Once upon a time in a land far away, a beautiful, independent, self assured princess happened upon a frog as she sat, contemplating ecological issues on the shores of an unpolluted pond.

The frog hopped into the princess' lap and said, "Elegant lady, I was once a handsome prince, until an evil witch cast a spell upon me.
One kiss from you, however, and I will turn back into the dapper, young prince that I am and then, my sweet, we can marry and set up housekeeping in your castle with my mother, where you can prepare my meals, clean my clothes, bear my children, and forever feel grateful and happy doing so."

That night, as the princess dined sumptuously on lightly sauteed frog legs seasoned in a white wine and onion cream sauce, she chuckled to herself:
I DON'T FREAKING THINK SO!

Happy 18th birthday to my baby brother!! One year clean and sober!!
Tay-Tay, I'm so proud of you. I love your guts and you are my favorite.
I tried to get this posted on Sunday, the actual day of celebration, but I was sadly thwarted in all attempts. (Stupid computer.)
Is anyone else having problems with Blogger? I am. I'm having picture uploading trauma for some strange reason and it's driving me nuts!.
I love my little bro and he knows it! He's my bestest friend and I can't imagine life without him.
I'm so proud of everything you've done. You're my favorite little cadet and I'll love you forever!
Remember the old days when I used to make you dress up in Mom's clothes and put curlers in your hair? We used to play "video games" on Dad's old computer monitors in the basement. And when Dad used to make us pick up the apricots from the backyard and he'd squish them in our hands? Gross!
I'm so glad you'll always be my baby brother.

We had quite the shindig at our house on Sunday. Almost the whole family showed up and we celebrated with Hawaiian haystacks and yummy Costco cake.
Taylor is way excited about his Shrek playdoh from Aunt Bert.
Yummy food.
Cousins
Cousins
And more Cousins
Stressed and somehow, still smiling.

I'm in love.
It's time for me to stop hiding.
I'm ready to declare to the world.
I love my iPod!
The iTunes music store has turned into my new obsession. All the music I could ever want right there at my fingertips? It sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?
Well, believe it!
It's almost too easy. Almost.
I've spent so much time and money buying the hottest tunes lately. But I get to enjoy them for hours and hours, so it's all worth it.
(Of course there is a slight problem. After listening to my favorite songs over and over so many times, there comes a point where if I hear a certain song one more time, I might just kill myself. But that's a price I'm willing to pay.)
I listen to music everywhere now. In my bed, in the car, in the shower, at the grocery store. Pretty much everywhere except for work. That probably wouldn't fly too well, and I'm not in the mood to find another job. But you better believe the tunes are cranking until I'm walking through the door.

The poor thing is starting to show the wear and tear I put it through. Those earphones are on their last leg. I'm glad I invested in the protective cover or else I'm not sure my friend would still be around. If its not hooked to my head, it spends the rest of its life buried at the bottom of the black hole I have for a purse.
God bless silicone. For I don't know what I would do without my beloved pod.

My faux pas of the day. An oops, if you will.
At work today we got a call of two elementary school kids fighting.
One went inside the school, but the other left on foot.
He was described as a hispanic male wearing a white shirt, walking westbound.
I dispatched it as a hispanic whale.
Lovely.

I am not okay.
It is 47 degrees right now.
It is September.
Does anyone else see a problem with this?
I'm about to have a melt down. (Although I supposed that's impossible. More like a freeze up.)
I admit. I did have a bout of the gripes amidst the 100-degree heat wave/no air conditioning in my car episode we had this summer, but I take it all back! I swear on my firstborn child I'll never complain about being hot again!
If this is the alternative, I'd rather swelter in a South American jungle for the rest of my life.
The wind and the rain and cold....(shudder)
I'm at a point in my life where I'm still the newbie at work. Therefore, I get "volunteered" to fetch lunch for the rest of the group nearly every day. Most of the time I don't mind. It gives me a chance to stretch my legs.
But today, what with the torrential downpour and hurricane force winds, trying to balance seven sacks of Wendy's hamburgers and five large sodas whilst trying not to slip and die in a parking lot puddle was not my idea of a good time.
The only thing that made me feel better was watching a much superior co-worker trying to get out of her car, struggle with an umbrella for about five minutes, and ultimately become very wet and even more embarrassed.
Although, I guess I should be feeling bad for my unfortunate mother. She was manning her booth at the Holy Cow boutique all day, and because of a mix-up, had set to up camp outside. The poor dear nearly froze to death and about sold her soul to me when I brought her some hot chocolate.
So I guess things could have been worse.
But still, there's no excuse. After this torture, I will be expecting high 70's/low 80's until well into October, thank you.

I had a really good weekend. I got to spend time with some of my most favorite people in the world. I also made a huge breakthrough for myself, which was quite an experience.
Friday was the start of my next Alchemist class. For those who are unaware of what this is, it's a leadership course I started taking last January. I graduated from my class last weekend and now I'm staffing the next one. It's been an awesome experience for me and I'm so excited to continue the journey.
This first weekend was quite different from my own class. I'm really excited about this new group and I know it's going to be quite a different adventure. It was fun and silly and intense and emotional and hard and honest. I discovered some things about myself and did some things I thought I'd never do.
I've felt my life shift as a result of the things I've learned, the people I've met, and the experiences I've had. I'm so grateful to everyone from my Alchemist family. Thank you for helping me to change my life for the better. I love you all!

SONG OF THE WEEK
Jewel-The Absence of Fear

I apologize for not finishing my tremendously exciting vacation updates. I was tired and sore and I just plain didn't want to.
I'll just sum it up by saying it was hot, but we had lots of fun.
So, I've been feeling overly creative lately. For the past month or two it seems everywhere I look I find myself thinking, "Ooh, that would make a neat picture."
I was kicking myself when I forgot to take a camera to Lake Powell. Everything there is just beautiful and I wanted to feel all photographer-like by taking millions of gorgeous nature photographs.
It wasn't until after that I realized I wasn't really equipped for what I really wanted to accomplish. My camera is nice and small and digital, but the zoom isn't great and I just don't think the results would be quite what I want.
So I did something I haven't done in quite a while.
I bought film. Yes, good ol' fashioned camera film.
I borrowed my mom's camera. It's very nice with a pretty big lens. It just isn't digital, which is a big convenience factor.
I decided to suck it up and take it with me to California. I had fun taking lots of pictures of birds and things stuck in the sand.
I was sad to see they all didn't turn out exactly as I had imagined. But hey, it was my first try.
So, I've posted some of my better shots. But beware, you are venturing into my world of very amateur photography.

Vacation Update 3 and 4-
I'm cramming two days of fun into one post. I was too tired to do it last night, so bear with me.

Spent Sunday morning in Old Town San Diego and stopped by the Mormon Battalion visitors center.

Cooled off at Coronado Beach.

Got a face full of sea water.

Explored the way neat Hotel del Coronado.

It was too dark to take any pictures of the outside, but trust me. It was cool.

I wasn't as snap happy today, so I don't have the pictures to tell the tales.
We started off the day with a trip to Tijuana. I can explain it just as easily as having a picture.
Rode a bus over the border.
Walked around shops for an hour or so.
Realized that every shop had exactly the same merchandise.
Finally learned to ignore all the Mexican's yelling, "Senorita, I have just what you're looking for!"
Bought a cute cowboy hat.
Waited in line for an hour to get back over the border.
It was really hot today, so some parts of that adventure weren't as enjoyable as they could've been.
Came home and took a short break before heading off to Seaport Village.
Went to the Padres baseball game and won!
Way to go Josh Barfield, game winning home run in the bottom of the ninth!

Vacation Update 2-
Still on vacation. Still having fun. Starting to wear out. (Tired legs.)
San Diego Zoo...

Hung out with the polar bears.

These guys were fun to watch.

Rode a turtle. (I know, I know. Crooked.)

These monkeys were "grooming."

Grandpa Orangutan.

Aww...baby panda bear.

Vacation Update-
My trip is going great so far. It's only been a few days, but we've already had enough fun to make the trip worth it.
Day two was SeaWorld. Thanks Aubs and Jason for the tickets!
Here's a brief overview.

I got to hold a starfish. (Yes, I know it's crooked.)

I got to see a shark. (Don't mind the flash.)

I got to watch the dolphins.

I got to feed the dolphins.

But best of all, I got to play with the dolphins. Thanks Chris for the best B-Day surprise ever!

Sam and Ripley!