Jef with one F.

If you watch the Bachelor or Bachelorette shows, you already know that the last couple of seasons have had contestants (is that what you call them?) from Utah.  Turns out the contestants you love to hate were the ones that were from Utah (remember Michelle and Bentley?).  Not cool for those of us who live in Utah.  They didn't paint a very good image.  But then along came Jef with one F.

In case you don't know who Jef is, he was one of the bachelors vying for Beautiful, Barbie, Bachelorette Emily's hand in marriage this past season.  He made a really great impression from the get go, riding in on a skateboard.  Emily said she was immediately smitten.  She thought he seemed a little edgy and she liked that.  

Well, this local guy made us all proud because he was truly so sweet, so charming, said the most beautiful things to Emily, and was a hit with her little girl, Ricki.

In the end ... Jef got the girl.  It was really, really precious.  After he made the proposal, and got up off his knee, Jef kissed her and then Emily said something to him.  I didn't catch it the first time around, so I backed up my tivo so I could hear what she said.  She told him, "We're going to make this work."   LOVE that.

They are so adorable together and seem genuinely happy, which, granted, is how most couples start out, but I'm hoping for the best for them.  And I'm hoping for a Jef/Emily sighting of my own sometime... the guy gets around! 

Jef with my niece, Lindsay  - sighting at a Blogger event,

Pleasant Grove, Utah

Jef with Chloe's friend, Thomas - sighting at Sugarhouse Park, 4th of July,

Salt Lake City, Utah

Jef with my nephew, Jordan - sighting during lunch at Costa Vida,

Pleasant Grove, Utah

Carnival fun.

Steel Days in American Fork ... SO.MUCH.FUN.

Pooh.

 

So in the midst of my not doing any posts on my blog for a really long time-time, my mother had said to me, "You know what I really liked, Polly?  I really liked it when you would do your posts about random things (although I'm not sure that she used the word random because I don't recall my mom ever using that word) ... like cotton balls.  That was fun."

I liked that too.  Could I really have gone through all of the random little things on my original happy little things list?!  I wonder where that list is so I can check ....

BUT. Speaking of random ... I was on my way to work the other day and sitting all by his lonesome, on a post, out by a muddy wash, not even near anyone's yard at all was Pooh and his Buzz Lightyear kite.

Talk about a happy little sighting.  Silly little bear.

"What day is it?" asked Pooh.

"It's today," squeaked Piglet.

"My favorite day," said Pooh.

Cups, cups, and more cups.

You know, kitchen items really could put the toy companies out of business.

And, yes ... I have had some of those tupperware cups 
for a really, really long time.

The BLAZE.

I ran into my friend, Shelly, a couple of weeks ago at a wedding reception and she said, "Polly!!?  You haven't been blogging and I don't know what's going on with you anymore!!!"

My friend, Delanie, came and stayed with me for a week last month and said, "P-Dove, I just started looking at your blog again and I check every night for a new post.  No offense, but we are tired of seeing the twins' graduation announcement.  You need to post something new!"


And then several days ago, my friend Diane called me and said, "It's June 30th."


I wasn't sure of the significance of it being June 30th so I had to ask her.  She said, "You need to do a blog post today.  If you don't, it will be the first time since you started your blog that you have gone a whole month without even one post."  She said, "Just do something, anything, so you don't miss a month!"  (Bless her cute little heart.)

You know how we all have our "stories?"  And sometimes we can tend to get a little wrapped up in our stories?  And then our stories end up just being excuses or rationalizations or justifications?!  Well, my story about why I haven't been blogging stems from the fact that I don't like the changes that were made on blogger and (especially) over at photobucket.

A couple of my more recent posts have had lots and lots of pictures.  And while I love taking lots and lots of pictures, I have preferred to condense them somewhat by making several of them into a collage.  With the changes in photobucket, I hadn't been able to figure out how to do a collage and it was making me just a little bit crazy.

I had been downloading pictures of my daughter, Haley, to do a post about the Utah Blaze (our team for the AFL - Arena Football League).  And since the Blaze game was super exciting for us, and super fun that Haley is one of their cheerleaders, naturally I took about 665 pictures.  How do you condense 665 pictures into a post without the help of a collage?!  That was my challenge.

But Diane, having heard my frustration, did a little investigating and called me back over this past weekend with a secret tip on how to find a place to do a collage so that I could get a move on with my blog.  (Again, bless that girl's little heart ... thanks Di.)

So this is my long awaited (for me and Haley anyway) post about the Utah Blaze and my Utah Blaze dancer!

If a picture says a thousand words, I will spare you any further commentary.  Suffice it to say, I am a proud momma and we LOVE BLAZE GAMES!!!!





At one of the games, the cheerleaders had family members join them for a Michael Jackson tribute dance. Haley asked Elliott to be her partner.

That's Elliott out on the field, arms outstretched, doing his best MJ stance ... gotta love it.



The teams say a prayer together after the game ... Love that too.