Where is the Love?

Back in 2003 John's roommate at the time (Kirk) purchased this plant. It was affectionately, well maybe not affectionately but anyway, they called it the love plant. It was to symbolize John and my relationship which at the time was non-existent. They didn't water or tend to it, in many ways it was ignored but somehow it grew! (The parallels between the plant and our relationship are un-canny!) When John and Kirk moved out John got the love plant. We then replanted it into this lovely Wal*Mart special pot and it's been doing well ever since. That was the case until about two weeks ago I was cleaning the house and decided to water our plants and give them some sun. They are not by any windows so I placed them out on the balcony while I did other chores. In all my cleaning excitement I left them out a little too long. Our other plants were fine soaking up all the sun they could get (they are also in the ivy family) however our poor little love plant didn't take to well to the sun. Since then the majority of it's leaves have fallen off and it's turning yellow in spots as you can see from the above photos (it once was full and beautiful). A sad story indeed. Apparently I gave it too much love. You can only imagine what the implications of this will be on our relationship! Maybe I should cut back to hand shakes only with John?...yeah that's not going to happen any time soon.

Good Deal!


This is the BEST spaghetti sauce! It tastes great and is only $1.02 at Target. The four cheese one is also tasty. As Fergie says, check it out!
I love bargains but honestly who doesn't. Wait a minute I live in LA where people constantly are paying ridiculous amounts of money for trivial things. Anywho...if you know of other great deals let me know!

Oh Mike Rowe



Holy Cow it's Monday!!! This weekend went by too fast but was enjoyably busy. John and I went out to dinner Friday night at Islands, how I love their Maui burger. Then after doing some laundry at my Grandma's we watched a movie at home.
Saturday we helped the Adams move into their house. It's beautiful! We've done everything we can think of to convince Uncle Steve to give up his office for us. Really when you think about it it's selfish of him to not let us have his office, he has 2 offices already, one at work and one at church! But I digress.
I got my hair cut! I had this "I'm growing my hair out"/mullet look going on and it was not good, luckily it has been remedied. Saturday night my sister came over and spent the night because we sang in church on Sunday. We had a tasty lunch together after church. B.T.W. my dad makes the best tri-tip! Anywhoo it was a jam packed weekend, the effects of which are being felt today.
For those of you who are wondering about the picture...it's Mike Rowe from Discovery channels Dirty Jobs. I love him! He's witty, entertaining, and has a great voice but most of all it's just a funny picture.

Getting to Know Me


I figured I would expedite the introduction process by doing one of these ridiculously long question answer thingies. There are too many questions. My advice- don't do it all at once, you'll be sick of me before you get to #38. So perooze at your own convience. Here we go...

1. I am the oldest of 6 kids
2. I am very organized
3. Animals (house pets specifically) and I have an understanding... we are civil with each other. You might say we're acquaintances. We don't go out looking for one another but when forced to spend time together we make it work.
4. I wanted to be a teacher when I was growing up and started out on the path in college. Then my sophomore year I took and interpersonal communications class and absolutely loved it so I changed my major to speech communications. When I transferred to BYU they said they had a Speech Comm. program but when I went to register and declare a major with them Speech Comm was nowhere to be found!! I was misinformed and had to choose a new major in a few hours. The Linguistics dept. would accept the majority of my credits so I signed up for that. The linguistics professor I spoke with told me not to do linguistics...I should have listened to him. Cest' la vie!
5. My favorite shows are Grey's Anatomy, 24, anything on the food network/TLC/HGTV or discovery.
6. I would like a new wardrobe picked out by Clinton and Stacy from What Not to Wear.
7. I am fluent in American Sign Language. I took four years of Spanish which means I can conjugate with the best of them but my speaking abilities are limited to "I don't like butter" (not true I love butter), "the fries are cold", "hello my name is___", "where is the bathroom" "how do you say_", and a few other useless phrases.
8. I love bargains not as much as my mom or grandpa matern but I still love bargains.
9. I am so in love with my husband. He's very patient, kind, and funny(this is not an all inclusive list). He's awesome!
10. I have a license plate frame that said "legs like barbie, chest like ken". It fits me and my car.
11. I am a bad speller. Thank goodness for spell check!
12. I have a tender heart. I once cried during an episode of family matters.
13. I don't mind earthquakes, I don't look forward to them but they aren't that scary for me.
14. I love living in southern California.
15. I have lived in Lawndale, Anaheim, Fullerton, Provo, Spanish Fork, UT, Pleasant Grove UT, Hawthorne, and El Segundo.
16. I have been in 11 states: CA, NV, AK, HI, AZ, UT, ID, MT, WY, GA, FL.
17. I have a pet peeve when it comes to toilet paper. I think it should fall forward like a waterfall. I can't stand 1-ply toilet paper or the toilet paper squares. Utah does not have toilet seat covers in their public bathrooms! I was appalled, luckily I'm good at hovering.
18. I have many best friends.
19. I love musicals!!!
20. I try to stay in contact with people.
21. I do not like mayonnaise/miracle whip, sour cream, or ranch.
22. I love dessert. I always have room for dessert. One of the Adams girls once wanted dessert but hadn't finished her dinner and came up with this response which I use often, "I have two stomachs. A dinner stomach and a dessert stomach. My dinner stomach is full but my dessert stomach is still empty."
23. I thought Jonathan was the cutest from NKOTB, I even had a pillow case!
24. I love Disneyland and Disney movies. Especially the ones from the old days that had songs.
25. I can still recite the words to almost any Disney song.
26. I love amusement/theme parks.
27. I love roller coasters.
28. I have been in four car accidents. The most recent was June of last year.
29. I love being an aunt.
30. I'm excited and nervous about being a mom (no I'm not pregnant right now)
31. I wear glasses and I have contact but I can't touch my eye.
32. I've always wanted to take a photography class.
33. I really enjoy helping others.
34. Someone once misspelled my mom's name (Lynell), she sounded it out and came up with LeeElle. She like it so much she decided to name her first daughter it. Many people make comments about the spelling but let me assure you I saw the other options and this was the best one.
35. I've always liked my name. It's so unique. I am constantly having to explain it to people. My name is one word, two capitals, no space. Yes I know there are only two letters in my name and I love it!
36. When I was little I would pretend my name was Stacy.
37. I am LDS.
38. I graduated from BYU. I majored in Linguistics and minored in TESOL (teaching english to speakers of other languages).
39. I enjoy cooking, if only I had more time and financial resources.
40. I love to read children's books.
41. I don't have a favorite color although I'm partial to reds, greens, and browns.
42. One of my favorite memories of John is when his eyes got a little watering on our wedding day. He denies this but I know what I saw.
43. I love kids!
44. Tulips are my favorite flowers.
45. I love to laugh, luckily I married a very funny man.
46. I know how to drive a stick shift car.
47. I love to sing. I've been told that my voice is not suited to rock n' roll. That's fine I'll stick to musicals and church music:)
48. I had some pretty bad awkward years starting in jr. high and ending my sophomore year in high school. I didn't realise the poofy bangs were out of style. I have the pictures to prove it.
49. I like going out to dinner.
50. I love Mexican food.
51. I love going on dates with John
53. I like board games some of my favorites are: balderdash, loaded question, blockus, mad gab, and taboo.
54. I love water activities be it water polo, swimming in any body of water i.e. beach, lake, or pool. boogie boardind, snorkeling, skiing...you name it!
55. I have monkey like toes. They are long and when I stand up they spread out pretty far-I'm okay with it.
56. I play the piano, clarinet, baritone, and trombone.
57. I love my family both immediate and extended (including my in-laws of course). I love spending time with them. Family makes me happy.
58. I love good quotes. One of my favorites is by Nelson Mandela, it's too long to write but it's about our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate but that we are more capable then we admit, anywho it's a good one.
59. I believe there is more good than bad, sometimes you have to look harder to find it.
60. Kindness goes a long way. You get more with honey than you do vinegar.
61. I like watching movies. I have too many favorites however I do not like violent &/or scary movies.
62. The jobs I have had: Babysitter, house cleaner, lifeguard, swim instructor, hostess then server at Ruby's Diner, phone rep. at quickdown.com, sign language interpreter at BYU, UVSC (two days), the U of U, El Camino College, Sorenson VRS, Adjunct Faculty at Salt Lake Community College.
63. If given a choice between the mountains and the ocean, I'd choose the ocean, however I still love the mountains.
64. I enjoyed living in Utah.
65. I have always wanted to go to New York.
66. My favorite family memories are going camping in Pine Valley and Carlsbad. We still go every year.
67. I would like to travel abroad.
68. My feelings on video games-eh. I do enjoy busta move, and most of the old school Nintendo games but I'm horrible at them. I actually move my controller when I try to jump.
69. I have more cavities than I'd like to admit. Can I just say I love the new white fillings!
70. I love specialty drinks (non-acholoic).
71. Naps are wonderful.
72. I like staying up late if I get to sleep in.
73. I love BBQ, especially my dads tri-tip.
74. I picked out by brother collin's name.
75. I have just recently started to eat cheesecake and even then I'm very picky about it.
76. I don't like the food on my plate to touch.
77. I like my house to be clean, I'm kinda a clean/neat freak.
78. Two of my friends names were Lael and Leanne. It was very confusing for people when we were together.
79. I don't like traffic although it's a necessary evil here in LA.
80. I wonder what my children will look like.
81. I'm opinionated, loud, and at times over bearing. I'm working on being more tactful.
82. I'm goofy but fun.
83. I can't stand it when people chew with their mouth open. I'm not talking about 1 or 2 chomps but the majority of chewing. I also do not like it when the chewing is loud i.e. gum chewing.
84. I love Target. I find it therapeutic to walk the store.
85. I'm taking a yoga class and I love it.
86. I love a good massage.
87. I enjoy reading, I don't do it as often as I would like. I'm able to put down a book even if I really like it, there's things to do!
88. I've been stung by a bee once, not fun. I don't like bees, snakes, or flying rubber bands.
89. Sunsets are pretty.
90. I want to make my home a place where my kids want to have their friends over.
91. I care too much about what people think of me, but I'm working on it.
92. I like the sound of running water.
93. I enjoy gardening, or at least what little I've done I have enjoyed. That will be another great thing about having a house is the ability to plant beautiful and yummy things.
94. I love that we have the power to change ourselves.
95. I love decorating shows, candace olsen is great (most of the time) and vern from the old school trading spaces.
96. I can't wait to own a house and decorate it.
97. I think snow is pretty and fun to play in. I'm not a fan of driving in it though.
98. I like Dr. Suess books. In 4th grade I won an oral interpretation contest. I memorized Oh Say can You Say. It's a book of tongue twisters. I still remember most of them.
99. I am a firm believer in communication, it was almost my major, so many misunderstanding could be avoided if we suck up our pride and talk to each other.
100. I like to read the comments people leave on my blog.
and we're done!

Something Flashy to Wet Your Appetite

I did it!!!!! I posted a picture. With this new knowledge and skill there's no telling what I'll do next. I was just composing an email announcing the birth of my blog when I thought, wait a minute no one will come back to visit if I don't put up something flashy. So ladies and gentlemen I give you tulips (courtesy of Sarah Curtis). I love tulips! I loved going to temple square in the spring to see all the tulips. Last year John took me to Thanksgiving point on my birthday for the Tulip Festival, they have over 1 million tulips on top of the normal flora and fauna, can I just say-spectacular! I was smiling and skipping all day. It's impossible to be unhappy when surrounded by beautiful flowers. Last year we also tried to have what we affectionately called the Tullis Tulip Extravaganza of 2006. We planted the bulbs with sufficient time to freeze tended to our flower boxes, then one day they started poking up out of the dirt. They grew and grew and you could see the bud ready to bloom then it either got really hot or we planted lemons, but they never bloomed. A sad story indeed. Despite this travesty my love for tulips remains.

Wow! Look at this place! It's so big... and spacious... and all mine! Who would have thought that I would actually have my own blog! I'm hoping that this will motivate me to document more of the fun and exciting events taking place in my world. Hopefully I'll do better at this blog thing than I do at keeping a journal. If not then I won't post for months, maybe even years. Here's hoping it sticks. Maybe I'll even get to the point where I can post pictures! Whoaaaa nelly. Take it easy. One thing at a time.