The Jessica-ologies

I stole this from my friend Christy over at A Buhr Blog... I took maybe three pictures the whole weekend and don't really have much to write about so I thought this was great for today :)

The -ologies.  Let others know a little more about yourself, re-post this as your name, followed by "ology".

***********FOODOLOGY***************
What is your salad dressing of choice?  Ranch... homemade or the Cafe Rio Ranch

What is your favorite sit-down restaurant? Chilis, Biaggis (Italian in Salt Lake), PF Changs. I love places that have delicious Gluten free food.

What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of?  Cafe Rio, Candy.

What are your pizza toppings of choice?  supreme... or Hawaiian

What do you like to put on your toast?  My moms apple butter.... it's delicious.

***********TECHNOLOGY***************
How many televisions are in your house? currently 3... but usually just 2

What color is your cell phone? White.

***************BIOLOGY******************
Are you right-handed or left-handed?  Right

Have you ever had anything removed from your body? wisdom teeth

What was the last heavy item you lifted?  A giant box of smarties

Have you ever been knocked unconscious? No. When I was a baby I would have seizures type things if my head got bumped but I don't know if I was ever actually knocked unconscious.

************BULLCRAPOLOGY**************
If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? No, thank you.

If you could change your name, what would you change it to?  I like my name.. sometimes it's annoying that everyone else seems to have my name so I think I would change their names if I could haha. But no I wouldn't want to change my name.

Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000?  No, I ate a super hot pepper once because a friend told me he would eat one too. He didn't bite his and I did... I got so sick. I didn't know a pepper could cause so much pain. Never again.

************DUMBOLOGY******************
How many pairs of flip flops do you own?  a couple

Last time you had a run-in with the cops? A couple years ago...

Last person you talked to?  Mom

Last person you hugged? Chris... or maybe it was Gavin

**************FAVORITOLOGY****************
Season? Spring and Fall. Too bad we seem to have gone from summer to winter.

Holiday? Christmas

Day of the week? Friday.

Month? Ummmm... I don't know... April?

***********CURRENTOLOGY*****************
Missing someone? Family

Mood?  Pretty good.

What are you listening to? the radio

Watching? Nothing.

Worrying about?  Gavin's Birthday party that is this Saturday!!!

***************RANDOMOLOGY*****************
First place you went this morning?  ...The restroom? haha

What's the last movie you saw?  Hotel Transylvania.

Do you smile often? Yes

Sleeping Alone Tonight? No

***************OTHER-OLOGY*****************
Do you always answer your phone? No, I answer it most of the time when I see it's ringing unless it's from a number that I don't know.

Its four in the morning and you get a text message, who is it? My Mom.

If you could change your eye color what would it be?  Green

What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic? Sometimes I add Cherry.... always did that when I was pregnant. I still need to try a "dirty" diet coke
 
Do you own a digital camera?  Yes

Do you have a pet fish?  No... we used to have some fish for Brooklyn. I thought about getting a fish for the party this weekend and we could name her Dorothy like Elmo's fish but I don't want to have to take care of the fish after that lol.

Favorite Christmas song(s)?  All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey... I love most Christmas music... including I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas :) Thank you Amy.

What's on your wish list for your birthday?  I just had my birthday so nothing  :)

Can you do push ups?  Probably not.. not the real ones at least haha

Can you do a chin up?  No

Does the future make you more nervous or excited?  Both.

Do you have any saved texts?  Not saved per-say just not deleted.

Ever been in a car wreck?  I was rear-ended in 2006 and it totaled my car.

Do you have an accent?  Nope

What is the last song to make you cry?  Probably some song sung by children.... being a mom makes you crazy.

Plans tonight?  Birthday shopping for the Birthday BOY!!

Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom?  Meh I dunno.

Name 3 things you bought yesterday.  Nothing.

Have you ever been given roses?  Yes.

Current worry?  I'm pretty sure I already said Gavin's Birthday party is my current worry.

Current hate right now?  How late the sun comes up... and how short the days are.

Met someone who changed your life?  Yes.

How will you bring in the New Year?  Probably hanging out with the family... trying to stay up til midnight and drinking some sparkling cider mmm.

What song represents you?  I'm not sure.

Would you go back in time if you were given the chance?  I would like to watch some days... but I definitely wouldn't want to re-live it.

Do you have any tattoos/piercings?  Ears

Will you be in a relationship 4 months from now? Pretty sure ;)

Would you be a pirate?  for Halloween

What songs do you sing in the shower?  I don't usually sing in the shower... maybe Twinkle Star.

Ever had someone sing to you?  Yes. when I was like 4 at the festival of trees and I got very embarrassed... and we have it on video.

When did you last cry?  I'm not sure probably not that long ago... like I said before being a mom makes you crazy.

Are you afraid of being alone?  Alone at night in the dark? Yes I am haha

Do you like to cuddle?  Yes, unless it's hot then no.  

Have you held hands with anyone today?  Not yet.

Who was the last person you took a picture of?  Gavin.

What kind of music did you listen to in elementary school? Um lots of different things... I do sure remember blasting Achy Breaky Heart in the car and singing it at the top of our lungs lol.

Do you believe in staying close with your ex?  Nope.

Are most of the friends in your life new or old?  It's pretty equal.

Do you like pulpy orange juice?  It's alright I don't mind it but my family doesn't like it so usually we get pulp free.

What is something your friends make fun of you for?  my procrastination

Birthday Plans

I've started to plan Gavin's birthday. We've decided to go with a Sesame Street theme. Gavin has just recently started watching and loving Sesame Street. Everyone is Elmo... except Cookie Monster (who is Nom-nom-nom with hand motions).

I've been gathering lots of ideas via pinterest of course....

Like these super cute cupcakes!

I love this Elmo cake. I'm still trying to figure out if I can make fondant figurines haha.

So far we have some of the decorations for the Birthday Party (thank you Mimi) and Gavin's Elmo shirt (from Old Navy).

Gavin loves trying on clothes. It's pretty funny anytime he gets anything new he wants to try it on.

We have been so boring. 

We went to Milagros on Friday night with Matt and Mallory. I was very impressed. For some reason I thought it was more of a Cafe Rio type restaurant but it was a sit down restaurant. If you're in the Orem area looking for Mexican food that is a little different you should try it out. Gavin loves playing with Matt and Mallory they are so good with all their nieces and nephew. After we got in the car and were starting to drive away Gavin continued to yell "I LUH YOU I LUH YOU!!"

Saturday Gavin slept in... What? On a Saturday?... I know I thought the same thing. He didn't get up until after ten. It was amazing. We went running and to Costco and a few other errands and the night ended with a disappointing football game. It was disappointing that the cougars didn't win but I think the behavior of the fans on both sides was the most disappointing. I heard that some of the fans booed during the opening prayer... who does that? and there were also fans that threw things at the refs as they left the field after the game. Maybe it's a good thing this rivalry game is taking a couple years off.

Playing the Bee-doh game with Daddy.

Running is much more fun when you have someone to go with.

Dancing to the music. He is hilarious.

Our new favorite place... Barnes and Noble... our new favorite toy... legos.

He was concentrating so hard on his legos I couldn't get him to stop for a picture.

Blogging . . .

... for those who know nothing about blogging.

First I want to say the moon this morning was amazing! It was huge and I wish I would have gotten a picture.

Gavin says "Yeehaw" to the giant cowboy on top of the car dealership on our way to Grandma's house.... so cute.

And... Chris missed the trax today. I think sometimes the trains aren't quite as on schedule as it is on paper. I'm not sure how people ride front runner on a regular basis... maybe they get a discount or something because I really don't see how it could save money at all. I always thought people just didn't take public transportation very much because it takes so much longer to get anywhere but I think maybe I was wrong. Public transportation is too expensive.... not that anyone actually ever checks for tickets.

back to the original reason of this post....

Blogging for those who know nothing about blogging. 

I had someone ask me to talk to their church group about blogging.  It didn't end up working out but I still gathered some notes and I want to remember them in case something like this comes up again.

A lot of what I found when I was looking for info on starting a blog was more for starting a blog that you would get paid for... and a blog where you're trying to reach lots of people. Don't get me wrong I would love to get paid to blog but that's not why I have this blog.


Reading about starting blogs they are described as a way to share information, express yourself and connect with others who share your beliefs, passions, and interests.

In my case blogging is a great way to journal, motivate myself and I hope to motivate or inspire other people a little bit too. I post more pictures on my blog then on fb/instagram.  I know not everyone wants to see all of those pictures (not everyone thinks your kids are as cute as you do). I don’t want to clog up peoples news/insta feeds so often I’ll post them on my blog. If you don’t want to see them you don’t have to look. I love words too, but I love pictures and sometimes pictures say more than my words. 

I started blogging around the time Chris and I got engaged. I wanted to let our families know what we were up to. It’s funny that it was one of my objectives to share our happenings with family because most of my family couldn’t remember what our blog was when I started it and so it kind of evolved into more of a journal. My blog started out with a different name and used to be private. My family looks at my blog more now that it’s not private and since I post links to my blog on facebook.

-       

          I use my blog for….

• Journaling

•  Pictures

• Crafts

• Running

• Motivation

• Sharing my beliefs

-           There are many many different blogging sites

• http://wordpress.com/

• www.blogger.com (I use this...obviously)

-       Coming up with a name

•  You can name your blog anything

• Ex: Not Your Average Draudt... I thought I was awfully creative with my title since our last name sounds like drought (like there hasn't been rain/really dry) ha ha, Andrea is in Montana, Poppins Goes to France, Pink Pistachio, Keeping up with the Kitchen Mom …. Basically whatever floats your boat 

-       Layout

•    Use a pre-made layout from the website

•    Use a site like The Cutest blog on the block (http://thecutestblogontheblock.com/)

•   Create your own custom layout

-          Pictures

• Instagram , photoshop, picmonkey

• or don’t edit at all

-       You can share on FB, Twitter, Google +

-       You can post from your phone

• Download blogger app

-       Private vs. Public

• Private - Write whatever you want for a limited, by permission only, audience. 

• Public – Write what you love but be careful what you share because you never know who is reading your blog. You can reach more people and inspire more people if you blog is public. 

-       Blogging challenges (sometimes it's hard to think of what to write and these can help)

• http://storyofmylifetheblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/blogtember-september-blog-challenge.html

• http://www.juneathon.com/

•  + many more (I know I was more motivated to write and more consistent with my blogging after completing(ish) a challenge.)

 

I love reading other peoples blogs and I really enjoy keeping my own blog. I love keeping a record of my family happenings and I love being able to share things with other people. Most of the time I share only the good things and the things I want to remember and most of the time no one wants to remember those crappy days but trust me we definitely have them. I hope to keep this blog for a long time. I am so glad that I can go back and show my kids things about our family, places we've gone, things we've done and memories I have. 

If you are contemplating starting a blog you should do it. It's really a fun and easy way to start journaling. Good Luck and if you need any help I'd be happy to help if I can. I'm by no means a blogging expert :)

Of course I had to add some pictures :)

"Our State Fair Is A Great State Fair"

"Don't miss it don't even be late 

It's dollars to doughnuts at our state fair 

It's the best state fair in the state."

Chris left on Wednesday for a work business trip. His work had their annual work convention in San Diego, California. It sounds like it was a pretty fun experience. Chris always loves going to convention. He tried Oysters which apparently taste like the beach smells. He also had Paella (I'm a little jealous).

Baby Squid in the Paella... that he actually ate.

Doesn't this look delicious?!

Such a pretty view.

At the San Diego Temple

Looking handsome for the Gala.

I was so proud of myself I didn't even freak out very much while he was gone. I always get nervous and have a hard time sleeping while he's gone. I think I did pretty good this time... but I definitely couldn't live alone lol.

While Daddy was away we made sure to play. 

Saturday we got up and headed to the STATE FAIR. I was so excited my mom invited us to go with them. I had wanted to take Gavin but between Comic Con and Chris going out of town I didn't think we'd end up going.

Waiting for the rain to clear up a little bit.

Pumpkins!

Gavin was very excited to see the animals. He was a little nervous about the goats and the sheep. He did pet a sleeping sheep but was not about to touch the ones that were awake. We got to pet a very cute 2 week old calf.

Gavin pretended to work on a farm and earned some fruit snacks.

His favorite part of the fair was probably the giant yellow slide. He had fun riding the Ferris wheel too... and of course we had to get some chocolate ice cream mmmm.

 

We had a pretty fun weekend but we are so glad daddy is home.

I don't know what you do when you go to Walmart but this is what we do. Rawr!

Gavin's favorite reading material.

Flowers for me from my sweet boy.

Could this boy be any sweeter? He wanted to put on one of Daddy's ties but I didn't know how to tie it so he found this instead. He insisted on wearing it to church.