Thanks for Thanksgiving

In our rush to go off and have a vacation in the Carribbean, I failed to post about our Thanksgiving and our wonderful hosts, the Bryces. THANK YOU FOR LETTING US COME! I am way lucky I like Josh's family as much as mine; they are all great. Anyway, it was very nice and the food was delish. (I am stealing that word from Lisa.) Here's a couple of photos we took right before we left to come home.

Here we all are, minus Uncle Michael, who had to go to work. It took us a couple of tries to get this one, because we had to use the timer.

Now acting more like ourselves..ha ha!

This is my mad face when Josh told me it was time to go back to Ajo.

Klaire taught Josh a dance that goes to a Hannah Montana song. It was really funny to see him do the dance with the girls.

I know this picture is random. I took it at Thanksgiving last year. I just thought it was cute that Grandma and Grandpa Brady have the same shoes, and then they were both sitting the same way. Cutest!

Variations and my tree

Some of you have asked about my new haircut and whether or not it can be done curly, since I do have the natural curl thing going on. When I did it curly, Josh said: "What's going on with your hair today?" and it wasn't in a "Wow, I really like it!" tone. I didn't think it looked too bad from the front, but the back is sort of crazy. I also included a shot of my hair done flipped out. I had put on a baseball cap while my hair was wet, and it dried flipped up, so I just went with it. At least it's a change, right?

Curly

Flipped (Yes, I took this myself and chopped my head off)

Oh yeah, here is my tree! I will have to take another shot when it is dark outside.

Tag!

I have been tagged...blah, blah, blah. I am not tagging anyone else so you don't need the rules. I am just supposed to tell you about my quirks. Sister Char tagged me and I like her, so I guess I will play along.

Nicola's Quirks

1. Before I do the dishes, they have to be organized. Sometimes this takes longer to do than the actual dishes. I stack all the like things together and arrange them by what goes on the top rack of the dishwasher and what goes on the bottom. And when I load the dishwasher, I put all the forks in the same section and then all the small spoons in another and so on. I also have little kid plastic cups, bowls and plates that I like to put in order by color (like a rainbow). I'm not sure what compels me to do this, but I'm sure it's not normal.

2. I have had 24 different kinds of jobs and I have never been fired from any of them. I've done everything from waitressing to office managing to selling wedding dresses to taking care of old people. Maybe this is why I was never able to stick with a major.

3. I am getting much better at this, but for the longest time, I couldn't let my food touch on my plate or I wouldn't eat it. I love those plates with dividers in them, or the school lunch trays; those were perfect. Ward potlucks and family dinners are a plate nightmare for me, and I still think Jell-O should always be served in a completely different container. Who wants pink, cherry-flavored mashed potatoes? Yuck, I am gagging just thinking about it.

Josh's Quirks

1. Josh is a pacer. If you know Josh, then you know what I am talking about. It intensifies when he's talking on the phone or if he's explaining something he's really excited about. Either way, it's a good thing I don't have carpet in my house, or there would be a worn out path around my living room/kitchen.

2. The King of one track mindedness. Once he has decided he wants something, there is no distracting him. I can be talking to him for any amount of time on any subject, and at any given moment, he will rattle off a list of facts and/or features about the new motorcycle he wants, or the gun that he just bought, or ANY type of new car that he thinks is cool, or anything else that has caught his attention lately. I used to think this was his way of changing the subject, but not so. He will do it while I am reading or otherwise busy as well.

3. Josh thinks that is is fun to scare the crap out of little kids. And not just once in a while, but all of the time. He plays this game with my nieces and nephews where he is a ferocious dog, and they are not supposed to wake him from his nap. When they inevitably do, he barks and snarls and almost bites them, and they laugh and laugh until they are really scared and then they cry!

So now you know that we are wierdies. Try not to hold it against us.

Ouch!

No, I did not give myself hickies with a vacuum cleaner, I received 4 impacts from a Pepperball launch system today in the name of training. I also received some area saturation from a whole bunch of pepperballs launched in the immediate area around me so that I could breathe in the powder. The highlight of the day was shooting the FN303 pictured below. Luckily I didn't get those projectiles launched at me. Although they are the same diameter as the pepperballs, and actually launch 20 feet per second slower, they are filled with a bunch of heavy bismuth (like lead but eco-friendly) pellets in the front, and rifling on the back. This allows them to hit with almost 3 times the force of the pepperballs which are launched from what is basically an ordinary paintball gun.

Our Refrigerator

Our refrigerator is always full of food. It makes it difficult to go shopping, because we think, "Gee, we can't buy this because there is no room in our fridge." Unfortunately, we can't eat the stuff in our fridge because it is all condiments.

In an effort to declutter our fridge, I made pancakes the other day just as an excuse to eat syrup. We still have half a bottle of strawberry syrup, two partially empty bottles of maple syrup, and one little bottle of pure maple syrup that I took home from the Cracker Barrel.

Luckily, I like mustard, so we're down to 5 bottles of 4 types of mustard. I also finished off a container of mayonnaise this week, meaning we only have 3 open containers left in the fridge.

Pickles are a problem because the containers are so large. We have a 62 oz jumbo bottle of bread and butter chips, a 46 oz jar of original dill whole pickles, a 24 oz jar of Zingers hot dill pickles, and 16 oz jars each of sweet whole pickles and sweet pickle relish.

Other condiments in our fridge include 4 types of hot sauce, one bottle of salsa, 5 different kinds of salad dressing (although nothing to make a salad out of), ketchup, A1, two types of BBQ sauce, 2 bottles of liquid smoke, lemon juice, lime juice, sour cream, sliced jalapenos, chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, whipped topping in a can, butter, margarine, spread, and 3 types of preserves.

What Happens in Vegas...

Well, not a lot happens in Vegas if you don't drink or gamble. And FYI, when the casino says their show is "family friendly", do NOT believe them. We did get to see Josh's family (minus Lisa, who had a good excuse-she's in Europe, and Mark, who did not have a good excuse and should have come) and that was really fun. We went to the Las Vegas Zoo and bowling on Monday. The zoo is really little and not exactly one of the main attractions in Vegas. Hmmm...I wonder why? They do let you feed the birds, which was really annoying, and the goats, which was kind of fun in a gross, goat-slobbery sort of way. Here are a few more pictures for Lisa; you're welcome, Lis. :)

Josh feeding the goat. This goat REALLY liked to be fed, and Josh's hand was way dirty afterwards. I thought it was going to be permanently discolored, but it came off after he scrubbed it really good with soap and water.

Spencer feeding a different goat; this guy wasn't quite as pushy as the other one.

Here's me feeding the same goat Josh fed. I was kind of scared he was going to head butt me if I didn't feed him. He had crazy eyes when he saw the food. Oh, and did I mention that this was gross?

The goat with crazy eyes

This lion was one of the best animals at the zoo. We got to watch him eat his snack of raw chicken; very exciting.

All of the bowling pictures are of Spencer. I guess that is because he is pretty funny when he bowls.

The approach-very important

Take a look at that technique

Strike!

My Birthday Loot...revised

So, my sister in law Lisa complained that I wasn't actually in any of these pictures, so I changed some of them. The swimsuit one is not going to change though, sorry Lisa.

As Josh mentioned in the comments of the last post, I ordered my own presents. Josh was gone to camp, and he said I could just go ahead and do it. So here is what I got. For those who know me well, you will not be surprised to see that I got clothes and shoes. I do not need either, of course, because I have always had a serious shopping problem. I just love both and my birthday is the one time I can buy whatever I want and Josh can't complain. It is my favorite part about my birthday...besides the cake!

Oh, and since Josh was gone, I had a girls' day in Phoenix with some friends. We went to the temple and watched the Joseph Smith movie, then to lunch at Cracker Barrel; I love their mac and cheese. And then we did some shopping, and finally, we got pedicures, and they were the best! I got the soak, massage, callus removal, honey sugar scrub, hot stone massage, and the french tip pedi for $33! It was a steal, and I have to say my feet look very cute (see below). Thanks for the phone calls, texts, comments, cards, etc. I had a great birthday.



Here are my new flip flops. They are SO COMFORTABLE!



These are my new pair of jean capris. I bought some last year for Christmas (you can wear them year round here) but they are too big now because I lost some weight. (Good job me.)

My new swimsuit I got for our cruise, it's polka dot. (We are going to the Carribbean in December, it is going to be really fun.)

The boots I want. I haven't got them yet because I need to try them on first.

And this is my new dress from Target. It was not actually a birthday present, I bought it about a month ago, but it is way cute and it was only $12! I LOVE Target.

Ode to Nicola

Happy Late Birthday to Nicola!!

Honey - if you're reading this, I'm sorry that I missed your birthday, but I am home now, and I did call you yesterday.

I tried to find embarrassing pictures of you, but it appears that you have deleted them all from the hard drive of our computer. This is the best I could do. I bet you're wishing now that you remembered to delete this one too! Hahahahahaha

Ode to Audge....

My sister Audra's birthday is tomorrow...Happy Birthday Augie. I have a collection of "Bad Audra" pictures that I love to share with people, and what better way to share than on my blog in honor of her birthday!

(I'm sure she will be thrilled.)

These old lady glasses floated around my mom's house for awhile. They had actual prescription lenses in them, the kind that magnify your eyes to twice their size. Hilarious!

Showing a little leg with her roommate, Jill

Not sure what she is doing here

Okay, this is not a bad picture, but I love this one because my nephew Gaven looks so cute and he loves Audra. And really, after seeing these pictures, I have to ask you all, "What's not to love about this girl?" HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Home Again!

I'm home again. I am actually going to be home for 2 whole weeks this time before going back to camp. I've got some little videos that I made from work as well if anyone wants to see them, they are waaaay too big to email, so I'll have to send the file to you via google talk, and you have to promise not to do anything that will get me fired, like putting them up on the internet. Just invite me (jensen.joshua at gmail) to chat via google talk, and we'll go from there.

That's all of my news for now I guess.

Ta Da! And the Winner is....

Okay, so #1 was the winner of the vote, which was lucky because that was the one I liked the best. I am still figuring out how to do it, but here's a shot of my first attempt.

I am sure I will get better at it.

Cast Your Votes!

This is not a political post. I have decided I want to cut my hair and I need your help. I figure since my hair has been in a ponytail for about 3 months straight, it's time for it to go. I used this very cool, FREE website to try out different styles(http://www.taaz.com/). It is a pretty fun little site, it even does your makeup for you. Anywho, please tell me which one you like the best to help me choose. The picture above this is pretty much what my hair looks like right now, except for my hair is a little bit longer. But it never actually looks this way because of the aforementioned ponytail situation, so I did this one on the website as well. *Disclosure-Don't bother voting for the wierd ones, I reserve the right to not choose the one that wins. Also, I would still have my natural hair color, despite what the picture looks like.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

Chubby Bunny

Well, I bought Nicola a T-shirt from work the other day. Long story short - it was too small, so I thought about giving it to my sister. Then Nicola suggested giving it to one of her sisters instead (sorry Lisa). Since there was only one shirt and a boatload of sisters, I had to come up with a contest for the week of the Aspen Grove Reunion where the winning sister would recieve a free Border Patrol T-shirt. I was trying really really hard to come up with a fair contest that would not give an obvious advantage to any one sister. A few days into the cafeteria-style eating which is Aspen Grove fare, an idea came to me. There I was slurping my blue Jell-O, and wondering how many grapes I could fit in my mouth, when I decided that we needed to play chubby bunny for the prize. Brady and Randi were coming up later that day, so I called Randi and had her pick up 3 bags of marshmallows for me. I played as well, and I got at least 8, maybe 9. I don't really remember. I remember not being able to breathe, choking, and probably swallowing 3 whole marshmallows while attempting to breathe through a mouthful. The winner was Audra. Don't ask me how, but she got 11 in there without cheating. So Audra - was it worth it?

Our WINNER - Chubby Audra

Chubby Char just can't compete

Jess had to be force-fed his chubby bunny food.

This was the second time I tried playing that night to see if I could beat Audra. I couldn't. I really should not have tried this a second time. It hurt.

Happy Early Anniversary to Me!

Nicola and I will soon be celebrating our 5th anniversary. In honor of this momentous occasion, we've tried doing something that we've never done before. We got a present for me! Normally we just get a nice gift for Nicola.

I got a Benelli Ultra Light 12 gauge Shotgun, and I just picked it up yesterday. I will be shooting it for the first time in about an hour and a half. Anyone interested in Shotguns should check this one out at

http://www.benelliusa.com/firearms/ultralight.tpl

If anyone out there is wondering where the money came from - it came from my motorcycle fund. That's right, I'm pushing back the purchase of my next motorcycle so I can own this.

Yes, this was a necessary purchase because my other shotgun, while pretty is not really an everyday shooter right now. The new walnut stock is starting to crack after only about 500 rounds because I didn't completely fix it back when I replaced the wood. More on this later, as I decided I will make a seperate post detailing my Ithaca model 37. It is also a 16 guage which is getting ridiculously hard to find reasonably priced ammunition for, and it's a pump. While pumps are good guns, I felt like I deserved a semi-automatic;) Here are the two guns side by side.

Funny Kids

A couple of other things from my trip home. I have really funny nieces and nephews, but the little ones are the best. This is a little clip of Jack shaking his "booty" and he does a special little move at the end.

And this is Ethan. He is really cute and really fast. He is always trying to wriggle out of his mom or dad's arms so he can run around, and he wanted to race everyone down the hill at Aspen Grove. He also calls babies "babbies", and it is really cute.

We all took turns holding my new niece Katrina too. She is actually pretty little in person, but she still has really chubby cheeks. Charlotte was the baby hog; she held her the most.

She sleeps like this (she's wearing her blessing dress)

Char (the baby hog)

Audra (she took the baby from Char)