the one about my cousin Brooke

I suck at blogging. I am so sorry that I just can't get my blogging life together. It seems to be the last thing I can find time to do. Blogger drives me crazy because it is so slow at loading pictures and I hate fighting with it for hours! I have no patience! Excuses, excuses. I know.

A couple months ago, I went to SLC to see my cousin Brooke and her new baby. While there, she told me that she was going to stop reading my blog because I never update it. I promised her that I would blog the pictures from that weekend. Well, of course, time got away from me and here it is, mid-May and I am barely getting to it. So sorry Brooke! She told me that the last time I posted a picture of her, it was very unflattering (SO NOT TRUE!) and she wanted me to post a new one that looked better. Go to this post, scroll down a bit and see that it was a good picture of her and her hubby!! She is adorable!!! Anyway, with this post, I am hoping to redeem myself to my FAVORITE cousin, and hopefully win her back as a blog reader. Besides, I am excited to show off her cute baby!

I come from a small family. My Dad only had one sibling, a brother, who he married later in life and he and his wife never had children. My Mom only had one brother and he and his ex-wife only had one child. That means I only have one cousin. Yes, just one. Brooke. My grandparents only had three grandchildren, therefore, we all got lots of attention. Growing up, we were all very close. We lived near each other and did everything together. I always thought Brooke was so cool. I wanted to be with her all the time and I thought she was the greatest thing ever. I was crazy jealous of her. She was a few years older than me, and I know I had to be totally annoying to her, but she was always sweet to me. I got to go on a few trips with my aunt, uncle and Brooke and they were all so good to me. They still are! Brooke has accomplished a lot in her life and I am so proud of her! She has a great job as a paramedic and is married to a math teacher! She never seemed to want to have children, but finally got to a place in her life where she needed to be a mommy. Her sweet baby Moses must be the luckiest kid ever because Brooke is the BEST MOM! It has been so much fun to see her transform from "super strong independent career woman Brooke," to "gentle kind nurturing motherly Brooke." They are just the cutest little family and Moses is the most beautiful, perfect baby I have ever seen. (Well, maybe the 2nd most beautiful and perfect baby I have ever seen!) ;) I LOVE my one and only cousin and I am so proud of her! And I am really mad that she lives 2 1/2 hours away so I can't love on that baby more often.

Here are the pictures of our trip to meet baby Moses. My uncle is a collector of all things weird. He has this creepy puppet, "Jerry Mahoney." I think it is hilarious, but Brooke is totally creeped out by it! She was throwing a total fit when we took this picture. "Get that away from my baby!"
"Grandpa" Kim and Moses
Four Generations

the one about our super amazing vacation

I am sitting at the LA airport bored to death waiting for our flight that is still 2 1/2 hours away. I was wondering what I should do to kill some time... hummmm.... what to do, what to do? OH! I could BLOG!!!! I just loaded up all of our vacation pictures so to help pass my boredom, you can hear all about our cruise!

Let me start you off with a pick from our pre-cruise planning party the Monday before we left.We left last Saturday, April 24th around noon so we could go watch my nephew Brennen's traveling soccer team play in SLC. Once we got there, we met up with my uncle and brother's family and had lunch. I had a little bit of pre-vacay shopping to do and then it was bed time. My super awesome amazingly cool uncle Kim let us stay at his house that night. (Thanks Kim and Jayme!!!!) Of course I couldn't sleep worth a dang because I was SO excited! We got up early on Sunday morning to make it to the airport for our 8:15 flight. Everything went very smoothly. We landed in LA and found the Carnival Cruise people right away and boarded the bus for the pier. It was a pretty quick drive and once we got there and got checked in, we could walk around the ship, the pier and there were lots of things to do there. We were so excited though, that we just kind of hung out by the ship. It was pretty cool. We were able to board the ship around 1:30. It was so beautiful! It was shocking to see how big the ship really was. It was incredible. Our ship left Long Beach around 5:30 that evening.
It was a beautiful sight!

Our first two days were sea days. We played on the ship and soaked up the sun for 2 days as we traveled to Puerto Vallarta.
Quayd took advantage of the kids programs on board and totally loved it!!! He got to do a build-a-bear, make a t-shirt and played lots of fun games.
On Wednesday morning, we arrived in Puerto Vallarta. It was Brett's 30th Birthday!!!! And the city, the ocean, the weather, EVERYTHING was beautiful!

We just kind of explored the city. We shopped, went to Senor' Frogs and just hung out.


We had a great time there. They were having a real live bull fight in the evening. Brett thought that sounded awesome, but nobody else would go with him. He went all alone, and hated it. He said it was totally different than what he had expected. He was thinking one on one, man vs. beast. But they actually give the bull a tranquilizer first, and there were about 5 people helping the matador. I thought it was gross and I didn't really pay attention to details, so if you are really that curious, you will have to ask him. Gross. Oh well, happy Birthday to him!

Thursday was Mazatlan. Beach Day.



Amazing.

By the time we made it to Cabo San Lucas on Friday, we were BEAT! We were only in Cabo for about 7 hours, so we just went into the city and looked around. We bought some treasures and enjoyed the beautiful city. I am a BIG shopper! Love it, love everything about it, however, I hate shopping in Mexico. I hate bartering, bargaining, and listening to all of the beggers. It drives me crazy. Brett and Quayd love it though!!! So needless to say, they did all of the shopping. I pointed and things I liked and they took care of the rest. I actually forgot my camera on the ship the day we were in Cabo, so the only picture I have is this one I took from my cell phone.

The last day was another sea day and the seas were so rough!! It was a hard day and night! It kind of threw us all over the ship. Crazy. It was windy and awful too. Yuck. Anyway, it was nice to have a day to relax and wind down after a week of non stop GO GO GO!

Here are a few more pictures of some highlights of the trip.








Ok, that is all I am going to add. I don't want to bore you anymore. Plus, its almost time to board our flight!!! YAY! We are finally making progress home!!!!

the one about Diary of a Wimpy Kid

I am so proud of Quayd. I know I just posted an exciting reading achievement from school, so I am sorry to bore you with another reading blog post. But I am going to do it anyway. Sorry.

Quayd got the first book in the series "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" for Christmas. He has been reading everyday, and fitting this book in as much as possible. When he heard there was going to be a movie, he was so excited! I told him that when he finished Book 1, I would take him to the movie and get him book 2 to start reading. He actually finished it a couple weeks ago, but tonight was the first night we could fit in a movie. (It's only MARCH and our schedules are already filling up!) Brett is out of town for work, so we decided it was a perfect date night! We called our trusty date night companion, Grandma! (Gleneita) We all 3 went to dinner at Cafe Rio (tamale Thursday! Yay!!!) then headed to the show. The movie was so cute and it was so fun to see Quayd get so excited. He would get giddy and tell me, "Oh this part is funny!" or "I love this part!" After the movie, we headed straight to Wal-Mart to find book 2. In the car, I asked Quayd which was better, the movie or the book. I was so excited to hear him say.... THE BOOK!!!! He was telling me all of the differences and I was thrilled to hear it. The book is ALWAYS better!!! And I am glad that he can see that, even as a second grader. When we were at Wal-Mart, he saw this book too and he was very torn which one to get. This one is about the making of the movie and it looked pretty cool too. But he decided to go with book 2. He started reading it in the asiles of Wal-Mart. He came home, read for a bit and crashed. (With me of course since Dad is out of town!)

This was kind of fun... I found it online here. You can "Wimp" yourself! Here is me,
and here is Quayd.

the one about my freaky rash

I'm not sure what this is all about, but I got the weirdest rash in the WORLD!

Brett and I started going to the tanning bed 1 week ago to get ready for our vacation next month. (We are going on a Mexican Riviera Cruise April 25th - May 2nd!!!) I have not been able to tan for years because of the medicine I was on for my heart. Since I went off my medicine in January, I just assumed I would be able to tan like I did when I was a kid. I have started VERY slow! The first 2 times I went was only for 6 minutes. I did get the tanning bed itches that come standard with your first couple of visits to the bed. I only went every other day and by the third time, I upped it to 7 minutes. I got a little toasty and even more itchy so we took it back down to 6 when I went last evening. My back had really been bugging me so I left my shirt on and made sure my back, belly and boobs were totally covered, since they have been itching so bad. I even adopted a spatula that I carry around and I so affectionately call "Scratchula." As soon as I got out of the tanning bed, I knew something wasn't right. Brett and I got in the car and I was about to go crazy with itch. I took my bra off first thing and it was just getting worse and worse. We got home and I took my top off. I had Brett rub lotion on it and it would help for a second, but it just kept getting worse. It started breaking out in hives and wherever I would scratch, it was looking like it might bleed. By about 8:30 I was in tears because it was so bad. The hives/welts were huge and covering my whole back!!! I showered, Brett ran to the store for cortisone cream and I started popping benadryl. NOTHING. I tried EVERYTHING! By 11:30 I couldn't take it anymore, so I took myself to the ER. They got me into a room pretty quickly and started me on several pills. Steroids, something like a benadryl but much stronger and something else. They said it should start to improve within 20-30 minutes. By this time, the rash and hives were spreading to my legs. Well, they monitored me for about an hour and nothing was changing so they came in with some shots. I don't know what or how many but I told them I didn't care if it was battery acid and dog crap, if it would help, I would take it! After another hour, it was still really bad but I felt like it was getting a little better. They told me there was nothing else they could try and that they had given me the max dose on everything. They sent me home with a prescription for a week worth of steroids and 3 other things. Today was much better, but I am still very red and itchy. It is just making me feel like crap. I didn't want to broadcast my back fat on the Internet, so I just took a picture of my legs. This is looking about 100 times better. There is little to no swelling, just lots of red dots.


I think we finally decided that 7 1/2 years of heart medicine messed with my blood and skin and that it is probably not in my Best interest to tan. I guess it is either pasty white, or tan in a bottle for me. :( By the way, Brett has the nicest tan and he looks so good!!! I am going to be the ghost woman on our cruise ship. I am so white I am nearly translucent.

Just as I was leaving the hospital last night, the Doc started to say something about the dangers involved with tanning and sun exposure. I just looked at him and said, "Seriously, look at me.... I don't need a lecture about tanning beds!!!"

the one about my stupid old microwave

My microwave is the BIGGEST piece of crap! It has been since I bought it. The light never worked, and almost instantly it stopped rotating. I tried to fix it a million times but it kept breaking. Since it wouldn't rotate, it burned EVERYTHING! I haven't been able to pop popcorn forever! And it is my favorite treat in the world. Especially the Jolly Time Kettle Mania. YUMMY!!! One morning, Quayd wanted me to cook him some sausage. I buy these pre-cooked sausage patties in the freezer section and he totally loves them. I cooked them for the normal time, and not even halfway through, we could smell the most horrible smell EVER! I stopped the microwave and we had a small fire going on! This is what my stupid microwave did to the sausage!!!!

So this is what I did to the microwave!
And then I went to Wal-Mart and bought this!