September to Remember

Brian and I were talking about what a busy month September is going to be, good, but busy! This weekend, Labor day weekend, will be our only low-key weekend for awhile. The following weekend we'll be in Hawaii celebrating Jenny and Kyle's wedding (oh darn!), the following weekend Brian will be in charge of Bauer's bachelor party, starting early Saturday morning with golfing of course! I will be spending Saturday doing girly stuff for Amy's bachelorette party :)

The weekend after that is where it gets wonderfully busy:
1. We have family coming into town!!! Yay :) Brian and I are so excited to have my cousins stay with us, we can't wait to have a house full of family, that's the best!
2. Friday is Bauer's rehearsal dinner at 4 pm in Salem. Brian is going to go up to that then quickly drive back down for Jenny and Kyle's reception at 7 pm.
3. Saturday Brian will be tending to the Groom, Bauer, for Bauer and Amy's wedding, which I will go to a little later.
4. Also Saturday I want to spend time with all the family that will be in town :)
5. Sunday will be a family day as well since we have both sides of the family to visit with!

We are definitely looking forward to a wonderful September filled with love, laughter, and good memories!

I've been Tagged!

Emilie tagged me so here goes!

Rules:
1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had. ***IF you have already done your middle name than do the State that you live in with new adjectives!*****
3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts. ***Or state if you have already been tagged before!***
4. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Middle Name: Michelle
M: Married and loving it!
I: Indifferent feelings about my job.
C: Cuddling, I love to cuddle with my hubb.
H: Happy we are going to Hawaii soon!
E: Excited for football season.
L: Loving our home.
L: Loving our yard.
E: Envious of stay at home mothers.

1. Do you like cheese? Heck yes I do.
2. Have you ever been arrested? Nope, I'm clean.
3. Have you ever shot a gun? Not even a paint ball gun!
4. Your favorite song? That's a hard one as it changes often, but a classic I'll always enjoy is Heaven by Journey, it's what Brian and I danced to at our wedding.
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? Not usually
6. What do you think of when you eat hot dogs? Costco hot dogs for $1.50, yum :)
7. What's your favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night.
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Milk!!
9. Can you do push ups? Yes, but I use to be able to do more than I could now.
10. Is your bathroom clean??? Yes, but I need to clean the shower this week.
11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? I have two: My wedding ring and my Tiffany's necklace from Brian.
12. Favorite Hobby? Reading, does that count? I LOVE to read.
13. What are you listening to right now? People at work talking and typing.
14. What is the last thing you ate? Yogurt for breakfast.
15. What one trait do you hate about yourself? Physically: my thighs. I wish I was more confrontational.
16. Middle Name? Michelle
17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? I'm glad it's Friday, I wish it was time to have babies, I want to read my book.
18. Name the last 3 things you have bought. Gas, girly stuff for Cassidy's birthday, a baby blanket and card for our neighbors who are expecting :)
19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink. Milk, water, coffee.
20. Current worry right now? Paying off debt and fast!
21. Current hate? Dust bunnies on my floor!
22. Favorite place to be? Under our new pergola playing cards with my hubby.
23. How did you bring in the New Year? At our friends' Tiff and Eric's house, recovering from a bad cold.
24. What is your quirkiest habit? I like to put soft fabric in between my fingers, it's very soothing.
25. Name three people who will complete this and Return? Hmm, not sure.
26. How many siblings do you have? 5, big family and I wouldn't have it any other way!
27. Do you own slippers? Yes but only 1, I need a new pair.
28. What shirt are you wearing? A bright green one, sounds horrible, but I swear it's not!
29. What shampoo do you use? Right now, Pantene.
30. Favorite color? Baby Blue all the way.
31. Would you like to be a pirate? Not even a little bit.
32. What songs do you sing in the shower? Lately it's been Tim McGraw's, If You're Reading This (is that the title?)
33. Favorite female name? Bria
34. Favorite male name? Wesley
35. What's in your pockets right now? Just some lint :)
36. Last thing that made you laugh? Brian and I playing cards last night, we get competitive, in a fun way!
37. Best bed sheets as a child? Don't remember
38. Worst injury you've ever had? Doing cheerleading in high school I fell and sprained my ankle, which I had to have surgery on 2 years later, it chipped a bone and the piece was floating about.
39. When's your birthday? June 25th, 1983.
40. How many TVs do you have in your house? 2, but no cable!
41. Who is your loudest friend? That would Sarah Clark :)
42. Who is your most silent friend? When she is sober, Amy Herradura.
43. Does someone have a crush on you? Pretty sure my hubby does :)
44. Do you wish on shooting stars? Oh yes.
45.What is your favorite book? Anything by Karen Kingsbury! :)
46.What is your favorite age? 24, I am at a really good place right now.
47. What song do/did you want played at your wedding? Canon in D as I walked down the aisle.
48. What song do you want played at your funeral? Amazing Grace and How Great Thou Art.
49. What were you doing at 12 am this morning? Saying goodbye to Brian as he left for work.
50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? Oddly enough, I had a thought about the book I'm reading and who Leah's father could be. (It's a book by Beverly Lewis, Abram's Daughter's series.)

Now I am tagging:
Tasha
Cala
Robyn
Jaime
Julia

2 Weeks Away!

I can't believe we leave for Hawaii in 2 weeks, even more exciting is Jenny's getting married in 2 1/2 weeks!

Her bridal shower is this weekend at my house and we are making sure we have everything in order. "We" being my mom, Jaime, and Anna. Brian is being so kind to be available to help us with tables and stuff, but I'm sure he'll disappear during the shower. The them is pink and green and boy is this place going to be pink and green! I am hoping my camera doesn't act up ALL day on Saturday so I can snap a few pictures.
Sunday we are going to a BBQ for Nate and Amy, it's a couples wedding shower. That should be fun as we love hanging out with the Bauer family!
Is it wedding season or what?! We are crazy busy with wedding stuff this year, but it's fun.
I am looking forward to Beaver football games this year, we always have so much fun tailgating before the game starts. Plus, our stadium is bigger and better this year, with the largest jumbo-tron in the Pac-10! Apparently it's HD and everything, pretty excited to see that bad boy. Too bad I'm not cheering anymore to get a good look ;)

So we have befriended our neighbors behind us and really enjoy their company. I think I've mentioned them before, Brandi and Chris. Well, we had a little suspicion but were confirmed on Saturday when Chris said Brandi didn't feel good as she had morning sickness. She's preggers :) We were so excited that we went to Target and bought a baby blanket and card and left it on their front porch. I told her in the card that we want to babysit the little one and in her "thank you" card she said she took that as a legal binding contract, lol! Anyway, I think we're the top babysitters, yay :)

Thanks for commenting on my 100 random things, I wasn't sure if anybody would make it through the whole thing! I do invite everyone to do it as well, if you haven't already, it is so fun to learn random facts about people. Also, if there are bloggers out there whom I don't stalk your blog, leave a comment so I can! That is, if you're okay with me stalking your blog :)

100 Random Things

I have enjoyed reading this on other people's blogs and decided it was time to do it myself. Here are 100 things you may or may not know about, or care or not care to know about me :)



1. I have a big extended family who I am close with and keep in close contact with, both on my mom and dad's side.
2. I have 2 younger half sisters that are 7 and 4.
3. I have 2 older sisters: 30 and 27, a younger brother: 18, 2 younger half sisters, a step brother and a step sister.
4. I got one B in high school, I was a salutatorian.
5. I cheered all 4 years in high school.
6. I cheered 2 years at OSU.
7. I was on the Portland Trail Blazer's Stunt Team for 2 years.
8. I can do a double back flip when 5 guys throw me up in the air.
9. I am scared of heights,
10. But I don't think about heights when I am thrown 20 feet in the air or stand on guys hands.
11. I miss cheerleading.
12. I can still do a back handspring.
13. My husband is my best friend in the whole world.
14. I can totally be myself around him.
15. I always clean my house for company.
16. I know when we start a family I will have to get use to a messy house.
17. A messy house will be worth the babies :)
18. I am Mormon.
19. I am not an active Mormon, but Brian and I are looking for a church we both love.
20. God is very important to me.
21. I love to say little prayers throughout the day.
22. I am ready to start a family.
23. We need to pay off a little more debt before we can start a family.
24. I am impatient.
25. I don't want to wait to pay off debt, but I should.
26. I LOVE that my husband is so handy.
27. My husband has the sexiest arms.
28. I am so proud that I got my bachelor's degree.
29. The best feeling at my OSU graduation was seeing my family cheering for me.
30. I will never forget running towards my Dad after I got my degree.
31. Making my Dad proud was the best feeling ever.
32. I like that no one can take away my degree.
33. I think about getting my master's after we are done having kids.
34. I don't want to do accounting forever.
35. I like that my mom and I are close.
36. I can share clothes with my mom.
37. My mom and sisters and I are very close.
38. I always want to live close to my family.
39. My first year cheering at OSU we won 1st place at Nationals.
40. I have a National Championship ring.
41. I have become a more insecure person since cheering in college.
42. I hate that I constantly compare myself to other girls.
43. I want to be comfortable in my own skin again.
44. I have an obsession with pleasing people.
45. I stress out really easily.
46. I would eat salty chips over a chocolate bar any day.
47. I could spend 24/7 with my husband.
48. I have to remember to give my husband space so he can be a guy.
49. Brian and I went to Japan and shot a cheerleading commercial.
50. The commercial was for cup noodle.
51. I was "Seafood" flavored.
52. You will never see the commercial in the US.
53. Brian and I go through 5-7 gallons of milk a week.
54. I've never broken a bone.
55. I weigh more now than I ever have.
56. I am sad that I didn't create lifelong friendships with any of my high school friends.
57. Nothing went wrong on our wedding day.
58. I danced almost the whole time at our wedding.
59. I had the best time at our wedding.
60. Last year Brian and I contributed the maximum monthly amount to our Roth IRA's.
61. We are constantly thinking about our retirement.
62. I am short and I like it.
63. At 5'3 I am the tallest of my sisters.
64. I have no doubt my young sister, Abby (7) will be taller than me.
65. I wish I could sing.
66. I love to dance.
67. I am very flexible.
68. I love pictures, they are of my most cherished keepsakes.
69. I've only ever lived in Oregon.
70. My grandma Robison (mom's mom) made me a baby blanket when I was 18 because I was scared she wouldn't be around when I had a baby.
71. I am happy to say she is still with us.
72. The baby blanket is pink and beautiful.
73. I have names picked out for my future babies.
74. My lifelong dream has been to be a stay at home mom.
75. I feel so blessed that me staying home is as important to Brian as it is me.
76. I hope our kids get Brian's skin.
77. I like that Brian is 6 1/2 years older than me.
78. I am not into Politics.
79. Brian graduated in Political Science and enjoys politics.
80. I like how Brian tells me about his day at work everyday.
81. I love how Brian is very affectionate and cuddles with me.
82. I wish I was a more confident person.
83. I constantly need reassurance in everything I do.
84. I cannot stand when people chew loudly.
85. I don't like when people chew quietly.
86. I don't like when I can hear people chewing gum or any food.
87. I wish it didn't bother me when people eat or chew gum.
88. I have to leave the room when Brian eats Fruit Loops.
89. We sleep with a fan on every night, even in the winter.
90. Brian and I don't have cable.
91. I have all 10 Friends Seasons.
92. We watch Friends almost every night.
93. We go to bed at 9 pm almost every weekday.
94. I think pregnant women are absolutely adorable.
95. I don't think I'll feel as adorable when I'm pregnant.
96. I don't have enough to do at work to keep me busy.
97. My favorite color is baby blue and has been since I was 15.
98. I don't think 23 is young to get married.
99. I don't think 24 is young to have a baby.
100. I wish someone would pay me to blog everyday :)

Pergola Pictures!

Finally, you can see the results of Handy Holcomb :)

Before:

After!!

This is a sign his Mom and Dad had that we inherited, I absolutely love it.
I think it will look magical when we have the wisteria and white christmas lights!

Happy Birthday Dad

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!

My Dad celebrates his birthday today and I wanted to wish him a wonderful day filled with love. We are having a BBQ for him tonight and as always the menu Anna is making sounds delicious, it includes, but is not limited to:
BBQ Chicken
Garlic Bread
Baked Asparagus
Yellow cake with chocolate frosting

I think there are a few items I am missing, but I am looking forward to the wonderful food and spending time with family, especially my Dad on his birthday :)

This Saturday we will be going to the HP picnic (Hewlett Packard) and I am really looking forward to it, we went last year but were not able to stay the whole time as we had prior commitments, but this year we can stay for the fireworks which I am excited about.
We went to these picnics every year growing up and I loved them. Everything was free and if you were under 12 you got to pick a free prize, I of course always chose a Barbie as my sisters and I had quite the collection and were obsessed with playing Barbies. Although most the time we would spend hours setting up our houses and the little towns, everything had it's place. We would come up with elaborate stories about each of our Barbie families, their history, etc. By the time we were ready to play, we were tired of Barbies and wanted to move onto playing house with our dolls. But at least it kept us busy! I do remember every Christmas was a huge deal with our Barbies, we would go out in the yard and find a branch to use as their Christmas tree. Then we'd go around the house and find odds and ends to wrap and put under it that they would open Christmas morning after we were done opening ours. So much fun we had :) Got off on a little tangent there, oops.

Work is going well. I am still really sad my wonderful boss left, but I guess I'll have to manage. Sometimes I think Someone is trying to make sure I don't like my job too much so Brian and I are sure not to wait too long to start a family. At least that's what I like to think :) I am really wanting to start a family now, but Brian makes sure to remind me we have a plan. We need to pay off debt so I can stay home. And we've only been married for a year so I suppose we should enjoy OUR time a little longer, which I AM thoroughly enjoying. But I'm not promising that I won't stop thinking of baby names or looking at baby clothes or thinking of how the nursery will look!

I am at work right now so I can't post the pergola pictures, I wish I could because I am so proud of my husband and we love how it turned out. I'll try very soon!

Have a great Wednesday :)

Bachelorette Pictures

I wanted to put some pictures up from Jenny's bachelorette party weekend at the coast.

Everyone at dinner

Jenny opening her presents after dinner

Someone's tipsy :)

The beachouse we stayed at, thanks Taylor!

The bride to be enjoying herself!

The 3, formerly Armstrong girls
Julia and Jaime, best friends forever
The bridesmaids: from left Jess (Kyle's sister), Erin, Jaime, Jenny, me and Court
Isn't she just glowing?!

Brian finished the pergola! I will post pictures later, I am a little too lazy to go downstairs and get the camera and wait an hour while it loads on the computer. But it turned out absolutely wonderful, thanks to my Dad for your help and letting us use all your awesome tools (Brian loved them!). I know Brian had a blast and loved working with his hands, I like to call him Handyman Holcomb :)

This Saturday is Bauer's birthday so we're going boating during the day with my Mom and Randy. Then he's coming back to our house where we'll have a nice little BBQ under the pergola. I am excited to get out on the boat again this summer, especially since it's almost over :( The weather here has been a little chilly, not the normal August weather.

Work is going okay. My wonderfully amazing boss who I absolutely adore, was offered a job at another agency, Fish and Wildlife, and she took it. Monday was her last day and well, I'm devastated to say the least. She is the reason I loved this job so much and it's just not the same without her. I am trying really hard to be positive and am hoping everything goes okay.

Alrighty, hopefully I'll get off my butt and upload the pergola pictures for my next post :)

Tomorrow's Friday, yay!!!!! Enjoy your Friday :)

Time Flies

Wow, it has been way too long since I've blogged. For some reason life seems to be extremely busy right now, although I couldn't exactly tell you why, it just feels busy.

The weather has been awesome here in Oregon, although it's getting a little hot now. Man I wish we had AC!

My Dad and Brian are building a pergola in our back, I'm so excited! We are going to stain it a dark red which I think should look nice. They have put the 3 posts in concrete and gotten the main runners up. Once it's all done we want to have wysteria grow up over it to provide more shade. I'm excited to put white lights in the wysteria, I am hoping it will feel magical :)

This last weekend Jaime and I headed over to the coast for Jenny's bachelorette party. It was so much fun! One of Jenny's friends, Taylor, has a beach house there and it was so big, plus it was like 100 yards from the beach. We went shopping on Saturday (Jenny and 2 of her friends got pedicures, manicures, and facials) then met back at the house to get ready for dinner at the Pelican Brewery and Pub. It was really good food, their clam chowder was better than Mo's (for those who've been to the Oregon coast)! Then we went back to the house and played games while Jenny opened presents. It was fun to have a girls weekend and Jenny got tons of cute stuff :)

Alrighty, now I want to go surf blogs because I have been so out of touch it's not even funny! I haven't checked my email forever either! When I come home I just don't feel like getting on the computer and so I haven't, but I miss blogs. Have a great Thursday, tomorrow is FRIDAY!!!

Some pictures from when we watched the girls:

What cuties they are. I have to point out that Cassidy is wearing MJ's sweater, she's a tiny one :)