8 Years!!!

Technically, I'm a day early but tomorrow marks 8 years that Jay and I have been married!!! And this year, our anniversary is 1/11/11 which I'm sure will make the day somehow more important.

It looks like last year I made it until about April until I stopped blogging. I'm not going to make any promises for this year since clearly I'm not really cut out for timely updates on my blog. But my (very) few posts from last year did make it much easier to get to my blog entry from our last anniversary which made me realize a few things:

1) January is not really a great time for travelling in any year, especially by plane.

2) I did this exact same thing last year reflecting on my 6 year anniversary.

3) Although I came up with a question for this year, I promised my sister I'd come up with another but then I didn't so she'll just have to deal.

Which brings me to my question for this year, "Why do I put up with Jay?" This year's question is pretty easy to answer since there are so many reasons why I fell in love with, married, and continue to 'put up with' Jay. It would be harder to come up with reasons why I would have to 'put up' with him. So, maybe I should change the direction of this post a little bit and do that instead. After all, I'm not really very good at the gushy stuff, especially on a blog that will be read by at least 2 other people... So here we go, my reasons for needing to put up with Jay:

1) Jay does not like massages. And more importantly, because he hates them so badly, he can't imagine why anybody else (like me) would want one.

2) Jay beats me at almost every game we play. Whether it's MarioKart on the Wii, cribbage, bowling, iPhone Scrabble, running, poker, etc. He even beats me AND Jamison at Uno every time. And really, it doesn't even stop at games. He's better than me at most things. But FINALLY, I have found the one thing that he does NOT excel at (not to be confused with Microsoft Excel which he is very good with). And that one thing is: Tubing. Like snow tubing down a hill. Saturday, Jay and I went up to Soldier Hollow in Midway and over and over (and over) again raced down their hills on tubes. Not only did I beat him down every time, but sometimes he couldn't even make it all the way to the end and had to stand up and walk the rest of the way. So sure, yeah he can build a deck, run, drive, spell, cook, work, follow directions, etc better than I can, but on a steep downhill slope with a giant tube, I AM the champion every time. Here is a nice shot of Jay riding up the tow on his tube.

3) Jay does not like Mexican food.

4) I'm not positive, but I think there's a very good chance that he thinks I'm crazy.

5) He will not comment on this blog entry.

Well, that's it, I'm out of reasons. Luckily (for me), it's pretty easy to look past all this. Unfortunately for him, I'm pretty sure he got the short end of the stick when it comes to our relationship. Jay is an insanely good father, husband and person and I really am blessed to have had 8 amazing years (so far) with him. Happy Anniversary Jay, I love you!!!!!!!

And for next year..... What is our 'song'?

Weeds and Popcorn

I love all this warm weather, but every time I look out my window, all I see are weeds. I hate weeds. Jay and I have killed 6 trees in our backyard and we can't seem to keep flowers alive, but the weeds seem to have no problem. If anyone knows of a good way to get rid of weeds, please feel free to share.

So a couple of months ago, I had to go out of town for work. While I was gone, Jay and Jamison made some popcorn to eat. Jamison found an unpopped kernel of popcorn and told Jay that it was a seed and that they should plant it and grow some new popcorn. Rather than tell our son the truth, Jay said 'sure' and got him a little cup and some dirt from our backyard and they planted the popcorn kernel, watered it and put it in the window to get some sun. Well, about a week later, a stupid weed grew in Jamison's cup. Jamison was SO excited that his 'popcorn plant' was growing and he took his popcorn-watering duties very seriously. And how can we tell him NOW that his daddy lied to him and that there was never a possibility of that weed turning into popcorn? Meanwhile, the weeds in my yard are running amok and here I am growing one in my kitchen. After a few weeks of taking care of his popcorn plant, Jamison decided that to get some popcorn growing, he needed to transplant it outside. So he did. We actually went outside and found like the only spot that didn't already have a weed growing in it and planted his weed in that spot. He goes outside every day and waters it and fortunately does not seem too concerned that the whole popcorn thing hasn't happened yet. And did I mention that I blame Jay for all of this.... :)

American Idol?

So, I've got my plans for Gianna to be on 'So You Think You Can Dance' in about 15 years. For Jamison, it looks like he'd be better suited for 'American Idol'.... :)

Just Dance!

I have secret hopes that we'll someday all see Gianna as a finalist on 'So You Think You Can Dance' or maybe 'Dancing With The Stars'. If there's music, she's dancing. Even if she's confined to her car seat, she's still dancing. Every day when I pick her up from school her teacher fills out a daily report on her and every day somewhere in there it says 'Gianna loves to dance'. I think I'll have to get her in dance classes when she gets old enough. It's so cute! :)


Also, if you have a minute, please vote for my friend Becca. She entered a video contest for Bobbi Brown Cosmetics and I'd love to see her win! I've been friends with her for over 15 years now and she is such a great friend. Anyways, most everyone who would read this probably knows Becca too so you already know what a great person she is. The contest ends Friday so help her out and vote and vote more than once!

Pretty Powerful Sponsored by Bobbi Brown

Offensive or Useful?

For my birthday, Jay got me a Kindle. I love it. I would recommend it to anyone who likes to read. However, there is one minor drawback. And that is that technically it is a 'portable electronic device'. Which means that for about 20 minutes on either end of a flight, I am forced to entertain myself by looking out the window, talking to the person next to me (which on my most recent trip was Jay), or reading the Sky Mall magazine. So, I'm reading the Sky Mall magazine and I come across this item:

Stealth Secret Sound Amplifier

Improve your hearing - and enhance your image!

If a conventional hearing aid sounds like an embarrassment to you, try the Stealth Secret Sound Amplifier. It looks just like a cell phone ear adapter and works as a sound enhancer so you can join conversations and even hear soft voices from 50 feet away. Now you can enjoy the best of both worlds: a more youthful appearance and better hearing. Comes with charger (no batteries to replace) and three ear tips.

Is this a joke??? Maybe I'm biased, but I didn't realize that a hearing aid was thought of as an 'embarrassment'. Nor did I realize that having a giant bluetooth device hanging off your ear is considered 'cool' and 'youthful'. Especially when it has no actual bluetooth capabilities... Would people honestly walk around all day with one of these on just to avoid wearing a hearing aid??? Okay, so I can see how some cruel kids may one day make fun of my little boy for wearing hearing aids (like 4-eyes for glasses), but seriously, the man in this picture looks at least in his 60's. I'd think people would have grown out of that childish behavior by then. And besides, look at my handsome little man proudly sporting his hearing aids; I hope he never feels like he needs to hide them by using a product like this!

Pyramids

Over the 1/2 hour drive home today, Jamison talked for the entire 30 minutes without stopping. The first 10 minutes were spent explaining to me that his gloves are blue and that the pink gloves and boots belong to Gianna. Apparently, I switched his and Gianna's backpacks this morning when I dropped them off. That's what happens when mommy brings them to school (usually Jay drops them off since their school is right next to his work). Oh well, I told him I learned my lesson.

In the next 20 minutes, I received the following information: Pyramids are very big. They are made from pieces that are put together to look like a mountain. Pyramids are brown. They are slippery. There are kings and treasures inside the pyramids. There is also one mommy that lives in the pyramid. The mommy has toilet paper all over. There are no letters in pyramids. And with that, at the age of 4, I'm pretty sure that Jamison has surpassed my entire knowledge of pyramids (I didn't know they were slippery). He's so cute! :)

Spring Fever

I wish I could say lots of things about how good it is to be home, but in all honesty, I wish I could be back on my cruise for a little while longer. I did miss my kids like crazy though so I'm glad to be with them, but I think I would have preferred that they just join us on the ship. I'm thinking that having my kids on the ship would give me the incentive I need to want to be home again. Jay and I had a GREAT time though. I had originally thought to blog my whole vacation in detail, but I kind of already did that on my facebook album, so instead, I will just post a link to that: Facebook - Bahama Pictures

So, now what... my next scheduled holiday is Memorial Day. That sounds really far away. Actually, that IS really far away. And I'm getting Spring fever. If it would get warm, I'm thinking camping could be in our future. Last year we went to Lake Mead in March or April and the year before that was Zion's National Park. Once it gets warm we like to go up to the Mirror Lake area to escape the heat. We even enjoy camping at Willard Bay! But I'd love to try some new places this year. Maybe Yellowstone or something? I feel like there's a lot of places reasonably close by that would be fun. Bear Lake, Pineview, Flaming Gorge, etc. Anybody visited some campgrounds in those areas? I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions they've either tried or heard of. Where is your favorite place to camp? Is anybody else getting desperate for some nice weather to get out and enjoy? :)