Cinco de Mustache

It is the fifth of Mustache. The one band I was in for about three weeks was named Cinco de Mustache. We rocked. We did have a really sweet song that never materialized but would have blown your mind. The purpose of this post is strictly to talk about mustaches. What in the world is a mustache for I oft wonder. And why can some guys (and women for that matter) grow wicked mustaches and other guys just have little whispy ones? There are few times when I feel a mustache is okay and they are the following: When one has a beard, a mustache is a must. Have you ever seen a beard without a mustache? Creepy. When one has a goatee, a mustache is acceptable. This one is a little tricky. I feel this is most acceptable when the mustache and the goatee connect. If you can't grow facial hair between the section of your lips and chin, get rid of that mustache. For example: the guy from the Backstreet Boys. You gotta shave that stache as well as the soul patch.

Get it?

The only other exceptions are if you are known for your mustache, i.e. Geraldo Rivera, Alex Trebek circa 1970-1997ish, Jamie Hyneman from Mythbusters, and the infamous Bert Reynolds of course. That means if you are famous and start out famous with a mustache, you can keep it. Now if you are famous and then grow a mustache? It better be for a movie role and that thing better be going after the movie is done. The only other exception is Zac's uncle Fred.

What kills me is the rule of the mustache on the campus of BYU. Most religious schools, regardless of the religion, tend to have rules regarding dress and appearance. Whether it is a private high school or a religious college, rules are made and kept or you get sever lashings....well, not lashings, but possibly some sort of ticket. I'm not sure, I've only ever gone to public schools. But there is a rule at the institution that is BYU where you cannot have any facial hair except mustaches. Really? The mustache? No goatee or the nicley furnished side burns but a mustache? I have always found it to be quite hilarious to say the least since I feel the mustache is the sickest of all facial hairs (unless accompanied by the beard or connected goatee of course). Or if you look like this guy.

But that is just amazing. Plus I think he is a rebel soldier from the south that is re-enacting a southern civil war battle=Acceptable. I'd like to see any BYU student pull that off.

I feel like this is the way many women feel about the mustache. Maybe I'm wrong but have you ever kissed a guy with a mustache? No, I am not wrong. I am right. So this last month Zac and his brothers (after reading yet another blog entry from the wonderful Mark Titus-Club Trillion on the left side) decided to take the "Movember" challenge and grow out their mustaches for the month of November. I'm not going to go into it and if you really want to know about Movember, read the post. Basically, Nick wussed out after a week of mustache growth, Jake couldn't handle his Jake Plummer stache and shaved on Thanksgiving, and well Mack....he is somewhere in the Ukraine so he couldn't participate. That left Zac. He being the oldest and probably the most stubborn grew out his mustache until the final day in November. He did have his goatee to go with it (minus the connecting hair...I called him backstreet boy) so it wasn't that bad. The last few days of November, Zac decided to shave his goatee and go strictly mustache. This is the result.

I made him put on his aviators so he would look like a cop from the 70's.

I didn't think he looked bad but I could NOT take him seriously. If we even got onto a serious discussion I would just start giggling. I was quite entertained with the whole process and I must report that Zac does not like the mustache. The day of Nov. 30th he stood up in a huff and yelled "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" and ran to the bathroom and shaved his mustache. It was a good time but I am glad that I can now give him a big smooch and not get my teeth flossed. I was just glad he didn't become famous in that month or that mustache would have had to stay on him until he became as infamous as Trebek-because once you become infamous, that mustache can be shaved.

I like boys, and now I think I'm ready to bust a move...

Check it out I'm rockin steady (that was for you Holly...and then I high kicked my leg in the air real quick).

First off I must give a blog thank you to my buddy Gina. She is so wise beyond her years. You see my dear Gina is a nurse and also a mother and has picked up good info along the way. She told me to make sure and drink a Coke or other caffeinated beverage before going into my 20 week ultrasound so that kid would be wound up. Before the ultrasound we stopped at good ol' McDonalds because all I've wanted for the past five months is a dang McDonald's Coke. It tastes better than any other Coke out there...the closest matching Coke I have found would have to be Mongolian BBQ but alas it is still a second place. I have decided to avoid the caffeine whilst impregnated because honestly that crap isn't good for you. So deliciously not good for you. Needless to say, after getting this tid bit of info from Gina, it had me counting down the days until I got my Coke. A few weeks prior to the u.s. I was chowing down on some McDonald fries and won a free small coke with the whole Monopoly game deal. I clasped the winning game piece in my small paw and then tucked it safely into Lois (my hand bag/satchel/or what you women folk call purse) saving it for that momentous day. So on 11/11 before the doctors office arrived, I was able to stop into the place that had been calling my name for so long. It hasn't helped either that any size pop is only a buck. WHAT!?!? Sprite is only good for so long. And a large orange drink will have you swallowing for hours after with that whole sugar tounge/throat feel. You know what I mean.

So I downed my Coke and then headed into the ultrasound room. The tech kept saying how she couldn't belive how much that thing was moving around. It's a pretty bizzar thing to see your kid rolling around on the screen in front of you and not really being able to feel it. The tech kept doing her measuring and clicking of the computer keys and then we saw it...Zac and I both realized that the baby we were checking out on that screen was in fact a boy. Hooray! The tech confirmed our hypothesis and we now know we are having a boy. So there you go. Here are some pics of the little guy:

He's looking a you.

Sucking his thumb.

This is for Heather. Just for you sssssssss. Now I must wait another four months for another delicious McDonald's Coke. Thanks to Gina though because that boy was moving around more than a cat with yarn on it's tail (I've done it...trust me, the cat moves).

I hate USC

Much of my time in the months between September and January are spent by the warm glow of the television. I am a football fan. I have been for many years and I am so thankful I am because I married a major football fan as I have mentioned in other blog posts.

I knew at the delicate age of 16 that I didn’t want to go to some out of state college or division three community college to play basketball. Once college became a somewhat reality I always wanted to go to Boise State University. I am not sure why but I think it was partially because most of my siblings plus their spouses have gone there. Regardless, blue and orange seemed to be my favorite color combination. I have been a Denver Broncos fan my whole life so maybe that had something to do with it. That was my siblings fault too.

Needless to say I went to Boise State University and had a great and somewhat different college experience than most. I am also happy to say that I really got into Boise State football which was one of the highlights of my college time. If any of you follow college football you can see that Boise State is now usually ranked in the top 25 at least by the end of the season. I was shocked when they were ranked 14 at the beginning of this year because that usually doesn’t happen until at least week ten, if at all. I was even more shocked when the BSC rankings came out last week that Boise State was number 4 in the nation. What the crap!?!?!

So here comes the point of my title posting. I hate USC. I can’t flipping stand them. I have my reasons don’t get me wrong and now I will tell you all about why I hate USC. Number one-why is it every time they run even a one-yard play the band has to play its incessant fight song? I mean, you ran a one-yard play. Not that great. Shut that crap up. Number two-why does every sports caster on ESPN have a man crush on your team? I really don’t mind their coach Pete Carroll which makes me mad because I should not like him. Dang inspiring and good interviewing coach. But EVERYone seems to have some love obsession with whoever the USC quarterback is. Mind you, I have only gotten into college football probably six years ago or so, but I have noticed that there is some serious sports caster love for whoever the USC quarterback is. Not to say that most of them haven’t gone onto fulfilling pro careers though-cough-Matt Lienert.

Here is the main reason I hate USC-would you like to know? EVERY year for the past four, USC has lost to an UNRANKED team yet they still make it into the top ten. Again, I’m not sure about the other years but at least in the past four they have lost to an unranked team. Why? WHY?? Why are they still in the top ten???? It would make sense if they lost to a ranked team….that makes PERFECT sense to me. AND it’s not like the next week they are going to play somebody like Florida, Alabama, shoot even Miami. They are playing crap teams in the PAC-10 conference which may have once been powerful but has recently sucked (not to say the WAC is any better though). So this year for example, they start out ranked number four. Whatever. That’s fine. They jump to number three. Again, I don’t really care. Then comes along Washington on week four-the same Washington Huskies that didn’t win ONE game last year. Guess what happens-that’s right…the unranked Huskies BEAT them. SWEET CANDY-I say. I’m thinking they gotta drop out of the top 15 at least! Any other school (minus Flordia, Alabama, Texas, or Ohio State) would be out of the top 20 easily. I’m giving USC the benefit of the doubt because of the man crushes everyone has on their new ‘true’ freshman quarterback with his bleach blond hair. Sick. At least past number 15 right? Oh no. Don’t even think about it. The farthest they drop is to number 12 in the AP poll and number 10 in the USA Today poll. What? Is California really that cool? The answer is no. I can say that because I lived there….for three months….but still….I did.

I have a little analogy to this situation. When I was a junior in college, I was in an interviewing communications class. It was an upper division course and one that counted towards my degree. I had an assignment to do an interview with someone in a position that I would possibly want after graduation and then give a 10-minute presentation about it. I nailed it of course and got a 90% with the whole assignment 7-page paper included. Now here comes Aakar the foreign exchange person (not student…he just made his own way to the Americas) from Vietnam. He gets up there and proceeds to tell the whole class some crazy story about an American soldier that saved his life during the Vietnam War. I think anyway. He held his hands like they were holding a machine gun and then said something about Davey saving his life. Um…so that was a pretty good interview eh? Whatever, I say, not thinking too much about this presentation but hoping he at least got a ‘C’ to pass the class. As I am walking out of the class I ‘accidentally’ got a peek at Aakar’s grade. He flipping got a 97% on the whole thing. I obviously put a BUTT-load of effort into this and he got a better grade then me? Just because he speaks broken English and the professor felt bad for him? He didn’t even do the assignment right!

This is what I am talking about. Aakar is USC. Just because they had a bad day and are ‘suppose’ to always be good, they keep getting into the top 10…neigh…the top 5 because the voters feel bad that they lost that one tiny little insignificant game-to an unranked team. That is why I hate USC. It has become a bit more of a hate this past week when they jumped from 7 to 5. The reason that is worse is because BSU was at number 5 and now guess what magical number we are…that is right-7 even though we HANDLED (I say we like I am on the team) again…we HANDLED Hawaii.

Regardless of USC passing BSU I still hate USC. Even if BSU loses on Saturday and gets knocked out of the top 25 all together and if USC loses and goes to number 10….I still hate USC. Hate is a harsh word and I really don’t use it much but I really wanted my point to get across and I just don’t think the word dislike does this post justice. That would be like saying Zac “roughs” up Jaitz when in fact Zac “dominates” Jatiz. Get the picture?

All I can say to finish this rant up is…GO DUCKS! That is one of the few times you shall ever hear me say, or rather type that.

Steak

This past week my sweet sister Richelle and her husband Ryan rolled into town for a U2 concert. Whilst they were here we got to go out to dinner at Ruster's Rooste which was a basic kick in the pants. This place sits on the side of South Mountain and looks over part of the city. We slid down a slide to get to the dining area which was great minus the part where I prematurely put my feet down and screeched to a halt. We all had steak which was D-licious and at the end we got cotton candy. No joke. AND it was grape cotton candy which I have never in my life had. If you ever have the chance I definitely endorse the grape cotton candy.

Here we all are at dinner . I forgot to mention there is a live band playing during dinner too which was fantastic.

Here is a big ol' bull of sorts. It smelled like Eagle Fun Days because of this beast. I unknowingly began looking for candy on the sidewalk just out of habit.

The slide. Need I say more?

We had so much fun and I am glad we got to hang with my sister and bro-in-law, even if it was just for a night.

On a side note Zac had his 28th birthday! We went to Outback because we had a gift card that was unnecessarily given to me from one of my buddies but still appreciated. I sent him on a scavenger hunt around our complex and then we skyped the fam at night.

I also made a cake that a family of five could share but we handled it. I still can't figure out how my mom makes frosting. BAH!! It was some good ol' times fo sho.

Blimpie is Best

There are few things in the life that I am sure about. For instance, I am 100% sure that Blimpie is better than Subway. I often wonder why then I live within three square miles of four Subways. I am not even kidding about that. Not beefing against Subway and their mediocre subs (that I will still eat especially on Wednesday's because it it $2.79 turkey 6" day right?) So not to beef on the aspect of mediocre sub making but when compared to the deliciousness that is Blimpie with their fresh cut meats and thinly shredded lettuce, kosher pickles and spicy brown mustard.....no comparison right? Another surety is that Jaitz will follow me into the bathroom every single time regardless if he is asleep, eating, or chewing on a toy. And the last for sure thing I know that I shall tell everyone is that the Bears are who we thought they were. That ones for you Zac.

Thus brings us to the unknown which is so much more a part of our lives. I was pretty sure that when we loaded all of our crap into a moving truck (including all my elementary school scrap books and what not) and headed down here to the Arizona for Zac's career that we would be with the company for a bit. Well that bit turned into 1 year and 3 months. Zac just got laid off with pretty much the rest of the country so that is pretty sweet. Not to say we will be leaving Arizona, but right now we don't know what the crap is going on. We could end up in Afghanistan for all we know. Well...probably not that crazy but I have considered getting lost in the 'wilderness' and living off the fatta the land. I think it's time to get back to our roots...you know, hunter gatherer combo? So if anyone knows about jobs out there for a Construction Management grad from BSU (hey the football team is ranked 6th in the nation...selling point) send em' our way...or something.

I am mostly bummed because I was really looking forward to getting to buy some rad clothes for this thing that is growing in my belly. Don't get me wrong I am more happy than not now of days. Just anxious and hungry. Man I am hungry but then when I eat I can't pound it like I usually can. But then I am hungry again in like an hour. And man I want a McDonald's Coke. Alas I must wait. Anyhoo enough about that nonsense-in other news I sprained my wrist at one of my volleyball practices. It was pretty stupid and I am getting better. I get to coach three games tomorrow and I really really like it. I love coaching and I hope I get to keep doing it in one form or another. My teams names are the "Blue Spikers" and the "Thrilling Beatles" they are 6th and 7/8th grade girls. I really have no idea.

I'm Fragrant.

My grandma Bessie was an old school kind of woman. She was very careful of how she spoke and made sure to not get crass. She also hadn't gotten to the turn of the century in other ways she spoke because she still called black people negroes and told my brothers to split three dollars for their birthdays. That was just how she was. The funniest thing she would say when people were pregnant was 'fragrant'. I guess back in the day you just didn't talk about women being pregnant but would say they were fragrant. It shocked me quite a bit when my sister Richelle was pregnant and she mentioned something about her being fragrant. I mentioned yes she does have a nice smelling perfume and showers regularly. So good thing she was fragrant right? Needless to say G'ma Bessie was trying to politely talk about her being knocked up.

I am guessing most of you have figured out by the title of this post that I am in fact not a sweet smelling aroma of wild flowers but I am in fact pregnant, knocked up, impregnated, with child, the bun is in the oven, abundant, anticipating, expecting, as fertile as the nile.....well maybe not that one....fraught, prolific, replete, teeming, parous and my personal favorite....fragrant. I totally knew all of those pregnant synonyms too.

Here is the picture.

If it is a boy his name shall be Seffan or Jeeves (that way he already has a profession picked out for him when he grows up)

If it is a girl her name shall be Sheerah or Dancing Queen.

Football You Bet!

I feel somewhat blessed to be the youngest at times. Yes I didn't ever get to see mom and dad water ski or get into dirt claud fights with my siblings but I did get what a lot of them (meaning my siblings) didn't. And that is knowledge. I learned from Stephanie that your youngest sibling shouldn't be laying on your mothers lap while you are learning to drive stick shift. I promise, you'll get a face full of dashboard. I learned from Richelle that talking to yourself is completely fine as long as you don't get caught. I learned from Stan that Abba will never die. I learned from Roger not to throw the Nintendo controller at a developing boys junk. They get real mad and I am so glad he didn't catch me. But let me focus for a bit on my bigger brothers Stan and Roger. I owe you so much because you see, these two gents taught me about one of the most important things in life....Football. Falderah you say? NEIGH! Do you know who I am married to? If it weren't for my brothers and their willingness to teach me about football at such a young age (including running pass patterns in the back yard), I could possibly be in marital strife right now.

This last weekend was the first of the college football season. This last week was particularly intense because BSU was playing Oregon and it was basically a bowl game. With our orange and blue attire on and Tostitos chips (we only eat Tostitos since the Fiesta Bowl) we settled down to watch the game unfold. Of course as we all know we, meaning Boise State (I say we because I am pretty much on the team) well we creamed them. That was on Thursday and we spent the rest of the weekend flipping through college games. However, we did tune into the entire Oklahoma vs. BYU game. There are few times where you will see me cheer for BYU this being one of them. Yes Zac went there for a year and a half. Yes I have had many in-laws grace the bubble that is Provo and yes I CAN'T STAND BYU FANS! And yes Oklahoma can still eat it. Boise State will ALWAYS be better than BYU.

I do truly miss going to the Boise State football games. Zac and I lived right off campus for the first three years of our marriage and it became quite the tradition to trek over to the stadium together. We would hop on the green belt on our blue and orange bikes (no I am not kidding) and ride to the stadium with our cow bells dangling off of our handle bars. We would sit on the second level 50 yard line up for the most pristine viewing of the game....granted we sometimes had to get there three hours before the game started. I seriously get pumped thinking about yelling BOISE and the other side returning STATE right before all the players flew out onto the field. But one of my favorite things was not even necessarily the game. In every program there was a coupon to Chicago Connection pizza that gave you up to 35% off your bill depending on what BSU beat the other team by (meaning if they beat the other team by 35 we'd get 35% off our bill). So on game days like Idaho or Utah State a whole slew of us would book it over to Chicago Connection after the game because we were guaranteed the deal of a lifetime!

Zac and I have access to all the BSU football games this year thanks to the wonderful machine that is the world wide web. We do not have access to Chicago Connection which makes me choke up just a little bit. I guess Grimaldi's will have to do.

I pretty much carved that.