great pumpkin

this shouldn't surprise you but i am done complaining. man alive has my blog been bleak lately. so no more of that. it will be sugary sweet and dripping with corny! everyone will love that. ha ha not really but i did want to announce that my luck has turned. remember last week was the week of dismal days and unfortunate events. well not so for this week. you see, i was the 3000th visitor to my stalking blog anitra!! she promised a prize but has yet to deliver so that might not be as good as it seems but still 300th of anything is cool. also this week for all hallow's eve, NRECA held a pumpkin carving contest. departments were supposed to participate but our department is lame so heather and i stole kit from government relations and we carved a beautiful pumpkin and we totally won third place!!!! so here are some pictures and since there is nothing more exciting going on in my life at this point, there are going to be a lot of them (pictures).

i give you the first place pumpkin...impressive.

the second place pumpkin knew theirs sucked so they hurried and whisked it away before the judge could get a better look at it and change his mind.

and here is the glorious third place winner. i know a kindergartener could have carved that just as well, but look at that creativity and presentation. genius!

our cinderella waving gracefully from her carriage

and here are kit heather and i with our creation.

and finally, tiny kit, heather and i with our tiny creation ( not sure why this picture is so small).

i think we all know who the real winners should have been but i was a good sport. this shouldn't surpise you .

so sad

this shouldn't surprise you but this is olive and here are pictures of how she is looking these days. so sad. good thing she is just a car. i should hear from the insurance company this week about an estimate and all that jazz. i am so glad this happened right before the holidays and right before linnea and deon come to visit. perfect. way to go me. could be worse so i shouldn't complain bet i wanted you all near and far to see olive's sad state of being.

stalkerish

okay, this shouldn't surprise you but i read blogs every morning that i work. it is part of my routine. well there are a few blogs that i stalk and i read them every day but they are not linked to me because it felt weird. anyway don't be alarmed shelley and anitra, but we are linked now and i look at your blogs, so don't be alarmed that i am your stalker.it is just easier for me if we are linked. okay? i don't think either of them read this blog very often but this post is for them from their stalker. the end.

confession

this shouldn't surprise you but i am going to rock the boat a little. i have a confession and i have been holding it in but i cannot do it any longer. i don't really like the twilight series!!!! every blog i go to seems to mention these books and loves them! i think they are cheesy and lame and i can't stand bella, she is annoying and i think edward is boring. mostly it is the cheese factor. i liked the first one when i read it a year and a half ago but now i can't even muddle through them. i couldn't even finish eclipse. so don't hate me or be mad but i am not a super fan. sorry.

whining

this shouldn't surprise you but i need to whine a little. this has been a bit of a crappy week. our house got broken into (nothing taken) and i got in a car accident!!! my fault and my car does not look great nor do i have five hundred dollars for the deductible but i am not hurt and neither is the other guy so that is lucky. i think it can only get better from here. that is a good thing!!!

wonderful wedding weekend

this shouldn't surprise you but apparently i have no control over my limbs when i get excited (as illustrated in the picture below). my best virginia gal came to town and her new husband snapped this photo of our love at first sight.

then we embraced. i was happy! you see, janelle and i started this crazy virginia adventure together and now she is far away in arizona with her man and i am still here. but luckily her man is a virginian and so she has to some her every once in a while like for holidays and wedding receptions.....

....including her own!! so after a tiring day at the races (for the horses), we headed to matt and janelle's wedding reception. it was delightful to see them in their wedding finery and take some pictures with them. dave, mark, matt, meg, jan and missy. go team.

then missy and i needed some veil action. isn't missy so pretty? and jannel too? what cute friends i have.

then we had to lift janelle and hold her up because she was so weary. ps. the boys wouldn't lift matt because they are too wussy and manly or something like that.

this is me and my gal.

after the reception, i was quietly minding my own business with some friends when i got a call from janelle saying that she would like me to take some pictures of her and matt in their wedding garbs in front of the monuments. it was very late and after a lot of complaining and whining, i did it and it was fun. i am NOT a photographer as is evidenced by these shots but oh how i wish i were...

the world war 2 monument.

the capitol. it was 2 in the morning so the light was not great and even with a tripod, there was a lot of blurry pictures. oh well. there are a few good ones and it was an adventure saturday with my janelle friend... just like the olden days.

gold cup races

this shouldn't surprise you but this weekend i went to the international gold cup races. it was pretty rad. it was a beautiful day and the people watching was delightful. there were some interesting people. i got to watch races and eat a yummy picnic and be with fun friends. a more delightful time could not have been had so thanks mark and dave for a delightful date. (mostly mark.) so i wasn't exactly sure what a steeple chase was so i read about it here and here.

the race, i picked like 4 horses and i think one of them won. i can not be sure but i like to think that.

here is an example of some hats and some drunken revelry. there were seriously some sweet outfits and hats but i was too slow and not discreet enough with my ginourmous camera. mark got some sweet shots of the port-a-potties and of horses peeing but those are for an altogether different crowd and not the genteel folks at the gold cup and on this blog. people seriously go all out with decorating and setting tables and tents but i was content to watch and i loved our little picnic. the alcohol flows all day and this is in the afternoon!!!

some more race

she'll be coming round the mountain when she comes. isn't the shenandoah valley pretty?

mjark and mjeg.

dave and maryann. go team!!

proof!

this shouldn't surprise you but when i make a promise, i deliver. so here is the proof to show you that elv and dave were really here. see, here they are at the natural history museum.

and then here is the parade they watched at williamsburg.

here are the hats that we tried on.


we all had to try them on except dave. he thinks he is too cool for that.

i don't ever have an occasion to wear a hat like this but oh how i wish i did. oh how i wish i did.

here they are in virginia beach.

my dad was looking for treasures for the grandkids. he got really wet and we laughed a lot.

here is mark and me. who could have taken that picture besides dave or elv. see, PROOF!

and here are dave and elv's hands at the washington dc temple. awww, sweet. they were here and i wish they would come again soon.

the myth is real

this shouldn't surprise you but I love lake powell. it is so beautiful and while there is the contoversy of to drain or not to drain, i am happy with it's lake status. if that makes me a bad person environmentally or whatever, then i really mean that i like it as a dry desert. ( i am totally politically correct always) well once upon a time, elv and dave and matt and i went on a tour of lake powell in this boat cruise thingy and all i remember from that cruise was the tour guide telling us about fish at the bottom of the lake that were the size of volkswagen buses. that is a big fish and it freaked me out enough that i convinced myself it was a lie. that is what is do when something is hard to handle. well today i got an email that brought my fears to the surface again..... behold.

that is a huge fish!!!! it is nowhere near the size of a vw bus but oh man it is big enough to make me want to stay in a swimming pool for the rest of my days. can you imagine if that brushed against you while you were wake boarding, or swimming or tubing???!!! can you imagine it if you were helen keller???!!! eeek!

shanna lillywhite butts*

this shouldn't surprise you but i was appalled at how little i blogged in september. i mean, come on. i complain bitterly when my peeps aren't blogging regularly and keeping me entertained at work and now look at me. in the words of dave, "oh hypocrisy, thy name is meg." too true, too true. so this is an unprecedented 3 blogs in one day but i wanted to post the pictures from the birthday party i went to on sunday. it was for my darling friend shanna. she is so cute and she and her roommates really know how to throw a shindig so if you ever get invited, all i am telling you is GO! they made cafe rio salads and they were oh so yummy and it was a little piece of utah in virginia. yummo. thanks shanna for having a birthday and thanks for having a party and thanks for the invite. you're the greatest. here are the pictures i pirated from her blog (with permission).


neal, becky and shanna
dave, mark and i (no neck and what the h with the eye makeup???)

michelle, darci, dave and cubbie

tess and shanna the birthday girl

*once upon a time shanna was on a committee with a boy named aaron butts and i wanted them to get married so bad so shanna's name would be shanna lillywhite butts. this is what i want to call her every time i see her now. sorry shanna. maybe you should have married him!!

go chivas

this shouldn't surprise you but the other day, sherpa, annie, mark, ben, brian (dead ringer for kiefer sutherland) and i went to a dc united game at rfk stadium. it was fun. they were playing in the nissan copasudamericana 2007 tournament against chivas. well i think we may have been the only white people in the stadium. those mexican fans are LOYAL!!! they were so fun to watch and they sure do love their team. go chivas. i mean dc united. good thing they only scored one goal because we got beer poured on us from the upper rim. fun times. GO CHIVAS!!! (don't tell any united fans).

ps. i stole this picture from shanna's blog (who ditched us for shakes) but imagine us much much closer because we are rad and don't ditch people.

helen keller

does anyone remember the movie, the miracle worker about helen keller? there is a part in there where she is stumbling about. picture this in your minds and you will know how i am walking today. i am so so so sore from working out with a nazi yesterday. here is a video of it so you can see...go to about minute 3:40 to see the gait. it seems she has no control over her limbs. well that is me, friends, that is me. ( i dearly love helen keller so i am not making fun of her.)

they came!!!

this shouldn't surprise you but my parents were really here. these are the only pictures that i can get to work and it is making me so mad!!!! there are some great ones. so anyway, the parents came on wednesday and i picked them up at the airport and we went to dinner. yummy indian. then we went to hang out at my pad because we were tired. mark came over to meet elv and dave. they liked him. on thursday, i had to work so elv and dave hit the city and went on the tour mobile and saw the delights of our nations capitol. then we met at my casa and went to dinner with mark and ben. on friday, i took the day off and we went to arlington cemetery. then we went to the supreme court and to several smithsonian institutions and to iwo jima. fun. we were tired. on saturday, mark joined us for adventure saturday and we went to williamsburg. this place "did not turn my dad on". he was not a huge fan of colonial times. so we went to jamestown. also not a huge fan but he was a trooper. then we decided since we had come this far, we might as well go to virginia beach, so we did and it was great. we didn't have swim suits but it was still a good time. then we drove and drove to get back home and sleep. on sunday, i had a meeting for church so the parents got up early and went to the mall and then we met for church. after church we went to the temple and on a drive and then we came home and i made dinner and we played games and they packed and then early monday, i took them to the airport. it was a whirlwind of activity and so much fun. they were easy guests and became experts at the metro! love them.

hairball

this shouldn't surprise you but i came across this in my camera. hahaha. mark and i have such sweet hair after watching a movie and nice eyes that react to the light funny. mark is going to kill me for this post but i couldn't resist letting you see how sweet my hair is after a blow dry and no flat iron. don't be too jealous.

great falls

this shouldn't surprise you but the other day, mark and i went "hiking" in great falls national park. it was so bloody hot but still very pretty. that frothy stuff in the water? just human feces mixed with other things. they had an informational sign all about it in the visitors center. blech.

this is us posing cute and cheesy. i am neither of those things but mark is both cute and cheesy. ha ha. j/k.
mark calls me maria when i get mad and says that the red comes out in my hair. he tried to document it with a picture but i am not buying it. no red in sight.

look who's the pissy one in real life.

on our "hike" mark pointed out this bottle and he said, i bet that is pee and so i dared him to smell it......and HE DID!!!!! it was disgusting and i gagged........a lot.

then, he pretended to drink it because drinking pee is always funny. i laughed and gagged.

great times at great falls. remember how i said it was bloody hot? well i had a wee bit of back sweat and then we saw a lady with a whole lot of back sweat and so mark decided to pour water down my back "to cool me off" but he laughed a little too hard at the similarity with back sweat woman so i figured out his evil plan and i will spare you the pictures from that. maria came out for sure though and mark could not contain his laughter.