Living the Married life......

Long long long overdue update

2010-07-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking, I really should update this blog. And my 101 in 1001 list. I've actually completed several of the things on the list but not nearly as many as I should have by now. So to update my list;

~~1. Complete my 101 in 1001 list~~
2. Blog about every time one of my 101 things are done (9/101)
3. Pay off all of our credit cards and loans
4. Organize all the closets in the house (0/6)
~~5. Buy a new car~~
~~6. Clean out the garage~~
7. Lose 30 pounds after Carter is born (0/30)- HA
8. Fence the backyard
~~9. Have a romantic dinner with Grant at the Melting Pot~~
~~10. Have a baby~~
11. Go 14 consecutive days (two weeks) without eating chocolate (0/10)
12. Paint our home office
13. Have a spa day
~~14. Clean and organize the shed in the back yard~~
~~15. Donate all of our old clothes to charity~~
~~16. Take Coco to the snow~~
~~17. Get rid of all of my shoes that I haven’t worn in the last 6 months~~
18. Completely clean my office at work
~~19. Donate my hair to Locks of Love~~
~~20. Have a yard sale~~
~~21. Finish the trim on all the windows in the house (8/8)~~
22. Go wine tasting
23. Teach Coco a new trick
24. Workout 16 times in one month (0/16)
25. Plant a tree
26. Play the Wii Rock Band on hard with at least 80% accuracy (haha)
27. Finish and order my wedding album
~~28. Attend my 10-year high school reunion~~
29. Get new carpet in all the bedrooms
30. Paint the exterior of the house
31. Mail 3 birthday cards (0/3)
32. Go on a cruise
33. Read a non-fiction book
~~34. Get new family photos taken~~
35. Go on a romantic weekend getaway
~~36. Go out with the girls for a night of dancing~~
37. Cook a Thanksgiving dinner
38. Buy all new underwear
39. Order a canvas print
40. Blog everyday for a month
41. Find and purchase a string of pearls plant
~~42. Finish my thank you cards from the wedding~~
~~43. Go 72 hours with no computer~~ - Easy to do with an iphone, lol (yes I'm a cheater)

44. Try to drink a glass of milk (yuck)
45. Take a yoga/pilates class
46. Remodel the kitchen
47. Drop 3 pant sizes (0/3)
~~48. Read the Twilight series~~
49. Get a new pair of glasses
50. Go fishing with Grant
51. Update passport and credit cards to married name
52. Buy new couch set
~~53. Ride a roller coaster~~
54. Remodel the entire guest bathroom
55. Have $5,000 in the savings account
56. Go to the dentist every 6 months
57. Plant a garden
58. Have a family holiday at our house
~~59. Frame the artwork in the dining room~~
60. Fix up our bicycles and go on a bike ride
61. Landscape the backyard
62. Landscape the front yard
63. Run 2 miles without stopping
64. Go camping
65. Buy a new washer/dryer - Just got this one done and I LOVE them OMG!
~~66. Write a letter to Grant’s grandma and snail mail it~~
67. Redo all the hanging pictures in the hallway

68. Completely fill out my pregnancy journal
69. Go on a hike with Grant
~~70. Buy blinds for the entire house (8/8)~~
71. Purchase a new dining room set
72. Purchase an area rug for the living room
73. Convert garage into Grant’s “man-cave”
74. Try to cook 5 new recipes (1/5)
75. Replace all the closet doors in the house
76. Sell 3 unused items in the house on Ebay (0/3)
77. Donate 250,000 grains of rice on Freerice (1,000/250,000)
78. Finish the master bath remodel (everything down to the baseboards)
79. Be able to do a proper cartwheel
~~80. Eat at 5 new restaurants (5/5)~~
81. Take a spin class
82. Take a day off work to do nothing
83. Fill out Carter’s baby book
84. Put $2.50 in a savings account every time I complete a goal (0/101)
~~85. Go one month without purchasing Starbucks~~
86. Go to the Zoo
87. Do 75 crunches 3 times a week (0/3)
88. Repot one of my work plants and give to Haley
89. Set up and start contributing to a retirement account
~~90. Make Grant a present instead of buying him one~~

~~91. Be able to check off 50 things to Cleansweep my life~~
92. Be able to check off 75 things to Cleansweep my life
93. Be able to check off 100 things to Cleansweep my life
~~94. Bake a layer cake for a family member’s birthday~~
95. Start scrapbooking
96. Donate blood 3 times (0/3)
97. Try 5 new foods (0/5)
98. Order wedding prints
99. Whiten my teeth
100. Make my bed every day for 14 days/2 weeks (0/14)
101. Get 3 other people to make a 101 in 1001 (0/3)

Well 29 out of 30, that's not great but better than nothing I guess huh?

5. Buy a new car

2009-06-16T09:09:00.000-07:00

CHECK!!

Didn't think this one was going to happen so quickly. And note that when I say "new" I mean new to me, not brand new.

Anyway, Grant and I were offered a fabulous deal on a car that I've been in love with for years. We have some friends who were in the market for a new car and looking to sell their old one and because they love us so much they made us an offer that we can't refuse. They called us up on Sunday evening and asked us if we were interested. We talked about it and pretty much decided that we can't pass up their offer. So yesterday after work we went to their house and took it for a drive, then we talked numbers then we drove it home.

Check out this beauty!

This isn't MY car but mine looks exactly the same. It's a 2000 Lexus RX300 with only 77,000 miles on it and in perfect condition. Black exterior, tan leather interior and the works. I'm talking every upgrade that was available for this model; sunroof, heated seats, memory driver seat, 6 disc CD changer, all wheel drive. It's awesome!

Like I said I've been dreaming about owning a Lexus RX SUV one day but I honestly didn't think it would happen. I've been so stressed about what we're going to do when Carter comes (which is in less than 2 weeks) because this is what I've been driving for the last 7½ years

Again, this isn't the exact car but mine is identical except it's dark grey. It's soooo not baby friendly. I was dreading having to deal with a two door car with a small back seat.

I feel so much better now that I have one less thing to worry about. So I'll be selling my 2002 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT (with a sunroof, lol) if you or anyone you know is interested. It's a good car, just not a good family car.

9. Have a romantic dinner with Grant at the Melting Pot

2009-06-08T08:36:00.000-07:00

This has been my favorite thing to check off the list so far. OMG it was sooooo good. If you've never eaten at The Melting Pot you need to go. I've been wanting to try it for a long time now and I've also been wanting to go on one last date night with Grant before I have Carter. I was thinking that it would be prefect to go for our one year anniversary but that's not until June 21st and I'll be 38 weeks pregnant then and it's probably not the best idea to drive 2 hours out of town at that time. So we decided to have an early anniversary dinner celebration.

It was probably the best meal I've ever had. It's a four course meal and 3 of the courses are fondue. There's a heated glass top burner in the middle of the table for us to share.

First they start you with a cheese fondue (we had the artichoke garlic cheese *yum*) and they give you fresh vegetables, 3 different kinds of bread and granny smith apples to dip into the cheese. It was so delicious!

Then we had our salads. They were good, but nothing compares to the fondue.

Then we had our entree which included Lobster Tail, Fillet Mignon Medallion, Jerk Seasoned Sirloin, Vanilla Rum Chicken, Marinated Pork Tenderloin, Zesty Peppered Shrimp, Butternut Squash Ravioli and Fresh Vegetables. Then they give you 7 different sauces to dip the cooked food into.

The best part though, was dessert; milk chocolate with a swirl of crunchy peanut butter. For dipping we got pound cake, brownies, cheesecake, Oreo crumble covered marshmallows, gram cracker covered marshmallows, fresh strawberries and bananas.

Guess what I'm doing tomorrow!

2009-06-06T11:31:00.001-07:00

I'm going to the Melting Pot with Grant!

91. Be able to check off 50 things to Cleansweep my life

2009-06-05T10:06:00.000-07:00

I've been working on this one for a couple of weeks. The first time I completed the Clean Sweep checklist I had 48 checks, so I was close. There were a few things that I wanted/needed to work on though (one of them being tying up loose ends at work). I went through the checklist again and I now have 51 things I can check off.

I can't wait until I can get over 75 checked off. I really love this list, I think it's something that everyone should try to live by.

Check it out and see how many you can check off (I'm sure it will be more than me, my life isn't every organized right now, lol).

66. Write a letter to Grant’s grandma and snail mail it

2009-06-03T14:28:00.000-07:00

I am on a roll. This is a goal that I've been meaning to do for a long time. We always get the sweetest letters from Grant's grandma and usually enclosed there will be a stack of coupons.

So today I sent out a letter to them. It's just a card with a note that says we're thinking of them and in the card I wrote about how we can't wait to see them in July for a wedding that we'll all be going to. I mentioned that the pregnancy is going good and Grant is taking great care of me. I also wrote down the web address for my pregnancy blog so she can log in and read about it.

I think she's going to love getting the letter in the mail. Grant's mom said that she always sends letters but rarely receive any because not many people send letters anymore.

So although I don't plan on this being the last letter that I send to her I will be crossing this goal off my list. I'm glad to have gotten it done!

42. Finish my thank you cards from the wedding

2009-06-02T08:06:00.000-07:00

I'm bad. I'm sooooo bad that I haven't written my thank yous. You have a year though right? Well ladies and gentleman I have completed goal #42! I got them done last night and dropped them in the mail this morning. I had most of them done for some time now but I was waiting on some addresses and I didn't want to mail them out until I could mail them all out at the same time.

Notice that several of them at the top are white? Well those would be my thank yous from the baby shower. Yep, the baby shower that I just had 3 days ago. All those thank yous went out too.

I didn't think I'd be knocking off these goals so quickly. I don't know if it's because I'm nesting or what but lately I've felt the need to get so many of my loose ends tied up. I think having my 101 goals written down helps too.

70. Buy blinds for the entire house

2009-06-01T08:53:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I bought the blinds for the nursery and this weekend I put them up. I would love to say that I never want to do that again but I know that I still have 6 more to do.

It wasn't as easy as the directions say. First of all the lady at Home Depot told me that although the box says the blinds are 39" they're actually 38½". That's great because my windows are 38¾" and 39" so they'll work. Except that once you install the brackets to hang the blinds that leaves the opening smaller. How did I fix it? Well I was home alone at the time (Grant finally got to go fishing) so I had to come up with something because dammit I wanted those blinds install NOW. So I found Grant's Dremel and went to work on shaving off the sides. Luckily the blinds themselves fit in the opening, it was just the top part that wouldn't fit.

So after like ½ an hour of taking the Dremel to the blinds I got the first one to fit. The second one was easier because it was the bigger window so there was less to take off. After that I was able to hang the blinds then cut them to length. Overall I think it took me about an hour to an hour and a half. Not too bad for an 8 month pregnant chick who's never hung blinds or used a Dremel before.

So that's 2/8 of the blinds that I can knock off my list. Yay!

17. Get rid of all of my shoes that I haven’t worn in the last 6 months

2009-05-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

Finally I did it. This last weekend I had a great time going through my closet and getting rid of old shoes. I think I threw away about 20 pairs (a lot of them being flip-flops). I only kept the shoes that I wear regularly or the ones that I wear on special occasions like weddings and such. I wish I had a before picture, but here's an after;

Someday I'll have a nice big organized closet, not a small closet I have to share with a boy!

48. Read the Twilight series

2009-05-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

Before I read the books I didn't really know what they were about. I thought they were just about vampires and that didn't interest me too much. Everyone kept raving about them though so I decided that someday I would read the series. It wasn't on the top of my priority list though so I figured I'd read them when I got around to it (and for me that could be years). Then my friend Alexis told me I had to read them because they are so good. She owned all four so she let me borrow them. I started the first one on a Friday (the day of my three hour glucose test) and was done with the four one in less than three weeks.

Needless to say, the Twilight series is not just about vampires, it's a romantic love story. I would totally recommend these books to anyone. I'm so glad that I didn't wait to read them, and now that's another thing marked off my list. Go me!

19. Donate hair to Locks of Love

2009-05-21T09:59:00.000-07:00

Crossed off my list.

This is something that I've been wanting to do for years! Well I finally did it, I cut 11" off my hair. I had already made my list of 101 in 1001 that included this goal before I cut my hair so I figured that I'd leave it on the list, even though I didn't post it to my blog yet. Here's a before and after.

Before (not the best picture of me):

After:

My blog makeover!

2009-05-20T17:01:00.000-07:00

So I mentioned before that I had something new for my blog. I have been working on this for a LONG time and let me tell you it was hard. It's called the 101 in 1001. I saw another blog that had it and I thought it was a great idea. I have so many things that I want to do in my life, especially the near future, and I love lists so I thought this would be perfect for me.

To the left you can see a list of 101 things that I want to do in the next 1001 days (a little under 3 years). I have everything from small home projects that I've been meaning to do for ages to big things that I've always wanted to accomplish in my life. I will be blogging about each one as I complete it. There are a couple on there that I've completed between making the list and now finally posting the list but I'll blog about those later.

If you think this is something that you're interested in and you want to start one and I'm the one who motivated to do so let me know. Because towards the bottom of the list you'll see that one of my goals is to get 3 people to start a 101 in 1001 of their own.

Me and Micky in LA (31w5d pregnant)

Twilight

2009-04-20T16:17:00.000-07:00

Have you read the books? OMG I LOVE them. I've been hearing people talk about it for some time now but I just picked up the first book about 10 days ago. Well I'm ready to start book three now and I couldn't been more addicted. I haven't seen the movie yet but I just watched a trailer and holy cow it looks so good. If you haven't read it I totally recommend it. I can't vouch for the movie yet but books are always better than movie in my opinion.

I've gone all weekend without reading it but I'm starting book three tonight. Can't wait!

Check this out.

2009-04-06T14:05:00.000-07:00

I just found the coolest blog.

http://hyperhomemaker.blogspot.com/

She is the most organized person I've ever seen. She has great tips on organizing, cleaning, entertaining you name it. The only bad part is that I read her blog on my lunch break and now the only thing I can think about is going home and cleaning my house. I've already bookmarked the link and the first thing I'm going to do Saturday morning after I wake up is read her blog. Within the first 3 minutes of reading it today I was so anxious to tackle my hall closet that I've been meaning to clean and organize.

So sometime this week on my lunch break I'm going to head to WalMart or Target or something and pick up some bins and trays so I can get to organizing. Wow, I don't think I've ever been so excited up to clean.

Here's my living room. Do you see why I need to clean. Haha, no really this was taken not long after we moved in and we had to pull everything out of the kitchen to do the tile floors.

This was taken awhile ago but it still looks pretty much the same. See, it's not too bad.

Look how speical I am....

2009-03-26T11:36:00.000-07:00

I got an award from Cindy. Thank you so much!

Here is the description of the award:

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

I nominate the following;
Leah
Tabatha
Of course I would nominate Kaci but she was on Cindy's list
And there are many other blogs that I read but I don't know if then read mine. :)

Long time no see

2009-03-24T11:34:00.000-07:00

I'm bad at blogging, I know. But really there's nothing to blog about that isn't pregnancy related. Here's a little of what's going on;

- If you remember, Grant and I have been trying to refinance our house. We bought the house 2 years ago and have an adjustable rate so we've been trying to get it fixed . We actually have two loans, the first is adjustable and the second is fixed at a high percentage. The first loan is for 80% of the purchase price and the second is only for the remaining 20%. Well after 9 months of trying the guy was finally able to get the first loan refinanced. Unfortunately he couldn't get anything done on the second but I'm okay with that. So the first loan is going down almost 2.5% which will hopefully make a huge difference in out mortgage payment. We should be signing the papers later this week so I'll know more then. Yipee!

- Grant and I have been going back to the gym finally. We've had a membership for a long time but just never had time to go. Well now that the days are longer it so much easier to get to the gym after work. And we've stocked the house full of fresh fruits and veggies, no bad food so that will help with the weight loss.

- Remember that master bath we've been working on? Ya, still not done. We are able to use it, toilet, sinks, shower, but we still don't have electrical in there. But our main focus has been on the nursery.

- I cut my hair. It's short, like to the shoulders. I wish I had a pictures but I don't. I'll have to take one someday. I cut like 12" off and I was able to donate it to Locks of Love. I've always wanted to do that. *more on that later*

Here's Grant with Larkyn (on the left) and Taylor (on the right). They love their Grant. I can't wait until I get to see Grant with Carter.

Oh....my.....gosh!

2009-03-03T09:02:00.000-08:00

10 years?! 10 years since I've been out of high school?!? I just realized our 10 year reunion is coming up. Wow I feel so old.

Kaci, are you coming over for the reunion? I think you should. Word on the streets is that it's mid September so then you'll get to meet little Carter too. :)

I know you're jealous.....

2009-02-17T21:23:00.001-08:00

of my bad ass fanny pack! Kaci, this is for you, sorry I made you wait so long.

Me, Robin and Kaci in 6th grade.

We're making progress

2009-02-17T09:51:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend Grant and I (with the help from my parents and his mom) cleaned out our offices, which used to be in separate rooms. Then yesterday while I had to work and Grant had the day off he was able to move his desk and computer into my office. Now we just have to move the guest bedroom into his old office before we can start on the nursery. We really only have weekends to do this because we don't get home until 6:30 in the evenings which barely leaves us time to cook and eat dinner and get me to bed by 9:00 . :)

On Sunday Grant and I went to dinner at Red Robin for Haley's birthday. Afterward we went over to some friends house and played pin ball and rock band. We had so much fun playing rock band and I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard. Grant is too funny when he's drunk. We didn't get home until midnight and I had to work the next morning. It was worth it though.

And Kaci, I did find the pictures that I need to scan in so we'll be able to show the world that cute picture of us from 6th grade, fanny packs and all. I'll also be posting pictures of the progress of the rooms as soon as I actually take some.

Grant's the drummer, Emily and I on the guitar and Haley as vocals.

I had to add these pictures in too. This is Tiffany and Garret on guitar and Grant singing. He had never played this before so when it started everyone yelled at him to start singing so he just started singing the chorus, he didn't realize he had to follow the words on the screen. As you can see from the picture everyone was busting up laughing.

Here's Haley laughing at Grant. She couldn't drum because she was laughing so hard.

5 minute chocolate mug cake

2009-02-09T11:47:00.001-08:00

Kaci, I'm sorry. I know that you like to post healthy recipes but how can I not post a recipe that sounds so delicious? I can't wait to try it.

5 minute chocolate mug cake

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug

DIRECTIONS:

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well

Add the egg and mix thoroughly.

Pour in the milk and oil and mix well

Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.

Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts.

The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!

Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.

I love PF Changs.

2009-02-09T11:14:00.000-08:00

I've heard of PF Changs before and how it was so delicious, but I didn't have the pleasure of trying it until yesterday. OMG it was good! A little pricey, but worth every penny. I can't wait to go back. Too bad the closest one is over 2 hours away.

Speaking of delicious restaurants, I've heard that The Melting Pot was good. I want to go there so bad. Yet again the nearest one is over 2 hours away. But I told Grant that I want to go before Carter (oh ya, did I mention on this blog that it's a BOY?!) is born. He thought that was a good idea too so he's on board. That's going to be one expensive dinner but I'm willing to save up for it. :)

In other news, Grant's truck broke down yesterday. His transmission is bad. BOO! So we figure it's going to be about 2k or so to get it replaced. That sucks. We're going to have to use our credit card :( At least once that gets done his truck should run good for a long time still. It's a 2002 Tacoma and he loves it so we'll be keeping it for sure.

That's pretty much all that's going on. So to leave you with a random picture;

This is the candy buffet I had at my wedding. It was such a hit. In the background you'll see my delicious wedding (yes it's leaning but it was the BEST cake I've ever eaten) and Grant's surprise soccer ball grooms cake. I loved it all.

Had a great weekend

2009-02-02T09:19:00.000-08:00

Grant and I had a fabulous weekend. It started out on 7:30 Saturday morning when we got up to clean and do yard work. I cleaned, Grant did the yard work. At 5:00 we were done and the house looked great. We both hurt though. My lower back hurt so bad from all the cleaning, and poor Grant with all the mowing and weed eating he did. We prepped the food and people started coming around 6:00. We had 15 adults and 5 kids so the house was packed. We made some delicious kabobs and pasta salad. We had a great time. Everyone had a great time.

Then Sunday we did nothing. We slept in a little, watched T.V., I went on a walk with Haley, we watched the super bowl, Grant fixed a computer for an old customer of his, watched more T.V. and ate so much left over pasta. It was a nice relaxing day.

Today is a big day for us. We have a doctors appointment this afternoon to see the baby. I can't wait. I hope everyone else had a great weekend too!

I hate that I can't remember what pictures I've already posted. I don't think you've seen this one yet. This picture was about 20 years ago or so and in it are my cousins, my brother and I. Can you guess which one is me? If you already know don't say anything.

Sorry, sorry, sorry!

2009-01-29T15:44:00.001-08:00

I don't know why I neglect this blog so much. Maybe it's because my life is kind of dull? LOL!

My sister in law, Leah, started a blog today so go check her out and show her some love.

Grant and I are still doing great. We're both just working all the time it seems like. I feel like we haven't had much of a social life lately. It's like we wake up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch T.V, go to bed then repeat. Everyday. So at 8:00 this morning I decided that we should have a BBQ at our house this weekend and invite all our friends. It's supposed to be beautiful weather so what better time? I sent out a mass text message to like 15 people in my phone and invited everyone. I have a few yeses and a couple of noes (I had to look up how to spell the word no in the plural sense, it still doesn't look correct but whatever). I'm really looking forward to the BBQ, I can't wait to hang out with some of my friends again.

So that's about it, sadly. I hope that everyone is enjoying 2009 so far. I know I am.

I don't think I've posted this picture before. As you can see from the date it is a couple of years old. Actually this is just three months after we started dating. We were at a party at my parents house (the same one where Haley was doing the keg stand in a previous picture) and as you can see we where pretty drunk. Fun times.

I had a fabulous weekend

2009-01-12T13:16:00.001-08:00

Saturday I got to sleep in which is always wonderful. Then Grant and I went over to Jack and Alexis' house for her graduation party. There was great food and great people there. We played some poker and the girls kicked ass then played some Wii Mario Kart where I kicked ass.

Sunday Mona, Tonya, Amy and I went to lunch at a great local pizza and pasta place called Luigi's and had a fabulous lunch along with some much needed girl talk.

Then we went to the movies to see Bride Wars which I had been dying to see. OMG it was a great movie. During the previews I saw a few good movies coming out soon. The one I'm most excited about is Confessions of a Shopaholic. I've read the series years ago and the only thing I really remember is that I loved those books. The previews look so good I can't!

So that's about it. Nothing else new. I hope everyone else has a great week!

Here's Grant at Jack and Alexis' house a couple months ago playing guitar hero. That was a great night.

I'm so bad

2009-01-09T11:47:00.000-08:00

about updating my blog, someone smack me!

Things are going great here. Work has gotten busy which is good for me, bad for my blog.

So an update on the bathroom; It's so close to being done that I can taste it. We have all the plumbing hooked up (thanks Dad). I've been able to use the toilet and sink. I LOVE having my own sink. Grant can dirty his now and mine will stay nice and clean. The only thing we have left to do is clean the shower one more time then let it dry completely so we can seal the grout. Oh, and we don't have electrical, but I have a lamp with an extension cord so that works for now. And then there's the glass block that Grant wants to install (in the square hole in the wall between the shower and vanity) but that can wait. So YAY! The pictures are on Grant's camera so I'll post them this weekend.

Tomorrow we're going to my friend Alexis' graduation party. She just graduated college with a BA and she got honor's. Go Alexis. Then Sunday I think I'll be hanging out with some friends. We're kind of dorks but we call ourselves the Fab 4. There's me, my BFF Tonya, her sister Amy and then Mona. We're all great friends and we try to get together every once in awhile. Me, Amy and Tonya all live in the same town but Mona lives about 2 hours away so it's been hard to get together lately. I'm excited for that.

So that's about it. I do post more on my pregnancy blog because well, that's more important to me so you can check the latest updates there. And don't forget to take the poll to vote whether you think it's a boy or girl. 24 more days until we find out.

Here's the Fab 4. Top left to right, Tonya then Me. Bottom left to right, Amy then Mona.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T07:53:00.000-08:00

Grant and I joke that it's the year of Poppy.

I hope that everyone had a great New Years! I went to my BFF Tonya's house right after work and watched Lifetime movies until 10:00. Then I went home to bring the new year in with Grant. We watched T.V. until 1:00 then went to bed. On New Year's day we literately sat around and it nothing. In fact we stayed in our p.j.'s all day. I haven't done that in years, but it was so nice. We slept in, watched T.V., then while he was playing his computer games I busted out my Super Nintendo and Sega and played Mario Kart, Super Mario Borthers and Super Mario World. It was a lot of fun.

Then today it's back to work. My parents gave me the option to work but I decided to do it because 1) Grant had to work anyways and 2) I'd rather save my time off for giving birth. So I'm the ONLY one here at work today. I have some projects that I need to tie up though, some end of year filling and stuff. I'd rather be in bed though.

Here's a picture for about 3½ years ago. That's Kymmie, me and my good friend Mona at a party. Good times!

I'm in love

2008-12-31T09:20:00.000-08:00

With the shower heads I ordered.

I had the hardest time finding a shower head that we could use. First off we had to use Delta brand because that's what the plumber had plumbed for in the walls (little did I know this is one of the most expensive brands). We also had to have an oil rubbed bronze finish because that's what everything else in the bathroom is. I started my search at Home Depot because that's pretty much my only option in Red Bluff. They
had one, ONE to choose from and it was $258.00. And mind you we have to buy two so we're talking over $500.00 total.

Next I did some searching online and finally found this beauty. It's at faucetdirect.com and was only $152.00. Now while that's still expensive, it's the best price I found. And the best part? It's square! I love square everything! Anyways, I should be getting them today via UPS. I can't wait!

So that's my lame post. I can't believe I have an entire post about shower heads. Lol! Oh well.

I hope that everyone has a great New Years. Grant and I will be relaxing on the couch tonight and then he's going to be sealing the grout tomorrow. He won't let me be around that stuff because I'm pregnant so he's going to do it all. He's so sweet. I think I'll head over to my BFF's house while he's going that.

Happy New Years Eve!

Here's the bar that we had at our house on New Years Eve two years ago. That plate with the
tan round things on it is my Mom's Rum Balls. Omg, you can get drunk off like 3 of them. Yummy!

I had a plan

2008-12-29T13:46:00.000-08:00

And my plan worked! I had set a plan/schedule for what we needed to get done over our 4 day weekend in order to get the bathroom done by next weekend.

Thursday- Enjoy Christmas and don't do any work on the bathroom
Friday- Tile
Saturday- Shop for bathroom supplies in a.m. and finish all tile in p.m.
Sunday- Grout all tile

Here's how it went down;

Wednesday/Thursday- Grant and I went to his mom's house after work on Christmas Eve. We celebrated Christmas there with is mom and two sisters, one of which lives in Minnesota and get to rarely see. Then the next morning we had a delicious breakfast then made our way to my parents house where we had another Christmas celebration. It was my dad, step-mom, brother, grandma, grandpa, step-grandma, Grant and I. We stayed and had dinner then we were off on our way home. That was the fun part.

Friday - Tiled our bathroom shower all.day.long!

Saturday - Woke up early and made our way to Chico to go shopping. We got the mirrors for the bathroom and stopped by Kohl's to use our gifts cards from Christmas. Why is it that when I have a gift card or money to spend on shopping I never find anything? I had a nice sized gift card and I just bought a $3.99 Christmas platter that says "Cookies for Santa". After shopping we went home to do more tiling. We were able to finish the shower and do the whole floor. Yay!

Sunday - Ordered the shower heads then grouted. Have you ever grouted? Do you know what you feel like the day after you spent 6 hours grouting a bathroom? It feels like someone put me through a meat grinder then electrocuted me. I was in so much pain by the time we got done (at 10:30 p.m. and I have to get up at 5:30 a.m.) that I couldn't sleep. I woke up after my peaceful 1 hour of sleep that I did get and it felt like someone had broken my arms. There's no other way to describe it. And today I can barely walk. Grant and I agreed that we'll be going to bed by 8:00 tonight.

So that was my holiday weekend. But I can say that my plan worked, the bathroom is almost done. This weekend my dad is coming over to help us (or really just Grant) plumb the toilet, two sinks and two shower heads. Then we'll have a working bathroom. Oh except for lights. If we want lights Grant will have to climb in the attic to do some electrical work. Maybe he can do that on Sunday! :o)

This was several months ago when my Dad came over to install our bad ass vanity countertop. And there's Grant working in the background

Coco goes to work

2008-12-24T09:05:00.000-08:00

Since we're leaving straight from work and going to my mother in laws house I brought Coco to work with me. That saves us 2 hours of driving home and then back just to go get him. He's never been in my office before but he seems to like it. At first the day started off nice, he was getting a lot of work done

But the next thing I know I turn around and he's just goofing off and not getting any work done at all

At least he's not getting paid!

2 Days Until Christmas!

2008-12-23T14:30:00.001-08:00

It has been slow at work lately. I've had a total of 4 phone calls today. Wow. And tomorrow will be even slower. I'm hoping to only work a half day so Grant and I can make our way to his Mom's house near Grass Valley. We'll be having Christmas dinner (if we get there in time) then opening present with the family. Then Thursday morning we get to make out way back to Chico to have Christmas at my Dad's house. Then it's three full days off. I'm really hoping that we can get the tile done in the bathroom over the weekend. There's not much left. We might be able to finish tiling and then maybe even have time to grout it all. Oh that would be nice.

I really want to clean out the nursery too. We just have to much on our plate right now. It's nice though, we always have something to do and there's never a dull moment in the house.

I hope that everyone has a fabulous Christmas.

My best friends kids. Hunter is 3½ and Taylor is 2. They are like family to me and I love them to death!

Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

2008-12-17T14:08:00.000-08:00

Great, now that Christmas tree song is stuck in my head! Well, Grant and I went Christmas tree hunting this last Saturday. In my previous blog I said that we were going to my nieces birthday party, but plans changed. Instead we're going to her other birthday party this Sunday, on her actual birthday. So we went and got a Christmas tree instead. It was so much fun. Jack, Alexis, her son Christian, Grant and I (along with our dog and their three dogs) went up to Mineral and hiked around for like 2 hours looking for the perfect tree. It was freakin' cold outside. And I didn't know that they only had the "Charlie Brown trees" where we went and I like the bushy ones. But we were already there and paid the $10 so I settled. We had a lot of fun.

Then we got home and I had to start getting ready for the party so I jumped in the shower right away, then Haley came over. While I was in the shower Grant set up the tree and even strung lights and put a few ornaments on it. This was done by a guy who doesn't like Christmas. He always told me that once we have kids he'll get into the Christmas mood, I just didn't expect it to happen so soon. I'm not complaining though, it was great.

So off Haley and I go to the party. It was a beautiful party with great food and great people. We shot almost 400 pictures and had a great time. Haley got most of the pictures during the first couple of hours, then I told her to go drink and I'll get the rest. I freakin' love her camera. Seriously, you don't even have to be a good photographer to take a good picture with that thing. So I got the last half of the night with all the dancing and the drunks. It was great though and we had so much fun. I really hope that they like the pictures and are impressed with Haley because I know that someday she'd like to be a photographer. Hell I'd hire her to do any big event in a heartbeat.

Sunday Grant and I went to Home Depot and bought the rest of the supplies that we'll need to finish up the tile in the master bathroom. My mom and step-dad are always harassing Grant about taking so long on the bathroom (it's been almost 2 years, ha) and since they're in Mexico now and will be back on January 3rd, Grant is trying to get the bathroom done by then. We really just need to finish up tiling the shower, then tile the floor, buy the shower heads (there's two), plumb the sinks, toilet and shower heads, buy and hang the mirrors above the vanity then finish the electrical. Wow, I guess that sounds like a lot but you should see what we have done. I don't have a picture of it from when we bought the house but it was basically smaller than a closet. It had a small vanity, a small nasty shower and when you sat on the toilet your knees hit the wall in front of you. Fun huh? Here's a peek:

This is the progress of the shower from studded to almost done.

Here's the vanity and stub wall.

Like I said we're almost done with the tile in the shower so these aren't the most recent pictures. And if you're wondering about that wall color? That was Grant who picked it. It looks much different in person, I actually like it. At my house we're not really afraid of color.
I'm planning on posting a bunch of pictures soon with before and afters of the entire house.

SO excited!

2008-12-12T16:14:00.000-08:00

So my friend Haley, who you might remember from a previous post, was asked to photograph a company Christmas party tomorrow night. It started out because a friend of mine, Emily, works for a large company and they wanted to hire someone to take pictures. Well Emily saw the pictures that Haley took at my wedding (because Haley is an excellent photographer) and told her boss about her so they hired her! It's going to be a very nice catered party with an open bar. Even though it's semi-formal most people go all out and dress up. The best part is that I'm going with her! I can't wait. I love dressing up! Haley and I are both so excited!

Tomorrow morning though, before the party, we're heading to Roseville for Grant's niece's birthday party. That will be fun, I can't wait. We only get to them every month or two so it's nice to go and visit.

And Sunday we have no plans. I think Grant might work on the house and I might work on cleaning my office out. We have a lot of work ahead. We have a four bedroom house so aside from our bedroom we have a guest room, Grant has an office and I have an office. Well we've decided to make the guest room the nursery, Grant's office will be the guest room, and my office with end up being both of our offices. So ya, we have a lot of work to do.

I'm working on a post about the house complete with before and after pictures. But I realized I'm missing a lot of current pictures so I need to take some more before I post. That's my weekend in a nutshell. Have a great one!

Me and my girls at my bachelorette party. I'm in the red dress (obviously), Haley is directly next to me on the right, and Emily is to the right of her in the little black dress. We had a BLAST that weekend in Reno!

Christmas is right around the corner

2008-12-11T12:03:00.000-08:00

I saw this video on another blog today and I had to post it as well. It is so touching. But I will warn you, you may cry;

No random picture for today, I think the video is enough.

More blogs, yay!

2008-12-09T15:26:00.000-08:00

My friend Tiffany started a blog today. I think everyone that reads this (what all three of you) should go give her a shout out! She's a cool person just trying to start a blog. Haha!

Sadly that's the only thing I really have to post about today. I'm so lame I know! Unless you want to hear about the delicious burrito I ate today after craving a burrito for the last two days? Ya, didn't think so. So I will leave you with another random picture of the day:

This is one of my favorite wedding pictures. It's fuzzy because it's a timed exposure, so the camera shutter stayed open for like 10 seconds and everything that moved appears blurry. What I love is that it's Grant and his mom dancing and the only person that's clear in the picture is me in the background. You'll probably have to click on it to make it bigger to see it best. I love my dress. I wish I could wear it everyday!

So tired

2008-12-08T12:45:00.000-08:00

Kaci, don't be mad. I tried, I really did but I can't find the freakin' picture you want me to scan in. I swear I put it in a special place before so I wouldn't loose it. Well that plan backfired big time. I'll keep looking though. It has to be in my office at home. The good news? My office will be used as the nursery so I know I'll be cleaning it out sometime before the baby gets here, lol!

I had a great weekend. Saturday we hit two birthday parties and had fun at both of them. We got to see a lot of people that we haven't seen for awhile. I can't believe how many people are excited about my pregnancy. I went the gym both Saturday and Sunday and that makes me feel great. Yesterday Grant and I went to my parents house because they're going to Mexico on Saturday so we might not see them before they leave. Then last night we went over to JD and Angie's house and had dinner with them and Jack and Alexis came. It was a great weekend.

I'm really looking forward to next Thursday the 18th because we're doing the family gift exchange at my grandmas. It's always a lot of fun and it's how we spend time with extended family (aunts, uncles and cousins) since we don't get to at Christmas. I get to see my cousin's new baby for the first time too. Jessica had baby Cole in August and I've been waiting to meet him. I love the holidays because I get to spend time with family.

That's about all that's going on. If you haven't noticed (and I don't remember if I pointed it out before) but I did link my pregnancy blog to the right on the sidebar. Thanks for the suggestion Cindy from Cali!

Is this picture random enough? My brother Troy with some donkeys in Mexico.

It's Friday

2008-12-05T16:21:00.000-08:00

I love Fridays. Just the thought of being able to sleep in for the next two days makes me warm and fuzzy inside. I'm going to try to hit the gym at least once this weekend too.

So Haley came over last night and made the BEST chicken broccoli alfredo I have ever eaten. Then I had some leftovers today for lunch. And guess what's for dinner. Yep, more chicken alfredo. She's coming over again today and we're going to walk around the neighborhood and look at the Christmas lights. She said that as she was leaving my house last night a lot of our neighbors had some pretty lights up. We're taking her daughter Larkyn (whose 1½). Larkyn is going to love it.

That's really the only thing going on. Here's a list of things I'm looking forward to:

All the birthday parties coming up
My company Christmas party on the 20th
Christmas - of course
New Years
My next ultrasound on Jan 5th

And to leave you with another picture:

This is an older photo but my absolute favorite, she's such a doll. She has her momma's beautiful green eyes. Haley took this picture and she is such a great photographer.

I suck at coming up with catchy titles

2008-12-04T11:16:00.000-08:00

Just to warn you, this will be a blog full of randomness.

So my Blogger problem is fixed (thanks Kaci). I'm dumb, and we'll leave it at that.

I changed my background as you may have noticed. Like I've said before I love the holidays, Christmas especially, so I absolutely love this background, I want to keep it up all year long.

I finally went to the gym last night. I was really good at going before the wedding. I'd go at least 3 times a week. Last night was the first night I went for months. It felt so good though. Grant went with me, we were only there for 30 minutes. I basically just walked, with an incline, on the treadmill for like 23 minutes. But I did burn over 150 calories so it's a start I guess. I don't want to go overboard to begin with because it's been so long since I've gone, I want to start out slowly. Well, that's my excuse anyways...lol.

Tonight one of my best friends, Haley, is coming over and we're going to cook dinner. Chicken alfredo. I can't wait. Anything with alfredo is pretty much my favorite food.

I had a birthday party to go to this last Monday (my dads), I have two more this weekend (our friend Jack, and my BF's daughter Taylor) and another one next weekend (my niece Ashlyn). I never realized how many birthdays were this month.

A girl I went to high school with (notice I didn't say "friend"?) is getting married next weekend on the 13th. She invited me to the wedding. I can't go, oh well. I think she's mad though. She's weird. She doesn't like Coco, she's afraid of him. Who doesn't like Coco? Actually she told me she "doesn't like ANY animals, except maybe lions and that's just because they're pretty". Yep, that's what she said. Like I said, she's weird. Hopefully she doesn't ever find this blog, oh well. Haha!

I want a new car. Bad!

And to leave you with another random picture.

Here's my friend Haley doing a keg stand at my mom's house during a party. And yes, that's Grant with fluffy hair.

23 days 'til.......

2008-12-02T09:46:00.001-08:00

Christmas! Oh how I love Christmas. It's my favorite time of the year. Grant and I don't have a lot of money so we can't go all out on presents like we both love to do so we'll have to scale it down a little. But we are getting a tree this year. YAY! I love Christmas trees and I used to get them when I lived by myself but Grant and I have never got one together. He's not usually that into the holidays but I he's always told me that once we have kids that will all change. I just didn't think that he would change so quickly. I'm not complaining though.

I'm about half way done with my Christmas shopping. I only have like 5 more gifts to get and I know what I'm getting for most of them, I just need to go buy them. It would all be so much easier if we actually HAD money. :o)

Yesterday my stupid car broke down on the way to work. It was totally inconvenient for us because we work an hour away from where we live and we broke down halfway to work. Luckily my step dad came and took a look at it and said it was probably the thermostat and I should be able to drive it back to Red Bluff to a mechanic, I just couldn't let it overheat. So we did that and the mechanic got it fixed and $125 later we're up and running. We were both over 1½ hours late to work after a four day weekend though. Not good. I want to get a new car so bad. I'm going to have a hard time in my sporty little 2 door Mitsubishi Eclipse while being pregnant or with a baby. We have to wait until we refinance our freakin' house though. Even though I absolutely love our house I sometimes wish we didn't buy it. Ugh! Oh well, it will get better.

So that's all for today. I will leave you with another random picture:

I love this picture. From left to right is Dave, Brian and Grant. They're drunk and trying to look like "gangsta's" but not doing a very good job. Brian looks like Popeye if anything.

My appointment went great

2008-11-26T13:56:00.001-08:00

There are more details in my pregnancy blog about my appointment, but all went well.

Tomorrow is Turkey Day and I can't wait! I'm so hungry! Work is so slow today so I'm thinking I might get to go home early. Which doesn't actually mean I get to go home though because Grant and I commute. But I will go get my oil changed then go get Grant.

I had lunch with an old friend today. I haven't seen her in about 2 years, it was great to catch up. She's doing great which I love to hear. We had the best lunch at a local hamburger joint here in Chico called Burger Hut. Oh.my.god it was so good. My burger was complete with grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, secret sauce (yum), dill pickles, pepperjack cheese and jalapenos. YUMMY! And they have the BEST fries. Here's a picture of her and I from a few of years ago, back in our party days.

Also I mentioned on my other blog but I just realized that this blog is doing the same thing. The blog posts have been acting weird. When I add a picture it adds the html code instead of the actual picture. Same thing if I bold a word it used all the html code in my post instead of just bolding it. I mean it looks fine if I preview it or post it though. I've also noticed that I don't have as many options at the top as I used to. Anybody know what's going on? It's really annoying. It's just recently started doing this, it used to be normal. Thanks!

Tomorrow is the day

2008-11-24T16:19:00.000-08:00

I get to see Poppy again tomorrow. I can't wait! My BFF Tonya is coming to the ultrasound with Grant and I and I think she's just as excited. I'm 8 weeks and 2 days along today. I bought a bunch of maternity clothes over the weekend along with some Christmas presents. I love getting my Christmas shopping done early. I have about 6 people down and 7 more to go. That's not too bad. I've been thinking I would love to shop on Black Friday this year but I won't be able to because we'll be at Grant's mom's house for Thanksgiving that day. Just to give you an idea here's my schedule for the 4 day holiday weekend:

Thursday-Thanksgiving at my Dad's house in Chico. That night we'll go to mother in laws house and stay the night

Friday-Thanksgiving at my mother in laws house (near Grass Valley) and possibly stay the night again

Saturday-Christmas at my Mom's house in Red Bluff. Yes, Christmas. That's because they'll be gone during Christmas (on vacation in Mexico) and so we'll celebrate it early.

Sunday-Go back to mom's and have a bake day. My mom, step-sister and I are going to bake cookies and treats ALL DAY! I can't wait. I finally get to brake in my brand new Kitchen Aid mixer that I got as a wedding gift.

So that's my schedule and I love being busy so it works! I hope that everyone has a great holiday season!

The Big News

2008-11-18T09:09:00.001-08:00

Sorry it's been so long. I've just had so much other stuff on my mind. I just realized that I never posted the last blog I wrote so I just now posted it. It doesn't matter anyways I lied. In the last blog I said that nothing new was going on and that was totally false. The big news? I'm pregnant! YAY!

We found out on October 26th that we were having a baby. We can't believe it. We weren't really trying, but we weren't preventing either so we knew it could happen. I started another blog on the day I found out so I can track it. The link is:

http://www.korndognowwhat.blogspot.com/

Check it out if you wish and leave some comments. I love me some comments. So obviously this is all very new to us but we are so excited! More updates to come I'm sure. I have a feeling this blog is about to get a little more interesting...haha!

Fall is in the air

2008-11-03T14:54:00.000-08:00

I love it!I absolutely LOVE the fall, it's my favorite time of the year. I love love love the holidays, the smell of burnt leaves and all the Christmas decorations. I also love the weather. It's always a nice break from all the heat.

Not much else going on here. STILL trying to refinance this damn house. Seriously, it's a joke! I can't wait for it to be done with. I'm trying to eat healthier and get more exercise. It's ridiculous that I've gained 20 pounds since my wedding. I think I might have a thyroid problem so I'm going to get that checked out. I have an appointment on the 13th, I hope all goes well.

Thanks all for now. Sorry my life is so boring, I promise someday I'll make up for it. Later tater!

Thirsty Thursday

2008-10-23T14:03:00.000-07:00

I have a new favorite drink, Georgia Peach from The Cheesecake Factory. Oh, it's so yummy. I rarely drink but I find myself daydreaming about that delicious drink often since I tried it a couple of weeks ago. I found a few different recipes but this one sounded the best:

GEORGIA PEACH

Ingredients:

¾ oz. Vodka

3 oz. Orange Juice

¾ oz. Peach Schnapps

2 oz. Peach Nectar

Blend with ice. Serve in hurricane glass. (Chessecake Factory also added raspberries)

It's been awhile......

2008-10-16T08:37:00.000-07:00

So I thought I'd update. Not too much is going on though. Grant and I are busy working, still trying to refinance our house and still remodeling it all at the same time. I will feel so much better when we just get this thing refinanced. And to top it all off, the guy who is doing our loan knew from the moment we met him (like four months ago) that we didn't want to have to pay any money out of pocket to do the refi. And then yesterday he tells us that we'll need to pay $5,000 to complete the loan. YA F'IN RIGHT! So we told him "we don't have ANY money to pay out of pocket". Which isn't necessarily true but we've told him from the beginning that we didn't want to. So of course he says he'll go back to the office and rework some figures and "see what he can do". That's right buddy, that's what I thought! It just makes me mad because we feel like he's just trying to get more money from us.

On another note, tomorrow after work we're going to my SIL's (sister in law) house in Rocklin to spend the weekend with them. My niece (well SIL's daughter) is 5 and she has a soccer game on Saturday. I love watching little kids play soccer. I can't wait to go visit them. I love getting away for the weekend and spending time with family.

That's just about it. Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner. This is my favorite time of the year, I love the holiday season.

*Me, my dad and my brother Christmas 2005*

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day

2008-10-05T17:21:00.000-07:00

I read many blogs to do with pregnancy and TTC (trying to conceive) because I find it fascinating. There are a few blogs that have really touched me though, the main one being Antigone Lost. If you have time I recommend you read her blog from the beginning. It's a sad yet beautiful story that has really touched my heart. Below is a post from her that I would like to pass onto my blog readers:

October 15th is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day in the United States. More than 25,000 children are stillborn in the United States every year leaving mothers, entire families and communities devastated. Estimates of the rate of occurrence of stillbirth make it at least as common as autism.

Stillbirth is not an intractable problem. Greater research would likely significantly reduce its incidence, but good research requires good data. H.R. 5979: Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act is under consideration by Congress. This proposed bill would standardize stillbirth investigation and diagnosis, thus providing more data for the needed research. Better research means fewer children born still.

On October 15th, remember the thousands of unfinished children lost and the families who remain to grieve them. Honor them by taking action. Let's help pass H.R. 5979.

Action Steps:

Step 1. Use Your Blog to Enlist Others
-Copy the contents of this entire post and publish it on your blog immediately.

GOAL: Enlist 10 of your readers to spread the word

Step 2. Use Your E-mail to Enlist Others
-E-mail 5 bloggers and ask them (nicely and in an unspammy way) to publish these action steps on their blog. Consider contacting celebrity bloggers, political bloggers, medical bloggers, or bloggers who are not part of your reading community.

GOAL: Enlist 3 bloggers outside of your normal blog sphere to spread the word in other online communities.

Step 3. Help Pass the Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act
-By October 15th, publish a post on your blog supporting H.R. 5979 Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act. For maximum impact, title your post: "Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act."

GOAL: 1,000,000 Google results on October 15th when that term is searched for. Currently, Google only returns 20,400 pages - most of which have nothing to do with the bill.

Friday Funny

2008-10-03T12:41:00.000-07:00

I'm totally coping my BFF Kaci on the basis of this post. I saw this cartoon this morning and I'm honestly still chuckling from it. I don't know what it is but it just makes me smile :o)

Work is slow

2008-09-30T15:51:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to get worried. Work is so slow, in the eight and an half years I've been here I have never seen it this slow. It worries me mostly because my parents own the business so if something were to happen they would loose their income. The economy is just so bad right now. I even worry about Grant's job. He's doing great there and they absolutely love him but what if they start laying people off? He's the "new guy" there. For now we are okay but I still worry, it's just my nature.

And if work isn't enough to worry about I've gained like 15 pounds since my wedding just three short months ago. Yep, I can't believe it either. This morning I actually had to resort to my "fat pants" that I had stashed in my closet when I lost 30 pounds last year. I really need to go back to the gym. I have a membership I just don't have the motivation. Anyone want to join me? I need a workout buddy bad!

Just another 3 days this week left of work (after the hour and 3 minutes I have left today) and then it's the weekend again. This weekend my mom is having a party at the Hampton Inn for everyone that booked a cruise for February. My mom is a travel agent (she owns her own business out of her home) and specializes in booking cruises. What she does is she'll find a cruise she wants to go on and then she'll have a bunch of co-workers and friends and family join her and they'll get a group discount (this is what Grant and I did for the cruise where he proposed to me). Anyways this weekend she's having a party, a "Meet & Mingle" if you will, and she asked me to help. Grant is taking pictures but I have the best job; I get to man the chocolate fountain. Yep that's right, I will spend a couple of hours right there in front of the fountain. It's a good thing I dug out my "fat pants".

Here's me in the attire my girls made me wear in the mall during my bachelorette party weekend.
Fun times!

Happy Birthday Grant!

2008-09-27T18:29:00.000-07:00

Today is Grant's birthday and it's been a wonderful day. We got to sleep in, which is always a precious commodity to both of us, we cleaned the house (which isn't so much fun, but now it looks great), his mom and sister and her husband came to visit and we all went out to lunch, and now it's just Grant and I and we're chillin' on the couch and watching T.V. I'm not watching so much as writing this blog but because it's his birthday he gets to pick what we watch and right now it's Gangland, one of is favorite shows. Later we may go over to a friends house for a barbecue, but for now it's just fun hanging out and knowing that we don't have anything that we have to do.

We just found out the house next to us is for sale. They're asking $160,000 for a four bedroom two bath. It's about 1300 square ft on a decent size lot. They're asking too much for it. It's a 1954 and it's never been updated. Really, it would not be good for us if it sold for that price. Our house is almost identical, we have the same floor plan but we've been renovating our house for the last two years. The problem? We're trying to refinance our house and we need it to appraise for close to $200,000. I don't think that will be a problem as long as this house doesn't sell before then. So lets hope that their house sits on the market until we're done refinancing. :o)

That's really all that's going on here. Grant is loving his job still and he's having a great birthday. Hope everyone else has a great weekend.

I would post another random picture but I'm on Grant's laptop right now and I don't have any pictures on it.

It's Thursday!

2008-09-25T10:42:00.000-07:00

I normally couldn't care less if it's Thursday but tonight is the season premier of my two favorite shows; The Office and Grey's Anatomy. Of course I'll have to record the Grey's Anatomy and watch it tomorrow night while Grant works late, but at least I get to watch The Office tonight.

Also, It's FALL! I love the fall, it's my favorite time of the year!

In other news, Grant is loving his job so far. Of course today is only his third day but still. And I still absolutely love commuting with him. It's going to save us so much money, and on top of that he's making a lot more money at this job. It was so hard with him being self employed because we never knew when he was going to get paid. His customers didn't always pay right away and let me tell you, it's not easy to pay the bills regularly when you don't know when you'll get your next paycheck. But things will be different now. And he's finally going to get medical insurance. YAY!

Since he got the job we've been talking about babies. We both agree that we're not ready for them right now, but we talked about starting to TTC (trying to conceive) next year when we're a little more financially stable. It's great that we have a plan though.

That's really all for now. But again, I'll leave you with a random picture:Grant's niece as a flower girl at our wedding. She was picking her nose during the ceremony then once she saw her grandma shaking her head no she quickly ate the booger. I also have pictures of her inspecting it and eating it, but I'll spare you. :o)

Changes are coming

2008-09-17T09:32:00.001-07:00

Sorry, I've been a bad blog. Very bad blogger. Trust me I've made several attempts to write a new post but I just side tracked so easily. So what are the new changes you're probably wondering? Well, Grant got a job! That's great news for us. It's not that he was unemployed before but he owned his own business and since the economy took a dump his business hasn't been doing so well. We were hardly paying our bills to say the least. Well now he officially makes more money then me. I'm glad too because that will help boost his ego. On top of that he works in the same town I do (about an hour drive from our house) AND he has the same hours I do, so you know what that means.....we get to commute together. We're both so excited about that (for now. Ask us again in another few months and that may be a different story). But YAY! So great things are going to happen, starting with the mortgage is going to get paid. Haha, only joking a little. :o)

Lets see, what else is new, Saturday is Grant's birthday. I don't think we're doing much, maybe just cleaning up the house. Weird I know, but it's his birthday and that's what HE wants to do. Whatever.

Sadly, I think that's the only news to report. I live a boring life I guess. And now I'll leave you with a random picture.

This is my friend Kaci and I (and her daughter Elly at the bottom). This was a normal picture before Grant decided to have a little fun with Photoshop)

Getting Healthy

2008-09-08T10:17:00.000-07:00

My whole life I've been overweight so it's nothing new to me. Grant proposed to me in March of 2007 while we were on vacation to Mexico. A couple of weeks after we got back from vacation I was looking at some pictures from the night he proposed to me and I couldn't believe how big I was. I immediately jumped on the scale and couldn't believe what I saw. I had never in my life weighed that much. That day I decided to do something about it so I was going to try to cut soda out of my diet completely.

It was so hard at first, especially when we'd go out to eat because that's when I always wanted a soda. And it didn't help that Grant was still drinking them. mmMMMMmm Cherry Pepsi, how I loved it. But it's gotten much easier, in fact it doesn't even taste good to me anymore.

I've always heard that soda is one of the worst things you can consume so that made it a little easier to give it up. I won't lie though, I do have an occasional sip of soda, but never much more than that. I've been soda free for 1½ years now and I'm so proud of myself. I feel like I have control of myself again and that I have so much will power that I can do much more than just cut out soda. It almost makes me feel like I can do anything I want to do *sounds cheesy I know :) *

I have many other things I want to change about my diet now that I've cut out the soda. Grant and I have greatly decreased the amount of fast food we eat but I still don't cook as much as I'd like to (mainly because I don't have time) so that's another goal of mine. I've also recently decided to cut down on the amount of coffee I drink. We'll see how that goes.

So far I'm down about 25 pounds (I was down 35 pounds but after the wedding I gained some back). I would love to loose another 40, that's my ultimate goal. Wish me luck, because I need it.

TGIF!

2008-09-05T06:47:00.000-07:00

I'm so glad it's Friday. It's getting harder and harder for me to wake up in the mornings and I finally figured out why. It's because it's get darker in the mornings now! It's much easier for me to get up with the sun rather than before it. UGH!

Well hopefully this weekend will be full of tiling the bathroom we're remodeling. Grant and I bought a fixer upper house about 2 years ago and we're getting ready to refinance it so we need to get that master bathroom done.

Okay, I'm off to work now. Wish me luck that I don't kill a customer or a co-worker ( Jenny you're safe, I'm thinking one of the guys in the shop rather).

Signing off for now;
-Kory

Back Surgery Part II

2008-09-04T09:27:00.001-07:00

This is part two to my back surgery (you can read part one here). I apologize in advance that this will probably be a long blog.

The decision to have back surgery was the hardest decision of my life. If you ask me if I'm happy with the decision I've made I honestly can't give you a straight answer. Why you ask? Well I still have back pain pretty much all of the time and I can't for the life of me remember what my back used to feel like. I don't remember what it is like to have a normal (well not really normal, but normal to me I guess) back. I don't think I'll be able to explain to you what it feels like after the surgery, but I will try. I can tell you though that I think that the pain before my surgery was worse than what I experience now. But I just can't say for sure.

I wish I had an x-ray of my spine from before the surgery but I can't find one. Just image a spine with a 49º curve to the right side. Yes, 49º. That is quite a curve. This picture will give you an idea:
My curve was similar to this but quite a bit bigger and located up a little higher. And if you notice that her shoulders are not level I have that same thing going on but for some odd reason it's opposite, my left shoulder is higher. Anyway, now that you understand my situation before the surgery, here's how it all went down.

My surgery was scheduled for Monday morning, and I had to be at the UC Davis Hospital in Sacramento bright and early at 6:00 am. Since Sacramento is two hours from my house my family, my best friend Tonya and I all got some hotel rooms and stayed across Sunday night. I'll never forget how upset I was that I couldn't eat or drink anything the night before when Tonya, my brother Troy and I found our way to a Mexican restaurant. Anyways, I'm over it now.

We got to the hospital Monday morning and I was a little nervous (looking back now I really should have been more nervous than I was). We were told that the surgery was going to take about 6 hours. They had me go back to the prep room where I get in a bed and wait for the anesthesiologist to come in. It wasn't a private room which I thought was odd, there were several other patients in there. I mostly remember an old guy in a bed near me that had had a heart attack and I assume he was going to have heart surgery that morning. They left me laying in that bed alone (well, with strangers in the room, but that doesn't count) and I was SO scared! Finally after what seemed like hours but was probably about 20 minutes the anesthesiologist came in and gave me a pill to help with my anxiety (I don't remember what it was though) and he explained some things to me (again I don't remember what though). I vaguely remember being wheeled down the hallway but that's it, I don't remember the operating room.

The first thing I remember after the surgery was being wheeled down the hallway towards the recovery room and looking up from the bed as it was going down the hallway and telling my doctor that I was laying on rocks. This is basically how the conversation went;

Drugged up Kory:"I'm laying on rocks."

Doctor:"No, you're not. You're fine."

Uncomfortable drugged up Kory:"Yes, seriously! I'm laying on rocks and it really hurts!"

Doctor:"It's from your surgery, it's normal. You're NOT laying on rocks."

Angry, uncomfortable drugged up Kory:"Listen to me! THERE ARE ROCKS UNDER MY BACK!"

I remember being so mad at that doctor because he didn't care that I was in such pain. It honestly felt like I was laying on a boulder! Do you want to know why it felt like that? Here's why:

Yep, that's my spine. There are two 12" titanium rods, 13 clips, 7 screws and 4 three inch long bolts all attached to my spine. Aside from all of that in my back I was also laying on drainage tubs and containers to catch the leakage. It's no wonder why I thought I was laying on boulders!

During the surgery, which actually took close to 8 hours, they straightened my back the best they could (there's still a curve if you look closely) then they removed bone from my right hip and fused it to my spine. The rods, clips and screws are there to make sure that my spine stays in the position they put it in. I was told that it takes 6-12 months for the spine to fully fuse so technically the hardware in my back is no longer of use. *I have thought about getting the hardware removed but I doubt that will happen*

The next thing I remember was like a dream. I was in the recovery room and I slightly opened my eyes and saw my mom walking towards me. She was talking to me but I couldn't hear what she was saying. I closed my eyes. I opened my eyes again and she was sitting next to the bed and still talking to me but again, I couldn't understand her. I closed my eyes. I opened my eyes again and she was gone. I closed my eyes. The next time I opened my eyes I saw my dad walking in front of my bed holding a stuffed animal that appeared to be a mouse. I'm sure you can tell from the picture below that it was clearly not a mouse. Drugs do weird things to you, I remember seeing whiskers on this thing I swear......

I also remember thinking that was very weird because you don't see mice as stuffed animals very often. My dad was also talking to me and I could make out him saying "I brought you something" but that was it. I closed my eyes again and the next time I opened them I was in my hospital room.

I spent the next 7 days in my room, which I shared with an elderly lady. Luckily I was next to the window. That was the longest week of my life. Yes I had a lot of family and friends visiting, but because the hospital was about 2 hours away from where everyone lived I spent a lot of time by myself.

I was in so much pain too. Luckily I had my morphine button for the first few days though, that helped. The only thing I wanted to do was sleep but that was impossible because the nurses had to come in every 30 minutes and check my drainage tubes and turn me (because I couldn't move by myself at all). On Wednesday, two days after the surgery, the doctor wanted me to get up and walk (I had a catheter so I had not even sat up in my bed until this point). I just thought that man was CRAZY if he thought I was going to get up and walk just two days after major back surgery. But he gave me a walker and I got up and walked. Oh man was it funny to be 23 years old and using a walker to walk past an 80 year old lady in the bed next to you.

The next day he had me walk down the hall with a cane. Then later that day a couple of doctors came in and fit me for a brace that I would be spending the next three months of my life in.

I continued to impress the doctors with how well I was doing. Saturday the doctor said that I would be able to go home the next day. I was so happy. On Sunday I was sent home with the following items:

*A cane (which my brother still has to this day. He calls it his pimp cane)
*A custom made back brace (which I got to sport around for 3 months)
*Drugs (well a prescription for lots of Vicodin)
*A bill for over $215,000 (not technically, but it did cost well over that. Luckily I had great insurance)

That was pretty much the scariest week of my life and I would have never guessed that it would have changed me so much. I think I'll stop this blog here write about my life after back surgery with some interesting facts about me in a blog some other day.

-Kory

I've been tagged!

2008-08-28T14:40:00.000-07:00

Kaci has tagged me and instructed me to go onto Google Images and find an image suitable for my response to each question. So here we go;

Past Loves: This would be shopping! Why is this a past love you ask. Well I just recently found out that it's difficult to shop without money. Now while there is a way to do it, using the five finger discount just isn't my style. So until Grant and I have money, shopping will remain a past love. So sad!

My First Name: Okay, this one took me awhile to find an image for. You wouldn't believe some of the images that comes up when you search for Kory. No, I don't need pictures of strippers thank you very much. So My Dad is the one who picked my name. Not only did he pick the name Kory, but he was also the one to decide that it would be spelled the way it is. Which is why it was funny when he misspelled my name one time. Yes, he really did that. Thanks Dad!

My Middle Name: This one is common. It's tradition in my family that the daughter takes the middle name of the mother and the son takes the middle name of the father. Grant and I have also decided to continue this tradition which is great because his middle name is Thomas, which is also the name of his late father.

What are you doing right now: Working. I know that the picture shows someone who is being handed many things to do and I'm sure you can figure out that obviously that is not my current situation as I'm sitting here typing random facts about myself but sometimes that really is me.

My Age: I can't believe it, I'm 27 years old. It's funny actually because my birthday was just over a month ago and about 3 weeks ago I was lying in bed trying to remember how old I was. Seriously. Then when I counted back and realized, again, that I was 27 (!) years old I just about freaked out. You would have thought that I was learning about that for the first time. Needless to say, I try not to think about my age anymore.

My favorite treat: Ummmm.....do you not know me? If you don't know the answer to this then you must be a random blog reader (which would be awesome actually, I've always wanted random blog readers). mmmMMMMmmmm chocolate......... And it's not once a month that I want chocolate, in fact it's not even once a day that I want it, it's pretty much anytime that I'm awake. And sometimes that's not even true, I have been known to crave it in my sleep (those are the best dreams by the way). So ya, chocolate is my friend and I'll love it 'til the end.

Place I would like to travel: I've always wanted to stay in a glass bottom bungalo in Tahiti. I can only hope that on our 10th anniversary Grant and I will have enough money (or equity in our home, lol) to afford a vacation like this.

My Favorite Color: Growing up my favorite color was always purple but I think I got tired of it. Have I ever mentioned that I like change? Anyways, now I love the color red. I'm not obsessed with it though. I'm not one of those people that have to have everything in their favorite color, I like to mix it up a little. But of all the colors, red is my favorite......for now.

My home Town: Dead Bluff......I mean Red Bluff is the town I grew up in. If you're not familiar with Red Bluff let me paint you a picture of what you would see as you drive down Main Street; you'd probably pass a tractor, Home Depot, at least 4 trucks hauling hay or horses, 8 hicks, 54 rednecks, several cows, a few historic stores and 4 drunk drivers. Oh, and if you want clothes your options are WalMart or WalMart. No lie, that's Red Bluff to a T. Do you see why we call it Dead Bluff now?

My Favorite Animal: That's easy, my dog Coco. I know it seems weird for a black dog to be named Coco, you'd think he'd be brown with a name like that, but anyways, he came with that name. Coco was a gift from Grant for Christmas in 2006. We rescued him from the pound and he is the best dog that I've ever owned. And as you can see from the pictures he's also the cutest dog in the world. I put a few pictures of him because he's just too cute.

And now I will tag Jennifer because like me she just started a blog, but she's even newer. And besides Kaci, who was the one who taged me, she's the only friend I have in the blog world. Sad I know!

The decision to have back surgery.

2008-08-15T11:21:00.000-07:00

I remember growing up I always complained to my mom about my back. She would usually say "oh, you must have slept wrong" or "it's because your backpack is so heavy". I always believed what she said because it always fit. And plus, what mother would suspect that their preteen daughter has back problems? The doctors now tell me that I was born with a deformed vertebrae in my spine. Of course this wasn't discovered until many years after my birth.

In 7th grade my school was doing the routine scoliosis test in the nurse's office. They had me bend at the hips and point my hands towards the floor. Nothing new, I've done it many times before. The lady seemed a little concerned but after "re-testing" me she said that it must just be that my right shoulder and back are stronger and therefore had more muscle in them, making them bigger (or making the slight hump on that side of my back). So off I went back to class.

I was tested ever year and still the same responses came from the people conducting the tests. That was until my sophomore year of school the lady told me about scoliosis and was concerned enough to refer me to a specialist. I remember thinking "That's it! That's what I have." Even before seeing the specialist I knew. It explained everything. But how did everyone else miss it for all these years?

I had x-rays taken and my mom and I sat in the doctors office while he pointed at my back and explained why it was not straight. He pointed out on the x-ray that there was a vertebrae that was deformed. He said that it has been deformed since birth (but only an x-ray can show something like that). So as I got older and I started growing this vertebrae was in the way. It was wedged in there, therefore not allowing my spine to grown straight. I mean of course I got taller since birth, but when I went through my growth spurts in my teens it was just too much for my spine so it started to curve to one side. I had reached my maximum height and would not go up anymore. The doctor showed me on my x-ray how he knew that I was pretty much done growing (apparently you can tell by the density of the bone on the hips). Luckily my maximum height was 5'1" and no shorter. He referred me to Shriner's Hospital in San Fransisco (that was the nearest one at the time).

I loved Shriner's but I always felt out of place there. For one, all of the kids there were very young, most of them babies. And for two, most of them had casts or physical deformities and I felt like I was taking advantage because I just walked in looking totally normal (well maybe not normal, but you couldn't really tell why I was there). I just didn't fell like I belonged there. But the doctors wanted to get x-rays and see me there every six months to they can track the progress. They told me that there's not really much they can do. It's too late for a brace because a brace doesn't actually help the back get straighter, it just keeps it from getting more curved. They needed to continually check it though because if the spine starts to rotate (sounds fun, huh?) then they will have to do surgery. So I was checked every six months until I turned 18. Since it was a children's hospital they only treat kids under 18 so I was referred to UC Davis in Sacramento. This was good news for me.

I remember the first time I saw my doctor at UC Davis, we'll call him Dr. B. I looked at my mom in horror and thought "This can NOT be my doctor. He's got to be 100 years old". I'm telling you if you could have seen my face. Or him for that matter. This old guy walked around the halls looking like he was lost. He could have been someone who escaped the psych ward. Really!
And the first time I took my Dad to one of my appointments we were sitting in the room waiting for the doctor and Dr. B walked by, looking lost as ever, and I turned to my dad and said "Did you see that man? That's my doctor" Oh my gosh, the look on his face. He actually didn't believe me at first. That whole appointment was funny.

Dr. B told me that the only way to "fix" my back would be surgery. And even surgery isn't a miracle fixer, I'd still have problems. He explained that sometimes the problems caused by surgery outweigh the problems I could potential have if I decide not to do the surgery. He said that at any point in my life my spine could start to rotate, which would mean they'd have to do the surgery. And even if that doesn't happen it's pretty much guaranteed that when I'm older I will start to hunch over and I'd more than likely have trouble breathing. He said that if I wanted the surgery than he could arrange it for me, but it was necessary that I have it. Major back surgery is a lot to think about, especially for a 20 year old.

Over the next couple of years my back started hurting more and more. I was having problems sleeping and sitting for long periods of time. I didn't like to go to the movies anymore because it was so uncomfortable to sit for that long. Surgery was always on my mind as an option but I was scared.

Finally I had had enough of the pain. I couldn't take it anymore. Even rods in my back would be better than the pain I constantly went through. I called in December 2003 and scheduled an appointment to met with the doctor to tell him that I want the surgery. My appointment was scheduled for January 15th.

Even though I had finally done it, I had made the decision, I still doubted myself. All of my friends and family supported me 100%. My mom went with me to my appointment to speak to the doctors about surgery.

I couldn't believe it when just 10 minutes after I arrived in their office they said that they can schedule the surgery for the beginning of February. Were they crazy?? That was just two weeks later and I had just decided to have the surgery a few weeks before that. No! That's too soon. My mom and I picked a date for early March instead. That was a little better.

So then I got to wait for a month and a half while every day I questioned if that was the right decision. I was scared, nervous, terrified and excited all at the same time.

That's the store before my surgery. Stayed tuned for Take 2!

Corn dogs, Gravitrons and Carnies oh my!

2008-08-11T16:17:00.000-07:00

So over the weekend Grant and I, along with his mom, sister, her husband and niece went the the Nevada County Fair. Let me tell you their fair puts our local fairs to shame! There are beautiful redwood trees over most of the fairgrounds that provide great shade. And their food is freakin' fabulous! I ate too much (but it was worth it) and rode too many rides (again, totally worth it). I haven't ridden on a roller coaster since before my back surgery (which I'll save that story for another post).

In other news there's not really much else going on. I'm ready for a change in my life though. I've been working at the same job for over eight years and let me tell you, selling countertops is not that exciting. I feel like I have the same routine everyday and I'm getting tired of it. Hopefully Grant and I will move onto bigger and better things some day soon.

Sorry this blog is boring but that's kind of how I feel right now.

Why it helps to have a wedding planner.

2008-08-07T10:19:00.000-07:00

My wedding was amazing. It truly was the best day of my life and it was everything I've ever dreamed it would be. My great friend Amelia helped with the planning and basically took over to make sure all the details got done. This is how my wedding day started:

8:00 am: Wake up in the hotel room I got for me and 4 other friends.

8:15 am: Go down to the free continental breakfast with Haley, Mona, Tonya and Amy.

9:00 am: Get back to the room and decided to go back to sleep in the comfy bed.

10:30 am: Haley, Tonya and I go downtown to do a little shopping.

11:30 am: Have lunch at a great little sandwich shop, Kona's, in downtown Chico.

12:15 pm: Pick up the wedding dress and try it on again so Tonya and Haley can learn how to do the bustle.

1:00 pm: Arrive at my parents house (where the wedding took place) and since Grant wasn't there yet I got to say hi to family and friends and make sure everything was going how I had planned. This part I enjoyed because I finally got to boss some people around. I know, I'm bad!

2:00 pm: Lock myself with my bridesmaids, hairdresser and mom into my parents upstairs room to get ready and to hide from Grant. At this point we were all getting our hair and make up done.

4:00 pm: Watch the girls take some shots (I rarely drink and I didn't want to be sick on my wedding day).

6:30 pm: Anxiously peek out of the window to see all of the guests arrive.

7:00 pm: Walk down the aisle with my Dad.

So as you can see I had such a relaxed day. I got plenty of rest and plenty to eat. My brideslaves, I mean bridesmaids were at my side all day. I could not have pulled of such an amazing wedding without the help of Amelia.

I have a blog...

2008-08-06T14:47:00.000-07:00

My friend Kaci inspired me to have a blog. She sent me an email today saying that she posted a blog about her BFF and low and behold there was a story about me. I truly feel special.

Well, I got to thinking that maybe I should have a blog too. I mean there really isn't anything exciting going on in my life right now but maybe someday there will be.
So for now I will leave it at that and I will make sure to keep everyone up to date about all the eventful things that go on in my life....ya right.

Living the Married life......

Long long long overdue update

5. Buy a new car

9. Have a romantic dinner with Grant at the Melting Pot

Guess what I'm doing tomorrow!

91. Be able to check off 50 things to ­ Cleansweep my life

66. Write a letter to Grant’s grandma and snail mail it

42. Finish my thank you cards from the wedding

70. Buy blinds for the entire house

17. Get rid of all of my shoes that I haven’t worn in the last 6 months

48. Read the Twilight series

19. Donate hair to Locks of Love

My blog makeover!

Twilight

Check this out.

Look how speical I am....

Long time no see

Oh....my.....gosh!

I know you're jealous.....

We're making progress

5 minute chocolate mug cake

I love PF Changs.

Had a great weekend

Sorry, sorry, sorry!

I had a fabulous weekend

I'm so bad

Happy New Year!

I'm in love

I had a plan

Coco goes to work

2 Days Until Christmas!

Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

SO excited!

Christmas is right around the corner

More blogs, yay!

So tired

It's Friday

I suck at coming up with catchy titles

23 days 'til.......

My appointment went great

Tomorrow is the day

The Big News

Fall is in the air

Thirsty Thursday

It's been awhile......

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day

Friday Funny

Work is slow

Happy Birthday Grant!

It's Thursday!

Changes are coming

Getting Healthy

TGIF!

Back Surgery Part II

I've been tagged!

The decision to have back surgery.

Corn dogs, Gravitrons and Carnies oh my!

Why it helps to have a wedding planner.

I have a blog...

91. Be able to check off 50 things to Cleansweep my life