the one about our anniversary

Brett and I celebrated our 11th anniversary on 9/19/09. We are kind of boring and never really do anything for our anniversary, so I asked Brett to take me on a date. A real one! We never do that! Infact, a few weeks ago, we had a big long talk and decided that we needed to try harder to have our date nights. I can probably count on one hand how many times we haved gone on a date since we had Quayd. I really wanted Brett to take me to Cafe Rio for dinner. We had our favorite.... Pork barbacoa burrito, enchilada style. It was delicious! We wanted to go to a movie, but seriously, there was NOTHING that we wanted to see. We thought about bowling... but that didn't work out either. So we talked to Brandon and Danette and the four of us decided to go out for karaoke and dancing. While we were waiting for Brandon and Danette to get ready, we started playing this silly game on Quayd's Webkins website It is a word search thing and we get super competitive when we play it.
Brandon and Danette were laughing at us when they walked in and saw us sitting at the kitchen table playing a little kid computer game on our anniversary!!

We never do gifts for each other either, so we decided that we would spoil ourselves a little bit and get Rockband for the Wii. We have been wanting it so bad. I also scheduled Brett a massage for Saturday afternoon and he went shopping for me and got a way cute shirt and sweater. He did a good job!!!!

It was a great anniversary. I can't believe it has been 11 years. I have such a great husband and I love him so much. We have so much fun together and I always laugh at him! He gave me a beautiful son and he is a great dad. He supports me in everything I do and I try my best to support him too. Thank you Brett for 11 wonderful years! Lets say we try for 11 more!!

the one about a quickie to the city

On Thursday evening while taking my trash cans to the street, I stopped and chatted with Danette, who was doing the same thing as me. We decided it would be fun to take the kids out to Salt Lake City to the State Fair on Friday and Saturday. Brayden had entered some 4-H projects in the county fair, and some of them went to the state level. We wanted to go see those things as well as have fun playing at the fair. The Brooks' go every year. Quayd and I had never been, but we will be sure to go in the future! We also needed to do some shopping for The Country Bear, so it just worked out perfectly. It was very last minute and impulsive of us, but we went and had a blast! Brett and Brandon were busy with work so it was just the moms and the boys. We drove out on Friday afternoon and went straight to the hotel to check in, then to the fair. We played at the fair until they shut off the lights! We were having so much fun we hated to leave. We slept in on Saturday morning, had breakfast and went shopping. We went to several places for The Country Bear and then we hit the mall. We also had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. We were headed for home by 6:00 that night. It was a fast trip, but very well worth it. Here are a few highlights of our trip.

These were at the Division of Wildlife Resources booth at the State Fair.


Check out my little daredevil! He is a ride junkie!!! Just like me. I LOVE RIDES!!! I rode every single ride with the kids. Danette is not a huge ride fan so she just watched, but the boys and I were die hards!!! This ride took you way up high, then just dropped you! I LOVE Brayden's face in this one!
This next ride was called the Moby Dick. It went really high and went around and around. This was probably our favorite ride there. I lost my shoe on it one time though, but the nice carney-workers stopped the ride and got my shoe for me!

Who doesn't love the tilt-a-whirl!?!?

I never could get very good pictures of the big slide... but it sure was fun!
I don't have any pictures from Saturday, because, according to the kids, it was a BORING day. We just shopped. and shopped. and shopped. Of course Danette and I thought it was lots of fun!

I am so glad I have such a fun sister-in-law. We have gotten so close over the last few months and I am so happy for that! Of course, I have the best nephews in the whole world and I am proud to be their favorite aunt. (Ask them... They will tell you I am their fave!! The better, anyway!! ;))Our kids are close and love each other so much. How lucky are we to have some of our best friends/family as next-door-neighbors!?!?!

the one about our air conditioner

This is such a funny story, I have to share it. Brett told me this would be a stupid thing to blog about, so I haven't yet. But every time I look at my picture folder on my computer, I see these and giggle. So I am finally giving in. I probably won't do it any justice, but I will try my best.

First, I have to start with some background details. Brett is seriously SO accident prone. But the funny thing about it, is that the accidents that happen to him are usually so weird and stupid!!! For example, he once broke both feet at the same time! It was a work injury so I am sure Worker's Comp loved us for that! Another funny one happened a few years ago. Brett was taking down our swamp cooler for the summer. It is just a window mount in our living room. He seemed to have it all under control and I was doing something in the house. He was standing a patio chair that sorta looked like this.

You know, that plastic weaved stuff? So he had just pulled the cooler out of the window and was going to step off of the chair and all of a sudden, his feet broke through the chair and he was just standing there on the ground, in the frame of the chair. I missed it, but my brother happened to see it and I guess it was hysterical! It actually kind of hurt Brett's legs the way it jarred him, but it was still funny! Another time, he was putting up Christmas lights and somehow slipped off the roof and right into the middle of this pokey tree I have in front of my house. From the tree, he grabbed the edge of the roof and swung himself around and face planted himself into the huge picture window in my living room. Then, once he got his footing he tried to jump to the ground and nearly fell on our animated light up moose. While trying to avoid the moose, he did that thing you do when you are about to fall but you are trying to catch yourself, and you just end up running. Yah. He did that. He was SO MAD at me, because I just stood there laughing at him. What else could I do? It was one of those moments that is like slow motion, but hyper speed at the same time. It was a riot. I am cracking up just thinking about it! He kind of huffed and puffed around for a minute then finally laughed about it. The worst part was that my brother saw that one too. Knowing that my brother saw it makes it all even worse!!! Of course, my brother tells everyone and then Brett is teased about it forever. That is what family is all about, right!?!?! Brett wants everyone to think he is big and tough, but he is actually a big clumsy DORK!!! Now that I think about it, that was the last year Brett put up Christmas lights for me! Anyway, my mind is flooded with a million funny stories like this, but I will spare you and get on to the real story.

So, in mid May, we installed the swamp cooler. We also have a window mount air conditioner that we put in our bedroom. We HATE to be hot! It is much harder to install than the swamp cooler because it weighs about 10 times more! Brett usually does the swamp cooler alone, but the A.C. is definitely a 2 person job. Every year, there is some kind of drama involved and Brett and I usually end up fighting by the end of the project! He usually ends up hurt and he usually blames me for it!! :) So this year was no different. The best part of this story is how hillbilly we sound with this whole thing! We love to be nice and cool, and we love to have a dark room. But the way we achieve that is so funny, and trailer-trashy. Anyway, Brett was on a ladder outside the bedroom window. I was standing on our bed inside the window. He is panting and swearing bringing the A.C. up the ladder. He lifted it up and steadied it in the window. This is where I took over holding it so he could hook the chain stuff on the hooks. Our windows are the old style that slide up and down. We have to put sticks in the window so it doesn't slip. Brett had gone down the ladder to get something and I was holding it in place. Somehow, the sticks slipped and I totally lost my grip. I tried to hold it, but I had just got my nails done that day and I didn't want to break one. (I know, I know. I haven't heard the end of that yet!) The A.C. fell to the ground. It was seriously inches from hitting Brett!!! Very scary! That thing is HEAVY! Well, of course, he was mad at me! It totally smashed up the thing and we had no idea if it would ever work. There was no way to tell unless we turned it on. Brett did the old Heave-Ho and got it back up the ladder. More swear words this time, I am sure!!! I held on a little better and he hooked it all up. IT WORKS!!! It rattles a little bit, but with a strategically placed piece of duct tape, you barley hear it. Because it smashed so weird, it distorted the shape and it didn't fit as well in the window. Remember, we don't like light in our room, so we had to use towels to fill in the gaps! We also put this one sheet and blanket in the window every year to block the light. By the time we were all finished, I stepped back and laughed at our work. Brett was still a little irritated with me since I had nearly killed him, so he didn't think it was funny. I'm sure enough time has passed now that he can laugh about it. ;) So here are the pictures of our work.

Notice the dents on the cooler, the sticks at the bottom of the window, (and the pokey tree from the first story!)

dark sheet and towels,

Strategically placed duct tape!
So anyway, that is our crazy story about our bedroom air conditioner! And you want to know the funniest part? Well, when I dropped it and it nearly hit Brett, something caught my eye in my driveway.... It was my brother! He was just pulling in from work and he saw the whole thing!!!! Go figure!!!

the one about salsa

The Galley family has the best recipe for salsa. They used to make it every year. The bad thing about it is that it takes so much work that everyone who makes it is kind of stingy with it, so nobody ever really got any. (After making it, I totally understand that!) We are such salsa people so we knew we needed to figure it out. Brett and I started making and canning it about four years ago. It is seriously so good!!! We made a ton in 2005, 2006 and 2007 so we were well stocked. We actually should have canned it again last year, but we were just to busy. We ate our last jar this winter. This is the perfect time of year to make it, so we started last week. We made one batch last Monday and another on Friday. We will still probably do another batch or two, but we needed a rest! It is SO MUCH WORK! And you don't really get a whole lot. When we are making it, I always think, "This is in no way worth all of the work and the HUGE MESS!" But once I see it all bottled up, I am glad we did it. And I am even more glad once I eat some! It takes forever. First, you have to cut and chop all of the peppers, jalapenos, chilies and onions. Then you have to blanch all of the tomatoes and, of course, they need to be chopped too. You add all of the other stuff and once you get it all put together, it has to cook for 2 hours and it must be watched carefully. (We helped some friends make it several years ago and they burned a whole pot of it!!) We try to recruit people to come and help us, and Talia was the lucky winner of batch #1 and Gleneita was here for batch #2. Yes, we shared..... a little bit! ;) Anyway, this is the fruit of our labor. Isn't it beautiful?
We have already eaten some and it is delish! It is definitely worth all of the work.

the one about my trip to LA

In July, Danette asked me if I would like to go to Market with her to shop for stuff for the Country Bear. HECK YES!!!! Brayden was dying to go and now that he is old enough it was time for him to experience market. Danette talked to me about it on a Friday, and we left the very next Friday. It was short notice and a quick trip, but SO WORTH IT! It was so much fun. I had never been in the downtown LA area before, so I was excited! We flew out of Salt Lake City on Friday evening and got into LA pretty late. We ate at the hotel and went right to bed. We got up early on Saturday, caught the shuttle and a shopping we did go. Here is Brayden being a weird-o at the hotel before we left!! (he he he)

This is Brayden and I on the shuttle. Market was actually in two different locations. We didn't care where we went first, so we just took the first shuttle. We found some pretty cool stuff the first day. Not tons of new things, but a little. We were there for most of the day and by the time we got back to the hotel, we were beat so we ate and went to bed. Sunday morning, we headed for the other location, and it was much better! We found some great new lines and got some awesome ideas for the store. We actually finished up at a decent hour and since we had some time to kill, I suggested we go on a tour or some thing. Danette was a little nervous, being in a new place and a huge city, but I finally talked her into riding public transportation to Hollywood! I was so excited to go!!! I talked to a guy that worked in the visitors center in the convention center and he told us just how to get there and what we should do. We hopped on the subway and away we went! When we got off the subway, we were right in the middle of Hollywood. We were right across from the Disney theater and they were actually having a movie premiere right then. It was for G-Force. That was kind of cool to get to see all of the action surrounding that. Immediately, this pirate chick came up to Brayden, handed him a sword and posed for me. Ok. Whatever. I took a picture of them and she told me, "We work on tips." I just stared at her. Then she said it again and stood there waiting for me to pay her. WHAT?!?!?! I gave her a dollar and she walked away. Apparently that is very common and I noticed that people were paying all kinds of freaks for photos. It was weird. I had to pay her so I could take a picture with MY camera. And Brayden didn't even want a picture with her!!! Look at his face!!! HaHaHa! Anyway, I hope you all enjoy that picture. It cost me a dollar to take it! So strange. I feel like a rebel, but I took this picture of Barney and he has no idea!!! Shhhhh, don't tell him! Anyway, we decided to ride a double decker tour bus and check out Hollywood. It took us all over and we saw tons of cool things. Rodeo Drive
Rodeo Drive, again
Beverly Hills
We didn't tour the stars homes... We didn't have time for that tour too. Anyway, our tour would stop in various places and we could get off the bus and get back on when the next bus came around. We decided to get off at this cool shopping center and farmers market thing. We had a nice lunch, wandered around for a bit, stopped for a photo opp and headed back to the bus.
We shopped around downtown Hollywood for souvineers, saw some fake celebs, a prostitute and hopped back on the subway. I tried with all of my might to take a picture of the Hollywood sign, but I never could get a good one.
However, I got a lot of pictures of this dude's head while trying to get a picture of the Hollywood sign. That counts, right? That evening, Brayden and I swam at the hotel and then we played cards for awhile. We went to bed early since we had to leave for the airport early Monday morning. Then we flew to Salt Lake City. I split up from Danette and Brayden at this point because Brett needed me to pick up his new car. I met up with my Uncles Kim and Jayme. They took me to the car lot and made sure I got the car all squared away, then we all left and I drove home. I was home before 8:00. It was a crazy fast trip, but so much fun. I am so glad I have such a cool boss that let me go along for the trip! Brayden and I get really silly sometimes and I know we drove Danette nuts, so I sure hope I get another invite!!!