A picture tag

Because I'm bored and feel the need for comments (you are a bigger person than I Brigitte for turning your comments off for the week):



RULES: You have to post the 4th picture in the 4th folder in your pictures folder. Then give a brief description before you tag a few others.

This is Kelsi and I at Abbey and KJ's apartment partaking in Super Bowl XXXIX (and lots of junk food, you may even see some wing sauce). Stupid Patriots won...

The newly tagged are: (it's so nice being the first in the family tagged, the list is WIDE open) Abbey
Allie
Cara
Marsha

Growing up

First of all, I should get some kind of award for the number of posts I've written in October. This has to be some kind of record! (It is, right?)

Second of all, I'm getting serious here. I've actually meant to sit and write this for many months (now that I said it, I'm not 100% sure I haven't written it...humor me). It's been a neat experience to read my friends' and family's blogs over the last year. Most of the people reading this right now live 600+ miles away from me, so I never get to hear how you are doing and see what you are up to; in addition to that, I don't get to experience the grown ups you have become. I'm sure I'll touch on the female readers some time soon, but this post goes out to the men.

Wow.

Looking at the pictures and reading the stories, I'm sure, don't do you justice. Way back in June, Father's Day to be exact, I remember reading lots of posts going out to the dad's. Most of you had one on your blog, and not to make light of anyone's tribute, I remember Lorraine's standing out. Reading the qualities that she wrote about Jeff being a husband and father floored me (and creeped me out, no offense Jeff). Most of the memories I have of Jeff are of my visits to Roosevelt as a kid and having Easter, or watching Conference, or jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler under it and going to dinosaur land...it seems so strange to think of him as a dad.

Anyways, that's just one example. I see pictures all the time of my cousins as husbands and fathers and can tell just by looking that you are great at what you do. When did you all grow up into amazing men?

I was talking to a friend of mine at about the quality of men out there to date awhile back, though we talk about it regularly. Most of the men we are acquainted with come in second to a good book. Case-in-point, last weekend I went to a YSA activity (Young Single Adult - a reminder for those of you not single) and had a conversation with a 28 year old man. When I asked him what he did for a living he said he has a lawn mowing business (no mention of a degree), when I asked him how many people work for him he said just himself. I know a lot of 12-14 year olds have lawn mowing businesses. I'm not sure what else to say, I was looking for an escape at that point as a 28 year old professional lawn mower extrordinare did not seem up to snuff. Is that harsh? I realize there is more to a man than his profession, but...

I'm gonna go ahead and tie this single girl soap box up and say "men, I'm impressed" and "congratulations" to the ladies. Nice job rounding up a good one!

Pictures

Better one of the moocher eating my sundae and a couple with the bird incident. Scroll down and enjoy.

Bonus story: Sunday night

Last Vegas post, I think. Sunday night we went to a Cirque de Soleil show at T.I., Mystere.

Super cool! I didn't follow the story at all, no idea what was going on, but the acrobats and gymnasts or whatever we awesome. They made things like climbing a pole look like something everyone can do, it was completely effortless. Way, way cool.

Then I lost $25 at the slots thanks to this unlucky gnome:

Lisa (not Lisa kindergarten teacher), Audrey and I went to a bar because Lisa said she met this nice guy and his son's friend who she said was cute. Audrey and I like eye-candy, so we went to have a peek. This kid kept talking about Flagstaff, he'd been to Flagstaff. We asked why, his response: "I aborted a baby there." Yeah. We left.

Myst. Cool lounge with the one and only Rustyn Vaughn Lee strumming up a storm on his gitar. He was a pretty good piece of eye-candy, weird "aborted-baby-in-Flag" guy, notsomuch. How cute is he? AND, how cute are we?

Waiting to get on the plane. We were just vegging, wondering why we were feeling crowded by wheelchairs, note the handicapped symbol on the chair:

Stories 5, 6, and 7

Sorry yo's, but I got busy (and a little tired of blogging every night). Here you go:

#5:

After the birdshit incident (think that will be the last time I refer to it) we went back to the time share to clean up. Hello Mamma Mia! I wore my A-MAZING dress (purchased in the last post) and sucked it up and wore my cute houndstooth shoes. :) We all went to the dinner buffet at Mandalay Bay. $30 bucks, I actually winced when I swiped my credit card. I don't think I've ever paid that much for a meal I didn't share before. Dinner was pretty good, dessert Sucked with a capital S. They didn't even have cheesecake! We got a cute dinner picture though:

In the bathroom, I ran into a former parent. Weird! I actually babysat for her this last summer, so we're pretty cool. We both did a double-take, I actually felt pretty popular at that point, she seemed really excited to see me, it was a good ego boost. She invited us to crash a wedding party at Rumjungle, gave me the name 10 times and left. I get to my stall and I hear a man's voice yelling "Hi Katie" into the bathroom (a pretty full bathroom). I guess Mrs. Nickel* had insisted that her husband go into the bathroom to say hi.

Mamma Mia was awesome! This is my 2nd time seeing it on stage and it was great! I like the movie, even have the soundtrack (yeah, I have the Broadway soundtrack, too), but on stage is even better. If you love ABBA, you will love Mamma Mia.

#6:

Rum Jungle! Kids, I made it through dinner, Mamma Mia, and one hour of dancing at Rum Jungle in my super cute shoes. You're so proud, right? We had to crash the party (we look like the crasher type, don't we?). The music was great. Mr. and Mrs. Nickel* were very happy to see me and my pals and we all had a grand ole time. This was the best club we went to. By mentioning the wedding party we got VIP wrist bands and went right in. Yay! More pictures.

Lynda and I both had Nickel* children last year:

Yes, I had fun:

Aud and I, just because :)
* Names have been changed to protect identities

#7:

Our last day we trolled "the Strip" and I think we covered about 25 miles. Here are last day pics:

Crappiest day ever, literally!

So we woke up 'round 'bout I don't know so I'm not putting it down and decided to check out the outlet mall. Let's be perfectly honest, does anyone go to Vegas for the outlets? We have them in Phoenix, in fact, I'll bet you can find a decent outlet mall within an hour of where you live. And while I do enjoy spending money (and how), it's become less fun now that I realize I don't have any. Negativeness and shopping do not mix, darn my stupid conscience! Was I excited about the outlets? Not so much. Did I smile and do it? Yup (I managed to snag an A-MAZING dress, so I shouldn't be so grumpy about it).
Time to get on with it.
The five of us split up and agreed to meet at the Fudgery (a fudge shop, you would never have guessed this, right?) at 4:00 p.m. Audrey and I were meandering to the Fudgery at about 3:58 and all-of-a-sudden something lands on me. Took me about 5 seconds to figure out what just happened. A bird shit on my head. I apologize for the word, but at the time (and when I reminisce upon it even now) that's the word that comes to mind. So, as the bile is rising in my throat after my realization what is my good friend doing? Looking for something to help me clean up, right? Wrong! She's desperately looking for her camera to document the experience. I was NOT amused; she, on the other hand, just about had an accident as she was laughing so hard. Not only was I not amused, I grabbed the nearest napkin (yep, the one sitting on the dirty ground because at this point it looked more clean than my hair) and scrubbed. We then proceeded to go into the Fudgery and wait on our friends.
There I am, scowling, with a very strong suspicion that bird junk is still oozing down my scalp, and sitting inside what can only be described as the happiest place in Las Vegas. Explanation: we walk in to hear the Fudgery workers singing. We assume that they sing when they are tipped. We were wrong. They would bust out into fudge-lyriced oldie after fudge-lyriced oldie (that can't be spelled right, but in my defense it's probably not really a word). "My Girl" turned into "My Fudge" and "I've Been Working on the Railroad" turned into "I've Been Working in the Fudgery" I think you see where I'm going with this. Needless to say, I wasn't in the mood and was just irritated at the spectacle.
As I have relayed my birdshit story to my family I've been met with other bird feces stories such as: "one time a bird pooped in my food" and "one time a bird pooped on my shoe." Here is my reaction: "THERE'S NO COMPARISON." And there isn't. The irony of it all is that I am always on the lookout for birds flying over my head as I would hate for them to poop on me. The ONE time I wasn't looking...

(You may be wondering if Audrey managed to snag a couple shots and the answer is that she did, however, this is my blog and I don't have to post unflattering pictures if I don't feel like it. Suckahs!)

Okay, three pics.

Doesn't this lady look disgusted? She should try smiling more, I don't think she knows what happened.

I got a story!

But you knew that. So Jet was lame and then that guy ate my sundae then we went to Pure, a club inside Caesar's Palace. To add insult to injury, I had to "check" my lame Margaritaville bag (with my super cute, super cruel shoes inside) at the door and pay 5 bucks. DUMB! Anyways, we wandered around for a bit and then decided to go up to the top floor to dance because there was lots more room, though the techno music kind of sucked. We ended up dancing with these guys from Sweden (not many American boys in Vegas) and guessing at their sexuality all night. It was determined that European men are metrosexual and it's really hard to tell if they are straight or not. Gotta tell ya, I wasn't sold on their rhythm either, not the best dancers.

So this story is kind of lame, sorry about that. I did get hit on by this guy from Jersey that night. I told him my name was Sam and that I had a boyfriend. He proceded to tell me that my boyfriend was "f!#%in' lucky." I must admit, I agree, whoever gets me will be f!#%in' lucky indeed.

Here are some pictures from the night:

Picture for the last post

Yep, he's eating my food (I know it's dark).

I found the ring!

Turns out it was in my purse. Good news, yeah?

The next story

Let's see, where did I leave off... Oh, yes, $40 flip flops. So we decided to check out some clubs, you know, get acquainted with the whole sin city scene and ventured to Jet (in the Mirage), flip flops and all. It was supposed to be this pretty cool place, 3 rooms with different music in each. It was a bust. Jet gets 2 thumbs down from Katie. The room with the best music was friggin' packed and you couldn't dance without risking a cigarette burn so we bounced on outta there.

Here's where the night really gets good, we cross the street and happen upon Ghiradelli. Woo hoo! Things were looking up. So I order this:

It's the gold rush and it was GOOD (this picture sucks, I should have taken one, but I didn't)! Anyways, it was just too much goodness for me to finish so I decided to be done and we walked away. I kid you not, not one minute later some kid (we're thinking homeless) just sits down at my seat and goes to town on my sundae. (Audrey, if you're reading this I'm needing some pictures to fully explain this story) We all bust a gut, not at his unfortunate situation, but just at the situation in general.

Long story really short: a homeless man ate my sundae right in front of me.

I lost my CTR ring in Vegas

Many of you know I went to Las Vegas this last weekend. So here I am, back home safe and sound but with about a billion stories to share. :) Lucky you! Problem is, since there are a billion stories, if I tried to write them all down in one post it would be really long; really entertaining, but REALLY long so I am pleased to present to you "The Seven Days of Vegas" (please note, I was not in Las Vegas for seven days, but I will be presenting stories over the next seven days):

Day 1~

We, the five of us that went, stayed in a time share about 2 miles from Las Vegas Boulevard so we decided to rent a car. I think that renting cars is fun, you never know what you're going to end up with and I've always had a good experience. So, we go to the Hertz counter, they give us the spiel, and tell us where to find our car. Look what we got! Hello Sunshine!

Ha ha, totally kidding! Here she is for reals.

Note the expression change. All in all, we were pleased with the Impala; she done good by us. Holla!



Bonus story:

I bought some REALLY, really cute shoes and just had to take them on my trip. You have to take cute going out shoes to Vegas! See how pretty!

So. Flippin'. Cute! Naturally, I wanted to wear these shoes, they complimented my outfit nicely and so I popped them on and off we went. (Pictures of me on this night will be posted when my friend is able to get me copies of them). We were going to grab some dinner and then hit some clubs, I got through the parking garage and casino of Caesar's Palace and across the street to Margaritaville before I decided I love my feet too much to put them through so much torture. I needed a Plan B pronto. Since we were at touristy Margaritaville, I decided to scope out the flip flop collection as a solution for my problem. Ta da!


Did I mention they cost $40? I was NOT happy. Little did I know, this was an omen of things to come on this trip. You can imagine how sassy I must have looked getting my groove on in these babies. Oh yeah.

P.S. I really did lose my CTR ring. Sad, huh?! I was driving home when I noticed that my best friend for the last 5 years was missing, Kim gave it to me for my birthday. :( It was too big, I really should have been more careful. I wonder if someone will get me a new one (wink wink, only 85 days 'til my birthday).

Seven Up

I've only read one book... In case you were wondering.

Check me off!

Mom, I looked at the first question in this tag and had to laugh, how am I supposed to answer this? I'm leaving it blank and I'll leave it up to y'all to decide if I should fill it in with my ideal qualities, or leave it blank (wouldn't want to jinx myself you know).

4 random things I love about my husband:
1)
2)
3)
4)

4 jobs I've had:
1) kindergarten teacher
2) CSL
3) Lead Teller
4) Server

4 movies I have watched more than once:
1) 27 Dresses
2) Center Stage
3) Keeping the Faith
4) Far and Away

4 TV shows I watch:
1) Dancing with the Stars
2) Pushing Daisies
3) Project Runway
4) FRIENDS

4 places I have been and loved:
1) New York City
2) cruise ship (any and all)
3) Disneyland
4) San Deigo

4 of my favorite foods:
1) pizza
2) sweet pork salad
3) french fries
4) cupcakes

4 places I would like to visit:
1) Australia
2) Europe (England, Ireland, France, Spain, I could go on)
3) the east coast in the fall
4) Fiji (why not?)

4 things I am looking forward to in the coming year:
1) Hawaii
2) implants (hey, it could happen)
3) Disneyland
4) being the favorite aunt ;)

4 people I tag:
1) Katherine
2) Becca
3) Candice
4) Allie