Doh! Revised.

The last entry "Doh!" seems silly now. THE real DOH!! happened. Bashing my head in and getting prego (fake, of course) has nothing on this "Doh!". I sprained my ankle really badly 18 days ago.

(This picture was taken 14 days after the sprain. I am bruised all the way up to my knee!)

How did it happen, you ask? Well....

See that "hill" at the end?! Well, I climbed to the top (probably 6+ feet) and lost my balance. I slid down the hill, tried to catch myself, my foot went in, my leg went out and I heard two loud pops. And then felt the surge of pain....

This was taken about a week after. Compare the ankles. :)

This was taken today. 18 days after it happened. It's been iced and elevated constantly and not much is changing....sigh.

The TLC is now my best friend (along with the crutches AND boot).

I have realized SO many things that I am thankful for through this fun experience.

#1 I am grateful for a healthy body that can allow me to do SO much. I am grateful for two feet and two legs.

#2 I am SO eternally grateful for Christlike friends and family. My parents were able to come down for a few days right after it happened. It was SO wonderful. I love my parents so much. My roommate Jamie is so kind. She is always helping me and does SO much! My siblings were great when I went home for Thanksgiving, they served me constantly. My ward has been amazing and supportive. I am surrounded by GREAT, charitable, Christ-like people. Thank you!!

#3 I am grateful that this happened this time of year. I have breaks all of the time. I don't have to take the time off of work and yet I have so much time to rest, elevate, ice and heal!

#4 I am grateful for cars! I can't wait to drive one again...someday.

It's been a major DOH!

Doh!

It's probably time that I share two things with the rest of the blogging world. I haven't seen some of you in a while, so they may be shocking to you!







Item #1

This happened 2 minutes before 1st hour started on Monday. I bent over and rammed my head into a wire shelf which proceeded to scrape the top layer of skin off my forehead. Although, it does feel bruised. SO, maybe I did more than scrape the top layer off.... DOH!

Item #2

This was a definite DOH! I know it may be shocking to most of you. You thought I was a good Mormon girl. Well, I got news for you! Wendy said she wanted grand babies from me and she got them (2 of them to be precise!).

*To clarify. I AM still a good Mormon girl. Wendy does not have any grand babies from me, yet. This was another Halloween costume.... I was a "Utah Mom". Complete with shade shirt, large over-the-top jewelry, a button that said "Make $$ from home, ask ME how", LARGE hair, a 7th month old baby and 6th months prego. (I might add that everything to become a "Utah Mom" came straight from my own closet. I am not quite sure what that says about me....)

As a side note, my baby was an electronic baby from school. It was on (these things are super smart). They cry for care (feeding, diapers, fussy etc.) JUST like normal babies. The head must be supported the entire time JUST like a normal baby. IT wakes up in the middle of the night, JUST like a normal baby. I thought that it would add to the 'coolness' of my costume by turning my baby on. So, it was on the entire night. THE entire night. Needless to say, I got a 24% on my baby. DOH! Good thing it's NOT a normal baby. Sorry Wendy, it may be even longer before you get grand babies from me!!!

New Do! Or is it Du?! Or Due?!

I know that you all have been DYING to hear from me. It's probably killing you all that you HAVEN'T heard from me in a while. :)

What's new with me, you ask? Well I got a new haircut (snooze, yawn etc.). As you can tell it's going to be an exciting post! Yay! New haircut. :)

Here you go....some pics of the new me. I including straight and curly pics. Although it's short (I can't even put it into a pony tail), it's still pretty versatile. Thanks to Rachie for my new look. I think that she is pretty talented!

Funny Comments by Students: (Most said really nice things about my hair cut, but a few said some funny things. I don't think that they were being intentionally rude, but their comments sure came out that way!)

1. You chopped your hair!?! It's so short. (So you are saying that it's TOO short?!)
2. You cut your hair. I like it though..... (Said with some obligation)
3. Conversation between me (Miss Castle or MC) and Student (S).

S- WHO cut your hair?!

MC- My Little Sister did.

S- Why did you cut it?

MC - I was bored with it and wanted a
change, so I let my sister do whatever she wanted to.

S- THAT was a
mistake. I would never let my sister have free reign on my
hair. (So, you are saying that I should NOT have let my sister
have free reign?!)

Here are some pics from the ward Halloween party last week. I was going to be a sailor...but I didn't like my costume. So, the gang banger was a last resort costume. The pirate is my new roomie (OK not that new), Jamie.

Check this out....

My cousins, Heather and Megan, just started their own quilt pattern company (Fresh Poppy Design Quilt Co.). These girls are so talented. I have seen all of these quilts and they are amazing. Check their blog out, keep coming back and pass the word along!

Nettie

Annettie came back into town (well sort of into town--Pine Top) for her nephews baptism this past weekend. Jon, Kirsten and I all went to see her. It was so good to spend some time with her. She and I moved to AZ about the same time and have been friends ever since. We have been roommates for the past 2-3 (?) years. In June, she moved to Utah to go back to school. It was good to see her, but it sure made me miss her. There have been lots of changes in the past couple of months (new ward, new roomies, many friends have moved etc.). Changes are good. But, this weekend sure made me a tad bit sad for the things that are gone!

Sense? and Sensibility?

So, I am going to vent for a moment. I don't want to come across as cynical, depressed or hopeless. I just need to vent. I really am OK, just mostly frustrated with my present situation.

I was watching Sense and Sensibility the other day and I realized how perfectly it describes my "dating" life. If you don't remember the movie...click here. You may remember two sisters one who falls in love with this great guy, who does and says all of the perfect things. He seems to love her back but you can never be too certain. Well, older sister gets involved (she can't have her brother marry a lower class woman) and breaks up the pair. Sister two falls in love with the" bad" boy. He loves her back but ditches her for a woman who has 50,000 pounds. He marries the rich girl, but secretly always wants to be with Marrianne (sister #2).

The past couple months I seem to be attracting both of these guys. Unfortunately for me, I don't have the movie to show me the guys feelings so I just have to make assumptions here (but I think that I am pretty good at reading guys and the signals they send. Then again...maybe I am not. I AM still single.)

One thinks I am great, loves to spend time with me...but I don't make the 50,000 pounds (or some other lame, shallow excuse) so I am the girl that he wants but will never do anything about! The other guy also likes to be around me, will go out of his way to be with me, but there is some outside pull (maybe his evil sister is trying to break up the match) not allowing him to do anything about it.

In the movie, guy #1 does end up confessing his love to sister #1. You know the scene, Elinor starts blubbering like a baby. It's the best! And sister #2 ends up getting someone way better than the loser jerk that she loved so much(or so she thought). One of these days I will have my happily ever after like the sisters. But, in the meantime I am still trying to find out which guy it will be (and getting really frustrated with guys who think I am great but will never DO anything about it)!!!!!

Watching the Olympics

Wasting time (or trying to feel productive while watching the Olympics).....

Go to Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/search/ and type in your word(s) that answers the question and it brings up tons of photos associated with it. Super fun!

Then you put the URL line for the photo into Mosiac Maker: http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your favorite animal?

-

My answers:

1. Jennica 2. Pizza 3. Columbine High School 4. PINK 5. Jake Ryan! 6. Diet Coke/Pepsi/Dr. Pepper 7. Beach 8. This pic of cheescake just looked so yummy! Any dessert is my favorite 9. a wife 10. My Family11. Happy 12. ? I liked the picture of the peacock. :)

Have fun. Maybe you can waste time watching the Olympics, too!

Drama, Drama

It started on the first day of class. He whistled at me. He sang "You're beautiful. You're beautiful it's true. And I saw your face....." You know the popular song by James Blunt. He also asked "If, I was older, would you go out with me?" I immediately responded "NO!" and that he was "Creepy. That he needed to stop." The harassment stopped.

But, the story gets MUCH better. Yesterday he stayed after class here's the conversation:

[Creepy student] I am emancipated from my parents, you know?

[Miss Castle] Oh really?

[CS] Yeah, it's not becasue I don't get along with them. It's because they can't travel with me.

[MC] Oh? Where are you traveling?

[CS] Oh, well for the Mexican Soap Opera that I am in. Yeah, that's why I have braces. I really don't need them. See? (showing me his straight pearly whites) I don't need these braces at all. It's for the part. I have to gain all of this weight. I have ten more pounds to go. Then I get skinny, they take off the braces and then I am HOT for the show.

[MC] (Speechless)

[CS] Yeah. They paid me 5.2 million dollars for the show.

[MC] Wow (like, obviously, not believing any of this). When is the show on?

[CS] Well, it's not going to air for two more months. But, I go out of town every weekend to Mexico City to shoot it. I come back Monday mornings before school.

Wow. Really?! Huh. Seriously?!

Today he was sent out into the hall for being disrespectful to me. He got a referral and a phone call home. Maybe he needs to work on respect for his teacher instead of going out of "town" to be an actor. Or maybe he should just cut the drama in class. Not going to work with me. I've already have had enough of it and it's only been a week a half.

Summer Fun!

I have been up to lots of F-U-N things. Here is the low down.....

My friend Michael came up to Utah for a few weeks. We have been playing tons. Here are some things that we have done:

1. Hiking (tons of it). We hiked to Horsetail falls in Alpine. We hiked up Little Cottonwood canyon. We went backpacking in Southern-ish Utah (Fishlake area). [That was an experience. Without going into gory details.... I had new hiking boots (feet don't like new boots), we ran into TONS of melting snow, no fuel for our camp stoves, getting lost, mosquitoes, marshland etc. It was an adventure and I loved every minute of it. Well, mostly loved it. Maybe besides being lost for four hours.]

2. We went on a bike ride or two.... and a scooter ride up AF canyon. The scooter maybe went 15 miles an hour. It was awesome. Had a little picnic at Tible Fork. Can I tell you that I LOVE the weather here?! It's the best. You can actually go outside in the summer and play.

3. Movies. Hulk was pretty good (we got to see it with two of my BFFs in the world). Get Smart was Ok. I liked Hulk better, I think. Although, Get Smart was entertaining....I felt like they put all of the funny parts in the trailers.

4. I bought a sweet new bike from REI.com. (I have come to really love REI. We went there like 10 times in the past few weeks. Apparently, we couldn't get enough of it's goodness) Check out this baby. She will be coming July 2nd to the REI nearest me.

5. Flight of the Concords. Juno. Funny. Funny.

6. Pleasant Grove Rodeo-awesome! Strawberries and Cream- yum!

I have had an awesome two weeks. Although, I already miss having a constant playmate around.

Tomorrow I am off to Colorado. It's really tough being a teacher at the moment. ;)

Little Red Riding Hood

Saturday was the BIG day! It was full of firsts! Here are some firsts (as well as other funny things that happened).....

- It was freezing COLD. When we started the ride it was 44 degrees. It heated up to 59 as the high for the day! Brrrr....

- 5 miles into the ride we were hit with rain that turned into HAIL! Ouch!

- 7 miles into the ride my bike broke. It took 5 different SAG wagons (and other people to help) to find the right tool to fix my bike. That took about 45 minutes. Not a good start (not to mention that we started 30 min. late). Luckily, they were able to fix it!

- Unfortunately, we missed the 100 mile cut off (we needed to be to a certain city by 11:00 in order to go on the 100 mile route) by about 10 minutes. So we ended up riding 80 miles. But, that's OK because we had a head wind about 70% of the time.

- The ride was beautiful! Cache Valley is so pretty.

- We had a great time! I can't wait to do another ride (just as soon as my rear end can stand to SIT on a bike seat)....

We celebrated my birthday a little early (since I will be in UT over my real birthday). I have never had a Barbie Birthday. 29 is a good year to celebrate Barbie Style! All were to dress up as their favorite Barbie or Ken. Here are some good ones: Dream Date Barbie (and Ken), Ken Bond 007, Woodcutter Ken, Golf Ken, DTR Ken, Emo Barbie, Pregnant Prom Queen Barbie, Bollywood Barbie, Summer Lovin' Barbie, GI Jane, and Malibu Barbie.

Look, We had a great time:

This one's for you Heidi!

This post is for my biggest fan, Heidi! I haven't posted anything in about 2 months and she has been the only one to notice or care! Thanks, Heidi! ;)

To those of you that are feeling guilty, I am over it! I have been SO super busy that I haven't looked at your blogs either....meaning if there are babies announced- I don't know about them, if you got married--I don't know about that, if you took over the world--I may not know about that either! So hopefully we can forgive each other. I will try to be a better blogger....and let's be honest, I am going to be "unemployed" in about 12 days (YAY!!) so I will be way better!

It's hard to play catch up over two months period (this is probably why I try to journal as often as possible. If I wait for two months or longer, I have SO much to catch up on it is overwhelming). So, I will take baby steps back into the blogging world.

#1. I am training for a century bike ride (100 miles). It's the Little Red Riding Hood in Logan Utah on June 7. As part of my training I went 47 miles today--yikes! I am pretty excited about this. Although, I am really nervous about the altitude change. THAT may kill me.

#2 April 1- April 15....I spent about 45 hours working on a University of Phoenix class (a three credit class done in about 3 weeks). I was crazy busy. I would go to work, then come home and work on this class for 5-6 hours a night. I had to take it in order to re-certify this July. I am glad that is over!

#3 I am going to girls craft weekend with My Mom, Sisters, Cousins, Aunts etc. in a few weeks in New Harmony, Utah. I am SO looking forward to that! It will be a blast.

#4 I wish that I had some good guy stories to report....but, I better not (you never know who reads these things). But, I will say that I scared a guy off and he moved back to Utah (unexpectedly) after one date with me. We went out, had a good time and then two days later randomly decided to move back to Utah. I am pretty sure that he didn't want to be flipped- so he ran! :) Hehe. (If you don't know what I am talking about refer to a Post called "Spatula City").

This is as much as I can do today. But, start coming more regularly again because........ I AM BACK!

Lucky Me!

The past two weekends I have been able to spend my time with my most favorite women in the whole wide world! Lucky Me! :)

Girls Weekend #1
Location: Las Vegas
People involved: Molly, Rachel, Jill, Heidi, and Mom
Reason: Molly's 18th Birthday (I can't believe that she is 18), Mama Mia, Tiffany's & CO, shopping, and FUN.
It was a BLAST!

Molly showing off her BLUE Tiffany's box (top right)

Mama Mia at Mandalay Bay (Picture above).














Eating!!! (Picture at Left)
















Pedicures from weekend #2 and funny picture from girls weekend #1 (pictures right)








Girls Weekend #2
Location: Gilbert Arizona (My house)
People involved: Lindsey, Kim, and Carmen (My Three BF's)
Reason: Lindsey needed a break from her three little angels :), and FUN. But, let's be honest...we don't really need a reason to get together. We like to get together at least once a year. But, this year it's happened 3 times in the last 12 months. I am hoping that it happens again soon (Wink, Wink**)
It was a BLAST!

**Some of you may catch what that means

We all bought the same coat! Don't we look good. :) (picture below)



We ate lots and lots of food. We made this fruit pizza on Sunday (using my new mandolin). If you have never used a mandolin to cut things with, I HIGHLY suggest it. They ROCK!


Needless to say.... I have had a great past couple of weekends! I am so grateful for such great friends and family. Love ya!!

Sad Day!

When Mitt Romney quit the Presidential Race he gave an amazing speech. You really need to read it. It was AWESOME. Click here to read it.

I am really sad to see him go. Now what are we going to do? McCain? I am not so sure about that!

Field Trip

My friend Andrea is moving to Georgia in a few months and as a result has created a "bucket list" of things to see while she is in the great state of Arizona. One of these things was to go to Jerome AZ. It is about a 2 hour drive north of Phoenix.

So Andrea, Kirsten and I decided to go to Jerome on Monday January 21 (MLK day). On our way we drove past the Bad Ass BBQ. It just so happens that going to the Bad Ass BBQ was something that Kirsten wanted to check off of her something-I-need-to-do-before-I-die list. So, we were able to kill two birds with one stone.

I really wanted to buy something from the Bad Ass Boutique. But, the Bad Ass was closed. Imagine this conversation:
Someone: That is the cutest shirt ever. Where did you get it?
Me: Just at some Bad Ass Boutique.
Someone: [Gasp]













We also went to Tuzigoot.... ruins from the Southern Sinagua Civilization. Picture below.










Below are pictures taken in Jerome. It's a small mining community that has turned "artsy".

It was an awesome day!