This Deserves It's Own Post

Jon and Rebekah Butterfield are going to be parents in September 2010!!! It's a total answer to prayer. Bek is so tiny, she's already showing. They've named him/her Peanut Butterfield. I can't wait to be an auntie to our sisterhood's first baby!

Why do I do this?

Sometimes I choose to go through life the difficult way for no reason at all. For example, I have had my radio presets 1-6 set to DC radio stations for the last 6 years. Have I lived in the DC area? No. Maybe I neglected to change them all to Central VA stations as a way of defying the fact that I am a resident here? I'm not sure, but every time I'd drive back home to Northern VA I would get so excited that I didn't have to press "seek" to change the radio. I know I've thought about fixing it over the years but I never actually did it. Until yesterday. I changed preset 5 and 6 to Charlottesville stations! 1-4 are still WPER, WINC FM, WASH FM, and WMZQ. It is so easy to switch between my two pop/hip-hop stations now! I don't waste anytime when I'm deciding to listen to Lady GaGa or Beyonce!

Does anyone else do things like this that make your life more difficult when you really don't need too? I'm working on cleaning up my act.

San Diego

Ok ok ok, I know you've all been waiting for San Diego updates. The Sisterhood had a blast in California. The weather was beautiful. Although not quite as warm as SoCal typically is, there was not a flake of snow to be found. Our weekend flew by and I got a tiny taste of California living. I was surprised at how "hilly" San Diego terrain is. The palm trees stick up above the buildings everywhere and cars are flying by at dangerous lightening speeds. We visited the coastline of Pacific Ocean for the first time ever. I couldn't see Japan. I never realized how close to the Mexican border San Diego is!? I loved seeing the U.S. Border Patrol vehicles and everything around us was in Spanish. (I totally could've survived on my own.) We shopped, ate Mexican food, bought some half-priced Rainbows at the factory outlet, went downtown, ate at Yogurtland twice, didn't feel the small earthquake that apparently happened, spent an afternoon in La Jolla, and simply caught up on life.

Our plane rides were surprisingly smooth. Our layover in LAX was uneventful but we did see the "Hollywood" sign as we flew in and out. I think there was a group of Asians who thought I was a famous person, they wouldn't stop staring. Too bad I'm not famous. I'd like to be; I'm just blonde.

As beautiful as California is, I still am head-over-heels in love with Virginia. I think it's one of the classiest, prettiest, modern yet colonial, most perfect states to live in. Virginia is home and California is a delightful vacation. But, yes Aunt Beth, the West Coast is awesome!

Free Verse

California here I come

To see my Becky and soak up some sun!

Ash and I leave on a plane tomorrow

But leaving Michael behind makes me full of sorrow.

My bags are packed and ticket is bought

One bag will do, or so I thought.

Boots, pants, shirts, no room for Blonde Glam?!

How will I maintain my roots this weekend? D*$%!?

Oh well, deep brown roots will have to do

Cali, you'll be kind on this first time visitor, won't you?

I haven't flown since the Christmas underpants issue

So security has gotten tighter, it's true.

I know that safety is extremely sacred

But when I walk through the scanner will someone see me NAKED?!

Maybe I'll bring home a story to blog about

When traveling with Ashleigh, I'll find drama, no doubt.

I'm off to Dulles, pretty underwear and all!

Nothing but excitement, we're sure to have a ball!

It's 6 o'clock

I've only ever stomped on someone's head one time.

Luckily it was my younger sister who was blessed with the power to forgive, though, she surely hasn't forgotten. We were young, 11 and 9. We were playing Barbies and I remember just hating it. I was on my way out of the magical world of fantasy play and into the middle school world of journal keeping and the art of note folding and playing Mash. Heather, so obviously not innocent, did something to antagonize me. She took the hot pink Barbie brush out of my hands. I got angry, yelled, pushed her down and stomped on her head...with my shoe on. I remember feeling terrible immediately after contact, but I could be retrospectively inserting remorse. Before you start thinking awful thoughts about me, please know that I have never done anything else like this in my entire life nor ever will. We laugh about it now and sometimes Heather uses it against me to get what she wants, "Hey. Remember the time you stomped on my head?" Ugh, works every time.

All that to say, I love Swiffer Dusters! They make dusting so much easier and the commercials are hysterical!

Is It Summertime Yet?

I have nothing to blog about, well I do, but Michael doesn't want me to blog about it yet so I shall respect him. On this lonesome Valentine's Day, (note that we did celebrate it by going to dinner on Saturday) I have been going through all my old photos and ran across some beach pictures. That reminded me that we have a beach trip scheduled this summer!

These fun photos were from our 2004 beach trips:

Things I've had but do not need in my purse

1. Millions of Orbit gum wrappers

2. 4 old grocery lists

3. A broken hair brush w/no handle (go figure!)

4. Two bottles of Purell

5. Three pairs of gloves (always have to be prepared)

6. Dental floss

7. Wine remover spray AND a Tide Pen (even though I rarely spill things. Except water, I spill that all the time.)

8. A Catnip Mouse

Blessings

I feel like I've been negative lately. Perhaps it hasn't shown through in this outlet, but my thoughts and words haven't been very uplifting. I was just about to blog about my pet-peeves - not a friendly post because I know there are many people I love that are bound to do the things that I can't stand. I'm tempted to write a post about our unfriendly neighbors who have made us very unhappy here or the fact that there is a leak in our bedroom ceiling. But, I want to speak blessings over my life instead.

Finally the sun is shinning and is hard at work to melt away the layers of snow and ice. Soon and very soon we shall see green again. Green grass. Green trees. Green people out to save the environment.

One of my best friends finally got to set her wedding date in stone - April 24th - let the fun truly begin!

Another best friend of mine is about to find out if her baby is a boy or girl!

Our cousin Cathleen came to stay with us last night. It was so delightful to see her and catch up!

I bought fresh goat cheese for my home-made pizza tonight.

I get to plan so many parties in the upcoming months - it's fantastic.

I got to make a little two year old giggle and laugh all morning long.

My car still works.

Celeb Look Alike?

Michael shared this story with me not too long ago:

This seasons wrestling team at the high school has gone really well for Michael. There are a lot of new faces that have stuck around and have high hopes of becoming national wrestling champions some day. Many of the older high schoolers have known Michael for a while or have had him as a teacher. I used to substitute there (but ended that pretty quickly) and every once in a while I will stop in the school to say hi or bring my man some lunch. Anyhow during one of their wrestling matches, Michael is sitting in his coach's chair and this little freshman newbie wrestler walks up to him and sits next to him. He leans over and says, "So is it true that your wife looks like Britney Spears?"

I thought that was pretty hilarious. I've never thought that I look like Britney Spears, however come to think of it, I've had that yelled at me a couple of times. Just this past New Years Eve a kid hollered at me as I walked by telling me I looked like her. Sheesh. Anyhow the thought of a skinny freshman leaning over to seek the truth about this rumor he'd heard from the other wrestlers just makes me laugh! I'm flattered, of course I am. But not so flattered that Britney is the best they could do.

What do you do when your power goes out?

Pack your bags, drive to Carter's View, go sledding with neighbors, eat dinner with Wes and Nathaniel, play Wii, play poker for the first ever, play dice and watch John Boggs go crazy, make donuts at 1am in the morning, have good girl time with Jenn Boggs, wake up baby Jordan hold him for a little bit then put him pack to bed, listen to your men play instruments at 2am right outside the kids' bedrooms, sleep at the Bakers house (missed you Brett!), wake up and drink coffee, drive home again and find your power is still out, pile on the blankets and sleep away the cold, then watch the super bowl.

It was a weird but totally fun weekend. And the best part, aside from hanging out with amazing people, was that I learned how to make homemade donuts! Can't beat that!

You may have been able to tell that our power went out once Michael stopped doing "storm" updates. I didn't think the storm was that bad, but he loved filming it and watching his chances of having school cancelled on Monday build.

Largest Snowstorm of the Year 2010 update#4

Megan let me know that she thought it was too cheesy for me to continue writing my "sensational" headlines and pointed out that there remain another 90 years in the current century so calling this storm the "blizzard of the century" was misleading. So now it will be known as the Largest Snowstorm of the year 2010.

The snow continued falling all night and we woke up to well over a foot of snow. Conditions are expected to get worse with the wind picking up toward the end of the day. The road crews in our neighborhood are doing a much better job than the December storm, but it's looking like we'll still be stuck here for another day or two. Good thing there's lots of cleaning to do! (or facebook stalking and blog posting and wii golfing)

Hopefully the power stays on, we just had it flicker off and on a bunch of times. No power would make this Large, Windy Snowstorm a lot less fun.

Blizzard of the Century Update#3

It's well after dark now and the bad stuff is still yet to come. We've had sleet for the last hour or so and the wind has picked up a little bit. I'll repost again in the morning when we should have over a foot! We're about to have a warm dinner of marinara sauce over pasta and are looking for a good movie on TV.

I hope everyone makes it through the night!

Blizzard of the Century Update Numero Dos

Michael again. It's almost dark here and we've got a lot of snow on the ground already. It's supposed to get worse starting tonight. Good thing we've got plenty of food and the heat works!

Blizzard of the Century Update#1

Michael here. I bought Megan "This is It" so she at least has plenty to do even though we're stuck at home.

I'll be reporting on the record setting blizzard that is pummeling the viewing area. 20-30 inches are expected and snow will continue through Saturday night. Here's the first glimpse of the conditions in Charlottesville.

Toe Jam

I really want some friends to go to Body Jam with me. It would be so fun to bust out our hip hop moves together! However, my toes have been in so much pain lately. Sometimes at night when we're sleeping, Michael will intertwine his feet with mine but will bump my toes and make me wake up from the pain. (Kind of like the time when Michael punched me in his sleep during our first couple months of marriage. He was dreaming that he was wrestling his brother, David, and was about to punch him. I woke up to Michael's arm and fist coming down hard on my stomach! Knocked the wind out of me. Michael woke up and asked me what was wrong.....best memory ever.) Back to my toes - I think it's my tennis shoes. I've had them for years now, so maybe my feet are growing. All that hip hopping has really put my shoes to the test.

Your child just might vote conservative

Poland wanted to look at The Atlantic magazine today. Why I don't know, but he did so we flipped through page by page. Everything looked like a rocket ship to him. I turned another page to find a picture and article* of George Bush only to hear Poland shout, "Bad, scary man." Oh no he didn't. I was offended. In quiet defense I kindly said, "No this is a good man. A GOOD man." I repeated it while Poland intently stared at his face.

I proceeded to turn the page and, lo and behold, there was a picture of our current president. Probably against my better judgement, I laughed and said, "Here is the bad, scary man!" Poland got the point. He repeated it and I hope he takes it to his padres. Then I begged him not to be a liberal voter. Too bad he's only two. I thought the whole episode was hysterical.

*The article was written by Ross Douthat - one of the most ignorant, unintelligent, and embarrassing writers I've ever read. Just have to put that out there.

Let them eat cake!

By themselves! This delicious Whole Foods Cake was purchased for Kendra's birthday celebration tonight at Community Group. However the snow continues to fall here in Charlottesville, which scares the living daylights out of people and makes everyone cancel their plans. I can't possibly freeze this beautiful, fresh cake, so we will eat some tonight and hope that at least one other person comes to enjoy it with us.

I can't help but cry

How do you chop your onions? Every time I attempt to cook with onion, which is often, I have to battle the toxic cry machine gas. I have no idea how to make it more bearable. Obviously as pictured above, I wear sunglasses to help filter the amount that can get into my eyes. Michael thinks it's hilarious, hence the picture, but I think it's practical. I've heard of chewing minty gum while you chop, but I've tried with no results. Despite the intense welling up with tears, I will continue to use onion in the name of tasty cooking!

The Bachelor

My one guilty TV pleasure, aside from HGTV, is abc's The Bachelor. I can't help it. The Bachelor is so dramatic and hysterical that it becomes more addicting with each week. This season, Jake the pilot, is our bachelor and he does not mess around! He's kicked off so many more woman than he should have already. It's fabulous.

Some of our good friends here in Cville, know one of the bachelorettes, Corrie. She went to prom with my friend's husband! It's been fun to see her continue in the search for true love in front of millions of American viewers.

What better way could I spend the 2 hours watching it tonight than with some of my close girl friends? I'm looking forward to a night filled with laughter over the drama and crossing our fingers that Vienna goes home!