Ever since Chloe saw Jason Mraz sing "I'm Yours" on Sesame Street, she has been obsessed.
Whenever we get in the car she wants me to search the radio for the "Elmo Song."
I usually come up empty handed.
But last night we stumbled upon it and I have never seen anyone so giddy about a song coming on.
Well...except for a certain someone and the Backstreet Boys.
Anyway, it was an awesome 3 minutes, best 3 minutes of this entire month, watching that kid dance in her car seat.
I sure got lucky getting that kid.
I like her. A lot.

And then I asked her what happened to the gum I gave her, and she said, "Oops! I ate it!"
7 years...
Or wait...is that if you break a mirror...or have a black cat pass you....

Just heard about these commercials today.

Watch Rochelle, Jane, Valentin, and Vance.
They kinda made my day.

The doorbell rang.
Chloe, who was sleeping, ran to the door before I could catch her.
I was not ahem, not ready to get the door.
So I hid in the back.

She got the door, realized it was no one she was particularly interested in, shut the door, then came back and said to me, "I go back to bed."
And she did.

Self Portrait

I apologize to anyone who has the misfortune of currently knowing me. No, I seriously do.

This makes me miss BYU.
I tried to study in the library, but the truth is, the library can be very distracting. There are way too many cute boys there to get anything done.

One section of library was like the runway. You knew if you sat at the tables by the runway, there was no intention of doing any sort of studying. Unless you were studying specimens that walked by. This went vice versa for both boys and girls. Although I think the girls utilized the runway more often.

If I really needed to cram, I had to go hole myself up in one of the "No I am really studying, don't bother me" room. My favorite place was the study section on the basement floor. And then my "I want to talk to friends" floor was the 3rd floor. And the "I want to take a nap" place....I found myself a little cubby in the recesses of the library and bam, those were some of the best naps I have ever had. In the winter I would wrap myself up in my cozy winter coat, put my head on the desk, look out at the falling snow, and peacefully nod off to sleep. I could be alone there for at least an hour.

Sigh. I miss the library.

BYU was sort of this fantasy world that you get to play in for a few years. Which was awesome. But then you enter the real world, and realize, hey...this ain't nothing like college!

I guess there is a time and a season to everything. I wouldn't trade Don and Chloe for anything. Well except, a nice nap in one of those cubbies. I really, really, REALLY like myself a good nap.

Yesterday Don got himself a matching ticket. We are like soul mates or something. Exact same offense. Exact same spot. Exact same officer.

Officer Perez hides out in the apartment complex right by our house, has a nice view of a stop sign frequently ignored by probably almost everyone that drives by it, and then just waits for a sucker to breeze by it.

Officer Perez found his gold mine.

And I believe the Mortensen family is funding the entirety of Mesa's road construction and repair. You are welcome.

We have decided to put a sign in his favorite Apartment Complex.

We think this should solve the problem.

Today is the 10 year Anniversary of my Mom's death.
I wrote something else, but decided not to publish it.
But I didn't want the day to go by without acknowledging it, and if you knew my Mom, maybe you could remember her for a moment today too.

I just don't even know what to say.

Sedona

We got out of the heat this weekend and visited one of the most beautiful places in AZ: Sedona. We told Chloe we are going on a vacation, which she was pretty excited about. About an hour into the vacation however after she was made to walk a little bit she told us, "I go home now. I nod go on vacation anymo." Sigh. And she repeated this quite a few times. However she really perked up when she got to ride a bus. See picture below. I tried to move the picture but I couldn't figure out how to. The story of my life. Anyway, we took a walk around the resort that night and checked out the spa. We found the sign at the entrance to be very inviting. Not really sure what kinds of things have gone down in that spa... If I was item #4 I think I would skip public water places altogether. Getting out might be somewhat embarrassing. Anyway, here are some lovely pictures of....me.

My favorite part of the trip was eating Mexican food in a gorgeous location. We had an awesome view of the red cliffs and a nice breeze, plus we basically had the patio to ourselves so Chloe could walk around and I could thoroughly enjoy my sizzling fajitas. Now that is my idea of a vacation.

And then we came home. Good-Bye Sedona!

Bad rings. Bad.

Oh good news-Don fixed our camera. Thank goodness! So today I asked Chloe what she did with my bowl of rings. She got up from what she was doing and took me to the kitchen, got a chair, scooted it over to the kitchen counter, stood up on the counter and pulled out the bowl of rings from on top and the very corner of the refrigerator.
I asked her what they were doing up there.
She mumbled a bunch of stuff and basically the only thing I understood was "time out."
So I am deducting she put my rings in time out.
I am not really sure what the rings did wrong, but i guess it was serious.

As I have mentioned before, I have been camera-less for a long time. So I just had to find some pictures on the Internet to fill in. I tried to find the most accurate representations of the events. You know in blogging it is very important to record things in the most accurate way possible. I would just hate to be the only one to exaggerate the awesomeness of my life. I know no one else does that on their blog. Anyway, that being said...Friday night Don's cousin Yvette came and stayed with us. She made the most delicious pasta dish. Angel hair (not real angel hair, that would be really gross, and secondly I don't know where you can find a real angel who is willing to give up their hair) with squash, garlic, roma tomatoes, fresh basil and Parmesan. There is no way to exaggerate how awesome it tasted. We bought a bunch of strawberries for strawberry shortcake but we were so full from the pasta that we never got around to eating the berries. You know we are so dainty around here, we hate to stuff ourselves. That is very, very unlady like. And plus, we are so skinny.
Saturday on the 3rd of July, we gathered at Don's sister's house for a cookout and a swimming party. I made a horrible potato salad. Just thinking about it is making me want to vomit. I put carrots in it so it looked like a big mess of orange throw up. I was not proud to be associated with that dish. I shall never attempt potato salad again. I think I have realized that is a dish I only like when other people make it. Okay I have to stop talking about it. I am going to wretch.

Oh gosh I nearly forgot to mention the annual Los Altos Ward breakfast. It was actually quite pleasant this year. Even at 7 AM being outside is uncomfortable, but it was quite nice on Saturday. Maybe that is because when I tried to go find out if the child I was put in charge of was still alive, I got attacked by like thirty 13 year olds who think it is funny to attack the poor scout master's wife. We had a good time. Unfortunately I know that it is going to run into all of my other ward breakfast parties, because I have no pictures to differentiate which year it was. I usually remember things by looking at pictures and seeing what I was wearing. Sad to say, but that is how my memory works. Melissa: You were wearing a white dress over your black swimming suit.
After the party we were the lucky ones who got to clean the church. Although Chloe was quite helpful. She is going to make an excellent janitor one day. Or mother. Same thing.

Back to the party at Don's sister's house. Did I mention his sister from New York was there too? That was pretty cool. We hung out by the pool most of the day and it was a really nice day. It was only 104 degrees, and yes, I said only. Why is the stupid text italic and bold. Okay. now it is just bold. But that is better than being in italics too. I have no idea how I fixed it but I did. Probably an angel. Hey angel, come back, I need some of your hair!!
Anyway, I unfortunately took a nap while Chloe achieved a swimming milestone. But fortunately when she is with me she regresses back to a frightened wet cat, so I think I might have a chance to witness the milestone again and I will just pretend it is the first time. Don put goggles on her and she went under the water repeatedly and held her breath for a...wait for it...record 6 seconds! (see picture above) And she went down the slide like she was a competitive um...uh....bob sledder...uh, in the water? Well anyway, way to go Chloe! I see that she has a short memory however because I took her swimming today and she acted like the water was lava filled with snakes and the only way to survive was to strangle her mother's neck as she held on for dear life.
Oh PS: Potty training newsflash. I told Chloe we could go to Disneyland if she wears underwear, because you know, they only let non-diaper wearers into the happiest place on earth. No one can really be happy in a diaper after all. Well Chloe told me on Sunday out of the blue while I was changing her, "Uh, I just wear a diapa Mommy, I not go to Disneylad."
Patience is a virtue...patience is a virtue...patience is a....


We had a pretty late night at the pool party. But I stayed up even later to prepare for my Relief Society lesson the next day. It went pretty fine I guess. I mean not to toot my own horn, but I got a standing O. And yes, there were men in my Relief Society class. They forgot where the men were meeting.

The actual 4th of July was spent going to church and then we had dinner with our friends, THE CARRS. I felt like that should be in all caps. I tried to pawn the potato salad off on them. And they didn't say anything, but I am pretty sure they thought it resembled throw up as well.
And then we played Settlers of Catan.
You know I used to despise that game, but once you get that sweet taste of victory on your tongue, you'll do anything to get it back.
Unfortunately I didn't win.
And either did Don.
Come to think of it Don has never won that game, ever.
I think that is one of his main goals in life.
And I sure hope one day he achieves it.
But I am in it to win it now, so victory will not come easy.

Phew. I am out of words.
Good-bye.

Well I will start with my catching up with my 4th of July weekend. And well as far as catching up, that might be as far as I go. It depends on how lazy I am feeling. You know, creating these titillating blog posts are a lot of work sometimes.

Oh but before I get to that I just have a few things to say.
1. I got a swimming suit in the mail yesterday. Which I missed the mailman (which by the way- I NEVER leave the house so I am not sure how this happened. but whatev.) so I had to wait until this morning to visit just one of the many effective government agencies: the post office.
But the good news, I love my new bathing suit. It is more like a dress, but hey, it covers up my cell (that is short for cellulite...also....what is up with cellulite? I notice many um...pleasantly plump people at the pool...and they don't have any dimples or waves....but then I look at my size 0 little sister, and you know what, she has cellulite! What the?! Stupid cellulite gene.)

Well I also wanted to say-what is up with the sizing on swimming suits. So I got 2 and one of them was so short (as well as narrow) that I thought, um hello, who was this made for? I ordered a large...which by the way...do we need any more help feeling horrible about our bodies in bathing suits? I go to Anne Taylor Loft (the most heavenly store on the planet) and I wear a size small. And I say, wow I am so little and petite, look at me, I am a waif. And I smile to myself. So ya, I know it is their marketing...and people I don't really think that I am a waif...but hello-why can't swimming suits do the same thing? Oh you are a size 6, size 8...well guess what! You need an extra large bathing suit.
They might as well say, here is some extra-large fabric swatches to put over your grotesquely large body.
I am just telling myself that the reason a "large" swimming suit would have only fit me when I was like 10 (maybe), is because the swimming suit was from China. This I know because all the tags were written in chinese and I couldn't read it. And Chinese women are so tiny. Curse them. I am kidding. But I do think they have an entirely different interpretation for "large." As well as all the other swimming suit manufacturers .
You want large? Hey I'll take you on a trip to Wally Mart. I'll show you LARGE.

2. I am so emotional lately that it is funny. I was watching the news yesterday and I heard that the lady who was the original voice of Cinderella died, and that she had said once that the best part about being Cinderella was that her children would be able to hear her voice after she was gone. And then I cried for like 5 minutes because I thought it was so touching.

And then I heard a commercial for the DI and a guy talked about how working there had changed his life and made him feel like "somebody" and then I started tearing up.

And then I cried watching "Mama Mia" even though I thought the movie was seriously lame, and I can't even remember when or why it was I cried.

It is all a little ridiculous.
Obviously I am in dire need of some chocolate cake. That should solve the problem.

Well I think that I am going to start a new post for the 4th because this one is already super long. And pretty much pointless. But that's how I roll here in my blogging world.

I am back in business.
Both of our computers got infected with some virus and I was computer-less for a whole 2 days.
I felt like I was living in the dark ages.
And I have a ton of blogging to catch up on.
Unfortunately both of our cameras are broken too so I don't know how I am going to do that.
Oh, and I had to block my texts on my phone. Because I got dangerously close to my 1000 limit.
Which is pathetic in so many ways.
Thanks to my older bro who came and fixed up our computers. He is getting his PhD in Physics but did a stint in computer science a few years ago, to which I am now the benefit of.
Hooray.
Well, that is all.

You know this time of year I start to get really depressed over the oppressive heat.
So I am going to make myself a top 10 list about my favorite things about an AZ summer.
Because I am positive like that.

10. Turning my car on 10 minutes before I plan on getting in. And it is still too hot.
9. Blow drying my hair before church and then being so hot and sweaty right before we leave the house, that I throw my arms up in the air with frustration and yell, "Forget it!" And then, put my hair in a ponytail.
8. Putting my laundry in before going to bed and first thing in the morning when I attempt to put it in the dryer, realize I have to re-wash everything because it smells like a pond.
7. In a matter of 3 seconds I can go from dry and put together, to a soggy mess with my underwear saran wrapped to my butt.
6. Getting in the car and then having to get right back out because Chloe is begging for water. Then having to turn off the car cause I need the keys to unlock my front door, and then bringing Chloe back inside because I would prefer her not to die.
5. Saying to myself, "Oh crap it is past 8 AM. Guess I won't be making it to the grocery store today."
4. My white shirts have an increasingly limited shelf life, as after a couple wears the armpits are already a nice shade of canary.
3. Having to go put some clothes on when someone rings my doorbell.
2. Cooking something in my oven and my house getting to be like a bazillion degrees. And then eating too much of said food because I can't think of anything else to do because I am too hot to leave my house, unless it is for ice cream. And then I just feel really fat. And hot.
and finally #1....

Realizing that I have about another oh, 4 months (3 1/2 if we're lucky) of this.

Sigh.
Well being positive really does help me feel much better.