My Dad Rocks

Today is my dad's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! My dad is awesome. Let me tell you some reasons why.

When I was in high school my dad was a body builder. He was HUGE! Big ole' tough muscles! On the rare occasion that I had a date, he would often "conveniently" be lifting weights in the garage. With the door open, mind you. One time this boy came over and drove past my house like 4 times. I finally went out and flagged him down. He said he was afraid to come to the door. Dad sure did a good job of weeding that one out!

Dad took me skiing. Mom came too, but while Mom was leisurely snow plowing her way back and forth across the mountain, dad was taking me through the trees and off the jumps. He gave me guts! He's a 4-wheeling maniac too. When you get on the back of an atv with my dad, hang on tight. You're about to go for a ride.

My dad drives a Harley. He even bought a book for Alyssa, "Why Grandpa Rides a Harley." Riding a Harley is, after all, a very peaceful experience. Right Dad? Kind of like saying a prayer?

My dad is an awesome grandpa. He gives Alyssa airplane rides and tickles her face with his goatee. She thinks it's just great. When he puts her down she goes over to him, and says "more? more? peas?" Of course, he can't tell her no, so up she goes again.

My dad does cool stuff on the computer. He even swapped tricks with us at our photog class. He was the only dude there, and he didn't even mind too much. He's restored old pictures that my grandpa had and touched up pics of my little bro that's made him look like quite the stud. (Wink, wink, Mike.)

My dad saved me from a massive rodent (or bird) trapped in my dryer. Tim the turd wouldn't come home from the Turkey Bowl to save me, so I called my daddy. He came up, unleashed the ravenous beast and saved my life.

My dad introduced me to Roy D Mercer. Enough said there.

Last year for Christmas, my dad gave me the best gift ever. He took a TON of pictures that we had taken over first year we had Alyssa and made a DVD for me. He put the best music to it ever. Every time I watch it, it makes me cry. I love it!

I love you dad. Have a Happy Birthday!

8 Things About Me?

You gotta love the game of Tag, right? I am it, and YOU are about learn 8 new fun and exciting things about ME! #1 - I can play the piano upside down. Nothing spectacular, mind you, just Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but I can do it. I don't remember how it came about that I had this hidden talent, but it's been used and abused many times. #2 - I absolutely can NOT stand it when people scrape their plate with a fork or knife while they are trying to cut their food. Good grief! When you've cut through it, YOU'VE CUT THROUGH IT!!! Why are you trying to saw the plate in half too? Can't stand it. #3 - While I'm thinking about food, because I'm starving, I also can't stand loud chewers. Tim is the WORST! I have to turn up the tv so I can't hear his jaw popping and his teeth smackin' together. (Ha, turn up the tv, can you guess how often we eat at the table?) #4 - I LOVE the Sizzler! I always get their Malibu Chicken and Salad Bar. But my favorite part(s)? The dipping sauce, the cheesy toast (how do they only toast one side?), and their Ice Cream Bar. Love it! Don't know why, I just do. #5 - I used to Clog. I still remember a lot of the dances we did too! Every now and then I treat Tim to a jig down clogger lane. He is so lucky! #6 - I say dumb things. All the time. Things that you would not believe have actually come out of my mouth. The type of things that people make into blonde jokes. The thing is, I'm not dumb! I like to think of myself as somewhat intelligent even. But, every now and then I will see a sign for a blind sale and ask "What's a blind sale? Is it a sale for blind people?" Yup, it happened. #7 - I have a geographic tongue. I get groovy little patterns on it that change all the time. One time it looked like there was a smiley face on my tongue. #8 - I've had a wart on my elbow for about 5 years now. And oh the drama about trying to get rid of it. I tried duct tape, vinegar, having it burned off at the doc, burning it off at home, all the silly little home remedies shy of rubbing raw bacon on my elbow and burying it in the backyard and waiting for it to decompose. Then my mom rubbed some prescription on it that she had for my brother. Turned out it was liquid poison ivy, I got a staff infection, broke out in hives, figured out I was allergic to Rocefin, my forearm swelled up like Pop-Eye, had to get a shot in my butt, and cried a lot. Then the damn thing came back. We're good friends now. Now I would like to learn 8 new fun and exciting things about.... Renee Leslie Sam

My GORGEOUS Baby Girl

Really, what else is there to say? She is absolutely beautiful. This little girl brings so much joy and happiness in to our home, I just don't know what we did before we had her! She's fun, she's smart, and she has an incredible imagination. And Tea Parties? Oh yeah, we have those. She invites Kitty, Baby, and "Tare" Bear (Care Bear). They each get to have their own tea cup, but for some reason they all drink out of the same one with their cream and sugar. I haven't managed to catch that with the camera but I'm sure trying. I just love this little girl!

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.