Never Hold In Your Farts!

My grandpa forwarded me an email with a bunch of funny pictures & captions of animals. Although I'm not much of an animal lover (I'm not a hater either, I just prefer to be pet-less). these pictures really tickled my funny bone. Hee-larious!

My Fashionista Diaries

As Clint and I were driving down the highway tonight, there was a man who was walking on the side of the road wearing a badly done Tye-dye shirt. A few minutes later, Clint chuckled and we had the following dialogue:

C: You will not believe what I was just thinking about.
A: If it's not the usual 3, then yes, I'm stumped
C: Do you remember those old shirts called Hypercolor?
A: Oh my gosh, I totally remember those. Those are basically the reason that the dumb ink tags started getting put on clothing because everyone wanted one of those goofy shirts, but they were so expensive.
C: They were always a different color under armpits.
A: Gross!
C: Did you ever have one?
A: No, I didn't own one, but I borrowed one from a friend one night out and couldn't keep anyone's hands off of me
C: Typical...I know I'm totally dating myself here talking about hypercolor clothing, but I was just dying about that goofy fad! So, I'm going to put a poll on here to find out how many people owned one, wore one, or don't even know what they are! So take a second to vote before you leave! It's just to the right of this post ---->

I'm in Love!

I'm in LOVE! His name is Edward. He has really smooth, silky looking pale white skin. The most amazing eyes and lips and body. He's absolutely breathtaking! I met him on a blind date...of sorts. My girlfriends, Eliza and Liz, introduced us. I was a little reluctant at first (being married with children does that to me sometimes), but I finally relented and picked him up at Wal-Mart this past Wednesday. I had no idea that it would be love at first site...I haven't been able to put him down. Oh, did I mention...he's a vampire...and he's fictional...and he only lives on the pages of the Twilight series of books. So yeah, I've turned into one of THOSE girls! I finished the first 3 books in 1 day each and now I'm 1/2 way through the 4th (2nd to last) book. So, Eliza and Liz, may I crash your movie party and head to the theatres with you on November 21st to fall in love again? This time on a movie screen? Although I don't know if I'll be able handle Cedric Diggory as Edward, since I had such a crush on Cedric a while ago that I'm still not totally over (in another series)!

Click here to go to the movie site!

Girls Night Out

From left: Kristine, Michelle, Renee, Me, Brooke

So I've been trying to decide all day long if I was going to post this or not. I really dislike having my picture taken, let alone posting it on a public blog. But, I always have so much fun with my girls that I had to put a post in here about that.

Last night, we went to a yummy Italian restaurant to celebrate Renee's big 3-0. We stayed for 3 hours (of course we left a huge tip...duh!) making a scene and having an absolute blast. There was an 84 year old woman sitting at the table behind us with some of her family and she came over as they were leaving to let us know how much she enjoyed watching us and that it was very important to keep having girl's nights!

Payton asked me what we could possibly have to talk about for 3 hours and I tried to explain to her that we talked about everything and generally there were 2-3 conversations going on at the same time. She wasn't understanding and I told her she probably wouldn't for a few more years at least.

We go out together for girl's night at least once a month and we always celebrate our birthdays together. We typically gorge on great food and sometimes we catch a flick (most recent Dark Knight...Renee is obsessed with Christian Bale), go bowling (always hilarious), or Karaoke (my favorite activity). We decided that we're going to the next girls night out at the Melting Pot (gorging) and then we are going to do a pottery painting night out.

We are not an exclusive group (we invite lots of girls to come with us) but I think that we scare many of the faint-hearted away as they don't usually return for a 2nd helping of us. We started hanging out regularly after our friend Jessi put a Bunko group together about 6 years ago (or so). We all have kids in pretty much the same age range and we range in age from 30-40ish. Some of us work at an outside "job" and some of us are stay-at-home mommies. As I've never really experienced the "close girlfriend thing" since I moved so much "growing up", I have been surprised that for the most part, we are pretty much drama-free. Of course, we let each other vent a little bit, but usually when we are at girls night, we just have fun!

Clint knows how important girls night is to me and he has never said anything negative about me going (even when I stay out until the wee hours of the morning)! I really appreciate that!

Payton's First Day of School

Payton started her first day of school today. The boys got back into the charter school we are in love with and don't begin until after labor day, but Payton hasn't gotten in yet, so she's starting at the neighborhood school until she gets into the charter. This will be her first experience riding the bus to and from school and her first experience in a public school. The school is huge and she is really excited about the giant library there. She was so excited about the bus and about meeting new friends in her 5th grade class.
She picked out her "rock star" outfit. Pretty cute with her faux sleeves, plaid skirt & black boots. I've gotta say "That girl's got style"! And we chopped her hair before school started and I think it looks awesome on her!

I can't wait until she gets home today to tell me all about it!

Glendale Pool Fun!

We rented a really cute house in Glendale to be close to the college while Jay, Cheryl and I were swapping time with kids and taking classes at Nouveau Riche. My day to stay with kids was Monday and we spent about 3 hours in the pool that morning.

I kicked the kids' booties in our under-water-handstand competition. They were pretty impressed that I could walk all over the pool on my hands!

I finally got Laney to swim by herself. It took about 7 minutes of ear-piercing screaming, but then all of a sudden she stopped, looked around, and figured, "hey, I can do this". After that, she tooled around that little pool by herself and had a blast going wherever she wanted!

The college was fantastic (as always) and I took some really great classes. I took an awesome Lease Options class, Tax Strategies and Subject T0s. My favorite would have to be Subject To. I learned so much in that class!

We drove to Arizona this time (to get to both the reunion and the college) and the kids, of course, watched movies on the way to and from AZ. Clearly, there was a very scary part in one of the movies, so Laney just covered her eyes and screamed. We also stopped at a McDonalds in Globe, AZ on the way home to get some food and stretch our legs for a bit. The kids always love the Play Place!

Cliff Jumping at the Water Hole

The favorite spot at the reunion (hands down) was the water hole. The water was pretty frigid, but it didn't matter to any of the kids! They had a blast climbing up and either swinging or jumping from the top! They were pretty daring and really had a great time!

Family Reunion Camping

Last weekend, we went to the Annual Hardy Family Reunion (Grandma Cheryl's extended family). They have a big campout every year up in the mountains, along a river, near Pinetop, Arizona. Although quite beautiful, it was surprisingly hot up there this year!

The kids (young and old) had a blast playing the Zip N' Hit, jumping off the "cliffs" at the water hole and playing in the mud after the rain.

Fortunately, Cameron, Jenni (and new baby Trent) and I shared a small cabin in Pinetop, so I wasn't asked/required to camp (yuck) so it wasn't so bad. We had a big karaoke night on Friday (of course I was right in the middle of that) and got our sorry butts kicked in the volleyball tournament on Saturday. Clint had fun hanging out with his brothers and acting like a kid right along with them. Saturday night was the talent show, where Cole got a huge encore request for his belly dance (always popular).