the tag about Brett

I have done a couple of tags about Brett, but this one was a little different and I know my hubby has been feeling neglected lately, so I am going to brag about him. I am leaving him for a few days and I want him to know how much I love and appreciate him.

1. Where did you meet your husband? I had known who he was for a long time, but we actually met and got to know each other in High School.

2.How long did you date before you got married? 2 years. Probably would have been less, but we were young and I had to wait for him to graduate!

3. How long have you been married? a little over 10 years

4. What does he do that surprises you? He is so silly. He pulls stupid faces all of the time and he can ALWAYS make me laugh.

5. What is your favorite feature of his? His beautiful eyes. Sometimes they are dark blue and sometimes they are super bright. I love them.

6. What is his best quality? He always stands up for me and he hates it when people make me feel bad. He is always on my side. He doesn't care if people like him or not but he knows that I care if they like me, so he always makes sure to either hold his tongue or say what he feels. That may not makes sense to you, but he will know what I mean.

7. Does he have a nickname for you? He calls me baby doll all of the time. He always has and I love it.

8. What is his favorite food? Nothing. He is so picky!!!! He loves orange rolls. and candy. That is about it.

9. What is his favorite sport? Football and Hockey

10. When and where did you first kiss? At my house, on my couch. I was hoping he would but I wasn't sure if he really liked me or not. We were sitting really close, and he started inching in. I was hoping he would make the first move so I didn't look desperate. He did, and I was so excited! He is such a good kisser too. I have never forgotten it. It was so silly because we were in High School and it was so "scandalous," but I didn't care. I loved him! And I loved his kisses!!!

11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Well, duh. (wink, wink) We also love to travel, go camping, watch movies, lay in bed and snuggle, and hang out with Quayd.

12. Do you have any children? Yes, one and he is the center of our universe.

13. Does he have any hidden talents? Yes. He says all of the time that he has no talent. That is so not true. He has lots. One of his best though, is that he is SO GOOD at reading people. Like, he is dead on EVERY TIME!! I have had to endure the "I told you so" dance so many times, its embarrassing.

14. How old is he? 28

15. Who said I love you first? I don't really remember, but probably me. That sounds like a "me" thing.

16. What is his favorite music? Bluegrass, Country and Hairbands. Ewwwwwww..... Everything that I hate.

17. What do you admire most about him? He could not care any less about what people think about him. Its so cool because he never changes who he is. And you always know where you stand with him. I LOVE that about him!

18. What is his favorite color? Blue and Orange (Go Broncos!)

19. Will he read this? Yes. And I hope he likes it. And I would sure love it if he left me a comment!!!!

20. Who will I tag? Tara, Cara and who ever else wants to play.

the one about... well... lots of stuff!

Why have I been such a slacker blogger lately? I feel like I just go and go and go and life is so busy and hectic, and sadly, some of the things I love the most get neglected. Blogging is one of the big ones. Also reading, scrapbooking and if you ask Brett, he thinks he is getting neglected lately. Sorry honey.

Anyway, I am pretty excited this evening because tomorrow I am going to SLC with Tara. We have to go to a training thing for work. It's pretty cool. We get paid to go, plus our room is paid for, food and mileage. Tara and I always have so much fun together, so I know the laughs will be abundant! When I was telling my mom about our big adventure, she said, "Oh no. That will be trouble." I was so confused. Trouble? Like did she think we were going to fight or something. I don't think Tara and I have ever had a fight of any kind. My mom was like, "Duh. Because you guys will have so much fun." Oh. I get it. I will give a full update when I get home. Anyway....

Our Thanksgiving was nice. My sweet little grandma was able to come home the day before so we were able to have dinner with her. She is still in pretty rough shape. She probably shouldn't have come home quite yet, but she was determined to be home for Thanksgiving. I had to work that evening so I missed dinner with Brett's family. Brett fixed me a plate and he and Quayd brought it to me at the hotel. Then we decided to spend the night there in a nice king suite. It was awesome. Quayd loved being right in between us in that huge bed. Brett and I always wish for a king sized bed but I know that Quayd would make himself right at home in the middle every night. And he is such a little snuggler it is hard to say no. Of course, I have many things to be thankful for. My husband, my beautiful son, my family, my home and great friends. Really though, this year, I was just thankful to have my grandma home.

In our town, the Friday after Thanksgiving is a huge celebration. It's called Holly Days. There are activities all day, a parade of lights in the evening, more activities and it all ends with a fireworks display. Every year, my brother makes a float for the parade. (Remember, my Grandma was supposed to be the Grand Marshal? She didn't get to do it, but they said they would ask her again.) Brandon turned his four-wheeler into Santa's sleigh. As he was constructing his float on Friday, Quayd decided that he wanted to be in the parade too. So he and Brett made a float for his four-wheeler. It was so cute. I was working so I didn't even really know what was going on with it, but when I got home I was so excited!! I wish Brett would have taken pictures of the construction, but we did get a few as we were getting it to main street. The floats were so big and awkward we couldn't load them in the truck, so they had to drive them. And of course, the other two wouldn't ride in the car with us, they had to go on the four-wheelers!



Here are a few pictures from the parade. Not very good pictures, but pictures, nonetheless.
Here are the boys riding the Christmas train thing after the parade. This is from the fireworks show. View from the car, of course. Burrrrr...
Ok, enough of that.

Saturday morning/afternoon, I got to hang with my old buddies Janice and Kandice. Janice was in town for the holiday and I was so excited to see her and hang with her. I have missed her a lot since she ran away to Kentucky. I have missed her beautiful little girls too and I was so excited to get to see them. And Morgan remembered me!!! The three of us went to the local craft fair, lunch at Don Pedros, shopping and to Lee nails for pedicures.
It was great fun. We also went to Arby's and had one of their new shakes. YUM-O!!! You oughta try one.

So....... if you know me at all, you know what a freak I am about Christmas decorating. I really like to have my tree up by Thanksgiving and I don't like anyone to help me. I really freak out about it, so I stayed up until 3:00 am the night before Thanksgiving so I could get it perfect. Speaking of my weird tree obsession, this is a funny story about me, but I don't want to type it... so if you are interested, go to Tara's blog to read all about it. Anyway, I love my tree. It is just how I wanted it and I am glad I was freaky and got it all done. Everyone knows not to touch it or try to move anything around. Just look, and enjoy. Itty Bitty is still learning this, so she has really been working me the last few days as she climbs up the middle and pulls out my sparkly red sticks!!! Errrrrrr...... Maybe the pound isn't sounding so bad after all.....I know I sound like a big ogre for not letting my family help, but seriously... Brett wouldn't help if I begged him too, and Quayd has his own tree in his room that he gets to do all by himself. So there. Here are a few pictures of my home decor. These are the baskets on either side of my "Proclamation to the World/Picture of Christ/The Living Christ" picture in my living room. I change them with every season.
Here is my favorite decoration in the world, my nativity set. I got it last year, and I was so excited to get it out again this year. It's hard to see in the picture, but I have lights behind it so it really makes it glow. It looks so awesome. This is another one of my favorite things. Jamie gave it to me a couple of years ago for Christmas and I just love it. It lights up. It is so cute. And of course.... my beautiful tree. Drumroll please............................ The picture doesn't do it much justice. Oh! And this is Quayd's calendar that he gets each year. (I still have a couple gifts to put on it.) Starting December 1st he gets a small gift a day. Usually school supplies, and dollar items. He loves it and I love doing it for him. I start buying stuff way early, looking for cheap, small items that will fit. I love it. He is always so grateful and looks forward to it all year. I am glad we are able to do that for him. See... having one child isn't all bad.

Well, I think that is all for this blog entry. Thanks for sticking it out. I know it was a long one. :)

the one about updates

I am so bugged. I didn't get to see Twilight. :( I got super sick on Wednesday night. I ended up going to the Doctor Thursday morning and I had a sinus infection and bronchitis. I got an antibiotic and finally last night (Friday) I started feeling a little better. Today, I am still dragging a little bit, but I can tell I am on the mend. I hate to use my "heart stuff" as an excuse and I am not at all seeking pitty... but ever since that all happened to me, when I get sick, I REALLY GET SICK! My body and immune system aren't as strong to fight off infection, and I go down... hard and fast. Then it screws up all of my other medicines and I seriously feel like I have been hit by a train. Thank goodness though, I think I have seen the worst of it.

My poor grandma is still in the hospital, but she too is on the mend. She will probably be there for another week or so. I feel so bad for her because she was chosen to be the Grand Marshal of the Christmas Parade here in town. It takes place the day after Thanksgiving. She was supposed to ride in a horse drawn carriage and now she is not going to be able to do it. She is pretty bummed about it. I haven't seen her since Sunday because I have been so sick and haven't been able to get out of bed, plus I have hated to risk her catching something. I have talked to her on the phone about everyday though and I am planning on going over this afternoon.

Itty Bitty is doing so much better on her potty-training!!! I tried new cat litter, more boxes and I have been better about scooping them every day. No accidents for awhile and I see LOTS of pee in the box. Phewwww..... She figured it out at the perfect time. Well, perfect for her. Perfect for me would have been a little earlier! ;)

So one of my most favorite things in the world is Bingo!
I really love it. The Catholic church puts on a HUGE Bingo event every fall. You pay admission and buy as many extra cards as you wish. They serve food and drinks. All of the money goes to local families for Christmas. They have awesome prizes. We never win a thing. EVER! But we still go every year. Brett, Gleneita and I have gone together forever. This year, Gary and Tara invited us to go as couples with another couple, Jeff and Sherry.
Of course, Gleneita wanted to come, so she brought a date!!! She is pretty cute, huh! ;)

Oh! So this is exciting.... I won a turkey from the local radio station the other day. That was pretty cool. They give a clue about a local business and the first person to enter that business wins! Yah, it was me. I was so excited. I actually got a gift certificate to buy one, but that is good enough for me!!!

I am super excited that Thanksgiving is less than a week away. I love Thanksgiving. I love being with our families and pigging out on awesome food. My mom makes the BEST stuffing EVER!!!!! And I can't wait to sink my teeth into it. I always make her cook a HUGE batch so I can have it for leftovers for awhile. Yummmm-O. We are pretty sure Ga will be home by then, so my mom and I are planning on fixing dinner at our houses and taking it to her house. I think it will just be Ga, Pop, my mom, Brett Quayd and I. Then later, we will go to Aunt Debbie's with the Lane's. She makes a great dinner too. I love it. And I love that it kicks of my FAVORITE time of year!!!!! I am planning on putting up my Christmas tree this week. I like to have it up before Thanksgiving. We will see if I can keep feeling good so I can get it done.

In case I don't blog before then, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! I love you all. I am thankful for you. My blog stalkers! :) Hugs and Kisses!!!

the one about my Twilight movie ticket

Yippee!!!!

I got it!!!!

I am so so so so so so so so so so so so so excited!!!!!!!!

the one about Itty Bity's near-tragedy

So poor little Itty Bitty escaped tragedy the other day.

Allow me to elaborate.

So she has been having a really hard time potty-training. I know. Sick, huh. Seriously, I have had hundreds of cats in my life and I have NEVER had a hard time training one. Even stupid Orange figured it out. (Sorry Orange. I love you, you are a great cat but you are really dumb!) I had to throw that in here, just in case he logged on and read my blog while I was gone. Anyway, she will totally poop in the box, but sometimes she doesn't pee in it. She prefers blankets. Nice soft warm blankets. Sometimes, she even likes to find a nice, soft, warm blanket that someone is sleeping under. She has peed in our beds a few times, and when you are the one getting peed on... well, just imagine.

Brett was getting fed up with it and told Quayd that if she peed out of the box again, she was going to the pound. Well Quayd and I have worked REALLY hard with her and she has been doing really well. She sleeps in her own bedroom, downstairs. complete with food, water, bed and litter box. We haven't noticed any messes for a few weeks. Then all of a sudden, last Tuesday night, we hadn't get her in her room in time and she peed on Quayd. Brett was SO mad and he told Quayd that he was taking her to the pound on Wednesday morning. I was so bugged that she did it, but I also didn't feel like she was totally un-trainable. She is a baby and she makes mistakes. And she is SO cute!!! So I told Brett that if he was going to do it, then it needed to be done while we were gone and that we just wouldn't talk about it again. So when I got home from work on Wednesday, I expected her to be gone. But she wasn't. I called Brett to see why. I figured that he just chickened out. He said he had just been to busy to leave work but he was going to take her after he got home. Quayd and I were so upset. We were crying and everything. It was also the day that Ga went back to the hospital so I was super emotional anyway. By the time Brett got home, Quayd and I were in full hysterics. Brett let us have a "moment" with her, then he loaded her up in the car.

They drove off.

I was so upset and so was Quayd. We were laying in my bed sobbing, cursing Brett and our hearts were broken. Then the phone rang. It was Brett. You will never believe it, but the pound is CLOSED on Wednesdays!!!!!!!

So he brought her back home.

He was SO mad!!! Quayd and I laughed right in his face, and cuddled our little kitty all night! She has been so good too. No accidents. (OK. Maybe one, but Brett doesn't know about it ;) )

I was SO embarrassed though, because Michele stopped by right in the middle of the whole thing and I was SOBBING. I felt so stupid talking to her because I was crying over a cat. Of course I had to tell her the story, and I know she must have thought I was totally nuts, but she was sweet about it. So embarrassing.

So anyway, that is the story of Itty's near-tragedy. It is so funny to me now, but at the time it was horrible. But can you just imagine Brett getting to the pound and seeing that it is closed? Like... what would you do? He said he considered dropping her off there and leaving, but he knew that was too mean. He also considering taking her and a gun somewhere and.... well.... you know. But he could never do that. So, he just turned around, ate a little crow and came home. (tee hee hee.) Seriously, that kind of stuff only happens to us.

the update about Ga

My poor little Grandma has been to hell and back these last few weeks. It's so hard to see her in such pain and I just want her to get better. I love her so much. I do a lot and spend a lot of time with my grandma. She is one of my best friends. Anyone who knows me well, knows this about me. We have so much in common. We are both crafty, we love food, children, art, music, shopping and we even wear the EXACT size shoes. Everyone else in our family has tiny feet. Not us. SIZE 10 or 11!!! My grandparent's have been more than just "grandparents" to me. First of all, I lived with them for several years. Plus, we are just really close. My family is very small. My grandma and grandpa only had two children; my mom and Uncle Kim. My parents only had 2 children; Brandon and me. Kim only has one daughter; Brooke. Brooke is my only first cousin. On either side!! Isn't that weird. Brett has like 30 cousins or something. Anyway, when we all get together for a party or something, and because Kim & Brooke live out of town, there are only 10 of us. Brandon, Danette, Brayden, Brennen, Brett, Quayd, Ga, Pop, my mom and myself.

Anyway, back to Ga. So she had surgery to correct a bowel obstruction in SLC Nov. 1st. She came home Nov. 6th. She was doing better for a few days, but then she sorta took a turn for the worse again. My Grandpa took her back into the hospital early last Wednesday morning. The 12th. She was really anemic and she had infection somewhere. They ran test after test and gave blood transfusion after blood transfusion and finally realized that her blood got to thin and it was seeping out of the incision on her bowel where they did surgery. They needed to operate again, but she was too weak. So they spent Wednesday-Saturday trying to get her stronger and kill the infection, then they operated yesterday morning. It sounds like things went well. So far, so good. They left a drain tube in and they are working very hard to get rid of all the bad stuff. They seem to think she is FINALLY on the mend, but only time will tell. It has been exhausting. For all of us. My mom, my grandma, grandpa, EVERYONE!

Hopefully this will be the end of it. But I will keep you updated.

the one about Brycen

I am so excited!!! I have a new nephew. This is Brycen. He was born yesterday, 11/10/08. He weighed 6 lbs. and 7.5 oz. He is Brett's brother Brandon's second child. Isn't he co cute and perfect? He is doing well and so is mom. Brynn has to have C-sections so it was scheduled and everything went smoothly. Everyone is adjusting well, including big brother Beau'D.
We went to see him last night. Brett and I are a pretty proud Aunt and Uncle and I think Quayd is a pretty proud cousin too!!!
Besides being a Mother, being an Aunt is my FAVORITE THING IN THE WORLD!!!! I love my nephews so much!!!! Brycen makes 6 nephews for us along with our 2 nieces.

Congratulations Brandon,Brynn and Beau'D!!!!

the tag about random pictures

Oh, Lindsay! I want to play!!!

Here are the rules:
1.) Go to your Pictures folder on your computer
2.) Go to your 4th folder- My 4th folder happened to be titled "baby Stuff"
3.) Get your 4th picture- Oh cool! I look like hell, but this is when I was still in the ICU in SLC after having Quayd. I had just been taken off the ventilator. Quayd was probably about a week old and Brett snuck him in too see me. The picture was titled "bmqhospbed"
4.) Tag four people... I tag: Janice, Chauntue', Cara and Tara.

another one about my annoying cats

I realize that nobody else cares about my cats, and I also realize haw lame I sound for even mentioning them on my blog. Yah... I get it. But I have to tell this story and post these pictures. It was so funny.

So the other night, I was in my living room and heard this huge ruckus coming from my kitchen. I went in there and saw this. Yes, it is Itty Bitty on top of my fridge. She was FREAKING out trying to catch something. (You can sorta see it on the fan in this picture. It was really dark and HUGE!) I figured it was just a little moth or something. I look towards my ceiling fan and see this.
So I decided to help Itty Bitty out, because who really wants that monstrous of a moth in their kitchen. NOT ME! So I lifted her up to the fan in hopes she would just catch it. Well she totally went ballistic! She lunged out of my hands and caught the fan (Don't worry, it was off) and caught her claw on one of the blades. It swung her around and then she was scared because she was about to fall. So she was trying to get back to me, meanwhile I was trying to adjust my stool so I could get to her. I finally caught her, and as she was reaching for the moth again, the moth flew into my armpit!! It went in my shirt and I started freaking out, but I had to be careful because I didn't want to drop Itty Bitty.I was jumping around on the stool, holding Itty and not wanting to put my arm down for fear the moth would get that powder stuff on me or bite me or something.

The moth flew out of my pit and Itty caught its wing with her claw, scratching my underarm as she got it. I totally had the heebie jeebies. Quayd was the photographer, by the way and he was laughing so hard that he nearly peed his pants. When the moth was in my armpit violating me, Quayd was like, "Mom, you have to stay calm. The more you freak out, the more it wants to hurt you." Seriously, what 6 year old has to tell his mom that? Just Quayd! So anyway, once Itty had the moth, I sat her down and she had so much fun chasing it around. Orange had to get in on the action too, but Itty Bitty is the one who finally finished it off. And by "finished," I really mean FINISHED. She ate it whole. Sick, huh.

the one about our crazy halloween weekend

Geez... I am FINALLY getting to our crazy Halloween weekend. We have had such a wild weekend, and even though its Wednesday already, I am still trying to recover!! Let me start with Halloween. As you all probably already know, Tara and I were Wayne and Garth from Wayne's World for Halloween. We had SO much fun at work that day. I don't think we ever really stopped laughing. Our costume was a hit and I am so glad I have a crazy friend like Tara that would encourage me to dress up. I was hesitant at first, but now I am glad we did it. Our front desk is on camera 24/7. At anytime, out corporate office can tune in and see what we are doing. Our GM had already sent pictures of our costumes to the office, but just after lunch time, some of our owners turned on our camera and called us, laughing hysterically. So we turned and faced the camera and put on a show!! We did the "We're Not Worthy" thing. It was super funny.

So, now on the the REAL reason for Halloween.... My little Pirate. Doesn't he look so cute?!?! He is getting SO BIG!!! I am pretty proud of his costume. I made it. He had a fun time! We started Trick-Or-Treating around 4:00, our first stop at Ga and Pop's. Ga had been really sick (long story... I'll get to that in a minute) so we went to her house early so she could get to bed. We decided to skip out on our ward's trunk or treat this year, so we didn't feel so rushed. It was so nice!!! We got all of our trick or treating done, ate dinner and were in bed by 8:30. Quayd got tons of candy! He was thrilled, and so were we.

On Friday afternoon while I was pretending to work, Brett called me at the hotel and said he thought we should go to Salt Lake for the weekend. He has been dying to go to this. I called around and was able to get us a cheap room at a Holiday Inn Express, thanks to my employee discount. I talked to Gleneita to see if she would like to go, and she was all in. We decided to leave around 9 or 10 am Saturday. We seriously had no plan. We were just excited to get out of town.

Around 11:00 that night, Pop called me. Remember I told you that Ga had been really sick? We had all been trying to get her to go to the Doctor for a few days, but she wouldn't. She is so stubborn sometimes. She had been throwing up for days. She is diabetic, so her sugar was all out of whack. Anyway, Pop was all upset because he knew she needed to go to the hospital, but he knew he needed help getting her there. Of course, I went right over. It was pretty tough, but we finally convinced her that she needed to go. We got her loaded in the car and went straight for the ER. We were there for quite awhile and they finally decided that she had a bowel obstruction. They ran a million tests. They had finally decided around 3:00 am that they would wait and see if it would un-kink itself or if they would need to do surgery. Pop and I came home and he was just a wreck. I have only seen him that emotional a couple of times in my life. It broke my heart. The next morning, things were looking good, and we decided to go ahead and go to SLC. We stopped by the hospital said good bye and headed out of town.

We went to our hotel first then straight to the Body Worlds exhibit. It was SO COOL, by the way. Quayd even liked it. He got a little bored by the end of it, but he did really well. While you are waiting in line to see the exhibit, they have this skeleton projected on the wall. You can send a text message to a local number and it puts your message up on the wall by the skeleton.It makes it look like the skeleton is saying it. Quayd was fascinated with it and had been reading every word, so Brett sent it a text message. It said, "Everyone loves Quayd" Quayd couldn't believe that his name was up on the wall. Of course he didn't know that we probably just spent his college fund to get it there, but we didn't care. He kept watching and watching. Since our first picture didn't turn out and since he was so excited about it, Brett sent another message. Quayd finally figured out that it was a text message, but he still thought it was pretty cool.

After Body Worlds, we decided to go to the mall to eat and wander around, then the Clark Planetarium to watch a show of some kind. We decided to watch a 3-D movie. It was SO COOL!
When we got out of the movie, Brett's cell phone started to ring. It was my mom telling us that they had decided to fly Ga to Salt Lake for surgery. It was so weird. My Uncle Kim, Cousin Brooke and her hubby live in Salt Lake, so they were at the hospital waiting and my brother, Danette, Brayden and Pop were on the way. Brett and I dropped Quayd and Gleneita off at the hotel and headed to the hospital. We got to go right back and see her. They began to prep her for surgery and we got to say good bye real quick, then they wheeled her back for surgery. They had prepared us for lots of things, but I won't bore you with that. It all turned out great. The Doctor told us that it was best case scenario. A portion of her bowel had died but they were able to remove it and stitch the ends together. It went perfectly. They had to keep her on the ventilator for a couple of days, but now she is off that and breathing on her own. She has even been able to eat and poop. Great news! She will probably be able to come home in a day or two. She is really weak, which is totally understandable, but she will get better and better. She is tough.

We came home to EXTREME fall. It was stormy and yucky while we were gone and it hasn't gotten much better. It even snowed last night. I will finish with some cute pictures of Quayd and Brennen enjoying one of their last jumps on the trampoline of the season. The worked so hard to get all of the leaves on it then they jumped until it was dark. Which happens pretty quickly now, since daylight savings.