It's So FLUFFY!!!

That's right folks. Your kind words full of love and joy and joyness helped me to decide to keep on bloggin'. So here we go:
Bob and I got a furry little thing at the beginning of June. She's black, slobbery, and loves the water. Who is this mysterious, new addition to our family?

Meet Miss Maggie

'Squishy', as we call her, was born on March 31, 2010. We got her at a wee 9 weeks old. I can't believe I haven't talked about her yet! Anywhosie. She is a pure black lab/golden retriever mix. Both parents were fancy-smancy hunting dogs who...cough, cough... got a little friendly in the woods.

We have sure had our fair share of little trials with her:

1. Swallowing a large, sharp, hard piece of plastic at 11 weeks old. (This led to being up all night, puking at 5am, and continuing to throw up the entire day until we ended up at the vet. Yay).

2. Dealing with weeks of 'soft serve' poopy (I know you're just dying to hear all this!). We were feeding her Iams Smart Puppy. Bad choice. It turns out Iams has corn and a lot of animal byproducts in it. Corn can be hard for puppies to digest. So after two more weeks of 'fun' we got her all switched over to Kirkland Puppy. Not only is it better for her, but it is significantly cheaper. Hurrah!

3. As always, there were a few accidents in the house. Crate training has helped sooooo much. She got house broken in a snap, and hasn't had any accidents for a good long time.

4. Puppy razor teeth. Enough said.

Aside from the puppy craziness, she is so much fun to have around. Nothing is better that coming home to a furry little animal who is wiggling with joy to see you. She has helped us stay in shape. To tire her out in the evening or morning, we take her on walks around the neighborhood. It's good for us, and good for her, too.

I love being a dog owner. This weekend Bob and I went up to Manuta (by Brigham City). She joined us walking around the reservoir, fishing and swimming.

Most of all, she gives me a taste of mommy hood without the total baby responsibility (you can't leave a baby at home in a crate 5 hours each day, that's for sure). I don't feel quite as baby hungry anymore. I've got a new baby of my own to take care of...

...she's just covered in fur...and walks on four legs...and has a tail...

Anywho, I promise I won't become a puppy mommy blogger. For those who have the same reaction I do to puppies (i.e. oohhohohoho!!! puppy puppy! gimme! gimme!!) Here are a handful of pictures to hold you off for a while.

 

I'm adorable!

Goodbye Blog?

I've been considering deleting this blog. I just don't feel like I have much to say anymore. Life is pretty simple right now: wake up, eat, work, play, sleep. I also don't have anyone that I'm keeping updated through my blog (unlike my other friends who live in other states and use blogging to keep their families informed on their little chitlins). I ain't got none babies, and I ain't gonna become a puppy mommy blogger. I don't even think anyone in my family reads this. Ha! Funny, funny. Anywho, I'm just not seeing the benefits of blogging right now. Grad School will most likely take all extra blogging time, too.

Well, this may or may not be goodbye. I haven't decided just yet. We'll see.

Friend-less

I am usually pretty good at accepting change. I like to keep my mind open. New things bring new experiences and new adventures. After watching Up! (my new favorite animated movie), I've decided to adopt Charles Muntz's famous slogan:

Adventure is out there!

...Because it is. Adventure is not found sitting on your behind in front of the television (unless you are watching Survivor, but that show is sooooo 10 years ago). Adventure is found by meeting new people, going new places, and taking new chances.

I am not going to learn and grow without change. So I welcome it. With open arms. Most of the time. But, as of late, there has been one pill that has been hard for me to swallow: not seeing old friends anymore.

I miss my friends. All my friends.I miss my first best friend, Melinda. I miss playing Indiana Jones on her swing set. I miss playing Power Rangers on my trampoline and making up the "Purple Ranger" because neither of us wanted to be the yellow ranger. (I'm pretty sure we weren't racist, she just wasn't as cool as Kimberly). I miss tying barbies to chair legs with colorful pipe cleaners because they had been captured by the evil villian, Nicholas. I miss our Jasmine Jammies.

I miss my elementary friends. I miss spending every recess, every day on the swings. I miss the innocence of youth. I miss spending all summer at the Coburn's house making dozens of music videos, talk shows, cooking shows, and quality movies. I miss being able to play all day because work had not entered our lives yet. (I wish I had some pictures of us, but I can't find any. Trust me when I say we were all pretty cute. The awkward Jr. High years hadn't attacked us yet). 

I miss my junior and high school friends. I miss getting dressed up for football games. I miss hanging out during lunch eating our disgustingly greasy pizzas or tasty bread sticks. I miss playing night games. I miss asking, answering, planning, and attending school dances. I miss being a teenager with the best group of guys and gals that anyone could ask for.I miss my drama friends. I miss spending all day in the drama room. I miss laughing at anything and everything. I miss spontaneously quoting lines from plays and watching other students look at us like we're crazy (because we are). I miss swearing with Adam because it's "Just Acting." I miss being around other goofballs just like myself knowing that no one is judging you. I miss being able to express myself on stage with amazing friends. 

I miss my gang of college friends. AKA "The District". You know who you are: Elyse, Andrea, Eric, Rick, Krista, Brammer, Emily, Will, Emilee, Kariann, Kim, Dave, Melissa, Clayton, Amanda, Laura, Michaeljohmdavid, Chad and Liz. I miss playing Ultimate Frisbee on the beach in La Jolla. I miss spontaneous get-togethers. I miss watching movies at Liz's house (especially when spending all day and night together watching the entire Star Wars collection). I miss seeing each other on campus and being WAY TO EXCITED about it. I miss all of us being together.

I miss all the friends I made when in the LDS sorority at the U. They were all so much fun, and I truly miss not seeing them all once a week. Whether we were friends waaay back when, or hung out at one point or another in college. I miss you, too.

I miss all my friends who have moved to new places to pursue career opportunities or for education purposes. I miss friends who have gotten married and have new things going on. I miss never seeing anyone I used to. I hate that as we've all grown up, new things have come upon us that pull us apart.

I wish I could have one week to spend with all my past friends. And I mean, truly spend time with them. None of this see-each-other-for-an-hour-or-two-at-a-wedding-shower-deal.

Please call me. Please send me an email. I don't know if you caught it, but I miss you.

Aside from all this missing of friends, I do love my life right now. Bob is a great husband and Maggie is a fun, furry companion. We spend a lot of time with family members and each other. He is a great best friend, and I'm happy that I don't have to be missing him like I miss everyone else.

Holy Doppelgangers, Batman!

I have often received comments from friends and others that many members of my family look like celebrities. It makes me laugh. We all have doppelgangers.

[As a side note, did you know that in folklore, a doppelgagner is a gostly double of a living person, often perceived as a sinister form of bilocation? They are also regarded as omen of bad luck.]

Yikes! So apparently my family is a smorgasbord of celebrity doubles (minus the fame) living our innocent lives in Utah. I don't even want to imagine what would happen if we ran into each other. Surely some crazy split in the space-time continuum would forever alter the lives of the residents on Earth from that time forward.
Putting panic aside, let's analyze these doppelgangers, shall we?
Starting with the top of the family:

Dad. People have said he looks like Sean Connery. A good ten years back or so we were walking around in Tijuana and some guy stopped my dad and said, 'Sean Connery! Sean Connery!' My dad had to try and convince this guy that he was not the super sexy Sir Sean. It gave us a good laugh that this guy was completely convinced that Sean Connery had decided to take a spontaneous trip to the classy Mexican city of Tijuana.
 

On to my Momma. At first when I wrote this blog I couldn't figure out who my mom looked like. Thanks to my awesome sister, she reminded me that she used to get told she looks a lot like Barbra Streisand pre-nose job. (My mom got sinus surgery a couple years back and straightened her nose so now the resemblance isn't quite as close). Still, when looking at pictures of Babs with shorter hair, there is definitely a match there.

Next in line in our look-alike contest is my sister, Holly. A friend of mine in high school swore that she was Molly Shannon's twin. He even resorted to calling her Molly instead of Holly. Coincidence that their names rhyme? I think not. Another bit of fun trivia for you all: Molly is a comedian, and my sister is hilarious. Seriously folks, if you read the old blog that we had together It Has Raisins In It, you will see that she has some serious wit. So here are the picture comparisons...see the resemblance?

Jordan. Or should I say Freddie Prinze, Jr? In my opinion this is the biggest doppelganger of the family. When I was in Jr. High and Jordan was in High School a lot of my girlfriends had crushes on him. One even wrote in my yearbook, "Your brother, Freddie, is so hot!" Umm...thanks. I'm his sister, it kinda makes me uncomfortable that you mention that my brother is hot in my yearbook. Weird. Anywho, one year Jordan went to EFY and a girl came up to him completely in shock that "Freddie" was in Idaho. Jordan played along, and, as always, was the hottie of the week. But how could he not be when there was this big of a resemblance (disregard the fact that I'm in this picture...focus on Jordan, not young Cilla)
 

And for the grand finale, Yours Truly. Even though she is 16 years my senior, I get people telling me all the time that I look like Tina Fey. In fact, my friends just went to see "Date Night" with Tina Fey and Steve Carell and said, "You were great in the movie, Cilla!" It makes me happy that my doppelganger is a funny, talented lady. I really like Tina Fey and am happy to have her be my presage of bad luck. What do you guys think?
  

So there you have it. My crazy doppelganger family. I guess that if Sean Connery and Barbara Streisand got together and had babies they would look like Molly Shannon, Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Tina Fey. Nice. Now who wants to call Ellen and get us all on a show together?