Virginia, Earth's onely paradise

"Virginia, Earth's onely paradise" -Michael Drayton 1606

This is a quote that is displayed at the historic Jamestown. My mom is in town (which I love) and we went down to Jamestown. It was fascinating to learn all about the beginnings of our Nation. We love to have visitors so if you want to come see Earth's onely paradise, consider yourself invited.

White Trash Partay!

We got invited to a White Trash Party via a folded up piece of card board and sealed with duct tape. Some people are so creative. So Rich and I came up with costume ideas (I did feel a little guilty using my fellow walmart shoppers for inspiration)

KEY FEATURES OF OUR COSTUME: Mcdonald's bag, "beer"-its good for the pregnant belly, fake ciggy-Richard's is behind his ear, 4 baby doll's all labeled according to different father, Richard's beer gut hanging out, my pregnant belly with the paternity test pending, John Deere hat, and vest. Things that could have been part of the costume that didn't work out: Plummer's crack (we thought our friends would not be pleased to see it) and fake nails for me (the glue was dried up-we did buy them, though)

My "belly"--really a pillow, but I thought it looked kinda real.

We borrowed a real child for this picture.

These are all my babies, labeled for their respective fathers.

I'm Diggin' Wolverine

Richard, here, bringing you a special bulletin! Just so you know, the title of this post deals with two items of the evening. First, Heather and I went to see X-men Origins: Wolverine tonight with some friends. Ahh-Sum!! What a way to kick off the summer movie season right. Don't listen to any critics, this movie was great. It's a superhero movie people, not frickin' Gone With the Wind (which, in my opinion is horrible, but whatever). The action is sweet, the twists are good, the leading man hunky (yeah, still Richard posting, but I'm trying to draw in all the ladies so their husbands don't have to suffer through "Obsessed" or "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past"), and the intertwining storylines from the previous movies great. GO SEE THIS MOVIE! Strangely enough, the theater was not packed, which made me look like kind of a fool for getting everyone there early, sorry guys. But that's good for everyone else, because now you know you'll get a good seat.

So the movie was great, and how could it get any better than that? That's where the second part of my title comes in. Prepare for my story. So I'm sitting in the back seat of Nick and Jenna's car with Heather at a the stop light at Pump and Broad. For some reason, as I'm scratching my head I look over to my right and there's a lady in a red car, and she is going at it, I mean she is really, really picking her nose! So for some reason (I think it was to draw everyone else's attention), I start saying, "Yeah, yeah, pick it! Pick it!" As soon as I say that the lady, who is still going after some ginormous booger, starts turning her head toward me. I quickly snap my head to my left to avoid eye contact and shout "Don't look! Don't Look!" When, to my horror, three heads snap in Unison to the right and all three start laughing. I'll let Heather give her Eye-witness account here: Heather here, So the lady still has her hand up at her face, not actually in the process of picking anymore, but her face was hilarious. She had that I-just-got-caught-with-my-hand-in-the-cookie-jar look on her face. You know the look, eyes wide and gaping with sheer shame. She knew that we all saw it (Now my question is, what was going through her mind as she drove away). Then we all started cracking up. I laughed until my sides hurt. And as for the former part of the post. Wolverine=very good and Hugh Jackman=ripped and somewhat pleasing to the eye.

So not really the woman in the car, but still funny, right?

Richard, back to wrap things up. So as we drove away we laughed for like a good 20 seconds, easy. Funniest thing I've seen in a long, long time. Next time we go on a date, I'm recommending cruising for other picking offenders. I hope you've enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed living it, and now you know: digging for boogers and watching Wolverine are the recipe for a perfect night on the town.

Pride cometh before the fall

Last Thursday Rich (with some help from friends) put my clipless pedals on my bike. For all of those who don't know what clipless pedals are (this is for you, mom), they are pedals that you can connect to the bottom your shoe. Then when you want to disconnect your foot you just twist it to the side and it comes off. The purpose is to give a more complete use of your leg muscles by pushing and pulling with each stroke. ANYWAY...We made plans for a big ride on Saturday and on Friday night I got home from work and Rich held the bike up for me in the living room and let me practice clipping in and out. I fell over onto our couch once (which was pretty funny, considering I was still wearing my skirt from work). On Saturday we went on our big ride and I did GREAT! I didn't fall over once. I was feeling pretty awesome. Then, this Thursday I was at a spin class and was using my shoes and one of the guys in the class asked me if I had wrecked yet. I told him I hadn't and he told me it was right of passage for all bikers to fall off with the pedals. I confidently told him (and Kim backed me up) that I had already made it through a ride without falling and I had a pretty good hang of it. Then I went on a ride with my friend Sara and we get to the first stop sign. I clipped out with my right foot then leaned to the left (which is the foot that I usually clip out). About midway into my lean I realized what I had done, but it was too late. I fell right over and scraped my knee. I am hoping that I now have my fall out of the way and I won't do it again. Cross my fingers.

Gone Campin

I have memories as a child of ward campouts where we would run around, play games, make smores,making friends with new people, sitting by the fire and waking up early while the dew still covered everything. I LOVED ward campouts (I love girl camp even more. My love for girls camp is way up there with the movie "You've Got Mail" which translates to ALOT.) When I was told that our ward was having a campout I was ecstatic. We had a great time! For any of you on the activities committee that might be reading my blog...THANK YOU!

As far as food goes, nothing says campout like a tin foil dinner. I have had a few good tin-foil dinners, but I have also had a lot of raw potatoes and burnt carrot dinner. This time I wanted to try something different. I did a fajita tin-foil dinner. For anybody who was considering this I warn that the peppers can burn as easy as carrots, so don't leave them in too long. Since we had the tortillas we thought we would make a campfire quesadilla. Then a friend pointed out this would make a good blog post and I had to agree. Does anybody have killer camp recipes? If you do I would love to have it.

Every time we do something that makes us feel like subaru people (like camping, going to the banff film festival, driving in the snow or biking) we become even more proud of our car. See below Now if we could just learn to pack in an organized fashion. See below

Miraculous updates

I don't know if I am the only one who does this, but I am putting out there to see. Does anybody else lose steam on blogging? I have all these pictures and ideas for posts and I just don't get it done. I look at my computer every night and think I should blog...but I am behind on my bookclub book and I haven't read my scriptures, my house is a mess and my eyes are getting heavy I am getting sleepy...very sleepy. Soon I am dead to the world on the couch with the laptop on my lap and my bookclub book resting on my face. Then I check my blog the next day, hoping that through some miracle something new might be on there (really?? Who do I think is going to update this thing?) So next time I post my pictures...just realize how much I had to overcome to get to that point! OHH Also, thank you to those of you who do update your blogs regularly, because it gives me something to do when I am avoiding my doing my charts at work!!

Impulse BUY

About a month ago Rich said he wants to go look at getting a bike for him (since we were both signed up for a triathlon). We went just to "look" at a bike for him. We left 4 hours later having purchased bikes for both of us. They said those magic words...this sale ends tonight...and I was hooked. We went riding in Outer banks which was great and I have been a couple times on what we call "the church loop." (Rich hasn't been able to go because of numerous school and church commitments) Yesterday Rich and I thought we would take advantage of the beautiful weather and set out on the Church Loop at about 6 o'clock. That was a big mistake. There are so many cars out at 6 o'clock and each time your hear one speed up behind you, all you can do is pray that you won't wobble. Also, every time I am riding up a hill and struggling I picture myself as a big hippopotamus--wearing a pink sweatband-- trying to ride a bike and huffing and puffing the whole way (I don't know why I picture this in my head, but I think it must have been in a picture book that I read as a child, because can't figure out how I would have imagined that on my own.) Rich has those clip in pedals, and while he was waiting a stop sign, he totally turfed it 'cause he couldn't clip out. I didn't see it, but I thought it was funny. (He was supposed to type his version of the story but pharmacology was too pressing). Moral to this post: Be kind to bikers...it can be scary and if you are looking for a great impulse buy, get a bike.