Beautiful Blogger Award

Posted on March 31, 2010 by Jenni Elyse

My friend Kayla and her sister Shauna, over at 1 + 1 = FUN, tagged me to receive the Beautiful Blogger Award. Thanks so much for passing this award on to me! :D

Kayla and Shauna have their own private blogs, but they felt like they were missing out on the fun that blogging can be. They decided to start a public blog together–they didn’t want to maintain two blogs so they settled for maintaining one and a half blogs. :lol: Anyway, their blog is a lot of fun to read because they’re hilarious and they always interact with the reader, something I’m not very good at. I definitely recommend checking it out!

The rules of the award are: list seven things about yourself, link back to the person that gave you the award, and pass the award on to seven other bloggers.

I’m going to attempt to tell you seven things about me that you don’t already know. The key word in that previous sentence is attempt as you probably know more about me than you ever wanted to or thought possible. ;)

Even though I’m a cat lover, I’ve always wanted a small dog but not enough to not have a cat.
I want to breed llamas. If I ever get the chance, I’d name each llama with an L name and pronounce it like there’s a double L (e.g. L-larry or L-lucy), and I’d make my own yarn from them. Until then, I’m content with naming the llamas in the surrounding neighborhoods.
I love to play with Slinkies, but inevitably I always do something to get them tangled up.
When I was nine, I dreamed that my brother-in-law Brett murdered my entire family. I wouldn’t go near him for three months.
I’m a scary movie junkie, but only if I’m not alone or won’t be alone within the following week.
I didn’t learn how to whistle until I was in high school, and I still can’t whistle a tune because it’s barely more than just air being blown out of my mouth.
I hate tire swings, or anything that spins in circles for that matter, because they make me sicker than a pregnant woman in her first trimester.

I tag the following seven bloggers:

Andrea
Aymee
Brodi–You don’t have to post seven things about you because I know you still haven’t finished your list of 25 things. ;)
Christie
Jenifer
Luisa
Rachel

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Fun with My Nieces

Posted on March 26, 2010 by Jenni Elyse

Last Friday, Corey and I went up to my niece Aymee’s place so her sister, my other niece Carlee, could do our hair early Saturday morning. This happened to coincide with the release of the New Moon DVD. I wasn’t planning on going to a release party because the movies don’t interest me that much. However, Aymee’s friend asked if Aymee wanted to go so Aymee asked me if I wanted to go with them. I told her I was fine either way; I just wanted to spend time with her. At the last minute, Aymee’s friend decided not to go because she was too tired to stay up that late. (She’s pregnant.) Because Aymee and I were still up and already planning to go, we still went.

We found out that the Walmart we were going to was the same Walmart three of the actors–Michael Welch (Mike Newton), Justin Chon (Eric Yorkie), and Christian Serratos (Angela Webber)–were coming to for the release. When we got to Walmart about 30 minutes before midnight, the parking lot was completely full! 8O We should’ve known better with the craziness of the fans. The autograph line was so long we would’ve been there until at least 4:00 am so we decided just to get in line for the DVD.

When the actors came out, I decided to see if I could get close enough to get a few pictures of them. Thanks to the awesome zoom on my new camera, I was able to get a pretty good shot of each of them.

The next morning, Carlee came over to do our hair. When the doorbell rang, I heard Aubree, one of Aymee and Dave’s daughters, yell, “Aunt Cha!” and then run down the stairs to get the door. It was really funny and cute. (Aubree’s almost three. If you ask her when her birthday is, she says in one breath, “I’ll-be-three-May-8th-I’m-going-to-the-beach-for-my-birthday-to-swim-in-the-water.” It’s so funny because she gets so excited about it!)

The last time Carlee did my hair, she cut it in a way that I could scrunch it enough to give the illusion that I have naturally curly hair. Unfortunately, that ability didn’t last very long because my hair is very stubborn, straighter than straight, and became heavier and less willing to scrunch as it grew. (See picture of Aymee and me above for verification.)

I asked Carlee if there was a perm that would let me have nice curls without looking like a poodle. She told me a new perm had just come out. It’s called the beach wave and it uses foam blocks instead of standard perming rods. The result is a natural, very loose curl. Aymee and I volunteered to be Carlee’s guinea pigs so she could try it out. You may think I was brave to be a guinea pig, but I knew it wouldn’t turn out badly. In fact, the worst case scenario was that it wouldn’t work at all. Luckily, it did work and turned out great! I think it’s the best perm I’ve ever had because I don’t look like I have perm at all.

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You Know it’s Cold When

Posted on March 24, 2010 by Jenni Elyse

Anyone who knows me knows I’m not a cold person. I get hot so easily. I have always advocated that it’s better to be too cold than too hot because you can always put more on to warm up and you can only take off so much to cool down.

At work, I’m underneath an air vent. Not only does this air vent gush out cold air all year around, it also gushes out the air full blast. 8O It’s ridiculous! I’ve never been so cold in all my life!

On a typical day, you can find me wrapped in my slanket trying to keep warm. On some days, I’m so cold that my slanket isn’t enough. On those days, I’m not only wrapped in my slanket, but I’m also wearing a sweater, a coat, or both.

I feel like I work in the Arctic. My overall body temperature is changing because I’m starting to feel cold in other places too. I didn’t like being a hot person, but I don’t like being a cold person either. Isn’t there a middle ground?

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Donating Blood

Posted on March 22, 2010 by Jenni Elyse

Blood drives are regular occurrences at my work. Normally, I’m fairly gung ho about participating in the events hosted at work, but I’ve always shied away from donating blood. I’ve always been afraid it would hurt and I was worried about passing out. I seemed to never feel well whenever the blood drives came around either, but I think that was psychological more than anything. Most importantly, I hate getting stuck by needles. Needles and I are definitely not on speaking terms. I get very lightheaded and nauseated if I watch the needle go in so I have to turn away when the actual poking occurs. (That didn’t bother me until I saw my older sister Caryn get an epidural. 8O )

On Friday, my work held another blood drive. For most of the day, I ignored it, didn’t give it a second thought. However, right after lunch, one of the executive secretaries started to encourage people to give blood because there was only one person in the chair at that moment. After a lot of internal debate and some external debate with some of my co-workers, I finally decided to donate blood.

Fortunately, my phlebotomist was very skilled. I didn’t feel the needle going in at all. I only felt a little bit of pressure, which I was extremely grateful for because I’ve had some pretty awful experiences when I’ve had to have my blood drawn.

Apparently, I’m a slow bleeder. Federal regulation stipulates that you can only have a needle in your arm, while donating blood, for 20 minutes. This helps prevent infection and irritation to your vein. Most people can donate an entire unit (one pint) of blood in no more than 10 minutes. It took me a little over 18 minutes to donate an entire unit. At one point, I had three phlebotomists working on me trying to get my blood to drain faster. I guess if I ever get in a bad car wreck, there’s a good chance I don’t have to worry about bleeding to death. ;)

I was very nervous at first, but donating blood wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I think it depends on the phlebotomist you get. I should’ve done it a long time ago. I’m fairly certain I’ll donate blood again, even though I have a bruise the size of a small kiwi on my arm. (I followed the directions precisely and didn’t take my bandage off until 4 hours later. Corey thinks it has to do with the phlebotomists moving the needle around trying to get me to bleed faster.)

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Blog Organization

Posted on March 18, 2010 by Jenni Elyse

How do you categorize the posts on your blog? I’m really picky and I’m trying to develop a better system. I love to be organized, but sometimes too much organization is just another form of being disorganized. Does that make sense?

I’ve noticed that whether it be categorizing music, books, blog posts, etc., I like to keep topics as general as possible. However, I’m realizing that isn’t always the best way. For example, on my iPod I have over 150 songs in my Favorites playlist. I know I should put them into sub-categories because I can’t listen to every song when I listen to my playlist. But, I have a hard time sub-categorizing them.

Do you have a method to your madness? I sure need one. ;)

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