Errands

Do you ever hear mothers say (or have said yourself) that it would be easier to run errands without the kids?  Well, sometimes I feel that way about Jordan.  He's a gem for certain, and I adore his company, but sometimes I feel like his mother when we're at the store and he's asking if he can get some Twinkies, and when I say no he sneaks them into the cart anyway.

About a month or so ago we were in the drive through at the bank and there were two cars to the left of us blocking our view of whoever was at the window helping us.  Jordan whispers that he wants a sucker, and asked me to ask the lady for a sucker.  I said no, I'm not going to ask the lady for a sucker for my husband.  He replied with the suggestion of asking for it or our kid.  I said no.  He then leans over me and yells into the microphone "I want a sucker, MOM!"  Which was easily a perfect impression of a bratty teenager.

Wholeheartedly embarrassed I conducted my banking business expediently and hightailed it out of there sans sucker.

For the rest of the evening I got to hear Jordan lamenting about his sucker.  "Gosh, I wish I had a sucker."  "You should have just asked for that sucker."  (Sigh) "I could go for a sucker right about now." 

A couple days ago we found ourselves back in the bank drive through, and yet again Jordan leaned over and asked for a sucker.  Instinctively I said no, but he persisted and I recalled the last time and determined it wasn't worth another evening of Jordan's regret.  So I asked the lady if I could have a sucker for my kid.  She said yeah, and Jordan immediately covered his mouth and giggled like a little girl, only this time we didn't have the advantage of cars blocking us from view.  I'd bet the teller knew exactly who the sucker was for.

We then went to Smiths to return a Redbox.  While there Jordan decided he needed more Mt. Dew.  I can say with the utmost confidence that the last thing that Child of God needs is more Mt. Dew.  We got to the beverages section and saw that the 2 liters were on sale for 84 cents a piece, with buy 4 get 2 free.  Sure, that's a steal of a deal, but my heart sunk when I realized that we would be going home with 6 2-liters of Mt. Dew.  Right now there are 3, (yes, 3) new flavors of Mt. Dew, and Jordan decided he needed all of them, including the classics.  The only problem was the new flavors didn't come in the 2 liters, they only came in the 24 packs.  Thus began the debate on how many he could get.  I told him he could get 2 (believe me, that was my compromise) and he began weighing the pros and cons of each flavor, thinking it through to ensure he made the right decision.

So here we have a cart with six 2-liter sodas, and two 24 packs.  I joked that we were going to have to tell the cashier that we were having a party so they didn't think we were nuts.  He took to this idea wholeheartedly and proclaimed that now we needed chips to go along with the party story.  I said we didn't need chips, but he saw Munchies in ranch flavor.  I still said we didn't needs chips, but he said "Oh, but they're ranch flavor, you must not have seen that" aaaaand they were in the cart.  As we walked to checkout he made sure he mentioned the awesome party we were going to have loudly so people passing by could be assured this fabled party was going down.

Maybe next time I'll just leave my child-husband at home.

Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time . . .

I met this boy.  He had blond hair and a nervous tic that involved brushing it out of his eyes and across his forehead.  He had a great smile and laughed a lot.  I was surprised to find out that we had the same peculiar taste in music.  He was a weirdo, that's for sure, but that's ok 'cause so am I.  We got each other and had a similar sense of humor.  He became my best friend.  We had lots o' fun together.  He filled up my ipod and I educated him on how lettuce is ok to eat.  He told me what an "EP" was, and I tried in vain to teach him that reading was fun and that Alias is a fantastic television program.  We went to lots of movies, and lots of concerts.  Sometimes, if I was lucky, we went on a trip. 

One day I realized I didn't want to be just friends with my best friend.  I also got the inkling that he came to the same realization.

My best friend became my boyfriend, and turns out that's the way to do it 'cause we didn't have to have an awkward first date with all the usual "How many siblings do you have" type questions.  After a while we thought Shoot,  why don't we just tie the knot?

Me'n that boy have been hitched fer two years now, and best friends for six.

Hard to believe.

Feels like forever.  (FOR-EV-ER)

The End

This Week in Pictures

I'm not really a fan of the phras Happy Friday!, it just seems a little cheesy to me and one step below Case of the Mondays.  However, I do feel like celebrating today.  It's been a long week and I'm ready to leave it behind. 

Normally I'm not big into pictures, but let's see what's been going on in the Day household.  Warning: There's a 91% chance they're all of my pets.

I took the liberty of labeling them, to provide further explanations.

The List

Everybody has a "list".  Some people call it their Bucket List, others Things I Want to Do Before I Die, or maybe it's not something written down, but it's more of a collection of desires they keep in the back of their head.

I just call mine The List.  I wrote this list down about five years ago, and I keep it in my wallet at all times, in case I need to whip it out and cross something off, or maybe I just want to revisit my dreams and say hello.  I have crossed off some things, and others maybe will never happen.  But they're my Dreams.  Would you like to see my Dreams?

-Volunteer in a 3rd world country
-Sit in Central Park and take pictures of strangers
-See a wild tiger and lion
-Play with a wild monkey

-Swim with Sharks-- This one I did in the Bahamas.  I was on a snorkeling trip with a friend and we were on a coral reef. When we got there the guide guy says that there are about 40 or so Caribbean Reef Sharks in there, he said "I'm not going to say you can or can't get in the water, just do it at your own risk."  Me and my friend were at the front of the line to get in.  At 4 and 5 feet long they were pretty intimidating though I didn't feel in danger.  The guide put in a feed box full of chum to attract them, and we were able to see their feeding frenzy.  It was an awesome experience.

-Fill my passport
-Be on Survivor or The Amazing Race

-Go Snorkeling in crystal water- This was in the Bahamas too.  We went to a privately owned island with a group of people, and the beach was gorgeous.  I get out to the water and it doesn't look very deep 'cause the water is so clear I can see right through it. I put on my mask and snorkel and have my first look, and there were tons of colorful fish, everywhere.  The water was so pristine they looked like they were flying.

-Go scuba diving

-Live in Cali
-Take my grandkids to the Beach
-Write a book
-Hold a tarantula (I have a very big fear of spiders, so I feel like holding a tarantula would be overcoming my fear in a big way)
-Go Skydiving
-Meet Jennifer Garner

-Meet Billy Boyd- I'm a big Lord of the Rings fan, and Pippin was my favorite.  I just love Billy Boyd and have always wanted to meet him.  I heard he was going to be in Park City for the Sundance Film Festival, and me and some friends were already going to be spending the weekend up there.  So I did some detective work and goaded information from people that weren't supposed to say where he was, and I finally found out that he was going to be at a certain building at the top of main street the next morning at 8.  We got there at 7:00 for good measure and we were waiting and waiting, and decided to go for a walk down the street since we had another 40 minutes or so before he was supposed to be there.  We were at the bottom of the hill when my friend calls me from the top and says that Billy is there!!  So I take off at a run, sprinting through the crowded sidewalk straigh up the hill. Some lady pushing a stroller tried to cross my path, but I jumped over the stroller and kept on running.  Who knew I could run like that?  I get to the top and . . . he's already gone inside the building.  My friend that saw him had talked to him and told him that his biggest fan was on her way and that she really wanted to meet him.  He said he would catch me on the way out.  So when he gets out of the building about 20 minutes later I hear "BreAnn?  Where's BreAnn?"  That's right, Billy Boyd was asking for me by name. 

I was a happy little girl

-Go to a different country in a week's notice- This was to the Bahamas as well.  My friend lived in Florida and I was flying out to visit him for a week.  We didn't know what all we were going to do.  We had planned to go to a concert, and go to Disneyworld one day, but we didn't have anything else planned for the rest of the week.  He called me the week before I was flying out and said, why don't we just go to the Bahamas?  Um, OK!  So he booked the flight and I booked the hotel, and I flew out to florida a couple days later.  We went to Disneyworld that night for a couple hours, the next morning we went to the Bahamas for three days, and came back to Florida for the rest of the trip, went to Disneyworld again and said concert and I flew home.  It was a vacay packed with awesome.

-See love in a man's eyes-  Incredibly cheesy, I know.  When I wrote the list I had never experienced the unconditional love of a guy (that wasn't related), and I wanted to be able to look at a guy and see that he loved me.  It was this slugger right here:

-Go on an African Safari

-Go to all 50 states

-Road trip across America- This one I did twice.  When my friend was moving to Florida I helped drive him from Utah to Florida, and then flew home, and when he was moving back to Utah I flew to Florida and drove him back to Utah, this time taking a different route.  To go with my goal of going to all 50 states I have a map, and when I go to a state I get a keychain from that state and hang it up on the map.

Seen conveniently in the background.  Also, a freakin' huge poster of Jennifer Garner.  This was my apartment when Jordan and I first started dating.  Please notice how ridiculously skinny I was back then.  I might also have Spiderman sheets on my bed . . . but it's not for me to say.

-Ride in a helicopter- Two years ago me and most of my siblings went on a backpacking trip to the Havasupai indian reservation, which is at the bottom of the grand canyon.  It's an absolutely gorgeous place, see Exhibit A:

The thing is, to get to this gorgeous oasis full of multiple waterfalls, it's a 12 mile hike in, and a 12 mile hike out.

There are many ways you can do the hike.  Backpack, horseback, put your pack on a mule train and walk, or helicopter in.  I decided to do the whole thing by myself, so I backpacked in.  I reached camp very proud of myself, but because my shoes were still relatively new I had an absurd amount of blisters.  When it came to hike out again, I hiked the first couple of miles, but because my blisters hurt I was going slow and told my fam to go on without me and I'll go at my own pace.  When I got to the helicopter pad I said screw it, I'm flying out of here.  And it was amazing!  The helicopter was weaving in and out of the canyon, which was terrifying, but incredible at the same time.  Absolutely no regrets flying out, 'cause it was a cool ride and I got to cross this off  The List.

-Have straight teeth

-Attend the Oscars

-Go to Stonehenge

-Go to a Broadway show

-Go to a Las Vegas Show

-Ice Skate in Time Square

-Feed a shark

-Do a wreck dive (scuba dive a wreck, such as an airplane or sunken ship)

-Go on a solo road trip-  This was about three years ago.  I was sitting in my apartment on a Friday night at 8:00 PM, watching TV.  Jordan was working really late, all friends had other things and I wasn't a fan of my roommates.  How lame.  My eyes strayed to my map hanging above my bed and I thought that I hadn't gotten a keychain in a while and Montana really wasn't that far away, right?  So, I was gassed up (my car, that is) and on the freeway by 8:30.  And I got my Montana keychain! 

 Thanks for taking a journey of The List with me!  Hopefully I can cross more stuff off, and I'm sure I'll add more along the way.

All in the Family

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I work with my sister. On the whole I view this as a positive thing. We keep each other entertained, we always have a buddy at work functions, I have someone to snicker with during meetings, and I have someone that knows exactly how frustrating some coworkers can be.
But, sometimes I’m less than sure it’s a good thing.

Once upon a time we happened to be on the same team. At the beginning of every team meeting we would do an icebreaker, and we had to tell a story on whatever the subject was that time. I arrived late as I was stuck on a call, and they had started. I took my seat and my then-manager (Smaaron) said that we were all telling stories of practical jokes that we had played.  Knowing Britney, I knew exactly the story she had told. I turned to her and said “Please say you didn’t tell the story.” To which everyone burst out laughing. This particular story is quite embarrassing. Quite. She said she didn’t tell which sibling she had played this joke on, but anyone could figure out that it was me.

That was a couple years ago and I still get coworkers reminding me of that.

A couple weeks ago I thought she needed a reminder as to how lucky she is to have a bright and delightful sister to work with. So I drew this on her whiteboard at her desk:

I thought she would be happy to know that I was the light of her life.  When I saw it next she had altered it, and I tried to fix it and the changes kept coming until now it looks like this:

Let me translate.  Her flower was wilting and lit on fire under the heat of the sun, so I then drew myself as the rain to put her out.  How sweet of me.  Then she drew me as a lawnmower set on mowing down her flower.  So I put her as a cambells soup can, breaking my mower blade when all I wanted to do was mow weeds.  For good measure I drew myself as a bee, out to pollinate her flower.  In retrostpect that sounds a little dirty.  For some odd reason Smaaron got in on the action and drew my foot about to step in dog poo.  Rude, to say the least.

Today during a meeting I was slightly bored and drew a heart on her ankle.  She in turn drew this on my wrist:

I was horrified.  She tried to explain that it was a heart that was falling (hence the lines I guess).  Maybe I just have a dirty mind, but that's not what I see.  She then realized that it looked like something else entirely and drew the arrow in.  Now it just looks like a peircing.

I'm glad that I have a sister working with me so she can draw pierced joobalies on my hand.