Do you have Words with Friends?

I'm hooked. Hit me up if you've got it, por favor.

Of Course! Part II

Mom and I  dropped off some music for organ accompanists tonight, and at the last house we visited, we stayed for a while and chatted. They offered us some cookies so Mom took two, I guess. Ate one and decided she didn't want to eat any more sugar. So, unbeknownst to me, she held the cookie in her hand the rest of our visit.

We left, and as we were walking out to the car, I heard a noise in the bushes to our right. Knowing Mom freaks out with animals in nature, I looked over to the bushes to see what was going on. Mom started to laugh and said, "I just had to get rid of my cookie." So she tossed it!


Um, what? We were, like, five steps away from the car!

"You couldn't hold it until we got in the car?"

"Well, I didn't want to hold it any more!"

"The bushes?"

"I didn't want to throw it on the grass."

Of course! Why not?

Cliche Pictures Again

 But I'm okay with it. Made another trip to SF this last week and it was fantastic! Paola and I basically ate our way through the weekend, which is exactly how we roll. 

Thurs night = Fritz crepes. Biggest crepes ever. Nice!

Friday night = Thai place (P, what was the name of that place? We need to go back) within walking distance of her place

Sat morning = Zazie = YUM! I got the gingerbread pancakes with lemon curd on top and they were AWESOME.

Sat night = Taquiera Cancun. Best burrito I've ever had, even if the gang (?) that hid in the restaurant to evade the cops was a little disconcerting.

Monday = random place at the SF airport had the best quesadilla outside of La Sirena Grill that I've enjoyed. The bacon in it definitely had something to do with that.

 I've been wanting to visit this place for a while, so I was thrilled we got it on the agenda this time. Beautiful, huh? The best part was this: two gals were having (separate) quinceaneras/photo shoots there, decked out and with fancy photographers and everything. Some random tourists apparently really wanted some shots, so they got IN FRONT OF the photographers and started snapping away. Pretty classic.

It IS a real tree, and it has 20,000 lights on it. I had to take a picture of both the tree and sign since Mom is well known for her love of a tree that's pretty much on fire. She put 31 strands of lights on our cute little tree. 31! Now, it's not 20k, but c'mon! :)

Of Course!

So, we've got employees. Plural. And we've got an office. With cubicles and stuff! It's all very exciting. And do you know what this means, in part?

My days of talking with friends whenever they call, middle of the day, middle of the night, whenever, etc. might be over. It's kind of sad and I miss it.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was when Little Sister called this afternoon, on a non-work-day. She said, "Guess where I am?"

"California?!"

"No, but that's better than my answer."

"PF Chang's?! Tucano's?!" (our usual spots back in the day)

"No."

I gave up, so she said, "TJ Maxx!"

OF COURSE she's shopping. =) Why I didn't guess on the first try, I'll never know.

I heart Little Sister, and I miss her adorable face so stinkin' much! Come visit soon, love!

My Bishop Rocks

Any of you had a Yellow bishop before? It's pretty dang cool. If you haven't had a Yellow bishop before, I feel bad for you.

Any of you had a bishop ask you to meet with him to go over your patriarchal blessing? If you haven't, I feel bad for you.

Any of you had a bishop read over a part of your patriarchal blessing, and then say, "That is LEGIT"? If you haven't, I feel bad for you.

My bishop rocks.

San Francisco, I Love You

Cliche picture? Perhaps, but I'm okay with it. Even more okay with it since the boat tour coincided with the Blue Angels doing their fancy tricks overhead--it was awesome!

I went up to S.F. for five days to play with Paola and to try and squeeze in some work. The play and the work were all pretty much perfection (I love clients that love us), and I may or may not have fallen in love with San Francisco. Again.

You'd better believe the $90 JetBlue fare to return to S.F. next month is tempting me. Potentially more than I can handle.

Add This to the "Feel Like An Adult" List

Semi-recently I asked when you felt like an adult, and I've got another to add to the list of TiVo'ing cooking shows and asking for nice kitchen knives for Christmas: picking up my suits from the dry cleaners after a business trip. I feel like I'm totally faking this being-an-adult thing 99% of the time, until doing things like that.

Any new "Feel Like An Adult" things to add to your list?

Is This Crazy?

I am currently the owner of three printers--is this crazy?

I bought a black-and-white laser my third year up at school because paying for those stupid ink cartridges every few months seemed so stupid to me. Lasers rock and save you bundles in the long run. Then I saw a color laser on sale the next year, and I had to buy that, too.

My boss showed up tonight with one of those printer/scanner/fax things--sweet! I don't have to go up to the neighbor's house anymore to scan documents for clients--yay! Everybody wins.

No Bueno

You know how you have good hair days and bad hair days? Days where you wake up and think you're looking pretty good for the day? Other days when it's maybe not so much? I was feeling pretty good about things today having recently gotten my hair cut and colored, only to pull out my magnifying mirror to find it was broken.

Cue jokes now.

I Used to be Better at This

I used to be better at this blogging thing. Or maybe my life was more interesting and I felt I actually had something to blog about. I dunno.

But I'm heading to Santa Barbara next week for work, and then to San Francisco to visit Miss Paola and also meet with a client or two a couple weeks after that. Life's about to get more interesting.

I'm seriously looking forward to S.B. See why?

Does this ever happen to you?

This didn't happen to me, but I'm wondering if it happens to anyone other than, well, someone I know.

So work with me during this hypothetical situation, and let me know if any of these aspects of this situation ever happen to you.

Do you ever call up the customer service line of a product and, while on hold for 10 minutes or so, realize you REALLY have to go to the bathroom?

Do you decide to go, even while on hold?

Does someone take your call just as you're, you know . . .

Does a man happen to be on the other end of the line?

Do you happen to be calling the customer service line to ask a question about pantyliners?

The Things You Learn

I learned yesterday that I'm apparently very fat.

Whilst demonstrating a few arm-balance yoga poses for some extended family, I was holding myself up with my hands to which my aunt exclaimed, "Woah! That's a lot of weight to hold up!"

I love Jo for so many reasons, and that's totally one of them.

=)

Sure, Why Not?

My sister and Jack spent Tuesday up here, so we all went to our favorite Thai place, the kind of place that is owned by the NICEST Thais who speak little--and broken--English.

(I pretty much want to bathe in their green curry, it's so good) 

What does Mom say, in a way that only she can pull off?

"You gotta talk Taiwanese here . . ."

Strange Urges

I've learned some really cool poses in yoga classes lately. So cool, in fact, that I've lately been walking around with strange urges to hop into these poses at the most random of times.

Like when a guy goes on a 2-3 minute random comment in Institute, what was I thinking about? "I wonder if I could do side crow on the sidewalk outside right now."

Or when I was listening to some fantastic organ music after Institute tonight, "Is there enough room on this podium to try crow?"

Due to popular demand (read: Wendy's request), here are pictures of two of the three poses I'm obsessed with right now:

There's a third pose I'm also obsessed with, but I can't remember the name of it and I'm having trouble finding a picture of it. I'll keep looking though, because it's so cool!

No Really, This Is Ridiculous

Remember how I asked if any of you had experience with Amazon Prime recently?

I may have a bit of a problem. An addiction of sorts, if you will. 

(Cue the classic Will & Grace episode in my head: Karen: "Well, I'm no expert, but I think you have a little addiction problem. Now, listen to me. [gets out a pill] The first thing you have to do is admit that you have a problem. [swirls the pill in her martini] Because if you can't even recognize the signs . . . [drops the wet pill into her mouth] then you are really in sorry shape. [washes down the pill] Oh, mmm! [To the martini glass] Why are you so good to me?"

I am currently surrounded by these recently purchased books on my bed:

The Big Leap

Good to Great

The Highly Sensitive Person

A New Earth

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Women of the Old Testament

In Defense of Food

The Omnivore's Dilemma 

Made to Stick

Yeah, I'm a nerd. But now that I think about it, it's not really an addiction I'm worried about anytime soon. What are you reading? What should I add to my stack here?

Why, Yes It Has Been Two Months Since My Birthday

Doesn't mean I've taken down all the wonderful cards I got or that the balloon the Cardalls gave me isn't still going strong.

Because I haven't, and it is.

Hey, I'm a Blue; birthdays are what we do. :)

When Did You Realize You Were An Adult?

It hit me a couple years back when I asked for a nice set of kitchen knives for Christmas (how I love my Twin Cuisine Henckels!). Then it hit me again when I recently realized that TiVo'ing cooking shows is pretty much one of the coolest things ever. (or does that just make me a big nerd?) Yep, I'm officially an adult now.

When did it hit you?

Anybody Like Yoga?

Anybody like yoga? I've been going to some yoga classes at this studio nearby for the last couple of months and it totally kicks my trash! No, seriously--it's hard. There's not a chance I can get anywhere near doing that pose in the picture, but I think it looks super cool.

I swear, my body isn't built for yoga, but it's pretty dang awesome.  If you want to give it a whirl, CorePowerYoga in AV gives you a free week to try it out. They mostly offer heated classes, and I've become a fan.

It's Genetic

My sister and I both have this thing where we run into things. A lot. Apparently our body-eye coordination? Not so good which is weird since we're both pretty athletic. But I run into corners with my shoulders all the time (Mom says it's the broad shoulders--what?!). The other day I REALLY missed while getting into the shower and hit the sliding doors so hard that Mom figured I'd seriously hurt myself because the thud was so very loud. Nope, just didn't quite judge the right distance between my ever-so-broad shoulders (seriously?) and the sliding doors.

Which brings me to the point of the post. I've got this big bruise on my calf--maybe three inches by two inches--and I have NO idea how I got it.

Does this happen to anyone else? Random, painful bruises? Or maybe randomly running into things? You know, ALL THE TIME? Anyone? Anyone?

Human Jukebox

I'm a guitar player. A skills-are-much-regressed-in-the-last-five-years guitar player, but a guitar player nonetheless. One of the things I get a kick out of is seeing how people respond to you when you're jamming away at a bonfire with a bunch of friends. There are usually two types of folks who will engage in conversation with you: the kind who will list 20 of their favorite songs and ask you to play them all (and then ask if you have lyrics to all of them--no joke), and the kind who ask what your favorite songs are, and if you'd play them.

While I don't mind engaging in a little bit of human jukebox, it's incredibly refreshing when the 1% of folks who fall into the latter category pop up.

Perfect Thursday Night

What could be better than cooking dinner with a friend--roasted chicken chipotle tacos--and then watching the pilot of Castle, the series finale of Will & Grace, and then the season finale of Grey's with said friend?

Absolutely nothing.

Especially since that was the most intense two hours of TV I've ever seen, and I couldn't have watched it alone. SO GOOD. Thank you, m'dear!

Classic Quote of the Day

"I've literally downed two Diet Cokes in the last hour, so you know where I'm at." - Kath

What Are The Odds?

What are the odds that two of the girls I visit teach have seriously dated the same guy in the last year (and are SO unbelievably different)? And that that guy is the ex-husband of a good friend of mine? And that one of the said ladies I visit teach--and absolutely adore--saw some wedding announcements on the fridge and knew them (she knew Holly's fiancee and Rachel Terribilini)? And was in Kath's ward (of Page 17 fame)? What are the odds?

Liz Week! Part I

I'm finally getting around to posting about Liz's stay here since, you know, I've drafted two complaints this week that total somewhere around 300 pages. My brain hurts.

I LOVED having Liz visit; in fact, I think she should come back asap! Please? A gal after my own food-loving, Lab-loving, TV-show-obsessed heart.

Some highlights. For whatever reason, we watched a few minutes of Family Feud. One of the families was a group of young-ish men (teens to thirties, I'd say), each with some colored shirt and a matching, mono-chromatic tie, if I'm remembering correctly. One of the men seemed a little effeminate to me--and it wasn't just the peach-colored shirt and tie; his posture and diction were too good for a straighty--and I said something like, "Is he gay?"

He was then given the question, "Name one thing that people have a hard time walking away from."

He shouted out ever-so-enthusiastically, "BOYFRIEND!"

We just about died.

We went to La Sirena Grill in Laguna Beach one day (LOVE that place!), and as we were eating, we noticed a very intriguing seagull who apparently didn't like to get his little webbed feet on the filthy ground; he merely hopped from the top of one car to the next. It was awesome.

The new macaroni and cheese at BJ's is really good. Not Fleming's Chipotle Macaroni and Cheese good, but pretty dang good, especially for the $3.95 price tag. I'm a fan.

Liz apparently likes to make eye contact with other drivers to create fun and/or awkward situations. I pointed out that one guy in a car next to us was picking his nose, she looked over, and they made eye contact. AWKWARD! Or there was the couple waiting in their car in the parking structure at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Liz looked over, said, "Oh, they looked at me," looked over again, apparently made eye contact again, and squealed (no joke) "He was looking again!" "Liz, these doors and windows aren't soundproof--they totally heard you squeal!" "Luckily, it was mostly unintelligible."

One of Liz's classic phrases, used multiple times during the trip, was, "As we learned in 2012 . . ."

More later . . .

I'm Hooked

This happens every time I get sick: I get hooked on a new show.

Castle. I LOVE IT. Have you seen it? What do you think?

Icky and Ew

Dear Spiders,

I don't love all of God's creations. If I see one itty bit of your ick-y and ew-y selves, your life expectancy will be drastically reduced.

Thanks,
Laura

Las Brisas, Every Time

Every time Fred comes into town, we do Las Brisas. No, really. EVERY time.

You might have seen a new profile picture on Facebook, which happens every time he comes into town and immediately following their fantastic all-you-can-eat brunch. And why not--he's such a handsome guy! (not to mention hilarious and one of my best friends ever--love him! Thank the high heavens he mentioned St. Anthony in his Sacrament Meeting talk all those years ago, the tiny town in Idaho where his mom grew up, and where my mom grew up, too--that started this whole friendship)

Books, DVDs, and More Books--Oh My!

Given my love for books, DVDs, and even more books, Amazon Prime might just be the DEATH of me. Anyone else have it? Love it? Overuse it? Ahem.

Yay!

And it came to pass, that The Gardeners came today, and there was much rejoicing in Kobe's land.

YAY!

Last week was just too sad.

iSick

I've been sick since Sunday. Not so much fun. So, in an effort to make healing as easy on my body as possible, I've essentially been vegan since Saturday night: green smoothies, Living Fuel (powdered super food, not unlike green smoothies, that you blend with water, the stuff Brooke once said she wanted to try when we were roommates, but couldn't bring herself to--I never had to worry about roommates taking my food), and apples and tangerines are really all I've eaten.

While I'm really craving some Chipotle, I gotta say it's not all bad. Heaven knows I won't maintain this one bit when I'm over this blasted cold, but good to know I won't shrivel up and die if I don't eat my beloved barbacoa or pepperjack cheese or something else yummy for four days.

Thursdays

Dear Gardeners,

My dog looks forward to your visits every week--he thinks you come for him, not the yard!--and every time a truck parks anywhere near our house on a Thursday (yes, he knows which day Thursday is) morning or afternoon before you've come, he runs outside and starts talking, I mean, barking, hoping the truck is yours.

You know how much he loves you guys; he has a special bark reserved just for you. You guys are awesome and play with him every week, and have for over a decade now.

You haven't come yet today, and he's beside himself. SUPER sad. Please come soon.

Thanks,
Kobe's Mom

Black Labs are Fun!

I love it when the neighbor's black Lab, Scoot, randomly meanders up four houses to our house, scooches in the gate, squeezes through an open door, and finds us upstairs. At first we're like, Wait, Kobe, get on your place! Only to realize we're not talking to Kobe.

I love it!

I Get Attached

I got an email from my boss this week, with this post-script:

"P.S. You've adopted the Graham school of voicemail box management -- it's full."

Very true. Full, and has been full for over a week.

See, here's the thing. I have wonderful friends who leave me voice messages that range anywhere from hilarious to sweet to insightful to blog-worthy, and sometimes all in the same message. So I save messages.

What am I doing right now? Recording the saved messages with my digital voice recorder so I can finally delete some messages and make room for some more fantastically awesome voice messages in the near future.

So please, feel free to call and leave funny messages if I don't pick up. I'll love you all the more for it. 

Thanks, Jillian!

 

Last week one of my uncle's came to LA for the day, meeting with Jillian Michaels. She's endorsed some of his company's products for a while now, and I'm personally grateful to her because I got to see my uncle for an evening! We grabbed some food in his hotel's restaurant and chatted it up until 11pm. My uncle is SO much fun that your cheeks end up being sore from all the laughing when you're with him.

One of my favorite things he shared? He hardly packed a thing. The only things in his luggage were products to show Ms. Michaels. Once he'd shown her the products and given them to her, he collapsed all the boxes in his rental car and had empty bags. What *did* he pack, you ask? 

Everything he has in his bathroom at his house in UT. 

A toothbrush.

Yep. That's ALL he has. He's so low-maintenance that it's ridiculous--props, Jace!

Holy Yum. II.

Went to Las Brisas today for brunch with Christa and Emily this morning and it was YUM. Omelets, waffles, bacon (the national food in my world), etc. etc. Beautiful weather, really good food, fun friends, and the fourth fun thing? Music. I heard at least two Sarah McLachlan songs and a Dido song,

Perfection.

Holy Yum.

I tried a yoga class today at Core Power Yoga in Aliso Viejo. If you've never been there before, you get a free week to try it out, so I went today, taking a break from work. I learned a couple of things.

1. Holy cow, I'm going to be so sore tomorrow. The class I did today was a heated yoga class; I've never done heated yoga before but I LOVED it. But it was hard.

2. People in the yoga community are super nice. I've been to quite a few yoga classes at different 24 Hours over the years, but this is the first time I've been to one at a dedicated yoga studio.

3. I had the most amazing view. A guy in front of me, maybe my age-ish or several years older, had what I consider to be the most perfect body I've ever seen.

I was in heaven. And he was nice enough to come up and introduce himself after the class!

Holy yum.

Brooke Classics

I caught up with my old roommate, Brooke, on the phone tonight. She's called me a couple times lately and has left hilarious messages, but I've been a complete slacker and didn't call her back until tonight.

Luckily for me, she'd taken a Tylenol Cold Nighttime about 20 minutes before I called her, so I got some golden material.

She and some friends got together to watch what was apparently a really crappy chick flick the other night. Her invite list, according to her? "Only girls and gay guys can come."

"Someday I'll go to Cirque du Soleil, and by someday, I mean when a boy will take me and pay for me."

Then, after hearing a friend drop an f-bomb this week, I realized the only time in my life where I ever found that word not incredibly painful to my ears and kind of hilarious was when Brooke launched it. About our other roommate's boyfriend (and now husband). In front of that roommate. It was wildly inappropriate (she did apologize the next day!), but oh, man, at the time it was absolutely hilarious to the two of us.

I love Brooke. (she's in the middle in the pic)

Check!

Anyone else been "home taught" by Facebook? You know, where your home teacher sends you a message with the link to the lesson on the Church's website?

Or "home taught" by text, asking if you can come to Institute so they can count that?

These are both firsts for me . . .

My Friend's "List"

I have to point you to this blog post I just read because it's midnight and I'm in bed, laughing hysterically. Thanks to my friend, Nicole, I might have trouble falling asleep tonight because of the constant laughing.

As a quick little teaser, here's my new favorite quote:

"See, only good things would come from me marrying someone who is illiterate."

Maybe L.A. Doesn't Suck, Too!

Thanks to some fantastic musicals/feats-of-"His-Legs-Flail-About-As-If-Independent-From-His-Body" moments. Mary Poppins one weekend, and Riverdance the next.


Some awesome ladies who were awesome company to an awesome play. Can we also talk about how much I loved our dinner before the show at Pete's Cafe? The blue cheese fries were seriously good, as was the mac and cheese. How Rayna manages to look that incredible in a yoga outfit is beyond me. Can I be her? Please? Thanks.


You can't help but smile when being around Rayna and Brieg. So that's what Brittany and I did.


The next weekend, Riverdance! I have to admit that I had a loop of FRIENDS running throughout my head for pretty much the whole night. "What scares the bejeezus out of Chandler?" "Michael Flatley, Lord of the Dance!" "The Irish Jig guy?" "What? His legs flail about as if independent from his body!" (yes, that's memorized) Highlights included the Russian folk dancers, the Pantages, and Allison's "I think I'm autistic."



Not autistic. Awesome.

Vegas doesn't suck anymore!

Who knew? I've always hated Vegas. Both driving through (too much traffic!) and staying there (smelly, trashy, and more smelly). But what I learned on this recent trip for work is that it's not always smelly, trashy, and more smelly! I hooked us up with some pretty sweet rooms at the Trump hotel thanks to Hotwire. It's a non-smoking, non-gaming slice of heaven. Check out my room!


That bathroom you see on the left? One of the two bathrooms my suite had. How fantastic is that? The bathroom off the bedroom was HUGE--way bigger than my bedroom here at home.


I didn't spend too much time on this couch, but it was a cool room with a cool TV.


Would have been a great picture if I hadn't closed my eyes. So nerdy that I had to post it.


Paris at night. Or at least, the closest I'll probably ever get to Paris at night.


I stood in front of many statues on this trip (a huge Buddha at TAO, for example). This is just the one in the Bellagio. We'd already done our conferencing for the day, and we were on our way to wait 2.5 hours in line for standby tickets for "O". Considering we ended up with 10th row seats . . . totally worth it! The most spectacular thing I've ever seen--can't wait to see it again!


Fred, buying the most ridiculous sweats I've ever seen. But I love that he loves them so much that this is his second pair! And I love that I got to see him thrice on my trip--yay!


Waiting for the Bellagio water fountain show--super cool! I'd never seen it before, but it's pretty fun. Got a mini show during the picture. And by mini, I mean, the tiniest.


Tiger at Bellagio. Pretty cool, huh?

Funny How Things Work Out

Last month when I was in Utah, my best friend mentioned something that her husband had said to her about me recently. Something along the lines of how, when they first started dating, he figured he had the least in common with me out of all her friends. Now, five years later, apparently I'm the only friend of hers he really talks to or with whom he has anything in common.

It's hilarious to me because, when they first started dating, he didn't talk all that much and I didn't get to know him all that well. But over the years, we found out we had a mutual love of old-school Nintendo. They would come over, he would play, and my best friend and I would scratch each other's backs while catching up ("Oh hey, that joke's still funny," she would say while not moving her hand scratching my back, knowing I love a soft-and-slow back-scratch).

Recently we discovered that we have a similar love for (obsession with?) basketball, and specifically, the Jazz and Lakers. Yes, the Jazz AND Lakers. Fandom of the two does not have to be mutually exclusive. Turns out we both love motion offenses, and those two teams are rare in a league filled with isolation plays and no set systems.

It's funny how things work out. I never would have guessed, when they first started dating, that I would so enjoy getting to know this guy, and that I would come to love him for how much he loves her, how much he adores her and how well he treats her--they could not be a more perfect match. I was super excited when it worked out that he'd be the one picking me up from the SLC airport since he was finishing up with his KSL sports gig late that night anyway--we'd have a whole hour to talk Jazz on the way to their place! It was fantastic.

You like to think when your friends are starting to date someone that they're making a good choice and that they're seeing everything with eyes wide open, that they're picking someone with whom they can have a really great, healthy, fulfilling relationship. Sometimes it turns out that way, and sometimes it doesn't. In this case, I had no idea how much she was rocking the choosing-your-eternal-companion concept, but she nailed it.

Things I Learned While Tending Jack

These last few days, Mom and I tended Jack while my sister was in Atlanta for work.

Some things I've learned in the last few days:

Two-year-old sentences and logic are so precious. He's always saying, "Coming?" "Look!" and "Kobe!" The funniest is when he says, "Kobe! Look!" He wants Kobe to see what he's seeing. It doesn't always work, though . . .

Dogs and little kids playing together . . . pretty much my favorite thing ever. Throw in the beach, and you're golden. We went to the beach twice with Jack and Kobe in just under two days. Went to the park five times in that time period. Five.

Personal hygiene is a blessed, blessed thing. And purely a luxury. I never thought I'd be so happy to take a long shower and wash and blow-dry my hair. Wow.

He's going nonstop. You'd better catch up. And I didn't, really. I'm EXHAUSTED.

Little girls, in my experience (which, admittedly, is VERY limited, and is limited to my cousins' kids), are way easier than boys. I'm sure that all switches in the teenage years, so it balances out, I'm sure.

He's totally OCD and we love it. He's always wanting to wash his hands. If he gets a non-food, foreign object on his hands while eating, he won't eat anymore. He'll just say "Hannies!" and hold them out until you're able to wipe them. Then he's fine. He took one look at the kitchen floor and said, "Dirty." He's also been known to say "Messy" at random times. So cute!

Dogs are way easier. Even my dog. WAY easier.

My sister is an AMAZING mom. I knew she'd be awesome and competent because she's a total rock star, but I'm really blown away--she's fantastic. It's touching and sweet and cute and incredible, all at the same time. And now she has multiple feelings (she used to love to say, "You could have hurt my feeling."), all tied up in this precious boy.

I really love that he calls me Ya-ya. I'm going to miss hearing it 938 times a day.

Good times

My mom's cousin and his family is down from Utah, staying in a beach house in Capo Beach, so we've spent a lot of time there the last week or so. Kobe is especially a fan. =) But here are a couple of classic quotes:

John: That's MY Barbie! (he's my cousin, my age, and he was playing with his nieces and nephew)

Later, Jake: They're using that reverse psychiatry on me.
Jen: Reverse psychology?
Jake: Yeah, whatever.

Also, if I can ever find me a guy who treats me as well as Jake and John do (forgetting the fact they're my cousins and you're supposed to treat your family well), I'll be thrilled.

Lastly, I'm thinking Kobe will kill himself by overexertion at the beach before old age takes him. 3.5 hours of running, chasing, swimming, digging, etc. and I had to drag him away from the beach. He wasn't done!