Back by popular demand

Okay, so I have been asked to tell you all some wonderful stories about why my siblings need me for common sense! As we have been brainstorming, there are definitely more stories about my lovely sister, Beth. So here you go...

Oh yeah, by the way... Only 11 of the following 12 stories are true. Try and guess which one Beth didn't actually do!

*Disclaimer*
Beth really is a smart girl. She got a 32 on her ACT, 1500 on her SAT, and graduated Magna Cum Laude from St. Olaf this past spring. She just lacks common sense on occasion :)

#12 - When we were younger, Beth got really mad at me and threw the TV remote at my head. She started screaming bloody-murder because she thought she had cracked my head open and that I was bleeding. Well, it turns out that what she thought was blood, was actually just the red headband that I was wearing.

#11 - Only about a month after we moved into our new house, Beth got locked out. She hadn't met any of our neighbors and she didn't know what to do. She was scared and it was nighttime. She decided that the smartest thing to do would be to walk to our closest neighbor (about a half a mile) and use their phone. Instead of taking one of our dogs with her, she decided the best thing to do would be to take our cat to protect her. Yeah, good call, Beth! Apparently, she thought she could throw him if someone tried to attack her.

#10 - Shortly after Beth got her driver's license she came to pick me up at the pool. We were about to pull out of the parking lot when she asked, "Oh, how do we get to school?" Wow, Beth! That's just sad...

#9 - At a swim meet just this past winter, Beth and Cali got in the car to leave. While they had been inside, someone had put flyers on all the car windshields. Cali asked Beth to please grab it off the windshield. Well, Beth tried to grab it and hit the windshield. She then realized that it was OUTSIDE the window, not inside.

#8 - Beth was trying to bake a cake for my dad. She read the recipe and it called for confectioners sugar. Beth had no clue what that was, so she just used regular sugar. The cake was awful, but good old Dad ate it anyway. (*Note: If anyone doesn't know... She should have used powdered sugar!)

#7 - Back when I was in high school, I had gone golfing with Greg, Tim, and Breanna. After golf, we all went back to my house to grill for dinner. My brother had a go-cart, so we thought it'd be fun to take a ride. Well, Greg, Breanna, and I went in to cook while Beth and Tim went for a drive. I don't exactly know what happened (because I wasn't actually on the go-cart). But the story goes something like... Tim pointed and asked what was "down there." Beth said it was a trail. And they ended up driving into a ravine!

#6 - Our family went on a trip to Washington DC. I'd guess that Beth was around 7 or 8 years old. We were all getting ready to head out for the day and Beth said that she couldn't find her sock. We tore our entire hotel room apart searching for her sock. We couldn't find it anywhere, so finally my mom told her to just take her one sock off and grab a new pair. When she took the sock off, what do you suppose happened? Yep, she found the other sock! She had put both of them on the same foot!

#5 - After a swim meet, Beth and another coach were driving home. They had taken my car for the day (A 95 Chevy Lumina). They were hungry so they decided to pull into McDonald's and get some food. They got behind a Chevy Lumina in the drive through and Beth said, "Hey, it's a Chevy Lumina. My sister drives one of those." And the other coach's response... "Yeah, we're in it!"

#4 - When Beth was in high school, she was making a Spanish video. In the video, she needed to sneeze. So she got the genius idea to sniff a little pepper to help her along. Unfortunately, she inhaled too deeply and snorted a massive quantity of pepper. Needless to say, there was a lot of screaming, and crying, and laughing while she tried to get it out.

#3 - When I was in college, Beth was suppose to come up to visit me. My parents had given her directions and I told her to call when she got close. Well, about two hours after she had left Rochester, I got a call. I could tell she was crying. I asked her where she was and she answered, "I'm in Wyoming." I was so confused because I knew she couldn't have made it all the way to Wyoming in such short a time. It turned out that she had missed her exit and had stayed on I35. She was in Wyoming, MN. It took her about 8 hours to get to Moorhead, which is almost twice as long as it should take you.

#2 - One day, Beth was getting ready to make a sandwich. We were all out of bread, so she got a loaf out of the freezer. Mom told her just to throw "it" in the microwave to defrost it. Well, instead of putting a few slices in, Beth threw in the entire loaf (twist-tie and all). In only a matter of seconds, we had a full-out fire in the microwave! She screamed at me to go get mom and dad. By the time my mom came in, the whole loaf was burned to a crisp!

#1 - One warm spring day on the beautiful campus at St. Olaf, Beth was walking home from lunch with her roommate, Andrea. Beth turned to Andrea and asked if she knew why there was toothpaste on their window.
Andrea said, "No."
Beth continued, "Because this morning I woke up and I went to open the window and I saw a big smudge on it. So I tasted it and it was toothpaste."
Andrea looked bewildered, "Wait a second. Go back. You saw a smudge and you didn't know what it was, so you TASTED it?!?"

That's all I can think of right now... Beth, Matt, and I are all in tears from laughing. I hope you enjoy! I'll let y'all know if I come up with any other good stories!

A funny thing happened on the way to the forum...

Tonight after work and I was quietly sitting at my computer trying to get some work done. Beth came into the room and was pacing back and forth. I turned around and asked her what was wrong. She couldn't find her phone, so she was starting to get frantic (I think she thought she lost it and it's only 2 days old!) Anyway, I went back to my work and kind of ignored her because she always misplaces things. She kept looking, but still couldn't find it. So I, being the brilliant person that I am, decided to use my phone to call hers.

Well, her phone started ringing........ FROM HER POCKET!!! Oh goodness! This is why my siblings need me for the "common sense" part of their team :)

If you would like more examples of their lack of common sense, just ask. I am sure I can come up with a bunch of stories for both of them!

Today's Tidbit: I was at work this afternoon, it was about ten after 6 and Beth came over to where I was standing. She asked if Open Swim had started. I was so confused because it never starts until we're out of the pool. Well, some woman had come over and just started swimming. Right in the middle of our lessons! I had to go ask her to get out of the pool until 6:30 when the life guards come. She seemed really annoyed that I would dare to ask her that! What the heck? Yeah, so that's my story for the night... People are crazy!

Take me to Mt Theodore Roosevelt!

Well, it was another great day at the swim meet! We had a really tight race going with West Express to win the meet. In the end, we pulled it off with a score of 4410 to 4399. It was close! Way to go Orcas!

Highlights of the day: All of the seniors leading the team cheer at finals tonight. What a way to end their last home meet before they all go their separate ways! As for the swims, the highlights were... Jenna's relay split, Ilana's 50 back - Man did she go out after it!, Matt's 100 breast, the senior boys relay - we finally pulled one out!, BK winning his 200 back and the kid that was way out in front of him after the race, all of the 8 & Under races - it was hard not to cry when the finished every race, and many, many more :)

Today's Tidbit: My siblings and I have decided that we need to go on "Treasure Hunters." It's a great show to watch, I highly recommend it! Anyway, we think that we'll be a great team! Matt = The Braun! Beth = The Brains! Janet = The Common Sense ;)

Do you want to tussle?

Okay, so I have spent the last 11 hours of my life at the Rec. Center for a swim meet. I do not think that my feet, my knees, and my back have ever hurt this much. I must be getting old ;)

We had some interesting developments today...

#1 - One of our 11 year-old boys asked Cali if she wanted to "tussle." He said that he knew he could totally take her! Her response... "Kid, I've been through child birth!"

#2 - One of my 10 year-old girls won her 50 breaststroke. After she won, she started to cry because she was so happy. This, of course, made me start to cry. Cali's comment on that one, "Janet sees a dog crying, she cries. Janet sees a cat crying, she cries. Dude, Janet cries at commercials!" Okay, so the first two have NEVER happened... But I sadly have to admit to the third one.

#3 - Nancy knew that we were hot on deck, so she made us cookie ice cream sandwiches. Now, this idea was a terrific one! However, the ice cream melted EVERYWHERE! It was a huge mess, but I know that the kids cracked up watching us eat.

#4 - I had to yell at almost all of our kids for sitting down when they were suppose to be cheering. I don't think they expected me to get mad, but boy were they wrong! Haha, I can be mean when I need to be.

#5 - My brother came up to me when I was talking to one of my swimmers. He put his arm around me and said, "Did you know that this is my sister?" Riley said he didn't know that and Matt asked if he could see the family resemblance. Riley said that he kinda could. Finally, we asked Riley who he thought was older. Of course he guessed Matt! What do I have to do?!? Matt started cracking up and enlightened Riley, who then looked sheepish. We assured him that it happens all the time. Come on people, do I really look that young?!?

Highlights of the day: Matt and Kari leading an insanely loud version of the team cheer at finals tonight, Ilana's 50 fly at prelims, Bobby making 2 more champ times and a new A time this afternoon, Frankie and Alex each making a new champ time, Lauren's 50 fly, Ilana's 50 breast in finals, Teddy staying through all night of finals in case he was needed to swim (he was 1st alternate), and oh, so many more!

Today's Tidbit: Oh my goodness! I am so proud of how all of my swimmers did! They really stepped up and we are only 23 points behind West Express going into tomorrow! Gooooooo Orcas!

To the top of Mount Wanna-Hock-A-Loogie

It’s Tuesday night… You know what that means! Okay, maybe not so much. It means it was YDKMP movie night! Every summer, when all of our friends are home, we pick one night a meet and go to see a movie. We send e-mails back and forth, decide what we’re going to see, pick a time, and then whoever wants to go, can meet at Chateau.

This week, we decided to see Cars, the new Pixar movie. The only people back in town this summer are Jeff, Missy, Beth, and me. The four of us, plus Jeff’s sister met up at 7:40 and got ready for what was sure to be a great flick!

I have never been disappointed with a Pixar movie. It seems like I always see the previews, think it looks stupid, see it anyway, and end up loving it! I love everything from the shorts at the beginning to the end credits. And by the way, these were the best end credits yet! It was awesome!

I loved the movie! I cried, of course. The songs were great; they actually had a real soundtrack for this movie. A lot of it was country music, which I, of course, love! Rascal Flatts, Brad Paisley, Sheryl Crow, etc.

After the movie, we were all talking about our favorite Pixar movies and what order we would put all of them in. So, here you go. Here is my order! Of course, It has been a while since I’ve seen some of them. Beth and I are going to have a Pixar marathon soon. This could change after that, but for now… Here you go!

1 – Finding Nemo (2003)
I saw this like 15 times in theaters. Nothing will ever compare, or at least, I don’t think so. Mel, Karrie, Beth, and I have matching shirts filled with quotes from this movie. I even named my two cats Dory & Nigel!

2 – The Incredibles (2004)
In my mind, this is probably the funniest Pixar movie. I love all of the poking fun at other superhero/James Bond-ish movies!

3 – Cars (2006)
I liked the moral of this one. I laughed, I cried, I fell in love with the characters. I was even reminded to slow down and enjoy life!

4 – Monster’s Inc. (2001)
I love Boo! Enough said!

5 – Toy Story (1995)
I love Pixar’s first feature-length film. This movie had a great sense of humor about it! We’re still quoting the movie today… “To infinity and beyond!”

6 & 7 – A Bug’s Life (1998) and Toy Story 2 (1999)
It’s hard to pick which Pixar movie is my “least favorite” because they are all so good! These two just don’t really stick out in my memories of Pixar movies…

Today's Tidbit: Can anyone name all of the characters that John Ratzenberger has voiced?!? No cheating! If you look it up on IMDB, I am so not impressed :)

My life... In a walnut shell?

Well, I totally slacked off over the weekend, my apologies! I am not sure that I have too much to report on my end... Our summer work schedule officially started today. It was beautiful out this morning at the pool! Although, I clearly missed some spots with the sunscreen and now I have really funny sunburns. Oh well!

Laura left this morning... She called last night to say good-bye. It was hard, but at the same time, I am so excited for her! I mean, seriously, I just keep thinking about all of the people she is going to share the love of Jesus with! It's so amazing! I will be praying hard-core this month for her and for the trip, so you all should do the same!

Let's see... What else... My cousin, Angie, is pregnant! I'm way excited for her! She's having a little girl and they are planning on naming her Elizabeth. She's due on September 2nd, so hopefully I will get to see the baby when we go up to see Matt sometime this fall.

Tomorrow... You will get to hear the saga of my basement construction! I'm sure you'll all be waiting anxiously for that!

Today's Tidbit: My dad actually encouraged me to apply for a job at Hobby Lobby today... Interesting...

Verbology

Last night was pretty great! I will admit it. I had a blast! I left my house around 5:30 to go pick up Amanda. We had a heck of a time getting out of Rochester, but we finally made it to Blooming Prairie for the TEC Council meeting. It was a good meeting; there was a good share of laughing, so that’s always good! I loved Ben’s whole Candidate vs. candidate thing and Greg’s new word.

After the meeting, we started a nice little caravan up to the Perkins in Owatonna. Laura told everyone to follow me. At first it was me, and then Laura, then Mariah, then Carl and Nate, the Bauer and Kim, and then Sarah in the back. Laura was driving too slowly for Bauer, so he passed everyone and got right behind me. When we got up to O-Town, I got on HWY 14 and took that over to 35. Bauer was smart and followed me. Laura decided to take everyone else through town. They managed to lose Sarah, but they did all make it there finally.

Perkins was good; we definitely laughed a lot there! Since Bauer, Kim, and I got there so much before everyone… We put our time to good use and hopefully Nate will be getting some phone calls! Haha! Again, we made Laura spell things. She did okay with some help. And the kids planned some awesome talent for the next TEC!

We left Perkins around 10:30 and Laura and I went back to her house. Pretty sure I got home at 3:30. Oh well, it was totally worth it! I always love our conversations. We had an interesting interruption around 1 o’clock that made me laugh. I’m going to miss that girl over the next month!
That’s all I’ve got… I’m still trying to work it out to work the next TEC… Stupid bosses! I’ll let y’all know!

Today’s Tidbit: I was at work this morning and 100 people from some obesity committee paraded in and “observed” our swim practice. At the moment they walked in, we had our group running a lap around the pool! Great timing…

The Answer Is...

Okay, so my sister has been living with me now for a little over a week. We actually get along really well, so it’s been pretty good. We are two VERY different people, which you know by now if you know us, but we have a good time together. Right now we are squished into just the upstairs of the house because we haven’t put the new carpet down in the basement because of the plumbing disaster… But that’s another blog all together! Since we are basically we live in one room. We have our computers, our dining room table, and our TV all in one room…

Well, Beth is totally obsessed with Jeopardy! She DOES NOT miss episodes… EVER! Last night we were even late meeting friends at the movie theater because we were finishing watching an episode. The two of us don’t watch that much TV together, at least not in the summer, but Jeopardy! has been one thing that we have. We sit together on our teeny, tiny love seat, with the kitties in our lap, and settle in for our 23 minute date with Alec Trebek.

Beth really likes to play along, so I have begun that too. She knows almost all of the answers, I know hardly any. When I can actually beat her to answer one, I am so proud of myself! She always answers in the form of a question, I just blurt it out. Like I said, we are very different people! So yeah, Jeopardy! has become our “bonding” time every day. Soon though, it will go to reruns for the summer. Of course, we’ll still have our 11 o’clock episodes on GSN!

Today’s Tidbit: We had a swim meet tonight and my boss, John, was announcing all the kids’ names before they swam. We have this one little girl and her last name is Marin-Mera. However, John called her Maite Marinara! Want some spaghetti with that John?!?

Silent H's

While there is NOT a silent H in the word WHOLE, there are, at least a few, words that do have a silent H in them. My sister and I came up with two to start the list... Who has more to add?!?

Hour
Hors d'oeuvres

Matt Madness

Well, this weekend was ALL about Matt... But, it was so much fun! His open house was amazing! There were SOOOOO many people there! I pretty much spent the whole day with Matt and Laura. It was so fun! I also got to see my first grade teacher (who wants me to sub for her next year!), my high school biology teacher, my best friend from my old neighborhood and her family (who I hadn't seen in 10 years!), and TONS of other cool people!

The swimmers stayed and hung-out until about 9:30. We were sitting around telling funny stories! It was so great! Prank phone calls, taking a Kayak to London, "I thought R stood for Run!", and walking into a screen door! Ah, good times!

After the party, Nate and Dan came. Kari stayed too and we played Scene It, ESPN Scene It, Trivial Pursuit: Pop Culture, and Apples to Apples. Then, Dan, Nate, and Matt had their little PS2 basketball tourney... AKA Matt Madness. I'm pretty sure we were up until around 4:30 or 5 this morning. All in all, it was a great weekend!

Today's Tidbit: Nate, Dan, Matt, Beth, Michael, and I ate three full bags of chips in less than an hour last night!

Century High School: Established in 1997 and now graduating it's 7th class of seniors!

My parents have finally made it to this day, and they could not be happier! What day, you might ask? The day where all three of their children have graduated from high school! Matt became the last of us to graduate tonight. It was quite exciting! Our whole family (well, my mom's side) was there to watch the grand event!

The speeches weren't all that good, but I did really enjoy the one given by the principal. It made me cry... Not that that should be a big surprise to anyone or anything, but yeah... We had some good times laughing about things going on around us, so that's always good!

After graduation, we went to Whistle Binkie's for dinner. I was laughing so hard with my sister and my two cousins. We talked about weird names that celebrities give to their children, the crazy "foreigners" (I do not mean for that to sound offensive, it's just an inside joke), and sneaking out of houses... Wow, good times! And then Michael drove us all home in my car. We were totally jamming out to "We Didn't Start the Fire" and "Somebody Told Me."

We set up for Matt's party at my parent's house and then Beth, Anna, and I came home. On that car ride, we blasted "Addicted," "Barbie Girl," and "500 Miles." Wow, Karaoke, here we come!

Today's Tidbit: The weirdest celebrity baby name that we came up with was... Drumroll please... Okay, so I actually couldn't pick just one. I nominate the daughter of Sir Bob Geldof... Peaches Honeyblossom... And her sisters, Fifi Trixibelle, Pixie, and Heavenly Hirani Tigerlilly.

50's and 60's Music

Okay... So my brother's graduation open house is on Sunday and we're doing a kind of Classic American/American Graffiti/50's and 60's theme. My family is kind of into themes... Mine was a Mexican Fiesta and Beth's was a Hawaiian Luau.

Anyway, so my sister has been in charge of putting together a playlist for my mom's iPod to play at the party. It's been pretty fun trying to find music. Our favorite moment was when we first started. My mom had already added some of her songs to the playlist. We almost died laughing when we saw that she had added a Moody Blues song from 1989! We are willing to stretch it a little bit, but that's 20 years too new! Haha!

I think we have around 6 hours of songs to play... That should work well since the party is only scheduled for 4 hours. Although, it will easily go longer than that... Especially since some really cool people are going to spend the night! Whoo hoo!

Well, you should all come! It's going to be a fun one!

Today's Tidbit: My dad, sister, and I were all watching the Twins game last night. We could not stop laughing about the pitcher's name. I'm sorry, but it's so great! Boof Bonser... What a name!!!

Frustrated

Wow! I am shocked that one stupid, little, insignificant e-mail can evoke such emotion from me! But let me tell you... It most certainly did!

My boss just sent an e-mail with an "updated" summer schedule for all of the coaches. Before, I had 27 hours at the pool. Which is a lot considering all of the administrative work I do at home. I probably do at least 30 hours of that a week. I wasn't thrilled with the original schedule, but I was okay with it. The hours were fairly evenly dispersed among the staff and it seemed reasonably fair.

Well, this new schedule not only has me working MORE hours than the original one, it also has me working more hours than any other staff member! I feel like my boss is punishing me because I am quitting. I don't know, I'm totally pissed! Two of the other coaches have quite a few hours, but then three have more than 10 hours a week less than me! Including my sister who only has 18 hours at the pool. She's not too happy about that one either. She was assuming she'd start on salary (which is what I did right after I graduated). But these low hours indicated that he's going to pay her hourly. She can't afford that, she has bills to pay (and a crazy landlady who will want a rent check!) Haha!

Anyway, it's total crap and I don't know what to do. Part of me thinks that I should ignore it because it's my last summer and there is no need to ruffle any feathers on my way out. But, on the other hand... I know that this is totally wrong and I should stand up for myself. And then, there is the part of me that wants to say, "You just blew your last chance buddy, I'm gone in 2 weeks! Find a new coach and see if you can even make it through the summer!"

Gah! I am so irritated... I apologize, but I felt a need to vent...