A Little Bit of Jessica...

This is what Jessica looked like back when we met. Maybe a little younger, I can't remember exactly. Doesn't she look like Jenna? (her daughter) She just celebrated a birthday this week. So in typical Flashback Friday fashion...my tribute to Jessica.

(Don't feel bad if I don't remember your birthday for a Flashback Friday. My memory is slipping and I only remember birthdays from a small handful of friends. But if you remind me of your birthdays, I'll be sure to do a post dedicated to you.)

I have so many memories of Jessica...from dolls, to school projects, to roller blading at Ontario Park. And now we have kids. I love that we've been friends for all these years.

So in totally random order...just a few of my memories of Jessica:

Jessica had the BEST 16th birthday bash. Her parents took a group of us to Palm Springs to stay in the sweetest resort (in fact it was the same resort Jesse's parents got married at on Saved By The Bell). It was complete with millions of pools, golf courses, water falls, a boat ride at the entrance and of course cute young men to drive us around in golf carts.


And speaking of Jessica's birthdays, this was a slumber party in elementary school. I remember not wanting to wear that outfit at all. (I'm the one in the white shorts and green striped shirt.) I felt so dorky and uncomfortable the whole night...now looking back...it wasn't the worst outfit being worn that night.


We went on the 8th grade trip to DC together.


A trip to Knotts Berry Farm with no adults...we were like 13 and loving some of our new freedoms.


Jessica performed with these lovely ladies at my bridal shower that her mom and Trudy threw for me. It was the best bridal shower I have ever been to...and not just because it was mine. Thanks Cindy (and Trudy).


Jessica and Melissa were the coolest girls in 6th grade. Seriously, I wanted to be them. They showed up to a 6th grade field trip just rockin' these matching sun glasses.


Jessica and I at an elementary school awards assembly.


8th Grade Luau.


Nicole's 18th Birthday at the dinner theater. We saw South Pacific and had front row seats. It was a blast.


Girls only beach bonfire.


A group of us met at my house to go to the Senior Dinner Dance together.


Christmas Party


Some school trip to LA to see Phantom...I always loved that dress of yours, Jessica.


Junior high...I think this was the last day of school or something.


Meeting in Salt Lake during our college years.


Junior High Dance


Scholarship Awards


Elementary school Science Fair


This is still nearly four years old, but more recent. Jessica married a guy from Kentucky and when I lived in Ohio, we'd meet up in Cincinnati every year during the holidays when she was visiting her in-laws. I came to plan on those yearly meetings. I'm really going to miss them here in Texas. Our families got along well.


Happy Birthday Jessica!

Extra, Extra...

Highlight of tonight's Olympics...

I just heard an announcer say of Ryan Lochte, "You take away Michael Phelps, you take away Aaron Piersol, and you're looking at the world's second greatest swimmer."

What?!! Could you just have said FOURTH greatest? Spencer and I had a good laugh about that one. Luckily, the announcers haven't stopped us from enjoying the Olympics.

The Glory Days

I was re-reading Jeffrey's list this weekend and it included going a whole day without Facebook. I've peeked at Facebook only once before and really couldn't see the appeal. After reading his list, I decided to give it another chance. But this time, I signed myself up for an account. I figured I'd get an account so I can spy all my old friends and casual acquaintances from way back in the day. I wouldn't have to tell anybody I got an account until I had decided whether or not to buy into the whole Facebook thing.

Apparently, that's not exactly how Facebook works. By the time I had an account for 24 hours, 17 people had already found me. I now have 17 people listed under "Friends" on my Facebook account. OK, now I see the appeal of Facebook. It's just another place on the World Wide Web to boost my self esteem. I haven't felt this popular since high school.

Not that my list is anything to brag about...mainly, it consists of family members...brothers, cousins, and even a cousin's spouse (thanks for requesting my friendship Nate). But several other random and obscure friends and casual acquaintances from my glory days...

• River (I don't know her last name, but with a name like River, you don't need a last name.) She was one of the two girls who played on our high school football team.
• Kylla Benes. A freshman friend. I know some of you will remember her. She now seems to be some kind of nature lover... perhaps an oceanographer. Awesome, but I never would have pegged her as that type.
  
• Several girls from my home ward and stake.
  
• Kids from the cross country team and choir.
  
• A girl I used to babysit.
• Siblings of my friends.
• Spencer Brown...who grew up around the corner from me, ran on the cross country team with me, and went to nearly every school dance in the same group as me, but never as my date. And thanks to Facebook, I now know he lives just few miles away from me here in Texas.
  

Funny huh? Talk about blast from the past. How did they find me so fast? I could have this Facebook account for years and never think to look up some of these people...others I would have most certainly come across.

My problem with Facebook is that all I want to do is look people up, peek at their lives, and then be through with them. Unfortunately, you can't peek at their lives unless you send them a request to be their friend. And I don't want to have to admit I'm spying. All you get is a one inch square picture of what they look like these days. Not enough to satisfy my curiosity. But I'm too chicken to send the request to be their friend...what if they don't remember me? Or don't like me and refuse my request? Or worse...see me for the computer sitting, web surfing, Facebook peeker that I am. Plus, there's something about it that makes me feel vain. Like I think I was significant enough in this person's life that they'll remember me and want me on their list of Facebook friends.

The truth is, I should get over it. The whole purpose of Facebook is to reconnect with old friends...which I love. I wouldn't think that of the people who requested to be my friends...so why would I assume they'd think that about me? Although it did take me a minute to figure out who a couple of them were, with last names changing and all.

The verdict is in...I will most definitely enjoy aspects of Facebook. (I even got brave enough to write on a few "walls" today.) But it will NEVER replace blogging for me. I much prefer blogs. It's a much bigger peek into the lives of my friends (and perfect strangers). I love to write and little comments about life is not enough to satisfy my creativity. And I don't think I'll ever get to the point where I have to set a goal to go a whole day without Facebook. But you all have permission to make me eat my words if I do.

Just Be Cuz...

One of the things I most looked forward to about my summers as a child was these girls. Roni, the blond, is my cousin and just one year younger than I am. Elizabeth, the brunette, is actually my mom's cousin but she falls right between my age and Roni's. We all grew up in southern California and got together often. We got along so well as young girls. We all three seemed to be into the same kinds of things.

Every summer we planned the slumber party of all slumber parties. It was like never ending. We'd start at Elizabeth's house...stay there for a couple days. Move on to Roni's house. And round up the week at mine...or something like that. I looked forward all year to this week of cousin fun. It was filled with crafts, bike rides, shopping, lemonade stands, swimming, beach trips, manicures, dress up, baking and perms. (Yes. Perms.)

These pictures aren't all from our summer get togethers. I don't have too many pictures of those. I am envisioning a picture of the thee of us in freshly tie-dyed t-shirts, but I can't seem to find it. Maybe it's at my moms house.

Elizabeth and I at the Grand Canyon









An Un-Birthday Party









Elizabeth and I with Grandma and Grandpa Stowell
(Elizabeth's grandparents, my great grandparents)



Way back in like 6th grade when it was cool to carry around a school picture of every one of your casual acquaintances in your wallet...I thought I was so awesome for having pictures of these cute girls that no one else knew. It made me feel that much more popular.

It's always sad to me how relationships change. We never stopped getting along, but as we started high school, we developed different interests. We all got busy with our friends and the things we were doing in our lives. We hung out yearly at the family Christmas party, and maybe a handful of other family events throughout our high school years. But it hasn't been the same since we were kids. Roni lives in Arizona and I get to see her about once every other year when I visit my mom. Elizabeth now has a husband and a daughter and I've never met either one. I wish life were as simple as it was 20 years ago and we could get together for a week of manicures, beach trips and lemonade...but this time, I'd skip on the perm.

By The Sea, Part II

I don't know how I missed this treasure when I was posting pictures from Sea World last week.


I can think of 100 reasons why I'm in love with this picture.

Turning Japanese...

...I think I'm turning Japanese. I really think so.

(For those of you who don't know...that's a song.
I'm not a racist.)

Anyway...I've been taking a lot of pictures lately. Some are completely random. Others just from events I never blogged about. All are way too cute not to post. So this is some of what we've been up to the past couple weeks.


Park got new goggles and wears them even when they're not necessary.



This is classic Grady Face.



Sweet Baby Gray



I was taking a picture of Reid...which didn't turn out so good. But I did happen to catch my recently decorated bookshelf in the background. We don't have enough stuff to fill up our big house so I decided to decorate with books. I think it makes us look like smart and interesting people. I'm happy with how it turned out.



I was bathing Gray and Parker came running in the bathroom like this. He was the Incredible Hulk. Smart costume choice on his part, huh?



We attended the ward Pioneer Day party and the crazies (including Spencer had a great time.)





Spencer and Park found time to squeeze in a Saturday afternoon nap.



We took pictures with the self timer on the camera for an FHE activity. It had been a long day and I hadn't fixed my hair or even looked in a mirror for over twelve hours...I look AWFUL, but the picture is so cheesy, I thought it was hilarious. We're perfectly posed and all in solid, bright colors. This is the only one that really turned out...

...the rest looked more like this.



Not a cute picture...and my crazies are all in their PJ's...but I think this is the first time I've ever caught all three of them playing nicely together on purpose.



Reid is really into lining things up...


...and hording things.



This is how I constantly find Gray...longing to climb the stairs (and if the gate's ever down, he flies up those things). But this day, the other two, who know how to climb over the gate, decided to join him.



Parker fixing his own hair.


Welcome to my crazy life.

Defining Katie

OK...Some of you have asked about my other blog (accomplishing 101 goals in 1001 days). I thought I'd make the announcement.
I've updated.
It's not that I haven't been working on it, it's just that I haven't blogged about it. I posted quite a few things today and there are several others I'm in the middle of.

Thanks for rooting me on.

Friend For The Day

***Cups courtesy of IKEA...since a few of you have asked.***

Six brightly colored cups at the very edge of my kitchen counter can only mean one thing...I've had company. (Mostly short company with small arms...which explains why the cups are at the very edge of the counter.)

I had someone over for lunch yesterday with all her FIVE kids. She moved into this new ward about the same time I did. I sat close to her at church on Sunday and neither one of us knew the other person was new, too. Upon finding out, I just blurted out the question and asked her over for lunch. Not like me. I always plan things out. Normally I would think...I should have her over. And probably think about asking her for months and probably never follow through. And if I did follow through, I would have asked at least a week in advance and stressed the rest of the week about cleaning my house and what to fix for lunch. It was such a relief to have someone over on short notice. I had less than 24 hours to stress about it. I couldn't scrub every bathroom with a toothbrush or even run to the store to pick up something for lunch. It was nice to have an excuse for everything not to be perfect.

It was also nice to have a friend for the day. Besides my time in Utah, I haven't visited with friends since May. Moving is so hard.

By The Sea, By The Sea...

I was looking for pictures of something completely different for today's FlashBack Friday, but I ran into these and just had to laugh. They were calling to me and I couldn't resist posting them.

Mom and Jeff...do you remember this fantastic trip to Sea World? Highlight of my summer no doubt. It was the summer after my sophomore year of college and we were trying to think of something fun to do while I was home. We hadn't been to Sea World since we were really little and decided that would be a great way to spend the day. Like two hours and two hundred dollars later, we were all Sea World' out. Despite that, I have such a good memory of that day...we just about laughed our heads off...about everything. We even got totally faked out at the dolphin show when the trainer fell in the water.

And we thought it was way past funny that this guy and I were wearing the same outfit. So funny, in fact, that Jeff had to take a picture.

And why was there a cow statue at SEA WORLD? Once again, we thought it was funny and needed to document it. I had this picture framed in my apartment clear up until I got married.

Thanks again for taking us, Mom. At the time, I remember not thinking it was worth the outrages price. But looking back, it probably was.