Fabulous Hour of Reality TV

Last night I experienced the most fabulous hour of reality TV (outside of SYTYCD, of course) maybe that I've ever seen! This is WHY reality TV is awesome and seeing this reminded me that most reality TV is no longer reality but staged.

Yes, I'm talking about the bachelorette--and before I lose you and you hit the "back" button, just give me a minute to explain. This is Graham:


He was my favorite of the 4 left (which isn't saying too much considering Deanna cut all my favorites long ago...but nonetheless I liked him best of those left). Only I felt like she put herself in a box w/her self-proclamations of "won't take chances this time around" that if she kept him the entire time, I would've been very disappointed in her.

So, she cut him. And then it went something like this:
Deanna: I can't take a chance on you b/c you aren't being open and honest and letting your guard down and you're leading me on.
Graham: You can tell yourself whatever you want to make yourself feel better but that's not the truth.
Deanna: All I wanted was for you to open up & let your guard down. The one person I was falling in love with couldn't tell me how he felt! (and it became a complete bawl-fest! silence. crying.)
Deanna: So it ends here.
Graham: (hands her a letter) I wrote down everything I wanted to say to you b/c I knew I wouldn't get the chance. You can burn it but it would mean a lot to me if you would read it someday. It's for you, not TV.....

AWESOME!! THIS IS HOW REALITY TV SHOULD BE!!! What is wrong w/the crazy TV execs that try to make it all rosy and beautiful? Reality TV should be surprising and shocking and devastating and interesting! What I loved was that she stayed true to herself and cut him....but that in his own timeframe he totally did open up and express his feelings to her in a letter!!! So oddly they surprised each other and became at odds for what they really wanted....I was sure she was fixin' to run back into the house and say she made a mistake!!

If you ask me, this kind of situation cannot be easily duplicated and that's why so much of reality TV these days is a complete bore. Don't you agree?

So You Think You Can Dance 4.2

Last week, I wanted to blog about SYTYCD so badly....but thought my card-making experience on Stamping Queens would satisfy that craving. Alas, it didn't even come close!!! (although you should totally go see how we used SYTYCD as inspiration for cards.)

So tonight I'm blogging. I'm simply going to list my favorite 3 dances of the night:

1. Chelsea & Thayne do Mandy Moore's forbidden love. WOW!!!!! Mandy is fast becoming my favorite choreographer. She created the most amazing combination of concept + costumes + dance moves + MUSIC!!! To put such an old concept like a king with old ballroom dance moves--and then speed them up, make them modern and add the coolest song ever.....that talks about forbidden love! As you can see I'm still a little overwhelmed by this one. Go watch it again and watch for all of this. I loved every little bit.....right down to Chelsea's ankle boot sandals. AMAZING!

2. Twitchington does Celine Dion. Love them both plus love this song. I guess I loved it from the second they started. And the truth is, when Mary cries, I usually cry because I usually agree w/her--Twitch totally did "partner like a real man out there"--especially compared to all the other guys!! (For the record, I only agree w/Mary when she cries though--nothing else really--especially not the way she dresses. YIKES that was somethin' tonight, wasn't it?!?). p.s. thanks for the HDTV Hill--the lipgloss doesn't even sparkle on my tv!

3. Torn between Gev & Courtney's contemporary (prob b/c of Mandy) and Matt & Kourtni's foxtrot (who forgot to comb out the fingerwaves???)

Early prediciton of bottom 3:

1. Comfort & Chris

2. Susie & Marquis

3. Jessica & Will (b/c I simply cannot believe it will be Chelsea & Thayne!!!!!)

The last thing I want to say is how bad I hated the judges tonight--especially Mia!!! I swear I used to think she was a lesbian but tonight she proved she totally hates women!! COME ON MIA!!! Every single couple--girls suck; guys "you're just ridiculous!" Except Comfort....she was good according to Mia....oh but of course so was Chris (were we watching the same crump?). Next week I am going to watch the dances twice in a row....and then fast forward through the judges! Unless Wade is a judge, of course! :)

QT w/ Chubs

I got to spend some 1-on-1 QT w/Chubs tonight. We danced and sang (to the song you're listening to right now), had a food fight and even snuggled. I realize I am biased but I just can't think of a baby more beautiful than this:

Notice in this next pic how his chillow is casting a shadow! :)

Miss Sandy Pageant

Last Saturday, Zoey and I went to the Miss Sandy pageant at the Sandy amphitheater. Jaron is the director of the pageant--and so I've been hearing about it for 4 years now. So I thought it about time to go see what the fuss was all about....plus Jaimey is the choreographer so we had to see the sweet moves that she came up with....
Jaron also designed the stage--you can't tell but the letters are totally glittered!! AMAZING! AND...he sang 2 songs! I've got blackmail video of him if anyone is interested....let me know what it's worth to you! :)

Zoey & I had such a fun time--we got to sit by Carrie & her 3 girls. And Zoe just couldn't stop talking about getting up on stage! :) So after everyone left, we sneaked up so she could have her moment...

There's no dress that twirls like her China dress!

After the twirling, Zoe wanted to talk to all the princesses--so we did our best. Here she is w/Ariel--Miss Sandy 2007. Thanks for inviting us Jaron & Jaimey! We loved it and you both were awesome! :)

Top Ten Tuesday: Things that are making me happy right now...

Today was such a happy day. It just was. So I decided to break it down to make sense of why.....and since Jaron was going on and on all day about it being Top Ten Tuesday, I decided to join him in making a list....even though I just realized he never finished his. :(

10. I just purchased the song you are listening to on ITunes!! Ever since the cruise I have been wanting it....

9. Tonight I went to see "What Happens in Vegas" w/some friends and my little sis and it was truly an awesome comedy--better than most comedies I've seen in a long time!!! I laughed the whole time and it was just so funny and unexpected!!! Go see it!!

8. Last week, I found the cutest pair of earrings for $1.99!!! And even though I wore them for an entire day and didn't get a single compliment, I still think they are the bees knees! 7. Chatting w/Matt right now.

6. Fun, awesome, amazing projects at work that I just love working on!!

5. Three-day weekend means 2-days for shopping! :) And even though I need to join SA (Shopper's Annonymous), at least I have some reeeaaaaalllly cute things to show for my shopping trips.

4. A date w/Zoey on Saturday to the Miss Sandy Pageant--which I've been wanting to go to for 4 years now (not b/c I love pageants, but b/c I spend 8 hours a day w/Jaron).

3. Tomorrow is Wednesday even though it feels like Tuesday!

2. It's nearly June and the only days of hot weather we've had so far this year, I was in Alaska!!!

1. SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE IS FINALLY ON AGAIN!!! And if any of you remember this from last year--you're probably as excited as I am:

Alaska Top Ten

I's time for my Alaska update--and I've decided to do it in top ten format. There were a lot more than 10 things that I loved, so I've tried to include little mentions....

10. The Promenade: Deck 3 was the one that went all the way around the ship. And I loved it b/c it was kinda old school so it reminded me of the Titanic (one of my all time fave movies). Almost every day, I went for a walk and enjoyed the weather & scenery. Plus, it was cool b/c w/the rocking of the boat, there was an automatic uphill/downhill which provided a great workout!

This is what it looked like just walking through the doors onto the deck...

9. The Food: I wasn't expecting the food to be awesome--but there were some really delicious things!! Breakfast was my fave meal so I snapped a picture...look at all of Jeff's cereal boxes!

I call this picture "ugly t-shirt day." Jeff said he got this t-shirt at a garage sale like 5 years ago for 50 cents!!!! hahaha and I am still perplexed that he just up and decided that this would be one of the few shirts he would bring on vacation! This is also one of the 2 pictures I have of Kyle so I had to get him in here somehow...

This was my b-day lunch. Delicious Burger and fries and WOW the best mojito ever!!

Pop's fruit.....I like taking pictures of other people's food too.

This was the best thing I ate on the whole cruise: cold cherry soup!

8. Naps: This was such a relaxing cruise--we had lots of times for afternoon naps! Plus there were lots of awesome movies playing (Juno, Top Gun, Gone w/the Wind, Forrest Gump). I loved sharing a cabin w/Lindsey! And we were both sick and taking seasickness drugs together--which allowed for even more naps!

The first morning, Lance showed up and handed off the Chub so we snuggled with him before breakfast.


7. The Ship: We sailed on the MS Oosterdam, Holland America line. I've been on a cruise before, on a scary Spanish cruise ship through the Mediterranean. This was such a different experience!!!

Waving goodbye to our fans as we set sail....

One of my fave parts of the ship--just some random seats in one of the hallways...the ship was like a really classy version of Vegas--they didn't miss a detail!
This was truly my favorite thing about the ship--Northern Lights--the dance club! If you can't tell, the fabric on the seats is covered in glitter!!

6. Chubs: He's pretty much the perfect baby! He didn't even cry once!!! Even in the pouring rain when we wrapped the stroller in a poncho--I would peek in and he would STILL be smiling!
This moment made me laugh b/c he barely sits up by himself--but here his just thinking he's one of the big people...

The stroller poncho--see! Totally smiling!
This is prob my fave pic of him of all time...even though it doesn't quite capture how beautiful he is in real life. :)

5. My Birthday: On Tuesday, May 13, I turned 29! It was a nice, relaxing, happy day. All the girls went to the spa for some treatments--which were amazing!

This is my birthday lunch. Me in all my 29 glory!

And then for dinner, my fam presented me w/a cake, or actually the waiters did. Then they sang happy birthday in like 3 languages. And then I was given this amazing birthday hat! :)

4. Night life: Being a complete night owl, I've always felt like around 10pm is when the magic begins to happen....and there was no exception on the ship! We played card games, ping pong, did puzzles, and hit the dance club till the wee hours of the morning! Hill talks a little more about this on her blog so check it out of you wanna....

L & A in Northern Lights the last night....we stayed up til like 2:30 b/c we just didn't want it all to end! :)

3. Formal nights: I love dressing up! So every night for dinner it was time to dress up! But there were 2 nights in particular where we were all dressed to the nines. This is the first night--no in-laws here b/c they either didn't bring appropriate attire and were turned away at the door, or were just to sick to attend.

The original 7 plus Chubs...

5 siblings--youngest to oldest from left to right (Lindsey, Ally, Jeff, moi & Hill). This is prob my fave pic from the trip. We don't really have a pic like this as adults--probably b/c we've never all been there for any of the weddings.

Then these last 3 are formal night #2....

Lance did decide to show up for formal night #2--after it was all over. And he brought his best friend. I told him I am going to take pictures of him now whenever he has his computer out in weird places...

2. The Weather: Hill summed it all up when she said, as we were landing in Seattle, "Can you imagine how amazing it would be to live in a city w/cloud cover 100% of the time!?" Almost all of us were ecstatic to experience the Alaska cold! It was rainy and beautiful and chilly and I LOVED IT! It was great to escape the desert for a week!

Juneau weather....completely poured rain the entire time!
The Hubbard Glacier--biggest in the world. Actually this first pic isn't--but the next pic is. This was a SERIOUS Titanic moment. Not only were there huge floating pieces of ice, but the ship stopped so we could view it and it was super eerie and quiet. Amazing!

This one is the weather in Sitka: also complete downnpour the whole time! :)
Ketchikan weather: cloudy and cold...

1. Family time: Cheesy maybe for this to be my #1, but still true. This would've been such a boring cruise if I had not been w/the people I love most! The cruise was a perfect medium for our vacations so I hope we do them lots in the future!

Family time in Juneau...

Family time in Sitka...

Family time during a special dessert bar...

Family time in Ketchikan (with a random stranger)...

Family time in Seattle on the Underground tour...

I should also mention that Alaska was my 44th state to visit. I only have the Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin & Arkansas left. :) (And I'm not sure if I need to go to the others--obviously there's a reason I haven't been to them yet, right?)

Thanks for reading this longest top ten of all time! The trip was amazing and I'm so glad I got to go!!!

Wordless Wednesday

My Favorite Card of All Time!!

You may think it would be difficult for me to choose my favorite card of all time....and before today I would've thought so too. But just take a peek at Stamping Queens to see why it was so easy for me to choose. I guarantee you will either:

a) Agree with me, or

b) Understand exactly why.