Memorial Day Weekend

My sister, Kira, and her husband and daughter came in town late Saturday night and were here until Thursday! It was such a blast!! I will post pictures soon.

My camera has been doing really weird things lately - so I took it in today and they are sending it off to have it looked at. I feel weird not having my camera - it is kind of like one of my companions - always there in case something fun or interesting happens. Hopefully I will have it back in two weeks!

Beware of nasty pictures

I really have had the easiest pregnancy and can't complain about anything that has happened so far - but I can tell you that since we had our wonderful 110 degree weather this last Monday and Tuesday, my left foot has swelled like a balloon and I can't seem to get it to go down! It doesn't really bother me at all, and Mark and I have found a lot of humor in how oompa-loompa-ish my foot/leg looks. I am retaining enough water that when you push on my shin the divits stay there a good 10-15 minutes before they start to diminish. And lets face it - I already have genetics working against how "sausage" like my toes are....so the water doesn't really help! Gross!! I've iced, I've elevated, and have eaten enough bland/less-salt food to kill me - if any of you have a magical answer - please let me know!

Cook wins American Idol

Wow, both of these guys have great voices - just totally different ends of the musical spectrum. I didn't get to watch last nights show...but I heard that David A. was AMAZING...It will be interesting to see what the two guys albums sound like!

Congrats David!!

Can-opener update

Mark officially gave up using the stupid can opener yesterday! I was sitting on the couch and he comes over with a can and hands me the opener and he says, "Let me show you how to do this..." I sit - watching to see if it works, and it DOESN'T!!! It's sad...and happy.... and a stupid thing to be happy about - but maybe he will buy me a new one now!!!

Reflections of Christ

I think this is such a captivating photograph - one of my favorites out of the Reflections of Christ collection. If you haven't seen the slide-show of these amazing pictures go here.

Who ever thought of these anyways??

I was thinking about all the random items I use on a regular basis - and honestly - who really had the time to invent these? How did they come up with them??? I don't know who you are but THANK YOU for making my life a lot easier!



1) The hair diffuser: look at this thing - it is like a dish with spikes, yet thousands of people use this contraption every day while hanging their head upside down amidst a cloud of hairspray and hair products - LOVE IT!







2) Pop-top cans: I don't really know what to say about these little guys other than I am glad we have them. Some of my friends know the story about my kitchen-aid can opener and how I really despise opening cans right now - I refuse until I get a new can opener, but mark insists that it is fine - so go on strong muscle man - you can open all the cans!!











3) Jolly Time Pop Corn "Mallow Magic": If you have not tried this - GO BUY SOME THIS WEEKEND!!! It is one of my favorite snacks - to the point I am only allowed to buy it for special occasions! It is Marshmallow popcorn - you pop the regular popcorn (it is a sweet tasting popcorn) and then you add a pouch of marshmallow topping to it and mix it all around! Who thought of that?? GENIUS!! It is delicious!





Can anyone think of a special occasion that I could use to convince Mark to let me buy some?!

Congrats!

Mark is officially done with his semester!! I am so excited for him - and SO proud of him!!! He is such a hard worker and takes such good care of me - I love you honey!!!!

What to say?

I feel like I need to blog about something, but I really don't have ANYTHING to talk about! My life is so boring right now!!! I guess I can tell you a couple of things that have been going on:

1) I felt the baby have hiccups for the first time on Friday while we were out to eat at Cantina Loredo.
2) Mark has finals this week!! One more week till I have him around again!
3) I bought some fabulous red vases/pottery at JoAnn's this week on clearance!! :)
4) I am hosting my first ever Arbonne open house in a few weeks - I am a little nervous, but very excited! (Please come - it will be a lot of fun!)
5) I have a doctors appointment on Friday. I am 28 weeks! :) (I was in the hospital last week for what they think is a blood clot? They are keeping an eye on my lung for now, but I am feeling fine - so hopefully it was nothing!)
6) Crib shopping is a lot harder than I thought it would be....
7) I volunteered at a golf tournament on Friday and got to drive a golf cart for a few hours - shuttling golfers to and from the rec. center!! I LOVE driving those things! Some day I might just buy one for the fun of it!

Okay - that is all for now! :) I'll take pictures of my radical vases!!! :)

Bye, bye, Brooke!!

I am so sad that Brooke is off American Idol - I really like her voice and her "singer/song writer" talent! Plus she is from here, so hey! But at least she still gets to go on tour and I KNOW she will release an album! :)

100 Days!

Only 100 (give or take) days left of being pregnant! Its going to go by so quickly - I can't believe it!

Things to do in Phoenix???

So I am having company come in May and I need your HELP! My fabulous college roommate and her husband are coming from Vegas for a weekend, then my sister, her husband, and their two year old daughter are coming from Idaho - and I need some ideas of places we can go! So if you know if great restaurants, activities, (especially for little 2 year olds...) etc. PLEASE let me know!!!

I feel like I have a few places that would be fun - but I kind of live in this cycle of "sleep-work-drive-sleep" and don't really get out a whole lot!

Made in the Shade

I was going to do a really cool "Friday Favorites" post - but as you can see it is Saturday and that didn't happen....but I still wanted to share a SUMMER FAVORITE with all my "super-white-I-couldn't-tan-if-my-life-depended-on-it" friends. (Not that everyone reading this is, but if you are, read carefully!)

This is the BEST self-tanner EVER! It is scentless, and doesn't make your skin look orange at all!! If you're looking for a tan over night, this is not the product for you - it works by applying a small amount of color evenly - on my mayo-legs, one application is all I need!! I will go from ghost white to vanilla-cool-whip white! I have had friends that put it on everyday and it makes, then maintains a beautiful sun-kissed tan!

Plus! It is SPF 15! So it makes you look like you were in the sun - but actually protects you from it as well! :) Stay tan!

New Bed Set

You won't believe this, but I found the most amazing deal on Craigslist this week!! For those of you that have seen my entertainment center, I found it at Furniture Affair - (a store that sells Model Home furniture) and it was one of a kind! We got such a steal on it and I fell in love with it immediately!

Well, I was looking for a dresser on craigslist and I saw an ad for "old world" something or another - and being that I love furniture derived from European "Old World" style, I clicked on it!

Well, it is the bed set to my cute little entertainment center!! It was like uniting twins that had been separated from birth!

Here is a picture of the bed. It is hard to see from these pictures, but the engraved heart and circles on the top of the armoir match the headboard of the bed! (not to mention that the pictured bedroom is the same size as my entire house....)

It even has the dresser and nightstand also!

Ahh...what a great day for my fellow furniture friends.....

Where is Mark??

Those of you that have had your spouses go through rigorous college majors have probably experienced what I am about to describe!!

On a typical night that Mark stays up and does homework (Mon-Thurs.) I usually go to bed by myself. Mark will come in so we can say prayers, he kisses me good night, and leaves me to slumber about the strangest things possible. (Pregnancy thing....)

On these "homework nights", my body will automatically wake at 1:00 AM without fail. If Mark isn't in bed, I assume he is still working and will be to bed soon. My body then will automatically awake at 2:00 AM. Mark has always been in bed by this time, so I make sure he is there, and roll back over and go back to bed.

Well, last night I went through my usual 1:00 awakening - Mark is still gone. I wake up at 2:00 and he is still gone! I see the lights are still on in the kitchen and just went back to sleep - no big deal. Well, I wake up at 3:15 and Mark still isn't in bed!! I knew that he was working on a VERY big project for his Chemistry class...so I lay there trying to tell myself he is fine, but on top of my fear that he was still working on his homework and was going to be sleep deprived, I really had to PEE! So I get up and walk out to the living room, and there he is working on his big presentation board. Poor guy - I felt so bad for him - I told him just to come to bed since he would be more efficient after he got some sleep.

Hooray that Mark got some sleep! Bad for me though - I was now completely awake, Mark was snoring in blissful sleep, and my daughter was now awake and kicking me like crazy!

But on a positive note - only 5 or 6 more years to go.... hee! hee!

Easter 2008

Mark and I had a wonderful Easter!! We were able to go to the Easter pageant with some of our friends - which has kind of become a new tradition for us! Then!! I had such a wonderful surprise on Easter morning - let me preface this by saying that I always "fill" our baskets the night before - because Mark isn't really that "type" - but anyways....I went to bed before Mark because he was still preparing his talk for Sunday morning, so I woke up really early and ran out to the living room very quietly to start putting the candy in the eggs. I grabbed the first bag of candy and it was open. I thought to myself, "what a punk - he sat up all night eating our Easter goodies while he prepared his talk!" Well then I saw that all of them were open - and my basket was full!

I was so excited - Mark had actually took the time and filled my basket!!! Well, long story short, we opened out baskets after church and in each one of my eggs there was a little slip inside that said one of the reasons why he loved me!

I can't tell you how SHOCKED I was!! It was one of the nicest things ever! I loved it!!!

Update:

We have gotten a lot more done around the house - our painter is getting ready for the big project! I am so excited to have that completed!!! I also bought a really neat metal star for our front entry! My new favorite store is Kirkland's - right on Santan Village - it has GREAT deals on home decor if any of you need something!!!

My Daughter

Here she is - baby Starr. I finally got our printer set up so I was able to scan these in!

100 Calorie Pack - Favorite

I had to post about these. I am sitting here at my desk, basking in the enjoyment of eating these three delectable blueberry streusel muffins! I place one on my tongue and it takes me back to when I was 7 and my grandma would bake....

No, that was a joke, but imagine them taking you back to a childhood memory, okay! :) I haven't tried the banana or the cinnamon coffee cakes, but I really think you should try the blueberry ones! I think they are $2.50 for 6 packs of 3!

Weight Watcher points: 2
Calories: 100
Loving every bite: Priceless

Beautiful Emma!

This is my beautiful niece, Emma. She will be two this April - isn't she beautiful?? I had a pretty hard day on Wednesday, so I emailed my sister, Kira, and asked her to send me pictures of Em. They were exactly what I needed. These were my two favorites!

It is weird to think that two people can create such beautiful spirits - it is even more weird to think that I will have one of these soon!!

Its a GIRL!!!!!

Hello everyone!!! My appointment went so well today!! I had the nicest tech who did the ultrasound and after doing all her measurements (which all looked great!) she saw that it was a girl!!! How exciting is that?? I have to say there were many moments over the last few weeks where I thought I was going to have a little boy, so it was a shock - but a very good one!!! I can't wait to buy little dresses, and bows, and I hope she has curly hair!!! I'll post pictures as soon as I get my scanner up and running! :)

Thank you all for being so supportive! It's been such an exciting day!!!! And TL - thanks for the cinnamon bears!!! DELICIOUS!

Paint Update

I did it!! I have my paint picked out!! I didn't do it by myself, but with the help of my good friend Sonia!! She and I went to school together and she actually won first place in an interior design competition for the nation!! She came down on Saturday and helped me make some final decisions on my house!! I am thrilled with the outcome!

This faux-leather look will be used in the master bedroom (on about this shade of red...great sample picture!) and also on the bottom half of my dining room wall (which will be brown, with the look of leather). I think it will turn out great and accent my entertainment center quite well.

My guest bathroom and nursery is what I am most excited about - I won't spill the beans on that though...I'll wait till I have pictures! :) Stay tuned!!