Pet Peeve

Definition: A pet peeve is a minor annoyance that an individual identifies as particularly annoying to them, to a greater degree than others may find it. Examples may be poor table manners, sloppy kitchen hygiene, smoking, grammatical errors in written passages, inconsiderate driving or lazy co-workers, and loud gum smacking.

I officially have a Pet Peeve.

I've never really had one before.

When people used to ask me I would say: "People who water their lawn when it's rainin" (just to be silly)

Today I can say with absolute confidence that not only do I have a pet peeve, but this will always and forever remain my one and only pet peeve:

People who clip their finger nails during sacrament meeting.

I mean seriously-where are the fingernails going?
And it's usually some old man in the back who has the clippers attached to his key chain.
And he's probably bored (like the rest of us) and figures it's as good a time as any-
And the sound echo's nicely throughout the chapel with those fabulous acoustics
And heaven forbid he take care of it during the week in the privacy of his own home

But really, if a pet peeve is a minor annoyance that an individual identifies as particularly annoying to them, to a greater degree than others may find it, - so it's just me then huh?

Zing Zang Zoom!

The circus is on town! So in celebration we (Brown and I) took the kids down to the Gateway for the annual Circus Parade/elephant walk. It was the coolest! Here are a few shots of the event:

Free Rubber Noses for all who attended

The beginning:
Oh how I envied those flashy bedazzled unitards.

I did some research:
you can actually home school your kids should
the family become a part of the troup. Carnie for a year... hmmmm

The elephant walk

The unsung hero's of the event
(yup you see right, wheel barrows and shovels following the elephants)

The end

And that's exactly how long the parade was. In fact it took me longer to down load these photos and BLOG about it than it did to sit/stand through the parade. But totally worth it and a fun tradition. My favorite part: lunch after wards! Thanks Brown for the good times and for exposing me to the "Greatest Show on EARTH!"

wow what a difference 3 days makes!

Oddly resembles a Celeb Mug Shot huh?!
We just posted bail and got her out of the klink!

I went to the ward party. . .

and all I got was this crappy black eye!

what a shiner huh?!

It's so quiet

hmmmmm

We thought they were simply watching a movie

No wonder things were so quiet!

yup- that's marker

Ah the little darlings!
Nothin BUT Evil! :)

Bring your sister to school day

(Guest Blog by Anna)

so lilly came to my school today. I think she had so much fun.

we learned new songs: 5 little monkeys, 5 little ducks, and last of all we sang 5 little frogs (lilly was really good at singing the songs) we also learned Old McDonald had a farm-we had a paper bag hand puppet for old mcdonald had a farm(it had a animal on it) and for the monkeys, frogs, and ducks it was a picture of them on a stick.

Then we played with playdough, and lilly had so much fun -she made blue stars.

On to the sancks (lilly was very happy for that) they had water, goldfish, and some apples.

we then played duck-duck-goose, Lilly had so much fun and so did the other kids that were there they would run around and tag people. Lilly was the funniest, what she would do was go duck -duck so many times and then she would tap somone on the head, say nothing and start to run thinking they would just come after her.(hahahaha) I had so much fun and I think Lilly did too. -anna

bed head

GOOD MORNING!

new calling

Hey guess who the new Cub Master and Assistant to the Cub Master are in the ward?!

Jim was pleased to find out that his original "uni" still fit
Look at all those patches!

Check out this dandy of a uni that I get to wear!
One word-AWESOME

Three watermelon cheers for the Hall's

Who wants to come over later tonight to do some skits?

happiness

Labor Day '09

Talk about belaboring this Labor day- we did anything but rest!

We did the laundry. . . ALL of it (no pun intended from last post)

Made homemade spaghetti sauce

Bottled the spaghetti sauce (22 bottles)




Filled up the BBQ propane tank

Made deviled eggs and BBQ ribs for dinner

Made lemonade ice cream pie for dessert

Took a walk with Lilly

offended some neighbors

Ate dessert with some other neighbors

Watched an episode of "Cake Boss" my new favorite show

and finished it all off by listening to a serenade of "O Danny Boy" on the bag pipes and wtched the sun set


Goodbye summer
Hello Fall
and
Happy Labor Day to us all!

The PATRIOT has it ALL

So a few weeks ago the Tribune ran an add for a FREE bottle of ALL laundry detergent. We responded to the add and were told a "representative" would bring it by if we would agree to a short presentation on a vacuum.

"Phil" (name has been changed to protect the innocent) came to our home at 6:50 with the detergent as promised, a vacuum and several other boxes, gadgets and whohaa's that would aid in the sale of this incredible vacuum.

He began his shpeel and it was most impressive-especially the part where he vacuumed our living room floor and then showed us what it picked up- (after all this was his "bring it home-hit them below the belt-you will increase your life expectancy as well as the life of your entire family-how have you gone this long without one" moment) and as you would expect, we realized what our lame vacuum wasn't doing. He showed us the refuse and I'm pretty sure amidst the dust, carpet fibers and glitter I saw a small family of trolls.

OK, OK so it was an amazing vacuum and I was impressed. Although the cynical side of me kept trying to find a flaw in his presentation or the vacuum itself. I asked questions and you would have thought I had just moved from Passamaquoddy where my best friend was a dragon and I had just been sold some crazy miracle juice.

But alas, the vacuum prevailed and I was convinced that my life would indeed be better should I own the Patriot Home Defense System. Phil had been schooled in the art of presenting and in the knowledge and use of this fine vacuum-actually after seeing what it could do, calling it a mere vacuum was simply an insult.

So after we (and Phil) were amply satisfied with what he had done (and 2 hours later) he told us what it would take to get one in our home.

ME: "I'm sorry how much did you say it was? I thought I heard you say $3, 330 dollars. . . oh you did. Oh but today you are running a special...$2,780 but that doesn't include the filter or the service contract. . .I see."
HIM: "It may seem like a lot but it is an investment in your health and in the long run it will be much cheaper than paying for inst-care visits or buying medicine for colds."
JIM: "My kids rarely get sick. We just make sure that they go to bed early and get plenty of rest and I'm not an impulse buyer. We won't be buying one"

What I wanted to say was : "Look mister-When a loaf of bread looks like a banquet these days, I got no right buying a $3,300 vacuum. Your machine may suck but so does your price."

But I didn't say that, instead I offered him some tomatoes from our garden and nearly shed a tear or two after he told me that he was recently married supporting three kids and that he had just returned from Iraq -

God Bless the USA!

SOLD!

We bought one!

OK not really but do you know anyone who does? I just feel so bad for the guy-seriously!