Birthday Week!

My birthday is tomorrow. Since tomorrow is only hours away, it's almost, almost my birthday!! I love my birthday.

This year, I love my birthday a lot! This year, my husband informed me on Sunday night that I would be having my birthday all week long. At this point, I must remind you to read my post about HIS birthday... and how he always raises the bar for mine. He's done it again! He has been responsible for all the cooking, I have been sleeping in every morning while he gets up with our son, and he's taken care of bath/bedtime every evening too! It's been like a mini-vacation. Not once have I wished I could take a nap this week... that's one for the record books. On top of all this, here's what has happened so far this week...

Monday: We had Mahi Mahi fish tacos with a special sauce he made. Then he had a movie for us to watch and gave me a footrub! That's a GOOD man! ha!

Tuesday: He had pre-marinated short ribs and we had that along with mashed potatoes and veggies for dinner. After dinner, he announced that he was "at my service" until 9pm to do anything around the house that I wanted done. You'd be surprised at how fast I came up with a list! Pictures hung, a/c installed, towel hooks installed, garage tidied... it was the BEST!!!!

Wednesday: Dear husband tells me in the morning to have a diaper bag packed for the little by 4:30pm. So I wonder, what could we be doing today? He arrives home from work at 4pm and tells me that he's taking Hudson for a run and then to get pizza while Frythe (best massage therapist in the world!!) comes to our house and I get a massage. I swoon. Love my man. And then he times dinner perfectly that I'm literally just done my massage when he walks in the door with pizza from a really yummy place in town! And movie again, while we eat blizzards!

Thursday: I'm not so sure what will happen for this day as it's my birthday. I don't have any hints or clues. I do know he'll be working all day but then maybe we'll do something at night? Or maybe not. I have no clue. I love it but I don't. I like to figure it out so I've been obnoxious with questions. No hints.

I'll let you know when I find out!

A Bad History with Golf

Once upon a time, I was dating Luke, who is now my husband. One day, we were planning our next full day together since we lived in different countries... well, really only a 40 minute drive so it's not THAT big of a deal. But we didn't see each other every single day or even every other day being that we were both students and working as well. Anyways, we decided that we would go golfing on our big day together and then have a little bbq on the beach at Semiahmoo to watch the sunset. Sounds like a great day right!

I arrived at his house and we started out at Homestead Golf & Country Club to warm up at the driving range. "Warm up" is a relative term since I had only 1 other experience on a golf course in middle school which involved me throwing my golf ball more than I actually hit it. It's something I don't really want to talk about. So, we get out there and I line up my first ball, feeling hopeful. I swing. Miss. I swing again. Miss. What happens next? Yup, miss again. It was really frustrating. I kept missing while some show-off next to me was hitting balls over 300 yards every time. In fact, every person there was hitting their balls WAAAAAAAY into the distance, except for me. I got mad, attempted another swing, jammed my wrist, started crying and this became the WORST beginning to the day that Luke would propose to me. Of course, I had not a clue.

It's a mild understatement to say that Luke was worried. This day was supposed to be perfect. He had it all planned. After the driving range, our plan was to head to a small golf course in Everson that was $10/person and doesn't exist anymore. I hoped things would get better once we started to play. They had to. Well, they didn't. By the 4th hole I was pissed. Mad is too gentle for how I was feeling. By the 7th hole, I was crying with sunglasses on. Needless to say, Hole #7 was  my last for the day. I walked the rest of the course and Luke pretended to not be panicking that this day was spiraling downwards fast.

Little note: When I was younger, I took myself WAY too seriously, was very hard on myself and hated not doing everything perfect the 1st time. Sometimes I still fall into that rut but I've learned to laugh at myself and do it often. It's made life much easier!

Well, long story shorter, the day did get better. We bought food for the beach, had a great little bbq, he proposed, I said yes and we're coming up on 9 years married this August. So even if your proposal day is not working out well, your marriage still might be okay.

My only real regret about the day was what I was wearing (I dressed for playing golf, being on the beach after sunset, etc), zero make-up and bad hair after being outside and angry all afternoon. Our family and close friends all showed up to celebrate on the beach after Luke proposed. Everyone was dressed so nicely since they had some notice of our engagement party. I, on the other hand, looked not so nice. I cringe when I see the photos. I'm not making this up... my brothers laugh when they see the photos. But even though I say all that, I truly cherish the entire day and every single detail of it. The bad golfing, the tears, the great food, beautiful ring, bad outfit. All of it. And the amazing man that asked me to marry him. He's the best part of this whole story!

I will say though, he was pretty confident to invite everyone to the beach BEFORE he asked me. What if I'd said no?

Selling Cars

We are selling our car... again. It's not the first time it's been up for sale. This time, it's priced to sell.

Historically, we have a terrible record of buying and selling... emotional buys that we cannot afford, cars with problems, big losses on trade-ins, etc. Does anyone else have this problem? So our decision to sell the car gives me some butterflies and not the romantic kind. More like the nervous, maybe we should keep it kind. This car has been very good to us and gets awesome gas mileage. However, we do own it outright and if we sell both our vehicles, we can get a really great deal on the SUV we are hoping to buy and a little commuter car for my honey and bank a bunch of cash. 

And to be honest, although this is a nice looking, happy car it wasn't really a "love" car for me. We got this because we had an aging car that had all sorts of BIG issues (aka, $$$) and a trade got us out of that problem. While I say that I've never loved this car, it's grown on me big time. I like the way it looks, it's great to drive and it's been problem-free. The biggest reason to sell it is that Luke is selling his truck and we need something that can fit bigger things... so it's an SUV for me. We've got our eye on a few that still have great gas mileage. Soooooo.... that's all.

It's not a funny kind of day today, if you haven't noticed. Just a busy one so I'll finish this blog, get to work and maybe I'll have something funnier to say tomorrow. :-)   Oh! I will tell you about the golf mishaps that I mentioned the other day. It's kind of sad/funny/wowbonnie so hopefully you'll check it out. 

The Sweet Life

Well, it's Friday. A busy one for our house so this is a short and sweet little post. Pardon the crumbo picture quality... cell phone. (even though it's 8 mega-pixels, it never looks quite as good as my camera. But it's what I had.)

I just thought I'd share Hudson's first tastes of Strawberry Shortcake. With heaps of whipped cream. 

He stuffed his face full of it until the plate was clean, then attempted to lick the plate. It was a proud moment for both of his parents. It's funny how simple things like seeing your child enjoy something good can make life a little sweeter. 

Happy Friday!

Golf, Profanities and other fun things

Last Friday was my husband's birthday. I had this surprise day planned for him with all sorts of activities that he loves! Each step of the day was revealed in an envelope with some but not all the information just to keep him guessing.

When our little guy woke up, I informed him that I would be in charge of all diapers for the day and to go back to sleep. No argument from him! Then I woke him at 7:30am (yes, this is sleeping in!) and gave him his first envelope. Basically, you have 50 minutes to get ready because we are leaving at exactly 8:20am and driving to a mystery destination for breakfast. He was ready at 8:20am. So prompt, my honey is.

He figured out about 1 block from his Mom's house that we were heading there for breakfast. The next envelope contained instructions to look in the trunk of our car and a promise from me to NOT get too frustrated. (this is a LONG story and I will post tomorrow all about it!) He found his golf clubs in the car and said he'd kinda guessed that when he read my promise. So we headed off, sans Hudson, to a 9-hole golf course that Luke likes to play at and had ourselves a good game.

Luke didn't get the ball in from WAY over there. Sorry to throw you under the bus, hon... 

This was at our 2nd hole. I was feeling the good form. Actually, I learned it was bad form... but whatever. I was trying hard and behaving quite well for being out in public.

 This didn't last long. I can't help but misbehave in places where you're supposed to be good.

I didn't point this at anyone though. It was mostly for shock effect.

Basically, we had a GREAT time! I learned that I'm not anywhere near a pro at golf. Not even a semi-pro. We actually agreed that my official title would be "quarter-amateur" which is a little disappointing for me but I did hit a 63 on 9 holes, not counting the hits I didn't count because of our "special" rules. Basically, I suck. 

The rest of the day included lunch from Avenue Bread (YUM!!!), a massage for Luke while I prepared for his birthday party and then a party with great friends and family, more food that an elephant could eat and a heated croquet tournament. And yes, tempers were lost. In a good way... 

So that's that. There actually aren't any profanities or other things in this post. It's mostly about golf. And Luke's birthday, which was awesome! I just figured you'd be more likely to read it if I had a naughty title. Sorry.

P.S. The reason for my GREAT efforts every year on Luke's birthday is that my own birthday is 20 days later and when I raise the bar high, he always goes a little bit farther for mine! Happy Birthday to me! ;-)

P.P.S. What was the best surprise you've ever had for your birthday?

Act Your Age

This is just a short post today. I'm busy figuring out some PayPal issues for the fabled website that I keep talking about. Yes, it does exist and yes, it will be something you can see someday. Soooomedaaaaay, over the rainbow... dah, dah, daaaaaaaaaah...

Anyway, I picked up our mail today and there was this big envelope for me with "Act Your Age" across the front of it. "Welcome to the one magazine for women who love to act their age." I figured that something might be wrong right away when I opened it up and read from the editor... "I have a confession to make... I still feel like I'm 25." Okay, pause.

I know that most people still feel like they're 25... my Great Grandma said she still felt 25 at 80... but I'm not that far away from 25. I'm 30. Well, actually almost 31... in 16 days. So with this said, I think that MORE magazine might have their mailing list wrong or may have made me a different age than I am. And when I say all this, please don't read what I'm NOT saying. I am not saying that being older is bad. When I am in my 40s, 50s and 60s, I plan to rock my age, have a great time and savor every single moment of those years. But I want to savor the years I am in right now. Like the ones where you can still remember specific events from your 25th year. lol.

So what magazine should I be reading? I don't know. What do you read if you're a Mom and somewhere after 25 and before 40?  I don't have the 18 year old body of the magazines I used to read. My belly is still figuring out where to put all the extra stretch that it experienced over a year ago. But I also have yet to experience the "newfound freedom" of my kids leaving the nest. I don't want to rush on to that either. So what do I read? Home decorating magazines, Parenting magazines. Maybe a fashion magazine or People every now and again but that's about it. MORE magazine even gave me a free subscription a couple of years ago and I couldn't figure out what anything in it was about... I couldn't really relate to much in it.

So DEAR MORE magazine: stop sending me stuff.

Signed,
Give me 10 years and we'll talk again.

Your junk... My treasure

I have recently taken up the garage-sale torch this summer. Just for a couple of weekends now but it's been really fun figuring out where to go, leaving the house early and searching for treasures.

Mostly, there's just lots of junk and sometimes I marvel at what some people pay real money for to take home... pure junk. But I learned today that maybe the things that I fall in love with might just be junk to someone else. A friend of my Mom's from Canada stopped by today to pick up something she'd had mailed to my house (no shipping to Canada from Amazon) and she noticed the new pieces of furniture I'd purchased over the past couple of weeks. The dining room and entry are now mostly redecorated except for a couple of accents and pictures. I was feeling really happy about it all...

And then she asked me if I liked the table I had moved from another area in my home. This table was $25 and I consider it a "steal"... I think it's pretty and funky and fun. So of course, my answer was yes. Her response was this: "Well, I think that is the most ugly thing I have ever seen in my life." Awkward silence.

You know when you have that shocked moment after someone says something you didn't ever expect? Well, I had that moment. Ever heard of a filter? And I was most surprised because this friend of my Mom's is a dear, sweet woman and quite nice to talk to. She just hates all my furniture. (insert laugh here) Her friend was also along and she suggested that I paint all the things I've purchased recently. I like to paint furniture and maybe I will someday but it will be because I want to change colors, not because there's something terribly wrong with these things. So I changed the subject and sent them on their way.

And then I called Suz (aka, friend, hubby step-mom) to ask if my taste was terrible. She said it's an age thing... Sometimes older people (not, ALL) around 65 or older just don't dig this style (and it's fine if you don't!) and not to worry. So I will introduce you to my happy new treasures and not worry if you're gagging and laughing because I like them!

This is my entry. The chairs were $2 each. The dresser was $10. I used to have a big black clock in that corner but it's in our dining room now. The brown frame was a throw-away from an old tenant of ours and I'm going to staple in burlap or brown linen and make it a frame for 2 black and whites on the wall behind. 

The toolbox was $1. It's waiting for some little pots of flowers. 

Little tarnished silver dish: $2. Love.

The little table: $25 It's perfection to me.

And here's the ugliest thing on the planet. My table. We've been together for almost 8 years now.

So I know I've just shown you pictures of all sorts of older things. My whole house is not like this. I've got modern thrown in and contemporary staples too. I just like some old thrown in for charm and whatever else. And hopefully, when I get to go hunting for treasures again, you will not like the things I want and leave them for me to find! 

But apparently, furniture is banned from any future trips, according to my husband. I beg to differ. 

Where from... Writing about...

I was looking at the stats from my blog and since most of the people I know live in the USA or Canada, with the exception of a few in other parts of the world, I was really surprised to see some people checking out my blog from all corners of the globe. So fun to have you reading! I'm sorry if my blog is odd and rambling at times... it's like my personality in words. Odd and rambling.

I'm just curious if anyone who's reading has a blog as well. Where are you from? What do you write about? I'd love to check out your blogs and do some posts featuring some of you. That's all for today.

Oh, and we celebrated the love of my life's birthday yesterday... too busy to post yesterday so...  Happy Birthday Luke. I love you and I'm so glad that we're living life together. There's nobody I'd rather do the journey with. xo.

Birthday Frenzy... and Fox Pee

So, weird title, yes? Well, nevermind you and keep reading.

Luke's cousin or my cousin-in-law Jodi, who also happens to be a really great blogger that you should probably read (www.jodimichelle.com) posted a comment on my gardening blog. She had some sage wisdom about rabbits and how to make them stay away from the garden. Apparently, fox pee works magic. So random... but not really.

Foxes are predators. Bunnies do not like predators. Huh.

My brain, of course, then wonders how I get fox pee? Do I get a pet fox and take him out for his dailies out in the garden? Is there such a thing as a fox pee farm? Sorry... Ha! Actually, you can buy boxes of pee powder. The wonders of modern technology. You can actually get pee from coyote, mountain lions, bobcat and bobcat, if you ever need some kind of predator scent. Lovely. So I'm going to get myself some of this magical powder and see if I get a single leaf of lettuce. It's maddening.

Moving right along...

It's my husband Luke's birthday tomorrow. He's going to be all of 29 years old. Such a young soul. I have a big day planned for him but I can't say anything about it until after his big day since he reads this blog. But he does know we're having a little bbq tomorrow and I have a TON of food to make. Potato salad, Quinoa salad and Pioneer Woman's pasta salad plus an ice cream cake that is kind of an experiment.

I want to do a 7 layer cake with cake pop mix for the cakey part. I googled whether cake pops taste good frozen and people said yes, but I'm going to go buy a cake pop from Starbucks today and pop it into the freezer and try it out for myself. If it's good, I'll go ahead with my plan. Cake pop mix, vanilla ice cream, fudge topping, chocolate cookies, chocolate ice cream, cake pop mix and then frosting... all in a lasagna pan so it can be nice and thick! YUM!

These are cake pops:

If you want to try making them, go to www.bakerella.com

So now that it's 9:34am and I am still in old bleach spotted sweatpants, I need to end this and get something a little less ghetto to wear and head to the store. Lots of food to buy, lots of cooking today. And lots of fun tomorrow! 

GASP, changes.

Wow. It's amazing how little I know. About a lot of stuff.

But especially about websites and design and what makes people want to want your stuff. Today I learned just how much I don't know. I'm like an overdrawn bank account... a negative balance.

Thankfully, this is not the end of the story though! My husband Luke happens to work with someone who is a nationally recognized expert in all things social/websites/marketing and he sat down with me today to give some feedback on the website my friend and I are building. Don't ask me how we got this lucky but now we know we've got to make some changes.

Layout changes, learning changes, changes, changes, changes. Pardon the ramble.

Basically, you get the picture. Changes. I was overwhelmed for a bit but after processing it all, I'm so ready to run with it. I'm super motivated to learn whatever I need to in order to make our project as success. For some, change is really hard but I kinda like change and having to adapt and be challenged.

So I'm going to wipe the big "duh" off my forehead and get to work. Hopefully we'll have something really great to show off sometime in the near future.

My Not-So-Little Problem

Gardening has always been something I want to be good at. "Want to be" being the operative here. Our flowers are looking okay this year so I'm just going to sit back and chill out about that. However, I did plant another veggie garden this year, in the hopes of doing it the right way. We got the right soil, I ordered organic veggie starts and set up a good watering system so they didn't die from my apparent lack of motivation to drag the hose across the yard. I even set up an alarm on my phone to remind me to water the garden. So we planted. And waited...

Things were starting to grow really well for a bit and then one day, I went to check on my little project and... all the lettuce was nibbled... down to stubs. I was kinda mad. Then about 2 days later, the peas and green beans were all eaten down to about 4 inches from the ground. I was SO mad at this point... what could possibly be eating my veggies?

And two days ago, I checked again and all 4 bell pepper plants have been eating completely. Gone. Blood pressure check... pissed. Before the bell pepper demolition, someone had suggested birds since they like to nibble lettuce and beans so I bought netting. But obviously a bird isn't going to snarf down 4 entire plants in 1 night. I wasn't sure who could be doing this.

Until this morning.

The hose was not connected because we'd mowed the lawn yesterday so I went to hook it back up and noticed a very health, very well-fed bunny rabbit trying to hustle out of our yard as I was walking towards the garden. So now we know it's a bunny. He or she bunny was CHUNKY. I'm assuming my plants have been quite delicious since we will never know ourselves at this point.

So what do we do??? Kill the bunny? Trap the bunny? How do you keep one of those things out of your yard?? I'll be googling. I don't think I could kill it. "Furry, fuzzy, cute" ... all words that don't really work well for me in the same sentence as "kill".

So that's the problem for today. What do we do with the adorable bunny who's eating my garden?

We Got One!!

It's filling up with water as I type this!! The only thing is... if you come over, those people will not be there swimming. Sorry if this is disappointing for you.