Pandora, you'll be the death of me

Apparently my work computer has reached the Pandora limit. Sigh, Pandora why do you have a 40 hour a month maximum? Good thing it's the end of the month tomorrow. I doubt I've listened to that much, I just leave it up and playing a lot of the time...good to know that I shouldn't do that anymore. I wasted so many hours!

So, I have a station on Pandora that I adore. I've been refining it for quite a while now. Actually, the greatest thing ever? I got a new phone a month ago and so my awesome new phone has the Pandora app on it. Hal and I went for a walk, put headphone splitters in and listened to Pandora. He liked it so much I figured out how to send the station to him. That's how awesome the station is. It started out with my favorite band, The Hush Sound, but now it has so many songs that have been thumbed up or down, and so many artists that have been added to it, that you probably wouldn't recognize it anymore. haha, it sounds like it has plastic surgery or something.

Anyway, Pandora has definitely introduced me to a few new artists and some songs that i just love and adore, so I thought that I would share them with you. My two favorite. I love listening to both of them. I've definitely gotten into more mellow music in my old age *cough* 

So the first artist, you may have heard before, and I'm sure that you know the song...if you've seen Hope Floats anyway. Except, this one is by an awesome British artist named Adele. I actually really like that name. So..listen to this version of this song, it'll blow you away.



And my other song is by someone that I had never even heard of before. His name is Jay Brannan. Some of his songs are well...interesting. But this one, it's amazing. His voice is so Beautiful. Which leads me into...this song is called Beautifully. He talks at the beginning of the video, so if you just want to listen to the song skip forward to about 1:50



Enjoy. Let me know what you think of them!

P.S. Giveaway

P.s. There is a giveaway going on over at the Boob Nazi's blog for a pair of tickets to my dad's play for the provo show. Go Enter!! It's open until tomorrow night.


Now proceed to the post below.

The Young Victoria

This is literally one of my favorite movies that I have seen in a long time. Go see it, please, and then tell me that you loved it too. I actually watched this with two boys and both of them said that it was way better than they thought it would be. This isn't your typical chick flick. Definitely not, it actually goes into some of the politics of her young reign. man, she reigned for so long. Since she was 18 until she died I think it said at 81, like 40 years after her husband had died. Poor girl.

       via

I actually wanted to see this when it came to town at the local independent theatre, but no one wanted to see it with me. I was glad when my dad rented it and said that he had loved it.

Seriously, this movie isn't super chick flicky, but Prince Albert seriously can rival Darcy. No Joke.

because honestly, she had to choose Albery over Melbourne, he had a way more awesome hairdo.

via
                                                                                              

   via  

Do you want to know what's funny? When I was looking up the people in this movie I realized that the guy who played Prince Albert is actually in the last movie post I did. He played a nazi in the boy in the striped pajamas. Odd. 

I stayed up really late last night to watch this movie again. you should do the same. You'll thank me for it.

P.s. There is a giveaway going on over at the Boob Nazi's blog for a pair of tickets to my dad's play for the provo show. Go Enter!! It's open until tomorrow night.

Strange Days

Yesterday was a strange day. It really was. Mostly it was strange because of the people. I had some random people talk to me yesterday. The stories are kinda awesome.

I had to drive up to the VA hospital for work. As I was walking in there were some old men sitting outside the main lobby. As I walked by one of them said "Hey Sugar" to me. Don't get me wrong, I get talked to a lot downtown by the people out on the street, but not usually old guys. I had and old homeless guy tell me he liked my coat once, and the same day a lawyer in the elevator asked me if my jacket was a pendleton (they're a super fancy jacket), no, it's not a pendleton...how do you say...delias? Nice to know if you're rich or poor, you can have good taste.  Anyway, back to the old man at the VA story. I was so perplexed that I just looked at him and said hello. When I was walking out I thought I had escaped his notice because he was in mid conversation with two other old guys. After I had already passed him he yellowed out "Hey, Bye" to me. Nice move old guy.

Don't even worry, the stories don't end there, I have another good one for you.

Last night as Hal and I were leaving a Peace Corps dinner and were walking back to our car there was a younger homeless guy walking down the sidewalk. There are definitely a fair share of homeless or vagrant people downtown and since I am out and about a lot they don't really bother me, but you can always tell when one of them is going to ask you for money. Right as the guy started speaking Hal started speaking in Spanish. Now you may think that might be mean, but this poor fellow really looked like he wasn't right in the head. Anyway...So the homeless fellow started talking again as we passed him and kept talking. he said "Well in my next Native American life (he was white) I'm going to be a bear" Then he proceeded to growl. And then after we had passed him and were down a ways he said "and I'm gonna eat you" I could not stop laughing. Rrrrawrrr!

People can be so strange and funny. Even if they're crazy you can appreciate them for making you laugh, even if they didn't mean to make you laugh.

We had an awesome thunderstorm last night. And so with that, I'll leave you with some pictures.

 via 

I really like rain, can you tell?

Adventures in niece and nephewland

Kiddos can be fun. Hal and I actually have a lot of nieces and nephews. Our sister in law actually just had a baby on the 2nd, to add another boy into the mix. I haven't been able to meet him yet. They live in a far off land called Texas. They're coming at the end of the month and I'm SO excited to see both of their kiddos!

I hope you don't mind me stealing this picture off of your facebook, jessi!

Isn't it funny how boys are just such boys sometimes? As I have watched my nephews grow up they have become less and less interested in me and they have become more interested in Hal. When I go to my sister's house they ask me where Hal is. Boys just want someone to wrestle with, for real. This last week I went to my niece's dance recital. My sister's two boys were going nuts with excess energy. Once Hal got there they were pretty happy. He had one on his shoulder while he chased the other one around the lobby. It's moments like that which make me excited to have kids with him one day, because I know he will play with them and love them even more than his nieces and nephews.

No wonder they like him better. I just do stuff like this (see below) with them when I babysit and play hide and seek with them for like mmm...an hour straight. There are only so many places you can hide when you're playing for the 20th round and there are only two rooms in which you're hiding....and when a certain someone peeks the entire time he's counting.

You want to know the cutest thing ever? My friend told me that she wished people would share more of the times when spouses are sweet to each other. I know a lot of bloggers only talk about stuff like that, but I'm not really one of them, so I thought I would try and do that more, share the times when we are real people, when we're sweet and maybe a little bit of when we're mean.

That's not the cute part, this is. Hal missed our nieces dance recital because he got off work late. He wasn't too sad about missing it (weird). haha, anyway. He kept texting me asking if it was over. We left a little early and were out in the lobby starting to take picture when some weirdo came up behind me and grabbed me. Even though he didn't want to come at all to the recital, he made a big effort to come and see our niece. The best part? He even brought her a treat from the Sweet Tooth Fairy (they make THE best cupcakes ever). He had stopped there on his way to his last job of the day and then felt bad he was missing the recital so he gave her his cupcake. She was pretty excited about the cupcake. I was pretty excited that I have such a thoughtful hubbyroo. haha, what a dorky pet name. Good thing I don't actually call him that. My niece did great, just in case you were wondering.

Wells

Sometimes life just goes all crazy on you. Sometimes it gets really hard and all you can do is one thing. For me, that one thing is pray.

I have learned something about myself. When something is bothering me, and is stuck in my mind, and I can't stop thinking about it, and it's still there no matter how much I talk to other people about it; I have to write it down. For me, writing it down is like releasing it from my mind. Is that weird? When I can't sleep because my mind won't slow down, I think that in the future I'm going to try and write. I don't know when this happened. Maybe it's an effect of the days when I was really good about journaling, but this blog has become kind of a journal of my life, so this is where you guys get to read my writing down my thoughts so I can let go.

via

I think that my wells are filling. A while ago in church a woman talked about spiritual wells. Like a water well, and we go to church and read our scriptures, and pray and do whatever we need to do to keep that well full, and our testimony strong. That's something that has stayed with me. I kind of think I have lots of wells for the different aspects of my life, and lately some wells are running low.

It sucks putting so much effort into something, letting go of water in your well for something to receive nothing back, no replenishing of your well. It sucks. I think I've kind of hit an empty well and I can't put forth anymore effort. That's frustrating for me. I'm not very good at sitting back and waiting, waiting for life to refill that well. To know that I'm done, and waiting for the next part to happen. Waiting sucks.

Do you know the good thing about waiting though? It makes you reflect on the things in your life where someone or something has given back and as you give, your well is replenished also. I like that. It's nice to be able to feel grateful and realize that while you wait.

I've decided I'm tired of negativity, and worrying about things that I can't change. So I'll be positive and hope that it has an effect. I'm really going to try and stick with this. Sometimes when I'm hurt I have a hard time letting go. I think writing helps me. I think positivity helps me. It helps me let go and realize those negative things don't need to effect me. They can only effect me if I let them.

Last night I was praying about the thing that I couldn't let go of. Praying seemed the only thing I could do to feel some relief. No matter what I did, it was the only thing that brought me comfort and peace, no matter if there was a solution in front of me or not. Do you know what's awesome? Praying. It's awesome when randomly the exact thing you needed to hear comes into your mind and you know someone is listening. I had this come into my mind:

Lead Me

Guide Me

Walk Beside Me

Help me find the way

I'm sure not all of you know that this is from. It's from a primary song. This song is dear to my heart for many reasons, but for some reason, it's exactly what I needed to hear last night. Because then I can say it right back to Him, who put it in my mind. I try to follow that way, but I think sometimes I get so caught up in my own mind that I lose sight of the way. I forget that if I put myself on His path, then I don't have to worry, because there is no point in worrying, because He knows where I'm supposed to be going.

My heart feels lifted, my burden less heavy, and even though my well was empty last night, it's funny that he can start trickling water back in there. Even if the situation isn't any better, it feels like it's somewhat better, because I know what's right for me now.

Yellowstone

Are you guys ready for some serious picture overload? How could I go to Yellowstone for my first time and not take a butt load of pictures? We had some really cool, and apparently unusual experiences. It was so much fun, even though it was so so cold. Oh man, it snowed while we were up there. Our first day it pretty much didn't stop raining. Each day we went on a big long walk/hike and the last full day we had in Yellowstone was the only one where we didn't get rained or hailed on. The second morning we decided to switch campsites. Apparently it was a good choice because at Madison it was snowing, and up at Mammoth it wasn't even raining. The wind up there was even good for dying out the very wet tent.

Yup, that's a bear! look hard.

This video is awesome! After seeing old faithful we walked about a mile to see Morning Glory pool. Which is the picture above. We were all pretty much soaking wet by the time we made it to the pool. We were just off the trail, on the boardwalk which goes up above the pool a little bit something awesome happened!! We were about to head back and were facing the trail...when this happened. Now watch the video. I love all the babies we saw, that's the awesome part of going so early in the season.

This is Mammoth Hot Springs. It was so pretty up there, and luckily it had stopped raining.

Can you see the pronghorn in the background?

 Can you see the bear print?

Alrigh, if you can't tell I ahad some issues organizing this amount of pictures. Holy cow, yeah, so I gave up trying to move them up and down because everything would then get messed up. I have a few cool stories from Yellowstone.

Do you see that picture a few up of the mama elk and her baby? The campground host at Mammoth warned us an elk had a baby and they were by the garbage can. Well, that was a bit from us so we weren't worried. We went and saw Mammoth Hot Springs and came back and she had moved to where we took that picture. It was at the campsite next to us. She still didn't seem to mind us, and we left off on a hike. We were hailed on during the hike so we decided to head back. When we were walking up we noticed her sitting in the campsite to the other side of us from where she had been before.

She hadn't paid us any mind so we were aware, but started pulling out wood for dinner. We got that far before she freaking charged us. Yeah, she charged us. Luckily we were all right by the big van and were able to jump in. She got so close to Hal though. Oh man, it was scary because it was so unexpected. After being trapped in the van for a while we tried calling the emergency number, but no one answered. We were so lucky we had cell service at this campsite. Hal called 911 and just asked them to send out a ranger. A truck pulled up with two park rangers. By this point the elk was lying down eating, being all calm.

I think that the prerequisite for being a park ranger is a lack of nomal social skills. Seriously. The girl ranger wasn't bad at all..but the guy was a little bad. He talked to us about how the elk was like a horse, so calm just eating the grass....umm, pretty sure I've never had a horse charge me. They said a mama elk will defend her baby up to 100 yards. We were there talking and she was fine, just where she was. So we started to get stuff out for dinner again..and the rangers were about to leave. Another ranger had come and went up the road to block off access to the bathroom so people wouldn't go up there because she had charged 3 people into the bathroom and wouldn't let them out while we were waiting for the rangers, because it was close to the baby. Well a ranger went up there and the mama got upset and she totally charged the park ranger who had told us about how she was so docile.

She ended up charging us like 4-5 times, so they decided to swith our site away from her. The ranger went back up by the baby to distract her and the campsite host, and 2 rangers booked it to help us take down our tent and get out of there before she noticed. We had to share a campfire with some other people who had been charged and needed to be moved. The guys name was Ed, and his son was Eddie, and they were some Missouri. It was awesome, and I don't think I'll ever quite forget them. Can you believe that though, we stinking got charged by a mama elk?

Apparently she had given birth in the campsite the night before we came up there. Some of the elk have adapted to having babies in campsites because the bears won't hunt the babies to the campsites because they don't like the people. The babies can't walk well until they are around 24 hours old, so that's why she was still in the campsite. The next morning she left.

So our other awesome story is when we were driving out. We had been stopped by a ton of buffalo hanging out on the road which had put us like over a half and hour even more behing schedule. So we were driving along and this guy comes running across the street, so we stopped to let him pass and get on the other side of us when we look over to see why he was running. Oh, maybe because a bear was chasing him. For real, the bear came almost all the way to the street, and stood up, it was so crazy, he like stood up at our car. We like to think of it like we saved that guys life. haha, that bear could have gotten him if he wanted. I'm sad my camera was in my coat and by the time I got it out he was wondering off into the woods again. Man, that would have been the most awesome picutre of a bear standing up all aggressive like.

Those are my main awesome stories. My friendlies surprised me with a trip to Lava Hot Springs on the way home. Too bad because of the bison, bear, and road construction we were literally like 5 hours late to meet our friends who came up to meet us. Good thing my friends are awesome and waited that long for us. It was a good way to end the trip, soaking in the warm water.

I had a great birthday, and a great time in yellowstone, I seriously recommend going. We saw a ton of animals and some really cool sites.

Look Alike?

My in laws tell me I look like someone. When it was Doppleganger week I couldn't decide on a celebrity that i looked like. I had some suggestions, but I didn't  really think I look like too many of them. My in-laws say I look like this person, I had never heard of her before, but she's awesome.

via  via  via  via

What do you all think? This is Greta Garbo. She is from the time period that I feel kind of like I should have lived in. What can I say? My soul belongs to the 40s. Maybe minus the eyebrows? Well, not minus them, that would look weird. haha, maybe add some more hair to them. For a little comparison:

What do you think? Do we look alike?

What celebrity do you look like?