random

legendary fail.

January 13, 2012 By lissa 7 Comments

*shaking head*

Oh, North Dakota.

Are we that desperate for people to come visit our state? Drinks. Dinner. Decisions. Must we really promote decision-making after drinking? Men gawking at women through a window? “Hey, baby. Meet me in my room for a legendary good time!” This is like a pick-up line gone wrong {as if they ever go right}. However innocent this ad was meant to be, it is completely {hilarious} ridiculous. The ad designer and publisher should be fired and forced to move to Wyoming immediately.

Updated:

Page 12 has been deleted from the digital brochure.

Read about another WTH ad from the same campaign…

The ad is pulled, thus ending North Dakota’s 15 minutes of fame.

North Dakota Tourism’s response to the ad controversy.

Filed Under: north dakota, random Tagged With: bad advertising, fired, marketing fail, north dakota, pick-up lines, tourism

from bold and bright to beautifully distressed

November 16, 2011 By lissa 1 Comment

One day a few weeks ago when I was in a bit of a grumpy mood, my husband stole me away and forced me to go to Pier 1 with him. {hello, instant mood-lift!} We found this {extremely heavy} mirror on clearance for $45. You guys KNOW I can’t turn down a bargain, and apparently neither can Justin, because he snatched it up and loaded it into the back of Wally.

The mirror sat propped against the wall ever since. I would stare at it and try to decide where it’s place should be and it just didn’t fit. It’s just not ME! The mirror screamed makeover.

Before:

Two layers of the base coat:

I painted on a base coat of gray, then ran to Lowe’s and picked up a shade of turquoise, along with some glitter crystals. The color + glitter layer went on, and then I used some silver-ish paint I already had to “distress” it.

Voila!

What do you think?

All my 8-year-old wants for Christmas is clean water for 500 people.

Filed Under: my life, random Tagged With: before and after, craft, makeover, making things pretty, mirror, painting, pier 1

respect the shoes

October 24, 2011 By lissa 2 Comments

The kids and I had just finished rocking our 5K, and then it was time to take Averie to dance. Not planning on leaving the vehicle, I quickly slipped on some shoes to run to town.

Averie looked at me, horrified. “MOTHER! You cannot wear that. RESPECT THE SHOES!”

Filed Under: kids, my life, random Tagged With: Averie, horrible, kids, respect the shoes, shoes

aging can bite me

September 22, 2011 By lissa 2 Comments

Because road-map wrinkles on my forehead aren’t bad enough, I now have to go in several times a year to get crap injected into my back so I can move normally. I’m not really a fan of this aging business.

Filed Under: my life, random Tagged With: aging is dumb, ESI, herniated discs

things you might see when downloading your children’s photos to your computer

July 30, 2011 By lissa 4 Comments

You never know what you might find.

Maybe your child likes to take photos of YOU. These are surely photos you would want the world to see on Facebook or your blog.

And, of course, the gazillion self-portraits.

You might find strange photos of their siblings.

Oh my.

Filed Under: kids, my life, people, photos, random Tagged With: children, children taking photos, photos, surprise, what the heck

insta-friday

June 10, 2011 By lissa 16 Comments

It’s know secret that I loooove instagram! What’s not to love?

I’m showing off my week with instagram and linking up with life rearranged.

On Sunday, the kids and I were ready to finally do what we have been planning for months. Time to run for charity: water. 13.1 miles for me, 3.1 miles for Averie, Ashton, and Bridger. {more on that soon}

On Monday, this little guy was up super-early, just like every other day of his life. But he loves his momma and let her sleep in. When I got up {yes, sleeping in is 8 around here}, I caught him doing this:

All week long, I have been grilling and grilling. I have been deathly afraid of grills for a long time. I’ve seen them flare up and hair get singed and that is just not for me. Well, last year, we “gave” my husband a new grill for father’s day, only he was to pick it out himself and never did. So he FINALLY picked one out and voila! I love it and use it constantly while he is gone for weeks and weeks!

My daughter started pointe this week, which in my head is all pretty and glamorous. That is, until I started sewing on the damn ribbons and elastics to her new pointe shoes. Holy crap. SIX HOURS. And I am neither pretty nor glamorous with my sewing abilities. Many words were cussed and fingers stabbed. Brag: She was the ONLY one in her class to arrive with ready shoes.

I may bitch about North Dakota a lot, but our summer skies are unbeatable:

My Grandma died early yesterday morning. We were lucky enough to have the chance to drive to Dickinson on Wednesday afternoon, say our goodbyes, and tell her we love her.

Random shot of an awesome little pumping unit in my Dad’s office:

And last, but not least, Mr. Shart {as seen at Target today}:

I giggled uncontrollably when my daughter pointed this out to me. I was forever-changed when I witnessed a real-life shart in the very first mile of my 1/2 marathon in San Diego last year. She was wearing white sweatpants and it.was.not.pretty.

It’s been a roller coaster of a week for me. Wonder what next week will bring?

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Filed Under: kids, my life, photos, random Tagged With: 1/2 marathon, charity: water, grilling, instagram, kids, linking up, north dakota, photos, running, shart, skies

eight things

March 16, 2011 By lissa 6 Comments

eight random things:

*i super-duper hate when people call and don’t get an answer, so they keep calling. it puts me in an instant bad mood. my husband does this to me just to push my buttons and then laughs when i call and yell and cuss.

*i don’t like plucking my eyebrows. and, boy, do i have eyebrows. i would try waxing, but i’m scared.

*i dream of going on humanitarian adventures. i would love to take my family and show my kids the world through compassion and hands-on projects.

*i have always had a strong dislike for shrimp, but now i find myself buying these and putting them on salads. ohmyYUM!

*i never thought i would love a vehicle more than my subaru. but i do. his name is wally and he is a ford.

*remember this incident? well, we still haven’t replace it and you should see how low it droops in the middle. so not safe. also? we only had four chairs with it and have been using two folding chairs to fit our whole family. it just screams white trash.

*a few months ago when my boy was busy raising money for a well for clean water, we received the book Clean Water for Elirose. it’s a cute book about young kids who set out to help when they learn that a girl their age doesn’t have clean water to drink. it would make a great gift for younger kids, as well as a great addition to your kids’ teacher’s collections!

*i’ve been looking for a way to get rid of some old {ancient} computers that are taking up space in our home, i think this may be the way to go!

Filed Under: my life, photos, places, random Tagged With: ariah fine, books, charity:water, clean water for elirose, dislikes, eyebrows, ford, humanitarian adventures, kitchen table, random, recycling computers, shrimp, subaru, wally

because i can’t look away.

March 6, 2011 By lissa 7 Comments

we all know charlie sheen is a total moron. right? he makes for fascinating coverage, because, hello?! is he for real? his magnitude of narcissism is mind-blowing.

i’ve spent the afternoon rolling my eyes and designing these awesome tees for you. yes, you. over there in the corner. the one who is made of win and whose veins pump tiger blood.

and we can’t forget the custom ringtone, can we? because while everyone else’s phone is ringing, yours is WINNING.

Filed Under: random Tagged With: charlie sheen, made of win, narcissitic, ringtone, tees, tiger blood, winning

the accent vlog, north dakota edition

February 4, 2011 By lissa 21 Comments

I saw this over on Britt’s blog tonight and had to get in on it. So fun! I guess I should also mention that I spent a lot of my life living in other states over the years… Montana, Utah, Idaho, Colorado… so I’m a bit of a mutt.

If you want to follow along or do the Accent Vlog yourself, here are the words/questions: Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
What do you call gym shoes?
What do you say to address a group of people?
What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
What do you call your grandparents?
What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

Filed Under: my life, north dakota, random Tagged With: accent, Colorado, Idaho, Melissa, Montana, north dakota, Utah, vlog

the super-sized random post

January 31, 2011 By lissa 16 Comments

Instead of telling myself, “tomorrow” and then never finding the time that I thought I would have, I’ve decided to forgo the 10 million blog posts that have been swimming in my head and just get it all out there. I can then have a nice, deep breath and a clean slate, right? Okay, good.

*I have been having lots of trouble sleeping the last few months. I wake up ALL.NIGHT.LONG. Either I am heading to the bathroom to pee, tossing and turning and cracking my bones, or having crazy dreams. Apparently, I have also turned into a sleep-kicker. I kicked my husband last night. Not the scoot-over-you’re-too-close-and-obnoxious-type of kick. A real kick in his shin. He woke up and asked me what the hell I was doing. Duh. Al Roker was biting my foot and I was kicking him off.

*Speaking of disturbing nighttime activities, one of my kids slept-walk last week. Scared the crap out of me. He was standing next to my side of the bed talking gibberish. Freaky.

*Did I ever mention our trip to Colorado at the beginning of the year? It was awesome and sunny and warmish, until our 2nd day there, then of course it got REALLY cold and we had blizzard conditions. We enjoyed the scenery, scoped out some houses (none of which we liked), visited the Denver Science Museum, and Averie and I got to take delight in Denver’s shopping malls. I had coffee on morning with one of my best friends from college. We drove down to Colorado Springs and spent the night with a friend of ours and had an intensely competitive game of PIG. Do not try this at home, unless you are wearing a sweet helmet.

*Our oldest kid turned 14. Yikes.

*Justin and I turned 32. Double Yikes.

*Our family spent New Year’s with the Rosten family. We should really be on America’s Got Talent. Really.

*I’m going to begin training for the San Diego Rock ‘n’ Roll 1/2 marathon again in the next few weeks. I am organizing a team of people to join me, too! That means YOU! We are going to be raising money for charity: water, will have an awesome coach for support and a custom training plan, and most of all, it will be FUN! You know, other than the walking or running 13.1 miles.