Where is Home?

Where is home?  Here is home:

And this song says it all:

I Can't Tell You This Story { It's Funny/Mildly Embarrassing }

But i will anyway.  TMI alert!

So, Todd got snipped about a month ago.  We came home from the procedure with lots of paperwork, including instructions on having "emissions" tested to make sure we had attained a state of non-baby-makingness.  The paper said to bring a "sample" to the doctor's office after 20 "emissions" for lab testing.  If that sample came back clear, then 2 weeks later we would submit another, and if that also came back clear, we would be considered ready to roll!

Well, 20 times?!  We wanted to get our all-clear as quickly as possible, so we worked our butts off to make it to 20.  (Not that i'm complaining; hard work is good for ya! ;o)  And so, Friday we took our sample in to the doctor's office and told the receptionist we had a sample to drop off.  She and the nurse who was standing beside her looked at us all confusey-like. 

I raised my eyebrows hopefully. 

The receptionist tapped away on the computer and said, "Ooooh.  You don't bring that in until after your follow-up appointment (which is next week).  The doctor will give you a container...." 

Embarrassment aside and sheepishly grinning, i plead, "But we worked so hard!" which made the nurse giggle.

I looked at Todd, hoping he'd think of something to say to make them just kindly take our sample anyway.  He had nothing.  He made a funny comment and we left the building, sample in tow.

I don't even want to contemplate the conversation that followed between the nurse and the receptionist.

Just When You Think It Can't Get Any Better

Okay, i know, i know i know i know.  i've said it 400 times (this week alone) and i just have to say it again.  This man is the shizzle!  He cracks me up, he's weird as hell (Dev, you were right, thank goodness!), and i can't imagine living life without him.  Todd, i love hanging out in the closet with you and i love the private jokes we share.  i love the way you think and that i can say ANYTHING to you and know you're not gonna judge me--do you know how rare that is?  i seriously think you're the ONLY person i've ever truly been able to be completely myself with.  Do you know how freaking awesome that is?  i would not trade you, baby, not even for Andrew VanWyngarden or a vat full of Modest Mouse. 

Todd returns to work

ouch. this is hub. this is hub on floor. this is hub on floor in pain.  he hurt his back at work, lifting an air handler out from a closet.  he limped around until the back finally said ENOUGH and forced him down.  for a week he couldn't sit, couldn't stand for more than a couple minutes, and i had to drive him to doctor's appts while he lay down in the back of the 'burban.  today he went back to work, still limping, still unable to stand for long or even sit straight.  i will try not to spend the day worrying about him.

:o\

on another note, look at those buns.  them are some might-T fine buns!

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What More Could I Want?

I know I've said this before; several times, even, but do you know that I married the greatest guy on the entire planet? I really did. I thank God for him daily. How he puts up with me and my complicated self, I will never know. This man drives me around in the car if I'm bored or anxious. He holds me when I'm scared or sad. He doesn't complain if the house is messy or flat-out dirty. If dinner doesn't get made, he'll make it himself, all the while cheerful and smiling. If my cooking sucks, he'll eat it anyway, and if it turns out great, he makes sure I know. He scratches my back and purrs like a big ole tiger when I scratch his head. He snuggles. He snores. He farts. He treats my 2 kids from a previous as if they had been born to him. He helps out so much with our little guy. He gives me directions when I'm lost (that's pretty often) and makes fun of me afterwards. He still finds me desirable even though I've gained 18 lbs since we got married. He jiggles my jelly belly and teases me about it. He whips my butt at Quiddler and sometimes even at Scrabble. He takes me camping. He smooshes big, ugly bugs when I'm too whimpish to do it myself. If I'm drowning in my own bad attitude, he gently reminds me of the good things in life. He forgives those who do him wrong.

We may have lost our house, but we have each other. Todd is my companion not only for life on this Earth, but for all Eternity and I am so grateful for that; words cannot suffice.

Bryce's Musical Talent

We have a lot of musical talent in our family: Todd plays some guitar, Allie plays guitar, keyboard and cello (and anything else you put in front of her), Zane plays the trumpet and some drums. Bryce is only beginning to develop his talent. As for The Cuteness Factor, he's already got that down.



GelaSkins Inc.

Rare Video Footage of Todd (Hehehe)

Sorry these videos are so dark; we were hanging out in the light of the tree. It was such a fine family moment that Todd broke out in song. Enjoy these RARE videos!


The Dolphin Song:

The Sittin' on my Porch Song:

The Jailhouse Farm Song (When the Saints Remix)
Accompaniment by Zane B. (warning: Z was not warmed up :o)

~
GelaSkins Inc.

I Lost My Husband in the Backyard

Has your husband ever gotten so completely wrapped up (read: obsessed) with something that you were jealous of it?

I am jealous of my own backyard.

This past spring, The Toddster and I decided it was time to get the backyard finished. I wanted grass. Grass would lessen my guilt over sending Bryce out back to play. It would also mean less DIRT tracked into the house which would = less cleaning for me to do. So, even if I say I want grass for the benefit of our children, it's really all about me. As usual.

So it's late November now and do we have grass?

Absolutely NO.

And here's WHY NOT.

The grader dude graded our yard in a manner that took about 6 feet off the depth of the yard. It's a long story about how and why, so I'll skip those details and just say that I wanted as much of those 6 feet back as we could get. I need the space for my bad minton set. I do, honestly. I'm obsessed with bad minton.

So, our next door neighbor kindly offered to let Todd borrow his roto-tiller so Todd could take down the annoying, yard-stealing hill that sloped up to our back wall. After a month, YES A MONTH of tilling, Todd was satisfied that he could handle the remainder of the task BY HAND.

He shoveled, he leveled, he graded, he envisioned, he shoveled more, leveled more, re-envisioned, shoveled, decided to take the hill down a little more BY HAND with a PICKAXE.

Todd has been picking, shoveling, digging, raking...DAILY for

7 months.

He gets home around 7:30 pm from work and heads straight out to the backyard. I peer out the window at him, missing my husband. He looks up and grins sheepishly. I smirk. He comes inside and takes me by the hand.

"Just come look at this!" He exclaims, truly excited by his accomplishment.

I reluctantly and skeptically go outside and look. I don't see anything different.

"I raised this whole area to match the other end." He says, a bit dejected but still hopeful.

I roll my eyes and head back inside, arms crossed.

Todd rakes on.

I solemnly promise that if we do not have grass by SPRING, I will construct a home-made pipe bomb and blow up the entire back yard. Yes, we will have no backyard, but at least I will have my husband back.

~~
GelaSkins Inc.

Our ACTUAL Wedding Photo--LOL!

Okay, yes, seriously, this is our actual wedding photo. Go ahead and laugh; we laugh at it everytime we see it. The story's pretty good, too. See below....

For those of you who have never heard our dating/wedding story, here's the skinny:

Todd & I met because his brother-in-law (Jeff) was my home teacher and brought his wife (Devon) over one Sunday because his h.t. companion was out of town. At the end of the visit, very sweet Devon asked me if there was anything they could do for me and I (jokingly) asked if she could find me a husband--not just any old husband--a good LDS husband because the guys I had been dating or meeting lately had really not been so fantastic.

Seriously, I was joking about her finding me a husband. But suddenly a lightbulb went on over her head, and she looked at Jeff and said, "My brother!" Then she looked at me, then back to Jeff and said, "But he's so weird!"

I was sitting there with a sinking feeling, thinking, "Great. Now I have to meet her weird brother." Because it would've been pretty rude to ask and then say "Oh just kidding." So, a BBQ was arranged at Devon and Jeff's and Todd and I were going to meet. (We actually met briefly a few days before that at D & J's son's Eagle Scout project, but didn't talk then).

So, to make a long story really short, Todd & I met at the BBQ, then Jeff forced him to ask me out later that week. We dated for 3 weeks. One Saturday, Todd borrowed his sister Erin's convertible and we drove up to the rim to go hiking. It was a really nice day. When we arrived back at my apartment in Mesa around 6 that evening, neither of us wanted the day to be over. We stood there saying, "What do you want to do?" "I don't know, what do you want to do?"

We were wind-blown and a little grungy from the drive and hiking, so I didn't really want to go out to dinner or anything public like that. So, then the great idea came to me and I "proposed" it to Todd: "Let's go to Vegas and get married!"

So to make that part of the story short, we hopped on a plane and flew off to Vegas and stood in the very long line to the county office, then were limo'ed off to "A Las Vegas Garden of Love" (which later had it's own reality show on t.v.) and were given a talk and prepped for marriage by a 16 year old boy (I'm so not kidding) and married by a pretty decent pastor who gave us a nice talk about marriage.

We didn't have rings, or anything else "wedding-ish" and were married in the grungy clothes we had hiked in that morning. Notice that Todd got married in a Wheeler A/C shirt!!!!

Todd-isms

Todd has a clever way with words. He's really very funny, but you have to "get it." He has his own style of humour and it just cracks me up. He makes up words, too. Like if you take an everyday word, and simply add "-iferous" to the end, you have a Todd word. Like, orangeiferous or splendiferous. He says it's Greek Mythology. Ummm, it's not.

When we were camping on the rim a couple months ago, Todd was telling ghost stories to the kids. One was about a woman whose daughter, Mona, was lost in the forest and never found. The mom would roam the woods at night calling "Monnnnaaaaa." You know, in that spooky ghost voice. So a little while after telling the story, it was quiet in the tent and Todd starts going, "Monnnnaaaa..." but the kids weren't impressed. Undaunted, Todd lets out into the darkness, "Moniferous," and I start laughing and can't stop. At that point, I'm about to pee my pants but it's too cold to leave the tent.

Todd also comes up with great ideas and sayings. Over the 4th of July weekend, we had to go to Greer so Todd could work on the furnace/air conditioning system for the cabin his sister and her in-laws are building. It was long work and I was really tired of keeping Bryce out of trouble. Jerilyn (Erin's mom in law) stopped to thank us for sacrificing our weekend for them and said she knows they don't reward us much, but hopefully we'll get rewarded in Heaven. Todd replies, (I love this) "If we don't get into Heaven, I guarantee I'll cool down Hell." Again, I could not stop laughing. I love having a husband who makes me laugh daily. I would not trade him for all the Manolos in the world.

MoVe iT!

I have this picture on my MySpace page. It cracks me up. Todd's face is so cute and mischievous in it and my smirk says so much...to me. I didn't write this on my MySpace page, but the reason I'm smirking and Todd is laughing is because he's poking my belly fat! He teases me alllll the time about it. Couple that with the fact that this year is my 20 year high school reunion and I'm feeling a bit...shall we say, motivated. I've been working out regularly for a few weeks now, and even started going to aerobics at our ward building on M/W/F. I'm already feeling such a difference. See, Marty? I'm finally doing it!

Monkey's Shanty Town

COMING SOONer or later!



http://monkeysshantytown.blogspot.com

Prozac Summer

Summer drives me mad in Arizona, but only indirectly because of the insane heat. Todd is an HVAC tech, and in AZ that means winters are not overwhelmingly busy, and summer are beyond the beyonds. I normally don't feel so off kilter until late July or early August (and summer doesn't end here until November, so I still have a while to go even by that point), but it's mid-June and I'm already feeling it. Last week Todd left at 5:00 every morning and only got home once before 8:00 p.m. This morning he left at 4:00 a.m. and thought he'd get off by 2:00 p.m., but it's 5:15 p.m. now and he's still got at least 2 more hours of work (mind you, he never complains about it). He works the hours of a business owner without any of the bennies. Sucks. I miss my husband. Bryce misses his dad. Not to mention I could use a little break from our mischievous and very active 2 year old, and he could probably do with a break from me as well. Or maybe I'll just start taking Prozac and I'll be in happyland all the time, right? :oP

Happy Anniversary to Us!

From then...

Yesterday was Todd's & my fourth anniversary (we were married on 6/5/4). The last four years have been the best of my life. There's so much I could say, but I think anyone who knows me knows that I adore Todd and are probably tired of constantly hearing about it! Hehe! So, here's to four years and hopefully at least 44 more!

'til now...

Game Master Todd

Okay, I can take a beating and still want to play, seriously. But there comes a point where it's just nice to win, right? Todd beats me in 8 games out of 10 at EVERY game we play. It all started with Skip-Bo almost four years ago. Then Phase 10. Then "Chicken Foot" Dominoes, etc. On and on it went. Don't get me started with Chess--he gets me 99% of the time, after all the thinking and effort I put into it!

So I begin to think, "What is the ONE game at which I could pulverize him?" Then it comes to me...Scrabble! I love love love words and sometimes just browse our unabridged dictionary for fun (hmmm...maybe I should leave that part out). So I figured there was no way he could outwit me in a game of Scrabble. So what happened? The picture speaks a thousand words....


So I thought maybe it was just time to move on to different games. We went out and got Sequence (which we used to play when we were first married) and Rummikub, which I had never played before.




Yes, from the poo-eating grin on his face, you can safely ascertain that Todd continually stomps me at these games, too. Curses! Will I never be victorious?!

Todd Discovers New Talent

Allie bought some Spiker a couple weeks ago and she and Todd had fun testing it's possibilities!

Diggin' on my Lumix camera

So I had my doubts when we bought the Panasonic Lumix F33 at Costco a couple weeks ago (when we thought Todd lost the old camera at Father/Son's campout; we found it, by the way). The name 'Panasonic' doesn't instill camera confidence in me, but the Leica lens mounted grandly on the front convinced me to give it a try. I'm glad I did. I really like this camera. It has no manual settings (a major bummer for me), but that's not really the purpose of a P&S (point & shoot) anyway. It does an okay job in macro mode (which is my favorite hobby--macro photography). The two pix of a parrot tulip (which my smoochable Todd got me for Mother's Day) below are about as close as the camera goes in macro--again, not too bad for a P&S. It also has an auto-bracketing function--LOVE THAT!






I LOVE this picture of Todd. We were weeding the front yard yesterday evening as the sun was just starting to go low. The Lumix has face detecting technology and an "Auto intelligence" mode which makes some pretty cool adjustments. It did a great job of keeping the light nice on Todd's face while the rest of him was in slight shadow. The wide angle lens (28 mm) gives you lots of options, too, with a nice zoom range.


And it took a nice portrait of Zane and Wuzzle. I like the color and the lens has nice contrast--not too harsh (like a Leica digital P&S I briefly owned several years ago--it was too contrasty for family snap shots, creating harsh lines).

Overall, I would recommend this camera to anyone looking for a new, inexpensive but great performing digital P&S. This was the least expensive camera in Costco at $199.95. It has a nice weight, attractive and sturdy body, beautiful Leica lens and fantastic functions. It's an 8.1 megapixel. **I checked out the Lumix 10 mp at Best Buy and the body was light-weight cheap plastic and didn't feel good in the hands. The 10 mp would have been nice, but I appreciate the better quality body of the Costco version, which also came with a case and photo viewing/editing software.

Pickin' Peaches

This morning, bright and early, Todd, Bryce and I went to Schnepf Farm to pick peaches. We got to go on a hayride to get to the peach orchard. This was Bryce's first hayride. He looks a little confused or disgruntled; not sure which.

Bryce got to pick some peaches, too!

And even try some in the orchard. Don't worry; they're organic.
A nice lady on the ride back took our picture...evidence that I really am at all these events with my family!

The Scoop on Todd

Okay, my friend Linda in Chicago says there's not enough on my blog about Todd, so for my friends around the country who've never met him, heeeeeere's Todd...!

Todd is THE BEST! He's affectionate, kind, mischievous, funny, loving, realistic (well, most of the time), adventurous and level-headed--I've only seen him get a little upset twice in the four years I've known him. We don't fight or argue. He loves animals and his dream job would be working in the wildlife preservation field. Maybe after he retires from air conditioning...you never know! He's a very hard worker and works his butt off so we can have a house and I can stay home with the kids.

Todd loves to go hiking and camping (I would have put some pix on here of Todd and Zane camping last weekend with our Church Ward, but Todd lost the camera, LOL!). That was a blessing, though, because I hated that camera and it gave me an excuse to get a new point & shoot (still hoping for the manual camera for my birthday, hehe). Todd used to go regularly to camp at Havasupai (I don't know how to spell that properly) which is a very long hike in and out...it's in the Grand Canyon and there's an "Indian" village down there, too.

Todd not only loves animals, he loves birds, bugs, reptiles, you name it. We found an old video tape of his a couple years ago. He made it when he was probably in his late teens. It was several minutes of some kind of bug going in and out of a hole. LOL!

Todd and I have so many things in common--just weird little quirky things that it amazes me how well-suited for each other we are. I definitely got the better end of the deal, though ;o) On our first date, we discovered that we like the same music, which is a lot of reggae, but pretty much anything strange, bizarre or unusual, too. He loves everything from the Pixies to Miles Davis to, of course, Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, Digable Planets, A Tribe Called Quest (he got me into them, and I got him into Jack Johnson, whom he really loves). We both kinda got into Jack Johnson together on our long drive across country when we moved from AZ to VA in late May of 2005. Good stuff. Todd plays acoustic guitar, too, but not very often. I love it when he does; he has big hands and thick fingers and it seems impossible that they should be able to play those thin strings, but he does.

Todd is very devoted to our Church and he and I teach the 6-7 year-old Primary class. We love the kids; he is far more patient with them than I am, although I'm learning from him. We've been in that class for almost a year now. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else; it's fun being with the kids and even more fun being with Todd. Todd served a mission in Guatemala around the same time I was stationed in the Air Force in Japan--which is where I joined the Church (early 90's).

Well, there are a million more things I could say about Todd, but I'll stop there with a promise to include him more in future posts.