Black is the new **tch!

I was one of those people that went out shopping today.
At first I wasn't going to do it because Dave had to work, and that meant I'd have Samantha with me. But I thought since I'd be driving Dave to work early enough, that she would still be in a good mood to last through a couple of stores. So I planned it all out. Where I would go first, what I would get, and the fastest route in between stores.
Surprisingly we did pretty well! Fred Meyer, Joanns, Target.....and then......Macys!!!
I wasn't going to go but I didn't find the cutest clothes for Samantha that I wanted at Fred Meyer and I knew they were having a huge sale on kids clothing. And, it's at Washington Square that has about a million stores, so I would have to fight for parking, and I didn't have a stroller. But I did it anyway.
Well of course it was crazy. Luckily though, I got a parking spot quickly. I carried Samantha through the store and found the kids dept. At this point after the previous stores, she was a little ansy so I let her walk a little bit. And when I found what I wanted, I looked at the check out line in the kids area and it was forever, so I thought "hmm...maybe if I go to the men's section I can get out faster!" So we trodded over there and the line was considerably shorter, and I thought "great! I got in, and I can get out real quick!" Well the line went pretty fast....until it was the guy in front of me's turn. He was this short, bald, greek guy that was dressed all nice and kept turning his nose up at me because Samantha and I hadn't gotten all dressed up that early in the morning to go shopping like he did.
After the 5 minutes it took to ring up all his stuff, the lovely old woman ringing him up said, "and would you like to open up a Macy's credit card with us today and save 10%?" And I thought, "oh no, he wouldn't. On Black Friday, with a million people trying to get in and out quickly, he wouldn't do that." Well of course, the guy said yes and from that moment to the time when it was my turn took 20 minutes!!! Literally, I am not exaggerating! One by one people in the line behind me started leaving and I tried to keep patient and keep Samantha happy by singing her Christmas songs over and over, I kept saying to myself "it's not worth it to leave and get in line somewhere else!" And the guy, didn't even flinch. When it was about finished 10 minutes into the credit card application, he wanted to add his discount to a previous purchase he made on shoes a few minutes before! So they had to get back on the phone, call the company, the employee talked to them, then the guy got on the phone, I mean it was ridiculous!! And I'm sorry but after 17 minutes in, I'd had enough, and I looked at the lady and was like, "uh, can you give me a time limit to how much longer this is going to take??"
Old crochety: "It should only take a few more minutes. Our customers reserve the right to participate in store offers such as credit cards."
Angry mother who has lost her patience (that's me): "Well that's fine I understand that! But there is something called common decency!" At that point I didn't feel bad that Samantha was crying. I just moved her closer to the guys head!
He never apologized, the woman never apologized. It was pretty ridiculous........*sigh*.........I love the Holidays!!! :)

The Trailblazers!

The other week Dave and I went to a Portland Trailblazers basketball game against the Houston Rockets. I have never sat so close to the floor before! We were on the 5th row! Those tickets were pretty pricey! But it was really fun sitting so close. I was a little nervous though. For those of you who know Dave really well, he likes to yell at players during the game. Well one of the players on the Rockets is Ron Artest, ya know the guy that got in trouble for assaulting a fan last year??? Well needless to say I was sure he would hear anything that Dave had to say at him since we were so close, but luckily Dave toned it down......a little. He would get close, and you would hear Dave go "Ronnie!!.....Ronnie!!" ugh..embarrassing. Just don't throw a cup of water at him! But besides that, the game was really good. It was the game where we won in overtime with .08 seconds left with a three pointer! But during half time they had this awesome entertainer guy that played a floor piano instrument with tennis balls. It was cool!

A night with great flight, that's right, with 'Twilight'

Last night Tracee, Lacey and I had a fun girls night out, which is I am sure what a lot of women, girls, ladies did last night, or the night before at midnight.
We left the kiddies at home with the boys, went to dinner, did some shopping, and went to see the movie!
We had so much fun! It's great to have things in common with your family, and you can have fun doing things together. And of course we enjoyed the movie too! Thanks for the great time ladies!




Also this last week, I was excited because I finally finished my Christmas Quilt! I've always wanted to make one, and I got this really cute Moda fabric. I didn't have a pattern so I just randomly put squares together, and I think it ended up turning out pretty cute. It was my first quilt that I quilted on a sewing machine as well, and so I was a little nervous, but it worked out okay too, and was pretty fun to make!

This last weekend we went and took some family pictures since it has been a really long time from the last time we did it when Sammy was 5 months. We thought it would be a good time right before Christmas and we didn't have to pay anything. No session fees, and we got a copy of all the pictures, it was great. I thought some of them were pretty cute.

I am a Money Saving Mom!...Or least I try to Be

There is something so satisfying about saving money! I love saving money especially now of course we all know about our awful economy, and since we can't get into a house until we save more money and pay off more debt, we are working harder to try and save a bit more.
Lately I have been trying a lot harder about clipping coupons, and I love it! It's dorky I know but I get really excited when I get Sunday mornings paper, where I get to go through and clip all the good coupons. In my shopping today I thought I did pretty awesome.




I bought all these products for the grand total of about $3.50! Between the clearance of the shampoo, and the manufacturers coupon I had for it, and the free after rebates, and my other coupons, I think I did pretty awesome. I just hate spending full price on anything and to me it's worth the extra effort!

I also just found a link to a website called Swagbucks--an online search engine that rewards you for searching online. You can earn enough in Swagbucks points to receive hundreds of dollars in gift cards!! I'm all about that.
Swagbucks is very simple to sign up for so if you are interested please click on the link! It's worth taking a look, and doesn't everyone love free stuff??\
Click here

Happy Birthday!

Today is my Big Sister Natalie's Birthday!!! Happy Birthday Nat! The big 27 today right?
Natalie has always been the older, "cooler" sister that had all the boy friends in High School! I remember thinking when she was in 9th grade and had all these boys over at the house all the time, I thought "wow, I hope someday I can have as many boyfriends as Natalie does!" :) Natalie always seemed to draw the attention of more guys than girls throughout her 9-12th grade years, and well after that. But of course now, there is only one that really matters, which is Ryan!!! Out of all the boys she brought over, he was the coolest! And now they're married and have two awesome kids that are just like their parents, and who I miss a ton!!
And of course anyone who knows Natalie, knows she has the most personality in the family...her and dad are pretty close. That's why we'd call her PersonNatalie! When she was little mom and dad would give her the phone to talk to telemarketers for hours, she caught a fly with her bar hands, she was the only one who would have ever been able to handle what we refer to as the 'snaggle tooth'...her teeth are quite pretty now..okay even with that she was still cute, and I loved the big bangs!
I was always jealous of Natalie's long, thick, flowing hair, and still am to this day. I wish I had her courage. I loved being able to play soccer with her in High School, even if I was referred to sometimes as "Natalie's little sister" but actually even back then I was still taller than her. Everyone on the soccer team all thought she was awesome and I was proud to be the sister of the coolest and best player on the team, (even if our coach didn't acknowledge that....he doesn't like people standing up to him....and Natalie stood up to him, as she should have..long story)
She of course was also an SBO officer and was in every AP class. So she has the smarts, the looks, the talent, and many more fabulous qualities. I mean she makes her kids Halloween costumes from scratch with no pattern! So she is very creative as well!
I looked up to her back when we were in school together, and I look up to her today at how wonderful a mother, nurse, wife, and sister she is! I love you Natalie and hope you have a very Happy Birthday!!


This was Natalie at our cabin this last summer. Hee Hee Of course I had to put an incriminating picture!




These are some of my favorite pictures of Natalie!

Happy Anniversary!

Another day of celebration! This time 4 fabulous years of marriage! Woo hoo. I remember thinking when we first got married, "I wonder what it's going to be like in a year" and now it's 4 years later, and here we are in Portland with a little girl!

I also remember talking to some of my friends after getting married telling them how awesome it is and how "everyone should get married and be as happy as me!" and 4 years later, I still feel the same way! And I'm sure 40 years from now I will have those same feelings.

I also remember the night before our wedding we had a dinner at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in SLC and I was so nervous I could only eat a couple bites of the delicious chocolate cake we had for Dave's birthday, but mostly that was because I had to get up and speak. Speaking of cake....I also remember (and everyone in my family remembers this too and still makes fun of me for it) I made the smart decision of wearing my corset thingy that sucks everything in all day, and when it was time to cut the cake, I mustered up as much strength and smiles I could, ate a piece, and then went running out of the room and threw up in the garbage can in the back room! The cake lady was offended...she thought I just didn't like her cake. And..it wasn't because I was "nervous" either, it was because one, that thing was too tight around my waist and chest, and two I ate coconut shrimp for lunch! Yep, that all came up! My wonderful mother was there making sure I didn't get any on my dress. After my....evacuation...and after taking my corset off and wiping the mascara off from under my eyes (ya know how throwing up makes your eyes water) I went back out a little red faced but feeling a bit better. My mom suggested taking some medicine but said "it makes you a bit sleepy." Well, I didn't want to get that rush of nausea coming on again after we left for the evening, (and make Dave feel bad), so I decided to take that pill and by the time we got to the hotel I was so drowsy that I pretty much fell asleep right there, while Dave watched some sports games....for the most part....

After saying all that, it kinda sounds bad but really it was the greatest and most fabulous day of my life that I will never forget! The humorous parts just add the greatness of the day! The ceremony was beautiful, the reception was beautiful, even the weather was beautiful in November! We got lucky!

So Happy Anniversary Dave, I love you and look forward to many happy fun years together!

Happy Birthday Dave!

Happy Birthday Dave!!

Yes today is Dave's 29th Birthday! One day I will never forget because it preceeds the day that is our Anniversary on the 13th! A couple of fun days to celebrate. Actually this whole week has been nice so far because Dave didn't work Monday or Tuesday and then we get to celebrate today and tomorrow as well!

Anyway Dave, Happy Birthday!! I love you very much and am grateful everyday for the wonderful husband and father you are to Sammy and me. We both love you, and how could you ever doubt Sam's love for you especially! I try to give you a kiss, and she freaks out! Yes, a huge daddy's girl. And I know you love it!

The other day we were getting in the car to go somewhere and I was in the car with Sammy and Dave was outside doing some stuff and Samantha kept watching him saying "I u! I u!" (I love you in her language) becuase she thought he was going to leave her, so she thought if she could be cute enough he wouldn't!

HAPPY 29TH BIRTHDAY DAVE!!!


(this is an older pic :)

Thank You

Thank you to all those super smart lenders that gave way too much money to all those really smart people (ya know, the ones who know everything) so they could buy their big ginormous houses. Thank you for thinking so big, that a modest 1300 square foot or even a 2000 square foot house just isn't good enough for you and your pet dog. Yes, you do deserve as big a house as your parents have. You deserve more, like 5000 square feet right? Is that enough for you? Thank you so much that because you had to have your big expensive house so you'll have more friends and they'll think you are so cool, is making it so the rest of us who actually want a modest house, need to find a house, even a fixer, can't even get a loan from the banks because they, who are so smart, and you who are even smarter decided to spend all the money so they don't have any more to give to anyone else! Thank you so much. Actually I do want to live in an apartment for the rest of my life! And I guess that's where you'll end up too.

I'm not bitter or anything :)

something funny!

Yesterday morning I was doing laundry trying to fold clothes. Lately Samantha has been trying to mimmick everything I do including trying to help me fold clothes, and, putting them on! Although I'm not sure she got this one right. She grabbed my bra and put it over her head while talking to herself as if she was giving herself instructions on how to do it. She then went parading around the house with it on very proud of herself. I thought it was too hilarious not to post a picture!

Halloween Fun!!!

Well of course I have to post pictures of Halloween this year especially since my family doesn't get to see Samantha all dressed up.
I thought that maybe this year I would try to make a costume but I couldn't think of something creative enough and I got lazy so I just bought a princess dress for Sammy. And she made a very cute princess!
We decided to go down by Salem to Dave's sister's house and go trick-or-treating with her kids. They have a nice small little town where all the houses are right in a row making it easy going from one house to the next. We weren't sure how Sam would enjoy the outing but we thought it would be fun to at least try and see how she liked it. She made it around one neighborhood. For the first few houses we carried her, and then she got really excited and wanted to walk the rest of the way. She loved walking with the kids but after a while she couldn't keep up and kept falling down and tripping over her dress, which made her frustrated. And she wouldn't let her pail of candy go either. She would trip and then all her candy would fall out, so we'd pick her up, pick her candy up, and 5 seconds later it would happen again. So we finally gave up and went back to the house, which she wasn't too happy about. But the time that we were out there was fun. It's fun to celebrate Halloween with kids (especially when they are too young to eat their candy, so you have to eat it for them!:)







Pretty much the whole weekend was spent down in the Salem area. After Halloween on Friday, we went back down on Saturday because Dave and I went to an Oregon State football game against Arizona State with our brother in law and his son Adam. It was an hour south of Salem and the game didn't start until 7:30, so instead of driving back home after the game and getting there aroud 2:00 a.m. we slept over at Dave's parents. Which was good anyway because we had to get up and go to church at 8:30 to be there for Dave's dad George to become the new Bishop of the ward. So it was a fun-filled family weekend. Byetheway, OSU beat ASU in a nail-biter finish, and we sat at the top of the stadium next to some drunken fans. It was great! But I do still know where my loyalties lie in regards to football teams. Utah will always be my number one team, and I will go for OSU when they are not playing them. But seriously, I don't have any orange clothes to wear...red is much easier. :)