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!!

Fad Diet Update

I started the diet on June 12 and have lost 6 pounds to date. Only 73 more days to go!!

Weird Crush

My mom took me and my sisters to the Rascal Flatts concert last saturday night at UMB. It was really good. Gary Allan was there also, I don't care for him, he's too whiny but he is cute. The wreckers were there, they were really good. I really like rascal flatts, but more importantly, I have a weird crush on the lead singer Gary LeVox. I don't know if it's the hair or the voice or the shiny clothes he wears but I think he is really sexy!!

I can't believe it's already been a year!

We went yesterday to get Jack & Alivia's 1st Birthday pictures taken, they did so good!

Another Fad Diet...

I'm such a sucker. I'm doing another Fad Diet. It's called One Day Diet. You may have heard about it on the radio, you eat anything you want every other day and on the Diet Days you eat these Chocolate flavored food tab things and you can have all the fresh fruit that you want. I started last monday and I have lost 4 pounds so far. You do it for 90 days and report back to them as to how much you lost, there are about 20 different little things you have to do and send it and if you do it all you will get $1,000 and reimbursed for the product! Unfortunatly, I have no will power when it comes to food so I have to do stupid stuff like this to lose weight and having a baby didn't help that out either! Hopefully it works! I'll keep you up to date with my progress.

Advice to new moms...

Here's some advice to new mothers-it's almost impossible to get anything done at home when your young child is awake. Therefore, I would advise you invest in the following, a good sturdy highchair, the biggest box of cheerios you can find, a good exersaucer and a baby einstein video!! These are the best babysitters you will find. These are the things I use when Alivia is awake and I need to get something done in the house. The other day after working at the diner I was exausted and Rob had to go to work so I put Liv in her saucer, popped in a baby einstein movie, set it for Repeat Play and took a nap on the couch!! When I'm trying to do laundry I will stick her in her highchair and dump a bunch of cheerios on the tray. She eats some of them but mainly plays with them, this usually works for 15 minutes or so. I took some pictures of her cleaning up her cheerio mess the other day. You might think I'm a bad mom for letting her eat food off the floor but I thought it was cute and they were fresh!!
Plus, she's the one that threw them there!

Fun Weekend

We went out two times this weekend. That is very unusual for us! Friday night we went to The Blues on the Mississippi with Amber, Bryan, Brayden and some people from my work. It was a nice night but a little cool. Saturday night we went to a trivia night for my cousin. They raised $20,000. It was alot of fun. These pictures are from Friday night.

Brayden & Livy's first time to the zoo!

Yesterday was such a beautiful day so we took the babies to the zoo. It was lots of fun and they both had a really good time!

What is this world coming to?!?

A couple of weeks ago Alivia & I were in Target buying our normal weekly necessities. I was putting everything up on the belt to check out. Alivia grabbed one of the jars of baby food and threw it on the floor. The bottom of it busted but it was still in the plastic wrapping. I handed it to the clerk and said "I'm sorry, my daughter just dropped this on the floor" She took it and looked at me and said "did you still want it?" I said "No, the jar is broken," and she said "Oh, so you don't want it? Did you want me to put it back?" I said "Um, sure that would be great" Don't you have to have some sort of common sense to get a job these days?!?

THEN-I needed to stop and grab some dinner last week because Rob had a game and we were both runnng late. I stopped by Hardee's thinking they still had fried chicken. I pulled up and didn't see it on the menu so I said to the girl "Do you not have fried chicken anymore?" She said "Spicy Chicken?" I said "Fried Chicken" She said "We have chicken strips." I said "Ya know like a bucket of friend chicken do you not have that??" she said "Oh, no" Then I drove off.

And last but not least... I went with a girl from work to pick up lunch from the diner last friday. I don't know if we didn't notice a low tire or if she ran over something but we got a flat tire. We pulled over on the side of the road. We called AAA and sat on the side of the road for 45 minutes. ONLY ONE PERSON STOPPED TO HELP US!!!! I bet 200 cars passed us while we were sitting there. AAA finally came and got us back on our way I just couldn't believe that only one person stopped. I guess we just figure that everyone has a cell phone these days and we are all too busy to stop and help anyone out!

Kids VS Dogs

I was watching the season finale of Grey's Anatomy the other night-I don't even watch that show but there was so much hype about it I had to watch it. Anyway, they put a dog to sleep and it made me very upset-It just made me think about Tiger & Zeus. Then I got to thinking, having dogs wasn't much different than having kids. Last night Alivia crawled under the table and was eating all of the Cheerios that she had dropped from her high chair. The dogs used to hang out under the table waiting for scraps. When we had the dogs we had to put up a gate on the stairs so they wouldn't go down stairs and use the basement as a bathroom, not exactly the same but we need to put up a gate again so Alivia doesn't fall down the stairs (again!) I'll explain later. When we had the dogs they had to have their nose in the dishwasher as I unloaded it. Alivia does the same. She has to play with the silverware and move the rack back and forth while I'm trying to put dishes in it. I had to watch what I had out on the tables when we had the dogs so they wouldn't knock things down-have to do the same for the baby now. Funny......

So I just knew this would happen, I was in the bedroom folding laundry last night and Rob came in and was looking for something in the hall closet so immediatly Alivia crawls down the hall as fast as she can (which is pretty fast!) I yelled to Rob "You got her?" He said "Yep, she's right under my feet" So a few minutes later I hear the door to the garage close, I wait a second and begin to run down the hall-it was too late she had already toppled down the stairs. Rob came running back in-I cussed him out-She cried for 2 seconds-and that was it!! She probably wouldn't have even cried it she didn't see me freaking out, She is one tough little cookie!!

I'm obsessed!!

I'm totally obsessed with EBay. I've been buying things on there for about a year. Well, last week I began selling things. I can't stay off of there. And it's so dumb, I could just drive up to walmart and buy the things that I bid on ebay. But, there's no excitement in that! I need to bid and try to get the best price and wait for it to come in the mail!! I started out last year and bought some maternity clothes, then I bought some baby clothes and now I bought all of the supplies needed for Alivia's first birthday party. Now, I am selling things and that's even better than buying!! I don't even care if I have to sell something for a penny at least it won't be sitting in my basement anymore. I have all that Avon crap that got sent to me "accidentally" that is all brand new sitting in boxes in my closet. Maybe I can finally get rid of most of it. Now Rob is into it too, which is REALLY BAD!! Sorry, have to go and check my ebay account~