Thinkin Positive....like pregnancy tests and such

The next episode

2007-07-10T21:07:00.000-07:00

With the new chapter of our lives comes a new blog.

As we are no longer Thinking positive - we are just the Stepros!

Please follow the link to our new blog.

http://thestepros.blogspot.com

Blog Break

2007-07-07T20:06:00.000-07:00

I have had a less then minimal desire to blog lately.

Sorry to all the loyal blog stalkers out there. Perhaps in the next little bit if I have any new and or exciting news to post, I will.

I am burnt out with blogging. I hate reading peoples blogs that just seem to drone on and on .... much like this one, with no real point. I am going to try and break that chain. I will blog when I have an event I feel is blog worthy.

Check back in a week or month or so.

new post

2007-05-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

**Sorry it took me so long to post this** I had been working on it .... well never since I started it.

Part 1 Memorial Day

We had a good time Memorial Day. Don had the day off. Rita called they were going to Davis Creek (I think that it is a National Recreation area I think). She invited us to meet them. We made picnic stuff and met up with them. It was a bunch of fun. Don and Marty took Aria and Brooklyn on a hike, it was a bit over 3 miles. I folded the seats down in our car and took a bit of a nap while Rita and Bailey explored our picnic area.

Once the men and girls got back we hiked...more like an easy up hill walk to a stream and the girls rolled up their pants and walked through the stream. Oh and we were all blinded by a woman sitting on a log that crossed the stream with her entire crack hanging out. Marty and Rita suggested I post a picture of it on my blog! HAHA ... so you can blame them for this!
Then we went down to a pond/lake thing that the kids got in, it smelled almost as bad as Lake Mead! UGH! But I guess all that matters is that they had fun.

Part 2 Tuesday May 29th

So we had a Dr. appt and ultrasound scheduled today. Ultrasound at 9:45 Dr. right after. Well this office schedules worse then Dr. Torres' office. We had our ultrasound everything looks good and it is still a girl.
We checked in for our appt at 10:00am and then they saw us finally at 12:30!! Holy Crap! that is a long wait! I don't really understand these appts. You pee, they weigh you, ask you if you have any questions and then let you leave. I hate it! Why does it take so long just for that??
I lost a few pounds this appts which makes me happy.
I am on the trying not to gain weight plan (the fatter you are to start the less they want you to gain...so I am trying not to gain more then 15 lbs.) Swimming seems to help out, at least I am not getting as swollen.

Part 3 uck! June 13th

So I have been feeling completely crappy the last 2 weeks or so. I have bronchitis, and there isn't anything that they can do about it unless it becomes pneumonia. I took antibiotics and now we wait for it to pass or get worse. I haven't been swimming at all since the 2nd of June because I haven't felt up to it. I went finally today and swam for only an hour. My hands last week looked like swollen leaches! I was wearing my wedding rings on my pinkie. I am not as bad as I was before today but it will take a lot more swimming. And to top it off because I haven't felt good I gained like 3 lbs since my last appt! Ugh! I need to just get rid of the scale, I weigh myself constantly! I weigh in the morning and every time I go to the bathroom and before bed.

That same Saturday the 2nd of June, both our washer and dryer crapped out and we had to get new machines, and can I tell you how much I LOVE THEM!!! They are so nice and they do laundry so dang fast that we were able to get all of our back laundry finished in like 8 hours! It was fantastic! I can't believe how much I love household appliances!

Hmm what else?
My mom is coming up on Friday to hand for a few days and then Brooklyn will be going down to Vegas/Hurricane with her for a few days. She is so excited to go down there! I am a wee bit jealous.

Well I wanted to get this posted so Holly would give me a break! I will post a bunch of random pictures later!

FINALLY PICUTES!!

2007-05-27T17:33:00.000-07:00

So pretty much these pictures go in reverse of what I I just wrote about!
Check out her eyelashes!! Everyone thought that she was wearing false eyelashes! The girl is blessed with LONG, THICK, BEAUTIFUL eyelashes! She is such a pretty pretty girl!

NO PICTURES

2007-05-27T17:29:00.001-07:00

BLOGGER IS BEING TOTALLY STUPID! IT IS NOT ALLOWING ME TO POST ANY PICTURES.

I WILL TRY LATER

Very long blog...Lots of pictures

2007-05-27T17:25:00.000-07:00

So lets do a bit of catch up. I am tired and busy which is why I haven't posted a real post in a while. I have my very first deal closing in June! YEAH...hopefully it closes if the inspection comes back clean this Wednesday it will be sealed in stone! SWEET!!
So I have been very busy running around and this last week was the worst! Lots to do every single day.

PART 1 MOTHER'S DAY
My Mother's Day was wonderful, I hope yours was too. I love being in a family of super gift givers, who are so excited to give you gifts that they actually can't wait until the day to give them to you. Brooklyn had told me that she was making the "BEST Mother's Day present ever!" in school, and she came home with it the Friday before and gave it to me right away. Lots of pictures and artwork and coupons, I have never gotten coupons before, but I LOVE THEM!!! She says that they never expire so I can use them over and over and over again. My favorite was 1 hour of piece and quiet, you don't get that much around here!
Don gave me exactly what I wanted! A hammock, so I can lounge in the back yard enjoy the breeze in the shade and snooze or read. He couldn't wait either and had been asking me all week if I was ready for it, so he gave it to me Saturday before Mother's Day. How awesome are they?

PART 2 THE WORST DAY EVER
The following week Brooklyn with Aria in tow came barging into the house after school almost hysterical. Brooklyn what's wrong, I asked? She said "OH MOM! I HAVE HAD THE WORST DAY OF MY LIFE AND I HAD TO BRING ARIA HOME TO BACK ME UP, SHE'S MY DEFENSE!" Immediately I was like....Oh crap I think that is what I said when I had 3 way called my mom and Becky to tell them I had gotten my first speeding ticket.
I freaked a bit...what? What? Tell me! She says, " I can't even tell you. Aria has to tell you." Oh crap goes through my head....she can't be pregnant!! What could it be..... Aria begins with a grin..."Well Brooklyn got asked out by a boy today!" Loud raucous laughter is all I can say about my response! That is the worst day of your life? You got asked out by a boy? That is the worst day of your life!? She has plenty of "FRIEND BOYS" she say but NO BOYFRIENDS!! I said well how did he ask you out, and in very formal third grade fashion he gave a girl a note to give to Aria to give to Brooklyn. They gave me the note which had been torn into five pieces and it says..."Brookolyn, will you go out with me? Austin"
As I was reading it she says....AND HE DIDN'T EVEN SPELL MY NAME RIGHT! Almost offendedly! Aria was able to go home and I said so, what are you going to do? She talked over her options, I said you know you can't have a boyfriend until you are 16, so what's the plan? She decided to write him a note back and the proper delivering method of that note would be the same as it was received to Aria to give to the other girl to give to him. I am really proud of her, I was BOY crazy by then and she just doesn't seem to care.

Part 3 Crazy Birthday Week

Last Wednesday was Brooklyn's 9th birthday! I know! It doesn't seem like 9 years ago for those who were around then! I definately don't feel like I am almost 30 either! She had dance recitals on Wednesday and Thursday and dress rehearsal on Tuesday, they wanted her there at for dress rehearsal in full hair and make up, which I refused to do! With 2 dang days of performaces I thought full hair and make up was a bit much 3 days in a row. All three nights we didn't get home until after 9:00pm which makes for a long day, in the mean time I was also in the "counter offer" stage of the deal I was working on, so I would need to run out and go to the office to do paper work. UGH! But she did wonderfully in all of her perfomances, she had a solo in one of her dance classes where she kinda did a little break dance thingy....and on Wednesday night after her first perfomance the teacher called her up to front and center stage and led the entire crowd in singing to her, "happy birthday" Oh man she was embarrassed! SO funny! If anyone knows how to put video up here let me know and I will post the video!
One of my favorite performances of the night was the class of 3-4 year olds that danced to MC Hammer's "Hammer Time" and they had little gold sequin hammer pants! Oh it was adorable! I laughed soo hard!!
Friday Brooklyn had a field trip to the public pool. Don went with her class (I was working), they walked to the pool swam and then had lunch at the park. She was exhausted when she got home, but no rest for the weary in my house!! Off to her birthday party!! She wanted a bowling party, which I thought was weird, I wasn't sure how it would turn out. 9 of her friends came, including two of her "friend boys" 1 from her class and 1 from church. The kids seemed to have a really great time! About half way through they turned the lights down pulled out the disco balls and started playing music! It was so much fun! All of the kids out their dancing as close to on the lanes as possible, the boys were break dancing the girls just dancing away! It was very neat, they did bowl a little during that too, we fed them what was at the concession stand; nachos, cheese pizza and lots of sugary soda! We sang happy birthday to her, we had Baskin Robins ice cream cake, (cookies and cream) and opened up presents. We went a bit long but I don't think that they kids cared one bit!! For goody bags this year I did a handful of miniatures and giftcards to Walmart, because #1 I was too busy/lazy/tired to do goody bags #2 I hate having bags of random toys left after the party! This way I am not out any real money, we will use the giftcards still, what am I going to with 9 frisbees and 9 giant bouncey balls?! On the way home Brooklyn said that was her favorite birthday party ever! That made me feel really good. It was the cheapest too! Sweet! We spent more on concessions then we did on the bowling part! I love it! Bowling parties every year!!!!
For her birthday she got highlights and a pedicure. Highlights are new pedicure is something that she does every year.

Part 4 Random Rant!!!
Ok so I watch my friend Rita's daughter Bailey a few days a week while she is at beauty school. I take Bailey to preschool 2 of those days. The preschool's name is
Kids Klub! YUCK!! I know that it is supposed to be a cutesie cutesie little name - but I think it is horrible to misspell the name of the preschool! How am I going to trust the teachers at this Kids Klub to teach my kid anything???
Yes, I am a bit over dramatic and this is completely lame to complain about...but I am 5 months pregnant! HAHAHA just kidding!

Part 5 Baby names
I have only ever loved one girl name, and I used it already. I knew I would name my first daughter Brooklyn since I was 13. I am at a complete loss with this kid! Don likes Sophia, and I did then I told my friend who is also having a girl...in less then 1 week from now, and she fell in love with it, so she is having a Sophia Elizabeth. We don't live anywhere near each other but I just lost the like for Sophia. I like Ava, it is growing on Don. He suggested Ava Sophia Stepro, but as you can see the intials would spell A.S.S. and you can't do that to a girl. I like Ava Dawn, he thinks it is corny. He suggested Ava Christine, which my mom seems to love, but it hasn't stuck on me yet. I am not even sure her name is Ava yet. I like the name Savannah as a first name - Don says that sounds like a stripper name. Brooklyn just would like the middle name to have 2 syllables so that we all have a 6 syllable name. Any suggestions? What flows with Ava? My mom's response will be ignored! hahaha

How I feel!!

2007-05-25T13:13:00.000-07:00

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Locked out!

2007-05-15T18:40:00.000-07:00

Why has everyone set their blogs to private??

The woman that coined the term "Blog Stalker" has locked me out.

Why?!?! I beg of you for answers....WHY???

Why do so many people lock me out? Don't you know I have nothing to do 60% of my day??

BAD NEWS

2007-05-11T21:07:00.000-07:00

We may not be able to go to Vegas as we planned. Several things play into this.
Mainly they all boil down to money! UGH! Don has only 30 hours of vacation so it would need to be a quick trip. Driving and flying and renting a car are about the same price, driving we eat up 16 hours of our 4 day trip driving?? Plus hotel rooms.
I am just not sure if we will be able to work it out right now, maybe later in the summer. Once we are all recovered from Chicago vacation and Don has more vaca time saved up. We will see.

Sorry to those of us who wanted to see us, Brooklyn will still be going down. I will let you know.

Have you checked your mail??

2007-05-06T16:19:00.000-07:00

We are tickled pink
And happy to say….
We have a baby girl
On the way!!!

So Friday the 4th of May I talked Don into letting me spend my babysitting money to go get an ultrasound. He was anxious too to find out so it wasn't much of a talking into. The office is really cool; the tech projects the ultrasound video on a movie screen in the room and she has 2 flat screen tv's mounted that you can watch too. Brooklyn came with us and she thought it was so neat to see the baby moving all around. She was moving her hands and playing with the umbilical cord and rubbing her face. All of this with her legs crossed. She looked to be sitting on her crossed feet. So the picture wasn't the greatest, but it is like 85% that it's a girl.

Admittedly, we weren't tickled pink in the beginning. I told Don before we left I was going to have a rough night if it were a girl and he thought that it was not that big of a deal. He said that he had the feeling the entire time that it was going to be a girl. I was optimistic. When the tech said..Oh looks like a girl. I said firmly, "Check again." As I state earlier she wouldn't cooperate with being a flasher. We are going to go back in a few more days to get a better view. On the way home Don admitted to being more disappointed then he thought he was going to be, and I admitted that I wasn't as bad off as I thought I was going to be.

Once home we talked about names and made announcements, which you should have gotten by now and if you haven't, check your mail again. We bought 2 girl outfits from Walmart and now it seems to be sinking in and we are all OK with it. Brooklyn is handling it very well also, I was mostly worried about her and becoming jealous of another little girl. But she seems very excited. Which is a comfort to me also. So by the time that I am writing this we as a family are all well adjusted to the news and are excited and happy about our new baby.

First of June

2007-05-03T19:16:00.000-07:00

So we had a dr appt last Monday, 16 weeks, I tried to fanaggle my way into getting an ultrasound, dr said "NO I found the heart beat" RRR I was....am very disappointed - there is no good reason that she wouldn't except that she was 1 hour behind schedule.
So our next appt isn't until June 1st and we have an ultrasound scheduled for that day. GRRR
Let me add that my emotional state was low Monday, hot, extremely tired and having to wait for an hour to hear NO! I was soo ready to cry all day.
I wish I could justify spending $150.00 on the "just for fun ultrasound" places, cause then we would know tomorrow! Oh well this entire pregnancy has been a test of my patience, or not even a test but a forced down my throat lesson in being patient.

Well....that is enough for now.

Summer Planning

2007-05-03T19:09:00.000-07:00

We are planning to come to Vegas/ Hurricane in mid-June. Aunt Teresa and Uncle Russell are driving up from Mobile around the 16th of June so we are going to try and arrange it so we can see them for a day at least. Jeff and Julie might meet us in Vegas which would be fun.

I just wanted to get the word out that we will be coming down and I would like to plan a day at the Mission Hills water park just get everyone together in one spot so we don't have to drive all over in 3 days trying to visit everyone.

Sooo plan on seeing us at the park.

Brian's First Comedy Gig

2007-04-28T10:49:00.000-07:00

So one of my best friends, Brian, has decided to pursue his hobby as a stand up comedian. I think that he is pretty funny!

I am posting his video of his first open mic night. Enjoy. His Myspace page is: http://www.myspace.com/brianekiley

Click on the link below to watch his video. Very funny.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2025041621

What the heck??

2007-04-18T09:21:00.000-07:00

So last night we had a bit of a storm blow through. Causing blizzard conditions in the mountains, not so much here just blowing snow. We had about two inches total last night, it is melting away this morning with the sunshine. However we are expecting rain and snow tonight and snow again tomorrow! WHAT??? Why did we come home to this!?!?!?!?! We should have stayed in Chicago, at least we could have delightful pizza in Chicago!

So our tulips never stood a chance this spring I am afraid! We have had such wishy washy weather the flags started coming up before the first cold snap and the leaves were damaged, then it got warm and they looked like they were recovering, then cold then warm. And now this, so the few flowers that it looked like we might have gotten don't look like they will bounce back now. So sad! I love our tulips, I planted a bunch of them this time last year crawling along the ground with my crutches since I was casted up. So disappointing!
But at least we don't have to water the lawn I thought. But then I see my not so smart neighbors! Two inches of snow in the yard and they turn their sprinklers on! Are they crazy! We are expecting 3 days of wettish weather and you turn your sprinklers on! UGH! Oh well that is minimal considering what is going on in the world today and this week. So we have much to be grateful for.

Want a good charity to contribute to?

2007-04-14T23:12:00.000-07:00

My good friend Linda has breast cancer. She has fought it for almost 2 years.

Anyway her daughter Bailey who is 11, 12 in July. Is running the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure this year, it is a 5k I think? I think that she is a remarkable young girl for doing this.
Linda is also walking the 1 mile walk.

So if you feel so compelled to support a good cause like Breast Cancer Research, follow this link to Bailey Pledge site and make a pledge of any amount. Thank you!

http://race.komenlasvegas.com/site/TR?px=1198306&pg=personal&fr_id=1020&et=nMm2ZsCwGlFZEt7cG6XUEg..&s_tafId=2872

Vacation Part 4 - Friday our first day with SUN!!

2007-04-14T21:10:00.000-07:00

Another blissfully lazy morning. We stayed in our hotel until check out. Wanted to get our money's worth. When we left the hotel it was sunny! The first sunshine that I had seen in a week! Ah to feel the sun on your skin! So it we decided to try Navy Pier again. It was so much nicer this time around! The rides were operating, we were able to go on a few of them.

Brooklyn wanted to go on the swing rides, well I can't do them anymore, or I would have, I enjoy them. Don decided to be a girl and hold Brooklyn's doll so she could go on by herself because he was a scaredey cat! Hahahahaha We went on the ferris wheel next. It is over 150 feet tall and moves very slowly, and never stops you have to get on and off while it's moving. Well I am not a huge fan of heights, and at one point near the top I thought it had stopped moving and that we were stuck so I started to freak a bit and wouldn't let them talk...tee hee. But we got down safely. They went on the lighthouse drop. That looked fun! Then the we went on the merry go round. Fun and not high off the ground. We also went on a river boat architecture tour. It was awesome going up the Chicago River looking at all the building and hearing their stories.

A few of my favorites were the scary round open parking garage.

The Wrigley Building

The Tribune Building

And the Sears Tower from the water side

Last but not least, I left out the Water Tower building, it is on the Mag Mile. It is one of the oldest buildings in Chicago and was one of the only buildings to survive the fire. So there is a bit of our vacation. Maybe I will post more random pictures later, but you have a pretty good idea of what we spent our time doing.

Walking, eating, riding buses, sight seeing and freezing! We didn't gain any weight from all of our eating because we balanced it with all of our walking!

Vacation Part 3 - Our Big Day At Wrigley Field

2007-04-14T17:40:00.000-07:00

We bought Cubs beanies so we could keep our heads warm in the cold of outside the night before. Well I bought a Cubs beanie while Don bought a Wrigley Field beanie, he said that he couldn't betray his team! So he can support the field.
We woke up Wednesday morning and it was snowing! I called the Cubs hotline and the game had been called due to rain and snow. The field had a few inches of snow in the morning! Oh no! Devastaing for Don, he was mostly excited about seeing the historic Wrigley Field. Oh so sad! We were both bummed but Don mostly.
So instead we went to the Adler Planetarium and saw the Mercury Capsule. It is so small! I can't even believe that NASA had 2 adult men in this small capsule.
This was an interesting we did a bunch about how the ancient people used astrology and star mapping to predict planting patterns and so forth. Brooklyn got to dress up like she was a student of Galieo and a Syria King. She also got to make a crater using a "meteor" it was a paint ball machine that shot into "moon dust" it was all inclosed in bullet proof glass so no one gets hurt.

After that we went to the Aquarium, I wasn't allowed to take pictures there because it harms the animals. So I have very few of that. We drove past Soldier Field - it looks weird with the bleachers extending up the top. But we got to see it!
Before, during and after we tried to keep warm waiting at bus stops and what nots. Don said I looked a bit muslim. Notice the dark circles under my eyes....this is going going going for days with little sleep. That is why I tried to stay behind the camera and not infront of it.

This is Lake Michigan - through the reflections you can see the waves crashing against the shore.
For dinner we went down to Portillos it is the home of world famous Chicago dogs. Now I don't eat hot dogs, but luckily for me there is also Barnelli's, a pasta place in the same building.
I am so very proud of Brooklyn and Don for trying the dogs Chicago style. Chicago dogs are all beef dogs with mustard, sweet relish, sport peppers, chopped onion, and tomato slices and a Claussen pickle (dill) and celery salt . They loved them! No ketchup on these dogs! I on the other hand had spaghetti.

This is Brooklyn sleeping, with all of her dolls she sleeps with and her trying not to wake up as I was trying to wake her up.
Thursday we had a lazy day. Pretty wiped out and it was very cold and very windy, so we stayed pretty close to home. We went to the Hancock Building again hung out there to stay warm. We had lunch at Cheesecake Factory, Don had never been there before, he enjoyed it so much we went back, and it is in the Hancock Building so we didn't have to brave the cold.

Me shopping at the Hancock.

Sleeping on the job. Guess I am not the only one that looks tired!

That afternoon Stacie, Brooklyn and I had an appoitment for tea with Niki, Brooklyn's American Girl Doll, at the American Girl Place Cafe. It was soo cute! Everything is decorated so cute! So girly! We ate sweet treats and Brooklyn had hot cocoa, I had pink lemonade and Stacie had hot green tea. It was so cute! So enjoyable!

Stacie drove us around a bit, up Lake Shore Parkway, and then dropped us off. We laid around for a while, we called Dinner in to Portillo's. Brooklyn and Don needed another Chicago Dog. We learned that while we are in the mid-west if you say "DON" like we say Don they think that you are saying "Dawn" even Stacie's friend Kelley asked why his name was "Dawn" and not "Daaaaaan". The accent is hard to portray here, but call me and I will say it for you! :)

Anyway when we ordered dinner under for Don to pick up, he got there and it was held for "Dawn"! hahaha we had a good laugh!

To be continued....Friday....the first day with Sun!

Vacation Part 2 - Through Tuesday

2007-04-14T15:12:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my vacation blog part 2. Lets see how far I get!
As we were walking to the bus stop we found an R2D2 mail box so of course the 2 Star Wars fans needed to stop for pictures....or maybe I stopped them for pictures?
Monday we bussed it to Navy Pier. But due to the weather that the area had been having we were not able to ride any of the rides that they have at the pier because they were all closed. We were bummed thinking our day was a loss, we walked through the mall on the pier and found in the center of the mall a guy juggling and performing for the kids, so we stopped to watch for about 15 minutes. He was very entertaining. And we saw that they had a Children's Museum there. It was soo much stinking fun! We had fun even being grown ups! The museum was just awesome, we could have spent all day there really, but me being a schedule nazi wouldn't allow that to happen. (I need help!) They had the biggest Blue Man Group display ever! Brooklyn made music using different tubes and body parts. She and those sunglasses through most of the trip! She looks like a hippy or something! She liked wearing them because she thought they looked like "real" glasses. The way the kids got from the 2nd floor to the 3rd floor was by climbing nets and tubes! What a great idea!! So much fun! I took picture of the giant chess set - I thought of Jaren and how much fun he would have playing with chess pieces that large. Brooklyn did the shadow wall and made all kinds of crazy shadows and operated and controlled a water system using pulleys. Again, I just can not believe how much stuff there is in this town for kids!

There was also a fossil digging section, those pictures are mostly too dark but here is Brooklyn getting her hand eaten by a T-Rex head.

After our wonderful afternoon at the museum we went down to Bubba Gump's Shrimp for lunch. That was so fun! The waiters quiz you on your Forrest Gump knowledge. It was good food and good fun!

Once we left there we went to go to Grant Park to see the Buckingham Fountain (the fountain at the beginning of Married With Children) and there was NO WATER in the fountain because of the weather!

Oh well here are the pictures of the dry fountain! We have post cards of the fountain in summer time so we know what it looks like.

After Grant Park we went to the Sears Tower. It was cool to be able to go to the United States tallest building, we went to the 104th floor. But it was a snoozer! Nothing like the Hancock Building. Nothing was there to entertain us. We didn't stay long. But it still awesome to be that high in the air and the views were breath taking.
Dinner was from a sandwich deli down the street from our hotel. It was good.

Tuesday another cold day! We had found a bakery around the block from our hotel- Oh good bagels! As you could imagine we don't have good bagels here in Carson City. So I was delighted to have a toasted blue berry bagel with cream cheese. AHH heaven. After my delightful breakfast we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. Again, Holy crap! So much fun! Another great children's exhibit - Brooklyn got to do a lot with science and stuff. We saw the German U-boat submarine that the US soldiers captured in 1944.

It is credited with winning the WWII for the US, we never told anyone we had captured the boat so we were able to steal all of their intelligence, when we told that to Brooklyn she said, " Well, if we were able to steal all of their intelligence how were they able to live and think." Haa haa! The most interesting part of the U-boat was that they actually built the museum around the boat. And we were able to see the bullet holes in the side of the boat. We also saw the Body Exhibit. Gross and cool all at the same time. We were not able to take pictures of the cadavers, but let me tell you that Brooklyn had a big lesson in sex education that day since most of the bodies were men and they were all left anatomically correct. It was interesting to see the lungs of a healthy person next to a smoker next to a coal miner. Those things were very interesting to me.

fter that we went to the Field Museum. It has the most complete collection of T-Rex bones in the world, the T-Rex was named Sue after the woman who found it. Also has a big fossil exhibit, but wouldn't you know it that my stupid camera that sucks batteries like it's going out of style died twice this day so I don't have the best pictures that I could have had.

When the museum closed and they kicked us out it was dinner time. We went to Lou Malnati's
Pizzeria. MMMMM delicious! I love Chicago deep dish pizza. They freeze pack it and will send it to you packed in dry ice. We are definitely going to have to do that!
So after pizza we walked home and rested for what was supposed to be our big day at Wrigley Field on Wednesday.

Welcome Home Stepro Family....Welcome Home.... Vaca update Friday - Sunday

2007-04-14T11:46:00.000-07:00

AHHH! It feels soo wonderful to be home! I was having a problem uploading my pictures so I hadn't blogged while we were on vacation. We just got home late last night and I have been able to get them up.
So here is a rundown and several pictures about our fun...even though it was sooo cold family vacation!

We left Reno first thing Friday morning, Sean dropped us off at the airport at 5:30am. Our plane left at 7:00. Don is a nervous wreck to fly! Poor guy! After the Zanax he was a little less nervous. Our flight was smooth, we had a layover and some de-icing in Denver. We didn't get to eat on the plane so by the time we hit turbulance outside Chicago, I was very sick, I used the bags on the plane facing the window - next to Brooklyn...oops....I overflowed and spilled on her leg, she was grossed out - I was embarrassed for her and I had to try to wash her pants with antibac.

Once we got to Chicago it was crazy traffic from the airport to the city! UGH! I am so glad that we don't live there! People drive like maniacs! Stacie picked us up at the airport fought traffic on the way to town, checked into our less then stellar hotel. It was a great location, 1 block off the Mag Mile. We stayed in the Red Roof Inn, our room was so small that the 2 double beds took up most of the space, we couldn't even open our suitcases all the way, not to mention that later that night we found out that the building has problems with the heat when our heater stopped working...oh and it was below freezing most of our trip, but back to our day, we went right to dinner, as I was starving, we went to Pizzeria Uno...HOLY CRAP DELIGHTFUL!!!!

It is the home of Chicago style pizza! The best pizza I had ever had to that point.

Then we were off to the American Girl Doll Store. Before we left for Chicago we made a deal with Brooklyn that if she wanted to buy anything she needed to save up her money and however much she wanted to spend of what she saved we would match. Well that was before we realized that she had been studing the American Girl catalog and pricing everything out that she wanted! She ended up taking $200.00 of her own money so we couldn't crap out - well good thing cause she went hog wild in that store. She picked out the doll she wanted and every outfit around that doll, she ended up spending about $320.00 there. That girl is nuts!

After shopping it was bed time. Must rest up for Saturday. I am getting bored of typing so ...maybe I will just do brief over views and pictures?? If you want more details let me know.

Sat. we went down to the John Hancock Building - it was so much fun. They had a lot to do up at the top, telescopes and stories and games for kids. We went to the top in North America's fastest elevator! We got up to the 94th floor in about 40 seconds! Your ears pop twice on the way up. The views were great even though it was a cold foggy day.

Brooklyn got to do some window washing at the top of the John!

This is what the Sears Tower looks like from The Hancock Building.

Later that day we familiarized ourselves with the bus system so we could avoid walking and we bussed it to the Nature Museum which was a ton of fun too! I was so impressed with how much stuff in this town is geared for kids. They had a butterfly garden which was warm! We loved that place and just a lot of fun hands on stuff for the kids to do to learn about nature. They even had a robot exhibit that was all hands on too. Don and I raced a robot to see who could complete a puzzle first and when the robot would win he would mock you. Too funny! Later that night we went to dinner with Stacie and her friend Kelley to the Weber Resturaunt, yummy yummy! It wasn't like a backyard BBQ like we thought it was going to be, it was much nicer, still everything was grilled. It was so good! We also walked through Lincoln Park where Brooklyn chased squirels. Sunday was a really fun day! Brooklyn got an early morning wake up call from one of the Easter Bunny's helpers that her Easter basket was at Stacie's Hotel (much nicer same price - less then 2 blocks from us) So we walked down there and did her basket and stuff and she searched for eggs. Then we went back got all gussied up and went to watch Wicked. Oh my gosh! I loved loved loved it soo much! Don loved it too, it was his first Broadway show and I was glad that he enjoyed it, it means that he will be willing to go see more, Brooklyn was messmerized by it all, I had to tell her to stop singing the songs (we downloaded the soundtrack a few months ago so we could get familiar) and every once in a while we would look over at her and her eyes were wide open and her mouth was gaping. She was so sweet! Our seats were great - on the floor and Stacie was with us too, so she and I got to spend time together also, so that was nice. After Wicked we walked to Millenium Park to see the "Bean" as the locals call it. It's official name is Cloud Gate. It is a big piece of art that is completely refelctive and it is shaped in way that you can walk all around it and under it.

The Bean was neat, you could take so many pictures and it not look the same.

After the bean we walked back down Michigan to go home. We passed a building that had rocks and bricks from different buildings from around the world...I think it may have been the Tribune Building? Brooklyn wanted a picture with the rock from the Great Pyramid in Egypt. We walked across the Chicago River...I hate bridges!! I hate bridges over water! I hate bridges like Don hates to fly. I hate driving across them...I really hate walking across them. I didn't take any "great city pictures" from the bridge like so many people were doing, I took pictures once we got to the other side. Then we saw a bronze statue of Jack Brickhouse? He was a sports broadcaster so Stacie wanted a picture with him! :) After our walk home Stacie left and we went to dinner at a mexican place down the road and Brooklyn went crazy in our hotel room and then we went to sleep.

I was going to blog our entire vacation this morning but it has taken me over an hour to do just this, so I will have to finish up in a bit.

CHICAGO HERE WE COME!!!

2007-04-05T18:35:00.000-07:00

I am so excited!!! We are going to Chicago tomorrow. Our flight leaves Reno at 7:30am has a lay over in Denver and then will get to Chicago around 3:00 Chicago time.
Don is a wreck! Poor guy! Hope the Xanax works to calm his nerves! What's worse is that we are going to fly home on Friday the 13th! Don is about to DIE!!! He is such a trooper! I love that man!

I thought that it would be fun to go during Easter Break, it normally is in the high 50's this time of year...except for when we plan a trip! We are expecting 2 days of snow and 3 days of rain the lowest high temp we are expecting for our trip is 32 but with wind chill I am advised it will feel like 20! UUUGHH!! The highest high temp we will have will be about 53 again with the wind chill, which there is almost always wind in the windy city, it ill be about 10 degrees less!
Hahhaha what moron plans a trip to a cold, windy, rainy, snowy climate for spring break? Isn't spring break about beaches and sunshine?

Oh well this won't get us down! We are going to take the town by storm. I have arranged our estimated activities based on the weather report for that day, cooler days we will do museums and stuff. The warmer of the cold days we will do more outside stuff.

A few of the highlights of our trip will be - When we get there Friday I promised Brooklyn that the first stop after the hotel will be the American Girl Doll Store, she is taking her own money to buy herself an American Girl Doll. Sunday (Easter) we are going to Wicked, we are so excited to see that play. Wednesday we are going to a Cubs game!!!! YEEE HAW!! We are all honorary Cubs fans will we are there. They are playing the Astros. Should be a good game!
Thursday we have a tea party with the American Girl Doll at the AGDS, Stacie is coming to that too, should be a ton of fun! Brooklyn is so excited about that. Hmmmm I think that is it for the stuff that we have planned. But we intend to see everything, Hancock Building, Sears Tower, everything!
Stay tuned!

The Honorable Judge William Maddox

2007-04-04T21:44:00.000-07:00

I am not sure if you guys have been paying attention to what goes on up here in Carson City. We recently had a judge make national headlines with statements he made during a child porn sentencing.

I have read all of the articles that have been published and I am made sicker and sicker every time.

During sentencing of Jason Excell, a 36 year old pervert who had estimated over 800 images of child porn with kids as young as 5 engaged in sex and sex acts with grown men and other children, he says:

“These kinds of offenses are problems with impulse control,” said Carson City District Judge Bill Maddox prior to sentencing.
When I say that, it’s my understanding that most men are sexually attracted to young women. When I say young women I don’t just mean women that … you should be attracted to. I mean women from the time they’re 1 all the way up until they’re 100.” http://www.nevadapolitics.com/content/view/34047/34/

Yes! He said most men are sexually attracted to young women....but he doesn't stop there he goes on to say as young as 1!?!?!!! Are you kidding me?
He is a judge? Hopefully not much longer. You can google his name and read more of the stories.

He was the judge that was on Brooklyn's adoption case. It just gives me the creeps now, he presides over family court also and he has these opinions!?!? EWWWW

I really have nothing more to say without talking in circles. I just wanted to vent it out!

http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20070402/Opinion/104020012

http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20070329/REGION/103290073

Baby

2007-03-30T18:17:00.000-07:00

Linda had a dream that she was given a note to give to me that just said "girl". In her dream she thought it was going to upset me!
I want a boy.....but have been feeling girl also! GRRR we don't even have a cute girl name picked out! The soonest that we will know will be 5 weeks depending on when my Dr. does the ultrasound it may be as long as 9 weeks!
Put in your boy vibes! I know it is too late to change the gender...but pray for a boy!

I am a birder

2007-03-30T18:04:00.000-07:00

Yes, Holly, I admit it! I am a bird watcher (& squirrel too). And not only do I watch them, but I cater to them! It is almost funny!
I am convinced that you would too if you had cool birds to watch.
We have a gaggle (what do you call a group of quail?) of quail that live in our pine tree in the front yard. The crack me up just watching them scuffle across the yard. The quail like bird seed, in the rocks and dirt so they can scratch it out. So I feed them in the rocks.
We have at least 2 blue birds but I think that there's more like 3 or 4 but I have only seen 2 at a time, they like peanuts. I toss out a handful of peanuts every other day or so and watch them come down and peck them open and eat the nuts or take them with, apparently they stock up (according to Backyard Habitat). And then our newest addition the red breasted robin, now the robin like fruit, so you guessed it, I throw our almost day old fruit out and enjoy their company for days! We have a few doves that come by every so often. Not only do I feed them, I watch them from our windows for several minutes at a time, I turn the sprinklers on and watch them play in the water, and I even scare the cats away who threaten them! The squirrell he just comes out when there is food and first thing in the morning, he scares me though. Our coolest bird we have had was a red tailed hawk in our back yard, I tried to sneak up on it to take a picture.....yeah you can't sneak up on a hawk! :)
You have to laugh! Pretty funny huh? I keep telling Don that I feed them because when times of Armageddon come at least we have juicy plump quail in our tree that we can feast on!
Pictures to follow of my pets! :)

Tell me what you think

2007-03-24T20:28:00.000-07:00

I was reading "Baby names for Dummies" last night and came across an Old Testament name.
He was one of the sons of Jacob and one of he was the second son born to Jacob by Zilpha and the 8th son born to Jacob. He is one of the 12 tribes. Asher means Happy.
So what do you think of the name Asher? I am beginning to really like it. Asher Edward Stepro.
I put Ava back in the mix for girl names Don is holding on to Sophia. I liked Sophia Rose but then it began to remind me of the Golden Girls all we would need would be a Blanche and Dorothy! HaaHaaa But I am not sure what goes with either Sophia or Ava, we really haven't found any other girl names that we like.
So what do you think?

Crazy pregnancy dream journal

2007-03-23T10:21:00.000-07:00

I wanted to document in writing for my posterity the crazy pregnancy dreams that I have had that I remember, I will try to update whenever I have a weird dream.

I had a dream soon after I had been doing spring cleaning in the yard, must have been the raking and riping out plants and bushes that I don't like, any way the dream starts out with Don and I in the yard doing this yard work, and the we had the great idea to create a robot to do the yard work for us. All was well until....dum dum duuummmm the robot became possessed and had a mind of its own and was ticked off that it was doing the yard work, it multiplied in size until it was bigger then our house..EEEEK! So we were running all across town being chased by our giant robot and I was screaming at Don to try to figure out how to turn it off, pretty much the dream had not real end until I woke up, that is a common theme in my weird dreams, they just go on and on and on until I wake up.

The next dream I had is a bit more emotional. It has to do with Don and his previous wife April, she passed away in 2003 for breast cancer. At the beginning of our marriage the his and hers monument headstone was a real sore spot for me, of course I would have NEVER NEVER EVER said anything because I would look like an IDIOT and jerk and a selfish jerk. Counseling folks! I am way more at peace with everything now! Now back to my dream.
We had been married for several years at the point of my dream and Don told me that he hadn't been to the cemetery since we had been married, so we went together. I left him at their headstone and I walked over to the dome tomb thing (really there) where there was a TV and DVD player (they were all over the cemetery) , so I wanted to give Don his time alone so I took all of the kids over to the thing and we were watching a movie, when out of the corner of my eye I see Don wrap his arms around the top corner of the head stone and just begin to wail, he falls at the base of the head stone crying and sobbing and wailing. I try to tone the kids and movie out and listen to him, and he is apologizing for not visiting the cemetery more often, and how much he misses her and how he is sorry that he got married and had kids after she died, he was crying how guilty he was feeling.
I woke myself up from this dream. I am not mentally stable often enough to torture myself like this! HAHA I am stable now, but a few more minutes in that dream....maybe not so much!
So I woke him up and told him (which I have said before), that he can go to the cemetery anytime he would like to, anniversaries, birthdays, mothers day etc! I told him about my dream told him that I really don't care if he goes to the cemetery - I take flowers on special days because I know he won't, so he rolled over and very lovingly said....Ok hon, can I go back to sleep now! Hahahaha So I let him go back to sleep, but I didn't.

Then I had my hockey dream this one is really funny. Has many different levels! Don got us tickets to see my favorite hockey team, GO REDWINGS!, we were trying to find our seats and I lost Don, I found myself in seats on the team bench reserved for season ticket holders, I soon got kicked out of my seat when they learned that I was a fraud. I bought the real season ticket holders tickets for the next several home games, security escorted me out of the building, I couldn't get a hold of Don he couldn't hear his cell phone. So I was running around what was now a college campus? weird I know, and I was running running and I pass a female student at the bike rack arguing with her brother, who was also a student and his name was Mike, I committed that to memory to tell the cops. Anyway Mike is screaming at her and calling her names and told her that he was going to get even with her, she was crying, I kept running committed to tell the cops when I get back to my hockey game. Well then walking up a dark shadowy hill I see another man approaching me as I am running, " Excuse me ma'am. Excuse me ma'am I need to talk to you." The brother and sister are now walking up the same hill approaching me, and out of the shadows the first man says, "Ma'am, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Chris Hansen and I am with Dateline NBC. We were doing an investigation to see how many people would stop and help a woman that they thought was going to get hurt or in harms way. And you...you just kept running." Frantic I tell Chris Hansen - "Look, I don't have time for this! I have got to get back to my hockey game or I am going to miss the puck drop! Can one of your NBC vans take me to the arena and I will talk to you in the car?" So he says sure jumps in the van and takes me to the arena where I missed the puck dropping because I still couldn't find Don. Eventually we met back up.
This dream continues for what seems like days! But I won't bore you with that. The Chris Hansen part was the best!

Then two nights ago I had a dream that Rita and I and a few of her friends were in Reno. We were in a pick up so on the way back to Carson it was my turn to ride in the tailgate since there was not enough room inside the truck.
Rita stops at a restaurant named Jose's in what was supposed to be Washoe Valley, but looked more like Genoa in my dream, maybe cause Washoe Valley is so ugly? I don't know. So we stop at this place to get some good mexican food (which I have been craving like a mother! I miss you El Torito!!) and this cook, named Jose, from the back comes out to flirt with this table full of girls and he was smoking and I said "Hey you can't smoke in here! The new law says that you can not smoke where food is served!" He mocked me and threw his cigarette butt into the kitchen where the floor is littered with butts, I got annoyed said that I was going to go outside and call the heath district to report him. Then one of the girls came out and said that I had to get in there quick because there was going to be a contest and LL Cool J was there, mmm yummy, and who ever won got to make out with LL Cool J as the prize, so anyway I won. I called Don and told him what I had won and he told me to go ahead and he wouldn't be upset because this only happens once in a lifetime. So in my dream we went outside Jose's in Wahsoe Valley where I kissed LL Cool J. Hahahaha
My dreams are psycho!

That is it for now my migraine is working up and I can't barely see the screen right now.

More later!

Thanksgiving

2007-03-18T20:16:00.000-07:00

Just so everyone knows - we are having Thankgiving at our house. All family and friends who want to come are invited.
I just spoke with the Bishop today and I got the official OK to allow the baby blessing to be the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend! So all of those who are here that weekend are also invited to attend the baby blessing.
Just let us know if you will be here for it around Nov. 1st so I can prepare enough food!

Alien Teddy Graham

2007-03-13T22:43:00.000-07:00

We are at nine weeks and one day today. We had our last appointment with the fertility Dr. today, I am sad because they are soo flippin nice! And they treat you like royalty for getting pregnant, well maybe not royalty, but they are by far the nicest Dr. we have been to.

But it is a good thing that they dumped us because that means our little Alien Teddy Graham is progressing right along nicely. Today he has a giant head and little arm and leg stubs...like a teddy graham and he is about 2 1/2 centimeters long.

Again, we feel so blessed and we are so grateful for this opportunity to finally happen. Lots of prayers!

The pictures are a bit over exposed in some, but I couldn't get the light on them just right.

In this picture you can see the head at the top where the black dot is at (that is a brain vent?) The little arm stumps are right below and the leg stumps are kinda over to the side.

In this picture the head is on the right side.....looks very alien. Those big black dots are eye sockets?

In the last one the head is on the top, again very alien!

Mary Kay

2007-03-12T19:30:00.000-07:00

I will be placing a Mary Kay order in the next few weeks. If you would like to order anything please let me know.
The website is www.marykay.com/ebidwell

Time Out For Women

2007-03-12T19:26:00.000-07:00

Saturday Mom and I went to Time Out For Women. It was really neat. I enjoyed myself, minus the over priced boxed lunch...yuck!
My favorite speaker was Merillee Boyack who spoke about being a good wife. You just never know how much the little things you do everyday affect your relationship with your spouse.
Think of all the things that your spouse does for you everyday...for free....if you give them a little positive reinforcement everyday then imagine what results you could get from that!
I highly recommend reading anything that she has out there, she is very inspirational.

Expensive dinners...

2007-03-09T20:44:00.000-08:00

Today was another fun day, from Don waking me up at 6:30am and then thinking I would let him go back to sleep! I hid cell phones (mine, his and moms) w/ the alarms set all over the room to insure he did not fall back to sleep!

Then we played tourist around Carson City. Did some shopping. After lunch we went up to Lake Tahoe, Grandma said she hasn't seen it in over 60 years since she was a kid in Pioche. So that was neat. They didn't want to ride the gondola or sleigh rides, so that was a bummer and most the stores are priced out of our price range so we headed back to Carson for naps!

Then we went to dinner Gram wanted IHOP....I wanted Fiona's, it is my favorite steak place up here. I had the usuall petite filet with garlic mashed potatoes, Mom had prime rib, Gram swordfish (it wasn't that bad), Don had the same as me, and Brooklyn the ribs. It was soo yummy sooo delightful. Mouthwatering even....I can't even tell you how satisfying it all was, I was craving a good steak all day....and then..... we walk out to the car, I must excuse myself. $25.00 wasted! Haha No more expensive dinners for me for a while, until....well at least until I could hold my food down! Hahaha

Now we are at home, I built a fire for the novelty, Mom and Gram wanted one, we may be the only people with a fire w/ it 50 outside! So we are kicking back watching the Devil Wears Prada, enjoying the fire, and all over stuffed!

Tomorrow is the Time out for Women put on by Deseret Book, Michael McClain, Mary Ellen Edmunds, S. Michael Wilcox (he was my institute teacher in SLC, I loved him) and a few others, I am very excited about it, it should be fun!

4 GENERATIONS

2007-03-08T19:49:00.000-08:00

Mom and Grandma got in today. It was funny watching mom push grandma out of the airport with mom in her neck brace! I called them cripple and crippler. Haha

Today we had a busy day it was fun. We went to lunch and then ran Don some lunch and them we came home and met Brooklyn at the bus stop and went to Virginia City. It was about closing time for the little town, but we managed to find an Ole Town Photo that was still open, so we thought it would be fun to do a 4 generation picture of us. We were supposed to be harlots and Gram was our boss! It was fun! Check out my dark circles under my eyes! YIKES! I didn't think that they were that dark today, but I was soo wrong! We had ice cream and then stopped at the Chocolate Nugget and the ladies bought some fudge and salt water taffy.

Today has been a very fun day and I am glad that they came up.

You know that you want to buy a house!

2007-03-07T16:03:00.000-08:00

This is my plea to all the world of cyber blog stalkers!

Don just informed me that I can't keep spending money like I am working....since I am not really, only doing real estate these days.

I am begging you please buy or sell a house with me in the Reno/Tahoe/Carson area! If you want to buy one in Vegas, allow me to refer you to my wonderful sister!

Ok...in all seriousness...we are not destitute, but I would love and appreciate all of your business.

AMAZINGLY AMAZING...IN OTHER WORDS...INCREDIBLY INCREDIBLE

2007-03-02T09:31:00.000-08:00

Who else is sick and tired of the overuse of "Amazing"!? I blame Hollywood for that....everything is "Amazing"! Really?
According to Webster the definition of Amaze is:

Main Entry: 1amaze Pronunciation: &-'mAz Function: verb Inflected Form(s): amazed; amaz·ingEtymology: Middle English amasen, from Old English Amasian, from A- (perfective prefix) + *masian to confuse -- more at ABIDE transitive verb1 obsolete : BEWILDER, PERPLEX2 : to fill with wonder : ASTOUND intransitive verb : to show or cause astonishment synonym see SURPRISE .

I really wonder if you could substitute the definition of Amazing in your sentence and still make sense? Are you really Bewildered, perplexed, astounded? Get a thesaurus .... find a new verb, adverb, adjective! Please unless you are truly amazed...."I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me." That is amaze worthy. My shoes are amazing, not worthy, your shoes may be super cute, comfortable...but amazing? Dinner isn't amazing either ....dinner can be delicious..delicatble...but it is not amazing worthy.

Alright I will get off my high horse for now. Ah...feels good to vent that out!

OH MY GOODNESS GUYS!

2007-02-28T14:32:00.000-08:00

DID ANYONE NOTICED THAT I MISSED #29 ON MY LIST!
HAHAHAHA
#29 SAID
I don't like cockroaches, crickets, moths....and oddly...butterflies.

My sweet girl

2007-02-28T08:30:00.000-08:00

Last night Brooklyn was soo scared and soo sweet. She had asked while she was locked in the bathroom if she was going to have to stay in there all night long until Don got home? And if we were going to have to break out the bathroom window so she could crawl through.

That is when I was still working on the door knob, and I said I will not let you stay in the bathroom all night long, I will break the door down, before that happens.

She said that she got back in the tub and immediately began to pray silently. She said that when I had gone out to the garage she prayed that I would have the strength to knock the door down. She is such an amzaing sweet girl. She is so spiritual and amazes me that she has such full understanding of faith & prayer.

Before the tub incedent she announced to me, "Daddy's at work, I am sleeping in your bed." That always makes me laugh when she does that, but after the tub, my bedroom had debri all over, so I told her I would sleep in her room with her.

She agreed. When I had finally finished everything up for the night I had gone to lay down, she had made me up a bed in there with a note on the pillow.

"Good Night. Thanks for saving my life. Love you! You are my hero!" How sweet is she? Of course I cried! She really thought she would be trapped in there all night long. How sad and scary for her! I love her so much!

Ever wanted to break down a door

2007-02-27T21:52:00.000-08:00

We have this door that sucks. It locks, but not really, locks. The tumbler thing just gets stuck and you can't open the door. The key doesn't help because it isn't really locked.

This has been a known problem for quite some time. Don has lovingly procrastinated replacing the door knob. So of course tonight while he is at work all night until tomorrow night it all came to a head.

Since we only have one tub, due to B&B, Brooklyn was taking a bath in our tub, the door shuts and "locks" behind itself, when she goes to get out she is freaked out, so I tried to take the door knob off, only to find that it is broken on the inside too, and I wasn't able to open the door still.

SOOOO what is a girl left to do?

Get a claw hammer and safety goggles....I am not kidding, I had Brooklyn get back in the tub and close the shower doors and I broke the door down.

I am angry and frustrated, this should have been taken care of, and that frustrates and angers me, and of course it has to happen on a night when I am all alone, and that frustrates and angers me! We need to replace all the ugly faux wood doors in our house anyway, so this one will be the first.

This is the broken inside of the door.

This is the broken door

This is Brooklyn escaping for her life!

Look ...I finally got it opened!

The weather rap

2007-02-27T21:45:00.000-08:00

Brooklyn had her third grade play tonight.

It was called the Weather Rap. Science mixed with Music...ahhh pleasure!

It was so cute and soo funny! All the kids did great!

The red-headed boy's name is Dagen, he is one of Brooklyn friends, kinda reminds me of Jaren!

MY 100

2007-02-27T15:12:00.000-08:00

Here are my 104. Mine all are pretty random, I write them as I get them, like my A-D-D brain, you are getting everything unfiltered!

1. Currently nauseous.
2. I am afraid of public restrooms
3. I have to close my eyes and go to my happy place to use one.
4. I love to travel
5. I get bored easily
6. My Grandma was my best friend through the rough years
7. She stuck up for me.
8. I was always aggressive because I didn't want to be a weak woman.
9. I didn't think I ever wanted kids.
10. I am grateful the Lord knew better.
11. I need friends - all the time
12. Holly is one of my best friends
13. I talk to Holly 3 times a day avg.
14. My youngest bestfriendship is 4 yrs old and that is Amber.
15. My oldest bestfriendship is 161/2 years old and that is Becky.
16. All of the others fall in between.
17. All of my friends are my best friends, they all offer me something different.
18. Here is where I say that I married my best friend.
19. No really, I mean that. He is just a different kind of Best Friend .....
20. I love the snow
21. I don't like driving in it
22. I am the middle child
23. I passed my drivers test on the first try
24. I passed my real estate test on the first try
25. I like living in Carson City
26. I am a home body
27. I love to indulge myself when I can justify spending money; massages, pedicures and hair
28. My favorite show is Medium
30. I like snakes, lizards and spiders
31. I don't like being afraid
32. I have many irrational fears : shark attacks....when am I in the ocean?
33. I read self help books
34. I love music! I hear music and can remember where I was...like a sound track to my life
35. I would be a lot smarter if I applied myself
36. I regret not finishing college
37. I will graduate college before Brooklyn
38. Brooklyn is the best child I have ever met...and I am not just being partial. She has personality galore, a strong strong testimony, a sweet spirit and genuinely loves everyone
39. I get my feeling hurt more then I would like to admit
40. I am anti popular - but I like to be liked
41. I love the Redwings
42. I love the Yankees
43. I used to think I would never get married
44. I get annoyed by slow people
45. I get annoyed by stupid people
46. I like old people and don't care if they are slow or stupid
47. I like listening to my grandpa's stories of the old days. ( he is 91)
48. I am not crafty.
49. I tried
50. I suck
51. I like murder mystery dinners
52. I thrive on stability
53. I cry with my friends
54. I cry for my friends
55. I hate poor mannered kids
56. I was only spanked once by my dad when I was 3
57. My mom beat the crap out of me when I was 14
58. I was 5'5'' and she was 5'1''
59. I still don't think I deserved it
60. I had cheek hickeys on my face where she grabbed me and shook me silly.
61. I wasn't an angel...should have been punished...but face hickeys...really???
62. I had numerous cars through my life 3 before I finished high school 6 since them not counting Don's 2
63. I went to the same high school as my parents
64. I broke my arm having a swing jumping contest with my brother when I was in the 1st grade...he won
65. I broke my leg volunteering for Special Olympics
66. I called myself a retard at the Special Olympics....the EMT asked me if I was a participant. hahaha doesn't get any better then that.
67. I have never eaten a McDonalds hamburger - used to eat Filet-o-fish until I found out they were fish
68. I was 10 or 11 before I had a fast food hamburger
69. It was a Wendy's in St. George when my parents went to the Temple.
70. I have never eaten a hot dog
71. I have never eaten bologna
72. I broke my nose trying to play softball...I missed a pop fly and it smashed my face
73. I hate TV, I wish I didn't watch so much, but I do.
74. I hate cartoons that are for grown ups....I think they are lame.
75. I don't like video games
76. One of the worst days of my life was when Linda told me she had cancer
77. I lived in Henderson, Hurricane, Henderson, Las Vegas, Henderson, West Valley, Henderson, Carson City (in that order)
78. I don't like people who try to get their way through manipulation
79. I have our next 3 vacations planned.
80. I have to have all the elements right to go to sleep, Blankets, temperature, fan, pillow
81. I have to tell my brain to shut up to go to sleep
82. I stopped biting my nails March 1996, when my Grandma had a heart attack and yelled at me in the hospital for biting my nails.
85. I was angry & grateful that I was the only one around to get the call from the hospital that she had a heart attack. I wasn't ready for her to go....still not....Grandma, you don't have permission to die yet!
86. I have a pretty good memory, often to my disadvantage, I haunt myself with all of my memories
87. I like daisies & sunflowers the most, but Don loves buying me roses...they are a close second!
88. I sound spoiled, but I am not.
89. I am a primary teacher, I am very strict with my class, you have to be when you have 12-13 8-10 year olds
90. I have escape plans for random situations; ie: car jacking, rape, kidnapping etc
91. I like to play in the dirt.
92. I like to garden.
93. I like to watch movies, until I fall asleep
94. I am afraid that one of my kids or I, will get cancer, like my dad. That scares me.
95. I hate child molesters...who likes them?
96. I am nervous to have more kids.
97. I am blessed and grateful that I have Don this time around, my pregnancy is already 100000% different.
98. He cried when we saw the ultrasound, and that made me cry.
99. I worry that I will always favor Brooklyn
100. I think I have IBS
101. I think I am pretty
102. I think I would be prettier if I loose 80 lbs.
103. I love swimming
104. I am happy. I am fun to be with, at least I think I am!

Well I hope that you all learn a bit more about me!

OUR BABY'S FIRST PICTURE!

2007-02-27T14:27:00.000-08:00

Meet Baby Stepro!

He is only 7 weeks old now and only 4-5 weeks into his developement and growth.

We were able to see the heart beat today, that was such a relief because you kinda psyche yourself out for a while. I was beginning to worry if I was making myself sick or if I was really having morning sickness, am I super tired because I am a lazy slacker? The Dr. Says "NO!" I am just pregnant! Whew! What a relief!

Although there is no head or arms or legs yet, you can't tell which side is which, the baby probably doesn't know yet! In 2 weeks when we get to see him again then we should be able to see a head and arm and leg stubs. We are quite excited about that.

With out further ado..... Meet our new baby!

BUNCH OF RANDOM PICTURES

2007-02-27T14:08:00.000-08:00

Brooklyn attacking her Valentines Day heart. Much to her pleasure it was not hollow. And much to my disgust it sits 1/4 eaten through in my fridge. Aagh more fridge smells!

This is me...check out the arm flab! YIKES!!!

These pictures are of us going to Tahoe for Valentines Day. We rode the Heavenly Gondola to the top of the mountain, since the sleigh rides were not going, But once we got to the top of the mountain it was way to cold to take pictures, I never took my hands out of my pockets! So all the pictures that we have are from the car and from the gondola itself.

I love living up here! Things are soo beautiful! We are less then an hour a way from Tahoe 4 from San Fransisco. I love love it! We get to go on dates in Lake Tahoe! Awesome!

My husband isn't bad either! haha He is so wonderful! I am very lucky and very blessed to have him. He is a great husband and dad. It is weird because sometimes I forget that he hasn't been around forever.

Snow..finally!

2007-02-27T13:56:00.000-08:00

We had a good snow last night, it fell light most of the night. We had about 7 -8 inches this morning. The camera was able to catch snowflakes! It looks soo cool and beautiful.

Brooklyn had a ton of fun playing in all the snow this morning before school. She was praying for a snow day, but Carson didn't call a snow day.

Good thing you didn't come up

2007-02-25T23:21:00.000-08:00

Well I have been thinking how glad I am that Holly and the family weren't able to come up when we had planned. For one there is no snow, Don and I were going to go on a sleigh ride in Tahoe for Valentines day, but we couldn't because..no snow! So that would have sucked.
Secondly, we have Beavis and Butthead (the contractors) still plugging away on bathroom #2, and at one point last week they had both of the bathrooms in an a totally unusable state, becuase they decided to do the fix it projects to bathroom #1 before finishing bathroom #2! Seriously, they don't make any sense.
So I am glad that they weren't able to come up since I can't promise to have a functioning toilet and or shower on any given day. The deadline was to be the 13th of Feb. what a joke!
I hear it should be tomorrow or Tuesday. We will see.

randomness

2007-02-25T22:45:00.001-08:00

Well let's back up to President's Day. We bought cheapy binochulars and spent most of the day walking around Washoe Lake looking for birds, namely Red Tail Hawks and Bald Eagles.
We saw tons of hawks no eagles, so we get on the freeway and low and behold in the same tree way off the freeway there was the Eagle ...AHHHH. So like big nerds that we are we pulled the car off the freeway and all 3 standing along the gate binochulars in hand watching it. The weirdest part of the experience was that it would turn it's head back and almost appear to be looking at us as intently as we were looking at him. It was cool, almost forgot we were standing on the side of the freeway! Hahaha
Sadly, no new pictures, as they would look the exact same as my old Eagle pictures.

I worked a floor time at the office this week and picked up a client! WOO HOO!! A call in even, not looking to buy until spring or summer but still! Yeah!

I took Brooklyn and Aria to the pool yesterday, whatelse do you do in the middle of winter? Indoor of course, it was a ton of fun! Again... no pictures, we go there and my dang batteries in the camera had died! Ah blast that dang Kodak Easy Share battery sucking piece of crap!!
But I swam laps while they played. Brooklyn went off the high dive about 5 times and the low dive more, Aria never quite got up the courage for that. Maybe next time.

Church today. I am beginning to not hate my ward so much, trying to be more tolerant and patient with the not so nice people. I figure they are so unhappy because they are ugly....NO I am kidding! hahaha but that was funny though huh?? It has really opened my up to feeling the spirit..not to mention that I am pregnant so I don't need to feel the spirit to cry!
Speaking of....anyone remember when I said I was worried because I wasn't feeling that sick? Yeah ....about that....I wish those words were never uttered past my lips. Oye! I am sick sick sick! Different things make me sick then when I was pregnant with Brooklyn, with her everything made me sick except Baskin Robins Rainbow Sherbet. Now I can eat b-a-n-a-n-a-s, grapes, applesauce...and I just ate a waffle because I want to throw up, but nothing is coming out, so I ate something more then soft food to see if it would go away or come up so I feel better. Also - I am flippin tired! I don't remember this at all, but I did laundry last Thursday at the laundry mat (contractors had hallway blocked) and I was asleep by like 9:30 that night, I was just wiped out! I hope this doesn't last long, but if it does then it is all worth it. I say that about being sick too, I don't mind that so much, at least I am not getting fatter!
I need recipes that don't stink up the house, because cooking dinner for Brooklyn and Don makes me sick every night! But I can't keep feeding them mac-n-cheese either. Tonight I did pork loin, rice, peas and applesauce...ICK ICK ICK!! Seriously if you have scentless recipes I could cook for my family that would be wonderful! OR any ideas of what I can do to cook and not get sick?
I am worried for when Mom and Grandma come up in 10 days, I don't want them to starve either! What a poor hostess!
Ultrasound is Tuesday morning counting sacks. Pretty sure that there is only one in there, will let you know more later.
Don is taking more classes, this time from University of Phoenix, they are expensive, but will be worth it when he finishes in 18 months?
We are batting around the idea of staying in our small house for at least 18 months - let him get finished with school so he will get another pay raise, but in the mean time buying a lot somewhere up here and paying on it until we can build a house rather then buying a house. What do you think? Good idea? Bad Idea? Too costly??

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO ME!

2007-02-14T17:16:00.000-08:00

I just got my Valentines Day delivery from my hubby!

He is awesome!!

My daily travels

2007-02-14T14:35:00.000-08:00

Today I went out to the visit Don at work and stopped in Washoe Valley at the Chocolate Nugget for some yummy Valentines Day treats for Don.

I love this place. They have a giant miner statue mining for chocolate out side.

Here are a few pictures of the delictable treats! The container is made from chocolate also! What a dang good idea!

On my way home I stopped at the mall to spend my left over Christmas gift card money. Yeah! Got some shirts that are big and puffy...to double as maternity clothes.

And then on my way home from shopping I was in Washoe Valley and I saw a Bald Eagle on the opposite side of the road off in the trees, so I pulled off at the next exit and headed back to see if it was still there. It was about 100 yards from the road side by the lake. I jumped out of the car and got as close as I could drudging through the knee high weeds and sage brush to get as close to the fence as I could to get the best picture that I could. They aren't that good, but you can kinda see it. It is very small in the picture but trust me they are very large birds! I am glad that I got to see it!

I guess you have to know

what it is you are looking for

to be able to see it in these pictures.

It is the black splotch in the tree

with a kinda white head!

What a difference a day makes

2007-02-14T14:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a cold ugly snowy winter day!

And then today it was a beautiful spring day! 65 degrees!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NALIEA

2007-02-14T14:16:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NALIEA!!

TODAY IS DON'S GRAND DAUGHTER'S FIRST BIRTHDAY!!

STILL KNOCKED UP

2007-02-14T08:25:00.000-08:00

Nurse Patty gave me a call this morning.
We are still pregnant. My hcg level is low this week i am at 1332. Normal range is between 1,000-5,000.
She said my #'s dropped from my last test, I got panicky and she said not to worry, I was probably pregnant with multiples and they just reduced, naturally.
That is kind of a bummer. But we are still pregnant with at least one.
I will have an ultrasound in on the 27th(7 week) to count sacks and then again on March 13(9 week).
I am not looking forward to when they dump me! Everyone in this office is just so nice and sweet. I am going to have to go back to one of our Carson City dork Doctors for the last 6 months! Yuck!

NOT YET

2007-02-14T07:54:00.000-08:00

I waited up last night. No call.
Hopefully today?

STILL WAITING

2007-02-13T20:40:00.000-08:00

Dr.s office called, I love this Dr.s office. They are so wonderful and sweet. I am sad that they are going to dump me in just a few weeks.
Anyway the head nurse called me at 5:30 and told me that she finally called the lab and that they lost my blood, they found it and will process it asap. So the nurse said she would check the website from home and call me around 9:00 - 9:30 if anything posts.
So here I sit...struggling to stay awake.

So Bummed (Don't read Holly) and tired

2007-02-13T15:48:00.000-08:00

I am so bummed. Holly and the boys...and Mark too, were going to come up tonight. I was going to babysit so Holly and Mark could have a night alone. We were going to play in the snow and have tons of fun!
But alas, it fell through! Mark had to work or something totally lame like that! hahahahaha
So I had been praying for snow now for the last month, since we have been having a very dry winter, so that the boys would have snow to play in.
We got a small storm last weekend, Yeah, snow in the mountains!
And then today it snowed about an inch in the valley, I got so sad, because the boys would love playing in the snow all day. But alas, again....it rained soon after the snow fall and melted all the snow.
But there is still snow in the mountains. And I am still bummed that I won't be able to play with Holly and the boys.
But if you think I am bummed - Brooklyn is doubly bummed! She was so looking forward to playing all day with them, and having them waiting for her at her bus stop. Then to top that off, she figured that she would see them for a week in April for Spring Break....Oops...we are going to Chicago instead!
We are trying to work it out to go down there again soonish. Not sure when. I had sworn off all family travels that weren't a vacation for a while. But that never lasts!
Have you noticed my ramblings?
Did I mention that I think I have had a total of 6 hours of sleep in the last 2 days. My anti miscarriage crap I take has the following side effects: Insomnia, extreme exhaustion, irritability etc. etc. Like I need to be grouchier!?!? Insomnia mixed with extreme exhaustion!?! So pretty much I am damn tired all the time but I can't sleep at all! Which makes a person irritable in and of itself. I am a GROUCH! A TIRED, IRRITABLE GROUCH!

WAITING IMPATIENTLY

2007-02-13T15:41:00.000-08:00

I did another blood test yesterday. My Dr. has had me doing them often, works out to about every 5 days.
Anyway I still haven't heard from the Dr. it's been 25 hours now, and it usually only takes 8 hours. I am getting nervous, it's that whole cautiously optimistic stuff, I hope to hear soon. I called the office at ten and then knew nothing from the lab and then again 3:15 and they still haven't heard from the lab. This is odd!
Oh well, I need to have faith.
After we found out we were pregnant, I heard from many people that if I miscarry then it's the Lord's will. Ok yeah, I get that....but these are the same people who said you will get pregnant when in the Lord's time. Hahaha.
I understand that, really I do. Still don't want to hear it.

Brooklyn's Report Card

2007-02-07T12:32:00.000-08:00

Brooklyn brought home her report card this week, and she is doing soo well! She loves being in 3rd grade. It has been her most challenging year so far. I remember it the same way though, 3rd grade you start using the big kid playground (although she did last year because she was in a 2nd/3rd grade class) but still big transitions and also it was the year that I had to start trying to pay attention and have to learn, I could no longer skate by on my good looks...hahaha!
I hope that she is learning better study habits then I had! She has such a complex mind and complex thought process that she could really do great things with it!
Any way.....back to her great report card success!
She got 18 4's, which is an A, it means that she exceeds the national standard expectation. And 5 3's which means she meets the national standard expectation. I am soo proud of her. Last quarter the teacher wrote that she was too social and needed to let other kids finish their work, once Brooklyn gets the concept and finishes her work she would be a distraction to the other kids who are trying to still work. This quarter the teacher wrote that "Brooklyn's behavior had improved drastically. Brooklyn is well liked and a pleasure to have in class. Brooklyn accepts responsibility. She is a very hard worker staying in at recess to do school work to stay ahead. She excels in math and reading."
What an over achiever! We are very proud of her.
They do a math test and reading test before ever quarter ends, the tests are rather subjective I would say, but she has made big improvements already. The first quarter her reading test said that she was at a 4.3 reading level, which is interpreted as 4th grade 3rd month. Her score this quarter was 4.9, so 4th grade 9th month. She went up 6 months. She is in the 90th percentile of students tested nationally.
Her math is even more spectacular! Beginning of the year she tested at 3.2 which is 3rd grade 2nd month, which was still good. This quarter she tested at 5.6! 5th grade 6th month!!!! That is 2.4 years of growth in just one quarter! She is 96th percentile of students tested nationally!
Fantastic!! I hope that she keeps it up!

MY CELEB LOOK-A-LIKES

2007-02-06T19:19:00.000-08:00

http://

THE NEW FURNITURE!!!

2007-02-06T17:05:00.000-08:00

HERE IS MY NEW LIVING ROOM FURNITURE! IT IS A BIT LARGE FOR OUR SPACE BUT IT IS VERY VERY PRETTY!

AND IT WILL WORK IN OUR NEW HOUSE...WHERE EVER THAT MAY BE!

KYLE'S CELEB LOOK-A-LIKES!! HAHAHAHAHA

2007-02-06T16:11:00.000-08:00

http://

MAD SCIENTISTS

2007-02-06T15:45:00.000-08:00

Brooklyn got a science kit to do a ton of mini experiements. She and Aria had a good time making slime and stuff!

my craftiness!

2007-02-06T15:35:00.000-08:00

I made this last week during enrichment, I didn't upload the pictures until today so here is all of my craftiness at work, honestly I don't think I did too badly...for being me that is.

Considering when I went to the crocheting class they had they pretty much gave up on me and told me that "it's not for everyone".

Linda

2007-02-06T15:34:00.001-08:00

Linda!
Start a blog dangit!!

Ahhh

2007-02-06T15:09:00.000-08:00

So today has been an alright day! I got a hot shower, which was nice because we weren't allowed to use our one and only functional shower for 24 hours. I did my hair and put a touch of make up on. That always feels good.

Brooklyn is at school, Don is at work (until 8:30pm tomorrow), and I would like to think my house is quiet BUT I have contractors working in the bathroom, but at least it will get done soon! Ricky is here painting, we got the back room finished that we will be moving Brooklyn into soon. I had a whole sky,cloud, grass flowers thing planned for the room...but we will be moving soon and I don't want to put that much work into it, so last night after Ricky finished up the blue I went in and sponged some clouds on it. It looks cute so hopefully by Friday we will have her moved over.

The pictures didn't turn out that great , but you get the idea.

And RC Willey is delivering my new living room furniture today! Although it was supposed to be yesterday, but what can you do?

Oh and the Dr's office called and we are still pregnant!! Hooray!!! My levels are right were they need to be! I will repeat the blood test again in ten days and then 10 days from there we will get an ultrasound to see what's there. So I think 20 more days and we will see how many are in there. hahahahaha I am pretty sure that there is only one, but you never can know for sure!

So today I feel as if I have taken a long bath in big hot tub.....Ahhh Calgon!!!

Two Pinkish Lines

2007-02-02T16:00:00.000-08:00

As you all know I have been waiting impatiently to find out if this month's insemination worked out. I have 7 home pregnancy tests that are difficult to interpret, but they looked almost positive. I went to get my blood work done today, I couldn't wait for Monday.
The Dr's office called while I was out at the bus stop picking up Brooklyn, sooooo I called them when I got back.....and.......
WE ARE PREGNANT!!
Now don't go getting to excited. My hormone levels are very low at the moment and I have to repeat the test Tuesday and then again 10 days from Tuesday. We were told to be "Cautiously Optomistic." So we will have to keep waiting to see.
Keep those prayers coming!

I love things too!

2007-01-30T11:04:00.000-08:00

I feel horrible cause I rant and rant and rant and then I read Holly's blog and she is so sweet and thankful and humble. I love things too. I am grateful for many things too.

I love the Hutchings Christmas Charity soo much! We usually pluck a few angles from the angle tree and buy for them, but it is a much lesser scale. I have talked to my family and we have agreed that this year will be the year of giving. We are going to call Brooklyn's elementary school and talk to the office about a family that could use even groceries or toys etc and we will have a half way Christmas, to bring the spirit of giving back to our home more then just one day a year. Then at Christmas time Brooklyn has agreed that she doesn't need any more toys or junk this year, she will get a few items that she needs, but all of our Christmas money that we set aside will be for making another families Christmas special.

A few years ago the mortgage company I had been working for went out of business, and I got let go November 4th. I remember that I drove to Holly and Mark's appt on Durango, close to my old office, and sat there and cried. That year I took a job at JCPenny, as jobs in mortgage and banking don't ususally hire that time of year, to make money for a small Christmas for everyone. I had relied on help from my ward at the time also for a little bit of help. I remember feeling soo sad and how was I going to tell Brooklyn at 5 years old that Santa Clause was too poor this year. I did the best that I could. Then on December 13th at 11:00 at night someone banged on my door. Brooklyn was in bed and I was on the couch talking to my friend Amber, the neighbor hood I lived in was scary at night so I was hesitant to open the door, I hollered "Who is it?" several times over and no one answered. I cracked the door open my heart racing 100 beats a minute and no one was there, I looked down on the ground and there was a note and 2 gifts. I don't remember what the gift was, but the note apologized for starting the 12 days of Christmas late, I was soo happy it was fun, the note also stated that they wished to remain anonymous, I had windows all around my apartment and could have easily seen who it was running in either direction, but choose to honor their wish. So every night till Christmas Eve I would wait up and promised Brooklyn that I would wake her up when the secret santa came, we got spoiled I thought. We got Christmas decorations, an Entertainment book, PJs, Ornaments, candy, movies, snacks, books, I was feeling so thankful and soo blessed. It was awesome my friends would call every night and ask what my secret santa had done for me that night, it was such a wonderful feeling. Not wanting to break their request for anonymity but wanting them to know we were thankful we drew a big picture and Thank You not on the sidewalk, it was our way of letting them know when they came by every night that we were saying "Thank You!" Then Christmas eve came. I don't know what I was expecting - but the door bell rang I waited several minutes before I answered.
Brooklyn standing by my side we opened the front door and I just broke down and cried. My front patio was covered in Christmas presents! Tons and tons of gifts. That nights card asked us not to open until Christmas Day, but who could do that? We opened them up and as I did I cried and cried. I was soo blessed and soo grateful for someones kindness! Brooklyn got a bike and the Barbie Happy Family set, house, dolls, cars everything plus many more things. They even gave me gifts, I was expecting it to be all for Brooklyn but they thought of me too a dvd player, a necklace, and cash to help with the bills! In my estimate it was well over $1200.00 spent on us! I have a good idea of who it was that was so kind to us that year, I never got to thank that family personally so instead I always said when I can do that financially I would thank them by giving someone else that same gift. They were so selfless and kind and it has blessed my life ever since, I will always remember that feeling of gratitude that I had during those 11 days.
So this is my year for paybacks! I hope to touch someone the way that I was touched.

So as I sat here righting this I cried, the feeling is so much still there. I am excited about our year of giving to others and not ourselves.

Holly's celeb look a likes

2007-01-30T09:23:00.000-08:00

http://

Ever notice that Holly even when she is being weird looking is still freakishly hot? Pam Anderson? Angelina Jolie? Holy crap Holly walk tall and proud today!!

Hahaha

SO SORRY BLOG STALKERS

2007-01-29T22:31:00.000-08:00

HAHAHA SORRY HOLLY!

I haven't blogged lately because I really don't have a ton going on right now. Well nothing that I feel really comfortable blogging about, never know who reads these things...ya know!

I am tired a grumpy some ole same ole. We had an insemination 2 Sundays ago AFC/NFC playoffs. I feel good about the timing of this insemination. Rita took my class, all 13 of them (yes I said 13!!), Don and I took in our sample, went to breakfast went back to get the drip on. Then we came home and it was football games, good ones too, and adult activities all day - had to keep the count up and alive, good thing Brooklyn was at church with Rita! Based on the amount of pressure I was feeling I think my egg burst around 2 o'clock so with the insemination happening at 9am we are in our 6 hour optimal window. I don't want to be falsely hopeful either, but you can't help but to be you know.

So when I was asking Rita to take my class I told her that if I got knocked up that weekend it was because she was willing to take my primary class for me and so I would name my child boy or girl Rita Consuelo Carter Heath Stepro, after her. Then I was talking to Stacie and she reminded me that since the Bears won their game and I am rooting for Chicago in the big game and I hopefully conceived on the day of the game I should name my kid Lovie Smith, So then we were talking even more and I threw her name in the mix too with Kay, then I said that I would name my son after which ever QB wins the big game. Rex or Peyton, for that reason I am hoping that the Colts win! Haha so anyway the name Peyton has grown on me the last 2 weeks. So if we are pregnant then my child will be named Rita Consuelo Carter Heath Lovie Smith Peyton Kay Stepro! Hahahaha Fun and games fun and games.

I will take a pee test on Superbowl Sunday, blood test on the following Monday. I will know by 4:00 Monday afternoon if we got lucky this month.

The timning just seemed to be all right, Don was home all day, which I love to have him home and at church on Sunday. My Sundays are completely different when we go to church together. His boss is being evil again and told him that he will be back on Sundays again. Long story, but she is evil!

Last Friday I bought our tickets to go see Wicked while we are in Chicago. It is Don's first off-Broadway show before so he let me buy the expensive seats! I downloaded the soundtrack on Itunes so that we could get familiar with the music.

Still not really working, trying my best to be a Real Estate Agent just having a hard time with my broker, clients and myself. Again the usual. I just don't like not feeling like I don't know what I am doing.

Mom and Grandma and maybe Shauna are coming up for Time our for Women in March, I am excited about that. Rita invited her mom also so it should be a fun and uplifting weekend. Michael Mclain and S. Michael Wilcox, Mary Ellen Edmunds and Cherie Call will be there, a few others too - just don't remember them all. Don't be jealous...just kidding!

My master bathroom is still all torn apart. We had to fire our crappy contractors and are doing the work ourselves now, on Don's days off - so we are back on the "kitchen" remodeling schedule again! Groovy! I love having only 1 tub and toilet for everyone! I hope that it is finished before we start getting company, otherwise that will suck royally!

I am not always a complete grouch!! I promise. Tired and Cranky!!

ICE SKATING!

2007-01-15T16:32:00.000-08:00

Brooklyn and Aria
EYE yi yi! The sun was in my eyeball!
It was sunshine and roses all day, Brooklyn did take a hard fall and hit her head.

Brooklyn had to get all gussied up for ice skating! Purple eyeshadow and glitter! She is ready for her triple lutz!
Look at Don! Ahhh! He never fell one time!
Brooklyn and Aria.... on the ice!
Brooklyn did soo good! She fell a few times but it was all ok! She got the hang of it pretty easy!

Don, Brooklyn and I met up with Rita and her girls and Jenn and her girls at the Rink on the River, it is an ice rink that sits right next to the Truckee River, it is a cute location.

Don and Brooklyn both did REALLY REALLY well for their first time skating! It was fun! Rita is such a good mom, she skated several laps hunched over skating with Bailey, makes you feel like crap because you won't go out their with your kids!

My pictures are not the best, we had the sun right in our face so I was trying my best.

Evan & Mario

2007-01-14T20:56:00.000-08:00

I am a jerk!

We got home from Turlock and I don't have any good pictures of Evan! We had tons of video of Evan though, but we lost it all because we were not recording it in the right setting!

So we do have more nephews not just Holly's kids!

random pictures

2007-01-14T20:24:00.000-08:00

I love Holly!
Kyle was done for the day, ready for sleep
Brooklyn and Jaren playing Princess Monopoly
I took the choney picute down ...but this one was equally funny!
Brooklyn's eyeball, you wouldn't believe how many of these eyeball pictures I have!

This group of pictures is from our airplane on the way to Vegas, Brooklyn took all the pictures except the one of herself. There are pictures of Lake Mead and then the one of the houses and stuff is Section 27, you can see Dooley (her old school) and the park, Brooklyn thought that it was cool to see it from the plane!

This group of Brooklyn and I getting ready for my Century 21 Christmas Party. Next is Don all handsome and stuff going to my Christmas party. Isn't he a handsome devil??

The next few are Brooklyn getting ready for her Christmas Dance/Acrobatics recital. And Aria and Bailey & Brooklyn at the recital.

Thanks Chanel!

2007-01-14T20:19:00.000-08:00

I am a myspace voyuer so I know all about the stalking!
I appreciate your advice! I think that I will look more into those retreats in a little bit, I just booked our Chicago vaca and Don kinda frowns when I book 2 big vacations! haha
You are a good friend and I promised Holly I wouldn't friend steal!
But I welcome your advise and help and support anytime!

Fun in the cold

2007-01-14T19:50:00.000-08:00

As I told you all in the previous rant it was cold! The picture up above is the temp!! When we woke up at 9:00am and it was -1! Negative one!!! Holy Crap so what do you do on a Saturday when it is Below Freezing cold?? We met up with Rita and her girls plus Montana at the children's museum and hung out there for a few hours and then took them to McDonalds and let them play there for a few hours. By the time we got home it was after 4:00 and had warmed up to 20 degrees. That was nice hahaha, it is like Vegas if the summer, after 100 degrees one more doesn't really matter - below 20 it doesn't really matter!

Tomorrow (Monday) we are going ice skating, well not me of course for the obvious reasons...um pretty much I can't walk with out hurting myself!

But I will have some cute pictures for sure!

We went to church today, it was really really good. This is Don's second week in a row with Sundays off, it is so good to have him home all day, Sunday is literally the only day that we don't do ANYTHING so it is good to have him home and I am sure he feels relaxed one day a week! :)

I had 11 kids in my primary class, including Brooklyn, today and I actually had good control today, it was a good lesson, and I didn't leave hating my calling. I loved it today, it was weird, I have been complaining about not feeling spiritually edified and today I felt edified. Of course I am mid Clomid cycle too, so I am feeling a bit more emotional then normal! But I felt very very good today, I can last another week!

TTYL

Pity Party - Party of One!

2007-01-12T18:51:00.000-08:00

As I have been open about thus far, we have been doing fertility treatments. We have not been protecting for almost a year "trying" for 10 months, trying using Clomid for 8 months - actually only 7 with Clomid since I had to take November off due to a cyst, and trying using Clomid, FSH shot, and HCG shot & artificial insemination for 1 month - this month will be the second.
My body hates me for this! I am tired, I am cranky(-er then normal), I am a hairy beast!!, my body is bloated all of the time, I ache, did I mention that I am ornry too - and my Physicians Assistant said that many women gain 30-40 pounds while going through this stuff, because of emotional eating plus all of the jacking with the various hormones. And we got a $1,000.00 lab bill this week for the lab work that I had last month. The inseminations are 5,000- 6,000 - we were ready for that, we just were not ready for all this other stuff.

And with every passing month it gets closer to my 30th b-day. I am not sure if I want to have kids after I turn 30.

I want more kids, at least one, but you know when you know that the boy/girl you have a crush on isn't interested in you and so then you start making up reasons that you didn't really like him anyways...just so you feel better about yourself? Well, that is where I am at with this fertility stuff. I am just not sure that this is what the Lord wants for us? If he wanted us to get pregnant - then we would. So is this a lesson in accepting the Lord's time? or a sign that this isn't whats in store for us? Maybe I am thinking too much about it - as I do most things.
Maybe the reason that I was not supposed to give Brooklyn up for adoption 9 years ago is because the Lord new that she was my only shot? I don't know? I don't know?

I am only doing this 2 maybe 3 more months before we call it quits for a while. Our next tentative insemination will be the 23rd of January - and we will not find out if it works for 2 weeks after that.

Hmmm whatelse can I rant about while I am here?

It is cold! Down to 10 degrees now and it's only 7:12! I made homemade chicken noodle soup (with homemade noodles) tonight for dinner, it sounded like a good cold weather food. It was good.

Naleah

2007-01-12T13:53:00.000-08:00

Ricky (Don's son) dropped by a picture of Naleah for Christmas the other day, she is so dang cute! And a picture of their family. It seems that they are very happy. I know that Ricky loves Naleah with all of his heart and it is very endearing to see him with her. Don't you just love love love that picture of Naleah's picture is Santa's Hands? I think that it is adorable!

It's Cold!

2007-01-12T13:24:00.000-08:00

We have been having such nice weather this winter, nice due to global warming, but nice none the less. Then this week we got more snow! UGH! Not a bunch a few inches, but along with it we are getting much colder this week. We may very likely hit ZERO or just about! YIKES!! I am glad that will be on the weekend and I won't have to drive.

When I got home today from Century 21 it was 19 by the time I took a picture it was 18 and now I am looking and it is a warm 17! It's only 1:30! It is snowing again outside now, it is very pretty to watch coming down when you are safe and warm in doors.

I really like this area, to bad this area doesn't like me! hahaha

I bought Jaren and Kyle some snow clothes, anticipating their visit! I can't wait for them to come and visit us! I love having company! I love having friends! As you can tell, I am just trying to figure out how all of this works still, my pictures are all a little screwy!

Bathroom

2007-01-09T12:47:00.000-08:00

Here are the pictures of the first bathroom. It was pain to get it finished but it is and here are the pictures of the front bathroom.

There is a ton of stuff in this bathroom in these pictures because the master bathroom is currently under construction and so we have all of all of our stuff in this one, so it is a bit cluttered.

Again if you saw what this was before....you can totally appreciate it now!

kITCHEN

2007-01-09T12:39:00.000-08:00

Here are some pitcures of our kitchen. For those of you who saw it gutted or saw it before, you will not even recongnize it! It is beautiful! I love it! It is my favorite room in the house.

I love seeing my ideas coming together and looking very pretty! Don was the labor behind it all. I would hold the cabinets and he would screw them in, Ricky helped a couple of times as well as the missionaries when they stopped by for dinner.

We still have work to do in there like painting the ceilings, baseboards and buying a black fridge. But at least there is no more gaping hole in the floor and it is completely functional!!

Very Sad Day

2007-01-09T12:08:00.000-08:00

After Brooklyn got home from Vegas on the 2nd we went to Turlock, Ca to visit Don's family and to see a hockey game....oh wait... not just any hockey game or any hockey team. Oh no, it was the REDWINGS!! They were playing in San Jose. I enjoyed the warm ups, and then the first period when we were beating the Sharks, but then out of no where we blow our 3 point lead and it is downhill quickly from there. Final score was 9 to 4!! We got creamed! This was more disappointing then the Yankee game we saw! I thought that I was going to get into a fight with some jerk fans because they kept taunting me and Brooklyn, but I didn't. We stayed and cheered for our team to the bitter bitter end. I don't remember much else about our trip to Turlock, to busy wallowing in my own self pity. Not Really!

We had a really good time! We played games with Jeff and Julie and Brooklyn loves playing with Evan. He is so funny, he talks a lot and he is not even 2! Once I figure out how to place the pictures in the spot I want them to be life will be better! hahaha

I CAVED

2007-01-08T14:35:00.000-08:00

Ok, I caved in! I am now a blogger....or trying to be, I am also trying to figure out the picture placement on this thing! So right now my pictures are all pretty random. The next one will be better!

I just love Holly's blog and it seems like such a fun way to keep everyone in the loop.

These pictures are of Holly's boys at Thanksgiving. I swear I don't have one picture of Jaren just smiling! hahaha

Spent Thanksgiving at Holly's and had a good time enjoyed the family and the food!

We have had a busy holiday season, what else is new?! We are still going through the fertility treatments and we had an insemination on the 22nd of December, still waiting to hear it it worked or not, (I am not that hopeful this time around, just didn't feel like it happened...but what do I know?) Then I made a huge dinner and invited Don's kids over and Sean (Don's brother) and his fiance Amanda. That was a ton of fun, Ricky, Deidre and Naleah (the baby) came over and so did Sean and Mandy. Lorelei had already made plans with her other family, she was missed. We started late since Don didn't get home until 7:30 so we had dinner at 8:00, no one stayed for pie because it was too late by the time that we finished.

Santa came early for us, Brooklyn wrote him a letter and asked him to come early since Don was going to be working from the 24-26th, we all got very spoiled for Christmas! Next year we will stick to a budget! Later that day Brooklyn and I went to Don's work to hang out with him. We took the kids Don works with to watch A Night at the Museum, that was dang funny!

Finally Christmas day came, Brooklyn and I hopped a plane to Vegas and hung out with Holly, that was such a fun time! Those boys of hers crack me up! They are all soo different in attitude and appearace it is just odd to think that they are all from the same parents! hahaha They crack me up though, we had fun at the park and Holly and I went shopping and we all went to the park, that was a lot of fun!