Forever Dreaming of You

What the...

2011-03-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

The mystery of it is if I were to update this blog every time I say: did my taxes, made resolutions, taken a ride on the Jimmer train, won a softball tournament, celebrated a birthday, built a house, had a baby, or started a business, it would still be more often than I have done it lately. However that is a long list of busy-ness so I therefore must humbly ask your pardon for the delay (does delay do it justice?)

Moving on....

Zumadent has been operational for a little over a year now. It started as a little idea which through much blood sweat and tears has turned into a profitable delightful little business. We feel like we are doing our civic duty by whitening the teeth of people all over the world. Although Europe could use a breakthrough in the industry. You know what I mean!

At the beginning of the year, yes the year 2010 we are catching up here. Jeff and I had a little well, astronomical surprise. I won't lie for the sake of this blog or the fact that it may one day become my heritage (call me noble). But it was difficult at best to get used to the idea that we were (like it or not) going to welcome a new little "bundle of joy" to our family. After the initial quake and a few subsequent aftershocks I began to approach excitement at the idea of this new tiny. In June we discovered that we were going to have a son. You can probably imagine that we were delighted with said news because of the fact that estrogen outweighed testosterone three to one in the Sheen household.

And on we went through the regular pregnancy routines and rituals, back ache, crank of which Jeff can testify, preparing the nursery etc. etc. etc. and on November 18, 2010 Cooper Jeffrey Sheen made his appearance two weeks early. What a little miracle he has been in our lives. Stevie is a life saving helper and I have never experienced someone who loves a baby as much as Gettie. Jeff of course is head over heels in love, and I could have never dreamed what an amazing blessing I would find in my little blue eyed boy.

At the risk of me trying to walk you step by step through my entire life which I imagine is neither pleasant or entertaining I will sum the rest up for you. In June we moved into our new house in Orem, Gettie started Kindergarten and Stevie fourth grade at Boneville elementary, and we have filed our taxes this year. In light of afore mentioned events softball championships seem inconsequential but in my defense of finding it newsworthy I was pregnant for the entire season.

Other than that not much has changed. I am still a bi-quarterly blogger (and that is on the scale of a decade) and I still appreciate the overuse of parenthesis and triple periods. Till next time...

Humor or Not?

2009-09-14T11:40:00.001-07:00

Have you ever said or written something that is funny? Not just mediocre funny, I mean laugh out loud kind of humor? Like...you want to send it in to Jay Leno but you think people would treat you like a pariah when they lose money on their Eli and Lilly stock because you, single-handedly, put prozac out of business. Because the whole world is laughing FUNNY???

And so you run the words over and over in your head, as you patiently await the uncontrollable giddiness that is certain to occur as soon as your audience reaches the particular juicy morsel of hilarity.

And just when you are sure they have gotten it (dun dun dun). Nothing but Heart breaking silence. And so in your complete astonishment you begin to speak. Very quickly I might add. Sure they somehow missed the point. Explaining re-explaining. And yet the blank stare prevails, perhaps a small courtesy "yeah, yeah, I get it, It was funny already". And you just want to keep going with the explaining so they can fully understand. And then mid speed-talking sentence they awkwardly leave the room?

Has that ever happened to you??? Yeah me neither, I just wondering.

A Day With My Dad.

2009-09-14T11:38:00.000-07:00

So I feel particularly impelled to blog about a specific tree. Of which I have nostalgic ties (ok not in real life but just for the sake of the blog).

As it turns out this morning, I was helping my mom and dad weed their yard. As my dad and I were weeding a small kidney bean shaped peice of the lawn where, may I add, two Aspen trees reside we kept finding walnuts. My dad kept exclaiming how he did not know these Aspens produced walnuts. And in return comment, I said that we should call The National Geographic immediately.

However one of the aspens is sadly dying, slowly fading away. I asked my dad if perhaps the japanese beetle had gotten to this tree and infested it with illness. He proceeded to tell me that besides developing an identity crisis it had a congenital disease, that it was surely missing chromosomes, and had been sick since conception.

Now we will not, in this blog go into the conception of a tree, but I am sure you can all imagine.

By the end of the weeding interlude the tree was more dead than ever due to my inadvertant digging up of it's roots. And my dad consistently chopping at them with a shovel.

So, we would like to share a moment of silence for the tree, who gave it's life to provide us with ten summers of (minimal) shade, and stoically bore us walnuts.

Johnny Cochran I need you....

2009-09-14T11:37:00.000-07:00

Again from the archives...

The Jury has been in the deliberation room for hours. I can hardly stand the pressure... Could someone get me some crayons, a wheelchair, some pajamas? The trial relentlessly playing itself over and over in my otherwise barren head. And it goes something like this..

Kelli, is it true or not true that you put the flip flop's (that's what kind of shoes they were, make a mental note.) on your daughter Gettie's feet at approximately ten A.M Tuesday morning.

"yes it is true"

And is it also true that she cried immediately afterward followed by bouts of sporatic crying throughout the day.

"But only because I decided for once and for all that she absolutely HAD to learn to wear her shoes!"

So you never once over the course of the day removed her shoes?

"no sir"

Is it also true that you threatened to put her into time out if she proceeded to remove her own shoes?
Objection.... Overruled.

"UM... I plead the fifth."

So Kelli did you or did you not, at the end of the day look down, only to realize that her flip flops with elastic holding them around her ankles, toe seperaters spreading all the way across the shoe to the other side, were on the WRONG FEET???
Wait for it...

The Jury is out.... I AM A LOSER!!!

Confessions of a Music loving drama queen.

2009-09-14T11:32:00.000-07:00

From the archives.

First of all we must give props to Meredith for bringing it back. And by "it" I mean the phrase which has been appropriately exhumed from it's 1992 grave "Sexy Hot". For all of you who don't know (you know who you are, and I am ashamed) Meredith is the Purell eating, Michael flashing, uh-hum mini van driving, alchoholic on The Office. And I must clarify The Office knows not the meaning of redundancy on this blog-site.
That being said we move on.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I mean are you even kidding me? History in the making right here. Yep, you guessed it, we are talking about Ozzy. And not just only Ozzy but the post-bat head biting, Black Sabbath singing, The Osbournes (a series), Four Wheeling accident, Over medicated, Ozzy. Which is a past that I am sure played a role in this truly confectionary musical genius which is Black Rain.
It has been a long road but finally we get rid of all of the bells and whistles and go back, for a moment to the madman we all know and love. If you have a second I highly recommend Lay Your World On Me. You can click on it in my music playlist (on my profile, it is pink) or download it on Itunes for a mere $.99. Either way it is sure to impress.
So cheers to Ozzy who rates (I never thought I would say it, but none the less) Sexy Hot.

Ozzy P.S.

For one reason or another after I ranted of the beloved Ozzy, my playlist had an error. So although I still love the song Lay Your World On Me every bit as much as I once did, I added another Ozzy song to quench your blood lusting ozzy need. Enjoy.

Lemon-y chicken with a side of pink eye.

2008-10-20T08:39:00.000-07:00

While perusing on allrecipes.com I found several lemon chicken recipes. I always read the comments and while it surely is a waste of time I am comfortable with it. I narrowed it down to a few and was looking for someone to tell me they were stellar. And I came upon this "special review".

Dec. 11, 2007
I'll never make this again. Two weeks ago my husbund called me at home to say he invited his boss to our house for supper that night. I franicked. I just picked my dauther up from school because she had pinkeye and to make matters worst, it was two days before my husbunds payday and we were out of meat with no money to by none either. I dug through the deep freeze and found some chicken and I checked the internet for a recipie. I was in the mood for tangy but I didn't want to fuss because I had to take my dauther to rite aids to pick up her subscription. This recipie sounded good to me and I just figured everyone else on here just gave it a bad rate because they messed it up. I dumped all the ingerdents in the crockpot and said a little prayer. At Rite aids, I picked up a box of white wine. When we came home, it smelled lemon-y and garlic-y. I boiled some minute rice and eggerly waited for my husbund and his boss to come home. When they came home, I had my dauther poor them some white wine. My husbund said she shouldnt because her eye was swolled up but I she washed her hands. After we all prayed, I started to ladle to Slow Cooker Garlic Chicken I over the minute rice I could tell it was going to be a disaster. My husbunds boss "Jeff" tried to hide his discust at overburdensome fragrants. My husbund wasn't speaking to me because he was mad about the wine thing. I could tell he was real mad. "Jeff" ate half and then exused himself for a call and said he had to leave.

Needless to say I refrained from making any chicken at all. "Get in the car kids, it's pizza tonight!"

I understand that this is sending me with a one way ticket to "the bad place" but what can I say. I took one for the team. Enjoy...

"Do you know who I really feel sorry for?"

2008-10-03T18:14:00.000-07:00

Arab Americans who REALLY want to get into crop dusting....

To my good friend Brian Regan. Thank you for the laughs.

Easter?!?

2008-09-11T09:47:00.000-07:00

This morning after Jeff graciously took Stevie to school and breakfast had been fed to the Getto. I languorously lingered in bed while Gettie colored in her room. AND... for all of you who know Gettie you can imagine how long that lasted. For any of you who may not know Gettie. "Not long".

So I am thinking to myself "here she comes, my peace is over". But it turns out she did not want to disturb my peace at all she just wanted to excitedly tell me that she had found a piece of candy. Maybe you can imagine that as this excitement and animation was coming from a girl who ate six benadryl in one night I became suspicious. Becoming suddenly alert I say to Gettie "are you sure it is candy"? As she is walking back to her room she says simply "I'm pretty sure mom (like I am an imbecile) the bunny left it for me.

I think to also add that the first actual cold day we have had this fall immediately had Gettie asking if it was "costume day". This is one girl who fiercely loves her holidays!

Two little girls in the Big Apple.

2008-09-03T15:01:00.000-07:00

(And yes i admit, due to the delightful food I was a lot little-r on the way there, then on the way back. Not funny, no really not funny!)

Yesterday,
two months and twenty seven days ago,
My friend Kristen and I took a trip to NYC. Let me just say before we get any further into this blog that IT WAS AMAZING. "Yes all in caps it is necessary trust me!"

We decided beforehand to fly red-eye for all of the obvious monetary reasons but also because we wanted to waste as little time as possible sleeping. "HELLO! Who wants to be catatonic in NYC? I don't and that's for sure." Consequently we arrived early and went immediately to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

After the Statue we went to pay a visit to Wall Street for a photo op for Jeff. When mapping our the itinerary we had decided not to visit Ground Zero but we were close and could not resist. Can you blame us? So as it was completely unexpected this was one of the most profound days I have spent in all my thirty years.

We also saw four on Broadway shows one of which of course was Wicked. I had previously read the book and in doing so went in a little apprehensive. But honestly I could not have loved it more. We spent a little time shopping fifth avenue, got locked in and escorted to the basement of a cement "hole" on Canal street where I experienced first hand Kristen's exceptional bartering skills (and she experience my lack thereof), Ate in the ice skating rink at Rockefeller center, waited in line for half an hour to NOT go up the Empire State building, got denied access to the top floor of Trump Tower, navigated our way through the subway system, went to the Metropolitan museum of art( I heart the Met), walked from the Met to Central Park through the Puerto Rican day parade, saw some really archaic and awesome buildings, and saw Johnny Damon go one for four to lose to the Kansas city Royals. Jeff keeps telling me it was because he got nervous because I was there. Go figure.

So there it is in one lump sum. The unabridged version would have taken a long time to write and a longer time to read. But still I wish I could portray with words the feelings I felt, the pride in this amazing counrty, the heartache at the loss of the towers, the love for the museum of art, the electricity running through the city, feelings I think you can only feel in NYC. And one thing I know for sure I am going back, who is coming with me?

Ranch Hands for WEEKS, and Kings for One Day.

2008-07-08T10:02:00.000-07:00

In Smitty's Garage, July 4, 2008

The Unanimous work of at least thirteen people from the United States of America
Exercised their freedoms to build an extraordinary, trophy winning float. yada yada yada....................................
And for the support of this float, we mutually pledged to each other our Time, our Fortunes, and Mutual Babysitting.

For all of you who don't know the inside of my mom's heart, she is an artist. No she does not drink her turpentine or eat her cadmium yellow but still it is inside her. The point? Yes! She took it upon herself to create a float. An actual glittering, festoon infested, elbow-elbow wrist-wrist-wrist waving, Celebration of America float.

And now forever gone are the days when I could sit nostalgically watching the parade go by, relishing the feelings of patriotism and my heart wrenching love of America. Never again will I smile at the girls waving, hoping for the slightest breeze or at least someone throwing salt water taffy.

No now instead what will wander through my mind will be only this... Wow! I wonder if that is 22 yards of Festooning? Is that really four layers of fringe? They really should have chicken-wired, that appendage is caving in. Glitter everywhere should have double nail gunned! And last but not least "How many many man-hours did it take to build that float?"

Ok, but truly it was an amazing experience watching something originally from my moms brain, color penciled onto paper, a dirty old trailer which my dad and Brady had to completely rebuild, a whole lot of supplies, and a lot of people willing to put in A LOT of hours, transform into something so awesome as this. I can honestly say that if possible I felt even more emotion and love for my country because of this experience. And I even signed the enormous Declaration of Independence.

Oh yeah, we sure did win the Freedom Prize.

The eventful life of Blogging.

2008-07-08T08:39:00.001-07:00

I guess I should begin with all of the blogging cliche's about how lame I am in the blogging sense. However in my own defense I feel I began this blog with complete honesty of my lame-ness and therefore eliminated any such reason for damage control. That being said I truly love and appreciate all of you who are Faithful to my cause. You know who you are...

Gettie (nuff said)

2008-02-25T14:22:00.001-08:00

Gettie took it upon herself to do some photography. Which is a big improvement from the last time she got hold of my camera. So, Jeff and I were scrolling through her pics and some were quite hilarious! We got one of her feet, a candy wrapper on the floor, even a short video of The Wonder Pets on TV. We were laughing and thinking it was all fun and games when all of a sudden we came upon these.

We were a little freaked out because she was upstairs all alone. What do Y'all think?

You should know. He's one of my faves.

2008-02-15T13:28:00.001-08:00

With or without the boots. Beanie cap preferable.

Mondee Mornings...

2008-02-04T09:11:00.000-08:00

As many of you may or may not know about me, I am a night person. I am dedicated to the comforts of staying up way to late, and then longing to sleep in. So as it turns out at 1:30 in the morning I grudgingly turn off the "Just Shoot Me" marathon I had been partaking of for the last few episodes. The next thing I know, 6:45 the alarm ringing in my head, freezing, Monday, ughhh. Can you feel my pain? If not please try to sympathize it is important to the story.

I am telling you I was five seconds from turning it all off and sleeping the day away. My guilt getting the better of me I roll over and HELLO snug right up to my Jeff. I am telling you, I am very used to waking up to a cold bed. As it is the man has self discipline that is very nearly unmatched. And is either working or working out very very early. Especially by my standards and no I am not proud to say it. So I mean I am sure you could take it from here but he gets up, takes Stevie to school, feeds Gettie a very nutritious breakfast (which is no easy feat) all while I lay in my nice warm bed.

AND all of this delight after his beloved Patriots lose the streak and the Bowl. And I rubbed it in a little.

CHEERLEAD*ERS

2008-02-02T22:49:00.000-08:00

Emily Lamb who is actually more commonly known to the Sheen family as "Princess Emily" invited Stevie and Gettie to participate in Itty Bitty Cheer Camp at Mountain View High School. They went to camp for three days and learned several different cheers and even got to perform at half-time at the game. I learned a few things from the experience including but not limited to- -When all else fails you have your family. Grandpa Smitty, Grandma Sooz, Grandpa Sheen, Grandma Laraine, Kim, and the girlies, all came to show support. -There are few things in life better than an entire gymnasium full of 3-9 year old girls cheering. -High school cheerleaders have A LOT of patience. -And most of all, as much as I adored watching them cheer, I am not ready for my babies to be high school cheerleaders. Thanks again Princess Emily it was so much fun!

Blah Blah Blogging part 2

2008-02-01T16:28:00.000-08:00

So if any of you (Kat) can dredge up in your memory the convoluted, dissected, interpretation of a blog i myspaced earlier in my life, do so now (ready go)...
And for those of you who can't, you can find it here.
And for those of you who don't care stop reading now (for all will cease to make sense to you).

I read this while contemplating the decision to write a new blog and decided that it was nonsense the lot of it. The real real reason I have never ever written is pure and simple... My fear of commitment. Oh yeah, that and I am air headed as well as Blog illiterate.
But here I go doing my best.