oh right, I have a blog

You'd think having someone else link to me in their fantastic blog would get be to post something new already... gah, it's like I can only be one thing at a time. Or maybe two things. But that's it.

I can be a toddler wrangler and a student...but not both and a blogger! Who do I look like? Someone who has their act together?

Anyway, I've been given an award.

So there's that.

Several years ago I spent one year at a small private conservative baptist college in Minnesota. I'm much too liberal now for you to ever believe that I chose to attend that school...but I did..and I met some of the most ridiculous people there. But, I also met a few really amazing women. One young lady in my dorm was Jillian and she was so fun and cool that she really didn't belong at that school either. I met most of her friends as she was more-or-less a local and I had only been in the city about a year, and I soon call many of them my friends as well. Jillian had some really great friends, like, I was flattered that she liked me because she obviously had good taste in friends.

Jillian doesn't have a blog. But! One of her friends that I got to know, Jill, does!! Lucky us! Jill is one of those people that even if you only spend a few hours with her you don't forget her when you leave. I never had to say, "oh that one girl, what was her name?" I'm glad she has a blog.

So...I'm supposed to lay out 10 honest things about myself now- here goes-

1. Candy Cane Hershey kisses will be the death of me. Of if not death, they'll put me back into my maternity pants by the new year.

2. My daughter has just potty trained herself- in about a week. Don't hate me. She's even had dry nights the last two nights, as well as dry naps the last three days. I planned on getting her a potty for her 2nd birthday (in one month!!!) but that's out the window now. It converts to a travel potty so it's not a loss. I lucked out on this one, I know.

3. The best thing in the whole world first thing in the morning is hot coffee with a little cream. I am super picky about my morning routine and it can really set the tone for my whole day (and yours if we cross paths). I need to have a hot cup of coffee first, maybe while I'm checking some blogs and watching the news, then I can have some breakfast. If my breakfast is cold I can have another cup of coffee, if it's hot I have to have something cold to drink. I cannot have a hot drink and hot food at the same meal, especially breakfast.

4. I dressed Josephine up as Bessie Colman for Halloween. Never heard of her? Yeah, well, Josephine isn't two yet so she gets no say in her Halloween costume yet. Anyway, click over to read about her, she was the first African-American to have a pilots license. I have my grandfather's old flight cap that he wore in WWII and beyond so it was pretty neat to see my baby in it.

5. Josephine can say a lot of words but "Josephine" isn't one of them. She started calling herself Jojo and every one else picked it right up as well. Tonight I proposed to her that she go by Joey. It's been long enough since Dawson's creek has been on the air right? So anyway, she tries to say Joey and says JoLo. Nice, but maybe she should wait for a record deal before taking that one. Then JoLo turns to Jello, so most of tonight I've called her Jello. Mmmmmm.

6. I am not a huge fan of Thanksgiving, or most holidays I guess, but anyway, Thanksgiving, right. I don't really like turkey, or stuffing, or anything with mushrooms, or those Pillsbury crescent rolls. And I can't convince anyone to stray from the "traditional". I try to contribute one dish to dinner so that I know I'll have at least one thing I like on my plate, this year I made this. You need to click over to that recipe, it was FABULOUS. Even better this morning for breakfast (after my coffee of course).

7. I squealed, out loud, like I was 15, when I saw the commercial for Scrubs coming back on Tuesday.

8. All I want for Christmas is to go swimming with Josephine. We had so much fun this summer at the pool.

9. Some of my fuzziest memories are from when I was in Jr High and High School. Like, entire holidays, vacations, even years are missing. I never did drugs so that's not to blame...

10. Number 8 is a lie, I also want a whole day of no obligations, including no toddler (except for select moments) so that I can spend all day playing Mario Kart, drinking diet Big K, and eating the tin of Christmas cookies from Costco in my pajamas.

I'm not giving this award to anyone. The people who I would've given it to just got it from someone else and most of the blogs I read are by people that would never read my blog...I should change that.

You know what I've been meaning to ask? What the hell are the Roots doing on Jimmy Fallon?

Some Super Duper Exciting News!

I can't help myself. I start growing my hair out and then the next time I have a babysitter I make an appointment to chop it all off. To be fair, my last cut was kinda yucky and growing it out was more stress than any natural occurrence should be. And this cut? I love it. I've seen a new stylist the last 4-5 times I've gotten my hair cut because I was so unimpressed with the results that I was willing to take my chances with someone new rather than remember their name, but this time I will remember that EMILY cut my hair and she did awesome.

Now, where have I been? Well, I've been busy entertaining company for one. My grandmother has come to meet Josephine and hang out for a week. Here is four generations of CRAZY:

This has been the fastest fall I've ever seen. That bush in the picture is the only thing that is still colorful in our yard. Just about all the leaves on the oaks have fallen already and it seemed to happen all at once. (boo)

Josephine is much more comfortable around my grandma now than she was the first few days she was here. For three days I had 20+ lbs hanging on me 24 hours a day as she was terrified a stranger might look at her or *gasp* talk to her. By Halloween night I was ready to drop her in the pillowcase of the next trick-or-treater.

Speaking of Halloween... I hadn't planed on dressing up Josephine originally. I'm not a fan of the holiday myself and there was no way I was going to spend precious time and money on a costume she'd probably want to rip off anyway. But Martha ragged on me for days about how cute it would be and eventually I caved. I pulled together some things from our closets and dressed Josephine as St Joan of Arc...I guess I was the English.

Joan here had a marvelous time emptying the candy bowl all afternoon.

In other news, the night before Halloween my sister and her boyfriend, my father and I went to a local haunted house. That is really haunted (if you believe in that stuff). It was in an old Psych ward and interesting because it was interactive, they encouraged you to talk to the scaries. At the end was a maze with movable walls and spooky people that would MOVE THEM while we were still wandering around and so it took a while to find our way out. I hadn't been to a haunted house since I was in Jr. High. There are a lot of high quality ones around here but I figured they wouldn't let a big fat pregnant person in for fear they would scare the baby out of me so I didn't hit up any last year.

Sunday was a fun day as well. We all, except for my mother, went to SLC to see Body Worlds. (They don't allow pictures) I thought it would be kinda creepy but it wasn't at all. All I could see was how easy it is to pull a muscle doing mundane things and by the end my next was all twitchy. It was quiet in there, barely any whispering, only the sound of a heart beat playing over the speakers. I feel smarter having been through the exhibit. I'd be happy to give you a consultation on your cholesterol levels if you like.

We had a nice lunch out where Josephine entertained everyone in the restaurant like she always does. This time she was doing tricks with a straw and a spoon, you should really try to catch that show.

When we got home the old ladies of the house and I went to an antique show/sale. I snagged a super ring there called a poison ring. Pretty isn't it?

Yeah I didn't think about it until later that night but it's kinda like a good place to store some coke...but don't worry I'll only keep an emergency Cheerio in there, or maybe a picture or something.

Today I voted.

Now that we're all caught up on my week I'm sure you can finally sleep at night. I can't though, oh no, Josephine wouldn't allow that, but that's old news.