All the Wrong Reasons

Alright, my addiction to reality TV continues. Now it's "The Bachelorette," and let me just say, I like her, but I think she's going about finding the one in completely the wrong way. Let me explain why.

First of all, she's letting herself be taken in by all of the cheesy romantic stuff that some of the more smarmy guys are coming up with. One of them is an aspiring country singer, and he wrote her a song. Cute, yes, and enough to make a lot of girls starry eyed. However, earlier in the day that guy had taken her aside and said some things to her that sounded like "hey, I know there are 15 other guys here, but you're mine, don't cheat on me." Red flag? Yes. But Jillian (the Bachelorette) is too busy swooning over his crooning (ha ha, I'm so clever) that she doesn't see that. In fact, she likes that he's jealous, which is not cool.

Secondly, she sent home a great, successful, family-oriented guy because "he'd never been hurt before." Really? Why would that have any bearing on his relationship with her?! It's exasperating to watch. She's my age, and, watching her, I can see why people think that 21 is too young to get married when 24-year-old women are choosing potential husbands based on such immature criteria.

But like I said, I like Jillian, I've been charmed by losers before. In fact, all of you who were there to witness my life from age 18-21 know that I was a complete idiot when it came which guys were relationship-worthy (my only qualification was that they be interested in me). However, when I found a good man I jumped on him (can you say 4 months), because I recognized how amazing he was. This girl is sending home the good guys and keeping the shady ones!

And who is casting these guys? I swear the one from Dayton is going to snap and kill someone. So of course she kept him around, cause she's such a great judge of character. Also, keeping the guy with the weirdo foot fetish... gross.

Pictures of Chaela/Jordan's Graduation

Hello! I just thought I'd get on here and post some new pictures of Chaela and some I took at Jordan's graduation. Now all of us have graduated high school! Weird! My parents would be empty nesters in a few months if it weren't for Will and I living here. Good thing! Ha ha. (No, really, I'd rather have our own place.)

Here's Chaela "helping" decorate for Memorial Day. She was "helping" by taking down everything my mom was putting up.

And she helped Grandpa Doug weed the garden. Except I think she was just pulling out the mulch.

Mommy's little ragamuffin. I think it's her hair.

Yay! Diploma!

Jordan holding Chaela after the ceremony. She was not into it, let me tell you. At the beginning they announced "No food or drink," and I was like, yeah right! I snuck her some Life cereal or else we wouldn't have made it.

Us and Jordan, yay!

Mom and Dad and Jordan, yay! Pickerington rents World Harvest Church for graduation ceremonies (don't know why). World Harvest is one of those huge T.V. evangelical churches and its pastor, Rod Parsely, broadcasts his services on national T.V. When you walk in there are a TON of pictures of Rod Parsely all over the place. Funny quote by Jordan's friend Jake: "Did you see all those pictures of Rod Parsely that should have been, you know, pictures of Jesus?" Yup. Good one, Jake.

Jordan in Color Accent mode yay!

Jordan won the Sosa Award for Musical Excellence and the Four Year Award for marching band. Nice. I never won anything in high school. Or college. *Sigh*

My mom made this awesome banner for Jordan. I think it looks great and it was MUCH cheaper than having one made. Yay for being crafty!

Yup, so that's all for us for now. The next big thing I'm involved in is Lindsay's wedding, so I get a small break before I have to start stressing out about that. Other than that, nothing new!

Note to Giveaway people: I'll get your stuff done as soon as I can, because I've got a few projects I'm working on right now and I'll have to go to Joann's to get the stuff. But I already know what I'm doing for most of you. Yup, they're going to be individual. Woo hoo!

Giveaway!

I did this on Maya's blog, so this is me paying it forward (she is my philanthropic idol)!

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Here's the deal. The first 5 people to leave a comment here will get a homemade gift from me. It doesn't matter if I don't know you. If you're just randomly blog stalking (c'mon, we all do it) and you come across this post and want to be one of the first 5 to leave a comment, go for it! The only catch is that you have to pay the gift forward by reposting this on your blog/Facebook/Myspace. I will check to make sure you've done so. I don't know what the gift will be, but it will be homemade. I'll get it to you sometime this year (but probably sooner than later so I don't have it looming over my head). I don't promise you'll love it, but I'm not going to make you something I think you'll hate, either, because that would be like an un-gift and defeat the entire purpose.
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Alright, so go for it! I'm really excited to do this!

In the Good Ol' Summertime

My wonderful mother picked up a little wading pool for Chaela yesterday. This is her trying it out for the first time.

This pools is also perfect for foot-dangling. Very nice.

She kept climbing in and out and in and out. She didn't sit down once, either. I think she liked it overall, though.

Oh yes! You love it!

Popsicles are one of the best parts of summer. Chaela eats hers faster than I eat mine because she's like her dad: she takes huge bites out of it. Can you say brain freeze?? I only suck on mine.

Happy summer to everyone!

Must-see

I'm not much of an art snob, but you have got to check out these photo-realistic optical illusion pieces by a guy named Rob Gonsalves. I found the site through a review by Orson Scott Card, and it's incredible. If you have any tiny bit of child-like imagination left in you, you'll love this.

http://o.pticalillusions.com/rob-gonsalves/

Take time and look at them. I'm not often genuinely moved by visual art, but I was by this. It made me remember, I guess, how the world used to seem like it had magic. I might have to get a few of his prints!

Just for the heck of it

Hi! I have nothing to say really, but I haven't updated in a while. Nothing is new with us. either. I'm still at Curves and Will is at Wal-mart. Yeah. But I guess there are a few new things. I'll steal Brooke's layout and number them, because it's easier that way.

1. Lindsay is engaged. Ok, this one isn't us, but since I'll be doing the bridesmaids' dresses and have a large part in planning, it kind of is.
2. I've put the word out about our sewing "business." Aside from the blog, I've put up flyers and things. I've already gotten several inquiries. Yay!
3. Will and I are an awesome team in the kitchen. We've been cooking together a lot lately, and it always turns out AMAZING! Just ask my family, they've been eating it!
4. Chaela keeps growing. She's starting to feed herself with a fork/spoon, but she has to be watched closely, or she dumps everything on the floor for the animals to eat. She's also learned the hand motions to a few songs including: Itsy Bitsy Spider, The Wise Man (built his house upon the rock), Popcorn Popping, and Book of Mormon Stories. And she can "read" a few of her animal noise books to us.
5. I'm still plugging away at my book. It's been a few days since I've worked on it (because I went crazy and couldn't stop last week), so what I'm doing now is "finalizing" the chapters I have so I can send them out for a few people to read. Ask Lindsay, she read them and there are still inconsistencies where I've changed stuff. BUT I am working on it and if I can get the beginning how I want it I'll be able to move on and maybe, just maybe, I'll finish it. I'll try and get it published, too, but I figure even if I just finish it, that's a huge accomplishment.
6. I'm still looking for a job, but I feel like I've come to this place where there's something out there, but I have to wait for it. I don't know what that means yet, but it's almost like I can feel something coming closer, you know? Not that I'm going to sit on my butt and not do anything in the meantime, but I'm not quite so worried anymore.

Anyways, I'm not as cool as Brooke, I only have six things, but that's ok. That's us for now. I'll try and take some pictures sometime and post them. That's all!

I'm a Toddler!

Me! I'm eighteen months old!

Hello everyone! Today is my eighteen-month birthday, which means that I am officially a toddler! It's about time, too, because I've been doing toddler stuff for months. Let me tell you about some of my new abilities:

I can run! I do it all the time! It's one of my favorite things to do, which is probably why I only weigh 20.5 pounds even though I eat as much as my mom, or at least my Aunt Kiki (you call her Kristin, but I like Kiki better).

I love to color with crayons, it's probably my second favorite thing. Whenever anyone asks me what color something is, I say "purple" because that's the only one that matters. I'm very good at staying on the paper.

My face

I'm starting to use sentences, too, but I only do it sometimes. Like today, my daddy wanted me to eat more bites of waffle, so I said, "No wanna bite!" That's three words! I'm also starting to pronounce the ends of words, so I used to say "bai," but now I say "bite!" I'm pretty good at it, and I'm learning new words every day. My favorite word is "no!"

I love little babies. My grandma watches my friend Matthias, but he's just little, only six months old. I'm a big girl, so I help feed him and give him kisses and sit next to him when he's sad. He likes to watch me play, and sometimes we sit and play next to each other (and then I take his toys, don't tell my mommy). When I see him I like to yell "BOY!"

I dance constantly! My mommy watches a show with celebrities on it who are learning to dance. I call it "Nine!" because that's what they say on it. I love it when they dance and I try to do all the same moves. It's a good thing I'm not on the show, though, because I dance so good I'd just win.

And I LOVE outside! It's been pretty warm here lately (not today), and my mommy has been putting a little tub of water on the deck for me to play in with some of my bath toys. It's awesome! I love it when we go outside and I play in the water and mommy blows bubbles. I also like to go on long walks with mommy and grandma and get out of my stroller and walk with them for a while.

And I also love to scream at the top of my lungs, that's another new thing. Mommy doesn't like it, but I do!

Well, that's all. My mommy trimmed my hair the other day because she said the middle was all raggedy from when I had a bald spot. She's silly. Now it's even at the back and I think I look like a boy a little, but I don't care as long as it doesn't make me too hot this summer. Well, that's me! I've got to go because I've got a busy day of running and screaming ahead of me, and I need to rest up a little because I've got a cold. Blah. Happy eighteen months to me!

My haircut

Crazy Dance

Chaela isn't a movie watcher, but she does like the singing/dancing scenes.

They just don't make movies like this anymore.

Sewing Business

I just wanted to post really quick. I'm trying to start up a sewing business with my mom, and I wanted to put a little something online so people could see what we've done in the past. It's not very good, but here's what we've got.

www.ohSweetieHearts.blogspot.com

Yeah. I really want to get something better soon, but since stuff costs money we'll see if we can make a little bit of money before we start investing in things.

Blogging at Work

Here I am at Curves. Yes, I stick my tiny computer in my large purse and sneak it into work. Ok, it's not really sneaking because there's no one working but me and I've done all the stuff I can and there's STILL no one here! I'm getting anxious. If no one comes in the next 10 mins I can close early, but it seems like lately someone always shows up at 5:30 on the dot. Lame.

Wait! Here comes a car! It doesn't look like a Curves person... but it is. I see she's carrying shoes. Dang it! Bye for now. : P