Today, as Scott was drugged up on pain pills, I selfishly went to the movie Across the Universe with my parents. Has anyone else seen this enchanting, aesthetically-pleasing movie? It was so artistic and I liked how different it was from any other movie I've ever seen. The story had a bit of a formula but the presentation was far from it. There were some points where I was wondering where the plot was going but I can honestly say that I was intrigued and entertained and at some points really moved the whole time. And who doesn't love hearing covers of The Beatles songs in a full length movie? It was so fun to see the different interpretations of the songs and how that played out on the screen. There were a few song I hadn't even heard before.

It was truly a beautiful looking movie and I couldn't help but think about the creators of the movie and how if I had created something with so much passion, color and art detail I would be so proud of myself. I can't say enough how beautiful looking and creative the movie was. I wish I was born with more art talents in me (sigh). When we have kids I put Scott completely responsible for teaching them how to be artistic. I can draw stick figures and thats about it.

Art through the medium of film...ahh....I love movies.

*Don't let this happy trailer fool you. The subject is actually pretty dark and takes a deep look at the time of the Vietnam War. There are some fun, happy parts but overall I would say the subject is a bit heavy. Its worth a watching for those with open eyes, ears and hearts. Please note, it is a musical. You will walk out singing Beatle songs.

So yesterday was the day we all have been waiting for the whole month of September. Scott's surgery. Initially, we want to thank everyone for all your love. You have all been so great in sending your thoughts and love and all your calls. We have such a great support system!

Scott was supposed to go into surgery at 1:15 but they were backed up in the OR and didn't get in until 3:45. So there was a whole lot of waiting. The surgery took about 3 hours and the doctor said everything went well. His meniscus is basically gone now so he will forever have to be careful with impact on his left knee. Boo to that. Scott had a hard time coming out of the anesthesia and was a bit nauseous so they wouldn't let him leave until he could keep down his pain pills. He was pretty sleepy and out of it when they finally let me see him. We get home until about 10 pm so it was a really long day of no food for Scott (he had to fast until the surgery). Scott likes food so this was painful and we cooked him up something good when we got home. Surprisingly, he was able to keep it down!

He had a TON of pain today but thank heavens for Oxycontin! He'll be kickin' in no time.



* Please note that any pictures you see of Scott and I in the future, you will notice that Scott can NEVER make a serious face. I have really come to a place of acceptance of this and will continue to post all his crazy faces as a form of punishment.

Hey all your music lovers, if you are looking for something to do on Saturday, October 13th you can go to a Jake White concert up at the University of Utah. He is yours truly's cousin and crazy talented on the guitar. No, really, crazy good. Like you think there has to be two guitars but there is not - it is just him. His concerts are always entertaining and the things he can do with the guitar would make any one's mouth drop. He has a new album too that I am really looking forward to hearing. Jake's concerts are always really fun and they get pretty full so make sure to get there early for a good seat!

And now for the best part.... you can get in free. Print the ticket here. Or if you want me to send you a pdf with more tickets just shot me an email and I will send it your way too.


To sample some of his stuff check out his myspace page.
Or if you are more of a visual person go here.

My friend Kaitlyn will be showing her bags, amazing jewlery and other delights at this art market on October 5th. If I was living in Utah still you know where I would be... please go for me and buy lots of her stuff. She is truly so talented and people will covet your purchased items. I speak from personal experience.


If you are having a hard time viewing this image you can check out the website here.
Here is the beginning of her blog. Check it out later too see more of her stuff.

Today was my first day of classes at Seattle Pacific University! It was so great being back in a classroom and graduate school has such a different feel than undergrad. I absolutely loved it. It is going to be an amazing program and I was so happy all day long. It is so fantastic to be studying something I am so interested in and it makes it so completely engaging. I have classes Mondays & Wednesdays from 2:00 - 8:30 so it seems pretty long but it will be nice to have Tuesdays and Thursday's off for at least this first quarter. We start working with clients for our internship in January and we will have to spend 15-20 hours at our site each week come winter quarter. Yahoo for school!!

Also, Scott finally goes in for knee surgery tomorrow at 11:45 am so please be sending some good thoughts his way all day tomorrow. We are damn happy that we finally got the insurance all squared away. It truly has been so exhausting getting it all worked out and was a cause of many anxious days for us. We hope his recovery is slick. My cute, little gimp husband will be on crutches for 3 weeks. I'll be sure to post some pictures soon. Yahoo for knee surgery....

This weekend I went on a retreat with all the core faculty and new students to kick off the beginning of my Marriage & Family Therapy program to Fort Casey on Whibey Island. Fort Casey is a military bunker right on the beach. It was an amazing place to have a retreat. I could hear the waves crashing in the night.

So picture this: 32 to-be therapist and 6 professors/therapist all in one location for a whole 24 hours. You can image there was ALOT of conversations, questions, uh-huh'ing, head nodding, responsive listening and the like. It was really, really fun and I got to know better alot of the students that I will be spending the next 2 intense years with. It also completely confirmed to me that I am in the right place and my learning is going to be exceptional at SPU. We call our professors by their first name and you can truly tell that they really do care about who we are and about making us educated therapists.

The first day they had us bring a symbol that represented us in some way. After much thought I decided to bring the Free To Be You and Me album. You can see my reasons here in a post I did about just this childhood shaper of an album. It was fun to see all the other things people brought. We had a bon fire that night right on the beach and it was raining of course! We did a bunch of other stuff too that I won't bore you with but overall, I think it was such a great experience and will really make it easier to connect with everyone in class since we had a time to get to know each other in a more relaxed environment. There is a lot of diversity with the students in my cohort and I am excited to get to know everyone better.

Something that was said has really stuck with me. Tina, one of the professors said that as therapist you need to know how ask good questions and we will learn the Art of Curiosity. I loved that and I pray to learn that Art really well so that I can make my space with people a sacred one. I can't lie, this whole new chapter of my life is feeling really intimdating right now. I am so looking forward to it all but I am nervous too. I think that is how the start of a new adventure is supposed to feel, right?!

The saddest part of the whole trip was that I forgot my camera. I was half way to meeting with the girls that were going to carpool with me when I remembered I didn't have my camera. So sad for me and my blog, right?! My camera phone had to be a subsitute which is terribly dissappointing but here are some pix all the same.

I just wanted to give a little shout out to what I call nose spray (aka nasal spray... I just hate the word 'nasal' so 'nose spray' it is). I have been sick (sore throat, congestion, cough etc) for about a week and I would've never survived without this little piece of medical perfection. I can't think of anything worse that having my nose plugged up. It makes me cranky and wakes me up in my sleep. I have been congested all week and the second my nose tries to pull any quick ones I have my weapon to stop it. I even keep it by my bed so I don't have to move when I wake up and have the stuffed up sort of feeling. So thank you to anyone reading this post that had something to do with inventing nose spray for the sick and afflicted. I will forever buy and support your genius invention.

P.S. I know it can be addictive but frankly who really likes to stick that thing up your nose and spray medicine unless you have a point to do so. So friends, don't worry, I will not get addicted to it!

Look what came in the mail yesterday!!!! It isn't a scam, it is really the best deal of the whole year! In case you haven't purchased yet, check it out here. Coupon code is Carolina.

On Friday night Scott and I stopped by one of my favorite book stores in the Seattle area named Third Place Books.

There is something that happens to my soul when I surround myself with all those words. I love being amongst the books. I also enjoying being in a location where others are reading too. I wouldn't mind staying there for hours and hours.

This particular night there was a writer that was speaking about her knitting books and there were hundreds of ladies knitting quietly while listening to their knitting god. I got a total kick out of watching them.

I get a kick watching this kid too....

I am a sucker for awards shows. Specifically, the Academy Awards but I don't mind the Emmy's either. I know they are really boring most of the time but I find myself enjoying the beginning and end - I could do without the middle. Lets not forget the star watching, either. You know I love that!

For most awards shows we do a family ballot contest. Usually with fun prizes. This year it is movie tickets provided by Lee. I think David is in the lead right now but I know 30 Rock is going to make a sweep and I will pull through at the end. I'll let ya know who wins.

Update: Scott, David & I all tied with 5 total wins. So I guess we'll all go to a movie together.

Here are my top hopefuls:
Drama Series - The Sopranos (It's their final year - a shoe in) - Winner!
Comedy Series - 30 Rock (My heart wants The Office but I have to be realistic) - Winner!

Actor, Comedy Series - Alec Baldwin (My heart is for Steve Carell but 30 Rock was the buzz of the year) - Loser
Actress, Drama Series - Kyra Sedgwick (also a buzz and I didn't have my heart anywhere on this one) - Loser
Actress, Comedy Series - Tina Fey (wish I could be friends with her) - Loser

Tonight I just wanted to take a moment and state how much I hate insurance companies. Trying to figure how we are going to get Scott's knee surgery has been the biggest nightmare of the month of September. Cobra, eligibility, deductibles, contracts, continuous coverage, in-network, out-of-network... blah, blah... It makes me tired with all the effort I have had to put into getting this taken care of (and I haven't even accomplished getting it taken care of yet).

In honor of my troubles I would like to promote Michael Moore's documentary Sicko. If you haven't seen it I would highly suggest making a point to go watch it. I know, I know... some of you probably hate Michael Moore but I really enjoyed the conversation it raises about health care in America. And according to this article, Sicko is now the third highest grossing documentary of all time - so you might as well join the band wagon. Plus, it is just really entertaining. Hey, I like his movies, so shoot me.

So today in my gmail inbox I received and invitation to a site called goodreads.com from my oldest friend of all time, Brooke Hathaway. And after perusing it a bit I thought to myself:

"I love this site!"
"Why hasn't anyone invited me to this site before September 2007?"
"Do I look like someone who doesn't enjoy reading?"
"I freaking love this site!"
"Do I talk too much about pop culture and not enough about books?"
"I was in a book club back in Utah so why didn't any of those people invite me?"
"This is the coolest freaking book-nerd site ever!"

And so on....

But I have come to the conclusion that I will shelve these questions and just bask in the sunshine that is GoodReads.com. I am in love with this website. I was just telling my sister, Lisa, that I felt obligated to society to start reviewing books and hotels and the like more often because I truly appreciate when someone can warn me via web reviews to never spend the night in a shitty hotel room or waste my time reading a crappy book. So today and I am starting a new. I will now be reviewing all the books I love and hate and see what my friends also think about books they are reading. And I hope that through this book-clubbin' network that I will never again have to ask myself, "what book should I read next?"

Thank you, Brooke for the invite. And thank you to the inventors of goodreads. I will forever be grateful for the treasure you have created for me.

I welcome all friends to join me. Click here for more.

Yes, please.

This article basically sums up my feelings about the Britney VMA performance. It was embarrassing to watch. So completely and utterly uncomfortable. If you haven't watched it yet, please spare yourself.

Don't think her come back is going to happen anytime soon....or ever from the looks of her performance tonight.

This weekend Scott and I were able to watch my sister Lisa's kids while they took a mini-trip to California. We had tons of fun being with them. They are really cute kids and I love that we are closer to them so we can really get to know them. Plus, I got to watch High School Musical 2 - two times and the Learn the Dance Moves episode! I am a sucker for musicals even those that are cheesy Disney ones and like many people out there, I too wish my life was a musical. Group singing and dancing?! Can it get any more fun.

Everything went well for the most part but the second night we were there, before going to bed, Drew realized his mom wasn't there and couldn't stop crying. He just worked himself up and couldn't calm down which lead to little sleep for Scott and I. I felt so bad for him! Once he would finally fall asleep about 30 minutes later he would wake up and start crying again.

Through this experience I have decided that moms are so awesome and I am a total brat with my personl & sleeping time. And... most importantly, that I am not ready to be a mommy yet. I think I will be keeping the Nuva Ring in business for at least a few more years! Lets be honest, Motherhood totally freaks me out! I think I will stick the aunt gig and mini-trips for now.

Anway, I do love these three.... Drew, Rachel & Juila.

So I got this forward from Pardis today and it is totally legit. I just spent $16 buckaroos for tons of brushes, nail polish, eye-last curler and more! Check it out....

In case you haven't heard, there is a make-up line (featured on Oprah) called E.L.F. - stands for eyeslipsface (www.eyeslipsface.com). Anyway, it is a higher end line that Nordstrom's has recently purchased...so, all online products are on clearance so they can wipe out the inventory. Everything is only $1.00. Then, on orders up to $20.00 - you can enter promo code Carolina and it will take 50% off your order - making everything only 50 cents.

If you don't want the make up they have great brushes for sale too for only a dollar!!!!!

Thanks for the tip, Par!

Hey all your Arrested Development fans (which I hope is everyone because it is the best show I've ever watched), my brother showed me this today and I can not be happier that the talks for a movie or being picked up by another cable station are not dead!! Long live the Bluth family.

Click here for the light in a dark and lonely world.

Aimee & Scott will be spending Thanksgiving in Salt Lake City.

So.... we'll see you Salt Lakers sooner than later!

Last night Scott and I went to the Tulalip Casino on the Indian reservation about 30-40 minutes north of us. For those Twlight/New Moon/Eclipse readers out there, we were in vamprie/werewolf country. This reservation is on "Quil" Blvd. I was hoping to run into to Bella, Edward and Jacob but had no luck for any star spotting at the casino.

When I titled this post "Oh Crap!", I meant it. We didn't do so hot. We were in and out in about an hour and a half before we had lost our allotted money. So sad. But we had fun all the same. Scott taught me how to play roulette which I had never done and then we quickly lost our $20 bucks each at the craps table. I think it is all about the energy of the table and being with friends. The energy sucked and we only had each other - no additional friends. We should've known better.

All we could say after our hour and a half of fun was "oh crap".

I watched The Biggest Loser most of last season and got addicted. This show is super, duper motivational and everytime I watch it makes me want to go out and sweat... ALOT. I even have to admit that I got teary-eyed at the last episode when the winner talked about his weight-loss. It was so emotional.

Tonight was the "Did They Keep the Weight Off" episode and it got me again. Tears. What can I say, I am a total suckers for this show. The marriage proposal got me. The new season starts next Tuesday and we have a DVR now and you know I'll be watching every week!

Anyway, I just thought I would share what a freaking baby I am....

My friend Lisa had this presidential website link on her blog and I too thought I would share it for all of my readers.

This is a critical time, folks. We get a much needed change in the White House so check out who matches you the best. Click here for the questionnaire about your political views and potential candidates that match your views.

And in honor of the departure of our current President I thought I would share my most favorite Bush Moment below. My question is why people actually clapped for this comment???