sleeping beauty

I took this picture this morning with my cell phone, she looked so cute, sleeping in her big girl bed!! There isn't really too much going on at our house, we are still working on the bathroom. All of the plumbing is done, Rob is working on getting the rest of the drywall down so he can put up the new walls we bought last week. Alivia continues to crack me up every single day. We ordered pizza last night and Rob was downstairs when it came. I said "go tell daddy that the pizza is here and it's time to eat" She stood at the top of the stairs screaming "DADDY... HUNGRY??!...PIZZA" and each time she said it she got louder and louder. It was hilarious. We took Rob's cavalier to get an inspection because the tags are due. It ended up costing $378. I'm pretty sure the car isn't worth that much. That's all I got

I got the brilliant idea to take the front rail off of alivia's bed over the weekend. I figured she's two, it's time. It's been going really good. The first night she woke up at midnight and was standing in the doorway to our bedroom with her blanket-cute as can be. So we let her in our bed. The second night she came in at 4 and this morning she came in our room at 6. So, by tommorrow we should be good to go!!

Rob was supposed to be on jury duty today (sorry rachel!!) He wasn't really looking forward to it but he did get to sleep in 3 hours today!! He got ready and drove up there, checked in, and they told him it was cancelled!! He was very excited!! He's going to get his work car inspected and all that good stuff today.

So, I'm not too thrilled about it but I'm going to attempt my fruit diet again-just for a month. We're going on a float trip in just about a month so I figured that was a good incentive. I started yesterday and lost two pounds already!! Rob said he would eat fruit with me at night. I was making a huge fruit plate for dinner last night and I was cutting up strawberries and he said "Can we dip those in chocolate?" I said "YOU can" he hesitated and said "Ok I won't....well I'll try"

That's about it for now.......

Birthday Madness....

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Well I officially have a two year old. I can't believe it seems just like yesterday!! Speaking of yesterday. I took off work to spend the day with Alivia for her birthday. We got an early phone call that my cousin and his wife had their baby. They weren't supposed to have him until today (07/17) but she went into labor early and had to have him yesterday. Amber, Ashley and I went to the hospital to visit. As we were getting on the elevator some people got off and I said to Amber "That looks like Anthony" (the son of a friend of hers) She said, "his mom must be here having her baby" When we got up to the maternity floor we got off the elevator and a guy from my work was standing in the waiting room I said "Are you guys having your baby today?" they were. We went and saw my cousin's baby and walked up and down the halls, she wanted to try and find her friend and I wanted to find the guy from my work. I ran into ANOTHER girl I know from the bowling alley that was extremely pregnant!!! It was so weird to see so many people that we knew in the same place. Alivia's party went so well.The weather was great and I think everyone had a really good time.

I'm trying to call around and confirm everything for the big birthday party on sunday. I'm so excited and the weather is supposed to be nice. This birthday party went from "let's have a combined party for jack and alivia's birthday " to "did you call and confirm the k-9 demonstration!!" it's gotten a little out of hand but it's going to be a blast. It's now officially been 7 days since i've had a/c at my house. You just don't realize what a luxury that is until you don't have it for a week!! Hopefully they will get the part they need today and we can get it fixed today or tomorrow. I know the people at the warranty company and the a/c company hate to hear my voice on the other end of the line. I figure, hey, if i'm sweating, i'm gonna make your life miserable too!! I kept anthony and jack all weekend. alivia and jack got along great and played together all weekend. We went to alex and brady's first baseball game too, which they won by the way. Rob and I went to a cooking class at dierbergs with my mom and dad on saturday night it was a good time and great food. Today is my little sister's bday. I can't believe she is 18. I'm pretty sure she should stay 8 forever. we're going to dinner tonight to celebrate. Amber told her she would get her a tattoo for her bday but she could only get it on her foot because amber doesn't want ashley to have a tattoo on her back for amber's wedding. Who cares what ashley's wants, it's only her body, it is all about amber ya know. I thought that was funny and then ashley asked if amber would get one with her and amber told her no!! Alivia is talking so good, I can't believe it, we can actually have mini conversations with her. This morning I was in her room trying to find some clothes to put on her and she was in my bed and she said "Mommy?" I said "What baby?" she said "where are you?" I said "i'm in your room" she said "okay" I really cannot believe she's gonna be two already.

So, I went to a purse party on Friday night. I bought a purse, a wallet and a very cute travel bag. I will be having a party on August 17th at my house. I'm not usually into that kind of stuff but everything was really cute so i'm excited about having my own party. Saturday one of our friends came over and completely re-did all of the bathroom plumbing for both upstairs bathrooms. I'm pretty excited about that. We had the old cast iron plumbing-now it's all updated to PVC. The bathroom is coming along-the sub floor is down so now Rob can start the drywall, that should be interesting! This week is going to be crazy. I'm watching Jack and Anthony this weekend so that should be fun! If I don't blog before then, hope everyone has a safe 4th!

The Day From Hell...

I guess it all started yesterday morning really. We have problems with our air conditioner every year-never fails. We had trouble a few months ago, and then starting yesterday morning it's 80 degrees in my house and the air conditioner is running non stop. THEN, I come home from work last night to find Rob standing in the driveway soaking wet and he looked like he had been running and he was talkin to someone frantically on his cell phone. I slowly opened my car door to hear " I was working in the bathroom and a board dropped on the water line and there's water everywhere how do I make it stop?" I got alivia out of the car and went into the house to hear the waterfall going on in my basement. I showed Rob where to turn the water off (I guess in the panic he just blanked) The ceiling in the basement was dripping everywhere and there was about 3 inches of water on the floor, the bathroom floor upstairs was soaked and had gotten about 3 feet of the carpet in my bedroom wet. We sucked all the water off the carpet and started the fans. I really wasn't freaking out too bad and the only reason was because we had actually taken everything out of the basement to clean it out and we were going to put it all back sometime this weekend so nothing got week except an entertainment center, that might be the only thing that gets ruined. I just kept saying "It could have been SO MUCH WORSE!!"
Then we went to home depot to get the part that Rob needed to block the pipe off so we could turn the water back on...they didn't have it. We had to meet my dad over at my sister's house to pick up the tables from the garage sale and return those to Jenny's brother. On the way to his house it started to rain. Then we went to the Home depot in O'Fallon and we found the part we needed. We figured we better stop and get something to eat before we went home because it was getting late. We went to the Bread Co and when we came out my car wouldn't start!!! Luckily it was right across the street from Amber's work so we ran over and took her car, went home, got the jump box and came back to my car. It started right up and we didn't get home till about 9:30. So I guess we need to figure out what the hell is going on with our A/C. I wish our warranty company would just replace it but I guess they figure if they can keep us going for 3 months at a time why bother! I'm crossing my fingers that there are no more tragedies today!

The wishing well....or maybe not

Since our bathroom in our bedroom is all torn out we have to take showers in the hall bathroom. When I am getting ready for work in the morning, Alivia usually lays in my bed and watches channel 9 and drinks her milk. Today she came into the bathroom while I was in the shower and she had a hand full of change. Rob leaves his change laying around everywhere. We had to turn on her humidifier last night because she is getting a little bit of a cough, I hadn't turned it off yet. I got out of the shower and she went into her room with all of her change. The next thing I heard change being dropped into water. I walked into her room and she had taken the lid off of her humidifer and was throwing the coins into it. One thing I can say is that she did turn the humidifier off before she turned it into a wishing well. She is so freakin smart it's scary. She talkes in 3 and 4 word sentences now, it's so cute. She also tells on people, "Mommy, Amber bite me" and points to the place where she was bitten. It's pretty funny. Last night she was trying to get a piece of mail out of the trash, I told her no and she kept trying to get it so rob told her no and she still didn't stop so rob slapped her hand (not very hard of course) she comes running into the living room where I was and then she got up and went back into the kitchen and said "no hit daddy" and pointed her finger at him!!

GARAGE SALE UPDATE
Amber's neighborhood is having a neighborhood garage sale this weekend so we left our stuff set up and will be at it again this saturday.

Garage Sale

If anyone is interested, Amber and I are having a garage sale at her house tomorrow from 6 Am to whenever. She lives off of Queensboro in St. Peters, We have signs up. We have a ton of decorations, clothes and lots of other miscellaneous items.

This week has been crazy trying to get everything set up. This week of the year is always crazy anyway. Between June 12th and June 20th, we have my mom's bday, my dad's bday, rob's dads bday, and fathers day for my dad, rob's dad and rob's stepdad. It's always a very expensive, very busy week! We're almost through it though!!

We're BBBBACCKKK!!

Texas was great....Once we got there. Monday night our flight was supposed to leave at 5:05 pm. We got to the airport and went to the gate about 4:00 and the flight had been cancelled. So they directed us to another gate to get rebooked. There was a 6:20 flight and they put us on that one. No big deal, we went and had some dinner. We went back to the gate to wait. We started hearing people say that the 6:20 flight was being pushed back to 7:50. They hadn't made an announcement so I didn't get too worried. Then they made an announcement. We were starting to get a little antsy and Alivia was getting bored. We finally got on the plane at 7:50. We pushed back from the gate and then the plane stopped and they said that the weather in Dallas was still bad and we would need to wait until 8:45 to take off. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!? A one year old on a plane sitting still for 45 minutes...great. She didn't do too bad and then we finally took off and landed in Dallas at 10:05. We were taxing down the runway and the plane stopped, they said there was another plane in our gate and it would be about 10 minutes, everone on the plane just chuckled, it was just humorous at this point. 10 minutes turned into an hour and 15 minutes, we didn't get off the plane until 11:20!!! That was the longest hour and a half flight of my life. We finally went to get our bags and then off to get our rental car--we had to take a shuttle for 10 minutes to get to our rental car and they closed at 12:00. We got there at 12:05-thank god there were still there. The trip only got better from here (it couldn't get worse..right?!?!) Our rental car was a PT cruiser convertible!! We finally got to the hotel at about 1 am. Which by the way was a one room suite with a kitchen!! Rob had to get up early to go to his class. Alivia and I slept in and then we went to the zoo. The zoo in Fort Worth was great. Most of the animals were out and about. It seems like you don't really get to see that many animals at the St. Louis Zoo. Anyway, we had a great time. We went back and took a nap and waited for rob to get done with his class. Then we all went to a really nice dinner and went to a mall. On Wednesday, Alivia and I went to the Ft. Worth Botanical garden and the Japanese Garden. It was a really nice day and Alivia got to feed the fish in the Koi pond which she loved. We went back took and nap and waited for rob. We went to dinner and an amusement park thing-we did put put and batting cages and played games in a huge arcade. Yesterday Alivia and I went to see Shrek the Third. She sat through about an hour and 10 minutes and was over it so we left and went to pick up rob. He got done early yesterday and we decided to go to the airport and see if we could get an earlier flight. We weren't supposed to leave until 7:20 last night. We were able to get on a 5:20 flight. Rob said that he might have classes coming up in Chicago and Atlanta..I said "Cool....that was an invitation right?"

brush of bad luck....

Yesterday at work, the operating system that I do everything through wasn't working right, it was going very slow and then would go down completely. So by 3:00 I had enough and called it a day. I was excited to go home though because I had gone earlier in the day to trade my cable box for the new DVR box. I've been wanting DVR forever. So I thought, ok well I'll just go home and get that all set up. When I got home I started to try to figure it out and wasn't having much luck. The only thing I had was..the box...a cable with 5 plugs on each end...and the remote. That's it...no book...nothing. So Here I am standing behind the big screen with plugs coming out of everywhere. So I got the cordless phone and called charter. When I finally got through to the right people they put me on hold...then my cordless phone died. And of course this whole time, Alivia is trying to come behind the tv too and then she wanted some milk and she's yelling my name the whole time i'm trying to do this. So I figured I would just wait till Rob got home and he could mess with it. Then I started to open the mail and saw a credit card bill, I called them up and here was the conversation after 10 minutes on hold (again, alivia calling my name and telling me to hold her babies and whatever else)

me: Hi, I just got a bill for a credit card that I cancelled
mean credit card lady: Yes I see you cancelled your account was paid off on april 27th and cancelled on May 1st.
me: Yes and I received a refund check for the overpayment.
her: Yes, How can I help you
me: Well I paid this off, received a refund check, cancelled the account and I just got a bill for $11
her: Yes, you actually shouldn't have received that check, that was a mistake, your balance is $11
me: Well, since I just paid you guys $5700 do you think you could waive the $11 since the account is cancelled
her: no, ma'am I'm not able to do that at this time
me: Can I speak to a supervisor
her: I'm an account manager.....
me: So I just paid this off and got a refund check and you can't waive the $11
her: you only paid back money you borrowed from us ma'am
me: I just think you should waive this since I received a refund check and cancelled it. It's $11
her: Yes, Ma'am it's $11

I wanted to cuss her out but I just couldn't do it. I wish Amber would have been at my house I would have handed her the phone and let her handle it!!! So then, we leave the house because yesterday was Bryan's birthday and we went out to eat. On the way there, we passed a car on the side of the road with a flat tire, Rob told me to stop because he wanted to help them. We stopped the car and when Rob got out of the car, his cell phone dropped into a sewer that was on the side of the road!!! He went to help the people and got back into the car and started rubbing his head and cussing about dropping his phone into the sewer and looked down and he had black stuff (from the tire) all over his hands and had wiped it all over his face and head.

him: Where are some baby wipes at?
me:....................I don't have any....
him: ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!?!?

We managed to find ONE kleenex for him to clean off with. He was so devestated all through dinner about his phone. He just kept saying "I can't believe I lost my phone, I can't believe I lost all my numbers"

We had a nice dinner and went to the mall afterwards to get a new SIM card so I think everything is going better today. Hopefully......

privacy anyone...

As everyone knows once you have a child, you have no privacy-there's no such thing. My daughter has had quite the imagination lately. She is playing with babies and I bought her a stroller to push them around in, she feeds them and wraps them in blankets, it's the cutest thing. She reminds me alot of myself when I was a kid, she is very motherly and VERY bossy. She made me lay down on the floor of her room last night on a blanket and on a pillow and read books to her. I would start to read a book and she would lay down next to me and after she was over the book I was reading she would get up, rip it out of my hands, put it back on the shelf and hand me a new one, this went on for quite awhile--until american idol came on. I got up and told her I was going into the living room to watch tv and she started patting the blanket and SCREAMING "LAY DOWN MOMMY, LAY DOWN!!" I moved the blanket and pillow into the living room and she was ok with it. She makes me hug her babies and hold them and feed them. As you know, we are re-doing our bathroom in our bedroom. We have been using the bathroom in the hallway to take showers, I leave the bathroom door open while I'm in the shower so she can sit in there and play or whatever she wants to do. Most mornings, she will sit on the toilet and play with the brushes that are on the back of the tank. This morning she set this up while I was in the shower:





















She laid a blanket over the toilet, brought the stroller into the bathroom, and was sitting on the toilet feeding her baby-she cracks me up. This bathroom is pretty small anyway and was pretty hard to get out of the shower with all of this going on-it was too cute though.

Texas here I come

Rob has been telling me for a few weeks that his work was going to send him to Texas for some kind of training class. The other night I got to thinking....they are paying for his flight and his room. Maybe I can get a semi-paid for vacation out of this. So I mentioned it to him and then we figured out that we wouldn't have to pay for a plane ticket for Alivia because she's under two. So we decided that we would all go and make a vacation out of it!! I'm so excited, my plane ticket was under $200 and the rental car was about $150, there is no charge for Alivia to fly, the flight is under two hours....this just keeps getting better and better. Her and I will get to hang out and do things during the day and then we can do family stuff at night. I'm really excited. We'll be gone 3 nights. I did a search of things to do in Ft. Worth and apparantly story telling is a big thing in that city. I think we will do that one day, and they have a zoo of course so we will probably check that out. I can't wait!!!!

Just another Weekend at the White House...

Rob and I had such a nice weekend. Friday we went to Amber and Bryan's for a BBQ, Saturday morning my mom and my Aunt graduated from SCCCC, after the ceremony we went to Wilikers for lunch. Rob and I went shopping Saturday night, we were out of almost everything so that was a very expensive trip, but fun. Sunday we went to breakfast with my mom and dad, then to dinner at his mom's. When we got home we decided to rip out the bathroom!!! Heck, why not. Our bathroom was old when we moved in our house 5 years ago. Here are some before and after. I was a little nervous when he started ripping everything out because I just wasn't ready, but i'm pretty excited now. It only took two hours to rip everything out. We are going to replace the drywall too because it's in pretty bad shape.

just plain scary.....

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The picture on the top is AMBER!!!! The picture on the bottom is ALIVIA!!!!

The artist at work...

some many things going on....

Rob and I went to springfield last weekend and had a REALLY nice time. Amber and Bryan got all moved into their new house, it's really cute and they love it. I'm still finding their stuff all over the place though!! I'm making a big pile in the basement for them. So now our basement is completely empty and we're trying to figure out what we want to do with it. I would really love to get new carpet but who knows. I just got off the phone with my sister in law marsha, she had her baby this morning at 8, his name is aidan wyatt, he weighs 7'2 and is 20 inches long. She is down in Perryville so I think I will go see her this weekend. That was the last of the baby epidemic, noone else is pregnant-for now!! Work has been really busy which is really good for me!! Rob decided that he wanted to start working out so we went jogging last night. I'm a little sore today. We have people coming over tomorrow to look at our air conditioner. I swear, we can never just turn on the air or the heat, it's always something. Thank god we have a home warranty so we don't have to pay that much out of our pocket but still, It's been 90 degrees outside the last few days and it's about 80 in my house. I'm hoping the just replace the whole stupid thing, i'm tired of dealing with it!! Rachel and I are going to a trivia night saturday at her "church" we need more people so if you're interested please let me know asap!!!

So, the mechanical condition of my escalade has been going down hill for about a year. It has needed a new water pump and theres a great built in feature that I'm sure no other escalade came with-when you're at a stop and take off, it sounds like the horn honks!! So, last week Rob told me that he was going to take the escalade in to get a new water pump and it would cost about $400-I told him to go ahead and do it because we still owe on it and plan on keeping it for awhile so we need to take care of it (not his specialty!!) So we dropped it off sunday night. Monday he called me and asked me if I wanted them to fix the rear axle too (that's what was making the horn honking noise when you take off) I said YES!!! Just let them look over it and fix whatever they need to. He told me it would be about $1300. I said that's fine. On tuesday, he called me and said they found some other stuff wrong and it would be about $1600. Again, I said that's fine, just do it. This is a friend of Rob's that he bowls with so I figured he wasn't messing with us and he would do a good job. We went and picked it up last night and the total was $2000. It's kinda funny how it went from $400 to $2000 in less than 5 days!!! They printed out everything that they did to it and it was 2 pages long!!! It needed it bad and I was feeling ok about the price. That is until I looked at the labor price and the parts price. The labor price was $1400 and the parts were $600. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!! I figured that if they worked on it for 40 hours straight (which i'm sure they didn't) that's $37 an hour!!!! WOW!!! I'm in the wrong business!!!

Anyhow, it's running like a champ and we're taking it to springfield this weekend so we'll see if it was worth it!!

Last year before I made the decision to become an insurance agent, I thought maybe I should check into getting my life and health license-just because-maybe it would make me look good!! So last July I took the 2 day long course that cost $215. It was horribly boring. I studied real hard for a few days and then stopped. Then I decided to become an agent, With this you have to pass your test no more than 6 months from the day you start. I took the 2 day class again and February, studied for a few days and then stopped. I couldn't bring myself to even look at it, I didn't have any interest in the concept. So then it became April.... I started getting a little nervous (I had to have my license by May 1st!!!) I considered taking the class again and figured I really didn't want to put myself through that again!!! When I was a sales coordinator I saw EVERY SINGLE PERSON I TRAINED fail the life and health test over and over again, These were people with college degrees. I passed my property and casualty test the first time back in 1998 but I was still so freakin scared to take this stupid test!!! My manager has been trying to nicely remind me that I REALLY NEEDED TO TAKE CARE OF THIS!!! So last week I got online and scheduled the test. I didn't tell anyone about it because I didn't want to fail and have to answer to everyone!! So I went and took the test this morning and I PASSED!!! I am very excited and so relieved that I don't have to think about this anymore, I called my mom and told her and she said "Why were you worried you've never failed a test" I guess I haven't but I didn't want to walk in there and just assume I would pass. I'm very proud of myself and I think I might tell Rob he should take me out to dinner for it!!

We had a very busy weekend. Friday I left work a little early and Amber and I went to Blanchette Park and McNair Park to check them out as far as a place for her to get married. She really liked Blanchette park. We were walking through the garden at and Amber said "I hate bugs" I started looking around and I didn't see anything so I said "Where do you see a bug?" She said "What do you mean? Can't you hear it buzzing in my ear" Anyway, she loved the garden and it's a definite possibility. Saturday morning I had to work at the diner, as soon as I got home Amber wanted me to go running around with her, she then decided that we were going to have a BBQ and invite some people over. I was exhausted by the end of the night. I didn't do too much on Sunday, Amber was working and Rob was bowling, me and bryan talked about doing something all day but we never actually did, I had to bowl Sunday night. Yesterday I took the day off and Alivia and I went to the zoo with Jenny, Jack, Amber and Brayden. It was a perfect day for it. The weather was gorgeous and there was a light breeze. We had a really good time, I had to buy a disposable camera for $15 so I will post pictures as soon as I develop them. When we first got there of course we were all hungry so we sat outside and ate, some ducks came up to our table so the kids were feeding them, it was pretty funny, Amber said "Do you think ducks would eat chicken if i gave it to them?" I think she just gave them fries and she said to the ducks "Are you allowed to have ketchup?" She's retarded. Then we went over to the sea lions, Alivia went crazy-she LOVED them. They were pretty active and we got to see them eat, she kept saying "I SEE 'EM, I SEE 'EM, MOMMY, I SEE 'EM!!!!) Every time I go to the zoo it's too hot and all the animals are hiding in the shade but they were out and about yesterday, it was so nice. Rob and I are going to Springfield, Mo this weekend, he is bowling there. I love going to Springfield, they have alot of malls and really good restaurants. That's all I got for now...

Thoughts.....

THANK GOD SANJAYA FINALLY GOT BOOTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited. I really was starting to feel bad for him. I got on Howard Stern's website yesterday so see if what I had heard about him rallying to keep Sanjaya was true and it was. He was campaigning to keep Sanjaya on American Idol because he sucked. It's sad that he has that much influence over people. I'm glad that america finally got it right!!

I was watching the news last night and they did a dedication to all of the people that lost their lives in Virgina this week. They showed pictures of the victims and I happened to notice that there was no rhyme or reason the the type of people that were killed, there were women, men, students, teachers, caucasions, african americans, asians, a german teacher, a russian teacher and a french teacher. I just thought that was strange.

I don't really have much else going on, I've been sick for the last two weeks and finally starting to feel better. Things have been a little slow at work but I think they're picking up. I'm writing a HUGE house next week so that makes me happy!!!

2 more weeks of blog material....

We were sitting at breakfast the other day and Amber leaned over to Bryan and said something kind of quietly.

Amber: I need to ask you a question, but I think it's kind of dumb
Bryan: (rolling his eyes) What?
Amber:But I think it's dumb
Bryan: WHAT?!?
Amber: Do geese have pockets for their legs when they fly
Bryan: WHAT?!?!?!?!??!
Amber: Do geese have pockets to tuck their legs into when they fly? Because they fly for days and their legs would get tired
By this time we are all laughing hysterically
Bryan: First of all they DON'T fly for days at a time, they take breaks. And no they don't have pockets.
Amber: Well I just didn't know what they did with their legs when they flew.

They move out in two weeks, what will I write about then?!?!?

Lots of things going on...

Amber and Bryan are officially homeowners! Here's a pic of their new house

They move in at the end of this month! On Saturday we went out to Mt. Pleasant winery to check into Amber and Bryan getting married there, It's very pretty there and ironically it's off of Jackson St!!!!! Amber thought the "grape trees" were cute! She's hopeless.

Alivia got her first haircut on Friday. I really did not want to do it but, it was getting pretty bad. I had to fix her hair every morning which I LOVE to do, but if her ponytail holder or barette would come out during the day the babysitter wouldn't fix it, she would just let her run around with hair in her face so I figured I would just do it. She did really good, we went to amber's work and amber gave her a sucker and she let amber cut her hair, she didn't, however, want to put the cape on. But it looks very cute and she did very well.

I think the terrible twos are starting already. She has become very independent lately. We got into a fight last week because she wanted her sandals on and not her tennis shoes. Now she wants to pick out the food she eats and I have to show her several options before we can sit down to eat. I have to hold things up in front of her and she wants to pick everything out!! Last night she didn't want to put her pajamas on. I'm not sure I'm strong enough for this!!!

Jenny and I are starting to plan Alivia and Jack's 2nd birthday party. We are going to do a circus theme at a park. It's going to be so much fun, I can't wait. We are renting a sno cone truck and we bought popcorn boxes.

That's about it for now!!

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?