Optical Illusion

I saw this today, and thought it was freaking cool. :)

Regardless of what your brain tells you, the only colors in the following are:

Pink
Orange
Green


Don't believe me? Pull it into Photoshop and see for yourself. I'm totally geeking out over here.

Skinny Grandmas

I was talking the other day with my best friend Carol. She recently had a baby, and has been losing weight and skinny-ing down very nicely as of late. We talked about weight, and how our bodies aren't so inclined to drop it easily, etc.

She was telling me about how she had put on those extra pounds to begin with-- her hubby, nice guy that he is, would bring home all kinds of yummy ice cream for her. And the weight creeped on. And it started me thinking-- my hubby does the same types of things whenever I drop weight. Ice cream. Desserts. Fattening foods.

I am wondering now if there's something unconscious in a guy's brain that wants to fluff up their women a bit.

Women, when they start to reach middle age, begin to plump out naturally. The body is trying to make more fat cells in preparation for menopause (fat cells can convert and send out estrogen to the body).

Then I realized something-- skinny grandmas look weird. Bony grandmas tend to be an anomaly. Grandmas, by nature, should have soft padding for grandbabies to snuggle up to.

Society tells us a different story. Something is wrong with you if you aren't a size 8. Trying to reach that "goal" is probably more harmful to my body than helpful at this point (low estrogen levels suck). It's much better to concentrate on eating healthy and exercising regularly, and allow my body to naturally move to where it wants to be.

So today I am happy to report that the way things are currently headed, I will NOT be a skinny grandma. :)

Overheard

While getting my hair cut yesterday, a little boy (about 3 years old) was there with his daddy, getting his hair cut.

Boy: What's your name?
Hairdresser: Jane.
Boy: Why do you work here?
Hairdresser: I like cutting hair.
Boy: What's your phone number?
Hairdresser: 555-1212.
Boy: 1, 2, what again?
Daddy: Wow, you sure are a nosy boy today!
Boy: (indignant) I am NOT a pussy boy!

(all the adults burst out laughing in the salon)

Daddy: (embarrassed) I promise, he did not learn that at home!

R.I.P. Ed McMahon

Random Tuesday Thoughts

We're back! And very, very tired... so you're gonna get a theme meme about a theme park today.

We all got sucked into the world of Disney pin trading. I got some awesome ones, including a Toy Story Alien, the evil Malificent, and a "Do Not Disturb" door hanger for the Tower of Terror's "The Hollywood Hotel".

Here's the four girls in the theatre, waiting for the stage production of "Aladdin" to start. (And if you are ever in Disneyland/California Adventures, you HAVE to go see this...)


Overheard on the shuttle bus going to Disneyland:
Mom to 2-year old girl: Janie, would you like to come over here and sit by me?
Older sister to 2-year old girl: Don't fall for it!

Ron is 6'2", and still had to stretch to high five Sully. :)

I ran into an old friend from college while at Disneyland! We haven't seen each other in over 15 years. We found out we were both there at the same time because of our FaceBook updates. LOL!

Favorite rides at California Adventures: Tower of Terror and California Screamin'. The latter is probably the smoothest coaster I've ever ridden, and is just plain FUN to ride.

Favorite new ride: Toy Story Midway Mania! in California Adventures.

Favorite rides at Dizzyland: Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Haunted Mansion. I find it rather strange that Splash Mountain, one of the main ride attractions at Disney, is based off a movie you can't even get ("Song of the South"). Go figure.

We also went to the beach for an afternoon. It was Jak and Nikki's first time at the ocean! Doesn't Nikki look like she's having a blast in the waves? :)

A half hour into our long drive home, the check engine light came on. Thankfully, we were traveling back in the afternoon, and found a Jiffy Lube to diagnose the computer code for us. I googled the code on my Blackberry, and we figured out that we needed to tighten our gas cap. Yes, really. I guess if it's not on tight enough, something happens to the emission vacuum positron electron gasitron whoknowsitron thingamajig, causing an air leak. And causes you much stress until you figure out you don't need to worry about it.

Random Tuesday Thoughts

I remember the first time my oldest daughter slept 6 hours at one shot during the night. I woke up in a panic, and had to check to see if she was still breathing.

Unpacking moving boxes is worse than packing them. When you unpack, you find things that make you say, "Why the heck did I pack this in the first place?!?" And you always find crap other than what you’re searching in all the boxes for, even if you do write on the outside of them what’s contained inside…

Yesterday morning, I watched a hot air balloon land in the employee parking lot at work.

I use my mom’s tactic whenever the kids say they’re bored… “Ok, if you’re bored, go clean your room.” “I have some weeding that needs done in the flower bed.” “How would you like to go mow the lawn?” They quickly learn not to whine to me about being bored.

I wish I was independently wealthy so I could travel anywhere in the world, whenever I wanted.

On Saturday, I attended a Utah Blogger Lunch hosted by Kristina. (Thanks, Kristina!) It was a lot of fun meeting new bloggers. I did get to see an old friend, Jen at Steenky Bee. Her hair preceded her up the stairs. It was awesomesauce!

And somewhere in the neighborhood of 3am tonight (tomorrow morning?), we're headed out to sunny southern California to get Disney-fied. See you next week!

38

I’m 38 years old right now.

It’s a good age, I think, old enough to not make the same old mistakes (mostly), and young enough to still have many good years left (to make new mistakes). I have many plans for the future, including going back to school, traveling the world, and holding grandbabies someday.

When I was a young 20, my wonderful brother-in-law was 38. I expect he felt the same way about his life as I do now. However, at 38, he had a major challenge put in front of him-- he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

The last time I saw Don was when the nurse shaved all the hair off his head, in preparation for the surgery to remove the invasive tumor. He never made it off the operating table alive. I would never again see his easy grin, his even easier laugh, and experience his gentle demeanor.

38.

So young.

I received word yesterday that a good friend I worked with for many years had passed away.

She was 38.

After over 10 years of sobriety, she succumbed to her alcohol addiction. Her body could no longer handle the ravages of alcoholism.

The last time I saw Jenny was while she was still sober. She had just finished with her Bachelor’s degree, had lost a significant amount of weight, and was ready to take on the world. I will never receive another hug from her, have her make me laugh until my sides hurt, or see her beautiful smile again.

38.

So young.

Today, I contemplate my 38 years. What have I done with them? What do I want to do with the years I (hopefully) have ahead of me?

Life is short.

Love.
Experience.
Give.
Receive.
Cherish.
Make a difference.
Stop to appreciate the little things.

May we all lead long and interesting lives, full of happiness and good things.

Wordless Wednesday

Random Tuesday Thoughts

My kids used to love to eat broccoli when they were little-- it wasn't until they were older that they learned the true name of the veggie they loved... up until then, they only knew it as "baby trees".

The correct way to hang toilet paper on the roller is with the paper coming OVER the top.

My work wants to turn me into a popsicle. Why on earth do they need to run the air conditioning at 65 freaking degrees??? I’m colder in the summer than I am in the winter.

I lived in a small town in Nevada that had a yearly "Cantaloupe Festival", complete with cantaloupe ice cream and a cantaloupe eating contest. However, it seems that the economy has proven to be near fatal with the festival continuing this year: Festival in Limbo This is bad news, folks…if you’ve ever lived in a small town, you understand the implications of canceling a festival of this magnitude. It’s one of the highlights of the year out in the middle of Nevada! How will people go on?

As a child, I used to be so confused when my parents would talk about how fast time came and went. How fast we were growing up. From my perspective, it was taking FOREVER to get big. Now that I'm a parent, I understand all too well how quickly time flies by. And it seems to get faster every year!

Morning Glory Natural Bridge

Yesterday, I was tagged by Bex over at Adventures of the Grigg Boys. My mission was to go to my picture folder and pick the sixth picture from the sixth folder. In doing so, I found this photo from our camping trip in April:


This is the south-ish side of Morning Glory Natural Bridge near Moab, Utah, looking up from underneath. The full span of this arch is 243 feet, so that gives you an idea of why my camera could only grab part of it as I stood below.

And the other side:
One of these days, I'm gonna get me a fish-eye lens so I can take full length pictures of arches from directly underneath.

I'm supposed to tag six people to do this meme, but as usual, I'm a rebel. If you want to be tagged, go for it. Please leave me a comment if you decide to do it so I can be sure to stop by your place and take a peek.

Mission accomplished!

Wordless Wednesday

Random Tuesday Thoughts

Once, in college, we got an obscene phone call at the house. So my roomie and I grabbed a copy of "The Purity Test" and started reading the questions to him one by one. When we reached the one that read 'Have you ever made an obscene phone call?', he couldn't keep up the heavy breathing anymore and just burst out laughing.

Growing up, the only sports I regularly participated in were clumsiness and sprains. And I was GOOD.

I’ve had the same stupid song stuck in my head for almost two months. I find myself whistling it when I get up in the morning, and catch myself humming it while I work. And even when I get up in the middle of the night to pee, it’s coursing through my brain. What song is it, you ask? It’s the theme song to the animated cartoon television show “Arthur” on PBS. Please, shoot me now.

Few things satisfy like a really good poop.

The Totally Awesome Bakery should NOT be on my way to and from work. It is far too tempting to stop and get a chocolate-chip shortbread cookie made with real butter. They melt in your mouth. And they won’t give me the recipe!

Costco is seriously deadly to my paycheck. It has been my favorite store since I was a kid (I grew up in Washington). I remember when things were packaged in clear plastic bags (no retail packaging) and stacked on folding leg style tables. And when you checked out, there was a “caller” and the cashier. The caller could tell you the inventory numbers of just about everything in the store, too, right off the top of their head. (Anyone else remember those days?)

Once when I was making breakfast, 5 out of 8 of the eggs I cracked had double-yolks. Is that freaky, or what? I should have taken a picture.

Text Message Received

Heehee


(Kayla found a beaded ring at a store and put it to good use!)