Does anyone want a new kitchen?

Seriously. Does anyone want a kitchen interior design package? It is worth $5000 and includes 4 sessions with the designer, design board showing all customer selected materials, lighting plan, cabinet and counter top plan, and color & material sheets to give to subcontractors to bid. Let me know! Keep in mind that this prize is only for the design plan and consultations. You would need to purchase the materials and have them installed yourself.

So I won this $12,000 Kitchen remodeling package which includes $7,000 in Bosch kitchen appliances and the $5,000 design package, but I, unfortunately, won't be able to use the design package since I have just picked out the colors and everything for my kitchen. I can't really do much more without going out of my budget...but it would be a shame for this prize to go to waste. Any takers?

Wow, I can't believe I actually won something. More on that story later.

Prisencolinensinainciusol

Go ahead and listen to this song and see if you can figure out what they're saying.



From what I understand, this song was written and sung by an italian singer to sound like english. But it is gibberish. It's sort of trippy because it seems like I should be able to understand it, but then I can't. It's a funny song, but I really kinda like it. Very catchy.

Oll Raigth!

My husband is hot

Matt and I were pretty good friends in high school, but we weren't best friends unil the summer afterward. That is when we learned how to rock climb. We weren't very good, but we had a lot of fun. So really, it was rock climbing that brought us together. In fact, he even proposed near one of his favorite climbs. Awe, how sweet.

As the years rolled by, we continued to climb and we improved a little, but it wasn't until Kateka's Biggest Loser Challenge last year, that Matt really got obsessed with the sport (Thanks Kateka!). He lost over 30 lbs and apparently that makes it a lot easier to climb.

So this is a video of Matt climbing Banana Dance 5.11d in St. George last month. I'm really proud of him!



In honor of this obsession and his new ability to climb really, really hard stuff, Matt has started a blog about (what else?) rock climbing. See redpointmatt.blogspot.com. It is under construction, so if you are really interested, come back later.

So, what exactly are you advertising?

I have an issue with this product. I'm not against its purpose. If you want to have artificially high hair, that's fine with me. But whenever I see this box in the check-out aisle at Walmart, I can't help but notice the name. Bumpits. Does anyone besides me always read it Bum Pits? I'm not exactly sure what a Bum Pit is, but I don't want anything to do with it.

Hey, I'm still alive in case you were wondering

So, yeah. I'm a failure at blogging. It's ok. I've accepted this. In fact, probably nobody is even going to read this because they forgot I exist since I haven't blogged in, like, forever. Well, just to set the record straight, I do still exist.

"So what has been going on in the last few months?" you ask. Or I'll ask myself since nobody will be reading this. The short answer is "a lot," but I was never good at short answers so...

Well, I've been working a lot unfortunately. Remember, I teach a class on Scientific Research at AMES high school. Honestly I love it. I help high school students with their science fair projects. So around the school science fair date I started doubling my hours and every week it got worse and worse. I worked more than 40 hours one week, which I guess is no big deal except I'm really supposed to be a full-time mom who teaches as a hobby. Poor Parker lost his mom. Sad. I probably won't work there next year even though I love teaching. Sad again. (side note: We had 17 projects entered into the regional fair. All except 2 placed in their category. One of the projects "The effect of localization on the stability of DNA duplexes..." is going to the international science fair! It was way over my head.)

This is a small section of the Salt Lake Valley Science and Engineering Fair at the Rice Eccles Stadium.

I wanted to post a picture of some of my students, but then I thought that would be a little creepy. "Hey, did

you hear? Mrs. Budd posted a picture of me on her blog. Sick."

Next big news: We're building a house!!! We sold our condo in West Valley and are building a house on the other side of West Valley. I know what you are thinking. West Valley? But honestly I have always felt safe there and I love being surrounding by such great diversity. I felt like Matt and I were service missionaries in our last ward. Now our new location isn't so inner-city. We are on a quarter-acre lot in a cul-de-sac in the middle of a nice brand new neighborhood just a couple of houses down from a large park which is connected to miles of a paved park trail system. I'm really excited. It should be done mid-june or so (who knows with this crappy weather).

Parker has grown up. He is no longer a baby. Now he thinks he is such a big boy.

He loves basketball. "Loves" is too weak of a word. He is OBSESSED with basketball. Yeah, he is only 18 months, but he loves shooting basketballs, watching basketball, and just walking next to basketball hoops. It is little weird, but extremely cute. Vids to come.

50 special moments in 2009

1. Running my first 5K and almost dying in the process
2. Parker being pretty much the chubbiest baby I've ever seen
3. Parker learning to crawl
4. Successfully implementing cloth diapers
5. Lots and lots of running
   
6. Still not having all our doors properly installed in our home (we've lived here 3 years)
   
7. Going to the zoo with Parker. He didn't care too much, but I had fun.
   
8. Matt losing 36 lbs in 13 weeks and winning the title of biggest loser
   
9. "Vacationing" at the Grand Canyon and by vacationing I mean "boot camp"
10. Sharing a pork salad at cafe rio. . . a lot (did you know they give you a free "kid's quesadilla?)
    
11. Still being just as in love as the day we got married (actually, more in love)
    
12. Taking Parker up in the mountain often, and exposing him to climbing early
13. Did I mention I ran a lot?
    
14. Taking Parker swimming for the first time. He didn't like it at first.
    
15. Running my first half marathon in 2:05 at Bear Lake and NOT almost dying from it. Best Race Ever.
    
16. Matt redpointing his first 5.12
17. Going to the Temple almost but not quite once a month (maybe more like every 2 months)
    
18. Even more rock climbing
19. Piano students stealing Matt's ipod...and my favorite piano book. grrrr
    
20. Hanging with Matt's family in St. George
21. Redpointing a 5.9
    
22. Parker pointing at everything. Literally everything.
23. Doing a little photography on the side
    
24. Matt's promotion to Senior Accountant even though he doesn't have his degree yet (coming this May!)
    
25. Singing a song I wrote to the Young Women while playing the guitar. Scary.
    
26. Climbing with my best friend to the top of the Grand Teton and almost dying in the process
    
27. Reaching the car after we finished the Grand Teton
28. Attempting to "go organic"... ok, it's a small attempt, but I'm still working on it
    
29. Accepting a new job to teach the science fair class at AMES
30. Wishing I hadn't accepted a new job to teach the science fair class at AMES (even though I like it... most of the time)
31. Getting the biggest kisses from my little boy
    
32. Crossing the finish line at the top of Utah Marathon and almost dying in the process
33. Parker learning to walk (0r wobble. However you want to look at it.)
    
34. Parker turning 1 and having his first birthday party with family and friends (what a popular little guy)
35. Sewing my Halloween costume and having the cutest Toy Story family ever
    
36. Being called as the Young Women President just when I thought my life was busy enough
37. Matt being called, the very next week, to be the Executive Secretary even though his life is busier than mine
    
38. Parker swallowing my wedding ring
    
39. The very next week, Parker swells up like a balloon because of a peanut allergy
40. Matt learning and implementing the concept of "barefoot running"
41. Dancing in the kitchen with the cutest kid I know
    
42. Giving up on cooking dinner for practically the whole month of december
    
43. Parker learning to talk "ba ba ba ba..."
44. Matt achieving "Employee of the Year" for the accounting department
    
45. Parker's fear of action figures
    
46. Having the opportunity to participate in the "Sub for Santa" for our ward and feeling the gratitude of others
    
47. Matt's first bouldering competition and taking 5th in his division
    
48. Giving Parker tons of gifts for Christmas and him loving the cheap "hit the ball with a hammer" one I got from walmart for, like, 10 bucks
    
49. Watching Movies in "The New Room"
50. Continuing to live "happily ever after" one day at a time
    

Must Read

Please read this article about Stephanie Nielson who survived a plane crash. She is so inspirational. I first learned about her by reading her blog.

She inspires me to focus on my most important role in this life, which is motherhood. I have a tendency to try to be everything to everybody. I also hate mediocrity, so I try to be the best at everything, which I've learned from experience, is impossible. The more things I try to do, the more mediocre I become at all of them. "Jack of all trades, but master of none."

When I read her blog, I don't care about anything else except for my role as a mother and a wife. When everything is said and done, it doesn't matter how many cool things I have done. When I leave this life, all I will have with my on the other side is my family. So I better do good job of taking care of my family. I love my son and husband so much. They are everything to me.