Adolescent flashback.

The time when someone tried to sell me drugs.

I was 16 years old living in Indiana and was at Fair Oaks Mall to do some shopping (read: browse American Eage and Bath and Body, as those were the only half decent stores in the mall). I had just received my license a few months before, and was feeling so proud and independent that I could drive myself to and from the mall with no adult assistance.

Anyway, when I had stopped in the middle of the mall, a random teenage guy approached me. I was hoping that he wasn't coming over with some lame attempt at flirting, because I'm fickle like that. Don't flirt with me if I don't want you to. I didn't give myself the nickname of "frigid witch" in college (pre-Ben), it was earned.

Rather than the interaction I was expecting, the guy began a conversation that I didn't really understand.
"Hey, do you want some shrubbery?" he asked.
"Huh?" was my intelligent answer.
"Do you want to buy some grass?" he asked, looking a little irritated.
He really had me lost. Why would he want to sell me grass and shubbery? That's stuff my dad would buy at Lowes or something. My reply was,"What are you talking about?"
I could tell that he was getting confused with my confusion. He leaned a little closer to me and asked, "Do you want to buy some weed?"

HANG ON. Did he seriously think that I was going to buy drugs from him? Did I look like such a pothead that he felt that he needed to ask me, a perfect stranger, to buy from him? That's a negative.

I guess my answer of "Ewww, no" was good enough for him, because he left me alone after that.

It's anniversary time.

I can't believe that it's already been four years!

We didn't really celebrate yesterday because

1. Ben was sick as a dog

2. It was Sunday

3. We just celebrated my birthday

and Christmas- hello, holiday overload.

Despite the lack of celebration, it was a great day. I'm so happy that I married my Benjamin. He's the love of my life and my best friend. Also, he's hot and he cracks me up.

Merry Christmas to all...

...and to all a good night.

ps- Ben doesn't hate me, he just hates taking pictures. Lame, I know.

Need something to do?

Go see Bodyworlds in Salt Lake.

It's a little pricey, but is more than a little amazing.

The exhibit ends January 11, so see it soon.

Here kitty, kitty...

Oscarpants always knows how to make me feel better after a rough day.

He jumped up all my himself and didn't even hiss.

I'm not a fan of the snow today.

Why is that?

Let's see... first, I was rear-ended on the way to work. My poor little bumper. Later, I got stuck on a random neighborhood street while attempting a home visit. I was driving a state car and I had my client dig me out of my rut.

On the upside of life, we're past the winter solstice, but the downside is 3 months of winter.

The uglier, the better (in this case)

Last week Ben and I had some friends over for a holiday celebration.

The theme: ugly sweaters

Seems like this is a big trend in Utah Valley, as ugly sweaters were difficult to find. As a result, some sweaters were ugly, and others were just... sweaters.

I especially like Ben's outfit (picked out by me, of course). He's wearing a snowflake turtleneck topped by a sweatshirt with a sleeping cat and dog silk screened on it. Both items from the women's section of DI. He's such a great sport.

The character to the left of Ben is our friend Sam. He doesn't always wear glasses like that, I promise.

Christmas visitors.

That's right, the parentals are coming to town TODAY!
I'm quite excited about this... and have been since October when I invited them to come to Utah for Christmas.
I was very surprised that they took me up on my offer... since Sarah has the power (to be discussed in another post) I figured that she would receive Christmas visitation with Jack and Terr.
Hang on to your boots, this is going to be a great week.

*for some reason, I don't have any pictures of just my parents. I'll have to work on that.

I'm excited for

December 22

Why?

December 21 is the shortest day of the year, which means that starting December 22, the days will finally be getting longer. Thank goodness! I seriously think that I have a touch of seasonal affective disorder.

Hallelujah! Slightly longer days will definitely make me a happier person. Doesn't anyone else get irritated that the sun is down by 5pm?!?

Spotlight!

I have this fabulous friend named Melissa. Many of you Indiana folk probably know her. She and I have been friends for the past13 years or so and I am so happy to have her in my life. She is a sweet, smart, crafty girl who is without a doubt the kindest person I've ever known. Ben agrees. Ben and I actually talked about this (the nicest person award) at length, and we both came to the conclusion that Melissa fit the bill.

Here are a few facts about my friend Melissa (or Major Melissa as I sometimes call her):
- she founded her high school's art club
-she graduated from BYU, however she spent her freshman year attending Ball State in Indiana on a supersweet Lily Scholarship. I missed Melissa so much during this time. To stay in touch, we wrote each other letters. Acutal letters people.
-she met her husband while working at a dude ranch one summer
-she's the mommy to the adorable Macey, also known as Mace-face
- she bakes me the best bread in the world every year for my birthday. It's a gift that I treasure... and then eat.

-she's amazingly crafty. This year, she made me these Christmas tree ornaments:I almost cried when she gave me these ornaments, seeing as they are of my cats Moo and Oscar, and I'm obsessed with my cats. How thoughtful is she?

Bottom line, Melissa is one of my dearest friends and I'm so happy that I know her.

Thanks for being such a great friend Melissa!

Hrmph.

I'm officially bugged. For weeks I have been waiting to purchase tickets to see Wicked. Tickets went on sale today. At 10 am I began trying to buy the tickets online and over the phone. No dice. The server was to busy and the phone was always busy.

Tried this method over and over again.

I drove to SLC around noon to go to the box office. Guess what. The show was completely sold out. The whole month. All. Sold. Out. By 1 pm.

I am now pouting at home.

Drumroll please...

The surprise was DVR! Hooray! My husband knows how to take a hint, for which I am grateful.

The Comcast man was a little afraid of my extreme excitement when he came over to install... I was just really excited, ok?

After zooming through The Biggest Loser in about 80 minutes, my life is forever changed. I'll never go back to regular tv.

Weekend glimpse.

More photos and details to come at a later date... tomorrow if you're lucky (or cursed if you really hate my blog).

Am I right or am I right?

Jobs I would love:
1. party/wedding planner
2. makeup artist
3. cake maker
4. personal shopper
5. movie critic

Jobs I would hate:
1. person who takes the boots off cars
2. postal worker
3. pre-school teacher
4. telemarketer (wait, I did that)
5. personal assistant (more like slave)

Going to the circus.

Ok, I'm not really going to the circus, but I am going to the Britney concert in April with some of my best girls. Hooray!

What really tipped the scales on my Britney interest was last week's documentary... how can you not feel sorry for the girl?

I so wanted to see a Britney concert when I was a teenager, so now I'll finally get my wish at the ripe age of 24. She did open for the 1998 N Sync concert I attended, but since I didn't really know who she was, I didn't care.

This had better be cooler than the time that I saw "Crossroads" in the theater with some friends and had to sit next to a creepy 50-something man who came to the movie alone and kept rocking back and forth during the movie.... nasty.

I do love surprises.

Next Monday is my 24th birthday- wow! As exciting as birthdays are, I really have mixed feelings about this one... let's break it down:

Pros:
- starting to be taken seriously at work. Around this time last year I was hearing a client scream at me, "You're young! You're incompetent! You're young...." Yeah, fun times.
-Non-Utah people don't look at me like I'm crazy for being married

Cons:
-24 is definitely considered "mid-twenties"
- I'm starting to get mini-wrinkles

Anyway, on to the surprise. Ben has instructed me to be home from 1-3 pm on my birthday... he also said that the surprise can't be delivered to me at my office. What could it be? I figure flowers would be easy to send to an office, so it probably isn't that. Maybe a kitten? Ben knows that I'm kinda obsessed with cats... MAYBE IT'S THE COMCAST MAN COMING OVER TO GIVE ME DVR! Oh, I hope that's the surprise... I want DVR more than anything...

Stay tuned, I'll definitly report on the surprise.