CARD SWAP

Does anyone want to do a card swap? Don't know what a card swap is? Look HERE, but basically you make X amount of the same homemade card (depending on how many people want to do it), then you mail it to me. I reorganize everything so that everybody gets one of each card and then mail you back a fabulous package of homemade cards.You don't have to be a pro. Anyway, I tried to do one at papercrafts, but there aren't many swaps going on right now so figured we could just do one. So, if you want to participate, just leave a comment to this post with your name on it. Once I have a list of at least 5 participants, I will contact you via this blog (and your e-mail if I have it) to let you know when and where to send your cards. THIS IS GOING TO BE SO FUN. p.s. anyone can do it- even if I don't know who the heck you are.

If I had $159,900.00 laying around

THIS IS MY FIRST TROPICAL SNOW of the season!!!!!!!! I LOOOOVE Tropical Snow (not to be confused with other, lesser calibers of shaved ice). I have been waiting for a TS booth to open up since the big store downtown closed shop about 17 years ago.

I start work on Monday so summer is quite quickly fading away into 9 months of torture. Drat. This week we actually didn't go to Lake Powell, which is quite rare. Instead, we stayed home and played with Q's sister and kids. Here are some fun pics of all the action.

These pics are at our pool (you too could be enjoying this lush landscape if you rented our condo). The cute little chic-a-dee in the yellow swim suit just may convince me to have a kid. I think she's sold Quinn on the idea too. (Speaking of Q- he is SOOOO cute!)

Twenty 5 Main cupcakes 2 days in a row!!!! I'm so addicted. You HAVE to try these if you haven't already, they are better than Magnolia in New York. My fave: Chocolate-chocolate and vanilla w/raspberry frosting. Yum. I think I'll go back today for the third time in a row.

At grandma Hadley's. Why did we not get pics of the lathered-up slip 'n slide??

Mal (yellow chic-a-dee) always dances before she jumps into the pool. See for yourself... if you're one of those "kid" people.

In other happenings: Do to the intense response to my lack of flossing, I have decided to give it a try. This is big because flossing really freaks me out! I HATE the feeling of it... Doesn't it make sense not to floss- I mean, the tighter your teeth are, the less stuff gets stuck in there right? Anyway, I hate it. I"m on day 4 and so far it's the worst feeling ever and my teeth haven't felt the same since. PS: I've never had a cavity.

Other clarification: I like some kids. But I'm definately not one of those people who can stand the high pitched speak-to-kids-with voice and lives to baby sit. When we taught primary (which was like a decade), I'd be the only teacher in there wondering why everyone else was shedding buckets because little Johnny Smith sang like a sparrow.

Dream lot of the month- 1.26 acres (what? That exists in St. George?), only 159,9......

Top 20 Pet Peeves

No Particular Order

1. WET SOCK - you know, when you get all ready for the day and you go back in the bathroom to brush your teeth or something and you get your socks wet from when you showered. Enough to ruin your whole day!

2. When people put the toilet paper on the thingy upside down so it doesn't come over the top and you have to pull from underneath

3. When the paper towel dispenser is too high on the wall so when you wash your hands and go to get paper to dry, the water runs down your arm under your sleeve and gets your arm all wet.

I promise, all of them aren't bathroom related

4. STICKY FORK - when you're eating waffles or pancakes and your fork handle slides down into the syrup. You can't lick it off cause you have syrup in your mouth and it stays sticky. Not only do you have to get a new fork, you have to wash your hands

5. GAY PUBLIC AFFECTION - let's keep it indoors

6. St. GEORGE RESTAURANTS - I go out to lunch like every day so I am getting tired of the selection. After living in New York, every restaurant sucks! I just can't find anything to satisfy the palate. Everything is fake, microwave foods. I need home made, authentic stuff don't you?
I just wish I could get some REAL pizza, chinese, thai, or italian.

7. PLAYS AND MUSICALS - I mean, come on! Who talks like that?? Who just breaks into song mid sentence?? When I'm talking to someone, I don't suddenly feel the need to jump up on a little stool and start singing. Have you seen the over exagerated faces they make?

8. CHRISTIAN ROCK - just don't like it

9. St. GEORGE RADIO STATIONS - half of them consist of #8 above. I can't stand most of the dj's. John and Dave, now they're funny. But Marty Lane, and Karl LaMar... come on guys! and Devin Dixon, nobody cares what you have to say ok, so just keep throwing out T-Shirts at the Roadrunner games and leave the Sports talk to the big boys from ESPN Radio, um k pumpkin.

10. GUYS WITH BIG JACKED UP TRUCKS OR LOW RIDER CARS - whats the mentality here?
They think they look so cool driving around in those trucks but look so stupid. Somebody needs to tell them that putting a visor on the mirror was cool in the 90's.

11. When people get on the On-Ramp going 45 - come on, don't you know you're getting on the freeway? The freeway between bluff and bloomington is the worst. People know they're getting off soon so they go 45 the whole time. Also, hate old drivers, (and old people in the buffet line.)

12. ROLLS OF CLEAR TAPE - when the end sticks to the roll and you can't find it, then when you do, you can't get it unstuck

13. CD'S AND DVD'S THAT SKIP - this one's pretty self-explanatory

14. FANTASY MOVIES - ie. Harry Potter, The Lion witch and the wardrobe, etc...

15. KITTEN AND PUPPY E-MAILS - oh, look at the soaking wet kitty crawling out the top of boot.... how cute.

16. GUYS WITH EAR RINGS - your 13 yr. old sister called... she wants her ear rings back. It looks so stupid. Especially the loops with the little ball in the middle. The worst is when old dudes have them. I mean, come on... you're way past the "I'm 16 and mad at my dad stage" grow up!

17. ERECTYLE DYSFUNCTION COMMERCIALS - a bunch of guys sitting around singing songs about their little health issue. There on like every 5 seconds.

18. SACRAMENT TALKS IN THE RECENTLY MARRIED COLLEGE WARD - their all the same. First, the wife gets up and introduces themselves and how they met in math class their junior year and how she sorda waited for him on his mission and how when he got back, they hung out together a few times but that he actually liked her best friend but the eventually ended up together and got married and are now expecting. Then, the husband gets up and says "ok, now let me tell you my side of the story"... then goes on to tell how he didn't really like the best friend, he just did it to get close to her bla bla bla... their all so cheezy and all so the same.

19. NATIONAL NEWS SHOWS - hate guys like Keith Olberman, Wolf Blitzer, Jack Cafferty, Lou Dobbs etc.... I also hate all the news stations. The anchors ask the most stupid questions to people they are interviewing. And, how does some of that stuff even make the national news? "today a storm blew threw Iown and broke a few trees." how is that news?

20. LIBERALS AND ENVIORNMENTALISTS - especially the ones trying to screw with the gun laws. How is that even up for debate? It's a constitutional right. For some reason, people can say or do whatever they want no matter how crude it is and it's okay because hey, free speach is a constitutional right but if someone has a gun it's not. And I'll stop right there before this turns into a rant.

The Rest of the Story

So, here's the rest of the story of the hike that we just went on. Sorry, I know you are all probably sick of hearing about it but this is pretty good.

With about 5 minutes left to the parking lot, we ran into this lady walking her dog up the trail. We talked a bit about how her daughters live in New York and she just got back from visiting them. Then, she asked me if she could get back to the reservoir the way she was going because her husband was fishing there. I told her that she could and to just keep going until the trail splits off to the left but to watch for it because it was a little hard to see. I told her that she was pretty far away though and that she would probably be better off just going back out to the main road and walk back. She said she would keep going for another 20 min. or so and then turn around if she couldn't see where the trail splits off. Then right before we split up, she said, "if you hear of a lady that is missing, tell search and rescue you saw me here." We had a little laugh, said our good bye and kept going.

The next morning in church at the PV Branch, the Branch President got up and said, "as you all know, search and rescue was up here last night looking for a woman. You'll be glad to know that they found her at 9 a.m. this morning". Me and Nicole just looked at each other and started to laugh wondering if it was the same lady. The next day at work I was telling all of the guys the story and one of the secretaries over heard me and said that her husband was part of the search and rescue team that went up there and that it was a lady walking her dog that said that she ran into a couple that told her to turn left and she never saw where to turn so she just kept going. So... She spent the entire night, just her and her dog with no food or water in the rain. Can you beleive it? Kinda sad but a little bit funny. Sorry Lady!

If I had a kid...

I would make this cute shortall out of Quinn's old dress shirts. To see all, go here: Sugar City Journal

...AND, if I still lived in Manhattan, I would want my life to look like THIS!

FURTHERMORE... If I got to be stay at home mom, I would watch THIS (MY FAVORITE SHOW EVER) every single day of the week.

I'm so doing the CARD SWAP

Life's not perfect, so why should blogs be???

 

Nothing like another Stirland family show!  This time we drove back to Kanab from Lake Powell to help out Kari and Uncle Kort with some extra numbers.  I totally gave Kari the wrong instructions for the Riverdance though.  oops (sorry).  She did great none-the-less.  She's got more talent in her right pinkie than most people acquire over the course of a lifetime.   Yes, there was a Rewind stop.  To bad we left the shrimp skewer left-overs in the car and they ruminated in the 100+ degree heat the next day so that when we drove home at midnight, there was a less-then pleasant aroma to help keep us awake.

3 reasons you might want to reconsider our friendship:

#1: I don't floss (...I know)

#2: I don't like kids (again...I know)

#3: I'm extremely uptight (this, you already know)

My Side of the Mountain/Story

For the record...

All summer long... no, let's go back further- all year long Quinn and I have wanted to take off for the weekend and spend some time together.  We both live so close to family and friends that it seems it is never just the two of us.  We finally picked this last weekend for the big trip... but there was a hitch.  Quinn got two speeding tickets and we ran out of money.  No problemo, we decided, we can still accomplish weekend-de-la-rekindle-the-relationship by heading up to the cabin for free.  I had really been looking forward to alone time with Q because A) it's hard to

 come by: everyone and their dog loves him, and 

2) we needed it because things have been rocky lately and we haven't been connecting. You can understand my surprise, then, when I mention that the day we were leaving, Q called and said he had invited his friends up for the night on Saturday.  Heck ya I was mad!  It was our weekend alone, one we had been planning for months, we needed it, and suddenly he's got the masses coming.  Setting the record straight:  I love Quinn's friends, they're great, and we do need to get them up to the cabin so they can become my friends too, but this was one

 weekend Q had agreed to supress his inner social butterfly.  What could I do?  I decided to put my foot down and retain my romantic weekend with 

Quinnihana.  I made him call his friends back and cancel, I told him to blame it on me, which is fine.  I need space anyway and I think his friends already think I'm weird (which is true... I have issues).  So, story out and about- sorry to everyone who thinks I put a kebash on their plans for nothing.  The last time I got away with just Quinn and only Quinn was so long ago I can't even remember it. We really needed it.

Now, for those who will feel better to know that it was

 a pretty miserable experience, here goes:  

We fought pretty much 

the whole time because I feel the inner need to converse and Q sees no reason for conversation for the sake of conversation.  Also, I had another one of my bi-monthly meltdowns over finances. On top of that, we hiked Pine Valley Mountain and it was wretched.  We've done it twice before but this time it KILLED us!  17 miles up B

rowns, across Summit, and down Forsythe.  I don't know if it was the humidity or what b

ut my heavy panting and lung-gasping for air never did quite level out.  It was torture and somehow I, a 28 year old tap teacher, managed to throw out a hip

and couldn't sleep all night.  Sheesh!  They must have added a few miles and several switchbacks since last we hiked the mountain.

Quinn literally collapsed more than once on the trail and I started swearing at the 15 mile mark. At one point I was so delusional that I swore I was being stocked by a mountain lion and yelled for Quinn to "WAIT UP" for half an hour.

The good news is that it's been raining up there so the trail was unrecognizably green and we actually belined straight to the Forsythe

 trailhead down in the flats (which has never happened)!  

The avalanche is still very visible and we met some interesting cowboys up in the meadows.  Because it had been so stressful and excrutiatingly painful, we treated ourselves to Brandin' Iron when we made it down... Not quite the splurge, we stuck to beans, salad, and bread in lou of the budget.  

So, I apologize for canceling Quinn's impromtu party that he never told me about until the day we were leaving on our romantic get-away.  If you don't hate us, please come to the cabin next month.  We are planning a big bash and you're all invited... even if you hate me.

Flat-Calf-Metcalf

They don't call me Flat-Calf-Metcalf for nothing!

A few of you know the story about how my leg almost got chopped off and my entire calf muscle was flattened and fell into my ankle.  Well, it still hasn't completely made its way up and it's been nearly 10 years.  I guess I'm stuck with the deformity for a while.  Man that hurt.  My leg was black from the knee down for a few months.  Then there was the incident of the therapist not knowing about the calf part and suddenly pulling my panted leg straight in one gigantic force.  It was all I could do to keep from passing out.  When she realized she'd just about killed me and discovered it wasn't just a crushed ankle injury, she felt bad and gave me some shock treatment.  The worst part is that I still don't have enough flexibility in my ankle to do heel walks for more than 4 counts and that's starting to effect my abilities in advanced tap. Bummer. Well, thought I'd explain since you can really see my flat calf in this pic.

..And some more family pics for posterity (No, we are NOT expecting any posterity.  Five-year plan still in effect):

Word

Erika took some family pics for us last week.  It was great to see her again... but I still can't believe she is naming her kid that!  She is an amazing photographer.  Check her work out at Yellow Pear Photography.  I'll try and post some more later.  They turned out great... except I didn't really have anything black and white so I ended up having to wear this thing (ug). I tried to make up for it by wearing the beads I backpacked across Morocco to get back to Spain last summer.

I have just finished reading two autobiographies- Elissa Wall and Carolyn Jessop's accounts of growing up in the polygamous community ultimately controlled by Warren Jeffs.  Hello!!! Why was I just sitting here doing nothing when all that time these women needed desperate help?!?!?!  I have been so moved that I am calling Tapestry to volunteer.  The books are pretty graphic so beware if you're going to read them.  When Carolyn got to the part about animal sacrifice (the slow way) in front of children, I had to take a break.  The books are:  Stolen Innocence (watch the video at this website) and Escape.  Soooo sad.   Contact Tapestry to volunteer:  exwives@polygamy.org

I called the raspberry company that supplies Costco to tell them how delightful their product was last night.  They are sending me a bunch of coupons for free raspberries.  This type of thing has happened to me before involving an incident where I received a new pair of panty hose, free of charge, in the mail.  I should do this more often.

I LOVE David Cook... and Michael Johns!!!

Seriously, I need to stop going to concerts.  It happened with Josh Groban.  Sure, he could sing... but the infatuation didn't begin until I saw him in Vegas.  Honestly, it's never been this bad though.  There is something about David Cook and Michael John when they sing.  I seem to lose all sense of my age, marital status, and reality.  After the concert I had to tell Megan I couldn't gomeet the idols because I didn't have enough self control. 

Aside from my issues... The concert was amazing!  Mom and I had 

4th row on the floor seats.  I was so close to Archeletta that I could see him swe

at.  And when he cried... I could see the tears.   They were all so good (well, except Ramielle and maybe Chekese).  My fave singer is Carly, though I think more people would appreciate her voice if she stepped out of the 70's in song choice. The crowd was SO insanely loud when 

the local boy hit the stage.  I'll try and post a few video clips so you can get some small idea of just how loud it got in 4th row floor seats.

The whole trip to SLC was great.  I FINALLY got to spend some quality time with my cousins, whom I worship from afar.  Seriously, when we were little, I'd get so excited to see them, I'd have my bags packed for days.  We initially went up for a quack attack.  That is to say a kinesthesiology appointment.  That was pretty crazy.  The guy found out I was suffering from anguish by feeling my arm drop when I put my fingers together.  Demonstrations available.  So he prescribed 40 drops a day of some flower homeopathic.  I'll let you know how it goes.  It takes 6 months to get into to him so it must work.

We also when to "This is the Place" monument and hung out for the day in the pioneer town.  I made an arrowhead necklace and printed a Declaration of Independence.  Matt took us to his favorite dive: El Rey de Oros.  He had to translate.  We took a picture (below) in case we die.  We also went to Gardner Village where I salivated over everything I couldn't buy and picked up the Advent Calendar of my dreams (I've been looking for a wooden one for 5 years!).

Here's that Idol footage I promised... oh- and that crazy mosh pit, we're in it!  Oh ya.

WHY DO I HAVE TO LIVE SO FAR AWAY FROM NEW YORK?

This is going to be a pretty bitter sweet week for me. Over 2 years ago, while we were living in New York, I heard the news that this year's All-Star Game would be at Yankee Stadium. That very day, I vowed that I would be there for it no matter what. Well, it didn't quite work out that way and it just came at a bad time. (ie. 2 tickets and a fender bender) It kills me to hear about it on ESPN radio and although it is going to be cool to watch, starting with tonight's Home Run Derby it's going to be eating me up inside that I'm not at my stadium. I mean, I just can't beleive that I'm not there!!! There was never any doubt that I wouldn't be. I even took the days off like a year ago. I Can't imagine the energy there right now. It's probably buzzing right now. It is the greatest sports city! There is always something going on. I wish I was in the city, getting on the train to go out to the stadium right now! But, I'm not. Instead, I'm at home working. So, now I just need to make sure that I get to one last game this season, preferably the Very Last game. (so far it doesn't look like any post-season.) As of right now, even the bleacher seats are going for over $200 a piece - (Totally worth it!) Can you imagine how much stuff is going to be ripped off from there that last game. I need to get my hands on a sign, dirt, grass, brick.... Anything! The carpet from inside the Club House is going for $10, 000. Don't worry, I do already have the All-Star game shirt and hat. Anyway, Can't wait to see the Mid-Summer Classic but wish I was there!

GREY

I've done it.  I've posted the first chapters of my wretched, awful book online.  It's so bad that I've decided to write it all the way through to the end and then go back and fix the beginning.  Not much help, I know, for those reading the entre vous now.  Just keep in mind that I'm aware of how perfectly cheesy and sophomoric it is.    See GREY here.

West Canyon

We haven't been able to get up very far past Last Chance this year because my mom and dad keep taking the entire world to Powell and there are too many people.  I don't know how they are paying for it, Mom and Dad are SOOO super generous... people sign up for a Metcalf trip like it's going out of style and my parents just try to figure out a time for everyone.  I don't think people realize that gas at Lake Powell is like $1 more then everywhere else... Anyway, that's all I'll say about that.   If you do happen to go to Powell with my parents, they are NOT at all whining or complaining.  They love to share what they have... but my (and only MY suggestion) would be to leave some sort of tip to help out a bit.  This summer season is going to send them to the poor house.  (I repeat- they are not complaining).  Soap box aside:

We were finally able to get up the canyon a bit and hiked West.  Well, most of us hiked West.  Quinn stayed behind to fish with Nick Nield.  The trip didn't go so well for Q.  I'll keep the details simple:  Last week he got a ticket for speeding in the gorge ($55), then he got in a wreck a few days later ($600).  On the way to Powell he got another ticket speeding through a construction zone ($157) after me making him stop at Rewind ($71).  Then when we got to the boat, we discovered that Mark had taken the hitch off and we had to borrow/buy a new one ($?).  The next morning- Quinn lost his beautiful new birthday pole and reel into the deep waters of Navajo Canyon ($80).  Maybe this is why my mind is on finances lately.  For those who think we have it made, be consoled with the fact that we took a pretty hard hit this month and it's not even half over yet.

Check out this amazing hike!  

Below is our hiking crew.  By this time, the boys had gotten bored with fishing and decided to wait for us on the houseboat.  Poor Quinn.  At least he had a nice big bowl of strawberries and cream to console himself.  If you can't get ahold of us in the near future, it's probably because we're taking on extra hours at work to compensate for our weekend of expenditures.