Slow

Well, it's been a relatively quiet few days or so, which is why there haven't been any posts...however, I have had some things happen in this week that I thought I'd share.


First off, on Wednesday, I had a great day with my SIL, Emily. She called me on Tues. and asked if I wanted to hang out and I said sure. So, she came over at 10:30 am. I gave her a tour of my house, since she'd never seen it before. Then we sat around my kitchen table and talked for a bit. (Talking will be a trend here.)

At around 12:00, we decided to go to lunch, so I took her to this place called Josephine's. It's a wonderful tearoom with delicious food. They have the best lobster bisque soup! And some amazing desserts. I got the soup and chicken salad and for dessert, I got Thunder & Lightening. A cheesecake with a brownie bottom and a layer of chocolate on top. It's was amazing! Emily got a ham sandwich and broccoli cheese soup, which she didn't like, so we exchanged it for a Caesar salad...which she only mildly liked. Hoped she liked the sandwich, she didn't say. She got chocolate chip cheesecake for dessert.

Then we went back to my house and we talked some more. And talked, and talked. She was at my house until 7:00 that night! And we talked the entire time! What was great was she essentially apologized to me for acting like she did at the wedding. She said that if she could change things now, she would have had me be a bridesmaid and realized I was only helping her. Ah, hindsight. It's amazing what it can do. lol!

In all though, it was a great day. We talked about everything and we had a really good bonding experience. I feel a heck of a lot closer with her now and we're even thinking of taking a trip down to the lake, just to two of us to visit our MIL on a weekend.
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On to other topics...

Another one of my podcasts aired today. It was a REALLY fun one based off of Samantha Brown of the Travel Channel's recent Disney Favorites special. We talked all about our Disney Favorites. And some of them definitely weren't so obvious. Some were quite hard for me to find answers to! But it was a really fun experience and I think that came across in the show! You can check us out at http://www.beourguestpodcast.com/
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WHF is doing fine on the whole losing his job thing. He's really looking at this as an opportunity and not a bad thing overall. Which is good. I'm still really bummed about the whole ordeal, however, WHF has promised me he will not start REALLY looking for jobs until after our trip in Sept. to California. We still want to be able to experience some of the amazing hotels the company has to offer before he leaves.
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I'm not looking forward to this weekend though. This weekend is Dance School #1 weekend. (We have 2 in a year...the other one is in May). Dance School weekend is a nightmare...and I've actually been having nightmares about it! One was that I was late getting where I needed to be and the other was that I was being yelled at b/c I wasn't sufficiently doing my job, however, in the dream, they had me doing other things that weren't part of my job.

I'll be glad when the whole nightmare is over...b/c this weekend is just the start. After this weekend, I have to order everything...then when it gets back, I have to make sure it's all correct, then package it all and deliver. It is definitely not a fun task! And I'm the only one who can do it, b/c it really needs to be a 1 person job. More people helping just make it more confusing.
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Well, I guess that's it going on in my life right now. It's not too exciting, but it all adds up to make for a whole.

Weekend In Baltimore

Well, I'm finally free where I can post about this, since I needed to get to my computer which had all my pics. Last weekend, I went to visit my friend K in Baltimore for a surprise wedding shower for our friend Steph.

We had a meetup of all of our internet friends. This was the second time that some of us were meeting up, however, this time, we did have some newbies joining in on the festivities.

I figured I'd just kinda post this mini TR in mostly picture format, since that's always more fun anyway. lol! However, there will be some text as well. It's not all pics! :D

Friday April 11

I got to Baltimore on Friday at around 1:00 pm. K and her husband, Marc came to pick me up from the airport (they are SO incredibly wonderful! Such amazing friends to have!) and they brought their new baby, Anastasia! (Last year, I went to Baltimore for a baby shower for K and she was pregnant with Miss Anya...so it was nice to see her in person. :D )

They drove me to their house and we chatted for a while. This was a good trip for me b/c this was the first time I'd been around a baby in YEARS! So, I learned a lot about children! And I spent some good quality time with Anya.

See, she's got my nose!

However, then it was off to the grocery store! She's such a cutie!!!

I loved this grocery store. It puts all of ours here to SHAME! This store had things that mine wouldn't even dream of selling. And it had an actual food bar. And the food looked so good. Like, the meat looked incredible and they showed you ways to prepare it! I swear, they need to do something like that at our grocery stores b/c the only one around here that does that is EXPENSIVE. I was really impressed. (Sad how you can be impressed with a grocery store...lol!)

After K and I made our purchases, we walked around the shopping center for a bit, just enjoying the nice warm weather. It was so wonderful being in the warm sun! One of the stores even offered us samples of this delicious cold white chocolate drink. Wow, was that yummy!

After enjoying our walk, we then went back home and K made dinner and put the finishing touches on the ice cream for the next day. Anya and daddy had to help though. :D

Then it was Anya's dinner time...yum...I think!

After dinner for Anya, we had dinner. Linguini with clam sauce! Delish! However, probably the even more delicious thing...her homemade rosmary bread! I could have eaten the whole loaf!!! OMG! It's to die for!

Halfway through dinner, our other guests for the night arrived. Jenny and her daughter Abby were staying the night too. It was so great getting to meet them finally after talking with them for a while now.

They ate dinner and then we chit chatted for a while. Finally, after the baby was put to sleep, we went downstairs and played Wii. OMG! It's so fun and so addictive! I halfway want one now! lol!!! After the games, everyone went to bed. (I stayed up for a while, then went to bed later.)

Saturday April 12

I woke up extremely early for me (especially since my time clock was an hour behind) and K was cooking us breakfast. Buttermilk waffles from scratch and bacon! Also so incredibly yummy. I have got to learn how to become a better cook! lol! After that, we all got ready and waited for the party to arrive.

The thing about this trip was that it was a surprise wedding shower for Steph. And let me tell you, she had no clue that it was for her...even after she saw all the presents! She thought they were all for the baby! lol!

Look, she has no clue...and there are presents in the corner, with her name on them!

We all kinda looked at each other and thought, well, now what?! How do we tell her. Finally, we came up with a solution.

Here, this is for you!

Steph was floored. She had no idea that we had all decided that we would be surprising her with this. Steph opened all of her presents...the coolest of which was this apron that has all of our names on it from Magic and will probably never be used. (Steph doesn't cook...she's burnt the easiest stuff before!)

She also recieved this giraffe that's supposed to help her grab things off of high shelves. I think it was just to make her look crazy as she talks to it. lol!



After that, we then took a break for pictures of the baby b/c well, the baby was awake now and she was not crabby. (Something she was for most of the weekend b/c she didn't want to nap. We were all just too much fun!)

Steph then opened my present...and well, let's just say she didn't enjoy one of the things she found in the bag...lol! (A Cardinals chip clip...and she's a Cubs fan! Payback for her talking smack!)

After Steph was done opening her presents, it was then time for K to open the presents everyone else had brought for Anya. Of course, Anya found the bags to be much more fun to play with.

From there, we all pigged out on delicious junk food. Ice cream, brownies, pretzels, and cupcakes. It was all so amazing! Then it was time to say goodbye to some of us. So, we took a couple of group pics.

One last reminder, however, do NOT try to steal a crown away from Dot...she gets vicious!

Also, here is a video I took before saying goodbye to Dot, Steph, Jo, and Betty.

After everyone left, K and Marc took me around and showed me a bit of the countryside of Baltimore. We also made a stop at Ritas...which is something that I'd only heard about, but never experienced. Rita's is an Itailian ice place and they really are amazing. I had one that was a mixture of birthday cake and chocolate flavors! It was just as good as I've heard about. From there, we returned back to their house and ended up playing more on the Wii. (I'm really getting addicted!) Then it was bedtime again.

Sunday, April 13

Well, now I must say goodbye. Even though it's so hard to do.

Today was a relatively quiet day, even though Anya didn't nap...like at all. Poor Marc and K. :(

We ended up going downstairs and talking while we tried to have the baby go to sleep. The 3 of us end up having the best talks! I love coming there and just chatting!

But now, they had to take me to the airport. :( I hated leaving them, but I indeed had to.

Hopefully, I don't have to wait forever to see them again! I loved visiting and they are so wonderful to have hosted me for 3 days. They really are amazing people!

I do have to thank them though. Because of this trip, I learned I am definitely not ready to have children. It wasn't b/c I thought Anya was bad or anything like that...it simply was that I am mature enough to know that children are not right for me at this juncture in my life. They will be at some point, however, right now, it is definitely not the right time. So finally, my baby itch has been cured! :D (So thanks Marc & K! Babies really are the best birth control! lol!)

The Earth's A Shakin

Well, today we had a phenomonon that I've never experience before. An earthquake hit about 128 miles from here. It was so incredibly cool! I'd always heard about earthquakes, but they aren't something you truly know about until you've experience it. And I was awake during the whole thing.

It all happened at about 4:30 in the morning. WHF and I had fallen asleep on the couch and we woke up around 4:00 am and went to bed. (I still had to get ready...brush my teeth, take out my contacts, so I was up for a little longer than he was.) I had just about drifted to sleep when all the sudden I heard a rattling going on with my windows in my bedroom.

I said to WHF, what the hell is going on...looked outside and there wasn't a tree limb in sight moving. It was then that I realized that we were experiencing an earthquake! WHF asked me what we were supposed to do and I said...I don't know...get under our desks?! (As we'd learned in school. lol! ) So, I just got back in bed and then all the sudden I started feeling my bed rolling around. Yep...this was definitely an earthquake.

We've only felt one tremor since so far, but I can only assume we'll feel at least a couple more. I'm just facinated by all this though b/c I remember learning about it in geology and now, I'd finally gotten to experience it. And it's really not so bad. (Please, don't let a bigger one come! lol! ) It's cool though that I can put to use some of the knowledge I'd gained out of a stupid class I had to take for my prerequisites. Let's just hope this earthquake didn't loosen any other faults close to here!

Test

Well, after a wonderful weekend in Baltimore visiting with friends (which, will be posted about, probably tomorrow) my little family has been hit with some extremely bad news.

In one year, WHF will more than likely be losing his job. The company he works for is consolidating their accounting department to 2 locations...one being Oklahoma, the other being India. :( I have no idea why they feel the need that this is necessary, but it is unfortunately now something we have to deal with.

However, the worst part is that things are still so up in the air. We have no idea really what's going to happen until we get closer to one year from now. But here are some of the options going on in my head right now. Option 1 is that we hope another hotel buys out the one he works at. Which is a good possibility. Option 2 is that he gets another job here. Option 3 is that he quits working and builds his lawn mowing business even larger to accomodate for us to live off of. Option 4 is that we move down to Florida and get jobs there. And these are just the options I can think of. I'm sure there's more.

The even suckier part is that now he's going to have to start all over at another job. So all his benefits are going to have to be redone. The vacation time we've been working so hard for goes back to square one and everything else is totally crap.

I know people say when one door closes another opens and that this will probably all end out for the best and he'll get a job that pays even better. But why do we have to be tested?

Bummer

So, I just got a phone call from my best friend Olivia today. She's the one that joined the army and she is currently in Texas learning how to become a combat medic. Anyway, she called to tell me that her boyfriend had broken up with her the night before.

I feel so awful for her. I mean, there's nothing that we can do for her. She's in Texas, so it's not like we can go out for a night or she can come over and drown her sorrows with me with a bucket of cookie dough (they sell it in buckets...which is a necessity in a breakup!)

But, I guess the worst part is the backstory. See, Livy joined the Army in large part out of influence from her boyfriend. He was a Marine and I know that that fact had some influence on her. (That and the fact that it was a good fit for her life too). She left for training in the beginning of May of last year and he left in the middle of May (I believe) for Iraq. She essentially put her life on hold for him. She was waiting for him b/c she loved him. So, they stayed together the entire year they were apart.

He just got back from Iraq a few weeks ago, and I could tell there might be trouble. He didn't immediately want to go see her. He made excuses, basically, about not coming down immediately. But, they made up and she said things were well. Unfortunately, things were not well.

From what I gathered from the story, he broke up with her b/c he felt awkward when he went out with his single friends now. He didn't like the fact that she was in the Army anymore. Plus, lots of other reasons. Basically, it seemed like he didn't really want to wait for her anymore. Something that she had been doing all along.


All I want to do is be able to give her a hug. :(

Dinner with the In Laws

Well, tonight we had a nice dinner with my brother in law and sister in law. WHF had called them and asked if they wanted to go out since we hadn't seen them in a while. They said sure, so we went to Joe's Crab Shack so they could use the gift certificate that we gave them for the wedding.

We get there and things are a little awkward at first...much as it always is when you see someone that you haven't seen in a while. Finally, the conversation starts to warm up and things are getting a lot friendlier.

We start chatting and having a great time. I hear Andy say something to Emily about there are things that aren't seafood on the menu and think...oh man...we gave them a gift certificate to a seafood place and she hates seafood. I feel stupid!

Then we start chatting some more and WHF thinks that Emily is closer in age to me. I say no, she's only 20...and ask her when her 21st birthday is b/c I know it's in the month of April. She tells me the date and WHF asks what she's going to be doing. I jokingly said something like having a big drunken party and she and Andy look at each other and say no. All the sudden, I know something's up. That's when they tell us the news...she's pregnant!

At first I don't believe them. Andy kinda said it in a joking manner, but then she started talking and saying how she had worn the sweater that she was wearing b/c she was starting to show. At first I'm in kind of a state of disbelief. I mean...I can't believe it. Then she whips out a sonogram pic and it starts feeling more and more real. Wow...there's going to be a baby in this family!

She was pregnant not more than a month after they got married (they were married in early January), that she's 9 weeks along and the baby is due on October 31st...Halloween. She really doesn't want to have the kid on Halloween. The weird thing is though that this year, there's going to be a baby for all the holidays. So at Thanksgiving (should we have Thanksgiving this year) there will be a brand new baby and at Christmas, there will be a baby. It's just so weird to think about. And I will have a baby to buy presents for now. That's such a weird concept to me. It's so foreign. I haven't had kids ever to buy for in my family.

I'm going to be an aunt for the first time ever in my life and while I know that they are so incredibly young and haven't even been married for like 2 months yet, I'm still excited b/c I will have this new baby in my life and I will get to spoil it and then send it merrily on it's way back to mama.

And the good news, I think the whole fact that she's having the baby makes me feel a lot less anxious to have one. It made me realize that I still have plenty of time and that I definitely don't want to rush things. It also helped to cure that baby itch I've been feeling.

Although part of me is still a bit sad. I mean, I know it's not a competition...and I definitely know I am not ready to have kids...but WHF and I are the older of the two. And we're both the older children and we both are the oldest of all of our cousins. But I don't know...it just feels a bit weird that they beat us to the punch. I mean, now our baby will never get to be the oldest cousin...which I always held as kind of an honor with me. No, now our baby will just be mixed in there with any of the other kids that they end up deciding to have. (And should we ever decide to have more than one...which right now, is very doubtful.) And like I said, I know that in no way is this a competition, but I do, in a way, feel a bit disappointed that we weren't first.

Still, I'm so excited about getting to be Aunt Nibbles for the first time ever and you can bet that little one will be spoiled!

Yay for the Zoo!

Today WHF and I took a day trip to the zoo. We have done it every year since our second date. We got to the zoo in the middle of the afternoon and we got a great parking spot right out front. It was so sweet! Didn't have to go to the pay lot this time!

Anyway, we went to see pretty much the majority of the animals, with the exception of the reptiles and the birds. We don't really care much about those. So, instead of me telling you everything I did...I took pics! So, without further adieu...

Look, spring is finally here!

I LOVE the polar bear!

This guy was up high!

Look at him swim!

Here's a video I took of them swimming:

This fella was HUGE!!!! He looked a bit like Chewbacca!

Look, I dyed my hair! It's brown again!

Snow Lepord...he was going to his hiding spot. (And, I can't spell lepord...I don't think)

Kanga!

Giraffes and Ostriches...all in one place!

Elephants!

And last but not least! The penguin house! (It's freezing in there!)

So that was my fun day at the zoo!!! We had a blast!

I'm On The Air!

Ok...so for those of you who don't know how to listen to my podcast from today I will give you instructions. There are two ways you can do it.

The first one is the preferred method and also the method to use if you have an mp3 player. Go to Itunes. In the search engine type in WDW Podcasts. Our podcast is the 5th one listed (I believe) and is Be Our Guest Podcast. Click on the button that says subscribe. The show will automatically download onto your computer each time it is released (if you have Itunes open that is). Then you can find it on your computer or if you have an ipod, put it on your player.

The second method is to go to http://www.beourguestpodcast.com/ Click on the episodes icon. Mine is the first one...Episode 5. Then click on the play button to hear it from the player there. (This is the easier method for those of you without mp3 players, but you will have to go to the site everytime a new one is released to listen to it.)

I really hope you all enjoy it!!!