Ho ho... the Mistletoe..

So... Christmas. Ya? Ya. It was awesome. I love hanging out at home.

Hoppy Birsday!

This is a blog shout out to my little sister Nicole. Mostly because I can't come home for her birthday. So happy birthday Nicole!! I really enjoy this picture of you. Mostly because you are wearing nothing but rollerskates, a turtleneck, and an obviously peepee filled diapey. Cheers!

A Question or Three.

1. Why does Pleasant Grove smell like a broccoli tainted fart?

Really. I would like to know.

2. And furthermore, has it always smelled that way or is this a recent (like in the last 10 years) development?

Because it has always smelled horrendous to me since the beginning of time.

3. And lastly, if it HAS always smelled like a broccoli fart, why would they name it "Pleasant" Grove. Are they trying to trick us? Because my nose cannot be fooled.

Wuggs, and Christmas Cheer

I have had this internal turmoil about Uggs for quite some time. First of all, I think they are the most hideous form of winter fashion footwear on the planet. Second of all, they cost 5 cotrillion dolars. Third of all, they are trendy. And by trendy I mean that a ton of people have them, but did they really want them for the shoe that they are? Or did they buy them because everyone else jumping off the bridge was wearing them?

But, my favorite winter boots wore out last spring, so I have just been sloshing around in the snow in flats. And I really, really hate having snow in my shoes. And I LOATHE getting the bottoms of my pant legs wet with salty dirty snow water. Usually I would just roll up my jeans. But then there's the whole snow on my skin thing.

So, I went to WalMart last night to pick up some things. You know. And I got out of my car and jumped right on into a pile of dirty parking lot slush. Bleegh. I hated that. Anyway. As I was moseying along in wally world I passed the shoe department, and they had fake uggs for $12.

I could not resist. My feet were cold, my pants were wet, and they were $12 for crying out loud.

But don't you worry your pretty little head, I will remember to wear pants with them. Not skirts, and not just shirts, but pants.

I do not and will not wear them as a fashion statement. I still love me some flats. So I devised a diabolical plan. I will wear my Wuggs (WalMart uggs) when the weather requires it, and then trade them for my flats as soon as I know I won't be stepping in any more snow that day. I'm sure once school starts I'll just be trudging around in them in the slush, but for now, they are purely for function and I am trying to stay away from wearing them with say, slacks.

Anyway. So I left WalMart and loaded my groceries into my car. I went to return my cart (because I think its just rude to leave it blowin in the breeze in the middle of the parking lot) and the cart return closest to me was a complete mess. People couldn't push their carts all the way into it because there was like 4 inches of frozen snow on the ground. So they proceeded to stack them out further and further into the parking lot. And then they started to curve the carts around to the side, and completely blocked in this mini van.

This would not do. I have this occasional OCD tendency to straighten things that are not my business to straighten. But I felt bad for the mini van. Maybe it's because A Christmas Carol has been playing on like every channel all week, but I just imagined some kind of tiny tim coming out to their mini van and being trapped because they couldn't move the frozen carts all by themself.

So. Because I am a freak, I reorganized like all 20-ish carts and shoved them into the snow laden cart return and re-stacked them, freeing the mini van from WalMart cart bondage. Some girl I don't even know came and helped me. And we didn't really say anything except "Ya. people don't do this right" and then she said Merry Christmas and we went to our respective vehicles.

I need some love. And some diamonds.

I love this. But I would settle for a cubic zirconia.

Quote of the Day.

"It's time to go to bed, or you will become a sick moose."

Is it me... or are the deacons shrinking?

I went to my family ward in Kaysville today for church. The deacons look like 5 year olds. It was really, really strange. I remember when I was in primary I thought the young men were soooooo grown up and mature and dreamy. Compared to us though, they were.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm a grown up or something now.. I go to Relief Society, and I enjoy it. I date guys who have been back from their missions for a while. My friends are married and starting families of their own.

My little sisters are almost all grown up too.

The family dinner table is filled with adults. I mean, we still act like 10 year olds for the majority of the time but in reality there is no kid's table anymore. Weeeeeird.

My Christmas list is shorter, I clean up my own messes, I work as much or more than I play, and I love hanging out with my family. I eat fruits and vegetables without being forced, I love all 3 hours of church, I love going to the Temple, and graduating from school actually costs big money. That and the caps aren't made of paper.

Oh how the times have changed. But life is just pretty much awesome when you think about it. I'm a grown up. But I'm new at being a grown up. You could say I'm a baby grown up.

... And I still have a looooooot to learn. The real question though, is whether or not I'll be able to keep up with the cake habit of my youth.

Yesterday...

Ask me if I locked my keys in my dad's truck yesterday. While it was running. While it was snowing. Because the answer is yes.

Today...

I had a small emotional break down. You know when a ton of things are going wrong... but then one thing is actually going extremely right? Well, you tend to just focus all your emotions on that one thing that is going right. Well. I do that anyway. So. Today. That one thing that was going incredibly right hit a small bump. I can't even say its going wrong now, but it stopped going right for like a second. And it all came crashing down.

The moral of this story is... I am just extremely emotionally delicate this week. So do not cross me. I will cut you.

Quote of the Day

"...and now, if you believe all these things see that ye do them."

-Mosiah 4 Verse 10

Quote of the Day

"The last guy I kissed had breath that smelled like the Great Salt Lake.."

- Nicole

I will give 1 million monopoly dollars....

To anyone who can identify this flower. They grow in front of my apartment and they have crazy purple spikes and I just want to know what the freak they are. I have been trying to find out online and it is just not working and then I just had a dream that they were called something crazy... so i googled that. And my dream failed me. I just need to know. I don't know why. That is all.

Oh Memories.

So, once upon a time when I was like 12, I stayed home sick from church. That worked out great, because I could squeeze in some much anticipated email checking and instant messaging without having to adhere to the "20 minute limit" rule. See, Jackie was 16, Tami was 14, I was 12, Nicole was 9 and Michelle was 5. We only had one computer, and we had to take turns. Some of us emailed. Some of us were instant messenger maniacs. Some of us (like Nicole and Michelle) just liked to search for stuffed animals online or play solitaire. Dad used the computer for work, Mom used it for Genealogy, and Jackie, Tami and I occasionally had to use it for school. Mama Booth, being all about fairness envoked the 20 minute time limit per girl. But that day.. the computer was all mine. For 3 hours!

Now, we were not allowed to be on the computer on Sundays, but I was a shady rule breaker back before my conscience took over my life. I checked my mail, chatted with some boys from school via AIM... and then accidentally kicked the computer with my awkward gangly 12 year old leg. Lo and behold.. a little door on the front of the hard drive popped open. Behind this door, there was a handle. I of course, lifted the handle. Little did I know that this little handle was spring loaded, and by lifting that little bugger, it detached the hard drive from the computer. While it was on.

I nervously pushed the hard drive back in, shut the little door, turned off the computer and went and got back in bed. This, my friends, was going to be bad. Super bad. Tate Banzett bad. I didn't know much about computers at that point in my life, but knew that when they stopped working, Papa Booth had to painstakingly take them apart and swear at it for hours before it would work again.

The family got home, and I inconspicuously mentioned that I had tried to check my mail, and the hard drive popped out of the computer. I had broken the no-computer on Sunday rule, and I swear everyone gave me dirty looks. They all thought I did it on purpose. I was not a favorite among the Booth family that day. This day, we were all introduced to the term "de-fragging" a computer. It took about 8 HOURS.

There was Dad, sitting at the computer desk, watching line after line of code blur by as each little box that I swear represented bits, not bytes, lit up and moved around as the de-frag continued. I wanted to throw up. I did this. I murdered the first Booth Family computer with reliable internet access. It was an unpardonable sin. So I sat there with my dad, and suffered through most of the de-frag situation right next to him. He didn't yell at me, or swear, or chastise me for computer-ing on Sunday. Having everyone else's eyes on me was punishment enough. I actually was pretty curious about what the freak was going on, and so I kept asking him annoying questions like "what does that red box mean?" or "how many of those lines have to be filled up for it to be done?" "what does de-fragment mean?" and I think my guilt driven legitimate curiosity eased the frustration Dad must have felt toward me. Thinking about it now, I can't believe he didn't ban me from the family for life. He was a computer guy for crying out loud, and I pulled the hard drive right out of a running computer. Shudder. Sorry Dad.

Anyway. After my laptop was stolen last year Papa Booth found an old one from his work that they were throwing away. Its been pretty reliable. But... it has had its scares. I even had to defrag it once. Shudder again. So tonight some blue screen came up saying it needed to verify some files that didn't match blah blah blah recombobulate the directory blah blah so I let it do its job. And This is what I had to watch. It brought back this flood of computer-angst ridden memories and I just felt like I needed to share. Ever since that fateful Sunday, system error messages strike fear into the very center of my heart.

But don't worry. The computer is doing just fine. False alarm.

Baa ha ha

Okay, so this commercial is just shameless crude humor but I laugh so hard every time I see it. The girl's face on the receiving end is priceless.

okay okay.. what I LIKED about twilight

I loved the baseball scene... and victoria was pretty scary. Edward wasn't as repulsive.. nay, he was even kind of good looking by the end of the movie. I loved Emmet and Rosalie. I absolutely adored Alice, she was precisely how I had envisioned her in the book. I think I am just so anti-twilight-movie because I had such a perfect picture of what everything was supposed to look like and no one could ever live up to that ideal. So I'm sorry my words are so harsh. This post is mostly for Cassinita. I'm glad our friendship transcends Twilight movie opinions.

This is going to be short.

I don't want to offend all the other Twilighters out there who thought the movie was an epic masterpiece of cinematography. So I'll keep this brief.

As the trailers for twilight evolved and became more detailed, my excitement for the movie dwindled. The more I saw, the less I wanted to see. I finally caved and went to go see the actual movie a couple weeks ago. I figured I should at least give it a chance to redeem itself. And it was exactly how I had imagined it would be. I was less than enamored with the powdery makeup, horrible hair.. the wigs (Jacob and James) and bleach jobs (Carlisle.. for real. What the freak?) ... AND the total lack of eye contact between Bella and Edward interspersed with awkward cemented staring. Can't we have a happy medium?

Bella is a mouth-breather. She took more awkward gasps than James while he was "picking up her scent" for real. If Bella had been wearing a clothespin on her nose throughout the whole movie, it wouldn't have even mattered. Her breathy speech would have given her enough oxygen to hyperventilate. Which I'm pretty sure she did on several occasions.

Okay okay I can't keep it short now. I'm on a roll.

Edward looked like a monkey during the meadow scene. He was all curled up, bouncing around in a tree like a freaking orangutan while he was trying to tell her he was dangerous. I was more afraid of the possibility of him flinging his poo at her than of his brute strength and thirst for her blood.

Charlie was attractive. Don't judge me. I thought he was more attractive than Edward. I mean, minus the Po Po mustache of course. In real life he is only .... carry the 2... who cares how old he is. He wasn't wearing makeup. Also, he reminds me of an older, more mature Seth from the O.C.

Ya? ya. As compared to:

Hmmmm, no thanks. Not manly. Not Cute. Not even a little bit. Channeling Voldemort much? There is so much powder on his nose that it looks like it has melted into his face. I do not have the hots for He Who Shall Not Be Named.

I am so ashamed that I spent so long talking about twilight. Not abashedly ashamed of my fluttering heart like many a blogger who have dedicated their very soul to Edward Cullen, but ashamed that I even acknowledged him. Blahhhh. I'm sorry. I couldn't hold it in. Hate me if you will. But I still love you, despite your love for the Twilight movie. It had a lot of potential, but might as well have been made by these folks:

For Crying Out Loud!!

Want to read about the biggest load of bull crap on the planet? Just go here:

Atheists Take Aim at Christmas

Atheist groups are putting up signs next to nativity scenes that denounce all types of worship and declare that "Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.."

Don't get me wrong. I believe than everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, even if they contradict mine. I just don't understand why so many people think it is okay to disrespect any type of religion.

Their justification? "It's not that we are trying to coerce anyone; in a way our sign is a signal of protest," Barker said. "If there can be a Nativity scene saying that we are all going to hell if we don't bow down to Jesus, we should be at the table to share our views."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure I have never seen any of the figures in any nativity scene holding signs that say non believers are going to hell.

"Most people think December is for Christians and view our signs as an intrusion, when actually it's the other way around," he said. "People have been celebrating the winter solstice long before Christmas. We see Christianity as the intruder, trying to steal the holiday from all of us humans."

So let me get this straight, Christians aren't even human now?

Yes, throughout history there have been Christians who have done more than their share of persecuting other cultures in the name of their God. The crusaders, the KKK and even members of the Nazi regime have committed some of the most heinous crimes in history with the claim that they were carrying out God's will.

But here is something that we all need to remember: hate crimes are carried out by imperfect and confused mortals. They are not committed by God. As we have progressed as a human race, we have (at least I thought we had) learned tolerance and established governments that protect the fundamental rights of all men and women. One of those rights is religious freedom. Another is freedom of speech. Atheists have every right to disagree with Christians, vocally if they feel like it. But there is also a certain amount of respect that should be shown to other religions, cultures, and ways of life.

Unfortunately and paradoxically I'm sure there are still Christians out there in the world with signs that do condemn unbelievers to hell with vehemence and hatred. They should be just as ashamed of themselves. I guess I just don't understand how some people can be so disrespectful to their fellow men. We are all in the same boat. We are all trying to find truth. We all want peace. Why can't we just treat one another as the equals that we are?

Its days like today that make me worried for my future children. Society is moving backward at an ever quickening pace. Last time I checked, freedom of religion was not synonymous with the banishment of religion.

Up in the Gym just workin on my fitness..

So, I went to the gym tonight for the first time in approximately 2 months. I loved every second of it. I haven't felt this good physically or mentally for a while. Yogi Yogi Yogi Gold's Gym!

Also, why is Britney Spears taking over MTV? I swear her reality show is ALWAYS on... And for the few minutes of it I've actually watched, it appears to be lame enough to melt your brain. Britney. You're still crazy. Yep. I said it. Get off my TV screen.

And, I don't know why I suck so much at writing blogs lately. Sorry. Nothing super interesting has happened that I feel like sharing with the world. But here is one more tid-bit:

Lately I am the incredible shrinking woman! It's crazy.