Who me?

Isn't she cute.
Not when she wakes me up every other hour during the night to go out and take a poop. No freaking joke. Thankfully she's feeling better today.

So.... to give you a brief update, I have been feeling ill all week myself. I came down with pouchitis ...you can look it up if you want to know but it's something just us special "J-pouchers" come down with every so often, and basically makes me feel like I have colitis again! So, now that I'm feeling better thanks to some antibiotics, I am feeling very thankful that I am reasonably healthy each day! Seriously! I take for granted too often that I am as healthy as I am.

But in other news... it has been a week where I have been VERY thankful I don't have kids yet! Mainly in cleaning up puppy poo and getting up 5 times a night. Man, how do you parents do it. Thankfully this is not the norm for us yet. Someday it will be... and maybe this has been a way to make me more thankful and not so wishful.
Not to mention we took Lucy to visit her littermate this week, who has mysteriously grown to be about twice Lucy's size. No joke! So her owners are insistent that Collin and I are underfeeding our poor puppy. Our poor puppy who has endless energy and is very healthy looking, and acting. But still! Stupid freaking snide comments about me not being a good dog owner BUG me! I can only imagine if it was about how I was raising my KIDS!

And in the meantime, I am playing a full concert for a jr. high next week, my studio recital is next week, (in the which I am performing Fantasy Impromptu, by the way... not an easy piece to get ready), and then I'm recording with and accompanying for another separate choir the following week. So being sick and having a sick dog have not made it easy to get anyhting done, let alone sitting at the piano for a few hours a day, which is what I need to be doing right now! But thankfully it's Friday, I've wasted an effective amount of time watching The Office, and I'm now ready to go PRACTICE! for 2 hours! Peace out!

The recipe for trouble

Some of these Plus me

Equals TROUBLE!

I have been doing this thing with my piano students called "Donut Calls." So basically I warned them all that I may be calling any given school night and asking if they had practiced that day. If they have, they get a donut at their next lesson. Sounds pretty great, right? Well it has worked like an absolute charm in getting them to practice. However, it has also worked like an absolute charm in me consuming about 800 grams more of sugar a day than I should in a year. I mean, when you've constantly got a box of donuts around, what are you going to do? Well if you're a self-control lacking schmuck like me, you know what happens! boo. So, this week I have sworn off sugar. I am sick of feeling disgusting every night. I mean it. I know I had some coconut M&M's last night but today it's for real.

Come Visit Us!

Because this ... Has been replaced with this:

That's right, we officially have a GUEST BED now! We inherited a semi-new mattress from my parents and therefore our old one is now in the other bedroom! woot! Kudos to all those that have slept on our hideabed (ouch) or air mattress (squeak!) over the years... but we hope you'll come back now that you can actually sleep on a bed.

By the way, the couch is still for sale slash we will take whatever or even give it away. Do you want it or know someone? It's really pretty nice. But we are not enjoying it's stay in our garage.

The Life of a Teacher. . .

LOL!!! So true!

Last Will and Final Testament of Tonya Janine Whittier

So my mom was cleaning out some stuff and came across my "will." I vaguely remember back in 1997, when I was in 8th grade, finding my parent's wills and deciding to make my own. The wording is actually quite professional! But I totally had to share it because some of my blogging friends and cousins are mentioned in here!

I'll skip the boring details of the first part, naming everyone I know who is living, basically. But I thought this was absolutely hilarious what and who I left stuff to! I guess this is what you have to "leave behind" if you're 13? Some of you will find this pretty interesting. And I did add some commentary.



I. I give to Amy Swackenberg Whittier and Dee David Whittier one-half of my money and bank/savings acounts, any memorable items, such as photo albums, scrapbooks, and scrapboxes, etc. (SCORE!)


II. I give to Samuel Dee Whittier my camera, all of my ribbons, medals, and trophies, and ten of my novels. (I think the reason Sam got the crap deal is because we weren't on the best of terms at this time in my life.)


III. I give to Tara Renae Whittier all posters, all jewelry, and all clothing. (I think Tara would still enjoy getting this stuff.)


IV. I give to Cory Douglas Whittier my radio/cassette player, all cassette tapes (sweet!) and five of my novels. (I don't even think Cory could read at this time--probably why he only got 5.)


V. I give to Alex Walter Whittier my clock radio, seven novels, and any items of furniture. (it's the whole distribution of "my novels" that really kills me.)


VI. I give to Jodee Lee Whittier all of my stuffed animals and my sports waterbottle. (OK, forget that I said Sam got the crap deal, it was definitely Jodee.)


VII. I give to Andrea Joy Whittier my Values Quilt (heck yes!), lamp, and mirror. (OK, forget that Jodee got crap--Andrea's the winner! Although the Values Quilt? That's quite the jackpot.)


VIII. I give to Alyssa Doman my collector's doll Megan, and one-fourth of my money and savings/bank accounts. (Wow Lyss, you scored big time!)


IX. I give to Sheena Rae Whittier my JanSport backpack, all piano music, and my clogging and jazz shoes.


X. I give to Kaylin Murdock any craft items or wall hangings, excluding posters (dang Kaylin, I bet you're sad about that), and any remaining novels. (lucky you!)

Then it's signed by me, and 2 witnesses--Tara and my mom! I'm not even kidding. So, since I've never re-done any sort of will, this is technically still my standing "last wishes!" lucky you guys! Hope you thought that was as funny (slash stupid) as I did!

My Easter Basket

When we were in Utah Collin kept saying that my Easter Basket surprise was too big for him to bring down. I was like, Whatever.... not really thinking about it. But when we got home I saw it right away, and he was right! Way back last fall we painted the trim in our living room, kitchen and dining room, but never got the hallway or bathrooms done. Collin had finished the hallway! yahoo!
And something we've been meaning to do for like 2 years, replace all our old yellow-looking outlets and switches, with pretty new white ones! Thanks honey! Although I am so used to old regular light switches I feel like a tard trying to flip things on and off still.



And Collin got a pretty sweet gift in his Easter Basket too... Dave Mathews band tickets! woot! They are coming to Boise in August, and well I wanted to go more than him but he's not complaining.
Happy Easter!

After San Francisco (if there is such a thing)

I ended up not flying all the way back to Boise after our San Fran trip. Instead, Collin (and Lucy) drove down to meet up with me. Originally, the plan was to stay with Collin's parents and visit them for the rest of the weekend. Well, 2 days before the trip, Collin's mom called to inform him that they were headed to Florida at the last minute for a church ordination of Collin's older brother. Oh. But, we didn't want to just stay home for the whole weekend, it being spring break and all. And going somewhere else would mean spending more money, which we don't have this month, with it being tax time and all.
Collin's mom said we were welcome to stay there anyway...so we did. And it was fine. We had a really great time, in spite of this: snow. LAME! Not only was there snow when we arrived, but much more came down before we left! And it was about freezing temperature all day every day anyway. I hadn't planned that I would need a hat and gloves everywhere I went!! But oh well. I can't complain because at least I don't live down there, I got to come up to (slightly warmer) Boise after just a few days, thank goodness.

Collin and I headed to the new Draper Temple on Friday. It is a smaller temple, but I don't really care the size, I think it is really neat that we can go to any temple anywhere and do the same work with other members of the church. We were mostly baffled by the beyond-humongo houses that surround the temple! wowza.

Friday night we went to UVU to see Tyler dance with the ballroom team. Fun but sometimes a tad too much modern for my taste!! My question for you dancers out there: why do you (or at least some of you) feel that the really weirdie dances that have like 2 people moping and falling all over the stage have to last for 20 minutes? Sometimes shorter really is better.

ahem. Anyway, so after that we went to Sam and Megan's to visit and helped them with dying Easter eggs. They had 2 cartons of them, which may seem like a lot for just 2 people but not if you know how many eggs my brother can consume in a single sitting. ;)

Saturday we spent most of the day at Morgan and Lana's it is always so fun to see the kids and I like getting to chat with Lana too. We brought Lucy along and I wasn't prepared for how much the kids would love her! and she loved all the attention. I was just nervous that she'd pee in their house so I felt like I had to watch her like a hawk inside. But she was fine. And Aiden was absolutely in love with her! (as you can see in this picture--viciously fighting with Scottie over who gets to hold her)

Sorry Morgan, if your kids now want a dog. It's not our fault, I swear!

Almost a good one. Darby's not looking because we were simultaneously trying to watch Sherlock Holmes, as I took this.....

After staying there most of the afternoon we met up with Tyler at Applebee's for a little while. Then drove home listening to conference the next day! It was a fun trip and I'm glad we got to visit so much family while we were down there. Hopefully next time we'll get to visit Collin's parents too! Thanks for letting us stay there anyway!

Puppy Kindergarten?

Yes, we decided to put Lucy in puppy kindergarten. When we were first thinking of getting a dog, I woulg laugh at that idea, it sounds so stupid to me. But then we got a little dog who thinks that human flesh is something to be preyed on.... and so far we haven't been able to fix the problem. Plus lately she has developed some really bad manners, including crotch-sniffing (and even biting sometimes....yowza!), barking at anyone who is a stranger, whether we're at our house or out on a walk, and so on. I know these are all "normal" dog activities (well, with the exception of the human flesh feasting, perhaps). But neither Collin or I am any Dog Whisperer, so we decided why not? Plus she doesn't get to play with other dogs much so hopefully she'll be able to.

I was in Nampa all day yesterday, so Collin was so nice to leave his tournament for an hour to take Lucy in for her first "class." I'm actually really glad it was him, because he seems to think she's MY dog and he doesn't have to try to train her like I do. (hmm, could that be some sort of reason that she is always biting him and jumping on him, and not me? let's think critically here.) But since they went, Collin has been all about bossing me around telling me what I'm supposed to do with her. Which is GREAT! I'll take all the help I can get.

But I say this because those of you who may have heard the rumors my family has spread (Dad and Mom, mainly) that we have an evil human-eating dog, it's not true! and though she does have some problems, we're (hopefully) solving them! The class is 8 weeks long so I'm excited to see how it turns out. I think it will be really great.

And the best part? She gets a Certificate of Achievement at the end. I wish I was kidding.

Santa dog

I guess I spilled some flour on the floor.

San Fran BABY!

Tara and I went to San Francisco last week! It was so great. I have been missing it all week. We had a great time and actually survived, which I wasn't sure if we would or not! Just to warn you, Tara and I don't usually take cute pictures because well, we like to take ugly pictures. So you won't be seeing many cute pictures of us.

Overlooking Alcatraz

Closer view of Alcatraz.... we didn't tour out there but it looks creepy even from the piers.

We actually did really well, in my opinion, in getting around, considering neither of us had ever been to S.F. before. The one problem was that we didn't discover that Tara had a map of the bus system until we had already taken a 3-hour detour to the furthest end of town AWAY from our hotel before we finally made it TO the hotel. Oh well. We did get to see lots of scenery of the city. And found out that our only mistake was that we got on the bus on the WRONG side of the street. Are you kidding me?? After that we sure as heck wised up.

So, we were deathly starving by the time we made it down to fishermans' wharf. We basically plopped down in the first place we saw, which was Fisherman's Pizza. We ordered a large..and ate all but 2 pieces. Yep, Tara and I make ourselves proud. Here we are enjoying the last little bits, looking pretty as usual.

I found a new little friend. Are there really people out there that look like this?

Tara found a lover...

Other finds in some fisherman shops

Fisherman's Wharf

Ghirardelli Square....YUM! I was so sad that I didn't have the room in my tummy to finish my delicious, delicious hot fudge sundae.

The next day we headed to Chinatown and did lots of shopping and walking around. We almost got this sweet hat (braid included) for Dad.

My best....Chinese impression? (no offense intended)

This was the whole reason we went! WICKED!!!! It was so awesome. I have seen 2 other Broadway shows and this was probably the best. Plus I have been dying to see it for YEARS and have had all the songs memorized and the book read for a few years. It was every bit as awesome as I expected it. If you haven't seen it you should! I loved it.

Golden Gate Bridge....this is as close as we got. We were too scared of the bus system to go clear over there.

These were Tara's idea

View of the city from out on the water

So.... we randomly came across filming for a new TV show on ABC. Crazy! And I'm not an Arrested Development fan but any of you who are should know who this is. It took Tara like 20 minutes to get up the guts to go ask to get a picture with him. You know Donna (whatever her real name is) from That 70's Show? She was there too. I figured it would be rude to go ask her for a picture when I don't even know her name. But the show's called Awkward Situations, so we'll see if it ever actually comes out. And hey, we've met the stars.

This picture was for Collin, the #1 Forrest Gump fan.

We had a great time checking out Pier 39, it is huge! We didn't even get to see everything we wanted to.

Our favorite.... Chocolate Heaven! In other words, My heaven. ;)

ohhhhyeahhhh!

So, if you know me you know I have been a huge In N OUt fan for the past 5 years or so but now that they're in Utah it is SO not the same! I think it is SUPER lame! The cool thing was that you had to go to CA or NV for some goods! Now I can go in Orem? boo. But nevertheless, Tara had never been and I do still love it, so we made sure to get us some Cheeseburgers ANIMAL STYLE!

We did other fun stuff on this trip, like having some GREAT sushi in Japantown! And some tasty Japanese candy as well! (we ate that while we watched Idol.... we stayed in at night because well, basically we are chickens.)

Also, we accidentally took a wrong detour in getting from Chinatown to the theater for WICKED, and ended up heading towards the TENDERLOIN DISTRICT! ahh! My friend had specifically warned me against that place! We didn't know that was where we were until later when we looked at a map, but as soon as we headed down the street we were like, "uh..let's turn around!" and we did! it was a shady looking place!! Thankfully we survived!

....and we made it back....to SNOW in UTAH! boo. We ended the trip having dinner with my parents, Collin, and Tara's new guy at a little place by the airport. Fun!