Back from Reno

We were only gone for a week but once we got back it seemed like much longer than that. When we left everything was still kinda brown and dead, when we got back we had green grass and blossomed trees, weird! Brayden also started walking while we were gone! We missed Alivia soooo much and we're so happy to see her again. I, however, didn't miss or think about-Laundry, dishes, myspace, blogs, email, bills or anything else of that nature. It was nice. We got back saturday around 3 and we are completely exausted-aren't you supposed to feel relaxed when you get back from vacation?? I have a few pictures of things we did when we were there. Here are some pics from an AMAZING dinner that we had a the Sterling Steakhouse located in the Silver Legacy Casino and Hotel. Rob got a lobster and I got a filet and 2 HUGE king crab legs. Our friend Mike said it was the best dinner he had ever had in his whole life!! He got king crab legs also.

Whenever we got out of town I go to the hotel lobby and look over all the brochures of things to do. I am the official entertainment committee of all vacations! I pick whatever looks interesting and bring them back to the room and look over them. This year we wanted to do something different, this was our third time to reno. The first two times we went snowmobiling in the mountains which was awesome but we didn't want to do that again. I came across a brochure for a hot air balloon ride. I asked rob not knowing what he would say: "You wouldn't want to do a hot air balloon ride would you?" to which he replied "Hell yea!!" So I called and made reservations, It was about an hour away from where we stayed. We had to be there at 7:15 in the morning. They set up a nice breakfast for us while the set the balloon up.

It was really cool, I'm glad we did it. Here are a few pics from up in the sky. We got up to about 8,000 feet above the ground. I love the pic of the shadow of the balloon!

Next year the tournament is in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I don't think there's a whole lot to do there so we won't stay as long and Maybe we will take Alivia!!

Alivia's new word

So the past few days we've noticed Alivia repeating a certain four letter word. Bryan and Rob are the worst at cussing when the kids are around. They're trying to refrain but it's kinda hard. Last night Bryan was sitting at the kitchen counter eatting dinner and Alivia was sitting on the counter mooching off of him as usual. Bryan bit his tongue and said "Shit!" a few seconds later Alivia said clear as day "Shit!" Bryan's eyes got real wide and he said "Did she just say what I think she said" and I said "Yep she sure did" a few seconds later she said it again.
This morning I was walking into the babysitter's house and I was carrying alivia and her bag and trying to pick the morning gunk out of her eye and I went from the drive way to the sidewalk and kinda lost my balance and tripped, I didn't say anything but alivia said right away "Shit"

I'm not sure what to do I've been just kinda ignoring it, at least she's using it correctly!! ok just kidding but I really don't know what to do!!

Reno Weather forecast

Mon Mar 19
Mostly Sunny
67°/38°
10 %
Tue Mar 20

Few Showers
54°/33°
30 %

Wed Mar 21
Mostly Cloudy
57°/29°
10 %

Thu Mar 22
Sunny
63°/35°
10 %

Fri Mar 23
Partly Cloudy
69°/35°
10 %

Sat Mar 24
AM Clouds / PM Sun
70°/34°
10 %

Here's the forecast for Reno next week, I was hoping it would be warmer but I can handle 60's every day.

The resort that we are staying at in reno has a day spa, I told Rob that I wanted to get a manicure and pedicure while we're there and he asked if they did massages and I told him they probably did since it was a day spa. So he said he wanted to go with me and maybe get a mani and pedi too!!! I can't wait!!!!!!!!

5 MORE DAYS TILL RENO!!!

So this time next monday I will be on a plane to reno!! I'm very excited. I took this picture of Alivia yesterday with my cell phone. Rob had to bowl yesterday so we just layed around, played and did laundry. She was SOOO GOOD yesterday. She was having a bad hair day :)

It's kind of hard to tell from this picture but she has her pants around her ankles. When she has to go potty she stands up and pulls her pants down and says "Potty" until you take her. She actually goes potty about 50% of the time. But, none the less I think this is an adorable picture.

Saturday after work I came home and put on a t-shirt and pj pants, as I do every day of my life. This particular shirt (which i would never wear in public-just wanted to throw that in!) says on the front "How do you keep an idiot busy (see back of shirt) and on the back it says "How do you keep an idiot busy (see front of shirt)

Amber:(reading my shirt) Turn around

So I turn around

Amber:(reading my shirt) Turn around

So I turn around and say "did you think it would change"

Amber: I don't get it

Me:Exactly

A few minutes later she says she wants to cut brayden's hair and i need to hold him, She starts putting the cape thing on me

Me:Why are you putting this on me

Amber: So you don't get hair all over you

Me:What about brayden

Amber:I'm going to put him in the bathtub

I start walking down the hall

Amber: where are you going

me:I thought you said you were going to put him in the bathtub

Amber: AFTER I CUT HIS HAIR!!................ How do you keep an idiot busy?

me: (Laughing hysterically) oh!

Sucks to be you

It's kinda hard to see but this is a picture of my neighbors driveway with a HUGE ASS tree lying across it!!!! You also can't see from the picture but there are two smaller trees lying behind it. When these trees fell they pushed about 20 other smaller trees down with it. You can kinda see a few of them here. The other picture is from my dining room window showing all the trees that got pushed down from these falling. There is no other way to their house-I guess they've been either climbing over it or going under it, I don't really know!!

In other news, we have another new baby in the family: Payton Ann Howell was born March 1st at 7:30 AM. She's very cute!!! Alivia liked her very much-she gave her kisses and pointed out all of her major parts-belly, head and socks!!

too many good shows

You should have seen my remote control smoking last night!! There were way to many of my shows on- the "last" button on my remote got worn out! American Idol, Are you smarter than a 5th grader, Road Rules and Bam's Unholy Union. American Idol was pretty good-much better than last week-I love that Chris Richardson and Blake Lewis. We were talking about the "are you smarter than a 5th grader show and decided that we are definitly not smarter than any of those kids. I did know one of the questions-What does REM stand for-Bryan challenged me because he didn't think that I was right. When they showed the preview and the question was "What is a trapazoid" Amber said "Isn't that a binder?" and then we laughed hysterically at her and told her she was thinking of a trapper keeper! Then we started flipping back and forth and only caught a few minutes of road rules which is fine, MTV will replay that all weekend-We decided that we HATE Kina but it was funny to see Angel step up to her. And then Bam's unholy union was on-ok, i know that he is a jackass but that show is hilarious. For being such an immature little punk he treats his fiance pretty good. They were sitting around the table at christmas with the 50 foot tree that he pulled out of his mom's yard and amber said "this showed was taped at thanksgiving?" Bryan said "Yea, amber, most people put up a xmas tree for thanksgiving" and amber said "Well, they're eating turkey" and I said "You can have turkey for dinner even if it's not thanksgiving" and she said "oh"

There will be alot of good shows on tonight too. American Idol, Are you smarter than a 5th grader and real world. Another busy night! Alivia and I are going to visit with Kelly and Gianna. I've only seen her twice and I can't wait to see how much she's changed. Rob's cousin will be having her baby this week too. She's going in tonight to get induced. So we should have another baby tomorrow! Her name is Payton. I'll post pics on friday. That's it for now I guess!!

Dumb and Dumber (stolen conversation for blog purposes!)

My cousin Matt called my sister the other day and here was their conversation:

Matt : Do you and Bryan want to come over on Thursday for a sex party?
Amber: (Pause) Is is a couple party?
Matt: What?
Amber: What?
Matt: What are you talking about?
Amber: What are YOU talking about?
Amber: Is it a sex toy party?
Matt: NO, we find out the sex of the baby on thursday so we're having some people over.
Amber: DO NOT call anyone else and ask them that question!!

Rambling.....

We had a crazy busy weekend. Friday night I went to a happy hour with some people from work. I think our waitress was on crack or something. Everytime we asked her for something she looked at us with a blank stare like she had to process what we just said-weird. Then I met up with Rob at the bowling alley. Afterwards we went to Chipolte-Rob's new obsession. However I was craving White Castle so we went by there too. Saturday, Rob worked in the morning, I stayed at home and did some laundry and all that fun stuff. Alivia and I spent most of the day in the bathroom, she's doing pretty good with telling me when she has to go and things like that and she does NOT want to put a diaper on anymore. Saturday night I went to a mouse race as a fundraiser for Anthony's baseball team. There was a lot of really good food there-it was fun. After that Mindy, Rob and I went to the boat. I lost most of my money pretty quick, then I ran into my ex boyfriend, we talked to him for awhile, Rob met up with us and said "I'm a loser what do you want to do" I said "Well, I have $24.95 left, let's go lose it then we can go" By this time it was about 2:30 AM. We sat down at a penny machine and I had a pretty good buzz going on so we were having a good time. Something weird started happening on the machine and I said "I don't know what's happening" The lady next to me said "You just won $62 five times!!" "NO WAY!!" I yelled and rob said "HOW MUCH?!? ISN'T THIS A PENNY MACHINE??!, Ok, Amy let's go!!" So I played a few more times and cashed it out for $270. That was pretty nice. We took Mindy home then went home at about 3:30. Rob had to bowl at 9 in the morning. He wanted me and Liv to come up and watch him so we did, I wasn't feeling very well. I only had one drink and one shot so it couldn't be a hangover. It was weird. So we went to the bowling alley for a little bit, then I remembered that I had something of jenny's and we were right by her house so we went by there. The kids played for a little bit. We ended up going to walmart together. I bought livy some big girl panties!! She picked them out herself, my little pony and tinker bell. The smallest size I could find was 2T. I guess they figure a 19 month old doesn't need underwear!! I also bought her a booster seat for the kitchen table-she doesn't want to sit in her high chair anymore. Then we went home and took a nap, I was hoping I would feel better because I was suppose to bowl that night. When I woke up I felt even worse then I did when I went to bed. So, I called in sick to bowling, I never do that but I felt so weird. We ended up going to bed at 8:00 last night. I still felt tired when I woke up this morning. I won't be able to sleep in at all this week either-geez!! Ok, well that was about a bunch of nothing so I guess I will get back to work now!

Smartest kid on the planet!

At Alivia's 18 month appointment the doctor said we could start thinking about potty training. We bought her a potty chair probably about 6 months ago. Its a wood chair with a magazine rack and a toilet paper holder-only the best for my kid!! It's been in her room and she uses it for a step-stool!! So last night, she needed her diaper changed and I had to go potty, so I thought, well, let's give it a shot and see how it goes. I brought the chair into the bathroom, took off her diaper and pants and sat her on the chair, I did my business and then I hear the sound of tinkles in her chair! SHE WENT POTTY!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it. We threw a bit fit, telling her what a big girl she was and clapping. We emptied the chair and I said ok let's put your diaper back on. She said "NO!" She sat down and went potty-AGAIN!!!! This happened two more times!!!! She's a potty-machine!! I can't wait to try again tonight and see if it was a fluke or not.

Happy Valentines Day!

We decided at the last minute to take the kids to get valentine pictures taken yestersday, I'm so glad we did because they turned out soooooooo good!! Rob got me some stuff from bath and body (as i requested!), beautiful roses and we went to Red Lobster for an early dinner. It was a very nice day.

Random Conversation last night:

Ashley: Bryan, did you still want to get rid of your tattoo?

Bryan: Why, do you want it?

Springfiled, il

I LOVE Springfield, Il!! Ok, not really, but I did LOVE the fact that it's a non smoking CITY!! We went there this weekend for a bowling tournament, when I got there I was SHOCKED to see that the bowling alley had a no smoking sign up! I couldn't believe it. Then we went out to dinner and there was no smoking there too!! I wish they would do that around here. I'm sorry to all of you that smoke and I know that I can't understand that it's an addiction, but it's such a disgusting habit that bothers people around you that don't wish to share your habit with you. It was so nice to sit in a bowling alley for several hours and not smell like an ashtray when we left. Overall we had a very nice weekend!!

Rob stuff

Rob, Alivia and I went out to eat last week to Emperor's Palace. It was really good and a good environment for Alivia because it was busy-lots of things to look at. Rob came back from his 3rd or 4th trip to the buffet with this in his bowl, if you can't tell, it's octopus. YUCK! He took one bite and said it didn't taste that bad but he just couldn't do it!!!

I received this text from Rob this morning:

Good morning Miss Wifey, you don't like talking to your husband now or what, you got another man i need to know about, give me a call, love me, your hubby

I've been very busy at work and I guess he's feeling neglicted!! We're going out of town this weekend so hopefully he'll feel better next week!!

Welcome Baby Gianna!!

Gianna Marie Fleites was born on 01/31/07 at 3:20 pm. She weighed 7'9 and was 20 inches long. Everyone is doing great!!

Crazy Morning

We were in a hurry this morning to get ready and out of the house-not too different from any other morning. If Alivia wakes up before I get in the shower it works out perfect because she can eat breakfast, watch curious george and wake up before we have to leave. However, if she wakes up after I get out of the shower then there's no time for any of this. This makes for a really bad day!! If she doesn't get this time to wake up then she doesn't want to get dressed, put on her shoes and coat and she sure isn't going to cooperate getting into the car. That was pretty much my morning today. She assumed the wet noodle position as I tried to put her coat on her limp body laying on the floor-not too easy to do. I can usually coax her into putting her coat on by telling her that she can go outside-she LOVES to go outside. So after the wrestling match I carried her to the car as she assumed the straight as a board position. Then as I put her in the carseat she assumed the arched back position. We were finally on our way. I met up with kelly to drop Alivia off and then sped through the drivethru at Hardee's. As I'm getting out of the car my cell phone rang and as I answered it I grabbed my food and rushed into work. When I got off the phone and gathered my thoughts, I noticed that there was something on the bottom of my cup. My cup holder isn't that big in my car so anytime I have a big cup the cup holder will stick to the bottom when I take the cup out. I hadn't noticed that I had carried the cup into work with the cupholder from my car still attached! So I had to take a pic to share. Yesterday Alivia was screaming as I was pulling out of the driveway and I side swipped the Escalade-there was no damage though-lucky for me!!!

18 Months old Today

My baby is growing up. Alivia is 18 months old today, I can't believe it. She is talking alot. She can say: Mom, Dad, Something that sounds like Bray (for brayden), eat, belly, up, no, yes, night-night, bye-bye, eye and of course no-no. She went straight from crawling to running. I love to watch her run down the hall with her curls bouncing!

More Random....

• We had an appointment yesterday to have family pictures taken (9 of us total) Bryan and Amber were complaining that they didn't want to go because they were tired, hungover and broke. 10 minutes later Sears called and said they didn't have electricity and would have to reschedule us. I was pissed-it's very hard to get that many people together at the same time!! Amber and Bryan were very excited

• I had a very nice evening. Rob, Alivia and I went to the bank, to get gas, supermarket of shoes, walmart and out to eat last night. We never do that and I told Rob it was really nice to have him there with us. I normally have to do all the running around by myself and it was nice to have the help and the company. We went to that new pepper stone steak house on jungermann. It was really good and Alivia behaved for most of the time we were there.

• Conversation in walmart parking lot last night:

Me: Rob, look there's a used pregnancy test (in the parking lot)

Rob: Well, what does it say?

Me:I don't know I didn't look

Rob: Well, you HAVE to look (he then went back and kicked it to flip it over to see what it said. It was raining and he couldn't tell)

Some poor teenage girl probably had to break the news to her mother last night that she got knocked up by her jobless boyfriend who dropped out of school.

I'm not looking forward to those days!!!

As if that isn't enough, That's all I have for now!

Lots of babies..

I have two sister in laws that are pregnant. Kelly is due Feb 8 and Marsha is due in May. Another member of our family is pregnant and she's due March 8. Kelly went to the doctor today and they said that she was 50% afaced and dialated 2 centimeters. We might have a baby soon!! There's only one slight downside to her having her baby early. She has been watching Alivia because my babysitter had to have her kidney removed suddenly. She is coming back on Jan 29 but I don't know if Kelly will make it that long!! While I'm very excited to see the arrival of Giana Marie Fleites-I don't know what I'll do for a babysitter if she comes early!!
geeezzzzz.....

Random

• I cleaned out my fridge the other night. I found 5 containers of sour cream-FIVE!! Not one of them was expired. I have to blame my mother for this-I was at her house one day and noticed an excess amount of salad dressing in her fridge-so I counted them-SHE HAD 16 BOTTLES OF SALAD DRESSING! There are only three people living in her house. Sick.

• I went to Jiffy Lube yesterday morning to get my oil changed. I sit down in the waiting room and look over to the table with the magazines and the selections were sports magazines, car magazines and some kind of national geographic or something. Are you kidding me?!?! Shouldn't men change their own oil at home?!?! Why were there no decent selections for women to read?!?! That bothered me.

• I told my sister and her fiance what my new years resolution was and they laughed at me. My resolution is to get a tan. Bryan informed me "That's not a resolution" to which I replied "Of course it is, it's my resolution and I can make it anything I want!!" So I will be checking out tanning beds soon.

Brayden's Adventure

Yesterday I'm laying in bed trying to wake up. Like most mornings, I can hear Brayden in the kitchen talking to anyone that will listen. Then I hear something in the bathroom (sounded like the toilet seat got picked up and then dropped) I didn't hear the shower start or the toilet flush so I couldn't figure out what was going on. I got up and opened my door, I looked in the bathroom and Brayden was in there. I look down the hallway and the gate was not on the stairs. I pick him up and I walk into the kitchen-don't see anyone. I look in the living room-noone. I look on the back porch-empty. I'm still half asleep thinking "What the hell is going on? Did he get out of his highchair?!?" I walk downstairs and Amber is asleep in bed. I'm still very confused at this point. Now I'm thinking, did he get out of his crib?!? I walk in Amber's room and wake her up. She wakes up to me standing in front of her holding Brayden. She sits straight up and says "OH MY GOD! I FELL ASLEEP!!" I said "He was upstairs in the bathroom!!"

She had gotten him out of bed and put him in her bed. He climbed off the bed and was playing with his toys and Amber had fallen back asleep. He had crawled up the basement stairs, through the foyer and up the stairs to the living room!!!!!

It's funny how things happen sometimes, because if the gate had been up then he would have turned around and tried to go back downstairs and that could have been bad.

He's such a little monkey!

We're in big trouble...

Rob watched Alivia yesterday because he was off work all day so instead of paying a babysitter he got to spend some quality time with his daughter. Starting last week, when you ask Alivia a yes or no question she will actually answer it. It's the cutest thing. So, yesterday I thought I would find out what happened while I was gone all day:

Me: Alivia, did you have a good day with daddy?
Alivia: Yah!!
Me:Did daddy keep an eye on you all day?
Alivia: Noo!
Me:Did he sleep all day while he was supposed to be watching you?
Alivia: Yah!!
Me: Did you get into things that you were supposed to?
Alivia: Yah!!!

I told Rob about what she said and he says that she's a liar!!

I'm going to have alot of fun with this new trick!

Oh and also, if you ask her how old she is she will hold up one finger!!

YYEEAAHH!!!

After a week of lying and sneaking around, my little sister Amber is engaged!!! YEAH!!!! Her (fiance!!) Bryan proposed to her on xmas eve at my mom and dad's house in front of all of us. It was very well planned out and so emotional !! We were all crying our eyes out! I'm so happy for them and we've already started planning!! She asked me to be the maid of honor-I can't wait! I'll post a picture as soon as I have one ready! Congrats-I love you guys!!



Alivia got a dream kitchen from santa, it's very cute and she likes it alot. I got remote start on my car that I've very excited about. It was a very nice weekend!!

It's fate...

A few months ago when I got the lincoln (yes, before i totalled it) rob was driving my escalade and decided that he didn't want to be seen with my "LTL AMY" license plates. I had those plates ever since the 97 tracer!! I really didn't want to put them on the lincoln but wasn't quite ready to completely do away with them yet. So I kept putting it off. One day (after rob yelled at me AGAIN for not getting it done yet) I finally brought myself to do it. I went to the license office and told her I needed new plates-she then asked me why. So I had to explain that my husband didn't want to be seen with them and I wasn't very happy about it. So then she says "Ok, since you just renewed them I will either need the plates back or you will need to pay for a new set" Well I certainly didn't want to pay for a new set so I pouted for a minute and told her I would just give them back. I had to then go to the parking lot and take them off the car (SOOO NOT MY JOB) I brought them back in, pouted again and the woman said "Did you want a minute?" I'm thinking this is really dumb THEY'RE JUST LICENSE PLATES!!! She got the new ones from the shelf and to my suprise the first three digits of the new plates were "4AS" now to some people this wouldn't mean anything but to me it meant alot because I am one of three daughters who's name starts with A and my daughter's name starts with A (making-4 A's) I was very excited and I got over the old dirty plates very quick. I went home and pointed out the coincidence to my husband who was less than thrilled.

So, yesterday I went to register the malibu (which i've had since the beginning of november!) and she got the new plates out and the first three digits were "8AS" I'm not exactly sure what the relavence is there but none the less I was excited! I'm very easily amused!!!

For my husband....

I wrote this for my husband to remind him of how much I love him.....


When you're in love with someone you choke up everytime you listen to the song that you walked down the aisle to and you listen to it all the time because you love to be reminded of how you felt at that moment looking into the eyes of your future.

When you're in love with someone you consider your anniversary date your lucky number.

When you're in love with someone you will tickle them until they fall asleep because they asked you to and you find a sense of peace in doing it

When you're in love with someone you can't wait to have a child with them and then when you do you can't wait to have another.

When you're in love with someone you will get them cookies and milk at 10:30 at night because they asked you to and if you had said no it would have been ok.

When you're in love with someone you smile every time you hear them giggling at the tv in the other room

And finally, when you're in love with someone it takes less than 5 minutes to jot down all of the reasons that you're in love with them because you didn't have to think about it at all.

In case you didn't figure it out-I'M TALKING ABOUT YOU SILLY! I love you with all of my heart and soul through thick and thin for better or worse I am your wife and I wouldn't have it any other way :)

Where do the boogers go?

At alivia's last dr's appt the doctor asked me "How long has she had the runny nose?" I replied "Since the day she was born!" Well, lately everyday when I pick her up from the babysitter we have to do booger surgery for 15 minutes-let me tell ya-she loves it! I'm kind of obsessed, I don't like my beautiful daughter to have anything disgusting in her ears or nose-at any time!! Whenever she does I call her trailer park! Anyway yesterday I was telling my husband about the marble sized thing that I pulled out of his daughter's nose-and he says "If you don't get them out then how do they get out?" "THEY DON'T-now you see why I'm constantly picking at her!" He thinks about it for a second and says "They have to come out eventually" "I really don't think so babe and even if they do, i'm not letting her walk around like that to find out!!!" Don't worry, it runs in the family, Brayden is booger free too!

Bryan has a blonde moment

Me: Amber, we just bought this case of Sprite yesterday and there's only 4 left.
Amber: BRYAN!! You drank 8 sodas since yesterday?!?!?
Bryan: NO! I ONLY HAD FIVE!
Me: I had 2
Amber: I had 1
Me:There are 4 left
Bryan (redoing the math outloud to amber): Amy had 2, you had 1, I had 5, there's 4 left-How many are in a 12 pack?

Girls don't have weenies...

Yesterday was a pretty comical day-great for a blogger!!

I picked alivia up from the babysitters yesterday and she was wet so the sitter wanted to change her before we left, she laid her down on the changing table and one of the little boys went up to the table and proclaimed "Girls don't have weenies" I about died laughing!!!

I laid alivia down for a nap last night and she fussed a little and then got quiet and a few minutes later she was screaming. I walked back in there to get her and as I'm walking through her room-which by the way is pitch black at 5:30 at night all of a sudden I trip over something-it was alivia-she had gotten out of her bed. Not sure how yet-she was still there this morning! Needless to say, I have been shopping for bed rails online today. I'm really not ready for this yet-she's only 16 months old!! Her bed turns into a daybed so at least I don't have to go bed shopping! Geez....

Then, last night, Mindy and Lilly came over to hang out for a little bit. It was about 8:15 (We were watching Dog, The Bounty Hunter-very important stuff! Lilly said to Mindy "Mommy, when can we go home" Mindy said "In 15 minutes" Lilly says "Mommy, that's a half an hour" We all cracked up!!

The possessed alarm clock

Two years ago my aunt jill had rob's name for xmas. She asked me what she could get him, I told her that we had an alarm clock that would go off every single day whether it was set or not. So I told her to get him a new one and she did. Well, that one does the same thing. I guess it's not such a bad thing because you don't have to think about setting it-it will go off whether the set alarm button is switched to on or off. So I started to wonder-does this thing go off even when we are out of town? We've never come home to it going off. Now that would be REALLY weird. I asked amber and bryan last night and they said that it does go off when we're not home. So there goes that theory. Am I the only one that this has happened to?!?!? Two alarm clocks in a row with minds of their own-very strange.....

Good Suprise

I've been telling Rob for 2 years that I want new living room furniture, since we had the money from the car and with christmas coming up I had really been on a kick. I told him I wanted new furniture for xmas. He kept saying we needed to wait until after xmas and whatever else. Basically he was picking a fight with me everyday about the stupid furniture.

I came home from bowling last thursday night and I had new furniture in my living room!!!! He had gone with my sister and bought the furniture that I had picked out, he picked it up and set it up while I was at bowling. I seriously couldn't believe it!!! He's NEVER done anything like that. The only problem is that this furniture is so huge and comfy that I just want to lay on it and I didn't get too much done over the weekend!! There aren't too many people that are able to pull one over on me. I'm so nosey and I usually figure things like this out but I had NO IDEA!! It was a great suprise.

On another note, I got my new car on Friday, I really like it and I broke it in this morning by getting a speeding ticket! I was running late (as usual) and I got pulled over. Oh Well.

Happy Turkey Day Everyone!!!

Calgon, Take me Away.....

Last night started out like many others, I made dinner, started some laundry, unloaded/loaded the dishwasher. Bryan came home and had a headache, I went searching through my hall closet that contains everything but the kitchen sink looking for tylenol-I couldn't find it but decided then would be a great time to clean it out-it had been awhile. The evening went downhill from there. I did get the closet cleaned out-never did find the tylenol. Amber decided that she was going to do some touchup paint on the bathroom and then decided that she wasn't in the mood for it. Alivia was being very difficult all evening then amber and bryan started fighting-it was not a good night. So alivia and I went to my room and stayed in there the rest of the evening, when I finally got her to lay down I took a bath and read a book-I've never done that before-it was pretty relaxing. When Rob got home I told him that I had a bad evening and he needed to give me a massage!! He agreed!!

I had to have another talk with my babysitter this morning. Most nights Alivia will not eat dinner, I kinda figured that it was because the babysitter feeds her breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack. I had to tell her not to give her an afternoon snack because I would like her to eat dinner with us instead of running around like a maniac while we are eating because she isn't hungry. Then I had to tell her not to give Alivia Kool-aid all day. She said she usually doesn't but I think her behavior in the evening proves different. I can only hope that the day gets better.

I'm taking tomorrow off to try to relax a little. It probably won't happen though because I have a cable guy coming and I won an auction on a company car so I have to deal with that tomorrow. Geez.............I need a clone-good thing that bill passed ;)

My sister, the politician

Amber got home from work at about 6:00 tuesday night and we were sitting down eating dinner and here was our conversation:

Bryan:Amber hurry up and eat so we can go vote
Amber: VOTE?!?!?
Bryan: Yea, I feel like I really want to vote
Amber: Where do you have to go?
Me:Just up to the library on Kisker, you better hurry though, you only have until 7
Bryan:I bet it's packed
Amber: (looks up from her dinner and pauses) I swear to god I just said to myself when I was coming home "Why is the library so packed on a tuesday night, what a bunch of losers, who hangs out at the library on a tuesday?"

Me and Bryan just shook our heads at her

Worst Babysitter EVER!!

I bowl every other sunday so Rob gets to "babysit" while I bowl. I come home last night and this is our conversation:

Me: How was liv?
Rob:Good, we were playing and watching football and I just layed her down about 15 minutes ago
Me:What did she have for dinner?
Rob: (giving me the deer in headlights look) I thought you fed her before you left!!!
Me:No, that's why I said-she will need dinner before I left
Rob:Well she didn't tell me that she was hungry.
Me:Did you give her a bath?
Rob: um-no she didn't tell me that she wanted a bath-we just played all night
Me:did you at least change her diaper?!?!?
Rob:YES
Me:did you put jammies on her?
Rob:no, just sweatpants because she was hot

I think she heard our conversation because I heard her from her room so I went in and got her and fed her and put jammies on her and put her back in bed. I said to her "I can't wait till you can talk and tell daddy how to take care of you" and then I said to rob "From now on, when you watch her, no matter what, you need to give her a bath" He said "Sure, but only if she wants to"

Lord help me!!!

Too much information...

I'm sitting at the bowling alley last night eating the best cheeseburger EVER!! I am minding my own business when a woman comes up to me and says "There's nothing worse than the first day of that time of the month"
Are you serious-did you really just say that as I sit here and MIND MY OWN BUSINESS AND EAT DINNER?!?!?

So I reply" Well, I've been very fortunate in that department" then I think to my self WHY DID I JUST RESPOND TO THAT COMMENT?!?!
So she continues "I've been telling my gynecologist for years to make it stop-I'm over fifty just make it stop"
By now I wise up" Yep"

then she went away...dinner was ruined forever!!

Happy Halloween!!

Random Conversation in my house...

Rob: Am, Where's my cardinals jacket?
Me: Downstairs, I think it's dirty
Rob: Honey, you need to make sure that jacket is clean whenever carpentar is pitching!
Amber: It's been down there for a week-you just now noticed?
Rob:Why do you always need to put your two cents in?
Amber:Ok-Sorry (The ONLY reason she apologized is because this was about the 3rd time she had throw her two cents in on one of our conversations last night!)
Rob: You just always have to say something don't ya? (still talking to amber)
Amber: You better be nice to me or I will eat ALL OF YOUR COOKIES while you are at bowling.
Rob: You better not touch my f*ck*ng cookies or I will break your neck!

funny...

Update to accident

So, they are totalling my car-i'm very excited. They offered me $12,500. It was all I could do not to shout "YES!!!" We paid 8,100 for the car last month. So now I have to buy another car-trouble is, I have NO IDEA what I want. There aren't any cars right now that I HAVE TO HAVE. I'm going today to get the lincoln registered (didn't have time to do that!) so I can get the title in my name so I can get my money!! I hope they don't give me any crap!

Crazy week

Last Saturday night I went to wineries with some friends for our bdays. We had a nice time. After the bus dropped us off, I picked alivia up, got some jack in the box and then totalled my car! An 84 year old man came across the intersection at independence rd and hwy 94. I smashed into him going about 50. Alivia and I are both doing ok but the car might be totalled! Sunday was my birthday-we went to the boat for brunch-favorite new thing to do!! Then we went to the pumpkin patch in Illinois and Rob and I went to dinner at the melting pot. It was very nice. I am off today because Alivia had a Dr appt for her 15 month check up. She is doing great. She weighed 22 pounds and 3 ounces. She had to get two shots and then she had to get blood drawn-she was not happy!! We went to the bank, postoffice, taco bell, dr office and target today. We also went to take these pictures of the car. You can't really tell from the pictures but both airbags went off and broke the windshield and the sunroof is not exactly in tact!!

I feel so productive today-I might even get to put a dent in my laundry!!

Mouse in the house part two

Here is the card that amber got me for my birthday-she's not right!

Mouse in the House

Rob and I are laying in bed last night at 11:00 when I hear a knock on our door-I say come in

Amber:Can you wake rob up?
me:why?
Amber: There's a mouse downstairs
me: ok so kill it
Amber: Rob needs to kill it, we don't know what to do
me: have bryan kill it, rob has to get up at 5 in the morning
Amber: But Amy, (whispering) "There's a mouse in your house"
me- (cracking up)
Amber-ROB WAKE UP AND KILL THE MOUSE
me-get out of my room

so i lay there a few more minutes and hear banging downstairs-i go down there and amber is standing on the couch, apparantly the mouse had run into a closet so bryan was standing in the doorway of the closet with a budlight bucket i guess he thought he was going to catch it-then we all see the mouse scurry out of the closet so then i jump as fast as i can over the side of the couch to join amber! they both cracked up-i look over and amber had put a towel under the door of the bedroom that brayden was in because she didn't want the mouse to get brayden-i told her i didn't think the mouse would be scaling up brayden's bed to attack him-i stayed down there a few more minutes and then went to bed-i heard bugs (their cat) run as fast as he could up the stairs at about 6 this morning so i don't know if he saw the mouse again or not- there's never a dull moment in our house!!

The Chaos that is my life....

So, Amber and Bryan are moving back in with us and somehow that involved me cleaning out my basement! I really needed to though-the only bad thing now is that I really need to have a garage sale and it's October. Oh Well. Also now my bathroom is under construction (amber didn't like the decor) that's also fine-I was ready for a change-we went to walmart the other night and spent $100 on duck decorations! They also painted the room that they will be "living" in and have now decided that they want to paint the living room downstairs-also ok with me-because they are doing all of the painting-i'm not much of a painter-keep your comments to yourself please :) So they slept there last night for the first time as well as bryan's brother.

I recently moved my office at work from 40 & mason to clayton. And, on oct 30 I will be moving it again to St.Peters-long story. So I have been dealing with that too. OH-I now have myspace. www.myspace.com/aliviawhitehouse
I was putting off doing it but I found a bunch of people on there that I went to school with so I though I would get on there so they could find me too.
That's all I have for now-as if that isn't enough!!

These are some pictures from the Oktoberfest last weekend

I love technology

I love technology!

I love technology. I took this picture last night with my cell phone and just sent it to my blog-how weird. Anyway this is a picture of my monkey (daughter) alivia. She climbed into this position all by herself

What did you say to me?!

I swear my mother runs across some of the weirdest people. Here are some of her stories:

A few years ago her and my dad were at a concert at riverport and I guess there were some kids behind them being obnoxious. Someone said something to the kids about the way they were acting and the kid responded with
"Why don't you go throw up on yourself or something" Everytime they tell that story we all crack up laughing.

A few months ago my mom went to a gas station near her house to get some coffee-nothing else. She went up to pay and the kid that was working there had a button on that said "If I don't offer you the rain-x carwash-it's yours for free" or something like that. So he rings up her coffee and says see ya later. She then says "You didn't offer me the carwash-so I get it for free right?" He says to her "Well, ugh, I didn't know that you were going to pay with a dollar" Not really sure what he meant by that but she got the free carwash. Those are like $14!!

Last night she went to Jack in the Box and ordered some ice tea (They have THE BEST ICE TEA-I'M DRINKING SOME RIGHT NOW!!) Anyway-they handed her the tea and said "Would you like any cream or sugar with that?" She said "Um, no thanks"

geez!!

Mall Rats

Amber, Bryan, Brayden, Alivia and I went out to dinner and to the mall last friday night. Not sure why we thought that would be a good idea to go to the mall on a friday night. Anyway, Bryan was in a wedding on saturday and Amber needed something to wear (as usual!). So we walk into the mall and it's much worse than I expected. There were LOTS and LOTS of teenagers with black clothes and bad haircuts walking around. There were a few girls walking around with those stupid child development baby dolls AT THE MALL, one of the girls actually had her fake baby in a STROLLER!!!! Amber says "When I had that doll it spent the week in the trunk of my car" Nice-luckily her real mother skills are better than that!!

So Bryan and I are about done with the mall and Amber wants to go back and look at a shirt she saw. Outside of this store were a few couches and a few chairs. Bryan walked over and sat down and I followed him. Next thing we know about 6 of these punk kids came running over and were laying on the couches and about 3 of them were sitting in one chair. They were wrestling around and dropped their overly large can of jolt. It spilled all over the floor and they thought it was hilarious. As people were walking by one kid (that looked like a girl) was asking people to give him money to lick the jolt off of the floor. He didn't get any takers. I looked over at Bryan and said "Hey, Bryan, do you have a dollar?" He grinned and said "Yea" so he reached into his pocket and said "Hey, I'll give you a dollar to lick that off of the floor" So the kid went over and PULLED HIS HAIR BACK and licked away. He then came running over to Bryan for his prize. Then another kid said "Hey, I'll...I'll, Um, I'll snort it through my nose for a dollar" So Bryan said "Ok" Then he did. Bryan paid him off too. The kid kept sniffling and his nose was bright red. It was cheap entertainment for a few minutes.

I forgot to mention that when amber was trying on something she came out of the dressing room without a shirt on-she forgot to put one on-I was outside the store when it happened but I thought that was pretty funny!!

Everyone loves a blue eyed girl!

Brayden's Mohawk

As promised:

Here's are pics of brayden's mohawk and alivia's pretend mohawk that daddy gave her in the bath!

Open House

My house was a crazy place this weekend. I can't complain though I love it. Friday night, I took Alivia to my mom's so that I could hang out at the bowling alley for a few hours. Saturday Rob was playing golf (this happens once a year!) Alivia and I hung out for awhile until the madness began. Amber and Bryan came over around 11. They are getting ready to move back in with us. Amber didn't care for the birdhouse decoration that was going on in the bedroom they would be living in so she took it upon herself to repaint it-whatever-one less thing I have to do! Amber and Bryan began painting so Alivia, Brayden and I were playing in the living room. That was going ok and then Jenny, Anthony and Jack came over. I was going to watch the boys for a little bit. So now Alivia, Brayden and Jack were all playing. They played really well together and took turns taking naps all afternoon. Anthony is such a great helper!!! We ordered pizza for lunch. Rob got home and I felt so bad for him. All he wanted to do was come home and watch football in peace and quiet!! We have three tvs in our house. Amber and Bryan had the basement a mess from painting, I was in the living room with the babies and there was a baby or two taking a nap in our room at most points of the day. At one point I went downstairs to check on what was going on down there and when I came up rob was yelling "Amy, there's babies crying all over the place" It was pretty hilarious!! We went to St. Charles and walked around that night at the mosaic fair-it was a beautiful night. On Sunday I had to work at the diner. My mom calls around 4 and says "Amber invited us over to look at the room" So we had a replay last night. My mom, dad, Ashley, Amber, Bryan and Brayden all came over last night. We hung out for awhile and Amber gave a bunch of hair cuts including Braydens (pictures of his new mohawk should be ready soon!) When Amber got to my house last night she says to my dad "Grab a piece of paper" He didn't so she continued "Bryan's car needs new shocks and a new battery and my car needs new brake pads" Later that night Ashley says "Amber can I have your old shocks" Me and my dad are thinking "She surely doesn't mean car shocks" She didn't, she was talking about nike shox shoes. We all had a good laugh about that. Tonight I guess I have to go grocery shopping because yesterday when I asked Rob if he was hungry he said "I have been hungry all day, we haven't had any food for two weeks" He exagerates a little.

End of the Fad Diet

Tuesday was the last day of my diet (which I haven't exactly been sticking to!) BUT, I went to the doctor this morning for my final evaluation and I lost another 2 pounds. The grand total of weight loss is 16 pounds. I would like to lose a little more but I think that's a good start. The main goal was to get to pre baby weight and I did that about 4 pounds ago so my goal was achieved!!

Random thoughts and comments....

Toys R US

Amber and I went to Toys R Us Monday night looking for halloween costumes for the babies. We didn't really find anything but I did find an outfit for Alivia and I needed batteries for a new toy that I bought her last weekend. So, we are checking out and AS THE GIRL SCANS MY BATTERIES she says "Do you need any batteries today?" I looked at her and I said "I think the batteries you just scanned should do just fine" This would have been a valid question if I had bought a toy or something that required batteries-but I didn't-I bought a onesie, jeans and the cutest velcro corduroy shoes ever for $2. Needless to say, she felt pretty stupid.

New Car

I accidentally put regular gas in my new car that is supposed to take premium gas. I remembered that I wasn't supposed to do that about 15 minutes after I did it-oops.

Rob's "New Job"

Rob is a "gamble-a-holic" from way back. He still hasn't found a job-it's been about 5 weeks now. He's been playing $30 poker tournaments at the boat during the day. ( Because this is what you should be doing when you don't have a job?!?!) Anyway, yesterday he won first place and it paid $700. Last weekend he was betting on football and won $1,300. He is calling this his "job" now. And the scary part is that he is serious. If a job doesn't offer a 401 K or a weekly paycheck where taxes are taken out then IT'S NOT A JOB!!!!!!!!!!! Lord help me......

Husband in Training

I dred holidays, birthday's and occasions with Rob. He is the type of guy that waits until the VERY last minute to buy a gift for an occasion. The gift is NEVER wrapped and always has very little thought behind it. I am such the opposite of that so usually I am very dissapointed when/if I get a gift from Rob. Yesterday was our 2nd wedding anniversary. After 7 years of this I try not to get too excited when something comes up that warrants a gift. The other thing is that if he does get a gift he tries to make me think that he didn't get me anything until I am at the point of tears and then he brings out the gift-not sure why this is so amusing. So yesterday I get home and I hand him my gift to him. ( A card and a portable satelite radio) So he says to me " I can't find my wallet, are you mad" So I say " It's always something isn't it?" and he says " Well, I did get you choc cov strawberries, they're in the fridge" I'm pretty excited by this point. It's not much but I do love me some choc cov strawberries. Then he proceeds with " I really have no idea where my wallet is and I didn't have much money so that's all I could get you today-is that ok" I told him that was fine, so then I guess when the game wasn't going his way he decided not to play it anymore, he went into the bedroom and pulled out two boxes, one had a small ruby ring (alivia's birthstone) and heart shaped earrings to match-he said that was to make up for the mother's day fiasco (that's another story!!) So all in all he did very well and we had a very nice dinner at the melting pot. After he gave me the boxes he said " I really didn't get you a card though" I wonder if I will be able to have him completely trained by our 10th wedding anniversary!!

2nd Anniversary!

Today is our second wedding anniversary. And actually we got married on our 5 year anniversary so technically, today is our 7th anniversary. It doesn't seem that long!!

Jury Duty

A few weeks ago I had the privilige of attending Jury Duty. I was kinda excited just because I had never done it before and was looking forward to the experience. So, I get there at 8:30 just like I'm supposed to and we sat in a room until 10:00. They finally called us into the courtroom and then asked us about 100 questions. Finally at 3:45 they pick the jury. I was juror #12!!! As soon as you get selected you go right up in your seat and court begins. We were there until about 6 that night. When we left that night they told us we couldn't discuss the case with anyone and we couldn't look anything up on the internet about the case. Suprisingly enough, I sort of listened. I didn't look it up on the internet. So the next day we go back in at 9 and we are there until 7 that night. We did find him guilty on two counts of burglary. The defense didn't have any case except to say " The state doesn't have any evidence beyond a reasonable doubt" The guy never said a word and we had so many questions that weren't answered by either side. And they say, if you aren't sure then you have to rule in honor of the defense. That's easier said than done. It's funny because when we were listening to all of the evidence you wonder what the other jurors are thinking-because you can't talk to them about the case until after you hear all of the eviendence. When we were excused to deliberate it was clear that everyone was thinking the same way that I was-HE IS SO GUILTY!! It only took us about 20 minutes to reach a decision: When I got home that night I looked up his name on the internet and here's what I found:

06/30/94- 3 counts of 2nd degree burglary
12/27/01-speeding
03/02/02-seat belt
04/12/02-speeding
04/14/02-child seat belt
04/14/02-speeding
10/18/02-seat belt
10/18/02-material on windshield
12/30/02-seat belt
12/30/02-material on windshield
09/12/03-seat belt
11/21/03-seat belt
11/23/03-speeding
12/23/03-seat belt
08/08/04-littering 2 counts
10/02/04-tresspassing 2nd degree
05/21/05-speeding
07/14/05-speeding
07/14/05-unauthorized oper a motor veh
07/19/05-speeding
07/19/05-seat belt
08/02/05-2 counts burglary 2nd degree
12/17/05-passing bad check

Isn't that nuts!! After it was all said and done I was glad that I hadn't looked on the internet before we made our decision. I think he was supposed to do 15 years for that burglary back in 1994-that would explain why he wasn't in trouble again until 01. His sentencing is next monday-I can't wait to see what he gets! And you would think that this was a kid right-nope-he's 41-what an idiot!!!

Jobs are good

So, about two weeks ago I get a phone call that I've gotten a few too many times. "Honey, I quit my job, but it wasn't my fault!!" Rob, gotta love him. My husband is a very talented painter and he knows it. Every other time that he has gotten mad and quit his job-he had something lined up. Well, this time he didn't. I didn't freak out or yell at him because like I said EVERY OTHER TIME he had something lined up. I'm always ok until he starts freaking out. He has applied at every place you can think of and talked to every one that he knows-noone is hiring right now. So we're starting to get a little worried. Luckily, he's had a few small side jobs, that has helped out and he's got another one lined up for next week so that will buy some more time. Each time he does this he learns a valuable lesson-He has come so far in so many areas since I met him 7 years ago. He actually sent an apology letter to the company that he quit after working there for 5 years. I couldn't believe it!!!!! It's funny though because I didn't quit my job-I go to work every day but I can't go to Target anytime I want to now-What's up with that!!! I guess that's what marriage is all about though. So if anyone has a car that they need fixed or painted get ahold of me!!

Fad Diet Month 2 update

Today I weighed in for the second month and I lost 3 more pounds. This last month was not very productive. But, I have lost a total of 14 pounds. 28 more days to go. I need to get back on track-I'm such a cheater! I can't help it, I love food too much!!!

1st Birthday

Here are some pictures from Alivia and Jack's first bday parties

Ms Popularity

Alivia & Jack
Alivia is going to a new babysitter now because our old sitter went back to work-I was not happy about that! It seems to be working out well though-she's very popular!! I dropped her off today and one of the mom's came in to drop off her daughter and said "there's your baby" (talking about alivia) she said "That's how I wake her up in the morning, telling her she needs to get up and get ready to go see Alivia" I thought that was funny, yesterday when I picked her up I walked in and some other mom was holding Alivia. Then the sitter told me that one of the little boys kisses her all day. I'm not sure how I feel about that but it seems cute enough. I hope this isn't the start of a much bigger problem!!!!!!

The Pregnancy Epidemic

My husbands family has always been known for having babies in pacts-it goes like this-My nephew kyle, neice rachel and rob's cousin rebecca were all born in the same year. Then my nephew nathan and friend of the family easton were born the same year. Then there was evan and he was born all by himself. Then my sister in law marsha had her son austin last year and of course alivia was born last year. NOW-my sister in law kelly and rob's cousin's wife amanda are pregnant. Isn't that nuts??? So pretty much if someone in the family gets pregnant you better watch out because you could be next!!!!

Doctors Scale

I went to the doctor today to get "weighed in" I use to hate the Doctors scale because I always felt like it said more than what the home scale said, however, today I love it. According to the doctor's office I have lost 11 pounds since I began my diet on June 12. My home scale says I have lost 8 pounds. Either way, I am back to my pre-baby weight. I am pretty proud of that. I always thought that when I had kids I would blow up and never be able to lose the weight. My daughter will be one on Sunday, so it took right at about a year to get back. I have 60 days left and it's going really well. It's not the hardest thing I've ever done and it's healthy so it's a win/win. I don't have to go to the doctor to weigh in for another 30 days but I weigh myself every morning at home. I will keep you up to date

Babies first fourth!

Here are some pictures of Alivia, Jack and Brayden from the fourth of july parade in O'Fallon. I don't think any of them really cared about the parade but they all looked really adorable!!