Park/Marathon

Yesterday I took beef to the park, threw the ball and ran around with him. I was in a short sleeved shirt and jeans and I was totally comfortable, it was awesome, December what? I was loving yesterday

Also I am seriously entertaining the idea of running the SLC marathon in April

Obsessed

So I saw Twilight tonight, or this morning rather. I LOVED IT, best movie I have seen in a long time. I almost didn't go because I thought I would fall asleep in the theatre, but thanx to my good friend Mr. Pibb I did just fine. Only one crappy thing about it, it ended way too soon. Usually in movies I'm thinking to myself, "when is this freaking thing going to end" so its kind of a big deal when a movie has this effect on me, really I can't wait to go see it about 5 more times. I read the first 150 pages in Twilight, I got bored because it was going to slow, I kept waiting and waiting for it to get better so I finally got to frustrated and gave up. Well I may have to go back and finish what I started.

Photo Tag

I got tagged by Ashley Siruno to post the 4th photo in my 4th picture album, so here she is, or he rather. This is beef stew in the pool at the house we rented this summer in Chandler, Arizona. I miss this pool so bad, I'm sure Beef misses it more. You've never seen a happier dog in your life. Every afternoon at 3:30 when Jared was home taking his 2-4 lunch break, him and Beef would go swimming together. So like clockwork every afternoon at 3:30 Beef would sit in front of Jared and whine to go out to the pool. I have no idea how he knew exactly what time it was, but he knew. Here is a video of him in action



I tag everyone who reads this post

NYOTB

So saturday night I went to the New Kids On The Block concert with some girlfriends, Jen scored free tickets for all of us, thanx again Jen.

They actually were pretty good and their dancers were even better

Natasha Beddingfield was one of the opening acts, her voice in INSANE, she was awesome

The NYOTB crew

This is Lady Ga Ga, she was the other opening act, k this girl is SICK, no seriously, in a good way, I love her. I very first saw her perform on So You Think You Can Dance this year, she is the best performer I've seen in a long time. She can BLOW and she is a AWESOME dancer, it's rare when you get that combination, most great singers really can't dance that well, her show was super high energy and fun, she was the highlight of the night for me.

Outside the E center

Here is a bonus pic of Crew doing one his favorite activity

Christmas: love it and hate it

Lisa'a latest blog got me thinking more about Christmas, I've been itching to break my decorations out of the closet and gleefully display all my trinkets and treasures while listening to "silver bells" and "Grandma got run over by a reindeer", I love Christmas. I have one Christmas qualm though, THE DAMN PRESENTS. This does not include giving presents to little kids, no, little kids definitely should get presents on Christmas. But adults needing to exchange gifts with each other, come on. No seriously I really hate this part of the season. WHY? because I feel like its a big ginormous waste of money that's why. Every year I get stress out and overwhelmed, thinking of all the people I have to buy for. Stressing about what to get them, How much to spend, wondering if I spent to much, or to little, will they even like it, and all the while feeling a bit depressed about all the money being drained from my bank account. Here's another thing, I really don't like to shop. Once in a while I like to go get myself a new pair of big star jeans from the buckle or come cool new T's from wet seal, but 1 hour tops and I'm spent. So having to go shop for other people out of total obligation kinda blows I think. Its one thing to see something at a store and think "that looks just like so and so, I think I'll snatch it up for them." Then excitedly give to them and see the happiness on their face when they receive it. This kind of gift giving is fun, I was excited to buy it, they were excited to receive it, and it was something they really wanted or needed, YEAH! everybody wins. It's quite another to drag yourself to a crowded mall and buy some random thing for Aunt Susie out of like I just said, total obligation that will most likely sit in a closet and collect dust for the next year or two until she does some spring cleaning and gives it to D.I. Lets not forget about the mass amounts of credit card debt Americans go into every year just to keep up with the yule tide tradition. I just get tired of the Christmas morning scene where everyone tears into presents and puts on a big fake "I'm so excited, this is exactly what I wanted" face, when half the time you probably counted care less about it, come on you know you have put on the B.S. I love it face for Grandma. Every year when Jared and I head home from Christmas day we pack our car full of "stuff" and wonder what the heck were going to do with all of it. I would much rather take the money everyone was going to spend and do a sub for Santa for some needy families, or take the whole family snowmobiling. So call me Scrooge if you want, I just wanted to get that out, PHEWWWW I feel much better now. I'd like to know your thought too on the subject

Splenda, a better alternative to sugar???

Have you seen products like these at the grocery store?




These no sugar added products are popping up all over grocery store shelves, in yogurt, ice cream, chewing gum, jam and jelly, pudding, frosting, baking mixes and many more. "No Sugar Added" Sounds like a healthy option right? ......... WRONG. Is it true they do not add sugar? Yes BUT they have to sweeten it somehow. These products are sweetened with Sucralose, a artificial sweetener. Splenda is sucralose. Its made up of chlorine and other chemicals. Research done by Splenda's manufacturer showed that consumption of sucralose caused shrucken thymus glands and enlarged livers and kidneys in laboratory animals. Other research in animals who consumed sucralose also showed increased appetite, diarrhea, decreased red blood cell count, reduced growth rate, hyperplasia of the pelvis, aborted pregnancy, decreased fetal body weights and placental weights as well as other negative side effects. Also in some observational studies in humans it appears to cause weight gain, sleep disturbances, sexual dis function, increases risk of cancer, MS, sclerosis, lupus, diabetes and more. What I'm saying is this stuff is bad news. Most of us would like to think that the FDA only approves sugar substitutes, chemicals, prescription drugs, food ingredients etc... that are safe for human consumption. But think about all the drugs, chemicals that the FDA has approved that were later pulled from the market because they ended up causing all kinds of health problems in people and even death in some cases, ie... ephedra, phen phen, olestra or olean, just to name a few and aspartame (used to sweeten diet soda) is now being recognized for having many harmful side effects. Really I don't trust the FDA as far as I can throw them. The reason they approved Sucralose even after finding out about the rats that experienced the enlarged livers/kidneys from an experiment DONE BY THE MANUFACTURER OF SPLENDA was because of the fact is was done on animals and not humans, and there have been no long term studies done on humans. So basically WE and our children are the test subjects for splenda/sucralose. It just makes me mad when the FDA approves crap like this with having plenty of good reason to believe the product is harmful ie... the laboratory rat testing and observational studies in humans, but get away with approving it on a technicality like there being no scientific long term studies done. Then on top of that the food companies use misleading phrases and slogans to makes you believe it is healthy for you. Like writing NO ADDED SUGAR in large letters, and Splenda's sologan "made from sugar so it tastes like sugar" in all technicality splenda starts from sugar but then they add unhealthy chemicals to make it "calorie free" which it isn't by the way. Trust me this stuff is no where near natural. Anyway just wanted to let you all know your better off eating real sugar and products with real sugar in them then this poo :)

Halloween 2008

I give you WHEATIES - BOX - BOY





Pretty sure I was to concerned with posing myself for this pic to notice you can't see my kids face

My awesome blood thirsty scary tree


KRISTY & RICKY BARLOWS HALLOWEEN PARTY

Dancin fools, I have no clue what I'm doing here

Who are those two freaks by the wall?

BPE fo life

oh ya

I love Darise in this pic

Go Go dancer, Cheerleader & Princess laya (spell?)

My lil dragon, this costume was so cute... and totally impractical, poor thing

My lil fam right before heading out to take Crew trick or treating, he loved it and held on to his little basket the whole time




We had a ball on Halloween, special thanx to Laura D for supplying the cheerleader and dragon costumes and Ricky & Kristy for throwing a totally awesome party

OH! I almost forgot the best part THESE VIDEOS.......ENJOY!!!!

p.s. thats ricky in the wheaties box with jared on the left, the clip is really short because my memory card filled up dang it