Poor Neglected Blog

It's become so much easier to just avoid the poor page than to look at it and think about all the things I want to say that I just can't put to paper (so to speak).

I've been busy doing absolutely nothing! Nothing looks like this:

Click here for credits

IF I were smart, I'd have remembered to make a copy of the page together so you could picture it as it were side by side. Oh well. :) THAT has been my "nothing" summer. It's a little misleading though... there was A LOT more Disney than that batch of photos shows. :)

1. Colby eating ribs at TGI Fridays for Sarah's birthday
2. Sarah, Shyleen & Colby at Fridays
3. Liam eating a s'more at the beach
4. Matthew with Miss Maggie at the beach
5. Yippy Skippies ride again (Matthew, Allen, Jaana, Blaine, me)
6. Liam at the beach
7. Avon Walk closing with Malia
8. Avon Walk dinner at Wellness Village
9. Catalina Island
10. 75% of the Shelley family
11. Trena singing fireside
12. Maggie is very cold
13. Someday I'll get into Club 33. For now, I dream.
14. Amy & Byron
15. Fireworks over Disneyland
16. The cousins at Amy's wedding
17. Miss Delilah making a silly face
18. Pretty momma and baby girl
19. Silly girl!
20. Maggie with her daddy on her first 4th of July
21. Another pretty momma and baby girl
22. Event Eve for Avon Walk
23. Old Friends
24. Chad's birthday
25/26. Disneyland with the girls

NOW I must go to bed. I've been picking at this layout for a week and finally finished it, so I needed to post it while I was thinking of it. :)

All for you Treen, happy? ;)

Miss Maggie the magnificent

Here is the most beautiful baby niece in the entire world. She turned 9 weeks yesterday (if you're counting, she was born on Valentine's Day). Today was her baby blessing. We had a huge freaking party at my in-law's. No joke, it was record breaking... 46 people, many being kids, running around eating, talking, sprinkler jumping, water-gun squirting... and I didn't take a single photo! Guilt is sinking in as I type. If you want to see pictures, go to the blogs linked as "Family Blogs." I'm sure SOMEONE will post cute photos, I'm just here, sharing what I've collected of the doll in the short time she's been here. :)

Ding dong, ding dong

My brother-in-law got married last weekend... here are the better shots I got during the day...

My dad, me & my "little" brother

The happy couple!

All smiley

So in love

Our nieces & nephew

Matthew's Brother-in-law (baby bonnet) & his younger brother

I thought the water pitcher was even pretty!

The cake topper

My & sister-in-law's cake cutting photos (along with other family's) around the cake.

It was kiltamania!

The wonderful food!

Cutting the cake

Say cheese!

First dance

Niece & "cousin" (common aunt/uncle) watching the dancers

Father/daughter dance

Me and my sissy

Throwing the garter

He Found the One

Let me tell you about my friend Chris. I met him very near the beginning of my 7th grade year, and I was hooked. :) I thought he was the most adorable guy I'd ever met. We were in band together (he's a barry saxy). He quickly became my friend's boyfriend and a good friend of mine. He was a bit (UNDERstated) girl crazy so that relationship (like many in the years to come) didn't last very long.

Our friendship remained. I think in part it was because of the crush I had on him at the time but he was also this fountain of liveliness (is that even a word?). He wasn't always the easiest person to put up with... a pest really... but I just couldn't stay mad at him for very long. He always knew how to make me laugh and forgive him in the process.

I didn't see him much the next year as he had gone on to high school, but come freshman year, we picked right back up. He became my first boyfriend, and first heartbreak. When that happened I got a pile of "I told you so's" (remember he's got a reputation at this point... in 10th grade!) but somehow I didn't care. I knew what I was really getting myself into, and because I cared so much for him as a person, I didn't really hold any of it against him. We ended up getting back together for a month or so a few months later, but quickly broke up again. Thus becoming my only repeat boyfriend.

I ended my freshman year very confused about boys in general (really not him at this point) and he told me something that I held onto for years after. He told me that I was a great girl that would make someone very happy someday and that someday he wanted a nice girl like me to marry too. Silly, a little, generic, probably, but coming from Chris at that moment in my life was exactly what I needed to hear. The hope for me that he had, in our weird friendship, and for himself. I wasn't alone in my lost feelings, I had his friendship to help me out that moment.

He spent a lot of time at my house that summer. I should say the front porch because my mom didn't want to encourage me to have boyfriends at that age (I was only 14). Her solution was that he could visit, but not come in the house. He came to my house almost every afternoon though. We'd sit and talk about whatever and get annoyed the hell out of by Roxanne. I used to get so mad at her for bugging us, but years later I realized my mom probably sent her out there to chaperon. (Trena this story was for you because you love it so much!)

Our friendship has been cemented by laughter. Mostly at the expense of each other, but we laugh. Whenever I get to see Chris 2 things happen. I get a big goofy grin on my face (because his energy is infectious) and we pick right back up where we left off. That's how you measure a good friend, not by how often you see them or how often you talk, but how no matter how much time has passed, you can just pick up where you left off.

This story leads me to Lorie. I've talked about her here before, but I came today to post something. Chris found his Ms. Right. It was one of the first things he told me when he introduced us a bit before they got married. "Meghan, this is Lorelei. I've found my girl." I was SO very happy for him, you could just feel the joy radiating off of him. Lorie and I hit it off right away and to this day I love to brag about how talented she is on here, and I tell her all the time. It's gotten to the point where I email, blog and Tweet back and forth with her all the time... Chris who?

SO, to the real reason I'm posting here today. I've been playing catch up on my blogs this afternoon and I ran across this post on Lorie's blog. When I read it, I remembered that letter and talk I had had with Chris all those years ago and I was overcome with happy mushy feelings for my old friend. One that always held a special place in my heart. The lovable imp. I embrace my obnoxiousness because Chris taught me that you can be a lovable pain in arse.

Lorie, I don't know if he's ever told you any of the weirdness of our friendship in those days, and even then, it's different coming from the guy's side. I'll be forever grateful to you for being such a blessing in his life. You may think he needs a medal for putting up with you, but I say you're a saint for taking on him. :) Oh! And I could have spared you all the blushing and embarrassment if there was only a way for me to comment on your blog. Instead this became a long winded run-down of how a silly boy I met in band caused me to meet you, and in turn, how you almost made me cry today.

When do we see you guys next? :D

Hopping on the band wagon with the new peanut

Face Your Manga is the newest avatar craze. I jumped in on the fun...

And my other good news that I've been having to hold close to my chest for a bit... I'm gonna be an auntie again! Trena is 14 weeks along... here's her U/S from her 12 week appointment.

(S)he's waving at us!!

Oh! And I finally finished Breaking Dawn so hopefully I'll be getting better about posting more regularly.

This is the game that Allie and Trena play. Allie wants to feel the baby "kick" so she puts her hands on Trena's belly and waits. Then Trena twitches her stomach and Allie gets all excited. She does this for LONG periods of time. When Trena gets tired she just tells Allie the baby is asleep. It's funny to watch because the kick and sleep usually only have like 5 seconds in between.

Still coming to terms with geekdom

Anyone that reads here semi-regularly will know that this is a topic on my mind a lot lately.

I had friends drop everything to run to Vegas the day I mentioned that Star Trek: The Experience was closing. If I hadn't started reading Wil's blog, or subscribed to his Tweets, how would THEY have known? Yet, I didn't go. They tried, REALLY tried, but I couldn't justify going into debt for it. Instead they bought me a tribble and communicator badge from TNG. Good enough, no? I just resigned myself to knowing that I didn't know what I was missing and there's the chance it'll open somewhere else... and then I won't have to worry.

I really think I was destined to be a geek really. I am the daughter of 2 Trekkies and my mom is a big Tolkien fan. From the time I was a tiny kid I remember begging to look at her Froud Fairies book or through her jewelry box which contained various silver charms (ones that I'll kill my sisters for when she dies; they can have the opals and pearls, I want the silver unicorn and moon).

Anyway, my personal geek journey probably can be listed as starting when I was like 5 or 6. In my little world D&D was a cartoon (in reruns) that I wasn't allowed to watch. At the time I was told that it was too scary and would give me nightmares. As an adult I found out that Mom didn't want me, the obsessive little thing that I was watching it. The last thing that she needed was a small starting on a pathway to rolling 20s.

She had had a lonely childhood (friends wise, with 8 kids in the family, she was around plenty of people). I think she was trying to spare us the grief. Well, 3 out of 4 of us geeked out anyway. My youngest sister and I had it easier (geeky chicks are worshipped! lol) than my brother though.

Because of my obsessiveness, I'm beginning to think that the geekiness started before that (like just after I turned 3). From the time that I could barely talk, I was all about Rainbow Brite. I, again, didn't know this until I was an adult, but I could barely talk, and talked a blue streak about Smurfs and RB. I saw that happen when my nephew went though his Thomas the Tank Engine phase. it was so bad that my preschool teacher (who hadn't' seen me since I was like 4) remembered it. A few years ago she was at a family wedding (my aunt had kept up with her) and she immediately asked my mom "Where's Rainbow Brite?"

When it started at a point that I can remember clearly would be 21 Jump Street. Mom would watch it, and I remember being glued to Johnny Depp. Judy (Holly Robinson) was cool and all, but I loved Tom. That little tid bit in itself isn't geeky, but because of that, I was led to Tim Burton and Danny Elfman. That also meant that all I wanted to do for my 12th birthday was have my parents take me to see Nightmare Before Christmas.

Then there's Star Trek. I loved TNG! That flowed over to Deep Space 9 and Voyager. When Generations came out, my friend conned her dad into taking us down to Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood and seeing it there (I think) on opening day. Oh and also X-Files (which I'm Netflixing now and loving it!) and Unsolved Mysteries.

Did I mention that I read too? All kinds of things from Anne McCaffrey's Pern books to CS Lewis' Narnia, to Nancy Drew. Let's not get me started on comics okay?

Jeebus how didn't I "know" this before? I always knew that I was weird (and proud of it... popularity was overrated) but sheesh! Then when you throw in band, a passion for musical theater and the Buffyverse... yeah...

Sorry Mom, I never had a chance.

Hi-dee ho!

I know, I've been slacking off. I don't really have any true excuses so I'll spare you. Wanna see what I've been up to? :) Of course you do!

We have a friend who recently obtained his pyrotechnics licence. He had several friends from church come down to assist him in his first show on the 4th. Jeremy was totally in charge of the whole set-up and take down as well as all that went in the middle of that. Here is Matthew and his buddy, Rocky, taking a quick break while Sarah, Rocky's wife, and I took their picture. The boys had fun, but it was a LOT of work!


That whole set up behind them is their "camp". Here is a fun photo and some footage of the show. It's sideways because I'm terrible about turning the video. I'll fix it someday... but for show here it is!

My cousin's little baby girl, Delilah, was blessed that Sunday. I wasn't able to make it to the blessing in LA (I'm the new Primary chorister and it was hard to find a sub so quickly) but had lots of fun at the open house afterwards.

Kristal, my cousin, has given up on scrapbooking due to time constraints & motivation, but she asked me to customize her prints for the blessing for her instead, so I have the whole set anyway! ;) Here is our grandma (my maternal, her paternal) my aunt, Kristal and Delilah taking a 4 generation picture. I'll post some of my creations with the photos another time.


And the Yippy Skippies at Disneyland this last week. The 5 of us on the right have been going every Wednesday night for the last 6 weeks or so. Seth even made a shirt to commemorate our fun little group. Those are my beloved new Chucks on my feet there too. :D The 5 of us go, invite our other passholder friends, and just have a blast being stupid silly together.

(L to R: Dawn, Jaana, Blaine, M&M, Seth, Allen & Cindy)

That's the quick version of what's been going on. I hope to post again soon!

Yippy in my Skippy!

Good Lord. Last night has to go down as one of the craziest trips to Disneyland ever. We've been going weekly for the last month or so and LOVING it. Cindy has been bringing assorted people but her new buddy Seth has been coming every time. He's hilarious! The first time we went with him, a few weeks ago, he yelled "Yippy in my Skippy" as we were finishing up on Thunder Mountain. As of last night, we are determined to get people to start yelling it. Someday it'll be the thing to do while you're on a ride and we'll be able to tell our kids we started it all! So next time you go over the dino bones, you gotta yell it loud and proud!

We had quite a good time last night. I think most of it was one of those "you hadda be there" type things.

The hands down best ride ever!

I got to ride the new Toy Story Midway Mania ride at Disney's California Adventure. I won the chance in the Passholder Preview drawing. I had asked for two tickets for ANYTIME I could get them. I got them for a Wednesday day window (10-3). Matthew didn't want to take the time off work, but I get vacation! I called my friend Sarah as she's a formeer castmember and we always have a lot of fun! :) Andwe were going!!

This is me in line with Miss Melodie (Sarah''s ADORABLE little girl). Isn't she freaking cute? She's pretty shy of strangers and never seems to wamr up to me enough to let me hold her. We became best buddies this time. She actually asked me to pick her up!

Here are the cars. It's two of these booth things, back to back and then 2 sets of 2 are linked into a car. Confused yet?





So we got to the FRONT (as you can see from the position of the pictures) and it broke down! We had to "reverse" in line and as we were leaving, Melodie freaked out. She knew we were getting jipped... so we rushed over to the carosel so she could get on SOMETHING.

We then took a ride on the Sunwheel, and while we were on it, we could see that they were putting people back in line so we rushed on over. The line didn't move for awhile, and when I went forward to find out why, it turned out that the Beckhams were there that day and so they got to cut in before they re-opened the ride! I apparently had just missed them getting off the ride. Bummer. Well, we got back through the line and actually made it ON this time!

So, see those cannons? You pull the strings to shoot whatever you're throwing at that particular moment. The ride itself is 7 minutes long with 5 (I think) mini-games. You wear 3d glasses and launch different things. One games is throwing darts at balloons (and you feel air blasts on your face when you pop the big ones up close!). Another you break plates. One is like an actual shooting range and the ride moves along as you try to shoot the moving targets. That's my fat arm there below.

That's my score... 85,400. Not bad for a first time, and I can promise it will probably not get much better as the years go by. Sarah and I both agreed that they have all the potential to change the games if they want and vary it so that it can be different almost everytime if they want.

As we were being pulled back up to the docking area. We had so much fun!!