Happy Birthday to My Girl

The big nine.  Seems like only yesterday I was bringing you home from the sumo wrestling nursery where I stole you from....

Pimp and Circumstance

Just when I thought that my little brother Brian could not get more awesome, he gets asked to speak at BYU Graduation for his college.  (The College of Fancypants Chemists, if you were wondering.) They told him to speak for eight minutes and gave him no assigned topic.  Since we don't want him to stress about what to say, my family thought we would give him about ten topics to choose from. You're welcome, Brian!  That's what we're here for.

(Just for reference- Brian had eye surgery a few weeks ago to correct his double vision and hasn't been able to see very well for a few weeks.  Obviously it has not slowed him down :)


TOP TEN GRADUATION SPEECH TOPICS FOR BRIAN


10.  I am practically blind and I owned all of you!
9.  Ranking the top 37 medical schools in the country based on what they gave me for lunch during my visit
8.  All I ever needed to know about success in life I learned the morning I spent as a member of the High School swim team
7.  How I celebrate my annual login to Facebook
6.  If any of ye lack wisdom, I can do a little tutoring before I leave for Vanderbilt
5. Guilt as a guiding force in my past, present and future
4.  Marriage is kinda like covalent bonding, ya know?
3.  The night I didn't wear a seatbelt in my dream
2.  Why Elder's Quorom President night at Lagoon is really slipping
1.  The Creamery: A Play in Three Acts


If none of those sound good enough, you can always go with a good joke from Chemistry Cat...

Just Another Day In Sweeneyville

Insult to Injury

Yesterday I came home to find that same decapitated sunflower looking like this:

Obviously that squirrell is related to Paul Bunyon and he's mocking me. I am not amused.

I Hear The Mighty Thunder

Softball continues to rock on for Cindy and her team.  They are still undefeated and Cindy is still batting slightly above .800.  She has gotten a lot better at putting some power behind her swing, so if we can just get her to start sprinting instead of jogging like peglegged sloth, she will be that much better. 

I would also like to mention that I am deliriously in love with daylight savings and not getting home from softball games and having it be pitch black and feel like the dead of night. Spring ball is where it's AT!


A few pictures for the old Sweeneyville archives:

 

 

 

I have nicknamed her "Red Sox" because these are the only ones she will wear.  She is oblivious to the fact that there is a famous team with this name, so everytime I call her this, she crinkles her brow and thinks I am a dork.  You know, like when I say anything, really.

 

 

She played first base last night for an inning or two and this was the ball that went right under her glove and rolled into the outfield :(  But I guess there is no better way to learn to keep your glove all the way down than gloriously missing.

  

 

She was embarrassed about that missed play but she quickly forgot all about it when we hit the snack bar after the game.  Boiled peanuts, anyone?

 

Garageriffic!

Lest you think I have given up blogging (and have ruined your life by so doing), here is  a little something to convince you your time might be better spent elsewhere.

 

 

 

So we finally had our massive garage sale! 

 

So instead of looking like this:

 

 

 

 

Our garage is back to looking like this:

All is well when you can safely park two cars in your garage :)

The garage sale was quite successful.  I was wheelin' and dealin' to get that stuff out of there.  Most everything was being sold in denominations of quarters so how could you turn me down?  The kids sold paintings and cupcakes for a quarter each as well.  They made about $25 between them.

Garage sales always remind me that simultaneously there are some real wierdos and really nice people out there in our neighborhood.  A very kind woman bought Luke's Angry Birds Bomb Bird painting for $5!  But then there was the woman that picked out 3 of the most random things ever that we didn't even think were fit for the sale- fake hair, a crusty tupperware box filled with random opened small camping supplies from the 1980s and speaker wire.  But she only spent $1.50 so I think it was a steal!

 

Then there was a couple that came and seemed really interested in Rosa's old rabbit hutch.  The man said, "Yeah, I am the Ag teacher at George Jenkins and we got some chinchillas and stuff that need a home."  First off, hearing and big redneck say "chinchillas" is a treat in and of itself, but secondly, Jacob teaches at George Jenkins and knows that the name of the Ag teacher there is Mr. Sweeney (because the office constantly mixes up their mail).  So as fate would have it, the other Mr. Sweeney was at our house, at our garage sale.  Jacob just smiled during the whole conversation and finally let him off the hook and introduced himself as "the other Mr. Sweeney."  It was pretty funny :)

 

And my favorite thing about having a garage sale happened again, without fail.  It is when people walk past everything in your driveway and straight into the actual garage to shop for things you aren't selling.  Good times.  Although that did end up in the sale of one of our old Utah license plates we had hanging on the back wall.  We had a few so giving up one for 50 cents for a state by state birdhouse maker was alright by me!

In the end we only had to make one trip to Goodwill to dump the little stuff, and after one more day of listing a few big things on craigslist, we were golden.  Garage sales are a ton of work, but I'm so grateful we got the response we did to jettison all the stuff we don't need anymore.

And Now For Some Gratuitous Bragging

Just thought I would share a little screen shot of the official stats page for Cindy's softball team.  We are now 5-0 and Cindy has the second highest batting average with an .800 :)   GO THUNDER!

What It's Like

I have some video footage to share with you taken from Jacob's first period class....

I Lied

A few posts ago I wrote how Comparison is the Thief of Joy.  Well, you know who the REAL thieves of joy are? Huh? Do you?  These vermin:

 

 

 

I came home yesterday only to find that the head if the awesome, now 7- foot tall sunflower that was just beginning to bloom, was GONE!!! Totally gone. With only tiny, little, verminous teeth marks left to insult me. 

 

GAME ON.

 

 

Driving Off Into The Sunset

The saying that the only constant thing in life is change is so true.  It seems that Jacob and I have hit a season of changes.  At Christmastime Jacob finally switched schools and began teaching somewhere other than Auburndale High School.  His parents finally sold their Florida house and just got called on a mission.  Jacob's great grandpa Rufus passed away, which was the first of all his grandparents. And as of today, we sold Rocket, our beloved Honda Accord that we had for 6 years.  I don't know about you, but I get pretty attached to my cars.  I know they don't have feelings and are inanimate objects, but still, a good car is like your house- it becomes a big part of your life and holds a ton of memories.  He was the car that Cindy named after the ship in Little Einsteins, he was the car that brought Luke home from the hospital, he was the car that took us across the country on two amazing family vacations that included the Grand Canyon, 13 different temples, and crossing the Mississippi four times. He was the car that proudly displayed my Star Wars family stickers, and most importantly, he was the car that had my garage door opener in it. Dang it!  Yes, he was old and needed a new home, but I hereby declare Rocket as the newest inductee into the Sweeney Car Hall of Fame.

As sad as I am to see my old friend leave, I think this will help me move on.  

We were going to post a poll on the blog to name this new car, but I think I have already chosen it. Cindy wanted "Black Beauty", or "Tron" (as in Tron "Legacy"), Jacob thought about Kit, but then told me that "all cars are girls", which was confirmed to me by another car guy in my ward.  So in the spirit of honoring that so-called rule, that I have never heard before, I decided on Eleanor.  If you have seen the movie Gone In 60 Seconds, you will get the reference. And truth be told, ever since we drove this make and model car as a rental back in 2004, I have wanted one.  So in a way, this car is my Eleanor :)

p.s. One more change to add to the list- new computer.  Ours just kicked the bucket.  For good :(

One Dozen Years

I am actually glad we don't really give each other official anniversary gifts, because Jacob would see this coming a mile away...





I can't wait until we've been married for 20 years because by that time I will have so many pictures that each one would only last a half a second a piece.  It will be the fastest montage ever!!!

Marrying Jacob is still the best decision I ever made.  I am one happy girl :)

Hold On Just One Second

Because I am drowning in things I absolutely have to get done right now (i.e. work stuff, softball stuff, church stuff, school stuff, garage sale stuff, car fixing stuff, eating Pretzel M&Ms stuff, etc.)  I decided that I can only watch incredibly short time-wasting Internet videos.  So here for you now is the shortest video on YouTube.  Time for my break....




And......back to work.

Cindy and Luke Quickies

This morning on the way to church Cindy was being a major Grumpasaurus Rex about fasting.  She asked me why we make her fast "every single Sunday."  I told her that we didn't and then I asked her, "Is there ever going to be a time when you are actually going to want to fast, anyway?"  And then she said, "Yeah...... like...... the morning after I had a gigantic dinner and I am really, really full. That would be a good Sunday to fast." My fault for asking.


Luke on the other hand was delightfully pleasant this morning.  It is incredibly cold here today and he adorably decided to wear his Christmas scarf and mismatched, giant gloves to church.  I was kind of giving him a hard time about the gloves because I don't see how they can possibly allow him to use his fingers for anything, however, Luke told me the reason he was wearing them and it was one I had not yet considered.  "Well, I am wearing these gloves because it is cold and also because I can't pick my nose when I am wearing them."  I like your thinking, young boyface.