80's classics to whistle to while you work

Today I was cleaning the house- both of my parents taught me how to clean from an early age. Though I didn't live with my dad for a long time, I remember him harping on my step bro/sis when they were little to clean their rooms, clean the kitchen, etc... The only thing I remember as a child was him telling me to clean my room, only to send my sister up with me to help (I think we shared a room). So as you can imagine, a 3-5 year-old won't clean as well as a 10-12 year-old; and I can remember my sister (Amanda) always putting on music so that we would clean quicker. "The faster the music, the faster we clean". Today I thought about that as I was neurotically cleaning the kitchen. If only I had had some awesome late eighties music to jam to i.e. Madonna, Boyz II Men, Debbie Gibson, New Kids on the Block, MC Hammer, and Vanilla Ice. Ice Ice Baby! If you were born in the late seventies to the mid-eighties, you will know exactly what I'm talking about! Next time you are cleaning and need some motivation, pop in some old tunes on your i-pod or computer and clean away :)

Pumpkin carving/decorating, round 1

Today, we (and by "we" I mean "I") carved our first of two pumpkins. A while ago I found dog patterns in the Better Homes & Gardens for October. Needless to say, I got online and downloaded the pug pattern. I didn't realize how over-my-head I was in carving this, but I gave it my best shot.













These are the white pumpkins that I painted bats on. The idea is to hang them from stakes or ceiling/roof so that they are suspended in air. Unfortunately I don't have any stakes, and I don't have any string to hang them with, so they are sitting on our porch wall.

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Happy Birthday?

My birthday this year snuck up on me. I didn't really have time to prepare. Even birthday week was...lacking, to say the least. Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday- work. WORK ON MY BIRTHDAY! Ugh. Friday night, for my birthday, I wanted to play Nintendo, original Nintendo. Brought it home, went to set it up and...NO POWER CORD! My hopes and dreams were squashed. Brenan is sick, so I didn't work with him today (and if he would have been there, the day really would have been about 100x better than it was). To make work worse, people (customers) as a whole were kind of rude/snooty to me all day.  So, later I went and bought myself lunch (alone) and as I was walking back to work, the bag broke and it all fell on the pavement (while splattering sauce all over my shoes and pants)! Grrr... I need to preface my next story: at Banana Republic, we ask every customer if they want to sign up for a Banana Republic credit card. Every day/week/month we have goals we need to meet for signing people up. If you don't sign anyone up, you get put on a "naughty list". So, needless to say, I ask everyone even though it puts me out of my comfort zone. Sometimes we get rewards from our managers or our district people for signing people up.
Today, as I was ringing someone up (like, I was about to ask them if they wanted a card since they were spending so much) my manager came over and asked my customer if they wanted to sign up for a card. They said yes, and she took the credit!!! IT WAS MY CUSTOMER!! It should have been my card! The nerve.
No one at work even knew it was my birthday until I said something near the end of my shift. In their defense, one of my managers did go buy me a frozen yogurt and made me a card before I left. 15 minutes before I left. And Brenan did clean up the house while he was home and made me dinner. Now we're watching TBS, "very funny". That is my birthday celebration. TBS.

No cake, no ice cream, happy birthday.

Boy's night in

I LOVE my family. Last night, as I was getting ready to leave work for the day, my brothers and mom walked in the store to say hi! It was a nice surprise. Then, to sweeten the experience, my mum took us out to Cafe Rio for dinner. If you have ever eaten there, you know how absolutely delicious it is. Our favorite: fire grilled steak burrito with pinto beans, cheese, green sauce, lettuce, pico de gallo, and rice on the side. Usually Brenan and I split one, and never finish. I tell you what, we scarfed down the whole thing last night! Amazing. Then I thought to myself, what if the boys stayed the night at our house for a sleepover and I could bring home scrapbooking stuff while they play Halo. Perfect. So, we ran to Redbox and got The Proposal and trotted on home. It was a perfect Thursday night. The boys watched Community, Parks & Recreation, The Office, and 30 Rock while I made homemade cards for my sister. This was one of my  favorite parts of the night: "Rachel, can you make homemade popcorn?"--John. Yum, homemade popcorn is the best! The boys also bought a bumload of candy for the movie with one of my favs- Twix :) Then this morning, we had waffles and cheesy ham and eggs. Best sleepover ever! My brothers and hubby rock!

Friday Night Fashion Show

What? It's Friday already? Where has the week gone? Oh, I know...Thursday night, one of the most important nights of the week was...The Office! We were glad to see that Jim and Pam finally got married, though some parts were kind of awkward- to say the least. Can you imagine having people dance down the aisle at your wedding?! I would like to see the real youtube video that they got that idea from.

Tonight, we scampered away from work early and went and got Walter some gifts. He got a new bed, collar, doggie bowls, rain coat, and winter coat. We love Old Navy's dog line, especially when it's all on clearance and we get an employee discount! First thing first, we dressed him up. It took a few minutes for him to get used to the clothes, but he looked so cute!

**On a side note, I want to let everyone know that we are not those type of pet owners that buy their dog expensive things and dress them up all the time. When we first got Walter, Brenan told me that I could only dress him up once a year (Halloween), but once we moved to Utah, we realized that he hates the rain/frosty grass. So, instead of focusing on his "business" when he is outside, he hides under trees to find shelter. This led us to buying him clothes out of necessity, not glamor or...je ne sais quoi.  

Not a typical Tuesday

Tuesday, a day off :)

Tuesday also became laundry day, bear stew day, pilates day, Law & Order day, 19 Kids & Counting, oh- and Walter humping my leg. Yes, you read right, humping!

Last night Brenan asked for bear stew. Rewind: Quinn (our little bro) shot a bear a couple of weeks ago, and while the fam was visiting in SLC, they gave us some bear and elk. WARNING if you under cook bear, you will die. No joke. So, I made bear stew just as you would make beef

stew. It turned out good, and I would describe bear as lobstery beef, meaning it's the difference in texture between crab and lobster. It tastes like beef but is squishier.

Pilates, just like any other day. I usually do it while Brenan is in the shower so that he doesn't watch me/ make fun of me. Yesterday, things went over well; no incidents with Walt. Now, if you know about pilates, it's rather stationary in terms of your entire body, and you move one body part at a time, i.e. leg, back, etc... So, I'm doing scissor kicks and Walter keeps running after my leg, like it's a game. I thought he was just chasing my leg. Brenan walks out and is laughing because he got stuck on my leg as my leg went back and forth and kept tumbling over. Then Brenan gasped. I looked and there was Walt

humping my leg. It came from nowhere! What is my puppy learning? It was an accident. I hope.

He may think he's king of the hill, but he's just so cute that it's hard to get mad at him.

On a side note, Paula Deen's cinnamon rolls are awesome and were great for conference weekend!