Final installation of British Invasion blog posts

HA HA HA!

I'm turning you all into AMERICAN BRITS!!

And if I haven't yet.... here's some more motivation: all things awesome that happen to be English

Need I say more?

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Robin Hood 
Quintessential Englishman

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Peter Pan
I didn't take this picture. Wish I did

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The Aston Martin.
James Bond ain't so bad either.

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Fish n Chips

Maybe I'm really hungry right now, but this looks soooo good.

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. . . and some more from my own experiences:

Phone Booth in Avebury, Wiltshire

Sign in Pickering
The Brits are very wordy. So funny!

translation: "No Littering"

Castle in Durham
Whether you're a princess or a pauper, castles are just cool.

A street in York called "The Shambles"
we called it "Diagon Alley"

And here's some video of my favorite foreign country.

Thanks so much for tuning into my tribute to all things British! If you missed my last posts, I'd love you to go see them. They might not taste like rocky road ice cream but at least they don't bite.

They know how to throw a party.

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AWE!! I think I said that, like, eight times.

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Isn't she GORGEOUS??? 

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Wills can seriously rock the red coat.

And I celebrated right along with them

With a tea party

and my peeps

and my hat

and....

The Mini.

A genuine '75 mini cooper owned by my husband's aunt. Steering wheel on the right side and everything.

She let me borrow him.

I named him Piccadilly.

Their history and architecture

I've never seen it's equal. bonus awesome points if you can name that movie.
All pictures were taken either by me or my friend Rogue (R. Marie Cluff).

Stonehenge

Gloucester

The College at Oxford

Me outside the Eagle and Child Pub.

if you know much about C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, you know about this pub.

Clock tower outside King's Cross Station

Tower Bridge

Tower of London



And a video of the interior of the York Minster.

York was one of my favorite favorite places.

Thousands of years of history. We stayed in a hotel older than our country.

Amazing.

Their Authors

All my favorite authors come from England. As an aspiring author myself, I get a lot of influence and inspiration from these people who have written some of the most beautiful pieces of literature of all time.

One of my dearest friends, R. Marie Cluff, is also an author. She and I went to England together in July of 2006. We agree that there has to be something in the air or maybe in the fish and chips that makes the works of English authors so magical.

My favorites in no particular order:

Shakespeare

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The man himself. Wherefore art thou so brilliant, Mr. S?

C.S. Lewis

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Great man and author of Chronicles of Narnia. His insights on faith and Christianity are truly inspired. What is it about Oxford Professors being such amazing storytellers? Which brings us to my next one:

J.R.R. Tolkien

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Oh, I am in awe at this man. His genius, his depth, his imagination... truly unparallelled. It took him 15 years I think to write Lord of the Rings. And it is, in my opinion, the greatest epic fantasy series of. all. time.

J.K. Rowling

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Yes, I'm going to go there. Harry Potter just rocks. Period.

and

Jane Austen

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that every woman of a certain age and disposition must be absolutely crazy about Jane Austen.

I got two words for you: Fitzwilliam Darcy

Today I give tribute to British Authors. Because they aren't only good

they're jolly good.

Smashing.
Wicked.

Ace.

Brilliant.

Yep.

Their humor

This week, in honor of the Royal Wedding (YAY!) I've decided to do a tribute to

the Brits.

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Now you'll probably get sick of me saying how much I love England, but hey... this week I get to celebrate it. You are free to either look the other way, roll your eyes and grudgingly read my posts, or pull out your inner Brit and celebrate with me.

Today I pay tribute to British Humor.

Very dry. Very random. Very quirky. Very funny.

Plus, everything is, like, 100 times more hilarious with an English accent.

Seriously. Tell a joke. Then tell it with an accent.

Way funnier, right? I know.

 Here is a good example: from Monty Python's Flying Circus. I seriously almost pee my pants every time I watch this. the video is very clean, no worries.

Easter

Please follow this link and watch this video.
The message is too beautiful to miss.

http://eternallyhappy.blogspot.com/2011/04/his-sacred-name-easter-declaration.html

Keep Going

I started running as soon as I was able to after recovering from the c-section. I've never really been a very good runner so it's taken me a while to build up to where I am now.

I'm at about 3 and a 1/2 miles in 45 minutes. My goal is 5 miles.

and I love it.

I didn't think I would like running so much. I used to hate it with a passion. But with music from Pandora, which gives me a TON of variety, some success with weight loss and tummy shrinkage, and a little angel cheering me on, I've fallen in love with it.

On my run today, along my normal route, I came across this sign:

Sweet!
I don't now why it was there. It might be for a garage sale or some other event... but it gave me a great big smile and I did exactly what it told me! Keep going.

Some more faces

I just wanted to post about this cute family who had me come paint at their daughter's "orangetastic" party.
Orange paint was in abundance. *thumbs up*

We had a ball!
These kids were the coolest. They made me laugh so hard. Sometimes I couldn't paint because me and the kid I was painting were giggling too much. After this picture was taken, and before the evening was over, I even painted a few mustaches on some of the girls. Mustaches on the girls and unicorns on the boys. Go figure.
They were hilarious!

Thanks for a fun evening, kids. You rock!

Falcor

During my run today I found a doggy named Falcor.

And last night, I dreamed that I got to meet Prince Will and Princess Kate. And we really hit it off! It was the coolest.

I probably dreamed about it because of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY0OHQwhiq8

Love you, Will and Kate!!

You got paint on your face.

I paint faces on the weekends.

Face painting is a blast.

Confucious say "Find a job you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life."

I love looking forward to going to "work."

If I could do this full time, I would.

But I have to tell you

 I can't claim this one ---->

That particular design was done by the lovely Dani Williams, who I work for & with.

click on her name for our website.

do it.

The rest are my handiwork.

The only ones that are my original designs are the two on the upper right. Others were based on other designs.

Special thanks to my sweet  niece-y poo

  Miss B,

 my SIL Annette, 

myself, 

and a little girl at a frozen yogurt event who agreed

 to let me take her picture.

Thanks for being my canvases.

Yep. I'm in there. Can ya spot me?

Oh, and I redid my blog layout. Again. I'm like the blog-redoing-junkie or something.

Ella's Story

Blog posts dating from October of 2010 to February 2011

Before Ladybug was born

Finding out about the heart defect

Thoughts I had during the trial of being pregnant with a sick baby

Ladybug's diagnosis

Hospital Visit #1

Bed rest begins

All I want for Christmas is you

A tour of Phoenix Children's Hospital

The shower

Hospital Visit #2

Wondering what a normal pregnancy is like, Hospital Visit #3

After Ladybug was born

Dec. 29th, 2010; the day she came and went.

In the hospital

Healing

Loyalty

Planning the services

Forever my daughter, forever a family

My Ladybug says hello

Holding my friend's baby girl

Finding comfort in the oddest places

Learning to Fly

The story is, by no means, over. Grieving for my girl will be a lifelong process. Each day gets a little easier, some moments take me back. We look to the future with hope and longing. Ella will always be my cherished little girl, my ultimate inspiration, and "the best thing that has ever been mine."


"Now that it's over, I just want to hold her. I'd give up all the world to see that piece of heaven looking back at me." from the song "Lucy" by Skillet.

Here comes the smolder....

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Hahaha! Doncha just LOVE this movie?? I do. Rapunzel is my new favorite Disney Princess. And not just cuz she's the newest one.
~She's spunky and adventurous (I am too)
~She's got blond hair and green eyes (like me!)
~She falls for a brown-haired-brown-eyed hottie (ditto)
~She's got magic hair that glows when she sings (okay, I don't have that, but I LOVE my long hair.)


My friend Darci has a blog called The Page Traveler Tales where she wrote an AWESOME review on this fantastic film. Go check her out! And if you read the comments, you may find a little bit o me. :)


Do it. You know you can't ignore the smolder.

Grandpa-isms

As some of you know, me and the Man live with my Grandpa in my aunt and uncle's house while aunt and uncle are on an LDS mission in Wales. We'll be moving into our own place closer to the dental school in June, when aunt and uncle come home, so this arrangement will soon draw to a close. 


Grandpa is the spryest 92-year-old I've ever met. He still drives. And when riding in the car with him, I only fear for my life or the life of another person maybe twice.


This grandfather of mine is very loving and a devoted servant of Heavenly Father.
Here are some of his pearls of wisdom:

"Treat people better than you want to be treated."

"Leave a place better than it was when you came." This is true for lots of things. Whether it's the home of a friend, the house of the Lord, or the gas station.

"All that matters in this life is to help other people."

And he's fiesty.
Examples:


-talking about- 
skim milk: "That's colored water. We used to feed that stuff to the hogs."
his favorite sports team: "Don't have to watch the crappy Suns tonight."
being the best home teacher: "Never made me no money."
his wedding to Grandma: (After I jokingly asked if her dad had a shot gun) "Shot gun? No. He had a rifle."


And the best one, which happened last night:


The Man... er.... passed gas. I heard it. He thought Grandpa heard it. To gloss it over, hubby blamed it on "barking spiders."
I laughed. 
Grandpa asked what barking spiders were.


 ...


I thought all men knew.
The Man had to explain it.

Guess what?

~I died my hair black. So Angelina Jolie. 


~The New York Times called and my book Fathom just hit the best-seller list.


~The Man went and bought me a new Aston Martin. Pearl finish.


~I'm going to be on Oprah this afternoon to discuss my recent success in the film industry.


~Disneyland sold me some real estate on Main Street, USA. Yeah, it overlooks the Carnation Cafe.


~That invitation to Will & Kate's wedding FINALLY arrived.


~I entered a blog giveaway and won ten million dollars. 


~John Krasinski asked me out. Again. I had to remind him I was very happily married.




... along with the other big loads of crap we're going to be dished out today!

Happy April Fool's Day. Celebrate irresponsibly.