gardezy fam

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T16:27:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas Eve.
My son is napping.
My husband is playing a wise man in our church's live nativity for their Christmas Eve services.
And I finally have a moment to sit.

I have been reflecting this holiday season on all of the things I am grateful for at this point in my life.

I am so blessed to have a wonderful family...immediate and extended.

I am blessed to have a husband who loves me and who I have a great deal of respect for. Who provides for our family, and who will go out of his way to help anyone in need. Who will tell me when I need to be more patient, who will make me laugh, and who will sit with me when I need to cry.

I am blessed to have a son, who I love so much! Who is healthy, happy, independent, and full of the "fire of the Lord" his little name gives him.

I am blessed to be able to stay at home and raise my son. Trying though it can be many days, I wouldn't change it for anything in the whole world.

And most of all, this Christmas, I am grateful beyond measure for Jesus Christ! For His willingness to leave His kingdom in heaven and walk on this earth, so that each and every one of us have the opportunity to find Him, fall at His feet, and accept the greatest gift He could ever give to us - His life!

As wonderful as I consider my life to be, I know it would all be nothing without Him!

As you celebrate Christmas and time with loved ones, and as you open the gifts others have given to you...don't forget to open the best gift of all....a relationship with Jesus Christ!

Merry Christmas from our little family to yours!

The Gardezys

A is for Apple!

2011-09-09T14:11:00.000-07:00

A friend invited our mommy play group out to her parents' apple orchard today to play, go on tractor rides and pick apples!

Our tractor ride out into the orchard!

Josiah had a great time picking apples. He LOVES apples! It's one of his favorite words to say. He kept picking up apples off the ground, taking bites and then throwing them down when he came upon the next apple...doing it all over again. I think he was in apple heaven!

Our apples! I am thinking some yummy apple crisps are in our immediate future! Maybe some caramel apples...yum!

Munching on apples and playing!

The dirty face of one happy boy!

Needless to say, after running through the orchard and playing, Josiah fell asleep on the way home! :)

Oh mommy...that's an Elephant!

2011-05-07T13:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was reading a book to Josiah about animals and their feet. It shows a picture of an animal foot, you lift the flap, and there is the animal. As we were going along, I came to the elephant foot. I said "whose foot is this?", opened the flap, and my son said "elephant"!

It was clear as day and I sat there and thought, even if he was making random noises, there's no way he could pop that one out coincidentally. I was telling Ben about it later and he said to Josiah, "can you say 'elephant'?", and again, my son said "elephant"!

I don't know about other kids, but I wouldn't think that is the easiest word to say. Way to go Josiah! Not only does he recognize the picture, but knows what its called. He is continually blowing me away with his little brain full of knowledge. :)

Seriously, one of these days I half expect him to just come out with "Oh mommy...that's an elephant!"

Here are some other words in his repetoire (mind you, some of them are in baby speak):

Dada
Mama
Hot (one of his favorites; he says this with a cute little wrinkle of his nose....and usually right before he touches something he knows he isn't supposed to touch)
All Done
Bye-bye
Green
Yellow
Pink (sort of)
Please (which sounds like "peeea")
Baba (bottle)
Criss and Appa (from criss-cross applesauce; a game his grandma plays with him)
Booo (what a cow says)
ha ha ha ha (what a sheep says)
hi (this he mostly says to girls...hmmm)
keys
baby
nana (banana)
this
good (usually sounds like "that's good")
umbrella (usually this is mmmm brella rella rella)
elephant!!

and our newest addition: "no". Or as he was saying yesterday "no-no-no". Lovely.

I love my smart boy! He's definitely going to be a talker. :)

Josiah's 1st Birthday party at the park!

2011-03-28T20:59:00.000-07:00

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this blog entry should count as a novel!

Here are some photos from Josiah's 1st birthday party at the park a couple of weeks ago.

I think it was seriously the nicest day, sandwiched in between weeks of rain!

My little man fell asleep as soon as people started arriving to his party!

Marc, Rachel and Josiah's current bff, Leah!

Daddy and Sean grilling!

Carissa and Caeden (Josiah's buddy) and Denise.

We get together during the week and go to the park with our kiddos! :)

Time for cake!

Daddy made Josiah his very own miniature cheesecake!

Going for it!

I think he likes it!

One satisfied customer!

"Playing" with his friends.

On an adventure with Grandma!

The shirt says it all!

Josiah's party gave this mommy incredible joy!

It felt wonderful to be surrounded by so many people who love our little man!

Bedtime!

2011-03-28T20:34:00.000-07:00

Today was apparently a busy day for Josiah.

He went with daddy to San Rafael to pick up Ben's work boots
(a good 45 minute drive each way).
Then he played and played and played some more.
Then daddy took him to the park while mommy taught piano.

Then we had dinner and.....

Going......

.....going......

.....gone!

My sweet boy!

Josiah's 1st Birthday!

2011-03-11T22:18:00.000-08:00

Today is my little man's 1st birthday!

We had a good day, in spite of Josiah being sick with day three of a yucky fever and cold.

We went to the store this morning and picked out a birthday balloon, which made him giggle.

This afternoon he opened a fun musical juke box from my parents.

This evening we had a birthday party with Ben's family.

Here are some of the highlights:

The Fam!

Opening presents!

His first baseball and bat!

Silly daddy!

Josiah wasn't too sure why we were all staring at him,
so Ben was trying to entice him over to the present from his Gigi.

His first truck from Cousin Susan! I think its a winner!

Loot! His Gigi got him the couch and blanket.

Playing with Susan!

Auntie Jessie in the tunnel mommy and daddy got for him!

Josiah wouldn't go through it. He's still not sure what he thinks about that one.

1st birthday cake!

Make a wish!

Yummmm!

We had a nice relaxing day with Josiah and a fun time celebrating his 1st birthday!!!

I can't believe he is already one year old and how much he has grown and changed in that time.

Mommy loves you to the moon and back Siah....always!!!

Baby

2011-01-30T17:53:00.000-08:00

In December we were at a Christmas party and our friend's daughter wanted to give Josiah her little cabbage patch doll. We brought the doll home and put him in a little outfit we had for Josiah as a newborn that he never got to wear. The first few days Josiah would look at the baby and smile and pat it on the head.

Now that he's had the baby for a month or so, if we ask him, "Josiah, where's your baby?" He will scan the room, locate the baby and go over to him. Then he will lean down and give the baby "loves" - an open mouth kiss on the face or tummy. Then he pats the baby on the head. He is such a sweet boy.

Here he is with his baby...who oddly doesn't have a name yet.

Guess who's walking?!

2010-12-31T08:52:00.000-08:00

It's official...Josiah is walking!
Two weeks before his 10 month birthday.

On top of that, his top two front teeth are coming in.

I have been trying to get a video of him walking, but of course, every time I try, he takes two steps and then decides to crawl. He started trying to walk about two or three weeks ago and by a day or two after Christmas has been walking farther distances. Its a lot of fun to see him toddle around, and to see him get going too fast and be unable to keep up with himself, before he bonks down on his behind. He's pretty proud of himself and this whole walking business!

Binky Face

2010-11-15T20:39:00.000-08:00

Yep, this is pretty much my view of Josiah most of the time.

Can you figure out what the similarity is?????

Apparently a binky attacked his face when I wasn't looking and no one can seem to free him of its grasp!

(I do have far more pictures without the binky than with...but it cracked me up to find almost a dozen photos of him like this.)

8 months!

2010-11-11T21:54:00.000-08:00

My little punky monkey is 8 months old today!

I can't believe we are rounding the corner to one year already.

Josiah is crawling around everywhere very fast now!
He loves to explore and get into everything and I absolutely love it.

I am enjoying watching him learn about the world around him.

He has learned to clap his hands when we do "pat-a-cake"
(thanks to his G.G.'s tireless repetitions of it)
and he is pretty proud of himself when he claps and you start to say it.

He is pulling himself up on everything and walks around holding onto furniture.

He is starting to talk saying da-da-da and ba-ba-ba. And we are in the process of teaching him baby-sign language, which I think will only be a matter of time, now that he associates clapping with pat-a-cake.

He loves to go to the park and play with his friends and swing. And he has recently discovered sand!

He is such a happy baby! Ben and I feel so blessed that God brought him into our little family!

I love you to the moon Siah!!!

Harvest Festival and Halloween

2010-11-11T21:42:00.000-08:00

This year our church held a Harvest Festival, with the annual chili cook-off! There was square dancing, hayrides and tons of fun stuff for the kiddos. Since we hadn't planned on taking Josiah trick-or-treating, we thought it would be a great place to dress him up in his first Halloween costume!

Ben's mom helped us pick out the most ADORABLE dragon outfit!

Josiah got all cute when we put it on him...it was like he knew he was dressing up.

Josiah with his friend Caden (the puppy). These two are best buds!

Caden's mom and I are apart of a mommy's play group,
and Mark and Ben are in a men's biblestudy together.

It has been fun watching these two little guys become friends.

We went on a hayride through the church's vineyard...Josiah fell asleep right before.

Our sleepy little "dragon" with his Grandma and G.G.

Halloween night, some friends called and we decided to go trick-or-treating after all!

Josiah's very 1st trick-or-treat house...with Daddy of course!

I think daddy enjoyed it!

Josiah's "kitty" trick-or-treat bag, courtesy of Ben's mom.

The stash!

And no, Josiah didn't get any of the candy. Although, it was pretty funny to me that lots of people thought he was going to get it. One guy was even nice enough to give us a lollipop, because he thought it would be easier for Josiah to eat. It was sweet!

No, this year, mommy and daddy ate the spoils.

It was fun to take him out and just to see tons of kids out having fun!

My brown-eyed boy

2010-11-10T23:27:00.001-08:00

Best toy EVER!

2010-11-10T23:26:00.000-08:00

I was running errands and happened upon a net full of helium balloons. Josiah has just started noticing balloons and seems pretty enthralled with them. I figured it might be fun to get him one (no it wasn't his birthday...Thomas the train was most "boyish" balloon I found).

After we got home and I tied it to one of his toys so it didn't float away, he spent about 20 minutes playing with it. He would pull on the string and then proceed to belly laugh every time it got down close to him!
It made my day to hear him so happy!

Yep, best $3.99 I ever spent!

crawling is old hat....

2010-11-08T14:39:00.000-08:00

I don't have any pictures yet, but today Josiah had a couple moments, after pulling himself up to stand that he let go and balanced for a second, before realizing he wasn't holding onto anything and sitting down on the ground! Now that he's conquered crawling (with much speed and vigor I might add), and is beginning to master pulling himself up and getting back down, it must be time to work on standing independently with great balance!

Ben's mom said that Ben starting walking around 9 months of age...looks like Josiah might be gearing up to follow in daddy's footsteps, being that he's only 3 days away from 8 months old!

Mommy is secretly hoping he won't walk just quite yet! I'm having a hard enough time keeping him out of things already!

Love this smile!

2010-11-02T15:48:00.000-07:00

Look ma! I got two teeth!!!

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-30T15:23:00.000-07:00

We took our annual trip to our favorite pumpkin patch a couple weeks ago! Last year, when I was pregnant, I told Ben that after we had the baby I wanted to take him to the pumpkin patch, fill a wheelbarrow full of pumpkins, put the baby in it and take pictures....so we did...and got a few other cute ones along the way!

Tahoe

2010-09-13T13:57:00.000-07:00

We spent Labor Day weekend with some friends in Tahoe this year. It was a perfect weekend there -

85 degrees with a breeze. We had a great time relaxing!
Josiah ended up loving the lake...
he is quite the splasher!

Here are some pictures of our time....

In Heavenly

The house we got to stay at

Our friends: Sarah, Luke and their daughter Wilke

On our walk down to the lake...I just love this one!

JD and Daddy

Checking out the lake

Josiah started using a high chair.

We had lunch outside on the porch. Josiah was a happy boy...

...full tummy and trees to gaze up at!

Ben

We found a great view point of the lake for some family pictures.

Mommy and Siah

Some of the beautiful wild flowers along the drive to the house we stayed at.

Splashing!!!

Don't be deceived by the look on his face...he LOVED the water!

6 months!

2010-09-11T09:52:00.000-07:00

Happy 6 month birthday to my little man!

Things Josiah has accomplished in the past six months:

the army crawl...and lately, being up on his hands and knees for several minutes
sleeping in his crib at night (though not quite sleeping through the night...but close)
eating solid foods (he especially likes oatmeal and pears!!)
eskimo kisses...he puts his nose up against your nose (or cheek) and turns his head back and forth
all manner of "boy" noises...loud grunts, growls and yelling at the top of his little lungs!
his first tooth...though its still in the process of poking through
playing by himself for periods of time...and very happily!
going "swimming"....well, being dunked in a couple different lakes on vacations...but he sure likes to splash!
grabbing things and playing with (eating) his toys
rough-housing with daddy
being dedicated at church :)
his first camping trip!
his first time in the nursery at church
first baseball game
his first movie (a "Grease" sing-a-long)...he loved the bubble machine
and stealing the hearts of everyone he comes into contact with...most especially mommy and daddy!!!

I can't believe my little man is half way to a year old already. Six months ago today Ben and I were sitting in the hospital absolutely amazed at this miraculous little life God has blessed our family with. Now its hard to remember what we did before he came!

As we like to say in our family...Josiah, we love you tow the muchness!!!

He likes it!

2010-08-19T11:20:00.000-07:00

Here is one of Josiah's first attempts at eating solid food, aka rice cereal.

He was cracking us up!

He has since figured out how to eat and now devours his food pretty fast.

This usually takes place while holding onto his toes, staring at himself in the mirror above his head and talking to himself with a mouth full of food.....all at the same time.

It turns out he is pretty fond of oatmeal too.

Next up: veggies!

Booty-licious!

2010-08-05T16:34:00.000-07:00

While my mom was here visiting after Josiah arrived, she spent two weeks working on the cutest baby booties for him. I put them on the other day and they fit perfectly!

Unfortunately, at the rate Josiah is growing, I don't think they will fit for long. But they are super adorable and will be a wonderful keepsake for him!

Solid Food!

2010-07-30T17:20:00.000-07:00

Josiah had his first taste of solid food this week...rice cereal.

He seems to really like it...though the first few bites always bring about a rather unsure look on his face.

We started on Monday with really runny cereal and by today (Friday) we are making it thicker.

He gets very excited before eating...excited coughing or squealing usually precedes several bites.

Josiah also likes to talk when the spoon is in his mouth and blow "razz"-berries in the food, which results in a messy face. He's also starting to stick his fingers in his mouth, along with the cereal, to chew on.

I forsee many messy meal times!!!

4 months!

2010-07-16T20:59:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick catch up of the past four months in photo form:

Josiah's first San Francisco Giant's game at exactly one month of age...even though daddy is routing for the Atlanta Braves

We decided to see if he could sit up against the couch one day..pretty cute!

Mommy's first Mother's Day!

Five Generations! Granny (Great-Great Grandma), G.G. (Great-Grandma), Grandma, Ben, Josiah

Daddy's first Father's Day!

Three Generations of Gardezy men! Ben's Dad, Ben and Josiah

Josiah's first 4th of July! (He LOVED the fireworks that night!)

Josiah with his first "lovey"

Play time in the swing!

And Josiah just being his silly little self...at 4 months old!

I love being a mommy and I LOVE this boy!!!

9-1-1

2010-07-16T16:25:00.000-07:00

We got home last night from dinner at Ben's grandma's house around 9:30pm, after visiting with a cousin who was in town. Josiah was asleep by 10:00pm and we were all in bed by 10:30pm.

At around 2:00am I heard footsteps outside our bedroom window in the rocks that surround our house. I held my breath for a minute and then woke Ben up. "I heard footsteps outside." I whispered. "Go peek out the window and see if someone is there."

Ben got up and looked...nothing. He climbed back in bed. "Maybe it was a cat." he said.

"No" I replied, "I've heard the manager walk between the houses in the morning to check the meters..it was a person."

Two more footsteps.

"Did you hear that?" I asked. He nodded. "Go turn on the porch light....don't open the door, just turn on the light." I told him.

Ben got up, exited the room for a few minutes and came back, bringing the dog with him.

"Some watch dog", I thought.

Ben climbed back in bed and we both laid awake for probably 10-15 minutes.

All of the sudden someone is pounding on our door! We both jump out of bed. I tell Ben not to open the door, as I run down the hall to get the house phone out of the baby's room. I hear him ask what number to call...thinking he is calling the police on the cell phone (you can't call 9-1-1 on a cell phone here...it goes to a dispatch that isn't the local county's). Realizing he had already gotten the home phone on his trip to turn on the porch light, I tell him to call 9-1-1.

He calls and tells them there is someone pounding on our front door, to which they reply that it is one of their police officers. We go to the door, ask who it is and then open it. The officer asks if we have any children in the house. We reply yes, and tell him we heard someone walking around our house, as my head fills with the thought of some shady character on the loose and wanted for going after children.

He replies by telling us he was the one walking around our house. Apparently someone had called 9-1-1 to report a child crying and he was following up because their was concern for the child's well-being. Ben and I just stood there stunned and then invited him in to check on Josiah for himself.

Somewhere around 1:00am I had woken up hungry and had a couple bowls of cereal. At 1:30pm I was getting ready to get back into bed, and realize Josiah had snuggled his way into the middle of where I sleep and as I was trying to move him, he started fussing. I had Ben pick him up long enough for me to crawl into bed, then Ben gave him to me, I nursed him and he fell right to sleep. He couldn't have cried for more than two minutes.

The officer checked Josiah in the bed and then I picked him up so the officer could look at him more closely. We told him Josiah had gotten his four month shots the day before and had been fussy, but hadn't cried hardly at all that night.

The officer was very nice and said it was probably that the houses were so close and walls so thin. We had also had our window open with the heat. We assume it was one of our neighbors, but found it odd that they called last night, as opposed to other nights where Josiah was awake and crying numerous times, or the nights where he would cry for 45 minutes because of gas.

The officer left. Ben and I laid awake talking for the next hour, unable to fall asleep.

It is nice to know that they come right away to check on those sorts of things...but it was strange to have the call come because of our child.

Rewind!

2010-05-10T13:54:00.000-07:00

I am still playing catch up with my blog since Josiah was born. But I wanted to post some of my favorite maternity photos from a week and a half prior to his little arrival!

I am in love with this next photo!

Baby's First...

2010-05-06T14:57:00.000-07:00

Here are some of Josiah's "Firsts"

Josiah's first Easter! (with a very proud papa showing him off)

Here is Josiah's first bath...or just before it started, rather.

He wasn't too sure about the whole thing and didn't end up liking it too much.
But we figured he wouldn't, since he wasn't a fan of his first bath in the hospital.

He does better now, until we wash his hair....

Our new little blessing!

2010-03-20T11:22:00.000-07:00

Josiah Daniel Gardezy

Born Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 12:35am

8 pounds, 13.5 ounces, 21.5 inches long

A very proud daddy!

We love having him home with us!

Maternity Photos!

2010-03-01T10:13:00.000-08:00

Ben and I had maternity photos done this past Saturday.

(Okay I had maternity photos done,
but he was in a bunch of them too.)

I can honestly say it was the most fun photo shoot I have ever gotten to do!

One of our friends from church (also named Melody) is an AMAZING photographer and I have been admiring her work for awhile now, so it was fantastic to finally get to work with her!

Here is a link to some of her work: http://melodywhitestudios.com/blog/

This is a preview of one of the photos she took of us.

There are many more to come, but I am absolutely in love
with this one!

Once the baby is born she will be taking photos of him too...can't wait!!!

My First Baby Shower!

2010-02-17T11:02:00.000-08:00

I had my first baby shower on February 7th! It was with the women from my Sunday night biblestudy group, plus a few other friends from church. It was a fun, intimate group.

All the girls signed a baseball as a keepsake for the baby's room. Then we played a few shower games. For one, we had to guess the different scents that had been put into several diapers. For another, Angie, the hostest with the mostest, had called Ben and asked him a series of baby-related questions. She then swore him to secrecy (which is hard for him to do, if you know my husband)! Then she asked me the questions and I had to come up with what I thought Ben's answer was to them. It was tricky, but I was able to get quite a few right!

After the games, the ladies took turns putting a penny into a little baseball piggy bank and passed on to me some advice or something they appreciated that their moms did for them. I think this was my favorite part of the shower.

The entire theme of the shower was "sports"...since we are having a little boy and his room is currently decorated in a similar theme.

The menu was made up entirely of "game day" food!
Nachos, popcorn, chips and guacamole, fruit, veggies...it was yummy!

We even had "hot dogs and fries"!

The "hot dogs" were our dessert! They were made up of twinkies for the "buns", split down the middle, with a twix inside for the "hot dogs". The "fries" were made from a peanut butter fudge. They really did look like hot dogs at first glance...and oh my goodness were they fantastic!!! It was a super cute idea. :)

Getting ready to open presents!

All my girls!

I love these women!
They are loving, encouraging and just fun to be with!

Thanks to Angie for pulling off such a fabulous baby shower!

Our Nursery!

2010-02-04T09:00:00.000-08:00

It has taken quite a lot of planning to get our nursery figured out, but we are finally done...well, mostly. We got the room emptied and then a friend of Ben's from church, who is a professional painter, came and spent four days painting. We went with a creamy tan color on the walls, with one accent wall of stripes (tan, light blue and green), all different widths and in a random pattern. The colors match the sports bedding set we picked out. We are really happy with how the painting turned out and I am doubly happy because the stripes were Ben's idea. I was going a little nuts trying to figure out what to do with the room (thanks honey!).

We found our crib and changing table at two different stores, but they are an exact matching set, so it worked out perfectly! Ben spent one night putting them both together. (I'm so glad he knows how to build things!!!)

Then we started placing furniture and found a set-up that seems to work the best for the room, since its a little smaller than most.

Here is the crib against part of the striped wall. I couldn't quite get the whole wall into the picture.

This is the rocking chair I've had since I was eight years old (my first furniture purchase...kind of a weird thing to buy when you're 8, but I'm glad I have it...I absolutely love it!) and the toy chest we recently found.

Here is the closet. We took the big, wooden sliding doors off the closet to make the room a little bigger. It actually ends up adding about two feet to the width of the room, which is perfect.

I found the blue cubby shelf and fabric baskets at Target and thought they would be great for storage, and then eventually for toys and books as he gets older. The dresser that's next to it will be painted the colors of the room to match and also shortened a little. But that may happen after the baby comes, depending on our calendar.

All in all, we are very happy with how everything has gone together. We still need to do a little decorating of the walls, but as for the main furniture and layout, we are done! Yeah!!!!

Toy Box!

2010-02-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

So I was on Craig's List the other day, looking through posts people had made for baby items, when I came across a gentleman who was selling these toy boxes. I emailed him to see how much they were and Ben and I went and picked one up.

Steve, the man who makes them, lives locally and does custom wood furniture. He has some other pieces that are absolutely beautiful. When we met him, he was in his garage with saws going and wood everywhere. It completely took me back to childhood and hearing my dad in our garage working with his saws on wood projects. Even the smell brought up memories. Steve even reminded me a little of my dad. He was super sweet and gave us a great deal on the toy box, since it was one of several left over from Christmas. He apparently gets a lot of requests for them around that time. I was excited to get a handmade toy box, rather than just buying one at a store. I think so much more love goes into them and I would always much rather support someone local who has a passion for what they do.

I love the thought that went into it. He rounded all the corners for safety, put a locking hinge so that when the lid is up it won't fall down on someone unexpectedly, and put a little cut-out just under the lid, so that if it does slip while not open all the way, little fingers won't get pinched. The toy box is made of all pine and is a fairly good size and depth. So it should hold all those toys the grandparents are sure to spoil our son with! ;)

We are hoping to put a light stain on it, just to preserve it from water damage. I was originally thinking of painting it, but the wood is so beautiful I just can't bring myself to do it. I am hoping it will be something our son can use as a toy box and then keep as a chest growing up. Who knows, maybe he will use it for his own children someday.

Rock a bye baby...

2010-01-29T08:30:00.000-08:00

We were given this cradle by some good friends of ours. They found it at a garage sale and used it for their own children. It was hand-made and is absolutely beautiful. Its all wood and rocks or can be locked to keep it stationary. It was one of our first items of baby "furniture" and is one of my favorites.

Another one of our good friends who sews, far better than I do, made us a sheet and bumper for the cradle.

She was able to find this adorable print with sports and teddy bears for our baby boy!

It will be perfect for his first little bed!

You're not going to like this...

2010-01-28T10:00:00.000-08:00

A few days before Christmas, as I was getting ready for one of my last days of work at the preschool, I received a text from Ben somewhere around 8:30am that said,

"You're going to be mad at me."

I rarely hear from Ben first thing in the morning. If I do get a text or call, its usually because he forgot to lock the front door, or to ask me to do something that he forgot to do before he left.

As I pondered which of the handful of things it could be that he'd done that would make me mad...which really there are only about three or four things that immediately come to mind and even those would only cause me to be upset for a day at most, I texted him back and asked what happened.

His response was one of the things I hadn't thought of.

"I lost my wedding ring."

Now Ben has, on several occasions, forgotten his wedding ring at work. It does actually upset me when it happens, because I am always afraid it will be sitting out somewhere and that someone will take it. And I am pretty sentimental about it being the ring we said our vows with.

But it is made of a particular type of metal that we had heard was impossible to cut through, so Ben was in the habit of taking it off and putting it in his toolbox while he worked, to avoid getting his finger caught in some remote part of the car engine and having to have it removed...his finger that is. This was fine by me, as I'd much rather not have him lose a finger.

I asked what happened and Ben proceeded to explain that the night before, he had finished working and put the ring back on, but as he was getting ready to leave for the night, they asked him to do one more quick job. After he finished the job, he went to wash his hands and placed his ring in the pocket of his work pants. He then, without thinking about it, changed out of his work pants, into the pants he'd worn to work that day.

Now he'd also done this on a couple of occasions and gone back the next day to find the ring still in his pocket, as the guys are assigned specific pants that have their names on them and no one else would put them on. However, what he didn't realize until that morning was that the night before had been the night the uniforms were picked up and shipped off for laundering.

He had called the guy who picks them up, explained the situation and asked him to call back if the ring was found.

Piece of cake! I figured, one guy doing laundry, keeping an eye out for the ring...should be back the next day. What I didn't find out until a day or two later was that the guy ships the uniforms to Novato and from there, they go to Oakland before making their journey back.

We thought that MAYBE the ring would stay in the pocket and that it would be in one of the pairs of pants when they came back to Ben. But realistically, I knew the ring wasn't coming back.
Sure enough, when the pants returned, the ring was gone.

I never did get mad at Ben, but I was sad...being my sentimental self, that the ring I placed on his finger during our wedding was now lost forever.

We did end up getting a replacement ring. We found one just after Christmas that Ben really loves and that fits a little more snuggly on his finger, although it wasn't exactly in our budget to do. And we found out that while the metal on this particular ring can't be cut, it can be broken (don't ask me the difference). So, I made Ben promise that he will either leave it at home or wear it all the time.

It hasn't come off since!

Baby Bump continued!

2010-01-27T15:11:00.000-08:00

Today I am 34 1/2 weeks! Only about three weeks until I am considered full term (Valentine's Day or just after), and another three weeks after that (approximately 6 weeks total) until we hit our due date! Ben's co-workers have apparently started a pool for when the baby will arrive. I told Ben he should inform them that if the baby is born on March 7th, our official due date, we get the money! ;)

Anyway, here are a few more recent belly pics. I have definitely popped out a bit more the past few weeks. This is me at 32 weeks (8 months), and feeling pretty good!

This is me at 33 weeks.

As of a few weeks ago, the baby was already head-down, which was a relief since I had been feeling him across the widest part of my belly alot and was concerned that he was all sideways.

He gets the hiccups quite a lot lately. One day he had them for about 20 minutes. It makes me laugh every time. And he loves music! Whenever we sing at church or he hears loud music he will either start to become super active during the music or just after it finishes. That's my boy!

His activity level has stayed about the same through out the pregnancy...super active! It makes me happy. I'd much rather he be an active baby than not. He's constantly on the move, much like his father, who I sometimes refer to as "Tigger" because he's always got a foot tapping or leg moving and its hard for him to sit still. His son has affectionately become "Bam Bam" over the past few months, because he is constantly giving me a workout! But I wouldn't have it any other way.

Are you kidding me???

2010-01-11T18:03:00.000-08:00

Today I woke up, having finally gotten the best night's sleep I've had in about two months. I went about my morning routine and then went to meet a pregnant girlfriend of mine, so that we could go do some walking.

I picked her up and as we were driving to our walking destination, all of the sudden, the truck in front of us slams on his brakes. I barely had enough time to hit my breaks and come to a stop to avoid rear-ending him. Then, before I had time to react, he throws his truck in reverse, looks in his rear-view mirror and backs into the front of my car.

He had stopped his truck about thirty feet from the car in front of him, which was stopped at a red light. There were no cars in either of the lanes to the right or left of us, so I have no idea what he was trying to do. If he'd wanted to change lanes, he could have done so without backing up. But all my girlfriend and I had time to do, when we realized he was backing up was to scream "NOooooo" right as he hit us.

Then he pulls forward about 15 feet, at which point I was thinking he was just going to leave, which made me upset. But then he stopped and we both got out of our vehicles. He walks back and says something to the effect that there doesn't look like any damage has been done to either car, making me think he wants to bail and not exchange info. I looked at him and said, "I don't care, I'm pregnant, we are exchanging information!"

So we pulled over out of the street and did just that. He was a little sketchy, making a comment to me that he'd never been in an accident before, and then making a comment to my friend, as I was taking pictures of both cars, that his truck had been hit so many times and never had any damage. ????

After we parted ways, I was shaking and much more concerned about the baby...and my pregnant friend who was in the car with me. I am 32 weeks pregnant and she is 20 weeks.
We both called our doctors and mine got me in today a couple of hours later to check things out. They said the baby is fine and the heartbeat sounded good and it was good that he'd still been active after the accident. They were more concerned about pre-term labor with the accident, but I hadn't had any signs of that. I felt better just going in and hearing the baby's heartbeat.

I'm still a little unsettled, even though I know things are probably fine. But boy, what a morning. I don't know what people are thinking sometimes. This is why I pray for God to protect me, my husband and our baby every morning, and I pray for our cars and safety as we drive as well. I was very thankful that nothing worse happened and that God was watching over me, my friend and both of our babies!

My Christmas Present!!

2010-01-07T11:13:00.001-08:00

When Ben asked me what I wanted for Christmas this year I had no response. I really couldn't think of anything I needed. But after a few days, I told him I would kind of like a new purse, as the one I had been using for the past year or so was one big pocket that everything got lost in.

So on Christmas morning I opened up the most beautifully wrapped package, and inside found this fabulous Italian leather purse that my honey picked out for me!!! (Of course he will tell you his mom and sister helped out.) But I was still pretty floored!

It has tons of sections and pockets and is big enough to be able to carry my bible and notebook for biblestudy....and I am sure many baby things in the future! Thanks baby! You are the bestest and most sweetest!

Catching up on Christmas!

2010-01-04T13:44:00.000-08:00

Somehow, this year, no pictures got taken of the Christmas Day activities. But, we had a nice brunch at our house with Ben's sister, mom, grandma and great-grandma. We opened presents and had yummy food! Then we spent most of the rest of the day at Ben's grandma's house playing games, watching movies and enjoying a nice dinner.

Our church had a special Christmas Eve service again this year and Ben got to be in the live nativity again. The first night he was Joseph. The second night he was one of the three kings and looked great in his costume, but I didn't take my camera that night.

Here is Ben as Joseph.

You can't see it in the pictures, but there were live goats, miniature donkeys and even a cow this year. Baby Jesus was played by Caden, one of the little boys who is sure to be great friends with our little guy, once he arrives. He did great the first night. The second night he wasn't so happy.

Here are "Mary and Joseph".

This year Ben and I really wanted to make a gingerbread house. We had decorated one the Christmas we were dating...oh wait, I guess we were engaged at that point. Anyway, it was so much fun we did one again this year!

And here is our fabulous little Christmas tree! We went out to our favorite tree lot, in the pouring down rain, and cut it down. I think we were one of about four families who braved the rain to get our tree. It was fun. We were almost completely soaked by the end of it, but it makes for great memories!

This year, my favorite Christmas memory was of Ben skipping (literally) down the hall one night, completely giddy, telling me how this time next year our little boy will be so excited because he will get to open presents. :) Of course he will only be about nine months next Christmas, and may not quite grasp the excitement yet, but it made me smile that Ben was already thinking of it. I just love him!!!

WilkeBugs

2010-01-01T11:00:00.000-08:00

One of my dear friends started a business recently called "WilkeBugs" (named after her daughter Wilke). She makes unique maternity and baby clothes.

She suprised me with a couple of shirts not long ago that I absolutely love!

Under the butterfly it says "Coming Spring 2010" (she can customize it according to due date).

Below the tree it says "Our fearfully and wonderfully made miracle ~Psalm 139:14"

I thought it was one of the most beautiful designs and I love the truth behind it!

Here is the link if you are interested in checking out her website!

www.wilkebugs.net

Baby's Room

2009-12-31T09:00:00.000-08:00

After we found out we were having a boy, this was the first outfit I bought. :)

We have since received many outfits as gifts, as well as a few bags full of boy clothes from Newborn up through about six months...with more on the way. This boy is going to have more clothes than Ben and I put together before he even arrives. And I didn't think anyone could have more clothes than my husband! (He's the shopper in the family!)

We finally settled on a theme for our son's room, once we went and looked at bedding sets. Can you tell what the theme is???

Daddy completely fell for this one! I was sure we would end up with something that had safari animals or with cars, but Ben really liked the sports set. And the more I look at it, the more I love the colors. We are planning on doing the nursery in a tan color. On the wall where the crib will go, we have decided to do vertical stripes of tan, a light blue and a very nice green...all of which are in the bedding set.

Our next goal is to pick out a crib and get the carseat/stroller set-up picked out. I have a few more boxes to clean out in his room, but we are hoping to have the room painted sometime in January and set up not long after that. I am excited to see how it all turns out!

Belly Bump!

2009-12-29T15:44:00.000-08:00

Okay, after two very busy months and a bucket full of computer issues, I'm back!

Here are some updates on my belly's progress...

Four Months

Five Months

Six Months

Seven Months

I am currently at 30 weeks and loving my belly bump! Everything has been going great so far. We are praying it continues that way! We are getting very excited to meet our little boy.

He is extremely active and I have been enjoying "playing" with him the past week or so. He is now making much bigger movements and if I push on him, he will push back against my stomach. He also responds to the light from a flashlight being moved around on my tummy, which is funny to watch.

We have approximately 10 weeks to go! The next goal is to get his room all ready.

Its a BOY!!!

2009-10-07T11:36:00.000-07:00

We had our 18 week ultrasound on Monday and found out that we are having a BOY!

We are both absolutely thrilled! I had a feeling last Thursday it might be a boy as my insides were getting a new workout. ;) He is definitely an active one!

During the ultrasound we got to see him from head to toe! We saw his little brain, heart and how it was beating, kidneys, diaphram and all the little inner workings of his body. It was amazing how much can be seen inside of him even though he is so tiny. Everything looks great so far, according to the doctors!

We are so thankful to God for how He is forming out little one and grateful that He is watching over our son every moment of every day!

Here is a profile picture of our little guy. He already has the cutest nose. :)

Here is one of his face. The technician said it looked like he was playing with the umbilical cord. It was right in front of him. :)

This next one was actually the first picture we got to see of his face. He is so precious. I find myself looking at this picture several times throughout the day.

Here is one of my favorites! He was starting to yawn while we were watching.

And here is the money shot! He is all boy. :)

My heart is just so full right now! We can't wait to meet him in March. Until then we will be busy planning for his little arrival. :)

Preggo Pics :)

2009-09-30T21:01:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this is mostly for my mom....and I suppose anyone else who is really interested in just how much my tummy has actually grown...although most people still don't believe me.

Here is the pregnancy test from the morning I took it! :)

This is me sometime that next week (so I guess in the beginning of the 2nd month)...basically capturing what my tummy looked like before it started to grow.

This would have been my tummy sometime during the 3rd month.

And here is me about a week ago...so I would have been at 16 and a half weeks (toward the end of four months). See...if you look back and forth at the first picture and this one....ta da...there is a tummy! :)

I will update the pictures as we progress.

Gardezy Baby 11 weeks!

2009-09-13T16:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I know it's been a little while since I blogged...sorry! The computer I usually use to upload photos has a broken chord (because I dropped the computer and busted it...the chord, not the computer...way to go me!) And so I have finally figured out how to upload pictures through our scanner onto Ben's computer...believe me it took forever! Mostly because Ben was sleeping and I didn't want to bug him. :)

Today I am offically 15 weeks! Yeah! Five more weeks and we will be half way through this pregnancy, which seems crazy. This puts me in the first half of my fourth month, for those of you who could care less about how many weeks we are or what that even means. ;)

We had an ultrasound back on August 19th, when the baby was 11 weeks. We decided to have some genetic testing done, since I have a half-sister whose first little boy was born with Down's Syndrome and we didn't know if it was something that would be a concern due to family history. It turns out that it isn't a concern and so far the odds are something like 1 in 5,700. We knew it wouldn't make any difference as far as us having the baby. We will have the baby regardless, but thought it was wise to at least check into the possibility and give ourselves a heads-up if it was something we might be taking on.

It ended up being a long appointment, one which we aren't likely to repeat with the next pregnancy. But, we had the joy of seeing our baby on the ultrasound monitor for about twenty minutes, which was amazing. The baby was flipping over and moving its hand to its face and just would not sit still. It was by far the most amazing thing I have ever seen! I had no idea they moved so much that early on. We also got to hear the heartbeat for the first time in the appointment which made me almost start to cry. It was by far the best day of this pregnancy so far. :)

Here are a few pictures from the ultrasound...

Here is the baby's face and tummy. Ben and I both think this picture makes our little one look like an alien. It was cool though because just as this picture was being taken the baby opened its mouth. We got to see the two halves of the brain, two eyes and eyelids, the spine, two arms, legs, hands and feet.

Here is one shoulder, arm and hand. The baby kept moving its arm up to its face during the ultrasound.

And here is one foot and the cutest little toes! I am so obsessed with baby toes! :)

Our next ultrasound is scheduled for the beginning of October. We will be at about 18 weeks and should be able to find out the sex of the baby, if all goes according to plan. You just never know!

Baby Gardezy's First Photo Session!

2009-08-05T20:54:00.000-07:00

Well, here he or she is! Ben and I went in for our first OB appointment on Monday, August 3rd. We hadn't expected an ultrasound quite yet, but were pleasantly suprised when the nurse told us that was how the midwife was going to confirm the pregnancy. We got to see the heartbeat, which was amazing! And she double checked and there's just one in there. :)

So here is baby Gardezy at 9 weeks, 1 day. Our new, official due date is March 7, 2010 (which by the way was exactly the date I had figured in my head from the time of conception...go me!). But the midwife said we might as well tell people the middle of March, as first babies rarely come on time!

(For those of you who are ultrasound challenged, that round thing on the right is the head, and the rest of the body is to the left.)

My older brother, Randy, said if you turn the picture to the left it looks like the baby is surfing the womb! :) That made me laugh.

Funny story, as the doctor is getting ready to do the ultrasound, the door to our room goes flying open and a nurse with a panic on her face comes rushing in. The three of us just kind of stare at her for a second, until she says, "The red light is on!" Apparently, as Ben positioned himself to be able to see the monitor for the ultrasound, he leaned up against the red "emergency" call button for the room. It's nice to know they would respond quickly to a real emergency, but I felt bad for the nurse who got a bit of a scare.

Baby Gardezy!

2009-07-17T22:00:00.001-07:00

Yes...it's official, we are expecting our very own baby Gardezy!

We are due March 5th, 2010.

Ben and I are both super excited!!! The week we found out I think Ben texted everyone under the sun to let them know. Then got himself all sick with the flu because he was so nervous and excited all at once. That's my baby! :)

I am feeling pretty good so far, just EXHAUSTED! But its the happy kind of tired, so I don't mind. :)

I will keep you posted on the details!

Vegas Baby!

2009-06-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

Ben and I decided to book a last minute trip to Vegas for a long weekend we had together in April. We stayed at Circus Circus...wouldn't recommend it, but it was cheap. Our reservation got mixed up, which made our first night and the next morning fairly stressful, but we ended up on the top floor of the hotel as a result (35th floor). We were only there for two days, but it was super fun!

The view from our hotel room.

A view from the walk down part of the strip.

Ben and I.

Me in Italy!
Not really...just in the Venetian, in front of the gondola rides.
Wisk me away to Italy anytime!

These umbrellas had these weird light tubes suspended around them that, when the light raced down them, made it look like rain was falling periodically. Okay, you kind of had to see it in person, but it was a cool effect!

We booked seats for Phantom while we were there. We got front row balcony, which turned out to be phenominal! I highly recommend going to Vegas to see the production, even if you've seen the full opera somewhere else. It is spectacular! It was definitely the highlight of our trip, especially for Ben who had been wanting to see it for years!

Memorial Day 2009

2009-06-04T20:46:00.000-07:00

Ben and I went to AT&T Park in San Francisco for Memorial Day. We went to watch the San Francisco Giants play the Atlanta Braves (Ben's favorite team)

It was a good game. Unfortunately for Ben the Braves lost...sorry honey (hahaha).

My honey waiting to catch a ball.

All in all, we had a fun day together!

I adore this girl!

2009-05-12T10:38:00.001-07:00

I absolutely LOVE this picture of my niece, Havana! My sister-in-law's sister took the photo. (Could you follow all that?) I have been in love with it for months. It's such a precious photo and just shows off her adorable personality!!!

Two years!

2009-04-14T19:13:00.001-07:00

The day before our second anniversary, Ben suprised me with a shopping trip, to pick out a new dress to wear for the dinner he was taking me out to!

He ended up taking me to my favorite Italian restaurant, Ca Bianca! We split a bottle of fabulous Pinot Grigio (a really good Italian white wine) and had the most fantastic and romantic dinner!

We ended up having the whole restaurant almost entirely to ourselves. The ambience was perfect, the food was amazing and we had a great time talking about the last three years together (that's one year dating, two married...for those of you who feel confused).

I don't think we could have asked for a more perfect night together.

I feel so blessed to be married to such a wonderful, thoughtful and loving man! And I feel super blessed that along with all of the wonderful qualities he possesses, he also has the most amazing heart to follow after God!

He told me not long ago that I was his second priority. When I asked what his first priority was, he said "God".

And that's just the way it should be!

Ben's new hobby!

2009-04-14T19:03:00.001-07:00

Ben has been talking about getting a remote control helicopter for months now! Some of the guys at his shop fly helicopters and planes (all remote control). He has been doing his research and was finally able to find one to start out with on ebay. He is still getting the hang of the controls and has already spent a few hours tinkering on it and making adjustments here and there (lucky he knows a thing or two about vehicles) and has gotten it off the ground successfully, at least a few times. I guess the controls are pretty tricky and it can take awhile before you get proficient at it.

Regardless, Ben is like a kid at Christmas time, playing with his new toy!

Annual Easter Pic

2009-04-14T18:57:00.001-07:00

Here is our 4th Annual Easter photo!

Unfortunately, this year, we were unable to locate our regular photographer, as she was busy supervising her niece's Easter Egg hunt!

However, a worthy substitute stepped in so we could continue
our tradition (thanks mom)!

Toilets, Pre-schoolers and birthdays, oh my!

2009-03-27T22:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday started off like any other day. Got to work at the preschool, business as usual.
Around lunch time, one of the teachers who had been sick for the past week went home to get some rest, so it was myself and a sub, who has just recently started working full time on Thursdays, with fifteen preschoolers. No big deal.

We got through lunch time, cleaned up the tables and floors and were just finishing up the potty trips before settling the kids down for nap. I ran into the teacher bathroom before heading off on my lunch break and leaving the other teacher alone for an hour. To my dismay, I heard one of the boys say "the toilet's leaking".

"Darn it!" I thought. The toilet must be overflowing. I went out and checked the bathroom. Water all over the floor, toilet full to the seat. I asked the other teacher if the water was from the toilet...trying to rule out that it wasn't just from someone playing in the sink and did, in fact, need to be cleaned up and the floor disinfected. She said it was. I asked if she had turned off the water. She said she didn't know how.

May I just take this side note to ask..."How does someone with three teen-age children not know how to turn the water off on a toilet???!!!!" (For those of you reading this who don't know how to do it...learn! You turn the little knob under the toilet "righty-tighty" as far as it will go.)

I proceeded to turn the water off and check the other two toilets. Each filled up with water as I flushed and very quickly got their water shut off as well. Knowing that all three toilets were connected by piping, and that we had an hour before all fifteen preschoolers were up and going, I hurried and got the plunger.

After about ten minutes and no success, I called our teacher at home to find out our regular plumber's name and gave them a call, only to find out they had a number of emergencies and couldn't come out at all. I talked to a couple people, trying to explain that, legally, we can't have non-flushing toilets and children using them. We could get by for maybe an hour at most, since some of the water had drained out of the toilets (but whenever I tried flushing them again, they just filled back up).

We finally located a plumber that could send someone out right away, but they were an hour away. By the time everything got situated, the plumbers called and on the way, and the bathrooms mostly cleaned up, I remembered we were celebrating someone's 5th birthday that afternoon and that her mom would be in at 2:45pm with cupcakes.

Any way I figured it, I knew that I couldn't take my whole hour long lunch break and our other teacher take her whole lunch break or we would be in trouble when the mom came for the birthday, because the other teacher would still be gone and I can only legally be alone with twelve children. So, I took a very quick half hour lunch and came back to let the other teacher do the same.

In the half hour I had been gone, almost all of the kids had gotten up to use the bathroom a second time since lunch. Great. Still no plumber. The other teacher left. I started setting up part of the room and then realized, fairly quickly, that if I didn't start having kids get up and clean up their beds, no one would be ready for the party. Let the chaos begin!

At 2:40pm, in walked mom with the cupcakes. At 2:45pm, the time the party was supposed to start, I realized the other teacher wasn't back yet and completely forgot that we needed to have a healthy snack before the cupcakes. By 2:50pm, the birthday mom was helping me put out a healthy snack to get ready. At 2:52pm, in walked the first plumber we called, who wasn't supposed to be able to come. Um....

I walked over, a little suprised and tried to assess what he was doing there. He said he had gotten word about our situation, didn't know what his office had for him to do next, but wanted to run by and take a look. Knowing the other plumber was close to arriving and had at least an hour drive to get there and being minutes away from a birthday party and on the edge of being not legal as far as our teacher to child ratio, my mind was in a panic!

I ran back to the office to talk to the reverend that oversees our preschool and quickly told her about the plumber situation, handing it off to her. I ran back out to the kids and got them washing hands, before the plumber got into the bathrooms, so they could start snack and get the birthday underway. Three minutes later the other teacher came back...whew! I filled her in on the situation, as the reverend and plumber went into the bathroom area to talk. Two minutes later, the second plumber walked in the door and was met by the other teacher. She tactfully asked him to wait just a second while she told the reverend and first plumber of his arrival. The first plumber graciously told the second that he was just on his way out, but filled him in on the details. Whew! Uncomfortable crisis averted.

We sang happy birthday, gave the kids cupcakes, the plumbers left and I got to have a yummy chocolate cupcake!

Then the reverend came out and said the toilets were working. "Oh good, they're fixed!" I said.
"No, they were working." she said
"What?" I said
"They flushed just fine." she said "And the second plumber is just charging for his trip."

Ugh!!!!!!!!!

Apparently, after all that, in the hour it took for anyone to come out and look at the toilets, they somehow cleared themselves out...probably desolving the half a roll of toilet paper I am sure one of the kids tried to flush down the toilet.

15 preschoolers, 3 clogged toilets and a five-year old birthday party later, I was exhausted!

The countdown has begun!

2009-03-18T22:18:00.000-07:00

Ben and I will celebrate our two-year anniversary on March 31st!

We are officially counting the days....12 to go.

We were so excited (and relieved) to make it through the first year. The second year seems to have gone by too fast almost.

Some highlights from our second year of marriage:

Ben took a position with Infiniti
We bought and moved into our very first Home!
Melody took a full-time teaching position at a preschool in Calistoga
We got to meet our new niece, Taryn Mae over Thanksgiving
We celebrated our second Christmas together and our first Christmas in our new house
We have and are still learning so much about what it means to be married and love eachother to pieces!

We are thankful, every day, that God is the center and focus of our marriage! We know we couldn't do it without Him!!!

Crazy Day!

2009-03-02T19:46:00.000-08:00

I got to work at 7:30am this morning, walked into the kitchen and smelled gas! The preschool I work at is in a church with an ancient gas stove. Ugh! I spent ten minutes debating if it was more gas than usual, opened some doors to air it all out, and finally called PG&E. After fifteen minutes on hold and three children's arrivals, I was finally able to talk to someone about my dilemna...my concern being, of course, more for the children's health and safety. After taking the information, the person I was talking to said we would be the highest priority for someone to come out (after someone's house going up in flames). Sweet!

After I got off the phone, I realized that one of the bathroom doors was only attached to the door jam by the bottom hinge and was leaning precariously toward the sink where the kids wash their hands. Crap! I couldn't figure out what had happened to the three screws that were holding the top hinge on Friday. I searched around until I found a screwdriver and decided to see if I could undo the two screws holding the bottom hinge, so that I could just take the door down and remove it from the area, so the kids didn't get squashed by it. The door was hanging down and slightly to one side, putting pressure on the bottom hinge and the screws.

So there I was at 8:10am, by myself (except for the three kids), two doors open to air out the gas, with chairs in front of them to keep the kids from running out in the pouring down rain, propping my body up against a door to keep it from falling, while trying to lift it by the door knob with my right hand, and loosen the screws with my left hand. It was ridiculous!

I finally got the screws out, the door moved into the kitchen and the kitchen door closed to keep the gas from coming into the rest of the school. Ten minutes later my co-teacher showed up. Forty-five minutes later, PG&E showed up. Sweet! Everything checked out. It turned out one of the pilots on the stove top went out and that was where all the gas was coming from. Of course it would be something simple! But better safe than sorry. So the guy showed me what to do if it happens in the future and then left.

Crisis averted!

Too cool!

2009-02-08T14:27:00.000-08:00

I discovered this picture a couple of months ago and thought it was one of the best pictures I have seen in a long time. It is of my niece Havana. It was taken by my sister-in-law's brother.

The look on Havana's face says it all!

Tagged...

2009-01-26T21:50:00.001-08:00

So I have been tagged...thanks Angie!

Here are the rules:

1. Choose the 4th folder where your pictures are stored.
2. Select the 4th picture.
3. Explain the picture.
4. Tag 3 other people.

This picture is from the summer after Ben and I were married...it would have been almost our four month anniversary when it was taken. Ben got tickets from Rob P. to go to a San Francisco Giants/Altanta Braves game in San Francisco. Ben is a HUGE Atlanta fan...being that he lived there for a time. So it was a big deal to get to go. This was the view from our seats. Melissa M. (avid SF Giants fan) went with.

I tag Kristen D., Laura P. and anyone else who reads this and has a blog by which to share their taggedness!

Peace out!
:)

Who is that?

2009-01-11T09:49:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we had put up some pictures in our new home, including the one we had everyone sign at our wedding. On Friday, Ben and I were eating dinner at our dining room table, and I was reading all of the comments people had writting on our wedding picture. And then it happened. I looked up in one corner and saw a signature I had never noticed before!

I have spent a lot of time reading the comments on this picture. When we first put it up in our apartment, I stopped and read every single person's signature and note. And periodically, since then, I will stop and do the same, because it makes me smile to remember our wedding and all the people who made it so wonderful.

I must have stared at this particular signature for about ten minutes before I said to Ben,
"Who is that?"
"Who is what?" he said
"That signature, up in the corner." I said
"This one?"
"No, to the left." I said
"This one?"
"No next to that one" I said

I don't know why I didn't just get out of my chair and show him.

"Oh, I've never noticed that one before," he said "I always thought it was part of this one." he said, pointing to the one just to the side of it.

We both stared at the signature.

"It's been almost two years since we got married," I said, "how have neither of us ever seen that signature?"

"I don't know." He said.

So, we spent the next half an hour going through all of the people we could remember that were at our wedding...was it this person? Nope, their signature is over there. Was it this person? Nope, here they are. It was starting to make me crazy. I finally got out of my chair and began looking at the signature from every possible angle, trying to see if what we thought it said changed as you changed angles.

We called Ben's mom, asked her a couple questions. We went through the guest book that was beside the picture to try to cross reference or match the signature, no luck. We finally resorted to going through our entire guest list...still no luck. I even thought about going through the wedding pictures to see if anything jogged our memory.

Two days later, we still have no idea who the signature is from! It looks like "Gradie or Gradiv". The only thing we can figure is that maybe it belongs to Ben's Grandma or Great Grandma, who goes by Granny. But we are pretty sure they would have signed their name too, if it were either of them.

So now it is a complete mystery. We are both wondering if we had someone crash our wedding and we didn't even know it.

My next step will be to watch the wedding video and cross reference it with the wedding photos, to see if we can find an answer.

We both still think its just odd that almost two years after the fact, neither of us ever noticed this signature!

What happened to Christmas?!

2008-12-29T10:58:00.000-08:00

So, I had my camera out on Christmas morning, when Ben's mom, grandma and great-grandma came for breakfast and to open presents. I had the Christmas dishes out, all displayed beautifully, awaiting the beginning of our brunch. Red placemats, red and green cloth napkins, champagne glasses out for the annual Christmas morning mimosas. The house looked spotless and it was a wonderful morning!

This is, however, the only picture that was taken the morning of Christmas. Ben being Santa and getting ready to hand out presents.

So much for Christmas pictures!

Remember that "pink" wall...

2008-12-29T10:47:00.000-08:00

Since I have days and days off over the holiday season, I am catching up on some blogging. So, for those of you who remember the "pink" wall. Here are pictures of the finished product. I have taken oodles of pictures, trying to capture what the wall actually looks like and I had all but given up, since they just kept looking all pinkish.

But then, as I was sitting on the couch having coffee this morning, the light was hitting it in a way that I figured it was probably the best view I could get via camera. The pictures still don't do the wall justice. It just looks way better in person....but anyway, here you go!

There is more copper that shows when you are actually in front of it...but I guess you can see some of the copper color and the texture.

I guess if you are just dying to see it up close you can call me and come visit. ;)

Thanksgiving in Spokane

2008-12-26T10:40:00.000-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving, Ben and I went to Spokane, Washington to visit my older brother Randy and his family. He and his wife, Tyanna, have two adorable little girls! Ben was excited to get to know his nieces and was counting the days to our trip. Our oldest niece, Havana, is just two years old. She loves chicken nuggets and is super smart. She is very talkative and kept us laughing the whole visit. Her younger sister Taryn Mae was born one month before our visit. She is a doll and we both enjoyed getting to hold her and see her little face light up into a dimpled smile. :)

I arrived a day before Ben and got to have some girl time with my sister and nieces. The day Ben was due to arrive, I told Havana that we would go pick up "Uncle Ben" later that day, to which she said, "That will be fun!" While Randy, Havana and I were waiting for Ben's flight to arrive, we tried desperately to teach Havana to say, "Uncle Ben, where's my rice?" (For those of you who aren't familiar, there is a brand of rice called Uncle Ben's.) Havana had it down after about fifteen minutes of rehearsing. When Ben finally arrived and walked up to meet Havana, she said very proudly, "Uncle Ben....rice!" She missed the middle part, but it was cute. Now that we are home, I have heard from Ty that Havana will occasionally just say "where's my rice?" Too cute!

Here is Uncle Ben with Havana.
Here is Ben holding Taryn Mae...he did good!

Here is Ben with Havana - she kept wanting to take pictures while we were all laying on our bed. I just love this picture!

Here is Auntie Mel with Havana Banana! I kept calling her that and by the end of the visit, I would ask her, "Where's my banana?" To which she would point to herself and say, "Right here." It was pretty cute!

We had a great time visiting the whole family. It was great to see Randy and Ty, and have some Halo competitions...and we had a blast getting to spend time with our nieces! It even snowed the day Ben arrived, so we had a little winter wonderland. It was perfect. I don't think it will be too long before we go back!

Hmm...Joseph looks a lot like my husband...

2008-12-24T17:14:00.000-08:00

Each year our church puts on a Christmas Eve service, along with a live Nativity. It has become Ben's annual gig, usually playing the part of a shepherd or Joseph (I prefer him as Joseph). This year was no exception.

He fits the part fairly well I would say!

It's always fun to see him in the Nativity. But it's also a great reminder that our Lord and Saviour came as a little baby, on a night just like any other, because He loves us!

Christmas Wish List...

2008-12-09T22:26:00.000-08:00

Dear Santa,

This year for Christmas, I would like:

My brother's herniated disk to get all healed up!
Continued safety for Ben and I as we commute to our fabulously high-paying jobs...ha ha!
A door knob on our back door (it keeps falling off, which makes entering the house ridiculous)!
That weird coolant and electrical smell to quit coming from my car...and for the thermostat to stop going toward the H, causing me to have to pump heat into my car with the windows rolled down on my commute to work when its 40 degrees! Hmm...if only I could find a good mechanic...(j/k)
No more back spasms!
To finish making Ben's blanket...that I started back in the summer I think.
Our washer to actually shut off the water when it is done filling up, so I don't walk into an inch of water in our laundry room again, and freak out about the water going into the furnace closet, the carpet and both bathrooms, while trying unsuccessfully to shut the water off and waking my husband out of a dead sleep by screaming to come help his hysteric wife!
Our second bedroom to actually be an extra room, instead of a giant "closet".
To be able to update my blog often enough to meet my dad's expectations! (love you dad)
That 2009 will be just as full of happiness with my husband, opportunities to laugh at all the things that just don't go the way you thought they would, and contentment with all that God has given to us and will continue to give to us in His perfect timing!

May your holiday season be full of God's love, and sprinkled with joy and laughter!

Are you sure this is how it's supposed to look?

2008-11-12T22:28:00.000-08:00

So this one time...we painted a wall pink!

Okay, so when we bought our home, there was one wall I decided I wanted to paint...our dining room wall. I was going for a burnt orange or a dark reddish, to compliment our dark wood framed mirror and dark wood dining room set. Last Saturday I woke up ready to go for it. Ben and I went to four paint stores before finding the samples I was looking for...a base paint, with a colored glaze over top. I was going for texture...not just a flat color.

Ben and I settled on a 2x2 sample of what looked like more of an orange tone. Upon seeing the mixed paint, I realized the "sunset" color we were using as a base was a rather bright pink, instead of the orange I thought it was. Still, having done this before with an unexpected base color and seeing it turn out beautifully, we moved forward.

Ben and I began our painting, through which I learned something new about my husband.
He had never really painted before. So this was his first official painting project...and he got to experience it on our new home! He did a pretty good job if I do say so myself!

I don't have a picture of the finished product, but imagine this pink with a copper glaze. So now, instead of a burnt orange or dark red, we have a pinkish wall with metallic overtones. It reminds me of some kind of decor from India! It isn't quite what I was going for, but it is unique to say the least. We were debating keeping it or starting all over with more of an orange. It's still up for debate, but I think the end result is growing on us. I'll try to post a finished picture soon! (I have to lure you back somehow!)

Oh the joys of owning your own home!

We're In!

2008-10-07T21:52:00.000-07:00

Apparently my dad pays more attention to my blog than I realized. Per his request (and now that we finally have the internet hooked up), I am "blogging" to let you all know that we are officially in our brand new HOME! That's right people, we are home owners!!!

We got the keys at 3pm on Friday, moved a load of stuff during the pouring down rain and prayed it would stop the down-pour long enough to move the big stuff on Saturday (which it did...it was gorgeous)!

We spent our first night in our home on Saturday night and both slept great!

Tomorrow we will get the last few things from our apartment and then clean it like crazy. After Thursday, no more apartment - yeah!

So yes, we have keys, we have moved and we are VERY HAPPY!

Thanks to all our friends for their help: Rachel, Katie, Chris, Victor, Paul, Mom, Grandma....and Rich for changing all the locks and keys so I don't have to worry about any creepy people having keys to our house after all the times its been sold over the past couple years! (Hey - you just never know!)

:) Pictures to follow....once we have things put away and can actually take pictures of our home instead of a big mess of a house!

Love you Dad!

There's No Place Like Home!

2008-09-30T12:52:00.000-07:00

Since I know you are all on pins and needles...just a quick update to let you know we signed papers on our home last night! We were in and out in 25 minutes. We are due to get our keys (at the latest) this Friday, October 3rd! We are praying all goes well and that this turns out to be the case! We were very relieved to have all the paperwork correct this time and the signing to go so smoothly! Let's hope the move is the same.

:)

Addendum...

2008-09-24T18:04:00.001-07:00

The signing of papers is tentatively rescheduled for Monday, September 29th!

Ever have one of those days?

2008-09-24T17:35:00.000-07:00

So....we were supposed to close on our home buying experience this past Monday, get our keys today and move this Saturday. We had a bajillion different people and trucks scheduled to help us, the packing had begun, and we were supposed to be out of our apartment by this coming Tuesday.

Unfortunately, our loan was incorrectly done. So, we had to cancel the bajillion different people and trucks scheduled to help us, hold on the packing and talk to our apartment manager about whether or not and for how long we could extend our stay.

If all goes well, and the loan papers are able to be redone in the 3-4 business days they said they should be able to do them in, we may be signing the CORRECT papers next week and hopefully moving on the 4th of October. (We are crossing our fingers, as we now have until the 9th of October to be out of the apartment....although the extra rent we now have to pay is annoying.)

All in all, things have been frustrating, but manageable. We just keep trusting that through all of this, God has some kind of plan, even though we don't have a clue what He's up to. :)

Anyhoo....the move has been postponed. But I'll keep you posted!

One week!

2008-09-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

We are moving one week from today! We are scheduled to sign all our loan papers on Monday, get our keys on Wednesday and move on Saturday. It should be a full week of packing (yeah)! I am hoping the packing will come a little easier now that we will be out of here in a week. It's hard to pack and have boxes sitting in your living room when you are still living there (especially when there isn't a ton of extra space to begin with). Yup, not the greatest motivator!

It hit me this past week that we would be leaving our first home together as husband and wife. And yes I did cry...quite a bit. What can I say, I get attached. Ben took it in stride. It's been a great apartment for us...full of many great memories, like our first Christmas together. I will miss it. But as Ben said to me, those are the memories you make and take with you to the next place, they don't disappear just because you move on. (He's so wise.) But, we are very much looking forward to owning our own place and to having more room (and a laundry room).

Tussey hasn't quite figured out what's going on yet. She was just sitting on the couch kind of watching as we packed the first round of boxes, looking a little unsure. She gets that way when we move, pack up the car for road trips, or to go camping. She knows something is up, she just doesn't know if she gets to be part of it or not. :) This will be her fourth home with me.

My routine with her is to get most everything moved and then to take her, with her bed, to the new place, and to put it in its place with her there. Its my way of letting her know that this is her new home. I think she will love it. There will be tons more room for her to run around and explore (and get into trouble, I am sure). But there will be less chance of a repeat with the swallowing of rocks - which she is STILL chewing on, despite our best efforts (for those of you who followed that story)!

Once we get settled I will try to post some pictures of our new place so you can see the insides. (Um, it might take me a little bit, so thanks in advance for your patience!)

Not a Fan!

2008-09-14T14:23:00.000-07:00

Our home is due to close on Monday, September 22nd. We are scheduled to move on Saturday, September 27th. Last night we began packing.

I have concluded that I am not a fan of packing or moving. Don't get me wrong, I am completely excited to be moving into our new place. Everything has been moving along as scheduled and this past Friday, we signed papers for the park the home is in. But the whole process of packing makes me crazy!

It took me a half an hour just to get all of my candles packed, and I don't even have that many. I wrapped them up, along with the votive holders, put them in a box and then realized I had more that I had forgotten about. By the time I finished packing the candles, I ended up with most of them in one box, that box being then placed inside another box, with additional candles next to it, a few other things and then a basket wedged in between one side of the big box and the one inside of it. I know...exhausting even to read, right? Ugh!

This is the fifth time I have moved in the past four years and I am not looking forward to going through this again - and Ben isn't excited to move my big, heavy, awkward piano for the third time in two years. And we seem to have accumulated more stuff, since being married. (How did that happen?) I am not looking forward to the month it will end up taking to fully unpack, or to the unsettled feeling of living in the midst of boxes and craziness. (I'm one of those people who needs everything in its place asap! In fact, the first thing I have to do after traveling somewhere, is completely unpack and put everything where it needs to go, just so I feel at peace.)

I am, however, excited to be moving into the very first home Ben and I will own. And I am super excited to know that this will be the last time we will have to move for (hopefully) about five or so years! (And Ben's pretty excited knowing he won't have to move my piano again for a very long time!)

We're Buying Our First Home

2008-08-21T13:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, you heard right! Ben and I put an offer down on a home and it got accepted! If all goes well, we will close in about a month.

This whole thing started because our apartment complex, where we have lived for a year and a half, decided to ask people to sign leases for between 7 and 12 months. If you sign a lease your rent goes up $100. If you stay month-to-month, your rent goes up $200. So we decided to look at apartments, but rent is insane due to the house market being so low. After talking it over with Ben's family, we decided to look at a manufactured home in a good area. Ben got the loan and all of the sudden we were writing an offer. The next day we found out it was accepted.

All of this has happened within the last three weeks and has been nuts! But we are super excited about owning something of our own.

We just keep trusting that if this is the home God has for us everything will continue to move forward smoothly. And, if not, that He has something even better for us!

4th of July 2008

2008-07-10T21:55:00.000-07:00

We went to Chico for the 4th of July this year, to our cousins' Craig and Jodie's house. We ended up having a small family reunion with Craig and Jodie, their kids Brent and Brianna, Auntie Leslie (Ben's mom's sister) and her boyfriend Colin, Ben's mom, Grandma and Great-Grandma.

Here is Craig and Jodie's house. One of the upstairs wings has been made into an incredible movie theatre, which I forgot to take pictures of. It has two rows of leather reclining seats...you push a button and it lays you out...with cup holders and surround sound. We watched Pirates of the Carribean #3 one night and it was shaking the whole house - seriously sweet!

This is the new pool they just put in. There is a hot tub built into the rocks above. The waterfalls pour into a 9 foot deep pool. We all had tons of fun jumping and diving off the rocks into the pool, most especially Ben! You can even sit on a ledge under one of the waterfalls. It was a great addition to the already amazing house and a welcome respite from the heat! Here are Mom and Ben by the pool.
Here are Craig, Jodie, Grandma (and Mitzi on her lap), Mom and Ben. See the bird topiary in the background? They have a giraffe, an elephant - I think, two rabbits and I forget what else out of topiaries. Their property is huge.
We went out on Saturday to downtown Chico and then ventured to the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company to do some beer tasting. Here is the whole crew (minus one). From left to right, Auntie Leslie, me, Ben, Mom, Brianna, Jodie and Craig.
All in all, we had a fun time. It was a long drive there and back, but it was fun to see everyone and to have several days to just hang out and not have to be anywhere! Thanks to Craig and Jodie for their hospitality and to everyone for the fantastical food!!!

Guess who won the lottery!!!

2008-06-30T17:08:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it wasn't us, but seriously...guess who won? I have never known anyone who has won the lottery, never thought I would know anyone who won the lottery, let alone be RELATED to someone who won the lottery!

So who won?

My oldest brother Ralph!

Can you believe it? We are all still floored. He is still speechless....which if you know him is really something. And we are all super excited for him!

He bought a lottery ticket from a store, up in Washington, a couple blocks from where he lives. He called me on Saturday to let me know there was a possiblity he had the winning ticket for a million dollar lottery. The store he had bought the ticket from was the store the winning ticket had been purchased from and the numbers all matched. He had to wait until today to go in and get it officially confirmed.

He called me this afternoon to confirm that he did, in fact, have the winning lottery ticket and that he had just left the bank, where he had deposited a check for $750,000! (Apparently they do a raffle system...something different than I would have expected...and so he got it all in one lump sum.)

My two other brothers were with him and they were on their way to have Sushi and Sake to celebrate!

Ralph is investing the money. He is anticipating having to pay around $400,000 (I think he said) in taxes next year. But he is hoping to file an extension on taxes so that the interest can accumulate and help cover the tax amount. Is he smart or what?!

So yes, I am related to someone who won the lottery! My brother is as close to a millionaire, for the time being, as anyone in our family will probably ever come! And, no, none of it will trickle down to me, so don't even ask!

Really, it's pretty unbelievable, when you think about the odds! But we are sure happy it was him. Congratulations big brother...you deserve every penny of it!

Under the Bed, Take 2

2008-06-25T13:52:00.001-07:00

A view of the end of our bed from the doorway and what do you see? A little flat face peering out from under...

It's our girl napping under the bed once again. Gotta admit...she sure is cute stuff!

What's that sleeping under our bed?

2008-06-25T12:12:00.000-07:00

Tuscany Ann, our almost four year old Pekingese, has adopted a strange new habit of sleeping underneath our bed. She started this habit probably six or eight months ago. Its kind of strange. Every once in a while, we can't find her anywhere in our not-so-massive apartment and can only figure that she must have crawled under our bed to go to sleep.

We aren't sure why she has decided that this is her new napping place. The only thing I can figure is that it must be cooler and she must not be claustrophobic, because I sure couldn't sleep in such an enclosed space...creepy! She will usually crawl to the exact middle of our bed and fall asleep there, so we have to get down on our bellies to even see her. At night all you can see are her little eyes shining like a raccoon!

The other day, I walked into our bedroom to put something on my night stand, rounded the corner to my side of the bed, and this is what I saw...

Tussey was apparently so tired that she couldn't even get herself completely under the bed before collapsing!

She is such a character. Ben and I are always laughing at her personality and antics.

One of our other favorite antics of Tussey, which is uncaptureable on film, due to the ninja-like precision of our little Chinese dog, is the shredding of anything toilet-paper-like! One day we were folding laundry and putting it away. I noticed a sheet of bounce on the bedroom floor, literally looked up at Ben to say something that took a total of five seconds, went to reach for the sheet of bounce on the floor and found it had been shredded into about six pieces, with Tussey no where in sight. Not only is she lightning fast, she is utterly silent. Such skill! I am telling you, if she fell into the wrong hands...watch out world! If only she didn't snore...

Weekend at the Park

2008-06-15T16:25:00.000-07:00

Ben and I went to a movie in the park on Friday night. The local park and rec department is putting on a family fun night and movie in the park across the street from where we live every other Friday night through the summer. This was something we did when we were dating and loved it (although it was at a different park and put on by a church).

The movie was supposed to start around 8:00pm, but didn't get going until closer to 9:00pm. Ben brought a pitcher of punch and cookies and we settled into our chairs with blankets (as it was getting cold) to watch the film - which ended up being Goonies, one of our favorites!

About thirty minutes into the film, we heard what sounded like rain, followed shortly by the screams of people, leaping from their chairs. Apparently the parks and rec people forgot to turn off the automatic sprinkler system. We were far enough out of the way that it didn't affect us, but about forty other people got wet and packed up and went home. Mental note for next time...don't sit around the edges of the park!

Saturday Ben and I decided to rent a paddle boat at the lake. We had it on our list of things to do and it seemed like a good day to try it. We rented the boat for an hour, which we thought would be way too long, but ended up being about right. At one point we stopped paddling and were just sitting in the boat talking, when all of the sudden our boat plowed into some row boats the park keeps tied up in the middle of the lake. Apparently the wind was blowing hard enough that it caused us to drift into the other boats without us realizing we were even moving.

All in all, it was a fun way to spend the weekend and we got a chance to enjoy the outdoors. Living across the street from the park is a pretty sweet deal!

It's a baby GIRL!!!

2008-05-20T19:04:00.000-07:00

I found out a few months ago that my brother and his wife are expecting baby #2 in October/November. They had an ultrasound today and found out they are having another baby girl! Here is Randy with Havana at our wedding. She was only four months old then. Now she is about a year and a half and the cutest niece ever! She will make a great big sister. I can just imagine how much trouble the two of them will get into. Looks like my brother is outnumbered!

It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to!

2008-04-19T11:31:00.001-07:00

I woke up the morning of my birthday to my dog, Tussey Ann, barfing for half an hour. I called Ben, called work to tell them I would be late and then called the vet. They wanted to see her ASAP! I grabbed Tussey and drove her to the vet, in tears because I was worried about her. The vet checked a few things, gave her a shot to stop the nausea, and told me they would keep her for the day, and run some tests and exrays.

I went to work an hour late - and was greeted by thirty little 3-5 year olds shouting happy birthday. They had painted me a happy birthday sign. Thirty minutes after I arrived at work, my vet called to tell me they had exrayed Tussey and found that she had swallowed a rock! The rock was at the exit point of her stomach, trying to get to her intestines. I was told I needed to come get her right away and transport her to a veterinary hospital where they could try to put a scope down her throat to get the rock out, otherwise, they would have to operate.

I left work, in tears, drove to the vet, picked up my dog and the exrays, paid an un-godly amount, and proceeded to drive her to the vet hospital, in a neighboring town, the farthest one we could possibly drive to, because the original vet hospital's scope thingy was broken.

We got to the vet hospital and waited to consult with the doctor. He looked at the exrays and said, with his twenty years of experience, that he would try the scope for ten minutes and then just do the surgery, because odds were the scope wouldn't work.

Three and a half hours later, I found out that she had come through the surgery just fine, that she had swallowed a rock about two inches in diameter, and was going to be kept overnight. Oh yeah, and the cost was through the roof - not that we had the money to begin with!

As a result of all this, much of my birthday was spent in tears and exhausted. Right after I got the call that Tussey had come out okay, the kids at my preschool sang happy birthday and we had a chocolate cake they had made for me the night before. That was a highlight in my day.

I picked Tussey up the next day. She was pretty groggy for a few days and was on puppy-vicodin and antibiotics. Here is my girl about three days after surgery. It's a good thing she's so cute and that I love her to pieces! (We've been together three years now.)

And here is the two inch incision they had to make in her tummy! It is right above the scar for when she got spayed, so now she looks as if she was cut about six inches. Poor girl! They also had to shave both of her forearms for the I.V.s that she had to have.
Here is the rock she swallowed (on the left). Yep, that's a quarter next to it. The doctor said it was a good thing the rock was smooth. Upon initial discussions, we thought she might have swallowed a rough piece of concrete, which we have multitudes of in our backyard.
It's a pretty good sized rock. I am not sure it is two inches in diameter as they first said...but either way, OUCH!
A week after surgery, Tussey went in for a follow-up. Turned out her incision was infected and so she was put on MORE antibiotics and given a fashionable cone to wear, as we weren't sure if she was licking the incision. She wore the cone for about two days. The incision is better now, no more swelling.
Yesterday I took Tussey off of her two-weeks of jumping restrictions. She now has free reign of the house again. But she is on a very tight leash as far as spending time in the backyard. No unsupervised frolicking for her until we can remove all of the rocks and concrete in our backyard...which may be never.

It was quite the memorable birthday! One which I hope NEVER to repeat. We are just glad our girl is okay. It wouldn't be the same without her.

3.31.08

2008-04-19T11:11:00.000-07:00

Happy One Year Anniversary to us! Here are some photos from our recent trip to the Elk Cove Inn for our special weekend. This is the same little inn we went to for our honeymoon. Do you think I took any pictures of the actual inn itself? Heck no! But you can see it online if you look it up.

Here is the Gazebo and view from just outside the restaurant at the inn. Isn't it gorgeous? The inn sits atop a huge cliff, so you have a pretty fantastic view.
Here is the room we stayed in. There is a window seat by that window to the right and a couch to the left of the fireplace and a HUGE bathroom! (It's hard to show you the whole room without downloading about six photos.) The bedroom is one of three in the upstairs of the main house. But it was so quiet you could only hear the ocean and the birds.
Here we are just after checking into our room.
And here is the happy couple on the day of our One Year Anniversary!

We had a great time. There were no interruptions, tons of amazing food, lots of quiet together time and adventures galore! We found some caves on the beach and explored them one day, ventured to Mendocino another day and wandered the streets and shops. We even found the hamburger place we ate at in Fort Bragg the weekend we got engaged and stopped in for a meal!

It was the perfect weekend!

Easter 2008

2008-03-24T18:52:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures from Easter. Me and Ben, Chris, Kate, me and Ben, and Melissa, Kate and me. Melissa has been taking the annual Easter picture of Ben and I for the past three years now. She took the first picture of us at Easter about two weeks after we started dating (two years ago). It has been a yearly tradition since.

Easter dress - $40

Digital Camera - more money than I care to know

Friends who help make the best traditions ever - Priceless!

Happy St. Patty's day

2008-03-16T22:12:00.000-07:00

My sister sent me this from JibJab. Enjoy

Ben
(p.s click on St Patty's day above)

Ben's New Shop

2008-02-27T11:10:00.000-08:00

I got to go see Ben's new shop last Saturday. For those of you who don't know, Ben started his new job in Corte Madera, the first of this year, with Land Rover, Jaguar and Aston Martin in Corte Madera (almost sixty miles south of where we live.)

We drove through the pouring rain to Corte Madera so that he could do an oil change on our friend Melissa's car. It was yucky weather, but worth the drive to see his new diggs!

These pictures only show about a third of the actual shop. It is so much nicer than his last shop (nothing personal to all Ben's old co-workers). It made me feel good to see him working in such a nice, clean, professional environment. That's Ben's big, red tool box that he is leaning on. When he changed jobs, they had to send a tow truck up to pick up the tool box, and all of the tools inside, to move it down to the new shop.

I am so happy for my guy!

2008-02-05T21:22:00.000-08:00

Don't send a lame eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

Grandma Arnett

2008-01-24T14:20:00.000-08:00

This Sunday is the one year anniversary of my Grandma Arnett's passing. It's been hard for me this month. I really miss her. She passed away two months before Ben and I got married and so I didn't really have a chance to mourn her passing the way I needed to, with everything we were trying to get done for our wedding.

So in honor of Grandma Arnett, here are some things she loved:

Her family
God
Pink Roses
Chocolate
Talking and telling stories!!!
Going on the parachute drop at Knott's Berry Farm (even in her 80s)
Being independent

I love you Grandma! I wish you were still here. I miss you so much!

Nine Months!

2007-12-31T12:01:00.000-08:00

Today is our nine month wedding anniversary. It seems crazy that in three months we will have been married a year already. Ben and I were talking the other day about how fast it has gone by.

Memorable moments that have happened in the last nine months:

1. We got married!!! (March 31st, 2007)
2. I turned 31.
3. I got off anti-depressants - YEAH!!!
4. Ben broke his finger playing softball on the SpringHills church league.
5. Jessie and Dario got married in L.A.!!! (That's Ben's sister and her husband.)
6. Ben and I went to a Dodgers game.
7. I quit my job commuting to San Rafael.
8. Tussey turned 3 (or 21 in puppy years).
9. Ben turned 26.
10. Ben and I went to Maui, Hawai'i in August for our Honeymoon!
11. I got a job as an assistant teacher at a local preschool.
12. Ben got a new job at LandRover/Jaguar in Corte Madera!
(Now he will be commuting.)
13. We hosted the Gardezy Family for Christmas breakfast and gift exchanges.

Today we will celebrate being together nine months
AND
the beginning of a New Year!

Christmas Pics

2007-12-26T10:51:00.001-08:00

Ben and I got dressed up for his work Christmas party. It was held at the Paradise Ridge Winery. The winery is set up on a hill, overlooking Santa Rosa. The view is breathtaking.
(Do you think I have any pictures of the view? Of course not.)

We had a nice time. We had a lovely dinner of Chicken Marsala,
with yummy salad, veggies and wine...followed by the richest chocolate cake (and some more wine).
It was fun to get to go out on a date with my man!

We even won a raffle prize. We ended up with a metal detector of all things! I am not sure what we will end up doing with it,
but it was still fun to win something.

Our First Christmas Tree

2007-12-26T10:38:00.001-08:00

We went to the Davis tree farm in Sebastopol this year, to pick out our very first Christmas tree together. It only took us about ten minutes to find it. Ben picked it out and it was perfect!
We spent all day getting it set up in our apartment and decorated.
We were pretty proud of our find!
It was certainly one of the most beautiful trees I have ever seen - yes, I am biased!

I think I have convinced Ben that going out and cutting down our own Christmas tree is the way to go. He has decided that is what we should do from now on. (Yes!)

Happy Fall!

2007-10-31T16:18:00.001-07:00

Happy Fall!

Today is our seven month anniversary! I can't believe we are more than half-way into our first year of marriage already. Here is a picture of Ben and I from this past weekend. I just thought it was cute of us! We were at one of Ben's co-worker's homes for a party. We are holding their dog, Daisy, a miniature pinscher. My mom has Daisy's mom. Ben and I had brought Daisy down around Christmas time for Ben's co-worker and hadn't seen her since she was about 8 weeks old. She's turned into quite a doll!

Get a JOB!

2007-10-19T11:19:00.000-07:00

I have been offered a job!
Thank you GOD!

For the past six weeks it has been a process of me sending out hundreds of resumes and getting one of the following responses:

None
We are just beginning our search, we will contact you after we have reviewed your resume - which usually resulted in no contact beyond that email.
Thanks for sending us your resume, but, uh, you just don't have what it takes
Thanks for sending us your resume, but we have decided to move forward with far more qualified people
Thanks for sending us your resume, how about an interview, after which we will not offer you the job and inform you that we have decided to move forward with far more qualified people

It was starting to get a little old....and very frustrating. I was beginning to think I was going to be in the category of the four or five other people who had told me, in the midst of my journey, that it had taken them a YEAR to find a job. Thanks!

But, last Thursday I got a call back on my resume from a local preschool. I went in on Monday and interviewed and then had a chance to hang out with the kids for about a half hour. I got to interact with them and also with the teachers at the preschool, to see if it was somewhere I wanted to be.

I loved it! It was fun and busy and full of cute little people all about a foot and a half high.

So, I waited - having a lot more peace after this interview than I had after a few past interviews I had gone through. Thursday I got the call. The owner had loved me as soon as she met me and felt like I would be a great fit. Apparently the day of the interview I had not even gotten out the door and to my car, and the two teachers were already asking the owner if she wanted their two cents. They both apparently loved me too and wanted her to hire me. They kept asking her if she had called and offered me the job yet. So, I accepted the job yesterday and will start on Monday, October 29th!

I am so excited about this job. It is completely different than what I had originally been on the lookout for, but with all of the closed doors that I kept getting, Ben and I were praying that the right job would be offered to me. Ben told me that he is very excited for me and that he is proud of me for sticking with this process, even through some very difficult and disappointing situations. That meant more to me than anything!!!

I am so thankful that even in my frustration and anxiety of wanting to find a job right away, so that our bills could be paid and I could start settling in to something, that God waited until the right job came along to open it up to me. I am not the most patient person and I know that will be something God continually works on in my life (ugh), but I am learning, slowly, that His timing is best and that He knows what will ultimately make me happy...even when I am not sure. He has a way of suprising me with really amazing things....kind of like Ben! :)

Thank you God for answering ALL of the prayers that were prayed in this situation. You are so good to me!

It's a MIRACLE!!!

2007-10-05T12:10:00.000-07:00

There is absolutely no other way to explain it!

About a week ago, Ben and I realized that his paycheck wasn't going to be enough to cover our entire rent amount. (I should preface this by saying that I am currently looking for a full-time position, locally, after commuting an hour away for two years. I am working a part time job at the moment, but it isn't bringing in enough money, so Ben and I are barely scraping by with certain expenses.)

Back to the rent....So we decided that we would use my paycheck to cover the rest of the rent (instead of using it to cover an automatic payment that would be withdrawn from my checking account, around the same time of the month). We decided it was better to have a place to live and food to eat, and that we would just have to trust God to take care of the rest....which has been the big challenge for us over the past month!

On October 2nd, I knew that the automatic withdrawl was going to be made from my checking account. This was the same day I was supposed to receive my paycheck. I was stressed out because I knew I couldn't cover the withdrawl and was afraid that after they attempted it, not only would my account be in the negative and I would be charged for having insufficient funds on top of it....but also that they wouldn't let me cash my check to pay for our rent...hence another possible catastrophe.

So, at 9am I called my account to see if they had withdrawn the money yet. Nope - still okay. At around 10:30am I received my check and, still fearing they wouldn't let me cash my check, due to a possible negative account balance, I called my account again to see if it was in the negative.

To my suprise, the balance had gone UP! I listened again and found that a deposit had been made into my checking account of $276.16. I called Ben and asked him if he had made a deposit and he said he didn't even know my account number.

Now I was stressed out that the bank had mistakenly deposited someone else's money into my account, and that the automatic withdrawl would take place, using their money...and that I wouldn't be able to pay it back. Believe me....I knew we were in a place where we could certainly look the other way and just let it happen. But I know what it is like NOT to have money when you need it and I just couldn't let someone else's finances get screwed up!

I rushed off to the bank, cashed my check and then told the teller about the deposit. She asked, "So you don't know where it came from?" Which I thought was kind of a funny question. I said no, and explained the situation and my fear that someone else's money had been placed in the wrong account.

After talking to another teller in the branch I was in, and then calling another branch and talking to the teller responsible for inputting the deposit, she came back and said it was a check deposited to my account by a particular company. I told her that the company was the one who was supposed to do the automatic withdrawl that day. She went back to the phone and then came and confirmed that it was indeed being deposited to my account and that it wasn't someone else's money.

As if that wasn't weird enough....

So on the way home, I talked to Ben on the cell phone and he was asking if he needed to take an advance on his paycheck to cover the rent, so that I could use the money in my hand for this automatic withdrawl that was supposed to happen. I explained what happened and told him to wait until I could call the company that had made the deposit and see what was going on...hoping that we had received some kind of refund.

At 2:15pm, I called the company from home and explained the situation. The gal on the other end of the phone looked at my account and said that there was no record of that amount and no record that any deposit had been or was going to be made. She also said that as of 2:15pm, my automatic payment had been made. I had to repeat it...."So, my payment has been made for today?" She said, "Yes, it may not post to your account until a little later, but it's been taken care of."

We went on to talk over a few other things and then she told me to call if I had any other questions over this mystery deposit, and that maybe the bank had read it wrong or something. She told me that if they were going to make a deposit or send me a check that they would have prefaced it with a letter first - which is what I would have expected. Then she told me to keep up the good work....to which I just kind of laughed and said that I was trying.

I got off the phone kind of stunned. I called my bank and the money was still in my account. I called half a dozen more times over the next few hours to see if the withdrawl had been posted.

At 5pm, I called my account again. The exact amount that had been earlier deposited into my checking account, $276.16, was no longer there. (I should say that my automatic withdrawl was supposed to be in the amount of $254.) Not only was the money no longer there, but there was no record of it being withdrawn. There was no record that $254 had been taken out for this particular payment.....I listened to three different menus. It told me the last two checks to have cleared, but nothing about this mystery $276.16. There was absolutely no record of it.

I called Ben and told him what had happened. I told him that the only thing I could figure out was that, somehow, God had deposited money into my account, caused the payment to be made on the automatic withdrawl, and then removed the money again. Ben kind of laughed and said that's what it sounded like to him too.

I am still pretty blown away by the whole thing. I was talking to one of my girlfriends and we kind of figured that either God had taken care of it completely, or that it would come up as a mistake at some point in the future, when Ben and I have the money to cover the payment.

Either way, Ben and I both believe it was an absolute miracle of God. There is just no other explanation for what happened. God took care of us at a time when we didn't know what else to do. We had just decided to make sure our basic needs were met and to try to trust God to handle the rest. And boy did He ever!

I also have to say that in the midst of this not-so-fun process, there have been several people who have gone out of their way to help us out. They have each been very generous in their own ways...some financially, some through buying us groceries, and a whole lot through their prayers and love and emotional support. It has been a rough journey so far, but with the love and support of our friends and family, and with God as our provider, we are learning how to trust God in new ways....and learning to trust one another too.

God is good....all the time...even when we aren't so sure in our own minds that He will come through for us! I hope that by our sharing this adventure in faith and miracles, you are able to experience God's miracles in your own life - whatever that may look like for you!

It's like nothing we've ever imagined!

Da Boyz!

2007-09-26T17:39:00.000-07:00

This picture was "found" not long ago.
I thought it was a pretty great photo of my guy and his men!

Aloha!

2007-09-12T22:55:00.001-07:00

I love Hawaii!

What an amazing trip we had for our "honeymoon".

We arrived on Thursday to a very warm and humid Maui. After getting "leid" (as Ben said), we found our luggage, got our rental car and were off to Auntie's house.

The first night we visited with Auntie and I met Grandpa, and then Ben and I had the house to ourselves to enjoy some margaritas and just hang out. The next night Auntie had a BBQ for us and some family and friends. LOVE the bbq'd pineapple...yummy!

The next day we went to the beach. I think I got most of my tan for the entire trip that morning before 10am. That evening we were treated to a beautiful luau. We enjoyed great food and amazing hula dancing and music! It was a very romantic evening...even with the probably three hundred other people that were there. I think that was my favorite thing we did the whole time.

Early the next morning we got treated to a snorkeling trip to Molekini - a crater off the coast of Maui. It was a blast...though I was a little apprehensive about sticking my face in the water and trying to breathe at first. I was blown away by how close the fish will come to you. Ben and I had a lot of fun in the water. The last ten minutes of being in the water, however, I started getting a little sea-sick. That was something I didn't know you could do while IN the water. I did okay once we got back in the boat and it was moving. We stopped at Turtle Bay to snorkel with the sea turtles (the thing I REALLY had wanted to do). Since I wasn't feeling well, I stayed on the boat. I don't know if that made it better or worse. But, I did see some sea turtles surface near the boat and that was incredible!!!

The next day we went to Iao Valley and walked around and then to Lahaina to have a nice lunch and walk through shops. The following day we drove the very long Road the Hana (we counted 40 one-lane bridges). That was a fun drive...especially for Ben - my little speed racer!

The next day was our last full day, so we spent part of the day at the beach and then had a bbq with Auntie, her boyfriend and Grandpa.

Thursday we flew home.

It was a wonderful trip. I think Ben and I became closer during our fabulous week together of doing whatever we wanted. Hopefully we will be able to go back sometime in the not too distant future...though the flight leaves a little something to be desired.

HB2U!

2007-08-29T10:43:00.001-07:00

Happy 26th Birthday Ben!

Ben's birthday was last Friday. He wanted to do something low key, so our friend Melissa came over and helped me make him dinner (as my back went out a few days prior to his birthday and I couldn't be on my feet much - THANKS MELISSA!!!). Then we had a yummy white cake with white frosting and sprinkles...doesn't that sound like the perfect "Boy" type cake to you? Sorry Ben...had to work with what was in the cupboard.
And then we went to a movie.

We got to spend that Sunday afternoon with Ben's mom, grandma, granny and family friend Richard to celebrate his birthday too. We had a yummy dinner of ribs, corn, salad...and a few other things.

I think Ben had a good birthday...his first since we got married. Hooray - it was your first birthday as a married man!

Being married just makes everything so much more fun!

AND...Ben and I leave tomorrow for our Hawaiian honeymoon! We are so excited. Ben's mom and grandma are sending us for an extended honeymoon, since we only got to have about a three-day honeymoon right after the wedding. (Thanks mom and grandma!) We will get to spend a week in Maui. Ben's aunt is giving us her house for the week. (Thanks Auntie!)

It will be a lot of fun. Ben has been there a few times, but I have never been. So, he will be showing me around. I am excited to get to do some things I have never done before like snorkeling!

Ben and I are both excited to get to go on this trip. Friday is our five-month anniversary and we will be in Hawaii celebrating our marriage! It is perfect timing for this trip together!

For better or WORSE!

2007-08-25T17:41:00.000-07:00

It's been quite a couple of weeks for Ben and I.

It started off last Wednesday when Ben got a horribly bad flu-like viral infection. (I was out of town for the week, visiting my parents, so I missed all the "fun".) Ben spent all day being incredibly sick. He was okay Thursday, but by Thursday night was sick again. Friday morning he woke up, called the doctor, and they told him to go the Emergency room. It turned out he was dehydrated. He spent a good portion of the day (while his wife was 700 miles away stressing out) getting two liters of fluid pumped into his body via I.V.

He was able to get released that afternoon into the care of his mom, who looked after him until I came home late Saturday night, after a 13-hour drive from Washington.

It took a few more days, but by Monday or Tuesday of this week, he was finally feeling like himself again. (Whew!)

Then it was my turn....yeah for me.

Wednesday morning I had gotten up and ready for my day and as I was putting on my pants, my back went out on me.

Flashback: Almost two years ago, the day after a Halloween party at a friend's house, I was taking streamers down in their garage. The chair I was on slipped and I fell directly onto my right knee...oh and did I mention I was in the garage and the floor was a kind of dance floor on top of concrete?! After incredible pain and minimal swelling, I was able to get up and "gimp" about my day.

About five hours later...still at the same friend's house...I went to sit on the couch, but all of the sudden couldn't move. 9-1-1 call, firemen, paramedics, ambulance ride, emergency room, morphine, bed pan, and exrays of my entire spine later - I found out that my back muscles had spasmed...as a result of my fall. Thankfully nothing was broken...oh, and I also found out there was no osteoporosis in my spine - (cuz that's what I was REALLY worried about) - but I was still in intense pain. It took several vicoden, about ten days of valium (muscle relaxers), an entire huge bottle of advil and six weeks worth of physical therapy (in which my back was iced and "zapped") before I was able to straighten out my back.

Flashforward: So that's basically what happened....muscle spasm - numero dos!

I have had days where my back has hurt or been stiff, if I wore the wrong shoes or lifted something wrong, but usually after a day and some advil it improved. Oh no...not this time. I have literally been housebound since Wednesday...FOUR DAYS! Now, I'll admit I am a home-body, but not that much!

So...several pain pills, sleepless nights, and pillows later, it has improved about as much as Chucky Cheese pizza over the years. But, Ben has done everything he can to take care of me....pain pills, back creams, hot pads. He just keeps going to the store to try to find something that will ease my pain.

I guess it is during times like these that you realize, even when the pain isn't getting better, that love truly is about being there for one another, for better or worse!

Banana-versary

2007-08-01T13:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our 4-month wedding anniversary! (I know it's only four months, but hey - when you're newly married, four months is a big deal!)

We call it our banana-versary because when Ben and I were dating I called him my grease monkey (he works on cars for those of you who don't know). So one particular anniversary, Ben sent me a card on-line of these two monkeys swinging around, and it said happy banana-versary. It just stuck. :)

So 4-months! We have officially been married for 1/3 of a year. That in itself seems like a long time. We have definitely had some rough patches over the past four months. In fact, we have probably had a few more rough patches than either of us figured on. They weren't in our relationship, just in some different things we went through. But even so....wouldn't it be nice to have a patch of smooth sailing! I suppose it means we are right where we should be...or even better than we should be. They say the first year is the hardest with all of the adjustments (which no one ever tells you what those are). So, I suppose that since we have made it through our rough patches just fine, we are doing better than expected.

Did that last paragraph make any sense?

Anyway....going through difficulties together definitely brings you closer and makes you realize how blessed you are to have the other person in your life. Ben has been such an amazing support to me over the past month and a half as I have been working through my own rough season. It was a season we knew we would need to go through, but even still, weren't sure what would arise.

I can say, without a doubt, that I have married that most wonderful man in the whole world! (Hey, I can be biased if I want - he's my husband!) And I am so thankful to have him in my life and to know that he cares about me so deeply and is committed to me and us 10000000000%!

Happy banana-versary baby! You are the best monkey ever. :)

Our First Camping Trip

2007-07-23T14:54:00.000-07:00

We survived! Our first camping trip together was great. We arrived really late Friday night to our camp site. Thankfully, Ben's mom, grandma, sister (and her husband) had arrived that afternoon and set up our tent for us, so we didn't have to do it in the dark. We pretty much arrived at 10:30pm, unpacked our car, and then went to bed.

We had a great camp site, right near the bathroom. The only problem with being so close to the bathroom was that Tussey Ann, who was on the very first camping trip of her life, growled every three minutes at anyone walking past our campsite. Needless to say, none of us slept very well that first night (that and our tent was positioned nicely on a slope and a bunch of sticks, and we still haven't invested in mats to put under our sleeping bags, and the comforters we brought for padding weren't much help).

The next morning, we removed some of the sticks under our sleeping bag and figured out that if we put our heads at the other end of the tent, it was a little better. Grandma and mom fixed a yummy breakfast of pancakes, sausage, and the best camping coffee ever!!!

We spent the day on Saturday doing a whole lot of nothing. We went to the swimming hole in the afternoon, just in time to find out that someone had jumped off of a rock 30 feet above the water and had landed wrong...so the REACH helicoptor was on its way. It was quite an adventure to be there while the helicopter landed and they transported the injured guy to the helicopter. The wind force from the helicopter was intense and rocks and sand were pelting us.

After that adventure, we played in the water briefly, layed in the sun, and then began the long trek back up the hill from hell to our campsite. I suppose the hill isn't that bad for most people. It was only 0.3 miles, but I have been going through my own challenges physically lately, and had to stop about half a dozen times before making it to the top (and not without some tears...poor Ben).

We played games with the family, had some naps...and did a whole bunch more nothing before dinner.

Saturday night we slept much better. Tussey, who hadn't slept the entire night before, and who was outside ALL day long on Saturday, was exhausted and collapsed as soon as we put her in the tent. It was pretty funny.

Sunday we woke up...had another great breakfast, packed up most of our stuff, and then hung out until around 2pm, when we headed back home.

It was definitely an adventure for Ben and I, being that it was our first time camping together. But, we both had fun. We are looking forward to more camping trips in the future together.

It was nice to be in the outdoors for a few days, but it is nice to be home again too!

Camping!

2007-07-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

So Ben and I are going camping for the first time since we've been married this weekend. I am so excited! His sister, Jessie, bought us a little 2-3 man tent for our belated wedding present. I know it says 2-3 people, but really that translates to two people, possibly some of their stuff, and maybe the dog (who is going camping for her first time too!).

We found matching blue sleeping bags (they match eachother and the tent) at the sports store and this cute little lantern that turns into a flashlight, that we can hang in our tent. I think Ben is the most excited about the lantern/flashlight find. He keeps pulling it out to play with and to show people.

I am excited to get away for the weekend. I love just being outdoors and having an excuse to be dirty....to not have to shower or be anywhere - ahhhh it's fabulous! It's always funny how camping makes you tired, and so you go to bed after it has been dark for a little while, only to realize it is 6pm. And then you wake up after sleeping forever and it turns out to be 6am. Camping is one of the few times I actually wake up before most of mankind. I actually like getting up before the rest of the campground...even starting a morning campfire (which is the best) and getting a pot of coffee (camp sludge) going.

We are going with Ben's sister and her husband, his mom and his grandma. Grandma has already said she will do all of the cooking, including a full cook to order breakfast! Hmmm.....sounds almost too good to be true! But I will take it. :)

Puppy Luv

2007-06-27T22:13:00.001-07:00

Tuscany Ann (Tussey) loves her new daddy! She follows Ben around, staring up at him with the biggest, brown eyes. It's as if she's afraid to miss anything.

She used to cuddle with mommy in the mornings, as we were waking up to start the day. But lately, she goes to daddy's side of the bed when she wants to snuggle in the mornings. ~sigh~ Mommy has been replaced!

Not really...Tussey is still my girl. We have been together for a little over three years now. Tussey will celebrate her third birthday in August (she even shares Ben's birthday month)!

She is a spaz....usually tearing around the house chasing a tennis or golf ball. She LOVES to play with anything around. Her current favorite toy is an empty water bottle. She will kick it and chase it and chew on it, and eventually get the lid off and start to tear that apart...but we usually take it away from her at that point so that she doesn't hurt herself.

Tussey has self-proclaimed 9:30pm to be her bedtime. The nightly routine is that she heads to our bedroom about that time, to which one of us will usually say, "Tussey, are you going night-night?" Then she will turn around, look at us for a moment, and come trotting back, apparently deciding that if mommy and daddy aren't going to bed, it must not be her bedtime either.

Then somewhere around 10:30pm when we are ready for bed, we will say, "Tussey, let's go night-night." To which she will go running into our room, get straight into her puppy bed, curl up and go to sleep. Of course, she's more likely to go running to bed when it's daddy who makes the suggestion. But every once in a while she listens to mommy too.

Tussey's favorite treats are her puppy cookies (they look like oreos, but for dogs), cottage cheese with a little bit of raspberry jello powder mixed in, pineapple (that's her very favoritest!), ice-cream (usually a last little lick or two of mommy's vanilla) and if she's really good, a taste or two of chocolate pudding!

Unfortunately, Tussey has quite the chocolate fetish...which is dangerous as it is deadly to dogs (chocolate, not fetishes). One Halloween, when mommy had hurt her back and was on lots of pain killers, Tussey knocked over the bowl of candy and ate about a dozen miniature kit-kats - wrappers and all! Apparently she didn't care for anything else.

Needless to say, not all was well in the tummy department, but we were able to bring about a "solution" before the candy could harm her. So, now we give her a taste every once in a while, in the hopes that it satisfies the fetish so she won't go looking for trouble again. Hmmm....somehow the logic doesn't seem to work out on that one, does it?

Yep, Tussey is our girl and we love her. She has been with me through so much, and she is always there when I need her. Life just wouldn't be the same without her!

Night and Day

2007-06-24T00:19:00.000-07:00

Night and Day

That phrase would pretty much describe Ben and I.

I am your typical night-owl (of course I must admit this is largely due to my mother's influence...or something like that). I am the one who is up at midnight on the computer, or having a late night spree of rearranging furniture or the table centerpiece (not that its some huge endeavor to do that in our house), or tidying up the cushions on the couch...you know, the truly important, life altering decisions.

Ben is the morning person in the family. Tuscany Ann isn't even a morning person. She takes after her mommy (me) and usually will sleep in, right along side me, until I finally crawl out of bed, or she has to go potty so bad she's crossing all four legs. Ben is an I'm-up-at-six-wide-awake-without-coffee-dressed-and-ready-to-go kind of person. He has usually done the dishes, which includes emptying or loading the dishwasher, handwashing whatever can't go in it, cleaning up the kitchen, and emptying the garbages, all before I can pull my tail out of bed by 7am. Now that's just annoying. I'm lucky if, after two cups of coffee, I am even coherent by 7:30am!

Its not that I don't appreciate his energy and enthusiasm in the morning....I just don't have it. There is the occasional day that I actually wake up before he does and can watch him sleep for a minute or two before he opens his eyes. Actually, I think it was only one day.

Hmmm....well at any rate, I have finally come to the conclusion that try as I might to want to become a morning person, and believe me, I'm not giving it that much effort, I just don't think its going to happen. I am perfectly content being the night owl. I think it is when I am at my most awake and creative, which seems ironic as its the time I should be sleeping.

Even now, its 12:36am and Ben has been asleep for probably a good two hours. Me? I have been framing photos of our wedding, cleaning off the dining room table, which seems to be the catch-all in the house, changing the table centerpiece (no really, its not that big of an undertaking...removed a plant, put a candle in its place), emailed some family and friends, and now here I sit...typing away.

I guess its a good thing we are opposites in a few areas, otherwise certain things in our home might never get done. And I suppose its also nice that we each have some time to ourselves.

But at the end of the night, I am ready to crawl into bed with my morning-person-husband, because even though we are night and day, there's no one else I'd rather be with, whether it be night or day!

Dreams do come true!

2007-06-20T21:57:00.000-07:00

Ben and I are closing in on three months of marriage! It is hard to believe that I get to spend the rest of my life with the man of my dreams...literally.

Remember that part in The Princess Bride, where the priest with the speech impediment says, "Mawwage...Mawwage (Marriage) is what brings us together today."

Several years ago I had a dream about the man I would marry - okay maybe it was when I was still in high school, so that would be ten, eleven...okay well too many years ago. First in my dream, I saw this board with a list of all of the things that had to be accomplished before I would be married...unfortunately for me, all of these things were blurred, so I couldn't actually read them (thanks for the sense of humor there God). After straining to try to read these things to see if I was ANYWHERE even close to getting married, the dream moved to a second part. I remember sitting in a car, with a man in the back seat (who, for some reason, I knew was the man I would marry). All I remember about him was that he had black hair (for some reason this stuck out to me...maybe at the time I thought it was strange) and a face I could not recall no matter how I tried, and that he had travelled to many places. I also remember very clearly the car having tan interior. I was in the driver's seat, he was in the back of the car. We were sitting next to a park with green grass forever, just talking.

Real life: The car is my 2003 Subaru Forester with tan interior that I currently own. The man...my husband. Yes, black, curly hair. Yes, has travelled on many a cruise over the years.

I remember the first time, after Ben and I were dating, that I recalled the dream and everything fit. I just stopped and kind of went "whoah trippy".

Its a good thing God has it all planned out. And its also a good thing He doesn't always let us in on the plan. It didn't matter all of the wrong choices or turns I made. God still allowed everything to come together as only He can.

Maybe the priest in The Princess Bride should have said, "God, God is what brings us together today".