Wednesday, November 19, 2008

i'm so not a morning person

while i was babysitting last week (by the way we all made it alive and happy to thursday afternoon when the parents arrived home) i got to spend a lot of time with this little girl.


now, i use to watch her overnight when she was a baby and she was horrible during the nights. she didn't sleep. waking up multiple times. and always ended up sleeping with me. (just your average infant so i'm told). well this time around it wasn't much different but a lot more enjoyable because i got to have conversations like this: (let it be known that it was 4:30 in the morning and we were both cuddled together in the large king size bed)

sadie: mom? can you rub my back?
me: sure. (it was 4:30 in the am. i was not about to explain to her that i wasn't her mom)
sadie: mom? can i rub your hair?
me: sure. (i never ever turn down a head rub)
sadie: mom?
me: yeah?
sadie: where's dad at?
me: he's on a trip
sadie: well where was he when afton was here?
me: uh?...on a trip
sadie: oh.*

yeah. is it okay to lie to a four year old if it means avoiding a could be melt down? the next morning she realized her mistake and was telling her older brother how funny it was that she was calling me mom all night. you're right sadie, it was funny and much more enjoyable then the nights you would cry.

so here's a shout out to Sadie, the cutest 4 year old girl i know. even at 4:30 in the morning!


*she never went back to sleep after this conversation and by 5:30 i realized she was still wide awake and had to turn dora on for her. it kept her content for another 2 hours and the bright light and noise didn't phase me one bit.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

the joy of capitalism

is it weird that this commercial totally makes me feel proud to be an american??



i haven't even stepped into a macy's store in at least two years. and yet i just might the next time i get the need to shop.
here's to you macy's! and here's to america!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

currently

...i am babysitting these four

{:max 7: :sadie 4: :ashton 10: :luke 18 months: adorable, right?}

and let me tell ya, being an instant soccer mom of four is hard. especially a single mom at that. i mean i had the schedule. i learned the routine before hand. but there is so much crap that just can't be told. like how to wash the four year old's hair. or how to fit the 18 month old into the bike seat without him freaking out. or how to get a sweatshirt on him (i'm still not sure about that one and i'm pretty sure he was cold the whole week). but all in all it's been great. my brother and sister-in-law (the parents of the before mentioned children) are currently enjoying the mexican sunshine while we have been enjoying...

bike rides to the park,

cookies after school,

dance parties in the car, {apparently this is what happens when i get a phone call and turn my back on them}

veteran's day,

dinner outside on the lawn,

and all the playing we can handle.

the parents left on saturday and return thursday. it's been five whole days and i haven't killed or injured the kiddies yet! here's hoping we make it 'till tomorrow afternoon...


p.s. yesterday i spent the entire day barefoot and outside. it was the most glorious day.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

oh to be old.

i saw young at heart this past sunday. i loved it. really really loved it.
reasons why?
1. it's a documentary (and a good one at that) which i always enjoy
2. it actually made me not so anti old people. dare i say, it even made me excited to be old one day

now don't go thinking i hate old people or something, because i don't. i'm just extremely uncomfortable around them and have vowed to never grow old myself. the uncomfortableness comes from being more capable, more aware, and more able to live on my own then someone 4 times my age. it just doesn't seem natural. more times than not they just make me feel sad. and yet this movie gave me nothing but hope for growing old. everybody needs to see it, if for nothing else than for this moment...


(ignore the subtiles. it's the best quality one i could find)

and i will say, this is as sad as the film gets so don't go thinking you're going to be all depressed afterwards. it was my most favorite part though. there's just something so inspiring by listening to our friend Fred singing the words "Lights will guide you home/And ignite your bones/And I will try to fix you" at the ripe age of 81.

so here's to growing old and still having something to give!



in related entertainment excellence. this could very well be my most favorite moment on television. oh charlie. always so witty.

Monday, November 03, 2008

Here's to November

i have never been one for writing. (as many of my previous posts have told)
i have never kept a journal. (i believe i have 7 started beginning when i turned 8 with only 1-3 entries in each)
this means that i basically have no record of my life.
except for these two years that have an over abundance of writing...


back in 2005 i dated a boy.
this boy then went on a mission in july of the same year.
i then began and continued to write him (letters and e-mails) for two years.
i never missed a weekly e-mail for over a year.
my letters were fewer and far between but still plentiful over the 24 month period.
i kept every single e-mail i sent him.
i photocopied every single letter (except for 3) that i sent him.
i wrote long e-mails filled with random details of my life.
my letters were hearty. (no mushy mushy stuff though. we were friends, he was a missionary. he got facts about my life)
and in the end i have 70 e-mails and 19 letters all about me.


this past weekend i read over a lot of them. (only my side of the communication is kept. i'm pretty sure my future self couldn't careless about what this boy did while on his mission so many years ago. and really who needs baggage like that just hanging around?)
i am so glad i have these letters!
they tell so much about me.
how i think i'm funny. the way i communicate and speak. what i found to be important. the adventures of Europe and Australia.
stuff i want to remember. now and later.
but the thing is there's been a lot that i wish i wrote down before and after those two years.

so here's to november.
a new month.
a new post.
and a new record of my life.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

this tag is for you...

the list of random facts: {seven}


:one: i have actually fallen down an entire flight of stairs before. it was in loja, ecuador about 2 weeks since our arrival to the third world country and in my 15 year old ways was pissed at my parents for making me be there. (not that i would have stayed home even if they did give me the choice. i love [am dependent upon] my parents too much for that.) so after breakfast at a hotel i thought i would make a scene and sulk off with my hands in my jacket pockets. next thing i know i'm rolling down the stairs with hands still in pockets and only stop once i hit the wall bringing me to the end of the stairs. i was now pissed, bruised, and covered in fresh wood wax and my father was laughing at me from the top of the stairs.

:two: oh johnny! dirty dancing may very well be my number one most favorite movie ever. now you may be saying to yourself a number of things at this point. a} "but afton, you're way too awesome to have such a movie be your number one!" um...apparently you don't know me very well. i like things like dirty dancing. b} "but afton, we already knew this about you!" well yes, it's not like i keep this a secret but did you also know that i can replay the entire movie in my head by simply listening to the soundtrack? did you know that i've been watching this movie since the young age of 5? (it's okay, i was naive/innocent back then. i had no idea about the fornication that was taking place.) i've seen this movie more times than i can count.

:three: i absolutely despise and abhor writing. that is why i'm in a major where i can cook, sew, and design (all things i love.) apparently though, i am long winded in ways of blog posts, facebook messages, and e-mails. (although all of these things take me 12 1/2 times longer to accomplish because i reread everything i do write a thousand times before i feel like it is good enough for the intended audience.) but when it comes to journals, school papers (creative ones or not), poems, articles, stories, etc. etc. etc. i absolutely hate it. it's never fun, relaxing, or a way to vent. it's simply a pain in my stomach that never leaves. this hatred explains my horrible grammar and lack of any form of vocabulary (thank you for reading my blog despite these things.)

:four: i love state fairs and dirty carnivals in mall parking lots. i love the rides. and having them assembled by a sketchy crew of illiterates just adds to the excitement.

:five: i use to be a straight A student. as in i never ever ever received anything lower than an A. even after failing (my first fail of my school career) my spanish final junior year of high school i somehow still managed to get an A in the class. i was #27 in my graduating class (which was out of 600.) i did quality work. i got things done. i considered myself as smart. things all changed once i entered the world of BYU. i realized after my first test that when the teacher says "read the text" they really mean it. and 90% was no longer an A it was a lousy A- (which lowers your GPA heaven forbid.) i decided school sucked and A's were so unattainable that they were no longer worth the effort. (if you couldn't tell by now i'm not one of those "love to learn" type of people.) which brings me to my final year at BYU. my GPA is actually really good (thank you 3 semesters of MCC) but i'm so ready to be done with school. i like to learn on my own, when i want, what i want. not because a professor tells me its going to expand my mind and build my horizons. i'll decide that on my own thank you very much.

:six: older people intimidate me at first encounter. for some reason if i think they are older than me then they instantly become smarter, wiser, cooler, awesomer. it takes me a few hang outs to realize they're not intimidating and then i'm good to go. and once i find out that someone who i thought was older than me is in fact younger than me, well, that just changes everything. i totally have a one up on them then.

:seven: my dream job is to be a magazine layout artist. as in be the one to format a page in the magazine. make the pictures and text flow and work together. help the page come to life by simply adding the right font. i realize that the people who do this probably do other such artistic jobs for the magazine but i just want to do the formating of the layout. i would wear hip trendy clothes to the office every day and carry my macbook around with me as if it's attached (okay, so i kinda already do that last part.)

and here you have it. the seven random facts of yours truly. i now send the tag on to anyone who has not made such a list in quite a while. go ahead and do it. it always makes for some good reading.

Monday, March 24, 2008

to do list:

(oh aunt annette, how you put every homemaker i know to shame)

this is what my thoughts currently consist of...

{: write two papers
{: blog about james' tag
{: find an internship
{: hang with megs and ame before megs leaves
{: somehow find a way to pass my classes
{: get photo shoot pics from tara and ame
{: take d&c final so i can finally be done with that class
{: find a way to survive until may with what little little money i have left
{: buy concert tickets for upcoming shows
{: start doing homework
{: keep running
{: figure out how/find time to make 5 books from scratch before april 15th
{: stop checking facebook and blogs on an hourly basis
{: finish reading the hiding place
{: start magnifying my enrichment calling
{: figure out what i want to be when i grow up

there's a little bit of overload going on. any help with any of the above would be greatly appreciated.