See How They Grow

My plants have grown from this:

To this! (pardon the bad lighting):

They have their white blossoms on and look!!!!:

Soon I will have little ballerina's dancing in the wind...I love Spring/Summer!!!!

For Your Viewing Pleasure....:)

Paul was in Orlando last week from Wednesday night til Sunday afternoon. He and another co-worker were there to move some inventory at a convention. It's extremely busy and he rarely gets to go sight seeing or do anything fun during these trips. One thing he didn't count on, however, was the freight company to lose their entire shipment. Poof!! Disappeared. So, without inventory to sell, Paul and co-worker had an entire unplanned weekend to fill up.

Paul wasn't happy because he didn't want to go in the first place and having to find stuff to do in a uppity retirement area is not fun. And when they did go places, he said it wa "gay" and that he "needed his wife for that to be fun." Poor guy.

At least he got to go see the beach this time!! And by see the beach I mean that he fell asleep on it for hours and was burned to a crisp. That man always needs SPF 45 or higher and he had nothing. So to gross everyone out (hee hee hee), here is Florida's parting gift for Paul:

Oh you want to see that even more up close??? Well, here you go!:

Ouch!!

Saturday Hang Out

Saturday after the ride, I stayed and hung out at my parents. Hubband was in Orlando so I had no one to go home to anyway!

Everyone happened to be at the house, including Amber's boyfriend and his kids, and so we all just decided to throw together a barbeque and hang out. It was really great fun. We laid out blankets and chilled, jumped on the tramp, some played LaCrosse and the boys ran around like monkeys :)

Later on we built a fire in The Pit and Bronsynn and her friend, Annie, gave the boys rides up and down the canal road on their bikes.

We all laughed pretty hard when we realized that to carry Dallin without him choking her to death, Bronsynn had put him inside the backpack on her back:

Later that night, my parents left with Gaven and his fiance to Ogden to get Gav's new truck, Kenny, Amanda and Bronsynn had gone home, and Amber had put the kids to bed and went to take Kevin's kids home to him (he had to leave earlier). I had stayed to watch the kids so I was chillin' outside in the dark with what was left of the fire when I heard the back door creak a little. A second later Aiden came barreling out - "Is there any blankets out here??" and I said yes and he came and jumped up in my lap and shared my blanket with me. So cute. It's so fun to break the rules behind Mom's back every once in awhile ;) I love being the Aunt!

Bronsynn's First Desert Ride

Saturday I spent the day out in the desert with my dad, sister and niece. It was Bronsynn's first time out in the desert and I have to say she did really good. She still gets a little scared from time to time but that will pass with practice.

Here she is right before we took off:

Dad, Amanda and Bronsynn:

We ride for a few hours and then stop to eat. We didn't stop for very long this time. This is Bronsynn trying to take her sunglasses off and getting them stuck in her hair....she just LOVES this picture ;) :

Amanda and Bronsynn (B demonstrating how full she is):

On the way back we had tree wars (ripping off piles of needles and pelting each other with them). We also found this ginormous nest and Amanda climbed the tree to see if there was anything in it. There wasn't. But the fun part came when I took Amanda's horse and started running away with it, leaving her to walk after me :) Ha ha ha:

Amanda and Me:

Amanda being her dorky self:

Bronsynn brushing down B.J. after the ride:

It was really fun to take Bronsynn out and have some fun. I love being able to ride like that. That was probably the last trip out there because it's going to start getting super hot out there so we will keep it more local. Good times, though!

Jake Sully Can Rescue MY Planet Anyday

In honor of Earth Day, aka the DVD release of AVATAR, I was given a very very VERY special gift by my la-de-da friends, Teresa and Paul, to document the occasion.

My very own pocket-sized Jake Sully...

No, I am not that obsessed with this movie...they just have an awesome sense of humor. I laughed so hard - they even got me a card and fancy little bag with tissue paper. Now I can take Jake Sully with me every where I go...the fantasies will be endless.

Best Present EVER!!

(Okay in all honesty it's the best gag gift ever!)

Airplanes

I'm really irritated right now because Playlist.com won't let me embed a single song anymore and I can't figure out why. So instead of a pretty little colorful player at the bottom of this post you get a stupid link instead. Why do people have to go messing up a good thing? Grrrrrr.

Carrying on!

I am totally digging this song by B.O.B. featuring......Hayley Williams!!! Love her!! There is also a version with Eminem which I like a lot as well. Check it out...or don't, but then you'd be stupid, too.


http://www.playlist.com/searchbeta/results/804220433

The Lovely Bones

My awesome friend Becky gave me this book for Christmas and I read it right away. I was enthralled with the book from the beginning. It's now a movie so maybe some of you have already seen it but it's about a 14 year old girl who is raped and murdered by a neighbor and she goes on to live in heaven and observes her family for years. I found it so interesting the way the author created heavens and told the story. The ending.....well, the ending was out of nowhere and didn't really make sense to me, or Becky if I remember right.

Anyway, I recommended this book to my book club and it was a very different conversation than normal. Some things were confusing and other things made you mad and other things didn't make any sense and the ending got a thumbs down from everyone (it really was just out of nowhere!). Some people skipped right through the beginning, which I thought was weird because the beginning, albeit a little violent, is not described in too great of detail. Yes, it's an awful act but I found the beginning to be the most interesting part.

So! I haven't seen the movie yet but I plan to because I want to compare. (And a little side note about that is that I hate who they chose for Suzie, the main character...and her sister for that matter). I did like this book! Life is not always rainbows and roses and so it would make sense that not all books describe life that way. So, if you can take it, I recommend this book :)

Well....That Sucks

I happened upon this on my morning commute today:

This is the second car that I have seen burst into flames.

I could see commotion up ahead, along with two cement trucks and some construction workers so I assumed they were doing something on the road, but as I got closer I could see differently and the poor owner of the truck was trying to douse the flames on his truck with a fire extinguisher....it wasn't helping.


Years and years ago when I worked at the Riverton True Value (Senior year in High School probably) some kid's Jeep Cherokee broke down on the street right in front of the store. This was back when there was still a house on the corner and the street hadn't been redone. The poor kid had just bought it, didn't have much money and was soon to be married. I felt so bad when the car burst into flames and he was freakin' out about how his fiance was going to kill him!! He nearly went bald from pulling his hair and I think he was crying. In a short time there was nothing left of his car but a really black, charred frame. Me and my co-worker had called the police and when the police showed up, he took information from Todd, who didn't want to be giving personal information because he had a warrant out for his arrest!

Fablehaven Concludes!

I finished the last book in the Fablehaven series last night! I love this series! It so family friendly and keeps you entertained - you can't put it down! It had a pretty good ending - sometimes when it's the last book in a series it feels like everything comes together at the end too fast just to be able to hurry and get things over with, ya know? It felt like Keys to the Demon Prison did that a little tiny bit, but not too much where you felt cheated. It was actually a really good read - if you haven't read the series, I recommend it! It's pretty funny at times, too ;)

See Ya In 2

This be my cousin Jordan:

And he leaves this morning for his mission :)

He is twenty-two next month, I believe. He has had to overcome an accident that nearly killed him, but I admire for him still wanting to go out even though all of his friends and family have gone on their missions and returned already. Some guys wouldn't have still wanted to go out. His mission farewell was last month and we all went to his house afterward where he was bombarded by tonz - TONZ - of friends and family. His fam is super proud of him :)

This is the article written on his accident:

Student recovering from accident
Long board crash leaves lacrosse player
withseriousinjuries,lack of taste, andsmell

"Rightnow [lacrosse] is last on the list of things that matter. What matters is
Jordan is getting healthy. He probably shouldn't have survived, but he did. "
Jason Lamb
BYU lacrosse coach
By RYAN MERRIMAN
BYU lacrosse player Jordan McKensie doesn't remember much about what happened to him June 14, but it's a day he's likely never to forget.
Sometime after 10 p.m., the 20-year-old drove his car to the top of Seven Peaks Boulevard and set off down the hill on a friend's long board. After accelerating to an estimated speed of 35 mph, McKensie hit a patch of gravel, lost control and flew almost 20 feet from his board Jordan before skidding to a stop near Belmont Apartments.
BYU student Kristi Dow and her fiance, Blake Jackson, saw the crash on their way to a friend's house and called 911.
"We asked him his name and he couldn't tell us anything," Dow said. "He was bleeding out of his ears and nose and then he started throwing up. He finally told us his name was Jordan."
Emergency personnel rushed McKensie to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, where surgeons had to remove a large piece of McKensie's skull inorder to relieve pressure and remove blood clots that threatened the young man's life. Even with the procedure, physicians weren't optimistic about McKensie's chances, especially considering two teens died from similar injuries earlier this year.
Despite the grim prognosis, McKensie beat the odds and is now recuperating with his family in Sandy, but it'll take some time before he can pick up a lacrosse stick, hop on a long board or even taste an ice cream cone.
The accident left
McKensie with chronic migraines, no sense of taste or smell and no hearing in one ear.
"There's a chance it's permanent," McKensie said. "The doctors aren't sure yet, but it might be."
Now McKensie, a self-described fitness nut and thrill seeker, spends most of the day off his feet. Any contact could cause his brain to swell, snapping the nerves that regulate his breathing. McKensie said he's under strict orders to get plenty of sleep every night and to take at least one two-hournap each day. Doctors also told him a high-protein diet can help heal his damaged brain.
"I've always been pretty active," McKensie said. "I'm going nuts pretty much right now — I played mini-golf the other day and it wore me out till I wanted to just fall over."
Full recovery could take as long as two years, but the fact that McKensie is even alive puts him ahead of schedule.
With enough attention to detail and hard work, he could be back in the gym in as little as three months, one of his doc¬tors said. McKensie's work ethic and positive attitude may ul¬timately be as important to his recovery as medical expertise.
"He's hilarious, and he loves to have fun," BYU lacrosse coach Jason Lamb said. "He's one of the hardest workers in the weight room. He took the time a lot of players don't. There were definitely good things on the horizon for him."
And there still are great things on McKensie's horizon, Lamb said, though they may or may not be on a lacrosse field.
"Right now [lacrosse] is laston the list of things that matter. What matters is Jordan getting healthy," Lamb said. "He probably shouldn't have survived, but he did. I think his life was spared for some great things."
McKensie hopes to be well enough to send in mission papers by December and enroll in classes this fall, but doctors said there are no guarantees McKensie's brain will be ready for university curriculum by September.
"I'm supposed to start reading children's books to slowly get my brain back to where it was," McKensie said. "It's hard for me to comprehend college reading right now. If I can go back I might need tutors, but we'll have to see."
Utah Valley Regional Medical Center has treated four patients with serious long-boarding injuries this year compared to 15 in 2007. While long-boarding accidents appear to be down slightly compared to the first half of 2007, hospital officials said they still see far too many patients injured without helmets.
r_merriman@byu.net

One Old Dude.

My brother-in-law, Kenny, had his 39th birthday on Easter Sunday. Because of the holiday, and his plans to be elsewhere, we celebrated as a family last night. We had nummy sloppy joes, pretzel salad & tossed salad. It was a great cheat day! :)

He wanted rootbeer floats instead of cake icecream so he blew out candles on the gallon of ice cream:

Later we went outside and started a fire in "The Pit". It was a little windy (which was actually nice because the smoke stayed in one direction the whole time!) but not too cold and we stayed out for hours chit chatting and laughing.

"Uncle Pol" helped Aiden and Dallin climb the big tree:

He also had to jump on the tramp with them, wrestle them and anything else they found him useful for :)


We got out the roastin' sticks and roasted some marshmellows. My nephews got super goofy and had fun looking at each silly picture after they posed for it:

We had a fun night! Kenny and Amanda were married last July and he's been so much fun to have in our family - he's probably the wittiest/funniest guy I know so we are always laughing when we are together.

Spring Fever!!

I need the warm weather!! I am craving it badly!! I want to see things grow and get green and have summer fun!

While the weather was good, albeit a little cold at times, I spent Friday night and all day Saturday weeding out my back lawn so that the grass can fill in. It took FOREVER and I almost thought that my back would never recover and I don't have feeling in my thumb still!! But it felt so good to get out and dig and weed that I will happily deal with it!!

And I planted!! Two weekends ago, my mom found a stellar deal on Bacopa and Fuschia!! These little starters were three for $1!!! What a steal! So we bought a ton for our potters:

And I put in some Jiffy Pots:

And set them in my window box!:

I love to see things grow. The Bacopa's will get cute little white flowers all over them and the Fuschia looks like this:

They look like little ballerina dancers and I love to look at them dance in the wind :)

Daily Rant #10

I have a pet peeve. Shocking, right? I know.


This particular pet peeve has to do with Facebook. Or rather I guess I should say, people using Facebook. It's not everyone, of course, because there are normal people who use Facebook.

Now, I understand my pet peeve about this exists because I have a certain personality..one that can't stand people posting every ten minutes, or people posting their touchy, feely, emotiony, 'inspiring' quotes and comments at least once a day, OR people who try so hard (and fail embarassingly) to be funny all the time, OR people talking in third person, OR people being all mushy and putting extremely personal stuff all over the place.

I get on Facebook less and less because I have come to care less and less about what people are saying. I can't stand it when people quote some sappy song that describes what is wrong with them while choosing to be completely vague about what actually IS wrong with them at the same time. I don't like it when someone writes "Sigh" so they can have all their friends comment back "What's wrong? How can I help" only for the original someone to say "I don't want to talk about it."

THEN DON'T WRITE "SIGH" ON YOUR FRIGGIN' WALL.

Needy, emotionally-constipated, attention-whores are all over the place. I, personally, can not stand it. Am I an uncaring, heartless person? No. I am a personal person. So, if something is wrong, get to the point already. Stop playing games so that if something is really the matter, people can reach out to that matter. I don't reach out - because I believe most everyone on my Home page does it for the attention - the wrong attention. And it bugs me.

There. Think of me what you will.

He's Engaged!!!!

This is my baby brother, Gaven:

Said brother just proposed to his super cute girlfriend! The family has known for quite awhile that the two were talking marriage, but Gaven has been so secretive about when he was proposing and how. Just Monday, I barely got it out of him that he was planning on doing it sometime before the weeks end. I had guessed the 8th. I was one day off - good thing I didn't bet money! He's still secretive about when they plan on holding the wedding - but my guess is July 8th :) Because that would be a three month engagement, and that was the day of their first date. Oooooooh, I am so friggin' excited!!! I love family/friend weddings!!! (Hopefully...there will be another one coming soon...on my husband's side.)

I am super excited for him though, because his girlfriend, excuse me - fiance, is so so so cute. She is like his twin - only not in a creepy way and not in a way where they are too alike. They are so very compatible yet different enough. They are silly and goofy and love to be crazy. They dress the same style and listen to the same music. She fits him perfectly :) It will be so fun to see them all dressed up...sniff...in their wedding stuff..sniff sniff... My baby bro is all growned up :(

Did I mention how excited I am???

(my niece picniked this photo of them on Facebook)

UPDATE: The wedding will be on August 5th! I was right about the July 8th date, but unfortunately Xanni has to have some dental work done that involves timing with insurance and so she had to move it back a month. She wanted to do it August 8th after that (which would be my wedding date!!!) but it happens to be a Sunday.

Easter Tarts

I made a tart on Sunday for the Easter BBQ we had at our pad with Paul's family. It was my first tart - are you proud?? Well, it wasn't a super fancy one - it was the kind that you short cut instead of making entirely from scratch, but hey, I still made one! I'd like to say that I learned a thing or two from the tart class I attended last Wednesday (a ward thing) but I arrived late and missed all the good info. But fabulous Teresa let me borrow her tart pans (one big one and four mini ones) and I brought her pans back....with a treat in them :) She was good enough to post my tarts for me- cuz I didn't take pictures to document my fabulous tart. Isn't it awesome to have friends who will do your blogging for you???

Thankyaveddimuch!

Bring Your Nephew To Work Day

While I was at my parents for my lunch last Friday, Aiden and Dallin were at the house. Aiden was getting ready for a play date (which sadly got cancelled after we left) and Dallin wanted to come with me to my work to see the "Moo Cows" I told them about. The family-owned business I work for has big cows and little cows on the property they own - which property also houses my work-place. Dallin was so excited - it was too darn cute. He brought two of his toys (Lightning McQueen and a quiet book) to play with and off we went. I had to convince him to let me finish my lunch break before we left!

We went out to see the baby cows twice and he got to pet one that was being extremely friendly that day.

I expected him to get bored of my office after an hour or two but he made it all the way to Quittin' Time! He played with his toys, drew some pictures, played some internet games with me, and then I put a movie on the spare computer for him to watch. He loves watching his 'shows' and it cracked me up when I looked behind me and saw this:

Love that kid!! Love 'em both to pieces!!

Yee Haw

My niece has a goal to be in a rodeo like myself, her mom, and her other aunt. Last summer while I was laid off, I had a lot of time to ride and started to train a new horse on barrels. She asked for riding lessons and we got a few in before I got a job and the weather turned cold and Daylight Savings ended. So now that the weather is warm, she wants to get back on that pony.

For some reason, she has always been a little scared to be on a horse. When she was little, we always put her on one and walked her around but once you give her the reins and tell her what to do on her own, she panics. At fourteen she's a lot further behind than any of us five Madsen kids were. But she has a goal!!! And last Saturday (March 27th), her first lesson of the year after being off all winter, she did tonz better. When a horse trots too fast or breaks into a lope, she has been super afraid, but it's wearing off and she is doing awesome.

Last year it was a lot like pulling teeth to get her to do more than a walk. There was always a reason why she 'couldn't' do it. Now she's just going for it. I think it would be the bomb.com to watch my niece in a High School Rodeo in a few years and see her tear it up like we all did. Her goal is my goal, too :)

For The Love of Cooking.

I love this blog, For The Love of Cooking. She always has fantastic recipes with fantastic pictures. Like for instance, right now I really really want to go home and make this Roasted Asparagus with Steamed Egg on Toast. And I think these Pumpkin Pie Spiced Waffles would be totally awesome. I realized that I am pretty hungry right now and I want a second breakfast. And with that second breakfast, how about some muffins?? You get the point, right?? Lots of yummy nummy recipes.


I'm getting hungrier by the minute.

Our Little Announcement...

So....Paul and I have been talking for quite awhile about the right time to start a family. We figured that right time would be to start trying at the end of the year. However, sometimes plans don't go as expected and, well...

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PREGNANT!!!!

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No one bought that right?? You saw through it easily since it's April Fool's and all?? I figured that would be the case. I'm not really an April Fool's kinda person but last night I was at my ward's cooking class and my friend asked me when I was going to start having babies of my own. My response lately to anyone who asks is to totally yank their chain and tell them I already am. It never gets old to me. :) Last night my friend got all sorts of excited and when she figured out that I was full of it, we realized that it was nearly April Fool's anyway and what a perfect way to bag people since I am near to that breeding point anyway.

And, another thing, this snow....is this God's April Fool's joke?? All of this warm weather, snow, repeat is really yanking my chain. I want to get out and weed and plant and get lots of Vitamin D!!!! He must know that. Ha Ha very funny.