Itty bitty freezer

Help! My freezer is overflowing! I went grocery shopping and seriously, had to play a mini-game of tetris to get all the new and old stuff to fit in there in harmony. This is the first fridge I have had with the side by side freezer and fridge, and I swear it does not fit as much as a top and bottom freezer/fridge combo. Does anyone know? Does anyone have any helpful organizational tips?

Here is a picture of the monstrosity...

P.S. When I went to take said picture, things fell out and had to be shoved back in.

Piper's baby tendacies come out again

Last night, Piper decided to give us a small taste of what it will be like to have a baby. She woke up at 2:00 am, just because. She ran up and down the stairs, and when I went to see what she needed she decided she was cool, and went back to bed. She then woke me up at 4:00 am, and had to go to the bathroom. I took her out, and then she decided she did not want to go back to bed, so I scooped her up and made her come back upstairs with me. She, of course, stayed asleep when Dalan got up at 6:15 am (poor guy) to go to work, but then woke me up again 8:00 am. I made her stay in bed until 9:30 am (I was tired), then we got up. She, of course, is now asleep again on the couch!

I know babies are much more demanding in the middle of the night, but it was a small taste. Grrrr! Lack of continuous sleep is what makes me most nervous about having a baby.

Don't you know who I am?

Once upon a time, a creeper viewed my blog and then tried to sell me her book about kidney stones. It made me a little uncomfortable that someone was soliciting me for their own gains through my blog, but since it was not a huge invasion of privacy, I set my blog to be unsearchable and went on my merry way.

Then I eventually added Stat Counter to my blog, just out of curiosity of how many people were viewing my blog. Stat Counter can also tell me what keywords people enter that lead to my blog, however, since my blog is suppose to be unsearchable this section is usually blank. However, recently it told me that someone in San Francisco was searching "Rawley Valverde" and came across my blog on Channel One.

I am pretty sure Rawley Valverde read my blog! I mean who else would bother to search for someone who did a news report for junior high and high school students over 15 years ago! This is how I imagined it all went down. Rawley was watching his former Channel One news anchor Anderson Cooper on CNN, and started feeling really bad that Anderson had made it to the big show despite going prematurely gray at such a young age, and Rawley had not done much since his days in the hacienda, despite being so darn good looking. So, Rawley flipped over to VH1 for some mindless entertainment, and saw that his former news anchor, Craig Jackson, was hosting that horrible show, For the Love of Money. Sure the show is the worst of the worst when it comes to reality t.v., but at least Craig has a job.

In order to feel better about himself, he googled himself expecting at least a few articles, pictures, etc about himself, but instead all he found was my blog. At least I did call him the hispanic hottie, but other than being really good looking in 1994, and making me want to sit next to him in the haciendo, poor Rawley Valverde has not achieved the fame that Anderson Cooper, Craig Jackson, or Lisa Ling have found. Maybe he took comfort that I remembered enough about the show/ Pepsi Clear, and Michael Jordan ads to give them a shout out over almost two decades later.

Any which way, I feel pretty awesome that Rawley Valverde (or someone else who knows who Rawley Valverde is) read my blog.

Introducing Roxie and Thundercat

Dalan got a bike for his birthday, and I was super jealous, so two weeks ago we went out and got me a bike too! Hooray for new bikes. I haved put off blogginb about them, until I could get some pictures. Dalan's is a grayish mountain bike, and mine is pink old school Schwinn. My bike already had the name of Roxie, which is very cute, so I stuck with it. Dalan's bike came with a lame name, so he renamed it Thundercat.

We went on a pretty long bike ride together on Saturday, while to weather was so beautiful. It was a little windy, but the sun was shining and it was warm. Can you believe just two days ago I was riding my bike in a t-shirt, and now I am sitting on the couch in a turtleneck sweater, avoiding the snow! I wanted to get a bunch of pictures of each of us on our bikes, but during our photo shoot, the nice neighbor offered to take our picture together, however her dog made our dog go nuts, so after she took the "together" picture we took off on our bikes.

Museum of Natural History

McKay and Ali invited us to go to the Museum of Natural History with them to see the new frog and toad exhibit they have up there. We had such a fun time. We saw all the exotic and strange frogs, and then went an explored the rest of the museum. I had not been up there in at least ten years, and it was interesting to see all the displays, especially now that I teach Utah history and science. I think it would be worth your time to go up for an afternoon. We finished our day with lunch at The Pie. The four us had such a good time we are planning to explore other parts of our great state every weekend together. The dinosaur museum in Ogden and Kennecott are on the short list. I ended up taking a ton of pictures, because we were having so much fun!

Mr. Frog

The witches from Macbeth, aka Dalan, Ali, and McKay

Ali as a frog

Dalan as a frog

McKay as a frog

Ali and the dinosaur

Making earthquakes

Digging for dinosaur bones.

In a teepee.

Ali and the brine shrimp.

At The Pie

Pictures for my people!

Here are the pictures of the new couches...plus what I found under the old couches. Gag me! I even had swept under them quite often. Having wood floors and seeing how much hair, dust, and other stuff accumulate so quickly on them, has made me quite nervous of what could be lurking in our carpet. Yuck! Anyway, our new couches are awesome. I came home today to find Dalan reclining and enjoying a basketball game.


I came home to today to find the dog stained! Everyday I hold Piper like a baby, so I see her chest on a regular basis, so I know the stain was not there yesterday. Dalan swears up and down he has no idea how the stain got there, but it was there! So, it was bath time for Piper. She used to love her baths, and now she tries to flee the situation. I love how wild she get right after when she is still wet. It is like she is a puppy all over again.

The stain

Escape

Drying off

A clean, but wet dog

A crazy wet dog

March miracles part two

More miracles have occurred in the month of March. Rejoice!

First of all, my broken phone miraculously healed itself sometime last night between the hours of 11 pm and 4 am. It was not functioning at 11 pm, and by 4 am was fully functioning, and has been going strong all day!

Second of all, my (self-diagnosed) tetanus has miraculously healed itself over night. I went to bed with a sore and wonky jaw, and woke up with a non-sore/non-wonky jaw. It has been working just fine all day. No popping, no soreness, and it opens and shuts as it should.

You all might want to come and sleep over here if you have broken or injured things, because apparently our household is the place for spontaneous healing of objects....living and non.

March miracles are marvelous! Rejoice!

My day

First of all, I still have (self-diagnosed) tetanus. My jaw is killing me. It hurts to chew, it hurts to smile, and it hurts to talk (gasp). Those are three of my most favorite things ever! It sucks.

Secondly, somehow my phone got damp from the tupperware I ate out of and washed out at work. It has a blank screen. So, I can call five people, (parents, Dalan, Julia, Jen, and Nana) because those are the only numbers I still have memorized these days. This also means I cannot text, and I love to text. It sucks.

Finally, we got new couches for a steal. They are big, red, and comfy. They even have built in recliners. One for each member of our family, (Dalan, Jessi, and Piper) plus a friend. It is a good thing I have not painted the living room yet, because this totally changes the color scheme up in here. Oh, we also got two cherry wood end tables thrown into the deal fo free that we did not know about. I would post pictures, but I have misplaced my USB cord yet again...so the pictures will come later. The new furniture is pretty sweet!

So the moral of my blog is, don't call me, because it hurts to talk due to my tetanus. Don't text me, because my phone is jacked up. But, you can come over and recline/relax on my new couches.

St. Patrick's Day Weekend

This weekend was the kick off to parade season. My favorite time of year! We went to the St. Patrick's Day parade at the Gateway on Saturday morning, and met up with the usual St. Patrick's Day's crowd- Julia, Steve, Sierra, Marie, Katie, and Patrick. Susan, Mikey, Kay, and Tom also made an appearance. It was a lot of fun. A little cold when we first got there, but when the sun got high enough, it was a warm and beautiful morning. I even got a t-shirt thrown to me. It fits me like a dress, but I love to get anything thrown at me at a parade.

Later that night we went over to Julia and Steve's for the annual St. Patrick's Day party. It was a lot of fun, and they had so much good food and fun decorations. I even wore my new St. Patrick's Day shirt from the parade. I am that cool. I had my camera with me the whole time, but I am lame and forgot to take pictures, so you will just have to picture all these events in your mind. Imagination and visualization are powerful tools that will make your mind stronger anyway.

Mama's Birthday

Today is my mother's birthday!

Hip, hip hooray for Mama Carlson. Mom's are the best, especially my mom! We had a nice little family dinner over at our place. It was so much fun. We ate spaghetti (Patti's all time favorite), played some Wii (Patti and Red are lethal at the bowling), opened presents (Mama totally scored and got lots of great things), had cake(carrot cake made by Red) and ice cream, and chit chatted. I really enjoy my family's company. It was a great night!

Patti and Red bowling.

Opening presents. I gave her that hat!

Blowing out her candles!

Piper snuggling with her Nana...and little old me!

Ali and McKay's self portrait....if you are not careful McKay, your face will stay that way!

LOVE YOU, MAMA!!!!

Is this a good look?

Black dress socks with pink and yellow pajama capri pants?

(You see the pants are pink with a stripe of yellow at the bottom, and that shockingly white area you see before the socks are actually my legs! Pale is the new tan, you know!)

Discuss....

My jams

Top Three Favorite Jams
(for this week anyway)

1. Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon
This song is so good. I heard it for the first time right before our wedding, and then it seemed to go away only to be making a reappearance on the radio again. That makes me so happy. It is so sexy. I literally swoon every time I hear it.
2. Give You Hell by All American Rejects
This song instantly turns me into a 14 year old girl, and I love any song that can do that! I always crank it up and sing/shout along. One time I heard it twice in my 17 minute drive home. Best day ever!
3. So What by Pink
This is another song that reflects my inner teenage girl, but it is so damn catchy I can't help but love it. It kind of sounds like a jump rope song for adults or something. Once I hear it, I have to sing it over and over for the next day or two or three.

Bang maid and master

Bang Maid and Master will be the name of the spin off to The Jessi and Dalan Show. I figure after a few seasons of TJADS, people will get bored with the format, but since we will be in a three show contract with VH1 we will have to change things around and then Bang Maid and Master will premiere. I will, of course, be the master, and Dalan will be my bang maid, and from there the wackiness will ensue. While TJADS will be a strick reality show, Bang Maid and Master will be a "scripted"reality show, like the Hills or something similar.

Like any good parent

Last night, I was loading the dishwasher (woman job) and there was some left over meat grease/au jus from our french dip sandwiches (which I made, by the way) on one of the plates. Piper decided that she wanted to help herself to the goodness, so she boldly climbed half way onto the dishwasher and started licking. Like any good parent, I grabbed my camera and snapped a couple photo before making her get down. I told her she was a bad dog, but hilarious. I couldn't help but laugh. She is one bold little dog.

Things I am looking forward to (because I know you are all dying to know)

Things I am looking forward to:
(in no particular order)

• Spring, and with spring comes longer days, warmer days, and flowers.
• March birthdays (Mama, Nghia, and Becca)
• March births (Shumpert)
• My birthday, I have 3 months and 12 days left of my twenties.
  
• Parade season- St. Patrick's Day, gay pride, the 4th of July, OH MY!
• The Triple Crown, I love my horse races.
  
• Teaching in the month of May-the end of the year testing will be over, and we can make elementary school fun and exciting again.
  
• Honeymoon to somewhere! Montreal is the front runner right now.
  
• Getting over my cold, and not looking like Rudolph anymore.
  
• My birthday party-hopefully we will get to party like it is 1979!
• Daylight savings, who gives an eff if it dark in the morning. I want it to be light for as long as possible into the evening.
  
• Painting the living room. Ok, I am not looking forward to the labor, but I am excited to have a new look up in here. Along with this I would love to get our office/spare bedroom organized.
  
• Getting a new bike of my own, so Dalan and I can go on bike rides together.
• My ESL endorsement being done and over with, and along with that getting to see Dalan everyday of the week.
  
• The end of the school year and a nice relaxing summer vacation.
  

March miracle

On this blessed day of March 4, 2009, a miracle has occurred. I did not teach today due to my part in a math grant, so I got home a little earlier than usual. However, due to my monster cold, I took a little mini-nap, and ended up getting up later than planned, and was a tad late for my ESL class. I parked in a different spot than usual, because usually I am the first one to class, not one of the last. As I left class I exited differently than usual and decided to roll State St. instead of taking the freeway. I ended up on 7000 South waiting to turn left onto southbound Redwood Rd. I look across the six lane road, and who do I see directly across the intersection waiting to turn left onto northbound Redwood Rd, but my lover, Dalan! I immediately called him, and we declared it a March miracle! I believe it was fate that I got see him across the road from me in the mirror opposite lane. Hello! It doesn't get more romantic than that.

Piper greeted me when I got home, and I went to the bathroom and did a few things around house. I look over to her bed, and there she is licking out the inside of an open can of chili. She had been alone for literally four minutes, and in the those four minutes she managed to get a single can of chili out of the trash can. Naughty! And not in the least worthy behavior of a day in which a March miracle had occurred.

I want one!

Apparently, albino dolphins are pink and I want one! A bright pink dolphin was seen in Louisiana, and as far as I can tell through my extensive research for the last 5 minutes, this story is true and the photo has not been altered. Also, there is a species of pink dolphins found in South America. How have I lived for 29 years and not ever been aware of pink dolphins! I want one for my birthday!

A pirate's life

We had friends and family over to our place on Friday and Saturday night to celebrate Dalan's 30th birthday. There was pirate theme to both parties, which started only because I found pirate invitations at Target on clearance, and you know how I love a deal. But, argh matey, it was good time had by all! Dalan had a wonderful birthday weekend. He received a lot of thoughtful, generous, and creative gifts. We had a lot of fun, and I was so excited to see all our loved ones! This weekend totally made me feel so grateful to have such an incredible family, in-laws, and friends. You don't get much better than these people, that is for sure!