happy birthday

to beautiful Hadley Kate!

all 9lbs 12 ozs

20.5in of her

 I can not even tell you how much I enjoyed the fact that I got to see her right away and didn't have to wait days or weeks to meet the new baby. Although let's be real for a moment, she hardly looks like a newborn, minus of course her swollen face, but she's HUGE, especially her hands that look like they are the same size as her older sister's.

a date with The Muppets

Our long awaited Muppet date finally went down. We had a blast! And of course no outing with a two year old would be complete without a funny story or two.

It stated with the Cars 2 billboard. Part of The Muppets movie takes place on Hollywood blvd. that just so happens to contain a GIGANTIC Cars 2 billboard. And of course even with a million things going on in the movie that is what Gavin sees, and starts yelling "CARS 2 CARS 2 look auntie Mandy CARS 2" many a heads turned to us in the dark theater.

Then after the movie we had to make a quick stop in the bathroom. While in the stall Mr. Gavin decides to start singing [as loud as humanly possible] Justin Beiber's Baby Baby. No amount of sssshhhing by me got him to stop singing. Then when we exited the stall the few ladies and girls that were in the bathroom started giggling....I'm sure they had been expecting a little girl singing Beiber.

Following that adventure we hit up the TB for lunch. While ordering Gavin started telling everyone in site that "we just saw the Muppets, we just saw the Muppets" on and on and on. To anyone that listen. I'll take that as a good sign that he had fun.

tis the season

Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving. I sure did, I even tried new things. Way to go me! I don't have any memory of ever eating stuffing - I have always said I don't like it, but didn't actually know it that was true. And guess what? It's not! I LOVED the homemade stuffing that we had. Really really tasty.

Then after too much dessert we rounded out the evening with a true welcome to the Christmas season. Peppermint hot chocolate, with whipped cream (that was only left over because I forgot to take it with the pie woops! but that's ok we could not let it go to waste) and a little Elf magic. Which is not only a super fantastical movie but also the origination of my love for Zooey's signing aka She & Him.

gobble gobble

Happy MASHED POTATO day

woops I mean Thanksgiving!!

*

I am pretty certain that I made my bed this morning before I left for work. But now it looks like this:

I'll give you two guesses as to what or rather who happened to it.

CA weekend

Thanks to Southwest's wonderful $59 flights I was able to stop in for a weekend visit to cali. It was a short, very full wonderful weekend. I got to catch up with lots of people and make it for Rachel's bridal shower [even though I actually have no photos of her or that event I promise it really did happen......and I won a prize, cuz I am awesome like that]

It was a bit funny to be back at the old house, and even staying in my room aka Elizabeth's room. Saturday morning stated off with the Holiday spirit, Christmas music listening whilst massive breakfast feast making followed up by an Angela and Mandy tradition of bad Christmas movie watching. This time we watched "The Family Holiday" it was chose based on the fact that is stared a Full Hose great and it was filmed in my hometown Spokane. It was not amazing but it was many steps above the Christmas Child which still stands out in my book as the worst Christmas movie ever.

Then we jetted of to Santa Monica for some "fun till the sun comes up over Santa Monica boulevard" or really in our case until the sun went down. We did some pretty good shopping, eating and coffee drinking. Which included our maiden voyage to Penzy's, Rachel's favorite spice store. I bought some Cardamon so that I can bake with it when I miss her, that smell will forever remind me of Rachel. And I had to take my rosemary out of my bag because it looked suspicious going through the XRay machine at the airport. (And for the record Elizabeth and Micheala were there as well even though I managed to get no photos of them)

Then on to Sunday for church, some more shopping, and lunch with friends at Panera - who by the way has tried to become like Starbucks offering peppermint mochas in red holiday cups. How cool is David that he delayed his holiday travels just to stay and lunch with us? Uhm yeah pretty cool. I clearly have some pretty great friends! I miss you all.

And then, just we you thought my trip would be over, remember I said it was FULL. I rounded out my weekend with a visit to Jake and Hannah. This included a full wedding photo viewing, dinner and a lesson on TV's. Trust me I need all the help I can get, TV's now adays are so complicated with so many options. I kind of miss the good ol days where all you had to choose was the size..

family affair

My phone has done a few strange things as of late. Like deciding not to let me set the alarm [I thankfully discovered this before I needed it to wake me for work] and then deciding it would be really cool to play my ring tone every time I get an email or text. That would be fine if it didn't keep ringing until you read the message. Not cool. So obviously that had to be fixed.

While checking my options I decided to do something a wee bit more fun than just your typical ding. So after much thought I decided on the sound called "Lightsaber on" i'll give you one guess as to what it sounds like. I am LOVING it. Random yes but fun. 

So then at lunch on Sunday I am telling people about it - how fun it is, how happy I get when I hear it yada yada. Some people may have laughed at me. Later that night, I was sitting on the couch next to Jake when he got a text message. Guess what his alert sound was?

No it was not "Lightsaber on" but it was R2D2. 

Cam just for curiosity sake do you have a Star Wars related alert sound on your phone? If not you probably should look into getting on.

and another

It's looking like my stories from the gas station is becoming a weekly segment here on the blog. So yesterday I had to get gas......again. This longer commute makes these funny stories all the more frequent. I'm on my lunch break and I pull into the gas station. Knowing full well not getting my gas cap off is a possibility I scan the area first to make sure there are some strong looking men that could possibly help me if necessary. I pulled up next to the FedEx truck. I attempted and failed, once again could not get the cap unscrewed. Frustrating yes but not as big of a deal now that I kind of expect it to happen.

Next step, I go over the the FedEx guy and ask him if he could help me. Before I could explain what kind of help I needed he gave me this annoyed look that was half disgust and half surprise. [I think he though I was going to ask him for money] I didn't let it bother me, finished my sentence, explaining that my gas cap is on too tight and I can't get it off, "could you please help me?" And what does he do? He laughs at me. Seriously, laughed. Didn't even try to hide it.

So then he goes into macho mode and says "Well yes I'm sure I can help you then." He totally thinks I'm an idiot. Which of course made it all the funnier when he could not get it to budge. He kept trying and kept trying, and of course tried to crack a joke about it to cover him embarrassment that he could not actually help me.

I'm starting to actually get a little worried at this point, like oh wait maybe this is actually a big deal this time. If he can't get it open what am I going to do? Oh goodness. Then he asked if I had any tools. He was SO determined, which was nice I guess but funny. As I was walking around my car to get out my tools another man walks up out of nowhere and asks "are you guys having some problems here?" Uhm yes yes we are. I explain the situation to him, and try to tell him that I am not just some stupid ditsy girl....it really is on too tight. This is when the FedEx guy steps in and says "it's ok I got it covered." Smooth guy. 1) you don't have it covered, you STILL can't get it open 2) weren't you laughing at me 3 minutes ago for not being able to open it? Yeah you were I think I will take his help if he is offering

The mystery man from no where walks up to the car turns the cap and takes it off. Like nothing. I was staring in shock and awe. He explained that I need to push and turn at the same time. Ok let's not get into the whole why after 4 years I now have to start pushing the cap while I turn to get it open. Let's skip the little details for now and go on with the craziest part of this story. The mystery man.....I don't know his name, BUT he was at the game night that I went to last Friday at church. Can you believe that? I know/have met maybe like 30-40 people in the state of AZ and one of them was at the gas station. Although, it gets slightly funnier. I don't know if I met him or not, because he is a twin. I met one of them, and of course me total spaz can't remember anyones names can't think of the name of the brother I did meet, so basically I may as well have not met him. So this guys is saving the day for me and maybe I met him maybe I didn't and I kind of would like to acknowledge this fact and how "small world" it is, but can't decide if I should or not because I don't know if it was him I met or his twin. Since he didn't seem to recognize me I concluded that it was not the person I met, and didn't say anything. And that was that he disappeared just as quickly as he appeared. but.....wow....a little crazy right?

over there

Hey check me out, I'm blogging over at Junk In The Trunk Trio today. I am not cool enough nor do I have free time enough to compile two blogs in one day [unless of course you count this little feller in which case I am the BOMB DIGITY cuz I can do two blogs in one day] so this is all you get and a linky link to go read that one.

And watch out all my California peeps I am comin your way tomorrow night - please feel free to roll out the red carpet!

friday night

I had a friend in high school that would play this song every time she got paid. Since it has been over a month now since my last pay check - and hello new job = raise. Which I knew but had forgotten about until I saw it. So all that goes to say that I thought this was a worthy enough pay day to deserve a song....even though it's not friday.

And now I promise to forever more never talk about pay day again.

updates

Tomorrow marks two weeks at my office -and my first payday WOOT! Now some important fun facts and info about the work life from the perspective of a two week employee. I am quite excited about the fact that we have direct deposit - no more waiting in line at the bank. I got a stamp with my initials on it.  How cool is that:

We initial everything here, I guess so much so that it because too difficult to actually write our ones initials so we get to stamp them. Awesome, but I keep forgetting to initial things. woops.  I have started reading the paper. Not a ton......but a little. The hour long lunches are just SO long, so I have started reaching for newspaper on the kitchen table. And of course it is only papers that seem to have no entertainment sections, like the Wall Street Journal.

This drawer will be the death of me. See all that candy? Yeah that is my desk. How can I not eat it all day long when it is just sitting there calling my name. I am also greatly enjoying the fact that the candy drawer is the water cooler of our office. People stop by quite often to get candy and I get to chat with them all. It is such a change from my last office where I rarely spoke to people. Now there are times where I feel like I all I do is chat with people.....and eat candy of course.

On a non office note I am also really enjoying the Air1 radio station. No offense southern California but it is SO much better than the Fish. 

Now on a completely unrelated note, did any of you watch The Big Bang Theory on Thursday night? I nearly died, Sheldon and his fear of birds. Ha! I could totally relate to everything he did and said in the first half -right up he turned to the dark side and decided that he liked birds. Watch it, it's funny. 

And one more unrelated thing because I love them so much. The Hunger Games trailer is out. YAY YAY YAY! Can't wait until March, it looks surprisingly good and so much less cheesy than most other movies from YA books.

the trial of getting gas

It happened again. Seriously getting gas has become the biggest ordeal of my life. Remember last time I get gas and could not get the cap off? Well I didn't give everyone the follow up to that story. So after I got gas I carefully put the cap back on and didn't close it super super tight so that it would not happen again. Silly me being cautious, turns out not screwing the gas cap on tight enough makes you check engine light no one. So my first day of work last week I start up my car and found the check engine light one.

Yes I had a minor panic attack, but after a phone call to my father and reading of the owners manual I discovered the cause - tightened the gas cap and a week later the light went off. Ok now enter tonight. I stop for gas on my way home from work. First the machine rejected my debit card, had to swipe it again to get it to work.....a pain but not a big deal. Then AGAIN I could not get the gas cap off. I was so frustrated! I kept trying, turning, regrouping, turning and I got nothing. My hands were black, and in pain when I finally gave up. I had to once again as the stranger next to me to open it for me.

I have decided that either I have a sudden onset of special needs when it comes to getting gas or I am being taught a valuable lesson -that I need to talk to strangers at gas stations more. Once again I wished that the man next to me was tall dark and handsome not middle aged and balding hehe.

It's pretty funny to watch them as I ask for help, they start out looking skeptical like I must be crazy or incapable/helpless or trying to hit on them. Then they walk over all macho and confident only to struggle a bit themselves to get it open. I have completely mastered the whole damsel in distress thing.

shop talk

Over the weekend Lindsey and I set up a little booth at a local craft fair held by a children's store.  We arrived at 7:30, the event itself did not start until 8 but we heard that some people started setting up at 5:30...crazy crazy. We had a pretty good spot - or so we though in the morning when we had the sun keeping us warm, but then after lunch when we were still in direct sunlight I changed my mind. We both walked away with less product and a LOT more sun. I have a really nice farmers tan now!

We chose not to use a table like all the other people and instead set up our stuff with a lovely crate display. Last week I was staying really busy with lots of etsy orders - so it's a good thing I have a new sewing partner.

Audra is very into sewing. Anytime she hears the machine going she comes into my room and climbs into my lap. I am going to go ahead a say that if she ever becomes a designer/project runway winner/master seamstress it was moments like this with Auntie Mandy that made her sucessful.

double day

HAPPIEST OF HAPPY BIRTHDAYS TO KEVIN!!!!!

Thanks for being my new running partner, and for getting me a job......and letting me live in your house our the bomb.com

And for a double dose of birthday fun HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY TO DAVID!!!!!

I hope you have a great birthday - don't do anything too crazy :)

 [I am quite sad to miss out on the celebration]

daylight savings

This is the first year EVER in my life I have not had daylight savings. I am just chillin in the same time that I was in last week. It's funny. And hard to remember, sorry California peeps it may take me a while to remember that you are now an hour behind me. Like today while gchatting with Sylvan I could not figure out why he was still at work at 5. He gets off at 4:30 and usually leaves quite promptly - but then I remembered that woops it was only 4 for him haha.

Sadly though I think as much as I can't remember the difference my body can. Yesterday evening I was so completely exhauseted. For no good reason. I was laying in bed reading and could barely keep my eyes open, I am embarrassed to say this was at 9:15. I am pretty certain I turned out the lights at 9:30, my body clearly needed that extra hour [or two and a half] that daylight savings was not around to offer. So I was forced to call it a night even earlier than my usual early bed time.

Sort of pathetic yes, but hey I was not the first person in the house to go to sleep so I think that makes it ok.

purple rain

Time to document day four. No I did not go to a Prince concert and no I did not break any more dishes. I actually did lots of good things, but we all know those are not near as fun to share. So for todays edition of the silly/clumsy/stupid/crazy things Mandy does in the office we have a shower of grape juice. 

Shower might be a bit dramatic but larger spill ALL over would be an accurate description. You see my new office is this glorious place that is always stocked with candy, cookies, crackers, coffee, creamer, water and soda (including my fav Diet Dr. Pepper) how AWESOME is that? Well part of the whole always being stocked is my job, ordering all that tastiness from Costco. So I ordered, Costco delivered. Then I set out to put away everything. Enter the two pack of monster grape juice jugs. They are attached at the lid with a massive plastic bar thing - which I removed and then put them in the cupboard. The first one when it with no problem, however they do have to be turned on their side as they are too tall to stand up. As I am lifting the second jug up and turning it on it's side to be placed in the cupboard is starts pouring out grape juice. I gasped, thankfully I didn't scream, only one person got to witness this humiliation, not the four of last time. 

Somehow when I took off the massive plastic case thing connecting the two jugs I must have loosened the lid. There was grape juice all over the counter and floor around me. But thankfully barely any got on me. I was of course wearing a white shirt, and thought I had ruined it. I somehow managed to strategically spill only on my are, in the most non visible place. It would have been pretty hard to live through the rest of the day if my entire shirt had been stained purple.

OPPA!

So today was my third day at my new job. Just the third and yet already I was left alone. The person training me is out on vacation for today and tomorrow. Not ideal I guess but no big deal. I was slightly worried about the phone system, but I didn't even think to worry about unloading the dishwasher.

Yes you read the correctly part of my job is to unload the dishwasher in the kitchen. Again no big deal, it's nothing I haven't done before. I'm unloading the dishes, making good time and all, got the cups put away, put the bowls in the cupboard, and I am working on stacking the plates when there is a HUGE CRASH behind me. I turn and two bowls fell out of the cupboard and shattered on the granite counter top and sent little pieces of bowl flying all across the kitchen.

Seriously! Do things like this happen to anyone besides me? I mean, it's not like I dropped them, they literally fell out of the cupboard, from a stack of 6 the top two plummeted to their death. Four different people came running in to check out what happened. I was pretty darn embarrassed. Thankfully they all were more concerned with my safety than the well being of the dishes.

Quickly the task of unloading the dishwasher went from being a quick 5 minute task to a tedious 15 job when it involved sweeping up all the tiny pieces of dish from around the kitchen.  Now skip ahead about two hours,  I was sitting at my desk and all the sudden felt something strange on my leg. I thought it was a piece of food or something just stuck there so without thinking I picked it off. When I looked down though I realized it was not food at all but instead a huge scab of dried blood. Evidently in all the excitement of the dish breaking I didn't realized that they flying bowl chunks cut up my leg. I had two pretty good sized scrapes all smeared with blood down my leg.

What really made me laugh about this whole thing though was that just yesterday Angela had blogged about the Santa Anas  and their effect on her, I today I felt like those Santa Anas reached all the way to me in AZ.  You see, one of our favorite quotes from The Holiday is "When the Santa Anas blow anything can happen." In the movie however those "anythings" are of course romantic relationships but for both Angela and I those "anythings" are random injuries - although hers is much better than mine.

day one is done

I survived! haha that makes it sound like I was anticipating it being bad....or it was bad, and I finally made it though which would be inaccurate. It was dandy, I think I will be very happy there. No one remembered any of the strange things I said the day I interviewed (like when they asked me what I liked to do and I said "I don't like animals") thank goodness. And I am pretty sure the only slightly embarrassing thing that happened would be that I managed in a whole parking lot of spaces to park in one of the two that are assigned. Of course I would. But after that is was all good.
Very similar in some ways to my last job  and yet very different in, like wow it's pretty neat to work with people your own age....and on the taller end of the spectrum, I went the whole day without noticing how tall I am- cool! And I at lunch with people, I don't think at my last job i ever at lunch with coworkers unless we were out, it's kind of fun. It's the little things that count right? ha. I will however have to adjust to the earlier start time of 8, which is not that much of a change, but combined with a slightly longer commute it does make for an earlier morning call time.....and therefore an early bed time - thank goodness the good people of Arizona say prime time TV starts at 7 and not 8 I LOVE that.