unwise to choose to do this in the month of December. A lot of things can be worked around. . . friends we are going out with can be very accommodating, but a meal at a restaurant with a prearranged dinner selection is far from being accommodating. . .

So Bon made a deal with me. Basically I was allowed to switch my entire Friday to a different letter that we have yet to "eat," and do letter "K," on that letter's day instead. Seemed like a fair trade. I looked over the menu and chose to do "P" instead. There were two selections that started with P. So I went to the store and bought all my "P" foods. I was talking to Molly the night before however and realized that choosing a letter might still be hard because who knew what would really be served with each of these meals. So instead, she came up with the idea to do "S," because the location of the party was at a fancy schmancy placed called Sedonas. This way, I can just say that I had "Sedonas" for dinner.

This worked for me, but unfortunately I didn't have many "S" foods in the house. So I made a quick trip to the store in the morning (I know- shocker) and this is how my day went.

Sandwich for breakfast
Sandwich for lunch (different kinds of course!)
Sugar Snap Peas, Skittles and snickerdoodles for snacks
and Sedonas salad, skewed chicken and steak, and spaghetti (a much fancier version) for dinner

I must say I am rather glad I went with the letter S. It was a buffet style meal, and one of the "P" foods ended up not being served, so I would just have been eating a whole lot of Pasta!

This upcoming week is the last week of work before Christmas break (yay!) and there are 3 different days (that I know of so far), that someone is feeding our staff. Throw in class Christmas party next Friday and all sorts of wonderful presents and treats coming to me from the little kiddos. . . let's just say this is probably going to be a pretty rough week. . . wish me luck!

J. . . was not my day!

2010-12-09T22:03:00.000-08:00

J is definitely not a day to rave about. I wandered around the grocery store (a very frequent past time of mine lately) and came across nothing that started with J. I was preparing myself to have a tasty jam sandwich for breakfast when I remembered that Jamba Juice started with J. Yum. . . that is definitely something I could do. Unfortunately, Jamba Juices aren't super big in these here parts and unless I wanted to leave for work like an hour early, it just wasn't going to happen. Fortunately, we do have several Tropical Smoothie Cafes, one being quite close to work. . .so I googled it to see if there were any fun smoothie names that started with a J. Jetty Punch. . . Nice! Even nicer. . . Jetty Punch is nothing but a Strawberry Banana smoothie. . . my favorite! So breakfast ended up being the highlight of my day.

I had my jam sandwich for lunch with 2 cups of jello and a Jose Ole burrito for dinner with some jerky. Not too appealing. . . plus I had to share the jerky with the dog.

Bleh. . . see ya J day!

I'm not stupid. . .

2010-12-09T18:03:00.001-08:00

Last week, a girl in my class told me that her and her family were going to California this week to go to Disneyland. She was pretty excited. . . but what kid wouldn't be, it's Disneyland! She reminded me of her trip the next day, and the next day, and the next day. I learned all about how much money they were taking, who gave them the money for the trip, which hotel they would be staying at, etc. etc. etc. Well, she wasn't at school on Tuesday, or Wednesday, and sure enough she was back today.
They went on all the rides. . . she had so much fun!

Then I opened up her homework folder and found a note from her mom.

"Dear Miss Kelly, Please excuse [my daughter] from school on Tuesday and Wednesday, we had a family emergency."

Uh yeah. . . an emergency trip to Disneyland. Serious people. . . your kids are nine. . . they tell me everything.

I. . . HATE eating the ABC's!

2010-12-08T22:34:00.000-08:00

Let's see. . .

I started my day out with some instant oatmeal (with a LOT of brown sugar on top!) I scowered (is that a word?) the grocery store this morning and came across an Italian pizza melt (or something to that extent. . . honestly can't remember the exact name but it DID start with the word Italian). I also grabbed a little thing of ice cream to go with it. That seems like a decent lunch. . .

Hours later, I had finished my scrumptious lunch and was enjoying my last few peaceful moments of my break when a lady I work with walked in with this huge bag of kettlecorn for all! I guess it was promoted on the show "Apprentice" so she wanted to try it out. As everyone passed around the bag raving about how good it was, I kindly declined and passed it on. So there the bag was, sitting right in front of me. . . as I zoned off for a minute my eyes landed on the bag. . . no way! . . . somebody failed to mention it was INDIANA Kettlecorn!! So then I definitely stole a piece or two. . .

So after work. . . it's back to the store I go to find something for dinner and something for tomorrow and possibly Friday so that I can stop making Smiths my second home for a few days. There was nothing at the store. . . but there I got a fabulous idea. . .

Unfortunately. . . it seemed to be everyone's "I" day today.

Had some more ice cream for dessert and called it a day!!

H. . .

2010-12-07T23:22:00.000-08:00

I'm so sleepy right now so this will probably be quick.

I started my day today with some holiday bagel poppers and hot chocolate from einstein's bagels. I had a ham sandwich and some honey nut cheerios for lunch. . . I know. . . a little random. And a hamburger and homestyle fries for dinner. Pretty decent meals. . . but h was a harder letter to find snacks for. So I really didn't have any snacks.

I'll be honest. . . the diet is kind of starting to ware on me. These weeks at work are way busy. . . I'm leaving for work at 7 in the morning and getting home after 6 with a pile of work with me for homework. The last thing I want to do is go to the grocery store and have to wander around searching for foods that begin with a certain letter. I don't even want to think about what I am going to be eating tomorrow. . . or Thursday. . . or Friday. It's only Tuesday and I am already in need of the weekend!

Good night!

G is. . . great!

2010-12-06T22:06:00.000-08:00

So I started my day out with some Golden Grahams. I always eat breakfast in the car. . . cuz mornings are usually quite the hustle and bustle around here! Instead of having a bowl of cereal, I eat dry cereal and wash it down with milk. Same thing right? Since my camera was in the car already . . that's where I got my photo!

At lunch I pulled out my grape jelly sandwich, granola bar, golden oreos, and grapes. A lady I work with showed up to lunch with this fatty bag of candies to share. I was a little bummed out knowing I would probably have to pass on all the yummy extra treaties for the day but then seriously the first two things she pulled out were Godiva and Ghiradelli chocolates-- score!!
I had some gummy lifesavers hanging around as well to accomodate my long work schedule these days (report cards and parent conferences-- bleh!) After work. . . I met up with a friend at Chilis where I had the most delicious Grilled chicken bbq salad. It was soo good. . . I would probably even get it when I don't have to eat things that only start with G! And what was next door to Chilis? Golden Spoon! Yum!!!

G was definitely Great... But the ideas I have flowing for tomorrow's H day is already making my mouth water! Til then. . . !

F. . . ood!

2010-12-05T22:55:00.000-08:00

That's what I ate today. . . a bunch of food! I thought Bonnie might not approve of that, so I did indeed make sure that each of my foods did actually start with the letter F. The next few weeks are going to be crazy busy for me though. I have report cards due this week (which I am still trying to get done) and parent conferences starting tomorrow. So frankly, I don't have time to post about my food let alone cook something edible like Bonnie's french toast! So basically I lived off a bunch of F snacks, and that will probably be my new habit over the next few days. So what did I have today...?

fudge dipped cookies
fudge centered cookies
fruit
fruit roll up
french fries
french bread

That's it- Weird little snackies that I just threw in my mouth all day long. I am starting to not like this "diet."

I wish I had french toast. . .

E. . . eek!

2010-12-04T23:40:00.000-08:00

Many good E options for breakfast. . . probably because egg starts with E. Egg burrito, eggo waffles, egg mcmuffin, einstein bagel. . . though the einstein bagel (is not an egg product- I know) was the top of my list. . . I had a busy busy day and Del Taco happened to be on the correct side of the road for what I was doing. . . so egg burrito it was!

The rest of the day stayed pretty busy (see post below), so I didn't do any munching. I did however, have plans with two different people to go to the movies. The first movie I sat through with no snack. . . not a wise choice. . . movies with no snacks stink. I complained about this to my friend Ammon (who I was going to the second movie with), so he took it upon himself to find me a "movie worthy" snack and came upon everlasting gobstoppers. Not bad!

(I will note though that I don't intend to go back to the movies until P day. . . I LOVE movie theatre popcorn!)

I packed up some E.L. fudge cookies to go to the movies as well, and downed some enchiladas right before leaving.

Definitely not one of my favorite of days. . . but not too bad.

Ho Ho Ho

2010-12-04T17:06:00.001-08:00

As I purchased Christmas lights for my house last week, I had visions of the masterpiece I would create.

Then. . . I actually had to hang them up.

It started out ok. . . however the velcro/sticky hooks that promised to be the easiest light hanging tools around proved to be misleading.

I got the white poles decorated and the red around the front door, then ran out of the red before making it around the garage. I decided to take a quick trip to Home Depot for some more red lights and to replace the candy cane lights that wouldn't work. No more red lights there, so I went to a different store where I found the same situation. I opted to do more of the tree in red, then just buy white lights to go around the garage instead. I exchanged the candy cane lights and got some cute snowmen to add to the decor as well, afterall, they went well with my cute red and white themed house.

I got home, and found that the snowmen lights (which were their last box) didn't come with the stakes. . . so after digging through rocks and dirt, I opted to rather stick them in a bush. Then I got my white lights up around the garage, and finished decorating the red tree in front. Success!!

Then the sun goes down. . .

Well. . . the snowmen aren't white afterall. The candy canes are only red, and have no white either. Who would've guessed that they sold different colors of white lights?? And to top it off. . . my tree was just too tall. . .

Walah!! My MASTERPIECE!!

sigh. . . not exactly what I had envisioned. . .

D is for Diet. . . right?

2010-12-03T22:07:00.000-08:00

Apparently I viewed this whole "diet" very differently than Bonnie did.

A definition of the word diet, according to dictionary.com is "the foods eaten, as by a particular person or group." So Shawna's diet right now is consisting of foods starting with the abcs. . . nothing written about losing weight there.

I don't think I had even the smallest of hopes that I would actually lose weight this way. yeah. . . there are some not so exciting food days like X, Y, and Z. . . but when you find something that is good on a particular day and basically get to eat unlimited amounts of that food. . . well that's just asking for trouble!

Today my day consisted of donuts in the morning, some dried apricots, dipped cookies, doritos and a deli sandwich for lunch, dug up some dinosaur fruit snacks for snack time, and got Del Taco for dinner. I got the Del classic chicken burrito. The only way I was able to get around this "D" issue and order my french fries without cheating was by making them the deluxe fries instead. And to top it off, the man who could not speak english at the drive thru window thought I wanted 2 burritos with my deluxe fries instead of just one, so now I have two hours of my "D" day left to down a second Del chicken burrito. We'll see if that happens. And for dessert? Dibs! Yum! (Which I actually snuck for breakfast as well).

I figure my "real" diet can start next month with Molly and our Subway Jerry diet. Afterall, I have to find some way to shed some weight after this whole abc fiasco is over!

happy dieting!

Ps. I took this picture on self timer. I am impressed with Doogle's choosing to be in the photo on his own free will. One of the best pictures I've gotten of the pup and he wasn't supposed to even be in the picture!

Cookies and Candies and Chocolates. . . oh my!

2010-12-02T21:42:00.000-08:00

If I had to live off one letter of foods for the rest of my life (though I can't think of a situation that would really require such a thing), it would definitely be the letter C. Though I haven't lived through all the letters of the alphabet quite yet. . . I just can't imagine beating today's options. Just look at the title of the post!

I was looking forward to Day 3 for nothing else but my beloved Chocolate milk. Breakfast is just not the same without that stuff! Somehow in the joy of holding that chocolate milk. . . the cocoa puff cereal got lost in transit from my kitchen to my car. It has still yet to be recovered. . .

I am doing a 12 days of Christmas activity with my class where everyday for 12 days I leave them a goody. Day one (yesterday), they each got one candy cane. Day 2 (today), two cookies. Lucky for me, both of those started with C. . . with leftovers of both . . . upon arrival at work. . . today's breakfast was complete!

A few days ago a friend of mine asked me to dinner Thursday night. . . I was worried at first. . . I was so not going to lose this challenge because of him! And lose the challenge I did not!

As a side note. . . I think my puppy Doogle is quite smart. He must know that it's C day . . . all night long he keeps trying to eat my Carpet!!

B. . . a bit better

2010-12-01T22:35:00.001-08:00

Buttermilk muffin
Banana
Beef Stew
Blueberry muffin Pudding
Butterfinger(s)
Baby Ruth(s)
Burrito
Broccoli
Beef Jerky

Boring. . . but . . . bedtime

Buenos Noches!

A is for . . . apples??

2010-11-30T20:02:00.000-08:00

I don't know how it all really began, but a few weeks ago, Bon and I were discussing an ABC diet. Start at the beginning of the alphabet, each day you can only eat foods which start with that letter day. Fun right??

Well, just like it typically happens in a random Bonnie and Shawna scheme. . . talk turned to action. Rules were established (because what's a fun new Kelly diet without a little competition?) and day one began. . . today!

So for the next 26 days (or however many days we get before someone messes up and LOSES) I will be reporting how I did on that day's diet. Wish me luck!!

A is for . . .
apple
Asian Cuisine
apple with caramel
Animal Crackers
apple sauce
angel hair pasta
have I mentioned apple?

For any normal person, "A" probably would not have been too tricky. Avacado, Asparagus, Artichoke, Alfredo. . . all perfectly legit "A" foods. . . however, not exactly on Shawna's list of edible eats.
Part way through the day, I did randomly search through my treasure box at school (which let's be honest- I do quite regularly) and discovered gold! That was definitely a fun surprise.

But now, at home, I fear the only thing left downstairs for me to eat is yet another applesauce. Maybe tonight will be an early bedtime as I dream of all my favorite (and quite abc varied) foods!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-26T22:43:00.000-08:00

I worked through Wednesday. So this year I decided that rather than rushing out of work, and fighting traffic all the way down, to wake up early and drive home on Thanksgiving day instead. It worked out great, and I arrived sometime around 9:30 in the am.

It was a pretty nice day outside, so Bonnie's family came over and we sat outside a bit.

Cayden decided to start up a game of Charades and got so involved in his first (and only) turn, that he had a little mishap with the (rather cold) swimming pool.

The party was then moved inside. Scott's family showed up and from there we basically just enjoyed some food all- day- long.

Sadly, we didn't do so hot with the picture taking this year. . . we did however, get the most important Kelly Thanksgiving photo. . .

afterall . . . it's tradition!

Which started a newer tradition. . .

And to continue with traditions. . .

We sent the kiddos (and the puppy) to bed and started out for some midnight black friday shopping adventures! I actually got some clothes out to wear but Bonnie said it was ok to go dressed as I was. It was shocking! So that is indeed how I looked leaving the house.

Our shopping adventures were eventful! We hit the few stores open from midnight until about 3 am. Us three girls got to lug this fatty heavy gift around a crowded store and parking lot and load it into the car. That was definitely some good times.

Before heading back home for a few hours of sleep, we stopped in at the donut store for tomorrow's breakfast! Which, we ended up eating before breakfast. :)

Bonnie and I got a few minutes of sleep, before we were up again before 7 to do it all over again with little Aubrey in tow, who wanted to experience the early morning shopping adventures for herself. We got a lot of stuff throughout the entire day and had a very successful day of shopping once again.

Though we had some fun times. . . I'm definitely glad that's done for another year.

Another puppy post

2010-11-23T20:06:00.000-08:00

Chances are. . . if you walked into my house on any given day. . . this is how you would find the puppy. He LOVES plastic hangers. I have learned to keep them off the ground in my room at all times for two reasons. One being that Doogle must have a TON of plastic in his belly by now. . . and two- I am always running out of hangers!!
He has since learned to go steal them from my roommates room. I don't know when she is going to realize that she is losing hangers on a daily basis. . . but soon hopefully she will learn to keep them off the floor as well.

Correction

2010-11-20T10:12:00.000-08:00

The official results of last week's Scavenger Dash have been posted and it turns out Michael and I got TENTH place!! YES!!! Turns out a couple of teams that crossed in front of us didn't complete all of the challenges.

Next year. . . Bon and I are going for first!

Las Vegas Scavenger Dash

2010-11-13T18:14:00.001-08:00

Several months ago, I saw an advertisement for "The Scavenger Dash."

What is Scavenger Dash?
The Scavenger Dash is a wildly fun urban adventure.

Teams of two solve twelve clues, have a wild city adventure and complete fun challenges while discovering the city in a different way. An amazing race on a local level, where anyone can participate.

Object:

to have fun!
to have an exciting adventure.
to properly complete all the clues first.

So of course I began the hunt for my partner, and Michael was the lucky winner!

I found us some cute matching outfits for the big day. Upon seeing them, Michael kind of rolled his eyes a bit, but I swear he put that hat on his head and never even threatened to remove it even after it got a bit warm. Which means. . . he secretly liked it.

Besides needing a partner to run my adventure with, I also needed a "pit crew," someone at home, sitting at the computer, that can act like a "phone a friend" when I needed some internet help. Molly was my immediate choice, and she did an AMAZING job. . . we seriously would have failed miserably without our wonderful pit crew. So I am sending out a huge THANK YOU to my sweet sweet sister!!
Besides helping with all our internet needs, knowing me so well, Molly knew that I would want a picture of her part in our race. So she took her own snapshot, and even better, she took it in "comic book" style, to go with our team theme. How great is she?!

So here's how it worked. . .

At 12 o'clock pm, teams stood around waiting for the first clue. Upon solving that clue, you would be led to a person who carried an envelope of 12 more clues. The clues led to different places along the strip (and a few a bit off) that had to be solved and photo documented. A few of the clue locations had challenges that had to be completed as well. You only had to finish 11 of the 12 clues, then it was a race to get back. Some of the clues, were not even clues, just challenges. "Get a picture with a license plate from a state that starts with M." "Get a red playing chip from a casino." Other clues were written in code, or used random quotes that had to be googled and looked up. Challenges consisted of a blind folded little obstacle course and getting to 100,000 in ski ball. All pretty do- able. There was no particular order that anything had to be finished in, so it was strategy on which clues led us where and which order would be the quickest to go. Only means of transportation being city bus, monerail, or what we did the WHOLE time- FOOT.

It was a pretty fun adventure. I was EXHAUSTED at the end. Michael made a great teammate, but a rather mean one as well. We were constantly arguing and yelling at each other while running down the street. It was seriously like being one of the "dating couples" that you find on the real Amazing Race! (No worries. . . we are just friends- just felt that way).
At one point Michael told me that we had only a mile to go to get to our next clue.
"A WHOLE MILE?" I questioned.
"Yes Shawna, so you only have to run for like five minutes."
"But Michael-- I DON'T run a 5 minute mile!!!"

At another point, he was once again yelling at me for trying to walk a few minutes when I yelled
"Michael- you don't have any compassion!"
in which he responded . . .
"Shawna, you don't know how to run!"

Somehow, we were able to smile in all of our pictures. . . fancy that. I guess we were just happy to get another place checked off our list of places to be. All in all, we really did have fun. And Michael's push to run the whole time and not stop at 7-11 for slurpees earned us a 12th place overall! (55 teams were competing).

The mural that was in a specific scene of the movie "The Hangover"

The water fountain "Halo."

A picture with "Punch" at a local steakhouse.

kissing the silver pig

Holding the handle to a very unknown little taco shop

Upon finishing, we got some sweet shirts, and over lunch, Michael and I once again became friends. :)

It was a pretty good day.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T18:25:00.001-07:00

This was the first year that I got to decorate my very own house for Halloween. I was pretty excited. That is. . . until I discovered I really don't have any money to buy regular house decorations. . . let alone Halloween stuff! I did end up getting a Frankenstein towel that was put downstairs in the "guest" bathroom. I don't know if I even had one guest in that bathroom to enjoy my one and only October decoration! I got to use it however. . . and am thoroughly impressed with how soft it is. . . that I am considering keeping it up year round!!

I did buy an outside Halloween welcome hanging thing. I tried hanging it up, and it got super windy and just blew down like the same night! So I ended up taking it back inside, and never attempted again to get it hung back up. . .

On Friday night, I got Nephi to carve pumpkins with me for the second year in a row. I needed a Jack o Lantern to show the kidletts that this was a house to hit on Halloween night!! Last year when we carved pumpkins, we made the delicious tortilla soup as well. It was very tasty of course, but I think I much prefer the Jack o lantern pizza tradition instead. Let's face it. . . I am just not a cook!!

Now, two nights later, my pumpkin has already withered, and the light inside of it ran out of batteries. I did however somewhat put my sign back outside. The nail is lost, so the sign just kind of got propped up against the post on the house.

Oh well-- I turned the porch light on. . . hopefully the kiddos will still feel welcome!

Here's to better decorating next year. . . .

Happy Halloween!

Why Las Vegas is better than California. . .

2010-10-26T18:06:00.000-07:00

I seriously do NOT make these things up. . .

Emily keeps telling us that she is moving to California in January. But today she told me that they are leaving sooner than they thought. . .

Miss Kelly: So when are you guys going now?

Emily: ummm. . I'm not sure. Sometime before December 15th though.

Miss Kelly: Why December 15th?

Emily: Because after December 15, the airports in California will all be shut down because of the volcano that is going to explode sometime around then.

Hmmm. . .I guess her family wants to be prepared and settled BEFORE the imaginary massive volcano erupts causing the state to shut down. . .