Happy New Year!

Hope you all have a great holiday!!!!

(posts about Chrsitmas, Mom's wedding & move soon to come)

Snow is coming...

Its not like I am huge fan of any comic; however, Venessa sent these to me at work and I LOVED THEM! I am half tempted to make one in my yard. Wait, I don't really have a yard....maybe in a park :).

My new found water friend

I have recently discovered the sweetest little addition to water; Ocean Spray 5 calorie White, Cran, Peach. It is delicious! It is similar to those crystal light packets that you add to a bottle of water....but it is more flavor full and less diet tasting. I am not a fan of water (unless I have been exercising or something)....but this little pouch of goodness has become my afternoon snack. I highly recommend it.

Now, don't think I am jumping on the water band-wagon just yet; I still carry in my coke every morning--but only a can. No longer 32 oz every morning (except for Thirsty Thursdays by my house for $0.34)....its all about baby steps :).

Kind of Offical

What I mean by kind of, is that it is currently official, but could change depending on my Mom……

We found out yesterday she is getting married on her way to California with Jesse (her fiancé). Jesse is coming out for Christmas and they are going to drive my Mom’s car back to his house. They are stopping off in Reno to get married!!!! It is exciting for several reasons, I am happy for her to have someone and to do something exciting (like pack up and move on a whim). An added bonus is she loves the area she is moving too…..and being close to the ocean is her favorite. But I am not too thrilled that she will be so far away from all of us kids, in a small house, and without anyone close by. What if she doesn’t like it? What if she does what she always does, and doesn’t tell anyone how she really feels (like if she was unhappy or wanted to come home but didn’t know how)? I tell myself not to worry about it and just to let her go and do what she wants. But I am such a worry wart! I am constantly worried about her. I have wanted her to get a house of her own HERE, so she could feel independent and have her own space….but that isn’t fair if she really wants to go….I shouldn’t try to keep her here.

Crazy as it sounds I will enjoy not living with either parents or family. I have always lived with one combo or another…..sisters, Mom or Dad. But it will feel really really weird because I have never lived more than 5 minutes away from my Mom, if 5 minutes at all. I just LOVE HER. What will I do without someone sewing in the other room? Or leaving those little egg packaged nylons on my dresser (even if I don’t use all of them). Or who says, “Oh Emily!!!!” when she thinks I am being ridiculous? Or who buys the puppies more treats than me (yes, it’s true although hard to believe)?

Sure, I should probably be used to living without at least one member of my family. I lived without Jeanie—which I would call EVERYDAY after high school—from kindergarten until I moved here and lived with her for about a year. I lived without Sheryl just from 10th grade until I moved back here right after graduation. I lived without one brother since I was 4, and the other since 3rd grade. I have lived without my Dad (except for one month in the summer) from age 4 until I moved in with him in about 2002. I guess I should put a disclaimer **lived without does not mean I never spoke to them or anything…..I talked to them on the phone, wrote letters and visited them either on my Dad’s summer visit or if they came up for Thanksgiving to see Mom***. So why should this be different???? Well, because it’s my Mom! Holy cow….call me crazy but I hate the thought of her not being super close; it is weird. But I know if she is happy and taken care of, then I will worry less about her, so that will be nice.

So for now, it is official; Clayton and I will have our own house—maybe it will feel more like we are newly-weds with our own lives instead of live-in-roomies! Yea!!!

LOVE YOU MOM!

Time to Give Thanks

Don’t you just love this time of year? I do! I love the holiday music, the bustle in the grocery stores, the wrapping paper, decorated trees, sweaters and jackets, and visiting with family. Even though Christmas is pushed on us like there is not enough time in the 25 days in December to celebrate……..we can’t forget Thanksgiving.

I love Thanksgiving! I love getting together with family watching football (even if I don’t know the teams), eating and snacking all day, playing games and staying up late chit-chatting like when you were kids. I love it! I love the smell of fresh baked rolls, the smiles on everyone’s faces, and the anticipation for the wonderful turkey that has cooked all day. MMM I just love the holidays.

I don’t want to be cheesy, but I am very grateful for so many things; my husband & best friend, my family, my close friends, my cute pups, being able to do what I want because I live in a free country, and having a job. The economy isn’t doing too well, but we shouldn’t let that get us down. We have so many things to be grateful for. We really are so lucky!!!!!! We should turn off the TV and enjoy each other. Enjoy our warm houses and full bellies. We should share our abundance of joy, food and money we have with those less fortunate. Don’t listen to the world and spend all of your money on gifts. Do the simple things, like serving others or making someone’s day, that is what is memorable—that is what makes the season even sweeter.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Fakies

So I have always wanted to try fake eyelashes. I never have....not for Halloween, not for anything.

So I finally decided to. I went to the store and bought the kind that are just a few lashes that you add in here and there (not the full strips). I was so excited went home to try them out. I got out the glue and the lashes and start putting them in (2 on each side), totally thinking I am going to have great thick, full, long, lashes. BUMMER! They were not longer than my real ones!! My family does have long eyelashes, but I just want them longer. I guess I am just used to their length and so they don't seem long; I was quite disappointed. On the plus side I picked up my favorite mascara which helps me feel better about them. After looking at our wedding photos I am bummed I didn't pick it up before our wedding. I did try a little something different for my big day and didn't like it too much. It wasn't anything horrendous, but it wasn't my fav makeup job. You can't even see my lashes in pictures.....but oh well.

No movie-star eyes for me I guess unless I get the strips with the really fake looking ones :(

Paint, mold, floors; sounds like remodel...

The remodeling has commenced; fun yes, but tiring at the same time. I feel as though I run errands on every lunch, go home to a mess, start another project, or am waiting for another part of one project to be completed so I can do my part. Rough life eh? Not really, I love it.

We started with the kitchen. We pulled up our old molding floors and put in a new water heater. Then we painted…..I started pulling off the base hold while Clayton was at band practice and found more MOLD. So we are pretty sure our kitchen has previously flooded that we were not told about before buying. Oh well. I got it cleaned up and painted with KILLZ so the mold doesn’t come back. We decided to paint the kitchen a light dusty green with dark olive stripes (just on one wall). It turned out fantastic (the lighting for the pictures wasn't great...it is better in real life. I originally wanted even stripes; think light colored ones with thin dark ones. But Clayton came up with a better design and it turned out great! It is our new favorite wall in the house! It looks great with our new floors and maybe now we will actually eat at our dining table.

Floors—wow. Busy times. I picked up and unloaded the 25 boxes of flooring with my friend Krysti (since we don’t have a truck) on the night before we started. At 5:30 the next morning I got up and started again pulling up base mold. At 6 Clayt got up to help me move the furniture so we could really get going. We pulled everything up and got it ready. Gary came over with two saws in his truck (that totally saved us!), then my brothers in law Jeff, Greg & Mike came. We got it all done in one long day. Gary worked the hardest, showing us the ropes and cutting the meticulous pieces. What a great handy father-in-law I have!!!! We put in pergo flooring throughout the downstairs. We were able to return the left over boxes of flooring we got and picked up some matching rugs. I just love them! I love how our house is coming together the way we want. I get great joy out of these little projects….picking my own stuff and doing whatever I want with it. LOVE IT!
Obviously missing our base mold....This is our old rug without our coffee table.... I LOVE OUR FLOORS. Our condo is really starting to feel like our home!

Since I had Veterans Day off, I decided to do our ½ bath while Clayt was at work. I painted it the blue we picked out, painted the cabinet, changed all hardware, changed the light fixture and put it back together. Besides one little drill glitch (and stripped screw glitch) it went pretty good. It took me all day to get it done….but I like the result. Who doesn’t like checking something else off their list? I do wish the blue was a little less bright….more dull/dusty…we used a different brand of paint and didn’t like it as much. But too late now, hopefully some wall décor will tone it down. We will be replacing the counter top when we get the ones for the kitchen. I love how the cabinet turned out....we are thinking of doing this same color in the kitchen.Haven't you missed our pups? This is them after a hard days work.Kitchen still missing base mold :)

Couldn't help myself

This is the funniest thing I have seen--who cares who you are voting for--anyone can have a good laugh. I just can't wait till this rediculous election is OVER. 4 days and counting.

Jazz it up!

Last night was the first game of the season for the Jazz. We were lucky enough to go! My brother-in-law got us free tickets….so we were there to see the new introductions & sound system. It was awesome. It was like an old butt rock concert with pyrotechnics; FAN-tastic. I loved it! Each time they announced a player they had a huge boom like a cannon going off. We were in the upper bowl, but who cares; it was a free date night. It is so fun to go somewhere like that—it is lively; you can scream your lungs out; see people dressed up in the name of NBA and of course laugh your butt off at the ridiculous Jazz dancers. Do we really not have time to recruit talented dancers or choreographers? They suck! So YEAH to Jazz, double BOO TO THE JAZZ DANCERS. Last night they were wearing 1970 hot pants…skin tight and weggie-fus (not attractive even on skinny girls). Anywho….good season opener…GO JAZZ!

25, Rockband & Ruts

A post of randomness.

Yes, I am a little late but it was Clayton's 25 birthday on the 10! Happy Birthday!!!! We went on a date night to Corbins. I must say....it wasn't as good as I thought. The french fries were a little wierd and my steak was nothing spectacular. Personally Texas Roadhouse is better, although Corbins was a little more intimate.

I made Clayton a list of 25 things he should know about 1983. Some were stupid random facts others I thought were intersting. Who knew that George Bush (the first one) was Regans Vice?? I DID NOT KNOW THAT. A gallon of milk cost about what it costs now, and the Jazz made it to the playoffs! Gas was $.85 a gallon! And the number one song on his birthday was "Total Eclipse of the Heart". Those were the days of cabbage patch dolls, big hair and jellies.

We bought ROCK BAND. My husband and his family are musical geniuses, so of course they love it. I enjoy playing, but I do not live for it. Maybe I will become totally addicted once my kitchen and living room get put back together, but right now I am preoccupied with getting things fixed. Back to rockband--we got a killer deal on it from one of his co-workers so that is our Christmas to each other (at least that is how Clayton classified the purchase :)). Clayt is constantly unlocking new songs and is loving it! GO ROCK. I want to buy more butt rock songs though--they are fabulous--and those are the ones I like to play best.

RUT. That is right. I am in a work rut. What should I do? Who knows! I dread getting up in the morning; I would rather sleep cuddled up to my puppies. I can't wait for lunch to go home and watch my daily dose of court shows (Judge Judy, Alex or whoever is on). I try not to fall asleep waiting for the hours to go by while getting my work done. I am lacking motivation!!!!!!! I can't wait to go home to my cute Clayton and do nothing! I just want to wake up from this dazed feeling of hating it. And I am sick of stupid people at work! Seriously I don't know how they have made it this far in life passing the buck with their arrogant man-hood. Enough of that, I really shouldn't let them get to me.

But that is about it.....Oh yeah. We put in a new water heater this weekend (Thank you BLAKE), removed the mold and now are ready to install new floors next Saturday! We will paint the kitchen before hand and I will post losts of pics. I love the remodeling/updating. Maybe I should just flip houses. Or work in a nursery with sweet babies all day.

Wedding Pics!

So here are our wedding pics from the photographer. She did a fantastic job!!!! Enjoy!

Politicians

Word to the Wise Politicians--always be vague, yet sound knowledgeable.

More pics....

Look at these cute pictures my friend Krysti took at my wedding. She does such a freakin good job! They are candid, but I likey.

Skeptical at first; quickly hooked.

We have a new obsession. It started just a few weeks before our wedding and has kept us busy watching the DVD’s every night. Last night we completed season two just in time for Monday’s premiere of season three of HEROES.

When we rented disc one of season one, I thought, this is not going to measure up to the recent super hero movies I have seen, so I won’t like it. NOT THE CASE. We loved it from the get go. Season one is awesome!!!! Season two had the writers strike so it is not as great, but still worth watching.

I don’t know how we are going to survive a week between each episode because we have watched 3-4 a night!!!!!! What some may say is a huge waste of time; we really enjoy snuggling up to a great show.

Here is a brief description…..a few people have found they have these special abilities. They range in ages, sexes, symptoms, etc. Some have cellular regeneration (can heal themselves), some can move objects with their mind, others fly, some are radioactive, etc. Then there is this company that you are not sure is good or bad. They take in these people and get them help and/or experiment with their abilities.

One disclaimer: I would not recommend watching with any children. It is pretty violent/graphic (with brains being cut out and people split in half). Not every episode is like that, but there have been a few scenes that I wonder how they showed them on regular TV. Side note--I should not be surprised; look at other shows or stations like MTV, they will pass anything as ok for TV!

I don’t want to give anything away, but it comes highly recommended by ME!

Just what you are waiting for.....

The post about our wedding & honeymoon.

We tried to save money every way possible, so we ended up doing many things ourselves or using the talents of members of our family. It definitely saved us, but kept us on our toes and busy every minute leading up to the wedding. The ceremony was unfortunately not our highlight. We both imagined something a little more, not a two minute reading of the typical vowes, mispronunciation of Scothern and the rings were not presented before we were pronounced husband & wife...but oh well...what can you do? The reception on the other hand was wonderful! It was in beautiful Mountain Green at Mindy's. The lighting was beautiful; especially at dusk as the sky got dim. We couldn't have asked for better weather...not too hot or too cold. It rained the next day really bad, so we are lucky we missed the storm.

The reception was just what we wanted; simple & sweet. I really enjoyed being with our family. I liked having a day just for us--shared with those who mean the most! Thank you to all of those who helped with flowers, decorating, hosting, etc. We had a wonderful time!!!!!

I can't wait to see the pictures from our photographer but I will post a few of mine & Gary's. I had a little veil trouble & my hair started to slowly fall out....but just don't look too close.

Onto the honeymoon....four words. NO LOTIONS OR LIQUIDS. It is not what you think. The morning after our reception we went to the airport. It was Clayton's second time flying and I had not been in a plane for years. Needless to say we did not know the new rules about LOTIONS/LIQUIDS. For those of you who do not know, you cannot carry on anything over 3 oz (some idiot decided to make a bomb with carry on liquids and now the rest of us are screwed). Anywho--We get ready to go through security and we are stopped. They emptied out our bags....of course we had packed in our lotions, sunscreen, the obvious ky supply, makeup, solarcane, etc. in our carry on. They guy looked at us and said, "You crazy kids" (like we were perv's) as he proceeded to tell us the rules. So, we go back to our already checked bags, have them pull it off the plane and added the items. Then headed back with our okay-ed bag to security. AGAIN WE WERE STOPPED FOR STUFF THEY HAD MISSED, perfume, lotion, face wash, etc. I was so mad. I finally said, "This is BS, dump everything out and do it right so we do not get stopped again". So, we went back for a second time to add more stuff to our checked luggage--but ending up just paying to check EVERYTHING. Embarrassed and almost late, we boarded our plane.




THANK GOODNESS WE LOVED SAN DIEGO. It was beautiful! The only thing we did not like was a 32oz Coke was $3. I was dying. I wanted to save our money but needed that coke--so we binged. We got to our room, unpacked and called a taxi for the zoo. The zoo was great. It was so pretty!!!! I have more pics to post later. I love animals--I do feel bad for them locked up, but I like being able to see animals we would not be able to see otherwise.

We stayed in a fabulous hotel in downtown. Nerdy as it is, it was an old bank. In the basement was their old safe deposit that you could go into. It was nerdily cool. I couldn't believe it was built in the 1920's. The best pic was of the women on the 8th floor shooting range; the owner didn't want his bank to get robbed so he made all women practice on their lunch shooting. Then gave each a gun to keep at the teller line. Sweet!
The nightlife was fun to see in downtown. It was Sunday (before Labor Day) so everyone was out on the town. The only bad thing is hearing the "unce, unce, unce" thumping of the bass at the clubs next door.
The next morning we boarded our ship. Our room was a little ghetto, orange carpet, two twin beds pushed together and a plastic wall decoration with an orange vinyl ship on it (with a light behind it). At first we were skeptical, but it was fine. The food was fantastic. Bread, bread, bread, steak, dessert, bread and more dessert was my menu. Yum! Our dinner partners were so much fun. Their nickname was Kentucky (yes both of them). They participated in a game show that gave them that name & it stuck. They made our meal time fun.....yes they were drunk.....but so was everyone else on our ship. We were a little disappointed that the entire ship was geared towards drinkers but it was still fun. We did have our share of virgin specialty drinks though! My mouth is still watering for another virgin strawberry/banana daiquiri. MMMMM.




My favorite part of the cruise was an air guitar championship. We were in the casino and I heard some Poison playing in the background. I followed the noise and low & behold there was the competition. Two minutes too late to join (or I could have won)...it was fun to watch. The entertainment on the ship was similar to lagoon so we skipped out on most shows after the first night of torture. Karaoke was alright, although mixed with all of the drunks, no one could carry a tune. A few were still dang funny. One girl could not read worth beans. She was trying out for a Madonna part , singing like a virgin, in a later show and could not read the lyrics. The lyrics said "I made it through the wilderness" and she said, "Wild-er-ness". WOW. We were laughing so hard. Who would do that to themselves? If you can't read or don't already know the lyrics by heart, why get up there???? It was entertaining at least.

We stopped at Cabo and did a zipline tour. Our tour guide looked exactly like Nadal the tennis player. All of the guides were hilarious; they definitely made it memorable. I thought I would be a little more scared than I was, but the height factor didn't scare me. I loved zipping over a canyon. Clayton was glad I did something a little adventurous. There was one part where you had to climb a rock wall and I hated it. The pegs were so far apart I could hardly reach, so I was frustrated at that part....but the rest was fantastic. Too bad they wouldn't let us take our cameras. Here is after the hot sweaty trip (we look terrific, I know. Just look at that sweat).

Ensenada was our last stop and it was LAME. It smelled like sewage and it was similar to Tijuana. We did a little shopping and just went back on the boat to eat. We did get a few pictures with the Mexico flag for our souvenir, along with the only few spots it was clean :).

Anywho--now we are home and life is slowing getting back to normal.