The "Conan" experience

After many years of Josie talking about "Conan", I agreed to watch these "epic" movies. Matt was kind enough to let me borrow his dual DVD edition. I agreed to watch them and I did. I will not criticize them as I was not raised watching these movies and I really watched them to say I did. Same thing as when I watched "The Best of the Best". A few little things. In "The Barbarian" there was no dialogue for 14 minutes. All the typical "Arnold" noises really got to me. All I wanted to do was close his mouth 90% of the time. I don't think his English has improved all that much. "The Destroyer" was better. I don't think I will repeat this two night event. I put my time in! One thing that got to me was Valeria and how much she looked like Vienna from "The Bachelor". I wasn't a fan of either but it made me laugh throughout the entire movie. Today I told Jos and Matt how I felt about the movie. They then proceeded to call me a sucka and a chump. Fine. I'd rather sit here and watch "Willow". 

Now that I am back on the iPod bandwagen, I heard this song today and it hit home for me. I love Matthew West. I have seen him in concert and he has some mad piano skills!

The Motions

By: Matthew West

This might hurt

It’s not safe

But I know that I’ve gotta make a change

I don’t care

If I break

At least I’ll be feeling something

‘Cause just ok

Is not enough

Help me fight through the nothingness of life

I don’t wanna go through the motions

I don’t wanna go one more day

Without Your all consuming passion inside of me

I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking

What if I had given everything?

Instead of going through the motions

No regrets

Not this time

I’m gonna let my heart defeat my mind

Let Your love

Make me whole

I think I’m finally feeling something

Take me all the way

Victorious weekend!!

Another weekend has come and flown by. Yet another weekend that seems busier then the last!

Friday evening we were in a rush. Michael had to install a hot tub at a clients house in Easter Lake which worked out great because I was helping my mom babysit Eli and Caleb. Jake and Eli of course had a blast playing all night long. I will admit it was extremely scary when all the storms came rolling in. My sisters house is up on a hill and you could see for miles. The lightning was insane. It never stopped. We were fortunate and didn't lose power. My dad called and said their power was going in and out. Poor Michael. He installed the hot tub in the pouring rain. He was soaked. I felt so bad for him. We went through town because we needed to stop by my parents house to pick up Jake's blanket. We finally made it home around 10:30ish.

Saturday we woke up bright and early. We had a list of things to do. A list that only got one thing scratched off. We called the bank and asked if we could just use our same loan we had for Ruby. They said they hadn't received the check from Nationwide but they agreed and we headed off car shopping. After a few places we stopped by a place we bought our last 2 cars from. There it was. Everything we needed and more. We really wanted a SUV with 3rd row. We basically just needed room for at least one more person comfortably. Well this SUV had a 3rd row, captains chairs for the middle row which is amazing for kids, leather, sunroof, 6-disc CD changers, the 3rd row could fold down, AWD and more. After 3 1/2 hours later, we gave them their "holding" fee and it was ours. Actually, it will be ours tomorrow but still. We are so stoked! We picked a extremely hot day to go car shopping. I was so thankful to be able to find something we both love. After getting home around 3, I passed out. I slept from about 3:30 to 5:30. I then got up, showered and got ready for our night out! We took Jake to mi parentals for the evening. I am very fortunate to have our parents so close. We headed over the Blue Moon for Jeffery's birthday Extravaganza! Let's just say we got to Blue Moon, parked and I opened my wallet realizing Michael hadn't put my ID back in my wallet from the car dealership. We drove back home and then had a re-do! What a night! We had many laughs and I love these people to pieces. I will not get sappy till later this week. It was a total blast and I loved every second of it! We picked up Jake around 10:30ish and passed out by 11.

I will admit we slept through church. Horrible, but Michael had worked all day and all night every night this past week and was just exhausted. I had also a mini road trip planned for noon. We cleaned up and did laundry and then I headed out with the ladies!! Talk about a great trip! We headed over to Williamsburg. Once again, I didn't buy a bag but I did find a baby bag to snatch up in the near future. We had  a great time and now I'm beat. It's 6:46 and I could pass out for the night.

Here is our new vehicle!

A pic of some of my favorite ladies EVER
S, M, L

Gangsta faces!

Greatest photo ever!

iPod stuck on permanent freeze

I love music. It runs in my blood. There is something oddly comforting about putting on a certain song or playlist and just feeling, lost in it. Recently, I have not had that feeling. It has been about 2 months since my iPod has been turned on. 79% of my iPod use is at work, 12% is in the car, and the rest is split between my shower time and about 1/2 of a percent is used by Michael. Still, it has been on. It started about two months ago. I got into a music slump. I still have no idea as to why since my iPod is a 120GB and has over 5,000 songs, 6 movies and a few music videos. I got into a habit of bring movies into work to listen to. We have movies coming out of our ears. I got into a chick flick run. After viewing everything from "27 Dresses", "While You Were Sleeping", "Pride and Prejudice", "Mean Girls" and "Monster-In-Law", I then retired that genre and moved to my action side. "Italian Job", "The Bourne Series", "Crank", "Die Hard" and "The Batman Series"(yes even Batman and Robin ft George Clooney and Schwarzenegger). I then transitioned to my seasons of TV. I made it through Season 6 of "Grey's Anatomy", Season 4 of "The Office", Season 1 of "The Big Bang Theory", and the first part of Season 1 of  "GLEE". Today I finished my last episode of GLEE and proceeded to close out of my RealPlayer and pulled out my iPod. I didn't have much left in the day but I turned on my "Loves" playlist on random and heard sweet music running through my veins again. It was the odd familiar and I set in a very comfortable zone for the rest of the day. I have about 315 songs in that playlist and I managed to get through about 30 of them. Here is a list of what music sent waves through my bones.

Falling Slowly - Glen Hansard
Beautiful Disaster - Jon McLaughlin
Brave - Leona Lewis
One Fine Day - The Chiffons
Promise of a Lifetime - Kutless
What a Feeling - Hollywood, Mon Amour
You & Me - Dave Matthews Band
Turn to Stone - Ingrid Michaelson
Effington - Ben Folds
There Will Be A Day - Jeremy Camp
Stu's Song - Ed Helms
Fix You (LIVE) - Coldplay
Dust in the Wind - Kansas
The Reason - Hoobastank
Off I Go - Greg Laswell
Slow Fade - Casting Crowns
We Cry Out - Gateway Worship
Thankful - Josh Groban
Rise Up - Ben Lee
Beautiful Mess - Jason Mraz
Trouble is a Friend - Lenka
Have A Little Faith in Me - John Haiti
The Luckiest - Ben Folds
Beat It - Fall Out Boy
Somebody to Love - GLEE Cast
Forever - Chris Brown (only due to The Office episode of Jim and Pam's wedding)
Red Letters - DC Talk

I am now very excited to get back to work and let the music move me!

Thank you!

I just want to give a little shout out to our amazing friends and family! =) From the flowers, to the food, to the goodies and just the love you all have shown us, we are truly grateful! We have been very blessed with friends from all over and friends that love us no matter what! Thankfully they put up with us! So thank you all for everything! We love you!!

RIP Ruby

Most of you know that last Wednesday, Jake and I were involved in an accident. It happened on 80/35 heading North by the Hickman exit. Let's just say we are fortunate that we are both okay. We got to spend the evening in ER and Jake had a blast through the ordeal. I took Thursday off just to relax and get things done. We already got the call that Ruby is dead. We lucked out with getting more money then we awe out of her. She was a good car and we will miss her. I am not looking forward to finding a new SUV. I need to because I cannot stand driving a mini van. I will never be a soccer mom in a mini van. I am an SUV girl. Here are some photos of Ms Ruby. You were a good girl!

The front of Ruby

Poor windshield!

All scratched up

There is grass and dirt all over

Today she was towed to the salvage yard. Jake already misses "his" car. Now the search starts for her replacement!

We are currently on the hunt for a baby name. We still don't know the sex and won't until August 5th, fingers crossed. We have a few names on our list. More girl then boy names. I have top contenders for girls, but none for boys. Which means, with my luck, this one is a boy. Josie never fails at the names she gives me. Until we know the sex we have compiled a list of nicknames until it's born. Now, to just decide on what that nick name will be! Here is this list! I would say about 90% are from Jos! Man, she has a lot of names she likes.


Nicknames:
Crom
Hugh Jackman Charles Janzen
Gerald
Clive
Zolton
Knight Rider
Thor (Swedish heritage)
Voldemort
Chester
Norwalk
Reneesme
Barkley
Ernst
Walker Texas Ranger
Faulkner
Harley
Zack-attack
Guccione Janzen
Big Tuna aka Jim
Ragna
Alfa
Gunnar (D2 - Ducks Fly Together)
Magnus
The Darcinator Jr
Ajax
Otis
Vegard (Norwegian heritage)


What should the nickname be?!

Birthday Fest....done!

The last 7-8 days have been insane. Between 2 birthday parties for Jake, one with family, one with friends, tennis matches, coaching David (haha), not being home almost every night, I think we are spent. We walked through the door at 2 today and crashed. Michael and I really should have napped, but I want to make sure I can fall asleep tonight. As I look at this week, I smile. Only one thing is on the calendar and that is for Saturday! Well, plus my date night with Jana and her boys tomorrow! ;-) I honestly hope I can just crash this week and not do much. I have been relaxing today by watching the Harry Potter marathon on ABC Family. The Goblet of Fire is currently one and this is one I tend to love. 

This week at work was the slowest week I have experienced so far this year. I have no idea why. The second I got off work, time flew by. I ever had enough time in the day. My stress level from work is a little on the high side. Pretty much sick of the politics and sometimes being treated like a 3rd grader. I had a doctors appointment Thursday and was thinking my blood pressure was going to be through the roof. Turns out, it was really low. I guess stress does the opposite to my blood pressure. Everything is good on the baby front. December 6th is the day. Not sure how I feel about delivering at Mercy, but all my friends who have been there before had a great experience. We are currently at 18 weeks, which is way scary because these weeks have flown by! To me though, the sooner the better! I am rather impatient.

Nothing else is really going on. We had a World Cup party today with some friends. It was a good game. Quite a few shots on goal that had us up in our seats. Spain pulled though and I was really excited about that! Only 54 days till the Hawkeye season kick off! I am so ready for Football! I can't wait!!!

Here are some photos of this past week!

At Jake's Party

His "Big" Gift

Fireworks!

The boys fell asleep on the way home!

Cash and Jake

Oh Jake, how I love thee!

Even though we were given Monday off work, I need an extra day. A day to recover and sleep. No interruptions, cell phone off, no one here, just a day off! This weekend didn't really feel like the 4th of July. Mainly because it rained. Rained, rained and rained. Not fun. Most of the fireworks was postponed. I did get to see fireworks thanks to Jos sending a video via text message. We spent the day with family and friends. It was a good day even though the weather didn't cooperate.

Jake's 3rd birthday was yesterday. I cannot believe he is 3. Time goes way too fast. He can say/sing his ABC's, county to 40 (sometimes 50), somehow count to 10 in Spanish and loves to sing. I have sadly got him hooked on any GLEE music whatsoever and his favorite song currently is "Somebody to Love". It was "Faithfully" last week. It changes weekly. We let him pick whatever he wanted for breakfast. As usual, he wanted blueberry pancakes! We then let him paint for a few hours on his new easel (a birthday present from Eli). I may say he is pretty good at abstract art. He loves putting his art work on the fridge. He then moved on to Play-Doh (another birthday present).  He loved being able to to mash it and do whatever he wanted to with it. I was a little worried he would want to mix the colors and all that, put he is OCD (like me) and didn't even want 2 colors touching! He made spiders, snakes and random foods. It was fun to watch his imagination go! After about 3 hours of coloring, painting, Play-Doh, it was time for lunch. He wanted his PB and J sandwich cut up in shapes and ate a healthy portion of fruit. He then was stuffed. I said it was okay if he watched an episode of his favorite show. After that, he took his 2 hour nap! We read some more and made dinner together as a family. He loves to help out with any meal. When he got into bed he said "Mommy, you gave me the best present, a great day!" Can we say, melt my heart?! I love this kid!

In other news, Jana is still on her rendezvous vacation. Searching for McDreamie, E.C. and Michael Buble. Her photos make me jealous but they are gorgeous! I think this will have to be a vacation in our near future. Maybe not to Forks but at least Seattle. I have a feeling I will fall in love with that place and never want to leave. This week is a 4 day week at work! I kept forgetting today that it was Tuesday.  Michael has a double header tennis match tonight for the finals so I am home with the mutts. Hawkeye is sleeping on my feet and Zoey is basically sitting on my laptop. That dog, I tell you what.

One thing I am really starting to get excited about is:

Hopefully November comes quickly. Actually, maybe not. That means Baby J will be here in less than 4 weeks! Yikes!

List....what else?!

It's the 4th of July weekend! Welcome 3 day weekend! I love the 4th of July. It's on my top 3 holidays. Here is a list of things we are looking forward too:

1) 3 day weekend! This is a major plus for me. I am welcoming and embracing Monday. I do love this time of year because it kicks off the downward slide of the rest of the year. Mainly, a lot of paid holidays! We do have a busy weekend but anytime you can get an extra day, enjoy it!

2) Party Planning. Jake's 1st of 2 birthday parties is this weekend. We are having his family birthday party this weekend. We have to get all the food and the decor. He of course wanted a Thomas birthday. The kid loves this stuff. We are super excited about his "big" present this year. He is going to freak and I can't wait! We have to shop at the Nob and get all his decorations and what not. Something I love to do. I could spend a lot of money in that place. Does that mean I am basically providing Ferry his paycheck?!

3) David. It's always a great weekend when David can come home. I love it so. Plus time for the coaching to begin. Hold the phone, he met a girl! Little excited about that. I am just so glad he is coming home. I am sure a boys night out at the movies is already in the works. 

4) Birthday Party! Somehow, the past 3 years have flown by. On Monday, we will have a 3 hear old! I still find that absolutely flabbergasting. I do not know where the time went. He is a little excited because he is having 2 birthday parties. It worked out better if we did a family one this weekend and a friend one next Friday. I am so ready for another BBQ. They never get old! Jake is very excited and cannot stop talking about his birthday. It's adorable. He always lists everyone who is coming and what we are going to do. I hope he has a great day!

5) *Fireworks* I love love love fireworks. I love that it's completely dark and that Jake sits there in awe of them. I love that Michael, still, pulls me in his arms and loves to cuddle while they go off. I love the feeling of all the people there, experiencing the same thing as you, at the same time. I love just being with my family and friends underneath the dark sky. We have 2 nights planned that we can see fireworks! I am a little pumped! I love the 4th of July. It's a great holiday and a great reason to celebrate.

6) Family and Friends <3 Anytime spent with my family and friends is time well spent. I am very blessed in those two areas. I couldn't be more thankful. I love them all!

That is a good enough list for now!

Update on this past week. Went to Eclipse...twice. Yes, it's amazing. I will go again and again. As many times as people ask. I do get the privileged of going again this weekend too! Tuesday/Wednesday was an experience. Something I will do again. Now Harry Potter, yes there were people dressed in robes and playing Quidditch, but Twilight fans are insane. We had a viewing party at Jana's with Twilight and New Moon. After an amazing dinner and 4 hours of Edward time, we piled into "The Cullen" car and headed to Wynnsong. We got there around 10. My word. Luckily we got there when we did. They had a event going on in the parking lot. Music, raffle, merchandise, and you could donate blood. Literally. Once you got into the movie theater, they had blood to drink aka fruit punch, red colored popcorn, wedding cake, picture opprotunities, a arch with Edward underneath it that you would wear a veil and hold flowers to take a wedding photo. It was just pandemonium. People were every where. They have 16 theaters and 14 of them were being used for Eclipse and they were all sold out. We got there just in time. We got to our seats around 10:15ish and sat there till the movie started at 12:11. It was fun seeing all the crazies out and about. I am still unsure about the fangs. Mainly because they don't have any! It was a great audience and everyone in our theater was about 25 and older. No screaming girls! Thank goodness! I did only get about 2 hours of sleep and Josie and Mike tried to keep me awake on Wednesday. I did make it through the day without falling asleep. I think. I ended up getting 10 hours of sleep on Wednesday! That was amazing!

Thursday I met a few fabulous ladies, this does include Ferry, at On The Border. It was a blast! I did have to leave early because D and I were going to Eclipse at 8:20. Again, it was amazing. I will stop the blogposts about it until the DVD comes out. Just only 503 days till Breaking Dawn opens! 

Now onto a fabulous weekend with loads of things to do! Everyone have a safe weekend and holiday!

PS - Jana, I miss you already! Hurry home!!!