25 Random Things About Me!

*I posted this on my Facebook page this morning and thought I would do it on here too! Enjoy!*

1. Brian and I have known each other since 7th grade French class with Mr. Boivin. We sat across the room from one another, but would write notes back and forth (he still has some!). We even dated for some time in high school.
2. I am obsessed with forensic science. I am constantly researching the topic and think it's bizarre that I am fascinated with true crime stories. Brian thinks I should take classes for it!
3. I make myself a to-do list every week. I take joy in crossing things off of the list as I complete them.
4. When I was younger, I never understood why my mom cleaned the house once a week. Now, a week doesn't go by that our house isn't dusted and vacuumed and that the bathrooms aren't cleaned.
5. I just started collecting Fiestaware dishes. I have been crazy about them since I was little (don't ask me why!) and looking at them on our new corner shelf in the kitchen makes me happy.
6. I love doing laundry...I just hate putting the clothes away after they are all folded!
7. I could eat pasta everyday for the rest of my life and never get sick of it. We could have a bare empty fridge, but there will always be a super sized parmesan cheese in there! If there isn't (for some strange reason) I will refuse to eat pasta, even if I already cooked it!
8. I have 2 tattoos. a pink hibiscus flower on my lower back and three stars with my wedding date in them on my right hip. I am already brainstorming on what I will get for my next one.
9. I really enjoy checking my email. People are amazed at how quickly I respond when they write to me.
10. I frequently compare things that happen in my life to episodes of Sex and the City...haha!
11. In 10 weeks, I am going to be an auntie of 3!
12. I HATE grocery shopping! I put it off as long as I possibly can!
13. I do the puzzles in the newspaper everyday. These include Sudoku, Wonderword, Cryptoquip, and the Crossword.
14. I get frustrated when I cannot figure out vanity license plates. If I look at it and can't figure it out, I can no longer look at the car because it makes me mad!
15. I dislike people that think that they know everything about everything! Honestly, it's okay if you are not knowledgable in every subject!
16. I just recently became addicted to watching Wheel of Fortune.
17. I am at Target at least once a week. My favorite thing to do is walk around and check out all of their clearance racks.
18. I have been working on and off at The Fruit Center for 11 years! Holy moley!
19. I can't wait until I am a mom. As much work as it is to be a parent, the thought of having a little person that is half me and half Brian is pretty incredible.
20. I don't go a day without talking to my mom and/or my sister. They're the best and I love that we're so close.
21. I give myself a manicure once a week (I'm due for one today actually!)
22. I can't stand watching sports on TV, but take me to a game and I fit right in with the other crazy fans!
23. I cut 12 inches off my hair about 5 years ago and donated it. As nice as that felt to do, I hated having short hair and I have vowed to myself that I will never cut that much off again!
24. I never use a debit card. I cash my paycheck. People think that I am weird, but then there are people that ask me to teach them my budget because it works really well.
25. I don't really like talking on the phone. I will do it with certain people, but I would much rather email or text. I know that sounds impersonable, but I can't really multitask while on the phone, so I have a hard time sitting still for the amount of time it takes to talk to someone!

Kids are great!

I like spending time with my little friends, Alex and Sal. Alex is 7 (going on 25!) and Sal is 4. I have known the family since Alex was born and have babysat for them since then. It's nice to be able to text message their mom and ask her if she needs a babysitter because I could use the extra money and she will text me back with multiple dates to choose from (I usually say yes to all of them!).
Spending time with the kids allows me to be a kid for the few hours that I am with them. They teach me as much stuff as I think I teach them and it reminds me just how great kids can be.
Alex was the flowergirl in my wedding in August and she still continues to talk about it. She even wrote a paper about it for school. I can see her being the girl at school that everyone wants to be friends with.
Sal is your typical little boy. He can be cuddly and cute and then the next second he will give you attitude and proclaim, "You're not my friend anymore!" or "I'm telling on you!" and then snap out of it in another second when he wants you to read him a bedtime story. I just know that Sal will be the boy that every girl likes because he will have a "bad" way about him :)
Lately, whenever I see Alex, she wants to know if I will be having a baby anytime soon. I tell her that she might not want me to anytime in the near future because that will mean I won't be able to see her and Sal as much. Her solution is for me to bring the baby along and she will help me take care of him/her. How funny to think of Alex babysitting my kid after I have watched her her whole life! I can't help but wonder what my kid(s) will be like at Alex's age. She knows so much, that's why I say she is going on 25.
So, I use the term "babysitting" with Alex and Sal loosely. I consider myself very lucky to get paid to spend time with 2 great kids. They make me laugh and allow me to forget anything bad that is going on in my own little world for the short time that I am with them. Last night, we spent time playing the Wii that they got for Christmas. Mario Cart was their game of choice and because I have not played Wii at all, they beat me everytime! Sal exclaimed, "Aren't I just so awesome?!" and Alex has decided that playing Mario Cart is great for driving lessons! (Sure, if you consider weaving a baby Mario in his stroller in and out of other opponents on a rainbow road, while trying not to fall off the side a driving lesson, then it's a great way to learn how to drive!)
So, in closing, if I am lucky enough to be a mommy one day, I hope to have kids like Alex and Sal. And hey, if Alex is willing to help me take care of him/her, that would be just great!

Is January really half way done already?!

How can this be?! The days seem so long, yet when I look at the big picture, I can't believe that January is almost half way done! I feel like we just had Christmas and New Years! Maybe because the first part of 2009, every free second I had was spent downloading, editing, and uploading our wedding pictures! It's kind of funny how us getting them came about...well, not the beginning parts, but us discovering that they were in our possession is funny.

As many of you know, we had to battle with our photographer to get OUR photos. We paid for them, they were ours, and she was just being annoying and taking forever with getting them to us. I filed a complaint with Better Business Bureau...they never heard from her after contacting her twice...my mom was looking into a small claims case to get them...and then I sent her a nasty email on Christmas eve telling her how pissed I was with her "customer service". So, Brian and I head out to a nice dinner on New Years Eve for my dad's 50th birthday. We go out with my mom and dad, as well as Mindy, Calen, and Mason. My mom hesitantly brings up the pictures again, knowing that my blood boils everytime the topic is brought up. My dad ends the conversation by saying, "Well tomorrow is a new year, maybe you will get them soon." We go back to Mindy and Calen's place and are there until 1:30 in the morning and we head home. I have Brian check the mailbox and he runs ahead of me into the house (because he had to pee!). I get into the house, see a padded envelope and think it's something that I ordered online for my Disney scrapbook. I see the return address and it's from our photographer! I couldn't rip the envelope fast enough and poor Brian is trying to pee in peace and all I can say is, "No way!" So, we put the CDs into our computer and spend the next 2 hours checking out the close to 3,000 pictures (something tells me she just mailed them all to us so I would stop emailing her because we weren't supposed to get nearly that many!) I was beyond excited and going through all of the pictures was like reliving our wedding day all over again. I got goosebumps and butterflies in my stomach (not goosebumps in my stomach, just butterflies!) and I would have stayed up longer if I hadn't been up since 5:30 the previous morning!

That whole weekend was spent downloading the pictures to our computer, going through all of them, and then hours and hours (I'm not exaggerating this!) of uploading them all to Snapfish! I then had to spend time deciding which ones to order for the scrapbook (yes, I said scrapbook)...I'm crazy and insane and Brian just says, "Why don't you stick them in a photo album and call it a day?!" Yeah right, Brian. Not scrapbooking our wedding would be a sin for me and I just can't live with myself using a photo album! But the 500 pictures are ordered and will be coming in 5-7 business days from Snapfish...that will be another great day when the mailman comes!

So, I have to say that 2009 has been good to me so far. Yes, we are only 14 days into it, but I can't complain. While the days are colder and shorter and the nights seem shorter too, my life is good. I actually like having the excuse of snow and cold to be able to sit in sweatpants all weekend and do whatever I want. Hmm...I feel like doing groceries, I'll do that. Hmm...I feel like scrapbooking some Disney pages...I'll do that. Hmm...I feel like doing absolutely nothing, but sitting on my behind and watching forensic shows on channel 252...I'll do that!

With the new year comes talk of people's New Years' Resolutions. I have come to the conclusion that if I am not going to do any of my resolutions any other time throughout the year, than the new year is not going to be any different. I have thoughts in my head of things that I want to work on all throughout the year...so I'm a work in progress. As much as it can be frustrating at times that I am not the way that I want to be, I wouldn't have it any other way. Life would be dull if we were all perfect. Our differences are what make the world interesting. Sure, there are some people that I could do without....there are people that rub me the wrong way for no particular reason...and there are people that just don't get it...but we make the world go 'round. So, Happy New Year to everyone (even though the 1st month is already half way through!)

LOVING my Sony Digital Book!

I have been the proud owner of a Sony Digital book for about a month now and I absolutely love it! It has made me want to read all of the time and I am flying through books! On the Sony EBooks website, they were running a special on 9 books that could be downloaded for free, so I downloaded a few that sounded good. One was titled, The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death. Obviously by the title, I wasn't sure quite what to expect, but I couldn't put it down! The author, Laurie Notaro, is hilarious and I was finished the book in a couple of days. The book is categorized as non-fiction, with the author sharing random stories of her life, but the way she writes about stuff is so funny! I found myself almost busting a gut at work! Not quite what you want to do when you are alone in a back office!!!

So, when I was finished reading the free book, I ventured onto the EBook store to check out other books by her. I just downloaded another book of hers titled, The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club. This one is equally as funny, as I practically snorted water out of my nose today while waiting for my car to get new brakes! Here is a chapter that I couldn't help but relate to...and how fitting is it that I read this while sitting in a mechanics' garage?!

On the Road
I'll be brutally honest. I know nothing about my car. I know where the ashtray is and I know how to pump gas. That's it.
If you try to teach me how to change a tire, I'll forget. If you show me how to check the oil, I won't understand. If you change the adjustments on the driver's seat, it will take three weeks to figure out how to get them back. I'm just not that kind of car girl.
My friend, Kate, tried to help me by teaching me how to fill my tires up with air. I, of course, don't own a tire-pressure gauge, so she was particularly careful to show me the right way.
"You mean I just leave the hissing thing on the tire until the time runs out?" I asked quizzically.
"Absolutely not," she replied. "The tire will blow up on you."
"And take all the skin off my face?" I said nodding.
"No, no," she answered. "It will explode on the road when you're driving. Then just pull over and call AAA."
"No, I heard it's okay unless they blow up in your face," I informed her.
Kate knows these things, but I was pretty sure I had heard about the tire thing on 20/20. She knows when her fuel pump is about to go, when her carburetor is making funny noises, and when her transmission is about to drop out of the engine.
I, on the other hand, don't pay attention to funny noises. I just turn the radio up louder and pretend it's someone else's car.
I tried to be self-sufficient last week when I noticed that the tires were looking squishy again. I dropped the quarter in the air machine, counted to thirty on each tire, and figured I was done. They looked big, full, and ready to go. My face was intact. Kate would have been proud. It was Monday morning and I was heading down the freeway because Nordstrom's was having a shoe sale, and I had to be there first.
I was making the curve at the busiest portion of the freeway when I heard a terrible noise. A horrible, grinding sound that started at the front of my car and filled my ears. It was far too loud for the radio to drown out, no matter how high I turned it up. I knew right away what it was. 20/20 was wrong.
Kate was right. Tires do explode on the road, I thought.
I remembered her words and pulled onto the shoulder as hordes of cars whizzed by. I carefully got out to see which one was gone, but as I walked around the entire car, I was surprised to see that they all looked okay.
I got back in the car and started it again, convincing myself that it really had been someone else's car making the noise, not mine. I hit the gas, and immediately, the sound returned.
Oh Christ, I thought, what is it? What happens when your transmission drops out, the clutch goes bad, the fuel pump quits? I had no idea. I called AAA on my cell phone and told the operator that I needed help.
"Do you need a tow truck?" she asked.
"Maybe," I answered. "What happens with a bad transmission? I think that may be the problem."
"You won't be able to go into drive or reverse," she said.
"Okay. Then how about a bad clutch? I think that may be the problem," I mentioned.
"Do you drive a stick shift?" she responded.
"No. Okay, what about a fuel pump? I think that may be the problem," I said, panicking.
"I'm just going to send a truck, lady," she said.
"I'm just not a car kind of girl!" I pleaded as she hung up.
Ten minutes later, I jumped when someone knocked on the passenger window. It was a cop. I had forgotten to put my hazard lights on, mainly because I don't know where they are. I lowered the window. I know where that button is.
"Hi," I said quickly, "it's my fuel pump. Or transmission. Or carburetor. Or muffler. I think it's my muffler. I've called a tow truck, it will be here any minute."
"I don't think you'll need a tow truck, ma'am," he answered. "You ran over a gas can."
"Oh," I replied.
"How far did you drag that thing?" he asked. "I don't know how you didn't see it. It's as big as a TV! Do you have a jack?"
I hoped to God I did, and that he knew what it looked like.
I popped the trunk (I know where that button is, too) and helped the cop take out a couple of lamps, a box of books, and a pile of dirty clothes I had forgotten were in there. I was embarrassed when he found the jack, put it in place, jacked up the car, lay down on the ground, and then kicked the biggest gas can I had ever seen out from underneath my car, but not as embarrassed as when he got up just in time to see a big gust of wind from a passing truck rush toward me and blow my skirt all the way up to my chin.
"Your tow truck is here," he said, trying not to laugh.

The End (of this chapter!)