The Big 3-0!

So I am at the start of a new decade. My FOURTH decade. How crazy is that?

Thirty use to seem pretty old. Now that it is here, I don't feel old at all. I feel like I've just gotten started.

I use to write my "future self" letters. You know, the kind where you write what you hope you have accomplished by a certain date, seal it up, and write "Do Not Open Until (insert date here)." So here it goes.




Dear Future 40-year-old Laura, (OK now I am kind of depressed a little)

I hope by the time you are 40, you still don't feel old.

I hope that you have lots more babies. But if you don't, I hope you are not sad about it. And just love the baby/babies that you have.

Not to be materialistic, but I hope you have more money. With this money, I hope that you have a nicer car because well.... the jeep is not doing so good back here in 2012. My guess is at 224,000 miles this car is not going to go much longer.

I hope that you like your job, love your husband even more (if that is even possible), still kiss your daughter's cheeks (even if she still doesn't like it), and still have great friends.

I hope you live in a house that does not have neighbor's dogs that bark constantly in the back yard. I also hope you have a few flowers in your weed bed.

I hope you have went on a few fun trips over the last 10 years.

I hope your zits finally go away (yes I said it). I'm starting to think wrinkles are at least better than zits.

I hope you still have a strong testimony of the gospel.

I hope you are happy, and I hope you strive to bring happiness to others.

Happy Birthday to me.

Love,

Your younger self,

Laura

PS 40 isn't old either. 40 is the new 20 you know.

Bluegrass and a Birthday

Don't you love when you show up on a Monday morning to work smelling like baby vomit? I know I do.

Mondays come too quickly but we had a great weekend.

Friday we met up with The Gang at a park where a blue grass festival was going on. Eliza enjoyed dancing and walking around in the grass. Unfortunately, thanks to the mosquitos and an over-tired baby who is fighting off a cold, the night didn't last long.

All of my pictures recently happen to be cell phone pictures.

Saturday was spent celebrating my sweet husband's birthday. His parents kindly watched Eliza so that we could go to not one but TWO movies. (Kase does love the movies.) We saw Cowboys and Aliens and Captain America. I liked Captain America. It was pretty good. For lunch we shared a delicous gormet combo meal from the movie theater concessions. (We didn't have time to venture out to get something and after packing everything for Eliza I forgot to pack us food.) But that is OK because we were saving room for dinner at one of Kase's favorites, SilverSpoon. We met my best and oldest (as in years I've known her not in age) friend and her boyfriend who were driving through town for dinner. That was fun until Eliza decided to act like a crazy toddler because she wanted to run around the restrant and I ran out of things to bribe her with. People were staring at me as my child cried and whined. It was awesome. I think she has officially crossed over into toddlerdom. AND our waitress decided to put all 4 of the meals on our card instead of split on the two different cards the two different couples gave her. Grumble grumble. BUT Kase enjoyed his dinner, and I enjoyed seeing my dear friend.

Sunday I woke up with the WORST headache and a terrible crick (however you spell that) in my neck. It was not pleasant. In fact, I still haven't gotten rid of it. But it still ended up being a good day. We celebrated Kase's birthday with tacos for dinner and a red velvet cake I made decorated to look like a movie ticket. It was not my best cake (hence no pictures) but I tried. That is what counts you know.

I hope my husband had a wonderful birthday. He is the sweetest funniest guy I know. He takes such good care of Eliza and me. We love him.

Overall it was a good weekend. We are ready for another one. Only a few more days. :)

Eliza's Very First Birthday

Eliza turned the big ONE on Monday June 6th. I can't believe she is one already! It seems like just yesterday she was a tiny little thing screaming her head off constantly.

I am so grateful to be her mother and so in love with this little person who changes and grows everyday.

At 1 She:

- Has 10 teeth with 2 more bottom on the way in.

- Loves the book "Where's Spot" and likes to lift the flaps to find Spot. She gets the book off the shelf and brings it to us to read.

- Is walking everywhere.

- Waves and says "Bye bye"

- Goes to bed around 7 and sleeps till around 7.

- has started letting me rock with her at night before I put her in her crib, then she pushes the music button on her glowworm over and over until she falls asleep.

- Just yesterday I was reading a book (my own book). She pointed to it and I told her it was a book. She looked over at her bookshelf. Just to see what she would do I told her to go get a book and bring it to me. She actually did it! She brought a book back and climbed in my lap and we read. It was an ABC book with a picture of something for each letter. The letter 'K' was a Kiss. When I read that she turned and gave me a kiss. My heart melted. I am so proud of her.

- She is sweet and smart and still clingy to her mommy.

- She loves to eat.

- She makes us so happy.

On Sunday we had a small party for her. We had family over to celebrate. It was an owl theme "Look Whoo's One" Party. We had so much fun.

Waiting for the guests to arrive:

We had BBQ and Eliza was suppose to open presents. Instead she carried around her first present while I opened the rest:

The Cake (It is an owl if you can't tell. I worked hard on it!):

Waiting for her piece of cake:

After she ate her cake, she had to have a bath, then she continued playing with the balloons:

I think she had a lot of fun at her party and we were so grateful to everyone who came. I have more pictures but blogger won't let me upload them.

It's My Birthday Shout Hurray!

So today is my birthday. It is my last year in my 20's. Sigh....

But I won't say I'm old because well... I always look back to when I said that and I think "I wasn't old then, but I am now." Like when I turned 21 I thought I was old, but I was just a baby. It's all relative you know. So I've decided I won't be old until I'm 70. And I may have to re-evaluate "old" at that time as well.

This past weekend my parents and sister came up to celebrate. It was fun. We shopped and ate and visited. I was glad my sister came because she just got a car and I'm sure she was really dying to tak her car out and not come visit me.

Today, I am working but my boss/friend took me to get our nails done. I have never had a manicure at a salon. I have had fake nails but not my real nails painted. It was really nice. And my nails are pretty and pink. But I have already smudged my thumb a lot. oops. AND my boss/friend made me chocolate cherry cake.... YUMMMM. She rocks.

Plus my co-workers are were all really nice to me today and gave me candy and cards. I love where I work.

I feel spoiled.

Kase baked me cupcakes and we're going to dinner. Well, we may go to dinner. I think I really just want to stay home and enjoy my sweet husband, my sweet baby, and my sweet cupcakes.

Life is sweet.

P.S. Eliza's present to her mommy is that she learned to crawl this past weekend! And wave! And she has recently started clapping. I could eat her. But I won't cause I am busy eating cupcakes.

Cooking is not my Talent

But I do enjoy baking. Last week, the day before my husband's birthday, I decided I would bake his birthday cake. It would be great. I would bake it and it could cool so the next day I could frost it and create my master piece. (The ultimate goal being a cake that looks like a movie film reel.)



So I mixed and stirred and measured. The bright red velvet mixture was poured into two round pans and ready for baking. Kase (said husband) was upstairs working on a project with his uncle Randy. This was going to be the best cake ever! In only 30 minutes the cake would be done.



So what to do in the meantime? Well, how about a re-run episode of Friends. That's right, yes, that's a great idea. It's one of my favorite shows. Perfect. I sat down on the couch to enjoy some laughter.



And then it happened....


I woke up. I had fallen asleep. It was about 9:30.... "What is that smell?" I thought, trying to remember what I had been doing. OHH NO!


I am not sure how long the cake baked, probably around an hour. I am sure that it was burnt.

I had managed to turn the pretty red velvet into a black crispy kind.


Oops.


After I cried,


I considered changing the film reel themed cake to a hockey puck themed cake.



Kase was kind and sweet. He even ate some of the non burned spots. YUM.

The next day, I managed to bake a non blackened version. It turned out pretty good. Whew. Crisis averted.

(Film Reel Cake. The fruit by the foot coming out of the cake is suppose to be the film.)

Maybe next year, we'll go for a cookie cake.

Happy Birthday Kase

Dear K-Dawg aka the love of my life,

I hope you have a happy birthday.... because you deserve it.

You are sweet and amazing and you look hot in suits. You are patient with me. You teach me and you make me laugh.

You love your family and you are an amazing person.

But most of all you love me and I love you. And we both love the cubs. (ok I love them because you love them, but who could resist them?)

HAVE A HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Love Forever,

Laura

P.S. I know your birthday is really tomorrow, but who has time to post a blog when there are presents to be wrapped and a cake to be baked? I mean really. ;)

27

Yesterday was my 27th birthday. While at work, I was listening to the radio when the DJ announced that a new study has shown that people’s brains start "declining" at the age of.......... 27. Yup no joke. While I find this hard to believe, I have decided that I better record the events of my birthday in case my "declining" brain forgets what happened. So:

Dear Me,
For your 27th birthday, you were kindof bummed that it was 10 years ago that you were 17. It feels like it was just yesterday. Never the less, you did realize that 27 isn't that old so a celebration was called for.

Your husband took to you Galinburg for the weekend. While you both know that it is the Mecca for Rednecks, it is close by and yet still far enough away from work to be considered "out of town". So it was a good choice.

Friday, you and your husband attended an independent film festival and chose to watch a zombie movie. This was not such a good choice. It was the worst movie that you had ever seen, and probably will ever see. However, the movie creator was seated right behind you, so you didn't want to leave and hurt his feelings. Yet another bad choice. Over the three painful hours of viewing, you had the following questions:

- Will this movie ever end? Will my life ever be the same after this? Did they use a 1980s home video camera to film? Does anyone think this movie is good? Did they even edit any scenes at all? Why would you want to act in this movie? Did that zombie just eat that man's mustache? Could anything be worse then watching this movie? (the answer is no.) If I crawl on the floor and out the door will anyone notice? Why oh Why did we choose to do this?

Ok you get the idea. It was bad. Really bad.

Saturday, your husband took you outlet shopping. It rocked. After a yummy lunch of nachos, you went to the Wonderworks place. You were excited because the whole building looks like it’s upside down and that is cool. However, inside was very busy with lots and lots of people. There wasn’t that much to do and you had to wait in lines for a long time. Once you were done, it was back to the hotel to take a birthday nap. Mostly to rest your "declining" brain. Then you met your brother-in-law Scott and his awesome girlfriend at the Best Italian Place (that’s the name) for dinner. Yum......

You had a great birthday weekend. On your birthday you got lots of cards and phone calls from the people you love. It made you feel very special and happy. Your husband suprised you with beautiful orange roses and Pinnocio on DVD/Blueray. You like that movie. Because your husband had to go to class, you spent your birthday evening with your pal Holly. You had a yummy dinner and chatted. Good times. It was the first birthday you did not spend with your mom and you missed her and the rest of your family, but it's ok because you are going to them in a few weeks.

Love, Your Younger-Less-Brain-Declined-Self

So I did have a great birthday. Even though Jay Leno reinformed me of the same "Brain Declining"study later that evening. I think this whole brain declining thing is silly. I mean really there are plenty of smart people over 27 like

Wait, what was I saying. I can’t remember. Oh well off to work....

She is 17 going on 18

My sister Melissa turned 17 last Saturday! Can you believe it? Well I can't.

For her birthday I went to visit and the family went shopping. We got some great deals. Buying things is fun, but buying things on sale is even better. We also ate at the RainForest Cafe, where Melissa was surprised with a huge birthday cake. And our cousin Rachael came to visit. Then we drove around the Opryland hotel to look at the lights. I mean litterally, we drove around it. It was a fun day.

Melissa, I am proud of you. You are smart, sweet, beautiful, and funny. I hope you had a wonderful birthday. I am so glad you are my sister. Love you!

P.S. I have been thinking. I wish I could decorate my whole house in red and green all year long. I mean, it is so festive and warm. Not to mention it apparently may make atleast one of your children smart, witty, and talented with setting up traps to catch thiefs. For example, in the movie Home Alone, if you'll notice, the whole house is decorated in red and green. Couches, wallpaper, dishes, etc. I am just saying. Mutliple benefits. It may be a good idea. I might look into it.