Muddled Meanderings

Please notice...

2010-08-07T19:23:00.001-06:00

I'd like to draw your attention to the right hand of the screen. Please note the new button about Child Rescue...

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

2010-01-02T20:38:00.002-07:00

For the record, all I've eaten for 3 days is as follows: Sour cream and guacamole dip, mozzarella sticks, artichoke dip and cream cheese frosting.

I wasn't even that hungry. I just had to keep eating.

Firelight

2009-11-19T14:00:00.003-07:00

Tomorrow when the rest of the world is lining up to watch New Moon, I'll be watching this..

Love this...

2009-11-16T22:18:00.003-07:00

This blog speaks to me.

Swedes Just Wanna Have Fun

2009-10-24T22:15:00.001-06:00

Jipped by the Phantom...

2009-10-16T20:03:00.006-06:00

You know that totally fun tradition of the "Halloween phantom"? You know when your neighbors around put together a plate of store-bought cookies and leave them on other unsuspecting neighbors' doorsteps? To ward off other phantoms you put a picture of a ghost in your window. Well, the other day I started thinking...

Who in their right mind doesn't want to get more treats? So what did we do?? That's right, when the phantom came to our house we did what any other treat-hungry person would do--not put the sign in the window and see how many people bring us treats!

Today, we had the phantom come to our house...again. Hehehe As soon as they left the treats on our doorstep we devoured like half of the chocolate-covered pretzels right there. Ya, we don't waste ANY time. Literally 3 milliseconds later we heard the doorbell ring again. More goodies? No! The phantoms returned to take back their treats! They said they didn't mean to put them on our doorstep. Oh the irony!

Finally!

2009-10-07T13:20:00.001-06:00

It's going to be great!

Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes

Who Invented Frosted Windows?

2009-08-11T22:56:00.004-06:00

I have these wonderful neighbors who have their bathroom on the side of their house close to our upstairs playroom window. We can literally string one of those telephone-can-things across and talk to each other. We are that close to each other and that straight across that every night around 8:30 we have to hurry and shut our blinds before the kids see a little too much of the neighbors (if you know what I mean :-p)
So this brings me to the moral of the story...

How do you tell your next door neighbors that those frosted windows are just NOT going to cut it!

Summer-Time Pics

2009-08-06T21:36:00.002-06:00

Poor Millie sitting in a homemade grass seat.

Wish they stayed this way forever.

First Egg!!!

Dear ?

2009-06-28T23:21:00.008-06:00

Dear Mystery Man,

It's been 12 months and 13 days since our first meeting ... that I don't remember. Look, I'm sorry I never called when you came in the library and left me that very flattering note. I honestly don't remember what you look like or anything about you at all. You must have given me the note while I was conveniently busy and didn't notice your attempt to flirt with me. You sure left in a hurry. I later found the note crumpled up in my jean's back pocket. I'm sure you're a very nice person, but alas it will never be. I'm sure that you are so distraught by the lack of response that you received from me, that you probably come in the library everyday to see the beauty before you that is the librarian and wonder if I will miraculously remember you and fall in love. Most likely not.

It must sadden you that you will never experience dating me. You will never have the opportunity to ask me to a really scary movie (which I hate) and afterward have the audacity to invite yourself over to my house where you stay for the four longest hours of my life. You will never have the opportunity to finish up said date by spending the last two hours watching Harry Potter with my family while I'm upstairs lying on my bed pondering if I can escape by shimmying down the drain pipe. You also won't be able to take me to a dance and while there, find the real true love of your life, and ask her for her phone number while I stand by and watch this match made in Heaven. Or, you won't get to experience the fun of taking me to a park for a picnic, and during the Frisbee game going on all around us ask me to offer a prayer on the food.

Oh, what excitement you have missed out on in this past year or so, all because I was too engrossed in my work and oblivious to the going-on's around me to notice the writing on the back of that library slip with the phone number. It's likely I wouldn't have called anyway, I still like the whole boy calls girl thing. Call me old fashioned. So I guess you'll never know what you really missed out on.

Sincerely,

Miss Oblivious.

GUESS WHAT!!

2009-06-03T11:12:00.003-06:00

CHICKEN BUTT!!!.... OR HUMAN BUTT

We're almost done with probably one more day to finish up details.

Our funny chickens are going to have a hard time sleeping in their new coop because they are used to living in that gross box.

Coop Update

2009-05-19T21:25:00.002-06:00

So not much has happened on the coop but there are walls on and my mom and I have painted ourselves to death!!

Chicken Coop

2009-04-29T14:44:00.003-06:00

So, I guess we were tired of smelly chickens sitting in a box next to our kitchen so my parents are building a chicken coop where we used to have our dilapidated playhouse. It's going to be pretty cute. I'll keep updated pictures on here. Also the pic at the bottom is of my new garden boxes. Look at the peas coming up!

Some Weird Requests For My Birthday...

2009-04-06T11:34:00.002-06:00

These are some very distinguished things that I have wanted for my birthday in previous years..

-Bonsai Tree
-Kipper Snacks Sardines
-Krispy Kreme Tee shirt
-Kids Almanac Book

and this year.... Wellington Boots (aka "Wellies")

Early B-Day!!

2009-03-26T20:52:00.005-06:00

I have gotten a couple of really awesome presents early for my birthday. In our attempt to be more rural we went to the local farm store today and picked out three baby chicks. We used to have one chicken a couple years ago. Stella,our chicken was like a person who would follow you around the garden and wait for you to dig for worms. He also roamed the neighborhood and unfortunately was eaten by a dog.

My other cool gift is something that I've been begging and begging for. It's a bookshelf that has a fluorescent light above it screwed in the top and holds growing seedlings. I know- I'm weird. Finally my dad surprised me when I got home from work with it in my room.

ME: the Organic Gardener

2009-03-18T14:11:00.000-06:00

Ever since I read the book Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards when I was about 10 years old I've been obsessed with planting my own garden. The story is about an orphan girl who finds this abandoned cottage and fixes it up with flowers and makes the little house her own. We have had a little piece of our property that we use for vegetable gardening and ever since the 6th grade I have taken over the horticultural business of planting the garden. For the past couple of months I have been intensely reading about growing my own seeds indoors. I have checked out book after book after book from the library about propagation and watched many movies about starting my own seedlings.
Evidently since it is 12 weeks to our last frost date it's time to plant broccoli--which I have done. I planted them last Thursday and they miraculously poked their heads out Sunday morning! I was so excited! I started the little seeds in soil that you just add water and the pellets plump up and placed them in egg cartons. Meanwhile I was also getting guidance from the Master Gardener Jerry Baker on my laptop.

Four days later the seedlings surprisingly came up.

I made this crude contraption to put the new seedlings under. My little brother made the wooden chair and I somehow fastened the shop light to a bamboo stick and stuffed the broccoli underneath. The only draw back is that I can't raise the light now that the plant is touching the light... A project for another day I guess.

Story of My Life...

2009-03-17T21:20:00.002-06:00

Dan in Real Life is my favorite movie! My lovely family actually believes that the first line in the song is the story of my life. ha

Fickle Appliances

2009-02-20T15:57:00.013-07:00

Here are some examples to find out if your appliances hate you too:

- Our temperamental oven beeps every so often yelling at us "F3, F3!" We think it might be the change in air pressure or we have ghosts.

- The satanic DVD player refuses to play any sort of LDS movies.

- We've gone through 3 TVs in the past 6 months. The first we had since the dinosaur age when my dad was a teenager (circa 2 million B.C.). Its faux-wood paneling and weighing as much as my car was a lovely sight in our family room. It literally had to wind itself up before we could see anything. Eventually it would freak out and the screen would just pulsate.
Another one that we had would humm constantly so we needed to have the TV full blast just to hear the movie and then the screen's light went out so we would need to sit in complete darkness to see what was on TV.

- If you're keeping track, those are only a few examples of rotten appliances. For the time being we are also without vacuum, washing machine and Mom's blow dryer.

We are so sharp-witted, brilliant, bright, knowledgeable, all-knowing and any other word meaning smart.

2009-02-14T20:09:00.010-07:00

My family never gets into the game of Scrabble or Wheel of Fortune or any game that involves any use of the brain. I guess we just don't want to feel too stupid, so we stick to games like Uno, Candyland, or Tic Tac Toe. Those are great games! No thinking WHAT.SO.EVER. That's why it's funny that my family and I have been totally addicted to puzzle games in the newspaper.
Everyday my mom pulls out the paper and heads directly to the comic section where the crossword puzzle is. We have accomplished two full puzzles in about two weeks because we finally resorted to using the internet thesaurus and good ol' google. A good thing has come out of our addiction (or fixation, enslavement, obsession)to crossword puzzles. We have learned a lot of random things things that we never would know. For example, I am currently searching to see who the heck a "Musician Stan" is.....

Beautiful Hands

2009-02-06T17:08:00.009-07:00

I believe that hands are the most expressive parts of the human body as well as the most interesting. You can tell so much about a person just by looking at the hands. Are the fingernails dirty? Or long? Are they worn? Are they old and wrinkled with age? Hands can be used in language as well as in creating artwork.

Hands tell a story of our lives. Hands intrigue me with their beauty and strength. Hands illustrate each individual's life and what they have done with it. Hands show emotion and character, good or bad. Hands show intimacies such as holding the hand of a loved one. Hands can portray what occupation a person is involved in. The hands may show frustration when a fist of anger. Hands show age, experiences and habits. From an artists' perspective, they also show color, texture, form, and the elements of design. Hands are versatile and amazing.

It's All Up From Here!

2009-01-28T11:13:00.010-07:00

I'm surprisingly happy right now as I look outside at the, once again, SNOW. Day after day.... more snow. No blue skies... just snow everywhere. This fact causes me be grateful that it is almost spring. The only good thing about winter is to make you appreciate the amazing springtime. Thank you winter!

I have to realistically remind myself that it's not spring yet, but in the meantime, I planted my first plant of the year. I named him Wall-E because there was a free order for an evergreen tree with our edition of the movie Wall-E. It arrived the other day and I was able to rummage around my gardening stuff and find the right pot to stick it in. It's all up from here!

*p.s. I wish this was my own Wall-E artwork but I thought it was cool anyway.

My Creation

2009-01-22T17:44:00.009-07:00

I love to create things. I think that people are most happy while they are in the process of creating things. For example: artwork, quilts, memories, babies (haha), aprons. For Christmas my family picks another family member's name out of a hat and we have to give that person a gift. We also pick a theme every year. Last year we had to buy (or create) something that had to do with a room in our house. Last year I had my sister in the bathroom (with the wrench... haha jk). This year we chose the theme of colors. I gave to my mom with amazing color of .....orange. Ya, orange. Gross. I know.
Anyway, I racked my brain for a cute thing to create because I have no money at all. I miraculously made an apron from an idea out of a library book. You must know that I have never sewn anything in my life unless you count the time in 7th grade home-ec class when I made shorts, and on the way home--they unraveled.

It's reversible!

Above is a pattern of some kind of vase with a flower sticking out of it that I made up. The original idea came from the book Simple Sewing by Lotta Jansdotter. I also wrapped it in a Macey's ad that had oranges on it so it fit perfectly with my theme. I was so proud!

Librarian Perks

2009-01-15T11:48:00.009-07:00

I work at the library. Along with that job is a perk called: "I-get-to-see-a-lot-of-books-before-other-people-have-a-chance-to-check them out!" It's not often that I check out a book that I love enough to actually BUY but I will definitely buy this one. I have read (and will continue to read) a book called The Creative License- Giving Yourself Permission to be the Artist You Truly Are by Danny Gregory.

The point of the book is to persuade the reader to become the artist we all are and can be. Danny Gregory has filled the book with very fun illustrations that just inspire me to draw more and gives me the confidence to do... art.

I especially liked this story he writes about in the book-

" When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college- that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared at me, incredulous and said, 'You mean they forget?'"

-Howard Iremoto

I love the idea that we were all artists at one time in our lives but most of us digress to become business men or accountants. Art is now looked at as "out there" or not worth the time to pursue. I wish that more of us could be like my six-year-old brother who loves to doodle, draw and think of his own stories. He intensely sits at our living room table for hours finishing his latest drawing of our family. If only we could keep the child-like artist in us.

This was done by my brother at age 4. It is a drawing of our family eating dinner from a bird's perspective. The rectangle is the table with round plates of food on it. The outer circles are our plates with broccoli on them. I think it is a very creative viewpoint and is awesome for someone his age to draw!

ASL

2009-01-14T12:01:00.010-07:00

I am in a Sign Language class. I really love it but it is really hard for me to grasp language concepts. I took two years of spanish, now I can't remember anything. I am in the 2nd semester of Sign Language and I feel like I don't learn it as well as I should but I really love it anyway. In hopes of becoming more motivated to learn, I am posting a video on here that we went through in class by this really cool guy on YouTube. Maybe someone can understand it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qpsbHPn1qk

For my class I also had to attend a "deaf activity" of some kind. In other words, I had to go to some function where there were deaf people present. My mom and I went to Sanderson Community Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Annual Bazaar a couple months ago. We (more like I ) felt totally out of place. My mom knows a little sign language from her friend from twenty years ago and I had only taken a semester of the language. It was funny because people could tell that we were hearing and they signed a lot slower to us and signed more in English than they normally would.

I just think that unlike any other language, Sign Language is a cool artform and very visual. I am a visual learner and like to think of myself as artistic so I figured that it would be easy to learn Sign Language rather than Spanish. I have a lot of work to do and then maybe one day I can post a video of me on YouTube.

"Muddled Meanderings" Title Is All Too Accurate..

2008-11-04T20:16:00.015-07:00

I had this plan to be spontaneous on my way home from my class tonight-- I decided I was going to go home on the FREEWAY! I had never gone that way before and thought it would take me home faster. My plan was simply to follow my instinct through the labyrinth of the city to find the entrance of the freeway and ride off safely to my home.

Of course nothing happens that easily...

I had the directions to get to the university (thanks mapquest!) but I hadn't ever used the directions because I had never traveled on the freeway to go to school. I figured that I could just follow the directions backwards to find my destination, a.k.a. the FREEWAY.

Ok, I've done some pretty dumb driving maneuvers in my day like almost pummeling the head cheerleader of my highschool as she was riding her bike (I would have had a lot of enemies if I was successful in crushing her). This recent experience was pretty similar. Tonight I was feeling pretty confident following my backwards directions until I hit a street that I only realized was ONE-WAY when cars started swerving* around me and angrily honking. I felt like I was in the movies when the robber is in hot pursuit from the cops; I was the robber who amazingly dodges cars and pedestrians.

I eventually found the freeway entrance, but turned too soon on to the most frightening tree-packed lane that once again looked like I was in a horror movie. I kept imagining tomorrow's headline reading: "'Obama Wins!!' and... 'Lost Girl Found in Woods Clutching Directions to Freeway.'" The road was so tight that I couldn't pull over and try to turn around so I just kept meandering.

For now on, I'm taking the long way around.

*I overexaggerated with the swerving. In reality, a semi just honked at me and I pulled over. :-)

Halloween Fun (?) I haven't always been too thrilled about the idea of Halloween-until now.

2008-10-30T12:00:00.021-06:00

In my Communications class we were required to give a total of 6 hours of community service. My group and I volunteered at a spook alley that an over-achieving librarian was putting on at her elementary school. I thought that we were in for a very long day as I heard of the plan when my group and I went to meet with her before hand to see exactly what we were getting ourselves into. We were amazed to see how elaborate the spook alley was.

I was a zombie with another person in my group. Our room was very industrious and creative with a graveyard scene (see above picture) made out of a leaf-patterned tarp--also layered with real leaves-- hoisted up on cinderblocks. This gave us the ability to lie underneath the tarp and crawl around. The tarp then had sliced holes acting as coffins so that my partner and I could rise from our silent slumber. Each time a little kid would come by we were supposed to slowly "raise from the dead." Previous to coming to our room, kids were screaming and even crying from werewolves and chainsaws. They just simply strolled passed our room and weren't scared at all.

Let's face it. I'm just not a scary person. I felt so bad for some of the kids who were scared and crying that I just waved at them and didn't attempt to be scary at all. I guess I empathized with the kids who were pleading with their parents to take them out. Like how Doritos don't agree with me, neither does Halloween. I never have had much fun at Halloween time. The first thing I think of when I hear of Halloween is the time my little brother threw-up all over my dad while trick-or-treating and how that was quickly the end of trick-or-treating that year. I've never been one for the scariness of Halloween either. I loathe watching scary movies, and I definitely have hated haunted houses. I remember I was about 8 years old when I went in the Lagoon haunted house with my dad. It wasn't like the extreme "Nightmare on 13th" scary, but the kiddy-haunted-house-scary. My dad and I were in the haunted house car and I was crying and completely terrified! Finally, after three quarters of the ride was over, a nice Lagoon employee asked if I wanted a flashlight. How pathetic!

I had a lot of fun at this service project haunted house mainly because I was on the other side of the table. I was the one scaring the children. I had no fear of the people in the haunted house; they were my friends. We are all afraid of things we don't know and now that I am on the "other side" I am now more considerate of Halloween- but don't expect me to buy all the Alfred Hitchcock classics any time soon.

Extreme Urban Makeover

2008-10-26T22:50:00.021-06:00

I am a total country girl at heart. My favorite pastime is gardening, I love "Wide Open Spaces" (thanks to the Dixie Chicks), and I love any paintings with chicken in it. I am also hesitant to try new adventurous things without a close friend sitting right beside me. A couple days into the school semester I had a parking lot meltdown and in return vowed to never drive my car to school or fork up my well-earned money for gas and a parking pass again. Many were skeptical when I told them I would start riding the bus to school, but one spontaneous day (ok, I did a lot of research of bus schedules first so it wasn't too sponaneous) I hopped on the train and officially took advantage of the public UTA system!

I had known for a while that our "privilege" of paying the big bucks for school allowed us college students to ride public transportation for free, but I was convinced that only drug dealers took the bus and now I have confirmed that I'm right when I smell the lingering illegal odor.

Public transportation has its good points like I save gas and get the opportunity to read while being chaffeured around town but there is definitely a different culture on the bus with a whole lot of interesting characters-from the drunk guy to the man selling peaches- and I am glad that I'm along for the ride even though I constantly wonder where my hand sanitizer is.

It's Always the Mother's Fault.

2008-10-17T22:26:00.016-06:00

I've wanted to work on a blog for some time now but my perfectionism always kicks in telling me that I would never be able to write well enough. I then continue to deprive myself of creativity by telling myself that I wouldn't have anything in my life interesting enough to write about.

I constantly come home and gab to anyone around me about a crazy thing that happened to me that day and that's when I realize that I do have weird experiences that happen to me on a regular basis. It finally took my inspirational mother telling me to write my day-to-day adventures in a blog that initiated me into the mode of blogging. As a result, I attempt to share some experiences of a meandering college student.