Ok... Kathi didn't actually tag me but I thought this was a cute idea so here's my post for Desktop View Tag. This picture is commonly known as 'freaky upside down dog' and is just one of the many pictures we have of Riley. As you can see my desktop is horribly unorganized... makes me cringe actually ;~) So unlike my normal life where I like to put everything in its place! Oh well ;~)



I am with Kathi... I don't tag but if you partake in this amusement... let me know and I will check it out!

Monday morning...

Today is dad's first day as a Googler! So far so good but it's pretty much all orientation right now! So proud of you dad ;~) Can't wait to hear about it.

This was a pretty good weekend... nice and productive, which in my nesting state is pretty much as good as it gets. We finished the great furniture migration on Saturday. Dad's couch is now part of our living room, Rose and Nick have our old couch and our church has Rose and Nick's old couch (which co-incidentally was at one point Adam and I's couch)... yeah, lots of swapping going on! Also, my in laws have been gracious enough to store my mother's solid oak table and 6 dining room chairs until Adam and I are in a house where we actually have room for them. I am super excited that I get to keep these pieces in my family even though we really don't have the room for them right now... thanks Sandy and Joe!

Things are coming together around the house... Adam and I did a whirlwind all day cleaning when we got home from Hagerstown on Saturday. So many 'list items' were able to be crossed off which makes me incredibly happy! What made me even happier was every time Adam finished one thing, he would ask what else was on the list. He just kept plugging away so we could chip away at my lengthy to do list. He's such a good husband ;~) Speaking of which, I know I have posted of his antics before... The Khakis' Incident, Trucker Hat, Fighting the Man, just to name a few... all these things remind me how much fun he makes my life and how much he makes me smile. I say all this to lead up to 2 separate instances... Saturday night and Sunday night at our house...

First let me start by saying that it is a common source of entertainment that our dog snores... when he is deep asleep, he will really get going and it's pretty funny (to us at least). As I finishing up cleaning something in the living room I walk into our bedroom where my husband is taking pictures of his latest self made amusement... I introduce you to the Doggie CPAP machine...


I about fell over laughing at this sight...

Then Sunday night... I am on the couch printing some things for Peabert's room and Adam is in the kitchen writing down things to get at the grocery store. I am actively contributing to the list but focused on my computer until I finish and look over and see this...


Apparently, this is how my husband thinks writing a grocery list should be done... I swear to you, life in our house will NEVER be boring ;~)

Thanks for making me smile Adam ;~) I love you ~

They're off....

Adam and I saw Dad and Maverick off at the airport this morning! By the time Maverick needed to be at the airport, Stacie was already on her way to CA. We dropped Mav off (well it took an hour to get him checked in but whatever...) and then we headed to the airport to drop dad off. We ended up grabbing some breakfast in the terminal (you know, where they still allow those of us that aren't traveling!).

It is so bizarre to think that dad is gone for good now... he will now be a permanent resident of CA. Stacie will be back to finish out her job and make the arrangements for the movers and then she will join the CA ranks as well.


Saying goodbye to Mavy!


Awww, he has no idea what an airplane ride will be like!


The look on his face can only be described as apprehensive, poor little man.


Dad and I at the airport restaurant... and yes, the food is as bad as you think.



One last shot before dad heads through security! I love you dad!!!

1 Year Ago Today

On September 19, 2006 my husband gave up smoking! This is quite a feat if you know Adam... he has smoked since he was 15 (late by some peoples standards ;~) and it took a solid 2 years for him to finally quit. He stuck with it and kept trying to quit and I couldn't be more proud of him! Congrats on a whole year sweetie!

I've been had...

Good luck following this story but here it goes...

A few months ago Sandy, Adam and I were figuring out when we would come up in September and it was suggested that we come up the weekend of the 14th - 16th so Sandy could throw Joe a surprise party on Sunday for his birthday (which incidentally is actually today! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOE!)

So for the past month or so I have been trying not to say anything to Joe when I am around him because I don't want to spoil the surprise for Joe.

Finally the weekend is here and we are in H-town helping Sandy get ready for the party. She all over the place trying to make sure everything comes out right... making food, getting the house clean, trying not to spill the beans in front of Joe... who BTW, is oblivious to all the cooking, cleaning and chaos surrounding him. Adam and I get sent on several grocery store trips because things have been forgotten and we are both trying to help clean up wherever we can.

Sunday finally arrives and we go out to lunch for Joe's birthday, as we planned, around noon.

Debbie (Sandy's best friend) is coming over to set up for Joe's party while we are out of the house. So we do lunch, then work on stalling to go back to the house... it's only 1:30 and we aren't supposed to return until 3:15. We putz around shopping centers, in and out of stores... at one point I fell into Adam and told him I was tired of stalling, I just wanted to head back to the house. So finally the time comes and we head home. We haven't figured out a way to explain away the cars to Joe so we decided to just play dumb... as we pull up he is all "damn Sandy, I didn't want a party", "I can't believe you did this" and "you guys slipped up a few times"... we walk in the house and out to the back patio where there is not a party for Joe with the people I have been told will be there... instead there is a clothesline of baby clothes across the patio and an extremely high ratio of women.

Welcome to my surprise baby shower...

Sandy and Becky had orchestrated a baby shower for me up in Hagerstown and... along with everyone else... managed to keep me in the dark about it.

To say the least, this weekend was filled with hysterical antics... at the end of last week I started to suspect something and I kept quiet until Friday evening when I was chatting with Danielle (who is planning another baby shower for me ;~)... I told her I suspected something but she shut me down so quickly saying that everyone from Htown was coming to the baby shower and that she didn't want me walking around all weekend thinking that something was coming when it wasn't. Impressive on her feet thinking especially since I sprung that on her and she hasn't been feeling well lately... well played Danielle.

Once we got to Htown and the fam really played up the "surprise party for Joe" lie... I really started to feel silly for thinking that this was about me and totally bought back into the whole Joe's party idea. And everyone really played the part well... Sandy would take me up on offers to run to the grocery store, she rattled off names of those that were coming to the party.

Then with all the stress that Sandy was under planning this I made a comment to her about not being allowed to throw a surprise party again because its too stressful... I am sure she got a good laugh out of that. Come to find out... the stress was more from trying to keep what lie she was telling straight... pretending to lie to Joe when he really knew and always lying to me about whatever was going on... I can only imagine the insanity that brought on.

The baby shower was awesome... the weather was fantastic and it was really great to see so many friendly faces. I am trying not to post too many pictures but you all know me (and my photographer husband ;~) we have a ton of them... plus 2 videos of them actually surprising me... that might get posted later.

Aunt Becky stealing all the blue pacifier pins from anyone that said "baby" and then managing to not say it herself... she won the prize!

Grandma and I... she knit the most beautiful baby blue blanket... I can't wait to put that out in Peabert's room!

My wonderful husband who was on "dog duty' all day long... which was a task because boy was Riley confused about what was going on ;~)

Madyson and I posing for the camera... she was my big helper during the presents... picking out my next one and trashing all the paper for me... #1 helper for sure!

"What happens at Grandma's House, stays at Grandma's House" -

Peaberts "Jr. Lawyer" suit courtesy of Aunt Becky

LOVED the cake... everyone wanted to know the meaning behind Peabert ;~)

Riley can't be bothered with the baby shower... he is too busy soaking in the rays.

Heather, Gracie, Madyson and Cori

Debbie, Sandy's best friend and her daughter-in-law Sarah

Sandy and her good friend Therese

Trust me... I could have posted hundreds more pictures but I will spare you all... needless to say, it was an awesome party and I can't thank Sandy and Becky enough for throwing it for me. I had a wonderful time and was thoroughly surprised!

You have a strange way of getting ready for bed

A joke around our house is that even when I say I am ready for bed, that means I have about 8 other things I need to do before bed actually happens. It can be a variety of things that need to be done depending on what occurred that evening or what is on my 'to do' list.

Last night Adam and I were getting ready for bed and as he was straightening the sheets, I was shredding receipts. Adam looks over and says "you have a strange way of getting ready for bed"... yes I do ;~)

Going Away Party

My Dad and Stacie's going away party was this weekend. It turned out to be a great party and I think everyone had a lot of fun. It was at Iggies in Baltimore where you BYOB and eat the worlds best pizza ever... seriously folks... awesome pizza, try it sometime!


Dad and Stacie with The Economist which just happened to have "Who's afraid of Google?" as the cover story... Adam and I couldn't pass up bringing it to the party!


Rose and Nick came to send my dad and Stacie off... Rose has basically been an extension of our family since college... holidays, living at the house, learning to cook from dad and many more memories to great to list here. BTW - doesn't she totally look glam... love your style girl!


I also got to see my lifelong family friends Vicki and Brooke. Our friendship started when I was 9 years old... Vicki had just had her first baby and agreed to watch me during the summers for my mom... years of that pass and then I in turn start babysitting for her family... as it got bigger and bigger with the addition of Jon, Joy and Josh. Not only are Vicki and Brooke like second parents to me but their kids are like my little brothers and sisters. I love their family... to which they have added one more... little Julia who is by far the cutest little pistol ever!

There were many other people there saying goodbye to dad and Stacie but I don't know many of them so I am not going to post their pictures ;~)

All in all it was a fun evening... a little surreal to think that dad and Stacie won't be around after this month... but exciting nonetheless. T minus less than 2 weeks ;~)

Homecoming

A few (of the many) pictures from Josh's homecoming ;~)


Adam, Heather, Laura and I showing off the front of our Josh T-shirts


And the backs of the shirts say "Wife of...", "J", "O", "S", "H"


Heather and Josh reuniting for the first time in 4 months


Getting ready to go home!


The boys are back!


and of course... Josh being reunited with his little Layla Bean!

What a great experience that was... not that I would ever want someone to go through the pain of being apart for that long but if they have to... watching them reunite is the most heartwarming thing. I kept forgetting to take pictures because I was tearing up and so intent on watching Josh! I couldn't (and still can't) believe that he was home! It feels great to have him back safe and sound! Welcome home Josh!

This could possibly be the best day ever...

Josh is coming home today! He called Heather this morning from his last stop and was getting ready to board the plane to come back to the states. I can't say enough about how overjoyed we are to have him home. I am just praying that God orchestrates it so all of us can get to the airport to greet him. For anyone out there that feels the need... please pray for his continued safety as we expect him in anywhere from 4 - 7 pm! More to come!

32 Questions

Got these from Kathi!

1. The phone rings. Who do you want it to be? I always want it to be Adam

2. When shopping at the grocery store, do you return your cart? Nope, the hubby does!

3. In a social setting, are you more of a talker or a listener? Depends on the setting and how comfortable I am... generally the listener

4. If abandoned alone in the wilderness, would you survive? Only if there were a hotel within walking distance... any by walking distance I mean no more than a mile.

5. Do you like to ride horses? I do but I don't ride very often

6. Did you ever go to camp as a kid? Sure did

7. What was your favorite board game as a kid? I can't remember but I remember playing the card game Spit with my mom... I wonder if I even remember how to play anymore!

8. If a sexy person was pursuing you, but you knew he/she was taken what would you do? Ugh... I hate the 'no respect for relationships' mentality... not only does he have no respect for his own but he has no respect for mine... not a guy I would ever want to be with anyway

9. Are you judgemental? I try not to be but I can be if I don't keep myself in check

10. Do you know how to shoot a gun? No but mom and I always wanted to learn

11. If your house was on fire, what’s the first thing you’d grab? Adam and then I grab the baby and he grabs Riley

12. How often do you read books? I use to read all the time, now...rarely (right there with ya Kathi!)

13. Do you think more about the past, present or future? Wow... prolly a good bit of it all. I think about my mom a lot... I think about being pregnant and how happy I am in life right now... I also think about what will happen after Peabert is born, financially, how will we make this work? So, I guess I think of it all... I have to figure out how to turn this brain off somehow

14. What is your favorite children’s book? A Little Princess

15. How tall are you? 5'10"... I used to hate it but now I think it's great!

16. What are the keys on your key chain for? House, Jeep, Dad's house, unknown, lock on the back gate and 2 more unknowns... I also have a big bright green flip flop that says I "heart" Adam on it... thanks to my mother in law ;~)

17. What did you do last night? Painted my living room... weird right? Who paints on a workday night? We do apparently but it looks amazing!

18. What movie do you want to see right now? Ehhh, I could take or leave movies... movie theaters make me insane so I don't go and I have too much I could be doing at home to sit still

19. What will you do for New Year’s? I have no idea... but I bet it involves celebrating it with my new little man, husband and puppy!

20. Do you own a camera phone? Yes but it rarely gets used...

21. What’s the first letter of your middle name? M

22. How many hours of sleep do you get at night? Generally 6 - 7... I could use more but I will be getting less here soon

23. What do you sleep in? T-shirt (although even my large t-shirts don't really fit comfortably anymore!)

24. Anything big ever happen in your hometown? Where exactly is your hometown... where you were born? Where you spent the bulk of your childhood? Where you live now? I need an explanation people!

25. Is your tongue pierced? Nope but my belly is... even still thanks to the pregnancy belly ring!

26. Who is the funniest person you know? Adam... he never ceases to make me laugh... unless we are in a fight, then things just aren't funny anywhere ;~)

27. Do you like funny or serious people better? Funny... a serious side is good but humor makes everything more tolerable

28. Did you eat a cookie today? Funny you should ask... I did. Em brought some into work and they are delicious!

29. Do you use cuss words in other languages? nope... sad to say they slip out every so often in English though...

30. Do you steal or pay for your music downloads? pay but I am pretty particular about what I buy

31. Is your cell phone usually on Vibrate or ring? both but I miss it a lot anyway...

32. Do you need a boyfriend/girlfriend? I have my hands full with my husband...

Gotta love a long weekend

This could be one of the only long weekends in my existence where I didn't feel like it flew by. Don't get me wrong... I could use another day off but all in all... the past 3 days were very productive and relaxing (well for the most part, I will get into that later).

Adam and I spent time on Friday running errands... one of which included stopping at Michael's. When we pulled into the parking space we noticed that the woman next to us was getting out of her car and coming around to her passenger side and our drivers side... Adam looked down and she had a completely deflated tire. Adam steps out of the car and asks if she could use some help putting a spare on. Her face lit up and Adam got to work. As it turns out Myrna is very nice and was very grateful for us stopping to help. She invited us to a neighborhood barbecue that was happening on Saturday.

Saturday morning Adam and I went to celebrate his sponsors 29th year of sobriety... this guy has been sober since August 28, 1978... one day longer than I have been alive. He is quite the guy and it was nice to celebrate along with him!

In the afternoon we spent some time with Rob and Danielle... just hanging around the apartment chatting... which really meant a lot to me because the 3 of us (Adam, Danielle and I) have spent MANY hours doing that very thing but it was so cool to actually have Rob there in the mix and being a neighbor. At one point, I looked around at the 4 of us and just thought about how great it will be when he is finally home in MD for good. P Street isn't and won't be complete without him and Josh home.

Before we left for Merna's barbecue (yes we did go!) we made and dropped off tuna casserole for John and April, the latest couple in our bible study to have their baby! Little Dante Paul came into the world on August 21, 2007 and the new parents couldn't be more thrilled! Adam even got in a little practice since Peabert is not far behind!

Myrna's barbecue turned out to be quite the shindig... I mean it puts our little P Street friendships to shame! They had what looked to be 2 rows of townhouses involved... each of which was making food in some capacity: grilling, deep frying, smoking, ect... there was a moonbounce as tall as the houses, a DJ with fantastic music going and people were out dancing. It was quite the display of neighbors! We had a great time and enjoyed a lot of the extremely good food that was provided. Myrna can consider us paid back for changing her tire!

We got home and the neighbors came over to finish working on Josh's welcome home shirts. He is due to be home sometime on Thursday but as with the military we are just praying that they don't change it. Regardless, since we are all planning on going to get him from the airport (as many that can get there ;~) we decided that we needed t-shirts with his face plastered all over them. We finished the iron on pictures and proceeded to write things with puffy paint... yeah, he will be a tad embarrassed! Heather is beside herself with happiness that Josh will finally be home. Please pray that he gets home on time and safely! I will try to get a picture of everyone with their shirts on so I can post what they all ended up looking like!

Sunday for us saw a lot of rearranging furniture (this would be Adam and Rob forming a chain to push the China cabinet a foot over, it's a heavy piece of furniture!) and pulling down of our DVD shelves which left some pretty big holes which, since we are experts now, we spackled and sanded like pros ;~) Since we now had white patches on our beigeish wall, we pulled what we thought was the same color of paint from the storage unit and painted over them... yeah, not so much. The paint never ended up matching so off to Home Depot we go ;~) We will have newly painted walls most likely by this weekend.

We were supposed to have dinner with my dad and Stacie Sunday night but alas, he called me Sunday morning from the emergency room. As it turns out he has kidney stones and has them so bad that he landed in the hospital and has to have a procedure done. This has not been the best week for dad and Stacie so I am asking everyone to pray that things calm down a little around them and allow for some enjoyment and productivity when it comes to moving. So dad spent Sunday and Monday in the hospital.... they did the procedure on Tuesday and sent him home (thank goodness!). He still has follow up but hopefully he will just get better and better and he will be clear of this as quickly as possible.


Monday we planned a neighborhood breakfast which included Adam and I, Rob and Danielle, Heather, Laura and our other neighbors Tom and Danielle.... oh yeah, we are totally taking over the neighborhood with our crazy friendships. We all brought different foods (loved the Monkey Bread!) and cooked it at our house. It was really great to get together and eat a ton of food... breakfast literally lasted from 10 am to at least 2 ;~) Love to see Rob back in the Poang!


After breakfast was over, Adam and I went to visit dad in the hospital and then ran some errands... including getting paint for the living room!

All in all, a great weekend... just need to get dad healed up and back to his regularly scheduled life!

PS. sorry for the novel but a lot happened this weekend!!!