To send or not to send...

Every year I get really excited to see all the people who send picture Christmas cards. It is great to see how everyone changes from year to year. If you aren't planning on doing that, please consider the following link: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery. Like I said. I love getting those cards! Even though we don't have a family yet, I think we may send out some Christmas cards to our close relatives. Everyone loves getting a piece of mail that isn't a bill!
My favorite thing to do is make wall calendars http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars. They are so much fun and a great gift! I know last year I made one and spent almost an entire day working on it. It was a lot of fun!
If I don't send out Christmas cards, I may wait and surprise everyone and send Valentines Cards http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/valentines-day-cards-and-stationery. This is a time of year most people aren't expecting anything in the mail!
Either way, we will be waiting by the mailbox to get our first Christmas card! Start making yours today! Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Our life could be a sitcom

With the three of us here combined we could completely start our own TV show for sure! Let's start with the youngest member of our group. The other day, while Jeff was away, I come home to find Sherman's "red rocket" sticking out looking like a balloon about to pop. UMMM I don't know about you but this isn't something I have seen before. Long story short, turns out it is something the vet had not seen either. She didn't really know what to tell us, but did tell me I needed to go by KY jelly (yeah you heard right) to put on it if it comes back out. No thanks, is what I wanted to say. haha I head out to the Pharmacy. I am so nervous. I don't want to buy this any more than I want the flu. I find the cheapest one, and decide to purchase other things so it doesn't look so weird. Sure! I walk up to the counter and lay my things down.

She is checking everything out. She gets to the KY and it doesn't scan properly. AHH just my luck. She turns to me and goes. "Do you remember the price of this?" Uh... I panic.... I say "Yes it is $5.99." Instead of stopping there, I start telling more.

Me: "Yeah this is oddly for my dog."

Lady: "Um I hope it is for the outside of your dog"

Me: "oh yeah, we took him to the vet today because his 'thing' won't go back in and the vet said I had to buy this jelly in case it happens again.

Lady: "ok. Well, have a good day."

Who does that? Who says that? ME! Geez. She doesn't need to know my life story but I guess I felt she needed it. ha. By the way, Shermy is doing fine. We have no idea what went on. The KY hasn't even been opened. UGH I could have side stepped that entire experience if I would have just waited.

On to Jeff. Two days ago we headed to try and find some tux rentals for the wedding. We were a little early so we stopped at BW3's and had wings. After that we headed to the Tux place. We had decided on possibly what kind of tux we wanted, but Jeff didn't know his size. The woman goes back and finds one just for him to try on. We had no intention of buying it. She knew that and we knew that. He just needed to find a size. Jeff goes back and tries them on. They fit. Instead of changing right away we three get caught in a conversation. The lady sits down at the computer to show us some other things. Jeff gets kind of funny and starts walking away slowly. He gets about 3 ft away and all of a sudden lets out a loud fart. IN BORROWED PANTS! I have never been so, mad, embarrassed, and laughing at the same time. The lady acted like it didn't happen. But it totally did. After he did it, he looked at me like, oops, what do I do now? Yup, my future husband!

Finally me. (although the Sherman story was kinda about me too) Yesterday I took Shermy for a walk at a local park. We passed by a couple, who I have never seen before. They were walking three dogs. One of the dogs was a Jack Russell Terrior. I said out loud to Sherman, "Look he looks just like Rusty (my parents dog)!" The woman didn't really want to talk but she said, "yeah he has a lot of energy." I said, "yeah they totally do. Do you have any kids?" She looks at me, and then I realize she wasn't in my head knowing how I got to that point. I proceeded to explain the reason I asked was because Jack Russells don't really like kids all that much. I couldn't really back track from what damage had been done, so mid sentence I go... "Well, have a good day." Why am I so awkward in public situations? I am sure they have told that story to some people. For gosh sakes I completely would too!

So there you have it. Our sitcom of a life! At least we don't take life too seriously. We have fun and we make fun of ourselves along the way!

A Small Confession

I have a small confession. I am currently in love with The Vanilla Ice Project. What the heck is this you ask? Well, let me just tell you. Do you remember the the person who is in charge of originally singing Ice Ice Baby? Well over the years, Vanilla Ice has taught himself in home renovation. He now has a hit show where is flips million dollar homes. Coming from a Vanilla Ice fan, you probably won't believe me when I say the show is actually really good. It is on DIY Network. I think you should all give it a try. I know my dad watches DIY non stop so he has probably seen it. haha Even Jeff stopped what he was doing to watch.

Now, Sherman on the other hand, didn't like it as much...

MIZZOU-RAH

This weekend was a brand new experience for me. A couple of weeks ago Jeff asked if I wanted to go to Missouri to a football game. Sounds fun, SURE! Friday, we had a half day of work, packed up the car and Sherman and headed towards Missouri. Little did I know, this was going to be an interesting experience.

First off, there was a homecoming parade. A PARADE?!?! sheesh, Marian didn't have a parade for homecoming. Here is Jeff and Ellie getting ready to watch the floats go by. Isn't he going to be one the most handsome/best dad ever?! Everyone went! Here is the crew in their Mizzou gear.

As the parade started, I was a little freaked out, at a lack of a better term. So many people supporting MU and wearing gear. I was definitely shocked at the outcome of the crowd. I guess I did have to remember that Marian is a tad smaller than this huge state school! haha Also, if you look hard enough, you may see some guys sitting on top of that building on the right.

Towards the end of the parade we were getting tired. He is a cute cute picture of Ellie with Grandma and Grandpa.

side note: I can't believe how Ellie has changed from our little baby to a kid! I watched my 4 nieces and nephews growing but haven't witness such a change in between visits. She is talking, walking without falling and potty trained. WOW! I kept asking Jeff if he was amazed too, but it didn't seem to phase him. haha

On our way home from the parade, Christy dropped us off at Trops. This might be one of the greatest concepts in a college town. They have about 15 frozen slushi machines with alcoholic beverages in them. The line was 30min. We waited...waited...waited... but turns out, it was worth the wait!

Finally, off to the game! Our tickets said section: "The Hill." I was thinking maybe like a small hill at the Indians game. We get there and there is this HUGE hill with a tremendously steep incline where people are sitting. I was cracking up because our tarp we were sitting on keep creeping down the hill. I think it just added to the fun that was about to happen!

I guess on the news or whatever they told all the fans to wear yellow so the whole stadium would just be a sea of yellow. Christy brought her Pink Mizzou shirt. She stuck out, but it was nice because if we left to the bathroom, we knew exactly where the group was. I took a picture to show her how much she stood out. haha

We were all thinking we would leave at half time because the game wouldn't be too exciting. Boy were we wrong! The game ended up being one of the best games we would see. We were all having a great time, but towards the end Jack was getting a tad tired. He took a small snooze on our bags. =)

He actually was only there for about 7 min. He stood back up and kept cheering. He was a lot of fun to take to the game. He really got into it and was a trooper through the rain, walking and long game.

Turns out, Mizzou won! An announcer said about 2 min to go that it was breaking the law to rush the field etc. Yeah, that didn't last. They were running on the field before the last play was even over! I guess another tradition is to break the goal posts after a really significant game. So here we have the students carrying around part of the goal posts. I am telling you, these large schools are crazy! haha

All in all we had a super duper weekend! Sherman even behaved himself enough to where I think he may be invited back. hehe I thought I would give Shermy some love too and show you how to road most of the way this weekend.

Halloween Decisions

It's Halloween time! Most of you know, but I do NOT like Halloween. I probably should change my attitude before I have children. Anyway, having a dog is sometimes hilarious. Sherman came up to me about 3 weeks ago and said he wanted to dress up for Halloween (in a round about way). After much deliberation, I thought I would grant his request. The only problem is, we now have to choose between three costumes. He wants opinions to make sure he looks he best so he can get the best treats and belly rubs in Halloween night!

First we have a simple clown outfit. Sophisticated, but over done:

Sherman really liked it though!

Beni (Kyla's dog) came over to play and actually fell in love with the outfit, so that is probably what he is going to wear for Barking-or-Treat.

Next we have a Cowboy outfit. A little snug, but nothing that should keep him from looking cute!

Finally we have the Business Man. Sherman likes this the best, but he still wants to know what everyone else thinks!

Here he is making his first Business transaction:

All in all, I think Sherman made some great choices on costumes!
He probably doesn't even need to wear them, because Grandma Ruthie sent him his now FAVORITE toy! A candy corn, to go along with his food themed toys.

We are getting SCARY-ILY close to our goal!

As most of you know, Jeff has been collecting bottle caps since we have been dating. At first I thought it was cute. (Who am I kidding, I used to think EVERYTHING he did, said etc. was cute. haha) Also, since we had only been dating a month, I never imagined our relationship would last forever. (glad I was wrong about that!) I assumed the caps would leave my life at some point. I also never thought I would see the day when he had collected enough caps to make his beer pong table. That's right, my 28 year old fiance wants to re-live his college years and make a beer pong table of beer caps. We only do the classiest things around here. Thanks to all you savers out there *rolls eyes* we have almost reached the, what I thought was un-reachable, goal of 2,000 caps. Only 300 more to go.


Now as soon as I got the news from Jeff last night so many things ran into my head... 1. Where are we going to put this? 2. With what tools is he going to make it? 3. Will we ever play? I have been with Jeff over a year and have never witnessed him play a game of beer pong.


I thought you might all be entertained at how my Engineering man has calculated these caps. First Let me show you the picture.

As you can see there is a computer involved. First Jeff will separate the caps by brand. Sometimes they are then separated by flavor within the brand. ie: bud light, bud light lime. After he has done this, he puts them in groups of twelve. Once he has 96 of a certain type of cap they are put in an individual baggie. (You might observe those on the right.) After that, they are then added to an intense spreadsheet in excel. This way he know how many different types etc. he has of each cap. This process usually takes 2-3 hours depending on how many he has to sort.

All I can say is this has certainly kept him, and all his beer cap gathering friends, busy for over a year. Now to the part I have been dreading... we begin the build of the table... DUN DUN DUNNNN. Who knows, I will probably be surprised. Jeff has quite the imagination. It will probably be the talk of the neighborhood.

Sherman's Pen Pal

A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting my parents when I get a call from Jeff. Sherman got a package in the mail from Diesel!! Diesel is Joe and Amanda's Jack Russel Terrior. Jeff promised that he wouldn't open it until we got home on Sunday. We (Sherman and myself) were so excited to come home and see what he received! I think Sherman was more excited to ride in the car, but whatever... As soon as we got home, I presented the package to Shermy.

At first he just sniffed it and kind of walked away. Then Jeff had to step in and help. Somehow Diesel did a really GREAT job taping it. Amanda, I think you need to tell me how he did that!

As Jeff was getting the package open, Sherman and I waited on pins and needles!

Finally... the package was open! Diesel gave Sherman a copy of his absolute favorite toy and some of his treats. He also wrote him a note telling him it wasn't very nice to use the carpet as his personal restroom. (We need the dog whisperer) Sherman immediately demanded a treat. I must say, he LOOOOVES them. We save them for times when he is being annoying. It keeps him busy for about an hour, no joke.

I must admit. He wasn't too fond of the squeaky toy. Jeff has decided it was his mission to make him like it! We offer it to him all the time. He is slowly coming around to it. His favorite toy is still that silly hot dog. I can't believe that last min. $2 ugly hot dog is his favorite. haha

We had such a great time opening up his first gift from his pen pal! Diesel is awesome and Sherman told me that he is his best friend! Sorry Rusty and Cosmo, you come in a close second.

Well, Sherman is now demanding my attention, so I probably should go. I never thought I could love an aminal as much as Sherman William Mueller!