Baby makes 3!

This past weekend John and I hosted our friend’s Steph and Hans’ baby shower at our house. We worked most of Saturday and all Sunday morning finishing up the room. We got it done just in time though. (Don’t worry I will post some before/after photos soon. I still have a bit of rearranging to do from the party).

Ellie had gotten some baby photos of Steph and Hans on the sly and had them blown up. They were really cute. She also had the idea of having a mini clothes lines w/ some baby onesies!

Michelle also had custom made cookies as the party favors and they were SO cute. They totally matched the invitations and tasted really good.

The center of the entertainment was the fondue fountain of course! It was hit! I think it was the most well received out of any of the parties I’ve taken it to. I also finally got one of the three tiered display trays, which worked out great. Here is Steph and Marc digging in.

They also made off with some great loot!
Here is a blanket that Hans' mom made for them.

Anna Bella had so much fun at the shower that it wiped her out!

Here are the ladies that threw the shower (excluding the lady on the right), and the mom to be!

Overall it was really fun. I really can’t wait to meet baby Drexler. He’s due on October 9^th (also my sister’s birthday)!

FACT - The Office Rules

I found this video on YouTube today. This is for all you Office fans... EXCEPT Jen and Sam who have yet to see last season's finale.

Michael Vick? Is that You?

That is right…John and I saw a dog fight downtown SLO this weekend and it was AWFUL! As we were crossing the street we heard some dogs growling and it sounded really bad. Then it died down a bit, but then it got louder and longer and then next thing we saw were these two dogs going at it! One dog had the other dog by it’s neck and John thought the one dog was going to kill the other! The sounds coming from them were just as awful, and the owners were in slo-mo trying to separate them. I think one dog might have been a homeless man’s pet, and I couldn’t tell what breed the other dog was. All I can say is that was one of the worst things I’d ever seen, and I wasn’t even that close! John and I both felt sick to our stomachs.

We did go and see Superbad before our cruise downtown, and let me tell you that if you liked Knocked Up then you will DEFINETLY enjoy Superbad. It was REALLY funny. McLovin’ is a total crack up, and totally made the movie for me. John told me it was no surprise because I love NERDS. He was convinced of his theory, even though he could not name another movie nerd that I loved.

Since this was the first weekend within the last 3 that we were actually both home, we were also able to shop for a new camera. We were able to do some successful research online and had a pretty good idea what we wanted. Even after going to a couple of stores and checking prices we were still convinced to get our first choice… the Canon PowerShot SD850 IS!!!

Ooohhhhhhhhh aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh. Isn't it purdy? One of the most amazing things is that this display screen is SO much bigger than my other camera. (Don't worry I'll do a side by side comparison for you when it comes in). Now I did consider other brands, (thanks to all who told me about their cameras), but almost all of the top rated cameras online were Canons...and I'm a Canon girl at heart! I really cannot wait to get it. I’m hoping it comes before this weekend and we can test it out at wedding #3. I ordered it off of beachcamera.com. I bought my Canon Rebel off of them a few years ago and it was by far the best online price. Same with the 850 price. I highly recommned them if you are in the market for a new camera.

I’m still in shock that my other Canon crapped out on me! I'd like to think that I just wore it out! Ok.. maybe I didn’t wear it out, but humor me will ya? I'd hate to think that I had dropped it one too many times. However I do have a semi strong case...my mom AND sister both have similar elph cameras that they got BEFORE me and they are both still functioning.

In other news...we also purchased our tickets to BELIZE!!! Can you Belize it?? I’m still in shock! I really wasn’t sure if I’d get a legit vacation this year or not, but I got the time off approval from my boss on Friday so we are off to the tropics in October! I’m almost done with my Belize Frommer’s book as well so we will be planning very soon! Frommer’s is seriously the best. I could not plan a trip without them. Ok I could…but let me tell you that our trips have been on a whole new level using their sources. Also, with Maggie having just gone to Belize this past month, her info is extremely helpful as well…like recommending taking a 17 minute flight over to an island vs. a 2.5 water taxi.

Why Are you Squatting There?

As I drove up to my house yesterday after work in our nice, calm, friendly neighborhood, I looked to my left and see a dog in my yard. It was strange because there was no sign of an owner around. Just as I start to get concerned, I notice the dog starting to squat getting ready to drop a huge deuce! Oh no you don’t doggie! So I laid on the horn and yelled some obscenities out my window. I totally scared the crap out of him, (not literally THANK GOD), and he took off running down the street. I parked and got out and still did not see anyone around…very odd. The dog did not come back so I’m hoping he ran home safety and relieved himself in his OWN yard.

A while back we would often find mysterious piles of dog crap in our front yard. Nothing would make us angrier. I mean who wants to deal with poop? Especially when you have no idea where it came from? My solution was to take our shovel and toss it into the middle of the street. It’s really simple… not my poop = not my responsibility.

We soon started Poop Watch 2006. We would more or less spy, I mean watch, all of our neighbors that would walk their dogs in front of our house, and making sure they picked up any necessary poo. Unfortunately we did not catch one culprit. I really wanted to catch them in the act so I could yell and threaten them, but they were all very courteous. We figured that it must be nighttime dog walkers or someone who just lets their dog out and let’s them wonder the streets.

I just don’t understand how people cannot pick up their dog’s poo; I mean its part of being a dog owner! If they don’t want to deal with the poo they shouldn’t have gotten a dog. (Hence one of the reasons I do not have a dog and highly enjoyed being the owner of dwarf hamsters since their poo is so small.)

Even when John and I go running along the trails in our neighborhood, there are random piles of poop, and they smell SO bad! Just imagine totally gasping for air, (that’s right I’m in awesome shape), and you take in this HUGE breath only to be filled with a rotten poo aroma! AHHHHH! It is so awful.

Just like in Me, Myself and Irene, I would totally seek revenge if I knew what dog was pooping in our yard. Do you remember that scene?

Well maybe I should be a bit subtler and post this sign.

Relation

My friend Sarah went to the movies this past weekend and saw the preview for The Nines. She told me I HAD to check it out, so I did. Now you all must watch it. What you need to look for is the end credits. Let me know who you see!

Junk Food and Spiders

This past weekend I headed up north for a girls weekend at Konocti Resort. I drove up to Ukiah Friday night and got to hang with Rebekkah and Sydney (Adam was hunting for a day). I arrived around 10pm and pulled up and saw that the light in Syd 's room was on knowing that she should have been in bed. So who comes out to greet me? The little fireball! The last time I saw her was in May, and she has gotten 10x cuter! How is that even possible? It's a good thing that she is not my kid, because no one would believe me when I would brag about how cute she is! She is totally becoming a talker which is making her even cuter.

The next morning we attempted a mini photo shoot and this was the best photo by far.

I also got this cute one:

We tried some family portraits after this one, but the Kyd was NOT in the mood because she needed some lunch. We will have to try again the next time I'm in town.

After lunch we headed over to Konocti, which was only an hour from Ukiah. We met up with the other ladies... Kathy and Kristin came over from the Sacramento area and Steph and Isa came over from Windsor and Ukiah.

We pigged out on some junk food and then the other four ladies headed out to get massages. Re and I were both a bit tapped out from last weekend, so we decided to take a walk around the grounds. here is Re in front of the lake. I had to have her squat so that the sun was on her face.
Re also needed me to take a belly photo because she hadn't taken one... yet? I think? It's a total shocker because she took a photo of her belly EVERY week when she was preggers with the first kid.

After the ladies came back we headed out to dinner, which was ok.

Here we are before we went out:

Poor Isa started feeling sick at dinner and went back to the room TO get sick! Her daughter was sick earlier in the week and then her husband got sick the night before. We felt so bad for her. Luckily her hubby was able to come pick her up...but talk about a bummer! We just chatted for the rest of the night because we were all so tired! Yeah it was kind of pathetic... here we are to have a good time and we could barely keep our eyes open! I'm hoping next year we meet in the spring or Fall. I think the summers are just too busy.

So our accommodations were very interesting as well. Well they were VERY 70's and pretty run down. Oh and there were massive flies everywhere! I think we had about 7 swarming around and there was NO fly swatter. Lame I know. This morning there was one that kept landing on me and waking me up! I was so hot that I was out of my covers, but then had to get under and suffer the heat to get some rest. It worked until I had to get up to go to the bathroom. When I got up I glanced over at my bed mate and saw a black think crawling over her. I thought it was just the fly, but when I looked closer I saw it was a spider! I thought CRAP! What do I do? I knew I couldn't grab my flip flop and whack her on the side. That would not be a pleasant wake up call! So I quickly glanced around the room and saw one random piece of Kleenex on the nightstand, so I grabbed. Rebekkah opens her eyes slightly and I tell her 'There's a spider on you don't move.' She gives me this glassy look and I squish it and then toss the Kleenex on the other side of the bed.

Let me tell you that I have NEVER killed a spider with one thin piece of Kleenex before! It's a good thing I was half awake, because I did not want to feel it pop! Well I didn't even check to see if I killed him, so he could still be crusin' around.

To The Bat Cave!

I received the following email from my mom tonight and I thought you would all enjoy it!

So--I was just minding my own business, reading Deathly Hallows at about 11PM a couple of nights ago, when something flew into the room. "A bird!" I thought naively. It was circling the room, diving down now and then, making little chirps. It was going really fast and I quickly closed the door so it couldn't escape. Dennis was asleep, so I was on my own as far as catching the critter. I took one more look. Yeah. It was a bird. I remembered Grandma's story about trapping a bat in a waste paper basket, so I went to get a dust mop. Luckily, Dennis had just emptied all the trash cans!

How did a bird get in here, I wondered. We have screens on the chimneys... Whatever. I found the dust mop and slipped back into the room. The bird was starting to look more like a bat, kind of. The plan was to knock it down with the dust mop and then sweep it into the trash can and carry it outside to turn it loose.

The dogs seemed amused by the situation, but were of NO help. Pearlie came out from under the covers, but wasn't in attack mode.

I swung and missed a couple of times, but then connected! It fell to the floor between the bed and the window. While it was momentarily stunned on the floor, closer examination revealed it was a bat! Suddenly it recovered and resumed zooming around the room. I made a few more swings with the dust mop and it finally landed on the floor spreadeagled under the rocking chair. It was a pretty good size, I thought--probably a 15" wingspan. Pearlie jumped down off the bed and sniffed at it. I tried to be gentle as I slid it into the trashcan and held it in there with the mop. It was now chirping nonstop. I took it out to the deck and it flew away when I released it. Whew!

How did it get in the house? Maybe when Dennis came back from walking the dogs, it zoomed it. I was surprised later to notice a big, fat, dead moth under the rocking chair! I blame the moth for the whole incident.

How we Spend our Week Nights

As some of you know, John and I are now starting on week two of painting our living room, hall way, and fire place. I have had a request from Jen and Sam to see some photos, so here they are. I realized that most of the better photos are still in the camera and I'm too lazy to download them. Sorry! Here is a before shot. The white patches are the dry wall areas that John patched up.

Here John is working on the high ceiling. They were a killer, and I only worked on the low parts! The dude has monkey arms! How could I not let him do that job?

Here is the painting vampire.

The color we chose is a light green, and these photos do not represent it very well at all. I will post a final before and after, and hopefully the lighting will be better in those.

John just finished up with the fireplace tonight, and let me tell you it looks SO MUCH BETTER! My emotions towards the thing went from intense hatred to love! I am truly shocked at how good it looks. Look at the first photo... see how the mantel piece is a different color? (Real classy I know). Well it's all bright white now and fabulous!

There are still a few more touch ups to do, but next we will tackle the new floor boards. I'm not sure if we will get around to painting the doors and door frames before Steph's shower, but you never know! It's already a huge improvement!

I Survived

Well I survived my 30 hour Vegas trip, however I'm running on about 3.5 hours of sleep, so don't expect too much out of this post. I know I could have waited until I rested up and gained my sanity back, but I know some of you would want to hear about the trip on Monday!

To start it off, my flight from SF to Vegas was delayed about an hour. Normally this would be no prob, but I was supposed to arrive at midnight which brought me in at 1am, and as most of you know my bedtime is normally 10pm. Lucky for me I had the end of HP 7 to read (which I totally loved by the way)! I was actually trying to read it slow to make it last, but I did wind up finishing it as my eye were half open.

An advantage of arriving into Vegas at an obscene hour was that there was not a line for the taxis OR for checking into the hotel! (The next morning there were about 40 people in line trying to check in).

I got into the room and it had a GREAT view of the Bellagio Fountain, but since I was there so late I hate to wait until the next morning to see them. I went to bed around 2:30am and around 4am the ladies came back and filled me in on their strip club experience from the night. Now I don't feel right repeating their stories since I was not there to experience it first hand, but let's just say that my sister said it was the 'best night of her life and nothing could top it!'

I think we all finally fell asleep around 5am, but were up the next morning around 9am because no one could really sleep. So even though I did not go out with them that night, I still did not feel in the best shape... but I was feeling better than they were.

I shared a room with Rebekkah, Erica (her sister), and Shannon. Amy, Corinne, and Emily were all still asleep when we got up, so we went off to get a early lunch in the Cesar's casino. After that we walked around to a few of the casinos checking out the sites.

Two weeks ago when we went to The Bangles concert my camera started acting up and the viewing screen went black and it started taking black photos. I shook it and it seemed to be working, however it did the same thing when I tried to take a video of the Bellagio Fountains. So I shook it again and it fixed itself. Then I thought I would delete the bad video and I accidentally deleted ALL of the photos... but canceled it in the middle, but I still lost about 10-15 photos! I am SO bummed! We all had cameras, so I'm hoping the ladies got some of the same shots that I erased.

One of the casinos we went to was the Paris Casino. There was this cute lady dressed up at the entrance, so Re and I asked her if we could get a photo with her. (She looked totally Vegas).

We saw a sign inside pointing in the direction of the Wedding Chapel and I totally wanted to check it out! We we totally went up a level and wanted to crash the wedding, but we weren't really dressed for it. There was just a small group of guests gathered in the lobby waiting for the ceremony. As we were leaving we did see the ultimate wedding crasher... a shirtless old man on a rascal!

After that we headed back to the hotel as the ladies wanted to go take a rest in the room. I was going to play a little back jack but we thought that we would have time to play a little before we left for dinner. We did not have time, so I did not get to gamble. Kind of a bummer, but also good, because I did need to save my money for the night, because I wasn't sure what to expect!

After a few cat naps we got ready to hit the town. Here is Amy all ready to go. Her goal for the night was to collect dude's phone numbers on her shirt.
We ate dinner at Kauhunaville in the Treasure Island Casino, and it was great! All the bartenders were just like Tom Cruise in Cocktail. They sat us at the best table in the house... right next to the DJ. He started things off by eavesdropping on us and found out what Amy's name was making an announcement to the restaurant about the bachelorette being in the house. Then he continued to play great songs the whole time we were there. I had never tried to eat and dance at the same time, and let me say it is not an easy task! I think I started to give myself motion sickness! There was even a mini stage next to the DJ booth that of course we had to dance on! Here are Rebekkah and Shannon showing me some sweet moves!

Here's an Erica sandwich!

Then the bartenders put on a show for us. They told us that which ever side of the bar was the loudest would all get shots. So we screamed our heads off! Here is Rebekkah and Emily giving it their best. (The other arms are Erica and and Corinne's.)

Our bartender was really great. Here is his finale:

He's holding a huge stack of mixing cups and then proceeded to pour all the drinks out of those into other cups while standing on the bar. They didn't pick a winner for the shots, but he handed out the drinks he made.

Emily then went and rounded up some guys to sign Amy's shirt. Here was one nice participant.
He was there with a friend of his who the DJ called Marky Mark, which totally cracked me up because he didn't really look like him. Then what was the next song he played? 'Good Vibrations' by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch! It was too much.

After dinner we headed over to the nightclub Pure that is in Cesar's. We had to wait about an hour, but we FINALLY got in. It was SO crowded that you could barely dance. After we were getting tired of getting elbowed we ventured over to another room in the club to where The Pussycat Dolls performed. Not the singing group, it was the Vegas group. They were pretty good, however right before that my camera went black AGAIN so I don't have any photos to post. I did get to use Erica's camera, so hopefully I will get a photo CD very soon.

After that we headed back to the hotel. I think most of the ladies were still wiped out from the previous night. I felt so wiped out myself! What a wimp I know! Now that all the pre-wedding parties are done, the main event is next!

Note: Since I am now in the market it would be great if you all could tell me hat brand of camera you have and what you like or don't like. I am a HUGE fan of Canon, but I am willing to branch out. I'm looking for one that is slim, has a big screen, takes movies, and has a quick shutter speed. Thanks!

Is that a party favor, or are you just happy to see me?

Tomorrow evening I'm heading to Vegas for my sister's bachelorette party. As you can see I picked up a few necessary penis party items. I've also got a veil for my sister that I bought off of eBay... it's totally 80's. As you know what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, however I don't think that saying was created before blogging. Hopefully I will be sane enough on Sunday to post about it!

G'Day Mate

Here are the cute invites I did for my friend Stephanie’s baby shower. DO NOT think this is YOUR invite. I’m just showing off how cute they are. I didn’t design the invite though, just picked them out.

John and I have been working on painting our living room before the shower. We have been meaning to paint the room since we moved in, but after the kitchen remodel we pooped out. Steph’s shower has been a GREAT motivator though! I’m really excited to have it painted and look nice and new. (Photos to come later).

In other baby related news…I won the baby pool at my work! Last week I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and was offered the LAST square in a pool of when my co-worker’s son was going to be born. I think the due date was around the 25^th, and the last square was Aug. 4^th! I really thought I had no chance… but he was born in the morning of the 4^th! I was so excited; especially since I’m going to Vegas this weekend. I did buy the new baby two onesies for the baby. I mean that is the least I could do for the kido right?

One other interesting tid bit can be found here. John found this really good article on eating healthy. It has some helpful tips.

Did you notice the map I added in the left hand tool bar? It tracks where visitors to this site are located. I think it is SO neat to see the different places! I just saw today that someone in Australia has viewed the site! I totally need to become friends with them so I can go and visit them! What do you think? So Australian person… if you are out there… please email me so we can some day throw another shrimp on the barbie!

Mo' Money

Well we made a good chunk of money this past weekend and are free from our clutter! I was worried that not many people would show up because there were hardly any sales advertised in our local paper. I even had nightmares the night before that no one showed up to the sale, but people did!

Three weeks ago I posted a sign on the mailboxes close to our home asking the neighbors to please call me if they were interested in having a sale the same weekend, because I really wanted to advertise the sale as a Block Sale. You know what? Not ONE person called me! I was pretty bummed out, but even MORE mad when a few of our neighbors DID have sales on Saturday! The nerve! So next year I am going to go door-to-door and personally ask them. I will also yell at the people who did have sales...or at least try to make them feel guilty.

I advertised the sale to start at 9am, thinking people would show up at 8am, and hoping to set up at 7:45am. But around 7:30am there were people milling about! It was really stressful trying to set everything out and having people asking questions. The worst was that some people came and left even before we had set out our big seller…our clothes! Next year I will also advertise ' NO EARLY BIRDS.'

We were very thankful to get rid of some of our bigger items, (aka items so big we don’t have a vehicle large enough to get rid of them ourselves.) This included old bar stools we had moved w/ us from our condo, a fish tank cabinet, and some of John’s old tires. John had a $50 sign on the tires, and at 8:30am (BEFORE the sale is supposed to start remember), some guy offered him $20! How rude is that? John said no, so he then offered $30… John said how about $40, and they said no. However a few hours later he did sell them at $50! Serves those dudes right for not realizing what a great deal they missed.

For the most part I think I sold things pretty cheap. Well compared to my past sales. It still makes me mad when people try to talk me down on something that is already cheap. I normally hold my ground and about 50% of the people pay. I also noticed that when John tells people prices, they weren’t really bartering with him. Did I just discover ANOTHER advantage of being a man? Dang it!

I guess I can’t REALLY complain because John was such a huge help with the sale. He really kicked it up a notch compared to our last sales! He was always looking for helpful things to do. I couldn’t imagine if he hadn’t of been there. It was definitely a two person job.

Compared to the last two sales we’ve had, things were pretty mellow. I expected to have some crazy stories for you, but it wasn’t that exciting. I do think some ladies put some tea light candles in their shipping bag and then didn’t tell me they were buying them when they paid. Also a young girl said she gave me a $10, when I swore she gave me a $5…mind you I hadn’t made a money mistake ALL day, and this was near the end. It’s pretty sad to me when people to try to rip off garage sales. How low can you get? Good thing there wasn't any babies with candy around!

One very positive customer was a young girl with her mom. She was so excited about or clothes and kept complimenting us on what good taste we had! I just told her it's all from the GAP. They really determine our style. She made a haul of some really cute stuff too. Her mom almost bought one of our hideous orange Christmas sweaters!!! And it was a SERIOUS purchase!
One of John’s favorite things about the sale are the dudes who drive by real slow, on the wrong side of the road, with their music blaring, and then when they decide to stop they run into the curb. So classy!

I did have my camera ready, but things started off so crazy that I forgot to take some shots! I always enjoy the before and after photos to see how much we really did sell. We only have 2 garage bags and 2 boxes of stuff to take to goodwill. So it was pretty successful!

Corndogs, Shaved Ice, and Cinnamon Rolls

Walk like an Egyptian…walk like an Egyptian… that is what we did on Thursday night!

The Bangles played a FREE concert at the Mid State Fair (in Paso), and let me tell you they were GREAT! They looked and sounded great. I was really impressed. You could tell that they were really happy performing…even if it was at a county fair! Three of the original members were there, and they sang off of their hits…including a few from their album they released in 2003! Who knew?

It was really great to see a female rock band. That is really rare these days isn’t it? I mean The Donnas attempted it, but never really made it big. I guess in the 80’s there was also Bananarama, but I don’t think they played any instruments. The members of The Bangles are really talented, and they said they formed in 1981 by answering an ad in the newspaper! The bass player has since left the band, although the new basest didn’t look that different…strange.

When they started to play Walk Like an Egyptian I heard the man behind me tell his kid that this was their hit song. Man did that make me feel old! But then it also reminded me of a time when I was just like that kid. A long time ago my family went to a county fair in Oregon and The Turtles were playing. I knew their one song, ‘me and you, and you and me no matter how we toss the dice, it’s always right’ but I didn’t get to hear it because it started to rain and they canceled the show!

Another highlight was this old rocker couple who looked like they were left over fans from the Aerosmith concert…all in black…kind of skanky…and lookin’ rough. However they REALLY seemed to be enjoying the concert. Maybe they were drunk. Anyway they were dancing very provocatively, and I swear the ladies boob was going to fly out of her top and smack the kid next to her! She seriously needed some support! I took a video of her, but I don't have a very powerful zoom.

After the show we decided to start in on the junk food. We each had a corndog during the concert and after John got an Old West Cinnamon roll. It was really good.

We then saw a co-worker of mine and then later saw two different co-workers of John’s! Isn’t that crazy! Normally we never see anyone we know when we go places, so I think this might be a sign… not exactly sure of what, but maybe that we have finally become ‘locals’?

John and I really enjoy coming to the fair every year. It reminds me of going to the Ferndale Fair growing up…although they have horse racing instead of concerts. I'd get a shaved ice, check out the art, photography and garden exhibits, get our handwriting analyzed (my mom's fave), and also check out all the booths with stuff for sale. We do the same at this fair, (minus the handwriting), however it seemed like all the booths sell REAL crap! As a kid it seemed like a shopper's paradise!

For the past 4 years we have also gotten photo booth photos. I was very excited about ours this year, however there is a nice strip down the middle that didn’t print, and I’m almost cut out of some of them! John says that just ads to it being from the fair, but you know I am all about quality! The ones we got last year were way better... the newer ones are on the right.