Random

Sooo...it's been a while since we (I) have posted an update. Matt pointed this out the other day which is interesting because I thought he had zero interest in our blog. It's been about a month since I promised my Grandma in Canada that I would update with some photos of Ryan and I think its been about 3 weeks since my friend commented that my blog needed to be updated. I have another post I'm working on...actually that implies I have done more than thought of it in my head...so I'm not working on it, I just know that I have other pictures that I need to post. I'm the proud owner of two cameras. I have them for separate purposes but funny, I can't seem to find my camera with Ryan's birthday pictures on it. I could look harder, or I could post from the camera that I have sitting on my desk!! Since it could take up the rest of nap time to find the other camera and then you would all have to wait three more months for a new post...I'm opting to post with these random photos that I have accessible now!!


A long time ago Matt and I went to the Braves game (it would have to be over a week ago since they didn't even make it to the playoffs) Matt and I usually go to several games during the season and this year was no exception. But the game I have pictures of is from when we went to the Braves v. Yankees and got to stand on the field for batting practice. We were thisclose to the players and Matt was in heaven. He states it was totally "worth it" and would do it again.

If you follow baseball you know how old these pictures are as Francouer was traded to the Mets mid-season.

Matt kept making sure I was taking all these pictures of players...so these few are a representation of the over 50 that I have!!

Ryan went to his first movie with some of his friends from the ward....it was the free morning movie, good thing since he lasted about 30 minutes then wanted to get up and run around!

And this picture represents the over 100 (no joke) self portraits that I found of this camera. Ryan loves to take pictures (I also have a ton of random pictures of our computer and the carpet) but his favorite thing to snap a photo of is himself.

Here is what he looks like (since it seriously has been that long since I posted a picture) while he dances behind the desk to "his music." (Usually the Four Seasons).

Ryan has a very strange personality quirk. We used to think it was funny but now we find it kind of annoying. As far as I know it's not some two-year-old behavior so much as Ryan is just weird. But he likes to stack things. EVERYTHING. But only things that shouldn't be stacked. Stacking legos is not a challenge because they are meant to go together. He only likes to stack things that shouldn't be on top of each other. And when he can't, he gets pretty upset (that's the annoying part). So whenever he stacks something, he wants to show us. So he will come and get us to show us his latest accomplishment.

When he showed me this one I was kind shocked, he usually stacks his cars or other toys, I couldn't believe he didn't spill anything so I got the camera so I could show Matt later....well since then, he wants me to take a picture of all of his "creations" For your sake I only posted a few (actually its a lot but I have WAY more as this is really his favorite activity!)

This is one his early works, only two cars!

As you can see, he is starting to get more stacked together.

He loved this arrangement and did it over and over in different places all day.


On the couch is challenging because it isn't a hard surface, but don't try to tell him he can't do it.

His greatest accomplishment, four cars, on his racetrack. So excited.



I made him get in the picture, you can see he had raspberry crystal light with his lunch.

Old?

So I won my first ever item on eBay. I have been telling everyone I talk to about how I am so excited that I won my first ever item on eBay. Seriously, I can think of at least six people since Friday that I have shared the excitment of my "eBay win". They send you an email and say "you won" it's SO EXCITING that you almost forget that you have the pleasure of paying for whatever you bid on and you feel like you have won a real prize.

So, anyway, I pay for my item. Then when I get my confirmation I realize that I hadn't updated my address in eBay so its going to our old apartment. Yikes. I email the seller and I still haven't heard from them. I'm feeling kind of stupid and now my item is being shipped via FedEx to my old address, they don't have package intercept (thanks, Matt for pointing this out) so I will wait until tomorrow and they say that after it isn't delivered because its the wrong address I can go and pick it up at the FedEx location. Hopefully this all works out and they don't just leave it on my old porch for the new tenant to enjoy (like I did for several months with InStyle magazine that the previous tenant paid for.....) We shall see.

BUT back to the question of me losing my mind. I am hoping the seller will email me back. I mean c'mon, please acknowledge that it's the wrong address or SOMETHING. And so I'm clicking around in my eBay account. Trying to figure the dang thing out. Then I have this little "1" by my name. It's FEEDBACK. How can I have feedback? The person says in December that I am a great eBay-er??? What? BECAUSE THIS IS NOT MY FIRST ITEM. I've won on eBay before...about six months ago. And now that I remember what I bought, I also remember that I was just as excited then about "my first win on eBay" So basically if I can just keep forgetting parts of my life it will continue to be super exciting because everything is NEW!

Title?

So if you scroll through my archives (which I'm sure you all do multiple times a day) you will see that I often give a shout out to great products, services (like Brian at OTB) or retailers (Costco). But I don't think I've ever used my blog as a rant on bad products, services or retailers. Which is a shame if you ask me because truly, before I try anything I go online and try to read about what other people are saying about it...like are they happy, was it everything they expected, has this product entirely changed their life, you know the usual stuff :)

WELL, I am so SUPER annoyed with AT&T I can't resist. My phone broke. The screen is black. I had this super neato phone that I got at Costco (swoon, I love Costco) they were selling it with a coupon for only $10 regularly $115! What a smokin' deal. Well the phone LOOKS cool but has never been a real champ of a phone. It doesn't get the best reception (which truly, I've never thought AT&T has the best reception) and the buttons are pretty weird, they look cool, but it turns out they aren't really that functional....not a huge deal since I am a pathetic "texter" anyway.

So anyway, I bought Matt a new phone for Father's Day, early so that I could steal his phone and replace my broken one ;) Well, when I get said new phone, they INSIST that I buy a "protection package"....sounds like a good idea right....yeah, except it only covers the phone if there is a software issue or internal battery malfunction. No coverage if it is damaged by Matt...or Ryan (let's be honest here). SO BASICALLY I am buying protection so that if the phone you are selling me turns out to be crap all on it's own you will give me a new one....SO IT'S PROTECTION from you selling me a crappy product? AND I GET TO PAY EXTRA?!?! Awesome. I buy it anyway and go on my way. Annoyed. Not annoyed enough to rant about it on my blog....that comes later.

Then I find out yesterday that I had bought the phone one week later it would have been $100 cheaper. Yum. That tasted good with my breakfast (thanks Chris Uno for calling me and eagerly reporting this fact!). Annoyed. But hey that's technology....what can you do?!

Well it turns out the phone I "stole" from Matt totally sucks. Honestly, not sure how he has been using it. Seriously. It's a problem. As in it sounds muffled when I talk to people (if I have EVER talked to you, you know I'm like one of the loudest talkers known to man) and they can't hear me. The buttons are stupid and weird and I can't find anything and its dumb and I hate it. So my dad says isn't your phone fairly new...like only 8 months old? Why yes, yes it is! Call warranty. Cool.

Just spent an hour with them on the phone. They transferred me all over Timbuktu (and I think it literally was Timbuktu because I'm quite sure I wasn't talking to anyone in America) and will not be sending me a new phone. They will only send me a new one if they can repair my old one. Like with a software up grade. Oh good, so the warranty on this phone is only good for software issues. Good thing I didn't have to pay extra for that!! Since I'm pretty sure you can't hack into a phone that isn't a smart phone!! And the worst part is that they keep transferring me to some one who can help me....I end up talking to a dude in billing who has no idea why we are even on the phone....we said good night and hung up. Whatever. I'm annoyed. Less annoyed as I finish this post. And kind of sorry to all those that have to read it. Matt isn't home to listen to me rant and I OBVIOUSLY can't call anyone to complain about it since my malfunctional phone will probably push me over the edge. So I will get over it by posting this LONG post on my blog.

Summary. I don't recommend AT&T I have never been satisfied with their service. Customer service and phone service. (The only reason we have them is because we get a awesome discount through UPS). So, if you are thinking of switching carriers...think about NOT switching to AT&T. You won't be happy in the long run.

In other news, I have been wanting to throw a shout out to Publix. I love that store. Not as much a Costco ,but a lot. I'm starting to think that they may drug their employees as they truly are the happiest people on earth (probably the only real competition is the people who work at Disney). I would grocery shop everyday if it was always at Publix. The free cookies. The stickers. The car carts. The carry-out service (which is a Publix service and they explicitly ask you not to tip them). The woman who runs to get Ryan a new box of Goldfish after he dumps an entire box all over the floor in front of her check out and then she only charges me for one. Love that place. Seriously. One time I said excuse me to one of their stock boys and he was like "oh excuse me ma'am, this is Publix where shopping is a pleasure, not an inconvenience." And he was serious. Seriously. And shopping there is a pleasure. (For those who don't know, the tagline is: Publix. Where Shopping is a Pleasure.) Never has a tag line meant so much.

Sorry for all the time you have wasted reading this post. Next time I will post about something fun. Like our trip to Florida perhaps....

Peachy

So it was Mother's Day yesterday. Which was wonderful. Matt and Ryan did a great job making Mother's Day special. My own mother invited us over for dinner that night and asked us (me) to bring dessert. She wanted peach cobbler...I wanted pie (I love pie) so I decided to make both.


If you know my mom, you know she would make this


If you know me, you know I like to bite off more than I can chew. And therefore I would decide to make peach cobbler from scratch, even though I have no idea how to.




If you know the peach growing season (which you do if you live in the peach state) you know that peaches are ripe in August and September.

If you watch this video you will see what would be possible with RIPE peaches.

If you ask me, I can tell you that when you attempt this with UNripe peaches, you will be completely unsuccessful. Blanching unripe peaches is like trying to peel a mango with a spoon.

If you live close by and went to the store at 10:30 on Saturday night, you would see me, in my pajamas....buying this.....

Like mother, like daughter I guess.

Love you mom!

Chickens

I'm making some drapes. For the dining room project. Which means I had to go to the best fabric store in Atlanta. But it was actually IN Atlanta, so we had to drive all the way downtown. I dragged my friend with me and convinced her that she should also make some drapes for her dining room! We pull up to this store in a somewhat sketchy part of town and what do we see....

Examine the picture closely. THOSE ARE CHICKENS. Yes, when we are walking in we noticed some chickens in the parking lot. Weird. Then when we walked out almost three hours later (they had A TON of fabric and it was tough to make a decision) we noticed these beauties eating the chicken feed placed out for them. Evidently someone at this store is feeding these chickens. And they are HUGE. Like probably the biggest chickens I have ever seen. They have clearly been living it up for a long time in this parking lot. Ahhh...only in Georgia!!

In other news. Ryan's tube surgery was a success. The worst part was having to keep him from eating all morning. After the surgery we could feed him and he quickly returned to his normal self!

UPDATE on the office dilemma. I would happily post some pictures of my office now but I am simply too lazy. It is cleaned out and organized!! Matt made me cave a buy a filing cabinet but I am going to use some of Ci's ideas for my day to day work stuff (thanks for all the sweet links Ci) We also moved the office upstairs and the playroom downstairs....it makes more sense and I'm not sure why we didn't do that in the first place.

Solutions

So do you ever think that you get a real insight into people's lives? That you might know them better than you really do? All because you stalk their blog? Not that I am a huge blog stalker, but the folks that find themselves in the sidebar can rest assured that I read their posts. AND because of this, I feel like I am up to date in their lives and other goings on more than I may actually be...I mean we don't all regularly talk on the phone and its not like I get a ton a pictures emailed to me, but I see the photos to go with the stories and I feel like I have a real glimpse into your day to day life. And then I think, could this ever be used to improve my life??? And I think it can. All of you bright and intelligent blog readers who have it all together need to help me come up with some solutions for my latest problem.

Office Storage
I work from home. In a home office. And I live in that home too. This means that my work and my personal life very distinctly collide in this one room. I would post a picture of my office but I am actually too embarrassed (this is a big deal as I don't embarrass easily) But as I type this post I can see a pool toy (we haven't been to the pool since December) a video tape from 2007. A 401K statement, some coupons, blank CDS, an insurance EOB, patient reports, pictures from the inside of Matt's knee from his surgery, headphones, children's books, dictionary, batteries, highlighter....ummm actually this is all stuff ON THE DESK! So as you can clearly see (well you don't see since there is no picture) I have a little organization problem. Matt wants to buy me a big filing cabinet. WON'T WORK. I tell him. We already have a filing cabinet. We don't use it. I need some organization ideas. Easy ones. Where do all of you keep all of the things you have to keep but have no use for (ie. immunization records, software CDs, retirement notices...PLEASE don't say a FILING CABINET) And where do you keep all of the stuff that you are using everyday? This is probably the bigger problem. I have work projects and I don't want to FILE the things I need away, I want them easily accessible. So enjoy this glimpse into my life and please send over your ideas.

In other news. Ryan is getting tubes tomorrow. I am nervous excited. More nervous than excited but I am going to be happy when his ears don't hurt anymore. He has so much fluid in there and they haven't been able to stop the continuous infections. So hopefully this will be the solution we are looking for.

Also, I have an excellent story coming. But I need the most excellent photo. Which is not on my camera. Its funny.

Accountability

Do other people give themselves deadlines? Am I the only one? Whether I do or don't things seem to get done at the same speed. Putting a deadline on it just makes me realize it has taken me longer to do whatever task then I thought it would. I once read something that said "I love deadlines. I especially love the sound they make as they go whooshing past." I laughed.

So basically if you are checking back to see my dining room project (which you all should be since I instructed you to) I'm getting to the point....I'm not done. I will say that I negotiated with the foreman (myself) in that I deserve more time since what originally was a one can of paint project has morphed into a FOUR can of paint project, and obviously has become larger than I thought. I have been working my tail off but as of yet nothing to report. The foreman suggests a deadline of MAY 15th. I believe that I can work under these time constraints but I guess only time will tell. HA!

In other MOST exciting news. I've been a mom for over 18 months now (sooo experienced ;) and I had one of my most exciting mom moments yesterday. Ryan and I went to the pediatrician to get his LAST dose of immunizations until he is 5. Hallelujah. But I cried getting shots until about 2 years ago, so when we go back in 3 and a half years, I'm sure it won't be pleasant. Ryan has been quite sick lately and has a ear infection that they can't seem to clear up. We had to go to the pediatrician for 3 days in a row to get rocephin shots, and that still didn't work. He still has the infection (this is going on 3 weeks) and we will be seeing the ped's ENT in one week. It's look like he will be getting tubes put in his ear. Since I lost count of how many ear infections that he has had I'm exciting at the prospect of not having to go to the doctor on a monthly basis (I actually know all the people that work at the office...no seriously....its sad).

A while ago we went to the aquarium with our ward play group. The girls in our new ward are so fun! We both had a good time although Ryan seemed to be trying to keep up with the bigger kids and had zero desire to sit in the stroller. This would have been fine except when he isn't in the stroller he acts like it is his job to get away from me as far and as fast as he can. One of the highlights was the park outside the aquarium. They had such cool stuff. This really sweet slide and stuff. I tried it out but I don't have a picture of it.

Ryan chasing some pigeons at the park outside.

Ryan has never taken a pacifier. He gave it up at like three months, sadly. I think he might have slept better if he would have taken one. But I bought a bunch of paci's before he was born so we have a bunch around. He thinks it's hysterical to put them in his mouth and play with them (hence, they are "around" and not stored away with all the other baby stuff). He puts them in and then pulls them out and screams BABY. I think its funny too and we both laugh.

Happy Easter

Horticulture

While attending BYU my bishop worked in the horticulture department, specifically in the soils department. His office was in the basement of the Widsoe along with all of the other plant enthusiasts. I certainly remember thinking "what the heck could these people be learning about for four years!" There were maps of soil and test tubes of soil....so much soil....

Well since moving to Georgia (I will say I noticed NOTHING until I moved back here after college) I have become quite the plant enthusiast myself. I guess that implies I that I am enthusiastic about the plants living here....that would be incorrect. While I find it AWESOME that you can actually grow a garden that consists of more than root vegetables, (seriously, carrots rule but it's nice to have some variety!) the regular foliage is severely lacking. If you refer back to this post from a LONG, LONG time ago, I was first frustrated with the tree situation. Well now it's the grass. Grass is like a MAJOR thing. A major thing that I spent my life taking for granted. It's green, it's soft, it smells good. You just want to sit down in the summer and enjoy yourself. NOPE. Little did I know. There are MANY varieties of grass. Mostly separated into cool grass, and warm grass. I grew up enjoying the wonderfulness of Kentucky Blue Grass. A fantastic specimen that is soft and luscious. I now look out the window to see Bermuda Grass. A horrible weed that people like to use for a lawn. It's scratchy. SOOO scratchy. It gets everywhere. I don't know what the deal with that is, but its horrible. You sit on the grass (if you have to and you aren't scared about what might be lurking underneath the thick, intertwined, spiky surface) and when you stand up, you are covered in little pieces of grass. AND for all of that fabulousness, you get to do EXTRA maintenance. Bermuda grass needs to be edged because otherwise it spills out and looks like a big weed (coincidence? I think not!).

So basically, as Matt is taking care of our lawn this Spring. I appreciate the effort. And it surely looks better than it did before. But I don't know that I will ever be able to truly enjoy it. (And if you are wondering Kentucky Blue Grass will not survive here, I already checked.)

Too lazy to get my camera, but stay posted because I have pictures from our trip to the aquarium. (I know the suspense is killing you)

Yeah That Happened

That's red nail polish. Ryan broke a bottle of it on the floor.....At least it was in the bathroom!

Progress...

So the biggest question in our house right now...HOW DO YOU UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THE FREE PAPER??? Seriously. I am asking. I really don't want to get the Forysth County News and Review (I actually don't know if that is the real name because I promptly throw it in the trash when I get it). But I promise, I know how these papers work, I spent some time in this field. There are three people on staff and they are running press releases sent by overzealous media folk so basically the whole thing is a big ad with sports highlights....don't care. But what we HATE is the whoever delivers in throws in and the END of our driveway (yes, we are just that lazy). And there is more than one free paper, so we are getting like 5 a week. And lately it has been raining ALOT soooo it turns into a big gooey mess. And if anyone knows how to unsubscribe to the free paper, do you think you can unsubscribe your neighbors too? Because my neighbors don't care about their paper and let it set on their grass forever before picking it up...and it gets super yucky.

In other news, I have noticed that people who have lived in their homes for a while seem to have everything unpacked and things hung on the wall and stuff. I figure that once I live in this house for a while the same thing will happen to me....except that would require that I made a LITTLE progress. Seriously, we still have boxes in almost every room. So how to you eat an elephant? ONE BITE AT A TIME!! I decided to start with the dining room, I thought it would be the easiest. In typical me fashion, I think I have bitten off more than I can chew with my very lofty ideas....you know, that I will simply do things that I have to idea how to do and that it will all work out. But I took a before picture, and I am posting here that I am working on it to hold myself somewhat accountable. I plan to have made substantial progress by tax day (April 15th) so check back then!!

1st Step

Isn't the first step admitting you have a problem. Well here it is, I am obsessed with Costco. Yeah, prety much I love that store...alot. In fact I spend a ton of time on Costco.com just checking things out. And seriously, I like just talking about that store. I mean hello, it's awesome. I fully bonded with a girl in our new ward because she loves Costco too (though I doubt as much as me!) I love to read the Costco Connection (it's their totally self-promting magazine that I read cover to cover) AND I was THRILLED to learn in the Costco Connection that they would be bringing back the chocolate and almond ice cream bar, I enjoyed one today, much to my and Ryan's satisfaction. I have found that they sell EVERYTHING at Costco. In fact, I have thought A LOT about items that they DON'T sell...there aren't many, in fact I have thought of two currently...fabric by the yard (and other sewing accesories, not to be confused with sewing machines because they do sell those) and fences. I am in the market for a fence (to fence my child in and my neighbors out, don't I sound so friendly :) and so I noticed that you can't buy a fence from Costco...yet. Perhaps I should make this suggestion. As I have mentioned before, Costco does sell caskets, but I did notice when reading the frequently asked questions (I was looking for the answer to whether the purchaser must be a Costco member or if they could use the deceased membership card) that they DON'T ship caskets to Georgia. Soooo....if I am in need of a casket while living in Georgia, I also would not be able to get that at Costco.



Yeah, so I like Costco...and I don't see an end in sight, because I feel that it is a healthy addiction :)



Another shout out goes to this man.

I think of him every year right around this time. You see, one of my FAVORITE days of the year is DAYLIGHT SAVINGS. I think it is wonderful. I love when it is light outside for longer, and it feels like the beginning of spring. And EVERY year as a child I would wish that daylight saving could be longer....actually I would wish that it could be all year however, if that happened then I wouldn't get the joy each year of SPRINGING forward. And back in 2005 this dude signed a bill EXTENDING daylight saving for an additional 3 weeks on either end. So thanks President Bush. You are awesome. I will be thanking you again in October when I get to enjoy daylight savings for an additional 3 weeks!! Did you know in some states they don't participate in daylight savings? First of all, get with the program and stop trying to be different...Secondly, sucks to be you, you are missing out on one of the best things about spring!

Love Has Its Rewards

For Valentine's Day we went with some friends to Fogo. I have blogged about this restaurant before, it is one of my faves....all the meat that you can eat. It was a wonderful night with a few awesome highlights. First, we got there and we could hardly get in the restaurant it was SOO crowded. There were people who told us they had been waiting for almost two hours to get seated!! BIG shout out to Matt for making a reservation (I won't lie, I was kinda wondering about the people who didn't make a reservation on Valentines, I mean c'mon what were you thinking). Then we sat down and we were seated by Evander Holyfield. He was also enjoying his meat. We were seated on the right side of him but he was facing us, so the missing cutlet was on the other side. But don't worry when he got up to leave, he turned and I saw the missing piece!! It is really small and hardly noticeable...if it hadn't been a major news story for like 6 months. We had a wonderful dinner with AWESOME food and great conversation, THEN as we were preparing to leave, they gave us a special Valentine's coupon, for a free meal for next time! So we will now have to go back! And soon, that coupon expires on April 8!!

Ryan loves to wear his sunglasses and I think part of the reason is because I take pictures of him whenever he puts them on, so from the MANY that I have, here are a couple.

Much Anticipated

Well, at least for my cousin. Basically I don't think I can talk to her again until I post these pictures because I'm outta excuses and she has been waiting. For the rest of you, enjoy. I mentioned that we moved into a new house. We moved right after Christmas and are still settling in. We love our new house and are really excited for all of the extra room that we have. So cousin, here is what you really wanted....pictures....

Outside, it was really sunny.

Family Room

Kitchen (obviously....)

Breakfast nook (cause you can only eat breakfast in here!)

Dining room....No we don't have a really shiny table,

that is our mirror that we still haven't hung up....

Downstairs bathroom

Office

Bedroom #2

Bedroom #3

Ryan's Room

Upstairs bathroom

Upstairs landing

Master bedroom

Master Bathroom

Shout Out

So I'm shopping online, of course, at Costco. I wanted to look at furniture but I accidently clicked the wrong tab....FUNERALS. Who knew that you could plan your funeral through Costco. Love that store. They really have everything. Also, a shout out to the Wal-Mart by our new house, Wal-Mart Supercenter #4436. The best Walmart I have EVER been to. It is clean, new and it has showrooms (yes, I typed that correctly). The isles don't look the same, they have different products, but it is in fact a Walmart. They also have THE BEST staff ever. Super friendly and helpful. So SHOUT OUT #4436, you are AWESOME.