Friday, November 30, 2007

First dance wedding video

This is the most hilarious first dance video I have ever seen - I totally would have done this at my wedding - why didn't I think of this?

We've been elfed

This is the most hilarious thing I have ever seen. My aunt sent this to me this morning and I about wet myself.
Click here to see our family elf dance.
At the same time I was doing ours Aimee also did one with her kids - check it out too.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Christmas tree


Four years ago we had a pretty bad experience with a real Christmas tree and decided we would stay away from the real thing for awhile. We go to Indy for Christmas - usually for about 5 or 6 nights. When we came home we walked into the biggest mess. At some point while we were gone the tree tipped over...including the water bucket. The water had soaked into the carpet and the tree had left sap all over the carpet. At the time we had 2 cats and they had a wonderful time with it while we were gone because there were ornaments all over the house...even upstairs! Yes, they actually dragged ornaments upstairs to play with. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall watching them have the time of their lives. So the following year we wanted to get a fake tree but really didn't have the money to spend on it. My mother-in-law had just bought a new tree and was throwing her old tree away so we thought we would just take it and it would have to do for a year until we could buy a new one. It's not that it's an ugly tree, but it's small and a little sparse. There's a few branches that are broken and have to be wired on each year and the needles fall off all over the place - my neighbor Dan was over last night and asked, "Is it a real tree?"
me: no
Dan: then why are there needles all over the floor
The tree was good for a year being that we didn't have the money to buy one and I'm very thankful for it, but it kind of reminds me of the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. Okay, it's not that bad, but it's clearly time to get a new tree.
So sometime between Halloween and Thanksgiving I found a beautiful tree at JoAnn's - I was so excited because it was pre-lit and only $149. I told Brian about it and he said no, so I pouted for a couple of weeks. Not just pouted though - I was pissed!
On Thanksgiving Brian's mom and I finally got to Brian that we needed to get a tree. So I planned on getting to JoAnn's first thing on black Friday. As I was looking in the ads I found a better tree at JCPenny's - it was a $350 tree that was on sale for $108. It was 7.5' tall and pre-lit with 1000 lights. So my mom and I show up there bright and early and got the tree. They offered to load it in our vehicle, but we had gotten a pretty good parking spot and didn't want to move the car to the door so we decided we'd lug it through the parking lot to the car and load it ourselves. Well, we had my mom's car which is a Dodge Charger and the only place the box was going to fit was in the back seat, but we couldn't get it to go in because of the cars on both sides of her car. So we had to back the car out into the middle of the aisle to get it in - we of course had people flocking to our parking spot only to see us pull back in to the parking spot and get out of the car.
So we came back from Indy Friday night and Saturday morning we started decorating the house for Christmas - Brian outside, me inside. I was so excited - I had the Christmas music blaring and I was putting together my beautiful tree. I got it all put together and I plugged it in and it had multi-colored lights - I like clear lights on my Christmas tree. I could have cried! I put the tree back in the box and begged Brian to come down from the roof so we could return it and look for another one. When he was finally finished with what he was doing we took the tree back and went all over trying to find a tree that I liked and Brian was willing to pay for - that didn't happen - we went to Lowes, Menards, JoAnn's, Target, K-mart and Old Time Pottery and came home empty handed!
I finally just decided to give up - we just weren't going to have a tree this year. But on Sunday we went to our usual place for Sunday dinner - Leenie's and they were putting up their tree. I decided that if I couldn't have a new tree this year then I was going to get new ornaments and then buy a new tree either after Christmas this year or next year, but this would be the last year for this pathetic hand-me-down (no offense Linda - my MIL).
So on Tuesday I shopped for my new ornaments and I was on cloud-9, it was awesome picking out all new ornaments. I have had red and silver for about 4 years and before that it was purple and silver. I have never liked gold - I would always wonder why anyone would want to use gold, but this year I am REALLY in to gold with red and green, but not just any green - I'm liking the lime green - something I started liking when we did our candy cane craft at MOPS.
So my decorations look beautiful! Notice I didn't say tree? My decorations will look much better next year on my NEW Christmas tree - right honey? But until then, here's some pics.







Wordless Wednesday






For more wordless Wednesday visit 5 minutes for mom.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

What exactly does that mean?

me: Olivia, I love you with all of my heart
Olivia: well, I love you with my bottom

It might not have been exactly what I was looking for, but I laughed my ass off!!

Monday, November 26, 2007

Angel on earth

What did I ever do to be blessed with such a great little girl? Miss O is my angel on earth! She is so brilliant and she amazes us with her intelligence every day. Not only is she smart, but she's such a caring little girl. Brian has decided to take the job he was offered and he turned in his letter of resignation today. The resignation went better than expected, but Brian just really feels bad about leaving and he's scared to death of where he's going - not that it's a scary place, but it's entirely different then what he is used to and is not where he saw his path going. He came home from work today and was just talking about how scared he was. He picked Olivia up and she said, "what's wrong daddy?"
daddy: daddy's just scared about his new job
Miss O: But God's with you, right?...and he will help you not be scared.
Brian and I just stood there crying. She can make you feel better in a split second. When I was in labor for 3 days with Jesse a lot of my friends and family offered to take Olivia to their house to watch her, but we insisted on keeping her at the hospital because she made us smile - at that time, it was like she was the only thing worth living for and we needed her there with us.
I just don't know what we ever did to deserve such a wonderful little girl - Thank you God for my angels in heaven, but thank you so much for trusting me with this very very special angel on earth!

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Thorns

For some of you this will be a repeat from MOPS, but it's always good to hear it again.


Sandra felt as low as the heels of her shoes when she pulled open the florist shop door, against a November gust of wind. Her life had been as sweet as a spring breeze and then, in the fourth month of her second pregnancy, a "minor" automobile accident stole her joy. This was Thanksgiving week and the time she should have delivered their infant son. She grieved over their loss.
Troubles had multiplied.
Her husband's company "threatened" to transfer his job to a new location. Her sister had called to say that she could not come for her long awaited holiday visit. What's worse, Sandra's friend suggested that Sandra's grief was a God-given path to maturity that would allow her to empathize with others who suffer. "She has no idea what I'm feeling," thought Sandra with a shudder. "Thanksgiving? Thankful for what?" she wondered. "For a careless driver whose truck was hardly scratched when he rear-ended her? For an airbag that saved her life, but took her child's?"
"Good afternoon, can I help you?"
Sandra was startled by the approach of the shop clerk. "I . . . I need an arrangement," stammered Sandra.
"For Thanksgiving? I'm convinced that flowers tell stories," she continued. "Are you looking for something that conveys 'gratitude' this Thanksgiving?"
"Not exactly!" Sandra blurted out. "In the last five months, everything that could go wrong has gone wrong."
Sandra regretted her outburst, and was surprised when the clerk said, "I have the perfect arrangement for you."
Then the bell on the door rang, and the clerk greeted the new customer,
"Hi, Barbara, let me get your order." She excused herself and walked back to a small workroom, then quickly reappeared, carrying an arrangement of greenery, bows, and what appeared to be long-stemmed thorny roses. Except the ends of the rose stems were neatly snipped: there were no flowers.
"Do you want these in a box?" asked the clerk. Sandra watched - was this a joke? Who would want rose stems with no flowers! She waited for laughter, but neither woman laughed.
"Yes, please," Barbara replied with an appreciative smile. "You'd think after three years of getting the special, I wouldn't be so moved by its significance, but I can feel it right here, all over again," she said, as she gently tapped her chest.
Sandra stammered, "Ah, that lady just left with . . . uh . . . she left with no flowers!"
"That's right," said the clerk. "I cut off the flowers. That's the 'Special'. I call it the Thanksgiving Thorns Bouquet. Barbara came into the shop three years ago, feeling much as you do today," explained the clerk. "She thought she had very little to be thankful for. She had just lost her father to cancer; the family business was failing; her son had gotten into drugs; and she was facing major surgery. That same year I had lost my husband," continued the clerk. "For the first time in my life, I had to spend the holidays alone. I had no children, no husband, no family nearby, and too much debt to allow any travel."
"So what did you do?" asked Sandra.
"I learned to be thankful for thorns," answered the clerk quietly. "I've always thanked God for the good things in my life and I never questioned Him why those good things happened to me, but when the bad stuff hit, I cried out, 'Why? Why me?!' It took time for me to learn that the dark times are important to our faith! I have always enjoyed the 'flowers' of my life, but it took the thorns to show me the beauty of God's comfort! You know, the Bible says that God comforts us when we're afflicted, and from His consolation we learn to comfort others."
Sandra sucked in her breath, as she thought about what her friend had tried to tell her. "I guess the truth is I don't want comfort. I've lost a baby and I'm angry with God."
Just then someone else walked in the shop.
"Hey, Phil!" the clerk greeted the balding, rotund man.
"My wife sent me in to get our usual Thanksgiving arrangement . . twelve thorny, long-stemmed stems!" laughed Phil as the clerk handed him a tissue wrapped arrangement from the refrigerator.
"Those are for your wife?" asked Sandra incredulously. "Do you mind telling me why she wants a bouquet that looks like that?"
"Four years ago, my wife and I nearly divorced," Phil replied. "After forty years, we were in a real mess, but with the Lord's grace and guidance, we trudged through problem after problem, the Lord rescued our marriage. Jenny here (the clerk) told me she kept a vase of rose stems to remind her of what she had learned from "thorny" times. That was good enough for me. I took home some of those stems. My wife and I decided to label each one for a specific "problem" and give thanks for what that problem taught us."
As Phil paid the clerk, he said to Sandra, "I highly recommend the Special!"
"I don't know if I can be thankful for the thorns in my life" Sandra said to the clerk. "It's all too . . . fresh."
"Well," the clerk replied carefully, "my experience has shown me that the thorns make the roses more precious. We treasure God's providential care more during trouble than at any other time. Remember that it was a crown of thorns that Jesus wore so we might know His love. Don't resent the thorns."
Tears rolled down Sandra's cheeks. For the first time since the accident, she loosened her grip on her resentment. "I'll take those twelve long-stemmed thorns, please," she managed to choke out.
"I hoped you would," said the clerk gently. "I'll have them ready in a minute."
"Thank you. What do I owe you?"
"Nothing. Nothing but a promise to allow God to heal your heart The first year's arrangement is always on me."
The clerk smiled and handed a card to Sandra. "I'll attach this card to your arrangement, but maybe you would like to read it first."
It read:
"My God, I have never thanked You for my thorns. I have thanked You a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorns. Teach me the glory of the cross I bear; teach me the value of my thorns. Show me that I have climbed closer to You along the path of pain. Show me that, through my tears, the colors of Your rainbow look much more brilliant."
Praise Him for the roses; thank Him for the thorns.
God Bless all of you. Be thankful for all that the Lord does for you.
"Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, and leave the
rest to God."
We often try to fix problems with WD-40 and Duct tape. God did it with nails.
Happy Thanksgiving
I pray that you will be surrounded with all the blessings in your life this Thanksgiving and that you will be thankful for the thorns - as bad as they hurt sometimes.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Monday's suck and I'm in a funk!


Mondays Suck - Watch more free videos

Ever feel like this on Monday? Things are going great here! I'm a hormonal BITCH! I haven't been sleeping at night, the hot flashes and night sweats are enough to make you want to pull your hair out, the mood swings and irritability suck! I know I'm a bitch, but it's like there is nothing I can do about it. AND I DON'T CARE!!

Friday, November 16, 2007

You have got to be kidding me!

I was thumbing through my latest edition of In Style Magazine - AKA magazine of ads! and came across this ad...I couldn't believe my eyes!


It's Juicy Crittoure - The First Couture Fragrance for Dogs (Pawfum)
The bottle shown in the ad is a 1 ounce bottle and cost $60!

Does anyone else find this COMPLETELY ridiculous?

Here's an add I found on You Tube for it

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Throwback Thursday - High School Sweetheart



As you all know I married my high school sweetheart. This is one of my senior pictures taken in '96 with him.


Awesome perm, huh?

Aw, the simple times! Can you remember things that happened in HS where you thought you were gonna die? Like when your boyfriend would break up with you or your BFF wasn't talking to you? Seemed like the worst thing in the world, right? Life was so simple then.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

New haircut

My friend Megan was at my house Saturday. Her son and Miss O were playing and being pretty good...meaning they were quiet (but not too quiet) and kept themselves entertained. It wasn't until Sunday when Brian found a chunk of red hair on the carpet that Saturday's events began to unfold. Not only did Ariel get a haircut, but Miss O did too! After talking to Olivia about what happened I knew that I had to tell Megs - I mean, I would want to know if my child had done this. I felt bad telling on him, mostly because I knew she'd be upset and also because she's been having a hard time lately with being pregnant, going to school, working and her husband being out of town for several weeks. So after telling her I had a talk with Reece - it was quite funny!

me: Did you cut my little girl's hair?

Reece: Well, she asked me to. And why does she keep telling you? She was like, 'shhhh, don't tell my mom' but she keeps telling you! Besides, the scissors weren't sharp and it was really hard to cut her hair!

Here's the end result. How much do we owe you Reece?

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Bad Houseguests

Aunt Flo rolled in like a gangsta bitch all loud and proud about 3pm today...uninvited as always! I mean, who does she think she is just showing up in my uterus?!? I've had a sit down talk with her and she is well aware that she is not invited back here because she is a horrible house guest - like the kind that leaves shit all over your house and is really noisy at 5AM....she's just annoying! I will send her packing next week. I have given her directions to a nice unsuspecting china woman and told her to not bother with calling or writing. Hopefully she'll be leaving just before Thanksgiving.
Silliness aside, I did start my period today, but on a positive side (I'm really working on being positive) this is the most normal cycle I have had - 28 days baby!! I have gone from 57 days in June down to a normal 28 day cycle which tells me that something is working - that's something to be happy about, right? Months ago I had to take something to start my period, but I have started on my own for 4 months in a row! Something else to be happy about.
So, same shit, different cycle! I'll start 150 mg of Clomid on Saturday and should be a hormonal raging lunatic right in time for Thanksgiving - this could be a very interesting year for shopping the day after Thanksgiving - Mom, I hope you're ready! Watch out bitches here we come!!!

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Tea for two

Miss O and my mom had a tea party last week while Brian and I were with our small group. Here's some pics of the two little ladies enjoying their tea!


Olivia told me later that when you have tea with your friends you call your friends "dear". You have to say, "would you like some more tea dear?"
She also informed me that when you "sip" your tea you have to stick your finger up, only when she showed me she was sticking her index finger up, not her little finger!

I love my mom so much. I'm glad that she does things like this with all her grandchildren...it's priceless!

Friday, November 9, 2007

1st official cookie order

I've made sugar cookies for years now for friends and family. I've made them for about every holiday and different parties like baby showers, bridal showers, etc. A couple months ago I was asked if I'd be interested in making them to sell. A friend of mine was interested in purchasing some for a baby shower she was throwing. Here are the cookies I made for the baby shower.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Wordless Wednesday - look closely!


For more Wordless Wednesdays check out 5 Minutes for Mom

Introducing...

Leenie (Kathleen) has joined the blogging world. Check her out - I know it will be good!

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

A sign

So Brian switched jobs less than a month ago and went to work for another Insurance company. He has worked in the insurance industry since graduating from college. He does computer stuff - don't ask for details, it's complicated so I just say "computer stuff"...but he's bored with the insurance stuff - I mean how much fun can it be to program for an insurance company? His dreams have always been to work with cutting edge technology - the geeky stuff! He's a techy Geek!!
So before he switched jobs less than a month ago, he was approached by someone he used to work with about working for a small company in Valpo but he didn't give it much thought because he isn't a risk-taker when it comes to his family and providing for it. He prefers the comfort of large companies in corporate America because it provides a since of stability.
He has been approached again about working for this company, only this time he has given it a lot of thought. He is really drawn to this company because of their cutting edge technology and the fact that it is close to home. He spends about 2 1/2 hours a day traveling to and from work in the city.
So we have been praying for clarity with this decision. Brian has been praying that God would just give him a sign that he should follow his dreams rather then stay where he's comfortable and secure. So Brian was walking down Michigan Avenue today which he has done every day since he graduated from college and went to work in the city. He passes a building and something catches his eye...a sign! Not a plastic sign, not a wood sign...it wasn't painted on, but on a side of an old brick building was a white film in the shape of a rectangle with writing on it. He had never noticed it before and no one else was noticing it. Everyone was running around in every different direction, but this sign had him stopped in his tracks and focusing entirely on it...like he was drawn to it. He took a picture of it....

"As it turns out, I really don't care at all about your professional success. What I want to know is, when you are asleep at night, what do your dreams look like?"

Goosebumps?

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Wicked

Thanks mom, mom-in-law, Leenie, ReRe, Megs, Natalie, Jen, Dawn and Denise for an awesome time in Chicago on Saturday. We went to see Wicked at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago. This was my second time seeing the show and it is AMAZING!!! I sat there with chills the entire time.

Wicked Trailer




Wicked - Popular



Wicked - Defying Gravity





After the show we went to Wildfire in Chicago for dinner and racked up a $500 bill! Here's some pics of us at dinner.


So what exactly was in my mother's crotch? Denise kept dropping her food in my moms lap, first her buttered piece of bread and then her raspberry - it was quite hilarious!!

What an incredible time! Thanks to all my girlies who made the day extra special!!
AND a huge thanks to my mom who went in with me on a Wicked poster signed by the entire cast!! It was $100, but it went to charity. Once I get a frame for it, it will go in Olivia's room - probably a Christmas present - she loves Wicked!!

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Quote of the night

I went with 9 other women today into Chicago for Wicked and dinner - I'll blog later on that. Here's the quote of the night though...
my mom: I was like, what is in my crotch?

have a guess? Stay tuned!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Halloween pics

Miss O was a mermaid this year - shocked, I know!!






On Saturday, the kids were in the Pumpkin Parade in our neighborhood.








Here's Miss O with her BFF Snow White and our neighbor's granddaughter.





I woke Miss O up from her nap to get ready for trick or treating on Halloween and I was already dressed up in my cat costume with my make-up on.



Miss O: Momma, I like when you dress up like a cat.



Me: Really? Do you want me to do it every day?



Miss O: Yeah, instead of a witch.



WHAT?!?!?!





Meow!

Some things can just make your heart melt

Miss O: Mom, where's that bag with all that candy in it? Can you help me find it?
me: You don't get any until you have eaten all of your breakfast. Did you eat all of your bagel?
Miss O: yah, where's that candy?
me: You ate ALL of your bagel?
Miss O: yah, can you help me find the candy?
me: Where's your bagel?
Miss O: Upstairs
me: (Walk up stairs to find 1/2 of a mini bagel still on her plate) Olivia, you need to sit in time out for lying to mommy - you didn't eat all of your bagel and you told mommy that you did.
Miss O: (sits in time out)
me: Olivia, come here please...what did you do wrong?
Miss O: Told a lie.
me: That's not nice to tell lies. It makes Jesus very upset when we tell lies.
Miss O: (looks up and yells at the top of her lungs) SORRY JESUS!!