Me Birthday

Other than dinner at Applebees, my birthday was a grand affair.  Okay, it was a small peaceful time with just my husband and kids but still very nice.

Ray got me this beautiful cake.  It was huge but very nice.  It had the pictures of the kids on it.

After we ate cake Kimberly had to be fed so I opened my presents while I fed her.  I got what I thought I was getting.  And Ray actually got pictures of me on my birthday.  At least I will have scrapbook page of my birthday this year.

To Be or Not to Applebees

Applebees use to be one of my favorite restaurants when I lived out west.  Something I learned, though, is although the Church is the same where ever you go not all things are the same even if they have the same name.

My parents gave me a gift card to Applebees for my birthday, plus Sheila had a free meal certificate, so we went there for dinner on my birthday.  My in-laws were running late since Ray had forgotten to call them so we delayed going in until 6 p.m.  Things went okay for the first few minutes.  We got our drinks and then placed our order.  We did the 2 for $20 for us.  We had just ordered when Ray's parents and brother show up.  Our appetizer comes out pretty quickly.  But then we wait and wait.  I quickly ran out of water and Ray finally had to flag someone down after 20 minutes of dying of thirst since we got the boneless buffalo wings and they burned up my mouth.  I even drank some of Ray's coke and Timmy's orange juice, I like neither of those.  Finally I got water.  Ray's parents appetizer took forever to come out.  The kids are getting restless.  They are all over the place.  We never see our waitress.  She does wait on the table adjacent to us regularly, think they are her friends.

Finally, after 45-50 minutes our food finally come out.  Ray is given the wrong sandwich.  He waits another ten minutes for the waitress to come back to send it back.  When he finally gets his right burger it is dried out and cold and the lettuce is wilted obviously it had been sitting there for awhile.  Also he had ordered onion rings instead of fries and there is THREE on the plate.  What!?!  Plus I got the wrong side.  I wanted french fries and got coleslaw.

The kids are fighting over the french fries (we got them a meal to share.) Timmy screams his head off. Out I go with him to calm him down. Back in.  My food has gone cold.  I had eaten one shrimp by this time. 



Kimberly has been good the entire time until our food gets there.  I try to nurse her at the table but she is really fidgety and pushing the blanket off.  I feel stuff in the front of her and she had a blow out.  I tell Ray I am ready to box it up.  I take her out to change her and realize I have forgotten a clean outfit so she has to wear a diaper and her jacket, shoes, and socks.

My in-laws food comes while I am in the bathroom and Ray has ours boxed up.  My mother-in-law steak is bloody and she can't eat it.  We still haven't seen the waitress.  After waiting another 10 minutes (It's about 5 after 7 at this point.) Ray takes all the kids out to the van except Kimberly and I am left in there with the bill waiting to pay.  I wait 10 minutes.  Ray calls to find out what is taking so long.  I wait another 10 minutes.  She comes by to the table next to us and gets their dessert order.  She's there for several minutes chatting away.  Kimberly is getting ansy again.  If I had cash I would have just slammed that on the table and walked out.

Finally takes my bill and comes back.  I sign and flee the premises.  It is 7:30.  My in-laws decide not to come over now for cake and ice cream since it is so late. Anyway it was not a fun experience.  We will not be going to that one again.  Luckily there is one with decent service and food in Callaway so we will go there to finish up the gift card and we will go for lunch.

34 Fun (Or not so fun) Facts about Me

So last year my 33 birthday posts didn't work out so well.  I only got 20 done before morning sickness kicked in and they fell by the wayside so this year I am doing it in one post and the facts will mostly be short.
1. The President of the United States is always sworn into office on my birthday.
2. My name is made up of two names Melissa and Lyndy.  My parents combined the two since one liked the one name and the other liked the other one.
3. My husband kissed me the moment he met me.
4. I still have my childhood teddy bear.
5. I have known what each of my children would be before the ultrasound even told us so, and with Kimberly we never even got that confirmation.
6. I love to receive mail and since email has taken over I now prescribe to magazines and order things online so I can still receive mail.  I do need to start writing letters again too. (I have been getting free travel guides to the states we plan to drive through this summer. It's mail and it's free.)
7. I want to move back to Idaho.  I love the beaches here but the heat is a killer and I miss my family and friends.
8. Sheila won't wear dresses (except jumpers and skirts) anymore so I secretly wanted another girl to dress up again.  Sheila has several dresses she never ever wore because she refused to and I love buying/making the pretty dresses.  Hopefully Kimberly will wear them.
9. Ray and I both love to travel and plan to spend our retirement doing so.  The kids won't get much of inheritance.
10. I love books.  I use to have a bunch but now that we don't have as much space I have decided just to collect the ones I really enjoy and most likely will read more than once.  Then I will replace my favorite paperbacks with hardback versions.
11. I don't like to shop.  Oh, I have my moments when I like to go out and pick out new things for the house but for the most part I rather stay home.  It irritates me to spend so much time and get so little done.
12. I am a fan of Glenn Beck. (I know Ray is getting me one of his books for my birthday.)
13. I have the TV on almost all day but don't always watch it.  I grew up in a noisy house and so the quiet can be deafening to me.
14. I am a Susan Boyle fan. (I think Ray is getting me her CD for my birthday.)
15. My first date was to Prom when I was 16.
16. One of the guys I was seeing after my mission wanted to propose to me but I broke up with him the same night he planned on asking me.  (We weren't exclusive and he didn't have the ring already so don't feel too bad for him.)
17. My husband proposed to me at Sea World and was so nervous he called me by the wrong name.  (Don't tell him I told you, he would be embarrassed. And I wasn't upset because I was always afraid I would call him by the wrong name too.)
18. I almost have our taxes done already this year, just waiting for all the stuff to come in to make sure my numbers are correct.
19. I plan to go for my law degree eventually.
20. I plan to get my CPA after the kids are all in school and then work from home during tax season.
21. My kitchen/dining room theme is light houses and my father-in-law has painted me two lighthouses, one hangs in the each room.
22. I am a control freak.  (That's why I never wanted to try drugs.  Seriously why would I give my control over to something like that?)
23. I still have Halloween candy in my private stash.  Even when I was a kid, my candy would last for months.
24. I wear earplugs at night.  Ray snores.
25. I had my ears pierced twice but the second hole never healed so I took them out just weeks before the Prophet came out saying women should only have their ears pierced once.
26. I like to garden but it is too hot in the summer to keep up with it here so I just grow roses now.
27. I hate bugs, yet I love to camp.
28. I don't take showers.  I am a bath person.  I usually only take showers when I am traveling. (I did take showers on my mission though.)
29. I found my first gray hair this last year and have had about 5-6 since then.
30. I quote Dr. Phil to my husband all the time.
31. I dread Valentine's Day.  My grandfather died on that day when I was 15 and since then it seems to be a horrible day.
32. When I am tired and hungry, sleep trumps food.  Ray is the other way around.
33. My 25th year was my best year and I hope that when I am resurrected I am that age.
34. I feel like I am just starting off in life.  It's hard to believe that it has been 16 years since I graduated from High School, 12 years since I came home from my mission, 8 years since I graduated from college, almost 7 years since I got married, and 5 years since I became a mother for the first time.  I don't feel like I should be in my mid 30s.  I hope I never feel my age.

Well there is my post of Is.  I guess once a year I can indulge and start so many sentences with the pronoun.

"Hoarders"

One of my new favorite shows is "Hoarders" on A&E.  No, it's not because I like to see people living that way.  I find it very sad and appalling.  Some of the houses are worse than others.  The ones that are full of garbage and little critters living amongst the filth and clutter make my skin crawl.  I like the show because it inspires me, perhaps horrifies me.  I watch every Monday night so that I can have the inspiration and the fear to clean my house every day.  I do not want to live like them.  I do have clutter and I may even hoard certain things, i.e. the stacks of Paper Stacks in my room.  I probably have at least 20.  But I have not bought any new ones since around the summer time.  But the show has also helped me detach from and purge my yarn collection.  I decided I haven't made those afghans or other items yet so time to get rid of the yarn and when I make those items I will buy new yarn and only work on 1-2 projects at a time.  I still working on purging my material collection.  But I am down to three bins of material and one of jeans (for a quilt I am making for my son and yes I am working on cutting them up.)  My plan is to have it down to a bin of yarn, a bin of material, and then a bin for my patterns and other sewing supplies.  So every Monday night I will be watching that show and then taking stock in my clutter and purging so that it will never get to that point.

Gee, look who's Three

We just had family over for Timmy's birthday since it was the day after Christmas.  He had a lot of fun opening his gifts and he was so funny about it.  He would open one and then put it on the couch behind him and then open another one.  He got Thomas the Train stuff mostly (and some cars) but I think Sheila was more excited about the train.  They fought over the train so much we got her an engine too so now we have three engines going around the tracks at once.

I made the cake.  It is my own design and I think it turned out good since decorating cakes is not one of my talents.

I found that I really like food coloring paste.  I never used it before but it is so much better than adding a whole bottle of food coloring to the frosting and still only getting gray.  The race track was actually black as you can see by the kids tongues.

Ew, what a mess.

Christmas

Christmas Eve night the kids opened their pajama presents.  Kimberly got one too but her pictures turned out blurry.

Christmas morning we had just our immediate family to see what Santa brought and to open presents.

I haven't downloaded the pictures from my husband's camera yet but I doubt he got any of me.  He hardly gets pictures of me.  He took mostly video that day anyway.  We had a good time though.  The kids loved opening their presents and they took time opening Kimberly's while she watched from the swing.

Christmas Eve

We had our family party on Christmas Eve since the kids' cousin had to go back to her mother's that night.  We opened gifts and then had our dinner.  We just opened the gifts from Ray's parents and brothers and then opened the rest of our Christmas morning.  Sheila got 2 more princess Barbies: Ariel and Mulan.  She also got two Jasmine books since Grandma couldn't find Jasmine.  Timmy got a remote control train.

Dinner went pretty good. I was pretty stressed out and had a melt down.  All is well now.

Pull-Ups + Wash Machines = Disaster

Somehow my daughter's night pull up ended up in the wash.  She usually throws it away and puts her pajamas in the laundry every day.  One must of stayed with the pajamas.  I opened the wash machine to put the clothes in the dryer and they are covered with little balls of gel like stuff.  I know exactly what it is.  My son's diapers have left these all over our bed, his bed, and the floor at night when they burst open.  As I dig through the clothes shaking them over the garbage before adding them to the dryer the balls get thicker and thicker.  And near the bottom of the washer is the culprit.  The pretty pink princess pull up is bloated like a dead animal.  I fling it into the garbage and finish pulling out the clothes.  Then I pull out some rags and start wiping down the washer.  Little balls of gel are ping ponging around the wash machine.  The silver lining:  I notice some near the seal of the door and pull that back to discover loads of tiny saturated socks that have accumulated for who knows how long (one of my son's white socks are now pink.)  Now maybe I can match all the little socks on my dryer.

Sheila's party

Sheila's Christmas party was on the 17th. Timmy was invited to attend. We brought Christmas cookies that we ended up buying since I ran out of time in making them.

After the snacks they picked numbers to pick out their gifts. They exchanged books. Sheila picked number 5 and Timmy picked number 6 out of 7.

There was only three books left when Sheila picked and she picked the one Timmy brought.

And Timmy picked the one Sheila brought. Kind of funny we went home with the same books I bought. Good thing I bought books I thought my kids might like.

Then Sheila's teachers handed out their gifts to the kids. They had gotten Timmy a book and two little cars.

Sheila got a Cinderella barbie, which I guess I didn't get a picture of and a bag full of goodies. Both kids had lots of fun. I also learned that Sheila's teacher is expecting her first baby in April, a boy. Her teachers got me a nice gift when I had Kimberly. I am making her teacher a simple afghan (so I can have it done in time.) Sheila learned the news yesterday and came home all excited about it.

Santa Baby

Animal Kingdom Parade

The kids really wanted to see the parade. It was our last day so we decided to stay to see it. Unfortunately when we got over to it there was a huge crowd and just like the Magic Kingdom parade in February the adults swarmed infront of the little children. Ray saw a wall and decided to stand on the wall and hold both Timmy and Sheila up. The wall was about 10 feet long had some dirt behind it before the trees and brush and then it was about 3 feet high. He planned to stand right next to a pole. There was just a few people on the wall. As he stepped up on it the few people sitting there rudely told him they were saving it. (Don't know if the rest of their party showed up.)

We thought about leaving but Sheila really wanted to see the parade. Finally I had to take things into hand. I took Sheila and Timmy by the hand and just made my way up front. I asked people if they could go in front so they can see and the people let me go too so I could be with them so I got some good pictures. I am glad we were near some nice people. The kids got much better views than if we had stood on that wall. I am glad we got to see it even if the sun was in the worst spot trying to get pictures.