Sam... what did you get for Christmas?

Well... let me tell you what my favorite was. When I open up not one but two Sonicare toothbrushes. Why would you buy me two I ask? Dad replies... his and hers... a good omen for the future. All I had to say was wow.

I brought the blizzard home with me...

So this NEVER happens here in Vegas... its a pretty big deal. We are not quite sure what to do when the snow actually starts sticking to the road... let alone when some inches of snow start piling up. We don't quite own any snow plows here in sin city. Might be staying in all night...

Your grandpa is a ballerina?

Nope... my grandpa is a ballerino.

Not even sure if that is a word but Lexie and I came up with it years ago. Thought is sounded right.

So one of my favorite parts about Christmas is making the trek up to utah to see Ballet West's Nutcracker. Most of you know that my Grandpa was a ballet pioneer in this country... starting the San Francisco Ballet along with Ballet West. Yep he was pretty cool. Anyways... Ballet West still performs his choreography of the Nutcracker ever Christmas. I remember going to it quite often as a child and thought it would be fun if we could get the whole family together and go again this year. Its always fun to be with my moms side of the family, especially at the Nutcracker. I never really understood how much my grandpa accomplished in his lifetime when I was growing up but it is always fun to get together and honor him and his works.

HELLO CUPCAKE...

For mothers day my mom bought me this book... and I became inspired to decorate cupcakes...

So for Christmas time, I roped Brinley (who just took a cake decorating class) into helping me make these... (this image is from the book)



So we got creative with the decorating sugars as they are called in the cake decorating world. I also rolled out with a rolling pin some airheads and used a pizza roller to cut up some fruit roll-ups and this is what we got...



Except one of them ended up looking like a firecracker... and according to Preston they looked like turtles...



All in all though it was one of my favorite nights ever.... despite Brinley telling me all my cupcakes were ugly. Which some of them most definitely were.

BESTIES...

There are so many reasons to love the holiday season, but these girls are one the of reasons that this time of year really is the best! Its not every day you meet some girls in Junior High and over ten years later you still find yourself sitting on the same blue couches (thank you Lori for handing them down to Natalie) with the same people like time has never changed. Except now three of you are married, and two of you are moms. Crazy. So here are my shout outs to my besties...

Erinita Lita Cita - it saddens me that you live so far away, but really I am just jealous cause you are living out mine and Kendals dream. There is no way to put down all of the memories but I can't believe how much time has gone by and we sit down after months of not talking and pick up right where we left off.

Kendal - even though natalie chants "fight fight fight" whenever we start to bicker and even though you did punch me in my mouth once, I still love you. You are my indian outlaw friend and for that I will always love you too. No one else shares the joy in that song like we do - and we love to make others mad by singing it.

Jennifer - the girl who shares my love of crafts and art and anything that involves anything at Joanns. You guys can thank jen cause it was in fact at one of our craft nights where I felt inspired to start a blog. I love that I can call you anytime and chat just like when we were sixteen and you would call me at midnight to talk about boys while watching party of five.

Natalie - Your decision to move .7 miles away from me was the best of your life. Or my life. Either way. It was a good one. I love that you still have those blue couches and I love that we get together when we are 25 and you pull out the pictures of Jen with her bangs or me covered in all you crap while sleeping on the church history trip. Thank you for always keeping the memories alive and for giving us a chance to laugh at ourselves.

I hope everyone is fortunate enough to have their own set of besties...

BLACK FRIDAY FUN...

Yes I went shopping at four a.m.

Yes I also worked from 3 to midnight.

And yes, I too faced death that day.

I thought Lindsay and I were doing pretty good. No throwing of elbows at Walmart like I had previously experienced. And then I go to Costco. I was literally standing there and had been for quite some time when a lady comes barreling into me with her shopping cart. First of all she was Asian which made it twenty times more funny to me. Second of all she claimed she couldn't see me. I not so kindly pointed out that she probably could not see me because she had a giant TV in her cart which was blocking her view. I also not so kindly reminded her that instead of running around like a crazy she should take the time to peek her head out from behind the giant TV to see if anyone is in fact in front of her. Then as I suggested she move the TV, and she proceeded to try to move it, I started dying laughing. And to top it all of she informed me that crashing into me hurt her. Like in the end it was my fault. Oh man Lindsay and I were crying. And now I have a bruise on my hip.

And yes I was wearing basketball shorts, a giant hoodie, and some furry slippers.

BUTT BLASTER...

I have taken up going to the gym. I know... so not my favorite thing. But this machine entitled the "Butt Blaster" is the key to my hot ase. One day I will have Brinley take a picture of me on the machine blasting my butt away, but for now just create a mental picture in your mind. Don't be alarmed when the next time you see me I can't walk. These things take time, and in the mean time my muscles hate me for my year of inactivity.

DOGLOVER you make me happy.

How can you not just die laughing at this... i have contributed many times to the over 800,000 times these videos have been viewed. doglover199709 you rock.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMdWqaN_Tms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBRvV-J-NFQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEtP9zQAOI4&feature=related

Dear Neighbors...

Please stop stealing my trash can. This is twice now that someone has taken something that does not belong to them, and you are forcing me in return, to take someone elses trash can. And don't worry, I take whatever one has been lying in the middle of the street a good two days after trash day. But my original trash can was nice and new and clean and the one I just snatched has something growing on the inside of it. So whoever took my nice new trash can, please return in promptly and I will not ask any questions about what was going on in your mind when you took it.

Love,
Sam

Crafty or creepy?

I hope you can tell that because you have seen two posts from me to day it is safe to conclude that I am holding down the fort at my dads office while everyone is out of town. Therefore I blog because I am bored. So thanks to jen I stumbled across these crafts. Please tell me that you appreciate them as much as I do. I have always wanted to find an alternate use for tampons. Check out some of these tampon crafts.

Letters...

So I decided that since I verbally write letters to the people/things that I am currently hating in my life... i shall blog them as well... so here we go.

Dear Gap...

Why in the world do you care more about your precious payroll hours than you do your employees? Cause while I feel like I have been screwed over recently... in the end it was actually you who got screwed over cause you had to pay me 6 hours worth of overtime. Next time you feel in necessary to schedule me from 9pm - 6am, please note that this time I will in fact leave at 6am. My recent stay til 10am made me hate you more than i already do. Not to mention the fact that I now have bleeding cuticles and my arms look like they have been clawed multiple times by a cat because you are too lazy to have the people in china who make our christmas trees round off the edges so i don't almost bleed to death during the night in the middle of your sales floor.

Love, Sam

HOW CAN ANYONE RESIST THIS FACE...

I WAS NOT EVEN AT THIS TRUNK OR TREAT FUNCTION BUT SERIOUSLY... I HAVE THE CUTEST NEPHEW EVER.

The World's Heaviest Man

For those of you who happened to come to house sometime last fall... you probably watched a documentary on this guy cause I found him facinating. Anywho... I saw an article that he got married. Thought you would all want to see this info too. Cause its a little disturbing.

MONTERREY, Mexico (Oct. 27) - The world's heaviest man has tied the knot.
Manuel Uribe, who hasn't left his bed in six years, married his longtime girlfriend Claudia Solis Sunday in northern Mexico.
'I Have a Wife'

http://news.aol.com/health/article/700-pound-man-marries-in-mexico/226880?icid=100214839x1212285118x1200727396

Manuel Uribe, who was once named the world's heaviest man, got married on Sunday in Mexico. In 2006, Uribe, 43, tipped the scales at 1,230 pounds. He's since lost 550 pounds. Wearing a white silk shirt with a sheet wrapped around his legs, Uribe smiled as Solis, 38, walked down a flight of stairs wearing a strapless ivory dress, a tiara and hot-pink lipstick.
He later broke into tears as a notary declared the couple husband and wife in a civil ceremony attended by more than 400 guests. For the traditional first dance as newlyweds, Uribe and Solis held hands and swayed to a romantic ballad.
A popular local norteno band played accordion-heavy tunes at the reception, which featured a banquet of meat and buttered vegetables.
Uribe's mother, Orquedia Garza, said the groom steered clear of the five-tier wedding cake.
"He didn't break his diet," she told The Associated Press. "His doctors are here and they are watching him very closely." The world's heaviest man has tied the knot. Manuel Uribe, who hasn't left his bed in six years, married his longtime girlfriend Claudia Solis Sunday in northern Mexico. (Oct. 26)
The wedding, which was closed to most media, will be featured in an upcoming Discovery Channel documentary on Uribe, the 43-year-old former mechanic said.
"I have a wife and will form a new family and live a happy life," Uribe told hordes of reporters earlier as they followed him through the streets of Monterrey.
A flatbed truck was brought in to tow his custom-made bed decorated with a canopy, flowers and gold-trimmed bows to the wedding at a local event hall. Two police patrol cars escorted him ahead of a long line of traffic.
Uribe tipped the scales in 2006 at 1,230 pounds, earning him the Guinness World Record as the world's heaviest man.
He has since shed about 550 pounds with the help of Solis, whom he met four years ago.
Uribe said he's gunning for a new title: world's greatest weight loser.

call me crazy

Call me crazy but last time i checked it was pretty dangerous to light up your cigarette within a foot of your water heater, your gas powered water heater. You know that one with giant caution signs on it that flammable things such as flames are not good. Yes my neighbors have taken up smoking in their garage. At least they leave the garage door partially opened for some ventilation. So if for some reason you go a while without hearing from me, know that I went up in flames along with the neighbors... Who set up their patio furniture in their garage.

self help books...

So as I was sitting on my butt this morning... I happened to turn on the TV to ABC family. Actually that was no accident, I love ABC family. But Step by Step came on and I was watching the opening credits and was reminded that Christopher Castille is that that show. Please tell me you know who Christopher Castille is. Now I have this fond memory of sitting at the computer in London and finding this book. I gave it to Margaret as a gift and I think she is the person she is today because of it. So for on one cent you can purchase a used copy on amazon. Much cheaper than therapy.

Its worth the $3.99 shipping. Trust me.

GAS STATIONS

What is the point of owning a gas station and keeping it open for business if you are not actually going to sell gas? I hope the owners of the mighty mart across the street take note of this post. Also don't put up signs that your pumps are "out of order" when in fact they are actually just "out of gas"

RETRACTION

I will take back my previous post of quitting blogging and agree to post still... but they may be few and far between. Deal?

consider it considered...

Dear readers/stockers of my blog.

I am sure no one is going to read this cause they think I have dropped out of the blog world, but it is something I am considering. I mean lets get honest. With the little spare time I do have I would rather spend it on my couch watching re-runs of 90210(I can't believe they are trying to remake it) than trying to entertain you with my wit. I mean sure I'm funny and this might be the last line of contact some of you have with me... but I am considering dropping out of blogs. Cause really... if you want to know the random thoughts I have... go to amanda's blog. Cause I think them too. If you want to know what my family is doing... go to my sisters blog. And if you want to know whats in my head just think chemistry... cause its always on my mind. I will let you know either way what I decide.

Love,
Samantha

Cruelty....

So normally when I visit Costco I love looking through the double packs of movies... you know... usually one pretty good movie paired with a crappy one that you will probably still watch? Well they are trying to screw people over now by pairing two crappy movies together.

Here is the pair I found today. If someone viewed both of these movies they would find themselves in much pain.

.

Why does Utah steal all my friends?

Utah holds all of my friends. Which is great when you want to visit you get to see so many of them, but at the same time... I am in Vegas... which means that my visits with the peeps of my past are few and far between. I even make friends with people down here and for some reason they still end up in Utah. But no I am not going to move back to utah. I have spent way to many hours painting my house for me to ever leave it.




Cassie and I with our cool badges to get into
the church office building. I sure am going to
miss her!




Mary, Elaine, Mander, Maggie and Me!
Margaret got married on Tuesday and its always
fun to have little London Reunions



Me, Audrey, and Keriann. We met in the Fernwood in
Provo and had the best summer of our lives.



Had a BBQ at Tophers house. Modesty is hot.


Utah holds the most beautiful college campus I have ever been to. Even if you are not a BYU lover, you have to admit its an amazing campus. It makes me wish that UNLV or CSN came close... but instead you find cigarettes in the planters. Awesome. I am only a little mad at BYU for not providing me a husband which is somewhat implied when you apply to that school. Just kidding... but some people leave feeling that way.




This is me and baby Johnny... Keriann let me
push him around campus just so I could get a
glimpse of what this would have felt like. It was always
my goal to have a little baby at graduation. Maybe by
going back to school I am being given another chance.
(I really hope people don't take me too seriously)

It was fun to visit temple square. While I love the Las Vegas Temple... I think the buildings and just the feeling of temple square can't be found anywhere else on this earth. I marvel at that temple every time I see it.



Salt Lake City Temple




Cassie and I at temple square

Bri and Jen...for some reason I escaped without a picture of you. It was fun to go up there and see old friends and visit the many places that made my years in Utah well worth it. Love all of you!

And I'm off...

Dear everyone...

So I am going to Utah tomorrow. Thought you would all want to know since you stock my blog and can't wait for more posts. Just wanted to let you know that there won't be any more posts til at least next week.

Love, Sam

Torture...

Do you ever wonder why human beings want to torture another human being? Well Friday night Cassie had a date which my friend Brinley and I ended up crashing. So we start watching this movie "Rose Red" only to find out that it is four and a half hours long - and the boy chose it. Why would you ever do that to someone, especially on a first date? It gets worse. You would think that after everyone repeatly falls asleep except for this boy, he might get the clue that it made us want to kill ourselves along with the other people in the movie, but no. As i continually fell asleep, I would awake only to find that the creepstick was still there watching the movie and more importantly, that no matter how many times I fell asleep the movie was still on. Always on. I woke up suffering from PTSD.

Tag your it...

I started this list a couple months ago when visiting amanda and she was pretty much holding a gun to my head. I figured since I started it and even went through the trouble of saving it... i would at least finish it. So here are ten things about me that some people find disturbing... others endearing.

1. I might be one of the messiest people in the world when it comes to my bedroom. Roommates have in fact had to leave me notes in the past asking me to "clean up my crap" if you will. What do they care its not invading their space. But anyways... at any given time it looks like an explosion has taken place... even if I just cleaned it the day before.

2. I can go days without drinking water because soda is my life. I am very well acquainted with the staff at the circle K on the corner of stephanie and warm springs. Let me just tell you that I love that place because they give you the choice of crushed ice or cubed... not to mention they have squirt in the fountain. For those of you who truly know me you would know that squirt is in fact my favorite soda but I have to drink the diet coke because of the headaches... and also so I don't gain 1,000 pounds off squirt alone. My new favorite drink is a cranberry limeaid from sonic. Its probably the worst discovery I have ever made.

3. Chips and Salsa is my favorite food by far... sometimes chips and taco sauce. Once after I had the flu it was the first thing I wanted to eat when I finally got up the courage to eat again. Sometimes I skip all meals and only eat chips and salsa... burns a hole in my stomach. Love it.

4. I have enough shirts to wear a different one every day for a whole year if that tells you anything. Although I just took a few bags to the DI so I should re-count before I establish this as fact.

5. I have been researching selling my eggs for money instead of actually working for the money. I got concerned about the amount of eggs I actually had in me. According to my calculations I have about 243 eggs left. Give it a couple weeks and we will be another man down. As you can see I care deeply about whether or not I have enough to bear children of my own. I need kids NOW to slow down the egg loss process.

6. I love craft time. This one is not embarrassing... unless you think of your grandma in the corning sewing a blanket cause she had nothing else to do with her time. And I am pretty much the same

7. One of my favorite songs in the world is Meatloafs "I would do anything for love". Many of you would associate me with this song if you knew me in my college days. What exactly does he mean when he says... "but I won't do that". Its one of lifes great questions is you ask me.

8. I have poor hygiene. Most of you who say you don't wash your hair every day at least shower every day. Not this girl. Its why I am thankful to have found cassie and have her a part of my life cause she is my equal in poor hygiene and it makes me feel normal. The good news is in my opinion you can't tell.... other than the bit of grease in the hair. But I don't smell. Promise.

9. I LOVE LOVE LOVE to take off on a whim. I have not always been like this. I have often been somewhat more on the worry wart side. But I have found this love of not planning and just going and it has always treated me well. Thank goodness for my tent cause it can come anywhere with me and always provides a roof over my head. My most random excursion was a camping trip up to Mt. Charleston... making the assumption that there were in fact places to camp out there. My new philosophy - we don't need to know til we get there!

10. On a serious note - seriously love my family and friends. I have the greatest sisters and I love them and their cute little families. And friends - this includes all of you that I have ever crossed paths with I think the world of you too - all for different reasons!

Develop your talents...

We have been counseled to develop our talents. Seek out new ones and perfect them. Well tonight my friends.... I did just that. It came in the art form of balloon animals. I have not really made it past the sword, dog, or flying mouse but I believe I can't go anywhere but up with this
one.

Someone should have told me...

If only I had known how amazingly comical community college is I would have started taking random classes a long time ago just for entertainment value. Where else can you find someone who and I quote "wants to write vampire novels based from his own experiences" and the boy whose preferred name isn't just dave, but dangerous dave. There is also Alice who does not speak English and Abby who always wears two pairs of glasses. One on her eyes and one on her head. And sometimes they are both regular glasses, not just sunglasses. There is Craig who is 36 and wears extremely short gym shorts and is 36 years old and just can't believe that you can bring coffee into a classroom cause this is his first class. There is also Brittney who has a peg leg and Eddie who has signed up for this class five times and keeps dropping it. We did not see Eddie in class today. Please appreciate the fact that I get to spend three hours a day with these people.

I SUCK!

There is nothing more to say than I suck at blogging. As I am trying to set more goals... I am going to once again going to re-committ to the blog. Please look for a recap of the month of June soon. And by soon I mean on Saturday when I actually have some time.

Love - Sam

CABIN FEVER

Over Memorial Day weekend the entire fam went up to
my parents new Cabin in Duck Creek, Utah. We are all excited
to have a place that our family can gather for weekends
and holidays. It ended up being much colder than we
ever imagined it would be in May - still snowing up there!
Here are some pics of our weekend!


The Creek


The Lake where my dad can't wait to
take us fishing.



Abbie joined the band and the Memorial Day
weekend party in Duck Creek



Naters and Daisy


Grandma with Dinosaur Nate


Kyle is such a great older cousin


Smoked out by the fire



The Rhino - dads new favorite toy


Lindsay and I riding


Preparing for the ride


The Boys


Kyle and Abbie

Monuesday...

I'm sure you are wondering what the *%&#^ is monuesday. Let me share my love of these kinds of days. Last summer Cassie and i had multiple days where we never went to bed. There was no end to friday and to beginning to saturday... thus the birth of fraturdays. We love it when two days blend into one because we torture ourselves and stay up all night. We fall asleep so early these days that we were not sure we had it in us. So monday night we went to a ten movie... bowled four games after it... took a trip to the wally world... and then topped it off with buffalo wild wings then a viewing of silence of the lambs. We thought we were going to accomplish a true monuesday til we fell asleep and didn't wake up til the afternoon the next day. Maybe next time we will get it right and get no sleep... and be in pain for days to come.

How far can you get in 29 Hours?

Grand Canyon is Behind us in case you were
wondering.


In 29 Hours I managed to go to to 2 National Parks, Five States, and drive over 1000 miles. What started out to be a trip to the Grand Canyon quickly ended up including a venture to the four corners. Which by the way there is nothing there so after driving hours out of the way to go all we could do is laugh. Laugh so hard we cried. Then we decided that driving through Arizona again was going to prove to be miserable so we took the north route home and ended up in Zion. Needless to say 1000 miles in 29 hours.... Cassie and I are always full of good ideas.





Cassie and I embracing being in four states at once.

Rough day

You know you are tired when you wear two different shoes on your feet to work. And one has a much thicker sole than the other. And it takes you seven hours into your day to even realize it. And you only realize it cause you finally looked down at your feet.

The much awaited pictures of my trip...

I know its old news by now... but here are some pics of the fabulous adverture I went on with Cassaroo over spring break 2008. Yes I call her Cassaroo. This is just part one of the pics cause it takes to long to upload pics on my near death computer... part two to come soon.

Our first campsite in Big Sur, CA

The beautiful ocean... very intimate with it

by the end of the trip

Hello world!

Sea Lion on Pier 39 in San Fran

Us on the pier in San Fran

We drove through the tree... not into the tree