Oh Crap....{literally}

Hi friends!  I've been busy taking doors off the hinges in my house and painting them...2 coats on each side.  I'm sure you can imagine how torturous fun this process is!  When we bought our house we were fortunate enough to inherit 3different trim colors throughout the house.  My favorite trim color happened to be the color that they painted in our room (can you feel the sarcasm dripping from that comment???).  Honestly, from the looks of it, it's as if they painted a polyurethane coat over top the trim and it yellowed.  So nasty.  The color we decided to paint our trim ("White Umber" by Porter Paints) is very white compared to the 3 other trim colors going on in these parts...especially in our bedroom where it looks like someone peed all over the doors (apparently this post has a lot of bathroom references).  I've been quite busy trying to unify everything.

I decided to take a break and share a story with you that is only funny to me now because I've lived through it and will {hopefully} never have to live through it again......

The number one thing that everyone comments on when they come over to our house is our toilets.  I know, I know, what a random thing to get people talking.  The reason they get so much attention is because they have a dual flush button because they're supposed to be high efficiency...everyone's two-cents is that it's very "European"!

This is a picture of the top of our toilets...see the European flair?!

When we first moved in, I thought they were pretty awesome.  We can control how much water we used depending on which button we pushed - what a great way to save water and put a little extra moolah into our pockets.  It wasn't long before our master bath toilet quickly began to drive me and Stephen crazy.  It would randomly decide to run and we never could figure out the rhyme behind the reason.  We had lived in the house a little over a year when last October, it was literally 2am in the morning on a Friday morning (report cards+principal observation for me; studying for a test for Stephen) when we decided to go to bed.  We did our usual routine and both thought it was random that our toilet did an unusual gurgle noise before we left the bathroom.  It wasn't long before I could tell by Stephen's breathing that he had fallen asleep.  Quickly thereafter I began to smell a horrible smell that I can only describe as "dog fart".  I placed the blame on Stephen, assuming he was smelling up the room (of course he doesn't appreciate this part of the story).  That's when the toilet did another *gurgle gurgle* and it woke Stephen up.

***NOTE: it's not a good sign if your toilet gurgles.  Not a good sign AT ALL.***

Stephen wakes up and wonders what the noise is.  I'm quick to inform him of his dog fart problem only to quickly remember a horrible sewage story that my friend Mandy told me about a house she lived in during college.  Oh my gosh...what if the dog fart smell wasn't Stephen after all???????  Stephen gets up to check out what's wrong with the toilet.  What comes next can send me into a fit of laughter if I think enough about the different reactions that occurred.

First, let me tell you that Stephen was blessed with a wonderful sense of smell.  I love the man with all my heart, but he's sometimes a little bit dramatic about smells that don't appeal to him.  If he's helping me clean out the refrigerator, he'll hold his nose, sometimes even turn his head in disgust over the very smallest smells.  Imagine this blessing of smell as he enters our bathroom to discover....

...a bathtub and toilet filling up with sewage.  Yup - you just read that correctly.  Sewage.  That's old crap, people.  Picture it: Stephen, screaming from the bathroom while gagging and dry heaving.  There were a lot of senses being over stimulated: smells, sights, sounds.  It was cRaZy.  He asks me where our plunger is and I honestly can't remember...at this point in time, we haven't used it since Chicago - a year and a half earlier...it must be in the basement.  He leaves our bedroom to go to the basement only to be greeted by a gurgling toilet in the hall bathroom.  Do you remember my note from earlier?  A gurgling toilet is NOT a happy toilet.  Imagine the blessing of Stephen's sense of smell as he enters the hall bathroom to discover...

...a bathtub and toilet filling up with sewage.  Yup. Sewage - old crap, people.  AHHHHHH!!!!  Now, I know some of you are thinking, "How does sewage fill up your bathtub? Where is it coming from?".  Let me explain - you know that circular metal cover that is screwed onto your tub underneath your faucet?  Sewage was seeping from behind this contraption and filling our bathtubs - that's a plural "s" - more than one.

This isn't our bathtub, but I figured it could work to show you that circular metal piece underneath the faucet - that's where all the action was taking place!

Stephen ran to the basement to discover that our plunger had never made it to our new house but was still hanging out at my parents from when we were living there before we got our house.  Awesome. I, of course, got on my phone.  Stephen was super annoyed with me, thinking I was updating my Facebook status, "What are you doing?!  Don't put this on Facebook!!!" What was he thinking?!  Of course I wasn't on a social media while sewage is taking over our upstairs - I was googling, "sewage is filling my bathtubs and toilets".  I knew for a fact we couldn't be the only people in the world that this had ever happened to.  While I quickly learned that we, indeed, were not alone in having this problem, nothing was really helpful to me at 2am in the morning.

Thankfully, after a few minutes of the sewage filling the tub and the toilet, the levels seemed to stop rising.  Stephen and I stood there contemplating what we should do when all of a sudden we heard some more gurgling and then a "whoosh" as the sewage began to descend back down the drains.  With disbelief and relief on our faces we watched our poop problems disappear before our eyes.  What the?! Don't get me wrong - we were grateful, but what now?!?!  My wonderful husband scrubbed the tubs with bleach and bleached the toilets and we both decided to go to bed and deal with it the next day.

On Friday, Stephen called plumber after plumber only to be received with a, "We don't deal with that kind of stuff."  Really?  You're a plumber.  It's like me saying that I don't teach kids that are really difficult to teach.  Isn't that your job???  Finally he lined up a plumber to come on Monday and take a look at everything.  In the meantime, we were afraid that something might be up with the main drain in our house (after googling the night before at 2am in the morning we read many warnings about this) and so we decided to not use any plumbing at our house.  Thankfully we live across the street from my parents (have I shared that with you, blogworld???) and so anytime a flush or shower was necessary, we walked across the street.

Fast forward to Monday when the plumber came to our house and seemed to find NOTHING WRONG.  What?!  You mean that sewage can just randomly decide to start gurgling its way into my life whenever it pleases?!  I was scarred - scarred for life and there was nothing wrong to lead to this poopy problem?!

I'm going to leave you there for now.  Of course, there's more to this story, but you're a champ and you've already read a lot.  If you're a homeowner, you know that as much of a blessing that it is to own your own home, sometimes it stinks.  Literally.

Do you have any traumatizing plumping stories or am I the only one???

Patriotic Treats with a Side of Summer Accountability

It all started when I was pinning (which I do quite a lot now that school is out and when I'm successfully putting off doing something) away on Pinterest and I came across this pin...

Stephen and I were going to enjoy a cook-out at his parents house for Memorial Day Weekend and I decided that I was going to make one of Stephen's most favorite treats: Cake Balls.  Have you ever made cake balls?  Have you ever tried them?  If you've never tried them, you need to get your hands on at least one and taste the goodness for yourself - they are truly amazing.  If you've never made them, let me caution you: they are very time consuming.  Back in February I made the mistake of asking Stephen what he wanted for his birthday.  He insisted that he wanted nothing and I insisted that it was HIS birthday, I would make him ANYTHING he wanted (did you read my post from Monday to see how busy I was during this time?).  He decided that he wanted cake balls.  I'm pretty sure a part of me died a little inside when he said that...of all the things he wanted, he chose the most time consuming dessert possible.  However, I did tell him that I would make anything he wanted (dang it!) and so cake balls it was....

Fast forward to May - school was about to be out and summer was on the verge of happening - I was feeling adventurous!  I was going to make cake balls...not just any cake balls, Patriotic Cake Balls!!!  {cue the dramatic, excited music}

These were my inspiration from this website:

1st step was to make the cake balls.  If you've never made them before, here is the recipe (there are a million if you google "how to make cake balls" or "cake pops" and they're all about the same).  I used a half a tub of frosting to make mine.  I went with white cake (mine and Stephen's fav) and white icing.  After I made the cake balls, I arranged them in my 13x9 metal cake pan to get an idea of how many of my balls {insert inappropriate middle school boy jokes here} needed to be red, white and blue.

Once I figured out how many balls needed to be what color, I got to work and did each color separately.  I used the Wilton colored candies from JoAnns (or any craft store - even Wal-Mart carries them) to coat my cake balls.  I had lots of trays of different colored cake balls sitting around my kitchen.  Talk about needing self control to just hang around them without eating them!  If you do make cake balls, be sure you make lots of extras so you can just pop them in your mouth while you're working!

Unfortunately I did not do my math correctly and I didn't have the right amount of white cake balls.  What's scary about this is that I teach 4th grade math....this was a perfect example of math in real life (because everyone makes cake balls, right?) and yet I failed at it.  Stink.

The good news is that even though I was short on the white balls, they still tasted great!  It's a good thing that these desserts take a while to make, otherwise, I'm pretty sure I would make them entirely too often and my thighs would pay the price for this bad addiction!

For this upcoming 4th of July, I'm thinking about making this dessert from Betty Crocker:

I'm also thinking about making these to hang under the pergola by our family room window:

Now onto the side of Summer Accountability.  I know you probably don't care about how I'm spending my summer days and please know that this part of the post is entirely for me.  Last summer I found myself getting overwhelmed by all the different things I wanted to accomplish during the summer time. This overwhelming feeling kept me from accomplishing much of anything.  As a way to try and ward off laziness, I've decided that I'm going to blog about my daily activities during the summer.  Maybe it'll keep me from getting sucked into Bravo's Real House Wives Marathon because I'm ashamed to tell all of blogland that this is how I chose to spend my day!  So here it is, my daily what dos:

Monday: walked Princeton in the morning, changed the sheets on the bed and washed them, put sheets back on the guest bed, did the laundry and put it up, blogged, did my Bible study, worked on a small art project that I had been putting off, touched up trim in the entry way, went to Bible Study.

Tuesday: walked Princeton in the morning, put a first coat of paint on the inside of the front door, put up the last basket of laundry, went to dinner with my parents, took Princeton on an evening walk.

Wednesday: walked Princeton in the morning, put a second coat of paint on the front door, cleaned up in the basement, my friend Julie came over and we hung out most of the afternoon, took Princeton on an evening walk.

Thursday: cleaned up the paint mess, went to the grocery store, worked out in the backyard for 3 hours, vacuumed and tidied up, made dinner and Stephen's parents came for dinner, took Princeton on an evening walk.

Friday: filled the dishwasher, did the rest of the dishes, worked in the vegetable garden, painted the first coat on our bedroom closet, emptied the dishwasher, blogged.....

Do you think I'm crazy yet?  Feel free to skim past these random lists of my uneventful days...I'll be honest - I did get sucked into a few episodes of Real House Wives of the OC...it's like a train wreck and I can't turn away.  These women are SO mean to each other.  It's hard to wrap my mind around the fact that they exist, they're adults and I'm aiding their richness by being sucked into their drama.  Ugh. Do you have any "guilty" tv pleasures?  I'm not gonna lie....I also get sucked into Real House Wives of NJ....okay, enough confessions!

I'm linking up with these parties:

Thirty Handmade Days; Naptime Crafters; Simply Designing; My Romantic Home; Finding Fabulous; The Shabby Nest; Chic on a Shoestring Budget;  The Scrap Shoppe; A Vision to Remember; Tatertots and Jello; I Heart Naptime; DIY Showoff; Homemaker on a Dime; Sumo's Sweet Stuff; Craft-O-Maniac; Uncommon Designs; C.R.A.F.T.; Lines Across; That's What Che Said;  Creatively Living; An Extraordinary Day

I really hope this isn't real...

Have you seen this???

This can't be real.  This poor girl has so many issues if she's crying over thinking about rainbows and cats.  I hope it's not real....what do you think???

Cutie-pa-tootie!

I'll be back either later on today or tomorrow to fill you in on life and why I've been so MIA here, but for now, I'm leaving you with a clip of cutie-pa-tootie, Hines Ward on DWTS!  He's got the cutest little smile, he's a great dancer and I do believe that he represented the John Wall in the opening of this clip.  We don't follow DWTS, but we definitely do this season!

Following YHL...a Little Design Quiz

If you follow Young House Love, then you probably already saw that they shared this wonderful way to be visually inspired and also "quiz" yourself on what kind of style you are.  You can take the Stylish Home Style Maker quiz yourself and see what kind of design personality you are.  I found it to be a great use of my night class time ;).  Below are my results:

One Happy Fan

I'm sure that you remember how much of a Steelers fan my husband is.  With that being said, we were all ready to host our second Super Bowl party, and we were even more ecstatic that the Steelers were in it this year!  Stephen and I are both in our own small groups through our church that meet on Sunday nights.  His small group meets at our apartment every week while my small group takes me to my friend, Laura's apartment.  We decided that this year we would combine both small groups (and their significant others or friends) and watch a fantastic football game together!  Let me tell you that we went as far as to get a new television for this event.  It went a little something like this...
me: "Don't you think that the Steelers deserve to be watched on a big screen in their 2011 Super Bowl debut????"
Stephen: {in awe} "yessssssss..."
We did a bit of research, talked with some friends and finally made a decision to purchase a great flat screen T.V. from amazon.com.  I was SUPER pumped...until the Blizzard of 2011 kept our television from being delivered on time resulting in us canceling the order altogether {crash. burn.}  Thankfully, Stephen has a great friend who agreed to letting us borrow his T.V. (did I mention that he's a great friend?) so that Stephen could see his beloved Steelers on the big screen.  I started decorating early and got off to a good start, but the apartment needed more.  Here are some shots of our party preparations:

Stephen has a plethora of Steelers shirts!  We used some of them for decoration :)

The Steelers beach towel that I got him as a wedding gift came in very handy as part of our decor

Proudly holding up one of his many terrible towels

Inside our china hutch you will see the official terrible towel from the 2009 Super Bowl where the Steelers triumphed over the Cardinals.  You will also see some of Stephen's Pittsburgh Steelers mug collection and his empty box of Champion Crunch Cereal featuring Hines Ward.

When you got to our apartment door, you were greeted by the Steeler's daily trivia question regarding Stephen's favorite player: Troy Polamalu

We hung up Stephen's laminated Pittsburgh newspaper picture of the team praying from a previous season.

No Super Bowl party would be complete without a Steelers cake!

and when you cut into it...

black and yellow, black and yellow...

Now, for my favorite picture of the night....

That's right ladies and gentlemen...Troy Polamalu showed up at our Super Bowl Party!  WOO HOO! Much to Stephen's dismay, I ordered this wig on amazon and it showed up at our apartment on Saturday afternoon.  Stephen went along with my madness and wore it to answer the door and greet new arrivals to the party.  He also wore it on and off during the game.

Here we are after the game.  You might be wondering why we're still smiling so big, even despite the outcome?  Here's Stephen's thought process on the whole thing: there are 32 teams in the NFL, which means that there were 30 teams that did not even make it to the Super Bowl. The Steelers did.  Not only did they make it but they had a huge season: AFC Champs and the Best Defensive Player of the Year award.  Despite the Steelers losing the Super Bowl, Stephen was so proud of his team and the nail biting game that they offered their fans.  Did they play their greatest?  We don't think so.  Did they have a great season?  That they did!  One thing my husband is: a Steelers super fan.  One thing he is not: a poor sport.  He is proud of his team and he's already looking forward to next season!

Just for a little fun:

Strange Addictions

Ummm...have you guys seen this show on TLC?  Stephen left on Tuesday for New York and so I've been home alone since then.  Whenever he's not here I tend to watch more television at night than I would normally, mostly for noise but also because there's no one here to hang out with or eat dinner with (do you feel sorry for me yet?).  I've seen previews for TLC's new show, "Strange Addictions" before but I had never actually seen an episode...not until tonight.  Tonight I watched an episode where a girl was addicted to wearing an animal costume (commonly known as Furry Fandom - apparently it's a real thing and if you google it you'll be able to read all about it) and a woman who is addicted to eating the cushions in her couch.  I was so perplexed by these addictions that I caught myself waiting to watch the following episode on the lady who is addicted to eating a "household cleanser" (looked like Comet to me) and the girl who is addicted to tanning (she goes to 3 different tanning salons a day for 20 minutes each for a grand total of 60 minutes 7 days a week).  I did see the preview for next week's episode on the man who calls his Real Doll (apparently this is a real thing also) his "partner"...I'm just curious as to where TLC finds such strange addictions (hence the name of the show)???

Obviously these people have real issues that have led them to their addictions such as abuse or family deaths, but still, it blows my mind that anyone would ever even think to eat the cushions of their couches or the bathtub cleaner.

After watching this show I was trying to think of some "addictions" that I had and while mine are nothing as intriguing as what TLC is looking for, they are random.  I wouldn't necessarily say that I'm "addicted" to this, but I do have an issue with my shoes and socks.  For some reason, once I've put my socks and shoes on for the day, I do not like taking them off and putting them back on, and I especially dislike walking around in my socked feet and then putting my shoes back on.  There's something about the stretched out fabric all bunching in my shoes that I can't stand.  I like putting on clean, new socks because they form to my feet perfectly without any bunches (WEIRD-O!) Because of this, I tend to keep my shoes on all the time, which is especially annoying in the wintertime when my shoes are constantly wet (making me have to take them off every time I come in the apartment).  When I was in college, I would take naps with my shoes on and my feet hanging off the bed.  I know this is no "I'm addicted to climbing in my fireplace" (I don't know, I was trying to think of something random that TLC might be looking for), but it is somewhat odd.  Now, I know I'm not the only person with some *strange* habit or dislike; what about you?  Anything weird that you can tell me about yourself to help keep me entertained until Stephen returns and I don't have to rely on TLC to see random addictions?

In other news, the low tomorrow is 1 degree.  You just read that right, I said 1 degree and I'm talking Fahrenheit, not celsius!  I'll let Dwight use his eloquent language to tell you what might happen due to the cold temperatures outside (even though in this clip he's referring to hiding in a snowman, but I couldn't resist)...

The cutest thing I've seen in a long time

My friend Shea sent this to me and it is darn cute!!!

In honor of my husband and football Sunday/Monday

Stephen can't get enough of Troy Polamalu, especially during football season!

I would like to download this:

I was going to include the music video but I was super impressed with how great this sounds considering it's a live version...she's pretty talented in my book!  Once I hear it, it's stuck in my head all day!
p.s. sorry for all the videos lately - they're easy to post when things are crazy with school!

Geico's Got My Attention

I giggle every time!

I'm baaaaack!

Sorry for my brief absence...Stephen and I ventured to Alaska for a week and then to our old Kentucky home for a week and now we're back!  I have a lot to share and I can't wait to blog about our adventures this week :).

Meanwhile, I wanted to leave you with these...have you seen these?!?!  My brother-in-law was SO excited to share these with us before we left for Alaska but we didn't get a chance to watch them.  Then, on our way to Seattle I got an email from my friend Jen who also was sharing these hilarious videos.  If you've already seen them then you know how hilarious they are - if you haven't then please enjoy!  In order to appreciate the 2nd one you must watch the 1st one :).

A real news clip from the local news in Huntsville, Alabama

The remix....

My favorite haircut of all time...Part 2

If you're really confused by this, you may need to go here and read this first.

Check out smart and sophisticated Blanche:

Look at that sass!

What great sex appeal!

Full of spunk!

Check out Kari's version of the smart and sophisticated Blanche:

Look at that sass!  That white turtleneck and denim jumper almost can't even contain the sass that is seeping from my bad-self!

What great sex appeal!  All the other 3rd graders thought so too!  (the fake gold teddy bear charm hanging from my necklace and the ring on my chubby little finger is what really pulled the sex appeal look!)

Look at that spunk!  I can even make a graffiti wall look dang good! (check out my magnetic earrings that pulled my look all together)

and last but not least...

If Blanche played soccer, she wouldn't have looked half this good!

I was sassin' up my Shooting Stars uniform!

Eat your heart out boys!

{p.s. there are SO many good stories that stem from this trendsetting haircut...stay tuned!}

A Good Book 2

I finished and it was gooooood.  Oh to have a faith like Hadassah's!  Now onto...

I'll let you know! :)

A Good Book

I've had many friends rave about this book and it's one that I first learned about nearly 6 years ago.  I bought the book (the whole trilogy for that matter) about 3 years ago and I have yet to read it.  I tried to read the first book but I just couldn't get into it (I didn't try very hard for that matter).  Well, after I had 2 blog (and real life friends) Jenna and Rachel tell me that I needed to get to page 100 and I'd be sucked in, I finally gave it a go and I started reading this last night:

I started reading this last night and I am now on page 150...I am officially hooked!  I'm thankful for that because maybe now I can finally read these three books in the trilogy that have been collecting dust on my bookshelf for so many years.  

I have read almost all of Francine Rivers books (aside from her lineage of grace books and out of those I have read one) and I love every one of them.  Some I love more than others, but there hasn't been one that I've been disappointed in.  Isn't it funny that I say that and yet it took me this long to really dig deep into this one?  My most favorite book that I've read by her is called The Last Sin Eater.  Weird sounding, right?  I know, I know but it is soooo good.  If you by chance made the mistake of seeing the movie without reading the book, please forgive the acting and go out and borrow or buy the book and read it.  It is such a good read!

I'll be brutally honest with you - I'm HORRIBLE at buying books and either never reading them OR starting them and only getting a bit into them before I put them down and never pick them back up.  Shame on me because I love to read...I guess I have a little bit of an attention problem sometimes!  I have a lot of books that I need to read that adorn my bookshelf...maybe I'll actually knock a few of them off my list!

What about you?  What are some books that you recommend I read?

Reason #4,365 why I love my best friend...

Donielle and I have been best friends since we were in high school.  I could sit in a room with her and be entirely quiet, both of us doing our own things.  I could also sit in a room with her and be entirely quiet because we're laughing so hard that noise isn't even coming out.  We both chose to follow Christ with our entire lives at the same time (Young Life Camp: Castaway '99 BAAAAYBAAAAY!) and that we did.  Unfortunately, a lot of people think that when you follow Christ you can no longer "have fun".  I would like to know what "having fun" looks like to those who think you can no longer have it because let me tell you, I have had more fun living my life for Christ than I did before (and a lot of that fun involves my bffaot Doni).  Now I could go on and on with memories and reasons that I love her, but this post is entirely devoted to the last reason (#4,365) to date that I love her.  I love her because she loves high school girls and God used her in some way, shape or form to show His love to them.  I love her because not only does she love high school girls but she goes on spring break with them.  Let's analyze this...what do you think that most senior in high school girls do on spring break?  Go clubbin'?  Consume large quantities of alcohol?  Wear inappropriate clothing to draw attention to themselves because they lack self confidence and seek it in any guy that will give it to them?  Well, well, well...NOT THESE HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS!  These girls (Doni included) are living life to the fullest loving Christ and HAVING FUN!  Please scroll to the bottom of my blog and turn OFF my music, and then proceed to watch this video!  Doni is playing the roll of Luda in this video (for those of you who need help with this: she's wearing Young Life sweat pants with a light blue shirt and a white jacket).  Please enjoy watching these girls have the time of their lives acting completely ridiculous at all hours of the morning :)

My favorite haircut of all time...Part 1

I dedicate this story to Katie, Angie and Jen - for always crying from laughter whenever this story is told!

When I was in elementary school, the first thing I would do when I got home was turn on the television and eat a snack.  This was back in the good old days when parents could trust their kids to go home by themselves and not worry that anything bad was going to happen to them.  In saying that, my 2 older sisters and myself were home while my parents were still grinding the 9-5.  We didn't have cable back in the day so we were forced to resort to the 3 channels that we had (NBC, Fox41 and ABC).  Our choice of television at 4pm was Golden Girls.  I LOVED IT!  (I didn't understand half any of the sexual innuendo I just knew that Sophia was dang funny and that Blanche had the right idea with her hair...).  One day, while watching the Golden Girls, I decided that I was going to make myself so beautiful that all would be mesmerized by my good looks.  I decided that I wanted to get my hair cut like Blanche.

WHAT?!

Let's please review the information we have at hand.  I was 9 years old.  NINE - that's it.  And I was thinking it would be a GREAT idea to get my haircut like a sixty-some-odd slut lady on television...those are the first things we must question - we'll have more to question later.  

I waited to tell my mom of this, but I do remember (I guess we were watching this great show at my friend Missy's house) calling my mom from my best friend's house and telling her my bit of information, "MOM! I want to get my haircut like Blanche Deveareaux from the Golden Girls!"  I'm wondering now what I thought then would be her response..."WHAT A GREAT IDEA, KARI!!!" {really?!  AGAIN, I was nine}.  I don't quite remember her response except for the fact that it was curious as to why I was calling her with this and why I even had this burning desire to go through with it...I think we ended the conversation with, "We'll talk about it when you come home."  And we did.  

Here's the last bit of information that we must review: the FACT THAT SHE LET ME DO THIS?!  We can all sit and wonder if my mom was secretly part of adolescents' plan to murder my identity and social status - but I beg to differ.  I love my mom because all growing up she really allowed us to make decisions for ourselves and emphasized (before and after) that all decisions have consequences and that we must be willing to face the consequence (good or bad) to the decisions we make.  This style of parenting really worked well with me because I knew my mom trusted me and thus it didn't create in me a desire to make harmful choices...well, except for this one.  I believe she said, "Kari, you can get your haircut however you'd like to get your haircut - it's your hair.  However, I do want you to understand that it is short and there's a really good chance you won't like it and I don't want to hear you complaining or get upset with me that you did this."  And with her good graces I never looked back.  

I'm not quite sure how long it took for the haircut appointment to be made or when it actually went down in relation to this conversation, but I DID get my haircut like Blanche Deveareaux - what 9 year old wouldn't want that?!  Look at her, she's sophisticated, she's sexy, she's so well put together and at 9 years old, I knew that her haircut would make me just the same.  

There are many spin off stories to this one, but I'll save those for later (when I include a great picture of this amazing hair-do)...I hope you get a good chuckle the next time you sit in the hairdresser's chair as you think of your friend, Kari (nine year old version) super excited to get her haircut like someone else's grandma!

Some of my favorite commercials

This one makes me laugh EVERY time...





I belly laughed the first time I saw this commercial - the animals saying "Ricky" gets me every time...



Look at your man, now back to me, now back to your man, now back to ME...



Who DOESN'T like Betty White?!





How do you NOT like this commercial?!







P.S. I love technology - just the fact that I can rewatch things that I think are funny AND post them on a blog - 10 years ago there would've been 2 questions: "What's You Tube?!" "Blogs????"

Some highlights from my favorite wedding ever...

Hit play to see some highlights from the best wedding I've ever been to (mine) :-D

And be sure to give it enough time to load...

If you're having a hard time seeing it, click here and watch it directly on youtube :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrO0H8q6-Gs

An Unhealthy Obsession

I need to watch this:

Like I need to watch this:

So if I recognize this then WHY am I HOOKED?!  

A better question - If I already know the outcome (thanks to Reality Steve) then WHY am I HOOKED?

i. can't. stop. WATCHING!!!

I wish I had an excuse....

a) My Young Life girls watch it, it's how I stay connected in convo and get them to hang out with me...ummmm I don't lead YL anymore :(

b) My little sister makes me turn the channel....I don't have a little sister and I don't live with her either

c) Stephen really likes it....he makes fun of me and the show...can't say that I blame him.

What is wrong with me?!

I had a favorite (and then I found out the outcome), and I don't even laugh anymore at the fiction and absurdity surrounding the show...AHHHHHH!!!

One thing I know to be true:  good thing there's only 2 more weeks left in this train wreck that we call entertainment.  

Please still be my friend - this is my first step towards recovery: admitting that there's a problem.

Are you addicted to something you're not entirely proud of, in fact you'd hope it wouldn't come up in front of people you don't know so you don't have to own up to it?  (I'm not looking for deep dark sins here, something you're willing to share on the blog comments...in fact please don't post deep dark sins on here, it will make me shift in my seat out of discomfort)