The End

It is with sadness that I announce the movement of my blog to the following link:

CLICK HERE

I have a long explanation, but all I can do is post on this, I can't do anything else do to the fact that I am locked out of my email that is the admin for this blog. So sorry for the inconvenience. Feel free to email me if you feel I have wronged you and deserve a further explanation.  amandapmckie@gmail.com

I am officially a Legend

The following segment is a bragging story. All of the events are true, and those wishing to Judge may respectfully move on.

When I was in high school I was voted to be on the homecoming court. This was extremely exciting for me, for obvious reasons, but mostly because I grew up in a different town where I wasn't cool. I was homely, ugly, and frankly quite un-popular in every respect.

I played the bass drum in the marching band, and the homecoming game was the night before a marching competition. To put the facts simply, performing at half time for the band would be the last opportunity to run through the show before competing with it.

Naturally, I am a girl who wants to be a princess. I immediately confronted my band director, telling him I would not be marching that night because I would be in my formal gown for the homecoming court. Just as immediate I was to inform him, was how immediate his response of "I don't think so" came out of his mouth.

I was devastated. I really never thought something like this was going to happen for me, and now I was going to have to choose to be a band nerd over being one of the beautiful girls on the football field.

In the end, he and I compromised. I did not have to play in the stands with the band, march over at the beginning of the game; basically no other time than half time did I actually play. My mother got a poncho and a braided belt. I wore the poncho to protect the dress from the harness of the drum and then hiked up my dress several inches and belted it there so the dress would not drag on the grass. I marched like a sore thumb in my homecoming gown.

When the performance was over, I dropped the drum, poncho and belt on the grass and sprinted to the car waiting for me at the back of the field. The visitors cheered for me, the band lined up on the other side of the track facing the crowd so it made a tunnel of sound cheering as I drove up. I won the title of homecoming queen, and really I have never experienced anything quite like it since. (Mostly because of the wide assortment of fans.)

THIS IS WHERE I BECOME A LEGEND

I received a phone call 7 years later informing me that another member of the marching band, who played the bass drum had been nominated for homecoming court.

I understand that she informed my director that she would not be playing, much like I did, and was denied with:

"No, I don't think so. Amanda Perren did it in her dress and so can you."

That my friends in legendary. I have set a precedence, a standard, a bar to which all other homecoming queen/band nerds will be held to. This girl has never really met me, but still knows who I am.

I am pretty freakin' proud of myself.

What a good weekend

This weekend Jack and I went to a USU football game with a few friends. I guess the game was against Fresno, and no I personally don't care how it went. I spent most of the time chatting and people watching. We were standing behind a few frat members, and they attract some interesting lady folk.

Jack told me that I have natural highlight in my hair. This is the picture that we are debating over. Mostly because I told him I wanted to color my hair and he said that it was naturally. This is a debate for which we could use some outside party opinions.
This is Kyle and Contessa. They teach sunbeams, work with animals and they really enjoy gift cards. They also each ride motorcycles, and have the same taste in color of car.
This is Mac and Jessica. They were married on the exact same day we were in Idaho Falls, not Boise. Our wedding colors were similar and most importantly, Jessica and I love french fries.
The sunset is what I consistently watched the most.
Today we went to a place up Logan Canyon called Tony Grove. I think we accidentally stole someone else's picnic area, but I think it turned out for the best, well for us it did...





We really enjoyed our afternoon together. We had a wonderful time chatting about various things, chasing ferrets and observing a herd of sheep walk across the ridge of the mountain.

Today is also the day that I convinced/forced Jack to say ok to sending out a Christmas card to a few people. This is for practice, also because I want to say that I am all grown up. The other reason is that I hope to get one from other people because I like them on my magnet board. In conclusion I am challenging others to consider the same idea that I had for myself.

It's a miracle!

Remember this beautiful place? I do. That water looked so refreshing, the slide like so much fun. For those that don't know, this is the location of Whitney and Cody's wedding.

Council Bluffs, Kyle, Becca, Alan, Chelsea, Dan, Jack and I spent our time hoping Alan might fall in. (Yes, Alan is included in the count.) We decided that it was tacky to get in the pool, but if someone fell, eh, what are you going to do except jump in after him. Unfortunately, that never happened and we spent the entire evening wishing we could experience the beautiful blue water, sweet waterfall and slide. Most importantly however, we wanted to swim in the cave that was through the waterfall. SO COOL.
The perfect fire pit. The kind that you can just turn on, and then never have to clean.
Whitney's lovely cake.
I have no clue to whome that hand in the picture below belongs to, but it is well manicured and looks like it belongs there. If I remember right....perhaps it was just always there....

I know of 2 other people in the world who would know this, but now all of you will too. I thought I lost Whitney's wedding pictures. It's a miracle. For real, this is no joke. They did NOT exist and then they did. Here are a few highlights of the people involved. I think this is the happiest smile I have ever seen of Cody's.

I am sad that yet again, Emily's face is hidden in the friend shot. I bet the photographer's is better, I hope so anyway.
For the record, I really was that tan, I DID NOT photoshop myself that way. Be impressed, send me praise.
Again, I have high hopes for the photographer's shot. Kasey's pose is my favorite. I recently organized all the pictures I have, and just earlier today on a different pic I said "self, that is a funny and adorable jumping pose of CB's." and then the miracle happened and I was able to say it to myself again.

My Ballet Class

In a perfect world, this is what I look like in my Ballet class. It's not true at all, but I think you get the idea. I am 3 classes into it and I am loving it. I am not the best, but I am not the worst. That means that some things I am really good at, and some I am NOT.

However, I really enjoy myself. Today I ran into the wall because I turned way to much. I always am on the middle bar because I really like to watch myself in the mirror. Also, half of the class comes from the advanced class sometimes so this way I am not watching them, but myself and I don't notice how bad I am compared to them.

I took a class at BYU, which is what allows me to know what I am a doing a little bit. But that class wasn't fun like this one is. I see myself making some friends and feeling like I belong there.

13 hours of working today. 2 hours of Mutual. 1 Meal.

I want to go to bed now. I think that's what I will do.

I am tired of work and I want to go home.

Somethings that have been on my mind today:

I wish what I wanted to do with my accounts and money was something I had more personal pull with.

I watched clean house and the lady kept using "I'm so FUStrated" without the "R." Sadly, I watch the show for a shock factor of how people can live like that. So my intention is to watch and judge them, this happened and I know I judged her more.

That human bite I got over the summer is now a discoloration on my arm.

I have started to take ballet lessons for two reasons, they are the following:

1. I know someone and she invited me to do it.

2. I got a horoscope from Doug on my phone. It told me to find a better outlet for myself. Doug suggested classical music. Ballet seemed to be a physical way to incorporate that into my life.

I am not sure anyone else's lips peel randomly, but mine do, and it really bugs me.

I wish I had nap time during the day.

I am going to google Sherri Lewis. I guess her daughter is trying to uphold the family business and appeared in Heber today with Lambchop.

I have had a crappy weekend so far

Here is the run down. Friday I left extremely early from work because I had started to miscarry. I wish the story ended, "but I got home and I didn't. "However, that is not true at all.

I project that I was working up to 7 1/2 weeks along. Jack and I both project that we think that I didn't even implant properly in the first place.

Don't get me wrong I am sad. This sucks.

The story continues with me waking up this morning not being able to move my arms or neck. I project that my body can't take anymore crying. Jack projects that my body is reacting severely to the stress of it all. Our projections kind of go together.

I bawled and bawled on Friday. I had no desire to talk to anyone at all. Today I woke up wanting to bawl, but due to my stupid arms and neck, it hurt way to bad to allow myself to bawl. So now I am Mad.

It is not fair that I had to lose my babies, and then the glimmer of good things to come, well, left. I, again, am falling back to my sad times of avoiding pregnancy news. I hate that I get so upset by other people having children. I also hate that I spent months of people saying "don't worry, at least you know you can get pregnant." Well guess what, looks like it's harder than you thought you people that weren't living through it.

Anyway, really I knew this was a possibility. 20% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage. 25% of those 20% miscarry twice in a row. Somebody has to be the statistic.

My doctor, whom I have decided to trust completely, sat me down last March and discussed with me how I need to trust that my body knows what it's doing. If things aren't right it will take care of it. On the same note if they aren't right many times in a row, my body again is letting me know that it needs some assistance. So I wait.

Now here I write my expectations of other people, because if you don't know what I want, you as a person that might care, will inevitably offend me. I don't want to talk on the phone. I get the most comfort from a small message. (the catch there is not voicemail message or one that is expected that I respond.) I am kind of offending myself for being so blunt. But I found months ago that the biggest thing was my expectations of other people and the reason they weren't meeting them is they just didn't know what to say or do. I just need a hello.

For the record, it really wasn't a scary experience. It hurt, a lot. But, lucky for me I have lots of drugs left over from before that helped me get through it. Oddly enough I knew exactly what was going on. Even stranger, I knew how to handle it. It was/is messy and not fun. My body is tired.

I have been working A LOT lately. I currently work 3 jobs. I barely have time for myself, and by the time I do, it's time for bed.

The good news is I have had a lot of time to edit pictures. So I have been doing that. More good news, we can keep trying for more children.

My Bridals, Post Wedding

A while ago, my good friend Macey did my bridals for me. These occurred a year after I had been married, and been pregnant with twins. So I look a little different. Manly, I was carrying baby weight still and I carried it in my face. However, despite my physical attributes holding me back, Macey did a wonderful job.

Here is the other thing, she also edited a lot of them. THEN she gave them to me THEN we moved and NOW I can not find the disk. So these are the beautiful pictures that she took that I edited. I say that so if she sees them here, she has every right to judge my work.

Really, this was a wonderful experience. Jenna and Julie came too, and they were so fun. Jenna did my hair and Julie posed me. It may make it to the top ten wonderful things that I did this year.

I remember once in park place having a quiting bench. Looking back at some blog entries, I also had a quiting wall. I quit a lot.

This is me foretelling the future. The quiting bench will once again rear it's ugly head in the next 6 months. I could have used it a few months ago, so perhaps I will be able to do some really quiting on behalf of those disgruntled times.

I had to call and check up on some car insurance stuff today. I was a little irritated going into the phone call. While on the phone with automated lady she asked me to state what my call was regarding to better serve me. I then yelled that I was disgruntled. She said she didn't understand and that I would be better off talking to a representative. I was.

I took some pictures of Brittany's children today. I posted them elsewhere because I want to let Brittany do with them what she will first, that way I don't step on her toes. I will post them here on a future date that is unknown because here is where people actually read and not where I put them. I enjoy the secret.

Now I will go to bed. Estoy muy consado.

This should have been me

a jumble of things I want to talk about

Summer with the BRASC kids is over. Sad. I had a wonderful time being able to use my brain at work. I would display pictures, but I am not allowed to. I will enjoy them in my head and the rest of you will have to imagine.

I now have a different job as a secretary. My cohort's name is Amber. She and I are going to take ballet. This is exciting to me.

Here are somethings that I have been meaning to update about:

I found this little beauty at a little thrift shop in main street for $4. For four lovely dollars I cleaned it up and gave it a little coat of paint....

And it instantly became my new favorite thing here in the living room. Meet our new TV stand.
Here a few moments I wanted to capture on the blog about the Hansen camping trip. This little guy was SO excited that he caught a fish I couldn't get him to hold still long enough to get a good shot.
His brother informed me that he in fact caught it, but he let Blake reel it in. Blake wanted to make sure I got a good shot of the fins.
There was a lot of work at the cabin. Work that is right. This is my dad, he is doing something with the saw.
This is Isaac, he is breaking rules, not working.
This is my dad and Ren putting up the siding.
this is my dad caulking the siding.
Lindsey also treated us with a new song complete with dancers.


Here are a few shots from the demolition derby that we went to. this truck lit on fire. It was QUITE exciting.
Then there was a lull in the show. So this brave little fellow ran into the middle of the arena.
a few more of his buddies joined in once they saw nothing was going to happen to them. Note the kid doing an amazing flip. He did these a lot and was a very dirty boy. If he were my kid I would have hosed him down before he got in my car. Given I had a nicer one than I do now.
This guy and his buddy thought it would be funny to walk amongst the young ones and embarrassed himself. However, his buddy left long before he noticed. So most of the time it was just him looking like a fool.

I am sure I have more pictures somewhere, but I can't find them. I have too many projects going on all at once.

Whitney's wedding is this weekend more excitement to come.