Pour Me A Heavy Dose of Atmosphere

Banana Spiderman is a slippery character, and he is everywhere and knows EVERYTHING!
Seriously, that was the best costume.

I am thankful it is a new month. October was long, stressful, and full of anxiety. I hope November is better.

Yesterday was Collin's 27th birthday. I had a blast!! I made him this awesome skull and crossbones birthday cake (this can be seen in the Fall 2009 album on Myspace and Facebook), and I got him exactly what he wanted for his birthday (that was within reason, otherwise he would have got $1,500 for a new PC). I pre-ordered Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, a game he has been drooling over for months it seems. It comes out on the tenth of this month. I had loads of fun wrapping his present *evil laugh* (in case you haven't seen the photos). I put the pre-order confirmation in an envelope; placed it inside of a really sweet card; place the card in the box from his cake mix; wrapped the cake mix box with tissue paper and clear packing tape (like sealed it shut); put that box inside another box with a book for weight; sealed that box with tape and wrapped it in tissue paper; placed that box in a box with two cans of chili (more weight); taped the box and wrapped it before placing it inside yet another box, which was subsequently taped shut and wrapped as well; put this box in a big box with four cans of tomatoes and a sheet and a bunch of shredded tissue paper; finally, I sealed the big box, wrapped it with black wrapping paper, and put some ribbon on it. Oh, it was devious. Payback's a bitch. He did the same thing to me the first Christmas we were together.... And I waited all this time... It's diabolical I know! But when he finally got ALL of it open, and saw his gift, the expression on his face was priceless. I totally got a picture of it.

Another, slightly diabolical birthday gag I pulled on him, was when he got home I told him I had made him this awesome cake, but being the clutz that I am, I dropped it and the chunks in the pan were all I could salvage. He took it very well. He changed out of his work clothes, and while he was doing that I got his uber awesome cake out of the laundry room. He LOVED it.

It was a very good day.

I am happy to say it has been over a week and I have not come down with H1N1, so I am hoping that means I am in the clear. Jenn and Amanda are doing fine as well.

Ugh, I hate the time change... It always throws me off for about a week or so... I almost started dinner at 4pm because it felt like it was almost dinner time.

Speaking of, dinner smells so freaking good... I am making meatloaf, rice, corn, and an improvised gravy. What is an improvised gravy you ask? Well, it's when you realize you want gravy with dinner but there will be no meat juices (which sound extremely dirty anyways), and you don't have one of the easy cheat packets, so you make it from scratch (which I have become really good at doing).

Are You There? Or Are You Just A Decoy Dream?

This weekend was crazy busy, and pretty awesome. Except that today my niece, Cassidy, tested positive for H1N1... I am hoping I didn't get it when I saw her on Saturday... I can't believe she is twelve now.

Last night I had the cah-raziest dream, which sucked because I slept like shit, and this dream was intense so I felt like I didn't sleep at all.

Honestly, it was kind of retarded, but it still fucked with my head.

I just remember that I was with a bunch of people from high school, like Josh, Kelly, Sommie, Alana, Kristina, and a bunch of others. I think aliens invaded, or Earth was being occupied by aliens. This is kind of what made it seem a little stupid. The aliens looked like midget versions of this guy (well, this is as close of a likeness as I could find...):
They were about four feet tall and wearing sequined black jumpsuits...

Anyways, I don't know exactly what happened, but for some reason Kelly told them I did what ever it was and they cut off the tip of my right index finger. Then it was night time and we were all hiding, I think we were planning to overthrow the aliens... I don't know, it was jacked up and left me totally confused as to why the hell I am dreaming about my high school chums... Okay, what concerned me more was the aliens, and getting my fingertip (from the knuckle to the tip) cutoff... It was just weird, comical upon reflection, but still weird.

I am tired... Ever since getting the new comforter last week I long to be wrapped up in bed, all warm and snug... Obviously that is not ideal for, nor conducive to being a responsible adult... And it is amazing that I have been able to force myself out of bed in the morning. Maybe I have the occasional helpful nudge from Collin, but just as often he is advocating for me to stay in bed...

Last week we got the CD "Ocean Eyes" by Owl City, and I must say it is an awesome CD. We bought it because we were hooked on the song "Fireflies" so we figured we would give the CD a chance. The songs are hilariously funny ("Dental Care"), and just sound so different from a lot of what's out there right now.

Collin should be off work soon, and I miss his big goofy face. Which, as a matter of fact, will be much goofier come the first. He is participating in the Prostate Cancer Awareness thingy at work where he has to shave off all his facial hair (not his eyebrows... I was worried about that at first...) and then spend the month growing a mustache. He chose to grow a handlebar mustache, like this:
There will be daily photos on facebook, and myspace... Though they might only be uploaded every couple days. (and yes that was a picture of Hulk Hogan. He was the least creepish example google images came up with...)

It will be interesting...

I'll Be Your Guardian When All Is Crumbling

For your amusement, a series of text messages:

Me: Did u get my big orange balls?

Collin: lol yes

Me: I can't wait to gobble the balls...

Me: Let me know when u are laughing so hard u pee.

Collin: lmfao i almost fell out of my chair. (thank god he was at home...)

Me: im so excited to taste those big dusty orange balls, and have them melt in my mouth.

Collin: ok stop or you'll have to clean up the pee.

Me: lol ok. they would be even funnier if u have the phone read them out loud. (our phones can speak the text from notes and received text messages... it's insanely entertaining when you have a filthy mind like us...)

Now, can you guess what balls I am speaking of with such adoration?

It's really more innocent than you think... Just sounds horrible...

Today is Thursday. I hope that they find the missing boy in Colorado, and that he was just hiding in a treehouse down the street or something.... So scary.. We watched as the balloon landed in the field and then they found no one inside. My heart about stopped. He's probably just afraid of the trouble he'd be in...

Okay, I'm out.

Truly, The Leopard Can Change His Shorts.

I bet you are wondering where the hell I got that title? It's from a book I am reading called Thud! by Terry Prachett. It's interesting so far.

This weekend was fun (I guess you could call it fun...). Saturday I spent five hours going crazy and cleaning the house from top to bottom (as I do every season), and was utterly exhausted by the time I was done. I did it all, the windows, the floors, everything. It felt good once it was all done, but every inch of me ached from scrubbing and sweeping and wiping and dusting. Now I should be good with just the regular sweeping/mopping and vacuuming until about January or February.

Yesterday I picked Jordan up from Grandma Sharon's in West Salem at noon and took him home. I spent the afternoon with Jenn and the kids. Amanda is doing awesome! She is such a little ham. Jenn and I went to town. Then I played outside with Jordan for a while kicking his soccer ball back and forth, and then watched some ScoobyDoo with him. Going into town was a trip (I rarely go into LC anymore since Dad lives in Rose Lodge), we went to Bi-Mart and Safeway.

I never go to Bi-Mart in Salem, but the one in LC hasn't changed hardly at all since I was a kid. This caused me to have some crazy trip of a dream last night that was just too bizarre. All I clearly remember was that I was in Bi-Mart and I ran into this girl Samantha (who is the younger sister of an old friend), and we were like talking and stuff, and her dad was there (who used to hang out with my dad), and it was just weird. Both of those people I haven't seen in over five years. I don't even think I would recognize either of them if I saw them in the street (they both looked like they did when I was 18). It was a trip, it was one of those dreams that just feels so real, even after you wake up you think, "Hmmm. Maybe it did happen."

Tonight I am going to call Cassidy and see if she wants to accompany me to the pumpkin patch this weekend (provided it's not really nasty outside) and then get some lunch or something. I can't believe she'll be TWELVE on the 24th. That's the age I was when she was born!

I am getting pretty consistent about logging into facebook now... I don't know why it was so "difficult" for me to find the time before... Weird, right? So far I have had two friend requests that leave me pondering, this is mostly due to the fact I haven't seen or spoken to these people in years. On top of that, when I did speak to them it was in passing, but hey, it never hurts to have new old friends... Or would they be old new friends... No I think NEW old friends.... Whichever... I am extremely happy about some of the connections I have made with past friends, and I love the little suggestions they give based on mutual friends (like Myspace does I know). It's tempting to just start adding all the suggestions they give and maybe reconnect with half of the people who went to high school with me. There are definitely a few that I will avoid though, for various reasons.

Okay, I think I am starting to ramble, maybe I will continue rambling this evening... For now I am done.

It Was A Trick...

Nothing has changed, except my bitchin' new hair!!!

I am so in love with it, it verges on being wrong.

Work is still the same. Good and horrific.

Collin is still amazingly awesome.

I don't seem to have the time to post as much during the week, but I am working on it.

I am sure I have shit-ton of stuff to say, but, alas, I am at work and should be doing work stuff... I just realized it's a week into "Chucktober" (as per my calendar at home) and I haven't posted anything on here...

Back to my slave labor... oops, shit, I mean work...

I'm Making Brownies! And I Don't Mean In My Pants This Time!

What a crazy weekend... So glad to finally have my new niece here. Her birth took away a lot of the stress and anxiety I had been feeling (I was worried about when it would happen, how much work would I miss, etc.). I went back to my Dad's on Sunday and took more pictures, including Jordan getting to meet Amanda for the first time. It was precious. He was totally infatuated with her.
This was when he first got to hold her.
I absolutely LOVE this candid shot of the three of them. Jenn looked a million times better than right after she had Amanda.
And Amanda lets out such a big yawn!
She was getting hungry and fussy. Jordan started telling Jenn to feed her and was asking for her bottle. Jenn then had to remind Jordan how mommies feed babies...
Jordan started to rub her tummy to soothe her (Jenn didn't want to feed her in front of everyone; Dad, Joshua, Grandma Sharon, Grandpa Bob, Matt (Jenn's biological father), and Curtis (Matt's son, therefore Jenn's half brother)...)

I seriously made brownies. they smell so freaking good.... I wonder if they have cooled enough yet...

I Think About Life, and Oh How It Changes So Fast...

Welcome to the world, Amanda Marie!
She was born at 4:56pm September 25th, 2009 and weighed in at a healthy 7 lbs and 14 oz!

This is how it all went down, Jenn started having some mild contractions and at 3:30pm decided it was time to head to the Cynthia's. She called me at 3:49pm right after arriving a Cynthia's. I essentially dropped everything I was doing at work, ran to my truck, came to the house for my camera and then drove like a crazy person to Rose Lodge. As I pulled into the driveway at Cynthia's my clock read 4:57pm and as I get out of the truck and walk to the door I hear a baby crying. The thought that goes through my head is, "Wow, they must have two going on or something..." WRONG! As I walk toward the door, and in the entry way Bill comes out and says, "You just missed it." I go in the room, and sure enough, Jenn is lying there as they position her newborn daughter on her chest, and Jenn is still shaking. I was like, "Wow...."

This is what happened before I got there: Jenn, as I said, started having some mild contractions early afternoon. At 3:30 she decided it was time for Dad to take her and Bill to Cynthia's, where she then called me at 3:49 to let me know it was time (I told her before hanging up to keep the baby in until I got there, lol.). At 4:50 her water officially broke, and six minutes later at 4:56 Amanda Marie came screaming into the world. It was crazy fast.

I stayed over there with her until about 8:30ish and then headed home to Salem. I got some really cute pictures, the first ones are all blurry because I was afraid to use the flash (I didn't want to be the one to blind my niece!), but the midwives gave me the okay to use the flash on the later pictures after it got dark out. The picture at the top of this post is my favorite of Amanda, and the one below here is one of my favorites of Jenn and Amanda.
At this point Jenn was getting a little tired of me blinding her with the camera flash.

All the pics from yesterday are up on my MySpace, they are the first for the Fall 2009 album. What a great way to start Fall....