Book Report

Just so you know I have a penchant for nerdy, anthropological, non-fiction books.

Consequently I was intrigued when Quinn came home from work with one written by a former FBI counterintelligence officer about nonverbal behavior, specifically subconscious non-verbal behavior. It's called What Every Body is Saying written by Joe Navarro.

The person who writes the article in US Magazine about how they can tell Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise are having marital issues by their body language at the park must have read this book.

Here are some gems:

This is called arms akimbo.
It's a territorial behavior used to "assert dominance and project an image of authority." I'm pretty sure I see cops standing like this all the time.

This is called genital framing. Ahem.
According to this book it's a "powerful dominance display." When you see a man do this, in essence he is saying, "check me out, I'm a virile male." It reminds me of Todd Packer...you know Michael Scott's crass friend from The Office.

This is called steepling.
Apparently it's one of the most powerful displays of confidence we possess. On a side note, Donald Trump was steepling during his entire interview with Barbara Walters that I watched last week.

This is called "the regal stance"
When someone is standing this way they are communicating that they are of a higher status and that they don't want you to touch them. It makes me think of a boss I used to have....


Did you know that when you compress your lips like this it is, "very indicative of true negative sentiment." There is usually stress or anxiety driving this behavior.


Since I read the book I keep asking Quinn questions I think might make him mad to see if he compresses his lips. I was also paying attention to which couples at the ward Christmas party are leaning toward each other or away from each other and who's playing footsie (a good sign of a happy relationship).

My Sweetest Lola

My friend, Annie, was subbing in nursery a few Sundays back and told Quinn a story about our dear Lola.

Apparently Lola was reading a book when a boy tried to take it away from her. Annie told the boy he could have his turn with the book as soon as Lola was done.

When Quinn got to this point in telling me the story my chest slightly puffed up in pride because surely this was going to be an example of what an excellent sharer Lola had become as a result of her mother's fine teaching and example.

Hmm.

As the story goes, instead of sweetly smiling and letting the little boy have a turn, her face turned contrary and she declared, "I will never be done with this book."

L'il Critters Omega-3 Gummy Fish

"kids love'em"
"amazing new taste"
"no fishy taste"

All exerpts from the label.

Quinn popped the top and took a whiff and said, "well...it doesn't smell like a live fish anyway."

Good thing Costco has a good return policy.

c'mon do it

If you're still trying to decide which charity to donate to this year, please consider supporting The Chordoma Foundation. On Saturday we participated in a 5K in memory of my neighbors' sweet son who tragically died at age 7 of a chordoma tumor two years ago.

I couldn't get the link function to work but go to www.chordomafoundation.org to donate.

Here's Quinn and the kids in our "team Jared Vance" t-shirts.


It was a beautiful event to participate in and our love and prayers go out to this amazing family.

Thanksgiving

Sandwiched inbetween "spiderman" and "my grandma and grandma" is...











Yes. Apparently, Forrest is thankful for his, uh, chicken bones.

Daily drama

Last night the chair broke.




This morning the mirror shattered all over my bedroom thanks to the baby.



In case you're wondering, this is a picture of a mirror inside of my garbage can. Super disgusting.(not pictured is me in my front yard this morning taking pictures inside my garbage can while wearing my pajamas.)

There were 2 silver linings to the broken mirror: 1. The baby wasn't cut. Obviously. 2. I finally vacuumed my bedroom floor.

Now hurry and click somewhere else so you don't have to look at that gross garbage picture anymore. HURRY.

Eli's 1

My baby turned one!

Oh my but do I love him



Some things you should know about Eli.

1. He has started growling the word no at us. The funny thing is that he sounds just like Lola sounds when she growls the word no at him.
2. When he gets really excited about something (like food) he twirls his feet around in little circles. So adorable.
3. He is a total daddy's boy. He likes me OK when Quinn isn't around but when Daddy's home the kid wants nothin' to do with me.



Did I mention how much I love him?
Cuz I do.
He's a gummy bear.



Happy birthday baby.

An Interrogation and Possibly a Solution

Are you tired of your hair? If your answer is no, then good for you. If your answer is yes, read on.

Are you a total cheapskate? If your answer is no, then by all means, go to a salon and pay $120.00 to get your hair done (princess what?). If your answer is yes, read on.

Is your hair dark brown or black? If your answer is no, I'm sorry I can't help you. If your answer is yes, read on mi amiga.

Anyone care to ombre????? (I really have no clue how to spell that...hombre or ombre???) That's what the kids are callin' it. Here is a picture of my ombre hair:



I realize that I am making a horribly ugly kissy face in that picture and I apologize for that. Here's the back. Sorry it's a phone picture and the lighting in my bathroom is not great.



If you think it's hideously ugly and would rather sinead o'connor than do that to your hair I can respect that but if you might want to try it yourself....read on!


The 12 year old at Sally Beauty Supply with pink/black/white hair sent me home with these supplies:



Not pictured is a dry packet of powder to mix with the pink bottle of developer. So we have the dry packet of bleach powder, developer, "darkest brown" dye for the old rootsies, and a brush. It all cost less than $15.00.

First, I dyed my roots according to the package instructions.

The next step is to convince your mother and sister to spend their Friday night at your place experimenting on your hair. Once that's taken care of, you can begin.

My lovely sister spent approximately 3 hours (only a slight exaggeration) ratting my hair into a giant globe. I'm talking Diana Ross, here. The ratting of the hair is vital because it will make it so you don't have a blunt line of color. The idea is a gradual change of color.

Next, mix the powder bleach packet with the pink developer. The 12 year old's instructions were to aim for the consistency of yogurt.

Next, have your mother paint bleach on the ends of your hair by section. You'll want to wrap each section in foil to pretend you're at the salon and also to protect the rest of your hair from spots of bleach...unless you're going for the "leopard look". Paint the bleach up as high as you want your color to go. We didn't go super high up on my hair- we opted for conservative since we had no clue what we were doing. Leave it on for 25 minutes or until you have reached the color your heart desires.

I quit being lazy and pulled out my point-and-shoot and took a better pic.



I love it. Thanks mom and chels!!

have a laugh on lola

Here's the scene: Lola's in time out in the corner and she's shouting at me trying to get my attention.

Lola: IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII HHHHHHAAAAAAAAAVVEEEE AAAAAAAAA TUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACHE!!!!!!!!!!! IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII HHHHHHAAAAAAAAAVVVVVVVEEEE AAAAAAAAA TUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACHE!!!!!!!!!!!IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII HHHHHHAAAAAAAAAVVVVVVVEEEEEE AAAAAAAAA TUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACHE!!!!!!!!!!!IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII HHHHHHAAAAAAAAAVVVVVVVEE AAAAAAAAA TUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACHE!!!!!!!!!!!

This goes on for 3 minutes.

I get her out of time out and we have our little talk and hug and stuff then she asks me with a straight face. "Um, Mommy. What means a tummy ache?"

ta da and halloween

The chest I mentioned yesterday needed some carpentry work that I wasn't feeling ambitious enough for. Oh yeah it also happens to be locked with the key in an envelope on the inside (how did that happen??! I really have no idea). I wasn't quite sure how to solve that problem...so I did something else.

Here is a before picture of an old Motorola record player I found at the DI for $10.00:



I gave it a little bit of love and voila! I LOVE love love it.



I covered the speakers with some of that faux tin stuff people use for kitchen backsplashes. It was kinda pricey ($20 per sheet and I needed 2). I weally wuv it.

Halloween. Lola, the lovely little witchy-poo.



Here's lizzie and sara dressed as Bethany Hamilton and the shark that ate her arm.

I'm going to go out on a limb (he he) here and say that was the best costume at my parent's Halloween party. Which was super fun. Here are the rest of us biotches:



Forrest, I am your mother. Please ignore my divey house in the background.



And seriously. Eli the dragon. He looked so cute but HATED his costume. He just kept pulling the hood off. There were pants that went with it but for some reason they aren't on in this picture. I can't believe this boy will turn 1 next week!! What the what!



The End.

ah yes, the blog

Spray painting weather is quickly disappearing and I have two projects waiting in my queue (aka the garage). My phone says it's supposed to get up to 55 degrees today...so I'm going to seize the day.(Anyone else thinking of Newsies??)

I've scrounged up a couple of bucks to get some orange spray paint, legs for a chest I found at the DI (do they sell legs for stuff at Home Depot? I'm gonna find out today), some sandpaper, and maybe I'll swing by TJ Maxx for some orange pillows.

I'm feeling hopeful that I will post the after pictures and not leave another unfinished blog post--like the paper towel one. It really wasn't my fault because my Costco stopped selling the smaller size paper towels so I couldn't finish the experiment. I was also informed of how unscientific my experiment was anyway.

I digress. As soon as my adorable Eli wakes up I'm off to the hardware store!

The Blog Days of Summer Part III: LAKE POWELL

My cousin Sara invited us to spend a week in Lake Powell with her family. It.was.awesome.

lola



dad and eli


kids on a blanket


forr


grant


Grandpa Paul was so much fun.


mom and eli


kids and squeegees. wow I have no idea how to spell that word.



Thanks again Sara and Ryan. Lake Powell is Lake Powell after all but the company was what made the trip so great.

The Blog Days of Summer Part II: THE GREAT FLOOD OF 2011

I came home from the water park one afternoon in mid-July to find that my entire basement had been filling with water all day long.



It sucked.

The whole neighborhood came over with their shop-vacs though.



That part was awesome.

The Blog Days of Summer Part I: THE PARTY

Forrs turned 5 so naturally we threw him a wicked-awesome super-hero party!

There were hot dogs and a batman cake,



masks and capes










did I mention the capes?



because they were freakin' awesome

Quinn spray painted these bad boys (and girls). He did an awesome job. They were the best part of the party by far. (sorry- I can't figure out how to crop pics in microsoft paint to give you a close-up of the capes grandma's holding)



We played some games, including Pin the Bat on the Batman



The Hulk Juice (aka kool aid + dry ice)



Quinn even spray-painted Eli a onsie....awwww



Forrest- just know that you are seriously an awesome kid. I tell Heavenly Father thanks every day for letting me be your mommy. Love you!

lola's birthday

3 already.






Lola- when you grow up and decide you want to read mom's blog and find this particular birthday post I want you to know that I loved making you a chocolate cake with pink frosting and a princess on top. I also loved seeing your face when you woke up on your birthday and saw the living room floor completely covered in balloons that your daddy spent all night blowing up for you. I also want you to know that I love you so much it hurts inside my chest when I think about it.

Also, you probably won't remember but we went to the zoo on the day before your birthday and the big robot dinosaurs scared you right out of your pants!

Love you Lola- Happy Birthday!