it's no joke!

Seven years ago today, I was in labor with our first child. I had an ultrasound and we were told that we were expecting a boy. I was even dreaming about a dark-haired boy! His due date was supposed to be mid-Marchish.

We were told: "Prepare for blue and green!" and "Think of boy names!"

Well! After a long labor and delivery, our first beautiful child was born. As I took this gorgeous newborn baby in my arms, I realized something:

My new baby had just pulled the ultimate April Fool's Joke!

On April 1, 2002 at 7:32pm my baby was born. It was a girl. A beautiful baby girl! And we named her Ryanna after her wonderful Daddy, Ryan. Oh, Happy Day! She shares this special day with my great-grandmother. It's also Nana's birthday, but she passed away before Ryanna came into the world. I'm sure they knew each other in Heaven though!

2002

2003


2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

Happy Birthday Ryanna! You're a neat kid and I'm so lucky you're mine. Love you so much!!

that's a lot of posts

Wow, this is my 403rd post in less than 2 years...can I call it a hobby yet?

catching zzzzzz's

There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ryanna wouldn't sleep through the night until she was 3 and even then, it was far and few between. (Life is wonderful now, she does just fine) I don't have many cute sleeping poses from her, because she never slept!!!

Dawson loved to sleep with a doll when he was little, but now he hunkers down with Mr. Lion and Later Gater. And sometimes on the floor.

But Carter takes the cake on this one. He is by far my most hilarious sleeper. These days, he sleeps halfway out of his bed! He's always falling asleep in funny places. He's taken 3 naps a day up until a month ago. Now he'll take one big one, but he certainly loves his sleep!!

The other night, he snuck out of bed and fell asleep in the front room! Silly guy.

who ordered this?

At this point, nothing should surprise me. However, it does! This was a little interesting...I put away the gloves, hats, boots, and heavy coats but I had to dig them out again this morning. I love the moisture, but why does it have to be so cold?!

We got 3-4 inches overnight...yeah!

I left the blanket out on the bike to air-dry. Now it has to thaw and then dry again!

a little foreshadow?

If you squint, can you see who is in this picture?

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts came and visited the law school a few weeks ago and Ryan got this picture with him! (Our good friend, Diane, was also in the picture, but some moron stuck his face in between hers and Chief Justice Roberts. The aforementioned idiot made a face at the camera, thus ruining the picture. I thought we were in LAW SCHOOL and not Kindergarten. Maybe not?)

Taken from nwpr.org: "In his speech, Roberts took note of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the UI College of Law, and the 200th birthday of Lincoln, and reminded the audience that it was President Lincoln who created the territory of Idaho and appointed the first territorial governor.
The Chief Justice spoke in Moscow on Friday before a packed house taking part in the annual Bellwood Memorial Lecture."

Inside that 'packed house' was Ryan! He attended Bellwood again this year. I'm so proud of him and how hard he's working and I look forward to what the next few months will bring!

paper towel drama

**Make sure your volume is turned up high for this post**


I am a Germaphobe and I'm proud. I HATE germs and feeling dirty. I keep one (okay, two) bottles of scented antibacterial gel in my purse. As well as two in the car and then several placed throughout the house. (What can I say, I LOVE Bath and Body Works!)

I can't walk in the house and get settled until my hands are washed. The first thing I do when I wake up is wash my hands. I like to be clean. At least my hands do.

I guess that there are some people worse than me. I had just got done using the elliptical machine at my gym and was getting ready to wipe it down. However, there were NO paper towels in which to wipe down the machine. (GASP! Which for Germaphobes in Gymland is the equivalent of the Apocalypse!) I walked around trying to find another roll of paper towels.

As I glanced about the room, the woman that was on the machine next to me was looking at me with rather intent eyes. She was staring at me and I felt her gaze, but avoided it. I continued walking around in search of some two-ply goodness.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see this woman get off of her machine, and run at me at full steam! If she hadn't stopped, she would have run me over.
She stopped and said rather rudely, "Excuse me! You didn't wipe down your machine after your use!"

I snipped back at her, "I'm looking for paper towels at the moment but can't find any."

She pointed at the paper towel holder that I just tried and said, "Look. There's some right HERE."

(Are you kidding me?)

I came back with "There aren't any in there. I already tried."

(Duh!)

She huffed, "Well you should always clean your machine because you wouldn't believe the germs on it. Sorry about that, you should know that you clean your machine after you're done."

(Ya think?) She wasn't even a manager.

Needless to say, I got my machine wiped down. And then it continued. I'm not KIDDING. She followed me around the rest of the gym and watched my every move while I was using the free weights. She watched as I cleaned each machine after I was done using it. She watched me until I started getting ready to leave. And ironically, she got ready to leave when I did! She left right after me, but not after being super nice and saying, "Have a good night!"

I pursed my lips and gave her a "see ya later" and left. Wow. I hope that I never have to encounter her again...but my luck isn't that good. It's a small world up here!

spring is in the air, kinda

I love Spring!

I love the blue sky!

I love the green grass!

I love the blossoming trees!

And the gorgeous flowers!

Oh, who am I kidding?! It still snows here every morning. I hope the REAL spring comes soon, I'm getting tired of wearing big, pink clonker snowboots to church!

getting vamped

It's amazing what red candles, black tablecloth and Muse can do for a girl! The table was set, the candles were lit and it was time to party! It was so fun to have a few gal pals come over and have the Ultimate Twilight Experience. There's no way that movie is so much fun without friends like mine! You can't really tell from the pictures, but my table was beautiful!

Ashley won the Twilight Flair because she got the most questions answered correctly for the Trivia Game! I want to see that proudly displayed, Ash!

Katelyn and her new Edward shirt. I commented, "He looks good on you!" Totally did NOT come out right.

Suz, Katelyn, Teri, Ashley, Kristin and me. There was no shortage of giggles here!

I'm sure that I can be persuaded for an encore matinee for those of my gal pals that couldn't make it...how about this weekend?