30 Days of Blogging - Will this ever end?

I thought this 30 day blogging thing would be fun and now I hate it. I'm doing the rest of them right now so that I can rid this from my life.

Day 25 - What I would find in your purse.

My wallet, a ton of lip gloss, and probably 48 things of hand sanitizer.

Day 26 - What you think about your friends.

I think they're awesome. That's why they're my friends.

Day 27 - Why are you doing this 30 day challenge?

Because I needed something to blog about.

Day 28 - A picture of you in the last year and now, how have you changed since then?

Last year I was still in school, I was working at my old job, our schedules were opposite of what they are now, and we were living in the house, but Rick's parents were living there too. Today I am done with school, working as an MA and loving it, we still live in the house but we have it all to ourselves since Rick's parents are living in Arizona getting ready for their mission. We were also still figuring out how to be married. A year ago we had been married for 6 months, and now it's been a year and a half.

Day 29 - In this past month what have you learned?

I've learned that on December 21st I will be taking the National Medical Assisting Certification Test. I've learned that ground turkey is delicious and works perfect for hamburger helper meals. I've learned that it is absolutely impossible to ever surprise Rick with a gift. He knows everything he's getting for Christmas. I've learned that Rick loves me more than I ever thought and he will do things for me to make sure I am happy and comfortable - like waking up early to clean the house or do laundry or get my car registered and let me sleep because he knows that I don't sleep very well as it is so he lets me sleep in as long as I can. And also because he knows how I'm the meanest person in the world if I don't wake up well rested.

Day 30 - Who are you?

Jodi. Wife of Rick. Mom of Meeko.

30 Days of Blogging - Day 24

Day 24 - A letter to your parents.

Dear Mom,

Thanks for helping me get my job at Heritage and thanks for being the Chaplain there so that I can have the following conversations with the kids.

"So the word on the street is that you are REALLY good at the saxaphone."

"Fo sho fo sho. Wait, who told you that?"

"My mom."

"Who's your mom?"

"Tami."

"NAW DUDE, FOR REAL? TAMI IS YOUR MOM?! DAAAAAYUM! HOW WAS THAT BEING THE PREACHER'S DAUGHTER? I BET YOU SHE BEAT YO ASS WITH A BIBLE WHEN YOU WAS GROWIN UP."

Thank you for being the most accident prone person in the world so that I have interesting stories to tell people.

Thank you for saving Meeko from the pound and then giving him to us.

Dear Dad,

Thanks for knowing everything about cars.

Thanks for introducing me to skype. Now we can talk online. Even though we only live like a mile away.

Thanks for driving me and Jensenne around in the big trucks when we were little.

Dear Mom and Dad,

Remember back when I was a teenager and I used to get massive headaches everyday and you guys would take turns every night rubbing my head until I fell asleep? I do. And it meant a lot to me. Thanks

For a longer, more sincere tribute to my parents CLICK HERE

30 Days of Blogging - Day 23

Day 23 - Something you crave a lot.

There is a Bajio really close to where I work. Several times this week Rick has brought me dinner at work. When he asks what I want the answer is always the same - A green chile burrito from Bajio. The last time he brought me dinner he said that when he walked in they said "This guy loves that green chile burrito!" I don't know if I should be happy or embarrassed that they know exactly what I want.

Also, I love pizza. I crave pizza all the time. My absolute favorite is the vegetarian pizza from Papa John's.

Sometimes I wonder why I've gained 15 pounds since we've been married and then I write blogs like this and I wonder why I haven't gained 50 pounds instead.

30 Days of Blogging - Day 22

Day 22 - What makes you different from everyone else?

This is kind of a weird question. Everyone is different. Which makes us all the same. It's like that bumper sticker I saw once that said "You are Unique. Just like everybody else."

I don't know what makes me different. That depends completely on who you compare me to. If you compare me other women in Provo then I'm not very different at all - Mormon, married, blogger. If you compare me to someone in a poor village in Africa then I'm very different - Middle class American who married outside of her race, has a job, has a car, lives in a house, and blogs. I don't know how to answer this question, but my friend Heidi tagged me in her blog and told me to write 7 secrets about me. Except then they won't be secrets so how about 7 interesting facts about me instead. Maybe my 7 facts will make me different than everyone else.

1. For Christmas last year my parents gave us this huge first aid kit complete with gloves, a gown, a CPR mask and a glow stick (you never know when you'll need one?) I keep it in my car at all times because I feel like one day I will come across a huge car accident and need to help.

2. If I come across blood, pee, vomit, or feces, it's gross, but I can deal with it. But if you spit in front of me or if I can hear you spit I will gag and barf.

3. I hate feet. HATE. I hate them so much that I don't even like touching my own feet and every night before bed I put lotion on my feet and instead of rubbing it in with my hands I just rub my feet together. That's how much I hate feet.

4. I never eat breakfast. Ever. Yet somehow breakfast food is my favorite. I love eggs, bacon, toast, orange juice, pancakes, waffles, all the good breakfast foods, I just never eat them for breakfast.

5. I used to be able to fall asleep at the drop of the hat and sleep a solid 8+ hours undisturbed. I could sleep through an earthquake (literally, it happened when we went to Disneyland) and once I slept through the fire alarm outside my bedroom door going off. And now, with each passing day that I'm married to Rick, I sleep as well as a mother with a newborn baby. It takes me any where from 30 minutes to 2 hours to fall asleep now, and when Rick works a grave shift at first I loved it cause I had the whole bed to myself but now I can't sleep if he's not there and I usually don't fall asleep until he either gets home at 8 am or sometime after the sun comes up.

6. I have been driving on expired license plates for 2 days. Whoops.

7. When we're bored we do photoshoots and we take some sweet pictures.

I don't know who to tag in this, so if you want to write 7 secrets about yourself on your blog, consider yourself tagged.

30 Days of Blogging - Day 21

Day 21 - A picture of something that makes you happy.

More like pictures that make me laugh.

Number 1

Instructions to my Niece and Nephew's toy fish tank.

Number 2

Rick's celebrity lookalike. The lovely Emma Goldman.

Number 3

This is how much we all loved Space Mountain.

Number 4

I laugh so hard everytime I see this picture. I love photobooth.

30 Days of Blogging - Day 20

Day 20 - Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future.

Just kidding. Kind of.

So this post really doesn't apply to me since I already know who I'm going to be with in the future. But I don't want to blog about our future goals because I've already done that like 48 times. And if I keep talking about how much I want to have babies people will start to get suspicious/annoyed. So instead, just enjoy this picture of my awesome husband.

30 Days of Blogging - Day 19

Day 19 - Nicknames you have; why do you have them?

Jode - Because it's shorter than Jodi. Well it's 1 less syllable but still 4 letters.

Jodester - Because Rick adds "ster" to the end of everything. Sometimes Meeko is "The Meekster" and sometimes Justin Beiber is "Biebster".

Toad/Toady - Because it rhymes with Jode/Jodi.

Grodi Jodi - Because Marci gave me this nickname like 10 years ago and then everyone called me it.

Tami's Daughter - Because, well, you know.

30 Days of Blogging - Day 18

Day 18 - Plans/Dreams/Goals you have.

Have some babies. And dress them exactly like this.

Be a nurse. I googled "Labor and Delivery Nurse" and this was one of the pictures. Awesome.

Own this car.

Own a beautiful home.

Learn to be super crafty so I can decorate said home.

Go on a cruise with Rick.

30 Days of Blogging - Day 17

Day 17 - Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why.

1. Oprah Winfrey - To see what it's like to be rich.

2. Dr Phil - To see what it's like to be a life-changing genius. And it would be kinda interesting to see what it's like to be a guy.

3. Any of the Kardashian ladies - Do you see that hair?

30 Days of Blogging - Day 16

Day 16 - Another picture of yourself.

We got the okay from Rick's parents to keep Meeko at the house. We are so excited. For now, this is the closest we'll get to being parents.

He loves his Mama.

P.S. This is my 100th blog post. High five.

30 Days of Blogging - Day 15

Day 15 - Put your iPod on shuffle; first 10 songs that play.

1. Emergency Exit - Sense Field

Rick put all these songs on my ipod that I have never heard before or that are from artists I have never heard of. This is one of them.

2. Defying Gravity - Glee

I love Glee always and forever. And I'm going to wait until this song is over instead of just skipping to the next one to see what it is.

3. Under Pressure - Tupac

I wasn't kidding when I said I had 283 Tupac songs.

4. Poetic Tragedy - The Used

Back when Rick was Hardcore and in all these bands he used to play with The Used. He also used to play with Avenged Sevenfold. I basically married a Rock Star. Now I know how Bon Jovi's wife feels.

5. Be Our Guest - Beauty and The Beast

I will listen to Disney music until my dying day.

6. Ben - Michael Jackson

I still haven't seen "This Is It." I don't know what my problem is.

7. Star Struck - Yellowcard

Oh wow. Yellowcard? Really? I did not even know I had them on my ipod and now I'm embarrassed.

8. Iron Horse Hobo - Genea

Rick writes songs. Really pretty ones.

9. Ways & Means - Snow Patrol

Remember Snow Patrol?

10. 12.23.95 - Jimmy Eat World

I love Jimmy so much you guys.

I listened to that last Jimmy song and then the next song that came on was "We Got the Party" by Miley Cyrus.

Yep. I listen to Miley.

3 Days of Blogging - Day 14

Day 14 - A picture of you and your family.

I can say with 100% accuracy that I am the least popular person in my family. Remember how when you're a teenager your parents and your friends parents and all parents everywhere are so stupid? Everyone at school must have missed that memo because my friends thought my mom was the coolest. Apparently working with teenagers, being a substitute seminary teacher, and feeding everyone makes you very popular. Also I had 2 older brothers that everybody loved and that only made me known for being their younger sister. Remember Coach Preece? He has referred to me as every member in my family except myself. It was very nice having my brother Jordan graduate so that no one would call me "Jordan's little sister" anymore and then Jensenne came along and screwed that up for me.

Thanks, guys.

Really though I love my family.

I also love this family, although I'm really confused as to why I'm not in this picture.

But I love this family the most.

Yes, our Christmas Tree is up. And yes, those are 30 year old curtains from Chile.

Do you need a pet photographer? Because as of 11:16 pm today, Rick is a professional.

30 Days of Blogging - Day 12

Day 12 - How you found out about Blogs and why you made one.

Wanna know something funny? Back when I was 12 and Rick was 47 we were blog buddies. There was this thing called xanga and it was kind of the same thing as blogger. All the hip kids had a xanga. For real, it was so cool. Blogger is more like "Look at my cute husband and baby while I talk about recipes" and xanga was more like "My parents are so lame I am so cool I love Dashboard Confessional 4evr." Thankfully I deleted my xanga a while ago although I'm sure my embarrassing teenage posts are probably somewhere lost in cyberspace. Rick still has his xanga. He doesn't use it anymore, but he's had one for like 6 years. He transferred most of his posts to his new blog, which he said he would update regularly. He's a liar.

I honestly can't remember how I heard of blogger. I think it was just one of those hot new things. Myspace then Facebook. Xanga then Blogger. It happens. I started one a few times but never stuck with it. Then I finally started this blog the night we got engaged. I told myself it would be our family blog. It's not. Rick has blogged on "Team Brimhall" maybe 3 times. He has his own blog instead now. The only thing that makes this blog "Team Brimhall" instead of "All About Jodi" is the fact that I occasionally talk about Rick, and starting now, our dog Meeko, whom we also refer to as our baby. Yeah, we're those people.

P.S. Look at my cute husband and baby.

30 Days of Blogging - Day 11

Day 11 - Another picture of you and your friends.

These are my friends. Can you spot my bangs in this picture? Earlier in October we went to Frightmares. I have been to Lagoon plenty of times but I've never been during Frightmares. It was basically the same only with Halloween decorations, a few haunted houses, and a ton of fog.

Every time I go to Lagoon the first ride I go on is the white roller coaster. Tradition?

I do not remember the name of this ride but it's my favorite one. The one that spins around and around really fast while playing music. I laughed really hard the entire time.

So secretly I'm scared of roller coasters (mostly just heights) and whenever we are standing in line I am freaking out and really ornery and then we go on the ride and I have a lot of fun and want to go again so we have to wait in line again and I freak out again. This is me standing in line - having a super good attitude.

Rick wanted to do the drag racing. He was so excited. And don't worry, he's had a haircut since this picture was taken.

First place! He was so happy.

I went on the Samurai. I wanted to die. It was so scary and lasted for what felt like 8 days.

Overall this was my best Lagoon experience. I went on all the scary rides (I'm a huge wuss, in case you didn't know) and I didn't even barf once. That is what I call success.

30 Days of Blogging - Day 10

Day 10 - Songs you listen to when you are happy, sad, bored, hyper, mad.

The answer to all of the above is any song from any of the Glee soundtracks. I don't really have songs that I listen to when I am in a certain mood, rather I have songs that I listen to for a certain event. Like every time we go on a road trip we listen to a lot of Jimmy Eat World. And also quite a bit of Britney Spears (Rick will deny this until his dying day but the boy loves Britney. He can't remember the lyrics to a song that he wrote me when we were dating but he knows the lyrics to all of Britneys songs.)

However, when I'm hyper, I do listen to Tupac. I have 283 Tupac songs on my iPod.

Word, bitch.

30 Days of Blogging - Day 9

Day 9 - Something you're proud of in the past few days.

This little guy was going to be sent to the pound by his original owners so my mom rescued him. And then we rescued him from my mom's dog. We are hoping we can keep him. His name is Meeko and he is super cute and tiny. I didn't think I was a dog person until this little guy came into our lives. I'm proud to be his Mommy.

I'm also proud I only ALMOST bought this shirt for him instead of ACTUALLY buying it. Except replace the word "proud" with "embarrassed."

I'm proud that we got his haircut so now I can see his eyes.

But mostly I'm proud that my mom has the coolest ideas ever.

Happy Halloween from Chaplain G-Unit.

30 Days of Blogging - Day 8

Day 8 - Short term goals for this month and why.

The biggest goal I have would be for this upcoming Thanksgiving. I'm making a pumpkin cheesecake from scratch. Remember buying ingredients instead of buying boxed treats where you just add water? I don't. Wish me luck.

Other goals for this month:

1. Get over this cold.

2. Finish reading my book.

3. Eat more fruit/vegetables.

This is the most boring post ever.

30 Days of Blogging - Day 7

I thought that this "30 Days of Blogging" thing would help me be better at blogging. Nope.

Day 7 - A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you.

Do you ever look back and think "What would my life be like if I had/hadn't decided to [insert decision here]?" Sometimes Rick and I talk about what if he was never laid off from the railroad and didn't come back to Utah? What if I had married my ex? What if he had married his ex? What would our lives be like if we weren't married? No one knows for sure what their lives would be like but I'm pretty sure if I wasn't married to Rick my life would suck and be boring.

I love Rick. He's the coolest. I never in a million years thought I would end up with him and honestly when it comes to choice in movies, music, hobbies, and interests we have absolutely nothing in common, yet somehow we are so perfect for each other. I am always learning something for him and he always surprises me with his insightful comments and ideas.

The other night I told Rick that I didn't want to watch any more R rated movies. And that when we had kids I wanted us to either put them out of their reach and sight or to just get rid of them period. He said he would be back in a few minutes. When he came back into the bedroom he brought with him a garbage can, and 2 garbages bags full of all of our R rated movies. He took them out 1 by 1 and cut them in half with wire cutters then threw the broken discs into the garbage can. He even did this with some movies we had that were brand new and still in the package. As he was doing this I said "You know if we sold those for like $5 each we could make like $200" and he said "No sense in passing on the poison to someone else."

If you've never watched an R rated movie then this might seem like it's not a big deal. If you've been watching them for 10 years than it is a big deal. If you're an artsy person who's passion is film and making movies (not R rated ones) then it is a big deal, and it is a very hard habit to break. But just like that he did it. I asked him why he was destroying all of them instead of just throwing them away, and why was he doing this? "I feel fine with my life if I watch an R rated movie, but if my wife is not okay with it then it is not okay, if my wife is not happy then I do not have a happy home. That is not okay. And if I just throw them away then it's not real enough. The only way I will stick with this is if I cut up each and every DVD."

Now THAT is a man who loves his wife.

30 Days of Blogging - Day 6

Day 6 - Your favorite Superhero and why.

Dwight: A hero kills people - people that wish him harm. A hero is part human, and part supernatural. A hero is born out of a childhood trauma or out of a disaster that must be avenged.

Diversity Day Trainer: Ok, um, you're thinking of a superhero.

Dwight: We all have a hero in our heart.

My favorite superhero is Storm. She is my favorite for 2 reasons. 1 - Halle Berry can rock the white hair, 2 - I would love being able to control the weather. I have an irrational fear of wind and I would be able to control that and I would make winter not exist.

30 Days of Blogging - Day 5

Day 5 - A picture of somewhere you've been.

I cried.

I cried out of fear. Stingrays are big suckers.

I cried the next day when my sunburn was nice and fresh.

Hopefully someday we can add this picture to the list.

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

I'll cry tears of joy for being able to eat Mexican food for breakfast, lunch and dinner.