Grant & Amber

Truth in Advertizing

2012-02-15T15:33:00.000-08:00

(yes I used a 'z' in advertizing. I'm quirky.)

Usually when I listen to the radio I tune out the commercials. I'm sure I'm not alone in doing this. In my mind commercials are relatively counter productive to the product/service. Especially if it's stupid. In fact if the commercial is really retarded I go out of my way never to purchase that product.

Only the truly clever or cute will influence my purchasing decision. ie: Goldfish Crackers. Puffs facial Tissue.

Puffs is in the grey area though, I'm still not sure if you should rhyme need with indeed. Their performance is beyond excellent though. So they won my loyalty even with a stupid jingle and weird looking animation.

This brings me to this: newish Wendy's commercial. If you haven't heard it, great. Anyway here was a conversation I had with Susan, who gets to hear all my daily commentary. Lucky her.

Amber: Radio ad confusing me.

Susan: ?

Amber: Oh,well it's my "bacon loving" part of the brain telling me to go get the baconator at Wendy's

Susan: lololololol

Amber: and if I don't then he's going to switch me to the side that secretly loves broccoli
but.. if I'm connected to the side that loves broccoli then I'll love broccoli and it wont actually be a problem.
It's only a problem when I'm connected to the bacon side. It's a valid threat... but if you think about it, you won't know it was a threat once it's happened unless you're still cognizant that you hate broccoli while eating it. But then you wouldn't be connected to the "I love broccoli" side, because you wouldn't be loving broccoli
you'd be hating it, and eating it anyway.. which is what I already do.
(some time later after actually doing work)
this is so going to be a blog

Susan: it is definitely blog worthy thinkyness!

Because I always do what I'm told.

2012-02-12T18:59:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to remember if I said I would keep up with my blog. I think I did somewhere, so this is me keeping up with my blog.

Actually it's not. Actually, this is me just saying I'm going to keep up and I will have an actual post later this week. I have several already semi written I just need to give them a little love.

Later taters!

(Jillie this is for you.)

Away in the Manger

2011-12-23T08:38:00.000-08:00

Nativity sets are a Christmas staple in the Christian world. Heck, even Santa has visited baby Jesus in the creche.

This is very much like one my mom has. Or had, we played with it a lot.

Everyone I know has at least one, if not many many more. And they are, one and all, beautiful. There are Crystal ones, and porcelain, wooden, both hand carved and machine. There are flat ones, round ones, square ones, and 3D.

Many Groups celebrate our Saviors Birth, from:

Charlie Brown, to

Precious moments, to

Willow Tree, to

Random Bears.

I love all of them, and often stress over finding the right one for my house. Until this year. You see, I've actually had one for years, but in my immaturity I didn't think it was good enough. Because I made it when I was between 12-16, and it was a craft project my amazing Aunt had creatively come up with. I don't remember the circumstances under which they were created, because I am the only one in my family who has one. Which is ok.

Apparently they are somewhere very cold, hence the random ice cube.

I have put these little people out every year, along with my billions of snowflakes (I may not have that many for reals, but if you ever saw my bedroom in high school or my house this year, you'll know I have a LOT)

But always considered them my "stand in" nativity, just waiting for the real one. My, Adult nativity, if you will.

But during my freak-out when I found the box they belong in and discovered them not in it, I realized how much they mean to me, and how much I love them.

Sure, down the road I may buy another one, or even two.

But they are the real one, and will always be apart of my familys Christmas.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Nothing is wrong with a little "white trash"

2011-12-14T09:15:00.000-08:00

But there is something totally wrong with kamikaze gingerbread men. So, very wrong.

That's why this year my tree is Barbies Christmas getaway, again:

There is nothing wrong with this picture, move along.

This season I'll be sharing other family traditions. The first one is a childhood tradition.

When we were all very little we had one tree, and it was festooned with all the glitz and glitter that we young'ins could put on it. It had no glass bulbs, nothing sharp, or accidentally edible, and nothing my mother didn't want destroyed.

Which left her with all the "beautiful" ornaments the public school system inevitably sent home with us excited Littles every year. The upside to this, is that even if it was edible, or destructible, because the we made it, it wasn't going anywhere. (unless a certain little has an ever littler little sibling that has no respect for all the time spent glitterfying that gingerbread mass that looks almost like a person.)

Our family tree grew with each additional year with more and more globby glittery goodness until the last of us was out of Elementary school, because ornament making didn't catch on in Jr. High and High School, not entirely sure why.

Somewhere in between those years the "pretty tree" showed up, the one we weren't allowed to touch. It was, alternating years, green and gold or red and gold, and it was my mothers pride and joy. As we were older we liked it too, and left the bulb breaking to our cat.

The only problem with this new "pretty tree" was that there was no room for our decorations!! The family stuff that we had poured our blood sweat and tears (literally) into. Even at our mature ages we still wanted to see our bulbs, our hand prints our STUFF. So, my mother set up two trees, and has ever since.

Last night I was privileged to join in the decorating of this tree, each time I held an ornament in my hand a million memories began to pour out of it... it took a long time to decorate the tree..

So for your viewing pleasure, I have picked a few of my favorites to show.

My parents got married in december, every christmas since then they have bought some type of christmas item. Some ornament, or statue, but mostly awesome music box statuette things.

My mom made all of us one of these when we were really little, and we love them dearly still

It was my father who trapped this little guy in the stained glass house, it's a heavy sucker and has taken a nose dive or two, and yet it's still intact.

I don't know where this teddy came from but I remember him from way back and love him, the birds *there are more RUN FOR YOUR LIVES * I don't touch them, but they used to be on my grandmothers tree, so here they are now.

My mothers grandmother made this beautiful little angel. I love her and lay claim on her RIGHT NOW!

This is another dated ornament, they got this the year Lolligog was born :D he's one of my favorites.

Someday my tree will be as full of memories as this one, and I'll love to look at it for more than just it's beauty.

Throwing in the Blogspot Towel - EDIT

2011-12-07T07:15:00.000-08:00

Ok seriously people this is getting ridiculous. I can't maneuver pictures around without ruining my entire blog, and for each picture I add, the spaces grow exponentially. So I have to go around deleting spaces with increasing frustration. Or I have to upload the pictures IN THE RIGHT ORDER (cause try moving them afterwards and you're in for a real treat.. not.) and then write my blog around them

I CAN"T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!!!

I know I've been here for around 3 years, but I can NOT stand it any longer, Blogspot has done something with their system and I don't like it.

Just letting you know, I'll be hopefully moving to a new address. Or doing SOMETHING to save my sanity.

If any of you know how to fix this, please let me know, cause I really don't want to go through the hassle of moving and changing everything.

Thanks.

EDIT -

Ok, thanks to my awesome Sister-Inlaw Angie (I owe you babysitting) I've updated my editor, and now it looks new and shinny and didn't add a billion spaces to this post just because I wanted to edit it. So far so good, hopefully this means I can stay. We'll see.

Truth is stranger than fiction

2011-12-03T12:06:00.000-08:00

Here's a conversation I had with a my charming cohort, who basically keeps me sane while at work. Though from the convo below I don't think sane is the right word..

Susan: I always say god and jesus have senses of humor..just lookit the platypus

Amber: So true. Just imagining what went behind some of the creatures..like me playing with clay! I have this awesome idea and then... what they heck did I make? Oh well, we'll put it somewhere no one goes a lot.

Susan: roflmao

Amber: thats why all the freaky looking fish are at the very bottom of the ocean

Susan: omgosh ROFLMAO!!!!!! X A BILLIONTY

Escape - sounds better when Dory says it.

2011-11-28T15:00:00.000-08:00

Do you usually have to deal with chicken nuggets in between the seats of your car, Mr. Radio ad man? Because I don’t.

Laser hair removal isn’t cool, it’s unnatural and probably will be the leading cause of the Zombie apocalypse.

The best-misused word ever is ‘duct’. And in the roofing industry it is misused a LOT, and from all the repair descriptions I’ve read, I’m pretty sure ducts (always spelled: ducks) shouldn’t be allowed on roofs anymore.

Is it possible to kill a whole state? Because Idaho has got to go. Cindy-sue and Bobo need to move as does his family so that I can kill Idaho.

Mottos work, dude. I have a sticky note that reminds me daily to "think before I freak out" and you know what? It WORKS! Motto’s – the new lifesaver. Yum! It’s probably all cinnamony and delicious..

Even when my hair is the longest it ever been, it’s still too short.

King of Perssia is the best name for a city EVER! Do they have a King? Cause they totally should. Maybe everyone is King there, you know like a title without authority, because an entire city full of kings with authority would suck. That way girls could actually be princesses. Yup, I am now moving to King of Perssia.

Just because I stop chewing the inside of my mouth doesn't mean I can start on my tongue. Seriously me, stop!!

Boys will be boys even when they are men.

"I must be butter, because I'm on a roll.. "*laughing my bum off * such a silly phrase, makes me giggle

You know, I actually don't like Elvis, or Michael Jackson. Nothing about them do I like.

I love Katty Perry's song Mannequin though. "I want to hit you just to see if you'd cry". Girl after my own heart.

Proof of why I think I'm being followed around a'la Truman Show: I was at work and just logged into Staples Link to make my monthly order. Just as my screen poped up the radio announcer said "When was the last time you bought anything at Staples? Never right! That's why they aren't doing so well, until now.. blah blah blah..." Ya I was totally making an order right NOW! Thank you very much. Seriously my company alone could keep them in business.

Enough with all the spacing Blogspot, for reals, there are blogs somewhere that don't have any spaces! Ever think of anyone besides yourself? Why not share the space, huh?

Does this blog remind anyone of Twitter?

10 things I like about Twix.

2011-11-22T08:37:00.000-08:00

I think it’s time that I talk to you about my writing. I haven’t done that in, lets see…ten posts! And that was eight months ago. So being the surprising and inventive person that I am I tell you ten new things that I’ve done.

1: I have officially declared the first rough draft of my novel unfit for mammal, and some arachnids, consumption. And to those who did actually read it, I owe you so much you have no idea! I will do anything to make it up to you: give you money, baby-sit, clean your house spotless, repair your car, I draw the line at sexual favors though.

2. I have gleefully bounced around the house after a very productive editing session. Now, I get excited easily, but it takes a little bit more than just bubble wrap to get me to actually bounce. Something about finding the right words, spelling them right and putting it altogether and have it actually say something cool is just AWESOME!

3. Made us miss half of church because I wanted Grants opinion on a certain edit. In my defense I started asking him really early in the morning, so it wasn’t ten minutes to 11 o’clock when the whole editing started. It just took that long. Cause he had to fix a lot of thigns

4.Listened to Austin Land for the fortieth time and decided my novel doesn’t have enough spoken feelings in it.

5. Listened to this Alvin book Grant is listening to and decided my novel doesn’t need all the mushy feelings crap.

6. Realized I don’t have ten new things I’ve done with my novel.

7. Been editing random scenes (pick a number between 1 and 119) by isolating them, editing it until it turns blue (I literally change the font color*) and then slapping it back into the novel document. I’ve been doing this for the past two months.

8.A lot of things that have absolutely nothing to do with writing, which makes me feel guilty and I actually pine for my novel and to edit it. Or may be it’s just I want to write. I really do like my story.

9. Get depressed sometimes and wonder why the heck I’m even worrying about editing it, if it’s never going to be published.

10. Decided I’ll self publish like a dozen copies, then it’ll be rare and only closest friends and family will be able to read it. But then they will let other people borrow it because it’s soo awesome, and then those people will want it and ask where they can get one, but they can’t get one because there are only 12, and I have like 6 of them. But they don’t know that so they are at Barns and Noble asking, and Barns and Noble is getting all upset cause there are swarms of people asking for a book they have never heard of, so they start asking their vendors who ask their publishers who start seeing dollar signs so THEY COME TO ME, after going on an adventure very much like National Treasurer to find my whereabouts. And then they beg to publish my book and then TADA! I’m a published author and I didn’t even have to do anything.

Yup, that’s the plan, which is now trademarked and protected by dragons and swords and elves, so don’t even think about stealing it.

*the blue lets me know what I’ve edited and what I haven’t.

p.s I really like Twix, I even put them in the GoldFish jingle. Because they're so delicious.

Littles say the best things.

2011-11-14T10:51:00.000-08:00

So this idea has been tickling my writers bug for a long time, and he finally called uncle and now I have to write it. (Little sell out)

So when I was a primary Teacher I learned many many things, most of them involving Spiderman. Some were vaguely Sunday school related, the rest complete and utter, wonderful, randomness.

I wrote a lot of them down, and was once going to publish it here, but decided I had other things to do.

Not anymore.

So if all goes as planned I'll have at least a monthly post about silly things Littles have said to me (I call children: Littles, because they're littler than me, even the ones that aren't)

I am going to keep all names and associations private, cause that's just plan nice.

Except this one, because it's written somewhere that sisters have to tease brothers.

This was eight years ago, so Budder-boy was around three, making me a charming and beautiful 18 ish.

I was driving home from picking Mr. Little up at his cousins house. As we drove I tried to make pleasant, fun conversation with him, the topic of choice not being about Spiderman, but of the return visit of my sister from her Nanny gig up in Boise Idaho. We talked about her taking care of the family of four boys, and what we were going to make her do when she finally got home.

Budder paused for a moment looking out the window and pondering in the way only three-ish year olds can. Finally stating, very convincingly, that:

When I grow up, I'm going to move to Girlsy, and babysit girls.

And you know what, it makes total sense. I hope he does some day.

Stuff that seems utterly pointless but is comical at the same time. Win win.

2011-11-07T10:19:00.000-08:00

Just silly, random crap I’ve been thinking about lately:

I doubt anyone else has ever been asked to be a Hussy, by their Bishop. Was that like a calling? Who would I ask about this?

Does anyone else eat straight edibles (ie: baby carrots, Twix) by putting them in their mouth so they stick straight out and then casually nom on them until they are completely in their mouth and then chomp the rest?

Why is it that anything worth posting on Facebook is automatically cheapened because you posted it on Facebook? Facebook is just asking for the mindless, often cryptic, horribly misspelled, and truly inane comments it gets every single second of every single day.

This is why Twitter sucks even more, it has no redeeming feature such as: games and/or photo galleries.

Does anybody else have a billion names for their cat? Cause I swear I only use his real name once a month. I even made up a song all about Jelly Bean kitties and all their colors.. and I'll stop now.

I should really stop biting the inside of my mouth, it hurts a lot sometimes.

You are never alone in the world. Even if you do something that no one else could POSSIBLY do, not only has someone done it, they probably did it before you. It’s kinda depressing.

Having severe dyslexia and ADD is actually pretty interesting. It’s like being your own sudoku puzzle, you have to look at the sentence/word/phrase at many different angles and ways before you can figure out what you just read. And by that time your imagination has taken wing to everything you’ve thought you read and has started it’s own story, which is way more fun and will be killer cool when your Sims re-enact it later.

I'm still being followed around like Jim Carry in the Truman show, I'm not even joking, and there isn't a single thing you can say that will make me change my mind. Because, you know, that's what your supposed to say.

Writing a story is like talking to your imaginary friends. My friends are kinda mean and needy..

That’s all for now!!

Ok last one, does anyone else think Blogspot is being stupid? I cringe when I want to put pictures up and the whole double spacing war is a losing battle. Forever shall my posts be triple space and span the entire screen of your monitor.

Part 3: The Insanity!

2011-09-07T12:22:00.000-07:00

(UPDATED: See below for updates)

Wow, part three. By a show of hands, who here is

A. Surprised I've stretched this story out this far.

B. Surprised I updated at all.

C. Surprised I have this much of a life to write about.

D. All of the above.

(Just in case you are wondering, I'd take all answers but A. )

On with my story: It was a dark and stormy prevning* in a month before July that I and my awesome friend who is awesomely still my friend, agreed to make a wedding cake for yet another awesome friends brothers wedding. (I'll give you a sec to re-read that)

The cake was darling and simple and I was excited to pull out my disposable piping bags again. This was before I had my surgery scheduled. But even when I was aware of the timing, everything still seemed to fit. Hurray.

And then another awesome friend needed a cake. This time for her own wedding, and I couldn't say NO! If one cake aroused the decorator in me then another could bed it back down and I wouldn't end up with pounds of random pointless cake at my house, again.

As Fate would have it, and Karma, and probably Ying and Yang mixed together with fung shui my Awesome-still-my-friend Friend was asked to make a cake!!

At this point, why the heck not, right?

Chaos looked something like this:

Surgery July 14

First cake July 30

Second Cake August 4th

Third Cake August 5th

And we aren't talking quick single layer cakes either. We're talking about WEDDING CAKES! These are important. These are the showcase, these get put in a place of honor so that they can shine and tell the world about it's bride and groom! Wedding ANYTHING is a big freaking deal, Brides complain about not finding the right color amongst a billion perfect colors, they aren't going to miss that you "accidentally" put an elephant on their cake and not roses.

I know I said it only took five days for me to get back on my feet, well I sorta kinda lied. Yes I was on my feet, but as anyone who saw me on my feet can attest, I shouldn't have been there. I have this thing about doing nothing, I hate it. It actually makes me feel worse to "relax". Sitting around and healing? Nah, that's for all those other people, I had to get up and be fabulous.

Was I in pain? You better believe it. Did I almost pass out more times then anyone really knows? You sure bet I did. Did I lift things behind peoples back just so I could prove I could? Righty-roo! Did I relapse a couple times? Darn toot'in I did.

Don't ask me why I did any of this to myself, because all this comes from the same mind that brought you:

If I just cut off/bit off/remove the hurting part of my body, I'll feel better.

(Grant has learned to ask me first how I got injured before he hears me complain. The rule in our house is if it's self inflicted on purpose, there shall be no whining)

Have you ever baked a cake? If you have, then you've undoubtedly covered your kitchen with batter and flour and chocolate, had a sink piled high with dishes, and had kids/pets running around? Ok, now imagine doing all that in my kitchen, which is about five times smaller than yours.

Ya, so you'll understand why we moved the whole party to my moms house. Whose kitchen is five times larger than a school cafeteria. (Ok not really, but compared to mine it is) With just as many ovens (this becomes important, stay tuned).

Even with the magical kitchen of Oz, Amazing Friend and I still prepared for a whole week to get things in order. And, believe it or not, all our anti-stress tactics worked!

Organization and planning, who knew?

Everything for all three cakes were made before hand, days in advance. By the time we hauled Cake and Company to my moms we were feeling good and ready to kick some cake. (no cakes were actually kicked .. that we know of)

Our first day rocked, however it was cut short because my mom had promised to throw a bridal shower that day, and it's kind of tacky to make one brides wedding cake in the midst of a another brides shower.

Everything was put away, and the party was a hit, not to mention clean and sans all cake except the Barbie Bride cake I made while I was supposed to be making another cake.. ya that sounds strange to me too.

Wedding cake number one resumed the next day, bright and early. If only we had known what laid in store for us. I would have had it recorded.

It was a Saturday so the entire household was in and out of the kitchen most of the day. Sometimes just passing through, sometimes helping or grabbing a piece of chocolate and running, but they never left with out commenting.

In those two days at my family's home Awesome-still-my-friend Friend found out more about me then she had in the 5 years we've lived by each other. To my intense embarrassment. One of the things she learned was where I get my quirky side from, and (I love you, don't hate me) my dim-wittedness.

Around lunch time everyone congregated in the kitchen, because ya know, that's where the food is. Everyone was laughing, and talking and making some sort of edible item, all of which involved ovens. Now at this point Wedding cake Ono was completely baked, frosted and fondanted leaving just the pretty bits to be placed and arranged.

So when I smelled smoke, as I was washing my hands (for literally the hundredth time) and asked "What's burning" and got the reply of "CAKE!!!" You can imagine my horror! Picture if you will a three layer round cake covered end to end in rolled out marshmallows, on fire**.

That picture lanced through my mind as I spun quickly to see that no, my cake was not on fire, but a quick look in the oven (that had been hastily opened by my brother) showed that Barbie was.

As was a platter of cookies that had been left in there to chill. What had caught fire was the dripping frosting from Barbies dress onto the heating coil at the bottom.

Honestly I wish I had my video recorder, everything went by so quickly and so humorously that I'm sure we could have won all the prizes on America's Funniest home Videos.

Simultaneously people started running around trying to douse the wee flames in the bottom of the top oven. Water was recommended of course, but we didn't let it stop there; a fire extinguisher materialized, (only to be put on the counter to watch the action) a moist towelette arrived , though a little confused and out of sorts and flour*** became a brief option until it was traded in favor of a mystery bottle from under the sink.

Awesome-still-my-friend Friend, Sissy-Inlaw and I watched on in comedic horror as my parents and brother tried to put the fire out. Apparently the threat of a fire wasn't enough to discourage us working on the cake, are we hard core or what?

Once the mystery bottle was unleashed, things really started to heat up. Literally, for while my dad vehemently attested to it's "watery-ness" when it was squirted onto the, maybe five inch flames, they shot up 200%, licking the upper cabinets.

Sound exploded out of the house in the form of yells, curses, laughter and maybe a whimper from my Friend. While everyone, including myself, tried to explain to my dad that "THAT IS NOT WATER!" my other self was looking at the fire extinguisher wondering if it was actually going to join the party soon, and if Me running for the back door with a million pound cake was going to happen.

It didn't, but what did happen was another test run of the mystery bottle, this time "washed out". Again flames licked the cabinets. Not a surprise to the rest of us, who were all, in our own way, telling my dad to put the bottle down and back away slowly.

The best part of all this was that we were all laughing, like fire was a stand up comedian or something, we loved it! After a few more power struggles, and an explanation that 'flour is flammable and baking soda was probably what they meant to say', wet and real water was used and the drama was over.

Well not completely, my dad had to try a last ditch attempt at proving that the mystery bottle was just water. He triumphantly squirted it into his mouth, and then ran for the sink.

I don't think we found out what truly was in the bottle, but my dad is fine, and I still love him to absolute pieces. As I do this cake, those coughcakepopscough next to it however I do not. Feel free to play the "guess what these look like" cake-pop game in the comment section. My family was getting pretty creative in their descriptions.

The following cakes were not nearly so fantastical in their creating, but were no less fun! Both were very close together so they didn't get the personalized treatment that Cake Un did. Even still I think they came out splendidly. All frosting and fondant was already made for them so again all we had to do was make the cakes and decorate.

It was these cakes that took me out of my comfort zone as far as decorating went. They required FLOWERS, and while I learned how to make several ie: royal icing pansy, roses, drop flowers ect. and fondant roses, I had never learned gum paste. They didn't offer those classes when I was taking them.

Luckily for me ASMF-Friend is the new Wilton instructor at the Bountiful Michaels, and she's a wizard when it comes to making gum paste flowers. She made the majority of them, but I learned quickly and they turned out amazing!!!!! (yes they need that many exclamation points)

Our final cakes did just what I wanted them to do: leave me with no desire left to make another cake for a very long time. I'm not saying I wasn't satisfied and awed by what can be achieved by over whelmed, post surgery and almost flambéed ladies, because those cakes looked AWESOME. But I am saying that the more cakes I make, the more I remember why I don't want to make cakes.

So Part 4 was going to be something, but now it's nothing because I can't remember what I was going to write.

So after this we will be going back to our irregularly scheduled blog postings.

Love ya'll

UPDATE!!
So I totally forgot to mention that my darling Sister-sue asked me to make a baby-shower cake for her the weekend before the cake chaos started. This is what she got:

*qouted from the best show EVER, name it and I"ll say something nice about you in my next post. I swear it.
** Actually that sounds pretty awesome, no really, do you think it'll puff up and get golden crispy??
***Yes it really did.. sadly.

Part 2.

2011-08-28T11:04:00.000-07:00

Welcome back for Part 2 of Past Present and Future, I am Amber, and I am doing my best to spell all my words correctly.

First things first. I'm deciding if you all make me laugh, or cringe. Yes I was cryptic in my parting sentence, but I wasn't THAT cryptic.

What I said: I might be a mother yet
What everyone heard: I'M PREGNANT AND I"M TELLING THE INTERNET BEFORE I TELL MY CLOSEST RELATIONS AND POSSIBLY GRANT.

What I meant: It looks like everyones prayers and good luck paid off and I might actually be able to reach that lofty position which is motherhood some day.

Just so you know, I will never, EVER, announce anything important via a blog, or facebook*, or any type of social "convienence"that isn't face to face (or in some special cases phone to phone ,email to email) or in a large gathering of people I love.

* I did put this on facebook, but there were those that knew already.

Back to my regularly scheduled blog:

I know I left you on somewhat of a small cliff, hanging there, like a good friend. Thank you!!

That being said I’m going to back up just a tad.

For those who don’t know, Grant and I have been trying to start our family for a couple years. Three-Fourish to be exact and it just isn't happening. I’ve been to four different OB-GYNs all of them with glowing reputations, all of them big fat lairs. And if failing that trait, at the very least, lazy insulting women.

I’ve had cyst since High school, had one burst even (not something I would wish on an enemy) and I’ve been “medicated” to help with this numerous times. Every doctor I’ve ever been to has been appraised of my past, they have also been informed that my mother and aunts have had problems like mine and worse. My mother had endometriosis, as did an Aunt(s), they (the doctors) have been informed of this as well.

When Grant and I started trying for a baby, every doctor said I was fine, said that and I quote: “Women get pregnant in the backseat of cars all the time.” Apparently Grant and I don’t have the right car.

We started testing, we started drug taking, we started everything the doctors told us to do. Nothing. Again I bring up the fact that my mother had endo, but that was poo pooed. Even when going in for emergency ultrasound to see why the left side of my lower regions weren’t allowing me to sit, or stand, or eat, or ANYTHING because of the pain.

The good news: I have amazing tolerance for pain, all of that not standing sitting and stuff was done over Kimberlys wedding, and no one knew.
Bad news: The ultra sound showed that I had a very large cyst on my left ovary. And when I say large, I mean it was the SIZE of my ovary.
Good news: According to my doctor, this in no way affected me getting pregnant, and we were supposed to wait it out, because cysts this size are normal.. and they go away by themselves.
Bad News: I’m a veritable Pain God, I can stand anything.

Months went by, the cyst never did go down, but apparently, I’m still ok! At this point my OB decided we needed to pull out the big guns, because you know, it wasn’t that huge cyst on my ovary or endometriosis or anything. We were shooed to a Fertility Specialist.

Who, luckily, knew what the heck he was doing.

Eventually all secrets come out. Eventually you find out how unorganized and unstable your OBGYN’s office is and eventually you learn that YES you do have endometriosis, and holy heck no one spotted this before?

The Specialist was so sure that my problem was that huge lump of a cyst that is now bigger than my ovary, that he didn’t even take anymore tests. This was again reiterated when the surgeon who was going to do my Laperoscopy felt the cyst, FELT it, not internally either, and proclaimed that it was the largest he’s ever seen/flet in his 20+ years of doctoring.

So on July 14 I had surgery to remove extensive, advanced and very aggressive endometriosis. The Level 1 I should have had turned out to be level 4 (which is the highest). The surgury that should have taken 1.5 hours took 4, I missed beating his record by 30 mins. And the OBGYN I had is now only a spot in my review mirror. No one could tell me how long it had been growing, but everyone was pretty certain it didn’t grow over night.

Anyway, I’m doing well, if a little disgruntled towards the medical profession at large, but well non-the less. It only took me 5 days to get back on my feet, though it was still a few weeks more that I couldn’t wear anything tight or binding around my middle.

At my two-week appointment I found out that even though the surgery had many surprises everything went amazingly well. They didn’t have to take out any of the ovary, something they said was a possibility because of the size of the cyst, and everything else looked fine and healthy down below. And as soon as I felt up to it, Grant and I could start again on that good old fashion family activity.

And again I proved I’m a stud when it comes to handling pain! Ask me how I went about healing, having my first moon cycle after the surgery and making 3 wedding cakes only a week after having a bunch of disease scrapped from my insides. Without any pain killers! While my parents house almost caught on fire, and sometimes sans food…

Part 3: The insantiy!!!

Past, Present and Future Part. 1

2011-07-08T09:12:00.001-07:00

Story time! Is everyone here? Good now, as my title has predicted I will be discussing events of the past, present and the future. I know I’ve been doing a lot of that lately, but this is different, I promise. Instead of tattle telling on little Amber, I’ll be gossiping about Big Amber.

That’s right, this time I will be talking about current events. These events are the very beings that have prohibited me from writing about them. It’s a relatively calm moment though, so I shall divulge a few snippits of stories.

Though, it should also be noted that this is part 1. I see your mouths hanging open, and indeed it is true, enough relevant and slightly important happenings have occurred that I wont be able to discuss them all in one go.

So let’s start.

Back in June I was put in as the Second Counseler of the Relief Society Pres. in my ward.

AHHHH!!!

If I didn't know the calling was inspired of the Lord, I would be greatly dubious of the judgement of my Bishop. I mean I've been in primary, wrangling four-year-olds for five years! And now they want me to be an adult?

So far so good, I guess, I haven't fallen asleep in Sunday School, or Relief Society yet, and that's without the aid of toys and/or candy. And I've already Conducted like a champ and given a lesson to people who can actually read and answer without first telling me all about their puppy and new bike and bad boo that now has a Spiderman band-aid on it, but it can come off, want to see?

I do miss my artistically challenged depictions of pretty much everything, and having the trump card of "You wont get a treat if you don't: sit/ stop climbing the wall /stop turning off the lights / stop hiding in the cave that is under the table” hidden up my sleeve. But at least the chance that any of the Relief Society ladies will lift their skirts over their head is really slim.

We are painting the ill-fated blue trim on our patio. If you think about it baby blue trim on a yellowish/redish brick house, doesn't work in the; not even the littlest bit! Lucky for us no one did think about it, just like they didn't think about running giant black screws every 5" into the baseboard without covering them up. Lucky, lucky us.

We planted a garden much like last year, though we held a funeral for my cucumbers a little too early, *sniff * they were so young! The investigation is on going, though we’ve decided the erstwhile pickles either committed suicide out of jealousy of the Zuke or the Zuke murdered it. I believe both sides, and not because I’m afraid the monster zucchini plant will come for me in the middle of the night either (although I am.).

Our darling Dagger is physcotic (sp?), any sound over a moderate yell, and she runs for cover. Often running straight for the outside world, in which she thinks will be safer then her own back yard. It usually isn't, but that doesn't stop her. She does this despite all the traps and treatments we've put into place to stop her from doing this. She is willing to inflict minor to moderate harm to herself (and others) just to escape the vacuum.

We went on the most awesome-est Bear Lake trip with my family ever!!. I shall not spoil the blog that is in the works although I will say this: Running Water.

The Big Bang Theory and Bleach discs have taken over our entertainment. But we're kinda ok with that.

And now finally for the last piece of show stopping information:

I may be a mother yet.

Stay tuned for the exciting sequel: Past Present and Future part 2.

Later!!

Seven is a Lucky Number

2011-06-19T11:51:00.000-07:00

11 years, eight months and 16 days ago the youngest of my family was born.

(don’t do the math it wont add up)

Back then I was in Jr. High, and living my awkwardly-normal preteen little life. I was getting good grades, experimenting with make-up (a misunderstanding with blue eyeliner = blackmail photos for eternity), making some of the best friends I’ve ever had, joining track (another misunderstanding) and holding down a steady boyfriend. (as steady as a 13 year old can be.. seriously kids, don’t date in Jr. High. It only makes for body-shiver inducing memories.)

I was living something close to being the teenage dream, or I was until my life as I knew it was sent spinning into orbit, never to return.

Mothers day is pretty a big deal, as is Fathers day; but it was the later event my parents chose as the right moment in time to inform us (me and my sibs) of our growing family… via a scavenger hunt.

It was the scavenger hunt to end all scavenger hunts. And I really do mean “end”, I haven’t trusted one since. I mean the word ‘hunt’ does nothing except excite a young brain, right? Right! So, I was excited, I thought I was going to get a freaking pony! But all I got was a big slap to the ‘emergency stop only’ button and told I was going to have a baby sibling soon.

I guess running off to the nearest dark corner to grow mushrooms and endless amounts of self-pity, isn’t the reaction my parents expected from their first born. But, it was what they got. As all good parents do, faced with abnormal tween behavior, they ran for their lives.

No I’m just kidding, though the thought probably made a rather impressive bid for attention while they tried to console their upset, heartbroken and screaming for no apparent reason oldest daughter who was almost old enough to drive, and are now thinking that one bout of road rage will send her over a cliff. Ya, tell me moms and dads, how do you not lock your children up?

Anyway, I’m not going to lie, this may or may not have happened, but knowing my younger, slightly (read: moderately) aggressive self, I can’t imagine a whole a lot of consoling happened. For one thing, if it had, I wouldn’t have been back in my sulking, self-pity and mushroom cave at my grandmothers later that evening when my mother’s side was informed of our imminent family explosion.

If I remember right, I think everyone in a ten foot radius vowed to never say congratulations to me ever again.

And you all probably thought I was a cheerful, Saint like child huh? Fooled you.

Moving on, I shall further prove how Saint like mini-me could be. Teenagers usually are a little detached from family matters, but I mean who can blame them? Have parents never heard of “friends”? This being said, I wasn’t just detached I was actively kicking away from the family surface as fast as I could to get to the darker deeper water so that I could pretend I was a mermaid and live under the sea and make fishy friends! (why I thought being a mermaid would solve all my problems, I’ll never know. Maybe I didn’t quite understand the whole “fish –phobia of death” thing that I have..)

Ya, I didn’t look, touch or talk to my mother without some sort of emotional break down or body magnet, for weeks at a time. The day she went to the hospital, ya I was playing Mario on the Nintendo 64. I remember the day as if it were yesterday.

None of my siblings were home, or at least I assume they weren’t, because I was the one my parents told what was going on. Me, the girl who was not only the most unsupportive of this whole deal, but also the one being temporarily brainwashed by Nintendo and doing her best to keep Mario outta the freaking Lava so he could collect all those neat little blue coins in under a minute, so she could get a star that is absolutely worhtless.

They told me anyway, so that at nine pm later that evening I could tell my siblings why they weren’t home and why our uncle had just pulled up in the drive way to take us away:

“Seriously I have no idea! But I got that Lava Star! It only took me five tries, beat ya Geg :P”

Again that conversation may or may not have happened, what did happen was a fun sleep over at my grandmothers then a little ride to the hospital to meet the newest alien invader.

Seriously a worse picture could not have been taken.

After the birth of our darling Nicker-nack, I eased up a bit. I mean look at this face:

Who wouldn’t save his saucer-walker incased form from rolling down the stairs? (this happened a number of times, I think he thought with a good foot of hard plastic surrounding him that he was invincible.)

Modeling was his true calling, or at least we thought so. You may call it torture, we called him fabulous.

As he grew up, so did I, to my parents intense relief.

This didn’t stop me from making up names for him though, which I did with great cleverness and creativity. Not all of them were nice, even if they were said in loving tones, and I quickly learned which ones I couldn’t use ie: Mistake. Ya that one got me slapped and grounded. Rightly so.

I’m at the point where I think I need to explain myself. Finally, right?

Let’s see, why would a perfectly normal girl, who has never in her life been an only child suddenly freak out at the thought of a new family member? Was it the change in family status and life style that one gets used to after 10 years? Was it because her parents didn’t tell her until five months in? Was it that her parents didn’t discuss this with anyone but themselves? Was it the journal entry she found her mother writing about a new life she wanted with new children? Was it an unexpected change to her already strange and stressful new life as a teenage girl?

Who knows, but I think it was a little bit of everything.

mushed together with a whole lot of selfishness. I feel really bad about it, but I don’t regret it, it has made the relationship I have with him today.

Which is killer awesome. I love the little squirt more than anything, it is a joy to watch him grow and learn. He’s got one heck of a sense of humor, has more guns and the knowledge to use them than is right for his age, can effectively beat me in Halo, and still lets me cuddle him all I want.

Maybe it’s guilt for treating him so cruelly, but whatever it is, I’m glad of it.

Mess Maker

2011-05-01T08:40:00.000-07:00

That would be me.

I don't need a Little running around my house to make it messy, I am well equiped with the skillz of causing chaos.

Observe:

The first one I had a little help with, if you can't tell it's a Halo battle on a bunch of crochet squares. I provided the squares Nick provided the Halo stuff. It was epic, I have so many pictures, someday I'll make a post.

As you can see I am perfectly capable of causing my own distress at having a cluttered house, as well as creating a slightly less filling breakfast.

I tell you what! Flipping eggs is like an Olympic sport!

Hidden Family Skills..

2011-04-17T20:13:00.000-07:00

I can't remember which cousin it was that started the trend of wishing someone a 'happy happy' instead of a 'happy birthday' but it has stuck. Sure we're taking advantage of a childs mistake and/or innocence, but it is what it is and we wish it upon each other with great adoration and love.

Like wise I'm not sure where this next happy birthday tradition came from, in fact I doubt anyone in the family does. My grandmother especially wants to figure it out so she can go back in time and stop it from happening.

But it is the Isaacs family treasure. We LOVE it, and are almost proud of our unique'ness. You see when the candles are lit and the lights turned out and it's time for the celebratory "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" song, that's when my family truly shines.

And it goes something like this:

Brilliant no? If you listen, you might pick up some lyrics that don't even belong. I'd say it's like the Hogwarts song except everyone not only picks their tempo and tune, but also the volume, lyrics, happy birthday song (ie: primary songs or another language) and sometimes if your really lucky, jingle bells or whatever anyone has stuck in their head.

It has been like this for years, I honestly can't tell you when we've sung the song correctly. This isn't to say we haven't tried! My Grandmother laughs and us and shakes her head when we sing, so for her birthday we all agreed we'd sing it right. But none of us knew how, it was probably one of our closest attempts but by no means correct.

It's so ingrained that when I'm singing happy birthday outside of my Isaac clan I have to honestly FOCUS to do it right. It's weird, but we love it, and heaven help us if it stops.

Tasty!

2011-04-13T10:42:00.000-07:00

There’s a saying: “It’s an acquired taste.” This is mostly used on bizarre food items, like pickled herring, blood sausage and Brussels sprouts.

Everyone “acquires” these tastes differently, some are duct tapped to a wall and force feed sauerkraut, some by necessity (tell me blood sausage wasn’t a necessity!) and some by choice.

As a child I was rather picky, not as picky as some *coughnickcough* but a rather ordinary purchase of my parents challenged my childish pride.

Every house has a junk drawer, I know you do! It has in its marvelous depths anything from quarters to bobby pins to the missing piece of several puzzles, and an earring always an earring. On one fateful day it had a bag of Cinnamon bears. Not just a little bag, but a bulk candy bag.

I had hit the jackpot.

I stuck the head of a little bear in my mouth, ready to party and then BAM! I was kicked in the senses by that tangy, bittery, sweet.. whateverness that is cinnamon. The point had come to spit it out or die. Since I’m writing this now lets say I spat it out.

Now a normal child would have stayed away and eventually forgotten the bears, but I circled that drawer for a week. The quantity of the Cina-bears didn’t diminish much because my brother and sisters had passed the “if it tastes bad and you don’t like it don’t eat it” childhood lesson. I had not.

During that week I kept trying the bears, apparently under the impression that they had changed flavors, my parents had replaced it with good candy or would this time they would be better.

They never were.

Finally the bears were moved, I suspected my mother did this because the bag wasn’t empty, and thus filled the entire drawer so it was hard to find that all important puzzle piece. They were gone for about a month before I started craving them. I craved the bears like bears crave honey (theoretically).

I wanted to ask for more but I never learned what they were called because I was fairly certain I wasn’t supposed to eat them. Yes I realize they were put in the junk drawer, but if you think about it, that’s more like a good hiding place. I mean who puts candy in a junk drawer?

Eventually I asked my mom about the red teddy bears in the junk drawer. I think she thought I had gotten into the “pop medicine” (that’s another story) I never did find out what they were. Not until I stumbled on them years later covered in chocolate!!

As you can imagine I am a serious advocate for cinnamon now, I’ll have it on pretty much anything I can, much to Grants displeasure.

And just to stop the questions before they start: NO this will not work on fish, or blood sausage. At least not for me.

The Author is in!

2011-03-19T10:03:00.000-07:00

I'm being very liberal with the term "Author" I just write stories, anything I want to see played out. It's self gratification in a verbal, wordy form, really, if you think about it.

So! What am I writing now good question. I'll blurb out a few:

Working Title: Olympus Knight, or Breathing Underwater.

Once upon a time in a high school not unlike your own two students studied and learned all the things they need for the outside world.

Abby and Oliver: lovers at first sight, bonded soulmates, best friends forever, and all before they say the word hello. In fact their connection for each other is so strong that it lasts for months without them ever introducing themselves to each other. One can only imagine what happens, when they do.

It wouldn't be a high school romance novel without the obligitory love triangle, and token jealous people drama-lama, so of course they will make a grand apperance. Tragedy, Comedy, Romance, Suspense, Repitition, and Cliche's at their best folks. Or at MY best, in any case.

Working Title: Monsters

As far as Meg knows, her life is completley normal. She has a job, is going to school, and just rented her first appartment. Sure things could go wrong, but how bad could they be?

Well if you consider being attacked by an unknown creature bad, then her life could get worse. Worse being a brutal and bizzare death.

And yet she breaths still. With no pulse, no blood flow or body heat, she would be considered dead by anyones standards. Anyone not living in the world she now found herself in.

With the help of her new found friends she learns to embrace her future, and her past.

This is mostly Romance Drama, Comedy and if Grant had his way, World Domination. Maybe someother time..

Working Title: It doesn't have one, I just call it Dragon Hunt.

On his quest for the mythical Dragon of Destiney (uughh.. not the name I'll stick with ) Patrick Caffton faces many trials, including, but not limited to: finding (another) guide, starvation, sticker burs, huge thick forests, and the beasts that live in them, hired hit men, men that want him dead, really mean mages, and his ex-fiance and quest companion.

But this time he's gotten in to deep, and his wounds, both phyiscal and mental wont allow him the luxurary of independant traveling so he's forced to ask for help, and swallow his pride.

Aaaaannnd that's IT!

Well sort of. I have lots and lots of little idea snippits cluttering up my computer file space, but most of them are just that, ideas. A few wont ever see the light of day, and another select few will probably get mushed in together with another story. There are two other largers stories I could blurb, butI haven't worked on them for years. And of course there's my un-edited (almost) novel.. *sigh *

Forgive me for my vagueness but I don't want anyone thinking they can steal my ideas. What I have written isn't enough for anyone to steal my story from. Trust me, I left out all the good bits.

Well there you have it! That's what I've been doing lately.

Ideas...

2011-02-25T21:11:00.000-08:00

Sorry folks, believe it or not I've written around a dozen blogs.. all in my head. They've all been more or less about the same stuff, writing, valentines day, life, baking bread, important stuff!

And yet none of them have made it to paper, or Mircosoft Word, or some type of recording device. On the bright side, I haven't forgotten the password to this blog, unlike some other blog I could name...

So lets get this party started! Wasn't Valentines day fun?? Grant, Kim, Brent, and I all went to Benni Hana for their all you can eat sushi. The boys took that as a challenge, which sucked later on but left more gellato for Kimmy and I. Stupid work schedules denied us the pleasure of Jake and Brooklyns company, they were sorely missed.

I've been trying to cook more, while playful banter about Grant being a better chef then I am is all fun, it does hurt my wifely pride. So one night, at great risk to her kitchen and sanity, Jen and I made bread! Usually anything attempted by the two of us after 6:30 pm ends up in a burnt unrecognizable lump at the bottom of her stove/sink/floor/oven/you really don't want to know. But the bread turned out AWESOME! And then I got snow plowed in.

Love was certainly being felt over the holiday weekend, and it materialized as two new Smartphones for Grant and I for absolutely FREE!! I'm still trying to cope with the change but Grants already gotten to like level 20 in Angry Birds. As soon as I learn how to turn on and off my phone I think I'll also pursue Angered Birds.. who actually shouldn't be mad, it's the pigs who are getting the short end of the stick.

So finally: My writing!! I've added more to my fanfic, which is actually getting pretty good reviews on the site I have it on, which makes me really happy. Being told I'm a good writer by people who don't have to love me is a great feeling!!

I've also added more to a little pet project of mine, as well as a short story I believe could actually go somewhere. I really like getting my ideas out and seeing them transform into a scene, and my characters turn into people. It's fun and frustrating at the same time; especially when you have two stories fighting for your love. It's not fair!!

I've decided I'm going to give you little blurbs about all the stories I have outlined and such, but I think I'll save it for another blog. Just so you know, cause knowing is fun even if it's something that will do you absolutely no good in the future.

Anyway it's late I better get going.
Bye!

Side Fluff

2011-02-02T20:52:00.001-08:00

Howdy all, told you I'd start writing more if I combined my two favorite blogs. I know, poor you, don't worry there's cute at the end that's worth all my mindless rambling.

As you know, or you may not know but don't worry you're still cool, my newest favorite show/anime is Axis Powers Hetalia. Never, since 9th grade geography with Mr. Goody or when Hysteria was still on Kids WB have I enjoyed learning history more than with Hetalia. For instance I didn't know that the "Axis Powers" part of the title actually meant something or what it meant, now I do. I also know who the Allies are that fought against the Axis (I'll let you Wiki it yourself)

I also had no idea Prussia was no longer a country and how it became so, or that there's a small country called Belarus, who is psychotic and wants to marry Russia..

Anyway I said all that to bring you to this: I made another FANFICTION!! Bwahahahahaa.. It's actually rather short, only 600ish words, but it's super sweet and I loves it dearly. I'm still fairly new to the whole "fanfiction" and the "fandoms" that are created for beloved shows/books/etc so I'm still baffled by the whole "pairing" idea (this means fans put together characters they like best in romantic situations) but I'm warming up to it.

I've been in love with Hetalia for about two years, and never once have I paired anyone together, until monday night. I had no intention of writing anything cause I'm still working on my high school romance short (the one Allysen loves to pieces) but I wanted to see if there were some good fanfics for my pairing out in the great wide web. There aren't, but they gave me ideas for my own, which spontaneously combusted and now I have a new fanfic.

So there, I have Switzerland and Liechtenstein fanfiction. Odd pair huh? But their connection both fictionally and non-fictionally is sooo sweet I just had to. If you are interested let me know, but unless you've seen the show you really wont get it.

Ok here's the cute I promised. I love web comics, and Deviant art has lots of them. There's on in particular that I love best and I made a clay person from one of her designs. I'll link you to the comic but be warned it's Anime related. (Aunt Malayna Rachel would like it, it's Bleach)

Her name is Little Roo. And she is just the sweetest thing I've ever seen. She's been on my list of things to make for a long time now. I know I should have finished poor Uzera first, but I finished Roo in one night where as even on a good day Uzera would take at least 3.

She has a few things I need to fix with some paint and more clay, but she's more of less complete. And besides who knows when I'll fix her, thus the unfinished pictures.

The unfolding truth.

2011-01-25T15:18:00.000-08:00

Did you know I have four different blogs? I'll give you a second to count. *hums.. *

You counted only two didn't you?

Yes I have four, or to be more accurate: I had four. As of today I only have three.

How did this happen? I'll try to explain without making you die of boredom. Up until a half hour ago I had a Personal Blog *You are Here* A Writing Blog *It's somewhere else* An Anime Reference Blog *look over in my blog list it's there * and a Work blog that me and a few co-admins are working on, it has yet to be unvaled.

The purpose of telling you this here is I would like to combine the writing blog with this one. My time is not able to handle so many blogs and keep them updated regularly, so even if I don't combine them the writting blog is gone. I just don't have time, and if I do I'd rather write somewhere else.

So hopefully I can update more here because I write.. a lot and I always have something to say about it.

Anyway, just a heads up.

Tis the Season.

2010-12-29T17:26:00.000-08:00

Oh what a busy time of year this has been. Nonstop fun since the week before Thanksgiving for the Gramberbies!

Between special birthday parties for yours truly, making most of our christmas gifts for loved ones, having a house guest in the form of Grants cousin John, and lots of other side job/personal improvement thingies, it's safe to say we have burnt several candles from both ends. And are ready to look into the advantages of cave dwelling. However despite all that our little family has gone through, the biggest victim of the holiday season has got to be our dear Christmas Tree.

Due to either laziness, carelessness, bussiness (yes its a word) or extreme kindness, I was allowed to do my white trash Christmas tree again this year. Allowed, but not supported. At least not by fate. Grant put up the tree and strung the lights and popped the popcorn. I made Bountifuls longest popcorn string, and the most delicious gingerbread cookies ever, and put it all together!

Awe, isn't it cute?

Sugar and Spice and everything nice.

I got bored with the stereotypical gingerbread man, but even that doesn't explain Mr. Missionaryman, still you gotta admit, he's pretty cute.

This time last year we had the Gingerbread Massacre, and I thought that was traumatizing . This year we take it a step further. Introducing Mass Gingerbread suicide /slash/Murder!

This is what we awoke too. It is, of course, what we expected. What with our culinary curious puppies. But what we didn't expect was this:

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

EEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK!!!!

So apparently gooey, chewy, soft and yummy cookies tallied with a hole through the head and then hung on a tree does not a ornemant make. They were too soft and the ribbons did their damage. It started only a few hours after they were put up, I got to wittness the first swan dive. And Dagger, please her pointed little head, was there to pick it up in seconds. It was actually quiet funny, I was sitting on the couch watching 'He's just not that into you' and making stuff and I hear this russtle, i look over and theres a gingerbread man tummbling down the tree.

Anyway, I had pretty much had it with December already and my tree has been one catastrophe after another so I went to Micheals 60% off sale and bought a whole new look, at a very good price (very good, I've framed the reciepts).

TA DA!! Sparkly, glittery, pink and Perfect!! Grant actually likes it, says it's very beautiful. Yes we let the survining gingerbread men live out the rest of their lives on the tree. And the popcorn strand actually looks awesome!! Which is a pain because those are stupid stressfull to make.

Merry belated Christmas!!

Golden Oldy

2010-12-15T10:23:00.000-08:00

I wanted to post my birthday pictures, but felt guilty because I still have Anime Con pictures I haven't shared yet. It would be a real shame not to share those with you. (psst! That's your cue to nod)

Hopefully this will work out better than my desk blog (ie: commentary will align) and better than my email fail, which doubled as a blog fail (ie: you can see the pictures)

I'm not sure how many of you know that I went to an Anime Convention a few months ago with my wonderful little cousin Rachel. Doesn't matter anyway, you haven't seen the pictures.

If you are wondernig what a Anime Convention is or AnimeCon for short, it is a convention where Anime lovers go to be nerds together and show off their fine sewing skills by copying character outfits and competing to find out who knows the most about fake people, places, and things.

There are all sorts of panels and things you can go sit for, or games to play or contest to win.. er.. join. Also there are shops featuring real actual vendors who have business licenses and fans who just want to show off how cool they are by recreating vendor stuff :D Ok kidding, there really are very talented people in the world who make great knock offs, sometimes unique stuff too.

Anywho, Rachy and I had a blast, I proved I belonged there, and Rachel was introduced to a japanese soda pop aka Ramune and candy aka Hi-chew (both I advise trying once in your life)
On with the pictures!!

For Rachey and I, it all started with a line.. and caution tape.

America, Canada, and Russia: Hetalia (can you guess who is who?)

Have nooooo clue, but they look kinda cool.

Lolitas :D My to-be halloween costume when I have time.

She was so cute bouncing around trying to get people to the "restuarant" but she wasn't so please about the picture taking.

V.

Bult head: No idea
Maes Hughes : Full Metal Alchemist

Sailor Marz: Sailor Moon

Chi: Chobits

Someone from Naurto

Rem is a Shinigami (god of death): Death Note

Star Trek Chica, Jesse Team Rocket: Pokemon, Steam Punk girl, Fang: Final Fantasy the newest

Have no clue, but isn't she the cutest?

THE SIMS!! Hands down my favorite.

I have more pictures, but I don't know some of them and some are just bad. AND this blog is long enough as is. By-E

*EDIT*

It has been requested that I answer a few more questions as well as up load a few more pictures. You've already seen one new pict, it's of Rachey at the very top. Mine, is down below, I was photog so I didn't get many of myself. There honestly is only one more of me, and ya... Questions:

How long was the convention? - 3 Days. All day. We only went Saturday.

Did you win any of the contests? - No, I wasn't aware they had any.

Did you buy any of the items sold? - Yes! Ramune, and Hi-chew, and the cutest felt cookies on earth!!

Will you go again next year? - I believe I will. Grant wanted to go too but had a ice fishing trip planned instead.

Do you think you'd sell items next year? - Heavens NO! I would have to make TONS of stuff, and at that point it wouldn't be fun anymore. And I think it would be a big hit for my selfesteem/pride to find out that only my close friends and family think my clay figures are cute.

Email Fail

2010-12-07T15:13:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME AND SISSY!! WoW 25.. that's old :P

I will have more to say about my birthday but not right now.. I'm on borrowed time but I have to share this with SOMEONE!!

Long story short I'm trying to get a replacement phone for one of my crew guys. It's taken 2 weeks of broken promises and miscommunications to find out that the approval form for the new phone has been sent to the wrong email address. So thats why I never got it.

Here's the funny part, I have not once called these people, our entire correspondence has been over email.

I, I just don't get it. I really don't. How am I supposed to respond? Is it professional to laugh? I was already a mite sharp because it's taken 2 weeks as opposed to the 2 days he told me when I first talked to him.

*facepalm*

"Hope"

2010-11-19T15:10:00.000-08:00

When I get bored at work I do a variety of self entertaining stuff. No judging, I've been to the Work Fails blog, I know what goes on.

I do however have my pursuits of choice: Body Art

creating holiday moral in my Service Managers office:

And maiming Hope:

That is not blood, but "florsecent red" for my postage machine. We had an accident. Honest when this first happened the drop looked like blood, and I laughed. Unfortunately my wrist moved from the time I spilled the ink to getting the camera. My whole hand looks like this:

And it wont wash OFF!! So hopefully, since its not just hope with a blood splot, I wont get too many awkward questions. For further proof of the mishap I have some on my right hand too.

Happy Halloween

2010-10-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

It's that time again, I'm slowly adding to my Halloween decor, and these are my newest recruits. We made these cute little buggers in my craft class last night, I'm afraid other than viewing them here, the public will not see them. They may not be real pumpkins, but they will still make a cool noise when smashed in the middle of the street.

A Desk is worth a thousand Stories.

2010-10-12T14:02:00.000-07:00

(WARNING!!!!!! I TRIED (but i was tired too) MY HARDEST BUT THE STUPID BLOG WONT COOPERATE SO THINGS ARE OFF ON THE PICTURES, BUT TO FIX I"D HAVE TO START IT ALL OVER AGAIN AND I GIVES ME A HEAD ACHE TO EVEN THINK ABOUT. PLEASE FORGIVE THE MESS.)

Work is like a second home to those of us with full time jobs. We stay in our office, cubicle, truck, what have you, for at the least 8 hours a day. Some people stay longer (you poor poor people). So it goes without saying that we tend to make our "area" more comfortable, and home like. Different people do different things, some decorate, some put mini fridges in their office, some get small golfing greens, some fill their office with dead and stuffed birds..and other people in movies get elliptical machines! (I spelled that wrong I know but get over it)

This is what I do.

I'm very much like Ariel the little Mermaid, as this is my collection of utterly random objects. The only thing they share in common is that they were given to me. Some are actual gifts, most of them are however from my famously wonderful Pirate Captain Leader Susan Young, but I have a few from insanely unfair Cabo sales meetings, and trips out of state. Some were given without the intent to actually give and others are things my guys at work have found on roofs and brought back to show me. I brought a few on my own, and even smaller few followed me here on their own.

I've meant to do this for a while, but I'm lazy, and my collection is by no means finished. It grows by one at least every month. My rule is: if I am given something, doesn't matter how useless or pointless or stupid it is, or if I wasn't actually even given it, I will find it a home some place. I have to balance that out with cute of course, and that is where Susan comes in. She supplies me with so much cute I will never lack for a happy place to be.

Alrighty, I have gone through and numbered all my objects and given you a closer look at them. I will supply a short story to go along with it as well. If there is one :D

Code:

R= found on roof and given to me
S= given to me by Susan

1- This darling push-pin design was inspired by utter boredom. Nothing more.

2-Jealous of other CentiMark offices, I have jumped on the Halloween Decor bandwagon. I made them all on a lunch break.

3 - (s)Last year Christmas gift. Her name is Diddlina. (the pictures should be self explanatory, except that they are over 5 years old)

4- Dread Pirate Lip Gloss. (s)
5- Subordinate lip glosses

6- Christmas Card (s)
7- Bestest Lotion in the world
8- This was put on a envelope to my salesman, I intervened and defused the scandelous inter-vendor romance (jk)
9-Rubix cub stress ball (r)
10-Pirate for life pin (s)
11-Hello Kitty Drug..er.. mint holder (s)
12-Tinkerbell!(s)
13-Folder paper thing, made/given by my Service Sales Guy.
14-CentiMark Mint bucket

15-Mini Football (r)
16-Carrot candy holder (not really sure)
17-White Mokana, I made her :D
18-The bridal party pin from Allys wedding, sans head. (giggle)
19-Its a rose made from Kisses. Salesmans wife made a bunch to give to people for V-day and one stowed away in his brief case, he gave it to me so it wouldn't melt. I have it ever since
20- House Carabeaner (r)
21-Scratch and Win Transformer from BK. Service Sales won a Sausage Biscut.. no one wanted it so he gave it to me (I didn't want it either)
22- A rude fortune I got eating out for lunch

23- A sticker Sue put on a payroll check for me.
24-I get random dove chocolates from Chocolate Zorro.. I kept this one, it was cute.
25-Souvenir from Cabo. >.>
26- If I spun the ball around it would say CentiMark. I stole it from a golf Tourny :D Hey I earned it sitting at the table for 2 hours freezing da buns off.
A-Mokana, again I made him :D
B- Festive charm bracelet (r)
C- This was once much bigger. It was a Bird Pen. The foot was the stand and the Bird wore the hat. The bird kept tipping over and I hated him anyway so I ripped off his head, dispoused of the body and stuck his hat on his foot. I mean who wouldn't do that right?
D- Salesman was teasing me when he gave me his old Fresh Market key card. He should know better.
E- Is an E! (r)

27- Football (duh) (r)
28-Unwittingly I declared my love for Koalas. So I got one from a Corp friend :D (thanks Karen!)
Koalas are cute though. (yes he is balanced precariously on that ball)

29-Kitty made of Stone. (me!)
30-Marble (r)
31-Fuzzy Big Brother. I got him at a Mary Kay thing that my sister-in law Angie took me too.
32-Tinkerbell cell phone charm. (r)

33- Bouncy Ball (r)
34-Amber the Moose. It was brought back from Alaska for little 'ol me.
35-Lilly Livered Feather. Seriously people they got EVERYWHERE, this one followed me to work, last thing it ever did.
36-Fish tank marble (r)
37-Stick-on Sequin (r, how they found it I couldn't tell you)
38-Twist Tie love! (boredom flows through me like electricity to a craft power source)
39-My piece of 8. Or an earing that caught on my coat and dropped at the door of my office and was found by my Manager. :D
(s)

Not pictured: Kitty-Bunny Sticker(s). It's kinda all by itself on the left side of my monitor. You can however see it on the COVER ALL photo at the beginning (if you really really want to)

You probably noticed a bunch of colored labels/note things along the shelf. Those are reminders to myself to do things/how to do things/code things They are for work purposes and thus don't get to be show cased in this blog.

Just a reminder, I've been collecting these things since I started work here. Some are 5 years old, some (the E and the Koala) are only a few days old.

There are a few exceptions, but for the majority if you give it to me in a work enviroment, it will get displayed thusly.

Anyway, just alittle insight into my madness.

The Death of a Super Store.

2010-10-04T09:04:00.000-07:00

Today we mourn. We mourn, for the loss of a great vault of entertainment. A vault so cherished by the likes of myself and many others, that we mourn it this day, and the next, and the next. We wear black, loose fitting socks in tribute to such a mighty fad. We wear our hair in gravity defying styles to commemorate it's amazing screen presence. We mourn.

We (also known as I) grow bored and find myself at a loss for words. So, to you, Treasure Trove, who have pleased and thrilled many an adoring fan over the years with discounted merchandise, we thank you. Though some may say it was an act of an enabler, closely resembling a drug dealer, we praise you for your compasion, and call them stupid-heads. Your work was mighty, and brave, going in directions only the amazingly absurd are willing to go. You have saved our souls, and our pocket books.

We fear the future that lays before us without you.

((But really, what did you think would happen if you provoked Kira? N can't save everyone, L would have, had he not been killed already himself. No one can escape the wrath of a Shinigami. No one.))

Escape from Witch Mountain.

2010-06-14T10:26:00.000-07:00

It was a tough road, but we are finally back to normality (is that a word?). Kims married, Jakes married, everyone survived, I'd say that spells success. WOOT!

On ward and Up ward, and may a wedding not come within 5 miles of me until I say so..

So it's been 11 days since marital bliss has been locked up behind new apartment walls, and so far so good. Jake and Brooklyn are living happily in Ogden in probably the best place ever: The Junction. Honestly everything they don't need is within walking distance. Tasty restaurants, I-fly, a killer movie theater, a wave pool, and a rock wall!! *sigh* it's awesome. Kimmy and Brent just got back from their awesome Honeymoon and are actively searching for a place to call home. (if you know of anywhere, they are looking for somewhere in the Salt Lake Valley)

Allysen is back in beautiful Washington with her handsome hubby. Nick is really confused to the lack of family and X-box that now exist in his home, however he has appropriated himself a new bedroom fit for the handsome young man he is growing up to be.

Finally, Grant and I have locked ourselves in our basement and refuse to leave until we finish watching Death Note, and Bones. Or until I finish my third novel edit, and he completes Jake and Brooklyns photo album. Or until Grant triumphs at Secret of Mana and I take a four hour nap brought on by the Ice Forest. Or I finish my secret clay project, and Grant masters Internet code. Or.. or.. or..

Sooo, we are kinda busy, and we actually have ventured out into the sun. Except we were rewarded with being burned to crispy fries, so we ran back inside. I think we offended the sun, it hasn't been seen since.

This has been both good and bad for our darling pets. Cloud has been loving all the snuggle spots we create as we lounge around, as has Dagger. Gus doesn't so much cuddle as guard, so he's been liking that I've stayed in one place for long periods of time. What with him turning 13 this year, he doesn't like moving as much as he used too. It's very sad. On the opposite side, we haven't wanted to take the children out to play, so they have been as home bound as we have.

However Cloud did make a little excursion outside. It was totally contingent on him being able to see me though. I had the front door open and watched him investigate outside from the comfort of my couch and laptop. Every couple minutes I'd see him peek around the door frame to see if I was still there, and then scamper away again. It was the cutest thing, and only made better because Dagger was watching Cloud too, she would lick him every time he made his check-in before he left again.

Finally I got up for something so when he came back and found me gone, he began making his displeasure known, and once he found me wouldn't leave my side. Which made editing on my laptop really hard.

The Biesingers are back, and better than ever! Just don't expect us to do much. :D

I will however, let you look at some of Kimmys Wedding pictures. Grant wasn't the photog (ask "why" only if you own a bullet proof vest) -ever- so we have very little pictures because it was up to me to take them, and I was busy being goofy and riding on a train. We do have some, and those I will share. Lucky you.

The new Pack family. Awe...

The completely bored 10 year old. This is at the temple. Luckily after pictures.

The Kimball House... I think. It was very nice!

Table decor, you can thank yours truly, for this idea.

Grooms Mommy made the cakes, and they tasted SOOO good.

This looks great, but tastes ten times better.

I said "being goofy" didn't I?

The littles of my Isaac family loved this train more than anything! They rode it, all night. Granted, I did too...

Finally, our beautiful bouquets!! Aren't they stunning? Way to go flower people! Allysen, Brooklyn and I were Bride-martons, and so we had these :D

Mr. and Mrs. Hill

2010-05-15T09:20:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Jake and Brooklyn Hill. They were sealed on Friday May 14th 2010 in the Salt Lake temple for time and all eternity. We wish you the best, and many happy years to come! Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your special day. Congratulations.
We love you very much!

Head on a Pike.

2010-05-07T09:04:00.000-07:00

I'm not so cruel to actually do something like that, am I?

Hrrmm... I guess I am. I probably shouldn't be giggling huh? Shame.

This head will eventually be put on a body and then be called Uzura. Who is Uzura? WHO, is Uzura? This is:

Ain't she sweet? She's from Princess Tutu. Which, if you know me at all, is an anime. It's a very girly cute Anime and I recommend it for girls ages 8 to forever. I know I got the hair a little, flat, but I think I've got her head pretty good.

There is a reason her head has been on a pike for months, I'm lazy and afraid of screwing her up. I know she can't stay a head but ... I like her this way :/

Anyway thought I'd share.

Fainting 101

2010-04-29T10:19:00.000-07:00

Some of you out there may have never, and will never experience fainting. Consider yourself extremely lucky. Others, comparatively, do it on a regular basis, and can’t be described with such words. Fainting is random and diverse, where one family might not even know what this is, there is another family that carries smelling salts in their purse and/or pocket at all times. It’s also genetic, so those that have it in their blood are more or less screwed.

Moving on.

This class is for everyone! Because lets face it, there’s nothing more traumatic then finding your wife in a chair, passed out, eyes open, and shaking. And…for no apparent reason.

So here are the Do and Do-Nots, for those of you not falling to the ground helpless.

Do not move them. Unless they are in a dangerous situation let them lay there until they come around. A dangerous situation would be when your five-year-old falls into a pile of stacked chairs. A not dangerous situation would be when your eight-year-old falls on to a pillow on the floor.

Do check their pulse. This is pretty much a given.

Do not take advantage of the situation and draw on them.

Do not do any of the following: shake them, kick them, hit them, put them in front of spaghetti, freak out, run into the hall screaming, and throw water on them.

Do keep a portable fainting couch with you at all times.

Do find them something to eat, and let them get out of school/work/piano lessons/church/whatever early.

Do not cover them with a blanket. Thanks, but no thanks. It’s not really harmful, but it also isn’t helpful, and we’d rather have you by our side when we come to, then off searching.

Do elevate our feets. Get that blood back to our heads.

Do be courteous. If the fainter has fallen on to you, don’t push them off. Or if you see them falling, catch them!

Do not laugh. Fainting is like dying, we no longer have control over ourselves, things happen. It’s also terrifying, when they wake up some will want to cry, let them.

Now those that know my family know that we have a history of fainting. We’ve got the genetic variety, passed on by my uncles (thanks). Three of the five kids in my family faint on a more regular basis. Two of us average once a year from before we can remember. You can say we’ve learned a few things:

The ground, be it covered in carpet, grasses, a rug, or tile, is hard. And it hurts.

Putting your head between your knees doesn’t always cut it. A) You can still fall, and B) it’s sometimes too late. Just drop to the floor if you can, it saves on bumps and bruises.

Putting your head on your desk/table never works. It’s not far enough down. Upside though: the person in the next desk is softer then the floor.

When you find out one of your triggers commit it to memory instantly and avoid it like the plague. Even if you’re considered freakish or un-cool, or you have to interrupt somebody in their heroic tale of how they saved Christmas.

Known triggers: Stress, blood, needles, piano lessons, pulling teeth, talk about knee operations, talk about any operations. Gross injuries on anyone in a 5-mile radius, gross injury on yourself 100% effective. Gruesome pictures, gruesome anything really. Lack of food, earring being ripped out of ear, intense temperature changes, passing the sacrament, knee locking, riding on the swings at Lagoon for the first time, Primary, Killer Bee documentary. Um… I think that’s it.

Lying down in a lazy boy, couch, doctors chair, while comfy, doesn’t stop it.

Lying down at all is still no guarantee.

Let those who it will concern know about the tendency. Especially if you faint with your eyes wide open and you shake.

When in doubt, don’t. Or if unavoidable tell the person in charge or any person really that the likelihood of you passing out is mid-to-high and they should take precautions. This will either lower the "unavoidable" scale to "probably avoidable" or said person will gird loins and be ready with the fainting couch and smelling salts.

Smelling salts are an unknown quantity, I’ve never had them used on me, or anyone I know, I haven’t a clue if they work. You can test it if you want, I sure as the dark underworld am not.

If I’ve missed anything please let me know. This is just from my experiences as well as my families. It’s a constant fear of ours that we will faint. However we have learned tricks and things to stop it when we can, and have thus slowed the instances. Allysen and I faint the most by far, Jacob has done it often enough though. The other two siblings haven’t to my knowledge. A year or so back we got a new member to our club. My cousin Abbie has joined the fainting ranks, I’m sorry Abbie, I was hoping it missed you guys. Granted it was your dad that shared the gene, so I suppose it was inevitable.

I actually want one of these.

The Simple Things In Life

2010-04-22T08:12:00.000-07:00

This is all it takes to make Amber happy. She is too cute. She couldn't put this snow globe down!

It's my Party!

2010-04-19T09:20:00.000-07:00

Actually it was Grants party. It was Grants 28th Happy Birthday party!!!

And I tell ya what, he ages well. I'd definitely say he's a fine wine. :D

No one could ask for a better friend and partner. He puts up with a lot, and helps our little family thrive. He even pets the cat before we go to sleep at night. If that ain't love I don't know what is.

His celebrating began latish on Friday with the arrival of Jason, and the significant absence of ME! I had a final dress rehearsal I couldn't miss, so the boys partied on without the wife.

Luckily for me, not so lucky for them, their chosen place a eats, Happy Sumo, had a looooong wait. And they only just sat down when my rehearsal ended!! So I rushed out of hair and make-up and made it to the restaurant before our food arrived!

After sating their dead fishy-needs, we went home for some video gaming, and sleeps. Good night well spent!!

The next day Grant was selfish or selfless, we aren't sure which it is, by inviting our favorite nephews over for some baking! Our cute little Bennett LOVES to mix, and bake, and do all that necessary in a kitchen. and Ashers just a bundle of smiles and is by far the best fetch player I've ever seen (thats throwing a ball for Dagger to get, which is another story all by itself.)

I was away trying on dresses, so Grant had the boys by himself. Wheres the hidden cameras when you need them, right?

I came home to a house full of cakes, and frosting, and cookies, and flour, and Bolt, and balloons and new flowers. It was the best home coming ever. Grant I think was having more fun then Bennett, (Asher was napping though he had his balloon!) but it was apparent that a good time was being had.

After a pizza dinner and some Wall-E, Grant and I set out on a drive. Because we like drives. We went through Weber canyon, past Morgan, into Park City, and back through Salt Lake to come home. It was fun! We sang show tunes, and resisted getting soda pop, and saw the beauty that is nearly spring in Utah.

Everything culminated on Sunday, which is his REAL day of birth, with a family party, where the yummy goodies he and Bennett had made were eaten, and where he finally was given the gun he's been talking about for months. (Hurray, guns and swords. Thieves you've been warned.)

I'd like to end by saying "HAPPY HAPPY GRANTY BOY!!" XOXOXOXOXOXOX

Sizing it up.

2010-04-19T09:11:00.000-07:00

So I'm a little confused.

I went out bridesmaid dress shopping with my sister and soon to be sister in-law Saturday. Despite it being 9 in the a.m. it was a lot of fun. So these dresses were for Sisters wedding as I am making mine for the Sister in-law.

Anyway Sisters color is navy, so she pretty much pulled every single navy dress from the shelves and made us try them on, paying no attention to sizes. Not that that would have mattered anyway. We entertained that dressing room, I'll tell ya what.

In one morning I buttoned, zipped and slipped on, sizes 1-14. The reason I say that sizes wouldn't matter is at one point a size 3/4 and a size 6 would NOT fit me, but a size 1 did. Seriously!! And to make its more confusing, the pattern size for the dress I'm making is a size 12.
I don't know if I should be depressed or excited/worried (unless you are a real petite person size 1 red flags you for an eating disorder.)

I know I can just measure myself (which I have) and find out my "proper" size, but that doesn't mean it's going to fit me. All designers vary, which is inconsiderate.

Though I have to say, I couldn't stop grinning about the 1, even though I know I shouldn't.

The Failed Test.

2010-04-13T08:15:00.000-07:00

So I've been conducting an experiment for the last 5 days, and so far it's not working.

See I'm a big, "do whatever I want" advocate. This leads me to do.. whatever I want! Dressing, eating, saying, doing, what have you. If I feel its funny, I'll do it, even if it means embarrassing myself. I do, however, usually have to pump myself up before going out in an interesting outfit, or doing something out of my normal shy characteristics.

Anyway, I've always wanted to wear, just one earring. One dangly one. Never have because.. it's not done. At least not outside of FF games and Anime. But I have recently acquired estranged earrings. One resides in the depths of one of my jewelry boxes, while the other is displayed hanging from a heart on my work monitor. (I'll have to post a picture of my monitor, it has a lot of stuff on it.)

I saw the one in my jewelry box, and the lighting bolt struck home. I put it in. Now, I didn't want to get the "Amber, you've lost an earring" reaction, so I put in a small stud on the other side.

Anyway, my fashion has been thus for the last few days, and no one has said anything. I've been with family, friends, church and out on the town. I'm now at work and I've yet to be confronted.

I'm finding it terribly amusing. I know that if someone has noticed, they haven't had the guts to tell me. Or bring it up, or say ANYTHING at all about my obsure fashion sense. So either they shake their heads and think I'm a loon (and they'd be close) or I'm a terrifying person.

.. um.. Grr...

This, that, and the other thing.

2010-04-12T08:22:00.000-07:00

Have I told you all yet that my baby sister is getting married? She IS!! It's exciting and very, different. I haven't been able to really sink my teeth into the seriousness of it all yet. It was a whirlwind courtship, and then next thing you know, BOOM! And to add to the Boom, JULY boom, and then Juneboom, and possibly Mayboom.

It's all happening so quickly, but I'm doing my best to catch up and help. I love her and her soon to be hubby, and can't wait for them to experience the wonderness that is marriage.

At this point in time I'd like to apologize to all those who have wanted me to come hang out, or to a candle party, or shoe party or scrape booking party, or game night. I'm sorry, and I'm even sorrier to say, please don't plan me for anything until after June. I have two weddings to be apart of and help with, a play, two classes, a nap I need to squeeze in somehow. Two dresses to make, big acrylic crystals to track down, a husband that needs love'in and honey the list goes on and on.

It's been crazy fun, but crazy nonetheless and I'd like to just keep it at easy to deal with stage.

So.. there are new pictures up on the Veggie Villain blog from our quasi-performance last Tuesday. The one that I missed my come on cue by like.. 2 minutes. They had me run from one end of the church to practically the other to change.. I was lucky I could run in my hussy skirt.

Apparently there is a top secret changing room I was only informed about until after I had to run the costume change marathon. It's in the kitchen that is directly off the stage.. ya, useful.

Luckily the villain is a theatre veteran, and was able to add lib until I was "found" and pushed out onto the stage where I also pulled out miraculous wit and covered up my late entrance.

The best part of it all, was I didn't forget my lines!! Sweet peas, it was an exciting night.

Oh well, one more unfortunately timed, and dated Dress rehearsal, practice, and then three days of performances. And it will all be over. I think I deserve a cookie.

Late Updates.

2010-03-30T13:13:00.000-07:00

Before I begin the true blog I want to remind everyone to check out my play blog. They are changing and adding things all the time. Like there are cast bios now!! And horrible pink pictures of me, you simply can't miss those!!

This is a little late, like three months late. But it's better than never. I think. As you may (or may not) know, Grant and I hit the big 5 year mark this January!! We actually made it, I mean there's been a few lumps, bumps, and a lot of bruises, but despite it all ... we've decided, we actually like each other, and want to shoot for another 5.

I gotta tell ya folks, I love the man I married. More and more every day. Sure I bite him now and then, but what wife doesn't? And those love pokes, FILLED with admiration. You can't blame me for just wanting to be near him, even if I do have to resort to unorthodox methods..

The bottom line is I just can't get enough.

So what do two insanely (just me) people do to celebrate their love? To commemorate the 5 married (and 1.5 unmarried) years together??

THEY GO TO VEGAS!!!

I mean why not? Second Honeymoon anyone? Ok I'm kidding.... sorta. We did pay homage to our "first" vacation spot, but only for one night.

It was the best night we've ever spent in Vegas. We dined at New York New York's pizza kitchen, watched the water show at the Bilagio. The best ever, if you ask me. It featured "Time to say Goodbye" by: Andrea Bocelli & Sara Brightman. Then we walked the strip, took Treasure Island for $10 and watched the Pirate show, which was.. Las Vegasy.

We returned to our awesome Marriott, thanks to Tomtom, picked up some Ben&Jerrys on the way, and watched ... CSI! (it was the only thing on)

Our next night was spent in La Cresenta (sp?) with Grants Grandparents. Who are mighty awesome. We went out to eat, and played games, and did crazy insane puzzles. The, soon-to-be famous screen writer, Aaron, joined us for all the fun. Then Sunday morning rolled around and he entertained us with a fun and enlightening drive through L.A. ( Read: we got a flat, we lost a quarter in a paybathroom, and we kept an eye on the car at all times while outside of it for any reason) Then he took us to port.

For. Our. CRUISE!!!

Thats right ladies, and gentlemen, this entirely to long introduction is for forty minutes of Anniversary slide show!!!!! Glad you kept reading? Ya, me too. So without further ado, here is proof Grant and I went on a cruise.

I've been told never to take a picture without a person in it. Even if all you want is whats behind them.
I LOVE this picture. Isn't he cute?

Me too me too!

Disney isn't the only cruise line that folds their towels in adorable shapes.

Isn't it pretty? Thats Main Street.

We passed this.. wall statue? A million times, and I wanted to slap it, every time I passed.

We taught the kids at our table how to make straws pop. And pop they did.

Us in .. our last stop, waiting out the bomb threat.

Not sure where we are, somewhere in mexico I think.. Yummy lunch stop.

By the sea, By the sea, by the beautiful Sea..

Cool little not quite an island, thing.

Same spot, only ME this time :D

(fetching A..where are we now??) Us in Mexico!!!

One of the dress pretty nights. Bad pict, but oh well.

This was in Vegas, sorry its out of order. Nice fountain though right?

Sorry I'm not more of a cruise ship story teller, but theres just TOO much to tell! From a killer (almost literally) Ice show, to amazing menu items, to passing up those amazing items for 3 straight Bones Episodes, to min golf, and arcades, to comedians and crazy game shows. It really is too much. Cruises are amazing, and I recommend everyone go on one in their life. Or 12.

The Veggie Villain

2010-03-07T13:16:00.000-08:00

I've mentioned a time or two about me being in a play. Nothing huge, it's for my stake, but it's been a pretty big part of my life since early January. I'm both eager and reluctant for it to end in April, but end it must.

A lot of you have been asking when it is, and all I've said was "End of April." Well now I'm going to say "Hey! Go check out our blog!"

Eventually I will learn when it is, but by that time, expect it to be "Oh that, ya it's tomorrow, sorry for the short notice." I don't mean to do this on purpose, I just suck at the "inviting and reminding people" game.

So... "Hey! Go check out our blog!"

(by the way, those are links to said blog. I learned a new blog trick :D )

Blissfomia

2010-02-23T15:41:00.000-08:00

My last blog was to placate family and friends, or to be more embarrassingly pointed: Jillie-bean Jackson. She was my inspiration and consequently my reason for wanting to write again. See Miss Jill is an excellent blogger, and has kept everyone in the blogasphere abreast of her growing and giggling daughter. Who is absolutely B-E-A-UTIFUL! (Cookies to anyone who gets that quote) I'd blog a lot to if I had a daughter like Lanie (soonish Amber, soonish) but since I don't I need to find other reasons to blog.

Short of creating a new world my family doesn't know I live in, there isn't much to say that I haven't already. Clouds reign of terror is almost complete. Dagger has successfully found out how many "licks" it takes to get to the center of a tennis ball, Gus has reached a new level of socialism, and the bonsai died. The mini blueberry tree however is thriving and soon we will be able to make our very own blueberry-topia.

My last blog pretty much told you all about my recent misdoings, and Grant would probably hide my chocolate milk if I laid my creatively licensed hands on his days activities. What else... hmm... what else. OH! Hey did you know the sky is not really blue? Yes? Dang.

Oh I got it, you'll like this one, this ones going to rock your socks. Or at least the one you're wearing.

OUR BASEMENT IS FINISHED!!!!!!

I tell ya, I don't care what you're doing to them stars are evil.

Neat ain't it? Grant designed and made those cabinets! You'll never guess what kind of trickery he used, or the secrets they hold.

The entertainment center head on. It's a piece of art isn't it? It's even functional to the houses structure!!

Eventually when the office upstairs is needed for something far more important, the family computer will relocate here. If you can't tell Grant is a fan of storage space, and promised me he'd make it look good. Boy did he ever. Right now it houses blankets and games, though has the versatility/ability to hold anything from files to a mini fridge. (I told you they had secrets)

I see you still have your sock(s).. oh well can't say I didn't try. I mean we think it's truly awesomeness on earth, and really, we are the only ones that matter. So you can keep your holy socks, I've got an anime to watch with the lights dimmed and a bowl of popcorn.

Blogger Fail.

2010-02-19T08:05:00.000-08:00

As I'm sure you've all noticed, I haven't updated my blog in quite a long time. Honestly I've been purposefully ignoring it, I don't know how many watch my blog or even care about it, sooo it steadily moved down the list of important/fun things to do.

For my own reasons I've been keeping so busy that I hardly remember what down time feels like. Grant is usually busy, so his schedule hasn't changed much.

Since December I've been going to play practice Tuesdays and Saturday mornings for our Stake Melodrama. It's called the Veggie Villain and it's hilarious! I play the Villianess Lily Liverd, and apparently I was born to play the role, not so sure how I like that. Anyway that will be in April if anyone wants to come see, I'll get you dates if your interested.

Second on my list is Voice lessons, I have also been taking those since November? Ya November I think.. oh well. Its been fun every Thursday I drive out to Farmington and give my voice a good work out, and it's actually getting better :D Hurray for patient Sister-inlaws!!!

Nextly I've finished the first part of my second edit for my novel. I've been working on 10 pages a day and hopefully I'll be done with the edit before march, that's my goal. This hasn't really taken up much time because I normally do it while watching a movie (anime) or something, so it's like killing two hobbies with one stone!!

Now this is new to my ever-growing list of hobbies, but I've wanted to do this for a while. K ladies, don't you LOVE acrylic nails? so smooth and shiny and pretty and make back scratches feel like heaven? But they cost SO much money and you have to go back and refill them every 2 weeks or so.. pain in the fanny. But I like them so much, and my mom can tell you I've had a fondness for long nails since I was very little. So I did what any normal hobby addict would do. I bought myself a kit and have taught myself to do my own nails. So far only my left hand has had them, but they look freaking AWESOME!! They don't all look the same, each are a little different style, but thats on purpose... yup Totally on purpose.. :D

So between play practice, voice practice, nail practice, editing, keeping up my house and convincing my hubby that none of these are a punishment in anyway. I have had little time to play on the computer, and when I have been on the comp, it's to check email, check DeviantArt, check a few of my webcomics, and thats it. Alright, I've gotten on to facebook a few times, but really those who watch/care know I'm hardly ever on there.

Now on to Lastly. If you don't know I have hobbies, then you don't know me (I'm Amber btw) I have a LOT of hobbies, I can and will do anything I want. All of this sounds self serving, da? And you'd be right, it is, but not anymore! As of next wednesday I will be corrupting a Little to my insane hobby addictions. Every middle of the week I will work my goal of taking over the world, you didn't know I had that goal huh? Its always the quiet ones you least suspect.

Nah, I'm kidding, actually I've agreed to teach my cousin Elle my skills lol. She wants to learn to sew and play with clay and decorate cakes, and make jewelry. Isn't that great? I'll finally get someone to do my nails on my right hand! (that last one was false, unless she really wants to learn, who am I to say no?) I'm very excited to do this, and can't wait to start. I have informed my Aunt that I don't do things by the book, and she's still willing to send her daughter to me for an hour every week... tee hee..

SO that be me, Amber, however I can see Grant writing this.. but only if he was drugged. Well there you have it, you know more about me, hopefully I didn't scare you off. Bye.

Decemeber's one busy month!

2009-12-15T12:58:00.000-08:00

Christmas is usually what December is remembered for. But thats for those who don't have birthdays in this "splendid" snow coverd month. It's also for those who don't have anniversaries in the bitter cold weeks. It's also for those who haven't had anyone die in the dark days of midwinter.

For this month, my family is partiularly weighed down.

Starting of course within the first week by Ally and I's birthday. And for those anit-Amber and Allysen people (I'm sure theres a few out there) who still want to party like its 1985 or 1941, you can celebrate Pearl Harbor.. not sure why you'd want to though.. perhaps "observing" would be better, start less global drama that way, hmm?

Both Al and I had awesome birthdays, though I'm a bit jealous, she was winged to Texas to snoodle Jillies baby, though I got fantabulous home made dinner, and got to watch Nick cheat his way to the top spot in a Yatzee type game thing he has. I'm so proud of him!

The next big day, would have been my Parents 26th (I may or may not have made up that number) wedding anniversary BUT on the 12th the 3rd oldest of the Hill-clan poped the all important question to the lovely Brooklyn, and we were all sent the update in family status via text, which then had me dancing in the middle of Target.

WE LOVE YOU BROOKLYN! WELCOME TO THE FAMILY!

So this would normally be where my family tackles Geg happily, had he been in Utah at the time of course. Though his location really didn't have any affect to the lack of celebration because the next day our Papa Hill died, after a long battle with his insides. (I'd get more technical but I don't know the whole story so I don't feel I should) 15 years and 13 days short of his beloved wife and my wonderful Grandma Hill.

Papa we'll miss you.

Now would be the time I spout sentiments about my parents anniversary, but WAIT another big day:

on the 14th I finally finished decorating my christmas tree!! I have been informed that this is the last year I can have my "white trash" tree.. I love it, but sadly it took me fourteen days to complete it!! Freaking stupid popcorn strings.

Still it's cute, don't you agree:

Next big day: The Gingerbread Massacre.

See that cute little Ginger couple at the bottom? Gone. See the Happy go lucky guy on the right. Gone. See the guy behind him? He is remarkably untouched.

The next day to celebrate with gifts of the awesome sort, would be the Parents anniversary. Sadly I'm a little blog happy and that day has yet to happen, so I can't really say anything about it. Christmas has a similar fate, it may only be ten days away, but I still don't have future seeing powers :( Same goes for the rest of the stuff I can't remember or forsee..

Other things of note:
I've finished my first edit and moved on to my second. AND the unlucky folk to have experienced the first draft are beginning to finish.. Alive!

Um... Voice lessons rock, only I haven't been in a while because decemeber is far to busy for it's own good.

leessseee... Nope, that's it. You may now get back to your regularly scheduled lives. (if you want, by all means read my blog again, I don't judge)

When at first you don't succeed.

2009-11-20T08:36:00.000-08:00

The Claw.

Everyone has been tempted once or twice by this arcade staple. The big mocking game that offers incredibly cheap, while still intriguing prizes. This game serves only two purposes: To take your money, as well as your sanity. And convince you beyond all reason that you need whatever it holds.

There are only a few reasons you would ever play this game. You are either A.) High (sugar or drug related) or drunk, or cocky as heck. B.) 10 years old and think you’re invincible, and jonesing badly for that monster truck. Or C.) Dared by all your cohorts and now pride won’t let you leave without that bobble head.

I am only mortal and have also been tempted by this monster machine. Three times in my life to be exact. My first encounter was inevitable, everyone needs their dreams crushed once, or dropped inches from the box. My second time was years afterward when a group of my friends and I instigated situation C, then by sheer luck discovered the weak link in the dream dropping chain. It didn’t matter that the coveted toy inside was miniature Care Bears, when life gives you a broken arcade game, you take it for all it’s worth.

My third time brings us up to last night. When I was getting a late dinner with Grant and Jason at the Gateways food court. It wasn’t really flashy, or emitting brain-melting music, what it had was giant super balls. I don’t consider myself a tomboy, but I do like my bouncy balls.

So after eyeing the machine half the meal, even walking up to it to ogle the toys, Grant handed me 50 cents and told me to go nuts!! I’m not sure if he really meant for me to literally go nuts, but after I aligned the claw just right, watched it descend upon my prize, miss it by centimeters, and still come up with a ball, I did just that!!

It was amazing!! I wasn’t even embarrassed to be the center of attention. Which I was, I even got congratulations from passerby’s. I got my toy! And it flashes, and bounces, and has a snowman in it!!

The evening ended on a very good note, and now the ball rests after being thoroughly used and abused. Don’t worry I promise I wont let it go to my head.. and I wont try to get another one.
Such luck only happens once. ((dang it.))

No more Reasons

2009-11-11T07:44:00.000-08:00

I'd like to take this time and apologize. I'm sure you've all noticed I suck at the blogging game, I do and I'm sorry.

When I find time to write, I normally don't think "BLOG!" I think "How the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks did she get into that jail!?!" And then I go on a research bing. Don't be fooled people, I may spout crude, rude, sarcastic nonsense about research, but I love it. Dearly. No I'm not smirking. Or twitching.

So, news on the home front. I've begun editing, and I've learned a lot about myself. It's quite harrowing really, you see I don't always type things (ie: words) that I think, I suppose it's the whole philosophy of "If I know what I'm talking about, so should you." The worst part is, I don't know what I'm talking about!

I've also learned that when ever I try to type lane, I inevitably type lance, Ya I don't know why.

I'm on page 71 of 122, almost there. And can I say, I'm dangerous to my own health. I almost had a mini heart attack because I was (at least I thought I was) far enough in the story to be introduced to Turner, and he wasn't THERE! I flipped page after page looking for him, finally coming to the conclusion that I forgot to add his parts in to my final draft.

Which of course wasn't true, I had. I'm not that insane (yet, give me a few more pages and I just might get there) I finally found where he jumps in, I think I might move him up a bit.

So after 6 hours on my couch with my lappy, my cat, a bowl of extra mild super liquidy salsa (I don't like the chunks, but I like what the chunks do to the juice so I soak my chips in the salsa juice!) my binder of story (yes I printed it out) and my red pen (that apparently had a leak if my red hand/face was any indication later) I was done editing 60 pages.. it was a definite learning experience.

Over at Fifthwind my fellow novelish finisher Wishingstar (we finished at the same time) asked about the next step: Editing. and I've been taking advantage of her request and reading all the tips and advise, and have made a game plan for myself.

Fifthwind, our leader extrodinar of course had great advise, but so did Grammer and Miss. Shadow. So I'm combining them all.

I know what I'm doing, but I don't know how to explain it right now, so I wont bore you with "well see I'm doing this cause..." I'll have to write later on it.

See, this way if it doesn't work I wont have to delete this blog!! Win win right?

They're coming to take me AwAy!!

2009-10-30T09:13:00.000-07:00

Is this just me? Someone tell if it is, because I’d love to know. But I have this feeling of.. impatients, anxiety, and plain nervousness about writing!

It’s one of those feelings like: You KNOW you have to do something, but plum forgot what it was, and gosh dang, it was important too.

That thing of is, I know what it is I’ve forgotten. I haven’t written. Uh oh, just got an idea.. is this what a withdrawal feels like?

Geez, I only wanted a month off, is that too much to ask for? Well alright, I might be able to understand some of those feelings, but where is this “times running out” feeling coming from? Seriously, it’s making me re-evaluate my life and make sure I’m ready for something major, kinda scary!

Maybe it’s just my A.D.D going into hyper drive. What I wouldn’t give to just sit and be still. Have nothing to worry about. Though even when I have nothing to worry about, I worry about wasting time.

I wonder if you can rent 2 year olds. A handfull of two year olds could probably wear me out. But then I’d just go to sleep, and not get anything done, and then when I woke up I’d be upset because I hadn’t done anything.

Maybe I need to rethink my whole stance on medication. Actaully that wouldn’t work, then I’d just worry about side effects, and wondering if I was going to die. *crossing medication off list forever*

*sigh* Maybe I should just write, see where that gets me *taps pen on teeth*

Nah, I’ll just go kill some Sims characters cleverly.

Jack of all Trades.

2009-10-17T07:18:00.000-07:00

Just call me Jack. Or Amber.

In any case, here I sit sick and bored, and sleepy. As odd as it sounds I have been sick all week but still managed to be extremely busy, which could explain why I've been sick all week.

What have I been doing? Nothing really, nothing huge, grand or important. But to me, stuff I've wanted to get done for a long time, and something I didn't plan on doing but still had lots of fun with.

I could go on and on, and I kinda want to BUT for the sake of everyone I'll just have a little show and tell.

So you've seen some of my clay stuff, well I've got more for you, and still more to come.

Heres what I got so far.

For those of you who don't watch Anime, (sadly I think thats all of you) This cute little guys name is Bonta-kun. He's from Full Metal Panic, which in Grant and I's opinion is one of the BEST animes out there. He's pretty much like a Micky Mouse in the show, well until the Hero uses his costume as battle gear, which explains the fatigues.

You don't even have to watch Anime to know what this guy is, even though he technically is Anime. POKEMON. Gotta catch them all. I actually haven't watched Pokemon for years, but I do like the show, and think Pokemon are very cute!
This is Squirtle, I made him for my little brothers birthday. Don't you love his tail? It was actually harder then it looks. It also fell off while he was cooking, which was nothing, Bonta-kun was decapitated.

Well meds are kicking in, so I'm going now. Bye.

Be FREE little Novel!

2009-10-08T08:01:00.000-07:00

So, if you weren't texted a billion times (and I think you all were at least once), if you didn't see the million updates on Facebook, if you're not my friend on Twitter (please don't be my friend, I'm not proud of signing up and am in a program for recovering tweets) and if you weren't at Coldstone last night at 9:00pm then you don't know.

I FINISHED MY FREAKING NOVEL!!!!!!!!

I actually kinda finished it on the 28th because thats when I outlined it. Ever since then I've been thrilled to bursting point. And last night I exploded.

October 7th, 2009 @ 8:25ish Izabell and Turners story was completed.

I almost cried!

I also .. well vented isn't the right word, I exploded on my friend Jennifer H. who was SOO kind to come take me to get ice cream (thats the coldstone I was talking about) She had no idea I was insane.

Everything I said came out in loud, and I was shaking and laughing, and MAN! I was on the biggest high of my life. Oh I just remembered, I took IBUprofin that night because I wore a brain sucker head band to work.. ok it all makes sense now.

Anyway, it's finished and now, I don't know what to DO. When I was writing there seemed like a million other things I wanted to do. However now I'm done, I don't know what to do.

Things I do remember that were on my list:
1- Learn to draw good so I can write a Comic!
2- Learn to draw REAL good *drool*
3- Read all the books I can get my grubby little hands on
4- Win Sims (think about it)
5- Make two fabulous Anime figurines while I watch NEW Anime shows
6- Watch ANIME!!!!! (how I've missed it)
7- Polish and see if I can publish my book
8- crochet more
9- learn to write short stories
10- write short stories
11- start next book.
12- Do singing lessons with my sister in-law
13- Learn Salsa dancing! (I tell ya Grant, they'll pair me up with a Hunka-Hunka Burn'in love if you don't come with me)
14-Get a job at Five Alls so I can be a medieval bar Wench!!

:D Sorry I had to add the "write" ones because.. I like writing! I know I should compile my story together and get things started for the polish.. but I'm going to give it a break for a while. The first thing Grant asked was if he got his wife back.. Yes my love you do!

For now.

K later guys

Writing a Novel is fun to do.

2009-09-08T10:40:00.000-07:00

Or is it?

Actually it is :D

Somedays.

Holy freaking COW! I can't wait until it's finished grrrrrrrrr....

If I have to google search one more thing I'm going to cry.

WoW! I had no idea that dervived from THAT!

This is so neat, I can't wait to finish this scene.

Poor Will.

Ugh.. whats another word for "said"

Grant I'm thinking of this word, it means this: *insert long unintelagable description* what is it?

If crinolines (hoop skirts) were that dangerous and annoying, why did women continue to wear them for half a century??

Poor, poor Will.

Dear Mister Drill Seargant Man: If I write 1800 today can I skip tomorrow?
Dear Stone: No, but if you want to write 1800 today be my guest.

AH!!!!!!!!!!! Lap top died again before I saved :'(

Cloud move. Cloud move. Cloud move. Cloud move. Cloud move. Cloud move. Cloud move.

Grant: How do the words come?
Amber: They aren't
Grant: Oh?
Amber: *steam coming from ears* I've been researching *annoying question I can't find an answer to anywhere though I havewhole internet and about a dozen books scattered around me*
Grant:*lucky to leave room alive*

*posts on writers forum*
Todays Word Count is: 79,264

Ok so thats pretty much the gist of it all. Luckily Grant is very supportive though he's about as tired as I am. 900 words takes me anywhere from 30mins to 4 hours to write, depending on if I fully outlined the section, or had a dream about it, or have to play catch up *shifty eyes* Anyway I also have about a million other people supporting me as well, and thats not counting my cross dressing cheerleaders on Fifthwind.

And I want to publicly thank them all. THANKS QUASI FANS!! I honestly wouldn't be this far if it wasn't for peoples like you. Oh and the Boot Camp, but thats also based on not wanting to look stupid in front of your peers.

Ok gotta save my brain for another round of 900 tonight.. or in a second if I decided I want to write at work or not. Which if I don't I'll just do more research.. ((come on this is why I picked fantasy so I didn't have to have any actual facts...*cry*))

The Cake that Beat the Rest.

2009-09-08T10:33:00.000-07:00

Or actually didn't however I think it's probably the coolest cake I made EVER!!

Making it was also a LOT OF FREAKING FUN!!

Why? Well I had my lappy set up on the counter while I baked and created, and I was able to send some of those creative juices just surging around into my novel! I wrote some of the best stuff I've got yet in those cake making hours.

It was a good day. So... want to see that cake? It's pretty killer awesome. Ok ok stop you're making people stare.

DA da:

Isn't it pretty? Ok bad angle but it's still nice... *loves* It was for the sis's 20th Happy Happy. (Translation: This cake that I am in love with, was created for my sister Kimberlys celebration of her 20th year on earth.)

Lets see thats.. a Royal Icing Crown. and Buttercreme flouncing with sparkles.

Ok on to the next Blog.

Duels Update

2009-08-22T09:38:00.000-07:00

After reading my duel Grant now thinks I want to burn all my cabbage patch dolls.

I'll say this once.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*grabs extremely large bag of cabbage patch dolls and runs away.*

Duels

2009-08-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

So I've joined a writers forum, and on that forum we have practice duels. Little things to test our range, or just to have fun with. I normally don't do them because I'm comfortable with what I write.. BUT on occassion I'll say something really snarky on the forum somewhere else, or hit someone for being snarky and I'll get a penance duel.

I was talking about lolli-pops and I got slapped with a penance duel. And I liked it so much I'm posting it here. Oh by the way, our duels have a topic, they are created to push us our of our comfort boxes.

This one was : An Interesting Crop.

Enjoy.

"Yes all of them must go." He said walking along the dark corridor talking on his cell.

"No I don’t care." He said indifferently "What part of all of them do you not understand?"
He leaned up against a dark wall and flipped a switch. Twelve rows of lights flicked on shining down on very crowded tables.

"No you can not keep one, their dangerous man! Or is that something else you don’t understand."
Rolling his eyes he walked along a row of tables.

"I can say whatever I like." He drawled bored out of his mind, he should have never gotten family involved.

"Fine, you know what, I’ll do it." He hit the glowing red phone button and looked out at his crop. They really were quiet cute, unnatural, but cute nonetheless. It was a real shame he had to do this.

Casually he walked over to the supply shed and pulled out a gas can and pink gardening glove. He felt a slight pang as he put her glove in the can opening and lit it on fire. Sighing he cast a last glance around the cabbage patch they had grown together. It deserved this, though it wasn’t fair.

He placed the makeshift bomb on one of the tables and left the room.

He wasn’t even to his car when it exploded. Unable to help himself he looked back, then quickly left. He shouldn’t have done that, now the image of firelight dancing off their plastic heads would haunt him forever.

Hee.. hee..

This, that and the other thing.

2009-08-11T08:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't written in a long time. I kinda feel this is a blog for the GRAMBER Bies, and not just the Amber Bies. Though if I wait for us to do something it will take a long time, because while we have great exciting lives, we don't do much.

What DO we do you ask? Well here this should eat up some time.

We've been watching a lot of netflixs lately: Princess Tutu and Mystery Science Theater 3000 get a lot of show time in our house lately.

We play with our puppies! Cloud plays with us.

Grant went to scout camp.

I've almost reached 60k words with my novel.

Our basement is ALMOST ready for sheetrock.

I bought a new expansion pack for Sims 2, and I've also actually followed through with an entire Sim from birth to death.. it was.. boring, but I'm glad I did it.

I ate a raspberry poptart and lived.

I thought I lost my hair, but realized after taking it out that it had been on my head the WHOLE time. (only 2 other people will get this but I had to make mention of it)

Grant whooped butt on Halo!!

We showed dusts bunnies whose boss in our house.

The hubby created the niftiest music books ever.

And lastly we went to Bear Lake over Raspberry Days!! (No Raspberrys where hurt in our vacation, we all got different flavored shakes NO raspberrys)

I leave this to last because I actually have pictures of this trip \o/

The chaos!! I tell you there were 20 billion Raspberry shake stands and they were all PACKED!

I thought this was a sweet picture, I think I'll make Grant photoshop it later tonight.

I also love this picture of Kim, look at the happy!!

Two sweet girlies!!

Gegs cutie girl Brooklyn

You can't be at a beach and not bury someone

And if I had to guess I'd say Nick volunteered

Apparenlty also a beach favorite: Tourture the pug.

I think this is an awesome castle, they worked hard. And got BURNT!

So I brought something that turned out NOT to be my swim bottoms. So we improvised. Got my moms handy pocket knife from her purse and went to town on my already shredded jeans.

Haven't blogged in a while. How about a rant?

2009-07-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

For the most part I’d like to think of myself as a very up beat person. I don’t hold grudges, and get over things rather quickly. Life is just to short to be upset.

That said there are a few aspects of life I will lay down my flower and put on some boxing gloves for. There are only a few and those who know me steer clear of them because I will fight it, and I fight dirty. Fortunatly for them it’s relatively easy to avoid the subjects.

Well not so easy as all that.

Yesterday I was offended to the enth degree by someone I already wasn’t on very good terms with due to previous acts of ignorance. I wanted to call them out then and there but was restrained do to the playing field. Which was ****, and I was told it would be VERY rude to post such a public back lash. That only made me want to do it more. I was however talked out of it, so to speak..

The compromise was that I could blog about it, on a blog that, that person wont probably ever read. I still don’t see where the compromise is, but eh *shrugs* I still get to vent. And hopefully stop others from doing the same thing.

Alright, so I’m sure you’re all on the edge of your seat to know what this is all about huh? Well why don’t I tell you what happened to offend me so much THEN I will explain why.

Me: Did a quiz
Allysen: comments that she got the same result.
Offender: “Hate to state the obvious ladies, but you are twins.”

(side note a mutual friend got the SAME results too, are we triplets?)

Ok class see anything wrong with that statement? Yes! You’re right she is implying we are a single entity.

Can anyone tell me what is wrong with that thinking? No Jimmy that’s incorrect. Twins are TWO different people go out into the hall and never come back mmk?

Hello everyone I’m Amber and I’m a fertenal twin. I’ve been free from the twin stigma for five years *claps* My sister and I however have never been closer *claps*

Thats right, I hate being a twin. I hate everything there is about being a twin. On the upside though I don’t hate my sister, I thought I did at one point because she was the source of all my problems and discriminating. But she’s just as much a victim as I am.

If twins are alike (not visually I’ll talk about that later) it’s because they were raised by the same parents!! Just like other normal non-twin siblings. Twins go to the same school at the same time because they were born in time for that age group, just like all of their classmates. Twins are nothing more then siblings that came at the same time! They are seperate individuals, and deserve to be treated as such!

I am not a shell, I am not a ghost, I am not lacking by myself, I am a normal person. Give twins the right to individualize! Unless you yourself are a twin you will never know what it’s really like. Its not accurate to say that I’m compared to my sister, people just expect us to be the same. Living my life as a twin has been the pinnacle hardships.

Never to have anything for yourself, nothing to claim as yours. And why should there be? Its so cute to dress twins the same way: They have matching wardrobes. They have one birthday, one party, one/same gift. They have the same school, classmates think its only right to be both of their friends. Why should they be treated as individuals when so obviously there’s only one person!

One thing you learn well as a twin is to be selfish, if your not you’ll never have anything that is your own. No matter how hard I tried to separate myself it never worked, I only caused heartache. I didn’t think it was such a bad idea to have separate birthday parties one her way one mine, but apparently that’s just not done with twins. Eventually I gave up my birthday, it was not a special unique day that I could call my own.

If by some miracle people noticed we were different they got upset and preferred us to act like twins.

To quote book I recently read: “It’s a curious Idea. I should have thought the opposite, wouldn’t you? That you could expect them to be more alike than dissimilar?”

How cruel is that for a growing child? The author spoke of shadows, and ghost twins there she had some insight. We are very much shadows of each other, where one succeeds, one learns the other does as well, due to over active parenting or school teachers. theres no singular triumph.
Can you imagine sharing every Event in your life? Graduation, Birthdays, First days of School, First Car, all those firsts are not yours to cherish but to share.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my sister. A love that transcends all sibling affection, it’s the very fact that I’m a twin, which has diminished our relationship. Where teens would rebel against parents, or teachers; I rebelled against my twin, as hard as it was to leave my family I did gladly and don’t regret a thing, it was necessary to achieve a life outside of our forced unification.

How humiliating is it to be objectified as the ultimate sexual desire. Oh if I had a nickel for all the times I was asked if my sister can join us on a date.

Life as a twin is not as glamorous as anyone thinks. Of course I can’t speak for all twins. But I can speak for myself.

Please for the love of humanity treat twins as seperate beings. I can’t tell you how agonizing it is to be called Twinner, or asked where my other half is. I think for my entire time at school I was called Allysen as much if not more then Amber. And the worst part was, no one CARED. Apaprently you’re not expected to tell twins apart, and they(the twin pair in question) doesn’t care either, comes with the territory.

Oh and then theres the “Which ones Which” game and people tell you all the tricks they have to tell you apart. Ambers got a higher voice, Allysens taller; the game goes on and on then people start priding themselves on Not needing tricks we just look different!! Ya THINK!?

Heres were being a Fraternal (two seperate eggs) twin and an Identical (one egg splits) twin differ. And I will grant nontwins the uncertainty of telling them apart, I can’t even tell Identicals apart sometimes but I do my utmost to learn about the individual and thats how I tell them apart. Ie: John dresses this way because he’s more picky and likes to look nice.

They are still differnt people, they just LOOk alike, not their fault. Again tell me you’ve never seen a family that all the kids look the same and none of them are twins? Same thing.

Have I ranted enough? I’m getting tired. I think I have. Well class hope you learned something and wont make the same mistake as Mrs. Offender did.

Long time no Blog.

2009-07-09T07:40:00.000-07:00

So apparently I haven't blogged in a while. Last night My wonderful husband told me I needed to blog again since the last one was in March, and not really about our familys happenings. Which I contended with: Why don't you blog, and Our family watches Anime, 'watching' is a verb and considered a happening.

I do feel a little bit guilty, we have done a lot since I last posted. Stuff worth mentioning too.

Lets see. We went to California with Grants Brother and his wife (aka Garrett and Mandy), we saw Wicked with Jason (aka our bestest buddy), We got central air (aka freezing your house in 20 seconds or less) I learned how to make Laundry detergent with my Mum. Grant re-wired our entire house without causing any major damage to property or person. We made awesome Mothers Day gifts I created a quiet book that was killing me softly with its felt. Most recently we went to Lake Powell, and that was like 3 days ago so I'm not THAT behind.. erm..

So I was going to wait for pictures to post this but that might take up to much more exciting time and THEN I will have to update this again... and I'm very lazy and quiet frankly beginning to hate the written language.

And its not even because I haven't written in a long time and find it boring or irrelvant, I've BEEN writing. 900wpd to be precise. Ok well to be MORE precise 500wpd for a month then 900wpd since July 1st. Why? Well you may as well ask, doesn't mean I'll tell you but you can ask anyway.

Never say I wasn't merciful.

I should have Some pictures up later, I'll try to do that today. Sorry for the pathetic post but I need to get it outta the way.

Love you all :D

Pictures?

(sorry this is all I got for now)

So Geg (jacob) went WAY natural on the trip..Hot huh?

What tubbing without tub wars?

I didn't know this picture was taken..

Take a look at that water!!

Writing...

In which the wearer of the swimsuite was not aware of its see throughness

And lastly, what a good hair style without its accessories?

More to show off

2009-05-27T11:19:00.000-07:00

Sorry about this peeps, its kinda tacky posting a gratification only blog before I've posted the all important "whats been happening in the past months that you've neglected your blog" blog

Oh well. My blog my rules.

So I me my, am a wiz when it comes to clay I've decided, why have I decided this? Here I'll show you.

My Subjects:

My Creations:

You count them 1 Mokona and 2 Mokona, but then you have to stop, because there are only 2 Mokona.

I tried to get creative but and I ended up with this:

Hey gimme a break it's not that bad..

If you're wondering if these creatures are from Anime.. Yes, yes they are. They are called Mokona, and Mokona is Mokona. Confused? Mokona is their name and the name of their kind. They're awesome, thus their likeness incased in clay forever.

We all knew this would happen.

2009-03-20T07:16:00.000-07:00

Just a matter of time really. I mean come on, people write about what they like and what they do and such like right? So its only natural for me to write about my interests. So far I've kept to the absolute bare minimum requirements of displaying these particular interests, because - and its ok really I understand- some have strong feelings concerning this.

But all your lucks run out, and its time for me to write...

WARNING WILL ROBISON POTENTIALLY VERY LONG BLOG AHEAD:

Where to start.. where to start... ANIME!!! Thats where. If you haven't been on the recieving end of one of my Anime salse pitches yet prepare to experience it NOW! Just kidding.. kinda, I am about to tell you all of an amazing collection of Anime shows. Complete with all the best Japanime features: Cutsie Animation, Strange and Odd Characters, Great sound tracks, potentially creepy story lines, completely original and fun Ideas!!!

Introducing: Hayao Miyazaki

The director and sometimes creator of great shows such as: Howl's Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro and Princess Mononoke

They are produced by Studio Ghibli who have linked up -so to speak- with Disney so you know they gotta be good!!

We've watched a lot of Hayao Miyazakis' shows, and I haven't yet been compelled to write a blog about them. Seek out corresponding books, Yes. Share new findings with family, totally. Create Sims look alike Characters, Oh Heck Ya!

However this show just SCREAMED (in my ear all night LONG!) to have a blog writen about it.

So here it is

Spirited Away totaly lives up to Hayaos amazing Standards. Its cute, thought provoking, has a good moral, and is fun to watch! And unlike some the voice actors ROCK, what with Jason Marsden, Daveigh Chase, and Susan Egan (Megera on Hercules). It comes in Second on my Love Watch List, the First being Howls Moving Castle:

Tad Da -~>

Which really only finds its self there because of its Originator, the book: Howls Moving Castle By Diane Wyane Jones. This movie features the Voice talents of None Other than: Jean Simmons, Billy Crystal, Blythe Danner, Crispin Freeman(drool..) and Christian Bale!(drool again!) You gotta give it a shot trust me. Or just read the book, it'll make more sense if you do actually.

I just relized theres SO many I can't name them all here but I can (shhh yes I can and you can't stop me) list a few more that we've seen and liked!!

Whisper of the Heart. Wasn't my favorite but you know, its got Ashely Tisdale and Cary Elwes in it.

My Neighbor Totoro. VERY cute show, though I think ages between 2-4 will enjoy it most, very child friendly, however I think the cat bus is a bit creepy but only on an adult level, the littles should find him most enjoyable :)

(sorry its small, its all I could find)

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Now this ones a classic, WAY fun. However I don't think I'll share with you the voice talents. Why? Because it ruined it for me! I just HAD to go find out and my reward was to forever more see HIS face when I watch the show.. ::gag:: But I will tell you this Uma Thurman is one of them.. bet you can't guess WHO

Alright time to wrap it up. *le sigh so many shows so little time.

Anway feel free to indulge as I do or to abstain as I don't know how. They're fun and new(ideas and such) thought I'd share

Welcome Home Elder Hill!

2009-03-06T10:41:00.000-08:00

He's HOME! And this time for reals. His plane landed at 7:30 pm March 2nd. We weren't there at 7:30 oh no we were early! Which really doesn't help the anxiety much, but there we were!

Now I don't have any pictures of the arrival because we thought the camcorder would give a better depiction of the events! And boys does it, Audio-Visual hysteria captured for time and eternity. Only thing, this blogger lady doesn't have a clue how to get the video on here so TOUGH LUCK BOY-OS!

What pictures I do have are from Tuesday (the day after) So these I'll have to do until his homecoming, or if he decides to create his OWN blog and put more up between now (Friday) and then (Sunday) but I doubt it, he's too busy catching up on Movies/TV shows and Video Games. :P

Oh and Cell Phone Novelties:

Did I mention games?

But whats home without family?
Allysen and Joey came down from their new home in Washington State.

Nick couldn't wait to show Jake his Lacross skills

The Chaos!
Everyones together at last!! (except Nicks been put to bed and I'm behind the camera.. the injustic of this picture is lying next to me: The Tri-Pod!! I so could have been in this picture!)

Oh and food:
Before you are fixings for the Sushi Grant made for everyones enjoyment. And when I say everyone I mean Jacob, Grant, and Joey, and Kimberlys disgust after being tricked by her own plan and having to swollow her words along with the sushi!

Grant making said sushi! Good thing my moms islandbar is LONG we used it all.

HE'S HOME!! HE'S HOME!!

2009-03-02T09:41:00.000-08:00

(jacob is second from the left)
Well not YET but as of 7:30 tonight my baby brother will be home from a 2 year mission induced Absence!!!!

It's completely surreal, when he first left it felt like he'd NEVER come home 2 LONG years!

Then life just went on, every monday we'd hear from him, and we'd all look forward to that, but after awhile it just felt normal! Like this is how it is. So now that he is coming home.. its just so WEIRD! Don't get me wrong I can't wait!! Today will probably be the absolute longest day of his whole mission! For us more then him though...

As of last night we are ready and set for his return, complete with Welcome Home banners and Elder Hill Posters and, because sense just vanishes after 10:30 at night a Irte A Casa poster which Grant helped us translate.. not really sure HOW it translates but I asked him how you say"Go Home" in Spanish, and it took him a while to respond... Anyway the posters made and my little brother is excited to show it to Jake.

For those of you who are doubting our pure intentions with Nicolas' sign-enthusiasm ... Yes we actually DID steal Nicks poster with his cute little picture of him and Jake and put the mean sign on the back of it. Why? because we ran out of posters!! Are we ashamed of ourselves? No, no we're not. In fact it had us rolling around laughing for hours, heck I'm still giggling, and I wouldn't past Kim or Allysen to be doing the same

Well that's all I have to say really because anything further I write will just be more varying statements of He's COMING HOME!

There is more to life then Cake.

2009-02-17T16:56:00.001-08:00

But wouldn't life suck without it? Not literally of course (could you imagine *giggle..) but you can't say that cake doesn't just liven everything up! Whats a birthday without cake? What a wedding without cake? Whats a podiatrist visit without cake?! Just another day, that's what it is! So in the words of Marie Antoinette "LET THEM EAT CAKE!"

And they shall! Just not yet I have to fulfill the blogs title statement:

Yes there is more to life then cake, contrary to myself above. What is it you may ask? (For those of you saying Pie your punishment is to go buy me one and bring it here so I can have pie and you can't! Pie? I ask you...)

Any who sport fans, what I'm actually talking about is lately Grant and I have been squishing our money into the house. All of it in fact, but we're pretty pleased with the results so we're OK with eating rice for weeks on end (I'm kidding. We like rice, really!)

What we've got now instead of a very scary room that we still affectionately call the dungeon, is my craft room!!! And where once was an insignificant L'd off space in the main room is a cute little bedroom for working out in and/or hiding.. er storing things.

And I even have pictures to prove it; and their numbered, Aren't you special? (that's not a rhetorical question btw) :

1-Dresser I had growing up-also an on going project
2- Yes I really do keep my money in a piggy bank. Which I made btw
3-Audio distraction
4-Visual and Audio Portable Distraction
5- Antique Monitor and Computer (hey they were free, and work wonderfully for my needs ie: writting & surfing the interwebs)
6- its a cork board that I like to call my muse, it holds all sorts of inspirational things..
7-Story Binder

8-LOVES!!
9-Yes thats a pillow on a kitchen chair, and I like it JUST FINE thank you very MUCH :P

10- (box in corner) Contains ready to go projects, which I like to think I can get to when I'm ready

11-Awesome Sewing Machine, currently residing upstairs for unknown reasons

12- (i'm sorry you can't see) Zidane my fictional boyfriend
13-(again sorry) Daggers' name Sake: Princess Garnet aka Dagger

14-Binder full of odd written goodies
15-Yes.

16-Stick-it labels so I can find things

17- the most awesome pictures in the world

18-(on top of 19) The Angel from a couple blogs ago

19- Sharp things go in here

20-My Motto is: If it fits in a box, it goes in a box.

21-ok if you enlarge the picture you can see that 21 is a Sims expansion pack..my guity pleasures

22-(is pointing to top two shelves) Literary Inspiration, which also double as suitable distractions.

23- What I do with bags that are not in use.

24-again enlarge photo, its the big pink binder, which also happens to be my first ever scrap book I did myself. Please for all that is good if you ever see it don't open it

25- Grant made this whole shelving system. His talents astound do they not?!

NEXT ROOM!

1- Object in which to exercise on if so compelled ...heehee

2-Another spot for the Portable Audio-Visual Distraction

3- ANIME!!!! and Star Wars. Ultimate Movie combinations!!

4- Awesome new windows. Check out the awesomeness.

5- Crib Mattresses. Because we can.

6- Hidden stuffs

7- This little alcove will -once we eat enough rice- have a desk or vanity in it

8-Link Costume

9- Aragorn Costume

10- Obe Won Costume

11- M'Lady Costume

12- Potentially cruel and unusual punishments.

Hey Doc! I've written relatively short blogs lately so you just buck-up there, its almost over.

I haven't talked about CAKE yet remember?

So I was inspired to create this next work of cake by Bakerella.blogspot.com It didn't turn out nearly as cute as hers did, and I have only myself to blame, I skimped on the fondant, and I can't dip a chocolate to save my life :( however I persisted and was rewarded with a fairly decent finish.

Piece of Cake

2009-02-04T08:35:00.000-08:00

Actually it was 5 pieces of cake, and they looked something like this:

Personally I think it's the best cake yet.

And I'm not done ...

just you wait

Angels Above

2009-01-30T13:21:00.001-08:00

Hallelujah! I've got the cake bug back! Thanks to my cute Sister In-law Ginny who helped me bring out all my tips and decorator bags once again.

I haven't decorated a cake in over a year, mainly because I had reached the limit of my frosting knowledge and needed to do some major studying. Which as my mother can attest, I've been trying hard to avoid doing since Jr. High. I know its a lame reason but I don't learn from reading I learn from DOING, but every time I tried to Do i would fail and then get furious and then.. well the cake would end up.. say for the sake of the Blog Title, In cake Heaven.

Also I don't like decorating cakes without a reason, and as I've said before Grant and I don't eat cake much so if I made one for fun it would just sit around the house not getting ate*! Not wanting to waste cake I just would wait for a reason, and surprisingly the world really doesn't have many events where a cake is needed, well at least not in my world.

However this bug really bit hard, so I pulled out our oldest cake mix (Spice! ::shivers::) and proceeded at my own pace to create and decorate a cake!

Four days from the initial Bake I now have this displayed on my kitchen table:

Cute Huh?!

To me she is NEARLY PERFECT, from the leveling of the cake to the tip of her wings! Its the best frosting job I've ever done! I should have taken a picture of that!

Nearly? yes Nearly. She is also the product of many experiments:

Ex #1: though you can't see it I've tested out a new butter cream recipe

Ex #2: The Fondant is Marsh mellow made! YUM

Ex #3: If you notice, the blue is a bit...off in places. I used a spray coloring instead of directly coloring the fondant. I don't like it, but I'll have to practice some more

Ex #4: the swirls are made from me still experimenting with the spray coloring.

Ex #5: Which isn't actually an experiment, just a miscalculation. She is supposed to be looking down on the world.. however for the size the world is, she should be amongst the stars.. which means she can't be on a cloud, but she is, and I wasn't going to change it. So what did I do? I did THIS:

Now she's looking down at a hill with a house on it and the blue is water not sky.

I don't really care though because I'm still very proud of my angel!

isn't she the cutest?

And this is just the beginning! I have many more planned! ::ignoring groans from Grant:: However while this cake has lived its 2 week old life on my counter the proceeding ones will not. I've come up with a solid strategy: The Doorbell Cake ditch!

~See you later~

Tired of just reading Blogs, want to comment now and again?

2009-01-10T10:12:00.000-08:00

WELL NOW YOU CAN! Effective today The GramberBies has officialy released their comment block so even the most computer illiterate may comment at will.

We Hope you enjoy this new feature, and if you don't PLEASE feel free to let us know!

We look forward to your commenting future!

Thank you!

The Worst Cake I've Ever Seen...

2009-01-09T09:51:00.000-08:00

Or at least it was until I became a victim of the wonderful http://www.cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

Have I ever mentioned that I used to decorate cakes! No? Well that's a down right sham for I am the fondant and butter cream Guru. Marzipan extraordinaire! I Create utter Masterpieces that I deigned to shared with the world! ~and when I say masterpieces I mean Uniquely made, completely original, truly one of a kind, oddish cakes made by me:

isn't it a treat? (I hope you all hear the sarcasm in my voice..)

On ward and up ward, for Christmas this year I received an awesome cook book from my Mother in-law. Now I'm a Baker not a Cook (yes there's a difference) so I eat up recipes, heavens knows Hamburger Helper wouldn't be the same without one! So I'm browsing through and I stumble upon a recipe that makes my jaw drop!

Queen Anns Lace Cake!

Life isn't complete with its little ironies, and here's mine: I'm not a fan of cake, I would much prefer a pie to most any sweet-breadish confection. But this one, this ones special. And here's why:

~ It's a Chocolate Pudding Cake!

~ It has Whipped cream AND Cream Cheese frosting

~Its name sake was a person of some high standing

I think a little explanation is in order: You see sports fans it looks the way it does because I didn't really want to decorate this cake, its all the frostings fault, it was the deciding factor in the creation, so it would have been pointless to leave it out. So for all intents and purposes its decorated ok!

And for all you cake critics out there thinking: TISK* She's a sloppy one, letting crumbs into her frosting like that! To that I say BOO! I'm fairly proud of my frosty job thank you very MUCH, what you see are chocolate bar shavings, not cake crumbs.

Though my pride didn't stretch to far, as you can see the cakes a bit lopsided.. a little bit.

After the whole ordeal I had to apologize to my inner perfectionist. I think she's been traumatized. She kept trying to make it look nice, and to be fair that's her job. I'm not entirely heartless I tried to comfort her: 'No ones going to see it but Grant (which wasn't true Jason and Aaron both stopped by, and for good measure had a taste) 'It will taste the same no matter how it looks! (she didn't like that one) 'You have neither time nor room to make it the proper way so get over it already!!! Shes still refusing to claim it. But I'll have you know it was mighty tasty!!!

So if your wondering why I'm posting my biggest failed cake to date, your not alone I'm also a bit curious.

Exhausted.

2008-12-17T16:27:00.000-08:00

After seeing nothing but memorials for three days solid now, I have come to the conclusion that some of these just don't make any sense at all! Some of them are really meaningful. The Lincoln Memorial is an awesome place, and there are many others that just make you appreciate, and want to give honor to the people they were built for. Then there are some that just make you say, "What!? I have no idea what that is supposed to be depicting." Just so you know what mean, I took a picture of one such monument. If after seeing this picture, anybody wants to shed some light on it for me, please feel free. I admit, I am kind of intrigued.

Both Amber and I have kind of reached that point in this vacation, when you are having a lot of cool experiences and enjoying yourself, but your own home is starting to sound pretty darn good. I think everybody reaches this point at one time or another unless you REALLY love traveling. We are still excited about what is ahead, it is just a little harder to get out of bed in the morning. Plus it is still better than having to go to work 8 to 5, so we are still really happy we are out here. Home=Good. Work=Bad!!!

The next picture is a dead giveaway to anybody who has gone and seen the new movie "Bolt." I saw the archway and just couldn't resist. For your enjoyment and mine........

"It's a good day to die!"

The Washington DC

2008-12-16T19:57:00.000-08:00

Really cool place. There is just a reverence at the Lincoln Memorial.

Amber in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

Nice of them to remember to name something in Arlington Cemetery after me!

The Hills!

The changing of the guard at the Arlington cemetery.

Wow that is a good looking jacket. No idea who that could be, but great jacket!

Amber for Amber.

The Hope Diamond.

After everything we saw today, The White House, Arlington Cemetery, the christmas lights in front of the White House, the Museum of Natural History, etc., by majority vote, this was the most beautiful thing we saw today. The DC Temple is enormous and it is beautiful with it's Christmas display of lights. Plus the traffic is a LOT better around it than in downtown DC.

2008-12-15T19:24:00.000-08:00

ANTIETAM NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD

Gee Whiz Fact #1: They ruined a perfectly good cannon by filling it with cement! What injustice!
Gee Whiz Fact #2: The trail known as the sunken road was filled up with so many bodies that you could walk straight across from right to left without dropping down. The fallen soldiers bodies filled the entire length and width of this road.

Gee Whiz Fact #3: The bloody cornfield. The entire crop of corn was completely mowed down during the battle through the sheer amount of bullets flying around. Not a single plant was left standing.

Gee Whiz Fact #4: Amber is REALLY cute!!! It's okay, this is Grant typing, not Amber, so I can say that!

Gee Whiz Fact #5: The Burnside Bridge was an area of great loss to the Union soldiers. They lost thousands of men trying to take this bridge. 500 Kentucky sharpshooters were placed at elevated positions along the opposing bank making this part of the battle a mere shooting gallery. The entire first union campany that tried taking this bridge was obliterated with minimal casualties to the confederates.

Gee Whiz Fact #6: When Amber and Brent get bored, they have no problem trespassing in the search of the next great adventure!!!

Ye Olde Homestead - Cumberland

2008-12-14T17:28:00.000-08:00

In the year 2000! In the year 2000!!

In the year 2000, Grant Biesinger will return to the land of his childhood, but more importantly...THE FRUIT BOWL!!!

Today we backtracked from Hagerstown to Cumberland, MD...see!

These lights are at a Christmas lights show at Rocky Gap State Park. See...

It has been one of those surreal experiences. For years I've had memories of this place far far away where I used to live. Memories of catching garden snakes, and pulling rocks out at the rock pit. Shooting up an old abandoned house with a bb gun. All of the fun stuff that an 8 year old would remember. Now I've officially revisited the land of my memories. We took off at the 68 and went up Long Dr, then Shortest Day Road, turned up Butler Drive and to the house of mischief!Anyway, without making a long story even longer, we went to (deep breath) the Fruit Bowl, Bob Evans, The Bowler, Country Club Mall, Downtown Cumberland, Cash Valley Elementary, our old church, saw the County Market was out of business, and just saw the area in general. Whew! And speaking of the elementary school...

Surprisingly enough, in the mind of a 6 to 9 year old the name of the school got changed to "Trash Alley." Yeah pretty clever. I know.

Maryland Trip Day 2

2008-12-12T18:28:00.000-08:00

Carthage!!! After driving a full night and almost the rest of the next day, my cohorts (Brent - Amber's Father, Moana - Amber's Mother, Nick - Amber's Brother, and Amber - My Wife) and I reached a stopping point in our travels to Maryland. This is a picture of Carthage Jail that I took. It was the jail that the prophet Joseph Smith was killed in.

We took the tour and listened to the Elderly missionary who asked that he not be quoted. It seemed he was worried that he was going to be mis-quoted in the Ensign. I'm not sure what that was all about. So all I can say is he talked about Joseph and Hyrum Smith's deaths.

This is the staircase that the mob rushed up to reach the room where Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, John Taylor and Willard Richards were being held. The room is up the stairs and to the right.

Next is a picture of a bullet hole in the door. The bullet that created this hole continued through the left side of Hyrum's nose and killed him almost instantly.

He was the first on to fall during the attack. Next John Taylor ran to the window and was struck in the hip by a bullet fired from the doorway, then next by a bullet that came in through the window. The second bullet hit his pocketwatch. Next Joseph Smith went for the window. As he made his move to the window we was struck almost simultaneously by two bullets fired from the doorway and two bullets fired in through the window, mortally wounding him as he fell out the window. This window in fact...

This is a picture of Amber and I outside of the Carthage Jail.

After we were done here we went to Nauvoo to try to see a few of the sights there and to check in to our hotel. The first big site, and in my opinion the most beautiful thing to see here in Nauvoo is the recently reconstructed Nauvoo temple. It is much prettier in person than in any photograph. Nonetheless, here is another picture of it.

We reached the temple just as the sun was setting. It was awesome to see it sparkle in the warmth of the setting sun. Next we proceeded just down the road to see the Mansion House, the Red Brick Store, and the site where the Joseph, Emma and Hyrum are buried.

This is a picture of the sign at the front of the site where their bodies are layed, along with the wording.

“Smith Family Cemetery
The Smith Family Cemetery is the final resting place of Joseph Smith, his wife Emma, and brother Hyrum, Lucy Mack and Joseph Smith Sr., and many other family members and friends.
After Joseph and Hyrum were assassinated at the Carthage jail on June 27, 1844, their bodies were returned to Nauvoo where they laid in state in the dining room of the Mansion House. Fearing for the safety of the bodies, the coffins were emptied and buried in a tomb near the temple while the bodies were secretly buried between the foundation walls of the Nauvoo House. When construction of the Nauvoo House resumed in 1845 they were secretly reburied under a small building (now reconstructed) southwest of the Homestead.
In 1928, Frederick Madison Smith, president and prophet of the church from 1915-1946 and grandson of Joseph Smith Jr., hired Kansas City, Missouri, surveyor W.O. Hands to locate the unmarked graves of Joseph and Hyrum. Once located, they were moved a few feet north and reburied for the final time.”
-Community of Christ

So basically here is a picture of the three different places where their bodies were buried, including their final resting place.

So, the first place they were buried war in the top left of the picture, with empty coffins buried at the base of the tree where the granite gravemarkers are currently located. Then when construction was continued on the red brick building in the back the bodies were moved and buried under where the shed is now, in the far right of the picture. They were later moved and buried under the granite gravemarkers that now correctly mark the final resting place of their mortal bodies.

Here's the Red Brick Store. Lots of history there.

*Sigh* A lot of info, right? It was all fascinating to see in person. It has kind of brought home to me the actual esixtence of a man that I have only ever heard about. Now that I've been to some of the places he's been and seen and heard these things, it all seems a lot more real to me!

It has been a fun trip so far and there is still a lot to see and share. For now you'll just have to make due with a picture of me! Followed up by a beautiful picture of the sunset to wash the nasty taste of my self portrait out of your mouth!!!

Its the time of year...

2008-12-08T19:50:00.001-08:00

For Birthdays and Christmas Trees!!

Last sunday, which would be the 7th, I celebrated the 23rd Day of my Birth! It was brought it with a BANG on Friday, with Laser Tagging and Money spending at BoonDocks with my family and Grant and I's awesome buddy Jason!! It was followed by a crazy day out at Jordan Landing Saturday where we watched Bolt with again the amazing Jason, and The Handsomest Grant! Then an all too cool Birthday Party for Grants Brother Garrett later that night(I know it wasn't MY party but it was a riot none the less!) and the fun didn't stop there Oh no we were up unitl 1 a.m. making gingerbread..! On Sunday I was finally allowed to open presents, and as the day progressed I got many well wishes and got to witness the blessing of my newest nephew Asher. As everything is apt to do, the day ended but not without more well wishes and a HIGHLY out of tune, out of sync, out of pitch and I think I heard jingle bells amungst the mass of sound that was my birthday song from my beloved Isaacs. To put it simply I had the best birthday ever!

On to the tree: I wanted to make a traditional tree this year, or as Grant has called it 'White Trash'. Its TOTALLY not white trash and I made him take it back. Now, I underestimated the logistics of a traditional tree and now have more respect for those who would see this as a normal tree. It took me 3 days to put together, not really because it took a long time, just cause.. I didn't think it would take that long and didn't allot it its required amount. Between stringing enough popcorn, keeping the string away from the cat (he stole it, twice!) Making gingerbread, freezing the gingerbread, being impatient and rolling the gingerbread out before it was ready, then putting it away again, and assembling the tree.. putting lights on it, drilling holes in the poor gingerbreadmens head (that actually was pretty funny, good thing Grants got a steady hand) and then just putting it all together, its unlikely I'll do it again, but for what its worth it was fun and looks amazing!!

One of my men

(doesn't he look yummy!)

TA DA!

I know you love my blinds, but you should be looking at the TREE

Merry Christmas!

Cute, Cute, Cute!!!

2008-11-03T20:34:00.000-08:00

These are a few pics we did for a friend in the ward. The older ones name is Grant! Heck yeah, we have another one! One day, we WILL rule the world!

The Crazy Corn Maze

2008-10-29T07:23:00.000-07:00

So last night we journeyed clear out to West Jordon and went to a Corn Maze!! Only because our other Maze options were : Thanksgiving Point, Pleasant Grove, and my personal favorite, stealing some littles and going to the pumpkin patch and mini maze in Farmington.

To say we had a fun time is an insult to the nights events. We had a riot! Between the boys shucking the corn and throwing it hither and thither, and my improve Dorothy meets a Jedi impersonations, it would be safe to say we had gotten lost, in so many ways...

Now the point to this maze -other than the obvious- was to find the numbered markers that when you discovered them had a obscure piece of trivia for you that would direct you were to go next. If it was True you went Left if it was False, you got it Right! This only aided in us getting lost, considering we went straight from 2 to 6.

Eventually we did find the exit, much to our indifference. We didn't really WANT to leave cause we were having a great time, but then again nothing can last forever and it was 10 on a week day.

I'll end my blog with some of my favorite corn maze moments:

(We stopped at Starbucks to get Apple Cider before going to the maze, thinking it would keep us nice and warm while we walked, both Jason and Grant finished theirs before ever entering the corn)
Grant: WOW Amber your hands are warm!!
Amber: Hello!! Apple CIDER!!
Jason: Amber, how long has your cider been cold?
Amber: a while

(This conversation came after another conversation about how many people had used the corn as a bathroom while being lost. A feat in which we were witnesses too.)
Amber: How many people do you think have wet themselves in the Haunted Corn Maze?
Jason: I don't think any have
Amber: Come on their scared AND lost!!
Grant: I think maybe a few
Amber: See he's optimistic!!
Jason: OK someone has probably wet themselves in the Haunted Maze
Amber: Good that makes me happy

(after see a group of teens waving around multi-colored light saber-esc flashlights)
Grant: I should have brought my light saber!!
Jason: You know my brother has all of them! The cool $100+ ones
Amber: NEAT then we could go around the maze like this *Amber doing a bad imitation of a Jedi fighting*

And lastly...

(coming out of a dead end that I was positive was deserted)
Amber: We should skip
Grant & Jason: No we shouldn't
Amber: Come on we can sing too
Grant: Go ahead
Amber: OK WE'RE OFF TO SEE--Holy Crap, Why did people have to show up right as I started singing

TO END I WANT TO DEFEND MYSELF, I DRANK A LOT OF APPLE CIDER ON AN EMPTY STOMACH. AND I"LL HAVE YOU KNOW I CARRIED THE CUP TO THE VERY END INSTEAD OF TOSSING IT IN THE CORN!! AND JASON AND GRANT SHOULD BE THANKING THEIR LUCKY STARS THAT I DIDN"T POUR SOME OF IT ON THEM BECAUSE I WAS DELIRIOUSLY CLOSE...

Continuation of Work Converstation

2008-10-22T11:29:00.000-07:00

Eric: Hows the cake? Germalious?
Me: Yep
Eric: Must not be the poisoned one..
Me: I’m sorry, well maybe its one of those slow poisons
Eric: No, its good old fashion antifreeze
Me: Oh, well then I guess I got lucky. Don’t worry though it seems pretty popular, I’m sure someone will be poisoned by the end of the day.
Eric: That will make me feel better.
Me: *chuckles*

Random Work Converstations

2008-10-22T11:18:00.001-07:00

I stole this idea from M&N blog. I wasn't going to because Mark does it so well it can't be duplicated, but this converstation was just to good:

Time: 12:10
Place: Office

Trevor: Amber what are you eating?
Me: Pinapple chicken and German Chocolate Cake – According to Eric its made with real Germans
Trevor: Really? Made by or with?
Me: With!
Trevor: Wow how’d you swing that prim piece?
Me: I don’t know, but apparently my piece is also the poisoned one
Trevor: I guess being the only girl in the office does have its advantages
Me: *eating cake* You better believe it!

MUST LOVE CATS

2008-10-20T17:26:00.001-07:00

I was recently sent a rather amusing email about Pets. Having the two speicies depicted in the email I could relate and nod my head quite a bit. But I'm not posting this for similar minded animal lovers, I'm posting it because I have a very odd sence of humor and find the Cats perspective prrrr...fict (lol) and would post it all by itself if I could but I thought it wouldn't work quite so well without the Dogs. Please enjoy!

WHAT PETS WRITE IN THEIR DIARIES.......Excerpts from a Dog's Diary

8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing!
9:30 am - A car ride! My favorite thing!
9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing!
10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00 pm - Lunch! My favorite thing!
1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!
5:00 pm - Milk Bones! My favorite thing!
7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!
11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!

Excerpts from a Cat's Daily Diary

...Day 983 of my captivity...

My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets.Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength.

The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.

Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a 'good little hunter' I am.

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the eve nt. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of 'allergies.' I must learn what this means and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow -- but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released - and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded.The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicating with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now................

In Which I try to break the unbreakable

2008-10-15T11:12:00.000-07:00

Last week we made one of our weekly trips to Lowes. (exciting I know)

Now if you've never been to Lowes you haven't experienced the sensation of being bored out of your wits and being overwhelmed with limitless possiblities to better your home and garden(s).

On this particular trip we are in the search for outlet covers(!) Altogether not a hard task, or even that boring, you see its next to the sample light switches, and if you have a child under the age of 3 you'll know the significants of those (they go up and down and make a neat clicking noise!)

Now I'm not entirely sure how this all came about but it started with the discovery of a brand that claimed it was UNBREAKABLE. And ended with me monologing about how unbreakable things really can be broken, "if you honestly put your back in to it, sure".

So to my utter delight and astonishment Grant bought an extra cover for the sole purpose of its experamental destruction.

View Experament below:

(Did I have fun smaking the cover with a hammer? Yes, yes I did)

TA DA ~ * -

Now it still may be in one piece but we're pretty sure it belongs in the land of misfit home accessories ie BROKEN!!!!!!!!

The Tradition

2008-10-01T10:47:00.000-07:00

My parents have owned a House Boat in Lake Powell for 16ish years. In those 16ish years I have had the opportunity to visit good 'ol Powell almost every one of them. This year was no exception. Well to be completely honest it almost was, but as bad luck and fate would have it we got a last minute invite :)

This trip promised to be one of a kind. With the absence of my oldest brother and sister/husband this was already shaping up to be a small group. Losing another family days before didn't particularly help either. Luckily the remaining family was successful in bribing two of their kids; so our Rocking party topped out at: 9 Adults, 1 teen and a child.

As a couple Grant and I aren't big on large group activities, so we were just fine with the arrangements, not only did we get all our food to fit in one cooler and a box, I got my own seat and head phones!!!

SKIPPING OVER ENJOYABLE SPY KID, SLEEP FILED, 8 YEAR OLD CONTROLLED, FREAKING COLD CAR RIDE

The Lake.
Now as a little kid I always had to sit back and watched the Adults do their thing, thinking quietly in my head: I can't wait until I can help, WOW look at that shell! this is so NEAT!
Being an Adult I now get the pleasure of helping, and I find myself thinking: WOW look at that shell! maybe i can both watch the boat AND look at lake shells..

Just kidding..

No really I like helping it makes me feel really good that my parents trust my awesome adultness.

Keeping with tradition upon arriving at the Ship we discover we're locked out of the House Boat. Easily enough fixed, we pry open a window and threw the smallest person through. Another funny quirk our House Boat has, is its ability to not work properly in some form ie: Kangaroo Mouse hide-out, hole in septic tank, wrench replacing steering wheel. You know normal stuff. So first things first we check the log book to see what the people before us had to say:

1. Had Fantastic time only thing we couldn't get out drives to start, Stayed on buoy whole trip

Sad :( and also a lie! Now we aren't normally distrusting people, especially when it comes to the House Boat, aptly called: the Job Site. It was just to much to ignore the out drives starting first try. We figured these people were probably just idiots, which was further proven when we discovered the gas tanks were extremely low and they hadn't emptied the septic tanks. Stayed on the buoy? I think NOT!

Moving on to the trip:
We have a spot that we love. Its up Lost Canyon, for those of you who don't know, Lost Canyons extremely small, especially for Lake Powell standards, its often over looked. Could explain its name.

Why we love it:
1.camping spots are extremely limited, meaning no annoying neighbors, meaning free reign of entire canyon
2. you can't get lost (funnily enough) and if you DO it takes a whole 15 mins to adventure the whole place so, I don't think that constitutes being lost.
3. Its size is deceiving, one wouldn't think a House Boat of Job Sites proportions could navigate the Canyon. One would be wrong.

So we're parked and having a grand 'ol time. Nick has discovered the swarms of fish off the rock banks we are tied up to, and they have him thoroughly intrigued. We are parked such that we only will get 5 hours of sun, which encourage naps for those not entertained via books, jet skiing or dry ice in water bottles... Did you know if you trap dry ice in a water bottle and throw in at your designed target it will explode? You learn something new every day and Grant learned this. He effectively used up our entire stock. It was actually pretty entertaining he had one that he threw in the water soar oVEr the House Boat.

So remember when I said that in our camping spot we only got 5 hours of sun? That is due to the large over hang we parked under. This spot had been debated on for a long time before we parked because it was supposed to rain and the older generation of our group have witnessed waterfalls from like over hangs and have had a HUGE rock fall 20-50 yards away from their boat before. Some how the parents were over ruled and we stayed, to all the younger generations peril. It rained.. it POURED.. it Soaked our bedding. It was pretty sudden and we all had to run and save our stuff, it felt very much like 2.5 years ago when we were caught in a flash flood.. not fun and i was scared the rest of the night. However nothing worse then soggy pillows, and a scrapped knee followed the night and the rain was gone :)

Fishing was a popular day activity, many of the House Boat occupants tried their hand at the sport. None however were as expert as Nick. See I made a chart!

Adults vs Fish = 0
Fish vs Adults = 2

Teen vs Fish = 2
Fish vs Teen = 0

Nick vs Fish = 8
Fish vs Nick = 1

There were also many boating adventures none of which Grant or I went on. Why? easily answer... well not so easy, I'll try to make it short. I was diagnosed with H-Pylori (again) before we left. That is a nasty stomach bacteria that causes ulcers and is the leading case in stomach cancer! Luckily I just have the bacteria, no ulcers. I was put on medication for 2 two weeks that i had to take twice daily. They didn't cause the havoc they once had when I was in high school but they did make me very nauseous and... sick. So really it was an act of mercy that I didn't go with everyone.

I can't pretend it didn't suck but as Grant said "Its not like you haven't seen it 20 times before" True but I still wanted to go. Though if we had Grant and I would have never discovered a neat little alcove that is only accessible by jet ski, rock climbing and trudging threw red mud. It was SO neat I wanted to go back and bring Grants camera up but since no boat can get back far enough and he wasn't going to take the camera on the jet ski we didn't get any proof, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Now the compromise the other family made with there kids is that they would leave Monday, when the vacation officially ended Tuesday. So the Hill-Biesingers were left to their own devices on Monday evening and Tuesday. No one should leave devices up to Kimberly and I they'll get stuff like:
Blaring The Pussy Cat Dolls: When I grow-up and Dancing about the ship
3 hours rousing game of Boggle, commandeering Nicolas' blow-up jet ski, torturing fish, WAY to much food, Nicolas driving the jet ski and pulling me behind him!! My Dad dropping a ski and loosing it, Grant breaking the tubs toe rope, and to my moms displeasure and my delight at an unsuccessful search for fresh water jelly fish.

To say the least it was a very fun and eventful trip and I can't wait for the next one. Hopefully Allysen Joey and Jake will be able to come too.

In Case your Interested..ANIME

2008-09-17T08:22:00.000-07:00

I have a second blog Called : The Way it Goes

Its a helpmate-Anime tracker!

A What?

It helps people who don't know their Anime like the back of their hand, watch it correctly. Not only in order but Buy it AND find the Manga that corresponds with the show.

Why?

Well because I am one of those people. I love my Anime and am on the constant look out for more, however due to unknown forces getting my hands on sequential Anime episodes is incredibly difficult and confusing, at least for ME.

-I also have book series issues but that's a WHOLE different story and I'm currently getting treatment via a fanfreakintastic website http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/ -

So I do research all over the web to find out all about Animes before I even consider getting them. Because despite popular belief all Anime is not like Pokemon, in fact Pokemon is kinda its own genre. There are some that need to be avoided.

Moving on to my blog.

Since I do all this research and my mind is like a sieve I write it all down.. then one late night after hours a searching the WWW for a single show and becoming more and more infuriated at it, almost to the point where I wont watch the show purely on principle (curse you Saber Marionette), I had a thought:

"Freaking A! Is it that difficult to display this show in order? Why can't there just be SOME place to tell me Watch This one then THIS one then that one, honestly people and the Internet is supposed to HELP US?! With all the acclaimed Anime Fans/Freaks out there you'd think SOMEONE would have written it all down and posted it somewhere...."

That's when I realized I was that Anime Fan/Freak. So I started posting all my findings on a blog :) for all those pour lost Anime souls.

So if your interested you can go check it out: http://www.animeinorder.blogspot.com/ I've even added loads of cute pictures..

The Nothing Blog ~

2008-09-17T07:31:00.000-07:00

At this point in my blogging career I would like to apologize for my lack of blogs and the significant space between the ones I do have. Don't get me wrong I love to write, I also have the time to do so. My problem is.. well I have a few, but the biggest problem is:

I don't like to write about Nothing.

What is nothing you may ask?

A Web Definition: a trivial action, matter, circumstance, thing, or remark: to exchange a few nothings when being introduced

My Definition: Anything that happens on a daily basis, Something you've already written about that hasn't changed..to an extent, Muffins, Insignificant complaints ie: My Head Hurts when i do this..or anything about smelly shoes.

However as I say this someone out there is writing a completely hysterical and read worthy blog about smelly muffin shoes, that I would gladly read. (I'm going to have to do a search now) So basically I'm contradicting myself -it's OK I do it a lot-

In any case what I'm trying to say is: Choosers will be beggars when the begging's not of their choosing.. (Sharon Shinn)

Now I can write nonsense just as easily as the next person, and I do. What I don't write is my day to day doings, and things that don't seem worthy enough for my amazing writing talent. I'm sorry but if all I've done all week is work and play Sims that's not very exciting is it? Though I could put a spin on it and call my blog "The Mysterious Black Hole Sims Village".. interesting stay tuned that may just work.

Anyway what was I saying? Oh Yes Muffins, aren't they great?!

Time to Show Off.

2008-08-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

Because lets admit it that excatly what I'm doing, sure I may hid it behind "Hey all Beloved Family and Friends heres what I have been up to!" But we all know the truth right? I am very proud of myself though and I've meant to do this for a while but haven't gotten around to it, what with my attention level matching an over active 5 year olds!

So for the extra time I've had recenty I have been buillding a Barbie house! I know I know WHY?! Thats easily answered. I'm obsessed with Ken. Kidding*, no really For those of you who know me I like being crafty and artsy, I also was in search of a hobby that didn't involve fattening cakes and frosting, and was long term. Also Amber fans (all 1 of you) will remembner that I really do like Dolls, preferably of the Cabbage Patch variety, so I thought of mixing the two and came up with a Doll House, and a Barbie one (because I intend on sharing, and isn't a cabbage patch doll house called a very nice a carpeted shed?) So thats what I have been doing on late Sunday nights, and Friday nights, and Thrusday nights, and All the nights Grant works.

Enjoy!

The Works! Shoe boxs are good for SO many reasons, Espeically when they come with shoes in them first!

Ta Da!

This is a Barbie Patch work Quilt, I did it all myself, and only inflicted minor injurys on myself and the cat

Meat anyone? My next objects are: Cooked steaks, and REAL pop cans

Wicked awesome knife huh? I was very pleased with myself after that one

I love Pot.

the bane of my barbie doll house, Not a fan of the goblets. These are the cups you put HIGH in your cupboards

All the darling Products are brought to you by Biesinger Inc. (thats what the B stangs for)

Fruit anyone?

Canned food is still food, just lasts longer

if I were to turn over the been bag.. you'd see individual beans. I have a LOT of alone time

100% mold proof bread! Slightly hard but still good

Not only do I decorate cakes in the NOT barbie world I decorate them.. in Barbie world.. strange really

My little China Doll.. well she's not china and more of a Statuette and she's a Sheperdess..notice the sheep.

Love the REAL paper towls? I was going to make the kettle really able to pour, but it got late.

The Stone Bowl and Marble ball set I've never been able to find in the real world!

Chocolates AKA devils advocate

I guess this picture is to show my donuts, but its not a very good one if you ask me... I don't know what I was thinking when I took the shoot.

I know what your thinking and YES there really is a chocolate bar under the foil

These books are ambivalent, whatever the reader wants to read... quite useful really

These are some of the VERY first Barbie Items I made. Here is a snipit of my drawing skills.

Amber:"Grant can I get paper that looks like Leather?" Grant:"Why don't you just get leather?" So i did.

This is me finding out that old checks ARE useful after all. and so are.. buttons? maybe buckles of some sort

Neat huh? But can you guess they really are?

*Proof of my insanity and late nights: I created barbie mail complete with envelope stamp, and accompaning REAL written letters inside. Most of them are odd bills however one is a written confession of Staceys undying love for Ken, if you take the time (with a magnifying glass) you can actually read the note... i laughed for a solid 15 minutes at my own genuis..*still laughing but for compelely differn't reasons*

The GrAmber Bies Residence..

2008-07-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

#1. The Kitchen. (LOOKY! we grewed that Zuccini thats sittin on the counter)

#2. Our Bathroom. Its the only room in the house I can decorate however I want!

#3. Our washer and Dryer. The Glory of our unfinished basement! (the superfulious toilet is on the otherside of the washer).

#4. Fridge/ Freezer. What can I say we like our DP, and Costco Edemome (Soy Beans)

#5. My Husband. Game night! Playing Halo with his buddy Jason (not pictured)

#6. Kids. We currenlty only have the short and furry kind! (munchin #3 wasn't playing nice)

#7. My Favorite Shoes. Wedges are Honestly the best! I can walk all day in 'em

#8. Our Bedroom. Sorry its kinda Dark I had to back into our little Reading nooke (sp?) to get it all.. most of it (sorry for the indecent bed it does have a skirt, but its been really hot in the house lately!!)

#9. My Closet. Yes I do keep my shoes that organized, notice Grant has NO shoes space...

#10. ME! (this is after 4 hours in the hot hot sun shopping, and taking a nice long nap)

I TAG LISA! JASON! MANDY! AND ANGIE!
The rules are:

1. When you read you are tagged you must stop everything you are doing, grab your camera and begin to take pictures of the listed rooms/items.

2. NO CLEANING and fixing things up.

3. Post them for all the world to see

Memory Lane..

2008-07-16T08:38:00.001-07:00

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Two Flaming Gorge trips and a Funeral.

2008-07-07T07:43:00.000-07:00

I'll preface this blog with: HuRah for family!

Without them I wouldn't have had the unparalleled opportunity to visit the beautiful wilds of Flaming Gorge, two weekends in a row! Now this may sound like I'm being sarcastic, I wouldn't agrue it if accussed, just a little. But I really do mean HuRah for Family! Next to The Girl Scout Thin Mints (and/or kibbler Grasshoppers) I love My Family best. (I mean it!)

Its only..

Flaming Gorge being full of wonderful adventurous opportunities aside, after 7 days non-stop funning most activities are present and accounted for.

Luckily for me and Grant -how mean is Grant?-(LOL that use of improper gramer is for you mom & dad) our families decided to spend our past times differntly.

While My Amazing Isaac Family with all my adorable littles (littles=Little People, in this case cousins and 1 brother) rafted the river, and rode horses, My Wonderful Biesingers Tubed, Boarded and Fished the Lake.

Amoung other things.

We should have known from the outset of our journy that both trips were in a class of their own. Our first trip down was crampt with the addtion of a nice new coller; which initially fit in my trunk. Both cars originating from Honda we didn't think twice until we got it lock stocked and loaded..kinda. It got to ride with the dogs in the back seat, who did not like it, no room. So I did the mom sacraficing thing and moved my chair up, needless to say my feet got intimately aquatinted with the under side of the dash. Second trip was much nicer, not to mention spacier. Older and wiser we sent it with Mom and Dad Biesinger in there boat.. or was it the trailer.. in the object they were towing.

We also opted for a early morning arrival vs showing up at midnight inacampgroundwehadneverheardofletaloneseenbefore on the second Flaming Gorge encounter.

On with the Show! The first trip was catered to keep littles lively, happy, sugar filled and constintaly on the move, which I loved! There was never a lack of puzzle doing, melty bead spilling, grasshopper chasing (not the cookies) manhandeling fish -the alternative for fishing-, horseback riding, real fishing, fish feeding,river rafting, Dam Tours, Dam Jokes, Sweating at the Swet Ranch, bike riding, corupting a not so little, little with black jack, shower stealing, and lest we forget an abundance of Dogs to do whatever you pleased with including but not limited to: taking for walks, throwing rocks for them to fetch, petting, using as a footwarmer, and tossing over the side of a raft and scaring half to death.

Hurray for ME

AH Shade
when you gotta go you gotta go!!

Its a bird! its a Plan! No its a bird.

Bet you didn't know there were Otters at Flaming Gorge huh! Well that only goes to show you, there are.This is my mum pesting a moth to open its wings. Its Ginormous!!
Grant tossed our kids in without their approval. This is Dagger trying to cling to Gus for safety. Shes not much of a swimmer

This is Dagger sinking Poor Gus.

Dagger gave up on Gus deciding Grant looks like a much better flotation device.

This is Dagger hidding, she wouldn't look Grant in the face the rest of the day.

Despite the overwhelming pollen count in the fresh mountain air and abundant usage of benadrill Grant and I had a fabulous time! We did cut out earlier (only leaving the night before, instead of leaving in the morning)then we planned though, allergies were doing their damage and instead of dueling stuff noses and intense self inflicted sugar meets the hot hot sun head ache all night long we threw up the white flag and spent the night at home. Besides we needed to regain our strength for the following potentially just as intense weekend back at the good 'ol Gorge.

At home we were unexceptedly brought screaming back to reality instead of the normal post vacation haze and pre-vacation / forth of july excited hypertension. Grants Grandmother Biesinger died the day after our return. It was completely surreal, Grant and I hardly knew what to think, I'll tell you this, there is no suitable way to accommodate for a family vacation and grandmothers funeral.

It seems harsh to go from such a emtionally sensative event to one of frivlous enjoyment, but here we go!

Flaming Gorge the Second time around was much more sedate, but nontheless highly enjoyable and amusing, which was greatly appreciated by yours truely. while I endulged my reading fetish on the "party barge" pontune boat Grant got to play it up this time, could be due to the fact that a speed boat, skis and a tub accompanied our trips to the lake. More probably that pollen doesn't stick to you when your zooming across the lake at 20ishmph and getting your nose cleaned every time you do a crazy underwater 360 spin on a tub.

we let my niece drive! that says alot about our day.

Biggest catch of the day! way to go Jeff

If I were a tanner then this trip would have been ideal, since I burned ever so nicely last time I would practically be guaranteed a golden brown. As luck would have it my super fine tan went to Grant, and I was left with the paisty whiteish skin my burn left behind! All that time in the sun wasted! For the record I only kept my legs unprotected was that so much to ask?!

We visisted the Swet Ranch with Grants family a well, this is me and the girls next to "Emmas Tree" and some scary looking farm stuffs

After mooching off unsuspecting family members for dinner and breakfast -K we totally made our dinner, we just left it all safe in the fridge at home and not in the very useful new cooler, and our breakfast just didn't look as good as theirs- watching far away but nevertheless quite clear fireworks, and having a rousing game of Cased Closed.. or something like that (sorry Angie can't remember the name of the game but i really liked it) we made our way home.

Ambers first attempt at braiding her own her. In my Defence short hair is friggin hard to braid let alone by yourself AND without a mirror!!

That wasn't the end of our trip though. We stopped off in Evenston with my sister in-laws family and mother in-law for a bit of lunch. We choose Sonic, and I'm here -despite their efforts- to tell you NEVER go to the Sonic in Evenston Wyoming, not only will you spend most of your afternoon in their pigstye they call a resturant but your order will be wrong, you will be given two different orders that are not yours however, before you actually get what you paid for.

Looking on the brightside though, if you have the energy its a great place to play eye-spy.

There you have it that sums up the last 12 days of my life give or take 5 days since we have been back and its taken me to write this. Well now you know more then you did, forced or other wise thank you for reading my blog!!

(check back after 6 I'll have pictures up :)

SNAIL!!!

2008-06-16T10:31:00.000-07:00

I STEPPED ON A SNAIL!! IT WENT SQUISH! And my Darling Hubby didn't miss a beat, snaged the camera to remember the moment.

Eww ~*shivers*~

--He should have been there with a Video Cam to get my dance right as I stepped on it, that would have been U-Tube worthy (thats not saying much though)--

Memorial Day

2008-06-02T19:21:00.000-07:00

Ah Memorial Day. A day to reflect on our country and the wonderful men and women who have given their lives to protect it. A day to put up flags, visit graves and be with friends and family. A day that pratically screams VACATION!

So what did Grant and I do on Memorial day? You know what, I can't remeber I'll have to get back to you on that one.

What I can tell you is what we did Memorial Day weekend. As luck would have it Grant has a buddy whose parents moved to Mesquite right in time for us to take a fun-cheap-hotel-free-Las Vegas vacation! Sounds suspisciously like mooching huh? Thats what I thought too, so after making doubly sure that it was all right we packed our jammies, tooth brushes and anime, picked up a couple of fellow moochers and hit the road (not literally though, that would hurt).

Everything started off smoothly, casual conversations, some book reading, and breakfast eating. About Cedar City (I think) things started to change, I'm not entirely sure what happened because as the travel gods would have it I feel asleep after 45mins of driving, but when I woke up the car was alive with the sounds of old Cartoon Theme songs, including --but not limited to-- Fragal Rock, Tail Spin, and Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers. After we (and when I say we I mean Grant and Aaron) exhausted our supply of theme songs we started in on Beauty and the Beast, Moulin Rouge and many other belt-able musicals. So our car ride turned into a mobile karaoke and poor Brooke (a new fellow moocher) was texting pleas for help from Jason (who was safely in Mesquite).

Now the rest of our travel was nothing but oddly entertaining the whole way, however like inside jokes, no one will find our drive as enjoyable as we did so i'll move on.

Ah Mesquite, the sand, the sun, the tumble weeds, the rain.

We showed up a little after 1 o'clock. Helped with some chores, and unpacking, then decided to go to Saint George for the evening.

We had to pay the piper first in the form of: Taking back the Budget Truck.

Which would have been simple. Have you ever noticed how simple things just aren't simple. After taking the wrong freeway exit, many wrong turns, trying to make a U-turn with a HUGE Truck on a blind corner, and stripping Jason from his driving priveledges we made it to the Outlet Mall of St. George 1 truck short and a fellow merry maker more.

Shopping, the bane of Ambers existence. Fortunetly for all involved the first shop we visited was the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Our many shopping endeavors brought us hours of enjoyment we had many picture ops, saw the "Free Automatic Teller Restrooms" Protected a Manniquins Honor, had a fluffy pink puppy bark at us for no good reason, and generally shopped 'til we dropped.

With the addtion of Jason's sister Allison, we no longer have enough seats in ANY of the cars, lucky for us Jason's Dad's Acura has quite a spacious truck space area.

The next day, which would be Saturday--I bet you caught on but I had to ask I thought it was Sunday--after an exorbitant amount of time getting ready we made our way to Las Vegas!

Our Vegas adventure started out in Mandalay Bay's Parking Garage (its gett'in hot in here...), we made our way to the Luxor's Motion ride. After wasting, literally WASTING, $10 a person, 1 hour of our lives and again stripping Jason, this time of his decision making powers we made our slow touristy way (aka 'getting lost') to Tropicana, where we visited either The Bodies Museum, or (Da da da DAH) The Titanic Museum (very ground breaking stuff..). One would show us the wilds of First Class dining cabin floor tiles VS 3rd Class dining cabin floor tiles, while the other would exhibited never before seen (to the normal non-mortician type person) the insides of a real, (completely REAL) body, in normal everyday poses... I bet you can guess which one I went to. Bodies!!!

Just kidding I wouldn't have come out of there conscious.

(Honestly they both -- the group split, the majority going to Bodies-- were pretty good, and worth the money but not worth getting the Guided Auto Tour.)

We walked, ran, pushed and squished our way down the strip. We saw many sights, some we didn't want to see others that made us think, and still more that just made us laugh. Since it was still raining we missed out on the "Pirate" show, but got to see Bellagios fountain dance.

I bet your wondering when I'm going to dish the dirt on all our gambling problems. Right now. Most of us fell prey to the slots in New York New York. I was just sitting innocently at a random Black Jack machine, nice seat, very tempting. Grant sat next to me, Aaron sat next to him. The rest of our group became victoms to other games. Apparently Lady Luck favored the Biesingers and we left with a grand total of $18. I a whole $4 (which is pretty good i only put in $2)

Despite the odds (we let Jason drive) we safely made it back to our "hotel".

Sunday, (this time I'm sure of it) tired from our long night in Vegas, having walked the entire strip, and doing everything there is to do (aka gamble, inhale tons of second hand smoke and watch show girls), we decided to head home. This time though our number has diminished from 4 to 3 which means I get the WHOLE backseat to myself! Which i utilzed to its greatest extent, and slept comfortably all the way home.

Monday, Memorial Day. You know I still can't remember what we did.. Ah well I'm sure it wasn't anything to bad or I'd rememeber it.

Stay tuned we get to go to Flaming Gorge two weekends in a row!!

ps. We didn't watch show girls .. on purpose.

How does your Garden Grow?

2008-05-20T09:08:00.000-07:00

Currently Grant and I are busy trying to beat Mother Nature and start our garden on time! So far we’re in the lead however she is tight on our tale. Its not really fair, we have some obstacles that Mother Nature doesn’t! We have to take into account a very playful puppy with an affinity for plant type objects. Whose fascination knows no bounds, we have once unstuck her from a very prickly cactus, and more often times then not we are greeted with a mouth full of leaf, she always has something in her mouth. Accompanying her fondness for flora, she is a hoarder, who likes to hoard underground. This is the sole reason she doesn’t have any toys outside, they will end up 6 feet under. Never the less we have soldiered on making the Garden raised and putting a all to temporary fence around it. That’s the plan anyway. We still have far to many bricks to lay, and a LOT of dirt to maneuver, I do my best and have become quite the little shoveler (I can wield a shovel well!). We have the plants thanks to my very generous and awesome Uncle and Aunt, they are relaxing in their pots in some shade well out of the reach of Dagger, every time I pass them I offer them some moral support "Don’t worry eventually something will happen to you!" Hopefully we can get it all in this Wednesday, hopefully. Well there ya go
you know more than you did, weather you liked it or not isn’t my fault you could have stopped, and you know it! But like most eerily sparkling things you were drawn to it.