Better Late Than Never

This morning I had a "rush" project come in at work. I dropped everything to complete the report in a somewhat frantic 45 minutes. After the project was complete, I began to sort out the mess that had become my desk to get back to what I expected to be doing this morning. But before I got back to work, I took my "to do" list and wrote down the project I had just finished, complete with the little star I use to designate a project as "urgent." I then dutifully crossed off the report from my list. Does anyone else write things down on a list AFTER they are already finished, just to have the satisfaction of crossing them off?

Family Fun

My nephew Tanner was blessed on Sunday. We were all able to be in Wendell for the blessing. It was great to have some family time. Here are some of my favorite photos.

Tyler and Lauren - we're so glad he'll acknowledge her now! He was very cute with her and would talk to her in a soft, sweet voice. However, he was concerned that she wanted to put EVERYTHING in her mouth. Don't worry buddy. She'll outgrow it in a year or two... just like you did!

Me and my friend Sara with Baby Lauren. Sara lives in Boise and came up on Saturday so we could have some girl time. Thanks Sara! It was so good to see you. We should go hot-tubbing in Jerome more often. And we have got to get ourselves some of those cute tights! Grandpa with the four kids. Be glad these photos aren't videos or you would be able to hear me shrieking, "Stop the cuteness. Just make it stop" in the background. That wouldn't be annoying at all!

Still killing me with the cuteness.

Family shot of Ty, Jess, Tyler, Bryce and Tanner.

Tay and Heather with Lauren.

Outside the church. We made it through Sacrament Meeting without any major incidents. We did get a chuckle out of the boys' observation that the wheat bread used in the Sacrament was actually "chocolate bread." Bryce also grabbed for the water tray and Uncle Taylor wasn't quite quick enough to stop the spillage. But overall, we did pretty well! Group shot. This was the point in the day when Bryce was tired of taking pictures and started taking his shirt off. He's a true Thomas. I guarantee that Dad, Ty, and Taylor weren't much behind him. We are not a family that loves to stay in our church clothes one second longer than necessary. But notice that they are all wearing suit jackets for this one small moment in time! What a great day.

So cute. Bryce was REALLY done by this point.

There She Goes Again

I got home from going to dinner with my family last night, kicked off my shoes, and saw this: a hole in my sock. I kind of have a thing for socks - I don't like it when my socks have holes, when anyone else's socks have holes, or when people (and you know who you are) make "inappropriate sock choices" such as wearing white socks with dress pants. It's a weird pet peeve and I can totally admit it. But knowing that it's not really that big a deal does not keep me from getting fired up about it on a regular basis. I quickly removed my socks last night and threw them in the trash. But it got me thinking about some of my other quirks. Here is my list of Things You Do NOT Want To Get Me Started Talking About.

• Socks. Clearly.


• Clean Flicks (I hate edited movies. Either watch the movie or don't. But don't pick and choose the parts you want to watch so the movie conforms to your standards. Producers and writers have an artistic right to present a film the way they want it to be viewed. I think you get my point here.)


• Bad Christmas Music


• Target vs Walmart


• Public Education

Ok, that's all I can think of for now. But there are more. This post will probably be continued at a later date.

Send In The Crazy Clowns

As a little bit of background to this post, you should know that I joined another online dating site. I know, I know. I swore I would never make that mistake again. I'm a hypocrite. Not only that - I'm a hypocrite who apparently likes to torture herself. Which is the very worst kind of hypocrite. With that said... the good news for you is that I am again finding myself with some absolutely hilarious material. Take this email I just received. It was the very first contact of any sort from this young man and he chose to end it this way, "Let me know if you would like to spend the rest of your life with me." Very casual. Very smooth. Not "Let me know if you'd like to chat" or even "Let me know if you might want to get together sometime." But "Let me know if you would like to spend the rest of your life with me." Sure, ok. Why not?

Question: Am I Too Old To Take Up Professional Irish Dancing?

Has anyone been wondering if Lauren is still cute? I think the following two pictures speak for themselves...

Heck yes she is!!!

We hung out at my Dad's house on Saturday night. Lauren has a little bit of a cold and I kept her entertained by singing Primary songs. She's young enough that she doesn't know that Aunt Traci is making up half of the words and shamelessly combining verses where needed. She was also too young to enjoy the peach cobbler I made. Ok, so I can't really take credit for the mix I added 6 tablespoons of melted butter to - but the cobbler was delicious!

Also "delicious" this weekend - River Dance!!! Tricia and I went with two of our friends (also sisters, how cute are we?) on Friday night to see River Dance. Loved the dancing, loved the singing, loved the costumes, loved the instruments. I pretty much want to be in River Dance. If they ever have an opening for a redhead with many years of clogging experience (and if they don't care that I am 30+ years old and marginally talented on a good day) I will definitely be trying out.

Saturday and Sunday I watched General Conference. It was wonderful to hear messages from church leaders. My overall impression from Conference was that I need to be committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I need to do the best I can at "the basics" every single day and make choices that bring me closer to Him. Oh, and it would help if I could be nicer to people and happier in my day-to-day decisions. The great thing about Conference is that it makes me believe I can do those things. So here we go!!!