Just Another Weekend

We had a very nice weekend. Cory and I were able to go see the new Harry Potter on Saturday, which was totally awesome. Then we went out with some of our friends to eat at RT's which is on a small man-made lake, and very cool. The weather was perfectly cool, and the Mojitos flowed like, well, wine.
Here are a few pics I snapped:

My flowers-fast and out of control, cause that's how we roll... I'm pretty disappointed with the front green plants, they didn't do well at all. I'll be replacing them next year.Here are some of Moose's art projects that he put together in his art class that was last week.

I glanced over this morning, and Moose had pulled all of the kitchen chairs over to Cory, who was sitting at my computer. Kind of funny.

And that's all.

Not much planned for the week. The garage sale was Friday and Saturday, and we made less than I wanted, not nearly enough for a mattress, but it will make a dent. Cory actually spent all of Friday helping Jenn, Sarah, and Charing set up, and run it. They seemed to have a good time. We didn't do much today, I trimmed the dead heads off my flowers, weeded, and trimmed them back bit. I need to do some research about Mums, I'm planning on planting some down the left side of the walkway, that way, we have something blooming in the Fall.
Have to run, Moose needs a bath, and if I'm not mistaken, I believe there's a poopy diaper with my name on it.
PS-thanks for all of the great comments/emails/phone calls about the new layout of my blog. It was a lot of work, and it really makes it worth it to have my work noticed;) Special thanks to Jeana for helping me with a tight spot that I couldn't figure out by myself.

Questions About Life At (Almost) 30

My mom just wrote a very interesting post based on an article she read in O Magazine called "You're Middle-Aged But Are You Done? Discuss." She wrote a series of answers to the questions that they asked a group of middle-aged women. She took a good look at her life and wrote some very interesting answers, and inspired her readers to answer the questions as well. So-even though I'm not middle aged, I still think I can play the game.

1. When you were 18, what did you imagine your future would look like? How close does your life today come to that vision?

When I was 18, I was in college with a major in graphic design, I had plans to marry someday, but I honestly didn't know if I wanted kids or not. It's no secret that Moose was a happy surprise to our mild-mannered life. But I would not want to change all the mayhem for anything, he's the best thing to happen to Cory and I.


2. What is the one piece of advice you wish you'd been given as a young person?

Stop trying to plan everything! It would have been useless though, I'm a big-time planner. I actually make myself sick sometimes, planning to the hilt, making lists and going over and over something until I think it's perfect.


3. What was the best money you ever spent?

I don't know if I have spent it yet. Right now, our beautiful home is the best thing we've bought together.


4. What was your biggest financial mistake - the complete waste of money that haunts you to this day?

When I was younger I wish I could have taken some sort of financial class or something, I still don't balance my check book correctly according to my husband.


5. Is sex with your husband a pleasure to savor or just one more item to check off your to-do list? If the latter, when did that change take place - and do you actually care?

Uh, both my Mom and my MIL read my blog, so I'll just say that it's a fabulous pleasure that we make time for.


6. What has been the best surprise about married life? And the worst?

I'm not really sure. I think one of the good surprises is that Cory has become my best friend in some aspects. We can't wait to tell each other good news or bad, juicy gossip, or even just about our days. Again, I'm not sure about the worst. I think that it took us a long time to learn how to fight with each other. It's an art, really I guess. I've seen lots of married couples fight, and I've seen what works for some may not work for others. I think that it's taken several years for us to learn how to fight with each other, without any lasting "damage" (if that makes sense).


7. What is the best thing about being a woman? The worst?

I think having a baby is the best thing about being a woman. Having your child grow in your body, getting everything it needs, all from you, is so special. It has to be the best thing. The worst? Uh, the c-section was pretty bad, man. Seriously.


8. At this point in your life, is there a dream you will never get to fulfill? What is it - and what makes you so sure it's out of reach?

I don't have anything that springs to mind as being out of my reach. Everything I want, I go out and get.

These really made me think, and I like that. If I'm still blogging at 30, 35, and on, I'll try to answer these questions to see how my answers have changed.
I know this isn't my typical family update post, but never fear, cute baby pictures are right around the corner;)

ENT Woes

Moose had a check up visit at his Ear Nose & Throat doctor on Tuesday. It was by far the longest most excruciating doctor's visit on record. (this includes all of my Ob visits during my pregnancy-which is saying a lot considering the lady parts being on display and all)
Our appointment with Doc H was at 3:15. This meant that I arrived at 3:00, as all absurdly anal patients do, (right Mom?) to happily wait in the waiting room. Doc H’s waiting room is just fine for a waiting room. They actually have a playroom that is attached, and was filled to the brim with other children waiting to see Doc H, and his partners. The fact the all of the children were running around, screaming and playing, somehow intimidated Moose. This meant he did not want to go into the kid’s area.
So we sat in the adult part of the waiting area. Which was fine. Except, I didn’t bring any toys for Moose to play with.
Well, no big deal, I mean, we only had to kill, like, 15 minutes till the appointment. Maybe 20 minutes right? The last appointment we had with Doc H, only lasted a total of 10 minutes, including the actual visit.
Moose decided to look at all of the magazines they had sitting on the table. This included about 54 copies of Highlights, a children’s magazine, and some Car & Driver magazines. So we thoroughly looked through all of them. A couple times. Then I glanced at my watch.
3:45.
A half an hour after my scheduled appointment time? Craziness. I don’t deal with that crap. I managed to wait 15 more minutes, until 4 o’clock. A full 45 minutes after my appointment time. (an hour after we actually arrived) Finally I walked up to the reception desk to inquire just what sort of emergency service Doc H was performing as to be that far behind on his appointments.
I was informed that I was next to be called. Right.
About three people were called after that. I am assuming they were there to see Doc H’s partners. They better damn well better have been. Absolutely none of them had a toddler with them that had been woken up in the middle of his nap.
That was crap.
At about 4:15 they finally called Moose back. The nurse immediately apologized, told us it was her first day, and proceeded to lead us to a cubicle. She then quizzed us on all the patient history stuff that I had already filled out during our first appointment there.
At about 4:30 she led us to… that’s right… the second waiting room.
I’ve never even heard of a second waiting room before. But, there we were, Moose and I sitting alongside the other strangers that have been called back before us.
Luckily, we only sat in this waiting room for about another 15 minutes. They called us back to the super-cool exam room. The bed was designed to look like a fire truck, and they had a Sesame Street mural on the wall with Burt and Ernie dressed up like firemen. They also had a ton of toys in there. Moose was thrilled. He totally forgot that he missed his afternoon snack. Occasionally he would remember and walk over to me and ask for some “mo apuls” (more apples)
Finally, at 5 o’clock, Doc H arrived. He had the sense to appear breathless at least, as if he hurried in to us, as soon as he could.
He spent approximately 3 minutes examining Moose.
Moose's tubes are still intact, and clear. According the Doc H, they will hopefully stay in until November.
A whole lot of waiting to find out good news. It was worth it.
We got our car from the valet at 5:15. Just in time to hit N Road at rush hour. Nice.

Catch Up

So sorry we've been gone so long. No excuse except WE'VE BEEN BUSY!
It seems like every weekend we have something we have to do, and it ends up taking the whole weekend, after laundry and cleaning are combined in. After all that, all I want to do is sit and ready a book while Cory plays Xbox. So that's basically what we've done. Well, that and a few other things. Okay, so here's the lowdown:

We've been scouring the house for All Things We Don't Want Anymore for the annual garage sale that Jenn throws for all of us. Normally we get a huge turnout, and make a nice chunk of change. Last year all of my money I made went to my Vegas trip. This year, I'm hoping to make enough to pay most of a new mattress, for our guest bedroom.

I found this lovely hat that was left over from a SIS Day Hat Day excursion. Moose doesn't want to get rid of it.My friend Kevin finally returned from Japan last week. I was able to meet him, and my friend Lisa for lunch. He brought me a super cool cantaloupe flavored Kit Kat. Plus a banana flavored one for Cory.

Sophie is fitting very well into the fur family. She oddly likes to lay on her back. Strangeness.

Evidence they get along well, that's Sophie's bed they are happily snoozing on.

Bad news-Moose has figured out the cool thing on the front of the fridge dispels water and fun ice cubes. We often find toys shoved up in there. We did figure out how to lock it, luckily.

A couple weeks ago, I made a new friend that has a little girl. They came over to visit for a little while, we ended up giving her our old jumper, which Moose was not all too thrilled about giving away. Isn't she cute?

Finally, we have tackled Moose's room. We decided to switch the guest bedroom and his current room around. Here are some before pics:

And here are the after pics. We chose to stay with our safari animal theme. Whatever Moose picks out later for theme, will go with tan color. We love earth tones in this family.

Here they are moving the crib in.

Here is the new trim that Cory picked out. He cut it to fit, then stained it to match Moose's crib. It was a lot of work, but it turned out SO WELL! Don't you think?

New outlets, and vents that were stained to match the trim.

Here is the final product, complete with all of his things hung up, and new plantation blinds.

Cory actually had his knee surgery on Friday, so he is recovering well from that. He is dying to get back to work, so hopefully his recovery time will go smoothly. The doctor told me that this knee was more injured than the other, so we will see.
For the 4th of July, we went to an AWESOME party. M&D kept Moose, so we could stay out late. Our friends Tarp and JB have a really cool loft-like house downtown, very near the fireworks that they let off downtown. They threw a White Party, which meant everyone was decked out head to toe in white. It was really cool. I found a lightweight white dress with an empire waistline that I loved. They had wonderful food, and a fabulous bartender. Their deck on top of their house was perfect to stand and watch the fireworks display from. We had a great time, and are hoping to be invited next year as well!
We were able to catch the new Die Hard sequel last weekend, and we are both big Bruce Willis fans. If you like action movies, you'll love it! We were totally enthralled the whole time. Totally recommend it. Good story. Makes you think too.
I'm sure I've forgotten something, but this is everything I can think of. I have to run now, Moose needs a nap, and we're planning on dinner at Charing's house tonight. All the friends are coming, should be a blast.