Nerd Alert!

I will have to confess, that nerd is me.
But I guess it pays to be a nerd because I had a great weekend!
Just to set the story up, I dont own a working TV. I havent had a TV for over 6 months now. I have no idea what is going on in the world or entertainment except for the TVs we have at work that is only on CNN. I only catch up on whatever I can hear as I walk by.
However, there are a few shows that I TVO at my parents house and run and catch up on when I have a chance.
One of them being Wipeout. I love it, cant get enough of it. I love it so much in fact, I applied to be on the show and am just anxiously awaiting a call from ABC telling me Im exactly what they are looking for and come give those big balls a run for their money!
If you could keep your fingers crossed for me Id sure appreciate it.

I also really enjoy watching Brothers & Sisters.

Sadly, I am a whole season behind because when I do have time to go to my parents and watch TV I am getting caught up on THE BIGGEST LOSER!
I love pretty much everything about that show except the lame commercials by the contestants they try and squeeze into the already 2 hr show.
I feel so inspired when I watch, I love Bob with most of my heart, I want to smack Jillian around, and a million other reasons I think its great.
Who thought watching obese people work out would be so entertaining? But it is. Was that an insensitive comment? I apologize if so.
This weekend was the Ragnar. For those of you who dont know what that is, it is a race from Logan, Ut to Park City, UT which I think it was like 180ish miles.
I caught wind that 2 previous contestants Philippe & Sione from the show would be up in the VIP section. Naturally, I knew I had to go look for them and hope for a picture.
We headed up to Park City and once I saw the bazillions of people and the security guards guarding all the entrances I knew It wasnt going to happen, and I was instantly sad I didnt bring my zoom lens.
Luckily, I have a awesome BF that was excited for me to see these guys so he went in for the kill and I followed.
He walked right past the people at the front VIP desk and acted like he was walking toward the bathrooms. He thought there would be a "back way". Sure enough, there was an elevator. We hop on, and Im laughing the whole time thinking...whats next?
We get off and BOOM! There stands Sione. He is an ordinary person, from a reality show, but it still intimated me and I just looked, smiled and walked right on past and hid behind a wall. Russ rounds the corner and I smiled and said, "That was him".
Russ's reaction was probably my favorite moment of the whole day.
Here we are, 2 adults, hiding behind a wall with Sione on the other side. Russ said we werent coming all this way to walk right past him so he went back over to him by the elevators and asked if it was him. He then proceeded to embarrass the livin day lights out of me by saying I was his biggest fan, and we had driven all the way up to see just him, and could I get my picture taken with him.
Just a heads up, if you ever plan on going and stalking someone, and you dont think you will actually see them, be prepared to look cute regardless. I hate even posting these pictures of myself because I think I look hideous, but still! Its Sione!

He was on the second to last season with his cousin Philippe who wasnt able to come to Park City. Here is his before and after.

After I got a picture with him he asked if we were on our way up to the VIP. Russ continued to embarrass me by saying we were coming up just to see him. So he showed us to the deck and we chatted away.

A lady came up to us and asked us if we had our VIP badges and Sione jumped in and said we were with him and asked if she could get us 2 VIP passes.
So here I thought Id maybe see them, and if I was lucky get a picture...turns out we hung out for an hr.

We got all the scoop from behind the scenes of the BL.
I confessed my love for Bob the trainer

He told us about some of the other people on the show, and who he still stays in touch with.
I love her as well, even though some of her outfit choices are questionable.

Overall, I was super D duper happy. Mission...totally and completely accomplished.
After that we went down to the finish line and cheered for some of the runners.
We went back to the VIP, had some grub and I got a picture with one of my friends and an interesting group of runners.

What a day!

We hurry and ran back down to SLC to change for the Strawberry Days rodeo in Pleasant Grove. I had never been, and was excited to attend.
I am so glad its finally summer and time to do these fun summer activities!
Even though we were already running late, I still stopped and bought my first pair of cowgirl boots! What do ya think?

We had a nice big fun group. Im sad I didnt get any pictures of everyone, but we did get a couple pictures in our rodeo gear.

And of course, I indulged in some much talked about Strawberries and cream.

Bring. On. Summer!!

Love Thy Neighbor

And I sure do. I have the greatest neighbors ever!
They have been so good to me. They are an older couple that lives across the street and they take such good care of me. They bring me dinner at least once a week, they water my flowers, they give me relationship advice, they compliment my outfits some mornings, and they are just FUN.
They are in their late 60's and early 70's.
I will give them an Alias for todays story.
The Mrs will now be known as Jane, and the Mr will be known as Jack.
I am horrible at gardening and yard work. For one, I just dont know how to do it, for two, I have no tools at all but a cat pooper scooper which is not intended for yard work, three, I hate spiders and overall I just dont like it.
I dont mind mowing the lawn at all. In fact its kind of nice.
Jane is always telling me I need to plant...see I already forgot what kind of flower...but anyway she is always telling me to plant this flower in my front yard since I have a huge nice tree that shades most of the front yard.
One morning, I was walking out the front door for work when I noticed a laundry basket full of dug up flowers. Jack, just like most days must have seen me staring at these flowers and sticks his head out his door and says "Chels, Jane is going to plant you some flowers". How nice I thought!
I go to work and return a dreaded 8 hrs later to my front flower beds dressed in tons of flowers. I loved it!
I walked over their house and Jane answered the door. Our conversation:
Jane: Do you like it?
Chels: Are you kidding? I love it! It changes the look of my house so much! Jane, that must have cost a lot of money, how much do I owe you?
Jane: Nothing.
Chels: Nothing? I want to pay for the flowers.
Jane: I stoled um' from the park.
Chels: Hahahaha ....(Then I think to myself, uh oh, I think she is serious).

Jane walks through the park every morning and picks up trash. She decided the flowers in the park would look better in my front yard.
So, she got a laundry basket, dug them up, and started planting. Then she realized she didnt have enough so she came back, got her husbands truck and dug up more!!
Thanks....I think?!?!?
What do you do? What do you say?
I have to say, every day when I pull into my house I feel guilty.
I have blurred Janes face to protect the guilty.

She still is young and hip. She has grandchildren older then me!
A nice little row of "stoled" flowers.

Turns out Jane is not a thief...no no. She is a hero. Because just a week later that park was completely under water. It flooded. So really she saved their lives. And I am proud to say I was a part of that.

These would have looked nice in my back yard...

For any of my cousins or siblings that may look at my blog, 2 words for you:
900 E, crunch!

Turns out these flowers are maintenance free.
Jane installed them and sends Jack over to water them.

Somewhere over the rainbow...

Yesterday Russ & I went to a wedding up in Farmington.
The wind had been blowing like crazy, and there were tree branches and debri all over the place! It looked as if a tornado had touched down.
But the weather cleared for their wedding and it was a very touching outdoor ceremony and reception.
After the wedding, we decided to take a drive up Farmington canyon.
It was beautiful! So green,fresh rain, and this amazing rainbow!

The further up the canyon we got, the closer the rainbow was. Usually when you get closer it goes away. I was hoping to find a pot of gold, no such luck.
But I did spot a mighty cute leprochan.

Mighty fine Saturday afternoon drive if you ask me.

PS. Its the middle of June, and Im wearing a winter coat! What is up with this weather?

You & me go fishin' in the dark...

We actually didnt do any fishing this Memorial day, but that was definately the theme of the trip.
For memorial day a group of us went down by Escalante for some camping and hiking.
Russ & I drove down with his friend Dan. It was fun getting to know him and listen to boys talk...holy cow, its funny listening to guy talk.
We got to the camp site around midnight and I had my first experience wearing a head lamp. I liked it.
The next morning we started out for a 12 mile hike! Im not a huge hiker so I was a bit nervous I wouldnt be able to keep up.
Good thing Ive been playing on a couple soccer teams! I would have been toast!
The group was great, the scenery was awesome, and it was so nice to have some warm weather!
The start of the hike

Here it goes!

We started out the hike as a group, but stopped at a stream. Russ left his sunglasses at the water so we went back and ended up walked a few hours behind the group. It was fun to hang out and go at out own pace!
Some pictures from the hike:



We walked a lot of the hike through water. It was so nice during a hot day to walk in some cool water! There were beautiful water falls through out the hike and a ton of lizards, some we even gave names.

Russ filled up his water bottle in a fresh stream


We met up with the rest of the group under a beautiful arch for lunch.

I thought this was a great picture Russ took of this lil critter walking on the sand

Russ's friend came up with a funny game. Stand up against the rock, eyes closed and wait for a water filled nerf football to fall and see who it hits!
Someone would stand in front of the group, and through it up high and wait for it to hit someone...crazy you might think, but it was hilarious to watch.

We found this cool tree stump that was hanging in the air like on the movie Dirty Dancing.

That night we had a delicious dinner around the fire, as well as a noisy night full of angry cows waking us up in our sleep.
The next morning, we all woke up a little store! So why not a little yoga in the dessert?

After yoga, we went to some slot canyons.

The slot canyons were awesome! There were some tight squeezes but it was so beautiful!

Group shot

It was a super hot day, so half of us went an hr away to a little river to swim.
The water was freezing and I didnt get any pictures but it was so nice after spending 2 days in the middle of the dessert!
That night we had yummy dutch over fajitas and Russ became the king of the camp out by starting a huge fire and then jumping over it!

The next morning we hung out at camp and started the 7 hr drive home.
We stopped at a cool look out for a picture.
It was crazy to go from hot hot desert to snow!

It was a nice Memorial Day. The whole drive home we just listened to music and it gave me a good chance to think of my family that has passed, especially the last couple months.
I hope everyone had a good safe Memorial Day!

Pick me up!

Here is a good "pick me up" for a lovely Tuesday morning after a long weekend!
I was going through a file on my computer and ran across this quote I had saved from Mother Teresa.
I really loved it and thought I'd share.
What an amazing lady! I look up to her and all she accomplished.



People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and GOD.
It was never between you and them anyway.

Told ya so

I hate to say I told ya so, but Im going to.
I have wanted a Chia Pet my whole life.
So you can imagine the excitement I felt the first time I attempted.
It was supposed to look like this:

And mine turned out like this:


You might think after everyone laughed in my face and my very own sister says, in a very joking tone "Wow, you have quite the green thumb" that Id give up.
Nope, just as the quote on my blog says "Never never never give up" And this applies to Chia pets as well.
For all of you that didnt have faith in me and my special edition Obama chia pet...
feast your eyes on this!!
Day 1- High hopes

Just a few short days later (Sorry for the bad pictures, most were done with my phone)

And Special Obama edition today!!



I just wanted to tell anyone who has these say high hopes for a successful chia pet that its possible. Just takes a whole lot of TLC.
Besides the bald spot I think its not half bad!

Also, if you remember my Lucky Duck story, I booked my trip today!
In just a few short months I will be setting sail for the beautiful Easter Caribbean.
Im especially excited to visit Honduras!

I hope everyone has a happy safe Memorial weekend!

Bucket List

I noticed that this would be my 100th post!
I decided to make myself a Bucket List.
In honor of 100 post, I came up with 100 things I want to do before I die.
I have been extremely lucky enough to go after what I want, and I hope that never stops.
So here it goes!
For those of you who do not want to read 100 things about me, I will provide you with a few pictures along the way!
Oh, and if you want to do any of these things with me, Id love that.
I thought this would be hard, but it really wasn't, and even after I wrote the list Ive thought of others, but here is a good start.

Chelsea's Bucket List- In no particular order

1-See a firefly- I always thought there was something magical about them. I feel like I should be dangling from a tree branch upside down or something.

2-Cherry blossoms in Japan- holding a paper parasol of course
3-Write a book
4-Visit every continent
5-Visit every state
6-Raise a happy healthy family
7-Christmas lights in Russia- It would be cold, but then I could wear one of those big fluffy warm hats.

8-Attend New Years celebration in NYC
9-Run a marathon. I cant say this is high on my list, but I imagine the high after completing something like this would be unreal.
10-Make a homemade meal...everything from scratch. Oh, and have it taste good too.
11-Road trip in an old hippy van
12-Plant a garden *See #17
13-Become fluent in a foreign language..preferably Spanish.
14-Invent something
15-Sit front row at a jazz game
16-See the tulip fields in Holland

17-Overcome my fear of spiders (I dont know if thats possible?)
18-Learn to ball room dance
19-Become friends with a celebrity
20-Be in love forever
21-Live out of state for an least a yr
22-Live in a different country for at least a yr
23-Become an excellent cook *See #10
24-Join a bowling league
25-Learn to sail
26-Go para sailing (This seems very touristy, but I think it'd be great)
27-Always maintain a healthy weight
28-Be a good example
29-Teach someone something they will remember their whole lives
30-Learn sign language

31-Play the guitar
32-Ride the worlds longest zip line
33-See The Northern Lights-the Aurora Borealis
34-Ride with sled dogs- This one is high up there.
35-Visit the Taj Mahal
36-Walk the Great Wall of China and take another (Gram) Picture

37-Learn more about photography
38-Visit an orphanage overseas
39-Teach English to a foreign child
40-Make a quilt
41-Always have my priorities straight
42-Graduate with a BS
43-Be a tour guide on a sweet trip
44-Go on an African Safari
45-Visit the Price is Right- Im already thinking of a good shirt that will stand out.

46-Be famous for a very short time
47-Become more "green"
48-Always listen to my heart/gut- I've learned my lesson the hard way.
49-Buy something from Tiffany Co- nuf said.

50-Write a journal for all of my kids ages 0-18
51-Write a journal for myself!
52-Always be sincere
53-Never worry what others think of me
54-Visit the White house- Hopefully I can see Bo, the Pres dog while I am there.
55-Learn to love running
56-Never take anyone or anything for granted
57-Own a boat- doesn't have to be big
58-Always be smart with money
59-Start my own business
60-Swim with dolphins!
61-Watch turtles hatch and make their way to the ocean. I think that would be great!
62-One day have a second house by any kind of water
63-Have my own real pizza oven
64-Teach my kids to be giving & respect their elders
65-Prepare a pantry with emergency supplies
66-Have a wrap around porch one day- See #62
67-Take more figure skating lessons
68-Step out of my comfort zone and face a real fear
69-See the glowing fish in Puerto Rico ( I cant remember what they are called? Russ? A little help on this one)
70-Attend a world cup
71-Stop biting my fingernails
72-Grown long hair and donate to Locks for Love
73-Always live in the now & not worry about bigger and better things.
74-Be good about documenting my life (pictures/writings/stories) * See #51
75-Ride a long board around for a summer
76-Own my own scooter
77-Send my parents on their dream vacation
78-Play in the mud...it just looks fun.
79-Spend a weekend at Niagara Falls
80-Go Ice skating on a real lake. I dont know this girl, but this is exactly how I picture my day on the lake. *See #67

81-Visit Alaska and see the Orcas Whales while riding around in a tiny boat.
82-See the Seattle Fish market and catch a flying fish
83-No texting and driving! (Gosh Im bad at this) Also high on the list.
84-Help someone plan their dream wedding- See# 59
85-Be better with public speaking
86-Eat Lobster- I want to wear one of those plastic bibs and dip it lots of butter..at least I think that's how you eat lobster?

87-Visit Sundance film festival- This is where #19 would come in handy, or even #46
88-Simplify my life
89-Donate blood as often as possible
90-Learn to read music
91-Be better at wearing sunscreen, especially on my face. I dont want to look old.
92-Visit Bora Bora

93-Be frugal
94-Learn to love winter sports...Winter gets long, might as well find something to enjoy it.
95-Be a more attentive driver
96-Drink more water
97-Design clothes
98-Retire comfortably
99-Enjoy the little things
100-BE HAPPY!