Recommitting Myself and Funny Alyssa

We went camping this past weekend and I have lots of pictures to post of our trip. But tonight I am just too wasted to do it. Instead, I'm going to give a short report on my progress to reform myself. My goal of 1 Pepsi a week? Well, I had 3 last week. Didn't quite hit my goal, but it was less that the usual 5-10 so I at least improved a little bit. Thank you Kim and Leslie for asking me how it was going and for keeping me in line. NO MORE EXCUSES! I must find a better way to deal with a crummy day than chug a Pepsi!!! Exercise? Well I did 3 out of my 4 days that I wanted to do. Then spent a day chasing Alyssa through the woods. I think I'll count it! And I did read my scriptures more this week than I have been. Of course, I did have to give a talk yesterday and that helped out with that goal. By the way, I'm so glad THAT is over! Ok, a funny story about Alyssa-Lou. I was at my aunt's house and her dishwasher is black, so you can see your reflection in it. Well we were standing there just chatting away, when we hear this little kissy sound. We turned and Alyssa was kissing her reflection! It was hilarious. I asked her if she could give the baby a hug. I thought she would just spread her arms out and lean against the dishwasher. Nope. She wrapped her little arms around herself and gave a big squeeze! Then I told her to snuggle with the baby. She again gave herself a big hug and leaned on the dishwasher with her little head tilted to the side. What a smart and imaginative little girl I have. I wish I would have had my camera. It was adorable, if I do say so myself. Love that girl!

Check This Out

Go to Simply You. Go directly to Simply You. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Go to Simply You. Is my little sister GORGEOUS or what!?!?! AND is Kim not a FANTABULOUS photographer? Seriously, I'd get married again JUST to have her photograph it (with Tim, of course).

Mind, Body and Spirit

(Please forgive me for the about to be freakishly long post with no pictures. If I can come up with something fabulous to use along with this, I'll slap it on here. If not, sorry dudes, this one is for me anyway.) Back to Mind, Body and Spirit. You're supposed to take care of all three right? Always be learning, eating right and exercising, and continuously growing spiritually? Well let me give y'all a little report on how I'm doing with these things. CRAPPY!!! Mostly with the eating right and exercising. So, I'm about to scream to the world (or the 2 or 3 peeps that read this) my goals and aspirations to do better! Mind As you may know I just finished taking a photography class. I LOVED IT!!! I loved learning something new, I loved having homework (something I never thought I would), and I love watching myself get better at it! I'm going to continue with this new found love and keep trying to improve. I want to learn more about lighting and editing, and I want to try new things out artistically so all my photos don't end up looking the same. The other thing I'm going to start learning, or doing more of, is singing. (Nobody laugh, and nobody ask me to sing, I won't.) My friend Amy asked me to join her vocal group. They practice every week from now until December. Then they sing all over the place for Christmas. They do company parties, ward parties, retirement homes, Temple Square, just a ton a performances. I really like to sing, but have ZERO confidence in my ability. Amy told me that the director teaches you how to do things differently in order to produce a better sound. So I'll be learning to sing better AND having fun at the same time! WAHOO!!! I'm way excited for this! Body Let's get serious here people. I eat like crap and I NEVER exercise. Unless you count chasing Alyssa, which I don't. Here's an example of what I ate one day last week, and I'm not joking. 9:00-ish Honeybutter-Cinnamon Scone and Large Pepsi from Sconecutter 12:30-ish Chicken Gordita Supreme, Nachos and another Pepsi from Taco Bell Somewhere between 2 and 5 while Alyssa was sleeping - Poptarts and Chocolate Milk Whenever we decided to eat dinner - Pizza Mixed in the middle of all this, I'm sure I ate fruit snacks and Peanut M&M's because they are no longer in my pantry. Did you see a vegetable in there anywhere? Only if you count the lettuce on my gordita! Let's just say that a diet like this doesn't help you to slim down into your skinny jeans. So what am I going to do about this? Well... I'm going to... stop...drinking...so...much...Pepsi. Ouch! That hurt to write! I'm only allowing myself one a week. Since I don't believe in punishing myself without seeing some type of result, I'm going to combine this with walking. I'm going to walk/run AT LEAST four times a week for 40 minutes. While I'm at it, the fast food HAS to go. If I must eat out, it's going to be a freaking salad. No more chicken gorditas, big bacon classics or chicken cord en bleu. And DEFINITELY no more honey butter cinnamon scones from Sconecutter. Bummer for me. Now if I haven't bored you yet, and you're still reading. Here's your assignment. 1- Slap that crap out of my hand if you see me going for it. 2- Ask me how my new eating guidelines are doing. If I have to report that they're not working out so well, I'll feel like a shmuck and force myself to do better. Spirit Here's my dirty little confession. I stink at reading my scriptures. I absolutely stink. I've never really been diligent in this department. But, as with everything else, I'm going to try to do better. I found this groovy little website, www.readthescriptures.com where you can set up your own reading schedule and they email you your reading assignment everyday. With as much time as I spend on my computer blog-hopping, checking my email, and now editing photographs, I might as well add a few minutes to read the scriptures. Well folks, if you've made it this far, you deserve an award. Thanks for stickin it out. You now know my dirty little secrets and short comings. Well, a couple of them anyway. We won't go into ALL of them. Good grief! No one has time for that! I may keep you posted on my progress, I may not. It depends on whether or not the progress is good. If it isn't, this post will probably end up deleted and I'll pretend that I never wrote it. It's much easier to ignore goals if they can't be found! Have a fantabulous week!

Not Cassie Writing This!!!

I am Evan's mommy - and Cassie's sister - does it get any better... don't answer that, you will only make me feel bad. Anyway, I am stealing Cassie's sign in to post to her blog so she cannot ditch our fabulous plan. Of course you are now asking yourself what fabulous plan could they have (and if you know either of us, you know we only have FABULOUS plans). Well this plan is to make the Many Adventures of the Friendly Little Syrup Bottle available to everyone. As you may have seen, Cas is very skilled when it comes to taking wonderful pictures - and most nights that we stay up late, skills are mixed with large levels of comedy and very, very, very small levels of sanity resulting in Fabulous Ideas. So...

Coming soon to a Blogspot you already visit... A Friendly Little Syrup Bottle leaves the safety of his shelfy home - To find himself in strange and new surroundings - Where every time we have a new idea - And find the time to take some pictures - And then find time to write something to go with the pictures - and find the time to post all of this here - You will be ASTOUNDED!!!!

We are taking suggestions from late night stayer uppers - your contributions will greatly speed up production. DISCLAIMER this blogspot does not endorse any particular syrup brand over any other, any submissions will be considered property of the syrup bottle, you may or may not be given credit for your submission (we apologize in advance - we forget things), this blogspot and the adventures found within and future postings are not for profit - therefore your submissions are not tax deductible, the views expressed are that of the poster and no one else - unless you agree with them - then they are your views too.

Permission or Forgiveness

That is the question of the day. Is it better to ask for forgiveness or ask permission? Obviously, it depends on the situation. But in the little things that really don't have THAT much effect on your long term life outcome. For example, if I see a cute outfit for Alyssa and I buy it. Unfortunately for me, Tim pays attention to that sort of thing. I don't call and ask. I just purchase. Then I say something like "I'm sorry, but doesn't she look SO cute in it?" Usually I'm off the hook. So I ask you, how far do YOU take this sort of thing? I'm curious.

It's My Own Fault...

...for thinking this little monkey would realistically feed herself applesauce.

Mmm, yummy.

Love the Little Brother

This is Mike. Mike is funny. I love my brother Mike. What 14 year old boy lets his sister drag him into some random field, make him sit in a pile of crappy weeds to take his picture, all for a Coke? Mike. (I am a little disappointed that he's switched over to the dark side, with the Coca-Cola and all. He's young, he'll learn.)

Mike is really into nature. He feels awful that a tree had to die, just so that we could put up telephone poles. He had to have a moment, obviously I gave him all the time he needed. That's all a big lie. I don't know why he's hugging the pole. Maybe he's deprived of affection. I'll give you a hug, Mike.