Through the years

I know, I have far too much time on my hands, but I couldn't pass up this website - it's too amusing!

1952

Evidently, women looked like men in 1952? Check out that square jaw! Maybe this lady was from the East German swim team or something.

1964

Apparently I was a hottie in the 60's with the cat-eye glasses. This actually reminds me of pictures of my Grandma Day from the 60's.

1974

So that's what I would look like with long hair - I think I'll pass.

1982

Love it, love it, LOVE IT!!!

1990

Every girl my brother dated in high school had this hair - and the accompanying acne from excessive Aqua Net use.

1996

If this one had dark hair, it could possibly double as my freshman yearbook picture - right down to the denim vest. Scary!

At Long Last . . . NKOTB Pics!

Here are the pictures you've all been waiting for! Okay, so I'm the only one who's been waiting for them, but whatever. And I have to apologize to Rebecca G in advance - no neon shirts with matching scrunchies. Although we would not have been alone had we chosen to go that route.

Joanna and I before going to the concert - can you see the excitement in our eyes

NKOTB Sings My Favorite Girl (and we were doing the dance with them)

NKOTB sings Single (I think)

NKOTB sings 2 in the Morning (my favorite song from their new album)

Donnie & Jordan looking fab

A semi-shirtless Jordan sings Baby I Believe in You

I have no idea what they're singing in this pic but does it really matter? Not so much

Joanna and I in all our glory with our awesome new t-shirts

There you have it - our fabulous NKOTB concert. Here's hoping for another reunion tour when they're in their 50's!

Tysen again

Tysen had a dentist appointment today. He has lost a total of 4 of his baby teeth so far. The first 2 he lost about 6 or 8 months ago so the permanent teeth are coming in. The other 2 he's lost in the last month so he just has gaps where is baby teeth were. So on our way to the dentist he says "how do the big teeth get there?" And I said I didn't know and he could ask the dentist when we got to his appointment because surely, the dentist would know. So he was quiet for a couple minutes and apparently was thinking about this issue and he says "I bet the tooth fairy carries around a bag of big teeth and when she takes your baby teeth she puts the big ones in your mouth." Such a logical answer, right? I said, yeah, maybe that's how it happens. You can still ask the dentist when we get there. He did ask the dentist, but I think he was happier with his answer.

Oh yeah, and he knows how to text. There's gotta be something wrong with that.

Useless trivia about yours truly

1. I HATE Halloween with a burning passion deep within my soul. It epitomizes things I hate about society. Let's encourage our children to pretend to be something they're clearly not, and then send them door to door begging for food. I find nothing fun about it. We normally buy a bunch of candy, turn off all the lights, hide at the back of the house, and eat all of said candy while watching movies.

2. I can't fall asleep unless I have my feet sticking out of the covers. I hate for my feet to be warm when I'm sleeping - they must be at least a few degrees below my core temperature for the optimal snooze.

3. I LOVE leftover lasagna and enchiladas. Sometimes (you know, twice a year when I actually make dinner) I'll make one or the other just so I can eat them again the next day. I'm always disappointed if we eat them all in one sitting so I usually make a lot so I can devour them later. They just taste better after sitting in the fridge overnight.

4. I refuse to eat vegetables. I'll eat potatoes and corn, but only corn on the cob. Other than that, veggies are out for me. I'm pretty selective about fruits as well. I'll occasionally have an apple (green or yellow) or some watermelon in the summer but that's it. I'm also lactose intolerant so most diary is out of my diet as well. For this reason, it's really hard for me to commit to going to someone else's house to eat. I'm always afraid I'll offend the person cooking because I won't like the food. So I like to invite people to my house or go out to eat with friends.

5. I think about people I've lost touch with ALL THE TIME. I think that's probably the reason I like blogging so much - it's easy to stay in touch that way and keep up with other people's lives. I have so many wonderful memories of so many wonderful people that it makes me sad to think about how many of them I have little or no contact with now. So I love to reconnect with people I've known in the past. And it always makes me so happy to hear when people are doing well or have been really successful in their lives and I also get really sad to hear when things haven't gone as well for others.

6. Along those same lines, it really bothers me to think about people I've offended along the way. It makes me so sad to think of how many bridges I've probably burned over the years. For instance, I had a friend, Lindsay, in high school. She was a couple of years younger than me and one summer we hung out all the time. Then once school started it seemed like we didn't ever hang out anymore and I'm sure in my naive and selfish youth, I was probably mean to her. I feel bad about that. I also feel bad about how many of my friends' boyfriends/crushes I made out with in high school and how much I'd fight with girls who liked my current boyfriend. So lame!

7. I think Toby is hot when he wears his glasses and his hat backwards. He makes me laugh every day and sometimes we have to force ourselves to stop chattering on and on at night and go to sleep. We just love to lay in bed and talk all night long. Man, I love that guy!

8. I have the most adorable kids on the planet. I hope that doesn't offend anyone - your kids are all cute too, but mine honestly are the cutest - sorry!

9. I don't read. I mean, I know how. I'm not illiterate or anything. But I don't recreationally read. The last book I read for fun was in 2001. I think I got too much of books in college and it took all the fun out of reading for me. Besides, I read IRC (Internal Revenue Code) crap at work all the time which is SO not fun that the last thing I want to do in my spare time is pick up a book.

10. I desperately wish I could sing. I have no musical talent whatsoever, and for the most part that doesn't bother me. I don't long to play the piano or some other instrument. But I would absolutely love to be able to sing. I love music but I can't carry a tune in a bucket. When your child tells you that you sound funny, you know it's bad.

11. This won't be news to anyone who's known me well at all in the last 15 years, but I ADORE Audrey Hepburn! So much that I named my daughter after her. I just think she's gorgeous and super-talented and I happen to love nearly all of her movies - and I own most of them as well. And please no one bring up Julie Andrews, Mary Poppins & the Oscars - I'm still trying to get over it, ok?

12. I count myself to sleep at night. I've always had a hard time falling asleep at night. I used to take prescription sleeping pills, but I got sick of the groggy feeling I always had the next day. I also used to fall asleep watching My Fair Lady every single night (see above referenced A.H. adoration), but once I got married I had to some up with another idea - Toby was not loving listening to "wouldn't it be loverly" every night. I can't figure out why. So I was laying awake one night, probably 5 years ago or so, and I was thinking about the concept of counting sheep. So I thought I'd give the counting idea a whirl, and it worked! So now I count myself to sleep at night. Once I commit to sleeping I usually don't make it past 70, but if I make it to 200, I'll start over at 1. Is that weird?

Reuniting with an old flame

Long blog post - and huge dork warning.

Travel back in time with me, if you will, to 1993. Picture in your mind a short, slightly overweight 12 year old girl with dark hair, a bad perm and a desperate need for braces. Yes, this pathetic image is me. Now imagine a scrawny 17 year old with long, stick-straight strawberry-blond hair, big, BIG bangs, and braces. This pathetic image is my sister, Joanna. Imagine those 2 young girls listening to New Kids on the Block albums so many times everyone we knew wanted to shoot us, and watching our NKOTB videos on VHS enough times that we had them memorized and we could do the dances at the drop of a hat. Our rooms were completely plastered with posters of our 5 favorite guys from Boston. My room featured a door poster with a life-sized picture of my boy, Danny Wood. Despite what Joanna posts on her blog, she was just as into it as I was. Believe me - I was there. And if you don't believe me, check out the comment from Nikki Howe - she remembers! It was a great time to be alive (you know, besides the bad hair). And then, tragedy struck. NKOTB broke up! Can you imagine the devastation?!?!

Fast forward to the spring of 2008. NKOTB makes an appearance on the Today Show announcing a new album - AND (be still my heart) and reunion tour!!!! I DVR'd them performing their new single, Summertime, on Today and I watched it repeatedly. I kept watching it with Audrey telling her all about the boys (do you call them boys when they're in their late 30's?). I felt like she understood the significance of this moment for me. I connected with my baby girl over NKOTB. It was really special. (I hope everyone can detect the heavy dose of sarcasm here - I'm not quite that weird).

Tickets to the Phoenix show went on sale in June. I purchased tickets 4 minutes after they went on sale. I downloaded their new album they day it dropped on September 22nd. I listened to it on my iPod every day at work. I was ready. The months slowly ticked by and Joanna got here on Monday morning at 9. Then I had to go back to work for the rest of a completely crazy day (2 days before the extension deadline). When I got home we got dressed, put on WAY too much makeup and left for the venue. The arena is way outside of my travelling bubble, but I made the exception and drove there. I didn't even get lost! We ate a Johnny Rockets. The entire place was filled with women in their late 20's and 30's who were also wearing too much makeup and some of them even with old school NKOTB gear and earrings. We had a really cute Australian waiter who was hitting on us. It's been a while since that's happened. We finished dinner and went to the arena.

We first made a stop in the restroom (we're not 12 and 17 anymore - we have both given birth and potty breaks are no longer optional) and as we were washing our hands I said to Joanna "I'm getting all giddy and excited" and she said "I know! Me too!" We stood in line for 45 minutes to buy t-shirts and then proceeded to our seats. We saw about half of Natasha Bettingfield's set (she was actually pretty good - dressed like a tramp, but the girl can sing). Then the dreaded lights up time between the opening act and the real show. The tension was building.

The lights went down, the music started, and tens of thousands of grown women reverted back to 1993 and were all screaming like teenagers - ourselves included. We didn't sit the entire time. We were screaming and singing and dancing and jumping up and down for the entire show. My throat hurt so bad about an hour into the show that I couldn't even scream anymore. I also had to wear flip flops to work on Tuesday because my feet hurt from jumping up and down for 3 hours. Step by step, the right stuff, hangin' tough, I'll be lovin you forever, tonight, cover girl ( we were doing the aforementioned dances we memorized 15 years ago in the stands - we're not proud and we weren't the only ones either). And they played all their new stuff too, which I love - their new album, The Block, is awesome! It was such an amazing show! Anyone who loved the New Kids HAS to go to this show! It's so totally worth it! Absolutely amazing!

It was fun to see this whole venue full of women (and a few select gay men), most of them married, a few even pregnant, swooning over these 5 guys and totally freaking out when Jordan Knight did his signature portion of the show where he rips open his white button-up shirt with the fan blowing for dramatic effect. See video below (stolen from YouTube). I especially like the girls in the background screaming "take it off".

Here's a video I stole off of You Tube from another show of my boy, Danny, break dancing. I have to say - not bad for a man in his late 30's.

Here's yet another video I stole of them singing my favorite song off their new album called "2 in the morning" The video kinda sucks, but I LOVE this song

Another fantastic video of them singing Dirty Dancing. I could honestly do without the 19 yr old chick with big hair gyrating herself on top of the piano. But the guys look good so just pretend she's not there.

I had to use vidoes that were from other concerts - not the one here in Phx. The videos I found from our concert were WAY too loud. All you can hear is women screaming. And I'm one of them! We actually do have our own pictures, but the videos do it more justice. And my sister took all the pics and is sending me a CD. So I'll post more pics of this blessed event when I get them.

One of my favorite things about their new album is some of the pop culture references in their lyrics. Like one song, aptly titled Dirty Dancing, says in the chorus "ooh, it's so crazy, she's like Baby, I'm like Swayze". My favorite song off their new album, called 2 in the Morning, has a part that goes "gotta know if you're mad at me before Grey's Anatomy". I don't know why, but I find stuff like that amusing.

Anywho, we made our way home after the concert at arrived home just before 1 am. Which is pretty late for old ladies like us. We turn into pumpkins at midnight. Then we had to get up at 5 for Joanna to go to the airport. It was a long day at work on Tuesday, but it was SO worth it! Seriously so much fun! Maybe they'll have another tour in 15 more years. Hmmm. What would that look like?

Please don't go New Kids - tell me you'll stay - never ever go away - I love you (I love you) I guess I always will - New Ki-i-i-ids

Step by step - ooh baby - gonna get to ya New Kids

I'll be lovin you forever - just as long as you want me to be - I'l be lovin you fore-ever - all this love's for you and me, yeah

Random Life Questions

1. How does a ba-jillion dollars just disappear from the national economy? Of course, I understand the concept of unrealized gains and losses. But just the vast scale of the current economic circumstance amazes me.

2. Why do people think it's acceptable to lie and cheat? I'm talking about all types of cheating here. Whether it's committing adultery, copying test answers from a friend in school, or making up numbers for your tax return so you don't owe money to the government - news flash people - it's all morally wrong!

3. Why has the Church changed their procedures on the cannery? I can't just sign up for food, pay, and have it delivered. They actually want me to go to the cannery and can my stuff myself. Not that that is a bad idea, it's just that there are limitations of time and scheduling availability for people, especially working people. So basically I'm unable to work on my food storage because of time constraints. I'm happy to pay for my goods and for the service of canning as well - I just no longer have that option.

4. Again a little along church lines, why is it so unacceptable for a woman to have a job? People simply treat you differently as a woman if you work and I don't understand it. I happen to enjoy my job and I'm good at what I do. I also love my family dearly and I love being a mom and wife. Somehow it's not ok to do both? And why do they schedule virtually all of the Relief Society activities during the day when working people can't attend? I'd love to join the quilting group or the scrapbooking group in my ward - but they meet at 10 or 11 am on Tuesdays. A little accomodation, people.

5. Why do little boys (and big boys for that matter) always have their hands down their pants? Is it comfy? Do their extremities have poor circulation and they're benefiting from the warmth of their own skin? I don't get it.

6. Why do babies have to put EVERYTHING in their mouths? You should see some of the stuff I fish out of Audrey's mouth. And if, by chance, she eats something that I don't see, she will often then spit up whatever it is. She likes to scratch at the lining on the bottom of our sofa and it sheds little fiber thingies that she then eats. So once in a while she'll cough up what looks like a hairball. She spit up a stick once. The other day her spit-up was bright red and I was having a cow sideways about it thinking she was bleeding internally. Turns out she found some stray play dough on the floor Tysen had been playing with the night before. She's rather fond of the dog food bowl as well.

Our Little Bookworm

Tysen's Elementary school recently had a fundraiser called the Reading Olympics. The kids had to collect pledges of money for each minute they read over a 10 day period. They asked each child to try to read 200 minutes in 10 days. Well, not to brag or anything, but my child read 355 minutes in 10 days. One of those days he read for over an hour and a half! He had the most minutes read in Kindergarten so he was able to participate in the medal ceremony where they threw whipped cream pies at their teachers and shaved the Principal's head and painted his bald head in the school colors. He was so excited to tell us all about it after school today. I wish they had told us about it beforehand so we could have attended, but they didn't so oh well. We're so proud of him and we love our little bookworm!

Our UT trip

For those of you who were wondering - scratch that, I know no one cares. But I'm going to tell you of our short but fun trip to UT last weekend anyway. It started with Toby nearly knocking over Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns at the Phx airport. We went to SLC on Thursday night, went to the wedding on Friday morning, went shopping (well I did anyway) on Friday evening, ate at La Frontera, went to breakfast with April on Saturday morning, went to Steve & Mary's Saturday to paint Kian's room, had a BBQ with the family Saturday night, went to Music and the Spoken Word at the Tabernacle on Temple Square on Sunday morning where we saw Glenn Beck (CNN commentator, political analyst, & Mormon), had another yummy dinner Sunday courtesy of momma Lu (as my friends called her in HS), did more shopping on Monday morning, ate at Crown Burger for lunch, packed and came home Monday evening. Phew! That was plenty in 4 days!

And now, the photo portion of our broadcast.

Here is Toby's niece, Teresa and her new husband, Trevor (aka the reasons we went on said trip in the first place).

This is actually my favorite picture of the couple, but you can't see their faces, for obvious reasons. Ah, young love.

Here's Audrey at the wedding. Could she BE any cuter?

Me and my sweet little boy - he's the best! (you'll notice how desperately I need to have my hair colored - should anyone be willing to contribute funds or services, I'm now accepting donations)

Glynn (Toby's bro-in-law) and Audrey at the wedding.

Grandma Ryan (Toby's mom) & Audrey at the wedding.

One of our many failed attempts at getting a family picture - why can't everyone look at the camera and smile at once? I'm baffled!

Toby & his nephew Ryan - we miss you Ry! Come back from Hungary and visit us soon!

Mo-Tab in the flesh

Glenn Beck - you may have to use your imagination a little cuz the picture sucks, but I promise it's him.

Me and my dad (aka papa Jer) after M&TSW at the Tabernacle

My mom (aka momma Lu) & Audrey - Audrey totally loved my mom and followed here everywhere

Tysen and his cousin/buddy Brayden

Tysen pushing Audrey on the swing - he loves being a big brother . . . most of the time. And nevermind the nose-picking in the background. He's 5, what am I supposed to do?

So that's about it. We had fun and we came home exhausted but it was totally worth all the stress & preparation to go. Hope to see you all again soon!

Sign my petition

Don't worry - this doesn't have anything to do with the election season we're in.

So, let me begin with a little background. My sister and I were WILDLY obsessed with New Kids on the Block in the late 80's/early 90's. I'm in no way ashamed of this. In fact, it was a tradition for the 2 of us to stay up late every Christmas Eve and watch our Hangin' Tough, Hangin' Tough Live and Step by Step videos on VHS. We did this each year at Christmas into our 20's. We LOVE NKOTB!!! This is them "then" - could they be more adorable?!?! I ask you!
So now, much to our delight, they have released a new album (purchased it on iTunes the day it dropped and I have the whole thing memorized) and are embarking on a reunion tour. Could I be happier?!?! Doubtful! The tour is coming to Phx so, naturally, I purchased tickets 4 minutes after they went on sale. My sister's hubby works for an airline so they can fly for free. She has hemed and hawed, back and forth, back and forth about coming here to go to the concert with me. This is them "now" and they're still hot.
The concert is in 11 days and 10 hours (but who's counting). It won't be the same if she doesn't come with me. I mean, who else can I go see NKOTB with wearing a neon shirt, a side ponytail, fluffy bangs, and scream out my undying love for Danny and not feel like a total idiot? So, please all comment and put peer pressure on my sister to get her butt on a plane and come to the concert with me!