Fights in the Family

So my CUZ alyssa works with me. We are seperated by a LARGE cubicle wall. I am cut off from all the account managers and the fun that they have-and i am exiled to boredom over here where no one is. With that being said, i have a candy dish. And today on the way to work we stopped at Days Market, where i got a Sobe Life Water (so good) and a couple of bags of candy for my dish. Everyone always eats my candy gone, and this time i am unusually protective of it because, well...Days Market isnt cheap. The candy set me back 15 bucks. Just a couple of bags of reeses and mint and almond kisses.
ANYWAY, alyssa comes in everyday around 2:30 (after school) and she comes over to say hello and sees my candy and immediately starts picking out a handful of her favorites. I snap at her..."GO AWAY you scavenger!"

She whines but leaves. Well on her way out of my office area i threw a kiss at her back. You know, in a loving way. And she turns around and says "Oh you think youre so cute in your sneakers and christmas socks!" (i do think I'm cute, and its casual friday..duh)So she goes back to her desk and im talking to Angenelle about something, and bratty Alyssa chimes in "NO ONE IS LISTENING TO YOU!" So i climb up onto a chair and then onto a filing cabinet(which the filing cabinet wasnt tall to begin with so im not really sure why i needed the chair) so that i can launch some candy at her from an unsuspecting angle. Well i did and it startled her and lots of laughs came and we all shared in some fun christmas candy. And the moral of the story is, Christmas is for sharing and i should of shared from the beginning.

Its almost December!

A few things that I've done to get ready for the season:

-bought my first Christmas present last night, for Camilla. I am so excited for her to get it. Giving a present is way better than getting one. It makes me so happy to think about her opening and (hopefully) loving the gift i picked out for her.

-listening and singing my heart out to Christmas music. Some of my cheezy favorites include "Little Drummer Boy" by Jessica and Ashlee Simpson and that floor to the cieling NSync diddy that i cant remember what its called all of a sudden. And of course the James Taylor version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" always brings me to near tears.

-Watching Christmas movies while making Christmas crafts. I have been stringing straws to make those icicles everyday after work all week and im still not close to completion. On those dumb tv nights, like last night (Office was a re-run and Greys didnt tape!!!!! devasating, i know) i turned on the Family Stone and cozied up and strung straws and it was so magical.

-Drinking Hot Chocolate like water. I love it. Stephens Milk Chocolate Cocoa with a Candy Cane in it and a dollop of cool whip. SO DELICIOUS!

-Wearing hats and scarves and gloves. Ok so i havent worn a scarf yet, or gloves, but i did wear a hat last night (sorry Megan, it was one of the beanies you hate, the ones that look like baret's) but i felt like i was walking out of Christmas card, it was so cute.

-Little holiday neighbor gifts. I got the girls i visit teach sugar cookies from Smart Cookie last night. One in the shape of a tree, complete with colorful ornaments. And the other was a pink round circle with crushed candy cane on the top. They looked so good all wrapped in cellophane bags with ribbon. I love these little treat bags and im excited to make lots of goodies and take them to all the married neighbors.

-I made peanut butter blossoms last week which just scream Lewis Family Christmas. I only made one batch...and then i brought the rest of the bag of kisses to work and ate them all over a few days (maybe i shared a few).

-The candy dish on my desk is filled with reeses and mint truffle kisses in christmas golds and reds and greens and its so darling.

-My ringtone has officially been changed from Peter, Bjorn and John to Mariah belting her holiday hit "All i want for Christmas is you." If you dont like this song, who are you? Scrooge?

"Tis the Season to be Jolly and Joyace...fa la la" (name the song and where its from and you win!)

Introducing Cosette Elizabeth Ruggles!

My good friends Raquel and Marc finally, after what seems like the longest pregnancy in history...had their baby girl yesterday afternoon. She was 8 lbs 9 ounces...pretty healthy size and shes so cute!!!doesn't Raquel look amazing? Maybe a teensy bit tired, but one hot mama.

WIN 2 TICKETS - ALL EXPENSES PAID - INCLUDING AIR FARES TO THE 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES IN BEIJING , CHINA .

To participate is very easy, just view the attached photo, correctly
answer the following questions and send your answers to:
International Olympic Committee, Private Bag, Lausanne, Switzerland.

1. Which student seems to appear tired / sleepy?
2. Which ones are male twins?
3. Which ones are the female twins?
4. How many women are in the group?
5. Which one is the teacher?


yeah, i guess you're not going either...

holiday decorating part 2

So the straws are coming along nicely, and a friend of mine showed me what the salt lake anthropologie has in their window for the holidays, and i want to do this as well. Not because i am obsessed with anything Anthropologie does (i do love it, usually) but because I really am loving the" Winter White" decor.

I'm thinking of making some of these snowflake strands and hanging them in with the straws and also making it into garland for my tree. Maybe a white feather garland for the tree as well. It will probably be set up sometime this weekend, so i will send pictures then. Stay tuned!

Straws, a modern decoration?

Anthropologie's Christmas window display has me in awe. And like most things at Anthropologie, i feel can be made at home. So i decided to try this, and keep in mind, its not done. I have an eye for aesthetically pleasing things-so if it ends up looking like white trash i will be the first to take it down. But its not done, its going to be covered in straws.

here is the store display. COOL HUH? each straw is threaded by hand. It takes forever.
here is my version. This is 1,500 straws. It looks a little sparse and WT right now, but its getting there. And in case you are wanting to also take on this project, just a heads up, they dont sell clear plastic straws anywhere. I bought a box of 500 from chuck-a-rama and 2 boxes of 500 from Village Inn. Chuck-a-rama sold them to me for 2 bucks and Village in 3, a box. But they did tell me they got them at Sams club, so i am headed there tonight.

Thanksgiving: the meal

here is a pictorial of my thanksgiving in vegas. Mainly this is just the easy way for my sister and my mom to get these pictures.my mom and lincoln
stef and i cooking (me=feathered bangs...dont really know what happened)
jordan and kristine
the kids table
michelle and mike
megan and justin
Lincoln and a fruit cupConnor RoeJack looking good and stoned.the little guyslinc and the turkey

The Long Look on Life: a film by Michael Paul

Michael is a good friend of mine, we were neighbors a few years ago. We have been to eachothers houses, met the families...he came to the MTC when i left on my mission, he has made me laugh so hard i was crying...Anyway, i hope i painted a picture of how good of friends we are because, well...hes going to be famous and i want you all to know that i knew him before he moves on and forgets all about me.

He has been working on this documentary "The Long Look on Life" for about 2 years now, and having already seen it, i can tell you this - its AMAZING.

Without giving anything away, i will just give a brief summary...

Michael followed around a few homeless guys and drug addcits around the safe bubble that is PROVO. He follows them through drug deals, panhandling, dumpster diving, multiple arrests, and recovery. Its a really powerful journey that he takes you on. Some of the footage is shocking, disturbing and heart wrenching. I never even shed one single tear in any movies, and the first time i saw this i was sobbing.

Its complete and Michael is premiering it next week, the 5th at the University Movie Theatres...the one by Costco. Tickets are a buck, and it starts at 8. Let me know if you want a ticket!

Las Vegas trip

so for thanksgiving, Stefanie and i decided to drive the 5 hours to vegas to stay at my sisters so we could shop and get out of Provo. Well my brother and his fiance decided to come to, and so my mom couldnt miss out on all of us being there and her not coming. So she drove out from california again...which she says everytime that shes not making the drive...it was a good week...

here are a few of the pictures...minus all the ones from the actual meal...those will have their own post.


jack loved stefanie.


we took a Lewis girls picture (we missed you Erin!) and this was right after i got out of the shower. I threw up Thanksgiving meal and got throw up in my hair. It was quite lovely.


Jordan had the extreme giggles....


Jack was wiped out.


Playing Scattergories. Jordan and Kristine thought they were pretty good...


i taught Jack how to wash the car.. (and no these pictures arent all from the same day, but he was wearing those PJs the whole time)


an evening with Nate Earl...


and then off to bed...
(and in case youre all wondering...Kaisa made me that pillow case for my birthday like 3 years ago and i love it. And kaisa, everyone always loves it and asks where i got it)

the best time of year

The holidays really kick off for me with the Oprahs Favorite things episode...which is today! in like 5 minutes! YES!!!! I love DVR. Can't wait to watch it after work!

---sidenote....what the heck was up with the Bachelor last night?


UPDATE



here are a few of my favorites of Oprahs favorites. Blood Orange Sorbet, doesnt that sound and look amazing? Those Ugg Crochet boots i think look very cozy, but defenitely not worth buying, or tucking your pants into. I want that panini press. Giada was using it on Oprah last week in her little segment and i wanted it then and i still do. And i still to this day have every kitchen accessory i could desire and i have never had Melamine Bowls and i want them!

SERIOUSLY?

First of all, I want to apologize that this post will not contain any pictures. It all happened so fast, it couldn't of been captured. But now that i think about it, i really wish that it would of been cause that would of made it even more funny.

Now on with my story...

My roommates and I decided to go see the movie "Dan in Real Life" (really good by the way, highly recommend it), and when we got there the theatre was packed. The only 4 seats we could find together were at the very top row in the middle...which really aren't even bad seats. So i sit down next to this couple, and the girl is laying down over 2 seats. I figured they were saving for someone and figured out later that they weren't. Anyway the theatre goes dark and the previews start. And out of nowhere there is another couple standing at my feet trying to sit down in the one seat that the girl is laying down in. So i suggest that my group moves down (there was an extra seat on the end of us) so that they could sit together. So we do that, and I'm asking the girl to move her feet at the same time.

me: "excuse me....do you think you can move your feet so these people can sit down?"
idiot girl: IGNORING ME
me: "These people don't have a place to sit, can you please sit up"
idiot girl: IGNORES ME
me: move the armrest down and leave her feet there.

so the boy of the couple in waiting, sits down on the very edge of the seat hoping she will move her feet. Well no, little miss Avril decides to KICK HIM. She kicks him. Can you even believe it? And he doesn't say anything and then her boyfriend reaches over her and slugs the guy, like repeatedly. He was using a lot of colorful language starting with the F-word and was just being an all-around classy guy. So the innocent mute couple i was helping SIT THERE being the peacemakers that i am sure they are. Well i am not that type of gal i guess cause i started talking to the misfits.

me: "Um seriously? What are you doing?"
idiot boy: "I will F*** you up"
idiot girl: "If they wanted a seat they should of come early"
me: "Did you buy 3 tickets?"
idiot girl: "F you"
me: "Should i go get security"
idiot girl: "Go right ahead"

So that's what i did. I stormed out and got the Provo Towne center security guard who was approx 5'6" 115 lbs. And was so pleased that he had something to do. So we marched back into the theatre, me, little man rent-a-cop, the ticket man, and the movie theatre manager. And they were thrown out. And i got a lot of thank yous, and i still didn't even miss 1 second of the movie.

Thank goodness for LONG previews.

Happy Birthday Sissy!

Today is my sisters birthday, and i should of put this up earlier, but haven't had a spare second all day...

Megan has always been such a good sibling. I shared a room with her all of my childhood and i couldn't of asked for a better friend. She liked all the same things as me, which is weird since she is 4 years older than me. For instance, i remember taking our barbies into the wetlands when i was in 5th grade. Which would of made her in 8th grade. Barbies is kind of a strange thing for an 8th grader. We cut the feet out of our tights with the Hobbins girls and pretended we were the pre-existence dancers on Saturdays warrior (mom didn't like that we ruined ALL of our tights). We would play receptionist, locking ourselves in our room for hours making appointments, and then there were the times when we were "Paula and Phylis" the girl version of Paul and Phil on the Y92 (easy listening radio station). She would hypnotize me to sleep..."relax your toes...toes asleep. Relax your ankles, ankles asleep. relax foot. Foot asleep" etc) and i actually believed her and thought it worked. She and I would listen to "My Sharona" from the Reality Bites Soundtrack, and dance and dance around.When Megan was in high school i remember thinking she had the cutest clothes and the greatest style. She used to have long blond hair and she would wear scarves wrapped as headbands, and deep red lipstick (not flattering, but i thought it was so beautiful). She would sing harmony to hymns at church and on the radio and i thought it was so cool and wanted to learn to do it. Megan was also always such a good example and had an unusually strong testimony for a teenager, i think. She used to ask for church CDs for her birthday (probably still does), and it seemed she lived and died for church dances. Which is where she met Justin. I remember seeing her and Justin dance to "strawberry wine" at a Mineshaft dance, and they started kissing and i was SO mad. How could she kiss him like that? It was not appropriate (or so i thought). She drove us home, dropping Justin off first. The dance was over at 11:45 so you could be home before it was Sunday, and dropping Justin off in EDH put us past midnight, and so in true Megan fashion, we started listening to one of church CDs. And i was like "you are such a hypocrite! You just totally french kissed him and now you re listening to church songs?" I was such a dork.

And then there was the time where i knew she had a big crush on a boy in 8th grade. I thought my sister was the most beautiful girl, and so i thought he would for sure like her if he just knew she liked him. So i decided to write him a letter saying "my sister has a crush on you and this is what her binder says..." and then i proceeded to write all the doodles she had wrote about him on her binder. I mailed it to his house (finding his address in the stake directory) and i didn't forget to put in her 7th grade picture for him. I figured he would need it. But what i did FORTUNATELY forget, was a stamp. So it never made it to his house. I was in BIG BIG trouble and i just thought i was helping her out!Megan i love you and i hope you have the best birthday!

PS she is the greatest mom and always (usually) has a REALLY clean house!

cupcakes

arent these cute? I want to make them.

Not so much the mario cupcakes, but they are still fun to look at. Megan you should do Jacks next birthday as mario and make these! So cute!

Crazy Asians

we saw this on Ellen like 2 weeks ago and have saved it in the DVR and have watched it probably 20 times and laugh HARD every time. The show is called "Brain Wall" but its affectionately known as "human tetris" on youtube. Crazy asians.

Thankful for free food

Yesterday my roommates/coworkers and I decided to go to Cafe Rio for lunch. We get there and get in line and my mouth is watering just thinking of the delicious pork salad i am about to eat. Well in walks all of the regional managers along with one of the owners, Matt. We order and are about to pay and he jumps in front of us and pays for us all. It was so nice!

I dont know if its just that i love getting thank you cards myself, or if I'm just a classy gal (ha.) but i decided to write Matt a thank you card from the 3 of us. Stefanie thought it was weird and Ang just laughed about it, but i thought i should let him know that i was genuinely grateful that i didnt have to drop 10 dollars on lunch. So as i was leaving work, and he was in a meeting i put it in his office. This is the email he sent this morning.

From: Matt Sterzer
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 5:32 PM
To: 'Stefanie Ellingson'
Subject: nice card

Hey Stef,

What a nice card! Thank you. Would you let Shauna and Angenelle know I appreciated it also? I love the people that make up our company- and with another 100% growth year looming in front of us I need to be able to say that!!! Thanks for all you do- and next time come sit with us! J

Matt

Can you tell i work for Salesmen?

Diamonds

So my little brother got engaged last night. His fiance, Kristine was telling me how much she loves her ring. Its pretty and diamond-ish but nothing compared to what i am going to have.

Kristine's ring

My diamond. i think i will put it on a necklace. I have pretty small fingers it would just look silly.

DDD the blog

A few years ago when gmail started, my best friends and i started this chain email everyday. You just click the reply to all, and all 13 people get the same email. Gmail revolutionalized my virtual world as well as kept me daily contact with my best friends all over the continent. Linsey and Camilla moved to NY, Lanni to Texas, Rhyll, Katie Rose, Ashlee and Marci to southern california, Kristyn to AZ...everyone scattered. Being able to converse with my best friends was awesome and it continues to be wonderful.Marci had the great idea to start a blog. A more grown up way to stay in touch and less time consuming for everyones schedule, than a daily email chain. So, here we go...join us.


(DDD stands for Daily Diva Dish...clever, right?)

Attack of the Razor

I have been wanting to get rid of my mom haircut since well, i realized it was a mom haircut. So i did it. And i couldnt love it more.
thank you Sarah! i love it! I am no longer a mom!

EDIT: the bangs are much cuter and chunkier and i am retarded and i just noticed that in the picture they are stringy and greasy which is most likely what they will end up looking like at the end of everyday on this forehead ive got.