Sunday, March 7, 2010

Sesame Street Live

So, we were going to get tickets for Sesame Street Live for Hannah's birthday, but then decided not to, and then my friend Kristi hooked us up with free tickets, so we went tonight.

Hannah was entranced and not sure what to think at the beginning (and thus spent the first 30 minutes on my lap), really enjoying it and started getting her groove on in the middle, and pretty much was squirrelly and "done" with it all by then end. We had a good time though, Brooke enjoyed it too.

There were some great special effects (black light stuff. I love that). My personal favorite part was when they were imagining they were in a jungle and Big Bird says "ooh I stepped in something." I laughed and laughed.

Anyways---a few pictures....







Saturday, March 6, 2010

Crazy 8's--Random things!

Eight random topics each with eight things about me

8 concerts I have been to:
Amy Grant
Michael W Smith
Michael Bolton
Garth Brooks
George Strait
New Kids on the Block (3 times! most recently in July 09)
Cher
The Wiggles
(and many more actually)

8 Foods I love:
Crab legs
Chocolate
Pizza
Tacos
fruit salsa and cinnamon chips
Steak
Peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches
homemade chicken and noodles

8 Places I have been:
Iowa
Florida
Minnesota
Colorado
Texas
Vegas
California
The Bahamas

8 of my favorite girlfriends old and new:
Debbi
Kacy
Sarah
Jill
Erin
Wendi
Danica
Cynthia

8 Great Movies:
Couple's Retreat
The Blind Side
The Hangover
The Goonies
Beaches
Twilight
Enchanted
Up

8 Things I am NOT good at:
Resisting sweets
Dancing
Resisting sweets
Fighting clutter
Resisting sweets
Tolerating idiots
Resisting sweets
Sewing

8 Pet Peeves:
When people don't answer their phone / return phone calls
Jackass drivers (seriously. that's what they are)
going out for the night and coming home with the same mess that was there when I left
when people are too anal about their "stuff." It's stuff!!!
Being told what to do.
Parents who are oblivious to their kids being rude/jerks/obnoxious
rude kids
People throwing cigarettes out their car windows. the world is NOT your ashtray

8 Things I'd Buy if I won a bunch of money:
(besides the obvious house/car type things)
New furniture for the living room, basement, and the girls' rooms
Custom built shelves for each side of the fireplace
A fence
A dog and some credit at a vet so Matt wouldn't fret about vet bills
LASIK Eye surgery
New appliances for the kitchen
A big(ger) diamond wedding ring (well I'd give Matt the money to go buy me one)
More points/ownership with Disney Vacation Club!!

Now....tell me 8 things about you!

Friday, March 5, 2010

LSE Days

Do you ever have LSE Days? do you know what LSE is?

Low. Self. Esteem.

Do you have days where yours seems to be dipping pretty low on the esteem barometer? Ugh. Those days suck.

I think I had a mini one recently, or I'm on the brink of one or something.

LSE days are days when you feel like you haven't got a friend in the world. You are full of self-doubt. You wonder if you are a priority to anyone, besides the kiddos?

When things that normally wouldn't cause you to blink an eye bother you. Things like a friend saying they can't get together this weekend for a playdate.... normally it would be no big deal but on an LSE day you think it is because maybe they don't WANT to spend time with YOU?

You feel fat, old, and ugly on LSE days. You look in the mirror and wonder if a facial would fix all the problems you see there. Then you look in your makeup bag and sigh when you realize you're desperately low on a key-face-item.

You find more grey hairs on LSE day than on a normal day.

You wonder if you are a good enough wife, mother, friend, person. You wonder if anyone misses you today. You wonder if your friends would even notice if you didn't chat for a week. You try to figure out of the dissolution of old friendships is all your fault.

Thank God LSE days do not come around too often. They suck.

**disclaimer.... LSE is not to be confused with PMS. LSE is melancholy, PMS is bitchy!**
**disclaimer #2...do come back again.... I promise to be in a better mood next post!**

Monday, March 1, 2010

One little word: Sex

Sex. Does the word make you think "ugh. please not tonight." Does it make you think "alrighty! when? where? lock the door!" Is it more of "I think I remember what that is...?" or "yep, had my fill for the week?"

Sex is apparently a hot topic in marriage. Or maybe it is the lack of hot that makes it a topic? I don't know! I can tell you this, John Gray, the Author of Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus, knows what he's talking about! We are definately from other planets!!

I was reading some excerpts from one of his books and wondering if my views (which shall remain vague in this blog!) are typical of most women. I polled some of my friends (most somewhere in the 30ish bracket) to dig into their marriage and sex life.

Here are the questions that I asked:
What is one thing you would change about your husband?
What is one thing he would change about you?
What do you fight about the most?
How many times a week do you have sex?
Has your sex drive changed since you got married? Is that a point of contention in your marriage?
What is your ideal date night?

I think I'll save the answers to the first two questions for another post....but what interested me most in this poll was the resounding similarities in the answers I got from the girls on the sex topic. Names will be changed/withheld to protect the innocent, and badgered, women ;)

Most of the responses sounded like this, "UGH. This is a huge issue in our house. I could care less if we have sex, and he wants it all the time. I try to make sure we have it once or twice a week." I kid you not, out of all my responses, they all had something like this ringing through them. Apparently sex is not a top priority for busy moms in their 30s.

Several stated it had nothing to do with lack of love or attraction for their spouse, but rather a preference to do other things, or frankly, nothing at all! One person mentioned that perhaps if the hubby was more helpful with life in general around the house, it would free her up to be ready and willing more often.

One friend, who's response made me laugh right out loud (sorry dear!), said "we have sex twice a week. Wednesdays and Saturdays. Yep. It's scheduled, I have to mentally prepare."

Another friend said that although she is not all that interested, they have sex nearly 5 times a week! I quickly replied to her and said she was a saint. Her response was this: "...most of the time if he gets what he wants I get what I want, so that's how I work it." I understand this philosophy.... but I still think this chick is a saint :)

So girls, don't fret.... if your views on sex mirror the ones stated above.... you're not alone! And if your marriage is sizzling right along even after a long day with the kiddos, tell your husband that you are a saint! :) I'm going to come up with a name for someone who is in between "tolerant" and "sainthood" and start calling myself that...lol.

If you have not answered the above poll questions via email; please feel free to email me at abcangie87@yahoo.com or if you are comfortable, leave your answers in the comment section!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

The Birthday Cake and such

The Birthday Girl!

So, Hannah's actual birthday was on Monday the 22nd... even though I've been posting about it for a few days.

Monday also happen to be Brooke's show and tell day at school....so the Birthday Girl was Brooke's show-and-tell... which was cute. She stayed pretty close to Brooke and played shy, but did NOT want to leave when it was time to go.



Can you find Hannah in this picture?:

I spent all afternoon working on this cake...
This is what my kitchen looked like while I was working with four different colors of fondant and two different colors of buttercream. I'm a messy cook!
It was a new experience for me because it was my first time working with fondant, which I made from scratch. The red house part is made out of cake that I baked in the small pampered chef batter bowl. The yellow shoe is two cupcakes that I carved and pieced together. The leg is 1/2 a hoho. The Mickey Head is a styrofoam ball with fondant ears. I think, all things considered, it went alright. Not perfectly smooth... probably for my first time I should have tried to work fondant onto something simple like a sheetcake, but instead I made this Mickey House. Anyways, I loved how the grass made it all come together and I was pleased.
We had Grandma and Grandpa over for pizza and cake and it was a fun evening. Happy Birthday Hannah!

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Birthday Party Pictures

We had Hannah's Birthday party today. It was a small gathering, with our neighbors (Jaci age 5, Leah age 2, and Kristi), my BFF (Ragan and Rylee almost 2-yr-old twins and Debbi), and our church friends (Brenna-almost 2, and Heidi). Grandma and Grandpa stopped in for a bit, and after they left, Matt was the lone man amongst a house FULL of girls!

I wanted to keep it short, simple, and sweet....and I think we did. Here are some pics from the fun morning!

Who is that at the door?

LOOK! Ballooooooons!!!! Grandma Jenn sent them!

Hannah LOVES Elmo....!

We played with Playdough for awhile:




Heidi and Brenna

Then we opened some presents:


Debbi and one of the twins :)

After that, we sang Happy Birthday and ate these yummy cookies! (that I'm quite proud of if I do say so myself!):









The other moms were totally pumped about the black frosting, but I was only concerned about the cookies looking and tasting good. I think most of the clothing made it thru un-scathed.

After cookies, we played downstairs for awhile before everyone went home.

Thanks to our friends for coming to the Birthday party!
***Scroll on down to the previous two posts to see a slideshow of Hannah pics for her Birthday montage, and a yummy recipe for Chicken enchilada soup***

Friday, February 19, 2010

Hannah's 2nd bday montage at OneTrueMedia.com

Hannah's 2nd birthday is on Monday, and I thought I'd share a little slideshow of the past 2 years! We love our sweet little monkey!