Betta be street if he lookin' at me

Those that know me can attest to the fact that often I SOOOO wish I were black. I practice my booty poppin just about every day. I stand in the mirror for hours, working on my hip roll. And, I dip it, pop it, twerk it, stop it every chance I get!

And aside from just wanting to be black, I wanna be 'hood. Actually, I feel that because of my 2 year stint living in the South, I've already earned myself some street cred! I wanna be gangsta.

Of course, I'm not suggesting that just because you're black that means you're a ghetto gang banger. That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying, that I wanna be ghetto fab but I just can't pull it off since in reality, I'm still half white. But the brown side of me yearns to get out there and C-walk with the best of them.

Oh Destiny's Child. You know exactly what I'm talkin' bout.



I need a soldier.

Reality TV

I LOVE me some reality TV. But I'm not talking American Idol and Survivor. I like my reality shows trashy, dirty, and ghetto!! Here are a few programs that keep me tuning in each week for the newest episodes:

Jersey Shore
I can't get enough of these guidos and guidettes. Are people REALLY that idiotic and self-absorbed? Only at the Shore, baby. GTL

America's Best Dance Crew
Ok, so it's not really trashy. But compared to So You Think You Can Dance? and Dancing With the Stars, ABDC is super raw! And what is it with Asians? Can they all dance?!? Every Asian crew or crews with Asian members have dominated so far. Pretty sure every winning crew over the past 5 seasons has had an Asian member. Coincidence?

Tool Academy
Pretty much, it's Charm School for guys; douche bags on parade.

Jerseylicious
This show just aired last week and I'm already addicted. I can't wait for the season to progress. Centered around Jersey's Gatsby Salon, this show reeks of catfights, ultra teased hair, and drama. But, I kinda feel like I'm cheating on Snooki when I watch it.

RuPaul's Drag Race
I love me some queens! Sache chante!


What are some of your favorite and trashy TV shows??

House of Death Part Deux

Following Lolli's birthday party, my mom's entire house came down with the nasties. Grandma was coughing up a lung. Brother and Mom were attempting to soothe sore throats. And even my poor niece had pink eye. It got really bad when my other niece was hospitalized for a couple days with Pneumonia.

With Lolli's track record in mind, we high-tailed it outta there and kept far a way as to avoid catching the nasties ourselves...but to no avail.

Wednesday hits and Lalea is completely trashed. With a fever pushing 105 and vomiting every 2 hours and with her history of asthma attacks, Lolli needed to see a doctor ASAP. Around 4:30am, we rolled into the ER only to have them tell us it was just a virus and it'd pass. They gave us a script for some nausea pills that of course Medicaid wouldn't cover, so we ended up shelling out $96 on about 15 teeny, dissolvable pills that Lolli kept spitting out. I love throwing $96 down the toilet.

Lolli slowly gets better and then I get sick. When I say sick, I don't mean you just feel crappy and don't wanna get out of bed. I mean you feel like you're dying and you absolutely can't get out of your bed. Thank goodness Lolli was on the mends because there was no way that I'd have been able to care for her coughing fits and vomiting while trying to control my own.

It's been nearly a week and I'm only now getting up, dressed, and out of the house. My throat is still on fire and I'm still hacking up gallons of mucus, but at least now I can semi-function. But of course now that me and Baby are better, Ry is getting sickly. The cycle never ends!

The thing I'm most worried about though, is running. Having rolled my ankle last week prior to getting sick, I haven't been able to run in nearly 8 days. I finally pulled myself onto the treadmill last night with kleenex and cough drops in tow. I barely made it 2.5 miles. Tell me how in the hell I'm gonna make it through the 18 miles I'm scheduled to run with the team this weekend?!?!? I have NO idea. I'm gonna try and run 5 miles tonight and tomorrow. I hope I don't die. Pray for me.

Cherry Blossom Birthday

Birthday Girl,

This month you turned 2! And believe me, the bad temper and attitude set in long before...

Since we did your huge luau last year, I planned on just having a small family party this time. Well, you know how I am when it comes to birthdays and parties. I tend to go overboard.

I found a cute, Japanese inspired, theme birthday idea online and thought I'd give it a try. So this year, we had a cherry blossom birthday.

The night before, I spent hours over at Tutu's house baking and rolling fondant.

The next day, Auntie Whitty helped me put the finishing touches on your cake while Tutu and Daddy pieced together our candy sushi. It took a lot of time and effort, but the end result was darling! Auntie made you a beautiful cake that impressed everyone! And the sushis were darling and delicious! The real California rolls and edamame we had were yummy, too!

But my favorite were the cupcakes. Strawberry, mmm! But the best part about the cupcakes were the pink icing pooplets made out of iceing. I tried so hard to be creative and a real baker so I iced the cuppies using a pastry bag thingy and fancy tips. In my head, they were gonna turn out really cutesy and professional looking. Instead, they looked like pink poop scotches. Oh well. They were still delicious and I still ate like 3 of them!

All your cousins, aunties, uncles, and best friends came to your party and spoiled you with lots of fun presents! You got so many coloring books and sidewalk chalk that you're now set for life! Though, I'm sure those books will only last you a couple months.

You absolutely LOVE to color and will do so for hours on end. Luckily, it's getting warm out so we can take a break from the books and draw cute pictures on the sidewalk, instead, with your chalk. Being outside and coloring???? OMG, 2 of your most favorite things in the whole world!!

I hope you enjoyed this last year as much as we have. There were a few rough spots, like when you were hospitalized with RSV and then continued to have wheezing episodes due to childhood asthma. Sometimes, it's all I can do to make it to the end of the day. Being a parent is HARD!!! But it's so worth it to be YOUR mommy!

I love you to pieces and I can't wait to celebrate more and more years to come! You're a beautiful baby girl. You're my baby girl. I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always. As long as I'm living my baby you'll be.

xoxo

Mama

Shameless Self-Advertisement

With my marathon right around the corner, I need all the help I can get! I've got less than 2 months to go and still have about $600 left to raise. This is where you come in!!!

Tomorrow, some teammates and I will be hosting a used book sale at the Provo City Library from 2pm-5pm. We're offering hardcover books for $2, paperbacks for $1, and even some DVDs for $2. There are some pretty great titles for sale. If you want to expand your library, you MUST come to our book sale!

Not a big fan of reading? Well how about eating??? In tandem with our book sale, we're doing a little bake sale, too. I've already got some yummy treats baked and waiting to be iced! Ever had candy sushi?? They're so cute! Come by and try some! Pink lemonade cupcakes. Chocolate covered Rice Krispy treats. Cookies, cookies, and more cookies!

Come visit our book/bake sale tomorrow afternoon and spoil yourself with some great new reads and some delicious desserts while supporting a great cause.

All proceeds go to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) for blood-cancer research, education, and patient support in Utah.

Don't live in the area but still wanna help out? Not a problem! Visit my fundraising webpage located here and make a direct, online donation to the LLS.

Thanks in advance for all your support. And remember, every donation, no matter how small, has life-saving potential!

See ya tomorrow!

Training Day 15 - Gardner Village

The second my alarm went off on Saturday morning, I knew I was gonna have a bad run.

I hit the snooze button a zillion times and at one point, even convinced myself that I was just gonna skip my run, catch up on some sleep, and then try to do the run on my own the following day. Well, I couldn't fall back to sleep after I made that decision because I felt so guilty.

Finally pulled myself out of bed, into the car, and up to Gardner Village. Stepping out of the car, I immediately regretted it. I wanted to turn around and drive straight back to my bed. The only thing that kept me from high-tailing it outta there was knowing that this team run was our St. Patty's Day themed run. I had a horrendously ugly shirt and a green sequined bow to wear in my hair, so I was excited to show some spirit. The rest of my team mates looked great, too. It was fun seeing everyone all decked out!

But once we took pictures and started out onto the trail, it stopped being fun. Generally, the first 2 miles or so of a run are really difficult for me. But usually, once I pass that 2 mile point, I can set cruise control and just fly through it. Not this time.

By the end of the 2nd mile, I was about ready to collapse. I think my running mate Dany was getting frustrated because I was slowing down her pace. But luckily Coach Dave dropped back to run with me and Dany was quickly on her own merry way.

I made it to mile 4 and our first water stop...or what was supposed to be our first water stop. There was no water in sight. And of course, the drinking fountains at the park hadn't been turned back on yet. I felt like I was going to pass out. But since I was with Coach Dave, I didn't wanna seem like a wimp so I pushed myself to keep going.

Another half mile or so back into it, we caught up with Dany. In doing so, I just about collapsed. I was SOOOOO tired! Coach Dave advised that I'd probably better call it a day. I agreed but committed to walking one more mile and then turning around to head back.

I finally made it to the water at the next park. I swallowed a Carb BOOM! and finally resigned to ending my run early.

Making my way back to our cars, I ran into Coach Dave again who had circled back to run with summer team. He took one look at me and said, "You look like hell!" Lemme tell you, I sure felt like it!

Coach Dave ran the rest of the way with my back to the cars before turning around again to catch back up with the Spring team. (He had 20 miles to run that day. Running back and forth between teams probably wasn't the most efficient way to get his mileage in. He's a good man, that Coach Dave!)

Somehow, I made it to my car and back home without falling asleep on the drive or passing out from exhaustion. I think playing rugby and volleyball while training for a marathon is a little too much. Think I'm overexerting myself a little too much. It sucks, cuz these are all activities that I love and want to do, but I guess I need to concentrate my efforts on my marathon for now. I think I was too quick to jump back into rugby and at full-force, too. Perhaps after my marathon I can get back into it. I've waiting 3 years to play rugby, what's another 2 months?

So in conclusion, I didn't complete my 16 mile run this last week. Instead, I barely made it 9 miles. But, I live to fight another day. We all have our bad weeks, and this past one just happened to be mine. I'll work hard this week, have a nice recovery run with my team, and then kick butt on our 18 miler on March 27th. Wish me luck!!!

Oh, and come to our used book sale on March 20th from 2pm-5pm at the Provo Library! All proceeds go to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Help a sista out!!!

Go Team!!!

Domesticizing

Recently, I've been watching a lot of Food Network and reading a ton of design blogs. Once again, I'm beginning to feel despondent due to my lack of craftiness.

Taking up scrapbooking helped a lot and provided and outlet for creativity. But, the more I continue to read blogs such as sfgirlbybayand watch Giada at Home, the more I want to create bigger and better things. Though, when I take on a new project for the first time, I quickly become overwhelmed and anxious. I wig out. Big time. Then, I'm left feeling even more discouraged and inept than before.

So, instead of trying to tackle everything all at once, I've decided to take a different step toward becoming more domestic. Once a week, I've decided to either cook or bake one new meal, snack, or dessert. I've already taken a stab at a couple things:

I attempted a chicken pot pie recipe that I gleaned from Quick Fix Meals. It turned out all right. Though, I used sage to season the ingredients, and I don't think I particularly like sage all that well. And, I think the filling could have been a bit creamier.

Yesterday, I tried another of Robin Miller's recipes: mac 'n' cheese. It was a total fail. I know what you're thinking, "Who messes up mac 'n' cheese?" Well, I did. For one, I put way too much dijon mustard in it. Also, I burned the parmesan cheese and bread crumb mixture that was supposed to go on top of the noodles to give it the just-came-out-of-the-oven, crunchy, baked effect. So i just tasted burned. Plus, it was super dry. I dunno what happened. I probably won't be making that again. Besides, I don't even like homemade mac 'n' cheese. I'm happy with the boxed crap from Kraft.

But my favorite recipe so far was from Giada. I made peach and Nutella filled crepes. The crepes were a bit too think and the peaches weren't quite ripe yet, but who cares when there's Nutella?! Of course, my husband said that I actually ruined the crepes by filling them with Nutella. I'm telling you, sometimes I don't even know who I married.

This Saturday is Lolli's birthday party. So, I'm actually taking a stab at a few different concoctions. I'll be assembling dessert sushi, baking a cake and rolling fondant, and I'll also be making an Asian noodle salad. This will be my first time making any of these things. I hope they turn out well or else Lolli is gonna have a pretty lame party.

What are some of your favorite quick and easy recipes?

Training Day 14 - State Capitol

This past Saturday, we ran from the Sate Capitol all the way to Hogle Zoo and back. You know how far that was?

14.75 MILES!!!!!! CRAAAAZZZYYYY!!!

I am now telling people that I've completed a half marathon. While I haven't run an official race, I'm still calling myself a half-marathoner! And I cannot wait for this Saturday for our next team run. This week, we run 16 miles...but that ain't no thang!!

In all seriousness, the run wasn't just a walk in the park. My running mate, Dany, and I, had a really difficult time. Both suffering from a few injuries, it took us nearly 3 hours to complete. The first half of the run wasn't too bad...if you don't count having to pee your pants and getting lost.

We found our way, made it to the bathroom, and kept up a pretty good pace all through the U of U campus and to the zoo. Once we turned around at the zoo, though, it started getting rough.

Since I had just started playing rugby again that week before, I had worked myself sore at practice. My hips were cramping and hurting so badly I felt like a geriatric. And poor Dany, who was wearing new running shoes, had a blister on her foot the size of Texas. Once we got back into the canyon, we both felt like falling over in a tired, sweaty heap and waiting for Coach Dave or Tiffany to pick us up in their cars.

Every stride, my hips throbbed with pain. To make matters worse, I ended up getting a side cramp that absolutely sliced through my core. But at least slowing down to a walk would ease the pain in my hips and side. Dany on the other hand was about ready to saw off her own foot to get rid of her blisters.

But about a mile out, we blasted some Bob Marley on my iPhone, sucked it up, and just sprinted the remaining distance back to the Capitol. It also helped that Coach Dave came out and ran with us. He's always a great motivating factor and helps us take our minds off our pain and exhaustion.

My hips are still sore today and I've got a date with my rugby team tonight. Hopefully I don't push myself too hard. I've gotta recover for our 16 mile run this weekend...but it ain't no thang...







GO TEAM!!!!

Fresh Fish

Our office is very diverse. Therefore when lunch rolls around, there are many ethnic palates and appetites. Because of this, our workroom and lunch room are always doused in a variety of competing aromas.

Many days, the smells wafting out of the microwaves are your usual cup-o-soup and last-night's-macaroni-and-cheese scents. But some days, it's all you can do not to loose your cookies after inhaling the toxic fumes of one pungent meal or another. It's because of these acrid incidents that have made me very aware of the lunch choices I make while at work.

I don't want people cursing my name for stinking up the office with my lunch time feast. So, I tend to bring simple, brown bag lunches that don't require any nuke time in the microwave.

Well, last night I made some wonderful salmon fillets with fresh sage and basil butter. They were absolutely delicious! Even my husband who is not a big sea food fan said that they were mouth-watering. So, I'm not just bias!

There were 2 fillets left over so I figured I'd package them up for our lunches the next day. All morning, I was so excited for lunch time to roll around so I could once again sink my fork into the flaky fillet goodness! I pop the fillet in the microwave and next thing you know, the office absolutely REEKS!!! As soon as I grab my salmon from the microwave and bring it to my desk, one of my coworkers says, "Ugh! It smells like nasty fish!"

I quickly ate my salmon, discarded the remains in a far off garbage can, and scourged my empty Tupperware with soap and boiling water! But the worst part, right after I finished eating, I had to interview a couple different students and interact with a few faculty members. If the office had smelled so badly from my salmon, just imagine what my breath smelled like! I was so embarrassed.

The poor high school recruit who's face I was breathing into...he'll probably reevaluate his choice to attend BYU and be a math major, thinking that our department is full of stinky people.