PDA

I was reading on Caron's blog today about a funny post on someone else's blog about funny things that happen in church. Anyway, the lady was talking about how the couple in front of her kissed a total of 41 times just during sacrament meeting. Hello people....there is a time and a place for everything!

I have issues with excessive PDA. No one wants to see you kissing every 5 seconds or rubbing each other's backs and legs or making googly puppy eyes at each other or other equally disturbing things. Now don't get me wrong...I think hand holding and putting your arm around someone and stuff like that is perfectly fine in public. But I do feel like there is a time and a place to be all snuggly and it just makes everyone uncomfortable if you are being excessive about it. And I know I'm not the only one who feels this way.

4 more hours I'll be on my way to some beach somewhere. Viva Mexico!

Jumped on the IKEA bandwagon

Yesterday my boss announces that we should have our team meeting at IKEA. Now, the IKEA buzz has been quite prevalent at my office ever since it started being built since it’s right across the street from our building. Anyway, she decided we needed some “creative inspiration” and some Swedish food, so off to IKEA we went. (I will admit that there are some great perks to my job!)

I’ve been to IKEA once before, and I must admit that it is pretty darn cool. (But not worth camping out on opening day for like these crazy people.) Anyway, we were there for 2 ½ hours and only made it through about half of the store. Seeing all the cool stuff gave me tons of fun ideas…I love it when I get inspired again after a creative drought. And I love that everything is sooo reasonably priced.

And of course I had to experience the Swedish meatballs. Pretty good stuff—but not nearly as good as this…

Swedish Daim chocolate cake. Mmmmm…. Oh, and I went to Coldstone the other day, and while they did not have the oatmeal cookie flavor that I thought was coming back, they had a new Cinnamon Roll flavor that was pretty tasty. OK, so enough about treats.

Last weekend, I went to one of those laser shows at the Planetarium and as we were walking out, there were a bunch of planetarium employees on the corner with this huge telescope. I asked them what they were looking at, and they said they were looking at Jupiter and some of its moons. So we asked if we could look, and it was pretty cool. It’s pretty incredible when you can actually look at stuff like that. What an amazing universe we live in!

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had several learning experiences. Don’t you just LOVE those? Ha! Anyway, as I’ve spent time with different people in different situations, I have come to realize what I really want in life—and it’s still what I’ve ultimately wanted all along, but I realized that some of the other things that I thought I wanted aren’t worth holding onto if they interfere with what I really do want. I’ve realized that I just can’t do or have it all—and that’s OK. Maybe I do have to give up some of those things that don’t really matter in the long run in order to facilitate the things that really are important. And maybe I had what I really wanted all along…I just have a hard time recognizing that until it’s gone.

But I guess that’s what life is all about, right? Learning and growing and improving based on what you learn. So here’s to growth!

Swim. Bike. Run

Yesterday I went and watched the Salem Triathlon. My dad and Scott both finished the race! Way to go! Scott got lost on the bike portion though and lost some serious time. Oh well. I also saw Craig there. It made me want to do a triathlon. I'm thinking the first weekend of August if I can learn to swim by then. They said the swim was the hardest part. It was fun to watch though...it was the first race I've watched instead of participated in. Well, besides the track meets at BYU. But that was before I was into running and stuff so its much more exciting now.

After the race, it was time for our annual Provo River Trail bike ride. We had a couple of mishaps like when Caron almost crashed into me because her front brakes were undone and her tire almost blew. But we successfully made it all the way to the end of the trail.

It was my new bike's christening journey on the river trail, and she did quite well. Much better performance than my old bike. Well, maybe that has something to do with the fact that I am in better shape now too. :)

I LOVE Provo Canyon. It's so gorgeous!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy month of June! This year I’m celebrating all month long—not just on my birthday, so let the festivities begin! Today I’m celebrating by sharing 27 random facts about me—one for each year of my life. I think everyone should do so in their birth month. So Tim, Blake, Emily, Jill, Maurianne, Shawn and anyone else who has a birthday this month I’m looking forward to your random facts.

1. I started my “professional” writing career at the age of 8 when I got published in the Friend magazine. Since then, I have written articles for several different magazines.

2. I took a hula dancing class at BYU and performed in their annual luau for 3 years.

3. I don’t like root beer.

4. I watched the Star Wars movies in order from 1 to 6. I didn’t see the original 3 movies until after Episode 3 came out.

5. I love summertime and one of my favorite things to do is bask in the sun.

6. My favorite flowers are plumerias.

7. Yo hablo espanol.

8. My favorite restaurants are the Cheesecake Factory, Bridgetown Grill and Bahama Breeze. (none of which are located within 400 miles of where I live.)

9. I swear by my Reefs. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with Reefs, they are only the greatest brand of flip-flops EVER!)

10. One of my favorite places I have visited in the world is Akaroa, New Zealand.

11. I play a mean game of croquet.

12. I have a secret dream to one day kiss the real Blarney stone in Ireland on St. Patricks Day.

13. I have never broken a bone or been stung by a bee. (knock on wood)

14. I own 28 pairs of shoes.

15. I love anything that has to do with dressing up in a costume.

16. I took a marine biology class at BYU-Hawaii and got chased by an octopus on one of our snorkeling trips. I also ate fresh sea urchin straight from the ocean on another field trip—NASTY!

17. I don’t like pets—especially dogs.

18. One of my greatest memories is watching my cute little Tello family get sealed in the Buenos Aires temple at the end of my mission in Argentina.

19.I have lived in 7 different states and 2 countries.

20. I have a secret fantasy of being famous and well-known.

21. My favorite ice cream flavor is oatmeal cookie from Coldstone. (I hear they’re bringing this back!!!)

22. I have a fear of not being good enough or living up to my potential and doing what I was sent here to do.

23. I enjoy watching team sports but I’m not a big fan of playing them.

24. When I graduated from college, I wanted to go off and have an adventure. I had 3 criteria in choosing where to live. The location had to have: 1) a major airport within an hour. 2) an LDS temple within an hour. 3) a professional sports team. And Atlanta, Georgia was the winner. The year I lived there was definitely an adventure.

25. I love anything that has a theme, and I love getting into the details of things.

26. When I was younger I wanted to be the Secretary of Education in the White House when I grew up.

27. I was named Christy after my great-grandmother, and Lee after my grandpa.

Summer reading list

Help! I need some good books to take on my trip. Anyone know of some good summer beach books I can read? I am SO ready for this vacation...let the countdown begin cuz soon I will be here...
Has anyone ever been to Mazatlan, Puerta Vallarta or Cabo San Lucas? Any must-sees/dos I should know about?

P.S. Now that I've had some time to let things soak in after seeing Pirates 3, I have decided that I am a fan.

P.P.S. I also have decided that it is a good thing the Jazz lost last night and will not be going to the NBA finals. My dad would go nuts if we were out in the middle of the ocean with no way to watch the finals. I have been on vacation with him before when the Jazz were in the finals and he had his headphones on listening to the games everywhere we went. Needless to say, his mind was not focused on the task at hand--including driving--and he would whoop and holler when something exciting in the game happened. This was rather awkward when it just happened to be at the same time we were trying to rent a car or eating dinner or at the flea market or something.

World traveler

create your own visited country map

According to this lovely map generator, I have visited a whopping 6% of the countries in the world. On the top of my list of places I would like to visit are...Tahiti, the British Isles, Greece, and Italy. However, when opportunities arise I must take them. My friend April is moving to China for a year, so I think a trip to China will move its way to the top of the list. When else might I have the opportunity to know someone who lives in China who could show me around? Seize the day!



create your own personalized map of the USA

Within the country I've done a bit better (82% of the states in the Union). Since my dad was in the army when I was growing up and we moved around a lot, we took advantage of wherever we were living and made an effort to see the surrounding sights. And driving across the country 4 times helps you see the country too! One of the funnest trips was when my mom and I drove out to Atlanta and back (a year apart!) and stopped to see all the cool things along the way. On the top of my list of things I have yet to see in the U.S. are Mount Rushmore, Churchill Downs (the home of the Kentucky Derby), Austin, the Everglades, and Chicago.

What's on the top of your travel wishlist?

Drink up me hearties, yo ho!

In preparation for Pirates 3 that is coming out this weekend, we had a pirate pre-party. Emma is the bomb! I think she loves throwing theme parties even more than I do. They had everyone "become" a pirate when they first came in. They had to choose a pirate name, put on some pirate tattoos, facial hair and sashes, and wear an eye patch.

They named all the food after things from the movie like Commadoritos, Norring Dip, Elizabeth Swalad, Jack Sparr-scones, Davey Bones, Aztec Gold and more. We had a treasure hunt in which we perfected our compass reading skills, and had a treasure chest pinata that was full of fabulous pirate goods.

Of course we had to build a big bonfire and dance around it drinking 'rum' and throw ourselves onto the sand. What a great party! Let's just hope Pirates 3 is any good...cuz Pirates 2 sure wasn't!

Firsts of the season

This week I had my first Slurpee of the season! You know it's time for summer to start when you get a Slurpee craving. Nothing says bring on the summer like a nice cold Slurpee from your local 7-11. I just want to know what happened to all the original flavors like grape and cherry and blue raspberry. Anyway, I also went on my first hike of the season and did my first yard work session of the season, climbed my first tree of the season and went on the second motorcycle ride of my life. Here's to summer...I love it!

We had our ward talent show this weekend. It was great fun. I never knew I was surrounded by such talented folk like 90s rappers, Irish jiggers, glow stick experts, swing dancers, song maker uppers, and the like. I did my annual ward talent show hula and dragged Rachael into hulaing with me...she is awesome!

She was such a hula pro! Hawaii here we come. Happy Mother's Day to my fantastic Mom today. I love you! Does anyone want to do a triathlon with me the first weekend in August?

Where a kid can be a kid

So last night, my friend Shawn and I went to Chuck E. Cheese. As we were sitting there enjoying our pizza and singing along with ChuckE and the gang, the little girl at the table next to us decides to befriend us. She waves at us and just starts chatting away and proceeds to tell us all about her pizza and her favorite games in the arcade. Then she motions for us to follow her so she can show us the “dinosaur game”. Intrigued by the whole thing, we get up from our table to go check out this famous dinosaur game.

It turns out to be this monster truck ride thing, and she climbs in and insists that I ride in it with her. So I squeeze myself into this truck made for 4-year-olds and “ride the dinosaur”. It was great fun. Then she takes us all around the arcade and teaches us how to play all the good games. We pretty much rocked at Chuckee’s Duckies and the Smokin’ Token. Her parents asked her if she’d adopted a new family. There was also this one thing like a photo booth where you sit there while it sketches your picture. It is so dang awesome!!! So here we are with Emeritus, our fantastic new little 5-year-old friend. Oh, and we won some fabulous star-shaped glasses and ChuckE playing cards that are so cool! Here’s to Chuck E. Cheese!

A little taste of heaven

Has anyone ever tried an Aero chocolate candy bar? Well if you haven't, you are missing out big time. My friend went to Canada over the weekend and brought me one of these delectable treats. I'd never had one before and it seriously was one of the best chocolate bars I have ever tasted in my entire life! Definately in the top 5 candy bars of all time. What is it with foreign candy being so much more tasty?