Ann's Blog of Randomness

OMG

2012-01-31T11:12:00.001-08:00

I just realized I can download blogger on my iPhone. Will be doing that now.

Ummm...

2012-01-31T11:09:00.000-08:00

I should really update my blog more often that once every 385 days (estimated...I didn't really count it out).

I did just get another huggggge batch of Scentsy in the other day (yay!) but I think it's safe to say that a lot has happened since January 13, 2011! OMG!

xoxo,

Mucho love!
Ann

2011-01-13T09:47:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the very wretched exposure. Haha! I took this at 2:00 in the morning on my kitchen floor with no flash. I can't believe it turned out that great, actually!

Don't worry - I will start using this blog to occasionally post a professional pic. I really don't sell people photos like this one...lol...

If you don't know what this photo is, PLEASE first grab a Diet Coke and go to Google. Search Scentsy. Then grab your credit card. Your life will be forever changed for the better.

I am OBSESSED with Scentsy. I am fortunate to have a few fabulous friends that sell Scentsy! Most of you reading this blog would know one or all of them! I'm going to list their websites here before I post this!

If anyone else sells Scentsy that I'm not aware of, just send me an email or a FB and I'll include you on my Scentsy posts.

OMG, I love love love the Snowberry. I'll admit, I did go a little gangbusters ordering winter scents. But that is good because I'm locked in the house. I'm not a winter person WHATOSEVER but there are some things I do like about winter:

1. Cute coats
2. Cute scarves
3. Cute gloves
4. Jeans ALLL THE TIME
5. There's just something about running from the car into your house with your little gymnast in the freezing cold and being greeted by my barking dogs, my baby reaching through the gate at the top of the stairs while saying "MAMA!!", the farmhusband yelling "Take your shoes off!!!" and walking in to the smell of Scentsy. I have the greatest life ever :) :) Yay!

After you decide your life has been empty without the smell of Scentsy (trust me on this), please contact one of these 3 lovelies:

Laura Meckley: https://laurameckley.scentsy.us/Home
Kate Brehmer: kbrehmer916@hotmail.com (That is Kate's email)
Kelly Hunt: www.scentsy.com/khunt

xoxo!
Ann :)

"Baby, It's {Effing Freezing} Ouuuuutsiiiiide"

2011-01-12T09:42:00.000-08:00

Oh how I wish I lived in Florida. I've been spending a lot of time this week cranking up this baby and wearing my humongous sheep snuggy that my mom bought me for Xmas last year. I also like to take my computer and sit in front of the register in the kitchen. It's pathetic. I'd also like to point out that I have the lowest blood pressure possible, so I'm always FREEEEEZING.

Last night, I was snuggled up in the sheep and said something to Will. He looked at me weird. Kurt goes, "Who's that crazy lady? Is that a SHEEP or is that your MOM? I thought sheeps were supposed to say, 'BAAAAAAH'." lol.

xoxo!

Ann

Workin' It

2011-01-11T09:32:00.000-08:00

Okay, I said as a disclaimer that I wouldn't talk about editing and working but last week I spent a million hours with this guy!

I've been working on updating my website (omg, it needed it - I haven't had time to update it since I started getting busy last summer), finishing up editing some clients' photos, figuring out a new pricing scheme for 2011, finishing up my wedding contracts for 2011, upgrading to Lightroom 3, selecting a new FABULOUS printer and learning to use their system, designing a proof book, taking a wedding class with a rockin' wedding photography teacher (he is mean but I like him), shopping for new backgrounds and new office supplies, designing Will's bday invites, etc.

The computer is my BFF ;)

xoxo!
Ann

It's Time

2011-01-10T06:14:00.000-08:00

OMG, this blog is such a scam. Apologies to anyone (*crickets*) who checked it over the weekend. I was taking pics but didn't get to blog. Blogging my last few days NOW :)

On tap for today, as of 8:00 a.m.:

As soon as we got up (appx 6:45), I took my laundry baskets (sorted four days ago) into the living room so I make myself start AND finish it today. Ugh! I don't mind doing laundry really but I HATE putting it way. This drives Kurt insane. :) Luckily, I have enough clothes to last me QUITE awhile so I don't have to do it very often. However, it's time. Wish me luck.

I should probably do Belle's laundry today, too. Waaaah. ;)

Update #1 (9:32 am):
First load is done spinning. Ugh. I want to avoid it but I guess I'll go get it out. Wahh.

Update #2 (11:26 am):
*Jeans (washed like 5 days ago and were still on the drying rack this a.m.) ironed.

[I forgot to mention that although I hate/avoid laundry, I am extremely psycho about how it's done. I do tons of little loads, dry lots of stuff and iron as much as I can with my pimpin' iron. I hate wrinkles.]

*Load I like to call "Permanent Press" is done, dryed, folded/what needed ironed is ironed/what needed to air-dry is hanging on drying rack.

*Whites are in dryer.

*Colors are washing.

*Another load of colors is on deck.

*Ugh. Baby's up. Now I have to put away the jeans and the folded/ironed perm press. Ugh ugh ugh.

Update #3 (2:06pm):

I realize no one cares about my laundry. All of my laundry is done and folder but not put away YET :) Will's sleeping again (yay) so I need to edit some photos. Be back soooon.

Hips Don't Lie. Bad News/Good News.

2011-01-09T06:14:00.000-08:00

My friend Kate and I went to Zumba for the first time. We thought we'd rock it out because hello, how hard can some jazz sqaures really be? We took lots of jazz growing up, so we were all over it.

Until we got there.

Apparently, Antonia likes to "go long" on Sundays, which means 1hr 45min. There were no jazz sqaures involved. Consider my @$$ kicked. OMG, that was hard.

The bad news is my dreams of being in Shakira's next video were crushed. I can't Latin dance to save my life. The good news is I should look like Shakira by the end of the day today. If you don't believe me, go to Antonia's class next Sunday.

I've heard Shakira is also *around* 4'11" (my height). That has no relevance to this story really, but I thought I'd mention it.

Click, click, click, click, upload, delete, click, upload, click, delete

2011-01-08T06:26:00.000-08:00

I worked on my extremely, horribly, embarrassingly outdated website all day and night on Saturday. Literally, all day and night. It's coming along nicely but there is still a lot more to do but at least I made a good dent in it!

Lots of the "pictured-aboves" were involved on Saturday. The kitten mug was my Christmas present from Belle. :) Hehe.

Happy Bday, Bubbas!

2011-01-07T06:32:00.000-08:00

Happy Bday, FarmBaby! His party is later this month but we just had our parents over for pizza and cupcakes. :) :) I just lovvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvve him.

"L Step, Go!"

2011-01-06T13:07:00.000-08:00

Here's some steps. The ones our dogs use. Nice. But not those kind of steps. Step aerobics, yah! Kate and I went today. HILARIOUSLY, we haven't gone to step aerobics together since we were like 19. We used to go to the YMCA ALL THE TIME when we were in high school for step aerobics.

Anyway, sorry, gym goers. I really am not a "New Year's Resolutioner." Although, IMO regular gym people should be at least somewhat thankful for resolutioner's BECAUSE it's not like the gyms are not-for-profits and people donate equipment. Hell to the no. They use the MEMBERSHIP FEES to buy the new equipment and pay for XM radio, soap, Lysol to clean the floor, etc. I wonder what percentage of members actually go to the gym on a regular basis, all year long. Only a jack___ would sign up for a membership six years ago and only go in "workout kicks" once in awhile (me). Only complete jack__es have lockers at the gym with their name on them that go unused 85% of the year (me).

ANYHOW, sooooooooo it's not like it's my fault (*bats eyelashes*) that I'm GOING TO HAWAII IN JULY! :) :) :) :) Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Yayyyyyyyy! Kurt's friend just set a wedding date and we are going. I'm going to make somewhat of an effort to be hot when I go, so that is why I am going now. Also, I need to be able to drag my camera and camera bag up a volcano (in a bikini - ahahahaha - yeah right on the bikini).

I drug Kate with me to step aerobics because we used to be the queens back in the day. We still got it. Holla. ;)

xo!
Ann

Why Me!??

2011-01-05T23:55:00.000-08:00

[Side note: This WAS going to be posted last night but blogger was DOWN. I tried for an hour. It's back up now, so I'm going to backdate it :)]

"Why me!?" is a hilarious saying my friend Craig and I use. We usually saying it in whiny voices. We just think weird things happen to us.

As a preface, I want to say that it takes A LOT for me to get mad at a waitress, store person, etc. A lot lot lot.

On Wednesdays, my mom comes out to babysit Will. Ideally, she would watch him while I edited photos without a one-year old clinging to my leg. However, she wants me to leave when she's here. HAHA. In some ways, I don't blame her because I think she's like, "Why would I drive all the way out here on Wednesdays to watch Will when you are also here watching him." For a few weeks, I was packing up my laptop, hard drives, mouse pad, mouse, etc and hoofing it to the library. By the time I restarted from Photoshop freezing up because Lightroom was trying to import a billion files when I reconnected the hard drive, let's just say it wasn't worth it. Finally, I have come to the realization that I should use Wednesdays to do photography-related things that I can't normally do. For example, shop for props, fabrics, lighting, etc. I love to go to Borders and look at their photography books section. Yesterday, they had emailed me a 33% off coupon so I figured it would be a good day to buy a new book and look around while I was banished from my house. So, I did. It was good. I stood there reading and looking for about two hours, put some books on my "should buy soon" list. Picked out the book pictured above. Bueno. That's when it all went downhill...

I'm waiting in line to checkout and this annoying lady is trying VERY HARD to sell the guy in front of me their paying book club. Barnes & Noble had it right - they have always charged like $25. I know because I'm in it. Borders effed up because they've had a free one FOREVER and now decided they wanted to charge $20 and pretend it's an "even better" club than the free club. But hello sister, I am in the free club and I get wayyyy more 40% off coupons than I could ever use. And I am buying two other books for Belle at full-price and totally FREAKIN' fine with it. I just want to leave asap.

So it's my turn. She is relentless on the book club. I am like no, I already have a 33% coupon (meaning, I don't want to pay $20 to get the 40% coupon). I have to justify to her like 14 other times why I don't need to sign pu for the club TODAY. And again, I like to buy books on photography but seriously I only buy what I really want because WHERE WOULD I PUT THEM ALL?

So she's like, "fine." Then she goes, "We also have a coupon book, it expires Jan 15th..." and starts detailing it. I am assuming this is one of those little booklets that Gap, Bath & Body Works, etc just throw in your bag for free. BUT WHY WOULD I CARE WHEN I GET A 33% OR 40% OFF COUPON EMAILED TO ME LIKE EVERY SINGLE DAY FROM THEM. She's like, "a free BEVERAGE from the coffee shop," while flipping the book and holding it up like I'm a three-year old. I go, "Mmmm...nice." She goes, "oh good, so have I convinced you yet?" I say, "Convined me of what?" "To join the club. You need to join the club to get the coupon book."

O.M.G.

I'm like, "NO."

So I am already annoyed. Not to mention there is a HUGE LINE of customers listening to this b.s. and every single person declines the club.

So, she rings me up. She scans my coupon and asks for my Borders card number because she needs to "verify the coupon." She looks it up and confirms it really is me. OK. It's $25.83 for my book (with the 33% off) and Belle's two books. WHO CARES. I waste more money than this in gas, just driving into town. Give her my credit card, she runs it through, prints receipt. THEN, she's like, "Ooooh. This isn't signed. Do you have another form of i.d.?" I tell her I don't have my driver's license but I have about a billion other forms of i.d. I have my huge wallet open by this time with my name on EVERYTHING. I ask her, "How about a checkbook?" and show her my checkbook with my name on it. She's like, "Hmmmm no..."

So she calls the store manager, "Customer doesn't have an i.d." OMFG. This is $25.83. I would have an easier time using my card to buy a diamond at Tiffany's! I'm like, "Okay, sister, I am going to just run to my car and get my i.d. (in wristlet) and be right back in. So, I do. It takes like 3 seconds. I come back in and she is JUST STARTING THE SCHPIEL about the book club with ANOTHER CUSTOMER. WT#!!!!!!!!!!

OMG, I almost DIED.

OMfreakin'God. If I had gone to the trouble of stealing someone's ENTIRE WALLET and checkbook, HACKING INTO THEIR BLACKBERRY for a measley (spell?) 33% off Borders coupon... A) I wouldn't even bother with Borders. I'm a book nerd but not that bad. You can look for me at Chanel or Bliss Spa, honey. B) If I DID use the stolen booty to go to Borders, do you think I'd buy a $25 Time Photographs book and two "Captain Underpants" paperbacks!?!?!? HELL.NO. I would literally take a cart from Michael's next door and just toss the entire photography SECTION into it. Duh! And I'd probably grab the Rhianna cd on the way to register because that "WANT YOU TO MAKE ME FEEL, LIKE I'M THE ONLY GIRL IN THE WORLD," song has been in my head for like 3 weeks. AND, to tell you the truth...I probably would join the $20 club at that point.

I am seriously thinking of complaining to Borders but I don't want to get her in trouble.

Wow, that was a long story! Hope your day was filled with easy shopping experiences! Do tell!

xo!
Ann

RUKM?

2011-01-04T21:47:00.000-08:00

Tonight I forgot Miss Nikki's (tumbling cheerleading teacher) Christmas present. Again. This is a not the first time I've said, "I forgot Miss Nikki's present. Again." You can imagine I'm sick of this Xmas prize sitting in my living room. Not to mention she probably thinks we don't really have one for her. Niccccccce. If I forget it "again" on Thursday, I will be posting about it "again," but this time with several #%%@(*&%*(.

xo!
Ann

Cheer Camp

2011-01-03T21:48:00.000-08:00

Belle had her BFF, Francesca, over. They made up cheers and gave me a performance. For the purposes of this blog, I just went into her room and stole her cheer notebook so I could give you the listing:

#1 Friends
#2 Shoot for the Stars
#3 Blue Grass (Wildcats)
#4 PV (Spartans)
#5 Dream
#6 Kitty Catz
#7 Best Friends (B.F.F.)
#8 Stars, Sky, Moon, Life
#9 Day Dream

I have to admit it was pretty ingenious since they only worked on it for an hour and had some pretty cute moves. Isn't #3 totally deep?? Somehow, they managed to drag out some matching outfits from the Summer 2009 stash to wear for the performance. They do kind of look cheerleadery.

Not long after this, Francesca was trying to teach Belle a new P.V. Spartans cheer when Belle lost interest and looked outside. Let's just say tears were involved and Belle was no longer allowed to share in the Spartan Spirit of Cheer #4. All has been resolved. =Dramatic.

Hoard much?

2011-01-02T21:56:00.000-08:00

I actually took this photo for my makeup blog, so if you're into that sort of thing, you may see it on there, too.

My makeup cabinet was O.O.C. (out of control). For reals. I have always had these drawer things (Kurt bought them for me (of course). Slowly over time I had eeked my way into using two additional huge makeup bags and gotten everything 70% unorganized again.

When we were in DSM, Dani was telling us how her OCD husband suggested "they" (meaning she) be more organized for their 2011 resolution. Kurt thought this was a splendid idea *yawns* and thought we (meaning I) should do the same *ducks*.

I bought some new loot @ Sephora on Jan 1, so I decided those items needed a neat, organized home. I'm sure it'll be messed up again soon. Whooppppsss! ;)

xo!
Ann

HNY, Auld Lang Syne (sp?), etc

2011-01-01T22:08:00.000-08:00

We went to DSM for New Year's Eve for a few days to see our friends, Dustin and Dani. They are Kurt's very best friends from school and have two bambinos near our kids' ages.

This photo makes the blog (dingdingding!) because these "innocent little darlings" found out how to rent pay-per-view KIDS movies in the hotel a mere two hours after this pic was taken. lol. Hilarious. They had no idea they movies were charging our room $$$, so if they didn't like a movie they picked, they just picked a different one. HAHAHA. Cheers to living it up in 2011. ;)

xo!
Ann

Short Timer

2010-12-24T01:51:00.000-08:00

Cute, right? Too bad she's bad.

You all know about my animal hoarding. You can imagine Kurt's random comments about the animals. I have to admit they are pretty funny (secretly he likes them, I know it). Kurt's not a man of many words but the things he does say are HILARIOUS. And he normally doesn't crack a smile at his own jokes, which makes them even funnier.

OMG. So, I came out at 4am the other a.m. Georgia had thrown up on the threshold between the kitchen linoleum and the very light beige carpet of the living room. "*&^(" OMG. It was like red. And it was a lot. Again, "%#$!!!!!!!!!!" It was like 1/2 on the kitchen floor, 1/2 on the carpet. OMFG dog, can't you just throw up 100% in the kitchen. Ugh! So I make a half-ditch effort to clean it up. I get back into bed and knowing Kurt's about to hear the cockadoodledoo (farmboy), I told him Georgia threw up on the carpet but "don't be mad at her, it's not her fault."

He gets up, comes back in to give me a kiss (no job = effing awesome). He, very calmly, goes, "Oh by the way, Georgia threw up on your new purse. 'Don't be mad at her. It's not her fault.'" I had to give it to him, that was hilarious.

When I saw the throw up on my brand new handbag, I texted him and said, "If she throws up on my L.A.M.B. again, I'll kill her."
His response: "Hope she does."

hahaha.

Winter Wonderland

2010-12-07T06:35:00.000-08:00

Q: On a scale of 1 to 10, how much easier is the winter when you don't have to leave the house?

A: 50 Billion.

OMG, I have always despised winter in the worst way. Not overly a fan of Fall or Spring either. I really would be happiest in Southern Florida, or better yet, somewhere right on the equator. I am one of those weirdos that doesn't want or need a/c in the house. I lovvvve humidity.

HOWEVER, now that I don't have to leave the house if I don't want to :), and I don't have to wear freakin' dress clothes and heels, and I can bundle up to no end and leave it all on at my destination (aka usually the mall), winter is cool. We have made peace. Thanks, husb...of course, I couldn't be at home right now without that guy <3

I'm gonna sit here, feed Will some cheerios and admire the sparkly snow (from the couch). yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Holla.
Love~Ann

Wow.

2010-11-14T17:59:00.001-08:00

So I only made it 10 days...

OR should I say: Wow! I made it 10 days!!

Tres Lame.

Hmmmm...what's been goin' down..

Nada mucho! Tons of super cute photo shoots and continuing to do lots of trainings. Set up a sweet studio! Life is good :) Except the fact it gets DARK at seriously 5pm. Ugggggghhhhhh...

Looking forward to the winter and snuggling it up with my lil' Cashew and rarely leaving the house :) :) Yahhhhh!

It's been about 8 months or so, so I feel another workout kick coming on. Likely, it will just be long enough to remind me that I never did see that orthopedic surgeon about my knee. HAHA! Oh well...if I'm going to a surgeon to go under the knife...trust me, it will be something COSMETIC. Not so I can RUN MORE and cause myself more agony!? Hehe.

LOVE.TO.ALL!
ann :)

Day 10 - Swap (Recipe for Photo)

2010-10-06T11:16:00.000-07:00

I am switching out Day 10 for "Recipe Day" because I am making it and it's out. Plus, Kate (pictured below) wants this recipe. And it smells mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm good. Yah, it's soup! It's delciious, makes a ton and I've made it several times. YUM YUM YUM!

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup/Chili (Called soup but more like a chili)

Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 7 hrs
Ready In: 7 hrs 15 mins

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped
1 (16 oz) can chili beans
1 (15 oz) can black beans
1 (15 oz) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (12 oz) can or bottle beer
2 (10oz) cans of tomatoes with green chilies, UNDRAINED
1 (1.25 oz) package taco seasoning
3 whole skinless,boneless chicken breasts (or, obviously 6 halves)
Shredded Cheddar Cheese (opt but recommended)
Sour Cream (opt but recommended)
Crushed Tortilla Chips (opt but yum)

Directions (so easy):
1. Place onion, chili beans, black beans,corn, tomato sauce, beer and diced tomatoes in slow cooker. Add taco seasoning and stir to blend. Lay chix breasts on top of mixture, pressing down slightly until just covered by the other ingredients. Set slow cooker for low heat, cover and cook for 5 hours. Your house will smell delicious ALL DAY!

2. After 5 hrs, remove chix breasts from the soup and allow to cool long enough to be handled. Shred the chicken (I use two forks. It's a pain, but worth it). Stire the chicken back into the soup, and continue cooking for 2 hours.

Serve in bowl topped with shredded cheese, dollop of sour cream and some crushed tortilla chips. I also throw chopped some green onions on the top for color (plus, I like them) but you don't have to.

Enjoy this muy, muy deliciouso soup!!!!!!! It's so good, it may inspire you to have soup holidays, serving this and other kinds of soups instead of turkey, ham, etc... :) :)

Love,
Ann

Day 9 – a photo you took

2010-10-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

Uhhh, I've taken like 10,000 photos this year. Such pressure!!!

So, I have two rockin' cameras (I mainly only use the one) but I shoot photos in RAW. So, editing them is an ordeal. I decided my kids ALSO need random snapshots of their life, so I use my G9 to take random house pics of them. One of the memory cards is in right now, so I scrolled through...

This is a pic of my friend Kate :) Taken when we picked out our friend Jeri's wedding dress back in Feb or Mar! OMG, that seems like YESTERDAY! Look how little Will was :) My baby!!

Kate will also make a cameo appearance in tomorrow's photo. Stay tuned. HAHA! It's a good one!!

Love,
Moi :)

PS - Kate and Will are super cute! But since I worked on the real photos all day, this picture itself looks like hell compared to those! God, so underexposed!! I used to love my G9, too!

Day 8 - Photo of Saddness!! :(

2010-10-05T21:13:00.001-07:00

Fair 2009.

I've talked about my lovely, beloved, wonderful, amazing, awesome Grandma on the blogs before. She came to see Belle show a calf at the Fair last year. Two months later, we lost her. Yeah, this photo makes me so, so, so sad.

RIP!! Love you, Gram Grams!

Ann

PS - Sorry for the delay! I couldn't think of an angry/sad photo so I just went with a sad!

Day 7 - Photo of Happiness

2010-10-03T22:14:00.000-07:00

I have 22,000 photos of my rug rats :) Still in RAW format. I WILL get them into jpeg this winter...and get caught up (yeah right!)... No, seriously, they do make me happy BUT I have so, so, so many, I could never choose JUST ONE!?

In all seriousness, I am going to post a photo that makes me swoon with love. You may think it's lame, boring, etc...I don't know. I ADORE IT. I took it yesterday at an extremely lovely and wonderful wedding.

Why do I love thee??

I have always noticed, loved and appreciated the little details of weddings. And I have always TRIED to capture them to no avail with my sporty lil' G9 (lol). I'm soooooo, sooooooo, soooooooo HAPPY I have the training and equipment to do take photos EXACTLY. LIKE. THIS:

I am also happy I finally got the bride's rings to balance in there. Thank you, rings!

I spent lots of years at a desk, feeling like I should be somewhere else doing something much more fabulous than accounting...something kinda artsy-ish that people actually gave a damn about. Ahhhh...love....

Day 6 – 20 of my favorite things

2010-10-02T04:34:00.000-07:00

I am going to exclude the EXTREMELY obvious: people, pets and my orthodontic work.

1. My wedding ring.

2. My engagement ring.

3. My pearls the husb gave me on our wedding day.

4. My camera. And my lenses that go with it.

5. My L.A.M.B. bag. I've carried it the longest. Not sure why? I am still not even in the market for a new bag and it's been almost a year! Is it true love?

6. My Louis Vuitton bag. I haven't carried it since getting the L.A.M.B., but I shall!

7. My music collection (see Blog Challenge Original Post)

8. Any and all photos in my possession, printed or digital.

9. MY MAKEUP COLLECTION. See my makeup blog for additional information.

10. All of the vacations I've taken with the husb. He's hilarious. Too bad I quit my job and the vacas were the first to go. LOL.

11. My John Deere audit staff days, the amazing places it showed me and the wonderful, awesome, forever friends it made me.

12. Expensive denim. My new R&R jeans, specifically. Thank you, Josh, for verifying they are cool.

13. All of the littles notes and pictures Belle made me. I save them ALL.

14. Five Star Facials. And massages.

15. My house. We live in the middle of nowhere and it's the most calming, peaceful, wonderful place ever. And I get to see the farmboy drive tractors and combines and whatnot around on the weekends. It's awesome.

16. Barn Dances. I really want to have an anniversary party.

17. This blog challenge. It's seriously pretty fun. Thanks, Laura!

18. The fact I'm not working right now. Being a stay at home mom is ****ing AWESOME. ;)

19. DIET COKE. DIET PEPSI. DIET MOUNTAIN DEW. DIET DR. PEPPER. DIET CHERRY PEPSI.

20. My bed. It's like a cloud.

Just to mix it up a little, and because my posts from the past couple days have been short...I shall say 20 things I hate, as well :)

1. The Progressive Car Insurance lady. I would feel really bad if she knew I said this, because I don't know her, but I still hate her.

2. How The Gap, The Limited, Old Navy, etc all ask if I want a credit card. As much as I shop, it's seriously the most annoying thing ever. I stopped going to the Limited Southpark because I can't stand those girls. Hello, I had all the credit cards I wanted by age 22. Then, I had to spend time getting rid of them so my wallet didn't continue to weigh 42 lbs. No, I do not want any more cards...business, credit, punch, etc.

3. Glade air freshener, especially plug-ins and those fake gel candles. This just made me realize I should have included "Scentsy" in the 20 Favorites. My house is filled with the sweet smells of Scentsy right now.

4. The fact I haven't gone to yoga. I'm starting to really get pissed at myself for this. I love yoga. Tapas Yoga Shala and Indigo should totally be in the top 20 with Scentsy!!

5. (Most) Italian Food. Marinara-ish stuff is not my favorite. I am more of a super-spicy Thai person.

6. Shots. UGH. Cannot stand hard alcohol. Except the tequila hiding in my margaritas.

7. Red wine. I think it tastes like bacon...which I also hate. My friend Kates makes fun of me all the time. She works at a wine store and I bought some Cranberry wine from her the other day. I told her I couldn't believe I bought red wine. Then, she informed me, I bought white wine that happens to be red. lol. Oops.

8. The song "Celebrity" by Brad Paisley. No offense to Brad, as I love many of his other songs. F. Now I have that song in my head!

9. That Belle will be a Lancer. No offense to the Lancers...I am just a die-hard Falcon. GO WEST.

10. June bugs. Ew. And centipedes. Eeew! I don't mind spiders, though.

11. Getting my tattoos lasered off. Oh yeah, it hurts. Fortunately, I don't have to do it anymore. Ahhh...getting Betty Boop tattooed on my ankle at age 17 was so much fun! ;)

12. Politics. I know it's important. Sorry, but it's true: I hate politics.

13. Skinny jeans. Love them on others; cannot stand the thought of wearing them around my ankles. And no, not because I'm trying to show off the remnants of Betty Boop.

14. Running. Dear Running, I want to like you but I hate you. Love, Moi

15. The fact I type a million words per minutes and never spell-check or proof-read before I post.

16. RJ Boars.

17. The lobster tank at Red Lobster. I mean, is this necessary?

18. Haunted Houses. I am just not a fan. Scary!! I don't like anything scary - horror movies, etc.

19. Rides that spin: Silly Silo, Gravatron, those chairs that swing around in a huge circle, The Sizzler, etc, etc, etc. Ugh.

20. Putting laundry away. I don't mind doing it but putting away IS HORRIBLE!!!!!!!

Love,
Ann :)

Day 5 - Favorite Quote

2010-10-01T06:13:00.000-07:00

Huge quote person. Lovvvve them.

My faves =

"Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the cornfield." -Dwight D. Eisenhower

"If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons." -James Thurber

"The more you photograph, the more you realize what can and what can't be photographed. You just have to keep doing it." -Eliot Porter

Day 4 - Post #2 - Randomness

2010-10-01T06:04:00.000-07:00

OMG, I know.

I had seriously just deleted my blog information from my Facebook last week because I was like - I never write, so I assume no one ever reads, so I shall delete. I may need to make a grand re-entrance.

I just wanted to point out how much I love not working. It's soooo freaking great. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FREAKING GREAT. I was a working accountant mom for almost ten years (omg) so I will NEVER, EVER take this relaxed life for granted. I would NEVER want to go back to the rushing around in the a.m.'s and tired brain-frazzled evenings! Love love love my husband for agreeing to this situation :)

I also wanted to point out how annoying The Today Show is. Seriously, they go over the same things over and over and over. I love how they constantly have "Health Advice" givers on and they say the same things: "Drink lots of water!" (with a photo of a glass of water in the background)..."Exercise 3 times per week!" (photo of person walking through a park in the background)...."Eat fruits and veggies (photo of banana and carrot in background). I mean seriously...everyone watching right now knows this. Give me some new tips I can really use. How can I make Diet Coke be considered "healthy" or how will facials prolong my life??

I noticed all of my grandparents or Kurt's mom or whoever stays home just parks the show on Channel 6. I always thought, omg I want to watch The Today Show, too. Ya know, just have it on while I'm doing miscellaneous "what nots" around the house with no plans or needs to go anywhere except the grocery store. And have the smell of coffee yummying up the air, like they always did. The only problem is that I hate coffee but I may take up drinking it just to have the full effect.

I have no idea how this post went down that road. LOL.

HAPPPPPPY FRIIIIIDAY!

Love,
Ann :)

Day 4 – your favorite book

2010-09-30T05:28:00.000-07:00

OMG, I used to read obsessively prior to having the rugratos. All through elementary, junior high, high school and college.

The book that always sticks out as my favorite is Needful Things by Stephan King. Maybe I'll read it again and figure out why since I haven't read it for like 17 years.

Love,
Ann

Day 3 – your favorite television program

2010-09-29T06:24:00.000-07:00

Golden Girls.

I loved it when I was 7 and watched it all the time with my Grandma, until I got old enough to have a driver's license and stopped staying the night with her. I'd do anything to go spend some more nights hanging out with her.

I loved it when I was 23 and lived with Belle's Grandma while Belle's dad was overseas. We watched it alll the time. So much fun!

I loved it when I could finally get it on DVD! I have all the boxes sets!

I loved it when I was on Maternity Leave this year and watched it at all hours of the night!

I still love it now that I'm home during the day and watching daytime tv :) :) :)

It's the greatest show ever.

The second greatest show ever is Jersey Shore. I'm just sayin'. Gotta go GTL.

Love y'all!
Ann

WT# - Photo deleted from Day 2 Post??? Grrr.

2010-09-28T18:11:00.000-07:00

Here it is...

=LOVE

Day 2 - Favorite Movie

2010-09-28T06:23:00.000-07:00

Absolutely no question about this one:

The End.

Love,
Ann

Day 1 - Your Favorite Song

2010-09-27T16:08:00.001-07:00

If you have no idea why I'm answering these questions, see Blog Challenge post from earlier today...

OMG, no way can I narrow it down to 1! I will have no problem doing this in some of the other categories.

I am a big believer in "You are what you listen to." I seriously made this up...I think(???). Other people probably think it, too...but I've never heard anyone say it except me. HERE WE GO!

This will be extremely hard to do without large commentary on each song (we all know I talk too much) but...

If you put a gun to my head (scary!) and made me pick my three top favorite songs, it would, without a doubt, be:

Sweet Home Alabama - L.S.
Dixieland Delight - Alabama
Honky Tonk Women - The Rolling Stones

If you happened to mention the gun wasn't loaded, the list would get much longer and would quickly include:

Fortunate Son - Creedence Clearwater Revival - I am a huge CCR fan.
Lodi - CCR
When I'm 64 - The Beatles
Hold on Loosely - .38 Special
Tumblin' Dice - The Rolling Stones
Wagon Wheel - Old Crow Medicine Show
L.A. Woman - The Doors
Roadhouse Blues - The Doors
High Cotton - Alabama
Let's Go - The Cars
She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy - Kenny, hello.
The Good Stuff - Kenny
Lay You Down - Conway Twitty
Come a Little Closer - Dierks Bentley
Is Anybody Loving You These Days - Dierks Bentley
Yeah! -Usher - What??
Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash
Get Rhythm - Johnny Cash
Jackson - Johnny & June
Johnny & June - Heidi Newfield
Shoulda Been a Cowboy - Toby Keith
Get In Where You Fit in - Too $hort
Soulshine - Gov't Mule
I'm On Fire - Bruce Springsteen
Tight Fittin' Jeans - Conway Twitty
Alabama - Cross Canadian Ragweed
17 - Cross Canadian Ragweed
Hey, Hey What Can I Do? - Led Zeppelin
Rocky Mountain Way - Joe Walsh
Billie Jean - Michael Jackson
Green River - CCR
I Believe in You - Don Williams
The Galway Girl - Steve Earle
Crazy Game of Poker - O.A.R.
All Right Now - Free
What About Georgia - Miranda Lambert
Don't It Make You Wanna Dance - Jason Boland
It's Alright - Bleu Edmondson
$50 and a Flask of Crown - Bleu Edmondson
Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet Emooooooooooooooooooooootion - Aerosmith
Ballroom Blitz - Misfits
Free Fallin' - Tom Petty but I like the John Mayer one better.
Cherry Bomb - John Cougar Mellancamp
What's My Name - Snoop Dogg, of course!
John Deere Green - Joe Diffie
Redneck Girl - Bellamy Brothers
Gett Off - Prince
7 - Prince
Purple Rain - Prince
Little Red Corvette - Prince
Raspberry Beret - Prince
Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound - Anyone who sings it is a friend of mine.
The Dope Show - Marilyn Manson
Guitars, Cadillacs - Dwight Yokam
Rock and Roll Girls - John Fogerty
Summer of '69 - Bryan Adams
Back to Da Hotel - N2Deep - what??
Up on Cripple Creek - The Band
Pretty Vegas - INXS
Pearl Necklace - ZZTop - what?? I had no idea what this song meant until a couple years ago at the fair when I was dancing around singing it. Thanks, Craig, for telling me :) I still love it, though!
Got Me Under Pressure - ZZTop
My Best Friend's Girl - The Cars
Sweet Child O Mine - GNR
Family Tradition (!!!) - Hank Williams, Jr.
State Line - Cooder Graw
Louisiana Saturday Night - Mel McDaniel
Down Home - Alabama
Jack & Diane - John Cougar Mellancamp
Back Where I Come From - Kenny C.
Ditty - Paperboy
Night Moves - Bob Segar
Blues Man - Alan Jackson
Mayberry - Rascal Flatts
Hey Jude - The Beatles
Melissa - Allman Brothers Band
Down on the Corner - CCR
Take It to the Limit - The Eagles
Never Been to Spain - Three Dog Night

If I had to name just a few, that is...

LOVVVVVE ~
Ann :)

BLOGGGG CHALLLENNNGGGGE! GO!

2010-09-27T08:49:00.000-07:00

My muy awesome-o friend, Laura, has created a blog challenge. I am beyond stoked. We commit to blogging for 30 days.

Please start scoping her blog, too: http://www.themeckleys.com/ :)

Here is the challenge! I shall start TOMORROW! We all know I love blogging...but I do not do it. Why? I do not know. My old excuse was I had a job. Holla!

30-Day Blog Challenge

Day 1 – your favorite song
Day 2 – your favorite movie
Day 3 – your favorite television program
Day 4 – your favorite book
Day 5 – your favorite quote
Day 6 – 20 of my favorite things
Day 7 – a photo that makes you happy
Day 8 – a photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 9 – a photo you took
Day 10 – a photo taken over 10 years ago of you
Day 11 – a photo of you recently
Day 12 – something you are OCD about
Day 13 – a fictional book
Day 14 – a non-fictional book
Day 15 – your dream house
Day 16 – a song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 – an art piece (drawing, sculpture, painting, etc)
Day 18 – my wedding/future wedding/past wedding
Day 19 – a talent of yours
Day 20 – a hobby of yours
Day 21 – a recipe
Day 22 – a website
Day 23 – a youtube video
Day 24 – where I live
Day 25 – your day, in great detail
Day 26 – your week, in great detail
Day 27 – my worst habit
Day 28 – whats in my handbag/purse
Day 29 – hopes,dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 – a dream for the future

Busy

2010-07-22T19:21:00.000-07:00

Shall I make an effort with grammar this eve? I shall not!

What did I do today? Busy, busy. LOL, not really.

Got up early, thanks to baby! Went to Target at 8 am! :) Dropped off Belle @ her grandparents house (she wanted to go there and they wanted to see her). Went to floral connection, bought some stuff. Went to JoAnn Fabrics. Bought some stuff. Came home. Sat outside for a looong time in the nice, warm breeze with B.Will and pushed him in his swing. I LOVE SUMMER!

Went to chiro, had B.Will adjusted. He's been turning into Lucifer over the past three days so I knew something was up. He's returned to his angelic self and been sleeping every since we got home. If you have a baby and DON'T go to the chiro, you are missing out. Kind of like when I "didn't use to like margaritas."

Went to take some newborn pics. Ahhhh, I want another! Then, some friends from high school brought little 2 year old Nolan out for pics. He was so cute!

Now, I'm holding my nite-nite baby bird. He's so sweet post-chiro! I'm sure he'll be up at midnight wanting to play and crawl everywhere. :)

Anyone have any scoop? I feel like I have no scoop since I've been home all week!

Mucho love!
Ann :)

BEHOLD!

2010-07-21T19:22:00.001-07:00

As promised, here = my mom's favorite portrait of all time. I'm kind of disappointed, however, that O.M. didn't think to offer Dede the floating heads. They missed an additional sale!

This was the photo that wouldn't go away. Granted, it is cute-ish, for the 80's. But it was still hanging on my living room wall the day of my graduation party...FROM COLLEGE. No, not with my brother and I's senior pictures or collages of Christmas/birthday snapshots. Just this one. It was also in random lockets, wallets, jewelry boxes, etc, scattered throughout our house. I'm sure if the new owners of our casa on Linwood Ave pull up the carpet, they will find a few 5x7's of this timeless little #.

Isn't my little bro cute? I think they thought he was older than me. Hello, no, he's just taller. So I had to sit on the itchy carpeted cube. Rats!

C.O.S. - - - -

On a lighter note, I went to yoga today! OMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :) :)

Loving the yogaing during the day! Eeeeeeeee! The only problem was I took someone else's body. WTF. My body is like a mixture of rubber bands and scrap metal. Some stuff stretches like before, some stuff uhhhh....DOESN'T. I'm sure it was looking like a hot mess. E.G. I can get into down triangle somewhat fine, but I can't get my right shoulder to open at all. Like, AT ALL. I don't even want to know what it looked like from the outside.

Mucho love!!!!!!!!! ~ann

P.S. I have not sewn today. LOL! Maybe tonight after the baby goes to bed! :)

OMFG

2010-07-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

I'm sewing stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay!!!!!!!!

2010-07-20T10:35:00.000-07:00

I just "wound" and "threaded"(?) a bobbin! Until now, I had no idea what the ladies were talking aboutwhen they said bobbin.

I'll be back. Tutorial continues!!!!!!

Sweet

2010-07-20T10:08:00.000-07:00

It comes w/ a dvd. This shall be helpful.

Drumroll...

2010-07-20T10:00:00.001-07:00

I'm seriously opening the box right now. I know no one cares. :) But thought I'd post anyway!

Happy Tuesday!

I Got My Rock Moves

2010-07-19T15:05:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: Terrible grammar to follow...

God, I love not working. You get to teach yourself the randomest things you SHOULD know how to do, but don't.

So, I need to sew some stuff for photography props and backgrounds. I have been hanging out at Fabric Stores lately (lately = this past week) trying to figure out the best way to accomplish this. Considering the vast amount of sew-stuffs I need sewed (?), really the only *&^^ing feasible option is to learn to sew. Which, if you know me, is hilarious. Well, not really because I go all OBSESSIVE over whatever it is I'm obsessing over at the time. By next week, I may be making couture wedding dresses, you never know. I may reserve annstewardcouture.com while I'm thinking about it, just in case. Or I may throw the thing in the garbage. It's a big crapshoot, this one.

So, there is no way I could pay someone to do this vast amount of sewing for me. Remember, I just retired like yesterday. Bye-bye regular Corporate America deposits. Saddness. LOL. From my seat on the couch, I'm still living the good life.

So my options were my grandma and Kurt's mom. Kurt's mom is out. She likes to say, "Oh Ann, I wouldn't," a lot. Not that that's a bad thing, but she says it a lot when it's about stuff I need. You can see how this would be problematic. So, therefore, she would think making photography props is a waste of time. I love her dearly, but her idea of cool portrait photography is 1985 Olan Mills. Her and my mom agree on this. I need to go get my mom's fave photo after I post this and then post the photo of the photo. Does that even make sense? Then, my Grandma Donetta, who totally rocks it hardcore. She would probably do it for me. But, she has enough going on and helps me a TON with Belle. So that is just rude to ask her to help! It's all me, baby! Me & my new SINGER! Holla!

Well, I WASSSSSS super excited to get my Grandma Bernice (R.I.P.!!!!!!!)'s sewing machine. I am just SOOOOO SAD (waaaaah!) she's not around anymore (again, R.I.P.!!) to tell her I am staying home with the babies and I want to learn to sew. The entire time I was pregnant with Will, she continued to communicate her unimpressedness at me commuting over an hour each way and also me working, all while having a baby at home. So, needless to say, she'd be overjoyed because she loves me loves me loves me and would think it's awesome awesome awesome I'm teaching myself to sew.

I thought it would be crazy cool to get her sweet sewing machine...and it would. Too bad I finally found out the other day from my aunt that one of my other aunts wants it. BUT, my aunt is an excellent seamstress so really she should get it before me, so I'm happy for her. And then I started thinking about my laptop now vs. the Commodore 64 computer we had as kids. Yeah, the Barbie game rocked. But it's nothing compared to the internets. That being said, my Grandma's OTHER TWO available sewing machines are upwards of 30-40 years old. I'm assuming sewing machines have come a long way since then and are much more user- (aka idiot) friendly than they were then. So, me and the new Singer are going to make our peace tomorrow. I'll letcha know how it goes...if it goes. If you don't hear from me for awhile, it's probably safe to assume I stitched my hands together and landed myself in the E.R. Cheese grater incident, anyone!?

Wish me luck. For reals. Olan Mills photo to follow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,
Ann

Ahhhhhh....

2010-07-18T08:42:00.001-07:00

Overjoyed really isn't the word to describe! I'm totally the baby-mama that threw away a traditional career to stay home with the bambino. I'll miss all of my many, many, awesome, wonderful, lovely work friends! xoxo! I HATED leaving my guy and seeing him get bigger by the week! And the one who suffered the most was Belle, age 9. It's always been her and I on the roll, then all of a sudden the baby demands all of our attention. I'm so excited to be around for both them now.

My car is looking forward to the break as well as it didn't really appreciate the hour+ commute. :)

Anyway, so miraculously, photography kind of fell out of the sky this year, it's going WONDERFULLY, and I adore, adore, adore it.

All of these things added up to me entering the SAHM world! Yay!

You may recall I'm married to an awesome guy, but a farmer. Farmers like to make money, not spend. I find this mentality to be counter-productive. Therefore, both he and his wallet have entered the witness protection program. Hehe. Too bad I know where he keeps his extra checks. :)

No, seriously, I can't thank him enough for allowing me to do this. He's the greatest!

I know my blog posts aren't normally this annoyingly "I LOVE MY LIFE!" BUT in this case, I think it's a special circumstance :) :) I feel like the hugest weight is lifted off my shoulders. IT'S SUNDAY and I'm not dreading tomorrow, or wishing the week away for the weekend. So, so happy.

Plus, I feel like I can have my LIFE BACK...the life I was supposed to live, not the one I've been living.lol. SUCH AS blogging, yoga, shopping (wait, that's not one of the things - damn it!), raising babies, volunteering at Belle's school ( I HAVE NEVER BENE ABLE TO DO THIS!), picking her up occasionally, being home during the winter when it's daylight, snuggling up with the kids on snow days, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc! :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

More cynical/typical blogs to be posted soon, I'm sure. Oh, I forgot to mention I may "occasionally" watch Days of Our Lives again. Hahaha. I'm sure Hope and Bo are still not back together, which will just p me off. ;)

Love you all!
Ann

YEAH, BABY!!

2010-06-13T19:17:00.000-07:00

Random blog is back! Rock on! Thank you for checking back! I definitely wasn't trying to exclude anyone!! I just wasn't updating. So lame. Explanation below!

I can't believe the blog's only been locked down like 6 weeks. IT SEEMS LIKE FOREVER!

Alright, I probably shouldn't think this is funny but, not surprisingly, I do. What can I say, I have a "funny" sense of humor when it comes to work situations. As in, I don't get too worked up over it (pun intended). Yes, my lame jokes are back, too.

Soooo anyway, every 18 months, we can apply for new jobs at the company. I applied for one and had all of these managers thinking it would be AWESOME for me to just get an interview (I'm trying to cross functional areas) and they spoke with this particular hiring manager. I know this manager is active on facebook and I assume she may have looked me up...which, I thought would be okay since we weren't FB friends or anything. Shockingly, *gasp*, I did not get an interview. I am still offended. I bought a new outfit/jewelry in preparation and was practicing my most charming smiles and chattiness. I started thinking hmmmm...maybe I am a facebook case like on dateline or something...and she wasn't impressed with my St. Patrick's Day parade pics from 2006?? Whatever. 25 green beers never killed anyone. And considering those pics were taken at like 10 am on a Saturday...I was fully recovered by Monday at 8 am. ha. Nice chick! (Those are my friends Craig and Crystal, btw). The first pic was after about 19 beers. The second appears to be after I had the additional 6. I'm going to have to say, "Ew!" "Wow...?" & "Really?!" to that one.

So I looked up my profile by logging out. I had a HUGE picture of a newborn as my profile pic, and then my contact info was public. WHICH INCLUDED my email AND BLOGS!!!!!!!!!!! I mean, who doesn't want to hire a mom of a newborn?? We are always to work on time, never miss work for the kid being sick and never are irritable from the kid getting up 14 times per night. Wait...scratch all that.

Anyway, the last entry on my blogs (farmbaby) was titled, "Work Sucks!" And the first line read "Work is soooo over-rated but paychecks are so under-rated." LOL! I thought it was pretty funny at the time but I'm gonna go on a limb here and assume a hiring manager WOULDN'T.

So I had to lock down the blogs temporarily. But like I said, how can you not laugh at that situation? There are lots of other jobs in the company so I'm sure another will come along soon.

ANYWAY, so that is the scoop! I missed the blogs though! I'll unlock them as I update them. Summer at the farm has been good :) Hope everyone is enjoying this warm and GLORIOUS weather!!

Mucho love to ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
~Ann

Just Do It

2010-04-20T20:43:00.001-07:00

My mom's a good one for not remembering the whole story from when I was growing up...as in, whatsoever. She does remember bits and pieces of random stuff though, which is pretty cool. She told Kurt I thought I was a princess growing up because I had a poster of it on my wall that said "I am the princess." I don't deny this blanket statement...and I won't say that still isn't the case either. lol. I was like, "What poster?" I started shuffling through my memoirs of the pink paradise....hmmm...I remember my Marky Mark poster, my Bon Jovi poster, my Ryne Sandberg poster, a pretty kickass flute poster (shut it)............ my Nike ad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She confirmed it was the Nike ad. Hells yeah. That thing hung on my wall FOREVER. I found it online today and it's still as awesome today as it was then!

It was like a 20-page ad from a magazine (prob YM or Seventeen) that had a couple of sentences on each page with a picture. I had it hanging on my wall by a tack for YEARS and YEARS. You know in high school/early college a year is like ten years. So yeah, I can't remember the pink paradise being without that Nike ad or my teenline. Some of you know the #.

Of course, I'll share the ad. I was pretty pumped to find it online. I still LOVE IT. ha...

"You were born a daughter. You looked up to your mother. You looked up to your father. You looked up at everyone. You wanted to be a princess. You thought you were a princess. You wanted to own a horse. You wanted to be a horse. You wanted your brother to be a horse. You wanted to wear pink. You never wanted to wear pink. You wanted to be a Veterinarian. You wanted to be President. You wanted to be the President's Veterinarian. You were picked last for the team. You were the best one on the team. You refused to be on the team. You wanted to be good in algebra. You hid during algebra. You wanted the boys to notice you. You were afraid the boys would notice you. You started to get acne. You started to get breasts. You started to get acne that was bigger than your breasts. You wouldn't wear a bra. You couldn't wait to wear a bra. You couldn't fit into a bra. You didn't like the way you looked. You didn't like the way your parents looked. You didn't want to grow up. You had your first best friend. You had your first date. You had your second best friend. You had your second first date. You spent hours on the telephone. You got kissed. You got to kiss back. You went to the prom. You didn't go to the prom. You went to the prom with the wrong person. You spent hours on the telephone. You fell in love. You fell in love. You fell in love. You lost your best friend. You lost your other best friend. You really fell in love. You became a steady girlfriend. You became a significant other. YOU BECAME SIGNIFICANT TO YOURSELF. Sooner or later, you start taking yourself seriously. You know when you need a break. You know when you need a rest. You know what to get worked up about and what to get rid of. And you know when it's time to take care of yourself, for yourself. To do something that makes you stronger, faster, more complete. Because you know it's never too late to have a life. And never too late to change one. JUST DO IT."

OMG, I Made a Roast

2010-03-29T14:35:00.000-07:00

Who do I look like? Rachel Effing Ray?

I am not into handling raw meat. Schwan's made The Roast. I will call him T.R. for "The Roast". He weighs 3 lbs. Basically T.R. came frozen and I had to toss him in the slow cooker. I called my grandma to find out what else I was supposed to throw in with him, such as potatoes and carrots? She thinks it's funny when I cook. She said both and throw some onion on the top. My grandma is an AWESOME cook so she talks in terms like "some" and "a little". I had to pin her down on some details.

She told me to throw in the carrots and potatoes "about" an hour before it was done. Later, around the hour mark, I called to ask her if I had to peel the potatoes. Hahaha. She said yes but not if they are red. I got additional details such as how many pieces to cut them in, etc.

Somehow it later came out that T.R. was in the slow cooker and not the oven. LOL. She laughed and we realized his friends, Potatoes and Carrots, should have been chillin' it out with him the entire time. OMFG. She said, "It never occured to me it was in the slow cooker." I said, "It never occurred to me to put it in the oven." lol.

So I had to take the potatoes and carrots out of the roast and put them in the microwave with "a little bit" of water for "awhile". It was pretty damn funny coversation if you ask me.

Somehow it took me these utensils to make T.R.:

I have no idea how.

I am very undomesticated, especially when it comes to cookin' up carne. Gross.

The whole point is it looks like a roast and smells like a roast. Well, I guess it IS a roast that didn't come to my house bleeding?? My chef of a husband will prob fall over when he comes into the house. Hopefully T.R. doesn't start mooing the scoop and blow my cover.

And god no I'm not eating T.R. We have bonded today since the Schwan's dude gave him to me this morning. I'm having a veggie burger and a Diet Coke, hello :)

When I do cook, for real, not Schwan's, it's pretty awesome. However, I only do this on rare occasion because I use too many utensils :) :)

I'm gonna drink a Spotted Cow with dinner though. =Love.

Moocho love,

Ann

RUFKM? Warning: Lots of Rambling!

2010-03-28T09:42:00.000-07:00

OMG, I'm not so good at multi-tasking. What can I say, I guess I'm a bad accountant. I also haven't entered anything into my check register since 2001. Oops. I say, hey that's what ONLINE banking is for. Do I really want to know how much I spend on responsible things like oil changes, government bonds and calcium supplements (aka $0)? No. Do I really want to know how much I spend on Diet Cokes, makeup and jeans? Wow, what do you know - also a no. Kurt will spend two hours looking for $0.47 in his checkbook while I drink diet coke, review my account online and quickly move on to http://www.wwtdd.com/. Now, who's having more fun? (Note: never ask the question "Now, who has a higher balance?")

Anyway, on the multi-tasking, either it's makeupness, babyness OR randomness. I have no idea why because none of the above take me long to post! Therefore, many apologies on the delays! I was going to seriously post about the Katy Perry thing this weekend anyway. See way below.

Check it - mama's going back to work on Thursday! More on this later...

As for the title, I didn't make up that acronym, although we all know how much I love acronyms such as WTF, WTH, B, FU, OMG, OMFG, OMFFFFG, OMFGGGGG etc etc etc. I'm class-ay! lol. OMG, just used another one (lol)!

So, a couple years ago, my friend Heather and I got into an internet fight with this huge B on the qcweddings message board. She gave us the RUFKM. For the record, she was MAD because in my muy bueno wedding review, I told everyone we had a band and IT ROCKED IT but that the band doesn't do weddings, but they did for us because my uncle and his brother are in the band, blahblahblah. So my review said, "OMG definitely get A band!!" and went on to say how much fun it was to have a band and how everyone danced, loved it, etc etc etc. She was mad because I wouldn't give the name of the band. So I wrote back and said, hello sister, I am saying GET A BAND, not MY band because they don't do weddings and really aren't even together anymore. lol. Well, I had also said that our dj was a family friend but that I had been to several weddings where DJ Rebel played and he was great. So she also had an issue with me recommending someone I never hired. lol. So my friend Heather jumped in and gave her a scathing lesson on word-of-mouth advertising and who cares that I wasn't the one paying the dj but I was a guest where everyone had a great time, etc etc etc. The very small and remote point of this story is she gave us the R.U.F.K.M. a couple of times and I still use it because it's hilarious. It's kind of like FML, which I also think is hilarious. My sense of humor has a lot to be desired, I guess.

So - that being said - RUFKM????????????????? 4 RUFKM Things of Late:

1) Went to hot yoga on Friday. Hot, hot, hot! It's def NOT as caliente as the shala on Sundays but it seems weird to start out super hot instead of progressively getting suicidally hot. I liked it but it was kind of slow/peaceful for me. I found out my knee is STILL no bueno so I still can't run. RUFKM #1. Grrr!

2) I told the farmhusband on Friday, "I AM GOING TO YOGA ON SUNDAY." They worked outside all day on Saturday and I stayed inside with the chickadees. But then Belle woke up sick on Saturday a.m. and progressively got worse throughout the day. I looked in her throat last night and KNEW it was strep. RUFKM #2.

3) Called dr. last night who said to bring her to the office Sunday a.m. for a strep test. It was becoming clear no Ashtanga a la Shala for me. RUFKM #3.

4) Belle woke up throwing up, too. So she couldn't keep the motrin down, OMFG. Went to peds office. Positive strep test. Now my throat is hurting. RUFKM #4!!! Seriously, I cannot be sick, cannot get the baby sick! Mama's gotta GO TO WORK!!!!!!!!! ON THURSDAY! Like, I cannot call in, people. lol. I haven't been there since December 20th so I've been "resting" for over 3 months. I would go in if I had strep but obviously I can't leave my lil guy if he gets it!

All these RUFKM's made me realize today, on the 40 minute drive to the peds office: the universe doesn't want me to get skinny, work OR find my namaste. I'm f###ed.

Speaking of weight loss, I've lost 4 lbs since the knee injury and going vegan! 2 lbs to first dr. appt weight and 7 to wedding (aka pre-pregnancy) weight. Holla. Not that 7 isn't a TON left to go, because it is, I'm just sayin'.

***********************Random C.O.S.**********************************************

So the other night Belle was in bed reading and I took the little guy in there. Sometimes we sing dorky songs to him. Like we will put babyish words into real songs. One of his nicknames is "cashew" so I went in there and was bouncing him and I sang, "I kissed cashew and I liked it!"

Note: Belle and I listen to 99.99999999% country and classic rock.

She singingly goes: "I kissed off him's cherry chapstick. I kissed cashew just try it. I kissed off him's cherry chapstick."

I'm dying! She got the words a little wrong and was repeating the chapstick thing but the point is she knows the tune and a vast majority of the words to I kissed a girl. OMG. Not cool.

One day I told Kurt that Belle loves the song Night Moves. He responded with "Great, a song about teenage s##." That's when I realized how many songs she knows that are about that! Think about it - like 95% of songs are about s., lots about it as teenagers! For e.g. one of my fave Kenny songs goes a lil something like this, hit it:

First it discusses turning 16 and getting a car. Then it says this:
Took Katie down by the river with a six-dollar bottle of wine. Just a fool tryin' to play it cool, hopin' she'd let me cross the line. I was prayin' that she couldn't tell I'd never been that far before. The first time's a one-time feelin' and I never wanted nothin' more. No, I'd never wanted nothin' more.

Not disagreeing with my man, here. I just don't think my 8 year old singing it is cool. Shall I banish her to Peter Paul & Mary? omg. My parents totally had no idea the tapes they bought me and I memorized included Bel Biv Divoe's "Do Me Baby" and E-Z E's "Nobody Move, Nobody Gets Hurt." lol. I never thought about what I was singing though!!!!!! When do you start to realize what you're singing???

******************************************************************************
I wonder how many people read this blog and totally hate me and rip on this blog with their friends. lol. I read a couple of blogs written by major jacka$$e$. Note: if I know you, I love your blog. The jacka$$ blogs I read are people I don't know. If you are curious want the sites, email or facebook me. Heather and I like to read them and talk about what complete idiots these people are. That being said, surely I have some haters! :) I hope I do! lol. That means success in the blog world.

****************************************************************************

So that's all the hot scoop around here! Illness, wwtdd, and inappropriate songs. :)

Mucho love to everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ann :)

PS - sorry for the bad english - run-ons, fragments, ending a sentence with the wrong types of words, etc etc etc. I'm typing fast :)

No Buen!

2010-03-07T20:28:00.000-08:00

Yo y'all!

Eff. So I hurt my knee, omg. Technically, I hurt it in yoga approx. 1.5 years ago (aka - few months before the bun hopped into the oven). I was doing this very challenging pose known as "triangle" lol. Seriously, of all poses, I didn't anticipate hurting myself during freaking triangle. Anyway! My chiro was working on it until the stork visited. Post-stork, I decided to take some time off yoga to accomodate my hectic eating and sleeping schedule.

When I made my Grande Return of the BAM, I realized omg, my knee is better! Yay! However, last week, every run I started noticing my knee more. It was the same pain as the triangle fiasco. Eff! So I went to my chiro of awesomeness who informed me I rotated my knee. Double eff! So I haven't been able to work out until this coming Wednesday. I'll let you know how it goes. Knee is still no bueno but I'm hoping by Wednesday that it will be!

On a lighter note, I am bored with grilled chicken and going back to veganism for awhile. I'm pretty excited about it. I'm sure it won't last long but I'll keep everyone posted! :)

Who has other scoop? Do send.

Love,
Moi

Tricky, Tricky

2010-02-26T07:08:00.000-08:00

See poll above!!!!!!!!!!! I like blog polls A LOT, I just never have anything to ask!

I deleted all of the worthless songs from my old running playlist (see blog post below). Did I already say, "Thank God?" Some of those songs were just embarrassing (Magic Stik is not one of them, hello).

I'm now the proud new owner of what I call the Tricked Out Running List. 87 songs of pure cardioness! Yeehaw.

Does anyone give a damn about this list? If so, I'll type it on out. If not, I'll be on the treadmill thinking of something cooler/randomer to post about (more likely randomer). Holla! So plz vote :)

Love you all~
A. :)

P.S. Tricky isn't on there...yet. lol.

Wow (not in a good way)

2010-02-24T13:09:00.000-08:00

I've always been completely, psychotically obsessesd with (and emotionally dependant on) music. I'm a HUGE fan of music, in large part thanks to my awesome dad who had a humongous record collection in the 80's. And a ton of 8-tracks. Then tapes, then cds, etc.

Fortunately for all involved, since the invention of the iPod, my friends/family are no longer required to share shotgun with my 50 lb. cd case which included everything from Sir Mix A Lot to Alan Jackson to ACDC to Biggie to 38 Special. I'm a big fan of COUNTRY for sure (new and old), classic rock, old school rap, Britney, etc etc etc.

Now, don't go thinking I'm all unique and stuff. I remember watching a Howard Stern show once (loved it) where they were talking about music. Howard only listens to "hits" where the others on the show would buy a cd and listen to the entire thing. Howard said that was stupid and "TELL ME WHAT I'M GOING TO LIKE AND I'LL LIKE IT." I rock it like Howard. There are some exceptions to this rule that no one cares about so I won't go into it. But in general, when I say I'm a huge fan of "X, Y or Z" that means I've listened to their popular songs 500 million times but I'm not a "real fan" (aka crazy) as in know where they were born and what the title to track 2 on their third album is (unless it's greatest hits. lol.)

We have like 35 gigs of music in iTunes. You would never know this by my pathetic playlist for working out. I have lived with this playlist for sooooo long because hellllllo, I hate exercising! I don't do it too often...until now! And I need a playlist for working out because being such a country fan, the general "shuffle" during a run would be at least 70% country (no bueno for getting the sexyback). During one of my "garage runner" treadmill phases, I skimmed the library and created a workout playlist by throwing in any fast-paced songs I could think of and/or songs I happened to see and loved.

Emilene suggested to not HATE running but to think of it as a time I get to listen to music uninterrupted. I agree! There are two things I've always wanted to be: a singer and a runner. I'm a horrible singer and in fact, ditched my music major in college because I didn't want to take "Sight Singing." The running thing isn't happening either because a) not good at it and b) hate it!

That being said, over the last couple days, I decided Emilene is right but my playlist needs a HUGE overhaul since I skip through most of the songs while working out or running anyway! But I thought it would pretty cool/funny (Bueller??) to post my playlist and make fun of it. Please send any suggestions for new songs my way (I probably already have it in iTunes or I'll buy it). Anything with a * in front of it means I actually listen to it (aka don't hit "next") when working out and will keep it around:

*All Right Now - Free. I think it's about a prost. but I don't care!

*Ballroom Blitz - Misfits. =Love since Dave Navarro and Carmen Electra's wedding show. He got up and sang it with the band. It rocks it.

*Beautiful People - Marilyn Manson. Love me some MM. This is probably surprising to most people but hello he loves makeup too. I don't listen to very much "new rock" so MM is an exception to the rule. Not that he's "new" like Gym Class Heroes or any of those stupid bands but I mean "newer" than CCR (see below).

*Born on the Bayou - CCR. One of my favorite bands of all time. Can't live without them. Ever.

*Butterfly - Crazy Town. "Sealed with a kiss...and a thank you, miss." Don't hate.

*Closer - Nine Inch Nails. lol.

Cream - Prince. Adore Prince but working out to him sux in most cases. Apparently, there are a lot of cases of this on my playlist...

*C^m On Feel The Noize - Quiet Riot. C^m on. You know you love it, too! One of my fave songs of all time. Seriously.

Dancing With Myself - Billy Idol. Ha! I have no idea. The only Billy Idol song I like is White Wedding and that's not on here! Dying!

Dirty - Xtina. I'm over it.

Don't Cha - P.Cat Dolls. It's cute. But I'm over it.

*The Dope Show - Marilyn Manson. Love.

Dude (Looks Like A Lady) - Aerosmith. Hmmm...yeah this needs to go.

Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic - The Police. Same as above.

*Gett Off - Prince. I work out to this one. This was also a jazz dance Kate and I did in eighth grade. Listen to the words...can't believe our teachers picked that song. I blame our promiscuousness on them because of this song. Oh and also, this was a highly-requested song by my friends and I during our Stickman's days. You know who you are!

Give Me Three Steps - L.Skynyrd. Love this song but omg who works out to this? No one, that's who.

*Glycerine - Bush. I never work out to it but ran to it the other night. It wasn't too bad. I'll leave it on.

Goodbye To You - Scandal. It's pretty cute. I could probs work out to it. But I don't. I think this is a good thing.

*Got Me Under Pressure - ZZ Top. Can I give this one 2 stars? I love this song and ZZ.

I Love Rock & Roll - Joan Jett. Again, love it, over it, the end!

*It's Like That - Run D.M.C. Work out to it. You'll like it. Run DMC Jam Master J Run!

Jack and Diane - J.Mellancamp. Love J.Mellancamp beyond words. This song reminds me of my mom and dad (Rick & Diane). I remember my parents listening to it when I was a kid and they were still married :) I think I'll keep it on.

*Jane Fonda - Mickey Avalon. Ohhhhh yeah. It's stayin'!!!!!

Let's Get Rocked - Def Leppard. Hmmm...it's gotta gooooo!!

*Let's Go - The Cars. I LIKE THE NIGHTLIFE BABY!!!!!!!!!!! She saiiiiiidddd...

Little Red Corvette - Prince. =Gone

*Magic Stik - Lil' Kim. WTF. lol. You know if I'll admit this one is on there and that I still listen to it, I'll admit anything.

Mr. Jones - Counting Crows. Love it but it gotsta go.

*My Best Friends Girl - The Cars. I seriously don't listen to The Cars that often. But maybe I should. lol. *clapclap*

Nothin' But a Good Time - Poison. Love it (esp. when drunk). Never work out to it. Bye Bye, Brett *heartbreak*

Paradise City - GNR. Good cut. But bye bye.

*Pearl Necklace - ZZ Top. Hahaha! I love this song! They came to the fair a few years ago. This song was already on this already-created playlist. Unfortunately, I didn't know what it meant! My friend Craig had to tell me during the concert!! If you know Craig and I, I bet you're laughing your @$$ off right now. Funniest conversation ever.

*Personal Jesus - Marilyn Manson. I'm beginning to think I have a MM problem. I only listen to him when working out, I swear. *surrrre*

*Pretty Vegas - INXS. From Rockstar INXS, hello!

Purple Rain - Prince. OMFG. How do I love thee but COME ONNNNNN.

P. Control - Prince. See above!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I told you I was a Prince fan but this is getting OUT of control lame.

The Race Is On - Sawyer Brown. I tried to incorporate country. It didn't work. Never listen to it when working out.

Raspberry Beret - Prince. OMG!!!!!!!!

*Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes. *drums*

Sexy M.F. - Prince. I seriously cannot take any more.

*SexyBack - J.T. Loved it (him) then. Love it (him) now. Go head be gone with it.

*She F'in Hates Me - Puddle of Mudd. Reminds me of a "very special someone." It's staying. ha!

Smooth Criminal - Alien Ant Farm. On the fence about this one. I usually skip it.

Someday I'll Be Saturday Night - Bon Jovi. Seriously??? Of all the Bon Jovi songs, I picked this one? I may replace it with a little BAD MED-I-CINE.

Suga Suga - Baby Beesch. Needs. to. go.

*Suicide Blonde - INXS. It's stayin'!

Sumpin' New - Coolio. OMFG! I'm dying! 1, 2, 3, 4... It does give me fond memories of Mexico however that's where the coolness ends.

*Sweet Child O' Mine - GNR. =True Love.

*Sweet Dreams - Marilyn Manson. OK, this is getting weird.

Talk Dirty To Me - Poison. *deletes from playlist*

Wanna Be a Baller - Lil Troy. I'm dying.

What's the Frequency, Kenneth - REM. Good song, bad workout song.

*Will You Be My Girl - Jet. It can stay.

*Yeah - Usher. Haha. Still one of my fave songs ever. Yes, I'm 19.

1999 - Prince. I am not going to say ANYTHING!

7 - Prince. *silence*

*Bad Romance - Lady Gaga. Recently added. Totally love.

Who wants to hire me to make playlists for them? I'm so good at it! Not!!

I'll be working on a revamp...

Love,
Ann:)

Shanti

2010-02-21T21:40:00.000-08:00

Holla. Made it to yoga. It wasn't NEARLY as wretched and harsh as the first time I went to yoga post-bebe. OH IT WASN'T GOOD BY ANY MEANS, just not AS BAD as last time. I'll try not to L&B too much this week although I make no promises. :)

Here is what has sucked about my yoga experience in the last couple years:

Pre-Baby: Not being able to do stuff I KNOW I should be able to do because I could have easily done it when I was younger. This encompasses a lot of poses. lol. But then I remind myself that I haven't cheered in 10 years so hello, that's a long time.

Post-Baby: Not being able to do stuff I KNOW FOR SURE I can do because hello, I could do it like 9 months ago. lol. e.g. ultpluthi:

I used to be able to hold this for 10 and wow, guess what! Now I can hold it for 0. Mainly because I can't get to it at all. And I'm pretty sure I could never get THAT far off the floor. lol.

I was SHOCKINGLY able to bind in a couple of poses this week that could not the last time. One was Marichiasana (spell!!) C. I just said, oh well, I'll try to grab. I got it! Granted it was like by the fingernails at first (lol) but I was able to catch my fingertips and even skipped the vinyasas to continue holding it on both sides.

This girl is ripped, btw.

Anyway, that is my yoga scoop! :) Tomorrow it's back to the lame old gym. *yawn*

Mucho love,
~Ann :)

Addicted

2010-02-20T16:50:00.001-08:00

O.M.G.!!!!!! I am soooooooooooooooooooooo addicted to working out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!

Getting SexyBack SUCKSSSS! Still hatin' it! I will NEVER, EVER be a workout addict! A wise man (he knows who he is - ha) once said: "If it were easy, every girl would be HOT and I wouldn't have any problems." lol. It is soooo true and I try to remember this every day at the gym. It helps A LOT. What also helps A LOT is that I have a workout program I follow.

I'm already freaking out about how I'm going to work out once I go back to work though. Right now I can go every day. If I don't wait until Kurt gets home from work, my mother-in-law watches my bambino during the day so I can go.

Being away from the sweet babe is going to KILL ME so the last thing I'll want to do is stop at the gym and add an additional hour to my already one-hour commute EACH WAY. Ugh!

I have been doing my cardio on my treadmill. You wouldn't know it by watching me do cardio (horrible) but I actually have a pretty sweet treadmill. It's the nicest possible treadmill that should be allowed to rot from non-use in my possession. I have rarely used it BECAUSE a) I hate running and b) when I bought it, I had a house with an awesome basement for a treadmill. Then, I moved. At our last house, the treadmill lived in the unattached garage for five years. A couple of Springs, I would get into a "running phase" but hello running in a garage after it gets up to 85 or so, is NOT PLEASANT. Now, our house we moved to around T-giv has a great treadmill basement! So hopefully I'll be able to get good use out of it. And instead of going to the gym every day, I'll have to go to 3 times per week and do the rest at home, I guess. Did I mention how much I hate exercise? :)

On a lighter note, tonight we watched Four Christmases. I thought it was super cute. It was no Legally Blonde but it will do.

Hope everyone has great weekends! Tomorrow I'm going to try to go to yoga. Yay!

Mucho love,
Ann

Bad Idea

2010-02-18T20:51:00.000-08:00

Sometimes my gift ideas for the husband are GREAT. Like when I buy him expensive carmel apples or boxes of Lago's toffee. In other words, I buy those great gifts "for ussssssss." :) He's extremely hard to buy for and forced me into this behavior, for the record. And I can only buy the dude SO MANY car wash giftcert packages per year (although he loves them, trust me). He really doesn't like gambling so a few lottery tickets in his Christmas stocking are good so he doesn't have to pretend to like them more than once per year.

He buys me awesome prizes but hello, I'm easy to buy for!

So, a couple weekends ago, we were out and about. The husb dropped me off at the gym and ran to Best Buy with Le Bebe. He picks me up and in the bag, he has two movies: something I already forgot and Inglorious Basterds (spell)? He does this occasionally...buys movies that we never will watch again. Unlike myself :), he is super good with money so I feel bad having him waste funds he could be using to buy me spa gift certificates and flowers. J/K. Anyway, I'm like "Why did you buy these?" Him: "Because I have been wanting to see them and we never get to watch movies." So then I felt bad because while I HATE watching movies, he LOVES watching them. It's kind of hard to watch movies when he's taking care of everything around here and Belle watches Disney Channel 24/7. Seriously, there are soooo many movies I haven't seen. This means new and old. Some that people can't believe but no, I haven't seen are: Goonies, Revenge of the Nerds, Weekend at Bernie's, Ghostbusters, etc. Unless you are Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Clueless, The Breakfast Club, Dirty Dancing, Legally Blonde (I & II), Sweet Home Alabama, Bad Boys, Boiler Room or Dead Man on Campus, I have not seen you!

So, I had a "great idea" to buy him a year of NetFlix for Valentine's Day. He seems to love it and it's working out great! I can't believe we've lived without it for so long. He is so sweet too because he has a bunch of movies I would like on the list (e.g. Four Christmases). Oh and he discovered the Reba dvd's on there, too. haha! I was really LOVING this gift that I (once again) apparently got for US! ha!

Here's where the good idea ends...

SO I was hanging out watching Inglorious Basterds tonight...
WTF. Dumbest movie ever. I just don't have the patience for movies. I also don't really like death or blood so any guy movie is pretty much lame to me. Duh, I should have realized that Kurt's tv in his "man lair" used to be decent until we acquired the flat-screen in the living room! So instead of lairing it up with Brad Pitt and his fake Southern accent, I'm sitting on the couch, missing Golden Girls and watching people get scalped. ????

Then, he is checking out his NetFlix that arrived. He's like, "I got us Four Christmases." That was good and sooo sweet of him. :) Then he said, "You probably don't want to watch 310 to Yuma?" I'm like, "WTF is that?" He says, "It's a modern-day Western." Haha. I love this guy. He is hilarious. But no way in hell am I watching that!!!!!!!!!!!!! But oh guess what, I'm sure it will be on the living room tv within the next couple of days and I'll be watching a damsel in distress ride away on a horse. The thing I don't get about Westerns is isn't it always the same plot? Aka - there isn't one?

The moral of the story is that while I will get some good out of this gift I bought for "him," including Reba and cool movies, I'll also be blogging and watching people get shot, scalped and quartered after Belle is in bed every night. lol.

I need to exchange the NetFlix for an industrial-size box of English Toffee :) I would have done this originally, but toffee isn't on my workout regimen.

Mucho love,
The Inglorious Gift-giver :)

PS -I remembered the other movie he bought at Best Buy! It was The Hangover. Hilarious. I was dying!!!!

Holla!

2010-02-15T10:22:00.000-08:00

So on Saturday night, we went out! Crazy, I know. RANDOMLY, this cat, Matt Mason, who I've seen play in my favorite town in the world, Nashville, came to play in a bar near our house IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. Literally. I am so surprised he didn't want to play in town. I'm sure he was traumatized at the nowhereness of where he was playing. Haha. This bar was in the middle of nowhere compared to my house, which is literally in the middle of nowhere. lol. I think you get the point... Needless to say, I'm sure he was excited to get back to Nashville.

Anyway! So we and some friends went to have dinner there and watch Matt Mason. It was a great time!!! The husband I danced to our wedding song, Dixieland Delight and omfg they played ROCKY TOP. It was a close to Nashville as I've been since last March. SIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!! CAN I GET A HOLLER AND A SWALLER?? 1...2...3...

I need to start planning my next Nashville trip STAT. I'm dyingggggg from withdrawl. Normally we always go in March for my birthday but I would love to go when it's warmer. Last year was a lil cold for this sista.

Had the greatest Valentine's Day hanging out with Kurt and sweet babe. :) Belle was at her grandparents house then at a birthday party so I day was very quiet and drama-free! Haha!

Hope Y'ALL had a great V-Day. I'll keep Y'ALL posted on Nashville!

Love,
Ann :)

Oh P.S. - the reason he was in the middle of nowhere was a guy who owns a Ford Dealership invited him to come play. I love this man. He is a genius. I hope he continues to do this!!!

Love Letters

2010-02-11T17:06:00.000-08:00

Today, this post shall be in the form of love letters. For no apparent reason other than I have little to nothing to blog about so a new "format" would be nice.

Dear Saturn on the Interstate,
Hello, dumb@$$. Do you really think you should tailgate then try to be faster than the Audilicious? Be ____ing serious.
Love,
Ann

Speaking of a$$e$, I cannot believe the time has come where my a$$ is the LEAST of my workout worries....
Dear Cellulite (a.k.a. extra 15 lbs),
I effing HATE YOU! You will be gone, I assure you. How about we make this easy on both of us and you just GO AWAY!!!!!
Love,
Ann

Dear Sweet Baby,
You were worth it. :)
Love,
Ann

Dear Mother-In-Law,
Thank you for watching my kids while I go to the gym :) I have TWO KIDS!?!? omg.
Love,
Ann

Dear People at the Gym,
The gym is much better during the day. Way less people.
Love,
Ann

Dear People at the Gym who make my protein shakes,
I love you.
Love,
Ann

Dear Scale at the Gym,
I don't love you. Whatsoever.
Love,
Ann

Dear New HP laptop,
I love you. You are awesome. I will never glance toward Kurt's beloved desktop computer again! I hate that damn thing (he loves it).
Love,
Ann

Dear Husband,
Thank you for the Valentine's flowers a couple days early! :) I'm sure it will be wayyyy past Valentine's Day when he finally reads this blog. lol.
Love,
Ann

Dear New Facebook,
Not a fan of you.
Love,
Ann

Dear Best Buy,
Thank you for selling the six seasons of Reba on dvd. I will be purchasing them SOON! lol.
Love,
Ann

Dear New Super Mario Bros. Wii Game,
You used to be cool. Now you annoy the hell out of me because Belle plays you constantly.
Love,
Ann

Dear Readers,
I realize this list is boring. But this really is what is going on in my life. I love being a stay at home mom! I could get used to this... hehe
Love,
Ann :)

It's WEDNESDAY!

2010-02-10T10:26:00.000-08:00

You know what that means? High School Reunion is on tonight, people! On TV Land. Yes, I said TV Land. Yes, I am once again posting about t.v. LOL! 9:00 central, people. Watch it!

Seriously, I love this show. I can hear all of my high school friends, especially Mandy, Kate, Kate, Crystal, Crystal and Hairy saying (without being too impressed), "You would." It is soooo me. lol. But for real this show is awesome.

I am normally just bad at watching t.v., particularly these once a week type of shows. The ONLY show that I have ever watched religiously was Rock Star INXS. Lovvvvvvvved it. I still rock out to Pretty Vegas by JD Fortune once in awhile. In general, I just forget about my shows but considering I have nothing else going on right now with the little guy sleeping 18 hours per day, I am thanking God for t.v. and the fact I have about 18 more months until Barney the purple dino starts to rule my life AGAIN!

It's effing freezing out! FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZING. I cannot decide what is better - maternity leave in the summer or winter. Belle has a late May bday. So I spent that better part of that summer looking and feeling ew. At least this time I can wear pants and l/s shirts covered with sweaters instead of tank tops. But at least in the summer we could sit on the deck and soak up some sun and humidity. And go for walks. And get into the car without freezing our a$$es off. Ugh! Hmmm...so I'm still undecided.

K, so I need to roll out. I have to go to the mall to get some outfits for our big family picture on Friday. Fun, fun.

Mucho love!
Ann

Workin' It

2010-02-07T21:09:00.000-08:00

So, I'm not talking about working out in a way that's all, "I'm skinny and cute and workin' it out! And I want to chat about it!" Ohhh h no...I'm talking about working out in a way that IS like, "OMFGGGGG, all of that Whitey's ice cream when I was pregnant = NOT WORTH IT." Not worth it! Soooo-o-o-o-o not worth it. *cries* No pics to be posted of the evidence. Ew.

Yah, yoga isn't going to cut it this time. I had to go back to weight training...which I dig but I dig yoga wayy more. For reals. I did miss the Peach Pear protein shakes from my gym, though.

Ew. I also started eating chicken again TEMPORARILY. EEEW. HATE IT! HATE IT! This will be short-lived.

So, this is a huge post of me b!Tching about something that is entirely my fault. :)

Some good things goin' on besides my lil bambino are: DIET POP, planning our Vegas trip, watching Belle play Super Mario on wii 24/7, the Reba show (see prior posts)*lol*, getting used to our awesome SLR camera that I never took the time to learn to use before now, my new HP arriving today *woot*, and loving my new rockin' makeup stash (see makeup blog - hopefully new post tonight).

So, all in all, life is good :)

Does anyone else have any good scoop? We're pretty boring around here. It looks like we might be snowed in tomorrow. Yay!

Mucho love~
Ann :)

Yes, still...

2010-02-03T22:22:00.001-08:00

limping, b!tching. Not kidding. Damn, my hamstrings are killing me. I'm now doing this cute little cross-country skiing number instead of walking. It's easier to drag my feet than pick them up. Maybe by the time E&K get back from India in 2 months, I'll be over it?

So, I moved just before Thanksgiving. I have ignored all boxes that are what I call "out of sight, out of mind" boxes. They are out of my sight and out of my mind, but there are in Kurt's sight. Ya know, Mr. Sleeping with the Enemy. Mainly because I used our basement as a dumping ground and graveyard for the boxes I am not sure what to do with the contents. Oops. I never go in the basement but he always does since his bathroom and clothes are down there. So, I'm going to TRY to unpack a box per day of these boxes I don't know what to do with. Today, I hit up a HUGE box that had been stuffed in the kitchen closet.

After Kurt got off work, we picked up my rizide from the dealership. Oh, how I love my car but seeing the shiny NEW Audi's in the parking lot absolutely kills me. I need to continue to rock out my current A4. It's awesome but the color is starting to annoy me, similar to every other car I've owned. I get annoyed with the color after a couple years. Maybe bored is the answer instead of annoyed?? Je ne sais pas!

Emilene gave me an idea to start cooking! I think this is a great idea. I haven't cooked since last July. lol. Seriously, the husb is a chef. But it wouldn't kill me to make something now that I'm home with Mr. No Sleep during the day! Hopefully this time, no injuries will occur. I'll avoid that damn cheese grater! Promise!!

Love,
Ann :)

Owwwwwwww... And Daytime T.V.

2010-02-02T19:52:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah, still L'ing and B'ing! It's awesome!

So, the little peanut and I have been hanging out watching daytime t.v. Normally, I'm not a big t.v. watcher but there's not a lot to do when you're home all day and it's 0 degrees outside! My mother-in-law comes to visit us a lot. Thank God she gets back from Mexico tomorrow!

All of that being said, I want you all to know that Reba is a pretty g.d. awesome show. He'll probably kill me for posting this, but I've noticed my husband watching it before and made fun of him. I will publicly apologize because truly the show is soooo hilarious! Seriously, watch it next time you are home sick. Lifetime Network, Baby! It's onl ike 3 hours straight in the mornings.

Occasionally, I can catch the greatest show in the world, Golden Girls! And one day there was a Brady Bunch marathon on t.v. To my horror, Belle was home from school that day and had never seen or heard of the Brady Bunch. We'll be buying the boxed sets very soon. Very, very soon. I already have all of the seasons of the Golden Girls, in case anyone cares.

I posted to my Facebook that Days of Our Lives has made about zero progress since the last time I was on maternity leave almost 9 years ago. I can't take the stress, people. I cannot effing believe Hope & Bo are once again BROKEN UP!

The reason I'm watching so much t.v. is because the sweet little baby sleeps most of the time so I'll admit to holding him 99.9% of the time. :)

Mucho love,
Ann :)

Waaaaaaaaah! Days, Nashville, ec.

2010-02-01T14:55:00.000-08:00

OMFG I am so sore! L&B, people, L&B! There's been a whole lot of whining going on at my house today. Luckily, the baby has no choice but to listen intently :) It makes me feel better...not really. lol.

On a lighter note, I watched Days of Our Lives today. Seriously, there has been NO PROGRESS since the last time I was on maternity leave in 2001! Well, except the fact they are taking advantage of the 'internets' now and Skyping with eachother insted of just calling eachother, even though they all live in Salem. Stupid. Hope and Bo are still having MAJOR DRAMA - currently broken up but still talking about eachother. I think their little girl wants them to get back together (she's like 5). Bo was skyping with his little daughter today and forgot to turn off his computer. So the little girl logged back on and caught him making out with some random chick. Duh. The goods news is Charlie, the neighbor from the show Empty Nest, is now on the show. I'm not sure why that is good news except for I still laugh thinking about Dreyfuss, the dog.

I'm in the beginning stages of planning my annual hommage to Nashville. Shall we go in March? April? May? June? Hmmm... I'd love to go when it's warm even though we ALWAYS go around my b-day in March.

We can't go in July because we're going to Vegas. Yay!

Okay, that's all my scoop!

Love,
Ann

Limp/B!tch, Same Story/Diff Year

2010-01-31T21:09:00.000-08:00

Happy 2010!!

Went to yoga today. OMG, either I took off 10 months from yoga or I gained a bunch of weight. Oh yeah, I freaking did BOTH! So it's been a little over 3 weeks since Baby Will's b-day! I decided it was time to hit the shala!!! My practice was pretty terrible but not as bad as I expected. I am definitely already sore though and it's not even tomorrow yet! Yikes!! I'm all set to limp & b!tch tomorrow :) I was sooooo happy to get back to yoga though! =Love!!

I then weighed myself. I am aware it's only been 3 weeks but patience is not a virtue I've acquired during my 31.8 years. I have 11 lbs to lose to get back to my "first dr. appt. weight (I was about 10 weeks I think)" and 14 or 15 to lose to get down to my "wedding weight." So I guess I'm off the ice cream diet. Hahaha.

Mucho love to y'all!
~Ann

MOVING UPDATE, ETC!!!!!! :)

2009-11-17T06:05:00.000-08:00

Long time no post! Many, many apologies!!

I promised to give an update of all of our drama as of late. As you can see my last post is Sept. 23rd, omg! I will give some short updates on our drama, although I could go on forever about each one.

The last week of September, my beloved Grandma Bernice fell ill. After a week or so in the hospital, we lost her. I spent TONS of time with her growing up and of course will never forget her. I absolutely hate that she's gone. She was my last grandparent, too. It seems weird to be grandparentless. She had moved to a sort-of assisted living cute apartment in Davenport since May and had loved living there. After a resident passes away, you only have two weeks to remove their things since there is a waiting list for the apartments. My aunts packed all of my grandma's things and moved them into our (soon to be old) house. It's weird seeing her stuff everyday and boxes with her writing on it, knowing she's never coming back! It's also strange to see the circle of life because my grandma was born in the house we live in now, her mom passed away due to child birth complications and now her things are stacked up everywhere. Sadness. R.I.P., Grandma!

The week my g-ma originally went into the hospital for the last time, my dog, Thomas, who had bone cancer (mentioned in other blogs) unfortunately passed away. I have never had to put one of my pets down. The vet had given me three signs to look for and to call him asap when it happened. Until then, he had been eating, greeting us at the door and going outside to the bathroom. He had slowed down and the tumor on his head looked TERRIBLE but he was still the same dog. When I came home that Friday, he was not the same dog. He looked so sad and wouldn't get up. So we had to make the decision. We miss him but I'm so glad he's not in pain anymore and addicted to pain meds like Michael Jackson!

Coincidentally, that same week, our groomer had found an awesome home for our dog, Georgia. I could go on and on how great it would have been. Georgia has a tendency to very occasionally snap at the air in her sleep if you walk close to her and she doesn't hear you approach. I am sure it's a herding dog tendency. She came from a very successful breeder and has a strong herding instinct. Not thinking this would be idea for the baby, we decided to consider re-homing her but ONLY to an awesome home. The people were great and we had planned on the Sunday after Thomas passed away (not knowing he was going to). Breaking your child of a dog she received from Santa is NOT EASY. We were both realllly sad and it was weird without Georgia in the house, although nice to be down to three dogs. lol. I felt TERRIBLE for Belle and bribed her with a trip to Wisconsin Dells next summer. :) The end of the story is we really missed Georgia but she seemed happy in her new home with her labrodoodle friend. I kept in contact with her new owners every few days. After about a month, her new owner called me extremely upset. Georgia and their daschund were not getting along and Dixie the Daschund was getting really depressed. She also said Georgia seemed sad. I was so happy to get Georgia back, I drove over there immediately! Georgia was so excited to see us and Belle cried when I pulled up with her in the car. Yay!

I had always said it would be good for Georgia to spend some time in a shelter to know how good she has it. All of my other dogs are rescues and WONDERFUL. Georgia is spoiled and even though she's been through a lot of training, still doesn't appreciate us like the others. I don't think she liked living with a two-year old hyper labrodoodle that outweighed her by thirty pounds and outheighted her by about a foot. LOL. Every since returning, she's been a COMPLETE ANGEL!! Granted, we still do not need four dogs and it was nicer with three. The problem is I love them all! Here's a pic of us trying to get a family pic with the five dogs when we found out Thomas had cancer. Trust me, the pic is terrible and we all, dogs included, normally look much cuter!

At the farm, we are getting an invisible fence and fencing a HUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGE area. We are also going to do an indoor invisible fence and keep them off the carpet/out of the bedrooms. Our current house has ALL wood floor and neat-freak husb is suicidal enough over it. He would not be able to deal with the carpeting having hair on it. Trust me!

The invisible fence people are sooooo nice and the prices are beyond reasonable compared to getting a real fence, including chain link! At some point, I will post a pic of the humongous area we were able to fence for less than we fenced a small to regular-sized part of our old yard. It's gonna rule.

Alright, moving on. So FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY, my in-laws' house was almost done and the harvest was getting underway. Kurt had been working working working on that house every night for months. Their house is unreal amounts of amazing. Everything is unbelievably awesome and top of the line from the trim and closets to the garage floors and new tv's. I'd love to live there but would hate paying for it :) so we'll be sticking to the 1960's ranch FOREVER. :)

So, like I said, it was nearing completion at the end of October when Kurt's beloved Grandpa Fred passed away! I am NOT KIDDING. Yes, I know deaths come in 3's. My boss says my dog counts as #2 so I am hoping this is the last. The farm was Fred's (Kurt's mom's dad). He was around every single day when Kurt and his brother were growing up and everything just kind of revolved around him. He was diagnosed with congestive heart failure earlier this year, same as my grandma, and his heart just got too tired. Needless to say, November 5th was not a happy day. It's definitely weird without him around! He passed away the Thursday before they were supposed to move into the new house (Fred had his own suite), so he never even got to see it. Sadness! R.I.P., Fred!

But, as of Sunday, Kurt's parents are completely moved into their new house! They began staying there last Thursday night (the 12th). I started painting on Friday night while Kurt and his brother began the horrendous task of wallpaper and border scraping. I love my mother-in-law and she sure does love her borders and wallpapers. She likes to glue it on (with super glue it seems). Kurt's brother worked all night on the master bedroom and Kurt worked for hours and hours over the weekend to get the bathroom wallpaper scraped off. What a nightmare!

The good news is that I was able to finish Belle's room on Friday night and the baby's room Saturday!! They look sooooo great!!!!!!!!!!!! Sooooo cute! I am SOOOOOOOOOO GLAD I painted those two rooms first. Our room is such a pain in the ___, I have to keep going into the kids' rooms to get inspired and not shoot myself!

Here are their rooms:

Although on my baby blog, I had posted some bedding I bought Belle, I ended up finding some I liked mucho better on Land of Nod!

The pictures are terrible lighting but it's a really bright grassy green:

Here's the baby's bedding for anyone who hasn't seen it 100 times (also from Land of Nod):

Again, HORRIBLE lighting in the pic below. In reality, it's a bright, buttery yellow just like in the Land of Nod pic:

NOW for our God-foresaken room! Some may remember the Pottery Barn collection I just "had to have." I decided this was now our "summer bedding" due to the fact I found some bedding I couldn't live without at Bed, Bath & Beyond! :) The husband was quite skeptical of this plan. I told him "LOTS" of people have summer vs. winter bedding. lol.

I PLANNED to paint the room three walls of copper and one wall of dark chocolate. When I went to buy the paint, however, I fell into 'the trap.' The "WOW RED WOULD BE REALLY COOL" TRAP! If you have EVER painted with red, you know this trap. It's similar to avoiding a marsh full of alligators. Only, begin to welcome death, not try to jump on alligators and swing from vines to avoid being eaten, a la Pitfall.

What a ___ing nightmare. What a ______ ____ing nightmare. Red is sooo hard to paint with, people. DO NOT DO IT. If I ever insist in doing this again, I will hire a professional. It's too stressful. Due to the border my mother-in-law had in the bedroom, Sunday I primed the entire room and did 2 coats of the red. It looked HORRIBLE after coat #1, then pretty good after coat #2. It still needs a 3rd coat, however. Last night I painted the one chocolate accent wall. MUCH EASIER TO DEAL WITH!!!!!!!!!! I loved it. Tonight, I am going to do the third coat of red and finish the closet. TOMORROW the ceiling. I agree you're supposed to paint the ceiling first. I decided to go on a limb and do it backward which is good because I hit the ceiling lightly a couple times with the red!

YES, I HAVE SPENT MORE DAYS ON THIS ROOM THAN BOTH KIDS' ROOMS COMBINED. KILL ME! It sucks because now that it's the weekdays, we have to have Belle home at a decent hour and I don't get out there until like 6pm. Ay!

P.S. I think it's super weird to say "kids" instead of "kid."

ANYWAY, here is a horrible pic of the red/brown room so far. Bad, bad lighting, yet again:

So, I am loving it but it has been a humongous pain! Would I go back in time and just do the copper instead of the red? GOD, YES! But ask me again when I'm all done with it :)

SO! Hopefully tomorrow we can get the hallway and living room painted. That will allow for the carpets to be cleaned on Thursday and us to move in on Friday, Saturday and Sunday! YIPPEEEEE!

Also this weekend I'll be working on painting the bathroom and kitchen, then the entryway at some point, then seriously celebrating the end of my painting era. The only thing left would be Kurt's bathroom, wihch is covered in wallpaper. That bathroom deserves its own post, though! HAHA!

Mucho love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ann :)

Well, well, well...

2009-09-23T12:30:00.000-07:00

Look what I found online today. CNN had a list of 18 things mothers should teach their sons about women. Granted, I will also post this on the baby blog (with a different angle), but I thought I'd also post it on my random blog for good measure, just because it's things every GUY SHOULD ALREADY KNOW! :) I know my lovely husband checks my blog once every six months or so, so maybe it will be today and he'll take particular note of #7. :) Yes, yes, we do... Love you, honey.

As a side note, due to #10, I shop alone now. Ha. There's nothing more annoying than a guy following you around Von Maur in silence and instead of looking at retail items, he is staring at the back of your head. My husand would never do this, as he's now no longer invited (a.k.a. forced to go) with me. I'm pretty sure he's very happy about this as well!

In his defense, he's beyond amazing at most of the others. Especially #1, 2, 4 and 11! :)

#12 is completely irrelevant as there is no way in hell he'd ever invest in my shoe collection. I did not know this was bad luck but if he were willing to spring for some Calvin Klein heels, I think I'd take my chances.

No s*&^ to #3. Men that use this phrase "You're being crazy" are just blatantly asking to suffer the wrath.

#6 is just completely hilarious. I've never thought of it this way but hello, SO TRUE.

Ladies, feel free to use against your men via whatever means necessary:

1. Pick your battles.
2. Walk on the outside (closer to the street) of your female companion.
3. Saying "You're being crazy" is never an appropriate response, unless you want her to go postal on you.
4. Cooking, cleaning, and taking care of kids are things men can actually do as well as women.
5. Keep backup supplies of quality chocolate in the house for her to raid.
6. Buying tampons and other feminine products shouldn't embarrass you --everyone knows they're not for you.
7. Women like compliments and gifts.
8. Earning less than her shouldn't be emasculating.
9. Be on time, even if she usually isn't.
10. Don't be a pouty puppy when shopping with her.
11. Find out what her favorite flower is.
12. If you like her, then don't buy her shoes; it's bad luck.
13. Smiling and nodding aren't the same as listening.
14. It's OK to cry in front of her, but keep the blubbering to a minimum.
15. Personality goes a long way.
16. At some point she'll be more important than your mother.
17. You will never completely understand women.
18. Oh yeah, and no woman will ever be good enough for my baby!

Love you all ~
Ann :)

Bye Bye Dresses!

2009-09-10T20:47:00.000-07:00

Alllllllrighty then! ALL votes for ditch the dressage! This is somewhat humorous or pathetic that some of the voters, I'm sure, were the brides of these weddings and/or also in some of the weddings with me. Lol. So if even THEY say ditch, it must be realllly ridiculous of me to have kept them this long! Haha.

My weekend consists of packing, packing and more packing and hopefully finishing the cleaning out the garage. Ugh. Bonfires will be big at the farm this weekend!! Kurt's going out to the farm Saturday a.m., so I'm hoping I can convince my dad to come out and help me look in and/or move boxes from the garage to the truck bed. Awwww because I can't lift anything? NO!!! Because I'm scared of big creepy garage spiders! Ha!! My dad is great and likes to help so it shouldn't be too hard to convince him. :)

Hope everyone has wonderful weekends planned!!

Love,
Moi

Another Random Survey! :)

2009-09-09T09:52:00.000-07:00

Tango Show in Argentina. See #44.

Again, stolen from a friend's blog. Agree with her that it's a sad excuse for blog topics yet neither of care and at least it's posting something! This survey I had to post, if not only for #43 :) :)

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
No. Boring! My dad insisted my brother and I have names that couldn't be shortened. Hence, Ann and Jay. Otheriwse, I would've been Brianna or Heather (or so my mom told me). I love my name now, though :)

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
Saturday about my dog.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
Yah.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Ew. None!

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
Yes. One and also a bun in the oven!

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
Totally.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM
NEVER... *rolls eyes*

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
Unfortunately. I always wanted them out.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
No! I am not a fan of potential bodily injury (excludes Vinyasa III @ the Shala).

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
Hmmm... If I could only pick one it would be PB Captain Crunch although I never really eat it. I also like Cocoa Pebbles and Smart Start and Rice Chex.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Hardly any of my shoes have ties so no.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
Whitey's Coffee

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
Niceness

15. RED OR PINK?
Pink

16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
I wish could be a tan version of Ann.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
Alabama going on tour.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO COMPLETE THIS LIST?
Oh totally but not thinking they could...due to this being on a blog?

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
Pants and shoes are both dark brown.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
Nothing. I like silence. :)

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
Violet

23. FAVORITE SMELLS?
Stella, Chanel

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE
My g-ma

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
I stole it from E.L.'s blog. Yes.

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH
Professional baseball and college football.

27. HAIR COLOR?
Whatever Sara picks out

28. EYE COLOR?
Blue

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
Yes. My vision is like 20/350. I can't even walk around the house without them.

30. FAVORITE FOOD?
Thai!

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
Happy Endings. Not a fan of the sad ending (i.e. Titanic, Marley & Me, etc)

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
Honestly? Cheetah Girls One World. LOL.

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
It's a sheer shirt that has flowers on it. Maternity is tres sexy. Not.

34. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!

35. HUGS OR KISSES?
Both :)

37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
Not sure of the possibility here...

38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
See 37.

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?
Some random book from the library (see previous survey).

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
Do ppl still have mousepads?

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT?
Nothing!

42. FAVORITE SOUND(S).
Concerts.

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?
Good lord, there is no comparison. The Stones obviously. The Beatles aren't in their league even. Don't get me started. I freaking LOVE THE STONES. *It's those honky tonk women....."

44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?
Argentina. It's pretty far down there if you look at a map! For real!!!!! *Sigh* I want to go back!

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
I'm a big fan of makeup (buying and doing) although I wear minimal 99% of the time.

46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
D-town, Iowa. Fun, fun.

47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK?
OMG...see 37.

48. HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR SPOUSE/SIGNIFICANT OTHER?
My friends Kate & Crystal insisted we meet. :)

Survey Fun Time

2009-09-08T14:38:00.000-07:00

Thanks, Emilene, for the idea!

1. ONE OF YOUR SCARS, HOW DID YOU GET IT?
I had malignant melanoma when I was 25.

2. WHAT IS ON THE WALLS IN YOUR ROOM?
Antique hats and purses. I’m moving though so they are being taken down. Permanently.

3. DO YOU SNORE, GRIND YOUR TEETH, OR TALK IN YOUR SLEEP?
I don’t think so. I’m a REALLY light sleeper.

4. WHAT TYPE OF MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN TO?
Country

5. DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIME YOU WERE BORN?
9:10 p.m.

6. WHAT DO YOU WANT MORE THAN ANYTHING RIGHT NOW?
I would take $10,000 to buy all new furniture and baby stuff.

7. WHAT DO YOU MISS?
Cheerleading

8. WHAT IS YOUR MOST PRIZED POSSESSION(S)?
My wedding ring

9. HOW TALL ARE YOU?
4’11”

10. DO YOU GET CLAUSTROPHOBIC?
Not usually

11. DO YOU GET SCARED IN THE DARK?
No

12. THE LAST PERSON TO MAKE YOU CRY?
My dog groomer. She found a tumor on my dog’s head

13. WHAT'S YOUR WORST FEAR?
Something would happen to Belle, Baby “Kevin” or Kurt.

14. WHAT KIND OF HAIR/EYE COLOR DO YOU LIKE ON THE OPPOSITE SEX?
Strawberry blonde and green :P

15. WHERE CAN YOU SEE YOURSELF PROPOSING?
I would propose to Kurt if he gave me #6. Haha. We could renew our vows. Awww! Lol.

16. COFFEE OR ENERGY DRINK?
iet Soda, srsly.

17. Favorite pizza topping?
Double mushroom

18. IF YOU COULD EAT ANYTHING RIGHT NOW, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Thai

19. FAVORITE COLOR OF ALL TIME?
Pink, hello.

20 HAVE YOU EVER EATEN A GOLDFISH?
Sick! No.

21. WHAT WAS THE FIRST MEANINGFUL GIFT YOU'VE EVER RECEIVED?
I’ll have to think about this one.

22. DO YOU HAVE A CRUSH?
On other than my farmhusband? Just Kenny Chesney.

23. ARE YOU DOUBLE JOINTED?
My fingers are

24. FAVORITE CLOTHING BRAND?

Lots but I shop a lot at the Gap. True Religions for jeans. We’re kind of limited on brands in the QC. I also like The Limited but I hate the sales chicas.

30. SAY A NUMBER FROM ONE TO A HUNDRED:
16

31. BLONDES OR BRUNETTES?
Blondes!

32. FAVORITE QUOTE?
“Hi, Mom. It’s me, Belle.” Belle always says this when she calls or leaves me a message. I think it’s funny because I don’t have any other kids so obviously I know who it is!

33. FAVORITE PLACE?
Vactiony? Beach w/ Kurt...sigh...

34. HAVE YOU BEEN OUT OF THE USA?
Yes

35. YOUR WEAKNESSES?
Exercise aversion

36. MEET ANYONE FAMOUS?
No

37. FIRST JOB?
Babysitter!

38. EVER DONE A PRANK CALL?
OMG, Mandy and I used to all the time.

39. DO YOU THINK EVERYONE OUT THERE HAS A SOUL MATE?
Kind of, kind of not. I think A LOT of people try to stick it out with the wrong person just because it “kind of works” or there are “some good points.”

40. WHAT WERE YOU DOING BEFORE YOU FILLED THIS OUT?
Yawning

41. HAVE YOU EVER HAD SURGERY?
Um yes. Hello.

42. WHAT DO YOU GET COMPLIMENTED ABOUT MOST?
“Cute purse”

43. HAVE YOU EVER HAD BRACES?
Yes, thank god.

44. WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY?
To fit back into my true religions (Bday = March 16, Baby due = Jan 3rd).

45. HOW MANY KIDS DO YOU WANT/HAVE AND THEIR NAMES?
3. Isabella, Luke and Jane. Isabella exists, Kurt won’t go for “Luke” so it will probably be Jake and the future Jane.

46. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
No

47. WHAT IS THE BIGGEST TURN OFF OF THE OPPOSITE SEX?
Rudeness

48. WHAT IS ONE THING YOU LIKE(D) ABOUT HIGH SCHOOL?
Everything but especially my friends, teachers, cheerleading.

49. WHAT KIND OF SHAMPOO DO YOU USE?
Bed Head

50. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
Yah

51. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Hell no.

52. ANY BAD HABITS?
Procrastinating

53. ARE YOU A JEALOUS PERSON?
No, not at all….unless you’re a housewife of Orange County. Then I'm jealous of you.

54. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
Yes...unless you are into hunting, then I might pass. I'm not a fan of this.

56. DO LOOKS MATTER?
It depends on the situation but in general, no.

57. HOW DO YOU RELEASE ANGER?
Mostly yelling or b**ching to my girlfriends

58.WOULD YOU RATHER GAIN 58 POUNDS OR LOSE 58 POUNDS.
Um gain. Yikes. Ask me on Jan 4th.

60. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE TOY AS A CHILD?
Honestly, books. Nancy Drew books, specifically.

61. HOW MANY NUMBERS ARE IN YOUR CELL PHONE?
IDK? Maybe 70?

62.WERE YOU A FAN OF BARNEY AS A LITTLE KID?
The dinorsaur? No b/c he didn’t exist. I became a huge fan of him when my two-year old LOVED HIM and he’d entertain her for hours.

64. MASHED POTATOES OR MACARONI AND CHEESE?
God, I love both.

65. WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN A GUY/GIRL?
A combine. My farmboy is adorable.

66. WHAT ARE YOUR NICKNAMES?
A$, Turner, Mom.

67. FAVORITE SUPER POWER?
Hmmm, I wouldn’t mind wish granting.

68. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE TV SHOW?
Anything on HGTV or Rock of Love (any season).

69.WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO DEAL WITH YOUR ENEMIES?
Don’t make any?

70. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR?
Whitey’s coffee

71. DO YOU HAVE ALL YOUR FINGERS AND TOES?
Yah

2. DO YOU HAVE A COMPUTER IN YOUR ROOM?
No

73. PLANS FOR TONIGHT?
Taking Belle to tumbling.

74. WHERE DO YOU WANT TO LIVE WHEN YOU ARE OLDER?
Tennessee

75. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS?
Um, I’m guessing no one will since I’m posting it to my blog.

76. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO?
Myself type

77. LAST THING YOU DRANK?
Water

78. LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
Mandy

79. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE IN THE OPPOSITE SEX?
Smile

80. WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO IN YOUR SPARE TIME?
Yoga when unpreggo.

81. FAVORITE THING TO HATE?
CNN.com. I hate it (sad news all the time) but I’m addicted.

82. FAVORITE SEASON OF THE YEAR?
SUMMER is the only season I like.

83. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE TYPE OF CANDY?
Laffy Taffy

84. HAVE YOU EVER REALLY AND TRULY HAD A BEST FRIEND?
Yes, a lot of them. I’m very lucky.

85. FAVORITE HAIR COLOR?
On me, whatever Sara decides looks good. On other chicas, brown.

86. YOUR EYE COLOR?
Blue

87. YOUR SHOE SIZE?
5.5

88. FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE?
Hungry Hobo, Noodles

89. FAVORITE RESTAURANT?
Tantra Asian Bistro (in town). PF Chang’s (out of town).

90. DO YOU LIKE SUSHI?
Yes, I effing love veggie sushi. AAC rolls from Osaka = love.

91. WATCH TV TODAY?
I wish

92. FAVORITE DAY OF THE YEAR?
Christmas, I guess.

93. PLAY ANY MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS?
Flute. I did not go to band camp, though.

94. REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT?
Mixture of both, or neither, I guess. I am not a fan of politics.

95. KISSES OR HUGS?
Both!

96. RELATIONSHIPS OR FRIENDSHIPS?
I have one relationship and lotsa friendships. Not sure what it’s asking! LOL.

97. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU BOUGHT?
Some stuff from Pier 1. Oops :)

98. WOULD YOU EVER BE A HOUSEWIFE?
Totally!!! ONLY if my husband made a lot of $$ and I didn’t mind me spending it. Kurt’s not down for the spending part so he could own all the farms in Iowa and I’d still be workin’ mamasita.

99. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING?A random book from the library.
It’s called This Song’s for You by Arthur Phillips.

Love,
Moi

Poll Time

2009-09-08T06:27:00.000-07:00

If you happen to check my baby blog, you'll note I'm a fan of polls. LOL. I added one to the random blog to confirm my suspicions on what to do with my eight bridesmaid dresses. I may do additional surveys in the future about things I'm on the fence about keeping, donating or bonfiring.

So I have eight bridesmaid dresses from my lovely friends' weddings. Some of the funnest nights ever! I have just always kept them hanging in the closets wherever my coats reside. I suspect it may be time to donate these bad boys and move on.

Side note: I don't think even the most deprived prom goer would opt for these dresses. Not that they aren't cute, but they are just obviously bridesmaid dresses from the 2000-2003 era with a couple stragglers post-2003. Not to mention I am only 4'11" so not thinking there are a whole lot of potential adopters out there. I'm open to suggestions, though, on where an organization might be that houses old dresses for prom-aged students.

I had them on the donate pile and asked Kurt, "Do you think I should donate my bridesmaid dresses?" His response was "Do you think I should keep my old underwear?" I think this means they are obvious donations.

Thoughts? Vote, por favor!

Love,
Ann's Bridal :-)

Rockin' the Pack

2009-09-07T20:23:00.000-07:00

Well I ALWAYS do what I say I'm going to do (haha...yeah right!) so it should come as no surprise that I spent all of labor day packin' it up! No, seriously, I did this. All effin' day. Yay!

I hit the garage first. I had a huuuuuge pile of boxes and totes in there from when my mom moved a couple months ago and decided to give me all my junk back from when I graduated college, moved away and stashed it at her house. Then she also gave me all of Belle's toys she had bought her since she was a baby til now. My mom has spent ungodly amounts of cash on the only grandchild so you can only imagine that massive amounts of stuff involved. Insane.

The husband left me his beloved truck *rolls eyes* for the extravaganza while he went to help his parents at the farm. Belle's stuff was relatively easy to go through considering I threw it all away. This may sound harsh but do know that my mom smokes. A lot. A lot more than most people. I do not. She's not really keen on cleaning either and much of this stuff has been sitting in her extra bedrooms untouched for years so it had a weird filmy stuff on it. Nasty. It all reeeeeeeked like smoke. Belle's not even able to go over there anymore because she started smoking in the house again. Eeeeeew! There were a ton of childrens books I thought I might be able to salvage by cleaning the covers but changed my mind after flipping through the pages and smelling them. Ugh!!!! I can't believe I used to smoke in high school considering how much I hate the smell on things now. I sure loved it at the time, though. Haha.

Just Belle's stuff filled up the entire truck. As we went to drop it off at the farm, Belle accused me of burning her childhood along with her heart. Lol. She is not deprived at home by any means so she didn't need ANY of this stuff and it was too icky/smokey to even wash up and donate.

We got back home and I hit the storage room and my closet hardcore for the rest of the day. I filled up a huge box of shoes for Goodwill and stuffed a humongous 39 gallon trash sack of clothing donations. I put tons of photo albums into totes and packed almost all of my shoes, jeans, sweatshirts, work clothes, etc. God knows I won't be able to fit into any of the clothing until long after we move anyway so its working out good to get these things packed way in advance. I literally laughed when I packed my belts, as they more resemble hair ties to me now than something that could actually fit around my "waist."

I filled up another random truckload of stuff to ditch and mosied back out to the farm for another bonfire.

How exciting was that labor day?! Probably about as much fun as you had reading this post. It sucked big time (again, like this post)!

Through the suckiness though, its awesome to make progress!! Trust me, it was touch and go for while. Around lunchtime, I decided Belle and I should lunch at Noodles and hit the mall to check out new dishes. It was soooooo hard to resist! I stayed strong though and decided it will surely be a Noddles take out night tomorrow :)

Hope everyone else's labor days surpassed mine in funness!!

Love,
Ann :)

Packing, Donating, Ditching

2009-09-07T03:50:00.000-07:00

There are tons of benefits to moving! Ridding yourself of sh## you don't need and replacing said sh## with new, improved, cooler sh##. This is how I'm rockin' the big move.

There are also tons of cons LIKE it takes FOREVER to pack and go through the unwanted. Moving sounds easy and fun, conceptually, I mean how hard is it to toss a bunch of stuff into a box, tape it shut, scribble "dishes" on it and call it a day? Yeah, it sucks majora, though. You are also forced to live in disarray starting Day 1 of the pack...and it gets kinda annoying. All of this is worth it, though, to be prepared in advance! Woot! I have a unique situation of no move date to be in or out, so I can take my sweet time.

I started packing last weekend and rocked The Pack on Saturday and Sunday. I loaded down boxes with kitchen stuff and random decor from all over our casa. They are so heavy even King Kong would need a dolly to move them! We (I.e. Kurt) won't be do much cooking because I packed all of our baking dishes, cutting boards, and what not.

I didn't get too much done during the week...for no real reason other than getting home late and being tired. Saturday I tackled the forbidden closet under our staircase. I filled Kurt's pickup truck with stuff I didn't want, had about three large Uhaul boxes of coats, books, pictures and whatnot and created a HUGE pile of stuff for the Goodwill. Oops. I told you I'm a bad closet person!! I came across a Nike shoebox thay said "Jeri is Tuff" on it, in Jeri's writing...obviously written in high school. The contents was random high school memoribilia that was pretty awesome and hilarious! I found high school cheerleading and orchestra spirit buttons. Several ziplocs of dried roses...hahaha. My old awesome keychain (remember rolling 30 keychains at once???) and the air freshener from my first car (named Million Dollar...no idea why) that I totalled in 1995.

Sunday was a complete loss for The Pack. I am so depressed but I knew it would be. The husb thought it'd be "nice" to go to a random small town festival for the fireman's pancake breakfast and watch the parade. I negotiated my way out of it originally but then started to feel bad for not going. So at 9am I started getting myself and Belle ready, we stayed there til 1:30ish, stopped by the store, saw some friends and made bueno dinner plans for 5:30, dropped Kurt off, ran into Pier 1, came home, left for dinner plans, got home at 9:30. End of day. It was fun, for sure, but no exciting packing stories ensued.

Today it's on. I want to get A LOT packed from upstairs (bedrooms). I so wish I had taken some before and after pics of the closet :). Haha. I'll do this upstairs though, hopefully!

Love,
Moi!!!

Random

2009-08-26T06:25:00.000-07:00

My friend, Molly, emailed me this one day in a very boring and horrible meeting. It saved my life so maybe it will save yours, too!

o I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

o More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

o Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

o I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?

o Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

o I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

o The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase "Regards" again.

o Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

o There is a great need for sarcasm font.

o Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f*** was going on when I first saw it.

o I think everyone has a movie that they love so much; it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

o How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

o I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

o I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

o The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish a text.

o A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.

o Was learning cursive really necessary?

o Lol has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

o I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

o Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

o My brother's Municipal League baseball team is named the Stepdads. Seeing as none of the guys on the team are actual stepdads, I inquired about the name. He explained, "Cuz we beat you, and you hate us." Classy, bro.

o Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

o How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

o I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

o While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

o MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

o Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

o I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

o Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

o I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

o Bad decisions make good stories

o Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

o Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

o If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

o Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from; this shouldn't be a problem....

o You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

o Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

o There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

o I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

o "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

o I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

o While watching the Olympics, I find myself cheering equally for China and USA. No, I am not of Chinese descent, but I am fairly certain that when Chinese athletes don't win, they are executed.

o I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Darnit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

o I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

o When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

o I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

o Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...

o As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

o Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

o It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

o I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

o I think that if, years down the road when I'm trying to have a kid, I find out that I'm sterile, most of my disappointment will stem from the fact that I was not aware of my condition in college.

o Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

o Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet my a$$ everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...

o My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?

o It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

o I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

o I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

o I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

o The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimate d that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel like a fat b@st@rd before dinner.

Bloggyness

2009-07-22T19:56:00.000-07:00

OMG, it has been brought to my attention (thanks, Kelly!) I don't have a link to FarmBaby on this blog! Poor Farmbaby blog! I now have a link, right under Miss Audrey Hepburn and my fave purse, Louis. :) Feel free to check out farmbaby and see what I've been eating (everything - includes Casey's pizza = ew) and how huge I'm getting (seriously, I am). Yay!

What has everyone been up to? It's kind of lame to ask questions on this blog b/c there is really no way most people will answer. But do know that I do care :) I've been, well eating and getting big (see paragraph above).

I am DYING for a tropical vacation. Ugh. I hate the QC and I feel like winter will be here in no time and I'll be stuck in a mile-high snow drift (aka my new house). I'm not really wanting to prance in a bikini right now (hahahaha) so I think the vaca will have to wait. Waaaaaah!

My bedding came in and is fabulous! I love it all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mucho love! Sorry so short!!!!!!!
Ann

Facial = Love

2009-07-20T16:57:00.000-07:00

Hola!! Nothing makes you feel like $1,000,000 bucks than a Five Star facial. I'm not even kidding you. The funniest part is you leave feeling like a million but looking 20,000 times worse than when you came in. But WHO CARES because, remember, you feel like a million!

*Sigh*

I was lucky enough to have a Five Star facial tonight with this chica named Sarah (ask for her). Loved it!!! It's an hour of pure bliss including getting your face beautified, steamed, scrubbed and moisturized...all while getting your neck massaged. Heaven! It is sooooo relaxing and your face, neck and self-esteem feels amazing afterward! I really think there are drugs in the steam treatment. As a side note, I have the most sensitive skin in the world and I ADORE their products they use. If I can use them without rushing to the dermatologist, anyone can. Come to think of it, I haven't had to see my dermatologist since I first starting using Five Star's skin care line. Yay!

Note to self: do not go get facial while hungry and pregnant. Oops. I was so starving I thought I was going into a diabetic coma on the table (I'm not diabetic). The funny part was I didn't really care and didn't want to interrupt my awesome facial. lol. I think it was the banana/papaya mask that set the blood sugar plumeting to the depths of hell. The bambino confused the facial mask with real food. Ha! :)

So I came home and had some Smart Start, soy milk and raisin toast. YUMMY!

I'm super tired from my muy awesome facial so I may take a nap :) :) now before Kurt and Belle get home from the farm.

I highly recommend you book a facial with Sarah asap :) www.fivestarsalonspa.com

Love,
Moi :)

Second Post of the Night

2009-07-14T19:02:00.000-07:00

So sorry - I realize this is post #2 of the night. I was going to add it to my last blog but blogger keeps messing up my format when I do that. Weird!

Anyway, does anyone know of a charity/organization in the QC that would take a ton of clothes that a typical teenager would wear (remember I'm under 5 feet tall)? I am planning on donating to goodwill but I'd like to give to a women's shelter or something?

Lemme know if you can think of anywhere! :)

<3, Ann

Cleanout Curb

2009-07-14T18:27:00.000-07:00

So Kurt's put the kabosh (sorta) on my cleaning. Our extra bedroom is literally FULL of my stuff from the previous blogs so there is NOWHERE to put my donations/garage sale items. Dang. I have randomly been throwing things away every day though :) Yay! I decided ex-nay on the garage-sale-a and would rather donate. Then Kurt's mom reallllly still wants to do it so I feel bad. This is only because she has more things than I do, so this buys her more time on what to NOT part with...ha. So until I decide, I have nowhere to go w/ my el junko. Ugh! I just DO NOTTTT feel like wasting a weekend to make a few hundy...however that could help feed my recently-developed Pottery Barn addiction... Hmmm...

In the meantime, since my deal with the devil has been put on temporary hold, I've picked out our new bedding, new shower curtain and new furniture. No one cares, I'm sure, but I'm at a loss for interesting blog topics. Remember I'm pregnant so the most outrageous thing I do is add lime juice to my water when I take my prenatals!

Here's the new bedding:

I bought all of the stuff in the pic, and I had our monogram added in apple green to match the dots. I also bought the quilt and quilted shams but in porcelain blue instead of watermelon (although I LOVVVVED the watermelon...not sure Kurt would have...lol). Here's the blue:

I didn't have the heart to mention to Kurt that the total I put on his cc last night did not include the bed skirt, extra pillowcases, curtains or ACTUAL DUVET (only included the cover). So hopefully he doesn't read this **smiles sweetly**! Loving him!! I'll be getting all of those things prior to the BIG MOVE! I'm guessing this will be coming out of my moving fund though...not our wedding fund. lol!

I'll miss our old bedding but it is pretty girly...and I'm excited to get new stuff. Yay! I like decorating and I'm TIRED of my old stuff. BEYOND over it!

Here's the new shower curtain for my bathroom (did I mention how excited I am for a boy-less bathroom):

I've realllllly, realllllly liked this little # for a long time but last night I noticed PB put it on clearance! Yikes! No bueno!! PB clearance does not = cheap but it does = no returns. I figured I'd better buy it, though, before they take it off the website completely and I developed a severe case of non-buyers remorse. Hopefully I'll love it since there are no returns on it! :) I'm going to be picking out random towels, rugs and whatever to go with this adorable shower curtain over the next couple of days. Yay for moving and redecorating!

Oh well, at least it's keeping me busy while Kurt's been working at the farm every night :)

We also picked out some furniture online, of which Kurt dropped off pictures to a custom furniture builder where his parents get their tables, chairs, cabinets, etc. It'll be interesting to see what this builder has to say! :) I'm sure it'll cost a million dollars and we'll be rolling to the furniture store like everyone else in the world (note: this is what I wanted to do all along-lol).

Muchoooo love!
Ann

Welcome Back...

2009-07-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

...on the last episode of Ann's Random Blog... You'll all remember I made a deal with the devil. My last post was Thursday, the 2nd. So here's the deal: Happy Late 4th, everyone! I did take a couple days off from Thee Holy Regime. This was ONLY because we had a 4th party to attend on Friday evening, then actually hosted a lil 4th gathering on Saturday. So Friday and Saturday consisted of shopping and prepping and making foodstuffs for those events. Sunday I helped (or pretended to help) restore the farm to it's original "order" (a.k.a. cleanest farm EVER) and Sunday night we watched the rescheduled fireworks in Dixon. End of Weekend. Waaah.

Monday was back to work (ew) and back to Thee Regime. On Saturday I couldn't find my awesome F&F Boutique rainboots so I texted Mr. Clean on their whereabouts. He responded with: "Look in your other closet. Your trunk." While I was trying to determine if I should spell out the f-word in my response or just write "eff" or "F" or "f***," he promptly followed up with a "Love u." Smart man...he's clean AND smart! So, whatever, Steward...step off my trunk. LOL. I'll admit the Audilicous has minimal trunk space due to all of Belle & I's junk. It's been a "lil" out of control as of late since Belle's been on the roll for the summer and people are constantly handing me bags of stuff they bought her or she brought out or whatever. Anyway, so I cleaned my trunk. Belle's entire American Girl collection, our sets of rainboots, 44 pairs (exaggerated )of flip flops, several tote bags, my winter coat (okay, two of them) are all in the house now in their respective spots. Yay. So, truly, it doesn't count as a "house clean out" per se but I did throw a bunch of items away and put some in the donation pile. :)

Last night, omfreakin'g, I hit the dreaded computer desk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been avoiding it like the plague. From the outside it looks quite innocent. A big vintage wooden desk. It kind of rocks it. The drawers are PACKED full of random MBA books, notebooks and papers, cameras, CD's (blank, burned and purchased) packs of pictures (pre-digital camera) era, random adapters to whatever gadgets I've had over the past five years, keys, a couple rocks (?), three staplers, etc etc etc. This innocent desk yielded two garbage bags full of stuff. The funniest things I found were: five old cameras (4 digital, 1 non-digital), I'm sure their respective adapters, three old John Deere badges and a badge to a gym I cancelled membership to in May '08, and two bags of potpourri (I don't use potpourri). I mean FIVE cameras - really? Why? Okay, my last film camera I still had because the battery was dead BUT there were pics on the film. Obviously, you can't take out the film until all had been exposed. I tried, trust me. I then decided the pics most likely weren't worth the cost of the special battery just to take pics of the floor and then take out the film. Gone. Also included were my first digital (Kodak EasyShare), second digital (Canon Elph SD700 - movin' on up), Kurt's digital camera (about as cool as his computer he loves), and a random digital camera of my mom's. I threw them all away. Anyway, this is a really stupid story. I also found all of our wedding receipts! Oh, and a huge stack of my paystubs (unopened) from 2004 and 2005, in order. WTF?

I still have the top of the desk (a row of books) to clean and also the middle drawer (a.k.a. the card drawer). I'm saving these for another night! :) I'm too tired today so I'll have to find something to throw away. I think I'll clean out this lil decorative basket beside the desk and just throw away everything in it. Fun!

Mucho, mucho, love!
Ann

Pure Insanity

2009-07-02T21:04:00.000-07:00

Written on Thursday, July 2:

Yep, Day 5. Still hitting the trash bags and Goodwill/Garage Sale piles! I'm starting to get depressed/annoyed at myself for keeping all of this stuff I NEVER wear or use. Maybe Kurt is right - lol.

Tonight I went into the trenches...our attic. It's actually a big room off of the bedroom but for some reason my whole family calls it the attic. I think it's because everyone for the last fifty years has always used it for storage (due to lack of ANY other storage). I mined an ENTIRE laundry basket packed full of purses/handbags/wallets for giveaway. Then I found an entire HUGE storage tote FULL of sweaters and long sleeved shirts. OMG! I decided to not even go through it. I just put it ALL in the pile. Why? I recall packing these shirts away over three years ago when I was trying to put away winter clothes "for the summer." The fact I didn't look for them for three years indicates to me I'll never wear ANY of that stuff again. Ew. Goodbye.

In the "attic," there is an old armoire type of thing. I have all kinds of random clothing in it. That's where you see the big stack on top of the laundry basket in the pic. I made it about 1/3 of the way through this armoire.

The funniest part of the night is a humongous Victoria's Secret bag I FILLED WITH BELTS. Oh god, I have no idea how many but wow were they hilarious!!!!!!!!! Honestly, at least FIFTY BELTS, probably more. Why did I save all of these? Some I seriously remember wearing in college. This is just not normal. lol.

The bad news is the stuff for donating is really starting to stack up in the extra bedroom, which is about to give my farmer a heart attack. Yikes!

Post more soon!

Love,
Moi

Motion of the Lotion

2009-07-01T19:48:00.000-07:00

...as in out the door.

I decided to hit up the lotion cabinet tonight. It's actually a really tall antique cabinet that serves as our bathroom closet as surprise, surprise: there is no closet in the bathroom! There is no closet in the bathroom because when the house was built, the bathroom was the outhouse. Therefore, the bathroom was snuck in later behind the kitchen = no room for a closet.

Shockingly, I had an entire shelf DEDICATED to lotions and lotions and lotions. And corresponding body sprays and whatnot. Granted, it's true...I am a shower freak, as previously mentioned. That being said, I buy a lot of lotion. I also feel terrible throwing away any gifts people get me. So I had a huge shelf of this stuff that I may have used at one point for awhile, but switched to something else. In most cases, I won't go back to the old stuff.

I have an ENTIRE fabric Hy-Vee bag packed FULL of bottles of lotions and body sprays. My friend is going to empty them and recycle them. Yay, Kate!

I also was able to purge almost all of my sunscreen collection, like 20 bottles of nailpolish, a bunch of hair ribbons Belle doesn't wear anymore, several types of band-aid boxes after consolidating the contents, etc.

Sorry for the bad pic quality. Kurt accidentally threw away my camera cable so I had to take pics with my phone and upload until I can replace it. Well, at least I'm blaming the cord loss on him. It couldn't have anything to do with the fact my desk and closets are in a disarray! BUT O.M.G. I should've taken a before and after shot. The before picture would look similar to the above picture, except imagine the inside looking like the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina. I seriously cannot even explain the difference but my farmer seems impressed this is like Day 4 and I'm still ditchin'...and he can now open the bathroom "closet" without going into cardiac arrest!

So this is a totally lame post. But it IS a bathroom closet and that's the hottest scoop that could come from a bathroom closet! :) Still ditching stuff so...yay! Eventually, I'll have to move on to the computer desk. Ugh!!

Mucho love!!
Ann

End of an Moose-alicious Era (almost)

2009-06-30T19:06:00.000-07:00

OMFG. I cannot believe I'm about to admit what I'm ditching for the day. Mainly because I should in no way, shape or form have any of this stuff!!!!!!! I have a feeling my friend Craig will never talk to me again. lol.

So when I turned 30, I decided I was too old to wear my beloved Abercrombie jeans and quit shopping at my 2nd favorite store cold turkey (Von Maur has always been #1). I had been shopping there hardcore for YEARS. Since age 30 (appx 16 months ago), I've done three MAJJJJJOR purges of my A&F collection including lots of jeans, lots of sweaters, lots of long-sleeve stretchy numbers, lots of obnoxious striped items, etc etc. Kurt's god-sister (?) (it's his mom's god-daughter) is 13ish so she's been able to wear all the stuff, which is AWESOME! She's getting rather tall now though so not sure she can still rock my A&F jeans. For those of you wondering how the hell a 13 year old can wear my jeans, do know that I am only 4'11". End of short story.

Anyway! Kurt mentioned the other day that he has never even seen me get into one of the dressers in the spare room. lol. This dresser is my "jeans" dresser and happened to be PACKED sardine-style of jeans, pants, (apparently jean skirts, omg) and capri's that have PRESUMABLY/APPARENTLY made the cut from the three major post-30 wardrobe purges?? For lack of a more appealing offer, I decided to tackle this little # for my nightly seek & destroy project. I discovered and ditched 5 more pairs of A&F jeans, a pair of IT jeans and a pair of GAP jeans in there. Considering I don't wear jeans that often (have to dress up for work), chances are I would NEVER choose any of these jeans over my True Religions or even my 7's in ten million years. Gone! I also found several pairs of A&F khaki's in there I used to wear to WORK (omg no), 4 A&F jean mini-skirts (wtf * 2) and a white (wtf) A&F khaki skirt. At some point you need to evaluate your age and incorporate the fact you don't do 1,000 squats per week...and admit you will NEVER wear one of these jean mini-skirts again...even if they were in style, which sure AS HELL they are not! Goodbye.

Now I actually have room IN THE DRESSER for all of the decently cool jeans I stack ON TOP of the dresser. Yay. I ditched some other random stuff I had on top of the dresser and stashed on the side of the dresser. I also cleaned out a tote of little shirts/tanks and made a decent-sized ditchable stack, most consisting of moose-adorned attire. Ugh!

Now I say "almost" in the title because I did keep a bunch of A&F tanks I still wear under stuff, some plain-colored tees I don't really wear but could see myself wearing eventually. And fine, several pairs of capris for lack of any other capri's (in general, I never wear jean capri's anymore...soooo over them). I'm sure they'll be getting ditched during the next purge.

I am starting to agree with Kurt's mom that I should have a garage sale (she wants me to have one, so she can have one, lol). Ugh. It sounds like a lot of work!!

But the point is I'm sticking to my deal with the devil and Kurt's going to be way overjoyed when he gets home from the farm and sees yet another garbage bag in the hall and a huge stack of clothes for either Goodwill or the alleged garage sale that will most likely never happen. Who has time for this? And why do I save all these clothes I NEVER wear? Seriously?? Jean mini-skirts??? I'm dying.

Deal with the Devil

2009-06-29T17:37:00.000-07:00

Yes, I made one. F***! Not that my husband is Satan himself, but he sure as hell (no pun intended) is the g.d. anti-Christ of clutter. Nothing makes him go all male PMS more than a stack of magazines with a pair of sunglasses, a random Von Maur receipt and a bottle of nail polish on top. Leave this on the table inside the entryway and don't expect a conversation for two hours...instead expect lots of loud sighing and dirty looks. Most of the time I think it's cute/funny...after I came to accept his freakishly clean ways and realized that wow - I no longer have to clean. Yay!

Anyway, so he says I'm a packrat. I say I'm eclectic. Of course, I am right and he is wrong because I am pregnant and he is not! :) That being said, I have FINALLY admitted my need to downsize my junkola from our HUGGGE farmhouse to the new farmhouse. Current farmhouse has no closet space and a serial-killer basement. New farmhouse is way smaller but has tons of closets and storage space (including a dry basement). The fact that it's way smaller, means I gotta unload some serious eclecticness. Stat! I can't be doing this all last minute!

Basically, I like things to look really neat but my closets and drawers are an action-packed DISASTER. So I'm not sure if you'd say I were a neat person or not...I guess I'm "fake neat. The fake neatness extra extra sucks in an 100+ year old farmhouse because closets were built to hold only like two homemade dresses and a hoop skirt. Ugh!!!!!

So, last night I cleaned out my 4-drawer dresser. I packed an entire huge garbage bag of throw-away clothing and also got a heaping laundry basket full of clothing for the Goodwill. That dresser should not even be able to hold that many clothing items!!! And it still has lots of stuff in it!!! It felt so good to clean out this dresser that I told Lucifer I would "clean out" one thing per day. He was so overwhelmed with joy, he sprouted angel wings and started floating around the house. I thought he was going to propose again immediately. Then, I rained on his parade when I told him it could be something big (like a dresser) or something small (like a shoebox). Regardless, he can ask me about it each day and if I haven't done anything, I have to grab something immediately and throw it away. OMG!

Since he's probably on his way home from the farm now, I better get crackin'.

Wish me luck. Updates to be posted, for sure. I should post pics too.

Mucho love!
Moi :)

P.S. I forgot to mention my husband is pefect and awesome except for his little clean regime/Sleeping with the Enemyish ways. :) But it sure is nice to have a sparkling house all the time! :) So it's worth it!

****************************************************************************

UPDATE!!!

K so fastforward two hours from when I originally posted this blog. I was under a lil' bit of a time constraint and expected Stew to be home any second. I was snooping around the casa trying to find something that was worth my time to clean out yet not too big of a project. I looked in my lotion cabinet. Never a good choice. I mean everyone needs 100 bottles of various lotions and 74 bottles of sunscreen...so what's to throw away there!?!? I opened Kurt's nemesis (the computer desk) and quickly shut the drawers and ran screaming the other way.

Finally, I came back to our bedroom. Our nightstand has kind of hidden lower shelf that is nothing short of a nightmare. It doesn't bother me too much b/c it's on his side of the bed and by the wall so I literally NEVER go over there. And you cannot see the lower part of the nightstand from anywhere else in the room (fake neat). I discovered a bunch of random stuff stacked up on that shelf. Here's what the garbage bag claimed:

Approximately 7 bridal magazines, apparently from early last year when we were wedding planning. Oops. A software package of various fonts (also from wedding planning), a couple random best-seller paperbacks I bought in airports but didn't read and *drumroll* my favorite paperback of the night: Adam Smith's WEALTH OF NATIONS. I mean, REALLY? For those of you that know what this book is, I am positive you're laughing your a$$ off right now. I think I bought this book when I was trying to be all collegiate (I graduated in May 2000, so before then) but never read it then and I sure as hell won't read it now! I mean the pages were now YELLOW and when I bought it, it cost $7.95 from Brentan books, which I think used to be the bookstore at the mall before Borders and Barnes & Noble rolled into town!!!!! I'm dying! LOL. I checked Borders.com and it's now selling for $15.95!!! OMG, okay, I'll admit this is kind of fun cleaning out this stuff...and I have NO IDEA why I have this stuff stashed!! This innocently-looking nightstand yielded almost 1/2 a garbage bag of trash. I'm dying.

Things from the nightstand that made the cut: a vintage purse, an awesome hardcover book on Fashion my friend Larry gave me, a paperback dream book, Kurt's farmer's almanac and a box of kleenex.

Here is the description of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, for those unfamiliar. Click here.

New Digs

2009-06-23T17:08:00.000-07:00

So...many of you I see all the time know weeeeeee're movin'! I will admit to complaining about the move for two reasons: it's 20 minutes farther than my current 25/30 minute commute to work and I do LOVE our house now. BUT when I'm out at the farm, especially in the summer, I realize I'm the luckiest chica in the world and OMG WHAT in the hell am I complaining about??? Being out there in the summer is like the Dominican without the beach. It's warm and sunny and silent and breezy and blue and green and everything good. Time just moves slower and is happier there.

The scoop is Kurt's lovely parents (awesome in-laws - love them!!) are building a new house on their next farm. So we get to live in their house! Yay!

I thought I'd add some pics so all my friends know what in the world I'm talking about!

My lovely in the cornfield

Keith & Marilyn's awesome new house

View from their four-season porch

Another view from their porch (our house in the background)

Keith & Marilyn's old casa (Our new casa) :)

Front yard (you can see Keith & Marilyn's across the field)

Another view of the front yard :)

I love flags. I'm so excited to have one in our front yard!

Cartwheel girl :)

I love this barn (where the kitties live)

Back of the casa!

I love the backyard!

More backyard views

The machine shed where we had our awesome barn dance wedding reception!

I'm sure I'll have more info and pics to post soon! :) The in-laws' house should be done on Sept. 1 so we'll move sometime after that... Yay!

OMG

2009-06-15T16:46:00.000-07:00

Why the hell didn't I think of this!?!?!?

http://perezhilton.com/2009-06-15-flat-fashion

SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!!

A Year on Ladybug Farm

2009-06-12T21:15:00.000-07:00

Do NOT worry, I'm not going to go all educational and refined on you just because I've got a bun in the oven. This little ditty/excerpt was TOO GOOD to pass up, though.

The books starts out, like most do, introducing and describing the main characters. In this case, the characters are three women, around the age women are when their kids are in college. I actually LAUGHED OUT LOUD (for a long time) at the description of two of the chicas, Lindsay and Cici and how "well off" they are now:

"Viewed from a distance, they could have been sorority sisters in their designer jeans and WALKING SHORTS, slim tanned arms swinging gracefully at their sides, casually coiffed hair glinting in the sunlight. (Skip a couple sentences). Lindsay wore her auburn PONYTAIL PULLED THROUGH A BAND OF A BASEBALL CAP, and a close-fitting T-shirt that BARELY SKIMMED THE TOP OF HER JEANS. There was a time when, as a college student, she couldn't have afforded the SPECIAL-EDITION VERA BRADLEY SUNSHINE AND SHADOW QUILTED BACKPACK BAG SHE CARRIED BY ONE STRAP ACROSS HER SHOULDER, BUT NO MORE. Cici was blue-eyed and covered in freckles. She had the legs of a dancer, which looked twice as long and twice as lean IN HER CKs (!!!!),"

OMG, some of you will find the capital letters absolutely hilarious. For those that do, this blog is for you! In an effort to find some rational for this insaneness, I checked the copyright date. First edition March 2009!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WTF was she thinking! I mean seriously. For the handbag, at least use an old stand-by that EVERYONE knows costs more than $50 at Hallmark (i.e. Gucci or Chanel or Louis V.). As for the CK jeans, God. They surely haven't made them for 10-15 years. Go with TR or William Rast, seriously. And...I have no clue what to say about the walking shorts.

In all seriousness, although fashionably challenged while trying to point out "great" fashion, this was a cute book. Who wants to borrow?? It's about these three chicas who are BFF's that fall in love with a humongous old estate farmhouse in the South and decide to uproot their lives from the Northeast to rehab it because they love it so much. It was really cute and I could relate to a lot of the things they went through (not the wearing of CKs) just because I hang out at Kurt's farm being clueless about what to do most of the time. There was definitely more of a plot than my normal Shopaholic books but it's NOT Pride and Prejudice or anything.

For those of you that care, I spent my entire life until I had Belle reading like a maniac. I was always reading growing up and took great pride in my complete Nancy Drew collection! Later, I moved on to VC Andrews (creepy) - not sure why my mom let me read stories about incest and creepy family secrets involving children locked in an attic when I was 13 - gross! I moved on to other insightful authors such as Mary Higgins Clark and Stephen King in high school and college. I'm sure there were other authors but I mainly liked to rock these, as a rule. Again, I was def not reading Jean-Paul Sartre or Shakespeare but at least I was reading!

Now I don't have a favorite author, but I pick up books from the recommended/best seller tables from Barnes & Noble or Borders whenever I'm in the mood or going on a trip. I don't read as much anymore because I've always been semi-obsessive about whatever I'm reading...as in that's all I want to do. ha. So for two days, I'll read the book every free second.

I'll probaly post some more book reviews occasionally. I have a couple good ones I've read on the vacations we've been on over the past year. And now that I'm pregnant, I'll be reading while everyone's out partying! :)

Love,
Moi

P.S. I'm serious - who wants this book? It needs to leave my desk area.

Random Blogging!

2009-06-09T21:16:00.000-07:00

Well, I have nothing awesome to say (lol) as when I'm not working, carting Miss Drama around, taking care of the zillion animals at my rescue center (aka there is no center, it's my house that is a magnet for adorable but homeless pets), EATING, eating or Eating, THEN I'm sleeping. Such a cool life! Ha! Being pregnant is pretty fun except for being so tired. I blogged about this on the farmbaby site so I'll stop here on that...

Eating rocks it though. I have been dragging out some old school eating establishments in an effort to eat out as much as humanly possible. Tonight we hit Ganzo's!! YUM, I love that place. Vegetable enchiladas are soooooooooo awesome. Other thoughts for the evening were Riefe's and Harlan's. I am reverting back to my West Side or Die mentality. Yay!! I like to keep it real every now again (aka every day).

::cues Flapper music::

"I remember....when 53rd was a gravel road..." God I miss my Grandpa. He never said that sentence but he said lots of things like that... I really am saying, "I remember...when 53rd was a gravel road..." I totally do! I remember I was in high school and driving so it wasn't THAT long ago (shut it, Steward). No, seriously, there was no 53rd & Utica or 53rd & Elmore (as we know them, anyway)! About a 1/2 mile past Brady, it turned to GRAVEL. I remember when they put up the WalMart on Elmore - the FIRST one, by Millertime. Huge deal. Now I just cannot imagine our lives without this area of Dav/Bett. NOOOO Best Buy! It was all Radio Shack and that one store by Venture (now Kmart) on Brady & Kimberly for electronics. It was called *Something* Den (not Lion's ya sickos). I'll have to ask my dad the name.

I remember when there were huge fountains IN Northpark Mall (seriously, IN THE MALL), EVERYONE called Von Maur Petersen's and there was a humongous orange-carpeted stage in front of Younkers. The train at Hardee's (now L.A. Nails) in the mall by Ward's (now Dillard's).

I remember when the mini-golf course at Northwest Blvd (toward Farm & Fleet) was the shizit.

Seriously, Alladin's Castle.

When Rocket Slide Park wasn't scary as all hell.

Hollywood Video.

Geefman's and People's. (Geefman's MIGHT be spelled wrong - I couldn't spell then).

The OLD Ganzo's at 5 Points.

Ponderosa (ew) used to be our "steakhouse" LOL!

Not lying....I remember when Kimberly and Pine was a cornfield. It was seriously like that when we moved into the Linwood casa circa 1986!

Speaking of that area, Kimberly Pines Skating Rink, people!!

Mercy vs. St. Lukes.

NOOOO Carriage Haus. Stickman's, Halftime, The Gallery and The District were the ONLY cool places to be.

The pet store at the mall and also Scott Co. Seed at the Village Shopping Center. OMG Phar-Mor.

What else am I forgetting? OMG!

Happily Ever After?

2009-06-04T19:43:00.000-07:00

Literally my dream job is working in the wedding biznazz. I just think brides are fun and weddings are awesome. My friends and I have always talked about how fun it would be to work at (and/or own) a wedding dress store. I can't imagine we are the only group of friends that discuss this every time one of us is planning a wedding. SO WHY IS IT THAT ALL WEDDING DRESS STORE ATTENDANTS ARE SUCH BITCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SERIOUSLY, BITCHES! I MEAN, WTF.

I have been to so many different dress stores with so many different friends over so many years and seriously 99.9% of the time, the dress store chicks are sarcastic and bitchy. I have gone dressed down, dressed up, with my rugrat, without my rugrat, with moms, without moms, etc etc etc. Basically all ends of the spectrum have been covered. Always bitches. It is so weird!! And we are always the ones who are NICE TO THEM...they should be NICE TO US! Granted, they are used to dealing with crazy brides but if it really pains you that much to help one of my overly polite and super adorable friends, then get a new job. Seriously.

So obviously, I had an "experience" today. My future sis-in-law and I went into David's Bridal because she saw a dress online that she loved. So we rolled in so she could try it on. Granted, I wasn't looking my hottest but I still had on a cute work outfit, so not totally slumdog millionaire (I have not seen the movie, so not sure what that expression really even means). Bride was dressed cute. My princess had on a cute gap outfit. I think you know the attitude we received. And the place was DEAD! No one there. While the bride filled out her card, the two attendants were totally bitching right in front of us about this "STUPID" client that called requesting a total on a dress she had selected so she could drop off a check. They were being all attitudeish about it. I'm not sure why bc it seems like common practice someone might want to know a total when they are about to drop a grand, particularly if someone else is providing the check (i.e. Daddy). It just seemed rude they would talk this way about another client when WE (new clients) JUST got there.

Bride began to try on a few dresses. Chica was getting impatient being like, "What DON'T you like about that one?" She was working toward helping her out (i.e. motives were good), but just being in general bitchy about her interrogation. Finally, I started getting pissy and just said, "Do you like your job?" while the bride was in the dressing room getting ready for dress #3 (so it's not like we had been there for four hours). She was like, "Yes, I do but I'm just tired." What am I - a Diet Mt. Dew? I don't effing care. I have NO CAFFEINE TO GIVE, honey. So I immediately said, "Yes, I can definitely see how it would be a really fun job." WEIRD. This girl became instantly sweet! I wasn't even rude but maybe me asking her that made her feel like she was being rude? Whatever the case, she became helpful and nice around this 30 minute point. She ended up being great (sans the first 30 minutes), sis-in-law to be found an amazingly awesome gorgeous dress, so it was worth it.

I just think these employees should be NICER, considering dress shopping is supposed to be the most fun part of the planning and it can really kill a bride's mood to be treated like an intruder. This has not just happened at David's, it's everywhere (except DeWitt of course but I know and love those ladies). Celebration is by far the worst for bitchyness, which kind of sucks because I absolutely love their dresses. I have had a few terrible Hope's experiences. The bridal store attitude at Southpark is wretched. I will say I've had decent experiences at The Bridal Room in Bettendorf but don't like their dresses as much as I like the staff. Love DeWitt but again, I know those chicas :) and they have the best dresses.

Anyway, maybe a bridal worker will read this and have some insight. Yes, I know you work with 'zillas and crazy bride mom's. But isn't that part of the job? Break out the rag on those girls and be nice to the new ones coming in, at least!!!

I'm done ranting :) Thx for listening :) :) I still love dress shopping, regardless of dealing with these b's. I think I'm just going to start all bridal dress appointments with the "Do you like your job?" question and go from there. Sista is pregnant + suffering from Diet Mt. Dew withdrawl = No PATIENCE. Watch out! Ha!!

Love y'all!!
Ann

Sad Blog Sad Blog

2009-06-01T14:00:00.001-07:00

whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they... ?? I'm not creative enough to go into a cute lil jingle. It might also not be obvious I'm writing that to the tune of "Bad Boys." Depressing I haven't written in FOREVER!

Speaking of which, Bad Boys was one of my favorite movies EVER...which is surprising when you consider the other faves on my list: Dirty Dancing, Shag, Legally Blonde (1 and 2), Clueless, Breakfast Club, etc. Also Boiler Room is on there (another random).

So I made it to and from Disney. It was fun...but not as fun as our other vacations. This sista is a beach dweller though. I LOVE the vacations Kurt and I usually go on, so I knew Disney would fall short of my high expectations of laying around staring at the ocean overdosing on blended margaritas with salt. It rained A LOT at Disney. Put a major damper on our plans! But we still had fun :) I will try to post some pics soon!

Hope everyone is having a great start to summer! We sure are!

I rescued five kittens from the barn the day we returned from Disney. Four were immediately doing awesome (eating canned food right away is key) and I lost one. :( It was just too small and sick to make it. Yes, I sobbed for hours. Their mama had passed away while we were in Florida. They are sooooooooooo adorable! If anyone is interested, please let me know at ann_turner5340@yahoo.com! I will get the kitty fixed and its shots before it goes home to you, and also send food. Most importantly, I will take it back AT ANY GIVEN TIME (even hours OR years later) if you decide you don't want him/her :) Their names (for now) are Honeycomb, Tiger, Stripes and Vanilla. They are all super tame and super sweet! :) All are potty trained and drinking water (as opposed to milk replacer) now. They need to stay with me for a couple more weeks, until they can be fixed. Honeycomb is a girl and the others are boys. I'll definitely try to get some better pics posted!

Much love!!!

Ann

Hottttttt Scoop!!!!!

2009-05-06T18:42:00.001-07:00

So I totally have hot scoop! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

www.farmbabysteward.blogspot.com

Don't worry this random blog will not turn into a random blog of babiness :) :) but yes we are sooooooooooo excited!

How is everyone? I am tired and reallllly missing yoga. Ready for Alice and Wonderland ballet to be over so I can have a life again :) About to hit Disney in ten days to hang with Mickey and Minnie. I'm more of a Looney Tunes person myself so I can't say my bags are packed and waiting on the front steps. I'm sure it will still be really fun though... *wards away swine flu* lol

Celebrity Scoop: Okay, so WTH. How in the hell could Jon of Jon & Kate Plus 8 have time to go out, meet this chick tons of times "as friends," etc. Seriously. This girl is a nutcase. Has she lost her mind?? Why would she consider dating him? I mean he's super nice, somewhat cute, seems to have some money now...but the guy has EIGHT KIDS. Count 'em honey: EIGHT!!! He won't have ANYTHING with that divorce is over with and can you imagine his visitation weekends? LOL...omg. Plus that's just freaking so rude b/c obviously she knows he's married. Hmmmm....who believes it? I do, I do!

Much love!
Ann

Hello, All

2009-05-02T18:58:00.001-07:00

I am back.

Horrid week. Horrid yesterday. I'll never get over it. I hate SIDS!! The end.

*************************************************************************************

The good news is the sun FINALLY feels warm in this god-foresaken town. SERIOUSLY. I'm a true Floridian (as in the Southern-most part) at heart. I hate the weather in Iowa! Except summer :)

I am so happy to free of the chains from school! Craziness. I've been getting some stuff done! I cleaned Belle's room today...while she was gone of course :) I threw away TONS of junk. She's an only grandchild so she is SPOILED without her even realizing it. She thinks it's totally normal to have a stack of about 35 diaries that have never been written in. So existential of her.

I'm babysitting my friend's daughter tonight so the girls could have a "slumber party." I'm cracking up at their dramatic pretend games. Now I can see the benefits of having more than one child! They TOTALLY keep eachother entertained!!! LOL! Belle is being a bride and her friend, Maddie, is serving as "Mom/Lead Bridesmaid." omg. I just realized they've been quiet for about 15 minutes so I should go see what they are doing :)

Love ya's!
Ann

Sad News

2009-04-28T19:44:00.000-07:00

Hola y'all. Sorry for the blog hiatus. I wanted to post something about being back soon-ish, maybe later in the week.

One of my best friends lost her baby yesterday to SIDS. It's such an awful nightmare, I cannot WAIT to wake up...I hope this happens soon or I might lose my effing mind.

Needless to say, we are all totally, completely, absolutely devastated. So therefore, I'll be back soon....

Love to you all,
Ann

I'M BACK, JACK!

2009-04-22T20:32:00.001-07:00

Hello, school! You're horrid. I know I used to LOOOOOOOOOOVE you and tell all of my friends about how great you were, how much fun you were, etc. Well, guess what, those days are over. OVER!!! I'm a free woman now. Later, ****er.

Love,
:) Ann

P.S. I will definitely miss my teacher and accounting friends. BUT NOT THE HOMEWORK! Or final projects! :) :) :)

Oh hi :)

2009-04-21T21:11:00.001-07:00

I hate school.

Just thought I would mention this...

How did I go from LOVING IT to HATING IT?

Yahhhh, soooo...

2009-04-16T18:58:00.001-07:00

I just took a little Facebook survey that was like, "Analyze Your Name." So I was like, "Okay." "A N N" It returns the following: "Aggressive Natural Natural." HAH! Hilarious, for real :) I'm soooo far from either of those things. I hate confrontation unless I'm really PISSED...which doesn't happen often. And I'm sure as hell not "Natural..."

Speaking of which, I've been A.D.O.R.I.N.G. my new makeup blog. http://anns-blog-of-beauty.blogspot.com/. Ladies, check it out :)

I don't have too much muy bueno scoop. RANDOMLY we are playing fundraiser trivia again this weekend. We have played three weekends in a row. My friends Bill and Monica, and Kurt and I, have remained constant with us throughout the trio of weekends. Last week our team ROCKED IT and we won Won WON. This has nothing to do with the fact the questions were WAY EASIER than the stupid rowing association questions the week prior.

Back to this original story, I truly believe Facebook is the greatest (or worst) time waster in the world...depending on what you're trying to avoid... I used to make fun of Kurt for doing the "myFarm" but after I started doing it, I realized it really was pretty fun! :) It seems like it takes forever to build up money though so it gets kind of boring...similar to savings accounts. Hah!

On that note, I better go do my homework (a.k.a. Check Facebook). More soon! Much love! Namaste! Etc!

Love,
Moi ;)

OMFG!

2009-04-13T16:53:00.000-07:00

First let me say I don't watch t.v. like ever (except Rock of Love Bus) and every once in awhile I watch whatever is on HGTV. I never follow Idol and consider it a good year if I remember to actually watch the CMA's (for Kenny Chesney, of course).

So, seriously, you must KNOW that I wouldn't post this scoop & clip unless it ROCKED:

Here is the story:

"American Idol" isn't the only launching pad for aspiring singers. Across the pond, "Britain's Got Talent" scored a huge boost in the Buzz after an unassuming contestant gave an amazing performance.

Susan Boyle (remember that name) became a Web phenomenon after singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables. The performance brought the audience to its feet and left the judges (including Simon Cowell) either speechless or in tears.

Before going on stage, Ms. Boyle admitted some self-deprecating facts about herself (she's never been kissed and lives alone with her cat, Pebbles). For those reasons and more, audiences were expecting the female William Hung. They were wrong.

Lookups on the sudden star posted huge gains. A no-name just the other day, Ms. Boyle quickly surged into our top 5,000 overall searches. Blogs and gossip rags went wild. The Mirror jumped on the story, reporting that while Ms. Boyle thought she "looked like a garage" on TV, she received a standing ovation when she showed up at her local church.

Other sources write that as a child, Ms. Boyle was the target of bullies because of a disability. But, with her newfound fame, she is getting the last laugh. In fact, she's already meeting with officials from Mr. Cowell's Sony BMG label. This may have been the first you've heard of her, but it certainly won't be the last. You can watch her performance below...

Alright now you should watch the freakin' thing! I cried (all ten times I watched it)! Rock it, Susan!

Susan Boyle Sings on Britain's Got Talent 2009 Episode 1 @ Yahoo! Video

O to the kay

2009-04-12T22:15:00.000-07:00

Hola! Today, I have been working on my over-hyped make up blog, http://anns-blog-of-beauty.blogspot.com/

I'm unbelievably loving it and the fact I can rave & rant about products without killing the spirit of my random blog. Seriously! My MAC makeover was such a success I just couldn't wait to post some details on there :) It was such a success I can't go to the mall for a LONG time ;)

As many know I am moving, so I was also inspired to decorate the new casa by walking through Crate & Barrel and past Pottery Barn (at Oakbrook Mall). = Double Love. Housewares shopping is something I need to do solo because I usually adore everything and can't make a decision on that stuff for AWHILE.

Did everyone have a good Easter weekend? I hope so! We sure did... Friday I played trivia with some friends and hello, we won first place! Yay, team! Then we all met up with some more friends for karyoke in the West End. Good times!!!

Saturday I survived the yoga princess training. I cannot BELIEVE how much I learned from this 2.5 hour session. She is awesome and inspiring. Hopefully we all took away a lot from the class. I'm not limping and bitching as much as I have in the past but my back muscles are definitely sore. It could be from that cute little backbend/ustrasana (sp?) combo.

The Easter bun-bun visited like 8 times for Belle. I cannot believe she doesn't question it. He apparently knew to leave baskets here at home AND at four grandparents/great-grandparents' houses. Crazy! She of course loves everything and cannot wait to paint the paintable tea set we bought her.

Unfortunately, tomorrow is back to work!! Too bad we didn't have Friday and Monday off. :)

Namaste!!!
Ann

Better Nights

2009-04-08T19:48:00.000-07:00

Normally, I'm not one to be a Debbie Downer, but put an "I've had..." before the blog title and that's the story of my night last night. :)

Had some work drama (related to forecast accounting NOT personnel/co-workers) so I went FLYING out of work to run home, grab the leotard and ballet shoes and get to Gramma's to get Belle for ballet. There's road construction on 70th Street and road construction on 23rd Ave. Literally, no one wants me to (easily) be able to get to JDR and hit the interestate. Argh!

So I roll down the hill and head West through all the Illinois downtowns. Takes forever, I finally get home. RUN inside the house, grab the stuff (and a couple of peanut butter cups LOL), RUN out of the house. Get to Gramma's, where Belle is waiting in a robe. Realize I must have dropped the tights in the yard at mi casa. Make Belle get in the car in a robe (poor girl). FLY home. Get the tights which were yes, in the yard. Lil missy has to change in the car. She was, of course, dying over this. Get her dropped off ten minutes late and end up paying $70 for costume fees and a copy of last year's show. Talk to the owner so long about small business accounting that I missed yoga.

Belle finds her brand new ballet shoe (seriously JUST BOUGHT IT) in the corner of the couch with a hole chewed in it. She apparently forgot to put her shoes away.

I tried to update a work report by logging in. The file was too big so it wouldn't update. LOVELY!!

Hahaha. Just thought I'd share my strange but eventful evening! Not all nights were meant to be easy :) :) :)

Hope everyone got a chance to read the license plate post yesterday!

Love,

Ann

Bumper Stickers

2009-04-08T11:43:00.000-07:00

LOL. My fave is #8. My friend, Heather, just sent me this:

Women's Bumper Stickers

1. SO MANY MEN, SO FEW WHO CAN AFFORD ME.

2. GOD MADE US SISTERS; PROZAC MADE US FRIENDS.

3. IF THEY DON'T HAVE CHOCOLATE IN HEAVEN, I AIN'T GOING.

4. MY MOTHER IS A TRAVEL AGENT FOR GUILT TRIPS.

5. PRINCESS, HAVING HAD SUFFICIENT EXPERIENCE WITH PRINCES, SEEKS FROG.

6. COFFEE, CHOCOLATE, MEN. . . SOME THINGS ARE JUST BETTER RICH.

7. DON'T TREAT ME ANY DIFFERENTLY THAN YOU WOULD THE QUEEN.

8. IF YOU WANT BREAKFAST IN BED, SLEEP IN THE KITCHEN.

9. DINNER IS READY WHEN THE SMOKE ALARM GOES OFF.

10. I'M OUT OF ESTROGEN-AND I HAVE A GUN.

11. GUYS HAVE FEELINGS TOO. BUT LIKE...WHO CARES?

12. NEXT MOOD SWING: 6 MINUTES.

13. AND YOUR POINT IS...?

14. WARNING: I HAVE AN ATTITUDE AND I KNOW HOW TO USE IT.

15. OF COURSE I DON'T LOOK BUSY...I DID IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME.

16. DO NOT START WITH ME. YOU WILL NOT WIN.

17. YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT, SO PLEASE SHUT UP.

18. ALL STRESSED OUT AND NO ONE TO CHOKE.

19. I'M ONE OF THOSE BAD THINGS THAT HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE.

20. HOW CAN I MISS YOU IF YOU WON'T GO AWAY?

21. SORRY IF I LOOKED INTERESTED. I'M NOT.

Holla!

2009-04-07T21:07:00.000-07:00

Yo y'all.

Went to Mark's class. It was fun! I was SPEEDING down 92 to get there as I ran (literally) out of work at 5:29. Freakin' closing week.

I could do headstand again! Weird!!! (post-wall flinging).

My big scoop is I'm starting a new blog for beauty products. Everyone who has read this blog knows I have A LOT A LOT A LOT to say about products, particularly during the days of "Ann's Favorites" or "Ann's Hates." I'm guessing a lot of you (Jeff, Brian, Evan) don't want to read about product nor do the product readers care about my Farm & Fleet flowered bootage. Hence ::cues trumpets:: I'm starting a new blog. Of course, annsrandomblog will always be my favorite as it's my first **tear** and takes precedence over all others! This just means any and all yogis, other guys (Josh, Kurt) or any others :) who could care less don't have to read about my AWESOME NEW CHANEL crease brush (it does rock, fyi) or my FABULOUS NEW STILA BARBIE COLLECTION SHADOW QUAD (also rocks)!!! Also, I try to mix up this blog and like to keep my product whoreness on a somewhat secret level. We all know this is hard to do during the Ann's Favorite's sessions. lol. Most importantly, it gives me an "excuse" for buying and "trying" all this good stuff!

If you are interested, though, check here: http://www.anns-blog-of-beauty.blogspot.com/ soon. But not for awhile because I just created this honey tonight and need to set up the layout and my first posting. First order of business is getting a new damn picture. That one is terrible and was only up there to highlight the Louis! Dying!

Finally! Only three more weeks left of horrid class. Ugh! I am more preoccupied with the new job, yoga and blogging than class, to be honest. Hopefully Allison isn't reading this *smiles sweetly*

This weekend, we have a lil trivia night on Friday. Should be fun. THIS TIME I plan to assert myself on the "smooth muscle" answer (ew) and keep quiet during the melanocyte question. Yes, we also played trivia last Saturday for the rowing club. Trivia this Friday benefits my friend, Tedgie's son's baseball team. Also, it happens to be on the West Side, which we ALL know I love. West Side or die, baby.

Okay, Namaste to all!

I better do this homework... ugh

Love,
Ann

Yoga Update

2009-04-05T12:39:00.001-07:00

I have started like 5 blogs since last Thursday. They all suck but this is the best (which isn't saying a whole lot). Truth be told, I'm working a sweet blog about music but it's takin' me awhile (a long while).

So it's no secret I haven't been going to yoga as much (until now). This is unintentional. As soon as these freaking godforesaken classes are over, it's so on again.

It's crazy how a "lil'" time off can really hinder your yoga progress. It's particularly evident in ashtanga since we're obviously doing the same sequence on Sundays. In other words - I used to be able to stay up for the 3 backbends, now I have to take a break in the middle there. LOL. This is not the only pose that has regressed. Even my triangle feels more like a trapezoid.

HOWEVER - an insanely awesome once in a lifetime event for me DID occur in Sunday class, though: I could miraculously do a yoga-style headstand. After I flung myself into the wall, I could just do it. Weird. Usually I'm like back and forth from the wall with at least one foot. IDK... I've been taking a break from headstand for awhile so this is really weird. I can easily do the tripod-style headstand without wall but not the yoga-style. I tried the headstand again when I got home. I have an issue with over-flinging myself up and ending up in a backbend/headstand combo. Not cute nor safe for anyone practicing in front of me. LOL. I'll give it a whirl again in Mark's class tomorrow but not expecting much.

Something like this also happened in Shannon's class a few weeks ago: I could do the freaking feathered peacock. RANDOM. Not anymore. So alas, the headstand gig is most likely over. Oh well. We all remember the fateful garba pindasana pose.

Also, in an effort to spice up the blog in "real time" (yeah right), I JUST tried a drop back to backbend and stood back up. I wasn't stretched and it could have been better but oh well at least I can do it. YAY!

Who's lookin' forward to a lil YOGA NINJA, HUH??????

Namaste y'all!!!

Luv,
~A~

WE'RE ROUGH! ROUGH!

2009-04-02T18:21:00.000-07:00

Double O.M.G., the New Kids hit the town tonight with [what should have been] a sold out show. Hello!!

Tons of people I know are going. I mainly know this via Facebook and from my co-worker Emily leaving work tonight in this adorable black tee her friend made her that said "NKOTB" in diamonds across the front. I wasn't really sorry I wasn't going to attend UNTIL our other co-worker, Bill, pulled up this:

Please don't pretend like you don't have 3:52 minutes to watch this greatest 3:52 minutes of your week. I guarantee you will laugh...a lot lot lot. The 80's was like the greatest decade EVER. How was stuff that was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO COOL then SOOOOOOOOOOO HILARIOUS now? I wouldn't say this is a good thing?? Thoughts? I mean my parents don't look back and crack up at The Beatles or Creedence Clearwater Revival! Seriously. No one does this! You get killed for that sh*t up in Lodi.

Anyway, so Emily tells us (as we're watching this video) that a missing girl was actually found several months after being reported missing because she was IN the Hangin' Tough video. Crazy!

The bottom line is I should have totally gone to this concert. However, I am home blogging and avoiding my homework, per us(ual).

One time, the same Bill and I were in Florida on an audit and we were watching VH1 3 or something when the "Maneater" video came on. I still die laughing when I think of it that day... That was like one of the hardest I've ever laughed in my laugh. Come to think of it, most all of those times were with Bill. lol.

Speaking of Florida, I wish I LIVED THERE. As in RIGHT NOW!!!!!!! This weather is sooooo wretched. I cannot take it for another day! 80 degrees - where are youuuuuu? *Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah*

Thanks for reading my blog! :)

Mucho love,
Ann

Missed a Day, Eh?

2009-04-01T15:27:00.000-07:00

Damn. Missed a day. I was doing so good, too. I started writing a post last night but couldn't think of anything remotely as cool as my Doc controversy. I still can't...but oh well.

I'm getting ready to go to class. It's a really exciting class that covers topics of International Accounting standards.... *crickets*

Nothing a little flowered bootage can't cure...

My friends Bree & Courtnee are writing a weekly blog at fifty2resolutions.wordpress.com that you should check it out. This week they are purging and getting peoples' reactions to their "questionably fashionistic" items. Hilarious!! Again, it's http://fifty2resolutions.wordpress.com

My Doc blog coincidentally coincided nicely with their blog this week so as you can see in my blog the other day, I am publicly re-committed to my flowered docs. I will prove it by wearing them to class tonight and getting everyone's opinion.

*Donning the docs*

Ugh! My potentially cute outfit now feels "awry" "amiss" "etc"

Oh well, I'm wearin' 'em. Wait, no I'm not... they look ridic!! I'll be back...

*please hold for 3.5 hours*

YO!

Well, that was fun. Thank God I left the bootage at home since a couple of JD execs were presenting in my class tonight. Nice!

I did a major purge of my closets JUST last month. I started blogging about it but changed my mind. I was going to make fun of some of the clothing I still owned but didn't want to offend anyone if they owned these items. I realize now that was just an excuse not to admit this lunaticish array of fashion nightmares and that literally everyone threw this stuff out YEARS AGO. At least fifty2resolution's clothing is pretty cute and/or sentimental. Mine was HORRID. E.g. a white tank that had a silver glitter design of snakeskin down both sides of the chest. Um yeah, so I wore this my friend Kate's bachelorette party in 2001. Yeah... A white and black zebra print sort of sequined top from The Limited... hmmm.... Two little sweaters (one pink, one black) that had "A"s in the corner, Laverne & Shirley style. This trend came and went circa 2002.

I also had a collection of "cute" tees with "cute" writing that said "cute" things such as: "It's Not Easy Being PERFECT" "Not Everything in Iowa is Flat" "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" "Teeny Bikini Contest." Not really thinking any of these are "cute" on a 31 year old. Except the one about Iowa, I think I saved that. HAH...j/k (not really). I also had some pretty "cool" little tees from The Cheers bar in Boston and the Avril Lavigne (wtf) concert in Moline. Def Leppard tee = gone, too. Forget not the jeans from Von Maur junior's section that were flare legged and had a leather lace up fly from the "boho shirt" era of 2002. I am realizing that I haven't cleaned closets since the early 00's.

I purged 99.9% of my ridiculous Abercrombie & Fitch collection. Including jeans. Why was I still buying this stuff just a year and a half ago? Ew. I saved a couple of sweatshirts and my destroyed jeans. I also saved a bunch of tanks to wear under stuff....and a couple pairs of capris... Alright so 80% of the collection. Fine 75. Jeez.

Courtnee and Bree mention out of town identity crises. I have these! I buy random clothing and jewelry when on vacation, never to wear it again (or part with it). I purged a bunch of pink sweaters I bought in Argentina (as in like 10+ light pink sweaters). I also ditched the "cool" Argentine shoes I bought that were satin sling-backs with comic book print on them. C'mon!!!!!!!!!

I do have a real issue admitting my shoes and handbags are dorky and although they may have cost some $ back in 1999, the style will never return and even if it did, I would never wear the shoes or carry the bag again. I mean, the Dooney "It" c'mon. I'll work on this soon and take pics to prove the purge. Bree & Courtnee are voting on their items (sooo funny) but mine are soooo bad, no votes required. Just purge.

So why the purge...why not just hoard on? Well, I'm getting ready to move to a house that is like 1/3 of the size of my current house. The yard is 1200 times bigger (literally) so I guess it will be worth it. It does mean that WHILE jellies MAY come back into style, the 1996 Mexican vacation editions (But they're Esprit?? Thoughts?? lol) have to go and I can eventually spring the $20 if they ever come back in.

But the flowered bootage will always remain.

Mucho love,
Annabelle

R.I.P. Dr. Martens Collection!!!

2009-03-30T18:32:00.000-07:00

DISCLAIMER: I graduated in '96. Whenever I say that, it reminds me of our (alleged) class "saying," which was as follows: "Party hardy, rock n' roll, drink a keg, smoke a bowl, beer is legal, sex is kicks, we're the class of '96." WTH. This disturbs me on all levels considering my friend's older sister taught us this saying when we were in sixth grade...and she was in ninth (class of 1993). I now wonder if she just made it up and we were like, "OK, cool!" We had no idea what a keg was (we didn't learn what that was until 7th grade, duh) or what a bowl was but trust me, we wrote it in yearbooks for years to come. [As a parent, I will be reading the yearbooks. Belle gets away with NOTHING!] Also, hello we listened to rap anyway. Snoop Dogg, Too $hort, Friday soundtrack (You ain't nothin' but a Hoochie Mama), "C'mon baby, KICK THEM DAZZY'S", etc. Not much rock n' roll but we did also listen to a TON of country. Only Iowa kids switch from Sir Mix A Lot's "My Posse's on Broadway" to Alan Jackson's "Chattahoochie" like it's totally normal.

Anyway, back to the mid-1990's trip fashion memory lane. Wow, what a fashionistic era. *Raises eyebrow*

Omigosh so my yoga queen friend, Jen, got me thinking of my BELOVED Doc collection of late... R.I.P. *heavy sigh followed by wistful, heart-wrenching gaze to Heaven*

Jen mentioned in a Facebook survey she had oxblood Doc's. I wrote back and told her, I too, owned those precious gems!! She also had the silvers and square toes. I had the square toes but not the silvers...I loved the silvers though!! I later remembered my friend, Kasi, and I traded the oxbloods for her black & white wingtips...we each liked the other better so the trade became permanent.

I had one or two pairs of the original brown low tops in junior high. But my real obsession began circa 1992 (9th grade). For every Xmas and b-day throughout high school I asked my mom for a new pair of Doc's and some Lucky jeans. This worked out great for my mom, who then didn't have to make too much effort figuring out what to buy her high-school aged daughter (she HATES shopping, I swear we aren't really related). Here were the "highlights" of my "super cool" Doc collection (sandals not included)...

The "Originals" speak for themselves *salutes*

The Oxbloods (This is the color but I had the low-rise ones. Old school style)

The Wing Tips in Black & White (Possibly Kasi's, I think we traded, as mentioned above, and it became permanent)

The Brown Low Super-Chunkies (I LOVED them but they weighed like 10 lbs)

The Brown Ankle Super-Chunkies (Doubled LOVED them. I rocked them with my Lucky jeans all the time. And totally over-sized tucked in polos with tucked under and over braided belt) *shudder*

The Black Square Toe Boots = love *tear*

FLOWER POWER!!!! So, one day a few years ago I was thinking how e-bay truly has everything anyone could ever want or need. All of a sudden a painful memory blasted into my head. Circa 1995 Christmas. I was DYING for these flowered Doc Martens (this was PRE- everyone has the internet and can find virtually -no pun intended- anything they want). Von Maur tried and tried with no avail to order the flowered Docs for me. Considering this was the height of Doc prime, special orders took over six months and no guaranteed shipping date. Oy! The sorrow!!! The agony!!

So back to three years ago thinking about e-bay. I typed in: flowered doc martens, size 3. EUREKA!!! There was nothing, no one, no how going to stand between me and these boots I would never wear!!!!!! They were located in the U.K. but I didn't care. To my dismay, there were other bidders. Ayyy! I ended up securing them for like $60 Euro. Rock on!!!!!!! They are the only Docs I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE to part with. Donating is non-negotiable! To appease Jessica and Allison who were profusely made fun of me during this bidding drama (B's), I wore them to work the day after they arrived (yes, in the EOB). Maybe I will bust them out again... ??? Seriously.

Note the striking resemblance to the F&F Boutique purchase from this weekend. Hmmm...I think I still have issues with not being able to secure purchases of flowered boots?

If you still wear Doc's, especially if you are a girl, I don't hate, I congratulate. Guys have an easier time rockin' the doc's so actually guys don't count. BUT it takes a strong woman to keep it real and roll the air wair...especially the vintage looks (e.g. Oxblood). I wish I still had my entire collection. I'd "wair" a pair a day for a week (or two) just to do it. Amen!! Unfortunately, I only have the flower power boots of awesomeness. Kurt JUST took my black square toes to the Goodwill like LAST WEEK (I had been hanging on for sentimental purposes, ok...whatever....). Oh yes, I plan to break out these babies as an ode to the aforementioned collector editions. R.I.P.

Mucho love, Doc lovers!
Ann

P.S. OMG....ha. http://cgi.ebay.com/Doc-Dr-Martens-Floral-Flower-Boots-Shoes-UK-8-USA-10_W0QQitemZ250396604259QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Women_s_Shoes?hash=item250396604259&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

Sooo....yea...."Ommmm"

2009-03-29T17:40:00.000-07:00

Alright, I admit life has been getting in the way of my yogaliciousness, which is so uncool. In my next life, I will have NO job and yoga every day. Followed by shopping. This requires marrying someone who does not balance their checkbook and credit card statements to the penny and who also does not hoard cash like he survived the Great Depression (i.e. I can't marry Kurt - total and complete sadness!). Kurt's idea of running low on funds and my idea of running low on funds are totally on opposite ends of the world. Hence, I'll be working til I'm 90, people. Kurt's the greatest guy in the world though :) (side note: but no way in hell will I live under his checkbook rules). :) :) Love you, hon!

ANYHOW...back to the hiatus!

Has anyone ever gotten really wasted and woken up and thought, "OMG how did I get home (presuming you are, in fact, home)?" Well, I have "HEARD" of this happening to people. Of course, I would never do anything like this... lol.

No, I did not drink last night and I felt pretty damn good when I went to bed. Of course, I sleep tons better post-yogaing so I slept until about 5 am. I woke up in a semi-panic (review paragraph above if needed). So...yesterday's Vin III was a harder class than normal (esp. considering my hiatus) but in no way did I imagine WAKING UP and WONDERING how I broke EVERY bone and pulled EVERY muscle in my entire body. I seriously wondered (for about five minutes) if I fell off the Space Needle or something.

After I managed to somehow get breakfast for Belle, I even took Advil, drank some Diet Coke and laid back down in bed, making my lab, Daffodil go with me and listen to me whine and moan. She's a great dog for that...I love labs! Anyhow, it's all my fault for skipping yoga lately so this is what I deserve. The crappy thing was that I missed Sunday class. I would have laughed at the thought of doing five "NAVASANA!!!"s if I could laugh without crying (my ribs hurt). Yeah, I have gone to Sunday class sore from Saturday class before but nothing like this. No way!! I can barely get in and out of the car. Ha! I always like being sore though because at least it means whatever I'm doing is working. I should be in top-model shape by Tuesday, considering the way I feel. Sweet.

Belle had a bday party at Jungle Bungle (aka HELL/Satan's Lair/Lucifer's Underworld/etc). Her little friends' parents were really nice and promised to watch the peanut so I nervously left. God, I hate that place. I wanted to stay but is it rude to invite yourself to stay? Pretty sure. Not to mention Belle would've noticed me lurking in the corner and Happy Joes might have called the cops. I hobbled into the mall and got a quick pedicure :) and then sat in the Jungle Bungle parking lot reading my new book for awhile (watching the door to see if a stranger was making off w/ my Princess).

I bought these two books to read while Belle has ballet rehearsals on the weekends. They are 2 hours long on Saturdays and Sundays. I LOVE reading but I get TOTALLY obsessed with it. Like I will not put the book down until I'm done with it. So, since I normally have stuff to do, I don't read. Anyway, so I got through a couple chapters in the HJ parking lot and the obsession started. I couldn't WAIT to get to ballet and read for two hours. (Bear with me, there is a point, here...) So I get to ballet and offer my services to a couple of other moms. I SEWED for two hours, doing alterations on the girls' costumes.

*silence*

Yes, people, I sewed. I tried telling Kurt this on the phone afterward and I had to repeat it four times and eventually spell it. Here is our 100% serious convo:

Me: "I was all homemakerish and helped sew the costumes."
Him: "You what?"
Me: "Helped sew the costumes."
Him: "I didn't understand you...?" (He's being serious here)
Me: "SEWED. Costumes."
Him: silence
Me: "S...E...W. Sew!"
Him: "Oh, wow, good job."

Haha. Apparently, he did not think the word S-E-W was in my vocab so he was ruling that out as an option. Whatever! I totally got a lobster costume altered and part of a card costume. It was pretty fun. I like chatting with other moms. But DAMN - my book awaits. This sucks!!!!!!!! So, going back to my first paragraph, I'll included READING into my list of daily activities for my next life :) Yoga, shopping, reading. :) :) :)

Mucho love, y'all.

Ann :)

P.S. We wore our boots from yesterday's post today :) :) Belle's lovin' em.

Two Days in a Row, Yo.

2009-03-28T17:46:00.000-07:00

Again, I have no REAL points to make, but a lot to say. Shhhhhocking!!! :)

I actually got a lot-ish done for a Saturday. No lie.

10:00 a.m. - 10:05 a.m.
Jessica and I completed the Kenny Chesney Mission Impossible III manuever (spell?) starting at 9:55 a.m. Tickets went on sale at 10:00 a.m., obviously. Miraculously, her computer found the GOLDEN TICKETS: 3 Section B Floor tickets, row 14!!!!!!!!!!!! *defeaning screams* Oh yeah, baby. Center stage, 14 rows away from our beloved Kenny C. It's f'g on, that's all I have to say. ON!!!!! *Screeches!!!!!!* Seriously, I have sooooo much fun at Kenny concerts AND at ANY concert with J$, really. Truth be told, Jessica and I can have a godforesaken BLAST anywhere. So literally, this will be a night to remember! In addition, one of my high school BFF's, Jeri, will be joining us! Yay!

10:05 a.m. - 11:14 a.m.
Learned my grey cat, "Grey Babbbbays" aka "Samantha" (it's a boy but Belle named him)actually LIKES car rides and sits in the car like a dog, looking at the window and whatnot. We got to the vet but there were wayyyyy too many cars, so we ended up having to call in her script and bringing her back home. Granted, this was kind of a huge amount of wasted time but it was worth it to see people in other cars totally staring at us like "OMG they have a cat in the car." HA!

11:15-11:45 a.m.
Got Belle dropped off at gymnastics. Playdate today with her friend from gymnastics, so I was able to hit Vin III at the Shala. Yay!

12:30 p.m.-2:00 p.m.
I spent this time getting my ass kicked by Evan's "cute" lil list. How can such an unsuspecting normal looking notebook be full of such EVIL??? Granted, I do love the way they put the list together but it would be nice if I'd go more often and actually be able to learn how to do some of this stuff. This is my fault. But for real, am I the only one who feels 1/2 drunk after Saturday and Sunday classes? I'm not sure this is a good thing. LOL. I wasn't sure if I should be driving as I was tooling up Brady in a state of confusion. ha. I guess today wasn't a good day to start limiting my normal a.m. caffeine consumption! I'll correct this error by having three DMD's before class tomorrow. :) :) Yum!

2:00-4:00 p.m.
Waited for Belle to get out of her playdate by savoring my scrumptiously scrumptious favorite thing in the world: Indonesian Peanut Sautee with Tofu, extra spicy, from Noodles. Then I went to Borders, picked up a bday gift for Belle's bday party tomorrow and got myself two books. Why? Ummm because starting tomorrow, I'll be hanging out 2.5 hour long ballet rehearsals every weekend day for the next two months while Belle rehearses Alice in Wonderland. I COULD work on homework then but WHY? ha.

4:00-4:30 p.m.
By now it was snowing/sleeting/hurling random frozen stuff from the sky. Belle & I were rockin' the crocs (Belle) and flipflops (me) but I need to go to Farm & Fleet to get flea meds (they sell Frontline Plus now). Since we hadn't made it to the vet this a.m., I thought I'd give good old F&F Boutique a whirl for the Frontline Plus. Damn! They didn't have my dogs' size of meds. HOWEVER, we did hit the jackpot and find these BABIES (below)!!! I have never had rainboots in my life but why not teach an old dog new tricks? I saw the rainboots for kids and decided Belle had to have some (I threw away those freakin Uggs of hers). THEN I saw the rainboots for me and we were lovin' 'em. We wore them out of F&F and she suggested we splash in the puddles. My first thought was, "No, ew" but after doing so, it was quite fun. We also stamped in some snow puddles. Never thought I'd say this (like ever) but F&F Boutique boots = HOT!!!!!!!!!!

4:30-now (8:30 p.m.)
Yesterday, Kurt discovered Belle had a book report due on Monday. Nice!! Apparently, they were supposed to read a book over Spring Break (which is almost over) and write a book report on said book. Yeah, the book was 140 pages long. OMG. Do you have any idea how long it takes a 7 year old to read a 140 page novel? Yah...about a week and a half (hmmmm...). By the time we got home, she was only on page 22. So I spent 3 hours reading her the remaining 120ish pages. Granted, this was not "truly" how the assignment was supposed to go but seriously, NO WAY could we have gotten it done otherwise. Also, it was kind of my fault for not checking the backpack! I figure kids have been through worse than their mom reading them their assignment. At least I read it to her and didn't just tell her what to write in the book report. Ha (unfortunately, I just thought of that plan now-j/k). I don't remember EVER having homework over Spring Break, including in college or grad school! Who knew - in 2nd grade?? C'mon!!! Tara, if you're reading this, don't tell Mrs. Duncan :)

Anyway, so this got kind of long and I'm sure was quite boring. :) Sorry!!!!!

Hope you all have a good Saturday night! Tomorrow holds in store my second Shala smackdown, a birthday party for Belle's little friend and Belle's dance rehearsal. Where did my weekend go?? Waaaaah!

Mucho love, everyone! Namaste, etc!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ann

Hooooooooo to the laaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Hola!

2009-03-27T18:44:00.001-07:00

I have nothing to blog about but so much to say! Per usual!

Congrats to Mandy and Tim on getting a new casa. Yay! Kurt's out helping them move right now.

Today was my last jeans day at the good ol' SWOB. Waaaaaaaaah! The SWOB (the building we are in) has jeans days once per month. You know I LOVVVVVVVE the jeans days! On April 15th, we're rollin' to the new building so no more jeans days. LAME AS HELL. I will also miss the MUCHHHHH closer parking!

Keri, seriously, girl. Hope you're having fun in Ireland. My friend is in Dublin right now, doing a little pub crawl (900 pubs) and some sight seeing! How long would it take to visit 900 pubs? A month? IDK! She's only planning on making it to a few :)

Tonight I had the following: full body massage from my cousin Rebecca, facial and eyebrow wax from Emily. All at Exotic Escape Day Spa. Despite the name, all of the girls are fully clothed (sorry boys). Emily is the girl who I raved about in an earlier post, and she also does facials. Yay! Becky's massage was awesome and it was great to catch up on all of our family drama :) :)

I'm excited because my yoga hiatus has ended, people. Ended. I need to bust my ___ to get in shape for Yoga Ninja! She descends on the city on April 10th & 11th. I hate to mention that I'll have done trivia and a pub crawl the night before the 2.5 hour ninja-licious workshop!!

TOMORROW IS THE DAY. Kenny Chesney tickets go ON SALE!!!!!!!!!!! *SCREAMS* My friend J$ and I have our system down. No, I'm sorry, I can't tell you what it is. You'll make fun of it FOREVER!!! Let's just say if we don't get good tickets, I will boycott Ticketmaster for ALL OF ETERNITY (yeah right).

*Cheers* to my friends who have been interviewing for new jobs. Good luck and we'll have to Hungry Hobo it soon. You know who you are ;)

OMFG. Seriously. I wore my Nashville boots today to work (see earlier comment about jeans day). :) :) :) :) Also, I finally unpacked my Nashville suitcase last night (after prompting from Kurt).

*Yawn*

Okay, I'm only blogging to avoid my homework so I guess I better get to it.

Namaste!
Ann

Howdy Y'all

2009-03-24T18:30:00.000-07:00

Yo, y'all! I'm back with a vengence. Two things are happening right now...

**cues Amy Winehouse singing the lyrics, "No, no, no..."**
1) My system is in REEEE-to the-HAB from the St. Patrick's Day Parade 14-hour drinking binge, followed by Wednesday's Eagles concert, followed by three days in my favorite town in the world, NASHVILLE!!!

2) Living in seculsion from my credit card bill which is due on April 1. This means I will have to log in and see my current balance, presumably racked up in Music City. Oh well, IT WAS WORTH IT, PEOPLE! :) :)

St. Patty's Day
So, yah, ehh. The St. Patrick's Day parade in Davenport is pretty much the greatest day of the year. Most everyone is at home "sleeping" by 7:00 pm, as most everyone goes downtown by 10;00 am. This particular year, however, I had a concert to attend at the River Center at 7:30 pm (Zac Brown Band and Little Big Town). Wow.... I really think this pic looks pretty darn good for being out for 12 hours by this point. This is me and my friend, Kate :) Unfortunately, due to the concert, I couldn't go to Swanson's band's concert at the Dugout :(

Eagles
**cues Life in the Fast Lane**
Awesome show! I almost died when I couldn't justify paying $165 per ticket to go to this gig. Basically, it would have been a $400 night for Kurt and I (just for tickets and drinks), the day before we left for Nashville. So, I didn't get the tix :( :(

Then, MIRACULOUSLY, the day OF the show, Kurt somehow lands FREE TICKETS from one of his suppliers and we were in the 32nd row on the floor, pretty much center. This sounds far away but I can assure you it was NOT! I would ADORE these seats for every single concert. The Eagles were fan-freakin-tastic.

Nashville

**cues Honky Tonk Women by The Stones (seriously)**
OMG, where to start where to start where to start! We had such an awesome group go this year and had sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much fun! Gretchen, Molly and I drove down on Thursday a.m./afternoon and met Gretchen's friend, Cheryl, from high school. We all went out that night and tore up the town! Seriously, I have no idea when I last had that much fun!! Friday we all went shopping on 2nd Ave and Broadway.

Then, Friday late afternoon, Kurt, Allison and her husband, Brandon, arrived. We all went out on Friday and had a great time. Saturday, we took a tour of the Ryman and went to the Grand Ole Opry at night. Sooooo sad to leave. Soooo sad. My post-Nashville depression still looms....

You can see all of my pics here: http://www.kurtandannsteward.shutterfly.com/

Of course I had to buy some random loot in Nashville. I got some AWESOME boots that I love from my favorite boot store, Nashville Cowboy. =Love!! This is my second year to buy boots there and oh yes, I plan on a third purchase next year!! I also bought a belt, two buckles and two pearl snaps. Hey, you only live once...and THESE boots rock it and roll it!

Missin' y'all, especially my yoga peeps that I haven't seen during my extended hiatus!

Love,

Ann

Ann's Blog of Randomness

OMG

Ummm...

"Baby, It's {Effing Freezing} Ouuuuutsiiiiide"

Workin' It

It's Time

Hips Don't Lie. Bad News/Good News.

*Click, click, click, click, upload, delete, click, upload, click, delete*

Happy Bday, Bubbas!

"L Step, Go!"

Why Me!??

RUKM?

Cheer Camp

Hoard much?

HNY, Auld Lang Syne (sp?), etc

Short Timer

Winter Wonderland

Wow.

Day 10 - Swap (Recipe for Photo)

Day 9 – a photo you took

Day 8 - Photo of Saddness!! :(

Day 7 - Photo of Happiness

Day 6 – 20 of my favorite things

Day 5 - Favorite Quote

Day 4 - Post #2 - Randomness

Day 4 – your favorite book

Day 3 – your favorite television program

WT# - Photo deleted from Day 2 Post??? Grrr.

Day 2 - Favorite Movie

Day 1 - Your Favorite Song

BLOGGGG CHALLLENNNGGGGE! GO!

Busy

BEHOLD!

OMFG

Yay!!!!!!!!

Sweet

Drumroll...

I Got My Rock Moves

Ahhhhhh....

YEAH, BABY!!

Just Do It

OMG, I Made a Roast

RUFKM? Warning: Lots of Rambling!

No Buen!

Tricky, Tricky

Wow (not in a good way)

Shanti

Addicted

Bad Idea

Holla!

Love Letters

It's WEDNESDAY!

Workin' It

Yes, still...

Owwwwwwww... And Daytime T.V.

Waaaaaaaaah! Days, Nashville, ec.

Limp/B!tch, Same Story/Diff Year

MOVING UPDATE, ETC!!!!!! :)

Well, well, well...

Bye Bye Dresses!

Another Random Survey! :)

Survey Fun Time

Poll Time

Rockin' the Pack

Packing, Donating, Ditching

Random

Bloggyness

Facial = Love

Second Post of the Night

Cleanout Curb

Welcome Back...

Pure Insanity

Motion of the Lotion

End of an Moose-alicious Era (almost)

Deal with the Devil

New Digs

OMG

A Year on Ladybug Farm

Random Blogging!

Happily Ever After?

Click, click, click, click, upload, delete, click, upload, click, delete