And now a lightning round of

Name That Expression.

Found these on my computer. They were taken by Cam on Thanksgiving.


My best guesses are "numb lips from an invasive route canal" or "undercover genius fugitive."

This one... I'm still struggling to put a name on.

What do you do when your job ends?

Take a trip, of course.

More specifically, wait two days after your last day of work, and take a trip to where people you love/miss reside, and play for 4 days straight without pausing for breath.

I've been getting better at documenting (though someday I plan to upgrade from taking pictures with my phone to pictures with an actual camera). For any/all who are interested... here was the weekend of love, 2011, Farmingtown, USA.

Driving to Provo with cousin Bec

Figuring how to fill up the car with natural gas

(Uncle R is saving the environment w/ his hot wheels)

Hello, Cam!

Don't know why I felt compelled to take a picture of the cougarettes poster. All that studded patent leather they're wearing... it was just worth a photo.

Fro Yo makes a great mid morning snack.

The BYU candy counter. We got reacquainted. We're old friends.

The only soda fountain in the world that offers Caffeine Free Diet Coke. Oh BYU. I love you.

Carl Bloch Exhibit at Museum of Art w/ cousins Libby and Mary. It was breathtaking.

Imported from Denmark.

Cafe Rio! I contacted all the local peeps I could to come join us for dinner. Thank you to everyone who came!

Salads.

Me gusta Cafe Rio!

We baked bounteous cookies and cupcakes. What we do best. Recipes can be found here, here, and here.

Driving in the car w/ Cam.

Dinner with Cam and gal pal K! Too much fun!

Visiting Cam's apartment. We watched reruns of "Parks and Recreation" and had a blast. His roommate called me "old." I wanted to kick him but realized I left my steel toe boots at home. Dang.

J and A. Blushing newlyweds! They came over for the superbowl.

The men, engrossed.

Trivial pursuit. Serious business with Kyle.

And Bec.

And Uncle R.

Things not pictured:

1) Kyle playing with the remote control helicopter.
2) The wild game of mad libs.
3) Watching all episodes of Masterpiece Theater's "Downton Abbey" (thank you Whit for the link! I will watch it over and over again!)
4) Thrift shopping-- belt, ruffled satin skirt, 2 victorian picture frames= $9.
5) Seeing both Annette and Sophie for the first time in years.

6) Breakfast at Kneaders

7) The notorious trip to Costco (the Saturday before the Superbowl, apparently Costco has the most samples of any day of the year. It. Was. Epic.)


At the end of it all, it was high time that I high tail it home to this man and his fancy new glasses. I now call him Harold B. Lee, and think he should showcase his handsome retro frames as a cast member on the show "Mad Men." Only playing the part of a faithful spouse, of course (something that show is particularly lacking).

Home again home again, jiggity jig!

Cam is home again. Behold the proof.

Note: When your sister owns a fantastic camera and an equally fantastic set of photog skills, you let her/her husband snap the photos, and then sneak them from facebook onto your blog. Yep. That's how I roll.

Further note: I did not cry uncontrollably or jump up and down raucously, nor did I attempt a cartwheel when Cam came down the escalator at the airport (good thing too about the cartwheel, because I was in a dress). I just kind of stayed within 3 feet of him at all times.



Waiting at the escalator for him to get off his plane already.



And there he is!



Bros.



Water park in Ladera Ranch. The enormous bucket would fill every few minutes and dump on us. Epic.



The most darling muffins del mundo.



Typical weight lifting exercises.



Take one (a most perfect time to give Dad a head scratch).



Take two (sneaky Kris).



Charter members.



The clan.

To quote Wes Cunningham, "I've got a good good feeling."

Top 10

1) Last week I bought champagne for the very first time. I was doing a coworker a favor in picking it up. My coworker said before I left that it may not be the BEST idea to send the Mormon to get the booze, but I think I did a pretty good job picking it out. The label looked fancy and the price seemed ridiculous, so that has to be a signal for good champagne, am I right?



2) I love it when there are special articles or stories on the internet about people’s weight loss. I’m obsessed with reading through big “before and after” transformations. Today I was reading through some I found on msn.com, and I had to ask myself, why it is that the “before” picture always looks so much older than the “after” picture? Observe.



(Obviously, the before picture is on the right) I know, right? Why is the Ms. Before 20 years older than Ms. After?

3) I love that Google always knows what I’m trying to say before I say it. I was thinking to myself today: Wouldn’t it be cool to generate your own electricity with a stationary bike or treadmill? I think that would be the coolest way to watch TV. You have to keep pedaling or you won’t know how “Lost” turns out. Or your smoothie won’t be blended completely. And bonus: instead of paying for that electricity, your TV watching/smoothie blending capabilities are FREE. So naturally, I searched for it on Google, only I didn’t know quite how to phrase it. Luckily for me, all I had to type was “Stationary bike that” and look what popped up.



Love it.

By the way, this search led me to an article about a man in San Jose who bikes for 45 minutes a day on a stationary bike in his garage. Last year, this guy pedaled $150 worth of electricity back into the grid and charged his own batteries. Google, I love how you read my mind. You’re almost as good as Harry.

4) Last week we saw “Wicked” at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco with some Law School peeps. This was my first time seeing it/hearing the music. Ten high fives (which makes… fifty highs?) go out to my husband for seeing it with me even though he’s not exactly what we females might call a “musical buff.” I loved it. It lived up to all of my expectations except that Kristen Chenowyth and Idina Menzel (upon whom I have girl crushes) were not on stage. And bonus: we somehow eluded all city traffic and got free parking across the street from the theater. Don’t ask me how it happened. I really don’t know.

5) The time has come for new glasses and a haircut. This may be because I need to disguise myself in my efforts to elude the IRS, or because I’ve had the same glasses since high school and am getting headaches and my hair hasn’t seen a pair of shears since February.


6) Have you ever been at work and started an impromptu taking-photo-of-yourself-making-various-expressions-with-your-cell-phone-and-sending-them-to-your-responsible-and-orderly-older-sister session and run off to the bathroom to take various pictures of your various facial expressions in an ill-lit bathroom stall and sending them while trying not to dissolve in hysterical laughter when you see the faces she sends you? I did today. Good times.

7) Have you ever considered… (cue ashamed small font) not going to a Relief Society activity you just found out about so you can sneak off to see Robin Hood with your main loving man because you didn’t get to see it last weekend and Thursday is the only free night you can see it? I’ve considered it.

8) My brother comes home in T minus 23 days. And I can’t help but wonder what will happen when I see him. Will I burst into uncontrollable tears because of HOW MUCH I missed him? Will I pass out with disbelief at how shriveled his once-Rugby-Water-Polo machine self is? Perhaps jump up and down and shout wildly and cause security to escort me off the premises because of my suspicious behavior? I’m certainly curious, aren’t you?



9) We ate the most scrumptulescent tacos I’ve ever laid taste buds on. They were at a place called Super Taqueria in San Jose. The awesome woman/sister-from-another-mother I serve in the Nursery with on Sundays and her amazingly good looking fam took us down there after a ward bake-off (at which our coma-inducing blueberry pie sold for 25 bones in the silent auction. Boo yah!) last weekend. Totally worth the 25 minute drive it takes to get there. We were the only gringos there and this place was packed to the brim with people. The last time I had a taco that legit was on a remote beach off the coast of Puerto Vallarta on our honeymoon, where residents of the local fishing village had cooked us a fantastic lunch over an open flame grill. I’m pretty sure the tacos are still clinging to my upper thighs. Worth every bite.



10) I love having 7 seasons of "Lost" to watch at my leisure. We started the series over (Harry hadn't ever gotten into it, I'd only seen 1.5 seasons). I'm starting to prefer it to watching movies. Last night, Jack pulled a freaking arrow out of some guy's shoulder before Sayid interrogated him. That's intense. Happy Wednesday to all, and to all a good night watching "Lost."

Bro

What is it about General Conference that makes me so excited for my brother to come home already?



When the number of missionaries serving in the world was read over the pulpit, I burst out with "One less missionary in two months, boys!"

I have the sweetest, kindest, best brother in the world.

(I'm talking about Eaton brothers here, not Reynolds brothers or guys who married my sisters... they are entirely different things, because only this Eaton brother actually endured the childhood/adolescent pandemonium of his sisters and managed to become a normal person.)

Since he left 22 months ago, his absence has been apparent at every family gathering. But it's all been worth it, and he'll be home before you can say "Where's my freakin' nametag?!"

Only this brother was sweet and thoughtful enough to bring me a Mango Mantra 3x a week with his Dining Plus card without being asked, go boogie boarding with me on Saturday mornings, to jump in the car with me and drive to California with 5 minutes warning for a weekend break from school, to wake up with me at 6 am to make the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot, to teach me how to drive stick when I couldn't get it down from anyone else, and to always be my partner in crime.

And, according to Joe Garlock, he's the white Jay-Z, which is like a HUGE bonus.

And through every discouraging experience on his mission, every week his emails always include some obscure line from Season 2 of "The Office" that sends me into hysterics.

61 days and counting.

Garden variety world domination

So, we recently discovered that our names (first and last) mean “Home Ruler Supplanter Ruler” and “Princess Elf Counsel Ruler." Yes, Elf Counsel is real. I’m just saying. If we take over the world someday, you’ll all know you had it coming, so don’t get all huffy when I demand control over all your property and stuff like that.

Got me thinking.

My brother’s name really does mean “crooked nose.” But when he was young and overly impressionable we made sure he thought it really meant “Red Power Ranger” or something similarly awesome. Now that he’s a 6’4” former rugby/water-polo-playing-machine-turned-tallest-missionary-in-Ecuador, I don’t think he’s weighed down by the whole name-etymology thing. Oh, and his nose isn’t at all crooked. Or at least if it is, I can’t tell. He'll make a good assistant (hit man?) in our world-take-over plot.

I’m nervous sometimes because over the course of my life I’ve been so thankful to people for helping me out in times of great distress, that in my moment of overwhelmed gratitude I’ve promised to name my children after them. And what if they show up on my doorstep one day, demanding I follow through with my promises? Thus, I’ll be naming my children: 1) Tow truck guy from Triple A, 2) Couple who jump started our car, and 3) Waiter who snuck me a free piece of chocolate cake that one time. [Note: The chocolate cake episode may or may not have been a "time of great distress." But I am pretty sure I blurted out the namesake promise all the same.]

Towey, Jumpstart, and Freecake, for short. Our three children. All girls too, probably.

At least they make pretty good girl rapper names, right? There's a career for them. Even if they are the object of giggling and ridicule for it.

But you won't be laughing... because I'll be Queen of the World, sucka.

Hey, you're my cousin!

Living in Utah for college was fantastic for many reasons, but one of the BIGGEST was the fact that it was crawling with Eatons/a variety of McOmbers/Baums. Without getting too complex, the McOmbers are my cousins, and the Baums are their cousins, but we all call each other cousins. We're all for streamlining complicated family relationships.

Some of my happiest college memories are of all of us driving up to the fantastic home of the Farmington chapter of the McOmber family, and having a giggly cousin time over bowls of Fall Medley, home made granola, pistachio nuts, and of course, a tall glass of Diet Coke with lime.

It was discovered a while ago that one of the Baum cousins would be serving in the same mission as my brother Cam. This week, they finally ran into each other! Elder Baum saw Elder Eaton and said, "Hey! You're Elder Eaton! You're my cousin!" Are there many better sentences to hear when you're a missionary in a foreign country? Probably not.

Here's a picture of the happy meeting:

Speaking of my most choice brother, I'll be so happy when he's home in 6 months and I won't have to get all teary eyed every time I hear the song "Wonderwall" by Oasis or "High and Dry" by Radiohead. Gosh, I know missions are challenging and all for the missionaries, but sheesh, I think I've really sacrificed a lot here. I mean, look at this guy.

(Yes, this picture does a better job of showcasing my ability to look like a camel, but he's in it.)

I think it was Plato who once said, "Family is the shiz."

Yes, Plato, it is.