Moe Is Out

If you’ve ever seen the movie Meet the Fockers, you know about the family Circle of Trust. Currently, this is what ours looks like:

Moe has always been such a fabulous dog. Personable, cute as can be and doesn’t mess anything up inside the house. He is fully potty trained so “accidents” are a thing of the past. Aaron and I had to run an errand and would be gone for a total of 1 hour. We decided to trust Moe alone in the house – big mistake.

Upon our return, Moe was nowhere to be seen, then we heard him up in the loft. I went up to check on him and found him on the couch with a foam ball he had gutted into hundreds of pieces. I led him down the stairs and that’s when I saw the living room. There was another foam ball shredded in 3 piles, 3 dirty dishtowels, a chewed up instructional DVD to my sewing machine and some other miscellaneous shredded paperwork that went to my sewing machine. Did he get some crack kibble from the shady dog next-door? Looks like we missed one heck of a party!

Two days later Moesifer struck again. He sleeps at the foot of our bed in his crate with the crate door open. In the morning I wake him up (he is not an early riser) and make him go outside to potty. This morning was different, I went to wake him up and he was not in his crate. I looked around the house and heard him up in the loft again. I grabbed my camera and headed upstairs to bust him. This is what I found:

Dead Thread

I do admit that we’ve been bad puppy parents for the last week. I’m sure Cesar Millan would rip us a new one. We’ve been working really hard on financial “Plan B” and have not been home as much to give him the attention he’s used to. We fully blame ourselves for his bad behavior. Since then, I’ve made an extra effort to play with him and be sure he gets a good walk. It’s been 3 days and he seems to be back to his sweet self, but we won’t be leaving him in the house alone anytime soon.

Photo Tag

Sheryl tagged me, so I will comply…

Age at my next birthday:

Place I want to visit:
Not very exotic I know, but I don’t get out much

My favorite thing:

My favorite place:
If I wasn’t married to Aaron, I would probably never leave my house.

My favorite food:
I’m a steak and potatoes girl!

My favorite color:
Periwinkle purple

Town I live in:

Name of past pet:
This was my kitty, Norman

Nickname I have had:
I was named after the song (and my mom). My step dad and father-in-law still sing me the song when I come in the room.

College Major:
Umm…College? Took a few classes, couldn’t figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up (still can’t). Went to work instead.

First Job:
File Clerk

Goal for next year:
Have a baby and learn how to be a mom!

True Love

Aaron and I have been working on a financial “Plan B” for the last few months. Everything is coming together wonderfully, but not without hard work. Since I’m pregnant (handicapped) I am forbidden to do any lifting, climbing or anything physically demanding. Instead, I get to do “other things”.

If the day should ever come that my child comes to me and says, “Mommy, how do you know you love Daddy?” I will lovingly pull out a photo album showing pages of loving kisses and warm embraces but I will stop at a certain page in the album that doesn’t even have photos of us. I will point to this set of photos and say, “Sweetie, I know I love your Dad because I VOLUNTEERED with a SMILE to clean this:”

I don’t know what kind of Neanderthals leased this building before we got it, but they must not have wives that love them. It’s one thing to clean a bathroom where you know where the germs came from. You’re in a whole other ballpark when the germs are foreign and have been collecting for months, possibly years. I felt like an investigator on C.S.I. trying to figure out where and at what angle these guys must have been standing to get the splatter effect I so lovingly had to scrub off the walls. I had never been so thankful in my life for the invention of rubber gloves as I was at that moment.

So, the bathroom is now disinfected and usable and the bio hazard has been removed. I may have contracted some strange, deadly disease- but hey, at least I didn’t climb that ladder.
(Sarcasm intended)

The Ugly and Akward Stage

This post is for Joy to laugh at and Taylor to reference. Hope this helps prove your point that yes, everyone goes through an ugly phase, but eventually it'll turn out ok.

Here we go...

I was a cute kid, doin' ok at 10 years old. I had my long blond hair, tan skin, very natural and all was well.

Soon after I turned 11, things started going downhill. For some reason, my hair got cut shorter and I discovered a curling iron and hairspray. It takes a bit of practice to get that skill down. While practicing, this is what I did to myself...

Notice the Hershey Kisses shirt. Yes, I proudly picked this out myself and yes my mother let me wear it to church.

I wish I could say this was the worst of my ugly phase, but I was seriously about to fall out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. Later that same year, my mom took my sister and I to our first hair salon. Up until this point mom had always cut our hair. We did not have any money growing up, so this was a HUGE splurge. I remember being allowed to go through the hairstyle books and pick any style I wanted as long as mom said OK. I vividly remember the hairstyle I picked out. Just above shoulder length, curled under with bangs that curled and feathered back on the top. Unfortunately, the lady that cut my hair had her own idea of what hairstyle she thought I should have and within 15 minutes my life was ruined. This was the end result...

This is how I looked at church on Easter Sunday. If you look closely, you'll notice I'm wearing a shirt with bears wearing workout outfits lifting weights. Yes, I picked this out myself, and my mother let me wear it. Thanks, mom.
Student of the week: Ronald McDonald!

I remember after the lady cut my hair and was blow drying it, she asked me if I liked it. I remember telling her I thought I looked like Tina Turner. Curling it didn't help either. It just turned me into a blond Ronald McDonald. The same lady that cut my hair botched my mom's hair also. My mom had to have her friend come over to fix it. My hair was cut so short there was no way it could be fixed. I just had to wait for it to grow out. My hair was finally growing out but I had an insane case of split ends and was a constant victim to the early 90's "hairspray wings" on the sides of my head.

By high school, things were getting better. I still had an obsession with using too much hairspray. At least I was slowly headed in the right direction. This was me at 15 years old, the year I met my husband - and he STILL married me!What ugly phase would be complete without the 90's poodle perm? By the time I was 17 I was almost to the end of the ugly phase. I definitely looked much better. After high school, I straightened the perm, had a friend who was in cosmetology school (Krista) who would always fix my hair mishaps, learned how to put on my makeup better and quit buying shirts with workout bears and Hershey Kisses. I was a late bloomer - it takes me a while to figure things out sometimes. Over all, it was a loooong journey but I think I turned out pretty OK.

How NOT to Plan a Romantic Weekend Getaway

This last weekend, Aaron had to work a boat show at Lake Arrowhead. Aaron had the great idea of having that weekend be our last "Big Hoorah" weekend away before the baby gets here. I had a great time going up there for the day during last year's boat show, so I couldn't be more excited to go again this year. Due to a series of unfortunate events, out last "Big Hoorah" was not exactly the romantic getaway we had been hoping for.

In the event that you are planning a getaway of your own, I've compiled a list of tips that will help you avoid the mishaps we ran into:

1. If your husband still has to work a 12 hour day, it doesn't count as a romantic getaway trip.
Work is still work no matter how beautiful the setting is. My hard-working hubby busted his butt baking in the sun, sweating like crazy and didn't have time to eat lunch. By the time he left the show at 7 pm, he was tired, hungry and a bit of a grumpy bear. We made it back to the hotel and the really nice restaurant we wanted to eat at was booked until 10pm. This did not help the grumpy factor. We found another place to eat that was just great. After he finally got some food and was back to his usual sweet self there were lots of kisses, hugs and apologies for being a grump. Because he had to work in the morning, there was no sleeping in. The alarm went off at 6am.

Aaron "workin' it" with some potential customers

2. Staying at a pricey resort does not insure the staff knows the difference between "lake view" and "parking lot view".
Friday night we got to Lake Arrowhead Village to set up for the boat show. Only one other guy from Aaron's work showed up to help - so 2 guys did the work of 6. We finally got the the resort to check in at 10pm. We were beat. We got our keys and opened the door to a beautiful room. Aaron went to check out the view (as best as you can at night), opened the drapes and found we had a gorgeous view of a huge pine tree and a condo parking lot even though he paid for a lake view room. We went back to the desk and got keys to another room. This one was on the first floor and over looked the pool and the lake view was on the other side of the pool. Well, that was better, so we went to check it out. It was OK until we heard the noise - SLUUUUUURP ... GLUG, GLUG, GLUG ......SLUUUUURP! What the heck?? We opened the balcony door and found that because we were next to the pool, we were also next to the pool filter equipment. There was no way were going to pay a grip of money for a room to sleep next to that! Back to the desk we went. The clerk found us yet another room for us to check out. 3rd floor, overlooking the pool, and if you stand over to the left and look right you could see the lake. Fine! We took it. By the time we finally got to the last room it was 11:30 pm. We still hadn't eaten dinner yet. The only place open was a Stater Bros. So we dined on a pre-made turkey sandwich, wheat thins and orange juice. We didn't get to sleep until 12:30 and we had to be up by 6am. Are we having fun yet???

It took 3 rooms to get this much of a "lake view"

3. Just because you're staying at a pricey resort does not mean the parking lot is big enough for its guests.
I understand that this is a mountain resort and space is limited, but seriously - they gloat about spending millions renovating this place and there's not enough parking??? This was the hugest pain in the butt. It was a fight every time we tried to park. It really took it's toll on the above-mentioned night when Aaron was being a grump. I was driving and had circled the parking lot with no luck. I went back past a row we had already gone down and there was a spot at the very end of the row. The only problem was that there was another car already coming around the other way to get the spot. Aaron got all jumpy and started yelling "Back up! Back up! Go beat him to that spot!" Are you kidding me? I was all the way at the far end of the row and the other car was already coming up on the empty spot. There was no way I could have made it. Aaron was already in a foul mood and this did not help. He was miffed that I didn't even try to fight for the spot. He did admit later that there was no way I could have beat the other driver - but that I still should have tried. Sometimes man logic makes no sense and is completely stupid.

4. When ordering breakfast, be sure you read the entire entree description first.
At the Lake Arrowhead Village there is this great waffle house overlooking the lake. We went there for breakfast. As I was looking over the menu I came across a Belgian waffle with baked apples, cinnamon, walnuts and raisins - yum! When my food came, I didn't quite know what to say... There were my beautiful waffles draped with the baked apples, cinnamon, walnuts and raisins - but between the waffles was 3 big scoops of apple cinnamon ice cream topped with 1/2 a can of whipped cream. It looked completely awesome if I was ordering dessert, but it was a bit much for breakfast. I looked back at the menu to see where things had gone wrong, and sure enough, I failed to read the second line of the entree description "served with apple cinnamon ice cream and whipped cream". Apparently, in Lake Arrowhead the big thing there is waffles with ice cream for breakfast. What can you do? I ate my Belgian ice cream sandwich and hoped my unborn kid would forgive me. If I give birth and the first thing my kid does is smack me, I will refer back to this moment and know I fully deserved it.

5. Don't go on vacation if you're so sick, you think you may just die.
OK, so Thursday night my throat was a bit scratchy. No big deal. Friday my throat was still scratchy and I lost my voice. I still felt OK, thought it was no big deal so we headed up the mountain. By Friday night, I knew I was going to be in trouble. My scratchy throat turned into a full blown sore throat and it was getting harder to breathe. Nothing says "romantic getaway" and "hey baby, come and get me!" like a huge pregnant lady that breathes like Darth Vader and is hacking up flem chunks. I hardly slept at all Friday night and by Saturday morning I was a mess. My throat was on fire, my voice was totally gone and it was so hard to breathe, it felt like my chest was going to collapse. When the boat show started at 10 am, I went back to our hotel and just sat up in bed and concentrated on breathing. After about 3 hours I finally had a huge coughing fit and got some "chunks" out of my lungs. Paints a pretty picture, eh? At least I could breathe better. I headed back to the boat show because Aaron's family was there to visit, they were camping at a site near Lake Arrowhead. We walked around a bit, but I was exhausted so I went back to the room and took a nap, which was interrupted by some lady who didn't speak english checking to see if we used anything from the mini bar. Ugh.

Hardly slept Saturday night either. Aaron still had to work another day at the boat show on Sunday, but we had driven separately so I could make it down the mountain for church. Needless to say, I was in no condition to go to church or help in the Nursery. I just went home. I had to keep taking hot showers to loosen up the junk in my chest, despite the fact that it was 105 degrees that day. The pressure in my chest subsided Sunday night, but the snotty nose and congestion showed up just in time to take it's place. Luckily, my pre-natal exam was scheduled for early Monday, so I was hoping to get an answer to what the heck was going on with me. At my appointment, the doctor said she could do a strep throat culture but the results would take 3 days and I should be over my sickness by then, so why should she bother? Thank you, Large Expensive Healthcare Provider for raising my rates another $40/month this year, and for what? Yet another doctor that isn't too interested in taking time to help a patient out. Sorry to waste your time. A simple "sucks to be you" would have done just fine.

The trip wasn't all bad though, we did get to have a little fun. One of the perks of having a husband in boat sales, is that you get to use the boats for free. I got to go on 2 really nice boat rides. One with just Aaron and I and one with some of his family that came up to visit. Here are some photos from the boat ride:

Letting the nephews drive the boat


Awesome boat ride!

I got to see a couple of other "boat wives" that I'm friends with that came up to visit for the weekend also. It was nice to see them too. Aaron and I did get to spend a bit more time together this weekend had we not stayed at Lake Arrowhead. All in all, the trip could have been much better, but sometimes things just don't work out the way you wish they would. I still love my hard-working, wonderful husband more than anything and I appreciate the effort he put into trying to have a nice weekend for us. Love You Hon!

Goodbye My Love, Goodbye...

When I turned 29 Aaron surprised me with an ipod and an insanely wicked car stereo system. My system could easily beat the pants off of any bass-cranking low rider looking for attention in the Walmart parking lot. Aaron took me around to the back to show me the speakers, they took up more than half of the car trunk. My honest-to-goodness first thought was “How am I going to fit a stroller in there?” (mom in training??) Since we weren’t on the baby making page yet, I got over the trunk space and have been enjoying my kickin’ stereo for the last couple of years. I love music LOUD!!! Three weeks ago I got a flat tire – luckily Aaron was with me. In order to get the spare tire out of the trunk, the speakers had to come out. My speakers have been sitting on the living room floor since that day, sad and lonely. I’ve decided since the baby is due in less than 3 months, I better grow up a little and not have the speakers put back in. Guess I really can’t use them anyway with an infant in the back seat. Blowing out my kids’ eardrums just isn’t an option.

So here’s to you, my lovely speakers! (sniffle, sniff) I have loved you, and I will miss you. You will soon be replaced by a new surround system sure to rival your volume capacity:

Behold, Your Little Ones

I can see why Christ loved little children. Every Sunday I'm up to my eyeballs in them, and I love it. After this weekend I'm afraid my nursery days are numbered.

Today I actually FEEL pregnant. This Mother’s Day weekend kicked my rear end a bit. Friday and Saturday I was up walking and standing a lot. I couldn't’t believe how much my feet were hurting (Docs are cool, but not very supportive). I didn’t say a word though, I can’t be a wuss this early in the game! We were at my in-laws’ late Saturday night and Sunday I had to be up at 5:30 to get everything together for Mother’s Day with my mom. (we made her breakfast) After that, I rushed home to get ready for church and off I went!

The Nursery leader was as sick as could be, so I was running the show. When I got to the room to set up, I knew I was going to be in for a world of hurt. My feet and back were already aching from the days before, but after moving 6 long folding tables, pushing and pulling several stacks of chairs, lifting and arranging a podium, snack tables, and bins of toys, crawling on the floor and lifting and holding some crying babies along with lots of happy babies (and one very defiant and feisty one), I was toast.

On any other non-pregnant normal day, this was just par for the course, no problem. I could tell that things were very different than normal. Does that really mean I can’t do everything I did before I was pregnant? I hate the feeling of being handicapped. I refuse to ask for help when I can do it myself.

So here I am on Monday at work. My back is still hurting, my feet are swollen and achy and I’m walking like an old lady. This is not good. I still have 3 months to go. Thoughts of Nursery retirement are at the front of my mind. That will be a very sad and difficult day for me. I knew this day was coming, but I didn’t actually want it to be here. I’ve been there for 3 years. I love those babies (even the feisty one), and Nursery has seriously been the best calling I’ve ever had. Listening in sacrament meeting I recognize each kids’ specific cry and hope they’re ok. My heart melts when they recognize me outside of Nursery and smile or wave at me. These aren’t even my babies and I’m a mushpot. I'm going to hang on to being in the Nursery as long as I possibly can...or until my back gives out.

I think little by little I'm getting the hang of this mothering thing.

Mother's Day On a Budget

When it comes to birthdays and holidays, for years our parents have told us "Don't spend money on us, just come visit." We would always ignore them and get them nice gifts anyway. This year is quite different. We are trying very hard not to spend money so we were more than happy to finally agree to their request.

I still would never show up empty-handed, so here's what I came up with for the special moms in our lives for Mother's Day:

Very simple, very cute. I already had the ribbon and paper so all I had to buy were the vases, which came to a grand total of $1 each. I'm not trying to prove what a cheapskate I am, just that you don't have to spend a lot to make something you won't be embarrassed to give as a gift.

My biggest advice for low cost gift-giving? Grow some flowers! My favorites are:

Calla Lilies - Bloom in time for Easter or any March/April occasions
Roses - Mine have been blooming April-September
Hydrangeas - May - September
Sea Lavender - Blooms all year, great accent and filler to any flower arrangement

For Mother's Day I usually make a corsage for Mom to wear to church, and the Dads get a boutonniere for Father's Day. You can always find vases at the dollar store or Walmart at next to nothing. At Big Lots! you can sometimes find cute ribbon for $1 or else I get it off season at Michael's or JoAnn's at 50%-70% off. When you're on a tight budget, it forces you to get creative. If you look hard enough you'll always find an inexpensive way to make ordinary things beautifully extraordinary.

Happy Mother's Day To Me

I've got the most wonderful, terrific, loving, manly-man of a husband who is just perfect for me. Even after being married 4 1/2 years my heart still gets excited when my cell phone rings with his special ring tone (Honkey Tonk Badonkadonk......don't ask). Here's a little piece of why I love this man so much.

Monday night after dinner Aaron said, "I was going to surprise you with a present for Mother's Day, but I think you really need it now and I'm not sure where to get it so I need your help. It will ruin the surprise, but I think you could use it ." I had no clue what he was talking about. He likes to try to get me to "guess" what the surprise is. I suck at this game. I was racking my brain of what I did or said over the last week to try to figure it out- hired help to pick up dog poop? the coveted Kitchen-Aid mixer? something for the baby? I gave up. Then he said 3 words that made me feel as if sunshine was coming down from heaven..."a Body Pillow".

Sunday night I was having a hard time sleeping again and I was afraid the tossing would wake Aaron up, so I went and slept on the couch. No complaints, no big deal, that's just how it is in the last stage of being pregnant. I have to wake up earlier than him, so I didn't even think that he noticed I was gone.

For all you moms, this next paragraph will be nothing new to you and will read something like "blah, blah, blah b blah", but it's my story so I'll say it anyway.

We all know that the more pregnant you get, the less sleep you get. Forget the fact that I have to get up to pee 3X a night, in the last couple of weeks my back has been starting to hurt. On top of that, when I lay on one side, the baby and all my guts fall over to that side causing a major side cramp, so I switch sides and the baby and all my guts fall to the other side causing a cramp on the other side. The result? Tossing and turning and waking up all night. Luckily Aaron is a heavy sleeper.

Out the door we went to Linens 'N Things to get me a Body Pillow. I picked out a bright pink one. For the burly, outdoor, nothing-remotely-feminine-about-him man that Aaron is, I didn't know he even knew what a Body Pillow was. On the way home I asked him, "How do you always know just what I need when I never ask?" his answer was, "I just listen."

I married an amazing man.

Death By Pooper-Scooper

It was just another typical morning of picking up dog poop in the backyard before work, but the lovely morning was about to take a sudden change. As I was walking to the back door to get the trashcan, there, floating in Moe’s water bowl was a HUGE spider. It was still alive but it was stuck and couldn’t get out. I grabbed my camera and took a couple of photos. I wanted to get a close up one so you could see his fangs and evil beady eyes, but I was afraid he’d jump up and eat my face off. This was as close as I was willing to get. I am insanely scared of spiders. I flipped the spider out of the bowl using the pooper-scooper shovel and proceeded to hack it into little bits. I ran inside, locked the door and washed my hands twice.
I’m such a weenie.