There is no price for awesomeness.....or attractiveness.

Just a few thoughts, I really don't have anything that great to blog about at the moment. So just randomness.

I finished reading Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star by Brandon Mull. It was better than the first one. Brandon Mull is a Mormon Author. I came to know these books through my book club. In his bio at the end of his books, it says he lives on the side a mountain, above a prison, I take this to mean he lives at the point of the mountain near where magic water's used to be. (Is that still there?) So if you like fantasy and fairies, lots of fairies, you would like these books. Here is a fun website that is all Fablehaven, all the time. http://fablehaven.com (Anything else you want to know, Em?)

About a year and a half ago, I realized that I had been making the same food since I got married and maybe I wasn't such a good cook after all. But having said this, I decided my cooking skills have recently improved, if only marginally. I think this because I took a bag of dried beans and turned it into something eat-able. Okay, I made chili. But it turned out on the first try and that usually doesn't happen for me. So hooray! This coupled with the fact that I discovered I can roast marshmallows on my ceramic flat-top stove makes me think that maybe I CAN cook after all.

This is the wettest spring I have ever experienced here in Kansas. Seems like we have been in a drought since I moved here. Not this year. Every other day it seems it is raining. This has a few side effects. 1. My allergies are horrific. My eyes burn and itch, my throat hurts from all the sneezing. 2. My husband is working weird hours into the night trying to get enough hours in. Which really bugs the crap out of me. Why can't he get a normal 9-5 like everyone else? 3. Everything is so green, the flowers are blooming so early and so, so BIG! It is so incredibly beautiful right now. It's just too bad that the second I step outside my house to enjoy it, I get the urge to claw my eyes out.

Went and saw Kung Fu Panda last Friday. It was awesome. Jack Black is awesome. My daughter loves the snake. ( I don't know why, she just likes snakes. Gross.) My little boy says Panda like "Puu-ha!" At first I thought he was trying to say a rude word to describe a female body part but was relieved to figure out he did, in fact, mean "Panda."

My Famous Friends, the Authors

I'm just going to take a moment here and show my dorkyness. Or nerdyness, if you prefer. I don't know if anyone knows, but I have a myspace page too. Mostly I have no friends. So I started finding authors of the books I have been reading lately. When they give permission for me to be their friend, I leave a stupid "thanks for adding me" crap message because that's what people do (apparently). But to my delight I have had two personal responses from two of the authors. How exciting for me. No really, I giggled with delight!

Check it out if you want....http://www.myspace.com/leslierama

My Tomato Garden

Last year, I had the biggest, baddest, tomato plants in the neighborhood. They totally took over the bed, uprooted their cages and killed a patch of grass adjacent to the bed. They were some awesome tomato plants. I credit Enright Gardens, the best flower and vegetable nursery around. They were my husband's neighbors when he was a kid.(Sadly, this shameless plug will go to waste. No one in Kansas reads my blog.)

This year, we are a whole month late getting the tomatoes in the ground. Unlike last year, I have given the plants wide birth. Three tomato plants share their bed with just my husband's small, lone strawberry plant. Because I was late in planting them, I picked varieties that take less time to mature. I have an Early Girl, an Early Goliath, and a Grape Tomato plant. I usually always plant Roma tomatoes, but decided to go with the other plants because the Roma plants were not nearly as big as they were last year. I'm excited to try the new varieties. Besides having a shorter maturity time, these Early varieties are already over a foot tall and have fruit on them.

I am the Tooth Fairy

I am Mother, Daughter, Wife, College Student, Child of God, Housekeeper, laundry matron, toilet scrubber, friend, sister, cousin, niece, aunt, neighbor, jazzerciser, bum cleaner, personal cook, and story reader. Now I can add one more title: Tooth Fairy.

My husband pulled out my five year old's tooth last night, with dental floss. I absolutely will not play Santa Clause for my kids. I hate Santa. I wrote a paper about it for my Composition class. SO why don't I have a problem with the tooth fairy? I can't answer that. I snuck into my daughter's room about midnight to switch the tooth with the moneys(as she would say). I had one of those moments where you are like "I can't believe I have a kid old enough to do
that." Why the heck did it take ME forever to grow up and every time I turn around, my daughter is another year older? I suppose that is the theory of relativity.
My daughter came and stood over me at 3:30 am. Normally, I would be totally pissed off by being startled awake, so as I almost scream while I bolt into an upright position. But she said "Mommy! I've got 2 moneys!" My little heart melted because she was so excited and she wanted to tell ME, right away. Sometimes, being the Mommy is awesome.

Stephenie Meyer

On Thursday May 8, 2008, I took two of my friends(Steph and Mel) with me to a book signing for Stephenie Meyer's new book, The Host. I have since read this book and I give it a big thumbs up. Stephenie appeared at the Unity Temple on the Plaza in Kansas City Mo. it was a little, sold out event for a 1000 people put on by Rainy Day Books.



Stephenie came out on stage and the room erupted in screams and camera flashes. Actually it was pretty hilarious. The girls were so funny. A lot of them had made t-shirts. My favorite said "I drive like a Cullen". Awesome. So Stephenie spoke for about 30 min. She read a few pages from her new book and answered questions. What I liked the best about it, I could see that Stephenie Meyer is just a normal person, just like me. She could come hang out at relief society or the park with us and she would fit right in. Then the book signing began. They called everyone up in groups based on the number on your ticket. I had the 256the green ticket. Unfortunately their was a group of 500 pink tickets that was ahead of me. It took over three hours to get my books signed.
So while we were waiting, we left and went to Uno's Pizzeria. We enjoyed buffalo wings and cheesecake. Mostly we just talked to each other and anyone else who would talk to us. We didn't get home till almost midnight, which is super late for a bunch of Mormon Mommies. It was fun, a little silly, but totally worth-it. I had a great time.

This Seriously Works.

While in Utah, my sister in law, Emili, told me how to fix scratched DVDs. She said to put the furniture polish Pledge on them and wipe them with a soft cloth. It totally worked too. I'm telling everyone.

My Trip

As you already know, I just got back from my trip to Idaho and Utah. Very nice trip. Yes. Except for the whole earwax stuff, and the suicide across the street, but we already talked about that.

I packed the kids up in suitcases and we flew to Boise, Idaho.
First Order of business: TAYLOR'S WEDDING!!
It was a two day affair that started with my brother Dallon's luggage getting stolen out of their car in Las Vegas. Taylor married Tara Miller on Friday May 16, 2008 in the Boise LDS Temple. I was there. It was very nice. I can't believe my little brotha, Tay-luh got married! That's soooo cute!!! They had a reception at the church that night. I got to see three of my four Aunts. Very fun. The next night they had another reception in Twin Falls, Idaho. This is my whole family except 2 of my nephews.

We also happened upon Ramone and Mater from the Pixar movie Cars in Twin Falls. Perfect picture opportunity.

That blue dress is my attempt to be fashionable. And those platform sandals I walked around in for two days gave me the worst shin-splints ever.
The next day we went to Shoshone falls. It was pretty cool. I like to kiss my husband.
From there we drove down to Utah. I was nominated to ride in the car with my parents. Which was fine until my Dad decided he was too tired to drive so he pulled off the road and took a nap for over 30 minutes. I'm not kidding. Just stopped and took a nap. Never mind I was in the back just sitting there. I was pissed. Finally a copper pulled up to see if we were okay. Then my parents switched drivers and we were off again. Insert Earwax story HERE.
On Wednesday, after all the earwax drama, Iwent to dinner with my friend Emily. We went to the Asian Star and it was fabulous. I love pot stickers and Mushu Pork. Emili got lettuce chicken wraps and General Tso's Chicken and Chicken fried rice. We spent $50 for just the two of us but it was WORTH IT. Emily is always good for fun conversation. We can talk about anything and everything. A big thank you to her husband Jared for watching the kids on such short notice. Amy, one of these times, I'm gonna get to see you! And I don't know why I didn't take a picture of Emily and I. What was wrong with me? Then, that same night, my Brother Trent took me to see the midnight release of the new Indiana Jones movie. I had fun playing with my nephew at the theater. We took a ton of pictures.
This is Gatlin with Wall-E.

The next day, Thursday, my bff Val took me to dinner for my birthday. We went to Johnny Carinos. It was excellent. After, we went over to South Town Mall and tried on all the shoes on the clearance rack at Dillards. I still wish I had bought those teal, vinyl, stilettos with all the heart cutouts. But, Val did buy me a really cute pair of brown shoes with a big bow on each shoe. I will call them my Valerie shoes. Our time together was over too soon, (as it always is) and she was off to a movie and I was off to a wedding reception for Connor Egan. IT was fun to walk in there and see every ones reaction when they saw me. I think I was one of the last people they expected to see. My little Talmage is now sixteen. I remember when he was three and he wanted to walk to the "tore" to buy some candy. He was my baby! Now he is grownup and a singer too.

On Friday, May 23, 2008, my brother Trenton married Jen Turnbow in Jen's living room. It was pretty nice. They had the reception that night too. I got to see some of my cousins that I haven't seen in years. I had fun. Jen has three kids of her own. With my brother's three kids, they have a Mormon Brady bunch thing goin. I wish my brother and his new family all the luck in the world as they blend their families together. They will probably need it.
Saturday, we held our traditional family dutch oven breakfast. We figured we would leave at 2:30 pm and go to a park to get it all started. Around 4pm, we headed for the park. Unfortunately, their was no bbq pits to do a fire in, so we moved to a different park. Like five parks later, we finally found the perfect park to do this stuff. this is my brother in law Matt. He is the dutch oven master.
We had apricot chicken and potatoes casserole. While it was cooking, the kids played and roasted marshmallows. We even had a little bit of excitement when some punks showed up and started smoking from their bong behind some bushes. They were only a little obvious.
On Sunday, I flew back home. The kids were really good and I only wanted to punch out one lady who sat in front of us on the plane. (She told me my three year old was being annoying!)The airline lost half of my daughters booster seat, but they found it and returned it to my house last night. So a big A+ to Southwest Airlines. Thank you to my sister Lisa, who always puts up with a hundred people using her house as a trash can. And also a thank you to my Mom and dad who not only paid for my medical bills but also for the whole trip. I am glad to be home. I love Kansas.