Mary Ann & The Giant Squash

This year we decided to plant a garden. We had a small 8x8 spot in the very corner of our yard that I planted a few tomato plants, cucumbers, pepper and a few squash plants. After planting them I pretty much forgot about them and didn't fertilize, water very much or weed. After a few weeks I noticed that the squash was doing REALLY well despite my neglect. Well, by the middle of July the squash had literally taken over the garden and the surrounding area. It reminds me of Jack and the Bean Stalk! I had my mom come over to look at it and see if we could figure out what kind of squash I bought because it clearly isn't what I thought it was. My mom has had a garden her whole life and grew up on a farm so she is well aquainted with veggies. Well, I wasn't prepared for her amazement at the size of the squash plant. She said, "Oh, my goodness....what did you do?" That's just it. Nothing! Well after multiple people coming over and looking at it we decided I had planted 2 banana squash plants. Banana squash grow to usually 10-20 lbs but can get as big as 70 lbs! Ummm, ya. We will now refer to this summer as the summer of the squash.

What the ???

So Mindy tagged me on her blog to open your first picture folder and find the 10th photo and tell the story behind it. Who comes up with these ideas? Anyway...

Yes, that is me and yes I am holding a shot of some apple liquor. This was from last May when Jeremy and I were in Poland for his MBA trip. A bunch of us went to a local restaurant to eat and most of the group drank so much beer the owners decided to treat us all to free shots. Jeremy and I didn't drink ours (of course) but the others were happy to take them off our hands.

10 Random Things

As per Hilary's suggestion here is a list of 10 random things about me. Just remember that there is no judging on this site and those who do judge me from my list will be blackmailed. I know something secret about everyone.

1. I love to shave my legs. Not just having shaven legs but actually shaving them.

2. I'm addicted to crime shows. Not just CSI and stuff but shows with real stories about people, like American Justice and Cold Case Files.

3. Whenever I drive down Parley's Canyon I think of things I would do if my brakes went out and I was past the runaway truck ramp.

4. I hate grocery shopping.

5. Most of the time my left leg is 1/2 inch longer than my right. I wasn't born this way, it happens when my bones shift in my hip and my sciatic nerve acts up.

6. If I could have any calling in the church I would be the Primary Chorister.

7. I really don't like scrapbooking. I think it's overrated and I'm not very good at it.

8. I can type really fast and pretty accuratley.

9. I absolutley hate being late to things.

10. I use to eat snow with maple syrup on it when I was really little. My neighbor taught it to me. Gross.

Sweet sweet honey.

Back seat of our "paid for" Nissan Altima.
Cloth seats and accompanying seatbelts.
7 lbs of spilled honey... yes 7 lbs.

How do you even begin to clean that up?
I'll tell you... a ladel, a big bowl and lots and lots of soapy water.
Our back seat is still crunchy.

The Bird

When I was younger, maybe 5th or 6th grade, I got a Cockatiel for Christmas. His name was Piper and he was a sweet bird. That is he was sweet until Steven and Brian tortured the poor thing and turned it against everone. If you think I'm kidding you should ask them, they still laugh about it. Anyway, Piper did a lot of interesting things. Once he ate a black pearl after bending the earing it was in while still attached to my moms ear. Another time he flew away and ended up landing on a neighbors bald head while he was outside in the garden. Finally he met his demise when left outside in his cage one night. He got eaten by a raccoon. There are differing accounts as to what really happened but he was dead. Well...

Today Katherine and Natalie and I were leaving my salon to go home. As we stepped into the parking lot a hear a bird and it sounded familiar. I looked down and there was a Cockatiel in the parking lot! Just chillin', hangin' out. Flash backs from my childhood swarmed through my head and me having a soft spot in my heart for animals and not wanting it to meet the same fate as Piper, we tried to catch it. It took a few minutes and a piece of chocolate cookie but I got him. He was squalking and trying to bite me. Poor thing didn't realize I was there to help him! So we have this bird, now what do we do with it? Of course, there's a pet store right around the corner! They'll surely take the bird. We walk into the store and this girl tell us they can't take it because they don't know where it's been and it could disease the other birds. Whatever. So what did we do? We left it in the Bird World parking lot for some other person to deal with. Yep. Serious. Now I have guilt.

Moab 2009

This past weekend Jeremy and I went to Moab with the Barclay's, Steven & Tara and some friends. Jeremy's dad works with a guy who got a permit to run the Westwater seciton of the Colorado River. A 17 mile section of river with a series of 17 rapids. Of course we were in the smallest raft. There was lots of rowing, lots of sun and lots of water. The first few rapids were pretty small. I thought "if this is as bad as it gets, we're good". Boy was I wrong. We went through some pretty amazing rapids. The one that I have the best recollection of was called Skull Rapids. Ya, the name really instilled a sense of saftey for me. Well, the 6 of us in our little raft (that included a guy who's run the river a lot and was our "guide") headed into the rapids and after we hit the first big one we got thrown over to the right and pinned against a rock wall. The raft went up on the wall and we thought it was going to flip and we'd all fall out. Instead Jeff (my brother-in-law) fell into me and I in turn fell into Jeremy and Jeremy and I both fell out! It was pretty scary. Luckily I was right by the raft and could feel the side of the raft. I kept reaching for something to grab onto but couldn't find anything. I was still under water and couldn't get any air. Suddenly I was ripped out of the water and was back in the raft. Literally ripped. In the process I got a huge bruise on my leg somehow. Jeremy on the other hand had gotten sucked down when he fell in. Finally he came up and was right under the raft. He finally got out after being under long enough to feel "uncomfortable". When he popped up the other rafts in our group were yelling at him to swim left. We finally made it out of the rapids, picked up Jeremy from another raft and tried to calm down. It was at this point that our "guide" told us that 3 people have died this year in that exact spot. He didn't tell us before so we didn't freak out. Overall the rafting trip was AWESOME! Definitely scary in spots but way fun!

35th Annual Scottish Festival

This past weekend Jeremy performed/competed with the Utah Pipe Band at the Utah Scottish Festival at Thanksgiving Point. Friday night was the tattoo and Saturday was the competition. The UPB placed 3rd out of 12 competing bands in both the timed medley and the quick march medley. The main reason I go is to see my hubby in his kilt! Oh, and I guess the sweet piping that they do isn't bad either!