Pandora

For those of you who haven't already discovered the best online streaming music station, you are missing out. Everybody needs to visit http://www.pandora.com/. Not only is it FREE, it's completely awesome. You can add personalized radio stations based on an artist or specific song, and then that 'station' plays that artist and other songs and artists similar to them. Plus, there's no commercials. I've used other online music stations that have annoying commercials every 5 songs. Not Pandora. Also, for those of you who haven't already heard and fallen in love with Sara Bareilles, you absolutely must create a Sara Bareilles station on Pandora. She's the best female artist I've heard in a long time. Granted, I've been out of touch with the music world lately, so maybe she's old news, but she's my new fave. Plus, when you create a station of her music, Pandora also plays a bunch of other similarly amazing artists who you will also fall in love with. Or at least I have. Anyway, that's all. Pandora and Sara Bareilles. My two new loves.

One I Missed

I found this photo of me and my niece Kaya that I forgot to post with the other wedding photos. She got a little bit of a sunburn on her nose, poor thing. But she's still a cutie!

That's all. :)

Two Become One

My sister got married on Saturday.

It was a day full of laughter and joy.

Everybody was happy.

Nobody got bored

or confused...

or annoyed.

Comfort was key

but so was beauty.

Hair was done curly

Matching outfits were worn

and Military garb was adorned.

It was a great day!

Reminiscing

While at my sister's wedding this weekend, Rob and I decided to take a few photos while we were all fancied up in our wedding attire. We were married at this same spot just over 5 years ago! This time there's no white dress, but there are a few belly photos. Enjoy!

Pet Peeve

Stickers that don't come off easily and leave a sticky residue on the item it was stuck to. -- I just got some new shoes, and there was a clearance sticker on the INSIDE of the shoe, and now it's all sticky because the sticker didn't come off clean. UUHG!

It's a...

GIRL!

We had our 20 week ultrasound yesterday and found out that our baby most definitely indeed has "girly parts", as the ultrasound tech so tactfully put it. :) My prediction was wrong....As you may remember, I thought it might be a boy (so much for a mother's intuition!), but we are thrilled with a little girl! I had already purchased a cute little girl outfit that I couldn't resist before we found out the gender, so I guess it was meant to be. She'll have girl cousins on both sides of the family very close in age (Rob's sister's little girl was born yesterday!) so that will be fun.

In the ultrasound photo above, you are looking at the baby from the side, with the head to the left and the spine curving in the middle there. You can kind of see the face profile. If you look carefully, just above the belly is a little open hand. The cutest part about this was she was actually waving to us! Her hand was moving back and forth, it was so cute! So the ultrasound tech wrote, "Hi Mom and Dad!" on the screen. :)

Here's another cute shot of her two little feet. Classic.

Did I miss the memo?

I can hear fireworks outside right now, but I can't figure out why. September 6th....is that some sort of Holiday I wasn't informed about?

Also, I just burned my 'snack pack' size popcorn. I'm pretty bummed about that.

Fantastic Contraption

This game is so fun and mind boggling!

LIE DOWN!

Well I just know you're all dying in suspense to find out whether or not we made it to the sheepdog trials on Saturday. Well wait no longer, the answer is, "You bet we did!" And a "classic" it was indeed. The rain started to let up a little by the time we left Salt Lake, and when we made it around to the other side of the mountain to Midway, the rain really had gone away! I guess my little song from the last post title worked after all.

So for those of you who have never been to a sheepdog competition (which I'm guessing is pretty much everyone, including ourselves before this) it's what Rob called 'a gentleman's sport' with a country twist. (I added that last part). It's a gentleman's sport because you just watch from the sidelines and clap occasionally when the dog gets the sheep to go through the right fence or whatever. It's kind of like Golf in that you're just watching, and the action is pretty slow. But there were a few bits of memorable fun.

How it works is the trainer or sheepherder person stands at this pole and uses a whistle to tell the dog which way to run. The dog runs up the hill to gather the first group of sheep, gets them to go through a set of fences, and then brings them all the way back down to the trainer. Then the dog goes out to get another group of sheep from a different spot on the hill and does the same thing. Then all 16 sheep have to go around the trainer's pole,


then back through some more gates, and then the really tricky part is when the trainer has to separate the sheep so only 5 with a red collar are left. Then those 5 have to go into a small little gate-pen.

Not as easy as it sounds! Only a few trainers and dogs were able to accomplish all this in the 24 minute time limit.

So most of the trainer people just use their whistle to make signals to the dog while they're running up the hill to gather the sheep, but that all changed once this lady came on the scene.

She was constantly giving whistle commands, and kept repeatedly yelling to her dog in a very angry tone, "LIE DOWN!" The first few times she yelled, nobody thought anything of it. But after about 6 or 7 times (and on to at least 3 more every minute), the whole crowd started to giggle a little. It was kind of weird. Plus, she was a pretty big lady, and she kept leaning all of her weight against the pole, and it seriously looked like it might fall over. I'm not trying to be rude, but it was pretty funny. Just see for yourself!

That last event of the day was the "Olympic Style" award ceremony with bagpipes and all!.

It was a pretty shnazzy day.

Rain, rain, go away

Well we were planning to attend the Sheepdog Festival this year up in Midway, Utah, but it's been raining all morning so now we're having second thoughts. For those of you wondering what in the world a sheepdog festival is, think back to the movie "Babe" (aka Babe, the Gallant Pig) and how he lived on a farm with sheep and sheepdogs. Well basically this festival is a big championship for sheepdogs. Apparently it's a pretty big deal in the sheepdog community. People come all the way from Ireland and Scotland to participate! This website says it best...

"These competitors have come to test their own skills and those of their dogs on the Olympic hillside at Soldier Hollow. You will see a competition that one writer called "strangely compelling," and another called "poetic." You have to be there to understand the drama that brings thousands to their feet."

Oh yeah. ... You never wanted to live in Utah more in your life than you do right at this moment! Well anyway, we might still attend if the weather clears up. Here's hoping!!

Totally Redeemed Myself

I am happy to report that Rob finally got his birthday presents this week after 7 months of waiting (or rather after 7 months of me being a bad wife....see previous post on the subject by clicking here). But the brownie pan and logo book are now safely in his possession, and he loves them both! I ordered them both from Amazon when I was ordering a birthday gift for my Dad, and a few days later, vwala! There they were on our doorstep! Like magic. Well we made brownies in the fancy pan last night and they turned out great! It really is true; the pan does give every piece at least two edges, and cooks the batch more evenly also. If anybody wants to get one for themselves, you can check it out here, or here. If you're a brownie lover, this pan is totally worth the price.