The Vampire Diaries

I am extremely bored tonight because it's 11 p.m. and Paul is still working which sucks majorly for him. Anyhoo - I hardly ever watch t.v. but I was skimming through to see if there was anything worth watching at the moment (answer: negative) and while I was on the CW, I noticed the promotion for The Vampire Diaries coming this fall. I am kinda excited since I read those books forever ago. I liked them to a certain level - they certainly aren't the best books I have ever read (if you have ever read them you will know what I mean but I won't go into detail) but I made it better in my head as I went along! Anyway - I admit that I am very interested to see how they spin the t.v. show. The only thing so far that bugs me is that Elena is a blonde, not a brunette (seriously, they gotta get some details right!). However, the guy who plays Stefan - major hottie!!! Oh yeah! The other cool thing about these books is that after all these years (and I think due to the Twilight craze) the author extended the series by coming back with The Vampire Diaries: The Return and there will be several books coming out in this series. The first one (Nightfall) already came out and I wanted to rush out and get it but....I already own the other ones in paperback and I just can't have my books mismatched so I am biding my time till they release this one in paperback. Does anyone else get super annoyed with that?? Same thing goes with another series I have read. The author just came out with book number 9, I am dying to read it, it's only in hardback and therefore I have to wait a friggin' year for that one, too! Okay now I am rambling...and now I am done. Just thought I would share. Also I am bored. Did I mention that?

Confession #4

I am secretly (or not so secretly) enjoying being jobless. Do I want to go back to work? Yes indeed. However, it is extremely nice not to have to. I dig it. In the two months that I have been laid off, I have never been bored. I have stuff to do all the time and if not...how can you be bored with a good book? You just can't. So although I am still very much available to work (anyone...anyone??), I could get used to this! Oh wait...I already have. Ha ha ha ha. :-)

Eye Candy

I have mentioned before that Paul and I work out together nearly everyday. And I mentioned here how wonderful the scenery is on our little jog. Well, the scenery is equally enjoyable on our lifting days when all we do is stare at concrete walls.

Behold - the calves:

He is hot. I love his legs. When we were in high school, I would always stare at his legs as he walked past me down the hall cuz he was even more muscled back then and he had gorgeous body parts (and I still can't believe that he's the guy I married after all that time!). He's still has gorgeous body parts, though. Maybe one day, when he is working out with his shirt off, and if I am feeling charitable, I'll take some pictures of him working out his arms and back - that's good stuff right there, I'm tellin' ya. Paul looked at me like I was a dork when I ran out and came back in with a camera and started taking pictures of him. But then he figured out what I was doing and wanted to see. Know what he said? "If they look like that now, you should have seem them in high school!" And I said, "Oh I did, babe...I did!!"

A Bumble Tale

So I am cleaning one fine day and I walk into the laundry room to switch loads out and I see this:

At first I thought it was a huge A spider, but I could hear this tiny buzzing and I knelt down and discovered that instead it was this:

A huge A bumble bee that somehow flipped itself on its back and couldn't get up. It was just laying there, buzzing itself around in a circle. I left it there to get some leather gloves (after I snapped some pics, of course) and then came back and flipped him.

He still couldn't fly. So I pick him up, not liking the feel of him buzzing around inside my hands at all. Then I ran into a problem - I hadn't opened any door so I could put him out. I sat him on the floor thinking he still couldn't fly and wouldn't go anywhere....but that was stupid and of course, he magically got his flight back and started to take off while in my house. Luck was on my side and I snatched him up before he could get too far and out he went. The End.

Another Day, Another Party

Paul's dad turned the big 5-0 last Tuesday so on Saturday night we threw a surprise party at our house for him. Trudi and I worked out a plan which worked perfectly since Zoyie had a school play that night...we would have guests arrive when the play was over and then Paul was going to call Mike with a car emergency and have them zip on over for a sec to take a look at it. It seemed to work pretty well - we had a full house and everyone enjoyed some meatballs, mini pizzas, fudge brownies, cookies, chips and salsa and veggies. We were fortunate enough to have decorations from Paul's surprise party and my dad's 50th birthday celebration. It turned out fantastic!!!

Party Guests (Mike's work buddies and long-time friends):

My husband with his brothers:

Mike with his boys:

My husband with his family:

Trudi and Zoyie:

Sheri and Robert (extended family):

Kristie, D.J., Xander and Caleb (extended family):

This little vid is pretty funny. Zoyie is giving lessons on how to snap your fingers with attitude:

Double the Birthdays, Double the Fun

I have some catching up to do...I can't believe a month has passed since we had this little shindig. On a Sunday, after church, Paul's family came over to our little shack for a birthday celebration. Paul's mom, Trudi, and his brother, Matt, have birthday two days apart in April so we combined their birthdays and celebrated together with pizza, breadsticks and salad.

I was in charge of the dessert and everyone made a request for cheesecake so cheesecake it was. I made little mini-cheesecakes and made each one a different type. I had a lot of fun doing it, too. I put candles on Trudi and Matt's choices of cheesecake and we sang to them, and afterward, everyone chose which kind of cheesecake they wanted.

Trudi had a S'mores cheesecake and Matt had Oreo (there was also peanut butter, new york, cherry, apple pie, chocolate chip and chocolate):

Then Trudi and Matt opened their presents (we gave Matt a sick Tapout t-shirt):

This is B.J. (my other brother-in-law) with his girlfriend, Hilary. They gave our puzzle some attention:

The Husband trying to look as creep as possible and succeeding:

And the Kid feeling quite left out and wanting to join the party (awwwww!):

So Cute I Could Just Squeeze 'Em!!!

Mother's Day was pretty fun - it was kind of a weekend thing for us. We went to dinner with Paul's mom and his family on Saturday night to a southern restaurant called Mama's Plantation (we don't recommend it, by the way) and ice cream at Leatherby's afterward. Sunday after church was spent at my family's home where we barbecued and played and had rootbeer floats. On Mother's Day, we all tease my mom because we know the waterworks are coming with the cards - we can tell when she's trying really hard not to cry and it's quite comical. Paul even got a few tears from his mom, too! I am sure one day I will be in the same exact position but for now I laugh.

Anyway....my mom had a really great idea for my nephews to do for their Mother's Day present to their mom and my sister, Amber. She asked me to help her take some pictures of the boys and then she took the developed pictures and modge podged them onto three wood blocks. One of each of them alone and one of them together. It was very very cute.

Of course I have to share the pictures we took of my nephews. We were able to get some really cute ones and it was really fun....for the most part. They hadn't had their nap for the day due to a birthday party but we did the best we could (and I tried my very best not to lose my sanity).

I just love 'em!!!

Spiderman and The Power Ranger - Unstoppable Forces

My sister needed a last minute baby-sitter last week and I got to be that baby-sitter. I don't get to see my nephews a whole lot lately (or at least I didn't before when I had a job) due to their parents divorce, so I was very happy to be able to go and watch them for the whole afternoon. These boys are so stickin' cute and they make us laugh all the time (except when they are tired and hungry - then I would gladly hand them back over to their mother).

Aiden really wanted to get into his Spiderman costume and I didn't see any reason to say 'no' so we went downstairs to pull it out. Dallin wanted to join in with him but he couldn't decide which one he wanted. First he was Scooby-Doo, then one power ranger, and then the red power ranger. I put my foot down after that.

Aiden loves to pose for pictures as Spiderman:

Very talented, yeah?

And Dallin did his best to copy his big brother:

Then he apparently got hungry:

I love these boys so so so so much! And of course...I'm their favorite Aunt!! ha ha ha - In yo' face Amanda!!

There Is Beauty All Around (you know you are going to start singing it in your head now - ha ha!!)

Paul and I go running a few times a week together on the jogging trail that surrounds the Ivory Home development across the street from us. We like it a lot because it has lots of trees and a couple parks and it's not too dull of a run. I especially love to run this in the spring time. It is so very rejuvanating when your run looks like this:

We also take a walk every Sunday along this trail and it feels so great when you get to see beautiful colors all along the way. I love to look at the trees when they are blossoming.

I always think to myself that I need to take my camera along on one of these walks so I can get some pretty pictures. I never got around to it last year. But I was not going to forget again this year! So me and my furry child, Bacardi, went out on a walk the other week before the Husband returned home from work. And I snapped me some beautiful reminders that I am really a very blessed individual to live the life I live in a beautiful place that God created.

Pardon Me, Professional Fondue Chef Coming Through.

I was so stickin' excited for April 18th to arrive because.....wait for it....wait for it.....

my mom and I took a fondue cooking class at The Melting Pot!!!

YAY!!!!

Everyone who knows me knows that I LOVE LOVE LOVE The Melting Pot and when I got the invitation to do the cooking class, I jumped on it like a fat kid who just found the secret stash of chocolate. I was really excited about it and I was really happy when my mom said that she would go with me.

We both had so much fun during the class and it was great to be able to do something totally different with my mom...something neither of us had done before and that we would both be able to appreciate!

She had never been to The Melting Pot before so it was all new to her. I loved being able to take her to do something new and explain how The Melting Pot did everything. We learned a lot about cheese fondue and some tricks of the trade. Each pair of partners got to make two kinds of cheese fondue: swiss and cheddar. Very very nummy!

We moved onto the entree after that, where there wasn't as much to it besides dumping everything in the pot, but still....

We each got our own plate of shrimp, salmon, spinach ravioli, teriyaki beef, regular beef and chicken.

I did give the salmon an honest effort and I still can't do it - salmon is not for me. Luckily, my mom loves salmon so she got my other piece, plus some from other girls at our table. She was in fish heaven!!!

Lastly, we learned about chocolate fondue and made milk chocolate fondue and had the choice of adding crushed oreos or chopped pecans. My mom was smart and got a bowl of each and instead of adding it to the chocolate, we dipped our fruit and desserts in the chocolate and dipped them in the bowls so we could do whatever our taste buds desired!

The food is SOO good. I love everything about this place...right down to their sauces!

We had such a blast and many laughs! I am so happy that I was able to do this with my mom! She's the best!