K-9 Conspiracy...

I SWEAR I almost killed Indy this morning. It's a good thing he's so dang cute, otherwise he might be dead right now. (I snaked this picture from Mike, hehehe!)

I heard him barking this morning. That's not unusual, you might say - because it's really not, he and Bo bark at the littlest things, starting at about 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. No, what was unusual about THIS bark was that it was 4:00 IN THE MORNING. It wasn't a crazy "I heard a noise, somebody do something" bark, it was more of a "I'm not getting any attention" bark - like, "woof." Silence. "Woof woof." Silence. "Woof." Whine. Silence. "Woof."

ARGH. This went on for a few minutes before I heard mom get up and let him out. I sighed in relief that I didn't have to go downstairs (sorry, Muti!) and rolled over to go to sleep. I heard mom let him in and go back to bed.

Then...

"Woof." Silence. "Woof woof."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

I looked at my clock - it was now 5:00 A.M.!!!!!

I marched out of my room and down the stairs, and he was in the hall, aimed right at the stairs. I'm sure he would have come up if I hadn't had my gate blocking his way. He got up when he saw me. "WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU WANT???" I whispered loudly (if that's possible). He wagged his tail. I walked toward the back door - he walked right next to me, so I stopped, thinking he'd lead me to the back door. Nope - he stopped with me, and looked up at me. I took a few more steps and stopped. So did he. I went to the back door and opened it, and he went out and laid down in the grass. WHAT???!?!?!?! "YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO PEE???? GET BACK IN HERE!!!! You did NOT just wake me up again to HANG OUT!!!" So he came back in and went and sat down in the living room. I marched back up to my room, and ALMOST slammed the door.

But I didn't.

I was fuming. It took me a while before I got back to sleep - then my alarm went off. GREEEAAT.

I heard him do it again when I was getting ready for work this morning. "Woof." Silence. "Woof woof." Silence. Oh man, it's a good thing that dog is cute.

Someone told me today that there was a full moon last night, and that her dog was acting funny because of it - a few others agreed and said their dogs were acting weird too, and thought it must be the moon. Well, I'm telling you, it BETTER be the moon... because if Indy makes a habit of this, I might go postal.

I am NOT too old for Sleepovers!!

When we were younger, my sisters and I used to have sleepovers with our cousin, Emily - as often as we could seeing as she lived in Orem and we lived in Sandy - and they were always SOOO much fun. Even as we got older, we'd still have over-nighters - mostly road trips to St. George, California, and once or twice even to Bear Lake with other cousins and Idaho to visit family we had there. But since Mar and Em have gotten married, the over-nighters have tapered off... those darn husbands, hehehe.

But last weekend, I went and had an old-fashioned sleepover with Em! Jorg was out of town, so we decided to have an over-nighter! It was (almost) just like old times, but this time, there was an extra girl - Baby Rebecca!

We stayed up late and talked, giggled like girls in the morning, wandered around in our PJ's until it was absolutley necessary to get dressed and leave the house, and Em even made breakfast for us! YUM!

Then we played dress-up with Rebecca - Em and her mom bought some cute new clothes for the baby, and we wanted to see what she looked like in her cute new outfits. She looked adorable, of course.

Even Rebecca herself thought she looked cute!

That was fun, Em - thanks for letting me come over! Fun times! :)

Some People Eat the WEIRDEST Things!!

I'm totally obsessed with food. What I CAN eat, what I CAN'T eat, what I SHOULD eat, what I SHOULDN'T eat... and anyone who obsess over food like I do knows that it's what you CAN'T eat and SHOULDN'T eat are always the tastiest.
So I just went into the kitchen to warm up my Lean Cuisine for lunch, and there was a guy in there making HIS lunch - I couldn't see what it was right then, but it smelled funky. Then he picked up his plate and turned around - and his lunch was a pile of plain canned tuna with cottage cheese on top.
I was only sicked out for a minute before I realized that it probably didn't taste that bad! I don't like cottage cheese usually, unless it has something salty with it - like crackers and Lowry's All-Season salt. But tuna? I'm almost tempted to try it! Plus that's one protein-packed meal! And who couldn't use a little more protein in their diet?

Man, now my Lean Cuisine tastes DRAB.

I *heart* Keith

Last week, I went to a Keith Urban concert with my sister Melissa... SO FUN!!! Seats were awesome (thanks, Melissa's friend, for the ticket!), music was good - I don't claim to be some ultra country fan, but I do dig Keith Urban. I gotta give the guy props for going through rehab, and I gotta give Nicole even MORE props for sticking with him. I like the guy! He's got some awesome songs, he interacts well with the crowd (shakes as many hands as he can), he has a certain level of class that few celebrities have, and let's be honest...

He's just hot!!!! :)

The Injustice of Driving: Part II

Disclaimer: Before I tell this story, I would like to point out that 'The Injustice of Driving (part I)' was written LAST year, before I attended the Landmark Forum, and REALLY started to make an effort to control my road rage; so those that know how bad my road rage can get should be proud of me!

Just over two weeks ago (I distinctly remember it being Friday, August 31, because it was the Friday before Labor Day), I was leaving work, relieved that it was Friday AND a holiday weekend - no work on Monday, yay! I had just pulled out of the parking garage and on to State Street, intending to turn right on 500 South and take that particular freeway on ramp. Unfortunately, I'd pulled out behind a bus, which was lining up behind other buses - I didn't want to wait for them, so I made a snap decision to swerve around them quickly and get back into my lane. Of course I checked my mirrors, and all I saw was a Jeep Cherokee in the distance, and I thought it was far enough behind me that I could swerve around the buses and get back into my lane without cutting off the Jeep. No such luck - the driver saw me start to swerve, sped up, and honked her horn at me. So when she sped around me, I held my hands up in an effort to communicate that "Hey, I had to swerve around the buses!" She zoomed around me and cut in front of a few other cars ahead of me. I went through the next light, and saw her pulled off to the right in front of the courthouse, picking up some shady-looking character, and she must have seen me coming in her rear-view mirrors, because when I passed her, her middle finger was plastered to her window, flipping me off. I beeped my horn (BAD idea) just to say "chill out!" as I passed her, and got to the next light - 500 South - where I was waiting to turn right. She comes up right behind me, so close I bet our cars were touching (although I couldn't feel it), and puts her hand on her horn - and LEAVES it there, for the duration of the light! People were staring - I just ignored her. I bet it was a full 60 seconds before I got the chance to turn - and her horn was STILL blaring. So I hurried to the next light - but she zoomed ahead of me, in the lane to the right of me, waiting for me to pull up next to her - she still had her middle finger plastered to the window, and she was looking at me, yelling. So I didn't pull up right next to her - just slightly behind her. When the light turned green, she started to move very slowly, trying to get me to catch up to her, but I moved just as slowly - so she finally zoomed to the next light, and waited for me to get there. SAME thing - finger plastered to the window, screaming. This was NOT a good day to be hitting all the red lights on the way to the freeway. When THAT light finally turned green, I turned left and took another route to the freeway, just to escape her.

Now, at this point, I was shaking - a little from fear, mostly from anger. (Now is the part where you should be proud.) The entire time we're stuck at stop lights, I ignored her - not a smile, not even a glance in her direction (except to notice that her middle finger was still saluting me). I bet that made her even more mad - she wanted me to put up a fight of some sort. But the fact that I ignored her should make you proud - I could have rolled down my window and started screaming at HER and flipping HER off - but I didn't. I was shaking so badly when I finally made it to the freeway, I had to concentrate on breathing. When I had finally calmed down enough to think clearly, my Landmark training kicked in, and I stopped making that lady wrong for what she was doing. I had no idea what her life was like - for all I know, her husband had just left her and the kid she was picking up at the courthouse was HER kid, having just made bail after being in jail for drugs or something - she must have been having a really BAD day. By the time most of the anger had worn off, I was left with fear - I was checking my mirrors every two seconds, positive that she was going to come out of nowhere and plow right into me on the freeway. Even when I finally made it home and parked in the driveway, I was looking for her. When I took my dogs out for a walk, I was STILL looking for her - I expected to see her cruising the streets, looking for me. I was positive I was going to come back and see my car beat to a pulp.

I guess I should work on my paranoia problem now!

Let's catch up a little bit...

Because it's been so long since I've written, I'm going to attempt to catch up on a few events that have taken place over the past year.

January: I attended the Landmark Forum with my brother Mike - what a great experience! It was an intense three-day program that taught me to let go of who I was being in the past, complete relationships that may have been holding me back from being who I have the potential to be, and really get out there and play full-on in the game of life. Yes, I'm still working on that one, hehe.

February: I turned 31 - and that's all I'll say about THAT.

March: The blind-date month. With my new-found, fledgling self-confidence, I must have gone on three or four blind dates - all of whom I really liked, and none of whom I ever heard from again, unfortunately. No worries, no worries. There IS someone out there for me, hehe!

April: I think the blind dates DID carry over to April, but what I remember most about April is - ta da! The appearance of Rebecca Rose Bachmann, daughter of Jorg and Emily Bachmann! (For those new to my blog, Emily is my cousin, and one of my very very very bestest friends EVER! The Bachmann Family:

LOVE them! Isn't Rebecca so pretty??? Look at those dimples... Good work, Em and Jorg! :)

May: Attended another Landmark course - the Advanced Course, to be more specific. Learned even more about myself and how to interact effectively in groups; again, still working on it!

June: 4 Words - Wasatch Back Relay Race. Logan to Park City. Mar and me. 177 miles, 26 hours, no sleep. 'Nuff said.

July: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows comes out, and Mar and I spend a weekend in St. George reading instead of playing. In fact, we went to Wal-Mart at midnight in... Bloomington, was it? I think... to get our copies of the book. Lame? Maybe. In my defense, though, I was sick - I had a nasty cold, so I wouldn't have gone out to play that much anyway. But let's be honest - I just love Harry Potter. Even if I wasn't sick, I'd have read it all weekend!

August: A blur. I can't even tell you what happened in August because I don't really remember. But Eclipse came out - the third book in the 'Twilight' vampire series - and I fell in love with Edward Cullen all over again.

So that's my year so far in a (rather large) nutshell. And we're halfway through September, and it's STILL 90 degrees outside. I thought Autumn was coming... where on earth IS it???

Welcome, Autumn...

First, my apologies for having been away for so long! I will make no excuses - other than laziness. And I should have been writing every week, because this has been a very... interesting, I'll say... year! "The Year of Meloo" as the guys in the mailroom put it. It's definitely been a year of growth - spiritual and mental (and physical, but I'll get to that in another post) and social. So one of my "Emily Friends" as I like to call them (I have two close Emily friends at work) asked me today if I have a blog; if so, why is she not reading it? Funny thing is, this is an Emily I e-mail all day, chat with on gmail, and now keep track of through HER blog - and we sit maybe 30 or so steps away from each other.

I love technology.

I also love Fall, as I've written on this blog before - it's getting time for the weather to cool down, the leaves to change, football season to really get going, the air to smell like chimney smoke (I call that the "Halloween Smell"), the bugs to die, and the turtlenecks to come out of the depths of the closet. It's also FOOD TIME!! Halloween candy, Thanksgiving pies, and Christmas goodies - accompanied by pounds, ounces, inches, and more pounds on my rear, stomach, and thighs.

You know what? I think I'm gonna stop right there before I get depressed. One thing at a time... let's just enjoy the color-changing leaves, to start!