Monday, October 29, 2007

Brown Card Demo

Talk about simplicity. Personally, I love it. I'm all about the black and red lately...hence my black and white tablecloth exactly like this fabric and all my red and black plates. Call me romantic, but I think it's so charming.

I Should Shank You With My Shiv

My diet has officially gone awry. Oft times, when I'm feeling low (and fat) I'll pump myself up by repeating ideas or helpful words to myself such as "You have a sweet spirit" or "You are funny" but lately, that does not work. Stress from many issues has caused me to bag the entire diet plan. I don't talk about my stressors or problems (even if they're freakin huge and scary) so I snack, which is normal from what I've found here on the Google box machine. Aaaanyway...

Mackenzie
and Tiffany have been blogging! They wanted me to remind you all. Moving on...

So Mike and I have this ongoing argument. Shiv or Shank. Shank or Shiv? Mike says that shiv is a verb and a noun, shank being an alternate word or synonym to shiv. I say that while they both have use as a noun, shanks definition as a noun has to do with a cut of meat, possibly from the upper leg area, while it's more likely to be used as a verb if used properly. In addition, I personally believe that Shiv is more likely to be used as a noun in this case, it's meaning being similar to what you imagine a knife being, only home made. Thus leaving the action of shanking someone with your shiv open for use to all who applies it correctly. Am I right?

While you discuss this amongst yourselves, I'll bring it on back to the initial topic listed here in this post...my diet. I'll close now with an example of what kinds of exercise I'll be getting starting tomorrow. Enjoy.

Oh and don't forget to throw up on yourself when there are approximately 1 minutes and 56 seconds left. And please turn off my music on the sidebar before you start this insanity.

That is all.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Perfect Miles

I was playing around in Photoshop today and found this picture of Miles. I wanted to make something out of it, so here ya go. 15 minutes of Digiscrappin sure beats cutting and glueing, am I right or am I right?!?! (click to see it large)


Eric T, Eliza, Ashohlee etc.





Fo Yo Safety

here is the destruction of Eliza's house. click to see them larger!






Thursday, October 25, 2007

The Best Moments Are The Ones That Aren't Posed

my beautiful sister Eliza, she welcomed us into her home last weekend. we shot somewhere around 500 pictures each day. these are a few of my favorites from our lazy sunday afternoon with them.







Updates

This is where you go for updates, in case you wondered. From what Mike's dad says (He's in Tennessee) they only update the rest of the country on San Diego and Los Angeles and Orange County since nobody really knows what San Bernardino and the surrounding little towns even are. We're the San Bernardino County Slide Fire. As of right now, we are 0% contained. 3 days ago we were glad we weren't in San Diego, but today we wish we were down there. While every other fire area is sending their evacuees home, our area is getting rid of everyone. Mike's mom is gone, and she lives less than 4 miles from our house. We'll either be at Tori's or at a hotel most likely. We're leaving right now to get to cleaner air, poor Jonah can't even breathe and Harper is sneezing black and coughing. All of us have sore throats so we're outta here for the day. Mike's not working because they sent him to be with his family as soon as they heard about the evac's this morning. Anyway, I'll talk to you all later.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Leavin

They've closed all of our schools. Fun times.

I've Been Tagged!!!

My friend Amber tagged me over the weekend, but I was in Utah, then we came home to fires so I've not responded very quickly! I really have no excuse since I came home yesterday because she lives right by us and she's dealing with this smoke and fire too! Anyway, she's so cute and she looks 15 and she has the cutest 3 kids and this is a picture of her and Mike her husband at a BYU game recently! Go say hi, her blog's right here.






#1. rules of the game must be posted at the beginning.

#2. each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.

#3. at the end of the post, the player then tags six people and posts their names, then go to their blogs and leave them a comment letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

6 THINGS ABOUT ME:

1. I write. I write almost daily, and I'd bet if I tallied up all of my writing, I'd have probably 50,000 pages per year. It's theraputic. I also participate in NaNoWriMo for the last 5 years.

2. I can hang out with my kids and husband for hours and not get sick of them. They make me happy, and it's hard for us to classify and set aside "family" time, when all we really do is have family time.

3. I take pictures every single day, and I spend about an hour every night editing and playing with them, just so I can stick them in a file online and never look at them again.

4. I love to cook, and invent new recipes almost every time I step into the kitchen. I am self conscious about it, and only my family gets to usually taste them. My mom and sisters are the same way. We're born eaters/chefs.

5. I have a deep love for the ocean, the mountains, nature in general. I feel more connected to the earth sometimes than I do to people...I think that's weird.

6. I sing in the car non-stop. Everyone who rides with me can attest to that. Also, I love Sufjan Stevens' Illinois album like nobody's business.

I tagged: Eliza, Ashley, Tori, Kj, Lydia and Mandy

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Earth, Wind and Fire

Yesterday Eliza's kitchen ceiling had to be torn out to dry because of a leak. We thought our brush with destruction was over, so after making sure they'd be settled and ok, we left. We heard about the fires at home, but had no idea of the degree to which it stood. We got to Vegas and heard that I15 was closed at around 9:30ish, and called my parents on a couple of their phone numbers, but they were busy, so we took our chances and kept on trucking. As soon as we got to Barstow, there were emergency signs everywhere, and at 1 am we ended up getting a hotel room for our family. They were PACKED, and charging 3 times their normal rates for their rooms, just because they could. Karma people...karma.



Anyway, all night we listened to the news and as soon as we heard the pass opened up for a minute, we threw everyone in the car and headed down to our home. We were pretty much the only people heading down there, the freeways were PACKED with people fleeing to safety. My brother and his wife said they were going to Las Vegas because of the fires in San Diego and although their house wasn't in danger, they wanted to get out just to avoid the smoke and craziness. As we pulled closer to our house, we were absolutely shocked. The sky was dark, the wind was gusting to 70 mph and since we live on the bench of the mountain where a large part of the fires is, it literally looked like night time. The smoke is so thick here, it's burning all of our throats. We've been watching the news while the power is flickering off and on, and we're just waiting to figure out what we're doing. I think we'll stay as long as we can, just because we don't want to pay again for hotel rooms for the next however many days, so we'll see! They've just announced a mandatory evacuation for the town that is about 6 miles from our house, so we'll see. Here are some pics from our house for you, and I just wanted to tell everyone who has called and checked on us "thank you". Your concern means more than you know!

Mike, Alli and the kids


Here are some pics from our house so you can see what it looks like. Scary!

Update 2: The Running Springs Fire which is about 5 minutes from our house has just been declared zero percent contained, and Govenor Schwarzenegger just had a live briefing from there ordering evacuations. It is so crazy here. Oh and Mackenzie has been in her room reading the Twilight books, and when her grandma from Utah called, she told them she didn't think there were any fires around us. 10 minutes after she got off the phone with them, she found out that while she was in her room reading all afternoon, they evacuated Mike's mom who lives 3.5 miles from our house. Tiffany and Mike and I were like "what?!? Why did you say that? Are you serious? What do you think those clouds are?" and she said "Rain clouds?" Wouldn't that be nice? Good thing she's not in charge of keeping watch on our family's safety, no?



Friday, October 19, 2007

What I'll be looking at for the next 8 hours



Maybe me, Liza, Ash, Em and KJ will do a 5 girl blog post togevah tomorrow... Peace out!



P.S. For your enjoyment while we're gone...A CAT TRYING TO ESCAPE. Play this. It's tooootally better than solitare, but not quite as good as Zuma. Party down mah peepz.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

I Personally Believe

that tomorrow is going to be a reaaaaaally long day. Ash? Em? You girls free up your saturday or sunday. Call Eliza and get a plan rollin. Kissy? Call me in the morning, I gots news. Eliza? Call me in the morning too because I personally believe that the I-15 is going to be crazy and such as between Victorville and Vegas because! that some U.S. American drivers out there are unable to do so, because like, such as they don't have maps. Maybe they should get education from South Africa and the Iraq everywhere! like such as, about how to drive more so we may build up our future for our children.

Oh and look at these big huge windmills on the drive from here to Palm Springs. They are hugundous. I took this at dusk last week. Click on it to see it larger.









...she gone!

I Hope You Have A Comfortable Chair

Some days I wake up thinking "today is going to be so productive!!!" There are times when I'm so energized the second I get up, and then throughout the day, I continue this path and it seems like I can get everything done that I want to. Other days, as I'm sure you all experience, I wake up and nothing seems to work out. Everything seems harder to do, the normal duties and chores seem neverending and enormous, and it's those days that I find myself feeling inadequate and sad.

It's so true what they say about keeping a hymn in your mind, and it's crazy how that works, but some days it just won't do. There are a million blessings in my life, and I'm greatful every second for them...but there is one situation going on in our lives that impacts all of us...and our kids...and it's this situation that has me on my knees almost constantly lately.

Frustrated isn't even a good enough word to describe how I'm feeling right now. I know my sister Mandy is without her husband all the time while he goes to school, and he goes because he's an incredible husband who wants to provide for his family for the rest of their lives. Then my other sister Eliza. Her amazing husband went to school for what seemed like decades while she raised their tiny boys in a home without seeing her husband for days at a time while he worked for his education. Then you look at my dad. I remember when he would be working nights for our family. I remember the days when he was in school...little as I was...and how my mom took care of us in our little apartment while I'm certain now it was so difficult for her to go without seeing my dad quite often enough. Then I look at my husband now. He gets up every morning to take Tiffany to seminary while I get the other kids ready for school, then he works an 8-6 job, driving 2 hours per day, and he comes home and works side by side with me as we both spend our "mom and dad" time after the kids go to bed, silently working on jobs so we can support our family. He doesn't complain, and he's appreciative and supportive of my new venture because he believes in me, and because he knows it's what I love doing. Also, he knows it lets me be home with our kids while I set my own schedule.

It's these men, Curtis, Taylor, Michael, my dad, Uncle Paul, Randy, Richard, Kevin...all these guys. They work so hard for their families. They work so hard for their children. They'd all love to live in Hawaii, or Alaska, or wherever, but they live where they can earn a living for their families. Mike and I love California, boy do we ever, but we're now thinking we need to move where we can comfortably support our family, while still leaving us enough time to spend good time with our kids and eachother.

It's a crazy time in our lives, and circumstances led us to move to California. We love it here, we love our ward, we love our house, we love our neighborhood. The Lord wanted us here, and we came. It has been the absolute best thing to happen to me, personally. My testimony that was shaken to it's foundation in the 3 years preceeding the move, is rock solid. I've always known what I believed. I've always known it as truth. Always. But my faith has been weak. Time after time, I would have to stand in the face of evil, or adversity and keep my mouth shut...almost always repeating my mom and dad's words "Always take the high road" and "The truth will come out eventually" to myself. I'm not a girl of very few words (obviously) and can I tell you how hard it was, and continues to be, to just keep my mouth shut...and to take the high road...and to wait for the truth to come out? Well, all this time I thought I had no faith, but what I realized recently is that me believing those words of my parents, me telling myself those things repeatedly, that was faith. So I DO have faith? Is this what I'm finding out here? Is this what these tests are about? Faith?

Alma said "If ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true" (Alma 32:21).

So now I look at this situation a bit differently. I know the truth here. The Lord does too. All the yip yappin, and smack talkin, and garbage and hate filled words that are said...these things aren't true. Yes, annoying and painful at times (when they affect my babies), and obnoxious and ugly...but untrue. I know that the times I've opened my mouth to say hurtful things in my life, it seems like from that point on, I feel angry, and I feel like striking out, and I feel myself trying to convince myself that I'm right, or that I'm better than somebody just to make up for the feeling of worthlessness you get from gossip or hate or angry words. That feeling is awful. That feeling is painful. I don't want to ever feel like that again.

I want to believe, or have faith that the Lord is just. I believe that He has a plan for all of us, and if I'm living every minute trying to be as faithful as I can be, then it will all work out.

In this situation I'm in now, it's been going on for almost 2 years. I made a promise to my parents that I wouldn't feed the fire. At the beginning, I slipped a tiny bit and fought back, but for the last year+, I have said not a single word. Let me tell you, the gall and spite and anger out of these other people has not died off as you'd think would happen, and this is part of what has made my faith waiver a bit. I know that this is normal, if faith was easy, it wouldn't be so valuable. My mouth still remains shut, and my sisters and parents occasionally hear me gripe for a second, but never will I speak to these people with anger. It's a habit now, and it has gotten easier. I don't even have to try now, and I've learned how to easily block it out. It's almost like a gnat buzzing in my ear, and although it's apparent, it's easily shooed away.

I guess on these days when I'm discouraged like this, I have to remember that I can't force people to do things. I can't expect someone to do the right thing, I can only make sure I do. Mike and I are really working through some tough decisions right now, and it's been so distracting, we haven't even been watching TV! You heard me right. It's like we work til midnight, then go up to watch our dvr'd shows...and we end up mapping out a plan, writing out pros and cons to things, praying together, crying and laughing. It's an emotional ride we're on right now, but I'm greatful to have him to sit next to right now.

Big changes for our family soon. Ones we don't want to make...but ones we have to make. We can't ignore the answers to prayer anymore...

...all I can say is I LOVE THE STINKIN BEACH AND LIVING BY DISNEYLAND! Grrrr!!!!!!!!!

ok so thanks for listening. You all are my sounding boards (I almost typed boreds...haha how a propos no?) and I love you all. I promise, the next post will be joyous. Oh and here's a picture of Harper saying "oh no!" 215413 times when he'd get squirted by the water fountains at the park the other day. I want to eat his little face off.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

What'chall Think O'Dis?




My awesome husband designed these logos for my pitcher takin' bizniss. Yay? Nay? I loves them. (click on them to see them clearly. Blogger is craptastic with photo uploadin')

Dangit, and you know with our love for Bjork in this house, I had to show you this too!!!



....she gone!!!

What's The Haps???

So, Eliza and Curtis and their kids will be here for the fall trip in lets see...25 days! All of the kids are so excited, Jonah has already picked out his clothes for the trip and Casey has started to gather his favorite books and movies to take with us. Kenzie can hardly contain herself and all she does is ask how many days are left and Tiffany already packed a special bag with stuff to play with all the little cousins (Miles, Dylan, Derek, Isaac) and Harper since the "big boys" (Jonah, Riley, Casey and Jackson, Isaac?) will be doing their own boy thing as usual. I'm excited to see Liza and her skinny bum and Mandy will be coming up, Mike is thrilled to have Curtis to jam on the Guitar Hero 3 with, and if we can get Kjersten, Kevin, Spencer and Oli to drive down from Kaysville...then we're almost ready to party. Mom and Dad, Leslie and Blair will be here, and now let me work on the other peeps. Lydia, Ashley...GET SUSAN AND PAUL TO COME! Eric! Bree! Ryan! All y'all Nelsons...come on! So far the count is 6 families, and just like in May when you girls all came down and partied with Mike and I...we're planning on this being just as fun if not more. So come on!

Ok, so what is going on for Thanksgiving? I know Mandy and Tay are staying here, and we're planning on staying here because we're all broke like brokeback. Are you all going to Vegas? Is it a Livingston year? Fill me in.

Anyway, here's a little somethin for ya, Andy Punches - A Digital Short by Andy Samberg.



...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand...CUT!

Saturday, October 13, 2007

71 days, 21 hours, 41 minutes

Til' Christmas. We've been listening to Bing Crosby albums already and the kids were begging us to start a fire, so last night we started one and ate pie and listened to Amy Grant. A little early? Not at all, especially when you watch this joyous celebration... KICK THE BALLISTICS SANTA CLAUS!!!




...you're welcome Eliza.

Friday, October 12, 2007

The Brown Family

I shot the most gorgeous family this morning. The mom's name is Allison, spelled just like mine...and she is the graphic designer who designed the Sons Of Provo cd and all the graphics included in it. Also, the cartoons at the beginning of the movie? That was her. Her husbands cousin is Will Swensen. Anyway, here are a few of her kids, Jacen (3.5), Kate(2) and baby Clark(1 month). (Clark as in Clark Kent, hence the Superman poses) Kate was pouting at the beginning, but after almost 3 hours...yes you heard me right...3 hours, she finally gave in and smiled. Click the images to see them more clearly.














Thursday, October 11, 2007


Check out this TNMT poodle. Sweet.

Went to DCA today...got a good workout in

Um, did you know there's a Disney Fan Weightloss support group?

Yep.

Also, there are articles of people who just started going to Disneyland 4 times per week, and walking from Tomorrowland to Splash Mountain 10 times back and forth and they lose like 30 lbs in 2 months. Yeah babe, you know what I'll be doing every Mon, Wed, Thurs and Fri.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

rappy ralloween!

I'm thinking about halloween today, and getting Mike to dress up is my goal this year. Any ideas on costumes for him?

How bout a pirate? See how this pirate boy is floating on air? He can wear a gauzy open collared shirt like this one:



Or how about a baby costume? He's a big boy, so the juxtaposition of big mike with jammies on may be just what I'm looking for:


Whoa, is that Steve-O?

Maybe he should be the Phantom, and sing like Will Farrell did on Dave Letterman:



Got any idears?

Herro

Last night I drove out to Palm Springs for the premiere of Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Since Mike works for a big fat newspaper, they give away tickets about every 2 weeks to movies that the radio station also gives away as prize packs. Anyway, we've gone to a few of these lately, and usually it's a rowdy croud, people who did crazy stuff to win tickets on the radio, tshirts being thrown around etc...but last night...the crowd was predominantly 65+. I understand that as it's a period piece, and the subject matter is fairly if not entirely historically based.

Anyway, let me tell you, this movie was absolutely fascinating. I'd not seen the first Elizabeth movie starring Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush(1998) and although I did know what story was going to be told, it still was exciting and put you at the edge of your seat. The visuals were inCREDIBLE. When the Spanish Armada came to the shore of England, and there were all these ships in the middle of the night just looming in the distance, the clouds were hovering, the wind blowing and the sound was reminiscent of the cannon scene on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and as they panned out and you saw Elizabeth in her armor...it was breathtaking. Plus, Clive Owen is one tall drink of water, mmhmm! And you know how I loves me the tall boys...(6'3" to be exact)



I'm one of those people who don't claim to be a history buff, but each and every time I read a historical novel, or watch some movie based on deep history, I always seem to shock myself at how much I love it! I will freely admit I love the History Channel, and probably DVR 3-5 shows on there a week, but something deep inside me won't let me allow myself to say that "Hi, I'm Allison, and I'm a history addict!" But I digress!!! (as usual!)

So anyway, after the movie was over, it took seriously 10 minutes to get out of the movie theater because people were gathering their walkers etc. (I kid you not) and wheel chairs. Afterward, we went to the Kaiser Grill again on the Palm Springs "strip" and ate outside on the patio. Oh and our server looked like Goldie Hawn circa 1975 Laugh In days. So much so that when I said to her "You look like somebody...do people tell you that?" she laughed and said "Yes, Kate Hudson?" and I said to her "Yes, but moreso Goldie Hawn than Kate. As a matter of fact, you look more like Goldie than Kate does" and she really really did. Oh and her name was Helen...and she was probably 28. She was adorable.


Anyway, I went to the DI, and some thrift stores with Tiffany, and we've been taking pictures of her in old bridesmaid dresses etc. for my portfolio, and here's one of her that we took yesterday afternoon. Here are the rest, if you're interested.


Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Been To Dunder Mifflin Infinity dot com yet? Since Ryan is the big bossman now, you'll know from watching last week's episode that Dunder Mifflin has a new website! (not to mention how they're all sporting new Blackberrys now hiphip!)








The Jordans' Cute Little Family



Tonight I went and shot a session with a couple from our ward. They're good friends of ours and we had so much fun. This is their new baby Mariah, she's 1 month old yesterday. I shot 444 pictures exactly, and here are a few that came out of it. There are tons more, but I don't want to bore ya. Oh and click them to see them a little bit better. (and yes...her hair really is that red! She gets it from her mama)












For more, go visit my online portfolio while these ones are still up!