25 reasons why i am awesome

Remember a few years ago, when everyone and their dog did these lists of 25 things on Facebook? Here's a few things about yours truly.

1. I hate being cold. I hate snow, ice, cold hands, etc. 

2. I cant comprehend math. I still dont know my multiplication tables. 

3. My favorite pickles in the world are Vlassic Zesty Dill Spears. They are to die for. If you hate pickles, you will most likely hate them. 

4. When I was in in kindergarten, I thought my name was "Kaffleen" because that's how all my peers pronounced it. I think Daisy and Jeannine corrected me after a long debate. 

5. I hate being pregnant. I would rather do labor and delivery every day for 9 months than be pregnant for 9 months.


6. My daughters are the prettiest little girls ever.


7. My family is full of sets of multiples. My dad is a twin, my sister has twins, and going back through the generations, there are a lot of multiple births. 


8. My sisters and I are somewhat odd, we associate colors/personalities to certain letters or numbers. For example, in my brain, the numbers 1-10 all have a personality. 6 is compassionate, but 5 is ornery. I always thought everyone did this, but apparently not. 


9. I love naps. 


10. I hate wearing shoes, if I could go barefoot everywhere, I would. 


11. One of the happiest days of my life has been when I married my best friend for all eternity! I am a very lucky girl! I couldn't ask for a better husband than Brandon. 


12. I would live on the beach. I love the ocean! 


13. My biggest guilty pleasure is watching america's next top model. 


14. I love Audery Hepburn, I think she is a spectacular actress, and a wonderful lady. Plus, she was stunning. I think she looks like my sister Daisy. 


15. When my Carrie-sister and I worked at Sonic together, we would tease each other all the time, and everyone we worked with thought we were serious. We basically had to sit them all down and convince them that we only tease each other in fun, and we really do like each other a lot. 


16. I can't tell you how many times I have been stung by jellyfish. We went to Pensacola one year for a family vacation, in the middle of jellyfish season. Ouch. 


17. I have had stitches 7 times, not including the 4 plus sets in my mouth. 


18. I would love to go skydiving or bungee jumping or something like that. I would be so scared that I would probably cry, but it would be so awesome.


19. I love sushi, I could probabby eat it every day. 


20. I hope our kids are like Brandon and never have to go through an awkward stage, mine was horrendous. Buck teeth, bad haircut, big coke-bottle glasses, hand-me-down clothes from my sisters (which were actually hand-me-downs from someone else). Middle school was hard. 


21. When I would go trucking with my dad in the summers, I used to ask him to tell me how things worked, like a toilet or a carberator, so that I could fall asleep. I never could understand what he was talking about, but it put me right to sleep! 


22. I love being LDS. I don't know where I would be without the Gospel of Christ.


23. I am seriously arachnaphobic. I am always embarrassed when I see a spider in front of people I don't know very well, because my reaction probably makes me look like a lunatic. 


24. I love the city New Orleans. I haven't been since Katrina, but I hope it hasn't changed too much, just maybe all that water made it a little bit cleaner? 


25. One of my legs is longer than the other.

things I'm lovin today

1. Portia just went to the bathroom in her potty chair! Yessss! She is now enjoying her RingPop, and I'm enjoying the thought of one less diaper to change!

2. So You Think You Can Dance premiered last night. I don't think you know how much I love that show!

3. Our apartment pool opens today! We love to swim!! In the next few days, you can expect to see me sunburned to a crisp, but happy nonetheless!

Which leads me to #4: Summer is here!! It's 95 degrees, the sun is shining, the pools are open, it's my favorite time of year! Last year, I think I couldn't fully appreciate the summer, on account of my large/uncomfortable belly. But now that Margot is out, I am thrilled!!

Bring on the heat!

i'm not dying.

I went jogging last night. Remember that 5k I told you about? Yeah, last night was the first time I've jogged in over a month. This might be interesting.
Anyway, I ran about a mile and a half , but I did have to stop and walk a few times. It took about 20 minutes, and I am pretty sore today.
The gym was kinda crowded last night, which I hate. I don't mind lots of people or anything like that, I just get sorta embarrassed about the color of my face when I work out. Yes. The color of my face. Hey, are you laughing at me?
Here's the deal. I get really red faced when I run. My Carrie-sister does it too. In high school, while we were on the track team, our faces would be so red that people would start to worry. They always asked us if we needed to get an extra drink or lie down. They thought we were going to pass out. It's pretty bad.
Like this guy:

Only less angry and more running-y. Also, wearing a shirt. 

I feel like he has been listening to people tease him about his resemblance to Mr. Clean  for years, and he finally snapped. Raaaawwwwr!!

Ok, moving on. 

I get pretty self-conscious about the state of my blush while running. I always imagine that people are looking at me thinking I must have run a treadmill-marathon, and then they glance over and see that I've only gone a mile, and they think I'm a huge wimp. Dangit.

Let's be honest, people usually aren't looking at us when we think they are, so I don't let it stop me from running, but I still hate it.

So, if you ever see me working out, and I look like I'm about to go into cardiac arrest, just ignore it.

sssssssssssssss

Last Saturday we went to the zoo with my mom and sister and all the kids. It was a lot of fun, and I made an interesting discovery. 

This guy:

 This is a Green Basilisk Lizard. Wait. Basilisk?!?

As in, giant deadly snake that can kill with his extremely poisonous bite, or just by looking at you? They've got one of his cousins in a zoo? 

Where's Fawkes when you need him?

Tom O'Dell

My dad's birthday was a few days ago, on the 5th. If you've never met my dad, you're seriously missing out. Here are a few reasons why my dad is awesome:

1. He is funny. My dad is constantly making jokes. He loves making people laugh and pranks. In fact, I think J. K. Rowling based Fred and George's characters after my dad and his twin brother, Bill. There's the time my dad and his brother made stilts that were 20 feet high and walked around town with them, or the time they tied all the doors on main street together with fishing wire, or the time that they somehow got their band instructor's car out onto an island in the middle of the lake. The list goes on. Having this man for a father was definitely a lot of fun.

Check out baby Allen's chub rolls.

2.  My dad is suuuuper smart. He knows so much stuff about cars and machines. If we ever have car issues, he is the first guy we call! He also knows all about the country, and how to get anywhere.

His graduation picture.

3. My dad has pretty awesome music taste. He played music all his life, and eventually jammed with some famous musicians. Oh, you may have heard of them. Joe Walsh, Billy Joel, CCR, Dolly Parton, Meatloaf, The Hollies, no big deal. Saw the Beatles in  concert. Hung out with the Stones backstage. Whatever.
I know you've all been impressed with my awesome music taste. I learned it all from my dad.

My dad's old band. He is second from the left, Billy is second from the right. Sa-weet bell bottoms guys!

Here are a few more pictures of my super cool dad.

My dad is on the right.

Nice shorts dude. 

My dad is on the left this time.

damage control

The other day, someone asked me how to get rid of all her split ends without losing all her length. And since just about everyone has some damaged hair, I thought I'd share!

The best way to get rid of damaged hair is to cut it off, sadly, but another thing you can do is let your hair's natural oils do their work! This means stop washing it every day. The oils in your scalp/hair are better than any conditioning treatment out there. If your hair looks greasy after 1 day of shampoo fasting, invest in some dry shampoo (Redken Powder Refresh 01 works great), just spray it on, and the grease is gone! 

Don't over-condition your hair! If you've done deep conditioning treatments over and over, or are leaving your conditioner on for 30 minutes, stop! This may be depositing too much protien on your hair, damaging it even more. Always follow the directions on these products. If it says rinse in 3 minutes and only use once a month, do it!

Steer clear of any heat as much as possible. If you can, let your hair air-dry and skip the flat-iron for a while, They literally fry your hair. If you must use them, ALWAYS have some kind of product on your hair first (Redken Iron Silk 07 is my fave, it works great). Also, easy with the color and bleach! They literally eat away at your hair.

Invest in better shampoo. Suave won't do it for you, you need salon quality (yes, there is a difference). Talk to a stylist about what you need, every head of hair is different. Pureology's Essential Repair is magic though. Magic.

Last but not least, and I cannot stress this enough, go get regular trims. Every 6 weeks is advised, but you may need to go more often, especially if you use alot of heat products or have color-treated hair. All these other methods help, but the only way to really get rid of those dead ends is to chop them off.

things i'm loving today- Farmer's Market edition

1. My awesome friend Hannah, who invited me to go to the Norman Farmer's Market this morning. She is super funny and talented, and you can read her blog here. I haven't had so much fun standing in the heat and talking about life in a long time!

2. Fresh strawberries that Portia and Brandon devoured 30 seconds after I got home. Brandon exclaimed "Now this is a strawberry!"

3. The super friendly vendors, who obviously love what they do!

4. Huge tomatoes, that are so red and juicy that I want to eat them like an apple.

5. The fact that the goal we made to eat healthy this summer just got a whole lot easier! I can go to the Farmer's Market every week and get fresh fruits and veggies!

pb&mc

I love peanut butter.
I love peanut butter ice cream, peanut butter candy, peanut butter toast, peanut butter cookies, peanut butter sandwiches, heck, I even like peanut butter by itself on a spoon.
I love peanut butter and honey sandwiches, and of course, pb&j, but my all-time favorite peanut butter sandwich is peanut butter and marshmallow cream. It's delicious!
I remember the first time I ever had a peanut butter and marshmallow cream sandwich; I must have been 7 or 8, and I was at my Grandma's house in Indiana. My cousin Nathan was there too (where our hoards of siblings were, I have no clue, but it was just us), and Grandma made us lunch. You guessed it, pb&mc. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. It was creamy and almost too sweet, got all over my face, and made me so happy!
I still make myself a pb&mc sandwich every once in a while, and I am happily reminded of afternoons playing in my Grandma's den, watching Ernest Holidays, and my extended family who I miss so much!

Ernest P. Worrell

My Grandma's den

aaaaand Nathan.

 Grandma's deck, me and some cousins as wee ones.

This was taken at a family reunion a few years ago, all the cousins that were there. Yes, my family is cooler than yours.