"Just For Now" - Imogen Heap

I love watching people mix music to create masterpieces. I'd love to learn how to do it!! Here's Imogen Heap creating a fun mix for her song "Just For Now". :)
I LOVE IT! :)

I'm working on my next story, so stay tuned. :)

I Digress #4 - Strong Armed!

I had a memory come to me just now that made me laugh. If I don't write it down, I may forget for another 10 years!! :) It was 5th grade on a Tuesday and I got anxious as I watched the clock. *DING* It was FINALLY time to go to the playground!! I raced (walked fast) down the hallways of the elementary school and around the corner passing the cafeteria and taking a shortcut at "The Ark"... and there behind the portables were a few picnic tables where I would be participating in a very important event on this day. Kids had already gathered and were waiting for me to catch my breath so that I could compete in an ARM WRESTLING match. I know.. weird huh? lol. It was a big thing back then and even though I was a realllllly shy and very kind girl, I was STRONG and everyone loved to watch me beat the boys my age in arm wrestling! :)

I sat down at the table and across from me was Robert.. the boy I had a crush on in 3rd grade. We locked hands and someone said "GO!" I don't remember, but it's possible that I humiliated him that day as the match was up in 5 seconds, his arm went down FAST!! There were giggles, and whispers behind me and a few friends cheering me on. I went through several boys beating them all. I had earned a reputation of being the "nice bully". It sounds weird coming from ME, but I only had the bully nickname because I was strong and good at arm wrestling. I can't express how weird it is for me to be writing about this experience! It sounds so funny written out! LOL!!

I arm wrestled a couple more boys and beat them too. My arm was starting to get tired. No one else wanted to wrestle me. I got up and rubbed my arm. Just then.. a girl sat down and said "I'll take you on." I looked over and fear struck me.. it was Christina Bacerra.. The only REAL girl bully that year at Emerson Elementary... She was strong, mean, and I was afraid of her. As was everyone, including the boys!! She was always in trouble and had a constant scowl on her face. I never saw her laugh or smile unless she was making fun of me or picking on some one else. She was always in the principal's office for getting in fist fights. And now.. here she was, wanting to arm wrestle ME!!!!!! Sweet innocent Stacy. The crowd was silent... I made up some excuse like the bell was going to ring and we had to start getting back. She put her elbow on the table and said, "We have enough time, let's do this! SIT DOWN!" I felt defeated already.. plus my arm was tired from all the previous matches I'd done. It was quite an unfair disadvantage.

I sat back down and cupped my hand in hers. She squeezed it hard and I was scared. The crowd was still silent as they were all afraid of cheering me on for fear they'd get beaten up later! No one even said "GO!"... So, Christina said it fast and started right in! It took me by surprise so she almost took me down in a split second! But I was able to regain my pride when I powered in with all my 5th grade strength. We were definitely a good challenge for each other because that match was LONG!!! (probably only 2 or 3 mins, but it was long back then!) We both struggled, she'd almost pin my arm down, and then I'd almost pin hers down. It went back and forth... At the end, she almost had me and I knew I didn't have it in me to fight back. BUT, I had a plan. She was an inch or two away from winning and I was hanging on for dear life. The bell rang and no one moved.. they HAD to see who would win this intense match!! Christina kept saying, "You KNOW I have you, so let go!! You know I'm going to win!!" I have a little competitive side to me and that made me want to win MORE! My plan was I figured she'd use all her energy trying to get me down the last couple inches and then when she had no more strength left, I'd exert everything left inside of me to make this huge come back!!! It was all planned out in my head, I just had to hold on and wait it out!

Just then... Monica, one of Christina's mean friend's walked by and pushed our hands down just enough for my knuckles to hit the table making Christina jump up from the table screaming and shouting that she won!! The crowd started dispersing FAST! My awesome plan had been FOILED!!! I never used to get mad at that age, but I was upset and said that it wasn't fair because Monica pushed our hands down. I immediately decided that was probably NOT the best thing to say, because Christina came and got in my face and said, "HEY! I won fair and square!! You can't beat me and you weren't going to!" I said we should have a rematch the next day to make it fair. She just scowled at me and left to go to class.

We never did have that match. However, after arm wrestling Christina Bacerra that day, I gained her respect and she was nice to me the rest of that year and all of 6th grade as well. But ever since then, I've always wondered what would've happened if we ended up having that rematch in 5th grade.. especially if my arm hadn't have been sore from all the previous games. It doesn't really matter any more, but that doesn't keep me from thinking that I would've TAKEN HER DOWN TOWN IN TEN FLAT!!!! lol. Oh, there goes my competitive side talking again. :)

Fun memory to have had this afternoon. :) I was a bully.. That still makes me laugh.

I Digress #3 - Honest Tithes

Tonight I was sitting with my friend Sherri reminiscing and an embarrassing memory came to my mind and she said it had to go on the Blog. :) It's not so bad NOW, but back then it was almost unbearable. :) I remember it like it was just earlier today. I was in Sacrament Meeting with my family one Sunday when I was probably around 10 or 11 years old. My mom had informed us kids that after church we had Tithing Settlement with the Bishop and to figure out what our small earnings were so we could hand in our tithing. I remember sitting in sacrament meeting and I had brought a handful of Monopoly money with me.. a LOT of high bills. I pretended that I would pay with my paper money so I filled out the tithing slip for an insane amount, like the recreated slip below. (remember the horizontal slips?? :)) I filled out the slip, counted my doe and sealed the envelope. I carried that bulging envelope around so proudly all through out church, acting as if I were turning in a BUNDLE of cold hard CASH!! I had no intentions of truly turning it in, but somehow as our family waited for our turn with the Bishop, I must have dropped it. Just so happens, that I happened to drop it RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE CLERKS OFFICE!! How convenient... or... not. Just as I spotted it laying right there in front of the door.. so did the 1st counselor.. my heart stopped. My mind raced. I wanted to RUN!.. because I knew that as soon as he opened that envelope, he'd know it was Stacy Householder that was turing in bogus tithing because my name was on there for all to see. I started towards him not knowing what I was going to do or say. I can't say that I didn't have visions of grabbing it out of his hands and bolting out the door. I watched him turn the envelope over looking for a name on the outside.. there was none. I gulped hard. He started opening it and by the time I reached him, he had the stack of Monopoly money in one hand and the tithing slip with MY NAME in the other!!!! He looked perplexed and when I got to him, he looked down at me and gave me a look like... hmm,. I must have had a look of horror, shame and guilt all over my face because he took compassion on me and his words were.. "My goodness you had quite a productive month didn't you! I'm very proud of you for giving 10% to the Lord." :) He is now in the Quorum of the 70's. haha. I don't remember anything else that day, including the actual Tithing settlement with the Bishop.. I think I was so humiliated that I blocked the rest of the day. But it did teach me to always pay an HONEST TITHE!! :)

I Digress #2 - The art of juggling

I've always loved watching jugglers. It's an amazing art to me. And ya know, I personally love to juggle.. It’s a talent of mine that has been developing over years and years. It is impossible to know exactly how many apples, oranges, potatoes, eggs, tomatoes, and homemade rolls I destroyed while mastering this art. And Mom, if you happen to be reading this.. just understand, it turned out to be a very worthwhile cause because as you can see in the video below, your daughter is an AMAZING JUGGLER!!!!! Thanks for your fruit donations over all those years of practicing and becoming! ;)

(okay, so I’m not THAT great.. hehe.. I can only juggle for like 5-10 seconds.) :)

This video embarrasses me, but I am going BEYOND my embarrassment and putting it on the blog. :) This was before we had any furniture in our apartment. :)





OooooooKaaayy... Glad THAT'S over with! NOW... Watch the master Chris Bliss juggling... GUARANTEED AMAZEMENT!! :)




Ahem...
I can see that I have a lot more practicing to do!


:)

Someday, I want to be THIS GOOD with Shadow Puppets!

Most of you have probably seen this before, so this is for the 3 of you that haven't!! :) I could watch this over and over.... come to think about it.. I pretty much have which is why I'm adding it to my Blog. This way I have it forever and can watch it nonstop! :) What a talent! His name is Raymond Crowe. Who knew shadow puppets could look so real! :) I'm gonna be practicing and developing my shadow skills.. and when I'm GOOD, I'll post my OWN video. :)

Happy Heart Day! Be Mine!!

"My Funny Valentine" by Butterscotch!! This is my favorite rendition! She is the voice, the percussion and the piano all in 1. AMAZING!!!! :) This is kinda funny cause the sound and video are slightly off so it kinda has that foreign film feel to it!! It's the BEST! LOL!
Happy Love Day Everyone! :)

I LOVE YOU! :) Ohh quit it.... I do too!!

Enjoy!

I digress #1 - Marbles Champion!

Okay, so I've been shuffling through some old memories of mine and now I want to journal them and add them to my Blog. Just silly old stuff.. nothing really that will benefit anyone but ME! But this is memory number 1!! :)

I won the “Marbles” Championship when I was in 5^th grade. I was awarded a trophy with this awesome glass boulder on top! Do you remember playing marbles when you were in grade school? If you don’t, then either your school was seriously lacking in the REAL academics area or I am MUCH older than you. We had the transparent marbles, the cat-eye marbles, the white non-transparent calico marbles, the peawee’s, the steely’s, the boulders.. etc. Marbles were a HOT commodity and we would trade with people on a daily basis. “I’ll trade you one of my big boulders for 2 of your steely’s.” haha.. wow, the memories. I still have that little wooden trophy somewhere, although.. for some reason the boulder is missing on top!! I must have needed it for an important game or something. Haha!

Stay tuned for "I digress #2" :)

My early morning commute PAYOFFS!!

As much as I REALLY DISLIKE getting up at 5:30 every morning and facing an hour of rush hour.. it does have a couple payoffs for me. :) I get to see the most AMAZING SUNRISES!! They are breathtaking at times and I find myself being very distracted by them. (and taking lots of pictures) :) I allow myself to gaze at them in wonderment while I'm driving because most of the time in rush hour, I'm NOT driving.. just sitting there wishing I was!

Another payoff for waking up so early is that I get to see all the birds flying over the freeway when I'm driving through the Reservation. I LOVE IT and I am captivated any time I see a huge flock. Mostly I see geese flying in the V formation. It's so fascinating to me. Why do they do that? It's so odd, yet amazing to me. I love it!

Also, I'm a big fan of rain, clouds and wind. :) I suppose you could say that I love the ELEMENTS!!! (well, the AZ elements...) One of my FAVORITE things about a really really REALLY windy day of driving on the 101 through the REZ is when the dry tumbleweeds are ripped from the earth and with FURY they get blown onto the freeway which starts a fun game of tumbleweed dodge-ball with all the cars!! hahaha! I find myself laughing so hard watching the cars try to slow down or speed up so they don't get hit! Once the large dry tumbleweed slams into a car it explodes and resembles a handful of pixie sticks being tossed in the air and blown away in the wind. It is my favorite thing EVER!!! LOL. I've lost the game a few times and have been hit myself with some tumbleweeds but it makes me laugh that much harder! :) Okay, so maybe I have to find things on my commute that ENTERTAIN ME!! :) LOVE ME!


hehehehehe.... tumbleweed

Only As....

My first completed puzzle, uhm.. EVER!!! :)

A while ago my roommate, Tiffany, started talking about how she really wanted to put a big puzzle together because she didn't ever remember doing one!! So she bought a 1000 piece puzzle and we used the only table in the house for our new project!! I hate puzzles.. actually, I only like doing one part of ANY puzzle and of course that would be the STRAIGHT PIECES!!!! Once those are all connected, Later! I'm OUTTA THERE!! It gets too overwhelming from then on! :)

But this time proved to be different! Once I got them connected, I actually kept working at it. I surprised myself when I ignored things I needed to do just so I could work on the puzzle. Tiffany and I would work on it together while watching movies. It was fun!! We actually finished it together and it was such a feeling of ACCOMPLISHMENT for us!! hahaha It was sooo hard because 70% of the pieces were blue! I was so proud that I had to post some pictures! :)




YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! The FINISHED PRODUCT!!!!!! SO PROUD!! SO SO SO PROUD! :) hahaha

An UPDATED slideshow of me and some of my favorite people!!

One of my many hobbies!

Family Christmas Party 2007

Our family Christmas party was a lot of fun. First of all, it was just for the Adults which is rare and soooo enjoyable. :) We had a DYNAMITE dinner topped off with a little Martinelli's Apple Cider. Afterwards, we played games that I fell in LOVE with and I really want to turn them into a Christmas Tradition! :) The first game we played is the game in the pictures above.. it is one that many of you may have played before. My sister wrapped a CD several times in different sized boxes and used lots of tape!! (usually a large candybar is used) We all sat in a circle and had to pass a plate around with 2 dice (di? die?) and any time someone rolled a snake eyes, they had to hurry and put on a coat, scarf, hat and oven mitts and had to work at unwrapping the gift. As soon as someone else rolled a snake eyes, they had to quickly take the gear off and the new person had to put it on and see how far they could get unwrapping the gift. I was excited when I was the one to successfully unwrap it, because it was a Trans-Siberian Orchestra CD which was AWESOME because just a couple weeks prior, I had gone to their concert and it blew me away! :) Amazing!! :)

Holiday BAKING!!!

Merry Christmas!! :) I have been in the baking mood this holiday, which is reeeeally rare for me as normally I spend as little time in the kitchen as I possibly can!! BUT! I've made magic cookie bars, yummy gooey chex mix, no bake cookies, funfetti cake... and my favorite treat this year HAS to be these delicious caramels! I am seriously not a fan of caramel, I never have been.. same with fudge. Ehhh... Not a fan. However, HOMEMADE CARAMELS... (oh, pardon me as I wipe away the drool) Yes, as I was saying.. Homemade caramels... mmmm. A piece of heaven with every bite. I just made my 3rd batch this evening. It's possible that I have eaten more than I've given out this season, but at least SOME are going out the door to people I love!! :) That's better than last year where I spent DAYS baking and then was too wiped out to deliver anything. :) Well, I better run.. I have caramels to wrap!! MmMmMmmmmmm!! :)

Laughing All The Way! Ho Ho Ho Ha Ha Ha!!

I heard this on the radio when I was stuck in rush hour and I laughed the rest of the way home. First thing in the door I checked it out online. It was just an audio file so I looked on Youtube and found this guy lipsyncing it. I'm pretty sure I could do better, (lol) but he looks MUCH better on video than I do! This laughing song totally cracks me up!! :) I HAD to add it to my BLOG! :)

CHEEEEESE!!!

This is my mood today. :)

This just makes me feel better :)

My friend, Tiff, emailed this to me the other day and I got a good laugh from it. I'm gonna try this later on tonight. :)

Embarrassing yet pretty darn FUNNY!!!

What's a road trip with out a little AirSupply... really!! I mean come ON! :) This is one of Tiffany and I's favorite AirSupply songs. We were driving home from Utah and when it came on we decided to lip sync to it. Tiffany is a natural born Actress as you can CLEARLY see. ME on the other hand.. well... There's much to be desired really. Okay, so I decided to sing back up and only AFTER THE FACT did I realize what the back up singers sing. One simple little phrase... yet.. I'm a bit embarrassed that my part in the song had to be THAT PHRASE!!!! Of alllll the phrases!! Anyways, we laugh so hard every time we watch it that I HAD to add it to my blog. Humiliating as it may be. :) Enjoy this 6 minute long AirSupply song!

And you all thought my 3 min laugh was long!!

Beat-boxing helps the food go down!

Here's Bethany and Matthew doing a dance that appears
to be some sort of chicken dance while Aunt Stacy throws
a little beat around. This video brings me JOY! :) :) :)

RUSH HOUR!!!

Can anyone explain to me why they call it rush hour when it's more like a parking lot or a tail-gating party without the food and friends. This is a picture of my daily commute into Scottsdale. Is anyone else as tired of rush hour as I am??? *sigh*

LOVE My LoveSac :)

Rachelle is as comfy as can be on my LoveSac! :)




Rachelle, Valerie and Mo kickin it on the Sac! :)




I had a Bunko party at my new apartment and had to move my huge LoveSac into my room so I could set up 3 or 4 tables. It is soooo big that it took me 15 minutes of pushing, pulling, heaving, grunting just to get it a few feet into my room. (It wore me out and I was sore for 2 days!) After the Party (which was SUPER FUN!!!) I had Rachelle and Mo move the LoveSac back into the Living room. It was so funny to watch them trying to get it through the door way that I HAD to grab my camera and record!!! :) I love my LoveSac. :) It was so fun to have Val come down from Utah and to be able to have her join us for Bunko... she's been wanting to for sooooo long!! :) She looks great! :)

My Insane Laughter!

My dear friend Anna Fry went on her mission last month and before she left we hung out one last time. We laughed so hard that tears (and not-to-mention MAKE-UP) were streaming our faces and we barely made it to a bathroom in time!! As I recall.. she made it buuuut... I didn't, I wasn't gonna put that.. but.. *sigh* I did. :) She told me she wished she could bottle up my laughter and take it with her on her Mission... so on the way home from dropping her off, I turned my camera on and recorded 3 full minutes of non-stop laughter. It was easy to do because all I had to do was remember what Annie and I had just laughed about. I KNEW I had a tons of different laughs, but I don't think it ever hit me until I played this back. It's painfully embarrassing for me to to listen to, however, friends and family love it, so onto the blog it goes! :) Can you count how many different laughs there are?? Me either.... :)

I love my Family :)

Shawn, Dad, Eric and Dean. :)




Trina and Hannah :)












This is mama and Kely with Hannah and Matthew going for a ride on Kely's Go-Cart he just made. That sucker goes FAST!!!!!!! It's so fun! :)


Leslie, Becky and Dean. :)













This is Shawn and Deanna with their kids, Ethan and McKay. :)


Kayli, Nathan, Jared, Nicholas and Bethany. Missing from this picture is Oldest, Jake and youngest, Sarah. These cute little kiddos make me happy! :)



Trevan, Trina and Shawn. My 3 older siblings. :) LOVE THEM!

Dean and Becky's little cutie, Eden.

My Brother Kely and my Sister Trina and I last year.







Me, Kely, Matthew, Jake and Tamra

Time Out For Women

This is my Message Board group who all went to the TOFW. I love this wonderful group of girls. The picture below is a few of us with Merrilee Boyack who was one of the presenters at Time Out and also one of our friends on the Message Board. It was SO FUN to finally meet her in person! :) She mentioned in an email that I was mighty photogenic. Uhm.. she is now my BFF and I LOVE HER! ;) (She's the blonde in hot pink!) The message board is on the DeseretBook.com site if anyone is interested in checking it out. I have the actual link under my list of FAV links. :)