Top Ten Signs That You've Been Impatiently Waiting for Summer

1. You agreed that it was swim-suit season in February, and have been swimming in hotel pools since.

2. That you just go to the tanning bed to feel the warmth.

3. You've been wearing flip flips since last summer ended.

4. You grill all year round...even when the big snowstorm came through.

5. Your office is plastered with pictures of Hawaii beaches and palm trees.

6. You listen to The Beach Boys and/or Kenny Chesney everyday.

7. You think proper attire for Casual Friday is a bikini with a towel wrapped around your waist.

8. You sip margaritas with a beach hat on while watching Oprah in the afternoon.

9. You don't mind it when your kids track in sand from outside, because you like the feeling of it between your toes.

10. You have or are thinking about packing up and leaving for the Middle East just so you can get some sun.

Summer is nearing and the temperatures are up in Wisconsin!!! Have a happy weekend! I won't be updating until Monday since I'm moving my sister and her family. (Sorry I've been slack this week. It's been really hard to find the time to blog and read all of your blogs). I promise that I will be more on track next week.

I just call her Fergie

Today I was baking cookies and my mom came in the kitchen. This is how our conversation went:

Mom: "Did you hear the latest about Fergie? Princess Fergie...whatever she's being called."

Kinsey: "I just call her Fergie."

Mom: "Not the singer Fergie."

Both of us: "HAHAHAHAHA!!!"

Kinsey: (thinking) I feel stupid. "I thought you meant the singer. You mean Wales Fergie or wherever she is from???"

Mom: "England, yeah. She is having people pay to see Prince Andrew for like $10,000.00!"

Kinsey: "That's a pretty good idea."

Mom: "No, Kinsey, that's really bad."

Kinsey: "Oh, haha...I just call her Fergie."

Both of us: (more laughs)

I sort of felt like the dumb girls off the street when Jay Leno does his segment "Jaywalking."

Shame On You!

High school sports. Ahhhh, those were the good ole days, right? Eh, I suppose.

Don't get me wrong, I love sports. I LOVE athletics! I really do, but sometimes the politics or something else got in the way of the game.

Let's take a look at my junior year of volleyball. That year, the coach's daughter was a freshman. She was a great athlete and so were a couple of her freshmen friends, but they weren't quite ready for the varsity level - or at least that's what the varsity team thought. Our coach felt different. Needless to say, the coach's daughter and her friends played varsity with us.

After we voiced our opinions on the matter of the younger girls' little experience, we had a "meeting" after one of our away games in our high school locker room. Here, our coach yelled at us. We took it in stride and some of the girls cried and some talked about it and some (me) just sat and took it all in. At one point, my friend Hayley accidentally knocked a table over and us girls giggled about it (because it was funny...and really late at night). Our coach thought we weren't taking the meeting seriously and stormed out. When she came back she yelled at us some more and said, "SHAME ON YOU!" This is an example of politics getting in the way of my love for volleyball.

I'm not saying that my coach was mean or anything, because she was a very good coach. At the time though, I just wanted to play the game without any drama.

Next came softball. Not so much politics in this sport, but other things. Like the year I was in a "slump" with another girl. Our coach moved us down in the batting order, instead of giving us a chance to hit. We never got to practice improving out hitting game during practice...so how were we supposed to get better? Magic? I don't think so. To top it off, my coach printed off an article on hitting slumps and handed them out before a game, where she announced that me and this other girl were both struggling and should really take this article seriously.

If Derek Jeter can go 0-a lot, then so can I. DJ and I had a slump going on at the same time. Except, he was still getting paid thousands and thousands of dollars and I was, well, wasn't.

Another softball moment. It was a windy day one game. I played center field. I had about three or four hits out to me one inning, and the wind would take the ball a lot further than expected. Naturally, because of this wind thing, I couldn't get to the ball in time. So my coach yells from the dugout, "KINSEY! CATCH THE BALL!!!"

I thought to myself, you come out here and try and catch the ball. It's not as easy as it looks. I have a lot of field to cover on top of this frickin' wind blowing the ball every which way. Does it look like I'm trying not to catch the ball??.

So anyway, this post probably sounds like a rant, but I loved high school sports...really, I did. It was just those few moments (which as I look back on them, have made me a better player) that weren't about the game so much as about politics or just about winning.

To me, that's not what sports are all about. It's about love for the game, diving for a ball on the gym floor, getting an ACE and celebrating in the middle of the court, hitting a double, throwing out the runner at home, and (as weird as this sounds) getting hit by a pitch and running down the line to first base where the assistant coach would say, "Pain is temporary, Pride is forever."

Then I would think, yeah, but that really hurt.

I'm Promoting My Sister

My sister, Tyne, has always had an eye for fashion. Recently, she's taken up necklace making.

Tyne and me (a couple of years ago)

And she's really good at it! She made me a necklace for graduation and I love it.

Check out her website: http://tynebodennecklaces.blogspot.com/

You won't be disappointed.

P.S. I created her logo ;)

Wednesday Musings: Take Eight

Have you ever felt needed so much that you want to scream? I had that feeling today, but now I'm okay :)

Slams the Door turned 22 yesterday. I wasn't able to provide her with a proper cake, so I took out a couple of Fudge Rounds and stuck two matches in them. I wasn't able to provide proper birthday candles either.

Slams the Door and her Fudge Round "Cake"

I dyed my hair yesterday. It's darker than my original hair color, but I reallyreallyreally like it :) I'll post a picture of it next week sometime.

I'm very independent, VERY independent. I don't know why either.

Did anyone see the season finale of House on Monday??? It was amazing!!! I think I'm in love with Hugh Laurie.

On Sunday, I went and saw A Nightmare on Elm Street in theaters. Wow, job well done my friends. I give that movie a standing ovation for recreating a classic horror film in good taste. (Sidenote: This was the first time I went and saw an actual "scary" movie in the theater. I was nervous that I was going to scream, but I didn't) I jumped and threw my hands in the air instead.

I want to lay down in the grass

As I ran this afternoon in the hot sun of 72 degree Minnesota weather, I yearned to take a break and lay down in the soft green grass of a white house on the corner of 7th of Olmstead. How nice it would be to have a yard right now. My apartment "yard" is trimmed too short with sticks and weeds and empty beer cans. I do not yearn to lay in that grass.

So I ran to the beat of Katrina and the Waves, Carrie Underwood, and Foreigner until I reached the park. There I sat and watched the turtle and crane statues shoot water out of their mouths into the pool. I pulled out my pink earphones and listened to the water splash, the cars on the street, and the birds sing. If I had a penny with me, I would've tossed it in and made a wish.

Music Monday - Wrong Baby Wrong

"Wrong Baby Wrong" by the lovely Martina McBride.

I've never participated in Music Monday before, but I couldn't really think of anything to write today, so I thought I'd let this song do it for me ;)

Babysitter's Club

Yesterday I watched my nephew Connor, and niece Addie. We played Star Wars, ate pizza, went to the Castle park, treated ourselves to Coldstone ice cream, and ended the night with The Goonies.

Addie and Connor at the park

Connor, of course didn't want to watch the movie, but he did. And he, like Connor does, asked A LOT of questions.

"Who are those people? Who is that? Did they find the treasure yet? Why are they the Pepperelli's?" Is that a real dead body? How did they move that? Are they good guys? What are they trying to do? Why is that doing that?"

Addie added to the movie viewing experience with, "Uh oh" and "UP!"

I tried to answer Connor's questions, but he's hard to keep up with.

Who are those people? The Fratelli's
Who is that? The older brother
Did they find the treasure yet? Nope
Why are they the Pepperelli's? :) Not the Pepperelli's...the Fratelli's
Is that a real dead body? No, it's a fake one (I didn't want to scare him)
How did they move that? Magic (I wasn't really paying attention to that part of the movie)
Are they good guys? Yep
What are they trying to do? Make a lot of noise on the pipes, so people will hear them
Why is that doing that? Because they pounded on the pipes too hard
Can you turn this movie off? Yes

Connor got a little scared. He told me as he was putting on his pajamas: "I think I'm going to have bad dreams tonight." This coming from the same kid who loves Jurassic Park.

So we ended the night with Spongebob and Phineas and Ferb. If he had any bad dreams I'm blaming the talking sponge.

I'm on the hunt

The hunt for a job, that is.


Why does it have to be so tough? Why does everyone require experience? I went to college and earned a degree. I put my sweat and tears into my education.

And a boat load of money.

A Titanic sized boat load of money.

If I would've known that every single job out there wants 5+ years of experience, I would've taken summer jobs at a newspaper or at a local magazine. Instead, I worked retail and food service...where I might add, I acquired excellent customer service skills. "Would you care to order any appetizers while you wait?"

I've been actively looking for a job for the past month. It's draining. But I'm staying as positive as I can. Something will turn up. It has to.

Is Bigger Better?

Most of the time, yes.

I think everyone has different scales though. I was watching House Hunters this morning (and technically it was morning, because it was before noon) in my pjs and this lady thought the master bedroom was too small.

Ummm, not me. I thought the master bedroom was GINORMOUS! It was the size of my living room! (Which is pretty big, I think) What is she planning on putting in her room? An aquarium for Shamu?

But is bigger always better? Not with cell phones. These things are getting bigger every week! I want one that fits in my back pocket, not one that acts as a seat cushion when I sit down at a restaurant. And with the iPhone, I bet they have an app for that.

Someone and the Chocolate Factory

I'm not a fan of the Willy Wonka movies. I never have been and I never will be. The old movie, from the 70's, was a little scary, and the Johnny Depp one freaked me out. I was more of a Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin viewer.

What are the Oompa Loompas anyway??? Little people with orange skin. That's what they are. I think they would be even more creepier if they were average sized. So thank you for making them small.

You're probably wondering why I'm blogging about Oompa Loompas. Well, for starters - I see that AT&T commercial with Gene Wilder singing "Pure Imagination" about ten times a day, and then I get that song stuck in my head for a good three hours.

Second, I almost hit a little orange skinned dude on my home today. They are EVERYWHERE!

Literally...

My roommate and I were talking the other day about how her fiance uses the term "literally" wrong.

For example: He will say, "I'm so mad that I'm literally going to rip my head off and throw it at the door!"

Yeah...so she corrects him.

Well, my niece, Caitlyn, takes sayings to the "literal" degree. She's only 8 though ;) Like the other day (wow, I use "other day" a lot...but this was literally the "other day", the first "other day" was about 3 weeks ago) I was looking at The Philosopher's Handbook (part of the wonderful giveaway that I won from Sam over at Thoughts, Writings, Coffee...) and I said-

"This looks very interesting, but a little too heavy for me to read right at this moment."

My 8-year-old niece replies, "Can I hold it to see how heavy it is?"

I couldn't help but laugh. It was too sweet!

As you all know, I got a Wii for my college graduation. Yep, I'm a grown-up! I haven't bought any games yet, and my nephew (who is going to be 11 next month) left me this note this morning:

Property of
Billy Bodenburg
To Aunt Kinsey
you may borrow
the game until the
end of June at
the very most
amount of time.

(It was stuck in the Super Mario Bros. Wii game in the bathroom so I would see it right away)

It was a great start to my day. Plus, the game is pretty much amazing. After he got home from school we played it. He was Mario and I was Luigi. He also thought it was funny to pick me up and throw me (in the game, not in real life).

So I'd like to literally end this post by thanking Sam for the wonderful prizes. I've read 9 of the 50 Books You Must Read Before You Die (on the bookmark)...so only 41 more to go!

Oh, and go see Hot Tub Time Machine it was so funny that I literally laughed my head off...did I use that right?

Weekend Update

Friday: Graduation day. My sister, Tyne, told me to scream "I'm graduating today" when I woke up...like Monica did on Friends for her wedding day - "I'm getting married today!" But she told me not to trip. I didn't trip, or scream it at 7:30 AM, but I did run and hug my roommate Codi, and I did tell her that we're graduating today. Just in case she didn't know ;)

Three of my siblings (Blake couldn't make it) and my parents

The ceremony went well. It was two hours long, and I'm glad it's over. My family all made it except for my brother and his wife, and my brother-in-law. Plus all my nieces and nephews didn't come since they were in school or too little to sit through a graduation ceremony, but everyone came for my little parTAY at my house back home.


I got a Wii from my folks, and money from my siblings. Tyne bought me a travel bag for all my bathroom stuff. I was very pleased with all my presents.

Saturday: We put on a baby shower for my sister-in-law April. Good food, good friends, and a lot of fun!!

I missed Betty White on SNL, but I DVRed it. Gotta watch it soon!

Sunday: Mother's Day!! We went to church and I got a graduation present from a friend of the family. As I opened the box (which obviously held a necklace), my nephew, Connor, in the backseat said, "I hope it's a Wii game!" It wasn't, naturally, it was a beautiful necklace.

We had brats on the grill and lots of other good food back at the house. Let's just say that I ate really well this weekend. It makes up for all the junk I've been eating in Winona.

It was a wonderful Kinsey Bodenburg/Sandra Bullock Weekend!!

It's Kinsey Bodenburg Weekend

If Sandra Bullock can get a whole weekend devoted to her on the ABC Family channel, then so can I.

Don't get me wrong, I love Sandra Bullock. She's a great actress and she sounds like a wonderful person. I'm just saying that she probably wouldn't have gotten an entire weekend devoted to her on tv, if Jesse James never broke up with her.

Am I right or am I right?

And although I have never been married, or have even had a relationship long enough to celebrate a 3 or a 6 month anniversary...my boyfriend dumped me on Saturday...via text message. He makes me mad, so I'm not going to go into it any further. *ahem* jerk move *cough*

So let's celebrate Sandra Bullock and Kinsey Bodenburg Weekend!!!

Maybe I'll adopt a baby too - after I win an Oscar, obviously ;)

Wednesday Musings: Take Seven

I fell asleep to the Syfy channel last night. The X-Files was on, and I love that show. MULDER!!! SCULLY!!!

A dude called me this morning about furthering my education. Seriously? I'm graduating on Friday and I don't think I'll be furthering my education for awhile. Hello? Freedom!

I'm pretty sure I ate my Erb's and Gerb's sandwich last night with my eyes closed. And I'm pretty sure I ate it all except for one bite which is now wrapped up in the fridge.

I went out for Heather's birthday last night. Which should explain the blind eating.

The "Job Switching" episode of I Love Lucy is on right now. It's probably one of my favorite episodes. That and "Vitameatavegamin."

I used to be able to recite Lucy's Vitameatavegamin commercial word for word when I was younger. "Hello friends. I'm your Vitameatavegamin girl..."

Slams the Door and I never got to finish our doubles tennis match. So it will forever be a tie between us.

I'm going to leave you with a clip from the I Love Lucy "Job Switching" episode. Have a happy Wednesday!

I'm in need of a good summer movie

With graduation approaching fast, and me being bored out of my mind with nothing to do (should I be studying for my last final? nah, not yet)...I've been craving a feel-good summery type movie.

Like Stand by Me, or Now and Then, or Heavyweights.

Yes, Heavyweights. Great movie. I used to have a "thing" for chubby boys.

I'm not even joking. I thought they were so cute, and most of the chubby boys I knew were funny. Hello!!! Two-for-two!

My mom was worried that I was going to bring home a man with high cholesterol and on the brink of a heart attack. I haven't yet :)

So here's some of my favorite clips from these movies. Enjoy!

Stand by Me


Now and Then


Heavyweights

Light as a feather

One of my favorite slumber party memories with my girl friends when I was younger was playing games like "Light as a feather, stiff as a board." We would pick our culprit (normally it was the smallest friend) and gather around her body. With two fingers from each hand under our skinny little pal, we listened as the person at the head of the body rubbed the soon-to-be levitated girl's temples tell a story ( a scary one). In the story, the person would die, and then all of us girls would chant "light as a feather, stiff as a board" over and over.

Then we would giggle and have to start over, because our laughing broke our concentration and that was obviously the reason why our lightweight friend wasn't levitating in my basement at 3:00 in the morning.

Other times we would sneak in the bathroom and try the Bloody Mary trick - which was probably one of the most exciting/funny, but scarier moments during our slumber parties. (We didn't get much sleep at these parties).

We would huddle in the bathroom and turn off the lights. Then we would say "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary" through our tightly clenched teeth and squinted eyes. Unfortunately, we never saw Bloody Mary. I don't know what was wrong with us as children, but the thrill of seeing a child serial killer intrigued us. I blame scary movies.

After the absence of a Mary's apparition in the mirror, we resorted to biting down on Lifesaver's Peppermints. Ya know, the white ones. They spark in your mouth. You have to have the lights off to get the whole effect. Try it.

Then there was the Ouija board. My friend Hayley had one, and after we watched Scary Movie 2 one night, we decided to converse with a dead person. By the way, I recently watched Scary Movie 2, and can easily understand all the references. It's too funny!

Anyway, we got out the obituary section of the newspaper and tried to contact some dead lady. It didn't work. It never worked.

So why did we keep trying? It seemed like almost every slumber party we had, we tried to levitate someone of summon Bloody Mary to rip one of our faces off. We were thrill seekers. Luckily, nothing ever happened...or did it?? (Cue the creepy music).