AJ brings on the funny, yet again.

So AJ (who just got a job yesterday - congrats!) has enlightened us once again with his understanding of awesomely funny things.

Yesterday my family and I went to the Geauga County Fair. I don't remember going to a county fair that was SO 4-h ish. I mean, I get that 4-H is a large part of county fairs, but holy smokes! There were farm animals everywhere!! And my mom, like wanted to see all of them? Frankly, if you've seen one pig, you've seen them all - or so I thought. Apparently Mom needed to see the entire barn full of pigs, and then the entire barn full of sheep and we didn't even get to the goats and the cows.

So, before we even got into the barnyard shenanegans, we had to make it through the onslaught of vendor booths at the main gate. As we were walking around admiring the faux-designer sunglasses and opportunities for a free air conditioning estimate, we saw the shop of all shops. It had "native american" jewelry (most likely made by some wasp-y hick who's closest contact with native american culture was the Lone Ranger and Tonto) and a few home decor items along the same vein.

But then, on the back wall, all the way inside the booth was the piece de resistance...the mighty wolf t-shirt. The sheer awesomeness of such an item was astounding and, frankly, breath-taking.

Some of you may not understand the draw of such an item and so, as explanation, I would like you to click the link below. It will take you to Amazon.com where you can purchase such fabricated awesomenes, but focus please. You must read one or two of the 1,400+ reviews. Yes, 1,400+.

Trust me, you too will become a believer.


*link to amazon.com*
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I Love My Brother

I have four brothers. I think they are all great. They're funny and nice and really tall. Well - except for AJ, he's not so tall. :)

But, to make up for his miniscule height of 5'11", he is very funny. Like, inordinately funny. He also finds funny things on the internet that make us all laugh.

DH and Baby Girl and I drove out to Kirtland today to visit my family and since AJ is living with them while he looks for a job (he's a new graduate), we get to visit with him as well. Our first order of business, after admiring the severe cuteness of Baby Girl was to have him show us his most recent "funny finds".

So without further ado, enjoy this website...

**CLICK HERE**
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Ralph

Ah, Ralph.  With Baby Girls's obvious preference for your brand, I may single handedly keep you in business during this recession.

You make such beautiful clothing for my little baby. I have a tennis outfit of yours that I can't get enough of and then there is this lovely terry cloth ensemble with a matching hat. I even have a beautiful white onesie with the most delicate of lace along the peter pan collar. It's a little big for her yet, but will be perfect for this coming winter.

I simply cannot afford to look at your children's clothing line any longer, regardless of how Baby Girls feels about this. I have a future to plan for and you are seriously endangering that future!
 

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Catch Up

Ok. Time to catch up. This will most likely be a boring post.

It's been over a month since I last posted about life and I'd like to say that it's because I have been really busy, but let's be honest. I haven't really been all that busy.

Per my previous post, I just suck at time management with a new baby.

But, I digress, in the last month, DHand I made a monumental trip out to Utah. We drove.

It wasn't so bad. Baby Girls slept through just about the ENTIRE car ride (all 20 plus hours) and was an absolute trooper the whole time. We went out to see my awesome Sister-in-law and Brother-in-law get sealed to each other for time and all eternity. It was great to be out there and to be a part of such an important experience.

While we were there my SIL practiced some of her awesome photography skeelz on my baby. Baby Girl wasn't very cooperative, but I think there were some nice shots taken. I'll post those in the near future.

Really, that's been the highlight of the last month. I've taken Baby Girl on a few walks and even gone to the store a few times. She's mostly good natured as long as I don't mess wsith her schedule too much. :)
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2 Months

Baby Girl turned 2 months yesterday...

So I know it's been a while since I posted anything and I've got to be honest, this whole mothering thing is totally kicking my trash.

My entire professional life was task oriented and on schedule and then I go and have a baby. Did you know they have no discernable schedule until like 2.5 months after they're born? And even then it's not a good schedule!

But, since I'm now posting on my blog, maybe I'm starting to get the hang of it. Baby Girls has sort of figured out her nightly routine and there is now only one nightly feeding at about 3:30am. This I can handle. I'm actually getting a relatively normal amount of sleep in a relatively long block of time.

This is improving my outlook on life considerably.


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Puke-a-Saurus Rex

D3 learned a new trick.

Yep. The last few days D3 has become the queen of puke, or as I like to call her, "Puke-a-Saurus Rex" because she will spit up what seems like the entire contents of her stomach and then some.

I've been talking with my mom about this and it seems that it is very likely related to what I consume, so - what does that mean?

(Thunderous voice from the sky) NO...MORE...HAPPINESS...

For those in the know, that quote from Brian Regan is all I need to say, for the rest of you, this means I need to cut out dairy. I thought maybe it was just milk, like maybe cheese would be okay or something (I'm grasping at straws), so I had cheese on my taco last night. This resulted in Puke-a-saurus Rex making an appearing at her morning feeding.

So, moral of the story is no more dairy, and probably limited greens and even more limited amounts of chocolate. :(
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2 weeks

D3 is now two weeks old. And she hasn't died.

It's true, DH and I have made it through the first night home from the hospital, her first bath, her first doctor's appointment and now, her first road trip.

Earlier this week, we decided to drive out to see my parents at "the estate". My brother, his wife and their two kids were coming for a visit, and my brother who just graduated from Boise State is moving back this week. It's been fun because the only one missing is my brother who is still on a mission for our church.

All in all, it's been a great trip. I was able to see a few sites in the area and mostly just rest and recover more from surgery. We go back to the read world on Monday, and hopefully I'll be recovered enough to finally start putting my house back together. There are few things as discouraging as living in a partially unpacked house.

And now for the pictures. Because why does anyone read this blog except to see pictures?








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Introducing...

Introducing our newest family member, Darling Daughter Daphne Lynn. Here after known as D3.

We still don't have internet access at our new apartment (Yep, we moved this last weekend too) so I am just uploading a few photos that we have of D3. They aren't edited or cropped or anything so...enjoy! (Also, I uploaded them in reverse, so you will see her first bath before you see me in the hospital waiting, I know...lame.)


















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AWESOME

What NOT to say to when speaking during a conference call with the VP of HR and all the HR Directors for this company that I work for...

Some days, I amaze myself. I am often in charge of implementing major software and vendor contracts within our company and this most recent implementation was given to me last week. With a go live date of this Friday.

It's a little stressful because that's not a lot of time to get 75 users their log-in information, set up training modules that are company specific, alert the decision makers at each individual location, AND end relationships with the vendors that this new program replaces (It's seriously like breaking up with your High School boyfriend all over again. They're so needy and whiny!)

Anyhoo, the VP of HR for an entire division asked that I log in to their monthly call and talk about exactly what this new vendor will mean for them and how they will use this new vendor.

I get to talking about why we chose them, how streamlined the process is, how they are using technology to their advantage and providing much more accurate results than our other vendors, and then it happens...someone asks a question about paper forms that we "have" to use and I say it.

"...and that's why this vendor is so AWESOME."

Yep. I am solidly 10 years younger than the youngest person on that call and I basically tell everyone how young I am. It's great.

So much for professionalism.
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Holy Crap!

This link makes me want to go private and NEVER post another picture, and close my facebook page, and become a complete social networking recluse... Check it out here.

Also, have another Dr. appointment tonight. My last visit said she's already 7.5 pounds and doing well. She's dropped or lightened or whatever making it impossible to sleep or even walk for that matter. It's good times.

She's due in two weeks exactly and we are most likely moving in 3 weeks (exactly).

Awesome. I hope Dave likes moving all our junk by himself...
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Mother's Day

So, as I said in my pseudo-update, we spent Mother's day weekend with my parents in Kirtland.

I took my new camera. (After like 4 years of spanish, I ALWAYS want to spell camera with an extra "a" (i.e. camara), anyone else?)

We left early Friday morning, the 8th and drove straight through, and except for that wrong turn toward Akron, we totally would have been there early. :)

So - in typical familial fashion, we had a weekend full of food. Yum! To make up for my hideous lack of photos lately, I'm posting a handful here. Enjoy!













mmmmm....I love pancakes. We used the flat top again and dad bought a bacon press. Because seriously, how can you have a flat top grill and no bacon press? You can't. I'll just tell you.





These are from dinner that first night (so technically before the breakfast shots but whatever). We had grilled steaks, corn on the cob and some other random stuff that I can't remember we ate. Sorry - my memory is really going what with this whole baby thing.
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I Couldn't Do It...

I couldn't. I tried to make the hippie skirt/dress thing work.

I put on the skirt Sunday morning and I almost cried. The hippie shoes I bought weren't quite right and didn't hide the foot chubbiness, the skirt was this faded-screen printed mess and it didn't look right with the shirts that I had available.

I couldn't really sleep anyway, so I was up early. I take off my hippie clothes and I pull out my sewing machine. I had some fabric and a pattern and I proceeded to make myself as non-hippie of a maxi dress as I could.

I knew it would be a challenge and I had to be at church by 12:30 so I couldn't afford to make any mistakes.

3.5 hours later - I had a jersey knit, pseudo-maternity maxi dress. It was made of this yummy chocolate brown.

The only problem...? DH said I looked like a franciscan monk, and a pregnant one at that! (Try explaining that to the holy father)

Oh well, at least I wasn't a hippie!
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Some Realizations

I've recently come to some realizations.

1.) At 34.5 weeks gestation, my ankles are now "swollen". I put this in parenthesis because from a theoretical/physiological standpoint, I understand the concept of edema and how that would tie into pregnancy and what all that might mean.

I had NO idea it was going to look so grotesque. You see, friends, I dislike feet. They are, in general, ugly. Add ankles that are of varying, mismatched sizes throughout the day and you have a recipe for disaster.

2.) Maxi dresses make me look like a hippie. I have never in my life wanted to be associated with the whole "hippie" mentality. Give me a pencil skirt and stockings any day of the week.

To combat realization #1, I have purchased two maxi dresses. They are not actually meant as maternity wear, but considering my maternity options, I had no choice. The situation was dire. These newly purchased dresses will shortly become skirts as I remove the sorry excuse of a bandeau top and those laughably incapable spaghetti straps meant to keep everything covered. They will then be long enough to just graze the floor and keep eyes away from my ankles.

3.) I don't own any "hippie" shoes. I don't. My family in/from California would probably laugh at my horrendously buttoned-up wardrobe with blacks, whites and other random, bold, primary colors and my shoes match my wardrobe.

4.) I don't like diaper bags. Seriously, do they all have to come dipped in Teflon? I understand the practicality, but the style just SCREAMS mediocrity in most cases. I have decided that I will just buy those larger styled bags that normal people still use and then stuff it full of bottle holders and diapers and changing pads.

5.) I don't get to have small purses anymore. I've since purchased a seriously capable wallet, that can manage my entire life while riding along in my "non-diaper bag" diaper bag.
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Memories of my Sweet Sixteen

So, I was looking for a picture from the party where the three birthday girls are smiling over our cakes, and I was about to call my mom so that she could get it for me, and then I remembered that all her photos are in Ohio, and she's still here in Chicago for another two weeks.

So, you're going to have to imagine me at 16 with my two best friends from High School, TM (now TB) and LS (now LF).

Ok, just to give you some background, TB, LF and I all have birthdays within a month of each other so a joint sweet 16 seemed like an absolute no brainer. LF's dad was or is the Harbor Master for the City of Chicago and although I'm not completely sure what he does/did, but it was powerful and it was awesome.

So he knew a guy who knew a guy who got us this really great deal on a charter boat, you know, the kind that you see all the tourists ride? Generally they're filled with cheap plastic lawn chairs and a questionable looking "bar", but they actually provide a lot of space when you get rid of all of that.

Collectively, we invited about 200 of our closest friends and we met at LF's house, loaded into what seemed like a million cars and we headed off to Navy Pier, where we were going to pick up the boat.

We get to Navy Pier and the DJ has already arrived and set up on the upper deck. There was food and cake on the lower deck and we were ready to party. We board the boat and head out to Lake Michigan. We were planning on being out till about 10:30 or 11:00 (i think, LF and TB - correct me if I'm wrong on any of this) and so we motored out to the light house and up and down the shore a few times, blasting "high school" music and generally having a good time.

After pizza and cake and all the obligatory birthday stuff, we went back to the upper deck to dance during our last pass of the light house before heading back to the pier.

At this point, my parents are looking off the side of the boat and they notice this odd shape in the water. They think to themselves, "What could be floating this far out from the shore?" My dad then says, "It's a body!!!" He runs up to the captain and tells him we have a man overboard.

They circle around and pull out their spotlight. All 3 sets of parents start rounding up the kids and turning off the music (totally lame) and make us go down to the lower deck for a head count. They're convinced someone took a nosedive off the end of the boat.

They realize that all the kids are here and being that we aren't that incredibly unaware, we start trying to figure out why they were being such downers and why we had a search light scanning the water. Eventually some chaperons lets it slip and then, like a tidal wave, the news spreads to everyone at the party.

Pandemonium ensues.

We have people hogging the bathrooms, throwing up and crying hysterically because they'd never seen a dead body (btw, it was 200 ft. away - you couldn't really see it), then there were the kids who didn't know what to do who just sort of sat around and made small talk. My brother was with most of the guys and a few boyfriends making dead body jokes, (i.e. "wow, this is a killer party!", "I bet his name is BOB"), there was also a group of super religious evangelists that were praying over his soul. I somehow managed to get stuck in their prayer circle. It was somewhat uncomfortable and seemed horrendously insincere.

They finally locate the body with the spotlight and call the harbor police. We're about 20 minutes from the harbor so we can see them coming for a REALLY long time. Eventually, the parents decide to let us turn the music back on and we go upstairs to dance. It's a bit awkward, but, being that we are mostly resilient high schoolers, we make it work.

The next day, we all go to school and the news of this crazy party is all over the school. My Choir teacher mentioned it in class and asked if anyone had heard about it. (LF and I were in the same choir and we're like, "uh...yeah, we heard about it".)

The funny thing is, there was a band concert the night of the party and according to the band director, to miss a concert should have been punishable by expulsion and the complete loss of a high school diploma. So all our friends that were conveniently "sick" from the band concert that night couldn't admit to being at the "killer party"...
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Layoff...I'm starving!

Don't judge me, I had cookies for breakfast.

I wanted to eat them. Leave me alone.

Ok, I thought about naming this post "hiatus" since it's been a while since I posted. I'm kind of busy right now and blogging just isn't anything that I want to do.

I try to blog at home (so as NOT to be a horrible employee) but I've had baby classes, piano lessons, and other things that makes blogging nothing more than a blip on my radar.

With that said, here is a brief list of things that I hope to blog about in the future, that have happened to me since my last post (Seriously - since my last post).

1. My birthday. Yep - I turned 26. It's been 10 years since my sweet 16 boat party with the dead body (legendary, I'm telling you. I'll have to explain it later).

2. The Camera - I got an awesome camera for my birthday. We thought it might be a good idea what with the whole "situation" happening the end of next month.

3. To the Country. We went and visited my parents at their house in Kirtland this last week. We saw my mom on Mother's day, and talked to my brother who is on a mission for my church. He's been out almost a year.

4. We signed a lease on the new apartment.

5. I cleaned said apartment - horrendously deep, back/knee/foot-ache inducing cleaned.

6. The lease on said apartment fell though. :(

7. Starting over on my apartment search.

8. Mild panic with the baby not moving - going to the doctor and realizing yet again how dissatisfying my ob clinic is.

9. Having an AWESOME baby shower at work.

10. Taking 4 shopping bags full of stuff home. PLUS a giant high chair. Yep. Someone bought me a highchair...and brought it to work...for me to take home.

11. This is the last week of seminary!! I taught my last "real" lesson and finished the book of Revelation today. We're cleaning up and playing games the rest of this week.

12. Saw the new Star Trek movie. Surprisingly interesting. I don't even like Star Trek and I mostly understood it.

Yep. That's what has happened in my life in the last 2ish weeks. I'm still pretty tired from all of that but someday, someday, I will post about these things.

Until my next update - Rae out.
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Hi! I'm Carl*,

But you can call me Satan, the bus driver from Hell...

So, I've had a rather busy week and am on day 3 of what is turning in to a week-long headache. This is when I meet Carl.

The bus is crowded and it's a stop or two before a seat vacates. (Apparently I look huge because 2 different people offered my their seats, but I'm not taking a seat from a senior citizen - I'd rather faint)

When I finally sit down, it starts to get crazy. Carl has been alternating between punching the gas and the break in 5 second intervals. We're all getting whiplash just sitting there, and then this lady next to me almost didn't make it to her seat because Carl was so quick to punch the gas.

She's on the phone and I don't know that I've ever had a more entertaining ride. She is telling her friend what bus she's on so that when she dies, they'll know where to find her. She's practically shrieking every time we take a turn or change lanes, because I swear, this guy thought he was in a sports car.

You HAVE to play heads up ball when you are a pedestrian downtown for exactly this reason! There were pedestrians running to get out the way of the way and this one lady refused to move fast and Carl seriously only missed her by like 12 inches.

Ah, CTA - good times, good times...

*names have been changed - mostly because I don't know his real name.
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That's One More than First...

My Mom has lived in Chicago for almost 11 years and never been to a game at Wrigley Field.

*Cue angels singing...



Remember how I work for Tribune Company? Remember how they own the Cubs and Wrigley Field?

So being that we own the Cubs, we also get first shot at some ridiculously good seats. Ridiculously good.



Yep, that would be a picture of the number 2. As in second. Like the row behind the first one.

My mom met me at the office and we bought her a Cubs shirt from the the gift shop on the main floor and then we headed up to Wrigley. We're in our seats about 20 minutes to start and it's amazing.



Here's my mom, showing off her awesome "Cubs-wear".



And here's the two of us with the scoreboard. Just so you know, we're both there. At the REAL Wrigley Field.

You know where the home pitcher warms up his arm before he goes out to do his thing? We were right there.





And this is our starting pitcher, Carlos Zambrano.

I'm not going to bore you with the game, because seriously, I don't know that many of the people that read this actually care about how the cubs are doing and whether or not they won (they did...). All in all, this was a great day and a great experience, and totally worth the insane amount of sunburn.
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I'm an Idiot

I should not be allowed to touch the alarm between the hours of 4:30a and 6:30a.

Why?

Because this whole "doing everything" situation is sort of catching up with me and I'm tired. REALLY, bone-deep, tired.

My alarm went off without a hitch this morning, exactly as it always does at 4:34am. I quickly waddle over to the alarm (because if it's by my bed I will snooze it until 7) and turn it off. I sit in the desk chair for what feels like forever (15 seconds tops) and think, I could just leave my hair curly today and get another half hour of sleep...

SO I RESET THE ALARM.

Why would I do this? Beyond wanting more sleep, I'm not coherent! I can't form a complete thought, let alone engage complex motor skills.

So, I changed my alarm, I went from 4:34 to 5:06. I put the alarm switch to on and went back to bed.

I woke up and raced (waddled) to my phone. It's 5:43. I was supposed to drive today and I had to be at everyone's house by 5:35. I'm so totally screwed...

I called TJ, the other seminary teacher and she agreed to drive today and teach alone - because I still hadn't showered, and curly hair or not, I wouldn't have made a shower and seminary this morning.

OK. Moral of the story. When you want to change the alarm, make sure your actually changing the ALARM time and not the ACTUAL time. Because this will screw up your morning. Also, just get up. A few extra minutes in a hot shower would have probably been just as effective as sleeping for another hour...man, I'm an idiot.


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More Food, More House

Mom and Dad LOVE the kitchen in this house and considering the amount of wallpaper that was in the foyer of this home when they first saw it, I'm convinced this is one the only reasons they didn't laugh in the realtors face and walk out.

This is "the stove". I think my dad has wanted one of these things since like, I was born.





And this is "the spatula". We took a trip to GFS (It's like costco without the hassle of membership) and we found this awesome institutional grill top metal spatula (I think there's supposed to be a comma in there somewhere, but whatever). *For serious cooks only - as demonstrated*



The center of the range has a flat griddle under the cover and it has a temperature gauge. I made omeletes that first morning with mushrooms, peppers, onions and cheese. I LOVE griddles.

I didn't take any pictures of the omelettes, but they were amazing. I'm convinced everything tastes better when cooked on a professional range. (sigh* someday)

Amid all this cooking, it was actually Conference Weekend. We spent most of Saturday morning setting up the television in my parents family room so that we could watch the the 179th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Since by WE, I mean Dad and DH, I took pictures. :) Here they are setting up the entertainment center.





And here is the finished product. I sure was tired after watching them move that 6-piece monstrosity into place. The outcome was impressive though!



So after all that work, we needed an amazing dinner. Right? Right.

We had skirt steak in a sesame, garlic, and ginger marinade. Once again - we used the grill, because we can.

We grilled peppers and onions and had an amazing time eating it. I still didn't get a great picture, but it is a little better than the salmon. (Maybe my awesome SILs on both sides, can give me some pointers?)

It was delicious and perfectly cooked. I love a good marinated skirt steak. In fact - we're having some this week. It'll be yummy.

After dinner Dad and DH went to the Priesthood Session of General Conference while I finally watched the series finale of E.R. I love that show. My Thursday nights will never be the same now that it's gone.

When they got home, DH jumped into the hot tub to relax. The funny thing is, that the water level was a little low and so to turn on the jets, someone had to be in the tub. And then DH's in there, hanging out, and the jets are on a timer. He couldn't get out until they turned off, because he would have sprayed the entire inside of the room that the hot tub is in. - FYI, This was hilarious at 10:00 at night. While DH was trapped in the hot tub, I made dessert.

Dad had bought some gorgonzola cheese and we had pecans and walnuts, and some puff pastry dough. He also found a can of cherry pie filling in the pantry so DH could enjoy some dessert too. :)





Since I realy like desserts, I finally made an effort with plating and remembered to take a picture. I think it turned out pretty well.

The cheese pastries were amazing. The savory cheese with the nuts was a perfect blend with the lightness of the pastry and the sharpness of the raspberry coulis sauce that we made.

We just threw a little powdered sugar icing on the cherry turnovers and they were also very delicious.

Well, thus ends Day 2. Yes, there is more wondrous cooking to be had on Day 3 - but I don't think I have any pictures. I'll post more soon.
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A Weekend at the Country Estate

Seriously.



This is my parents house. My brother and I joke about how they have given up suburban life to retire on their country estate. Did you know it has a hot tub room? I've never known my folks to be hot tub people...or so I thought. It's like a don't even know them anymore. Pretty soon my Dad's going to say how much he wants to go on a cruise...with other people near him...people that he doesn't know. My entire understanding of the universe shifted after my weekend in Kirtland.

After finally soaking in the sheer awesome-ness of their new home, I was able to get to more important matters - like the food.

The food was delicious! My Dad and I love to cook together. We go to the store and buy obscure cheeses and weird cuts of meats and odd smelling condiments and concoct these dishes using just about every pot and pan and utensil in the house. It drives my mom crazy, but in a half smiling, "you kids!", exasperated sort of way. (Most of the time - there was is one time, we made curry...there wasn't much of a half smile that time. It smelled like red and yellow curry for about 3 days)

We arrived on Friday afternoon right around lunch time. My Dad was still at work, but coming home soon. He had bought an amazing piece of salmon and had seen a recipe on a cooking show we sometimes watch that he wanted to try. It involved pepper jelly (a family favorite), cilantro, butter, salt and pepper. It was great. We sort of had to improvise because we were all out of the yummy jalapeno jelly I had given him for Christmas - and to be honest, I think I'll start making my own just so I can up-tic the heat a little.



We mixed the cilantro, raspberry-jalapeno jelly that we did have in the pantry, and butter. We didn't put in quite enough salt to balance the sweet of the raspberry, but that was fixed after plating.



We grilled the salmon in a tin foil boat and let me tell you - I LOVE cooking fish this way. You still get the grill marks, but your filets stay intact and you don't have to deep clean the inside of the grill after cooking. Two great things.

Anyway, here is the finished product. *Please remember that I suck at taking photos and I was just so excited to eat this, that i didn't bother plating it well. That's why it's blurry and a bit of a mess*



We cooked pretty much all weekend, but you'll have to wait for my other posts to hear about the rest of this culinary wonderment.
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