Jurassic World: I have a problem with the woman

Well guys I’m home from a rousing week in Mexico and I had every intention of posting about it today but you’re going to have to wait because I left my SD card with all my pictures on it at home.  I’m not at home, I’m at Greg’s parents house because we had to come up here to pick up my car tonight which was left here on account of the key got lost last week.  I suppose it would be more accurate to say that I lost the key but I found that if I use passive voice instead and say the key got lost it doesn’t make me look like such an idiot.  And my students say they’ll never need to know the difference between active and passive voice in their "real lives"!

We got home last night from Mexico and after unpacking, three loads of laundry, and a good lawn watering we were off to the movies to indulge in good old Jurassic World.  This is what it is like to be a teacher in the summer!  Vacation followed by movies followed by a milkshake.  Don’t let anyone tell you differently!  Every pointless procedure, every crazy parent, every late paper is worth it for these three glorious months!  (That and the fact that the kids are hilarious and brilliant and teaching them is about as rewarding as it gets.  And summer!)

Anyway we hit up the 4:30 Wednesday showing  I had zero expectations going in to the movie, had read not one review, and knew nothing about it except for the fact that Chris Pratt was in it.

For the most part I enjoyed the movie and it was about what I expected.  Dinosaurs!  One got out!  Now it’s killing everyone!  It was nothing revolutionary or life changing, but it was great for a summer afternoon’s worth of entertainment.  I raised no objections until we got near the end.  Claire, our smart and capable heroine, (Or was she a villian?  A bit confusing...) had to whip off her shirt to escape dinosaurs because.... because... because it was too hot for her sheer shirt?  Or maybe it was just too impossibly hard to run with so much bulky fabric around her?  It was getting in the way but the high heels were not?  Or maybe Hollywood just decided the only way to have a real good dinosaur chase scene was if our woman looked good and sexy.

 Thus, all of our ending scenes had Claire fighting the good dinosaur fight dressed like this:

Her chest was glistening, her tank top nice and wet, her boobs bouncing as she ran from those dinosaurs.  The boys in these final scenes, however- Owen (Chris Pratt), Zach, and Gray- were not glistening.  

They were not bouncing.
Their shirts were not wet.  (Why is Claire so wet?  There was no water in the ending scenes!)

Their clothes, miraculously, were all somehow in tact while Claire had managed to lose most of hers.

Up until this point, I had mostly enjoyed the movie.  Claire was operating a huge theme park and obviously very successful in her job.  She was strong,  smart, and very capable.  I liked that.  Why does Hollywood, then, decide that a smart, successful woman can't possibly be interesting enough?  I mean, surely audiences won't be interested in a woman like that!  Instead we must make her sexy!  Maybe if she's sweaty and hot in a wet, low cut tank then our girl will be interesting enough to be in this movie!?

Tell me, is there an action/ super hero movie where the woman isn't in super low cut, tight, wet, revealing clothing?  Are we really all still agreeing that this is the only way we can make our women interesting?  Their brains and their abilities are not worth anything unless they got a rocking body to show off?

Greg says that Hollywood sexifies men too.  Just take Thor for example.  I call bullcrap.

Get yer free diapers!

Hello ladies and gents!  I am interrupting my last day of vacation to bring you a small giveaway.  It has been running on my facebook and instagram pages so I figured I'd host it here on the home base too.  Giveaway is for a month's supply of Huggies Snug and Dry diapers.  Everybody loves diapers!

TO ENTER:
1.  Click this link and let it load.
2.  Comment below how many diapers you think your family uses in a month.

Giveaway ends at midnight MST today (Tuesday, June 16).  Winner will be announced Wednesday!

Testing Testing 1,2,3

Hello one and all!  This is just a quick check in to let you know that:

1)  I'm alive and well! 
2)  My blog has not been sacrificed to the Sponsorship Lords!  OR HAS IT?
3)  The last day of school was ten days ago.  I'm a free woman!
4)  Since school got out I have been out of town and on the go go go.
5) Right now I am in Cancun with my entire family.  All eight of us siblings + spouses + kids + my mama.  There are 36 of us!  Only person missing is my dad, but I like to think he's watching all of us and laughing at how ridiculous we all are.
6) There has been a horrible storm/ hurricane that kind of cramped our vacation style.  It has rained every day that we've been here and today and yesterday it was raining so hard that it was impossible to go anywhere.  Torrential downpour.  Winds like I've never seen.  Flooding in the street.  Mexico be cray!
5)  I have not been blogging while on vacation.  I did have a few sponsored posts already written and scheduled.  I meant to tell you before I left town that I'd be gone and there would be a few sponsored posts to keep you company but other than that the blog would be quiet.  But I didn't have time to even write that because it was just insane. I'm sorry for abandoning you and not telling you why!
6)  I did plan to blog a little more than I have while here but due to hurricane,  the wifi has been totally out.  I had 40 something emails when I finally got my email to work tonight and for a control freak like me 40 something unresolved emails in an inbox is a vacationers worst nightmare!  But I answered them all!  And now it's 1 am and I am sitting here writing this blog post while all other 35 members of my family sleep because those are the sacrifices you make to have a blog?
7) I will be back "in" to my blog on Wednesday.  And then I shall tell you about 36 Blackburns in Cancun.  And my last day of school.  And my amazing budgeting app.  And we can talk about the Bachelor too.  Those are all things I would really like to do on this blog.  Deal?
8)  Did anyone notice my numbering got seriously out of whack?

GOOD NIGHT. 

How to Rock a 20 Minute Tidy Up

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. 

All opinions are mine alone.  #RealLifeClean #CollectiveBias 

One thing I am always trying to do is keep our house clean.  Not clean clean because that’s just impossible but clean.  With a baby and a job and a crazy schedule, it seems like house work often is my last priority. Scratch that.  House work is always my last priority.

About a year ago I started doing a 20 minute tidy up before bed .  It doesn’t happen every night, but it does most nights and it has made a world of difference in feeling in control of the state of my house.  I set my timer for 20 minutes, start cleaning with the fury of a thousand suns, and when the timer goes off I am done, no matter what the house still looks like.   This isn’t the only cleaning I have to do in a day, but it makes my mornings much less intimidating and on the days that are just crazy and this is the only thing I get to, at least we aren’t living in filth.   A clean house seems to stay clean okay, but as soon as one thing is a little bit dirty I feel like that is license for the rest of the house to just go crazy with dirtiness. There are either zero messes or 37 messes in our house if you know what I mean.  If you struggle with constant messiness, you should seriously try the timer thing.  I love it because there is an end to it.  Cleaning the house always feel like such a commitment, but 20 minutes is not a commitment.  I hate it when I think, “Ugh, I have to clean the house” and the only end is when the whole house is clean.  So basically there is no end.  With the timer, I know I just have to work hard for 20 minutes, and when the timer is done I can stop cleaning.  And if 20 minutes is too intimidating to you, start with 10 minutes.  Everyone can clean for 10 minutes at night.  It’s no biggie!

I present to you, your guide to the twenty minute tidy up.  These are my steps in order of priority.  Sometimes I get to all the steps, sometimes I just make the first two or three- the first ones are the ones that for me absolutely have to be done every day.

Put “stuff” away.  I use a laundry basket for this.  I throw all the stuff that is lying around the house in the basket and then go deliver the things to where they go.  Our house is split level so if I put one or two things away at a time I will spend my whole twenty minutes going up and down the stairs.  Sometimes I put stuff away away but if I don’t have time, I’ll just set it in the room where it goes.  Often there is a small pile of June’s stuff in her room in the morning that I have to put away.  

Wipe down kitchen counters and load stray dishes.  This one to me is crucial because the house never feels clean if there are dishes sitting in the sink.  I love the CloroxPump 'N Clean Kitchen & Dish Cleaner because I don’t even have to run the faucet.  Get powerful bleach-free liquid on your sponge, paper towel or cloth with one pump. It's a multipurpose, multisurface cleaning solution that's food-safe.   I grab my rag, pump it on the Clorox Pump 'N Clean Kitchen & Dish Cleaner, and rub those counters down.  It is the easiest, fastest way to get your kitchen good and clean.  It’s also is a miracle worker with June’s high chair. 

Run the vacuum in the front room.  I don’t usually vacuum the whole house, but a two minute run in the front room does wonders for making the house look and feel so much cleaner.  Lines in the carpet just do it for me.

Empty trash in kitchen and bathrooms.  This one I don’t have to do every day, but usually once or twice a week.  If it doesn’t need to be done, I go on to the next step.

Wipe down main surfaces in front room.  I do this probably once or twice a week.  I grab a CloroxTriple Action Dust Wipe and wipe down everything that has accumulated dust.   The Clorox Triple Action Dust Wipes have the clinging power to grab and hold onto dust, allergens, and even hair.  I wipe the TV, the end tables, our base boards, the end tables by the bed, even the floor with these bad boys.

Put laundry away. This comes near the end of the list not because there is not a need to do it every day but because I absolutely hate putting away laundry.  I have never figured out a good system for laundry.  I am definitely open to suggestions if you have any.  Right now my system is pretty much ignore all laundry until it is coming out of my ears and refuses to be ignored any longer and then do all laundry in one miserable, long afternoon.  It’s a sucky system.

Scrub bathroom counters and tub.   I LOVE taking baths- I probably take three or four a week but sweet, sweet Greg gets his hair all over the tub, (Greg’s got himself a nice sexy hairy chest.  I do not oblige.  Except when it comes to bathtubs.) and nothing makes me want to bolt from the bath faster than body hair.  When it comes to the tub and my 20 minute tidy up, I love the Clorox Scrub Singles Bathroom Pads.  Clorox ScrubSingles bathroom pads come preloaded with Clorox cleaner so you don’t even have to worry about throwing your cleanser down. The pads have a scrubbing surface designed to power through soap scum and grime and really attack stubborn bathroom stains in record time.  They are just so fast and easy.  Just a quick wipe down and the bathtub is ready for me. 

There you have it folks, my 20 minute tidy up.  It definitely is not rocket science, but such a simple system has done wonders for me when it comes to cleaning the house.  I am no longer overwhelmed by the task and when company drops in unexpectedly my house is usually mostly clean.  I never feel like it gets to the out of control stage that it used to.

And that's it!  If you've made it through all the steps of your twenty minute tidy up early then you can quit before your timer is up!  If this happens to you, though, I will insist that you teach me your tricks because I have never finished all the steps with time to spare!

The 20 minute tidy up is definitely not rocket science, but such a simple system has done wonders for me when it comes to cleaning the house.  I am no longer overwhelmed by the task and when company drops in unexpectedly my house is usually mostly clean.  I never feel like it gets to the out of control stage that it used to.

You can find all Clorox cleaning products listed in this post at Target.  I found the ScrubSingles Bathroom Pads and Clorox Triple Action Wipes in the bathroom and mop cleaning section and the Clorox Pump 'N Clean Kitchen & Dish Cleaner by the dish soaps.

AND, from June 7- July 4, you can receive 10% off selected Clorox products at Target using the Cartwheel app. 

Five Utah Road Trips I Plan on Taking this Summer

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser.  All opinions are mine alone. #FueltheLove #CollectiveBias

IT’S SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have mentioned in posts past that Greg and I have a few road trips up our sleeve for this summer.  These next couple of months Greg and I are in a very unique position- one that may never be repeated and is certainly uncommon for most middle class Americans...  Neither of us have to work.  All summer.  We are off until August 13 and if that isn’t the greatest thing about teaching, I don’t know what is.

I plan to spend my summer working on those big nebulous goals that I never seem to get around to during the school year.  Clean out the pantry.  Write my book.  Organize the garage.  Greg plans to work on his ARL and take the Praxis test.  We both plan to sleep in and stay up late and go on lots of little road trips with our family.

Utah is an amazing state for outdoor enthusiasts.  As a child, my parents would always take our clan of eight kids to explore all that Utah had to offer, especially Southern Utah.  I have memories of hiking at Bryce, Zions, Arches.   When I was in high school my dad started building a cabin in Schofield and from then until last summer our outdoor summer adventures all revolved around building and staying in our cabin.  We went ATVing, and snowmobiling, enjoyed campfires,  and  played on the lake- fishing, rafting, swimming.   

If I start thinking about how much I miss this place I will start to cry.  

For a great cabin post, hit up this one that I wrote when my mom decided to sell it.

Since I have been away from home, though, I haven’t explored Utah nearly like I should.  Adulthood kind of got in the way.  Summer jobs and not enough money and Greg’s rehearsal schedule have all kept us from being able to enjoy Utah on the level that we would like.  When my mom sold our cabin last summer, it made it even harder to enjoy being outside.  (We also bought a house, went to Europe, and had a baby in the middle of last summer- didn’t leave us much time for outdoor Utah!)   This summer, though, with lots of time off, we plan to hit up a few of Utah’s best sights.  Here are the places I really want to road trip to this summer.

 

1.  GOBLIN VALLEY.  True story: The last time I remember visiting Goblin Valley was on a ninth grade field trip.  When attempting to climb a massive rock, my friend yelled from below, “Bonnie!  You have red all over your shorts!”  And that was when and where I started my period for the first time ever.  Now, 13 years later and with my period business all figured out, I’d love to return with Greg and June to climb rocks and take pictures and explore how beautiful that part of our state is.

 Gotta love that Utah red rock.

2.  TIMPANOGAS CAVES.  These caves are probably twenty minutes from where Greg and I live.  I have absolutely no desire to do the entire 18 mile hike up Timpanogas Mountain, but a little one mile hike to explore some cool caves?  YAH BABY.

3.  ZIONS.  One of the coolest places in all of Utah is Zions National Park.  My sister worked there for a summer and knows the whole place inside out.  I’d love to do a hard, adventurous hike like The Subway or Angel’s Landing, but honestly, I’m a little intimidated by Zions.  It seems like it’s for all the hard hard core enthusiasts, which I am not.  I also had a student who died in a rapelling accident in Zions two years ago.  It is so beautiful though, and I know it has lots of great hikes to offer for a family like the Larsen clan who may be just a bit more on the scaredy cat side.  Have any of you gone on great hikes in Zion that you would recommend for a redhead who burns easily, a girl who is afraid of tight places and a one year old baby?

4.  PRICE, UTAH.  We can't forget about my good old home town!  It's hard for me to visit Price because it brings up so many memories of my dad and the pang of missing him is extra sharp.  Greg has only been back with me to Price twice- once was before we were married.  This summer I want to take Greg and June to my unique little city and visit Sherald's Burger Bar where I used to serve up a mean milkshake, the Wave Pool, and of course, good old Carbon High School.

 

5.  MOAB.  Greg and I actually visited Moab together a few summers ago, but we didn’t do the arches hike.  I want to go back, do that awesome hike with June in tow, and enjoy some good old fashioned camping with the gorgeous red rock as our background.

Of course, all these road trips require a car that is well maintained.  I am kind of OCD about making sure the oil in my car is changed on time.  I bought my little used Toyota Corolla over five years ago, and it has been the most amazing car for us.  We’ve put 70,000 miles on it and have had absolutely no problems with it.  I try to take good care of our car as she takes good care of us so oiling up during our summer adventures is an absolute must.

I have probably had my oil changed at every place in the book, but I always end up going back to good old Wal-mart.  The price of an oil change at Wal-mart's Automotive Center just can’t be beat.  Plus I get to shop while the oil is changed.  I feel like I live in an eternally frenzied state, so being able to kill two birds with one stone is huge for me.  I drop the car off in the back, do my grocery shopping, and by the time I’ve got my groceries done, my car is ready for me too.

This time around I had my car changed with Pennzoil High Mileage Vehicle oil.  I’ve got 125k miles on my Corolla and it runs smooth as butter.  The Pennzoil High Mileage vehicle oil helps reduce leaks and oil consumption in high mileage engines.  It’s designed for vehicles with over 75K miles to help the engines running clean and going strong for a long time.  AND From June 10^th until September 9^th, Pennzoil oil changes will be on Rollback at Walmart Automotive Care Center stores, meaning that the High Mileage oil change which is usually $39.88 is now $35.88.  (Industry standard is $46) Smoking deal!

(Also if you like the whole works for your car, the Platinum Full Synthetic  will be down from $49.88 to $45.88- Industry standard is $66)

You can find out more about getting your Pennzoil at Wal-mart on
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Any other places in the state of Utah we should definitely hit up?  They need to be easy enough to take a baby, but awesome enough that we never want to go home.