Last Christmas I brought three different lip glosses from Sephora.  While I love lip gloss, that wasn’t technically my favorite thing.  I explained that my favorite thing was the little black and white Sephora bag.  Just seeing one of them makes me giddy because you just know whatever is in inside is magical.

This Christmas I brought three pairs of silver hoop earrings.  I love hoop earrings so very much.  And not the little ones that barley fit around your ear lobe, I’m taking the bigger JLo style hoops. I’d bet that I’ve worn hoops 95% of the time in the last five years.  I don’t know how my love affair with hoop earrings started but I know it’s true love and it runs very deep.  (The top picture is of JLo.  That’s me below.)  (You know, in case you got confused.)

Last year I went home with bubble bath, fancy dish soap and a romantic comedy.  This Christmas I went home with a huge thing of hot chocolate mix, a bag of Seattle Chocolates and some chocolate covered Oreos.  Most people didn’t bring food items, so it was kinda of off that I ended up taking home so much food.  (I’m not complaining!)  Other things people got were soap, lotion, pie filling, washcloth, socks, and even salad dressing!

I’ve been thinking about what I’s pick if asked what my favorite things are, sans $5-$8 price limit.  While I try to not be super materialistic I do own some things that I love so very much and feel they are worth every penny spent on them.  I don’t have a lot of disposable income to spend on myself so what I have I cherish.

We’re not at a party and I don’t intend on buying three of these things to share, but here are some of my favorite things and the reasons behind them.

While saying that “boots” are my favorite thing is a little too general I have a few pairs that I especially love.

Last winter The King was at the REI “basement” looking around.  (The “basement” is where you can go and buy returned items at a discounted price.  REI has a Lifetime Guarantee on everything they sell.  Because of this they get a lot of returns.  Your kid grows out of his shoes, take them back.  You bought your gear to climb Mt. Rainier but don’t plan on doing that again, take the stuff back!)  While checking out the shoe section he came across some brown Merrell Tetra boots in my size that were marked about 75% off their retail price.  Naturally he bought them for me.  They needed a new insole and after contacting Merrell directly they mailed me one.  At no cost!  This winter The King found another pair of the same boot (in black!), again in my size, again marked WAY below retail.  Being a super good husband, he bought me the black pair as well.  These boots are great because not only are they functional (totally waterproof and comfortable) but they look good with pants, skirts and dresses.  I love them so very, very much.

My other favorite boots are my pair of Aerosoles Gather Round boot in camel (faux) suede.  I bought these at the end of season years ago and at first I wasn’t sure they’d go with too many things.  But then I saw a picture of Heidi Klum in a maternity dress (I was pregnant with Rerun at the time) wearing a gray dress with camel boots.  I figured if Heidi Klum could do it, then so could I.  I’ve been rocking my camel boots with jeans, skirts and dresses ever since.

For this last Christmas’ party I waffled between taking hoop earrings or Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmer (in Watermelon!).  The hoop earrings won, but only by a hair.  I’ve lost count at how many tubes of this I’ve gone through.  I used to use my Border’s 40% off coupons to buy these.  I was super sad to see Border’s go out of business because now I’ll have to pay full price for my Burt’s Bee addiction.

I love saving money, bringing my lunch to work every day and pizza.  Put that together and you’ve got the Safeway Eating Right brand frozen pizzas. They cost $2 and are yummy, yummy, yummy.  I eat one for lunch 98% of the time.  I prefer the pepperoni or four cheese.

No matter how many times I’ve seen it before watching an episode of “Arrested Development” cracks me up.  The only bad thing about this show is I can never decide who I like more; George Michael, Michael or Gob.

Right before I got knocked up with Rerun my bestest friend May told me about her love of the Old Navy roll over knit skirts.  She told me she had one in every color and suggested I do the same.  I bought a black and gray one and they got me through my entire pregnancy.  I didn’t buy the maternity version because I knew I’d be able to wear the non-maternity ones when I was pregnant and then keep wearing them after I gave birth.  I’m still wearing them. They look just as good in the summer with flip-flops as they do in the winter with boots.  The King bought me a new brown one this Christmas to complete my set.  (But get this, I don’t have one single top to go with the brown skirt.  FOR REALS!)

The King and Babboo surprised me and bought me a Lulu Lemon hoodie (in black!) for Mothers Day a few years back.  This is a splurge that I would have never bought myself and yet I love it so much.  It’s so thick and soft and cozy and every time I put it on I think to myself “this is so worth $100!”  (There is a Lulu Lemon outlet on the way to Canada that we always stop at.  Their hoodies are much cheaper there and I was able to get a purple one last year.  The King has some too.)

I knew I didn’t want to take my Coach purse (bought at the outlet) on our trip to Europe this summer.  After much research I decided the Harriet bag from Timbuk2 (in black!) would be the perfect fit for my needs.  The straps are adjustable and it even has a hidden zipper at the bottom to expand it.  It’s so perfect in fact that I’m still using it while my pretty Coach bag sits alone in my closet.  (I noticed last night that some of the stitching on my Harriet bag is coming undone.  Timbuk2 has a lifetime guarantee and I hope they’ll be able to fix my bag.  I sent them a request and pictures this morning.  Cross your fingers.  I’d hate to have to stop using my Harriet!)

I know a lot of people found fancy new iPads and iPhones under their trees this Christmas, but not me.  I’m still rocking my iPod classic (in black!).  I bought it probably six years ago with a bonus from work.  So what if now it looks antiquated and nerdy, it’s full of my glorious music and I love it.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

I was gifted a subscription to “Sunset” magazine by a close friend who is a big fan of the magazine.  It’s full of fancy recipes and local insights.  The King and I have been converted and not a week goes by that we don’t make a couple of “Sunset” meals for dinner.  (The King got a “Sunset” cookbook for Christmas.  LET THE COOKING BEGIN!)

I recently bought myself a Book or Mormon study guide to use alongside my daily scripture reading.  Using it has helped prompt me to new thoughts and revelations.  I started using it towards the end of reading the Book of Mormon.  I look forward to starting from the front once I’m done with this reading.

I teased The King about the Moleskin planner he used for years.  (NERD!)  That is until he bought me my own last year.  It didn’t take long for me to realize how awesome it was.  My MIL gave me a pen loop (in pink!) for Christmas which I promptly put on my planner.  It made this perfect planner even more perfect.

And last, but not least, Sally Hansen’s Super Shine Top Coat has been true and faithful to me since I started using it ten years ago.  It continues to make my nails look pretty.  While I love OPI for colors, I also use Sally Hansen’s for my top coat.

Would any of these things be on your list of favorite things?  I’d love to read posts from you guys about what your favorite things are.  I’m always looking for new things to love.

So tell me, what are some of your favorite things?

I never took any art classes in college and as an adult I really never had the need to come up with any type of creative idea.

And then I met The King, who has a degree in art and is one of the most creative and talented people out there.  In the time it would take me to come up with an idea of how to decorate a baby’s room The King would have designed and built a house from scratch.  The King’s brain is always working on some type of new idea.  His brain isn’t limited to the traditional arts like painting, drawing, or sculpting.  He designs furniture, house wares, bedding, graffiti, landscapes, decks and as we all know, houses.

It’s like The King took all of the collective creativity genes from a twenty mile radius and  kept them for himself.  This would include any that I may have had hidden in the back of my brain.

The King lets me help him create and distribute his creations.  But yeah, the ideas don’t belong to me.

Somewhere along the way I met my BFF, May.  The King and May met back when they were in college together, both working on degrees in art.  While The King can visualize and build a house you can say to May, “Can you draw something to represent the state of Minnesota?”, she’ll be able to whip something AMAZING up.

May, she’s good.  (Want more proof?  Here you go.)

One of my favorite stories about May is the time I taught her how to crochet in the back of the car on the way home from a weekend in Canada.  My grandma had taught me when I was really young and I’d been crocheting all sorts of things since then.  Things like blankets and hats and anything else that only required crocheting a square.  May was so excited about her new skill and told me “I’m going to make baby sweaters and shoes and all sorts of things.”  I patted her knee, rolled my eyes, and wished her luck.  As if someone who had just learned how to crochet a straight line could create anything besides a blanket or a hat.

Maybe a week later May showed me the baby sweater and slippers (complete with a suede bottom) she had crocheted.  No pattern.  No book to teach her actual stitches. Nothing but her own brain and creativity.

(For the record I continue to be limited to crocheting squares.)

I quickly figured out that May had the best ideas about creating all sorts of things.  And she was good about sharing her ideas.  For years May came up with the ideas for all sorts of awesome gifts and projects and crafts that she and I could do together.  Creating the actual product wasn’t that hard to do.  I could do them all.  I just would have never come up with the idea to do them.  Off the top of my head here are a few of the things I’ve made with May:

Spice garden pots

Cut metal pin-up girl Christmas ornament

Shrinky Dink jewelry and cards

Every type of greeting card imaginable

Iron-on onesies

Earrings

Necklaces

Felt pouches

Picture magnets

Too many Christmas ornaments to count

(May made this baby Babboo ornament for his first Christmas)

And so many others I can’t remember.  (May, help me out. What else have we made?)

You would think that after all these years of crafting I would have picked up some creativity along the way.

Not so much.

I’m still just as uncreative as I was back in high school.

Last month I was asked to be in charge of one of our week nights activities for the teenage girls at church.  I instantly decided I’d teach the girls how to make their own greeting cards.  As always, this was May’s idea.  I e-mailed her and asked her what I would need to make the activity a hit.

“Remind the girls that in regards to glitter ‘less IS more”.  You would think they would know that. But they won’t.

“Precut and fold all of the cards.”

“Don’t expect too much from them.  Trust me.”

I’ll be honest here, I didn’t trust her on that last one.  All the girls had to do was cut out May’s designs and glue them to the front of a precut and folded card.  How hard could that be?  I figured the girls would go a step beyond this and maybe jazz up the cards a little with some gel pens or pretty paper.

On Wednesday night I showed up with 6 precut and folded cards for each girl, along with matching envelopes and a print out of May’s designs.  I was using my own supplies and was feeling guilty that I was being stingy and only giving each girl enough for six cards.  We had an hour an a half for the activity.  Six cards would take 10 minutes.

Boy howdy was I wrong.

And May was so right.

Out of the seven or so girls (and other adults) only a few of them completed two cards.  The rest only got one done.

One card.

In over an hour.

And all they had to do was cut and paste.

I had expected too much from them.

I made six of my own cards while teaching the girls, chatting with the girls and watching Rerun in the same amount of time.

For most of my life I’ve been feeling bad for myself because I’m not very creative.  Turns out I might be more creative then I thought.

So tell me, how creative are you?

This cousin of my mom’s has some kids my age.  I always hung out with them at subsequent family reunions.  It was always in the back of my head that their dad had been to the top of Everest, but I never thought much about it.  Except for the fact that I knew he was missing a toe.  Gross.  I haven’t seen my mom’s cousin and his family in probably about fifteen years even though I actually live closer to them out here in Seattle then I did when I lived in Utah.

When The King starting training to climb Mt. Rainier this last year I remembered my mom’s cousin.  Since he’s from the Pacific Northwest I figured he had probably climbed Rainer too.  A quick google search found that he’s on the short list of those who have been to the top of Rainier the most; well over 100 times.  This google search led me to read more about Rainier.  I eventually had to stop reading about it when I started realizing how dangerous The King’s hike was going to be.

I was especially nervous about The King’s attempt at Rainier because I was hugely pregnant.  I had nightmares of going into labor while he was on Rainier and not being able to get a hold of him.  (I had more intense fears about his hike, but let’s not talk about them.)

Thankfully The King was successful and made it to the top of Rainier (and back down again).  It was a very spiritual experience for him and it was amazing to listen to him talk about it.  After a few weeks we stopped talking about it so much.  And then Rerun was born and that was pretty much the only topic of conversation for the next while.

During Rerun’s first few months I spent a couple hours every night feeding him in the dark.  I wanted to make a better use of this time so I got out my little book light and starting reading any book I could get my hands on.  I quickly finished all of the books I had around the house so I grabbed The King’s book off of his night stand:

“The Kid Who Climbed Everest” by none other then the ultimate outdoorsman Mr. Bear Grylls.

This is so not a typical book I’d read.  While I do admit to purchasing the book, it wasn’t because I had any interest in reading it myself.

The King was only about 30 pages into the book and wasn’t too thrilled about me bogarting it.  I surpassed his 30 pages the first night I started read the book….and then didn’t put it down for the next week.

Holy cow, the book was INTENSE.

I usually don’t like knowing how a story is going to end right from the start.  I was pretty confident that Bear wasn’t going to die on Everest.  And, thanks to the title of the book, I was pretty sure he was going to make it to the top.  And yet, I hung on every word of the book…not sure what was going to happen next.

I’ll be honest here.  I started this book not being the biggest Bear Grylls fan.  I was also quite bugged by the poor writing in the first chapters of the book.  This all changed.  Bear is a pretty cool guy.  He’s very spiritual and really just seems to be a good person.  And I think he got a ghost writer somewhere around the middle of the book, so the writing got better.

While reading about Bear’s attempt at climbing Mt. Everest at the age of 23 first hand I was amazed at how one goes about preparing, financing (it can cost upwards of $60,000!) and eventually climbing Everest.  This isn’t a 3 hour hike.  Or even a 3 day hike.  Because of the time needed to acclimate ones body to the high altitude, it usually takes quite a few months of living on the mountain before one makes the actual final climb to the summit.

You start at the Base Camp and then head up to the four other camps along the route to the top.  The climbers train by climbing back and forth between the camps multiple times over a few month period.  It’s boring and tedious work to get your body ready for the final 17 hour climb.  Plus, they are carrying heavy tanks of oxygen.

Like I usually do when reading a book that sparks my interest in a new topic, I promptly got on the internet and read every single thing I could find on Everest.

I found out all about the unsung heroes of Everest, the Sherpa’s**.  The Sherpa’s are the indigenous people of the region.  According to Wikipedia:

Sherpas are renowned in the international climbing and mountaineering community for their hardiness, expertise, and experience at high altitudes. It has been speculated that a portion of the Sherpas’ climbing ability is the result of a genetic adaptation to living in high altitudes. Some of these adaptations include unique hemoglobin-binding enzymes, doubled nitric oxide production, hearts that can utilize glucose, and lungs with an increased sensitivity to low oxygen.

And guess what else I found out?  That cousin of my mom’s whose missing toe freaked me out when I was a kid?*** Yeah, turns out he’s a pretty big deal in the mountaineering world.  And the story about him getting down from the top of Everest on the back of a yak?  True story. And not a funny one.  Not funny at all.  He was close to death and that yak was the only way he was going to get back to the bottom alive.

Climbing Everest is a huge deal.  People die doing this.  A lot of people die.  Well over 200 men, women and Sherpa’s have died in an attempt to climb Everest (or on their way back down).  And if you do make it to the top, you experience and see some pretty horrific things along the way.

Bear’s account really opened my eyes to what the human body is capable of.  And not only the body, but the mind too.  I’m convinced that a big part of surviving Everest is purely mental thing.  Sure you have to be in tip top physical shape, but you also have to be the type of person who can mentally conquer the challenged.  The thought of having to cross a crevasse sends chills down my spine. There is no way I’d be able to cross as many as they do to get to the top and then back down again.  That’s another thing that freaks me out, once you get to the top your journey is only half over.  You’ve still got to survive the trek back down.

I finished Bear’s book a month or so ago and since then I’ve watched a few documentaries on Everest and I have a few other Everest books on hold at the library.  I am thirsting for more knowledge.  I am so intrigued by what would make someone want to even attempt this as well as the logistics of the climb.

I know I’ll never get to the top of the world.  Not even close.  I have no desire to even attempt something like that.  And yet, I so want to do it.  But really, I don’t.  But still, it would be awesome.

For now I’ll just read more books and daydream about what it would be like at the top of Mt. Everest.

“I didn’t conquer Everest – Everest allowed me to crawl up one side and stay on the peak for a few minutes” –Bear Grylls

*Google told me what he was the first to do.  And honestly, I’m not sure how a person’s body can even do that.  Apparently only a small percentage of them can.

**Did I tell you that May, my best friend who deserted me and moved to Reno, got to drive the famous Apa Sherpa (Super Sherpa) around town earlier this year?  Apa Sherpa has the record for amount of times reaching the summit of Everest.  Guess how many times he’s been to the top?  Come on, guess.

TWENTY.

(One year he made it to the top two times!)

(TWO TIMES!)

***I never actually saw his foot and the spot of the missing toe.  It was just the idea of a missing toe that freaked me out.

“You’ve got to see this video. It’s the funniest thing I’ve.Ever.Seen! It will change your life forever.”

And then there is some random YouTube link.

Or this:

“Check out the pictures of my new baby on Facebook. I haven’t posted them anywhere else. You’re gonna love this kid.”

And then some random link to a Facebook photo album.

My texted me last night to tell me she had just gotten engaged. I’m sure she’ll send out an e-mail with a link to the pictures of her ring on Facebook.

I hate these e-mails.

HATE.

And here’s why:

I CAN’T ACCESS YOUTUBE OR FACEBOOK AT WORK.

When I click on a link to either site I get the “access denied” and the big read hand. (I also get that guilty feeling that I was just caught looking at porn at work.) I always write the e-mailer back and say “I can’t access Facebook/YouTube at work. Can you send it in another format?”

They never do. I don’t blame them. I mean, who wants to be bothered by someone too good for Facebook or YouTube?

I think they just figure that I’ll look at it on my laptop at home.

They are sorely mistaken. I can count on my hands how many times I’ve accessed the internet at home. And when I do it’s usually been to Skype my family on holidays. I stare at a computer screen for 8+ hours a day, why would I want to subject myself to more computer screen death when I’m not getting paid? Yeah, I wouldn’t.

At my cousin’s wedding reception a few years ago they had this adorable green cake with polka dots on it. I found out my younger cousin (who got engaged last night) made her herself. I was impressed beyond belief. (And, to be honest, I didn’t believe her at first.) When I asked her how in the heck she learned how to do stuff like that she was all “I watched a video on YouTube and just followed along.”

Interesting.

During Christmas, while hanging out with this same cousin, she told me she’d recently taken up knitting. I knew her mom didn’t knit, so I asked her who taught her.

“I watched a video on YouTube and learned that way.”

My friend Kasey (who got a positive pregnancy test, thankyouverymuch) recently started cutting her family’s hair. I asked her how in the heck she learned how to cut hair.

“I watched a video on YouTube.”

I guess I didn’t know that YouTube for good for things other then watching monkey’s have sex or seeing video of your child’s first steps. YouTube seemed to actually be useful!

I bought a light gray shirt/dress (tunic?) for $4 at American Eagle (my first purchase ever at AE). The thing was, it was just gray. Nothing exciting at all about it. I wanted to jazz it up, but didn’t know how.

And then I remembered YouTube and how, apparently, there are useful videos on there. I dug our laptop out from under a pile of papers on our desk and searched YouTube for “how to make rosettes”. The search results numbered in the 100’s. I’d hit a winner.

I began watching video after video to find the type of rosette I liked the best. (And that looked the easiest. And was made out of supplies I already owned.) I decided upon a sassy felt rosette.

I watched the video over and over. I dug through my craft supplies and found some yellow felt. I sat in front of the laptop, felt strip in hand, and followed along with the cute girl on YouTube and she walked me through the process!

I totally did it. And it was cute. And fun. And easy.

I ended up making quite a few rosettes in all different sizes. And then I sewed them onto my new shirt/dress thingy (seriously, are they called “tunics”?). It sassed up the look a ton. The King* was even impressed. As he should be.

After that I decided to get back on YouTube and see if I could find a video on how to trim my own bangs.

Dude, not only were there videos showing you how to trim you own bangs, but there were videos on how to trim your entire head of hair. I even watched a video on how to get the “perfect messy work bun”. I HAD NO IDEA!

My life has been changed. Now when I want to do something, or make something…I’ll simply head over to YouTube and just watch a video on it. I know I’m like three years behind everyone else on this. (Maybe even more like six years.) Better late then never, right?

But I’m still not going to check out Facebook.

So tell me, what interesting thing have you learned to do via YouTube? (And let’s keep this clean folks!)

*A quick HAPPY BIRTHDAY shout-out to The King. I hope you have a good day.

Yep, that’s how my family hiked; we went on the same hikes that people in wheelchairs could manage.

(I’m embarrassed to even share this with the interweb.)

(And yet, I’m about to share more.)

After I graduated from high school and moved away to college I never returned to Zion or went on any hikes, handicap accessible or not.  I married my first husband shortly there after.  When I married him I knew I was marrying into a family that enjoyed spending time in the outdoors.  (And by “spending time in the outdoors” I mean “spending time hiding behind trees and bushes killing defenseless animals.)  (Let’s try to not turn this into a discussion on hunting.  I’m just saying that the ex’s family was not like my family in that regard.)

While my first husband wasn’t a hunter, he did like to fish and hike.  He went fishing almost daily….sans me.  He rode his mountain bike and hiked with his friends occasionally.  Again, sans me.  here towards the end of our marriage I remember going on one hike with him.  I can totally see the picture he took of me during that hike.  I did not look like I was having fun.  Maybe it was him, maybe it was the hike, I can’t be certain.

That last hike had to have occurred somewhere around 1998.  That’s about 12 years ago.

When I married The King I knew that while he liked the outdoors, he wasn’t planning any hikes up Mt. Rainier in his future.  Fine by me.

This summer something odd happened.  The King decided he wanted to go camping as a family…in a tent…out in the open.    And oddly enough I thought it sounded like a good idea.  On this first camping trip (to Mt. Rainer, strangely enough) the family’s we were camping with wanted to go on a hike at Mt. Rainier.  Dude, I did not want to be the one person that was all “dude, you want me to walk up a mountain, while I could be back at our camp site eating s’mores, FOR NO GOOD REASON?!”  So I went along and acted like hiking was no big deal to me.

Whatever, it was a big deal.  First off, it was hot out.  Secondly, THERE WERE SHEER CLIFFS.  Thirdly, dude, the trail was long and straight up.  I was tired and sleepy and just feeling a general sense of laziness all around.

While I enjoyed spending time with friends, I was pretty sure it was going to be my last hike. At least for another 12 years.

The thing is, The King loved the hike.  My Sweet Babboo loved the hike.  LOVED IT.

Thankfully, right about that time, I found some new meds that started to work.   Gone was The Tired.  We were also introduced to Geocaching.  And made some new friends in our church congregation that loved to hike.

Put this all together and what do you get?

A family of hikers, that’s what.

We started to stalk the returns section at REI (referred to as “the basement”).  We found The King some fancy new (slightly used) hiking boots.  We found Babboo some new (slightly used) hiking shoes.  And then we found me some new (slightly used) hiking boots.  We were now officially “people who hike”.

Since the house is pretty much done, our Saturdays have become more open.  Lately, we’ve been using our Saturday’s to go on hikes with different friends, my in-laws, and even some with just the 3 of us.  We’ve hiked in other states and other countries.

I’ve even gone hiking on business trips.

While it’s highly unusual for me to be hiking so much, it’s even more highly unusual that I’m enjoying our hikes.  I even commented to The King on a recent hike “I sure do like hiking!”

He about had a heart attack hearing those words come out of my mouth.  And frankly so did I.

After talking to my dad last week about a recent hike we’d taken, he said “I didn’t know you guys were so into hiking.  Next time you’re in Utah for a visit we should go on a hike.”  I had to laugh (on the inside).  The thought of my parents going on a hike IN THE MOUNTAINS was comical.  The only thing they do in the mountains is ride their huge 4-wheelers around.

Yesterday My Best Friend Who Deserted Me And  Moved To Reno (aka: May) sent me an e-mail where she said something to the effect of “don’t be offended, but it’s hard for me to picture you taking a hike.  Do you do it dressed in all black and wearing heels?”

She knows me very well.

But she knows an older version of me.  She knows the person who was ruled by The Tired.  I totally understand what May was saying to me and it made me feel good to know that I had been able to change. And for the better, I hope.

I tried to count the number of hikes we’ve taken since that first hike on Mt. Rainier this summer, and I can’t.  There are too many to remember.

And I like that.

(Oh yeah, The King plans on hiking to the top of Mt. Rainier this summer.  I don’t plan on going with him!)

(Yes, these are just some of the pictures from different hikes we’ve taken. All since last summer.)