HEY KIERST!

This ones for you!!


I just need to bubble wrap them, box them up and they're headed your way! Hope you like them!

NINE YEARS AGO TODAY......

At this very time, exactly nine years ago, I looked across the alter into the eyes of my very best friend and said the most important word I ever will....Yes.

I love you honey....happy anniversary.

QUOTE OF THE DAY......

I stole this quote from Alan's cousin on facebook...

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself." — C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)

Be kind, world, a lot of us are under renovation right now! :)

FALLING IN LOVE WITH HANK.

Yesterday afternoon I came back to the office to find this box on my desk:
Now, I really wasn't having the best day. As mentioned in a previous post, I was given my notice at work. I've been okay with that. However, a lot of the people I work with are just finding out and telling me how much they've enjoyed working with me. Then of course I start crying, then they start crying. Not a good combo! On top of that, I had just gone with a good office friend turned really good friend friend to pick up some V-day treats for the office. As we were laughing and joking I realized it was probably one of the last times we would be doing things like that. THEN, my sweet and tired sis-in-law called me to let me know my 7 mo. niece was in the hospital with RSV. They were hoping to discharge later that day, but she'd been in since the previous night (she was discharged yesterday afternoon, phew. Hopefully she'll be feeling better soon.) THEN (I know, right?) the interview I had been hoping for still had not called back to confirm a time/day. Ugh! So, when I saw that beloved cardboard box, I perked right up, especially when I saw the FTD logo. Now, most any gal can tell you exactly what FTD means and I'm no exception. I kept telling the bubs I didn't want anything for V-day, but I wouldn't be adverse if some chocolate covered strawberries showed up for some weird reason! After looking the box over I then noticed this:
Crap! Really? I am soooo not a plant person. I seriously manage to kill EVERYTHING. That's why I love flowers, they might not last long, but I don't usually KILL them! So, I opened the box and was surprised to see nothing but this:
Ummm, okay? Sweet, a box of packing peanuts! After digging through millions of the little guys we stumble across this:
A lucky bamboo, huh? He sure must have been because guess what happened right as I was pulling him out? My interview called! Happy dance for me! So, after much digging and reading some directions, I'd like for you to meet Hank the heart:
Hank...meet my friends. Friends, Hank. I seriously love him. I've never seen the heart shaped bamboo before, which is why the bubs chose him. He said he was going to get flowers but saw my Hank and thought it would be way more original and fun. Plus the good part? I don't have to fertilize him or feed him. He can grow in low lighting, so when I get a new office he can come with me! How perfect is that? (I still hope I don't kill him, though!) So, for right now he resides in my favorite place in the house, our bedroom (this is my beloved reading nook. I haven't had much chance to use it lately which is pretty apparent as I JUST noticed the nice cobweb attached to the lamp. EWWWWW! Guess I'd better do some dusting today!):
Thank you honey. That was possibly the best pick up ever. I LOVE YOU!

THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FOR WALKING.....

Well, loved ones, I officially got my walking papers on Wednesday. That's right.....45 (well, I guess now it's about 42) days from now I'll be joining the ranks of the unemployed. Well, HOPEFULLY not, but you know what I mean! The sale of my company is officially going through and will be a done deal as of March 31st. What does that mean for me? I need to hit the pavement running! I've actually been expecting this, I just grew complacent. We weren't sure for a while if the sale was actually going to go through due to funding, but the HUD finally came through. They've eliminated six positions and created three new ones. We can apply for the new ones, but I'm not sure if I'm going to. I do have some things in the works that will HOPEFULLY (fingers crossed and prayers being said) work out, but time will tell. Until then, I'll start looking for something and luckily I have a TON of paid time off they have to pay out. Yeah! So, I'm okay. It's going to e really hard to leave. It's been SUCH a great place to work for and they are sooo flexible to work with my schedule (plus, they let me explore my creative side from decorating the new office, to planning monthly activities to planning the Christmas party). But all good things must come to an end, right? So, this gal is going to strap on her walking boots (see, that's me in the above picture! tee hee!) and get to walking. Here's my shout out to you all my great Utah friends....please let me know if you hear anything! It would be MUCH appreciated! Loves to you all! Oh, on a side note (good side note) my nephew is doing fabulous. On Wednesday he was up to 4 lbs. 5 oz. and just got off the oxygen again. Hopefully he'll be making a home appearance soon!

V-DAY GIFTS, NIECES & BEING BLOG WORTHY

(Warning: long post ahead! My niece Ell-bug wanted to take a picture...we were told to stick out our tongues and give the peace sign!)

I love hanging out my with my nephew. He's adorable and loves to be a little boy by wrestling, playing with trucks and running around. He wears me out, but in a good way. My nieces, on the other hand, are a totally different story. On Friday my sis-in-law called me and asked if I would watch the two oldest girls while they went out to dinner with some friends. Since they were going to restaurant in Layton, they dropped the girls off at my house. Now, my house is really not kid friendly. I have some kids movies, but that's about it. No toys, no swing set, no fun kid things. But, I DO know how to keep the nieces entertained.....crafting. Yep, they're like their auntie, they LOVE to craft. So, Friday I picked up some things at Michael's to make their mommy a Valentine present (so Tara, be surprised!):

(The finished product. Notice the huge shirts? Closet thing I could find so they could paint without nakee painting!)

(Concentrating and working hard!)

They are very excited to give their mommy a "beautiful" Valentines Day gift. I told them I would put wrap them up and bring them out for them. It ended up being a really fun night and I hope the girls had fun as well. Speaking of V-day gifts, these are what I'm doing for the office this year (throwing out ideas):



I found the buckets at Walmart for $1.00 each and thought they would be perfect. I'm supposed to be doing a monthly activity for the office. For the past six months I've been a huge slacker at it and thought Valentine's Day would be a good time to start it up again. We'll also be having cute cupcakes/cookies that a bakery is making for us and ice cream cups on Friday. For family and friends I found the following and couldn't resist them:



I love the colors....not typical Valentine's Day colors which I loved. Plus, super easy to put together! I later found a cooking blog where they show you how to make fortune cookies. I'm definitely going to have to try that next time....they would have been adorable in the containers.

Finally, I had to show off what my very adorable, creative husband put together for me. As you know from a previous post, we are doing a anniversary countdown. Day 3 was give or make a cheesy Valentine's Day card. I went to Walgreen's and got some Jonas Brothers Valentine's that came with a pencil for the bubs. I thought they were pretty freakin' funny! The bubs, on the other hand, completely put me to shame. He came home from work and announced he had to go to Michale's to get the supplies to make my Valentine. I was kinda shocked....my husband does not willingly venture into Michale's, ESPECIALLY without me dragging him there. When he came home, I was banished to the bedroom so he could put this together:

Isn't that the cutest thing ever? I swear I had nothing to do with it! He came up with it all by himself. When I asked him where he got the idea from, he said he knew he wanted to make it himself AND he wanted it to be blog worthy. Blog worthy? Yes, honey, it is VERY blog worthy (oh, and he wanted me to let people know...that smudge on the side? That was my doing. I didn't realize the puffy paint was still wet an accidentally touched it. He did a perfect job with the paint)! What a cutie! Oh! Happy Superbowl Sunday everyone! Me? I'll be downstairs happily making baby blankets while my boys are upstairs rooting away!

INFERTILITY TREATMENTS

Well, I guess we've been going through our fertility treatments all wrong! This morning I was printing off the forms I need to take in with me to the new fertility clinic we'll be going to. It's about fifteen pages and they need it three days prior to your appointment, so I thought I would start working on it before making the appointment. Right after I printed everything off, I got the following email from a friend entitled "Making a Baby." Don't worry, it doesn't use dirty words:

The Smiths were unable to conceive children and decided to use a surrogate father to start their family. On the day the proxy father was to arrive, Mr. Smith kissed his wife goodbye and said, 'Well, I'm off now. The man should be here soon.'

Half an hour later, just by chance, a door-to-door baby photographer happened to ring the doorbell, hoping to make a sale. 'Good morning, Ma'am', he said, 'I've
come to...'

'Oh, no need to explain,' Mrs. Smith cut in, embarrassed, 'I've been expecting you.'

'Have you really?' said the photographer. 'Well, that's good. Did you know babies are my specialty?'

'Well that's what my husband and I had hoped. Please come in and have a seat'.

After a moment she asked, blushing, 'Well, where do we start?'

'Leave everything to me. I usually try two in the bathtub, one on the couch, and perhaps a couple on the bed. And sometimes the living room floor is fun. You can really spread out there.'

'Bathtub, living room floor? No wonder it didn't work out for Harry and me!'

'Well, Ma'am, none of us can guarantee a good one every time. But if we try several different positions and I shoot from six or seven angles, I'm sure you'll be pleased with the results.'

'My, that's a lot!', gasped Mrs. Smith.

'Ma'am, in my line of work a man has to take his time. I'd love to be In and out in five minutes, but I'm sure you'd be disappointed with that.'

'Don't I know it,' said Mrs. Smith quietly.

The photographer opened his briefcase and pulled out a portfolio of his baby pictures. 'This was done on the top of a bus,' he said.

'Oh, my word!' Mrs. Smith exclaimed, grasping at her throat.

'And these twins turned out exceptionally well - when you consider their mother was so difficult to work with.'

'She was difficult?' asked Mrs. Smith.

'Yes, I'm afraid so. I finally had to take her to the park to get the job done right. People were crowding around four and five deep to get a good look'

'Four and five deep?' said Mrs. Smith, her eyes wide with amazement.

'Yes', the photographer replied. 'And for more than three hours, too. The mother was constantly squealing and yelling - I could hardly concentrate, and when darkness approached I had to rush my shots. Finally, when the squirrels began nibbling on my equipment, I just had to pack it all in.'

Mrs. Smith leaned forward. 'Do you mean they actually chewed on your,uh...equipment?'

'It's true, Ma'am, yes.. Well, if you're ready, I'll set-up my tripod and we can get to work right away.'

'Tripod?'

'Oh yes, Ma'am. I need to use a tripod to rest my Canon on. It's much too big to be held in the hand very long.' Mrs. Smith fainted.

So, I guess we've been going about it all wrong. Now, where's the phone book? Oh, better yet...google!

FINALLY!! ANNIVERSARY / V-DAY GIFT

I'm sure you've seen these countdowns floating around blog land. I actually saw it a while ago on Love, Actually and thought it would be so cute....for an anniversary countdown. As I've mentioned before, we don't celebrate Valentine's Day because a) it's a dumb holiday and b) our anniversary is two days later. Anyway, I've had the supplies for a while, I just kept procrastinating and just barely finished it tonight:



As you can tell from the first picture with the heart, I kind of got tired at the end...I REALLY should have scrap booked the saying, but hey, at least it's done! I used the majority of the Love, Actually gal's countdown sayings but changed about five of them to match us better. The bubs is snowboarding tonight, so we'll have to start on day one later tonight (and it's just cuddling, you dirty minded people!) I think this same idea would be so much fun to do for a birthday countdown as well!