I talked with SC on Sunday - while I was in the process of washing mountainous loads of clothing - and she informed me that plans are being made for a trip to "Penn Hills" (am I correct in assuming that this is Wendi's code name for the place we are going????) She also informed me that I was the only one not cool enough to attend tkd on Saturday morning :( I have a good excuse - other than the fact that I've only ever been to ONE Saturday morning tkd class - and that is that my family, my sister's family, and my mom & dad drove to Ohio to visit my other sister, Lori (not the Lori that comments on my blog though.) Here we are, standing nice and still and not poking each other or giving each other wet-willys long enough for my mom and Dave to have a photo shoot. This is one of the better pictures. I have a bunch of one or more of us in various stages of speaking, pointing, or making a weird face. I have some with 2 of us looking one way and the other one (Danielle) looking the other way - granted, there were two cameras and our photographers were not very clear on who was shooting when...... We're lucky we came up with this picture considering the subjects being photographed :)
In other not so exciting news, Dave went with us to tkd tonight. He decided to take Pixel with him and document the evening. This is Pixel.

He's my/our new Canon Rebel camera. Happy Anniversary to us :) Anyway, Shawn taught, so we all left class sweaty messes. Below are some shots of some of the ways he chose to torture us this evening.

You think they're nothing but innocent pride crushing caterpillars, but they're not! No these caterpillars involve a push-up as well. You can't tell me that Shawn doesn't enjoy this. Just look at his face! He's laughing (not that I blame him.....)

We did sit-ups.... both ways.

Ah, one of my least favorites. The balancing of the pad while doing round kicks. These suckers kill my hip/side butt area. Later we had to do push ups for each pad that fell.... we weren't warned about that little tidbit until after the drill was over.

We round kicked the pads.

We practiced our board break. Here's Cam with the beginning swivel and the break!

Here's my break.

We ended out the evening with some sparring. Here's Ry flying through the air. I don't know about you, but I'd probably give him 3 points for this baby.

And here's my baby.

It was a great class. I love it when Shawn teaches!

Leslie won't be my friend anymore.............

Leslie is threatening to un-be my friend! "Why???" you may ask.... Apparently, it's all because of this:

We were chatting on the phone this evening, finalizing the plans for our "date" tomorrow morning. Don't be jealous girls, you're not missing anything fun.... we're going to have our blood work done early in the morning :( I can't eat anything else tonight.... I'm not sure I'll make it. I have had an irrational fear of having my blood drawn since I was in the 3rd grade. I was anemic and, according to my mom, it took her and 4 nurses to hold me down in order to get the blood! I guess I was a strong and wiry little thing. I mean, geez, I was 3/4 toothpick legs at the time and a head! I guess this just foretold of my future taekwondo butt-kicking skills (oooh, by the way, Dad... I'm sorry for kicking your glasses off of your face the other night. Please forgive me.) Back to the story... When my sister had to get her blood drawn - and I was quite a bit older - I almost passed out in the waiting room just thinking about what she was going through. When I got pregnant with the boys, I got brave. After all, it wasn't for ME that this was being done; it was for THEM - and I'd do anything for them. The last time I had my blood taken was about 2 years ago. I wasn't freaked out or anything, but I did almost pass out after and they had to give me a pumpkin cookie - how embarrassing :( I'm sure it was the low blood sugar! I told Leslie to have her camera ready tomorrow because heaven only knows what will go down (hopefully not me) and SHE'S driving - then we're going to breakfast. That'll be some fun after getting up at the butt crack of dawn and having a foot long needle plunged into my arm while they drain out 87 tubes of my blood!

Ah, but none of this explains why she's going to un-be my friend. Sorry, I got sidetracked. My sister asked if she could bring her kids trick-or-treating in my neighborhood this year. They live in a cute little town, but there really aren't a LOT of houses - and none that she overly wants to go to. I asked Cam if he wanted to walk around with Levi and Savannah. I told him he could just throw a white sheet over his head and I'd cut some holes in it. I said this as I was on the phone with Leslie. She said something about cutting a lot of holes in it and something about a rock. I had no idea what she was talking about! I admit it. I have never seen Charlie Brown's Halloween Special. There, I said it. I said it to her. She said she wasn't sure she could be my friend. Do the rest of you still like me??????? Please! Now that I have friends, I'd like to keep them......

Really???? You need to warn people of this?

My faithful, trusty curling iron gave up the ghost the other day, and I had to get a new one. Thank heavens this tag was on there or I could have really injured myself.

Seriously, when I saw that bright, shiny curling iron, my first thought was, "I can't wait to fire this baby up and put it near my eyes! I wonder how close I can get it to my eyeball before it starts to feel dry? Woo-hoo, I'll be having fun tonight!" Honestly, what kind of moron would try to curl their eyelashes with a 1 inch diameter curling iron? Duh! In the wise, wise words of Squidward Tentacles, "Everybody's an idiot, except for me!"

My New Favorite Phrase

"You are sassy to me."

Last night, my crazy family came over to celebrate my birthday. Big Sexy made pumpkin pie - with REAL pumpkins, not the stuff from a can - and chocolate cupcakes with white icing and chocolate sprinkles for the kids and Steve :) While I was teaching my 3 taekwondo classes in a row - one of which was an all ranks Tiny Tiger class that was packed - the boys decorated for the party. Here's a pic of Cam's creation... Notice that the streamers & balloon spell MOM. I'm telling ya, the kid's creativity astounds me!

Here we have a lovely picture of me opening one of my gifts. I think we can safely assume that Big Sexy has a knack for snapping a picture right when I have the most retarded expression on my face. Thanks, Honey!!!!!!

Dave and the boys got me all of the Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman DVDs. It's okay if you think I'm a dork.... that's a good show!

My favorite little girl in the whole, wide world made me two beautiful pictures and dictated a note to her mom for me. She said, "I want to come to your birthday tomorrow and see you there when I come...." She also said, "I love you steps. They are bu-ee-ful." She's not kidding about the steps. When she's over here, she goes up and down those babies a million and one times! Here's a close-up of the bu-ee-ful little girl.... notice her tat.I'm not going to mention the really nice, sweet, mushy card that my parents gave me. My sister reads my blog and I don't want to bring back the bad memories of what my mom wrote in the card... you know, about me being the favorite and most loved and all :)

My magical friend, Lady Leslie, got me a crazy card, which Cam has made sure I've heard no less than 27 times today, and a beautiful, brushed-steel standy uppy photo album that says "FRIENDS" on the front of it. Her comment that, ".....now that you have some," made me laugh hysterically. My boyfriend, Alex, is all ready to smile for a picture to go in the album the next time I seem him. I suppose this is better than trying to kick me in the backside which is what the ornery little dude was trying to do during his taekwondo class last night!

Mmmmmm. Chicken Marsala. My wonderful, perfect, handsome, strong, intelligent, person-who-bathes husband made me chicken marsala for dinner this evening - with roasted red potatoes and peppers. When the boys and I walked in the door after taekwondo, the house smelled heavenly. Big Sexy was cooking up a storm in the kitchen: chopping peppers, slicing mushrooms, simmering stuff...... Although he said he was making me dinner for my birthday, I think, really, that he was feeling challenged. See, last night, as we were driving to our anniversary dinner, he informed me that I wasn't allowed to order chicken. I told him that we were going to an Italian restaurant and I was pretty sure that they would have awesome chicken marsala and that that's one of my favorite dishes that I don't get to eat all the time - because he's never made it. The gauntlet had been thrown. After work this evening, he drove to 3 different stores to get all of the ingredients that he'd need to make the dish and it was DELICIOUS. Cam asked when he was going to make it again and, no, there are NO leftovers :)

I want to say a big "Thank You" to all of the crazy people who called and wished me a "Happy Birthday" today. Some of you said it. Some of you sang it. Some of you sang the whole thing backwards.... very impressive! The first call of the day was from my babyist sister, Lori. She was thrilled that she had beaten my mom to the punch. I'm just glad she was free to make the call.... she knows what I mean :) Levi and Savannah called and sang to me this evening.... Steve, I noticed that your voice was absent from the heavenly chorus.... You'll have to sing a solo tomorrow night if you want cupcakes!!!! My grandparents called and sang and told me how I was, and am, the perfectly cherished first grandchild :) It was a good day to turn 29.... again.

Well, we made it home from a beautiful weekend up at camp! We arrived at about 10:00 on Thursday evening after a 3 hour drive and a quick dinner in the car from Sheetz - what a romantic way to spend our anniversary, wouldn't you say????? The weather was absolutely gorgeous! The trees were all changing color and the sky was a pure, crystalline blue. We went on long walks, ate a lot of food, went spotting deer in the back of Danielle and Steve's truck each evening snuggled together under blankets to keep warm, and laughed. What a refreshing, do nothing, no responsibilities weekend! The downside to it all was the outhouse. Princesses should NOT have to use outhouses!

We spent all of Friday hanging out with my sister and her family and then, on Friday evening, my parents surprised us by showing up! They were supposed to be attending a marriage retreat this weekend through our church and, though my sister and I had tried to get them to change their minds and come up with us, they insisted that they could not get out of it. Apparently, they realized that a day in the mountains with the lot of us would be much more fun than a marriage retreat and decided to throw some stuff into the back of my dad's truck and drive on up! I'm sure their marriage will survive!

Aren't they a motley looking crew????

Tee-hee-hee.

Danielle had had quite enough of Paparazzi Dave.

Scuba Steve playing Lazer Tag. He's HOT!!!!

We walked many miles to the top of the mountain to get advice from Levi the Wise Man...........

Cam and his ginormous crayfish/lobster wanna-be.

Ry climbing the tree stand we found on our walk.

Um, yes, we are being dorks. Dave wanted to try out the "sport" feature on the camera that takes continuous shots. We are re-enacting Mary and Laura on Little House on the Prairie running down the hill and jumping.

Awww, just look at us, all young and in love with stars in our eyes... Yes, today is my (and Big Sexy's, of course) 15 year anniversary! In honor of this event, I have taken time off from packing for our weekend trip to camp to list some of the reasons I love Big Sexy (besides his way cool, self-given name).

1. Let's just get the shallow stuff out of the way, shall we? Okay. Big Sexy's cute. It's okay to admit it. I know he's cute, you know he's cute, it's all good. He's got those blue eyes and those awesome biceps. That's all the detail I'm going into here. Let's just say that all of him is cute and leave it at that :)

2. He cooks...... food. He's a great cook. Which is good. Because I'm not. Not that I couldn't be if I tried. It's just that he's so much better at it and so much more creative with the things he makes. Whenever I used to cook - and, really, there was a time when I did - he would always be making suggestions to add this or that and why don't I try doing blah, blah, blah. It's just easier to let his creativeness take over and do it.

3. He's one of the most easygoing people you'll ever meet. Big Sexy rarely gets his panties in a twist. He's just got an even temper. He's so laid back as opposed to my sometimes tendency toward perfection and OCDedness. He can get along with anyone, although, sometimes it's hard.

4. He makes me laugh. Hysterically. A lot. Laughing's good for you, so I guess he's keeping me healthy as well!

5. Dave thinks I can do anything. He tells me I can do anything. He is my encourager. I'm not one of those "go out and do it" types of people. I like what I know. I'm not a "try new things" kinda girl. But, if he even thinks I want to do something, he'll tell me I can do it. He'll, most likely, MAKE me at least try it.

6. He's the best dad EVER!!! My boys love their dad. He spends time with them, plays with them, wrestles with them... whatever interests they have, he'll become involved in or learn about so that he can participate with them. He's always looking for things that he thinks they would like or enjoy. He just wants his boys to be happy.

7. He works hard. 'Nuff said.

8. Big Sexy has brawn and brains. He's smart. When he talks about his work stuff, I have no idea what he's saying. He can figure pretty much anything out. He's also my computer/technological hero. If I were a single parent, my kids would be close to Amish. He can hook up 87 different media things and have 'em run through the whatever so that they all go directly into the thingymajig so that the Playstation 3 plays video on the tv and the Wii works and the Eye Toy, etc., etc., etc......

9. Dave is Mr. Creative. He made some pretty wicked forts for the boys with 3 sheets and a staple gun back in the day. He once made the kids some transformer/robot armor out of foam and fixed it somehow so they could strap it onto their arms and legs (I have pictures, I'll have to dig them out). Ryan needed a desk in his room, so Dave took an unused corner cupboard thing and a piece of plywood and made one. He rounded out the edges and everything making a perfect corner desk! The boys need something to set the laptop on so they can watch movies on the way to camp, no problem.... He whips something up with corrugated, foam, wood and a glue gun. Next time you see him, give him a rubber band, a paperclip and some other obscure item and see what he comes up with :)

10. He bathes.

11. He's strong. Ask my little old lady neighbor. I think she has a crush on him. Seriously though, I love when he gets all manly and picks up or carries something obscenely heavy. I also love knowing that he could protect me and the kids if he had to (which, of course, given our extensive tkd butt-kicking training we probably wouldn't need - but it's good to have back-up!)

12. He likes spending time with me and the boys. He doesn't come home from work, plop down on the couch, watch tv all night, and ignore us. He works out with Ryan, comes and watches our tkd classes, plays video games with the boys, watches tv with me after the boys go to bed, goes grocery shopping with me. He enjoys our company.

13. He helps clean up the kitchen after dinner. Seriously, can anyone keep their kitchen clean or am I the only one who has a perpetually dirty, nasty, crumby kitchen?

14. He lets me put my cold feet on him when I crawl into bed at night so I can get warm.

15. He loves God... which is why he can love his family the way he does.

Now, those were only 15 reasons why he's perfect and I love him. I could go on, but then what would I write about on future anniversaries????

Happy Anniversary, Dave! I love you!

Photoshop 101

And here, my friends, we have the result of Cam's Photoshop class. Does he make a beautiful picture for his mother.... No. Does he make a poster filled with a bunch of cute puppies, which we all know are his favorite things??? No. He put a Godzilla head on his brother and called him "Oogly" (which is the cool way they call each other "ugly" on a pretty much daily basis - in brotherly love, of course) and then captioned himself as "cool" - with arrows, so no one who views the picture would get mixed up...... Oy!!!! I guess the deal with Photoshop is basically this.... click on stuff and see what happens. I can only imagine the creative verbal phrases that I could come up with while trying to use this software. Small children should probably not be anywhere around :) Basic computer things drive me crazy.... I can only imagine the meds I'd need for Photoshop!

.... went off as planned on Saturday afternoon without a hitch! I have to admit that we could not have had our timing down any better! We didn't have to stand in our line at the end for 15-20 seconds like imbeciles, staring at the audience and waiting for our cue to "robot bow" like we did during our practice sessions! So, "Good job to us!" I'd pat myself on the back, but my right shoulder and the right side of my back are too sore to move right now :) I'm sure that we have our "Demo Team Mom" to thank for being there for all of us - giving us encouraging words and all.... :)

Look at us all looking over at Gigi for approval! We're like puppy dogs, "Did you see that???? No one forgot to run out on the floor at any time..... we finished with the music..... we bowed and stood back up..... the music is over..... why isn't anyone clapping.... did we suck?????"

My wonderful husband had a little break in between holding boards and taking Benjy to the bathroom :) so he had a chance to take some pictures and get some video of us breaking boards. Unfortunately, he didn't get our awesome circle :(

And, finally, check out Ry's face in this picture. I'm sure I'd be equally as scared if Mr. Stukus was coming at ME with a hammerfist.....

Tami, the crazy bird lady......

Today was a field trip day! We went to the National Aviary downtown. I have a bunch of great pictures to share, but since it's late, I'll just leave you with this video for now.

It was feeding time for the lorikeets. I asked the boys if they wanted to go into the room and feed birds. They weren't interested. I have no idea why. I tried talking them into it because I thought it would be fun! Still - no takers. Fine! I'm not so cool that I'd pass up this experience! I handed my $3 over to the nice lorikeet food distributor lady and opened the door. I hadn't taken two steps into the room before I was dive-bombed by a zillion screeching birds! It WAS fun but a little overwhelming at first. Dave, of course, got it all on video.

Afterwards, we drove to Trinity Jewelers to pick up my newly reset diamond and my new wedding band - my sweet hubby isn't making me wait 6 more days 'til our anniversary before I can wear it - he's the best!

My Oh-So-Creative child recently discovered Photoshop. Recently meaning "last night". Since then, he has created about 5 or 6 pictures with the limited tutorial Dave gave him in about 8 minutes. Here we have one of his masterpieces

"Squirrel in a Tree".

Camron is beyond excited because next Tuesday evening Nikki, who works with Dave and does all of the graphic design work for the company, is coming over to REALLY teach him how to use the program and how to do a bunch of cool stuff..... I may never be able to get on my computer again! This will totally count as art class for school :) I can only imagine the benefits of 1) being creative to begin with, and 2) learning how to properly use something like Photoshop at the age of 11. Perhaps he will create great and wonderful things for huge companies..... maybe he'll start his own company... I'm sure he'll make a gazillion dollars and send his parents on awesome trips as thanks for all of the love and support he's received throughout his life... all of the clothes washed, meals cooked, trips back and forth to taekwondo, diaper changes, midnight feedings, etc., etc.

And right now, and for always, I will love "Squirrel in a Tree".