Fat pants

Something is psychologically built into me that triggers a sweet tooth after dinner...always...not sweet tooth for candy, but sweet tooth for honest to goodness I-can't-believe-it-has-this-much-butter desserts. AH! Now usually this isn't a big deal for the waistline, because my 5-7 hours a week at the gym and Zumba takes care of it and I usually even back out at 0, but seeing as how my gym has been closed for "summer maintenance" for two weeks and my Zumba instructor has been on vacation....I'm SCREWED.

It really sucks when your fat pants feel too snug....where do you go from there? What pants do I resort to? I'm not buying bigger pants. So it's settled then, time to kick it back into gear. I think I have to wean myself off of chocolate/ice cream/cookies/brownies and the like. So I'm thinking maybe I'll only eat something sweet 3 days a week (baby steps here people), then I'll go to two, then one. I think cutting sweets out of your diet completely is just stupid. And unfair, so I'll just get down to one a week and call it good :-) I think my second biggest down fall is CARBS. I did the whole low-carb thing in high school, and it totally works! It just sucks. So with carbs I'm just going to avoid anything white (white bread, pasta, rice, etc.).

Watch, with my luck and trying to losing a few lb's I'll get prego asap and then what the hey- bring on the big pants. At least maternity clothes are cute these days.

On another note...I'm SO ready for my regular fall TV shows to start again...I've resorted to all kinds of stupid shows about quintuplets and cupcakes. Aye aye aye, no wonder I feel like I've gained weight! haha!

And last...10 things I've learned from second graders:

1. Picking your nose is socially acceptable when everyone else around you does it.

2. If you don't know how to tie your shoes, ask anyone taller than you. They probably know.

3. Hold your bladder until the very last minute until you have to go so bad your eyes are yellow and no matter WHAT is going on during class, your teacher will always let you go to the bathroom to avoid an accident.

4. Never assume they already know how to do something.

5. Never correct spelling mistakes...it inevitably leads to something unintentionally hilarious. (See "I like hores" post).

6. Honesty is the best policy.

7. If they start asking what time lunch is at 10:00, it's going to be a rough day.

8. Tattle. Especially on people who are doing something you'd never do.

9. Things are rarely fair.

10. The attention span of a second grader and a gnat are extremely similar.

:-) Love my job.

Edible arrangements...best..idea..EVER

Wow. Second graders. The first day one little cutie came up and asked me if I could tie his shoes. I asked him if he couldn't and he said no, so I shrugged and got down on my knees and tied his spider man shoes. But it didn't really hit me that I was IN second grade when he wasn't the only one to ask...EVERY one asks...I've tied sooo many pairs of shoes this week- none of which were my own. :-) But they are ADORABLE. They want to do everything so right and they want to impress you so much (thank you for that!). And yes, we practiced walking down the hallway with our arms folded!

But they are sort of exhausting. It takes energy to be that cheesy for that long...so I've gone to bed around 9:30 every night this week- LOVE that.

It's also become a tradition that my parents send me something the first week of school. This year it was an edible fruit basket. Is there anything better than a giant bouquet of fruit, half of which is dipped in chocolate? No.

That's pretty much all that has happened this week...school, school, school. I'm feeling pretty ready for the weekend though...

OH. Random. There's a John Mayer/Owl City concert on Tuesday and there's a package deal where you can get 4 tickets for $90...but we need two more people to come...so if you wanna, lemme know :-)

Launching the new biz

Soooo I've been making videos for people for forever (mostly weddings) at wwwaaaayyyy less the cost than a lot of other places around here will do (i.e., one client told me for the exact same thing I did for her for $175, the other place was going to charge her $1,200!!..that's a no go..). Anyway, so I'm launching my website to get more business. Poor timing, because I realize wedding season is slowing waayy down now that summer is coming to an end, but there's always other stuff with reason to celebrate. :-)

Check it out:

http://whitneyhoulinvideos.webs.com

And if I've ever made a video for you, check out the testimonials section. It needs some love.

Jack

Jack Johnson concert...need I say more?

Okay well I will anyway...AMAZING. Not only the music! I love that he actually like interacted with the crowd and such (talked to everybody, told stories, kicked a beach ball off the stage the crowd was throwing around). I was a little surprised at two things though 1) how many 40+ yr. olds were there and 2) how many 10 yr olds and below were there..kind of a lot of both..didn't change how awesome it was though. He played a lot of songs with like a different beat or rhythm (I just tried like 5 times to spell r-h-y-t-h-m and still had to resort to a right click..yikes..), which was neat-o. I still have to get his new album To the Sea.

Afterward, Aleksi, Shanti, and myself went to Ihop and got breakfast. Ihop has some freaking delicious french toast (usually I get the pancakes). All in all, it was a perfect night!

"I like hores"

This whole transition from 4th to 2nd grade this year is really throwing me for a loop. I did one of my cohorts (for those of you not in the teaching world that's the month long "in class" experience you do during the school semester for your classes) in 2nd grade but that seems like forever ago..I just remembered they cried a lot. I don't do crying. And I don't do peeing. I mean I pee, but not in my pants...which is where I think me and the second graders might differ.

Everything's also a lots smaller in second grade...little desks, little chairs. But some other things are definitely a lot bigger...lines on writing paper, font size, picture books, and general enthusiasm towards learning.

All in all I'm pretty excited to see what it will be like, I just have to finish getting everything ready (which is the stressful part). Blllaaaahhh. It's that feeling where you get stuff accomplished everyday but then you look around and feel like comparatively you actually did nothing.

They also do pretty hilarious things...like this:

I can't decide what line is my favorite...either "hores have other hore friends" or "My dad wants a hores but my mom says no." hahah!!! So funny and ADORABLE!

Last year I had a students with AWFUL handwriting who wrote something ( I can't even remember the word now) but it looked JUST like the F word. And the funniest part is I didn't even notice until I shared that writing piece with his Mom and we both got to that part and started dying laughing.

LASER TAG is my new favorite thing

In reverse chronological order for no particular reason..LASER TAG IS AWESOME. I played once before when I was like 15, so I hardly remembered it, but last night we went with the fam to Jack and Jill's in Lehi. I felt like I was living in a video game...it was a two story obstacle thing with like fog machines, and extremely legit video game music. I was SO tired when we were done from running the whole time. Now as far as scores go, I totally sucked..I came in 6th place (and there were seven of us)...but to my advantage 1) I didn't know I was being snyped the first half of the game from the second story and 2) I didn't realize Albert was running behind me shooting me in the back for a good two minutes. NOT fair. Definitely going to do that again though. Next week anyone? We also went bowling there and my ridiculously talented husband scored a 192!! He opened the game with 4 straight strikes...like I said...ridiculous...I busted out with an 88- watch out. (but it was my highest score EVER).

Then everyone started getting a little crazy with their bowling "stance"...

So I made it back to Utah after a blessed 32 hours in the car, two CRAZY lightening storms (that were so bad the GPS and my cell phone went out--talk about feeling stranded). I've decided I never want to live in the central states...really Utah is as far "in" as I'm willing to go...too much crazy weather and I'm kind of a pansy when it comes to that crap. Me and my Mom drove the whole way..blaaaahhhh..definitely suffered from TB's (tired buns). But now I'm back and have so much to do I can't think of everything at once or smoke starts coming out of my ears...school starts in two weeks...SCHOOL STARTS IN TWO WEEKS.

On the bright side: I'm getting my hair done this week AND going to see Jack Johnson with Aleksi :-) So I'd say this summer has checked out to be pretty FREAKING AWESOME.

On the road AGAIN

Florida is hot hot HOT! Differences between Florida hot and Utah hot: More people have swimming pools or beach front access in Florida than in Utah, so it's easier to cool down because of immediate proximity and access to a water source. When the wind blows in Florida, it's refreshing and doesn't feel like a blow dryer in your face. There is an actual temperature difference between shady spots and non shady spots in Florida, whereas in Utah it all feels the same- hot. People have A/C units in Florida, not just swamp coolers (A/C is much more effective..trust me..I own a swamp cooler). Moral of the story, although Florida is humid, it's still better than the heat of the blasted desert. The end.

ROAD TRIP!!!!!!! Number TWO that is...I've gone a lot of miles in this trip...quite a lot...Monday I flew to St. Louis where my family drove up from FL and picked me up and headed on to Nauvoo to spend 3 days there with Shanti. Then we made the 18 hour car trip back where we nearly DIED of a close encounter with a Tornado and other treacherous weather. Seriously, we were somewhere in Illinois (tornado country!) in the evening time and it starts to DOWN POUR. Then comes the wind. Horizontal wind. Add a CRAP LOAD of lightning and there we were. I'm on tornado look out, Albert and Spencer are laughing at how scared I am, my Mom's trying to calm me down, and my Aunt Cheri decides to tell all sorts of tornado stories from her youth living in Oklahoma. IN the middle of nowhere, couldn't see 5 feet in front of us, alone on some back country road. We finally found a gas station and pulled over until the worst of it passed, but seriously I was like making it right with the big man upstairs because I was for certain we would get sucked up by some crazy tornado or a cow would come flying through our windshield. FUH-REAKY!!!!!!

Oh, so on to car trip number two. I was supposed to fly back to Utah tonight, but due to some car arrangements and my new found fear of flying (true story, not really sure where it came from because I used to LOVE flying..not so much anymore.) I think I've read about one too many plane crash stories lately. Anyway, now we're making the 36 hour trek back to Utah in the CAR. Aye aye aye. The plan is to leave at 4am tomorrow morning, so we can make it back to Utah around 4pm Wednesday afternoon. I think I need a nap just thinking about it. It's crazy how you can get so tired just from sitting in a car...Pictures of Nauvoo to come..unfortunately my new Mac for school doesn't have one of those nifty little SD slots for my memory card from my camera (seems a bit old school in that way?) But for some reason the other cable isn't working to hook it up to this computer. Ah well.

Hopefully I make it back to Utah Wednesday tornado (and cow) free.

THE chocolate

There's this adorable little dessert cafe on State Street in Orem that I've been dying to try called The Chocolate. It's set up sort of like a house where you just go in, get your amazingly delicious dessert and sit in one of the little parlor-style rooms. Loved it! We got a white chocolate macadamia nut and chocolate chip snookie! (Ice cream on top of a half baked cookie). I think I need to one day open a dessert boutique...Life's too short NOT to eat dessert!

Wednesday Want It! (ALL of it!)

I'm craving something cute...and thanks to my sister-in-law Kimber for introducing me to a little place called Etsy. Apparently it's this website where people can make stuff then buy and sell it. Might I recommend the jewelry and purses section?

Also the children section- if you have any of those...super cute! My child will most definitely wear little baby booties! AH! Precious!

You sort of have to dig around to find the good stuff. I mean there is like a bagillion pages for each category...sooo...happy online shopping :-)

I HATE when people do this...

Why...why do I need to know how many people are in your family while I'm driving? The 15 passenger van sort of blew your cover...Maybe this is just a Utah thing because I've never seen it anywhere else, but it's super popular. Anything ranging from stick people, to skull and crossbones, to Mickey Mouse heads..MAKE IT STOP!!! I mean really, even pets? I don't think Utah drivers need ANOTHER distraction on the road.

Oh and since we're on the subject of driving, DON'T GIVE ME A DIRTY LOOK WHEN YOU REV PAST ME THEN CUT ME OFF TO GET IN FRONT OF ME BECAUSE I WOULDN'T LET YOU OVER WHEN YOU NEVER EVEN HAD YOUR BLINKER ON. You're driving a car worth thousands of dollars, USE THE TEN DOLLAR PIECE OF BLINKING PLASTIC and I'd be more than happy to slow down and let you in front of me. *sigh