the horror (!), our baby dragon, my friend the comedian, GNO, bozo & snow

hey hey hey. YES. i know it has been way over a month since my last post. please don't be hatin on me, sometimes life gets in the way! i really think i need to rethink how i publish entries, instead of doing long ones every now and then i should really do shorter ones once or twice a week. i'm gonna noodle that.

we have been busy busy bees over here. i do NOT know where the past few weeks have gone. it's 2011, peeps - so happy new year (and i hope you had a great thanksgiving  /christmas / holiday season)! i actually have stuff to post about from our mountain trip with the linkers (oopsie, that was in october), our trip to little rock to visit with matt's wonderful family for thanksgiving, our trip to chicago with the kiddos to see the apples - not to mention christmas with tri-cera-tops. GEEZ.

i, at least, have the photos for the posts ready so now i just have to write it. my brain has been fried from all the goings-ons the past few weeks but i am now finding more time as we get back into normal life. i'm starting to feel the creative juices fee-low once again. huzzah!

so this post is about the most recent happenings, i'll go back in time later on for you.

to make up for my lack in posts i am putting up my sophomore photo from high school. i am sure you remember this photo i found (and frantically posted - mwah ha ha) of becce from back in the day. she questioned where all of my awkward photos might be...i promise you i didn't have any at the time but now i do (thanks, grandma). so, in the spirit of full disclosure - i give you photo evidence of me VERY awkward (my awkward phase lasted from basically first grade through the age of 25 - ha).

the horror (!!!)

you may want to know who did that gorgeous hair style? well, it was me! i wanted blonde hair so i poured peroxide on it (side note: NEVER do that). the glasses are giant and my braces pull everything together, not to mention the lovely acne and WAIT - i just now realized i am wearing a mock turtleneck. save me now. thank goodness i have blossomed into a beautiful swan.

ok, now i am going to blow your mind. matt came across this little gem one night and we have gotten so much mileage out of it. if you have seen us over the past month you have seen our little dragon. SOME people love it (my dad, megan) and SOME people make fun of me for it (ahem, jo...).

you can decide, if you want to make one just download the file, cut it out and fold accordingly. and if you try it and get discouraged just keep going. it's best took cover one eye and look at him in the eyes - before you know it he is ALIVE.

here i have a few photos of some peeps trying it out...

jp gets it

megan sees the light

megan shows it to shawn

the gilmores partake

anywho, it is so much fun. he stays on the desk here where i make blog magic, and i am looking at him with one eye right NOW as i write. and you, too, can have your very own baby dragon - go to this site and download the page. all you have to do is cut and fold accordingly. this site also has a shorter video that probably explains it better but i am unable to embed their video. be sure to check it out.

here's another SUPER neat thing that happened over the break. my college-friend tiffany works a regular job during the day and at night time she is a stand-up comedian. kinda like a super hero if you think about it. 

she had her knoxville debut a few weeks ago and i went to see her - it has been YEARS since we've seen each other. upon reuniting she presented me with a mix tape (or CD really). it was awesome (thank you, tiffany!!!).

anywho, she KILLED it that night and i got to meet all of her fun friends. and they really are fun, we were basically ushered out of the club because of too much fun.

here i am with the super star

here i am with some of tiffany's friends, she had a brood there

here i am with laurie, tiff and moi

(laurie was tiffany's RA at clement - she
used to get on us for studying too quietly)

tiffany on stage - SO COOL

this past weekend tabby hosted a twilight movie marathon / dinner / good times night. it was awesome. we all had so much fun!

the hostess with the mostest

me and the ever-cool shawn

jen and kristina

jo, shawn and myself were talking beauty regimens and
all i could look at was jp peaking at me from the fridge


tabby and i took a lot of photos that night, sometimes

we took photos of each other taking photos

jen, shawn and moi

jo and amy not in focus, but the wine bottles are at least

amy telling a hilarious tale

jo doing the running man

three gorgeous ladies

from the looks on their faces i think this must be a scene in which
jacob was shirtless - oh wait, he's like that in every scene

they all love something, i assume it is either edward or jacob

but jen loves jacob the most

next up we played the best wii game EVER! it's called just dance or something like that. i lurve it sooooo very much. basically, a silhouette is on the screen and you have to dance like him / her / it - the person that nails the most moves wins the round. it's like a dance-off.

group dance

jen and tabby have a round

here i am with kristina (who is so good she can

do it with her eyes closed - she feels the music)

here i am with jen, i wasn't that excited to compete against a former

atlanta falcons cheerleader but i did ok (jen is awesome!)

one more big thank you for tabby for setting everything up and taking care of us that night. whee!!!

on to another important item, rowdy's hair. he has blonde curly hair and matt and i have been holding off on a haircut. it's just so cute. but the past few weeks it's gone from cute to bozo-style. matt and i cut his hair the other night - two people at the same time. matt did the right side and i did the left. probably not smart but we are crazy like that.

not the best picture of rowdyman but you see the hair issue

little blonde curls

 

 looks GOOD, we didn't totally mess it up (!)

we were the lucky recipients of another snow dump - probably 3-4 inches at our house. yesterday we bundled up and ventured outside.

matt and rowdyman (this was his first trip down the hill)

lottie sue loving the snow angel she just made

here she is making another one, she did about 12 of them

lottie sue and rowdy sledding

good thing i work out

they are sledding down the street at a
super slow pace, but it worked for them

here i am with rowdyman

here rowdy is eating snow

lottie sue wanted to make a snow man so we did a mini-version on the deck.

making the base

putting arms in

rowdy eating even more snow

and lottie sue eating snow

ta DA! we had beans for a mouth but they kept falling out


in this photo it looks like rowdy was putting an eye in
but he was actually taking the olive out to eat it

so that concludes my first post of the year - now that i've noodled it, i do think i am going to try and do smaller posts more often so look for another one by the end of the week/weekend. but of course i leave you with a few items of interest:

1. the other night at GNO amy and i talked for a while about books. i'm going to list the ones that either one of us has read and then some that we are going to read

the hunger games, book one of a trilogy - i read the first one and like it. this has "let's option this for a movie" written all over it

a game of thrones, amy recommends this trilogy and that's enough for me

a visit from the goon squad - i don't even know what this is about but i've seen it recommended in a few magazines and that's all i need

just kids, this book just won a pulitzer - it's by patti smith and it's supposed to be great

freedom: a novel, i bought this for cera for christmas, maybe she can weigh in on it but it came in #1 on several book lists

the immortal life of henrietta lacks, THIS sounds so good to me - it's about an immortal line of cells that made crucial innovations in modern science (that's from the synopsis, not me)

2. i got a lot of items for christmas that i really loved this year, one of my favorites is my clarisonic plus sonic skin cleansing system

 

it is a pricey item BUT it's like getting a mini facial every day - if you did that at the spa it was be astronomical. matt keeps telling me how pretty i look, tee hee. i got it because becce wanted one, she really makes shopping easy for me as she has the eye for stuff i like. i'm a copy cat. meow.

3. four of the top ten composers lived in vienna from 1750 - 1825, the times asks what on earth was going on there to foster such achievement

4. down the hatch and straight into medical history, here's a story on what people swallow

5. and a few posts ago i mentioned a list of the best magazine articles ever written, here's a new one for you. matt says it's the best he's read so and i have it on my nightstand. from esquire, "the falling man"

6. i love visuals! and i love statistics!!! here is a sampling of statistics from the newly release statistical abstract of the united states

i am one of those eating less red meat, for shizzle

7. when being too frugal crosses the line

8. here is a list of some overlooked movies from last year that you may want to see

ok, that's all i have for now. i am hoping that school is back in session tomorrow. i do love the snow but it really messes up my mojo. i started going back to the gym (after a 6-week hiatus - GASP) last week and have been snowed in yesterday and today. i really want to get back in that as i've told about 100 people that i am doing a half marathon this year - so that means i kinda have to do it now. i will blog more about what happened to my running initiative in another post but to sum it up - life and the holidays got in the way. 

i leave you with something i saw online, thought it was pretty so i'm sharing it with you. 

ciao!

xoxo,

jen