Aren't I LUCKY?!

I really am a LUCKY girl. I have great parents who support me in all that I do and always have. We live close and are able to do things together which is really nice. It is fun to be able to do things together even if it is just having dinner or going to the store.

I am LUCKY to have a wonderful mother-in-law (and entire extended family too!) You hear so many stories about in-laws and how you can't stand them and it is so not true with me. I love them all so much and we have such a great time together and just wish we were able to see each other more often.

Most importantly I am LUCKY because I have an amazing husband. He is wonderful. He would do anything for me and does what he can to make sure that I am happy every day. He works hard and plays harder! He makes me smile and laugh all of the time and together we have a pretty amazing life. I don't know where I would be without him and I am blessed to have him as my companion and LUCKY to call him my friend.

I have lots of other reasons to be happy on this day, I have great friends and good health. I think it is nice to sit back and actually realize that life isn't always as bad as we sometimes like to think it is. We have so much and take it for granted too often. On this day I am counting my blessings for sure and can see for sure how LUCKY I am!

Are you feeling BLUE?

After living in Vegas for 6 years last night we were finally able to get some tickets and go and see BLUE MAN GROUP and all I can saw is that it was UNBELIEVABLE!

The show is so amazing. There is nothing that can prepare you for what you see and hear. It is such a great show and so much fun.

We actually got the lucky two seats and were picked to be a part of the show (actually I am not sure that we were lucky or not!) We had our faces plastered on a huge screen in front of the entire audience and had everyone believing that we had arrived LATE, when in reality it was part of the act. It was all really fun though.

It was a great night and we hope to be able to take our families to go and see it with us soon. We don't know why we waited so long to go and see the show, but plan on trying to get out to see it again for sure.

Our first purchases!

Thanks to a call from my dad saying that there was a garage sale down his street with some baby items we are now the proud owners of a bouncer and a high chair.

It is a little scary and a little awkward to have them in our house but it was too good of a deal to pass up. We have seen things before and just didn't want to get too excited and didn't want to have a house full of baby stuff and no baby but for some reason it just felt right and felt like the time to start buying some things. Not that we know anything or that we are going to run out and put together a whole nursery but.....

Here is our cute little bouncer that will come in handy for sure. It will work for a boy or a girl which is nice since we have no idea which will come into our home!

This is a nice high chair that we were able to purchase as well. It tilts and raises and the tray is removable with a smaller tray underneath (fancy!). It is blue again, but works for both boy or girl and no one will see it anyways, it will be inside our house and just get all stained up anyways!

It is fun to start collecting these things and start feeling like one day these items will be put to use by a baby of our own. Hopefully they won't sit empty in our house for too long!

Filled with GREEN

Well, in honor of St. Patrick's Day I got together a few GREEN items and sent them on their way to my three fabulous nieces. I just thought it would be a fun way to celebrate and a cute surprise for them to get in the mail. Everyone loves getting mail and to get a box is even better. So these were sent off and I know that at least 2 of them arrived safely today so that is good news. I hope they all have a wonderful St. Patrick's Day and I want them all to know how lucky Dan and I are to be their Aunt and Uncle and that we love them very much. Yeah, for Ellie, Morgan and McKenna!

Giving me hope for my Martian Child

We watched this sweet movie "Martian Child" and couldn't help but feel that someone is trying to tell us something.

You know when things are happening in your life you become acutely aware of things around you and that is happening to us for sure right now. I don't know if it is coincidence or what but there seems to be a lot in our lives right now that involving ADOPTION. Besides us working with the activities committee with FSA (families supporting adoption - with the LDS adoption agency), we have a family of four kids who moved into our ward who are all adopted, and there are also lot of things out in the media as well. The fabulous movie "Juno" came out and I loved it, and it got great reviews too. Then we go to rent a movie and the only things I really had heard about this movie was that it was about a kid who thinks he is from Mars, and that it has one of my favorite actresses in it, Amanda Peet, so that is why we got it. I had really no idea that he was trying to adopt this little boy. Although he is trying to adopt an older son while we are adopting an infant. He has much more patience and understanding than I could ever have. The story ends happily ever after and that gave me hope once again that we too will have our own happily ever after one day too. (sorry if I ruined it for anyone!) And I am also reading this book right now, "The Wednesday Letters", and it one of the family members is trying to adopt as well.

I just think that the more aware of our surroundings and our situations we are the more that these things tend to be present in our lives. I think it is great right now because it helps me to not feel like such an OUTSIDER and not to feel so alone in my situation. I just find it odd because before we were in this place I don't think I would have picked up on these subtle things and noticed them nearly the way I do now. Adoption is a much more common thing in our society and becoming more and more "accepted" and I am a full supporter of that, as long as it is done with love and compassion.

Tag.......I'm It!!!

5 Years Ago I Was ..... Knee deep in the politics of high end retail at Tiffany & Co. I was just starting to call Nevada home and trying to change my house to my home.

5 Months Ago I Was ..... Knee deep in the fire protection industry. Working hard and trying to learn as much as I could. I was waiting for the first snow fall of the season to crack out the snowboards.

5 Things That Worry Me ..... If I am making the right choices daily. If I am good enough for my wife. If I will be able to be a good dad to my child(ren). If I will be able to support my family financially. If I can enjoy everyday.

5 Bad Habits That I have ..... Too optimistic. Too easy going. Too Sarcastic. Too loud. Incessantly shaking my feet and/or legs.

5 Places That I Have Lived ..... Arizona, all over the great CLAM(California Los Angeles Mission), and Nevada. (that's it)

5 Of My Greatest Blessings ..... First and foremost my wife and my eternal marriage to her. My good health. The physical blessings in my life.(house, food, clothes, etc.) The gospel.

5 Things In My Virtual Shopping Bag ..... ipod(phone would be amazing but I will take the regular.) That beautiful home theater system.(LCD Full HDTV with Blu-Ray) A new(er) work truck. (one I am not scared to drive to far with) A electric griddle. (I just want pancakes sometimes) If I got those 4 things that would be enough.

5 Things I Blog About ..... Well this is my second blog ever. The first was regarding the horrific ending to The Bachelor. So I blog about Reality TV.

5 People I Am Going To Tag ..... Well I am the last person on the Internet to do this so it would only be a repeat for everybody. Seriously, I don't know anybody.

Now I know my ABCs

So at church today I turned in 3 sets of these "ABC" books that I had colored during the week. It was a humanitarian project that we were doing in our ward. It was something that I could actually do (since I can't sew, or cook, or quilt, or any of the other things they usually want us to do) so I volunteered and said I would help out. I took 3 sets home with me to color and by the middle of the first set I was wondering "what was I thinking"?

It really was a fun project and also nice to know that these books are going to go and help kids everywhere learn to speak English. It feels good to help out in a small way and this was a way that I could do my part!

Tagged

I was tagged by Kirsten so I thought I would play along because it seemed kinda fun so here we go....

5 years ago I was....22 and only been married for a little over a year. Working at a nursing home and loving it. Getting great presents from Tiffany and Co. from my husband.

5 months ago I was.... just approved from LDS adoption services in Salt Lake City (YEAH!). Eating too much Halloween candy. Freezing from the cold of winter in the desert. Not blogging yet (what was I doing with all my spare time?!)

5 things that worry me..... Whether or not I am going to be a good mom (a huge worry to me). TAXES! Worry if Dan's truck is going to make it as long as we need it to. If we will ever be able to sell our timeshare. If I am a good example to my family or not?!

5 bad habits....I watch too many reality TV shows (too much TV in general). I am not very good at saying "NO". I surf the web too much. I talk way TOO loud. I am very impatient.

5 favorite places I have lived before....My own apartment. Sunny Southern California. Brand new apartment in Arizona (Sort of?!). Nevada. That's it, I don't move much!

5 greatest blessings... A wonderful husband. Supportive family (mine and Dan's). A wonderful decision I made to join the church (age 17). The opportunity to be adopting and the blessings it brings into our lives. Great friends, old and new(er).

5 things in my virtual shopping bag... Guitar Hero (played it once and I am hooked!). DownEast Basic Confetti Dress. "Our Gift" figurine by Willow Tree. Gilmore Girls boxed DVD set. Trip to London to visit Lina and Gary.

5 of my favorite things to blog about.... Scrapbooking/cards. New finds. Going green. Fun stuff Dan and I do. Adoption updates (that means something is happening!)

5 people I tag.... Lina, Amy, Maile, Lindsay and Dan (he will love this for sure!)

Thanks Kirsten, fun and very thought provoking that is for sure. Hope everyone I tag partakes and enjoys.

8 More Years

That's right I will have a fascination with Steeler's football for at least another 8 years. Ben signed an extension of his contract with the team for 8 more years. Read all about it here. I for one am not complaining and look forward to football season and the games with BIG BEN playing and hopefully winning (those are the best of course).

Oh, and I forgot to mention that he is now 26 years old and celebrated his birthday on Sunday... Happy Birthday to Ben!



By the way did anyone notice this is my third post today? Boy it is a busy Monday. I better get to work now!

DVT Awareness

I stumbled upon this blog a few weeks ago and knew that once March came along I would have to share it. Make sure you read the story they wrote about Natalie. It is the very first post they did, that is where you will understand what happened and get the background.

March is a lot of things but it also happens to be DVT Awareness Month which stands for Deep Vein Thrombosis. This sounds non-important to most of us and a lot of people don't even know what it is. It is basically blood clots in the deep veins of your legs. (Go to the site and they explain it a lot better though).

After I read the story I was so touched and had such a deep compassion for this family. I also have a friend who is only a year older than me who has been hospitalized twice for this very thing. It is eye-opening and brings you to reality that really anything can happen to anyone and we need to be thankful for everyday that we have. Now I am not saying that we are all going to suddenly get a DVT but I am saying that it could happen to anyone and you never know. Just visit this site and read and you will be touched I am sure.

Made With Glue

I have been working on a new project and it is finally up and running so I am announcing it to the WORLD and telling you to go and check it out here. I spend so much time doing "crafty" stuff that I decided I wanted a place to display what I do so I created a blog to do just that. It will be updated at least weekly since I make cards on a weekly basis but a lot of times it will be updated more regularly than that.

I will have on there my cards, scrapbook pages and then whatever fun little projects that I make for myself or other people. I love doing these kinds of things and now I have a special place to show them to the world.

Please stop by over there and take a look and let me know what you think, leave a comment (or two) and then keep checking back every once in a while to see what else is new. The link is also over on the right under "Look What I Did" so you can always click there too.

The BIG Surprise

So this weekend we went to Tuscon to see Dan's sister Amy and her husband Steve for a big surprise visit. Steve just finished up his MBA from University of Phoenix and Amy threw him a surprise party for his graduation. We got the invite a few weeks ago and thought it would be fun to not only go and surprise Steve but show up and surprise Amy as well. So, we called mom and dad and got them in on the idea and they thought it was great. It was fun to see the expression on Amy's face when we arrived at her house, her thinking it was just mom and dad, PRICELESS! It was almost as good and the expression on Steve's face when he got home and saw all of his friends and then saw mom and dad, and Dan and I all sitting in his living room.

The party was great and Amy did a great job of keeping it a secret and pulling it all together. WAY TO GO! The rest of the day was also tons of fun hanging out with the family and being able to see their new house (which was also part of the reason that we wanted to make the trip since we hadn't had a chance to go down and see it yet). We look forward to being able to see them again soon and spend a little more time together since this weekend was a little rushed but it was fun.

Congrats Steve and share the wealth now that it will be rolling in, Mr. MBA!