Little White Lie

For Christmas, Tay and Heather created matching shirts for me and Lauren. Mine says, "I'm as cute as my niece." Not really! But they made for a fun little photo shoot.

A Sad Story

7:18 a.m. Received text from our receptionist. She was going to be late to work. Could I cover the phones until she got there?

7:19 a.m. Pulled curlers from my hair and threw on a skirt.

7:25 a.m. Driving to work. Notice I have a small run in my nylons.

7:58 a.m. Arrive at work. Answer phones and stare at the run in my nylons. Not a big deal, no one will notice. Except I can't handle it.

9:30 a.m. Quick trip to Smiths Marketplace. Return to work and change into new nylons in the bathroom.

2:30 p.m. Glance down, notice a GINORMOUS run down my entire left leg. My brand new pair of nylons was seriously shredded to pieces. Think about pulling my old pair of nylons from the garbage because they're in way better shape than the ones I just spent $5 on. Decide against it. Curse the man (obviously it was a man) who invented nylons in the first place.

5:30 p.m. Home at last. Rip nylons into a million tiny bits. Smile. Actually that was $5 well spent.

Birthday Recap

4 Siblings +
3 Nephews +
2 Best Friends From High School +
1 Niece +
= A "Perfect 10" Birthday Weekend

I had a lot of fun on my birthday. The day before, I was able to meet up with Ashlee and Sara and spend Sunday afternoon with them. On Monday, I had pizza and cupcakes with Tyler and Bryce in Wendell for lunch. Then I drove back home and was able to have dinner with Dad, Biz, Tay, Heather and Lauren. What a great (if somewhat exhausting!) day.

Baby Tanner. He is just as soft and sweet as he looks.

Bryce LOVES Tanner. (Tyler isn't sure yet. But he's trying.)

The Boys.

I call this picture "Don't Hate Jess Because She's Beautiful at 39 Weeks Pregnant. And Her Boys Look Adorable in Their Matching Church Clothes While Clutching Their Copies of the Book of Mormon. Really, Don't Hate Her."

Ashlee made this bag. Doesn't it look just like me? I love it. I hung it on a chair in my kitchen to snap this photo - and it goes so well with my kitchen table (which I also love) that I haven't taken it down yet. It's just waiting in the kitchen for our first adventure together.

When I got back to my apartment after spending a few days in Idaho, I had an amazing surprise. Dad and Biz had decorated for my birthday. The sign says, "Great party. Too bad you missed it." That is too bad! It looks like a good, good time.

My "Happi Birthday Traci" poster. With hearts! Too cute! I have to say, a brightly decorated kitchen was EXACTLY what I needed after a 3 hour drive on my birthday. Thanks guys!

One last birthday shot. This is me and Lauren. I have two pictures in this same pose: one where I look cute and one where Lauren ISN'T sticking out her tongue. I chose to post the one where I look cute. Sorry sweetheart. It's my birthday. And you look cute doing anything!

Introducing Tanner Young Thomas

Tanner was born February 10th at 8:28 p.m. Tanner and Jess are both doing great! Tanner is 6 lbs 13 oz and 20 inches long. This is the only photo I have for now - but I promise that a lifetime of pics is to follow!

I am in Wendell hanging out with Tyler and Bryce while Jess is in the hospital. We are having a lot of fun riding bikes, eating cookies (shhh... don't tell) and watching Curious George. We went to visit Tanner at the hospital this morning. We stopped at Walmart yesterday (yes, Walmart - Jerome doesn't have a Target) and the boys got to pick out a present for their new baby brother. Tyler picked a teddy bear and Bryce picked a Sesame Street plate. Which means Tyler ended up with a teddy bear and an Elmo plate and Bryce got a teddy bear and a Sesame Street plate. They were both excited to give their presents to Tanner this morning.

So far "the babysitter" is doing great. Don't tell Ty and Jess... but I was pretty sure I had locked us out of the apartment at one point. Thank goodness I found the key. Then late last night, I decided to run the dishwasher. Unfortunately, the dish soap I grabbed was REGULAR dish soap, not dishwasher detergent. Turned into a little bit of a bubbly mess in the kitchen. I panicked for a minute, but all's well that ends well. In case anyone ever makes such a mistake, the solution I found online (and one I can now vouch for) was to scoop out as much water as possible, then pour a cup of cooking oil into the dishwasher with a handful of table salt layered on top to dissolve the bubbles. Run the dishwasher for a minute with the cooking oil... then rewash the whole load using dishwasher detergent. In the future, I think I'll just start with the right detergent in the first place and skip the scooping and salting steps. But live and learn! As a side note, I was more than a little nervous to run the washing machine last night after the dishwasher disaster! But I really needed to wash the towels I'd used to mop out the dishwasher and eliminate the evidence of the dumb thing I'd done.

At least Tanner has arrived safe and well. And Tyler and Bryce are still in one piece. That's what's important, right?

Taking Time

The guy who does our landscaping at work brought roses around today for all the girls in the office. The smell of roses will always remind me of my Grandpa Thomas and his rose garden. I think all of the cousins have memories of going to Fred Meyer with Grandpa for their annual plant sale. And when we were in American Falls on a Sunday, Grandpa would let us pick a rose as a "corsage" we could wear to church. (Grandma was left with the more difficult task of pinning the roses on our dresses.) My pink rose today reminded me of family and how lucky I am to be a part of MY family.

What a Week

I got a pedicure last night. Hot pink toes seemed like the perfect antidote to a week of bitter cold and emotional meltdowns.

I had no idea after I left my singles ward last month (I'm not supposed to say I got kicked out of the ward for being old... but why tiptoe around the truth) that my Boy-Girl experiences would only get worse. How is that even possible, you ask. Let me tell you about my week.

• I heard through the grapevine that a guy I had dinner with a few weeks ago decided not to ask me out again because I like fruit. And he has anxiety about eating fruit. So obviously, that was not going to work out well long term.

• A work associate offered to set me up with his "one single friend left," who happens to be 24 years old. He thought I'd make an awesome cougar. I'm not sure about his judgement though, because he also mentioned that the outfit I was wearing yesterday was a cross between a kindergarten teacher and a hooker. And it gets better. Because when I diplomatically said "no" to the 24 year-old, he offered to give me the phone number of one of his insurance clients, an almost-divorced Argentinean with three kids who owns a jewelry store and (get this) a healthy cigarettes establishment. ??? Because the "jewelry store/tobacco shop owner" thing would go well with the "school teacher/lady of the night" look I have going on here.

• Also this week I was approached by two high school age guys who led off with their GPA's and ACT scores. One of them was hopeful that he'd qualify for a full ride scholarship to Utah State. It took ALL of my self-control not to embarrass him in front of his buddy and be like, "Wow, a full ride? I had a full ride to Utah State. In 1997."

Now, this is my blog, so I would be totally within my rights to leave it at that. I am surrounded by guys who are exceedingly lame. End of story. But in the interest of full disclosure, I will state that also this week I totally freaked out on a good friend who happens to be a boy. I cried, made sweeping accusations, said words I don't typically say, and made threats of violence I had every intention of carrying out. If you've ever seen me get good and ticked before, you know exactly what kind of scene I'm talking about. If you haven't... thank your lucky stars.

So what's a girl to do? My temporary solution last night was a hot pink pedicure, a ten pound pork burrito and an early bedtime. I've also set a goal not to throw knives at people. Already the world seems like a better place!