Bon Voyage

We are leaving to go to England in just over 24 hours. Sally says that means I can start a count down. We will spend 4 days hunting family history sites (ok so mostly grubbing in cemetaries). I'm excited we will be staying in this quaint, cute, little place: http://www.hawkchurch.com/. Well, providing that we can find it. The directions on Yahoo maps included: "turn onto local road". Which local road is what I'd like to know!!! This will also only occur providing that one or both of us figures out how to drive our super fabulous rental car:



Then we will be staying on a house boat for a week.
http://www.canaltimeunionwharf.com/

And then the last 4 days in London. Complete with tickets to see Midsummer Nights Dream and Merry Wives of Windor at the Globe Theater.

Tag, I'm It!

My friend, Charlotte, tagged me to write 6 unspectacular (otherwise known as quirky) personal qualities about myself. Here the tag rules:

1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules on your blog.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

(I think she only did this because she is looking for a good laugh and she knows that I am border line crazy.)

1. I love cemetaries. Especially really old ones. I go on vacations just to visit cemetaries. I visit cemetaries when I don't even have relatives buried there. I spent an entire morning at the cemetary in Venice last year (I took at least 50 photo's of masoleums/headstones). What can I say, I love cemetaries. I'm on my way to England on Friday. We will spend the first 4 days doing almost nothing but Stonehenge and cemetaries. Heaven.

2. I adore buying shoes. I have alot. Sometimes I buy super fabulous shoes that aren't my size.

3. Curiosity killed the cat was a written about me. I once bought a "bucket of dirt" on ebay "guaranteed" to have "genuine" Australian Opals in it. (I didn't really expect to get opals, I just wanted to see if they would really mail me a bucket of dirt...sadly, no. Just a ziplock bag with about 4 or 5 dirty rocks in it.) Who knows, it could have been treasure.

4. When I was a child, I convinced my nephew and my little sister that we should dig a swimming pool in the back yard because my dad wouldn't get a real one installed. I don't even like to swim. (This was a very BAD idea...the parentals did NOT approve.)

5. My mom made my sister and I dolls (Raggedy Ann & Andy) for Christmas a few years ago. Now when we go home to visit, we both bring the dolls with us and make her "tend" them. She is also required to buy them Christmas presents so she doesn't hurt her "grandchildren's" feelings.

6. When I used to have to travel with my old boss (she is now retired), I would volunteer to book our plane tickets. Then I book our seats on completely opposite ends of the plane and let her think they were the only seats available. This is simply because she ALWAYS wanted to talk about work. I like to read on planes. And not about work.

Do we have to stop? This is really fun. And I could make a really, really, really long list.

Now for the tagging part...since 2 of the 4 people I know with blogs were either a) the person who tagged me or b) tagged by the person who tagged me. I will only be tagging 3 people - Erin, Corinne & Lisa J. (if she has a blog, not really sure).

Marriage Proposal

So last night at a neighborhood block party I was hosting, I got a marriage proposal. I will add this to my list of proposals. (By far it is my favorite so far!)

I have a friend in my ward named Caleb. Caleb and I sit next to each other in Sacrament Meeting most Sundays and cuddle. He likes to share my pashmina (fancy name for shawl). He thinks it's a "blankie". He likes to play with Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus finger puppets in my bag and he thinks I have bring good snacks for him. Sometimes he lounges in my lap. Caleb is about 4 years old.

Last night his dad found me at the block party and asked if I had seen Caleb yet. I said no. He then started laughing and told me that Caleb was going to ask me to marry him. Apparently on the walk over to my house, Caleb wanted to know where they were going. When the parents told him to my house, he was very excited. Then he said to his dad, "She doesn't have a husband right?" (we've had this conversation at least twice...he's very concerned that I don't have a husband and/or children.) His dad answered that he was correct. Then he announced, "well, I'm going to ask her to marry me. I mean if I don't do it who is going to?"

Sure enough, a little while later, here comes Caleb. And sure enough, he asked me to marry him. I told him he needed to get all grown up and then if he still wanted to marry me, he could ask me again. To which he replied, "Ok." and went back to playing with his friends.

Priceless.

And really, why wouldn't that be my favorite proposal...the other two were a) a drunk man at the restaurant where I wait tables and b) a guy in the laundry mat in Logan who had a "vision" when I walked in that we were "supposed" to get married. I really don't know why I haven't said yes.

Wayland Weekend

My neice, Erin, and her family came to my house last weekend to visit. She brought her husband, Nathan, and the cutest little boys ever! (C.J. age 6, Ethan age 4 and Ben age 1) My sister, Sally and I took them to the zoo and then we had fun at my tiny, tiny little house. Check out the pictures.

C.J. - Erin - Ethan

Sally created a game for the boys to play at the zoo. Each of them had a notebook and when we saw the animals that were written in the notebook, they got to put a sticker in the book. Sally found these really cool, puffy, glitter stickers. The boys loved it. We kept having to add more animals to the notebooks, because the boys kept needing more!!


C.J. on the Carousel.


Sally, Ben, C.J. Ethan, Erin


CJ, Lyn, Ethan spotting some monkeys.

Sally & Ethan on the Carousel.


CJ & Lyn


The Wayland Family with the Giraffes.
Ethan, CJ, Erin, Ben & Nathan


Ben loved the bird show. He kept clapping and clapping everytime they brought out a new bird.

Inevitable

After taking my mother on a 4 day roadtrip, I even more firmly believe that it is INEVITABLE that I will be crazy someday. Hopefully, far away in the future. But I'm afraid it's closer than I think.

While on said roadtrip, we had a great time tracking down some pioneer trail sites and going to a show in Jackson Hole.

However, on the last day of the trip I awoke to the following conversation:

Mom: "Did you use the bathroom last night?" (very accusatory tone of voice)

Me: "Yes" (somewhat confused)

Mom: "Why did you change the toilet paper roll around?" (again very accusatory)

Me: "What do you mean, change the toiler paper roll?" (There were 2 brand new rolls in the bathroom the night before upon check in. I thought it was strange that we would need to change the roll. I knew I hadn't used that much toilet paper.

Mom: "Well, somebody went in the bathroom last night and put the toilet paper on 'backwards' and left it so that when I went to the bathroom it all fell off the roll and puddled up on the floor."

And since apparently it couldn't have been the maids who clean the room who "put the roll on backwards"...it was obviously me who had time to do that in the middle of the night!!

When Did I Become An Accountant?

It has been incredibly busy at work. My boss and I have been working on our budget for next year. This the first time that we have done the budget by ourselves without the assistance of two former employees (who did alot of the work before). And we did it in 3 1/2 weeks instead of the normal 8 weeks that it usually takes. In addition we are moving to new offices. So it has been a bit frantice over the last month. The question I keep asking myself each day is:
1. When did I get a degree in accounting because I think I would have remembered that.
2. Did someone really put ME to work on a $6 million budget? I mean Sally had to drag (and I mean that literally) thru math in High School and College...so whose bright idea was this.
3. I really don't get paid enough to do math.

So to all those accountants out there, (I seem to know quite a few when I stop and think about it). Please come and take your job back...I don't want it.

The Little Farmer Inside of Me

So any of you who know me well, know that while I grew up on a farm I have spent the last 16+ years trying to suppress the part of me that is fascinated by watching things grow. The farmer wants to grub in the dirt, which then gets under the finger nails and ruins my manicure. Again the dirt ruins my pedicure...not to mention what dad would have to say about my gardening footwear...seriously, he would not approve of reefs and shovels in the same patch of dirt. Speaking of shovels, they make my back muscles hurt. But I could no longer suppress the fascination with watching things grow. (Even though it seems that I am now committed to a rather extensive watering process every day.) Now that I've finally given into the impulse it seems that I have unleashed a MONSTER.

I really am convinced that while I know the DEFINITION of the word MODERATION...I really have no concept of how to IMPLEMENT it into my life. I may need to work on that at some point.

All of this leads up to the fact that I planted a garden. You would think that a single person who lives alone would plant, I don't know two maybe three tomato plants or something, but not me.

I'm the proud owner of:
- lettuce
- spinach
- cilantro ( 3 bushes )
- basil (currently 3 plants and probably up to about 8 by the end of the week)
- rosemary
- lemon tyme
- dill
- radishes
- peppers ( 3 bell / 1 lemon something or other)

and last but not least

-tomato plants (9 of them to be exact)

What exactly do you think I'm going to do with the tomatoes from 9 tomato plants? I'm afraid I'm going to be that crazy garden lady at church looking for cars that are unlocked so she can put a sack of tomotoes in for the people when they come out of the church. My only consolation is that, so far, I've been able to resist the urge to plant zucchini. Heaven only knows THAT would get out of control in a real hurry.