Sunday, July 30, 2006

Tagged Again

I've been tagged!

*Alone or with people?
I definitely like my alone time, but I do like to socialize, too. I guess it just sort of depends on the day :)

*Summer or Winter?
This is a hard question because I do not prefer extreme weather, be it heat or cold. I love the spring and fall when it just feels good outside. If I really had to choose, though, I guess I would choose winter because you can always put more clothes, blankets, etc. on than you can take off in the summer.

*Black or White?
Black. White washes me out; I wear it rarely. And when it comes to furniture or carpet...anyone with kids knows that choosing white is just asking for trouble.

*Observe, or get along from the very first moment?
I've never really thought about this, but I guess I am an obserever first and foremost. I am not the type to put myself out there and jump into conversation with someone I have never met. I've done it in the past, but it was always awkward. I suppose I am too shy to hit it off with someone right away.

*Clown, or Drama (Queen/King)?
I really don't consider myself either. When I feel really comfortable with people, I let my guard down and become a sort-of-clown. Especially late at night, I can get pretty crazy :)

*A Hummer, or a BMW convertible car?
Of these choices, I'd have to pick the Beamer. Hummers are way too big and convertibles mess up my hair.

*Loyal or………
I'm loyal to a fault. Once you're a friend, you're always a friend. (I'll steal Kathy's answer on this one.)

*Three people I'm tagging
I hate this part. Even if I tag you, don't feel obligated: Chelsey, Harmony, & Lynsey W.

Never Again


Okay, I know the saying, "Never say never," but if I have anything to do with it, I am never eating at McDonald's again.

Scott and I watched the documentary Super Size Me the other night (which I do recommend to all of you out there who have an interest in what you are eating and how it affects you). I just have to say, "Wow." The guy who made the film, Morgan Spurlock, ate nothing but McDonald's three meals a day for 30 straight days. First of all, ugh. I can barely eat there as it is. He could only eat what was on their menu and had to try everything at least once. If they asked him if he wanted to super size, he had to say yes. There is so much about this movie I could tell you, but I really want you all to see it for yourselves. It will make you think very differently about fast food. Also, don't forget to watch the special features, especially the interview with Eric Schlosser, who wrote the book Fast Food Nation. That, too, is quite enlightening.

The film has some gross parts; I did have to turn away a couple of times, but you still know what's happening. That's my only real warning. Otherwise, I think this film is one that all Americans need to see!

Friday, July 28, 2006

Huh?

Wow, I'm so glad to see that my blog wasn't deleted when I got on the computer today. I tried to check my MySpace this morning and I got a notice that read, "Invalid Friend ID. Member's account has been cancelled or profile has been deleted." What the heck? I didn't delete my profile! I emailed customer service so maybe they know what's up...craziness. And I had just put up a cool slide show, too... :(

We got Netflix in the mail today...woo hoo! One of the movies is Supersize Me. I have been wanting to see that for a long time. I'll let you know how it is.

My in-laws left town this morning. It was too short a visit. We had a good time visiting with them. My mother-in-law had a birthday yesterday, so we got a cake and ice cream. It was fun. They'll be driving part of the way home (Florida) today and the rest of the way tomorrow.

Speaking of trips, we'll be going on another next week. This time we are going to Scott's high school reunion. It's been 10 years since he gradumacated. Wow. We'll also be breaking up our trip (almost a must with Will) and will be staying next Thursday night with our dear friend Chelsey in Amarillo. I can't wait to see her! The last time I saw her was March, so again, it's been too long.

I tried to take some more pictures of myself with the red hair (upon request). Since I posted that last one, I got "low lights." I really really like it. The pictures aren't great, because I took them myself, but you get the idea. I like this first one because it is natural light...of course, it is blurry, and the light is reflecting strangely off of my eyes, but I still like it.

...And with the flash...

Thursday, July 27, 2006

How??


I just want to know how they do it. Those Asian ladies in the nail salon. How do they paint my nails so perfectly in such a small amount of time? And what do they do to make the polish stay on and intact for several days in a row? I attempted to paint my nails the other night. I washed my hands, filed my nails into nice "squoval" shapes, and painted on a clear base coat. I waited several mintues for them to dry. Then I painted the color. Again, I waited. Lastly, I painted a top coat. That may have been my mistake. I still had a few hours before I went to bed for the nails to completely dry, right? Wrong. I woke up in the morning to find air-bubbly nails with bedsheet and hair imprints in them. In fact, they really didn't completely dry until that night.

So, what I want to know is how do those ladies paint my nails with a base coat, color, and top coat (all in rapid succession, mind you) and then I can leave a few minutes later with no problem? Is it simply the base and top coats they use (which of course, have no labels) or the 2 mintues I spend sitting under the UV-cancer-ray-lamps? Hmm...will I ever know? Possibly. But for now, painting my nails will have to wait until Will goes to kindergarten.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Mountain View



We spent the past week at Mountain View Christian Camp in Alto (outside Ruidoso), New Mexico. Scott taught classes and we had a great time with some old friends (Jeff and Kara Shelton) and some new ones (Nathan and Melanie Hill). We had so much fun just being at camp and spending time with other Christians, other youth ministers, and their wives. We are glad to be home, though, and sleeping in our own beds and getting back to our routine. We are gearing up for visitors this week--Scott's parents and grandma are coming to visit us for a few days. We haven't seen them since Christmas, so we are very excited. Will will love having people to entertain and captivate all week!


Oh, and by the way...I dyed my hair red.

Saturday, July 15, 2006

This Pot was Made for Crockin'

...and that's just what she'll do. Behold my new crock-pot! Whoo hoo! We got one as a wedding gift but it was so tiny--only about 2 quarts! It barely held a jar of Prego. So, while out and about the other day, we decided to get ourselves a brand-spankin' new one that holds 5 quarts! The stoneware comes out for easy cleaning (a feature our other one did not have), and you can set it on low, high, or keep warm. Very nice.

Friday, July 14, 2006

More "Moving" Pics

Another view of our room (see below). The bed is in a new place. It's kind of been like sleeping at someone else's house or in a hotel because our bed had been in the same spot since we moved into this house in 2002. Wow. I like it. Again, I'm not done getting everything together, but this is it for now.
Will's room with the bed on the floor. The blinds are up because Will had been looking out the window for cows.
"Cow??"

Moving

Ha, ha! Made you look :) No, we're not moving...houses, anyway. But we have moved a lot of furniture in the past few days. I (and Scott) have been so busy. I was tired of the cramped feeling in our guest room with the computer desk in there, so we moved it into our bedroom (there's a whole other story there...). I also wanted the rocking chair in Will's room to go in the guest room because we have had a mattress propped up behind Will's bedroom door for a LONG time. I wanted that thing out from behind the door! So, we moved the rocker to the guest
room and the bed to where the rocker was. It's just a mattress on the floor right now, but I feel a lot better about it.
The compuer desk in our room...don't look too closely...I'm not quite finished getting it all together!

What you see when you walk into the guest room now...


Along with all the moving 0f furniture comes much purging and organizing. I have been literally waist deep in crap (figuratively speaking). Ugh. How does a couple who has only been married for 6 six years accumulate so much STUFF?? I mean, I think we have as much junk as my parents who have been married for almost 30! I have thrown away A LOT of stuff in the past two days. And I feel good about it. I really do.

Because of all this moving, purging, and organizing, Will has spent the last two days with sitters. Yesterday, he stayed with one of the sweetest girls in our youth group, Teryn. Teryn has something to offer Will that not many other girls do...cows. Yep, she's got real-live steers in her backyard. Will loves cows. He looks out every window in our house expectantly saying, "Cow?" It's so cute. But Teryn actually has cows. So, she took him to see them. However, he still kept calling our neighbors' large dog a cow today. Oh, well. We're working on it.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Help!

Okay, friends...I have a couple of questions for all you smarty-pants tech-y people out there!

1. Two blogs is getting to be too much for me. I don't really know why I did it in the first place, but, oh well, here I am. So, my question is...can I make the two become one? And if so, how do I do that? (By the way--pictures of the fourth of July and Will in his wagon can be seen by clicking here).

2. How can I get pictures of things I am talking about in my blog from their residence on the Internet onto my blog (ie...I would have liked to put pictures of the Pirates of the Caribbean and Superman Returns up yesterday, but couldn't figure it out). I know there is a way to do it without breaking laws, but I can't seem to get it. Everytime I try, it does not work.

Okay, so there are my questions for all the smarties out there. Yes, I am "Inter-web" retarded. There, I said it. Whew.

Thanks and have a great Tuesday. And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my beautiful friend Kara!!

Monday, July 10, 2006

Katy Trip and Movie Reviews

We survived the trip and are back at home. Scott had to do an overhaul on this computer, but for the time being, it is working! I am taking the opportunity to give a (hopefully) quick update.

It rained almost the entire time we were in Katy. Argh! We still got in the pool four or five times, though. We just had to take advantage of the sunlight as soon as it was possible. I was able to visit with one of my best friends from high school, Heather, on Thursday. She and her two kids came over to swim and we had a good time catching up. I can't believe her daugther will soon be seven years old. Where does the time go?

I also went to go see Superman Returns. If you like Superman/Clark Kent, it was quite a good flick. Brandon Routh was a great Superman--it is uncanny how much like Christopher Reeve he looked, acted, and sounded. And Kevin Spacey was a great Lex. But Scott and I agree that if Parker Posey had had about 5 more minutes on-screen, she would have stolen the show. She is hilarious. Anyway, Superman was good.

Will had a couple of firsts this week--and not good ones! On Wednesday when we were swimming, I was holding Will and looked down to see a bee on his hand. I immediately swatted it away and looked to see if it had stung him. He wasn't crying or anything...just looking down at his hand curiously. I got the bee out of the water and my brother looked at it. He said it was a baby bee but had no stinger. Will's hand did look red and had a tiny red dot on it. So, evidently, he did get stung by the bee, but not much damage was done.

Later that night (actually in the wee hours of the morning), Will woke up quite wet and his pajamas were soaked through. I got him up and changed him into a different diaper and clothes and put him in the (queen-sized) bed with me. Even though he was in the middle of the bed, he kept tossing and turning and inching closer and closer to the opposite side of the bed. We were sleeping in my brother's room in which the bed is not up against a wall on either side. On the floor below the side of the bed to which Will was heading was a mirror. I, in my half-asleep stupor, grabbed for Will's leg but it was too late. He fell head-first off the bed with a huge crash. He, of course, fell on top of the mirror! I immediately scooped him up and checked for bleeding and broken bones. He, thank heaven, was completely intact. Of course, it scared the hooey out of him and he screamed for a couple of minutes. It must not have been too traumatizing, though, becuase he went back to sleep fairly quickly. I on the other hand, lost a lot of sleep that night because I was very aware of every little twitch he made. As soon as I was confident that he was sound asleep, I put him back in the portacrib. Frightening!!!

We also got to see our friends Kathy, Matt and Patrick on Saturday. They, too, came over to swim, but we had been in the pool no longer than 10 minutes when it started to pour! So, we ended up just visiting inside for a while. It was good to see them again. Patrick has grown so much since we saw him last! He's a cutie.

Sunday was our last day. Our flight was to leave at 2:35 and land at 4:00. But, of course, that didn't quite happen. We were delayed at first because our plane wasn't there. When our plane finally arrived, they told us that our crew was in College Station! The crew arrived fairly quickly and we boarded at 3:45. We then sat in runway traffic for 45 minutes. I think our flight finally landed around 6:00. Wow...what a day. I am just very glad that Will decided to take a nap during most of the flight :)

We were sooooooo glad to see "Daddy" (Scott). We hadn't see him in a long time and it was a nice reunion. Will's face just lit up when he spotted Scott. Then, he was so excited to see him that Scott had to hold him just about the whole time we were in the airport waiting for our bags to come out of the chute. It was so wonderful to see that it made the frustrating afternoon at the airport and on the plane just dissipate from my mind. It was so good to be home!

Tonight, my friends Harmony and Shannon and I went to Midland to share a meal and see Pirates of the Caribbean. Wow...what a movie! It was quite intense...and...gross. But, it was still good! The ending is a bit of a cliffhanger, so I am anxious to see the third installment next summer. I think if you liked the first one, you'd like this one, but I wouldn't take little kids to see it...it might cause some disturbing dreams!

Well, the time is late and I am tired from my little trip back to Midland! I have a busy week of cleaning and errands ahead of me, so I am signing off for now...love to all~~

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

July 5th

I seem to finally have a few moments in which to update! Yea! Last week, we were actually at home all week, but our computer was acting very strange, so everytime I tried to get on to update, I was booted off. So, a recap for the last two weeks:

Not much really exciting happened last week. I tried to get my house somewhat clean (which miserably failed because everytime I got it picked up, it would last about two hours) and also get geared up to pack for Will and I's trip to Houston. Scott was also busy preparing for Wilderness Trek.

Will and I flew out of Midland on Friday. I have realized that flying with babies is much easier when they are very small because they usually sleep through the entire flight (at least, that is what Will used to do). He wasn't bad during the flight, per se, he was just very active. I told my mom (which she thought was quite humorous) that he was the monkey and I was the jungle gym. What made this even worse was that even though I peed right before getting on the plane, I had to go again with in minutes of take-off. Of course, there was "turbulence," so the captain never turned off the fasten-seat-belt sign. Supposedly, the turbulence was so bad that we didn't even get served our drinks and peanuts. I never felt this so-called turbulence. I think they just didn't want me to pee. So the whole flight, Will was stepping on my bladder and I was cringing in pain. And because of this "turbulence," our flight was delayed about 30 minutes (I'm guessing they flew around the bad weather) so I had to endure even more climbing than usual. Also, he dumped a whole baggie of Cheerios out on my lap, so the kind, caring, grandpa next to me graciously held him while I cleaned up this mess.

Of course, through all of this, Will was extremely cute and flirtatious with all the people around us, so they all thought he was precious (which he is), even though he kept looking out the window and saying "Car!" over and over again.

Car and cow are Will's new favorite words. He has taken to calling my parents' dogs "cows," since they are considerably bigger than our dogs at home. He has also mastered "cat," as my parents also have a cat. Among his new words, another of his new tricks is walking. Well, he's not really walking, but he is SO close. We went and visited with some friends on Saturday night who are expecting a baby in a couple of weeks. They had been given a hand-me-down walking toy and let Will play with it. He must have walked across their living room with that thing 50 times. They were very sweet and allowed him to borrow it for the rest of the week, so he has been enjoying it quite a bit. Also, he has taken a few unassisted steps, but quickly sits down once he realizes what is happening.

Let's see, what else?? My mom and I went to see "The Devil Wears Prada" on Saturday night. It was a cute movie. Of course, Anne Hathaway is very good at playing the ugly-duckling-turned-swan type roles. Meryl Streep was good as the vicious boss.

Yesterday, the 4th, we went my great-aunt's lakehouse to spend the day. It stormed off and on all day, so I never got in the boat or in the water, but all the kids did. We had a good time visiting and playing games. There is just something about the water that relaxes you, I think. Whether just looking at it or lying on the beach, it is calming. I really enjoy getting to spend time out there.

Today, we are trapped inside by the rain, again. Of course it would rain the entire week I am here! I was really hoping to spend the majority of my time outside by or in my parents' pool, but instead we have only been in it once since we got here :( Hopefully the rain will cease soon. I hope you all had a great holiday. Thanks for indulging me by reading this insanely long post! Pictures will come next week (hopefully my computer will allow me) when I am back home with my card-reader.