Rival

My sister and her family came to visit us from Seattle. We did lots of fun things like swimming, Thanksgiving Point, Pirate Island, etc. When we went to the Bean museum the kids each picked out a toy and my little nephew picked out a husky dog while we were at a BYU museum. Seriously, what were they doing selling those anyway? He named the dog Jake Locker. (UW quarterback, playing against BYU next Saturday) Everything he talked about from then on involved Jake Locker. "Jake Locker and I are going wrestle uncle Paul" "Calvin keeps taking Jake Locker" It was really funny. When Calvin gets older there will be some rivalry there because Calvin definitely wanted to buy the BYU helmet from the museum (it was just a decoration). In the meantime, they let their dad's battle it out.

Deluxe Park

It turns out where we live is pretty awesome. We moved here because we found the perfect house for us. (perfect, as in decently awesome and massively cheap) The longer we live here the more we discover cool things that make it even better. We love the bike trail that takes you over to a beautiful river and park. They have yearly parties like fiesta days, and a fair. And there are rumors that one day we will have a Home Depot, Chili's and even a Target.
On Saturday we went to this amazing park grand opening. Free carousel, pony rides, face painting, balloons, barrel rides, hot dogs, snow cones, more and more food, frisbees, live music, not to mention the amazing park they built. This place has different age level sections and unique toys and fun designs. There's also a splash park area, which was a highlight for Calvin. At first he said he wasn't going to get wet, but I knew as soon as he was by the water he wouldn't be able to resist. He was soaking wet in no time. I'm pretty sure this is our new hang out. If only the carousel would always be there.

Simple Gardening

My strategy for gardening this year involving buying a few packets of seeds at the store and throwing them in a dirt patch one day. The soil didn't look very promising, I didn't bother with weeding and I followed the instructions on the packets only if they were simple enough. The sprinklers were in charge of watering. I figure next year I can put some time into more preparation, research & maintenance.
My strategy hasn't gone too bad. There are no peas in sight whatsoever, and carrots have only grown in one small area, but the pumpkins are flourishing like crazy. There is one already big enough to carve, but really green. I'm guessing by the end of October it will be huge and orange. I can't wait. The weeds are also huge and have done really well.

30 going on 13

I've never been really into make-up. Not because I didn't like it, but I was intimidated that I would put it on wrong. Once I was approaching my mid 20's I started realizing it really wasn't that hard. Yeah, kind of a slow starter. But then I realized it was such a pain to get off, especially eye make-up, I didn't want to bother with it. I think I tried one make-up remover that was really soapy and I wasn't a fan, water involves so much scrubbing I saved make-up for only certain days.
I recently tried a new make-up remover that is so easy, quick and zero scrubbing. One cotton ball, a simple swipe and I'm ready to hit the pillow. Love it. I feel a new freedom like I can wear as much eye make-up as I want without the pain of taking it off. Now you'll understand if you see me and I look like this:

Comedian

Calvin learned his first joke last week. He repeats it several times a day to whoever will respond. It goes like this:

Calvin: "Knock, knock"

Me: "Who's there?"

Calvin: "Hahaha!"

And really, even though the joke makes no sense, it's still hilarious just because he's laughing. (0r fake laughing, depending on how times in a row he just told the joke.)

Expired

We post poned registering our car for awhile because we didn't want to spend a bunch of money to get it pass. Four months go by and we are finally taking care of it. Of course, the day I have an appointment to take care of the last item I got pulled over. So I handed the police officer my driver's license which he informed me expired 3 days prior. oops. Then I had him my insurance cards, which were also expired. (the new cards sitting in the kitchen hadn't made it all the way to the cars yet) I felt a little silly having expired tabs, license and insurance cards. However, he was pretty nice about it considering he could have impounded my car and let me go with a $30 ticket for the expired registration.
Fast forward 5 days later and I am pulled over AGAIN. Our city is a little too efficient. And we live just a few blocks from the police station, that's not a good idea. This time I was in our other car, which had a broken headlight. He was impressed that I had my insurance card right on top, ready to go. He joked that I must have been pulled over recently. yep. Luckily that citation won't cost me anything (besides the repair) and I can take care of both the same day when I go into court to turn in the paperwork. How convenient.