More.

The Best of the Rest. Got our pictures back. I think they came out nicely. Except that Chloe likes to give crusty faces to the camera. Thanks to our fabulous photographer. For her info, look at my previous post about the pictures. That's all.

Our fat picture.

A lunchtime Conversation.

Location: Booth at Friendly Neighborhood Micky D's.

Chelsey: Oh, it looks like you got a salad.
Melissa: Yep. I am trying to be healthy.
Chelsey: Oh... I usually am healthy. But it is not good to eliminate all fat from your diet.
Melissa: ??? You're right.
Chelsey: So it's okay to eat a hamburger once in awhile.
Melissa: You're right.
....
Chelsey: I wouldn't be caught dead eating a salad in a fast food restaurant.

The Man of the Hour

Well Blogging Friends. Tis Monday. It is 10:00 AM and I am sitting down to a nice breakfast of french toast. Miss Chloe Jean just barely woke up. I'd say we are off to a very early start, aren't we.

I was just thinking about how Don is never properly showcased in this blog. Afterall, he is "the company." I usually put one sentence snipits of things he has to say. Well today is the day for proper embarrassment. He is going to kill me. And to follow a facebook trend that is taking over the world, I give you:

25 Random Facts About Don T. (Erin I just realized I am copying you. sorry)

1. Don is not self absorbed in the slightest. He would never make one of these lists. He doesn't analyze himself.

2. Don is an expert lawn man. He can grow it, water it, and mow it. And I enjoy the fruits of his 6 AM labor. (He enjoys the fruits of my 6 AM labor, AKA Chloe)

3. Don makes really delicious eggs. So do I (aka Chloe).

4. He puts everything in a tortilla. Because He is a Mexican. No, he REALLY IS. One time I found him putting mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese...in a tortilla.

(sidenote, Chelsey just got here and this is what she just told Chloe "You always want everything I have. Well, you're not getting it." Nice.

5. Don is very easy going, easy to please, and not very picky about things like food...and women ;)

6. He is picky about some things. He doesn't wear flip flops or shorts in public. He is very picky about color combinations and certain colors. He does not like brown and purple together. He will never wear metro colors like light pink or yellow. I try to dress him in such a fashion and he refuses. He likes blue.

7. He likes black jeans. But I don't let him wear them. In response he hid my black dress shorts and said, "You don't think jeans should be black? Well I don't think dress pants should be shorts."

It was hilarious.

8. Don is the hardest worker I know personally.

9. Don loves queso. And chips.

10. Don is a pretty good dancer. As Chelsey would say, "Not great, but good." Actually, he is pretty great.

11. Don cuts his own hair. He tried to teach me and soon realized he could do a better job and would have less nicks in his neck.

12. Don loves "Rocky" and Good old American, Good Guy wins, movies. John Wayne of course.

13. He has a huge family. 10 kids. And I heard him say the other day to a friend,"Ya having 8 kids would seem like a small family to me." Oh. Crap.

14. He is an entrepreneur, business man through and through. If I saw a picture of his brain, half of it would be labeled "ideas for making money."

15. He is not materialistic though, and very down to earth.

16. Don would like to be out of the big rat race by the time he is 40 so he can do things like coach football.

17. He will try anything. Anything responsible that is. Nothing that would possibly kill him.

18. He doesn't worry about too much. He is optimistic.

19. He was a wrestler, football and baseball player, swimmer. He likes sports. He has huge plans for Chloe. So far I have heard that she will be a tennis player, swimmer, and runner. I have said she will be an ice skater, rhythmic gymnast, and a Disney star singer and dancer. So we shall see.

20. Don has bad ears that cause him problems when he travels because they don't pop.

21. Don and I met at a church sports night. He thought he would meet a nice athletic girl. And he met me. He thought I was nice but thought I was really young (I was 22) because of my puma shoes and the roger rabbit I did trying to impress him. I thought he was Italian. So we were both disappointed. However, he was impressed that I was an American Studies major, because he loves America, as do I.

22. I have stronger legs than he does.

23. Um. He's a really, really nice guy.

24. The funniest thing he has ever said: We were driving and I was blabbing, I got interrupted by something and then I said, I forgot what I was saying, what was I saying? And he said to me "I don't know. But next time you are talking, at least one of us should be listening."

25. He barters when it comes to changing Chloe's diapers.

The End. That wasn't too embarrassing. That's number 26. Don doesn't like being embarrassed.

I know I already blogged today but...

This is the list I found laying around at my dads house. Made by Chelsey. She makes lists like it is going out of style.

"

List of things I could do with mellissa from now on

1.make a book of all my favorite songs

2.hang out with her all day

3. help her clean house 

(then apparantly she gave up hence 4 and 5)

4. watch t.v. by myself

5. watch utube by myself"

I Heart President's Day

So speaking of Presidents, He is at my High School today giving a speech on the Housing Crisis. And I am about 3 miles away. In saying that, I am not endorsing his stimulus plan. Okay enough on politics. This past 3 day weekend was just swell. I will go backwards: We went to a park on Monday. Don got interviewed there for the news. Something about Park Rangers being able to issue tickets...and since we (he) had no idea what this issue was about, I am not sure if he will actually make the news. But He was excited because he was wearing a Lightrailconnect.com t-shirt.

I am glad I was not on the news. I was having a bad hair day.

Just pausing for a cig break.

As you might recall my Valentines Day wish list, I want to go to Disneyland. So I got Don to go to this park with a few kiddie rides. And although it was not exactly Disneyland, at least the prices were similar. For example, I got to pay 2 dollars just so I could stand there and keep my child from falling off. Sad to say I actually had a hard time keeping my balance. Maybe the Wii is right and I really do have a fitness age of 74.

unfortunately I was too tall for the ferris wheel so we enlisted the help of this little girl, who, I hope her parents don't mind, is now on a complete stranger's blog. Chloe's cousin was also deemed too tall, and therefor we were all quite perplexed at the taller little boy allowed to ride. Seriously like 2 inches taller than her. weird. Man I really wanted to ride that. Where are the ferris wheel police, or park rangers when you need them? (you know they can write tickets now...)

And we all took a train ride. 3 dollars a person. That would be a dollar a minute. As you can tell, Chloe was quite excited. Don was too. He loves riding little trains.

Going backwards...

Saturday was V-Day and we had the grand idea to go to brunch thinking that we would miss the crowds...wrong-o! But no matter, it was delicious and we were sufficiently stuffed for the rest of the day. Oh and P.S., don't make "Do not want wish lists" because then you have to do some back tracking...remember the Pajama Grams...ya.

Coloring always keeps the kiddos entertained at restaurants:

"Color Dangit!"

Pool Police

So today I went to the gym to go swimming.
I took a shower before I went. Right before I went.
So I go to the pool and am ready to get in.
And a semi old man says to me, "Miss...you are supposed to shower" (pointing to sign).
And I was a little taken aback and thought, this man must find me gross and nasty or something.
And so I said, "I took a shower right before I got here."
Man: "Well the sign says you have to take a shower."
I smiled and went and took a shower while he watched and I thought, weird. (clarification: not watched as in creepy watched, watched as in, good she is taking a shower, watched)

Apparantly he is the pool police.
I asked Don what he thought and he said I should have taken a shower.
So apparantly one gets rather dirty and grimy on route in a car, from house to gym.

Comments?
Just my awkward moment for the day.

Wish List

Valentines Day. It's tomorrow. It's a nice holiday. When I was a kid my mom usually made us feel special by getting us some chocolate and a new outfit. And a card. Sometimes we went out to eat. Then I became a young adult...a single young adult. I pretty much never had a "Valentine" because I never had a boyfriend at the appropriate time...and pretty much never had a boyfriend. In fact, my boyfriends were usually week long things, where the start of the week we were a "couple" or something, I avoided them the whole week, and then broke it off by Friday. Oh wait. One time (other than Don) I had a pseudo boyfriend on V-Day. He got me ice cream and I believe a rose. He was nice. But he sort of gave me the heebie geebies because well, I was rather immature. Not much has changed.

Anyway that is all neither here nor there. I just mention that to say that I have compassion on those without a "special someone" on this one day out of the year. I've been there. You know, sitting on the couch watching some chick flick, eating bon bons, and answering the door to welcome your roomates boyfriend who is standing there in a suit, nice smelling cologne, clasping a dozen roses. Wow this is sounding bitter, and I'm not. Really.... Anyway, you are still special and lots of people love you. And you are H-O-T. Hot stuff.

Now back to me, myself, and I.

Valentines Day has an extraordinary amount of tacky gift options. For example, Don, please do not buy any of these things:

I don't want a Pajama Gram. Even if it does come in a nice hat box. And includes a "Do Not Disturb" sign.

I don't want a "funny" "Made in Vermont" teddybear. Why does being made in Vermont make something more desireable? I can understand syrup...but...It would match none of my decor and totally throw off all my throw pillows.

Example #2. Latino Bear.




I do not want a bear in a large balloon, or anything that can be bought on the side of the road along with other undesireables, like large, fuzzy tiger blankets. I definitely don't want another one of these:

For my wish list...I would like to go here.

And I would love some new duds from Ann Taylor. And a Maid. Look at how happy she is about cleaning. Just whistle while you work...fa la la la la la la....

But...

If I get none of those. I still have these people:

And they are pretty great.

Thanks Don for making V-Day possible, instead of

SAD. single awareness day.

Christmas Pictures in February.

That's right. My dream came true. All except for the losing ten pounds before we took them. Check them out.

Hey Nostalgia, wanna' come play?

So. It has been a rather uneventful week. And I am not ready to hit the sack yet and I felt like relieving some stress through one of my favorite hobbies, blogging of course. And since, like I said, it has been a rather ho hum week, I couldn't think of a single thing to write about. So I started going through old pictures, and I realized life pre-blog is not documented so well. In fact, some of the most important days of my life are mere pictures! I think I wrote about a page in my journal about my wedding, yet I have novels full of ridiculous gibber gabber about boys "tweedle dee and tweedle dum", and how they did/ most often did not/ ask me to dance/out on a date/ or did not send a single glance my way during english class. Nonsense. Complete and utter nonsense. So I am going to try to make up for some of that...excuse the self indulgence. But you are used to it by now, aren't you?

I got married April 23, 2005. It was a tremendous day. Best day of my life.

Here's a picture of Chelsey. I did her hair, but since I was rather busy that day, go figure, I unfortunately was not around for the travesty taking place around the foot area. Oh well. Afterall, I couldn't have someone upstaging my breathtaking beauty.

Oh Grandma...miss her.

I have to be honest. My hair was pretty much the bomb. And I can say that without coming off as conceited because 1.it wasn't really my hair and 2. I didn't do it. I had hair clip ins. It was a masterpiece to behold, if I do say so myself. And I do. (refer to numbers 1 and 2 and previous explanation)

We had a luncheon at a nearby church after the wedding. We were there last and as I recall, the starving bride, missed the majority of the food. Didn't anybody go to charm school and learn that the bride should get to sample all the delectable food before everyone else stuffs themselves? I learned later at the reception that that is the way of the bride-you don't eat. You just try desperately to make it to the food table, but realize it is merely a mirage.

My delightful college roommate Leisa who travelled all the way from California to be there.

The night before the big day. Man we were skinny. And Don was really sick. That is why he was so skinny. And I ate granola bars and never slept. That is why I was so skinny.

The day after we got engaged and making the rounds. Man we look young. Okay this is kind of making me depressed now.

Let's skip ahead shall we... to our 2nd annual Christmas Shin dig. Notice the red striped curtains in the background. Those curtains are no longer hanging up because during my pregnancy I developed an aversion to the color red. For some reason the color red made me want to wretch. So I had to get rid of everything in my house and wardrobe that was red. In fact, I am just barely bringing red back into my life.


Our very first place. The bedroom. I still like my blue wall. Even though it was about 20 shades darker than I had originally envisioned.

Proof that I actually was pregnant. And wow, her nursery looks clean. I have had to move several things as she is now big enough to mess with my decorations. Yo Yo Chloe, you don't mess with yo' mama.

Okay. Anyone that is actually reading this, could you copy and paste this picture and send it to "What Not To Wear." I could really use the 5,000 dollars.

Some styles take 10-15 years to look really ridiculous, but this...

I threw away that white catastrophe as soon as we got home from Park City.
Those plaid shorts, I still wear. Even though I shouldn't.

Same trip, right before Chloe became a twinkle in Don's eye. (he's going to kill me)

Another of my dearest college roommates. Elder Oaks was sitting right next to us and came over and said hello to their little boy. It pays to have cute little kids around. It's even better than being tall, good looking and rich.






I took a cooking class the first year we were married. I wanted to learn how to make really fancy looking stuff, but mostly we learned how to make a white sauce and how to measure everything in ounces. Which by the way makes my 60 dollar required cookbook totally useless as I prefer to use my standard measuring cups. I think I gained 10 pounds. (but got a great hat) For which I needed a running partner. Enter Robyn, doing who knows what on the other couch...?

Excuse me while I go cry....

Okay I am back. Our first Christmas together. Long hair...perfectly placed nic nacs...real tree. Those were the days.

Man I was skinny.

Man I was fat.

I believe this is one of the, oh, 3 days or so I was in labor. And maybe the first time I tried to get them to let me into their hospital?

Man. There has got to be another way.

Who's up for surrogacy. I'll give you my plaid shorts. Anyone...Anyone??

Melissa Learns Another Lesson.

Toddler is not ready to be left unattended while putting on face.

Quote of the day:

Chelsey: "I do not like adult things...I am not like other adults, we don't have the same interests." (after a lengthy list of "adult" things that she doesn't enjoy, she came up with this, and it made me chuckle.
"I don't like watching the news, because I can't do anything about it."