Welcome to the Space Jam...

In honor of my lovely friend Rhonda's birthday, I will finally post about mine.  Haha.  

So, this year I turned 23.  How did that happen?!?!  I don't feel 23!  When I woke up, I found this outside my bedroom:

 Gotta love those siblings!  There were more hearts and a poster outside on the garage door (and on the steering wheel of the car I drove), but I didn't get a picture before the rain washed them away.  Whoops!

Sadly, I had to go to work.  I guess that made me feel like an actual adult--working on my birthday.  As far as work goes, it actually was a pretty nice day.  I had gone out to lunch the day before, so I didn't do anything fancy for that.  Around 3:00, my mother and sister-in-law showed up at work with a big box of brownies (the Pillsbury ones you get at Sam's Club--my weakness).  It was like the day at school I never got--you know how you always got awesome treats on other people's birthdays in elementary school?  Since mine was in the summer, I had never experienced that first hand.  (Not that I'm complaining--a summer birthday is awesome!)  Let's just say that my cubicle was suddenly very popular...Thanks Mom and Jaimee!

After work, we did the traditional Joe's BBQ/Krispy Kremes run, but family-style this time.  (This is possibly the first year my parents have come along for this--usually it's just me and a sibling or two.)  Want to know something horrible?  Krispy Kremes was out of hats!  I know, scandalous, right?  So, we didn't get to take our traditional eating-a-doughnut-with-the-beautiful-hat-on picture, like this one:

*sniff*

Next year, my friends.

Since my birthday was conveniently on a Friday, I just extended the celebrations over to Saturday.  I had to make up for the 8 or so hours at work, right?  Right.  We had some family time (a.k.a. seeing "Cowboys and Aliens"--not really my first choice...) and that night I had some people over to partake in another time-honored birthday tradition: the watching of a really stupid movie.  Don't ask me why, but this is one of my favorite birthday traditions.  I'm weird.  This year's winner was:

Picture courtesy of Amazon

 Oh yes.  It's stupid, and it has Michael Jordan in it.  (It was my Michael Jordan birthday--#23 and all.)  Perfect!  Again, I forgot to take pictures, so...just take my word on it.  People came.  

Like these ones!

And this one!

And we watched the movie.  And mocked it heartily.  Yep, that about sums it up.

Ooh, ooh, want to see one of the cool presents I got?  (And then I'll be done, I promise.  I forgot to take pictures of all of my other presents--I love them too, though, family and nearly family!)  

It's a holder for my crochet hooks!  And fancy new bamboo hooks!  And it's cute!  I am so excited!  (And such a nerd, I know.)

And so, that was my birthday.  Now I can post about new crochet projects!  Yay! 

The Century Mark

Hi people!  So, um...I've turned into a horrible blogger.  Sorry!  Really, nothing else really exciting has happened since I posted last.  This is one of those yes-I'm-still-alive posts.  It's my 100th post, so I probably should share something at least entertaining.  Hmm...

Well, I found out yesterday that one of the guys I work with has the same birthday as me.  I think that's the first ever birthday buddy I've found.  (Don't worry, I already sang the theme from "The Twilight Zone" to him.)  Speaking of which, my birthday is 1 WEEK from today!  Huzzah!  In case any of you don't know (or haven't talked to me in the last...month), I really love my birthday.  And telling everyone that it's coming up.  Seriously, I brought it up the other day with a coworker and some vendors who were setting up a training meeting for potentially that day.  I can't help it...

I plan on having an awesome party to celebrate my birthday, so I'll have to remember to put my camera out and hopefully we can get some good pictures. :)  

I suppose that's all for now.  Dr. Carpenstein out.

Frankenbear

At the end of March/beginning of April, I decided I was going to make my nephew's birthday present.  After all, he was turning 1, so if it turned out completely hideous he wouldn't care.  I forgot to get a picture of the finished product before (and I'm a horribly lazy blogger anyways...), so now I'm making up for it.  

Behold: 

He looked kind-of creepy with just eyes, so I decided to call him Frankenbear.

See?  The resemblance is uncanny.

Ah, much better.

Almost done...

So, yeah, his legs look a little wonky, but...

...sitting down, he looks pretty good!

I couldn't really come up with name for him earlier, but I think I like Theodore.  Yes, a bit cliche, but he's got a fat belly like Theodore the chipmunk, so I think it works.  I'm not too attached to it, though--I know as soon as Nephew T can really talk he'll probably make up his own name for it.  I just hope the poor thing can survive the next few years with all his limbs intact....(finishing off is not my strong point)

In case anyone is interested, you can find the pattern here.  Thank you Lion Brand!

My Birthday, in Pictures

In case any of you were wondering what I did on my birthday, this post is for you.  And, since I'm feeling a bit lazy and have a lot of pictures, I'm just going to put them up and tell you the story of my day that way.  Enjoy!

These were on my door when I woke up.  (I heard Sarah putting it up when I was only semi-awake and thought "Who's rubbing my door and why on earth are they doing it?  Is Dad trying to wake me up nicely or something?")

The present I got early to wear around Arizona Mills while my mom and I wandered around.  Ah, Crocs, I do believe I am addicted.

Ok, so this picture isn't the greatest, but this sweater is seriously the cutest thing ever.  I broke down and bought it for myself even though it wasn't on sale (and it's the middle of summer in Arizona...don't mock me).  Seriously, how could I resist?  It's my favorite color and everything!

This is a cheater picture (a.k.a. from last year), but I still took it myself.  My mom and I went here for (my) free lunch.  Mmm....

In the fine tradition of watching movies that I know are going to be horrible but that I secretly want to see anyways for my birthday, Sarah and I went to this.  We were definitely the only ones in the theater.  Yesssss.......

Birthday Krispy Kremes.  {The extreme close-up picture with us wearing the hats and eating the doughnuts is now a birthday tradition.  Only usually Zachy is in the picture with us. :'( }

Umm...my hair looked good.  What can I say, I'm a bit vain.

Part 1 of my birthday haul.  I think I made out pretty well.

Part 2.  I love having crafty sisters.  (Yes, my sister made that herself.)  And hey, it matches my new sweater!

Here's to being one year older...and hopefully wiser, too. ;)

Goodbye 21...

...hello 22!

You know, I don't think I'll ever get over my age sounding more mature than I feel.  Haha.  Guess I'll just have to live with it. :)

Bowling Fiends

Over the past few years, my birthday has morphed into a week- (or two) long celebration.  Not quite sure how, but I'm not complaining.  So, keeping up with that glorious tradition (and not at all due to the fact that Kailei is going to be out of town on my birthday....ahem, ahem...), last night was Birthday Awesomeness: Part 1 (otherwise known as bowling--for free!  Man, am I glad that AMF keeps sending us coupons right around my birthday.)  Here's the crew:

Yeah, we're awesome.

We were definitely the loudest ones there.  (Sarah said she overheard one group specifically ask to get a lane as far from us as possible.  Sorry people...)  But really, how can you not be?  We had to cheer everyone on!  Come on!  We kept looking at the nearly silent groups around us and saying, "Why are they being so quiet?  How can you bowl and not be loud?"  We even joked that we were probably more obnoxious than the intoxicated bowlers.  Haha.  Sad, but probably true.

And now, copious amounts of pictures.  (For a blog post, anyway.  And this isn't even the half of it.) 

Oh, look, it's Brad's Happy Bowling Dance.  

Of course, we couldn't leave without taking some glamour shots among the bowling balls:

 

I look like a chipmunk.  Eating a bowling ball.

We had ice cream afterward (sorry Kailei and Noor) and...took more pictures!  It was fun!

Ok, maybe a little bit too much fun.

And...we're putting the camera away now.

Thanks for coming, guys!  It was awesome!