There are many fun things about having your anniversary be the same day as St. Patrick's Day- it's easy to remember, you feel an ownership for a national holiday etc. But one problem is that celebrating your anniversary often gets put on the back burner. We have an annual St. Patty's Day celebration and that normally takes most of my concentration and effort on March 17th. So this year I thought I'd send out a note of why I'm lucky to have my Cute Face:
He lightens my load, cheers my heart, unburdens my psyche... I have a tendency to get bogged down in monotony and routine. Nate shakes me out of that and helps brighten my entire visage. I definitely need that, although (as is obvious from this paragraph) I have a difficult time conveying to him how much I appreciate it.
He makes me laugh- out loud. He tells a lot of lame jokes, and a few funny ones. He had a little kid's know-I've-been-naughty face that absolutely cracks me up. He shares with me things that happened at work or that he heard about that are just funny and he makes me laugh out loud.
He is an amazing father. I don't personally know anyone else who is so active in their role as father. When Gibson was first born I had to beg to get to hold my own baby, because Nate always wanted to hold him. I often forget how much he does until he's not available and I have to go to church, put Gibson to bed, feed Gibson dinner alone. Nate sings Gibson and I to sleep every night.
He thinks, and tells me all the time, that I am sexy. Sometimes I find it hard to believe he can find the occasionally put together girl he married in my down trodden mom look but he does and reminds me there's a woman inside this mom.
He helps people. I'm honestly ashamed to admit that a good majority of our fight are about him wanting to help someone out and me being irritated he can't spend every moment at home. He actively participates in church, scouts, blood drives, work service, and the general helping out of people. He stops for people on the road. He helps make the lives of those around him easier.
While being totally involved in child-rearing, he supports my crazy hippy ideas and takes full part: co-sleeping, cloth diapers, baby signing, homemade cleaning products etc. He believes I've done the research and that I have the instinct.
He fixes things. He finds broken things and fixes them. He riggs things to work. He is mechanically minded, and I think that's hot.
Overall I'm just really lucky to have found someone who can put up with my crazy and actually love me for it.
Nate and Beezer hanging out together without adult supervision in Walgreens while I was at work in the morning (that is a fake hair visor)
I do think he's sexy
Pics of me and Beezer at the lockers at White Water Bay Water Park. Why yes Beezer did fall out of that bikini top on at least one ride during the day; why do you ask??? PS This is me trying not to look pregnant so that I could make my own decisions about the safety of my fetus and not be kicked out of high danger rides like the lazy river...
Short story (in Nate's words) of his finest hour at the water park:
"We were at White Water and decided to try the cannon ball slide. It is a 20ft slide with a 7ft drop into a pool of water. I went first and Amber went second. After I went the lifeguard told her that it was the biggest splash he had seen all day. About 30 minutes later we went again. When I got the top of the ride the lifeguard started grinning and told everyone in line behind me to gather up so they could see the splash. I went down and got several cheers and hoots. I was having fun so I decided to go up again. When I got the top every one told me to cut to the front so they could see the splash. I was happy to oblige them. I went down and was followed by the guys that let me cut. They waited at the end of the landing pool to see me do it one more time. So I went back up and took the plunge. When I hit the pool the wave washed over them and knocked them back into the lazy river, which is joined to the landing pool. The lifeguard watching the bottom pool could not help but laugh at them"
At Hooters after with Nate, me, Beezer and Wendy. It was my first time. I wasn't super impressed.
This is Nate's hokey pokey for his birthday.
I think overall it was a very fun day. Really wish Miguel (Amber's fiance) could have been there. :(
Ok quick note: We went to White Water Bay for Nate's birthday and I am planning on posting about it but I haven't got the pics from my sister, Beezer, yet. So stay tuned... In other news, last night Nate had to run to the store really quick and asked if I wanted anything. I told him I wanted a snow cone. He brought me back a huge cup full of freezy ice stuff and syrup. It was like 8 times what I expected but really good. It was green apple and I got a purple straw so Nate told me it was the Donatello snow cone- he's so funny some times. We'll move on to bed time when I'm brushing my teeth. I'm trying to do an extra good job because I had a dental appt. scheduled for 8am this morning. One problem...my tongue is still green no matter how hard I scrub it! I was seriously a little stressed I was going to have to go to the dentist with a green tongue. Luckily this morning my tongue was back to normal color. :)
PS Had to throw in this pic I found while looking for Donatello drawings. Super cute!!!
#1- Britney Spears won VMA Best Video for "Piece of Me" #2- I am losing my mind (and possibly my husband)
Here's my train of thought (don't be worried if you get lost- it doesn't make much sense).
I never liked Britney Spears. I didn't like the Back Street Boys or N'Sync or 98 Degrees etc. I pretended slight enthusiasm about N'Sync at one point cause my friends were so into them but I think even they realized I was feigning minimal interest.
Anyway so while I've been familiar with Britney Spear's 'music' for quite a while I've never been that interested in her until the hailstorm of bad press started. It was ridiculous! People were saying and doing the most horrible things to that girl. I'm making no judgement calls on her behavior but I can imagine few things she could have done to be eligible for the anger directed at her. Just awful.
So when "Piece of Me" came out it was the first Britney song I had ever liked. It was probably the first she actually meant when she sang it. I just love the underlying anger and attitude.
So how that relates to my life is this...I have had one of those weeks. Not just the odd bad day or grumpy meeting or irrational emotional ridiculousness but everything for a full week. It started innocently with a slightly grumpy Sunday morning last week. Nothing earth-shatteing but overall unhappiness. It wasn't fun but I didn't worry too much since those days happen and sometimes there's just not much you can do about it.
But then Monday sucked too. I was angry I was sad I was grumpy and I was likely to kill the next person who expected me to do ANYTHING. Seriously crazy.Tuesday was just as bad.
and then came Wednesday...
Wednesday I had Cub Scouts. I love my Cub Scouts. They're cute and nice and mostly listen to what I say and don't cause trouble etc. However, early on Wednesday I got a call saying the YM/YW huge 2 ward combined activity had to be moved inside because of weather. The Cub Scouts have the gym reserved from 6 to 7 and the YM/YW wanted to know if they could use it. I told my person they could have all but one sliver of the gym by the stage (I needed it for my activity). As far as I knew the matter was closed.
So I get to the church and start my activity with my boys. They're doing great. They listen and help and have fun. It was awesome. But about 630 someone comes in to ask when we'll be done so they can have this part of the gym also. I tell them I'll be here til 7 then they can have it. 5 mins later another person. Now, lest anyone think these people haven't been told I'm in there, I have SIGNS the say "Cub Scouts meeting- Do Not Enter", posted on both doors. I'm starting to get frustrated (please also remember these are 7 year old boys- every distraction results in 5 minutes of getting them back on task).
At 745 a leader from the other ward (whom I completely confess to having previous issues with due to some events a year ago with my sister) opens the partition and asks when we'll be done. I say we'll be done at 7. At 750 she asks if we're done yet (at this point she's starting to kill my Cub Scout buzz). At 755 she asks if we're done yet- when I answer her this time, trying to keep my temper, she says "what???" because aparently she can't hear me. I repeat myself she again doesn't hear me. At this point I tell her (rather loudly) that we'll be done at 7 and CLOSE THE DOOR!!! It's possible I could have been calmer but unlikely.
At 7 I leave the room, letting them know I'm done. If they had stopped bugging me to begin with I would probably have been done at 645 or so.
So I breathe deeply talk to some parents and get ready to leave. The person in my organiztion stops me and wants to talk about changing room usage and times for scouts. She says, "I was told by ___ that we need to be out of the rooms by 645 so the YM/YW can set up for their activities that start at 7". I am not kidding- I almost threw down right then and there (do you see how on a normal week Wednesday this might have been amusing). Seriously, I barely restrained myself from finding ___ and telling her my very strong opinions on the subject. I told the lady in my organiztion we couldn't move our time and I would continue to use the gym we had reserved until 7. I said "YM/YW is not more important than Cub Scouts. I have no problem if there is a special event and they tell me in advance, adjusting my schedule to help them out."
So I'll skip the rest of the week. Let me assure you it did not get better. Work sucked, classes sucked, people sucked, errands sucked, my house sucked. Overall there were several annoying things that happened but nothing worthy of the anger or distress they produced in me. I feel as though I'm starting the day one step before 'the straw that broke the camel's back'. One thing happens and my day is shot. It's crazy. And of course if anyone suffers for my bad mood it is my husband. He's probably asking to be tranfered to Russia without me.
So the moral of this story is...I'm losing my mind...and be nicer to Britney Spears.
I just found this pic on Josie's Blog and Flickr from the Mitchell family reunion. I can't decide whether I like it or not. On one hand my legs look pretty skinny and you can't tell I probably hadn't showered in days. On the other hand...do I always look at my husband like that???
PS One of the very best things about family reunions with either side of Nate's family is that there are tons of kids and babies around that you can just take. It's almost like they don't want to hold their own kids. It's wonderful!!! No trouble baby fix and then the ability to hand them back when they get fussy. Ahhhhhh.
So on Saturday we helped our friends Spencer and Laura tear down their fence (they were the friends who watched all 4 of our dogs at their house while we were gone for Thanksgiving last year so they could ask me for a kidney and I'd be happy to give it to them). Anyway, we'd only been there a few minutes when Nate was trying to jiggle a post we had to take out and it broke off. He went flying and hit a metal post in their neighbor's yard. He has this to show for it. I didn't get any bruises or even a sunburn but it's been so long since I did any sustained physical labor I went home and slept for like 4 hours. It was sooo nice.
Right after the fence project Nate and I went to see the new Hulk movie. I don't know what to say about it except that I thought it was just ok but Nate liked it so I guess it was worth it.
I also just harvested our fist yellow squash out of out garden. YEA!!!!
Ok and now here is really the best story from the last couple of days...
Several weeks ago Nate got us a bread maker off of freecycle.org. At school I used to make my own bread and rolls pretty often but with school and work and the lack of kneading space in my kitchen I hadn't been making any for Nate so he decided while bread maker bread isn't quite as good as homemade bread it is better than store bought bread.
So the day before yesterday Nate made bread. He added all the ingredients and it ran through the whole cycle and then finally yesterday we got around to actually trying to eat it. We were watching a movie in the living room and Nate grabbed the bread maker pan to get out the bread. The problem is this: See that weird blade thing in the bottom? that's what stirs/kneads the bread but it also makes it very difficult to get bread out. the baked bread sticks to that blade and so you spend a lot of time pulling and thumping and being very irritated trying to get your bread out. Anyway so Nate struggled with it for several minutes and finally got it out. He set it down on a plate on the couch. He was really excited to have an egg salad sandwich on his super yummy bread. But...it was time to switch the laundry at his parent's house (yes we still do laundry at his folks one day I will have the amazing ability to do laundry in my own home but that day has not come yet). He asked me to make the egg salad out of the eggs he had just boiled and have it ready for him when he got back.
I made the egg salad, put it in the fridge and then went to take a bath. A while later I heard Nate pull up and the dogs bark because they're glad he's home. I hear Nate open the door. I can hear the dogs pretty loud so I figure Nate decided to let them in. But then I hear the yelling...
Turns out Nate did not let the dogs in. They got excited and pushed open the back door that we hadn't completely closed. Cali ran in to her favorite spot by the love seat and lo and behold there was a treat just for her - a whole loaf of bread. I mean it had to be for her because human food is usually on the table. So she grabbed it (before the other dogs could) and ran for the back door. Nate saw her and was way mad. He was so sad he lost his bread and his sandwiches he was looking forward to. He actually got the bread from her but wasn't going to eat it now. Here's a pic of what was left for my poor snuggly. I of course thought it was pretty funny but don't tell Nate. :)
Now for fun a cute, blurry pic of one of the kittens. They are just started to get playful and wrassle with each other. I love it!
For my birthday Nate sent some flowers to my office. I've never thought of myself as much of a 'flowers' girl but he got Gerbera daisy's which are my favorite - and they did brighten up my desk! Thanks Cute-Face.
