A Game of Tag

My Beautiful Sis-In-Law, Melonnie tagged me. Sorry the photos aren't great, but they're pictures of pictures. Here goes...

Where did you first meet your husband?
High school! At lunch, he and his friend sat at the table next to my friends and I. I noticed him because he had to walk home past my house everyday and he just happened to live next door to one of my best friends (Colleen). I thought he was cute, so I was the first to start up a conversation with him. This was highly out of character for me, I rarely meet anyone new on my own. Yep, I stalked him.

New Year's Day 1993 I was 15, Aaron had just turned 16

What was the first thing said?
Can’t remember exactly, but it went along the lines of “hey, you walk home don’t you? That sucks, you live next door to my friend Colleen, don’t you? That’s cool”. I think I “pretended” that I had to walk home a couple of times and asked to walk with him. Yep, I stalked him.

What was your first date?
We just mostly “hung out” at his house because I was 15 and wasn’t allowed to date yet, besides, what can you do when you can’t drive? Our first official outing without either of our families was on Halloween at the Movies 8. I still wasn’t 16 yet, so I wasn’t supposed to be there and to top it off, my older sister worked at the movies. I was so nervous I was going to get in trouble!! We saw The Mighty Ducks. Quack! Quack! Quack!

How long did you date?
In high school we “went out” for about 6 months. The second time around (yep, I stalked him yet again) we dated for 3 ½ years.

First kiss?
The infamous Movies 8. We were outside waiting for his mom to pick us up. He totally plastered me with a big wet French kiss. I was NOT ready for that. I still remember having to wipe my face off. He’s gotten much better since then…

Where did you get engaged?
Ha, ha! Aaron had this big presentation planned for my birthday, but he was so excited he couldn’t wait that long (another month). His parents’ dryer broke so we were taking a load of wet clothes to my mom’s house to dry them. There used to be an old junker house next to my mom’s block and it had an older bass boat for sale. Aaron pretended to want to look at the boat and pulled the truck over. He turned on the dome light and pulled out a beautiful ring and asked me to marry him. It sounds totally unromantic, but if you know Aaron – it’s totally him.

Where did you get married?
We got married at The Mission Inn in Riverside. It was absolutely wonderful.

How did the reception go?
Just fine, nothing crazy or unusual. A little cramped but manageable, Mormons usually don’t cut loose and dance, so the DJ just played slow songs, but we didn’t care. It was an early reception, over by 8:30 pm which was fine, because we had to wake up at like 3am to get to LAX.

Where did you go on your honeymoon?
Hawaii!! Kauai for a couple of days and Maui for a few days – awesome!

Leave it to Aaron to go off-roading in the rental car

Do you have a song?
Nah. Our music tastes are very different. I just picked a generic one for the “first dance” From This Moment by Shania Twain. Don’t think I’ve listened to that song since…

Where were you 10 years ago?
20 years old, living in Utah, dating a loser, learning to make it on my own

5 things on my to-do list today:
Put my makeup on, type up a quitclaim deed, confirm seminar dates, mail bills, make dinner.

5 snacks I enjoy:
Just 5? Ice cream, popcorn, cheez-its, chocolate, fruit smoothies

What I would do if I were suddenly a billionaire:
Everything! Quit my job, pay off my house, fix up my house, get my blond hair and body back, go on vacation, buy some land with a lake, enjoy extra time with Aaron and our future babies

5 of my bad habits:
Refer to "5 snacks I enjoy", along with procrastinating, not exercising, I put clean laundry in a pile rather than put it away, I let the dishes pile up

5 jobs that I have had:
File clerk, hotel front desk, data entry, loan processor, office manager

5 things people don’t know about me:
Tried out for cheerleading my junior year- forgot the whole routine- made a fool of myself- regret trying out to this very day, rode a horse once- hated it- no interest in doing it again, didn’t know snipe hunting was a joke until my 2nd year at camp, when someone new introduces themselves to me, I immediately forget their name-I think my brain shuts off for the 2 seconds it takes for them to say their name – no wonder I have a hard time meeting people, I couldn’t get home fast enough and pooped my pants once…Good times.

Aaron Gets The Boot

Aaron finally got to feel the baby move on Friday night! We had just gone to bed and I could feel the baby moving a lot. The movements have been getting stronger so I held my tummy to see if I could feel it on the outside. Sure enough, I could! I grabbed Aaron's hand and stuck it on my tummy where the baby was moving. Within 5 seconds the baby gave Aaron one mighty kick. He pulled his hand off quick and started laughing. "I guess you really DO have a baby in there!" I grabbed his hand again to see if he could feel another kick, but the show was over. We laid there quiet for a bit then he said, "that was really neat". You bet your buns it was.

Quite Pleased

Saturday was awesome. I got Aaron out the door to work and headed over to my mom's house. Since our family dog, T-Rex passed away a few weeks ago, mom said if I clean out his old dog house, Moe could have it. I got to hang out with my mom and help her out a little bit (she just had surgery and is still recovering), and she bought me lunch. Cool deal. Moe was not as impressed with the new house as I was. He just sniffs it and keeps walking. I'm sure it still smells like Rex despite the scrubbing.

When I got home and pulled up to my yard, I thought, "Dang, my yard looks nice!" So I took some photos of my awesome spring flowers. Keep in mind I HATE working in the yard so I plant things that look nice without a lot of help. I take no credit.

Then came the project that I had been waiting for: working on the baby room! I couldn't find a trans-gender, already made set that I liked, plus they are so dang expensive! I already had the blue Hawaiian material so I decided to make it myself. Pretty daring, considering I don't know how to sew and have never taken a class. I decided to tackle making the valance since I figure I can handle sewing in a straight line. Here's the finished product, I'm pleased as punch.

Near Death Experience

Moe is not a good watchdog. He rarely barks and when we sneak up on him in the backyard he does this muffled growling thing and runs to hide. There is one enemy Moe has that he is not afraid of and hunts with wolf-like instinct - paper.

This weekend Aaron was staying at his brothers' overnight. Moe and I fell asleep on the couch watching a movie. It was a nice night, so I had the back door and some windows open. When I woke up in the morning, I found this:

In the middle of the night a breeze from the back door must have blown a fierce looking napkin off the table onto the floor. Moe, being the man of the house that night, took it upon himself to catch, shred and efficiently "kill" the napkin that was sure to attack me at any moment while I slept. Had I known what danger I was in, I would have slept in my bedroom.

Aaron and I take comfort in knowing that if we were ever to be attacked by a giant roll of toilet paper, Moe's got our back.

I Love, I Think, I Wish, I Am...

My ears are lop-sided so my glasses are always crooked

I can’t stand the feeling of my hands being dirty -unless I’m working in the yard or on a project. Otherwise, I’m always washing them.

I love my eyelashes (with mascara on), the shape of my mouth, and my skinny ankles (thanks, dad)

The things I miss about my appearance: My blond hair (my blond turned to brown after high school so I colored it for years but stopped to save money for the baby), my strong toned legs, and my once golden-tan skin

I snore. It’s gotten worse since I gained weight.

I am more productive with the stereo blasting and the world tuned out

I love to do home improvement projects myself

I wish I was better at photography, meeting new people, finishing projects instead of making a “to do” pile.

I dream of getting off my butt to run in a marathon, swim in the ocean all day like I did as a kid, open my boxes of “skinny clothes”

I am claustrophobic. Because of this, Aaron has never been able to pull the ol’ Dutch Oven trick with the blankets. I had a panic attack at the Las Vegas Walmart.

One of my most favorite trips was when Aaron and I went backpacking in the mountains. No people, no showers, I made a toilet out of rocks, we got water from a spring in the ground. The world belonged to us to explore – it was amazing.

I wish I could move back to Utah. I miss it dearly.

My favorite flowers are hydrangeas and white calla lilies

I love concerts though I can rarely afford to go to them. I’d like to see The Foo Fighters, DMB, or Alanis Morissette. I will never to go a Tori Amos concert ever again.

I love Big Lots!, Z Gallery, The Alley and Lowe’s

I think Nordstrom’s is a joke. I just go there to use the bathroom.

Broke Food

Last night Aaron said he had a craving for Macaroni & Cheese (must be those pregnancy hormones). Being the extra awesome wife that I am, I said, "You got it!". The only catch was that he wanted it made the way his mom made it - with an egg boiled into it. To me, this sounded disgusting and a shameful way to waste a perfectly good box of Kraft Mac 'N Cheese. There was no compromising, we made 2 separate boxes. One for his rendition of Mac 'N Cheese (with egg & extra cheddar), and one for mine (spoonful of sour cream & extra cheddar). The above photo is of my white trash, "I'm a bad mom" dinner. Safeway brand root beer and macaroni & cheese. But don't y'all worry- I took my prenatal vitamin! (like that makes up for anything!)

This of course brought me back to the days of growing up on "Broke Food". No doubt the egg added into the Mac 'N Cheese was a futile attempt to add some sort of nutritional value to something that had none, thus lessening the guilt feeling of feeding your kids macaroni & cheese for dinner. Another favorite famous macaroni & cheese twist was to add fried hot dog chunks to the mix. Brilliant! Especially if you block out any thoughts of feeding your kids chemical laced processed animal parts and consider it "protein". Before you're a mom, you always think that you'll only feed your kids nutritious foods, and how dare those moms feed their kids french fries and soda for lunch! I however, have learned not to fall into this trap. When it comes down to lack of time, sleep, and patience - I too will have kids that will eat Macaroni & Cheese with hot dogs in it. Jury is still out on that egg thing...

Jipped.

We've come to the conclusion that we got jipped. This "grown up" stuff is not as fun as it looked when we were 16. Everything we thought we were doing right turns out may not be what it seemed.

We planned, and waited, and planned, and were patient, and planned until everything was just right to have a baby. We thought some of our friends were crazy for having kids without being "ready" or without a clearly defined plan. They're not looking so crazy now, in fact, we're thinking they may have been the smart ones.

Aaron and I had it all planned:

1. Get married

2. Buy a house

3. Furnish the house

4. Have a little fun

5. Start a family

6. Live on Aaron's income

7. I would be home to raise the kids

8. We live happily ever after

Sounds simple enough.

Anyone that knows me is fully aware that I've got to have a plan or some sort of structure to follow or I'm a basket case. I worry and stress out in a moments notice, that's why I put a 2 kid limit on myself - one for each hand - that is all I can handle. It seems that God is up to a little something that involves throwing me into the "refiners' fire" in this department. I think Aaron and I have got a very big, very difficult lesson to learn coming up pretty soon.

With the economy coming to a screeching halt this year, the dependable job Aaron's had for the last 10 years suddenly isn't. The nice tidy plan listed above has just been thrown out the window (with the exception of #1). Does Aaron get another job, or start his own business? Can we still afford our house? With the terrible housing market would we even be able to sell our house if we had to? If I have to keep working to make ends meet, will our newborn baby go to day care? (this is my worst nightmare - if I thought my baby would end up in day care, I would NEVER have gotten pregnant). Everything is so new and up in the air, we have no idea where things are going to fall and when.

We're both scared and unsure of what step comes next. We have no answers. That's where God's gonna have to step in and point us in the right direction. We're not afraid of the work, we're just unsure of the direction. There will be lots of praying going on in our home, there has to be in order to figure this one out. Last night we had one of those weird moments where Aaron said out loud what I had been thinking for the last 3 months - "We couldn't have picked a worse year to have a baby." Don't get us wrong, we ABSOLUTELY want a baby and are so excited, WE PLANNED FOR THIS BABY, but financially, this is the worst year we've ever had. When you dream of becoming a parent you have these high hopes of the wonderful life you want to provide for your children, and now we're wondering how we will cover the minimum basics.

My bottom line conclusion: It doesn't matter how well you've planned, when it comes to having babies there will always be something that pulls the rug out from underneath you. After you're done crying your eyeballs out, ask God for help, and with some work you'll figure it out. You have to. After all, you're Mom and Dad and your precious little one is depending on you.

So to hell with planning! It doesn't work! As long as your marriage is solid we say go ahead and make some babies - you'll figure it out. As the Mormon mantra goes: Multiply and replenish the Earth!!

What's Going On?

Nothing, not a freakin' thing.

This last week must have been the most uneventful week ever. The most exciting thing I did all week was clean out the "baby room" on Saturday. If I would have used my expert ninja blogging skills I would have done a before/after photo, but I'm willing to accept the fact that I'm just a newbie and didn't think about it until after I was done. Had you seen what I was up against, you would have been impressed. Now instead of having 3 bedrooms that look like storage units, I only have 2! Next weekend the office gets gutted - I can hardly stand the excitement! My step-dad Ron always says, " It's just the two of you living there- how could it get messy?" I've said it before and I'll say it again..When it comes to being messy, I'm quite an amazing girl.

Everyone tells me that toward the end of pregnancy you get the "nesting bug" and feel the need to deep clean and organize everything in the house before the baby comes. Seems like I got the bug early. I guess since I work full time I figure I better get a jump start especially since I feel great now and am not too big and uncomfortable. Nothing like trying to clean baseboards when you can't make it back up again.