The Family Dinner

Happy Birthday, Old Man!

Today is Big Randy's birthday... I think he's, like, 103 years old or something! We will be celabrating his birthday on Wed, so I will post more pictures of it then!

I love you, Randy! Happy Birthday.

The Bargain

Last week, after our evening class, Randy and I went to the Downtown-Thursday-Night deal in Redlands. It's like a farmer's market - slash - street fair thing. As we walked down the street full of people, I zeroed in on the lovely booth full of knock off purses! Quickly I dragged Randy towards the prize and frantically began digging through faux Chanel, Coach, and Fendi bags. Unfortunately, they were all very obvious fakes. But on the other side of the table sat a pretty little purse that was very similar to one I had been coveting at Nordstroms. The purse (as you can see above) is made out of seat-belt material. Too cute! The sales girl told me that she was willing to make a 'deal' for many of the purses that night, and although the price tag only said $19, I didn't think to grab any cash earlier in the day, so I sadly left the booth and continued on down the street. Not 3 minutes into our journey, I spotted an ATM. Quickly I pulled $20 out and headed back to my booth with Randy in tow. As I got closer to the booth I suddenly realized that I hadn't considered that tax would be added to the price of the purse, and I only had that twenty dollar bill. So I walked up to the booth, grabbed my purse, handed the girl my $20 and said, "I'll give you twenty dollars for the purse". "Okay" she said, and the deal was complete. As I walked out of the booth with my shiny new purse, Randy just shook his head and said "Way to bargain, Jo... you just walked up to her and offered her MORE money for the purse than she was asking. Once again you cease to amaze me!"

Double Smooshed Cookies...

My husband's family makes these chocolate and whipped cream cookies. They are chocolate wafers stacked three high with whipped cream in between. You should see the whole group swoon when they are brought out. It's almost a religious experience around their house. Recently we were sent home with a plate of the sacred family cookies.

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I was instructed to hold them carefully in my lap for the ride home, but not to eat any. (Randy didn't want any crumbs in his new truck!) While on the way home, he pulled off to grab some dinner. I carefully placed the plate of cookies on the seat of the truck, closed the door and followed my husband into the restaurant.

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Towards the end of dinner, I received a phone call so I left Randy to pay the bill and walked out to the truck alone while chatting on my phone. In the middle of my conversation I opened the door and hopped back into my seat, put my feet up on the dash and chatted 'till Randy joined me. As he hopped into the truck, I finished my phone call and reached for my seat belt. As my fingers sunk into the cool mushy mess behind me, I realized that the cookies were nowhere in sight. Uh-oh...I'd sat on 'em. This is probably the one and only time I will ever put a picture of my rump on this blog. Totally for your amusement! Enjoy!

Friday Afternoon at Disneyland

For Christmas, Randy and I were given a pair of annual passes to Disneyland (how cool are my parents?). We were finally able to get away for an entire day and do the Disney thing!

In the rush to get out of the door and on the road to Anaheim, Randy forgot to bring a hat or any sunscreen for his big shiny head. So our first order of the day was to find him a hat. Where else would be go but the Mad Hatter!

Randy didn't really want to try on funny hats for me, but I managed to convince him to try this one! Could he look any more miserable?

I, however, had a blast with all of the different hats.

As to be expected, Randy found something in a nice earth-tone that didn't bring too much attention. I was amused to see that he bought a Grumpy hat, though.

By the time we finally found a hat, we realized that we hadn't eaten any lunch yet. We walked over to the Blue Bayou only to find out that they were booked up for the NEXT THREE DAYS! Sheesh! After a few more unsuccessful attempts to find something appetizing, we just left the park (because we can!) and had lunch at Downtown Disney

Sometimes I forget how pretty it can be in southern california!

After lunch we decided to check out California Adventure... There a two things that will turn Randy back into a little kid... firetrucks and airplanes. He loves them both. Randy knows more about planes than anyone I have ever met...

The minute we walked through this hallway with planes, he began explaining when each plane was built, what it is used for now, and any pertinent information regarding the plane.

I once was a skeptic when it came to Randy's vast knowledge of planes. Since I had no way to prove that he was wrong, I figured he was just making most of his information up. One day, I went online and found pictures of 15 different planes. Not only could he tell me the names of the planes, he could tell me who built most of them and what their purpose was and when they were used. I tell you, it's a little creepy sometimes.

Look at his eyes light up!

I wasn't all that excited about the planes, but I managed to find Heimlich!

"I'm a beeeautiful butterfly... but I'm sooo hungry!"

-Heimlich

Randy also loves to look at plants and trees. He thought this pink one was very pretty.

In contrast, I enjoy cotton candy. I thought this pink selection was quite tasty!

Can't wait to go again!

Happy VD!

Normally the middle of the week has Randy and I pretty busy. Even with Valentine's Day this week, there will be no time off. In lieu of the traditional night out, we decided to take a drive today into Oak Glen, a few minutes above where we live. It was foggy and gray and we loved every minute of our adventure. .

We stopped at the little shops along the side of the road and headed in for caramel apples!

Instead of apples, I found some maple fudge. I about fell over when the clerk slapped my hunk of fudge on the counter and it came to $10! Fortunately, it was really good. Not ten-dollars-good, but good.

Of course I HAD to have my hot apple cider. And as to be expected, I spilled it all over myself and Randy's new truck! Whoops! Since we were celebrating Valentine's Day, Randy let it slide and just rolled his eyes at me! Phew!

In addition to the trip, we also exchanged gifts today. Of course, by "exchange" I mean we went to the store together and each got to spend $30-$40 on ourselves!

Randy knew just where to take me! The MAC store!

McFatty

Since today was yet another long day, I decided to scrap any plans of making dinner and just do the drive-thru thing. I pulled up to the golden arches and ordered. After handing my credit card to the first window, I obediently pulled up to the second window. There the smiling McDonalds worker cheerfully asked me to pull up into the parking lot because they were waiting for my "fresh batch of hot fries" yeah, right, whatever. As I pulled into to the fastfood purgatory, I looked at the folks in the 1994 Chevy Astrovan parked alongside me. Two women wedged into the front seats, waiting for their McSupersized bounty. Feeling a little guilty in judging them, I sucked in my stomach and sat a little taller... you know, to elongate my otherwise rotund stature. After a few minutes, my guilt subsided and I began trying to get a good look at them. As the time ticked away, I could see the ladies getting more and more agitated. Clearly delirious with hunger. After six minutes of shifting themselves back and forth in their seats, the passenger was instructed to, "figure out what the hell is going on in there". As I unsuccessfully scrambled around for my cell phone (to get a picture of this for my blog), the passenger door opened and the van began to dip to the side. Slowly she slid out of the seat, until her pudgy feet managed to reach the ground. As she made her way for the door, her momentum increased. Thighs smacking together, belly fat smacking up and down against her legs, she charged into the restaurant and began to frantically bob her round head and wave her sausage-like arms. I chuckled at the show in front of me. Quickly she was handed three bags and two sodas which she feverishly placed on the table beside her and began to count every single item she had received. After stuffing the food back into the bags, she reemerged through the front doors headed straight for her minivan. As she reached the car door, she turned to me and between breaths informed me to, "go ahead and get in there and find my food because those idiots just forgot about everybody out here". "Thanks, I'll take that under consideration" I replied. As I finally got a good look at her face I thought Oh my goodness, she is probably my age. As she heaved herself back into the van, I turned my engine on and drove away without our dinner. Best $10 I ever spent.

I want to try this, but I think I'll wait and do it on the microwave at work!

Click on the center to view...

Oops, I ALMOST did it again!

I moved out of my parent's house when I was 19 years old. I didn't get married 'till I was 25. During the six years in between, I learned to become somewhat self-reliant and very independent. It was not within my "scope of practice" to really think about anyone other than myself. Randy, however, grew up in a home that regularly made it a point to include everyone in everything. As a consequence, he is a bit more thoughtful of others than I tend to be. Usually it just never dawns on me to include anyone else in my life because I spent so many years alone.

Normally the only problem my independence causes between my husband and I is hurt feelings (he has learned to get over this!) due to my inability to consider other people in my plans. One of the biggest times I forgot to include Randy was a few years back. I decided it was time to purchase a new car and I, coming from a considerably frugal background, began to look for something with good MPG, that was also cheap and reliable. My husband, however, wanted to get a new Mustang. As with everything else in our marriage, (we often have very different ideas about things... I'll tell you about the sofa debacle another time) we were at somewhat of an impasse. To rectify this situation, I took it upon myself to purchase a car without telling him.

Needless to say, Randy was PISSED. His feelings were hurt, he felt left out, blah blah blah. I told him to get over it, he wasn't getting a Mustang. In retrospect, I can see how he felt a little left out. He had gone up to a friend's house for a while that day, and while up there he gets a phone call from me saying, "do you want to come check out this car before I sign the paperwork?" It's still a sore subject today.

As you can imagine, I didn't really learn my lesson on that one.

Recently, over the Christmas break, the car problems we had only got worse. We came to discover that the engine problems were pretty bad and it was going to be expensive to fix. In fact, Randy called me from the mechanic pretty distraught to tell me how much it was going to cost! I told him to come home and we'd make a decision that evening. While Randy was on his way home, I jumped online to look at new cars. By the time he walked through the door I had contacted the dealership and had my credit approved to buy another car. It didn't even dawn on me to include my poor husband in the decision. He walked through the door, visibly upset, and all I said was, "Well I found a new car to buy. It's cheap, with low mileage. We pick it up at 6:30 tonight. Now, help me find my pay stubs from work." Randy, now fully used to this kind of behavior just, started looking for the paperwork.

At 6:30 PM we arrived at the dealership to test drive the car. As we climbed into this compact car (with only 6K miles), I swear the car moaned when we all climbed in. As we test drove it around the block, Randy noticed it was making a clicking sound. I assured him that the car was probably supposed to make that kind of clicking sound... it was totally normal. Thankfully, Randy insisted that the car was NOT the kind of we needed. So we began to look around for more.

In retrospect, it's somewhat amusing that we found ourselves in front of this Ford Mustang. Randy really loved it. I kinda did too. But I was looking at a Mini Cooper and VW Bug! That's when my frugality went completely out the window, and in the showroom I found a lovely red truck! We had them open up the entire showroom and pull the truck out so we could drive it around. Randy and I suddenly got all giddy, and my cheap sensibility ran right out the door. Two hours later, Randy was driving his new truck home...

Yeah, I gave him the new truck. Why? Because he graduates this May... and it will be his turn to buy ME a car. I secretly call the big red truck my little piece of leverage!

New to the family...

My parents have been teaching their dog new tricks! Quite the talented little guy! If you look real close, you can see my husband's old 66 Chevy in the back. Poor thing. My husband can't wait to graduate so he can get it going again!

Another Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Becky!

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This is my sister, Becky. She is working on her doctorate right now, so she will be Dr. Becky in the near future. It's her first birthday 2000 miles away from home... and I am SUPER proud of her for following her dream! Happy Birthday, Becks. I'm going to take myself out to lunch in honor of you! :)

Christmas Break...

What did I spend my time doing over Christmas break? Not as much as you would imagine! A few days after Christmas the dang car crapped out on us! So Randy spent ALL of his free time working on the car...

Nothing like an engine tear-down to get him into the holiday spirit! Being that Randy HATES to get dirty, you can only imagine how ticked he was to come home covered in grease every day. I, however, was quite pleased that my husband is fully capable of working on a car. He's my manly man!

Since one car was out of commission and the other was being used by Randy, I spent my days at home... sleeping till 3pm every day. The rest of the time I was at work, from 6pm to 6:30am. Funny how quickly I lost my sense of time and space working nights. Clearly, not as much fun as it sounds!

Taryn Carter's Mom

I remember a time when I was in sixth grade. I came home one day and informed my mother that, "Taryn Carter said that her mom will buy new shoes and clothes and hide them all from Taryn's dad in the hall closet". To which my mother responded, "That is just sad. A wife should never lie or hide anything from her husband." I dutifully agreed, and went about my life.

Cut to 18 years later. Randy, standing in the middle of my closet, holding a new sweater and a pair of shoes. Tags still on.

"Has somebody been shopping?" He asks.

"Oh yeah. I went to Trader Joe's and got your favorite dessert. It's in the fridge." I say, in a feeble attempt to distract him with food.

"No, I am referring to these new clothes." He responds undeterred.

"Oh. Thoooose. Um... yeah... I bought them for you"

"You bought me women's clothing?"

"Well, I know how you've been wanting to spend some time with me, and I wanted to look nice for you. I thought it would be special. Plus, they were on sale." I lied. Check Mate, I thought. How is he going to deny me this? He won't have the nerve to contradict this. What's he going to say... no, I don't want to spend time with you? Ha! I win! I win! I win!

"Baby" he responds "I think you look beautiful in anything. Especially in whatever you are going to wear when you exchange this stuff for that jacket you told me that I couldn't afford."

"Damn." Foiled again. Let's just hope I make it to the mail box first when my stuff arrives next week!

***note to my mother... I'm not REALLY hiding things from my husband. This is just my enhanced version of what really went down. ***

My 30th Birthday

I celebrated my 30th birthday on December 22nd. I have no recollection of the night... except for the obscene bar tab that will be permanently engraved on my credit card for years to come! It was nice to get out and have some fun, but I was painfully reminded why I rarely consume alcohol. To anyone who has never been drinking with me, let me tell you that the first words out of everybody's mouth who walked into the bar were, "Oh good, Jo is drinking. This should be fun." I suspect that some people come just to watch me go. I'm like a category 3 hurricane. Nothing gets out of the way of my destruction. And everybody is entitled to my opinion. Below are a few pictures to commemorate the night. In the first picture, Randy and I were at the Balboa Pier getting a shake at Ruby's. )

Eventually we found ourselves as a local bar where I had apparently informed the group that inebriated individuals were unable to whistle. Boy, I totally busted that myth! (Now that I have sobered up, I don't recall ever hearing that drunk people can't whistle!) The next picture is towards the end of the night, heading to my car... not to worry, Randy drove and he was completely sober and totally irritated with me... (what? sweeet little me? the same girl who referred to our waitress as Big Red when I ordered? I can't imagine why he was irritated!

Anyone who has been out with me knows that I am a TOTAL wuss when it comes to alcohol... I like it hidden behind lots of sweet mixers and whipped cream.

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Needless to say I was COMPLETELY sober on New Year's Eve. Most likely will stay that way for the next five years!

How to know if you are in love...

I was watching a Chris Rock stand-up routine where he was talking about marriage. He said, "you are not really in love if you haven't SERIOUSLY contemplated killing your spouse". That totally cracked me up.

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It's just been one of those weeks around here. Our "newer" car is having serious engine trouble, and then the "older" car is on the fritz too! Ahhh! Nothing like a little stress to get the year started, huh?

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The question now is: should I buy one pair of roller skates or two?