Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Zombies and sweet little owls

I have had this insatiable urge to sew and craft lately! I finally finished my first patchwork quilt, accurately nic-named "The Headache Quilt." I have learned many things from sewing this quilt. The most important one is that quilting thread is NOT for the machine! Horrible knotted messes occur underneath my beloved projects! So after I machine-quilted the quilt, I had to go back and unpick the middle, where I started. Knots do not unpick easily, but whatever. When I finished the quilt I tossed it in the wash, put it on the line, and sighed with relief! I like the look of the quilt too! It's all vintage-ey looking.
I also was making fabulous cupcakes the other day and almost burned my fingers using a hot pad. So I sewed myself an oven mitt. Not bad for a first try... It looks a little like a sea-creature's deformed claw, but I tried it out and it works fantastic! And I saw a cut Tut-owl-rial online and made myself a cute little owl I dubbed Owliver.
I have been watching things like Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, Dawn of the Dead and am feeling inspired to make a Parliament of owls. =D

Monday, July 19, 2010

Mississippi


So I got the marvelous opportunity to visit my Blake while he's at Kesler AFB. I had a fantastic time! Unfortunately, at the first of my travels, things did not seem to bode well for the rest of my trip. I arrived in Housten where I had 1 1/2 hour layover before I left to Biloxi. Upon arrival, I checked the many screens to see which gate I should head to (I printed out my tickets online so I had no gate number). The screens directed me across the huge airport. On my way I would check the other screens just to make sure I hadn't made a mistake. All of a sudden, my gate number was gone! I continued and checked another screen. Gone! I went all the way to the edge of the B terminal and found no departing flight to Biloxi. Uck! Of course this had to happen on my first big trip alone! So I went to the desk, asking where my gate was, and, without explanation, the lady printed me out a new ticket. As I was walking away I noticed that the flight she had put me on was to Alabama. What the fruitcake??!! So I got BACK in line and asked the nicer-looking gentleman what was up. Nicely, of course. He said my flight had been cancelled "due to weather" and I was rerouted to the nearest airport.
So I got on the flight to Alabama. The guy I sat next to was talkative. -_- *Sigh* I was already in a bad enough mood, I did not want to be chit-chatting with some stranger. I told him about my situation and we got to the Mobile airport. This airport was as dinky as the ST. George airport! My car rental place would charge me $500 for four days of driving and dropping the car off at a different airport. Not that it mattered, there were NO cars available in that airport. Literally. Because of the oil spill, people had been traveling to that area and had taken all the cars. The airline was no help and had no way of shuttling me and my fellow rerouted passengers to Biloxi. So, as I was turning around, ready to scream, this guy comes up to me and says he is in the same situation (the guy I sat next to on the plane had directed him to me) and we could split a cab for 60$ each to Biloxi. Expensive, but I took it. It was a little creepy to share a cab with a complete stranger, but, eck, oh well. I was SOO happy to reach the base!! I got out of the cab and rolled my suitcase down the sidewalk. I was sweating almost instantly! I thought Texas was humid, that's nothing to Mississippi!!
I had a lady tell me I looked like I was running away from home and looked lost. She was sort of right. =) I finally got to the library and found a soft chair, unearthed the blanket I had taken from the airplane (hehe), put my feet up on my suitcase, and slept. I woke up two hours late and realized I still had four hours before I would see Blake. So I slept for a couple more hours. When I woke up again there were a lot more people in the library so I felt too awkward to go back to sleep. When I finally got a call from Blake I rolled my suitcase back outside and walked until I saw a sexy figure in the distance. =D Soooo happy!!! We left the base as soon as we could. We were both sick of Kesler! It was so great being with him again. Talking to him and holding his hand and giving him kisses every time we glanced at each other was absolute bliss! =D
The next day the senior missionaries shuttled us to the airport and we picked up our rental car. I had Dad's GPS, which was great because otherwise I would still be lost in Mississippi. We went to the beach, oil-free, and looked at the trees that had been damaged by Hurricane Katrina and had been carved into statues.



We also went to Frostings. It was a CUPCAKE shop!! I have found out since that it is a chain only in the south :(. I had a strawberry-shortcake filled cupcake and Blake had cookies-n-creme filled cupcake. YUMMY!! I was thrilled.

I was pretty much thrilled with all of Biloxi, actually. I loved the scenery, the beach, the layout, everything. Maybe I was just happily buzzed because I was with Blake, I don't know. =D
We went to Chilis a couple times, both on busy nights with long waits where they would call your name over the speakers when a table was ready for you. So, the second night I turned to Blake and said we should put our names down as a weird last name. Blake was too chicken, so when the hostess asked for our names I said, "Glasscock." Hehehe!! She said, "What?" Barely holding back my laughter, I said loudly, "Glasscock!" As soon as we went to sit on the benches, I burst into laughter. =D Devious! In my defense, that is actually some poor soul's last name.
After Chilis, we went to see Grown-Ups. Funniest. Movie. Ever!!! Fueled with good food and a full theater, me and Blake cracked up at every funny part.
Other things about our little mini-honeymoon, vacation was that we traveled to the same obscure Subway every day because their sandwiches were prepared magnificently. The same girl made my sandwich all three days. By the third day she had remembered my sandwich. Hehe. We swam in the hotel pool for as long as I could keep Blake in the water. We went to the Hard Rock Hotel and meandered around. We ate lots of good food and basically enjoyed each other's company.
We only had to go back to the base one time for Blake's recreation-room shift. He is a white-rope and gets to supervise that room and boss people around if he wants. :) When I was sitting on the couch, patiently waiting for my hubby to come back to me, some guy came up to me and started making eyes at me and flirting. He asked if he could sit with me and it took telling him that Blake would sit on his lap if he sat next to me for him to leave. Haha. It's good to know that I can still get to shut guys down even after I am married.
When it came time to drive Blake back to the base and let him go, it was sooo hard! It was harder to let him go this time even than when I had to let him go for Basic. I bawled for ten minutes after I had dropped him off, calmed down, looked at the empty passenger seat, and bawled some more. Thankfully the trip back went without a hitch, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to be calm again. Also, thankfully, as we were leaving Mississippi and flying over the ocean (with the first of Castaway running through my mind), there were very few turbulence to completely freak me out. :)
I started home from Vegas very late in the night and had to stop in Mesquite at a casino to hop around and look like a fruitcake to wake me up. I got home at 3:30am and was very happy I hadn't fallen asleep at the wheel. I had an amazing trip. =D

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Glow or No?

While I was in Mississippi visiting Blake we went to Chilis and ate huge delicious meals. When we got back to the hotel I poked my belly out at Blake to demonstrate how full I was. Blake acted astounded at how I looked preggers. So we thought it would be funny to take a picture with my camera phone and send it to Mom and Ora. So we took the most flattering picture of my life. >.<

Ora knew right away that it was a "Poo baby." =D Lovely term. But my mother did not reply right away, so we went to bed. Honestly I thought my mom would see right through the picture and recognize it as a joke. The next morning I reached for my phone to see what time it was and saw I had a couple texts. The first was: "Huh?" from Mom. The next was: "Jocelyn!!! What are you telling me!?!?" Hehe, oops! Blake woke up to my laughter and I explained the situation to him.
We checked out of our hotel and headed to the mall for lunch. While walking around Spencers I saw these cute skully black and pink bibs. Our eyes met and we knew what we must do. So Blake and I bought them. Fast forward to me flying home, talking to Mom on the phone, where she didn't say anything about my illicit text, and arriving home at 3am with Mom awake to greet me. Still she said nothing so I figured she had seen through our ruse.
The next morning I woke up and saw Braydon outside doing weeds. I went out to say hi and after a few minutes of conversation Brayd asked, rather uncomfortably, "So... are you pregnant?" It was then that I knew my secret was still kept. I told him no. I guess after he went back inside Mom grilled him to see if he had found anything out. I have trained Braydon well and he just vaguely shrugged his shoulders and mumbled.
So I took the bibs in to show Mom and she pounced. I couldn't keep the trick up when I was face-to-face and I ended up laughing. Hehe. After she knew of our plot she called me a stinker and spent the remainder of the day calling me, "My non-pregnant daughter." I think she was disappointed because she couldn't Tweet about it, haha!
Mom says next time she won't be so gullible. Hehe, we'll see about that! =D Mom is one of the funnest people to play tricks on it. Maybe because she's always good-natured and takes jokes well.

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Git up and go!

So things are all booked and I am ready to go to Mississippi! I am scared out of my mind to travel across the country all by myself! I am leaving tomorrow night armed with Dad's GPS and a fully-loaded iPod. Checking things for my travels, Dad found a leak in my back tire. >.< I had noticed it had deflated a bit a while ago, and I found only 5lbs of pressure inside! But I did not let that get me down! Ok, maybe a wee bit. And then Blake called to get our hotel reservation and we found out that the one-base hotel was totally booked. So we added a car and an off-base hotel to my travel bill. But I will prevail since it means I get to see my Blake!! I blinged up my luggage with iron-ons in preparation even! I am just sosososo excited to spend a few days with the love of my life!

What felt like 50 was actually 13

Yesterday I awoke in the wee hours of the morning- 4:30AM. Yes, there is such a thing. And me, Braydon, and Adam all headed up to Kolob to hike the West Rim trail. Even after having only 2 1/2 hours of sleep I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed! =D I was totally unprepared for the hours and hours of heat, pain, and suffering I was to endure during that hike.
We were rather chipper at first, but we got quieter and quieter as the miles went on. At least I did. My brothers on the other hand, kept poking fun at completely innocent me! The scenery was beautiful though. Adam kept smelling trees, saying that they smelled like vanilla. I caught a very faint whiff once, but I think they had been sniffing too much, if you know what I mean.
Nevertheless, I did enjoy myself. It was amazing, once on top of a mountain, when the boys had gone around a bend ahead of me, I turned in a full 360 and saw nothing but nature. We were literally in the middle of nowhere! It was sooo crazy!!


About the last 1/3 of the hike, my lower half was done. My knees were creaking, my ligaments felt like they were going to pop off, my ingrown toenail was burning, and I was just plain tired! There was one point, at a steep uphill, that Adam and Braydon literally PUSHED me up the trail! Adam kept saying, "I'm 38, and you're taking the last good years of my life away."
Once the top of Angels Landing was in sight, I felt heartened, but still exhausted. We had been yo-yo-ing with these two chattery ladies and a silent man for the last mile or so and we were desperately trying to get away from their hearty yakking. But I was only shuffling along, my ears bleeding as well as all my other maladies. As we went down Walters Wiggles, Adam and Braydon seemed to have given up on waiting for me and left me in the dust. They did stop once after the Wiggles and waited for me to catch up, but that was it. So, with my mouth slack, and possibly drooling, and my gait shuffling I went the last 2.5 miles alone. *Sigh* I could literally feel the pity radiating from the tourists as they passed me. Haha, oy! We got home and I went straight to the shower and to the nap. Since then I have been hobbling around. It feels like I ran a marathon or something! Would I do it again? Probably not. Would Adam want to even invite me again? Probably not. But am I proud that I hiked 13 miles? Heck yeah! =D


Sunday, July 04, 2010

Thank You Dad!

So, in between Seinfeld episodes I found an old mirror downstairs that my dad had brought home. He had needed ONE mirror for his shop, but had bought TWO. Just because he could. At least that is what me and Mom decided. Anyways, I asked him for the second mirror and he complied.

Here is the "Before" picture. The dirty cement adds to how ugly the mirror was before. =D


And the "After" picture. =D I am pleased. To get the birds I found a pic online and traced it on the computer screen and then cut it out and then traced it back on the mirror. AND THEN I got Mom's fancy brushes and painted the birds on. I didn't inherit her steady hand for the paintbrush unfortunately. Now I just have to figure out where to hang the thing, hehe.

Followers