Full Intentions...

Like usual, I had just that. Full intentions of catching up on blogging and my life... seems like there's always something going on. Things are crazy right now.

Busy with work.

Busy with a new venture.

Busy making new memories.

Busy with family.

Busy with new friends.


Ah. Remember when I had nothing better to do than edit pictures? Yeah, me either.

As I type this there's a load in the laundry that needs flipped. Please don't ask how long ago it finished. If I recall it was sometime between conference calls and I chose going to the bathroom in the two minutes over flipping clothes.

I've got a whole set of photos to get through. My younger brother asked if I would take his family pictures a few weeks ago. He came up from Utah and I went down to Star Valley. Those pictures might appear shortly. Depending on what this weekend brings and how much time I get between loads of laundry (always with the laundry, but honestly I'm a bit embarrassed by the mounds there are currently waiting in the guest room that need to be tackled) and finally arranging the storage unit.

In the meantime, my friend Amber had asked if I wouldn't mind taking some pictures of the custom tutus she sells online... so... here's a brief preview of my niece in Amber's tutus. There will be a few more of these trickling in here or there as two of the four of my nieces were at Grandmom's and Grandpa's that weekend.... for now, here's Kindra having fun strutting her stuff and skipping rocks up at Cottonwood Lake while sporting two variations of Amber's cool tutus:

To order a custom tutu of your own visit Amber's crafty site here.

Number One Reason

Why I can't take the ambien that was prescribed to me... because I'm worse than this... God bless you Cole for being brave enough to post this video.

A little background: Cole and I went to high school together. He's one of my absolute best buddies ever. I adore him and his partner Tom. They make my world a happier place. Any comments I make here I've already told him... like how I think it's hilarious that he's giving straight men advice on how to pick up/make their women happy... Cole. My gay bff. Advice on women... yeah. But that's not the best parts of the video... watch on to find out (please use the restroom first... I laughed so hard I almost had an accident!)



Love you Cole!!!

xoxoxo

A Special Deer Hunt...

Jim's buddy Butch had a successful first deer hunt this year. The only thing missing was his hunting buddy. They'd planned on being with each other the first time either one brought down a deer in Colorado.



In Butch's own words: "I dedicate this deer hunt to my good friend Jim Durgan, who he and I had been planning on our first deer hunt in Colorado. He is no longer on this earth, I know he is smiling and watching over me."

I know he is :) Congrats on a successful hunt Butch!

Ohhh Getting Too Old...

To party like I'm still in college... but oh did I have fun! SLC was a blast. I now know why Kathy Griffin loves her gay men... they adore and worship you! I've never had so many compliments in one month let alone one night... with the added bonus of knowing there wasn't anything behind the compliment - no ulterior motives. Getting to visit with my buddy and meeting his partner were just added perks to the weekend. I'm so glad I went. Even if my 31 year old body has been staging a revolt ever since. Staying up until 4 a.m., while fun, may not have been exactly what I needed right now... especially since just a few days before the party I was traveling back and forth from Colorado. Anyway... here's me in my costume... I forgot my camera so I'm waiting for someone to post a full body shot on Facebook... it may still be a couple of days... for now here's the shot I snapped with the cell phone before heading upstairs to the party...

And to think I was going to buy some false eyelashes!

And here's the extra special tombstone that was made just for me... every guest had a special "stone" just for them... only this friend could get away with it...

Maybe next time he'll make the sign grammatically correct :) On a more grownup note, it was nice to get out and talk to adults again. The party had well over 100 people at any given time and they came from every varied walk of life. Carpenters to software developers. Attorneys to painters. Detectives to elementary school teachers. And those weren't the costumes it was the people in them.

Speaking of Birthdays...

Remember this post... where I threatened to have lots of kid overload once I was done with the birthday pics from the party? I finally finished editing all of them! Enjoy!

Fun with Friends...

Friday night I had an invitation to spend the evening with one of my co-workers and her family and friends to celebrate her youngest boy turning two... I was a little hesitant to go because quite honestly I'm just really not into crowds yet... I don't know how that happened... I used to be able to be the belle of any party... but this last year I have just kind of shrunk into a wallflower/hermit...

Anyway... I went... and despite myself... I had a great time and met some pretty fun people... and I got a ton of great pictures to play with for the next month... so be forewarned to be prepared for kid overload...

Enjoying the homemade ice cream cake that was DIVINE!
I honestly can't blame this little one for hiding away with her piece...
It was THAT good!

The line waiting for the favorite attraction of the evening...
the roof of the shed.

The birthday boy himself... is he not the cutest thing around?
(Told you the cake was good!)
I love how I managed to catch his cousin starting a handstand in the background!

Go and Vote!

My beautiful and charming friend Camie Rae has an equally talented hubby, Thompson, who is a great videographer and has started a documentary showing the daily life in the little towns that Camie and I grew up in and around... and he's entered the first part of his documentary in a contest of Wyoming short films.

Here's the video:



It's pretty cool! And if you go and vote for it they could win $25,000... so... this is my shameless plug for the Coles... because my blog stats are still about 30-50 hits a day... if each one of you went and registered and voted you could help this young couple out...

So hurry up... it only takes a few minutes... pay it forward today. The contest deadline ends on May 21st so there isn't much time. Go here and vote now! Click on the icon that looks like open books and select vote!



P.S. Did I mention they just had their second little boy??? If that doesn't just make you want to vote I don't know what would!

Happy Birthday Butch!

(not my picture... I thieved it off of his facebook page... and may have tweaked it a little)

I highly doubt that when you said I could mention you on my blog you were expecting this :)

Happy Birthday Big Guy!

I won't tell the world how old you are...

Thanks for always being such a great friend to Jim.

He was so very lucky to have you in his life.

I encourage the Nortel lurkers out there to drop Butch an email and wish him a happy birthday too ;)

Feeling Like Sally Fields

Tracy, over at iPost, gave me my very first bloggy award thingy last week and I am just now getting around to thanking her for it and passing it along...

According to the gal that Tracy received the award from the translation of the award is "This blog invests and believes, in the proximity"[meaning, that blogging makes us 'close' -being close through proxy].

I am very blessed to have a handful of close friends irl who have some pretty amazing blogs as well... and a handful of new blogger friends that I've never met but feel so close to through their amazing talents and blogs! I'm chosing tonight to pass the award along to those friends I've known in real life... their blogs remind me that no matter how far from Star Valley we all travel, no matter where our lives take us, no matter what drops in the path before us... we'll always be connected through the friendships we forged so many years ago... thank you guys for being there for me when I was that gangly new girl in class... and for sticking with me all these years later...

Okay, I'm supposed to pass this award on to eight (8) people so... here we go...

1 and 2. Teddy Anne who can not only be found here but here as well (check out her family's amazing talents!) Teddy is a shining star of her own rights... with a penanche for great story telling... she doesn't know it yet but when I get to a better place on my healing journey I'm expecting her to sing some of the songs I write ;)

3. Kelli and her tales of her growing family will bring a smile to your face. She's got two kids who keep her on her toes... and a third one on the way!

4. Dena is roughing it without internet at home right now, but when she posts she always has a doozie or two to enjoy... what with her son and a passle of stepkids (sorry Dena... I can't keep track of how many...).

5. Emily has always had a nack for saying what is on her mind and writing amazing movie reviews... now she does it with two kids in tote...

6. Christina makes being a stay-at-home mom look like a cake walk... and she does it all without aging a damn day... honestly... she looks as young as she did the day we graduated... and I'm not about to tell you how long ago that was...

7. Camie's blog header says it all: Our family. We're a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding cereal, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together.

8. Shan's blog is going to be amazing once he gets it up and running... hopefully by the time you all see my post he'll have his first post up... head over and give him some blog love... and some encouragement... he's flipping amazing and has a lot going for him and gives me a lot of hope on the days when I'm freaking out over what to do next... his strength and endurance to battle with his own medical issues will astound you... I know they have for me!

And finally tonight, the view from my parents' front yard this morning:

If you're north of I-80... enjoy Fall while you can... there's snow on the other side of this mountain... and the snow up where I live just dropped to the 7,000 foot range this afternoon... Old Man Winter... here we come...