Frustrations!

I'm one of those people that random weird things seem to happen to that would never happen to anybody else. I went quite a while without anything too random happening, so I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised that this week was chuck-full of them.

To begin with, I needed to have my car inspected. However, the "check engine" light was flashing on and off, so we decided to have it looked at. At first, it was only the spark plugs that needed to be changed. No big deal. Then our mechanic called Mark and said, "Well, I looked at the 2nd cylinder, which was causing the check engine light to flash on, and it looks like you have a cracked cylinder head." Well, those don't come cheap. Bah! I started crying, "I can't afford this! I'm having a baby!" But baby or no, the car has to be fixed. I told Mark that if our car were a dog, I'd give it away.

We had ordered our baby furniture from Baby's R Us, and it came in sooner than expected. Yay! I was so excited to get it put together. When we opened the dresser box, we found the whole right side of the dresser smashed. No biggie, we'll just take it back and order another one. We went back to Babies R Us, explained the problem, and the manager took us to the computer to order another one. Then she says, "Oh no. We don't have any more in the warehouse. The set you bought has been discontinued, so we're not getting any more in." WHAT????? You could have knocked me over with a feather. I think I said something really intelligent like, "But you HAVE to get more in! I need that dresser!" Once again, I burst into tears. (Why is it that pregnant women just cry so easily?) Luckily, they had a floor model in pretty good condition that they were willing to sell to us at a great discount.

We are also the proud owners of a new mattress. Yay! We found a great deal on a mattress for our new bed, and I ordered a mattress protector for it right away. We came home the other evening to find a package on our doorstep. The mattress protector! I picked up the package - which had been ripped to SHREDS! It looked like it had been run over several times or caught in a conveyor belt. The packaging was ripped, the plastic cover for the mattress protector was ripped, and the mattress protector was in shreds, with a huge black grease spot all around the rip. I am proud to say that I did NOT start crying this time (Mark is the one who got upset!). We were on the phone with UPS immediately, and thankfully we got the problem resolved without any hassle at all.

Thankfully, we are on a new week. Let's hope it's more quiet than last week. My pregnant little brain can't handle any more!

Here's To Two...

Wonderful Years Together!

Hard to believe that it's been two years already! Mark and I celebrated our anniversary by going to the Circus. I haven't ever been, so it was a fun experience. We both loved the motorcycle riders (they fit 7 in a little cage!), the elephants, and the gymnasts. After the circus, we went to dinner at the Melting Pot. So yummy!

This morning, Mark surprised me with a picture of the Salt Lake Temple, which I have wanted for a long time.


Now we can have a picture of the temple where we were married in our home. Isn't he such a great guy? I'm so lucky that I got to marry him. He is one of the best people I have ever known, and he is truly my best friend. These past two years have been better than I could have ever dreamed, and I truly love our life. Happy Anniversary, my love!

We Love Harry Potter

It all started about a year ago when Mark told me he wanted a really good book to read. I suggested the Harry Potter series, because I think they are some of the most entertaining books I have ever read. Mark, however, was reluctant to take my suggestion, saying that he'd seen the movies. When I made the argument that while the movies were great, they didn't compare to the books, we had a challenge on our hands. So, I picked up the first book, and we read it together. Then, we watched the first movie. Mark was able to see where the storyline in the movie differed from the book. I picked up the second book, and we read that together too. When we were finished, we watched the second movie. Once again, more discrepancies in storylines. Pretty soon, Mark was reading the Harry Potter books by himself - and he was hooked! In fact, he was a bit depressed after he finished the 7th book, because there were no more books left. Poor guy! I think I created a Harry Potter Monster! (jk)

Although there are discrepancies in storylines between the books and movies (you really can't expect them to cram a whole 700 page book into a movie), reading the Harry Potter series has made Mark enjoy the movies even more, and I love them too. We watched all the Harry Potter movies leading up to the 6th, and for my birthday we ventured to the movie theatre to watch "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." I give it 4 stars. Of course, there were several subplots that were left out of the movie, but the major one was there, and I really appreciated the humor, which helped lighten up a series that has gotten progressively darker. I thought that after the 5th movie especially, a little humor was well-placed in the 6th. The girl who played Lavendar Brown? Awesome. She made the most of her moment to shine.

Now we have to wait a whole year for the 7th movie... sigh... But at least we still have the books. I'm so grateful for great literature (and yes, Harry Potter qualifies as great literature)!

New Furniture

I'm so excited! After 2 years of no bedroom furniture, we finally got some! When we first got married, we had a little one-bedroom apartment, so there was really no room for a lot of furniture. Then when we moved to Houston, we decided we would wait until we bought a house to get a bedroom set. We looked for a long time, but finally found the set we liked. It's so funny how things look smaller in the showroom. When they brought in the furniture I was really worried that it would be way to big for the room, but it ended up being just fine. Here are some pics of our new bedroom!

The bed and nightstands.

Yes, that is our queen bed on our king bedframe (totally ghetto, I know). We're working on the mattress part. The problem is that Mark is totally picky with his mattresses. 2 weeks after we bought the queen mattress, he hated it and felt like it wasn't supporting his body when he slept. Last night, though, we found out how much difference a bedframe can make. It felt like we were sleeping on a whole new mattress! I think that's the soundest the both of us have slept in a long time. I don't think the basic queen frame we were using was doing much good. We jimmy-rigged the king frame by putting a couple of pieces of plywood down to better support the weight of the queen mattress (since it doesn't reach all the way to the sides of the frame). It worked like a charm, although Mark did get a battle wound while handling the plywood. Biggest sliver I've ever seen!

The Dresser

Another view of the bed and a better view of the nightstands

Independence Day Celebrations

The 4th of July was a quiet one for us for us this year, but jam-packed with fun. We started off the festivities with a BBQ at a neighbor's house with some of the other families from our neighborhood. There was so much good food! Grilled fish and kabobs, fruit salad, potato salad, green salad, a veggie tray, homemade ice cream, apple pie, raspberry cake... YUM! I must admit that I ate more than was good for me, but I just had to sample some of everything.

That night we headed over to our other neighbor's for a fireworks display. I must say that they put on a pretty good show! A good time was had by all, even with the dumb cop that came speeding down the street, going mach ten (with kids in the road, I might add!), and had the gall to pull over and shout at the guy who chucked an empty pop can after him. Honestly.

I'm so proud to live in America and be an American. We truly live in a blessed land. Happy Independence Day!

Happy Fourth!

In honor of the Fourth of July, I thought I would post the most amazing performance of the National Anthem I have ever heard. This was performed at a Texas Tech basketball game by a group of girls ages 6-8. Pretty durn amazing!

Don't Fence Me In

We were fortunate enough when we moved in to our house to have an empty lot next to us. Of course, we knew it would be only a matter of time before the lot was sold, the trees cut down, and a house built. We just didn't expect it to come so soon. Today, the cutting of the trees began. Although we are both sad, I think Mark is in mourning. He hates when any trees in our neighborhood get cut down. Even if they're dead. I try to console him with the thought that they will plant new trees and in a few years, the trees will be large and shady. But, it's just not the same. So, we will say farewell to our trees and hello to our new neighbors.

The tree line before they started chopping

The saddest sight we've ever seen - the trees getting chopped down

The treeline after

The cleared lot