This and That

Apparently I am on a picture taking hiatus. I still haven't taken any new pictures since I colored my hair, what on earth is wrong with me?!
Brian and I took full advantage of the good weather last Saturday and did yard work. Can I tell you how much we enjoy yard work? I'm dead serious, we absolutely love working outside. I think it's because it's a Spring/Summer activity which means the rain lets up for a few months. We are planning on getting Evergreen Clematis (spelling?) from Costco and planting that to grow up on the pergola and then weaving the white lights in there, it's going to be so pretty!

Schuyler took Jaime away for the weekend to celebrate their 9 year anniversary. Jenny and Kyle watched the kids Saturday night and Brian and I watched the kids Sunday until we all met up at my moms for an Easter dinner. Those 3 kids are seriously the best behaved kids ever, I just can't even believe it. Jenny said putting them to bed was the easiest task ever, she read them some stories and in the middle of the last book Jaidyn taps her and says, "It's 7:30 pm," (that's their bedtime). She's so prompt! I think Jaime could be on Supernanny, and there is no doubt I will be calling her for advice when we have kids.

Since we are paying off our credit card on April 1st we of course wanted to celebrate this big occasion. Guess what we decided to do?



I'm so excited! Neither of us have ever been so we're both thrilled to be going. We're gonna make it a whole fun date night because we have a gift card to The Cheesecake Factory that we'll use before the show. I just can't wait, it'll be a perfect reward for a job well done.

I've been frustrated with my skin lately, my face is breaking out, mainly in the chin area and it's driving me nuts. I didn't want to get Proactive again because it's a little expensive and I don't like that I can't go to the store and buy it when I need it. So I've heard AcneFree worked well and is cheaper than Proactive. I've been using it for almost 3 weeks and holy cow is it bad. I know it gets worse before it gets better but my goodness my chin is full of big red painful blemishes. Pretty picture huh? Brian has even commented a few times, "Man, it really has gotten worse." It made me feel really good when he said that. I love you too hun.

Lance is officially a UPSer! He is working local sort, which is from around 5-9 pm Monday-Friday. I'm sure the 5 days a week will be a shock to him, but the hours are good and it works really well with school. Plus, it has so much potential and UPS is a great company to work for. Congrats Buddy, welcome to the brown side ;-)

Weekend Plans
Friday-Go to dinner with Sarah, Trav, and Jeff
Saturday-Go to Portland to return Brian's school books.
Saturday night-I would like to go to Brandi and Chris' to visit and of course hold Austin, but it depends what they are doing. Yeah, we're those annoying neighbors they can't get rid of!
Sunday-Chores and relax

To Do List
Mop wood floors
Laundry
Order pictures so I can clear my camera flash card
Clean bathrooms
Make chocolate chip cookies

Sweet 16

Along with every other 15 year old, I was looking forward to my sweet sixteen so much I knew how many weeks, days, hours, and minutes until my 16th birthday it was at all times. Well, maybe that is a slight exaggeration but it helped get my point across, I was THRILLED to be able to drive. It represented independence, maturity, and make out sessions. Just kidding mom and dad, seriously that never happened.

Anyway, my mom thought it was a good idea that my Dad teach me how to drive, for the sanity of both her and I :) My dad only had stick shift cars, so while learning how to drive, I also learned how to drive a manual, a skill I am proud to know-thanks Dad! He had a mustang and his truck, needless to say we took the truck out for my lessons.

One afternoon we decided to go drive around and I of course was in heaven, although still a little rough in first gear. Also, and this is important, the concept of braking was a little difficult for me (I never said I was brilliant). I thought I HAD to push the clutch in when I would push on the brake, which isn't necessarily true. Plus, I was not good at down shifting. So I opted to use the brake as little as possible. We are finishing up our lovely drive in the country and I pull in my dad's neighborhood, getting ready to turn right down his street. I am bummed our drive is over and I would like to keep going (although I don't communicate this with my dad) so I am looking for any excuse to continue our drive. I see Lance and his friend on the sidewalk and ask my dad if I should follow them, he kind of shrugs (he was probably more than ready for the turbulence-filled drive to be over) and I am not sure if I should take that as a yes or a no, my indecisiveness kicks in and before I know it I'm not exactly turning right, but I'm also not going straight, I'm heading in between the two, right for the fire hydrant. Do I brake? Nope. And before I know what happened :::SMACK::: I hit the fire hydrant and a little water shoots up. I am in complete and total shock. It's okay though, I handle these situations very well, I got out of the car, started crying hysterically and ran down the street to my dad's house. Yep, I hit and ran!

My dad checked the truck out and drove it home to consul his driving-impaired daughter. He was very sweet and wasn't mad, he was grateful we didn't take the mustang otherwise it would've caused more damage. Thanks for being patient Dad, at least we can look back on this and laugh, right? Right? Dad? ;-)

I have since learned how to be a better driver and apply the brake whenever necessary.

Comment change:

I have been getting spam comments the past few posts so I finally decided to put a word verification on my comments. I hope this does not discourage people from commenting, as I look forward to reading what you have to say!

We had a great weekend. Friday night we ended up going to dinner with Jenny and Kyle then playing the Newlywed Game at our house. I love that game, although it can easily lead to trouble for the guys ;-) "What?!" was a common response from Jenny and I, don't our husbands know us but at all!? One of the questions (that I swear are made to get the men in trouble) was: Would you rather your wife be more lusty or more busty? Well my sweet Brian thought he was paying me a compliment when he chose busty. He said, "You're already so lusty that I just chose the other one." I immediately responded with what any rational, mature woman would, "Why do you want me to get a boob job?!"
We learned fun new things about each other and I'm glad we got to spend time with them. I have a picture but it's at home on my camera and I'm at work so I can't post it right now.

Saturday night at 7:28 we walked over to the Taylor's. At 7:34 baby Austin was placed in my arms and didn't leave them until 1:17 am when we left. Well, okay Brandi had to feed him at 9:32 so I had to give him up, but that was against my will so it doesn't really count. He's just so darn cute and soft, I could rub those little feet and arms for hours, and I did. I even got some adorable half smiles from him, it was wonderful. Man, I want a baby.

My Ramblings

The Other Boleyn Girl
I absolutely loved the book and recommend it very highly. That time period is just so intriguing and I enjoyed learning about it as well as visualizing the elaborate dresses they wore. In my opinion the movie did a great job of including the most important parts of the book. Short from doing a mini-series there is no way to include every part from the book, they chose wisely. The actors were such a good choice which makes a big difference. I loved it. Well done Hollywood.
Oh, and I could watch Eric Bana read a telephone book. Yum.

Family Reunion
We booked our tickets for Arizona. The Armstrong Family reunion (my dads side) is in July and I am very excited for Brian to finally attend one. The last one was in 2006, right before our wedding and we had purchased the tickets to go. Well Brian's job position changed and he could no longer take it off so Jaime went in his place. He will finally be able to meet the whole family and see why I'm so crazy ;-)

Social Life
The highlight of my evening last night was holding Austin. We went over to Chris and Brandi's for a little bit and I of course held Austin the whole time, I just don't want to put him down. He seriously makes the cutest faces and I love watching them. Man, I have got a fever and the only cure is a baby!
We are going over Saturday night because Brian wants to help Chris put together some new shelves they purchased. I get to soak up Austin all night and I am just thrilled to death. That's right, my social life consists of my neighbors offspring. I can't help it, he's adorable.

Debt stuff
Things are going very well at the Holcomb Hideaway. I think our upcoming Visa payment on April first has spurred a lot of motivation as well as excitement. There is nothing like the feeling of paying off a huge chunk of debt. Now, I know I talk about debt all the time and how we are working hard to pay it off, blah, blah, blah. But, unfortunately that is at the forefront of my mind and my blog allows me to regurgitate it in a journal type format. Thank you for letting me throw up here. Anyway, as exciting that last payment is, whether it's a car or credit card, you know you're right back at square one with the next debt mountain to climb. In our case it is my student loans. Fortunately my student loans are fairly small and they are scheduled to reach a zero balance by October. Then there are Brian's student loans, but that is our Everest and is a mountain we're not going to rush into climbing. We are going to chip very slowly at that since the interest is barely over 1%. So come October we will have conquered all the mountains we set out to conquer, and that my friend is a good feeling!

Evenings
Brian and I are enjoying our evenings together which usually consist of dinner, tv, an occasional walk with MJ (weather permitting), and bedtime. Oh yeah, we are one crazy couple. The weekends are our time to spend with friends and family and get crazy, maybe even stay up past midnight! My favorite part of the evening is when we are on the couch and I plop my leg or arm on Brian so he can scratch me (he knows how to speak my love language!), then we just talk while watching some TV. I am trying to soak this time in because I know once we start a family we can kiss that time goodbye! Just to be clear, I am not announcing a pregnancy-we're not pregnant. I wish. Which brings up a curiosity of mine, for those that have a child, what were your evenings like with one child? Did you get any down time together? This may seem like a weird question, but I just want to have an idea of what is to come (again, I'm not pregnant, just a planner).

Now that I have got you all pumped up with my exciting debt talk and our fun evenings, I'm going to sign off. Until next time...

My weird quirks

My cousin Lanie tagged me so here goes....

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person that tagged you
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4.Tag at least three people at the end of your post and link to their blogs.
5. Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

6 Quirky/Odd things about myself...

1. I do not like when lights are on in the house that are not being utilized. If we are downstairs and the upstairs hall light is on I have to turn it off, or if it's light enough outside I get up to turn off all unnecessary lights.

2. I cannot fall asleep with my back to the door. The door has to be in my vision in case somebody comes in, then I will wake Brian up and dive under the covers, because apparently blankets will protect me until Brian gets his gun.

3. I scratch my arms in my sleep. Brian says he'll wake up and my arms will be up while I'm scratching both my forearms, it happens quite often apparently. I just loved to be scratched and if nobody else is going to do it I guess I will!

4. When you talk in my right ear, whether it's a whisper or a deep voice, it tickles my butt. So if people whisper they have to do it in my left ear, and when I talk on the phone I hold it up to my left ear, NEVER my right, it tickles too much.

5. I guilt trip people. I wish I didn't, I don't like that I do it, but I need to admit it.

6. I am the type of person that needs set tasks. At work I do not do well when they give me the end goal and I have the freedom to get there however I want, I just get overwhelmed with all the choices and don't have the self motivation. I would rather have set things to do each day, I will get them done fast, efficient, accurate, and it will be high quality.

Yes, I am a weirdo. But I guess we all have our little things, now, hopefully some of you can make me feel better by posting your quirks! Tag: Jenny (you don't have to post pictures every time you blog!), Jaime, and Kristin R . But you guys don't HAVE to do it, just if you want to :-)

Thank you all so much for your incredibly nice comments on my new hair. Since it is so drastic it's nice to know it is a good drastic :) I particularly like Jaime's comment, I'd like to think I am channeling the Bella in me ;)

Porter and The Reveal

Today is Porter's birthday, Happy Birthday little man! He is 3 years old today and the spunkiest little guy ever :)

Well, here it is. Don't feel pressured to say you like it either. :)

We are going to see a movie tonight with Chris and Brandi. Brandi's mom is still in town so she's going to watch little Austin. I am really excited to spend time with them and also to see The Other Boeleyn Girl! It came out yesterday and I've been so anxious to see it since I finished the book. I'll report back for others that are interested in seeing it.