UP

Last night Rich and I went on a date to the movie Up. It was so good. I cried my big alligator tears (as Hillary called them) and I giggled like a little kid. I highly recommend it. It made me realize that we need to enjoy life while we are living it. I was thinking about that movie and the adventure of life and I started to think of this song that my dad had me listen to on his ipod. It was about slowing down and enjoying life, in my mind it is like somebody giving advice (I think that was the main theme). Anyway, I really liked the song a lot and wanted to remember it, but I can't. It was a song by somebody my dad likes (James Taylor, Kenny Loggins or one of thos guys). I know it is long shot, but I thought I put this out there and see if anybody has any ideas on what the song might be. I'll take any suggestions.

Bright Smile

We had the most AMAZING night!!! We went to a Josh Ritter Concert at the Louis Ginter Botanical Gardens with my old roommate Katie and her husband Kevin (visiting from Utah). Let me set the mood. It rained hard for two hours today and we didn't know how the concert would be. Then all of a sudden the rain stopped, so we headed over to the garden. The gardens were beautiful with green trees, a peaceful little pond, lightning bugs and a warm misty humidity. We were just chillin and listening to the tunes. Then Rich and I saw a guy from our ward. He told us he was in charge of the sound system. We were loving the concert, the music was fantastic. Then Grant (the guy from our ward) asked us if we wanted to come up closer to the stage. It was sweet to see Josh up there singing his song and grinning ear to ear (you can tell he loves it). Then as he was playing the last song Grant ushered us behind the stage and gave us a CD and a sharpie. We GOT TO MEET JOSH RITTER!! He was so cool. He asked what books we liked to read, what we did for work, where we were from, how we knew each other, what kind of music we liked and then he gave us all really sweaty hugs. Normally, I don't like sweaty hugs, but this sweaty hug was AWESOME!

Check out Josh's music at http://www.joshritter.com/index.html

Virginia, Earth's onely paradise

"Virginia, Earth's onely paradise" -Michael Drayton 1606

This is a quote that is displayed at the historic Jamestown. My mom is in town (which I love) and we went down to Jamestown. It was fascinating to learn all about the beginnings of our Nation. We love to have visitors so if you want to come see Earth's onely paradise, consider yourself invited.

White Trash Partay!

We got invited to a White Trash Party via a folded up piece of card board and sealed with duct tape. Some people are so creative. So Rich and I came up with costume ideas (I did feel a little guilty using my fellow walmart shoppers for inspiration)

KEY FEATURES OF OUR COSTUME: Mcdonald's bag, "beer"-its good for the pregnant belly, fake ciggy-Richard's is behind his ear, 4 baby doll's all labeled according to different father, Richard's beer gut hanging out, my pregnant belly with the paternity test pending, John Deere hat, and vest. Things that could have been part of the costume that didn't work out: Plummer's crack (we thought our friends would not be pleased to see it) and fake nails for me (the glue was dried up-we did buy them, though)

My "belly"--really a pillow, but I thought it looked kinda real.

We borrowed a real child for this picture.

These are all my babies, labeled for their respective fathers.

I'm Diggin' Wolverine

Richard, here, bringing you a special bulletin! Just so you know, the title of this post deals with two items of the evening. First, Heather and I went to see X-men Origins: Wolverine tonight with some friends. Ahh-Sum!! What a way to kick off the summer movie season right. Don't listen to any critics, this movie was great. It's a superhero movie people, not frickin' Gone With the Wind (which, in my opinion is horrible, but whatever). The action is sweet, the twists are good, the leading man hunky (yeah, still Richard posting, but I'm trying to draw in all the ladies so their husbands don't have to suffer through "Obsessed" or "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past"), and the intertwining storylines from the previous movies great. GO SEE THIS MOVIE! Strangely enough, the theater was not packed, which made me look like kind of a fool for getting everyone there early, sorry guys. But that's good for everyone else, because now you know you'll get a good seat.

So the movie was great, and how could it get any better than that? That's where the second part of my title comes in. Prepare for my story. So I'm sitting in the back seat of Nick and Jenna's car with Heather at a the stop light at Pump and Broad. For some reason, as I'm scratching my head I look over to my right and there's a lady in a red car, and she is going at it, I mean she is really, really picking her nose! So for some reason (I think it was to draw everyone else's attention), I start saying, "Yeah, yeah, pick it! Pick it!" As soon as I say that the lady, who is still going after some ginormous booger, starts turning her head toward me. I quickly snap my head to my left to avoid eye contact and shout "Don't look! Don't Look!" When, to my horror, three heads snap in Unison to the right and all three start laughing. I'll let Heather give her Eye-witness account here: Heather here, So the lady still has her hand up at her face, not actually in the process of picking anymore, but her face was hilarious. She had that I-just-got-caught-with-my-hand-in-the-cookie-jar look on her face. You know the look, eyes wide and gaping with sheer shame. She knew that we all saw it (Now my question is, what was going through her mind as she drove away). Then we all started cracking up. I laughed until my sides hurt. And as for the former part of the post. Wolverine=very good and Hugh Jackman=ripped and somewhat pleasing to the eye.

So not really the woman in the car, but still funny, right?

Richard, back to wrap things up. So as we drove away we laughed for like a good 20 seconds, easy. Funniest thing I've seen in a long, long time. Next time we go on a date, I'm recommending cruising for other picking offenders. I hope you've enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed living it, and now you know: digging for boogers and watching Wolverine are the recipe for a perfect night on the town.

Pride cometh before the fall

Last Thursday Rich (with some help from friends) put my clipless pedals on my bike. For all of those who don't know what clipless pedals are (this is for you, mom), they are pedals that you can connect to the bottom your shoe. Then when you want to disconnect your foot you just twist it to the side and it comes off. The purpose is to give a more complete use of your leg muscles by pushing and pulling with each stroke. ANYWAY...We made plans for a big ride on Saturday and on Friday night I got home from work and Rich held the bike up for me in the living room and let me practice clipping in and out. I fell over onto our couch once (which was pretty funny, considering I was still wearing my skirt from work). On Saturday we went on our big ride and I did GREAT! I didn't fall over once. I was feeling pretty awesome. Then, this Thursday I was at a spin class and was using my shoes and one of the guys in the class asked me if I had wrecked yet. I told him I hadn't and he told me it was right of passage for all bikers to fall off with the pedals. I confidently told him (and Kim backed me up) that I had already made it through a ride without falling and I had a pretty good hang of it. Then I went on a ride with my friend Sara and we get to the first stop sign. I clipped out with my right foot then leaned to the left (which is the foot that I usually clip out). About midway into my lean I realized what I had done, but it was too late. I fell right over and scraped my knee. I am hoping that I now have my fall out of the way and I won't do it again. Cross my fingers.