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

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

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.

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

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.

A Little Jaunt to the River

Yesterday me and Braydon took Ares to the river. We loaded Ares up in the back of the Subaru and, with a backpack full of twine (in case we needed a longer leash), dog treats, camera, water bottle, and two hand towels, we were off. As we hiked down the path to the river, Braydon was full of praises for his new pup. He kept saying things like, "I need to take him more places!" and "He is going to be so much fun!" Little did he know he would be eating his words later on.
All was fine as we finally got to the bank of the river and splashed in, water up to our ankles. Ares stood in the water and lapped it up (yuck!). Then we had to cross in water that was about up to our knees and rising. This was a little too much for Ares and he went down under the water for a second. Thankfully Braydon had him on a leash and pulled him back onto his feet. After the initial plunge into the water, Ares decided he was not having any more of it! We had to travel down the river a bit to get to the spot where we could swim without touching and Ares did all he could to stay on land. When we finally got to our spot, we let Ares go and jumped in. Braydon's poor puppy tried to be brave and get in the water, but as it got up to his ankles, he would run back onto land, barking at us to make sure we did not leave him.
This was the point where Braydon grabbed a handful of mud and put it in my very thick hair. It was totally unwarranted... hehe. Try as I might, I could not get the sandy mud out of my hair! Anyways, as we were heading back, Braydon got tired of dragging Ares through the water and we decided to scale the side of the canyon and cut out some of our time. It was a lot higher than we had expected and I was half dead by the time we reached the top. Braydon, who is like one solid muscle, had Ares on his leash and kept calling him his "little motor" as Ares would help pull Braydon up the side of the hill.
When we finally got home I took my shower. Shampoo, shampoo, condition, condition, shampoo, condition to get the sand pebbles out of my hair! Oy! Even later that night I would scratch my scalp and get little grains of sand in my fingernails.
But, even after being eaten alive by the deer flies (which, thankfully, seemed to like Braydon's legs and neck more than mine), the harrowing climb up the canyon, and the stubborn dog, we will probably take Ares out again and teach him how to swim.

Oh....Pain!!

So, Blake informed me that it has not been six months yet, but almost five. Still, a long time!
Anyways, Braydon just worked me out! My arms are shaking just holding them up to type on the keyboard! I ran around LaVerkin and came back and Braydon enjoyed causing me pain and suffering in the name of a workout. His favorite were the exercises where I was laying on my back and I would lift my legs into the air and he would push them back down. The key to this exercise is not to let my legs touch the floor when he pushed them back down. I was gurgling with the effort while he laughed mercilessly. We will see how I feel tomorrow!
I have a new goal: to wake up earlier! I keep setting my alarm clock to wake me up around 9:00 and every time I just roll over and go back to sleep. I can't get around this! Blake has threatened me with early morning PT when we are living together again so I gotta start waking up before 11! >.<
I have several get-healthy goals that I need to achieve besides a decent sleep schedule. I need to start eating a lot more veggies, taking my multivitamin, stretch out my muscles every morning, and exercise at least four times a week. Can I do it?? YES!! Will I? Now that's a whole 'nother ball game!

The picture is of me when I first woke up one morning. I need to get past that!

I love my man

Blake and I have been married for almost SIX months now! Wow, I did not realize it had been that long until I counted it out on my fingers. The two months we had together before he left for basic training were some of the best months of my life. Blake is such a sweet guy. He is generous beyond belief, a great listener (if you can get him away from W.O.W.), incredibly smart, talented, and not to mention verrrry handsome! =D He makes me so happy and just hearing his voice can brighten my whole day.
I remember when were were just dating we were sitting in his computer room talking and being silly. Somehow my elbow got conked against the chair. Not hard, just hard enough to make it an "Ouch" moment. I looked at Blake and burst into tears. There was absolutely no reason for the tears, but for some reason they burst from me. Blake sweetly put his arms around me and let me sob into his shoulder for several minutes until I hiccuped myself into semi-calm. I know he felt quite awkward, but comforted me anyways. His dad in the other room must have thought I was psychotic. But Blake made me feel better, and now only mentions the "episode" when he knows it won't be repeated. =]
I still marvel at how easily it would have been NOT to have met Blake. It was two days before the Sadie Hawkin's dance and me and my friend were trolling the school, searching for someone to tag for our date. We stayed behind in our seminary class and asked for names from our teacher, and Blake's name came up in the list of dateless males. I had never met him, and had not ever really even SEEN him, so I dismissed this idea. It wasn't until, after a day of searching for some un-caveman-like guy to take to the dance that, in desperation, I asked my friend Jeff Peterson to give me some ideas. At first he looked pensive, and then said "Nope!" But then his face lit up evily as he said, "Blake!" Even though all I knew about him was I liked his name and that he was Jeff's friend (that was TERRIFYING), me and Jeff cooked up a scheme to get Blake tagged.
So the next day after school, me, Jeff, Haden Wright, and Melissa Jones climbed up the tech stage stairs and when Blake came to the door, I whipped out the tag and put it around his neck. Blake didn't say anything. Oy. My friends left and I stood there with him as he looked everywhere but at me! I was desperately hoping that HE was not regretting my decision to blind-date him to me. After a pretty much, "Heh, ok" conversation, I left (cussing out my friends for leaving me alone in the stairway) and me and Melissa went to find matching shirts for ourselves and our dates.
Our date the next night was dinner and games at Melissa's house. Blake and I didn't talk much as his shyness was rubbing off on me. But I would look up across the table and we would meet eyes and smile- then look away quickly. We got squashed playing Disney Scene It, but managed to laugh with each other. Then we went to the casual dance and I had more fun than I had ever had at a school dance! First we went and got married (so that would make us married for... almost four years now) by Bro. Wilson. We exchanged tin rings and Hershey's kisses. =D Then we danced crazily and talked about music and had a blast! At the end of the date I grabbed Blake and pulled him into a sweaty hug. =D


After that night we became friends on Myspace. Yes, Myspace. And we emailed back and forth until I asked him on a second date to the Winter Ball (ANOTHER girl's choice :\) and shortly after that he emailed me this poem:
"I feel this overwhelming feeling that is just.....beyond words. all i want to do is walk the streets and talk with you. get to know more about you. i just want to hold you in my arms and keep you warm when it is cold. everything i write about you is the truth. but the words i write can't express all the feelings i have for you. all i can do is hope that you feel the same. in the spring we can go dancing in the rain. i lay there thinking of you, the memories we have made, the emails we write. this is to the beautiful girl who swept me off my feet, taking me by surprise. I see your eyes when i close mine. this comes from me, not a music record or the tv. who would have guessed that i would be turned head over heels for you. keep being your cute self." And in the next email he sent me he asked me to be his girlfriend. =D Of course I said yes, how could I not?
The years that have followed have been fantastic! Blake is truly my best friend and marrying him, even though we are far away for now, was the best decision of my life.

Today was a day...

I just got back from a lovely jog. It was hardcore. Like two whole miles hardcore. While I was running past a ditch I saw this magical light! It was an orb that was slowly turning from red to blue to green. It being 10 at night made the orb shine pretty bright. I went to inspect it and found a magic-wand looking thing. That was pretty random/groovy. I left it in the ditch for some other runner to come upon. However, the magic orb seemed to have zapped my energy. Yes. Totally the orb's fault. =}
Today is Father's Day so I made my dad a chocolate cake and attempted my first time icing it all fancily. Did not work out as well as my visions of grandeur showed them to me. Blake said I did wonderful mimicking a child's drawing. Oh snap! And not only that, but after I had iced the top all fancy, I went to color the side icing red, but ran out of red food coloring just in time to get a hot-pink color. Boldly I iced on, thinking that my dad would be comfortable enough with his manliness that a hot pink cake shouldn't frighten him away. Plus it was chocolate, and really, who can resist?

Yesterday night I got a hankering for some fast-food. I bribed Braydon into coming along for the ride as I went to DQ to get a brownie earthquake and fries. He got an earthquake too as the siren-song of the brownie and soft ice cream is too much for anyone to resist. By the time we got home and he had finished his I was done with the sweet. I tried to give my ice cream/brownie/oreo goodness away, but NO ONE wanted it! So I went outside with Braydon to keep him and his pup, Ares, company. Ares about went crazy trying to bite through the fence to get him some of that. I guess the siren-song works on multiple species. So I dripped some ice cream on the ground for him to lick up. Unfortunately some ice cream got on his head (tee hee) and it got all over unsuspecting Braydon's hands as he went to pet his dog. It is so much fun to torment the kid! He got hit twice yesterday as we were cleaning off Dad's grill with hot soapy water. Brayd was crouched down cleaning the bottom and I opened the lid and squeezed the dirty water out of the rag onto the lid, which ran down to the crack and onto Braydon's head. =D Totally an accident. *Sigh* He is getting his just rewards for having a biting habit when we were younger. This habit will be immortalized in Damon and Sabra's wedding pictures forever, right under my right eye.

A blog by any other name would smell as sweet

So I have been busy this week. I preordered the cutest bag of my life- this Hello Kitty purse. =D I have to check the link every day to look at the purse and to see if they were in stock yet. *Sigh* I have never had this deep of a love for a handbag in my life! I believe we will be together forever.And today I felt crafty and decided to make my preggo sister a receiving blanket for her seventh child. I just sewed the flannel together, turned it inside out and finished the edge, then freehanded the cute little bird with a fabric pencil. I then reloaded the sewing machine with red thread and shakily began sewing what I had drawn. Making the start and the finish line up felt like I was landing a plane. I had to stop several times and shimmy and shake to relax. But, as I connected the bottom of the heart- one inch to go- I ran out of thread. Agh! I, however, stayed calm in the face of the crisis and found some pinkish red thread that almost matched and finished the heart. I am pretty pleased with the result and hope that my sister, or rather, her baby, is pleased.
I also just completed this king-sized quilt for our bed. Blake and I had bought this fabric a couple years ago and I dug it out of my fabric box a couple weeks ago. It has gotten way too hot for my white overstuffed comforter so I gathered together supplies and made this quilt. I moved my furniture into the kitchen so that I could lay the fabric on the carpet. This was more difficult than I initially imagined because our tiny living room isn't big enough for a king-sized quilt to lay flat on the floor. So, after some stewing and shifting of fabric I finally had everything stretched and pinned to the carpet. It took days to tie my quilt. I went through season 1-3 of the Tudors in this time and finally finished. Braydon was there for my final knot and I stood up, stretched and went for my water bottle for a victory swig of water. Instead of the refreshing taste of water, my vegetarian mouth was violated with an earwig! Yuck! I froze and then spit the water onto my poor quilt. Braydon was shocked, but saw the wiggling creature and me running to the sink and about peed his pants with laughter. After that day I have been utterly paranoid about what I drink from. >.<

But, I dried off the quilt and finished the edge and now it is on our bed. =D I totally love it and it makes these hot summer nights so much better.

I am currently working on a queen-sized patchwork quilt for my mummy. Thankfully that size fits my living room perfectly. =D I cut up hundreds of 4*4 inch pieces of fabric. IF I ever make another patchwork quilt, the squares will probably be 12*12!! I finally got sick of this incredibly slow process and put the quilt away. Out of sight, but not out of mind. It is currently calling me from inside the cedar chest 10 feet away. When I start a project, it becomes an obsession. I will work on it right before bed at night and immediately as I wake up in the morning. It has been put away for two days, but I think it is coming out tomorrow.

Our poor blistered feet...

So last week me and Blake, aka Boytoy, went hiking Angels Landing. Friggen amazing! I have never done it so I was very nervous/excited. It was a long and awesome hike. Going up the switchbacks was especially great because Boytoy got tired and stopped, bending over, and gasped, "Can we---stop----please??" I flounced on past (poor guy). I had so much more energy than I thought! The day was perfect and I could have gone straight to the top without stopping! So empowering! Picture number one on the other hand, shows exactly how Boytoy was taking the hike. Hehe. The chains were a wee bit scary. I kept wondering how long they had been there. Later we looked up the construction of the Angels Landing hike and learned that workers spent all day constructing the hike using mules and hanging vicariously off cliffs for $3.50 a day. Gee. I thought my job sucked. Anyways, we got to the top and a girl was laying down TAKING A NAP! Now the top is pretty flat, but one cannot deny the freakyness of the perilous cliff mere feet away. Of course we had to document our journey with plenty of pictures. And, dude, we totally made out at the top!! ;)

The next day I guilted Blake into going hiking with me again and we hiked up Emerald Pools. Very cool. It seems like every time I go it is still soo amazing and just... wow. <-Almost to the top of Angels Landing. My face tells me that the chains were right ahead of us.

<--Here is what I was probably looking at. The next leg of our journey onto the Horn.

After we got to the top pool, we took these pictures on a rock and then laid down on our backs and looked up at the canyon walls. It was trippy! I would recommend anyone do it though because it is sooo cool to do!

<--I don't think it's possible to look at this cheesy grin and not smile!

<--Ok, yes, yes, I was totally hyper and thrilled to be there!!

Anyways, I am totally getting an annual pass because I had sooo much fun! I haven't thought of myself as outdoorsy until this whole hiking phase. Little Brother said to Mummy, "I can't see the point of hiking! It just seems like a waste of time!" Whateva! You could apply that to, say, camping or watching Fraisier, but NOT to hiking Zion National Park!!!

My Bleary-Eyed Self

So late last night my slumber was disturbed by the sound of some sort of pump clicking on and off right outside my door. I laid in my bed with my eyes as wide as they could go, my nostrils flaring, and a look of slight insanity on my face...at least I feel like I looked that way...I couldn't see myself...it was dark... anyways I started counting how often it would click. Seven seconds on, eleven seconds off, seven seconds on, eleven seconds off, etc. How freaking annoying is that???!!! I mean, I think the Chinese have even invented a TOURTURING method using things like that! Anyways, I guess something was wrong with some pipes in our drain system. So this morning a plumber made his way over to our toilet and checked everything out. He was positively puzzled. You know it's bad (and expensive) if your plumber is puzzled at your problem. So finally the guy decided to check the pipes buried in our backyard. It was pretty bad. I guess what had happened when we were putting in my bathroom downstairs the tractor knocked a pipe and broke it. So througout the like...six years since the bathroom was finished plantlife has been making it's way into the pipes and totally choking it out. When I heard this I was not interested. And then when I saw the broken pipe, I was TOTALLY fascinated!! I could have stared at that broken pipe for quite a while, totally mesmerized. There was something about it.

The picture that I posted certainly doesn't do the mesmerizingness justice. Anyways, sad that a plumbing problem was the funkiest part of my day. Excuse the pun. Excuse me. Excuse the second pun!!!!!

Heyheyhey! Lotsa stuff has been going on lately.... things have been SOOO crazy. I have signed up for a college class. Holy crap, a COLLEGE class. That means I'm gonna be GOING to college in the near future. I really should take advantage of the concurrent enrollment and take some more college-save the parentals some $$$-but I'm too lazy. So I'm just taking a computer class. I'm also taking AP English, which is supposed to be killer, so I'm not so slack-ish. Also, I'm gonna be seventeen in six days! That is also a crazy thing. Odd numbers always sound older than even numbers; sixteen sounds quite a bit younger than seventeen, fifteen more than fourteen... yeah. I started taking piano lessons from my madre... then kinda stopped cuz I got involved with other stuff; but I want to start taking lessons again.
On the subject of what I want to do with my life, I have no idea. I was thinking it would be great to be a massage therapist, cuz I was good at it. Then I decided I didn't want to give sweaty, greasy, hairy, fat men back rubs. Then came a physical therapist idea, but too much math involved. Then came personal trainer because I was having so much fun working out, but then I got lazy. Then came a cosmotologist thought because that would be something I would enjoy and I could do, but I just found out it is 10,000$ to get my degree, which I could get within the next couple years, but then I thought I'm not ready for that kind of committment (noon to five and Saturdays working on the degree). A couple weeks ago I thought, 'hey! Why not go into landscaping?' (I was doing some lawn planting, bark-laying, weed-pulling action at the moment), but then I thought, 'No, I'll get bad sunburned skin or suffer greasy sunscreen.' Housekeeper, clothes designer, teacher, photographer, librarian, writer/journalist, social worker, dental assistant... no. So, my ideas are all shot down by myself. I just don't want to grow up, but my thoughts have been literally CONSUMED with contemplation about my life in the next few years. I just can't imagine my life being much different than the way it is now. The worst part of college and early living-on-my-ownness? Being too poor to go shopping for clothes all the time! I am so materialistic when it comes to my fitted textiles. So I guess I'll get some of my shopping maddness out of my system now. More reason to go shopping this weekend, although I've already been twice this month.
I have also discovered some new and fantastic bands... Socialburn (not a new find, but fantastic!!!), Blue October (Wow.), Angels and Airwaves (a Blink 182-sounding band, but.... good. Not that I don't like Blink; they just sound all the same in their songs), and Nine Black Alps (shivers). Check them out!!! Yay.

So ends a terrible week of school. It's Friday and I couldn't be happier. Everything seemed to go wrong this week. Today was the worst because I turned in this 60 point assignment in at the end of the day two days ago and just got it back with a note from the teacher saying she wasn't going to accept it cuz I turned it in a few hours late. I was so freakin' pissed off. Then I went and bombed a pre-caculus test and felt ill through the class because of my drop in grade. Then my next hour was completely pointless. We watched a bit of Saving Private Ryan, so I was even more depressed. Add the hunger from no lunch in the mix, and that was my day. I came home and ate then reclined in the recliner and took a nap. I woke up feeling a whole lot better, although a spot on my shoulder was coated with icy drool and my eyes were puffy. Tonight will be grand though because there is a basketball game and I will try to convince my friends to do something tonight.
Hmmm.... I thought I was in a mood to type, but I guess I'm not. Complaining will do that to ya I guess.

Not Much to Say

Well, I have twenty minutes in which to do nothing and everything I want. Well, New Years Eve is where I will start--I don't know why, it just popped into my head first thing. Ummm.... well the Saturday of New Years Eve I kinda just hung around and cleaned my room, watched TV, the like. All the sudden my aunt Brenda and Uncle Kim came and asked if I was going to the stake dance. I didn't know, but prepared for it anyways...might as well do something beside sit on the couch. Wow. Anyways, I got ready and went to the dance; braving the cold rain with my newly straightened hair. I got there and had SO much fun! I got jiggy with it and boogie-shoogied. Umm... sadly, that is what I did pretty much. I can't dance and can't keep to great a rhythm moving to the beat and yet it was still fun. With one of the guys I danced with we discussed how awkward conversation was when you are dancing with someone. I thought that was kinda funny. Then it was New Year. 2006. Wow. That night I went home and laid in my bed for about three hours sweating off the rest of the caffeine I had consumed hours before. Come to think of it, pretty much every night since then I'll go to be all sleepy and lay there slowly WAKING up. It sucks. Anyway, I finally changed my classes to a better schedule. For the first little bit I didn't have a second or third B day so I just went home. That was nice, but now I have Spanish and US Gov and Law those hours so now my B days aren't as fun as they used to be. I wish I could go back to elementary school sometimes and just have all my easy classes and recess every day. But nay, those days are long past. But I must fly to church because, alas, it is Tuesday. The day of reconing. Gag

Feeling like a butterfly in a hurricane

It's cold and flu season again. Joy to the freakin world. I thought I might survive and conquer the storm of hacking, flowing, red-nosed germs throwing themselves at me, but one sneaky devil got through the gauntlet of my defence system. Give us this day our daily multivitamin and echanacea. So, anyways, the term is winding down to nothingness and I am slightly worried about my grades because my teachers haven't updated their powerschool for a while. But, since this term is winding down, I must figure out my schedule for next semester--another stressful situation to put up with. But, hey, it's the Christmas season! Or should I say 'the non-dominational holiday time period'? For me, it's the start of a reflection-period. It's the end of 2005, and it's going to be the start of a whole new year, a whole slough of new experiences to be experienced and had. Things have happened this year that I never would have expected, good and bad. I just wonder what next year will bring...
Also, tonight is my dearest little brother's first band concert. He told me that he was gonna be "so embarassed when people see [him] walking by [me] when we arrive at the concert" and yet he has been popping in the room to make sure I'm coming. He is a weasel. I told him it would be me that was going to be embarassed when people see me walking by with him because he looks like an anorexic Schwartzenegger going through puberty with a smaller cleft. B replied by grinning at me and did his weird little-brother/jittery-poodle run into the next room. I can't help but feel a little bit of fondness towards the little freak.
Right now I am going to go get out of my pjs and get ready to go and be 'embarassed'. *sigh* tomorrows another test in fit-for-life........................................................................... zzzzzzzzzzz

Can you say "Obsession"?

I NEED TO GO SHOPPING AND BUY SOMETHING!!*Whew* Now that that's out of my system.... Well, life has been a box of assorted chocolates lately, with a few chocolate-covered laxatives mixed in. I'm not quite sure if my brain has been fully and completely functioning in its proper form these past weeks because I go through spurts where I don't feel completely myself. It sucks. Wow, Christmas is like three weeks away. It's crazy how fast time has sped by. My overview of firsts this year: I streaked my hair, got my driver's license, had my first car die on me, survived my sister and her kids live with us for six months, went on a date, went to ST. George by myself, went on a road trip with a friend-no adults, went to California, went to Disneyland, got a failing note for English, stained a wood deck, and stuff of the like. It's crazy how by this time in two years I'll be in college and my friends are going to start breaking up and moving away. If only we could all just freeze time and mentally and physically progress, but events around us, our friends, and the good things that are going on would not leave. I guess I'm just feeling nostalgic because I'm thinking about how it seems like just recently I was a freaked out person coming into high school, now I'm over half finished with it. Also the Thursday before Thanksgiving, my cousin Dan, who was serving in Iraq, was injured. He was getting a bomb off the street and someone set it off when he picked it up. Dan lost his arm three inches above the elbow and lacerated his eyes. Now that someone I know and love has gotten injured out in Iraq, this whole occupation in Iraq has gotten more real to me. I guess I feel even more respect and admiration for those men and women fighting for justice across the world. Well, what else has been going on with me. I guess I'm just in the typing mood right now. Lets see, my new years resolutions. I'm going to have some this year. Some people whine and say that just because a new year is coming 'round doesn't mean they should set goals and accomplish them or whatever. I beg to differ. It's the significance and symbolism of a fresh year to start anew. I think resolutions are a grand thing.Jocelyn's Resolutions (currently under construction):-To get a job this summer-Be able to read a pattern and understand all the instructions-Be able to navigate my own way through St. George-Complete a full journal-Get some muscle tone in my arms-Keep my hair healthy and moisturized-Increase my wardrobe by 50%-Learn one new skill that I will use-Improve my posture-....and....stuffWow, it's not so easy to think of goals for the year 2006. I think 2006 is gonna be a good year though. At least I hope it will be. Right now I'm just stalling time as I wait for my music to finish downloading. My mother cusses me out cuz the program I have slows the computer waaaaaay down when it's up and running, but I say it's worth it!
A poem about my alarm clock--Die you wretched creature,Shame be upon you for the pain you have caused,Agony is your main feature,If you are silent, you will be applaused,But if you sound out with your sleep-shattering mayhem,You will surely be hit,Your foul-sounding shriek makes me say words like, ahem,Well, words like sh- -,Such a vulgar poem you may wonder?Yes, 'tis only appropriate that it should be,One day, dearest alarm clock, I will take you out into the woods and shoot you.----From my brain-----Wow, that was bee-utiful *swipes at eyes* I got a piece of dust on my cornea. I actually kind of ran out of good words to rhyme after like the second line. Wow, it's kind of late at night. I wish 1-My clothes would get done with the dryer 2- My music would finish downloading 3- I didn't have to get ready for bed. Jeez, going to sleep at night would be so much more satisfying if I didn't have to shower, brush my teeth, dry my hair, moisturize my face, finish up any homework, set my alarm clock, and lay in bed shivering till my toes adapt to the bottom of the bed. Ho-lee-cow. Oooh! There is another band trip this summer! I am so excited about it! Mein papa already gave me permission to go. This year we're going to Universal Studios, Six-Flags, ....Ellis Island...., and whatever so I'm so excited cuz last year was the shiz! Tick-tock. 92.7% and 95.0%. GRRRR! Rubbish. Agh! Speaking of that, I went and saw Harry Potter #4! Twas actually pretty good. I usually don't really like the HP movies cuz the books are SO much better, but I really wanted to find out how they put the author's imagination to graphics. They did a pretty good job of it. Of course throughout the whole movie it was pretty choppy with the storyline. I guess they had to have it like that cuz the book was freakin' long. It's killing me because I want to find out what happens in the seventh book but I'll probably have to wait two or --gasp-- even three years before the next book comes out! Agh! The agony! Tick-tock. 93.6% and 96.6%. Bla. Well, I think I'm done with all this blathering. I'm gonna pace around the room or something. 94.3 and 97.3.

Simplicity

Well, I have officially dropped out of both my AP classes. It's nice to be free of them. As an alternative I now have 2B and 3B as fit-for-life classes. I am a lot more comfortable this year running and working out and I don't feel as awkward. I have accomplished going the whole loop without stopping, which is quite a feat for me to have accomplished.
Braydon wants me to play catch in the halls. I am a little aprehensive about it because we were doing that once and he hit the light fixture above my head and rained glass shards all over my head. Wish me luck

Sweet Troubled Soul

Sometimes I wonder if I am the only person on God's green earth who loves to read informative articals. I find myself saying, "I read bla bla bla" quite a bit while the other person kind of raises their eyebrow and says something like, "Really..." If there is a profession that requires a person to read articals on the computer all day and regurgitate useless facts, I would be on it like flies on a pile of fresh horse crap- or something. Anyways, I guess sitting on my bunz reading articals is better than sucking on a hot rock. **Original Dad Gubz phrase**
I long for the summer months of freedom and warm weather all the live long day. Because I wake up every morning to the **censored** beeping of my alarm clock and getting out of bed is even worse because it has been cold and dark every morning! It's the first of October and I have been reminded that people up north have been walking on frost for the past month, but that's THEIR fault if they don't like it. I live in southern utah, it's not supposed to be this cold until December! *sigh* I guess until global warming I will have to get up in the AM with my jowls flapping as I shiver and my knees knock.
So, anyways, the football game Friday was pretty banging. I don't think our team has even been behind in score any home game this season. Usually our team plows over the opposition and leaves their heads spinning and their voices cracking, but last Friday we were going against a school who was also undefeated 6-0. I thought we might lose.... but we didn't. Yay. It was great hanging out with friends and fretting about the close scores with them.
Ewww. I just looked at the calandar and next weekend is the Gubler reunion. But maybe things aren't so bad cuz I just found out that I am marching in a parade that Saturday so I may be exempted and get to stay home alone that night. Pray fervently for me.
Anyways, today I was working on my apron and I was ironing and I set the iron down on my left pointer finger, and last week I jabbed my thumb with a needle in that same class and drew blood, so I am going to see if I can fix my owie by eating some junk food or something equally delightful.