Katie Phelps

This last weekend, Bryan and I went down to St. George with Jordan and Kinsale Barker. We had such a great time. It was warmer than here, relaxing and great to get away (Bryan and I haven’t been out of the county since December and it’s been much longer than that since we had a vacation). While we were down there, the St. George Parade of Homes was going on and we thought it might be fun to go to a couple of houses. There, I found my next house!

If you want more information about this super cool house. Click here. Its only $4.3 million , no biggie.

We can always dream, right?

(Also, I have been playing around with this thing called a lightbox and FINALLY got it to work.  Click on the pictures… it’s neat-o)

The other day, I was very bored at home.  Bryan was at school and I was just sitting around not doing much of anything (when only two people live in the house, there is only so much cleaning you can do).  So I did what I normally do when I am bored: I called my mom.  We chatted for a little bit and I complained that I was bored.  She tried to help me think of something I could do, and finally decided that I just need a hobby.  So I’ve been thinking about that for a little bit.  What should I do for a hobby?  She suggested that I need to scrapbook some of my pictures (Nearly 2 years after my wedding, I still don’t have a single wedding picture printed out), then added, “but stick to your strengths Katie, you could do it all on the computer.”  I do already know all of the programs, and my business card does say graphic designer… so why not? So I have been looking a lot into the whole idea of digital scrapbooking (I am worried that my pages will come out more like newspaper layouts, because that is what I know, instead of cute pages).  I think I am going to start.  I need to set a goal or it won’t happen.  So, my goal is by this time next week I will have made one page. (who knows how long it will take me to do a page)  I think I’ll start with my recent San Francisco trip.  So next Monday, I will post some pages about my San Fran trip.  Look for it.

Okay.  A few days ago, Keri sent out a weekly challenge — tell her about our funniest moment. I always like a challenge.  So I have been thinking about it for a little bit and thought of a few funny moments, but tonight was telling Bryan about it.  He said the moments I had thought of were pretty good, but he had a better one: when he told me and I remembered I laughed out loud at Target.  So here it is.  One of the most funny moments we have shared.  (Most of my stories are you-had-to-be-there-funny, so I hope this one isn’t.)

A little background: Bryan and I had just gotten married and were living in an apartment in Orem, over by the Scera Pool.  It was a pretty old place and it didn’t have t.v., internet, or air conditioning.  There was a small AC unit in the bedroom window that kept our bedroom cool, but only the bedroom. So we spent a lot of time in the only cool room watching DVDs of LOST on our computer and playing Roller Coaster Tycoon (a computer game).   This was the summer of 2006, so if you remember, it was a pretty warm summer (or maybe it wasn’t more warm than usual, but because we didn’t have AC it seemed like it was too warm.)  Also in an effort to keep cool, we kept a lot of Otter Pops (my favorite summer treat) in the freezer and Kool-Aid in the fridge.

It was only one or two months after we had gotten married so we were still not all the way comfortable around each other. Bryan and I had just completed a level on Roller Coaster Tycoon.  We went into the kitchen to get something to drink and were just standing talking.  I was standing in the doorway and Bryan was standing facing me drinking a glass of Kool-Aid (our kitchen was not very big and we were probably only two or so feet away from each other).  As we talked, he took a drink and pulled the cup away from his mouth; just as he pulled it down from his mouth he coughed, and coughed hard.  I stood and watched as Kool-Aid came shooting out of his mouth like a cartoon!   There was nothing I could do but watch as the mouth full of red Kool-Aid came straight for my face.

It went everywhere! It was all over my face, in my hair, all over my clothes and splattered all over the walls.  I stood frozen, not sure what to do and Bryan just started laughing so hard.  After the initial shock wore off, I realized how funny I must have looked and we both stood, me covered in Kool-Aid, laughing.  I remember cleaning that apartment before we moved and found little spots of red Kool-Aid that we missed when we cleaned up that night.  Even now as we thought about it tonight we both laughed.  I will never forget watching as the red liquid came shooting right at my face like a hose.  It was so funny.

Things like that are just great.  It reminds me of one my favorite songs by the Barenaked Ladies:

Come on now, now
Come on now, now
Enjoy the humour of the situation
Come on now, now
Come on now, now
Enjoy the humour of the situation

In life there are so many situations where we just need to step back and enjoy the humor of the situation.  Laughing about it, is sometimes the best things you can do.

Today, I am very proud of myself. As you can see, I have changed my theme on my blog. I have been thinking for a little bit that I wanted to change it to something that was a little bit cleaner. Something with a little less going on. So I looked around for a new theme and found one I liked (as seen on the left). I loved the way it looked and the way it was set up, but I don’t have a furniture blog so I wanted to change the picture. (although I do love that picture and wish that it were my living room)

So I set about changing the picture and wanted to use these stars that I had made one day when I was bored. I loved the orange and green of the original theme but was having a hard time matching the colors. So I thought, I like the pink and green, I’ll use that. After that, I knew I needed to change all the text colors to match my picture that I made, so I set off editing the CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Normally, when I want something changed on my blog I just have my handsome handsome husband do it for me, but he has been slowly showing me bits and pieces of code, so I decided I was going to do it myself. So I set off sampling colors, finding and replacing them, and changing it all to what you see now. The page links on the picture did prove to be a little bit tricky, but I took the background off, changd the color and made the font regular and not bold. I even made it so when you hover over the link they underline instead of change the background color. ALL IN THE CODE! I even added a little picture to the address bar on your internet browser. (right next to where it says: www.katiephelps.com).

I think it turned out very nice. And I am just very proud of myself that I was able to figure it out, and change it all with minimal help (my handsome handsome husband is so patient with me when I constantly ask him questions.)

Wahoo!

Take the Quiz

Just a little bit of fun for Valentine’s Day. 

This is what I forgot I was also going to do: I was tagged by Kari and Barrus. So I guess I’ll do this: (Bryan’s playing Guitar Hero now and I don’t really have much else to do, but fold laundry — I’ll hold off on that)

10 years ago:
I was 13 and was in the 7th grade. I think I was just becoming really good friends with Dani. Those three years of Jr. High were crazy, but so much fun. (I don’t think I’d do high school over again, but I don’t think I would be too opposed to doing jr. high over again.)

5 things on my to-do list today:
1. Finish my direct mail pieces

2. Organize papers in the office and file them 

3. Make it through a whole day of work 

4. Clean master bathroom

5. Layout Dr. Tillery article

(Wow, I was mostly productive today. Hooray!)

Snacks I enjoy:

Chocolate, ice cream, potato chips and ranch dressing, bagels, chips and salsa, peanuts, oatmeal, starburst, strawberry milk, normal milk, cookies, fruit snacks, root beer, mmm food.

I would do if I were suddenly made a billionaire:
Pay my tithing and fast offerings. Buy an X6. Buy my dad a 5 series BMW. Buy a new house (with a garage!) Quit my job (maybe I would see if I could stay on part time as just a designer) I actually would probably save quite a bit of it. Bryan helps me be a good money saver. Buy a whole new wardrobe. LOTS of shoes.
3 of my bad habits:
I talk way too much
I leave my clothes all over the house

I am obsessively organized (and only like to organize things my way)

5 places I have lived:
Orem
Highland
Rexburg
(That’s all. I guess I lived in three different places in Orem and four different places in Rexburg)
5 jobs that I have had:
KMart
Target
BYU-Idaho Scroll
BLM
Henry Schein Practice Solutions

5 Things people don’t know about me: (I’ll have to do that most people don’t know)
1. I like green jello: ALOT. In high school there was a guy who had a crush on me and for Christmas he gave me around 30 boxes of green jello. So strange. I also had a running joke with a guy in jr. high about if red or green jello was better.

2. I am terribly afraid of sharks. I have no reason to be, I just am. Even the thought of being in the ocean with one scares me. Not right off the shore, but we went ocean kayaking in Mexico and I just the thought that there might be sharks below me scared me so much.

3. My older brother is a rock star (seriously). He’s Bert McCracken from The Used (www.theused.net). Some people can’t really see us being related, but we are actually quite a bit alike. He’s great. I love him.

4. I like to have my start menu bar at the top of the screen on my computer. It drives some people who come to work on my computer (Ian) crazy. I love it though. I’m not sure why I started to do it that way, I just like it better.

5. I CAN NOT sleep with socks on. Doesn’t matter how cold my feet are I won’t be able to sleep if I have socks on.

The five people I tag are:Hmm. Let’s pick:

Lindsay (again) and Melanie (that’s all I can think of right now. The end)

I’ve been sick lately. But there have been so many things I have wanted to put on here. So I think I’ll just put them all.

1. Teddy’s Hair Cut

We took Teddy to get a haircut. He’s the type of dog that doesn’t shed, but his hair had become so long that he started to leave little fur balls all over our house (mostly our couch would attract them). Normally when he gets a haircut, they cut his body, legs and head short but leave his ears and tail longer and a little bit poofy. Bryan thought that looked dumb, so this time I told them to cut it all short.

BEFORE:
This is Teddy not right before the most recent haircut (since there is no snow on the ground) but right before his very very first haircut last June. Just to give you an idea of how poofy he can get.

AFTER:
Here is Teddy after his haircut. I’ve decided that he doesn’t look like a Teddy anymore. So now I like to call him Stanley. Bryan think that probably confuses him. But he answers to Rat Monster. So I don’t think calling him Stanley is really going to mess him up too much. Oh well. He’s funny.

2. Being Sick

I have officially decided that being sick is not fun at all. I started to feel sick Wednesday/Thursday. Friday I finally went into the doctor because of some horrible pains in my head. I didn’t want the pain in my head to be something serious. And Steph (happy birthday, by the way — I need to bring your present over to you) once told me her dad said if it is a problem with your ears then I should go in (her dad’s a doctor). So I went in and decided that places like doctor’s office with lots of sick people in them, need to invest in soft tissue. The kind with lotion in it. Their tissue was like sandpaper. Now my nose just hurts. But after taking the antibiotics he gave me, I am feeling much much much better. It’s fabulous. And to the soup maker: THANK YOU! The last thing that I wanted to do yesteday when I was feeling all blah was to cook dinner, and it was really yummy.

3. The Power of Prayer

One of my big problems that I have had while I have been sick is my ears won’t pop.

IT DRIVES ME CRAZY!

So yesterday as Bryan and I were sitting down to eat some yummy soup for dinner, I said the prayer. As I prayed, my ear plugged up and wouldn’t pop. So at the end of the prayer, I paused, and said: “Please bless that my ear will pop.” And Bryan stared laughing at me (yes, during the prayer). So then I thought. “Well, if I have faith and try to pop it now before I finish praying then it will pop, just like I prayed it would.” So before I finished and closed my prayer I paused once again and tried to pop my ear. It didn’t work instantly, so I closed our prayer. And only a few seconds after I had finished the prayer, picked up my spoon and almost had my soup in my mouth, my ear popped!

The power of prayer is amazing. The Lord is listening to our prayers, hears them, and answers them. Even for things that seem so small and insignificant. It is wonderful.

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Well, I thought there was something else that I wanted to write about but now I can’t remember. So I’ll be done. Everyone have a great night!

Oh yes. And if you get a chance (and care) check out some new exciting blogs:

www.melface.com (my little sister: Melanie McCracken)

www.jonnybryson.com/lindsay (my sister-in-law: Lindsay Bryson)

www.mrkevo.com (my brother-in-law: Kevin Phelps)

Enjoy!

Earlier this week on Wednesday, I was having a pretty good day. Things are work were going well. I was getting the things done that I needed, there were no fires that I needed to put out. Overall, it was a great day: until I drove home.

I live 7.9 miles away from work. So it never takes me very long. It takes me a minute to jump on the freeway, a couple of minutes going south, then a couple of minutes after I get off the freeway to get to my house. But on Wednesday, I was on the freeway from 5:15, when I left work, until 6:05.

As I was driving along, suddenly all lanes of traffic stopped. Stopped. I had my car in park for 10 minutes while I sat on the freeway. As I listened to the radio, I finally heard that there had been an accident and that highway patrol was only letting the two left lanes go through. So I got into the farthest left lane that wasn’t the carpool lane (I was alone and don’t know if because there is an accident if I was able to go into that lane or not. A lot of other people who shouldn’t have been in that lane got into it. Does anybody know if the rules for the carpool lane change because of an accident?) So I was crawling along in the left lane, when a semi in the middle lane decided that he wanted in my lane. Since I wasn’t going anywhere anyway, I held back to make room for him. Just as I did that, a semi came up next to me in the carpool lane. I guess he noticed that there was a big gap in front of me and decided he wanted in that gap too. So the semi in the middle lane is beginning to make his way into the lane in front of me and suddenly the semi in the carpool lane swerves into my lane. The key to understand though, is that neither of these trucks were far enough in front of me to actually fit in the space I had left. So while both of the truck parts of their vehicles were getting over, had they tried to get over, their trailers were going to make a sandwich out of me. (and I love my little carolla, but I’m pretty sure that in a match with two semis vs. a carolla, the semis would have won.) Now I’m sure what I should have done was honk my horn to let them know they were about to squish me and run right into each other. But the only thing I could do was put my hands over my mouth and brace myself for the accident I was sure was going to come.

Luckily though, the semi in the carpool lane must have noticed that he was about to be smashed by the other semi, and smash me in the process, because he swerved back into the carpool lane and went on his way. The other semi moved up enough, that he could finally get over without killing me and then moved over again into the carpool lane. All the while, I am still sitting in my car with my hands over my mouth and my foot firmly on the brake. I finally realized the danger was gone, moved forward to fill the semi-sized gap between me and the car in front of me and began to bawl.

I called my mom and told her what happened and cried some more (I had never been so close to being in an accident before — especially one that I was watching it about to happen and couldn’t do anything about it). By the time that I made it home, I had finished crying, but my whole body was shaking. And to make the evening even worse, Bryan was at school and wouldn’t be home until 8:45. So I decided to wrap up in a blanket, watch tv and just try to forget what happened to freak me out.

That’s when my miracle happened. (well, I guess it was my second miracle for the day, because I did make it safely home)

As I was sitting and watching tv, my doorbell rang. I wasn’t expecting anyone and opened the door and no one was there, but there was a green bowl on my door step with a note. I brought the bowl full of goodies in side and read the note.

Here are a few things I thought you’d enjoy eating when you watch LOST. Love, S.S.

And inside the bowl were goodies with the DHARMA logo taped on them. (If you love LOST as much as I do, you know exactly what logo I am talking about) Now this wasn’t a big thing, but this simple act meant so much to me that evening. It took my mind off of what had happened earlier to freak me out so much and helped me remember that the Lord is always watching over me, protects me, and will comfort me when I need it most. I am sure this sister had no idea that the exact day she dropped that on my door step was the day I would need something like that so much. But she was truly acting as an angel for the Lord that day.

Thank you, to whoever you are. That simple act of kindness made my day more than you know.