Thursday, August 14

Thursday night we went to a midnight showing of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. James has been so excited about this movie for so long, we couldn't wait. We had to go to the first available show. And it was really fun. The theater was filled with mostly pre-teen and teenage boys, many of whom carried light sabers. The ones without light sabers were jealous though, and yelled at the ones with them to put them away. Sad. But once the movie started, and everyone cheered, the light sabers were forgotten (except the ones in the movie, of course) and everyone enjoyed the show. It really was quite good. The only way I would have enjoyed it more is if my stomach hadn't felt like it was about to explode throughout the entire movie. I don't think my body can handle being up so late anymore. I was struggling the entire movie to find a position in which I felt semi-comfortable. But apart from that, I really enjoyed myself.

Best parts:

The female jedi really was pretty cool, if a bit snotty. The relationship between her and Anakin worked really well I think.

The droids were pretty funny, if cheesy.

I think the animation was very well done, and it had a neat style to it.

Pretty cool bad guy.

Simple plot that did not go overboard, nor get sacrificed to all the explosions. I like that.

Wednesday, August 14

This day, I got to have lunch with my Lolly. It was great fun. I miss having her around to go out with me and just kill time talking. We went to Los Hermanos, which has some amazing horchata, by the way. I definitely recommend it. The atmosphere is also lovely in there. But of course the best part was just being with my friend and talking about life. Ah, happiness.

Wednesday was also the day we got our projector! Whoo-hoo! We are so excited. We tore apart our living room trying to arrange everything in the bes place for the projector, only to find out that it works best just sitting on the coffee table anyway. But it was fun, and I think I like the projector better there. Our friends Tracie and Austin came over for the inaugural viewing, and we watched Jurassic Park. It was great fun, and so nice to be able to hang out with friends again.

Biggest news- James is DONE! Whoo-hoo! That means at least two weeks where I actually get to see and spend time with my husband. So happy :)

Tuesday, August 12

The big news for Tuesday is that I got my annual raise. 25 cents! All right!! So exciting.

Monday, August 11

I <3 the Olympics! All the commercials make me cry, as do the blurbs on the athletes, and the medal ceremonies. Who knew you could enjoy crying so much? A few Olympics ago, I fell in love with Ian Thorpe - the Thorpedo they called him - an incredible swimmer, he crushed the competition. A little corner of my heart has always belonged to him (I dreamed of marrying him when I was 16), but now... and I feel a bit bad for saying this, that corner has been totally taken over by Michael Phelps. I'm so fickle. Don't worry, the rest of my heart is more loyal, and it all belongs to James. But the not-so-loyal part of my heart goes to the swimmer with the most medals, and that, dear friends is Michael Phelps. The guy is amazing! Watching him in the water is more exciting than any blockbuster film. Until they make a movie about him, I guess. :P

Sunday, August 10th

Fun day - we got to go to James's Aunt Diane's for dinner after church, which is always delicious and always really fun. After that, we went to a fireside the stake put on about fertility. We went to be supportive of the stake, and honestly because I was a bit curious. They had said that anyone interested in having children should go to the fireside, but it really focused almost entirely on infertility issues. So, not particularly useful, as we're not quite worried about that yet. But, I did learn some interesting things. One, human beings are ineffective reproducers, and two, James is funny when he sleeps through firesides. His head was bobbing all over the place!

After the fireside, we came home to find my dear friend Lolly waiting for us in the driveway! Yay! She's here visiting from Washington. We had a short visit in which I gave her her birthday present - a small t-shirt quilt backed with Batman fabric. I have to say I was proud of that one. And then we made plans to meet up again later. Yay, I'm so glad she's here!

Saturday, August 9

Saturday was a blast. We got to go to the West family reunion in the afternoon and represent the George West family. I was so sad though, because we couldn't find our camera, so we got zero pictures of the awesome activity. Hopefully, we'll be getting some from other reunion attendees soon so we can post those pictures for all to see.

Highlights:

Yummy food abounded.

Great conversation, as always with the West family.

Got to meet some new cousins that I didn't know before, and see some that we haven't seen in a while.

There was a baseball game in which you had to swing at every pitch and you were always safe. What an awesome way to play baseball! Sadly, I only got to play for a bit and I was in the outfield so the always-safe rule kinda stunk for me, but still, the philosophy was awesome.

James's Uncle Franklin taught us all to do the Charleston. It was super fun, and kinda crazy, and took a lot of energy.

There was a showdown between our group and another group that came later and had apparently reserved the same pavilion in the park. We had prior claim to it, but they got really really worked up about it. So the Wests kindly obliged them, and we left without too much fuss. Just the one crying lady who takes life too seriously. Sadly, we couldn't join the rest of the Wests at the new location where they continued the party - James had to go home and study.

Good times, though. Very good times.

Scattergories

Well, I'm trying to catch up on my daily goal here... I'm already almost a week behind. Eep. So, here's my post for last Friday: Nothing happened, so I'm going to steal Tracie's scattergories post.

SCATTERGORIES... USE the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following, they have to be real...places, names, things-nothing made up. Try to use different answers if the person that sent it has the same first letter. And you can't use your name for the boy/girl question...

What is your name? Charity
4 letter word: chip
Vehicle: chevy
TV show: Chuck!
Body part: chin
Girl name: Charlotte
Boy name: Charles
Occupation: Chicken farmer
Something you wear: chaps (fun!)
Food: chocolate
Something found in a bathroom: chones
Excuse for being late: chewed-up tires?
Something you shout: Cheer up, it's only a blood-thirsty killer out to get you.

*edit* By chones, I was going for Mexican slang for underwear. Not that other definition my mom mentioned. This is a clean blog.

They Forgot My Kids' Cone

So, if any of you have a chance to go to an Iceberg - take it. And get the kids' meal. The thing is just the perfect amount of food. And they really don't skimp at all. We are not talking a happy meal here. Now, there's no toy, but--but! you get your choice of hamburger, cheeseburger, corndog, or grilled cheese sandwich, what would be considered a large fry at your typical McDonald's/Burger King, a decent size drink, AND (the best part) you also get a chocolate dipped cone. Now, we are not talking kids' size, small, or even medium. The thing is gigantic. And it is dipped in chocolate. I don't think I can stress that enough. And it's perfect. There is not a better dipped cone in the world of ice cream. No. Nowhere. Not anywhere. And so you can imagine my disappointment when I got my kids' meal today and got all the way back to the office before realizing they had neglected to give me my cone. It was a sad day.

Ok, not that sad. Mostly it was a really good day. So here are the good parts:

My bosses told me that I have a great personality - they said I (and two of my fellow editors--we were all being given a new responsibility at work, I think the compliments are to make up for the fact that we will never get a raise) am just the right amount of OCD, without being annoying. They also said we had "dynamic" personalities and that we work well with other people. It was a very self-esteem boosting meeting.

I got Twilight stickers to put all over Tracie's work station. She loves Twilight. LoVeS iT wItH a TeEnaGe PaSsiON. Never joined a Twilight hate group, not once. Oh no, not Tracie. I am not being sarcastic. At all.

I was really busy at work today, but still managed to have several good laughs with coworkers over various things. I really like my job. It's really nice. Since I started working at home, going in to the office is kind of like a treat.

Last of all I get to come home to my Jamey and spend even just a little bit of time with him and it was nice.

Yay for my happy life. Boo for my missing dipped cone.

August 6th

So, let's pretend I wrote this yesterday. Everyone game? Great.

Today was a really simple day, dotted with some pretty simple pleasures. After work, I went out to run errands, since we had almost no food in the house. I took my bro-in-law Anthony's car (it's interesting now to have a choice of three cars whenever I want to go anywhere), which has a cd player in it, and it's weird but I was so happy to be listening to Coldplay's Parachutes as I drove to Joann's and then Macey's and then Costco. The music combined with the semi stormy weather had my heart soaring. And then, when I got out of the car at Macey's and saw a double rainbow, it was like the day was complete. Right there. I didn't need anything else.

Later when I got home, I was surprised to find James there. He had a project to do, but was able to come home earlier than I had expected. He helped me unload the groceries and we just had fun laughing and talking about nothing really. Last, I made cookies, cleaned the kitchen (the rest of the house is still a disaster), and went to bed. A perfectly simple, simply perfect day.

Tuesday, Tuesday

It's almost over. Tuesday, that is. It was a good day. Worked from home. Made potato soup for dinner. Did some crafty things. Taught English. Ate chocolate cake with James. Going to bed now. What a Tuesday.