YAYAYAYAY!!!!!!!

OK, so now that all the hoop-la of the giveaway is over, let's get on with some good posting! First, DeNae, in answer to your question: Yes. The computer is basically fixed. It doesn't hold a charge for more than a couple hours but for the most part it's fixed. And I hope you like this background better. See how compliant I am?

Then, remember my friend Courtney? No? Oh, that's because no one was reading my blog back then. Well, go here and you can read about her a little at the bottom of the post. Or you can go here and read all about her battle and victory over leukemia. She and I met when I was living in Tooele with my first husband. I was 8 months pregnant with Avery when we moved to a townhouse and right next to us was Courtney and her husband, Todd. She has a daughter that's 6 months younger than Hayden and was 3 months pregnant with her second daughter. We hit it off immediately. We had so much fun together that summer. We lived next to each other for about a year then I moved to an apartment just a couple minutes away so we still stayed close.

One day when our baby girls were still really little she and I were hanging out at my apartment. Hayden and her daughter were playing in one of the bedrooms. I had just moved in so I still had a few boxes that weren't unpacked yet. One of those boxes had all the computer stuff in it. So Courtney and I were yackin' in the living room and our kids come in. Hayden holding scissors and her daughter holding locks of her hair. Yep. Hayden cut her daughter's pony-tails off! Courtney was such a good sport about it. She just laughed about it. I seriously would have CRIED!! (Which I did a year later when Hayden cut Avery's pony-tails off.) So we put that fire out and go back to our yackin'. A while later, Hayden comes out with a blue face, blue hair, blue tummy, blue hands. What the HELL??? Daughter comes out holding an ink cartridge for the printer. She had dumped it all over Hayden and my bed and carpet. So we got the kids in the tub and the water immediately turned blue. He was stained blue for a few days to follow.

But that's how it was with Courtney and me. Whenever we got together we just lost ourselves in conversation and enjoying each other's company. Not long after that she moved back to Texas where she and Todd are from. We stayed in contact for about 6 months but after that kind of lost track of each other.

A year ago last December I got a call from Todd. The first thing out of his mouth was, "Courtney....(pause...my heart dropped to the floor, I literally felt the blood drain from my head and I was CERTAIN his next word were going to be "died") has cancer." She'd been diagnosed with leukemia in September and went from "not feeling very good" straight to the ER and then admitted to the hospital for several weeks. She had four little kids at home and didn't even get a chance to explain to them what was happening to their mamma. Todd told me she didn't know he had found me. She had been telling him for some time and especially that night that she just wanted to talk to me. She was upset and just wanted to find me. Being a cancer survivor myself, she knew I'd be able to relate to her. She knew she'd be able to vent all her frustrations and "why me?" to me and I'd know exactly what she was talking about. We cried and talked and cried. She was days away from being admitted to the hospital again for a bone marrow transplant. She was so blessed to have found a match in her sister. I was so close to needing a bone marrow transplant when I had cancer and I was told that they'd bring me right to the verge of death. (As Courtney describes it, "they dangle you on a string, hovering over death) They give you a "mega-dose" of chemotherapy, killing all of your white blood cells and then inject you with the new bone marrow and begin rebuilding your immune system. I was so scared for her. Tavis told me that night that I had to go see her. The next day I booked my flight for Dallas and within a couple of weeks I was there at her bedside. She was 4 days post-transplant. She's 5' 2" and she weighed 90 pounds. She was tiny. She was bald. She was so sick. But she was still my best friend from several years before. We picked up right where we left off. I stayed with her in her room for the whole weekend. We talked and cried and cried and talked. I remember leaving her on Sunday and not wanting to let go of her. She was so small but I just wanted to keep squeezing her. I honestly didn't know if I'd see her alive again. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. To let go of her. But I did. I went home and prayed and worried about her every day. And then a year later, this post. The best news ever.

This past Sunday I got a text from her.

It said: Guess what?
Me: What???
Courtney: I'm...
Me: Stop it!!! WHAT?????
Courtney: Coming to UTAH!

She got here on Thursday. Her husband had work to do in Logan so I got to take her home with me while he went up there. We went to lunch and got to visit and catch up. She spent the night with me. Every time we get together it's like we've never missed a beat. But now our conversations revolve around topics like medication, and the constant pain she's in. Why she can't go in the sun or eat too spicy of food because it literally burns her. Quickly. Of course we also talk about kids and husbands and housewife life, too. Today when I left her she cried. I felt kind of bad for not being more emotional about leaving her. But there was such a huge contrast from the last time I left her. This time I KNOW I'll see her again. I know she's healthy now and she'll continue to heal. Of course after I drove away the tears came. But they were nothing like the tears I shed almost a year and a half ago.

I was going to post about the horrible night I had at work but I think for now I'll just leave it positive and upbeat and all about Courtney. If you've got time you really should browse through her blog.

I'm so grateful to have a friend like her and that I was able to spend a couple of precious days with her.

Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!

OK, people. Here it is! Are you wiggin' out? Have you been on pins and needles waiting to see who the winner is???

Here's my super high-tech drawing system:

I wrote down all your names on little green papers.

Then I put them in a bowl.

Then I had Harley draw out a name.

And the winner is.....

Congratulations Vanessa!!! You're the winner of the Rib City gift card!!! (Although, I'm about to do a post about the WORST day ever that I had at work today so you might want to boycott them, soon.) Email me your address...I promise to only stalk you when you know about it :)

Give Oh Give Awaaaaaay

OK, peeps. You've got til Tuesday at midnight. I know I'm optimistic to think that too many more people give a rat's about this little give away, but I'm gonna drag it out a couple more days!

So go here and leave a comment and you're in!

Oh! And go here and enter Sher's giveaway, too! Seriously freakin' love this girl!

And Here's to 100 More...

Whew! It's been a busy week. Kinda. Let me rephrase that. It's been a week of milestones.
Harley's birthday party was so much fun. He attacked his cake exactly how he was supposed to. He went from picking at it with his little thumb and forefinger to putting his face right down in it and growling at it as he took big bites. Seriously, could not have asked for a better cake-eating display. Like I mentioned in my last post, we had his party a week before his actual birthday so this coming Saturday we'll get to celebrate again. I'm considering inflicting my labor story upon all of you. You've been warned.
Next was mine & Tavis's 3 year anniversary. He was working out of town though, so we haven't celebrated yet. That day three years ago wasn't necessarily the best day of my life. We snuck off to the Tooele County courthouse and got married. With our good friends Chance and Niki as our witnesses. It was fitting since they were the ones who introduced Tav & me to each other. We never imagined the hurt feelings such an act would cause. Our plan was to get married. Make it legal so we could move in together and then have a real "wedding" in September. It wasn't really even the moving in together part that was the reason for the rush. There were things that were starting that summer (football for Hayden and dance for Avery) that I needed to be closer to in order to get them done. We didn't want to officially "shack up" together (I say "officially" because we were basically living together about 4 out of 7 days a week anyway) so we got married. It hurt my parents' feelings. It hurt my kids' feelings. I had prepared Avery to be my beautiful flower girl and Hayden to be our ring bearer. And although we planned to still have a wedding, it never panned out. (We were able to lose the $700 deposit we put down at the reception center, though, so that was fun.) So was May 19, 2006 the best day of my life? No. But it was the beginning of the rest of my life. (Warning: TMI alert. Dad, scroll down to the next paragraph. Our wedding night was the absolute best night of my life. We hadn't...y'know...yet. At the time, neither of us had a strong religious conviction that kept us from...y'know. We just really wanted to wait. I remember talking to him about it & saying that everyone rebels and does it before they're married. We wanted to rebel & not. So it was a tremendous contrast to my first wedding night. The mostly-virgin bride and her very inexperienced groom. Not really knowing what the hell we were doing. But this time I was 30 and more in love with this man than I ever dreamed possible. To say I wanted him would be the biggest understatement ever. And to say it was the most perfect night would be completely accurate. Ahhhh...yes. It was perfect. I look forward to reenacting it when he gets home.)
Which brings me to the next milestone. I don't talk about this much on here because I like to keep things light and fun & this next topic is a far cry from fun. Tavis has been out of work for a year. He owns an excavation company & they haven't had work since last spring. Fortunately for us he had a lot of equipment he was able to sell & we've been living off that. I don't know what we'd have done without that equipment. Oh wait. Yes I do. We'd have filed bankruptcy & moved in with my parents probably. BUT! This week he went to work. It's not his own project. He's filling in for a grader operator that works for a friend of his but it's something. It's a foot in the door that leads to other work. So even though it sucks bad to have him out of town this week, it's been so good for Tavis to be back at work. Everyone knows how important this type of stuff is for men's egos. And for our checking account.
And the last milestone of the week is.....THE ONE HUNDREDTH POST!!! Yippeeeeeee! So I'm thinking a gift card to Rib City. Or if you don't live in the "Rib City" area, your choice of Cafe Rio or Chili's. I don't know how I'm going to choose a winner just yet. I'll probably just put the names in a hat & draw the winner out. And I know I said you had to be a follower but that's so lame so the the criteria is that you have to have left a comment at least one time before in order to be qualified.
So there you go. Good luck to you all!
And just so you know, I did this entire post from my phone so if there's a million spelling errors that's why. Please forgive me.

Blah, Blah, Blah

Hey all! It's been a while! I had to take a step back from the blogging world for a bit. I haven't read or posted a blog for a week now and it was good for me. But I'm back in the saddle!

Kinda sucks, though, because I have seriously nothing to post about.

I've been hip-deep in planning the biggest first birthday bash in the history of first birthday bashes. Harley turns one on May 23rd but we're having his party this Saturday. Why? Well let me tell you. My family usually travels on Memorial Day weekend. Most of us have camp trailers. Half of us have boats and it's a big weekend for them. (My husband refuses to travel on holiday weekends because of the crowds. Lame.) So because Harley's birthday is Mem Day weekend I planned his party for the weekend before. Well, guess what??? My freaking family STILL can't come!!! To say I'm annoyed about this would be a gross understatement. I gave them PLENTEEEE of notice. (I don't include DeNae in this group because she lives out of town so she's forgiven.) I think my dad's gonna come and maybe one of my sisters and I don't know about one of my brothers. Whatever. It's going to be a great party and if any of you locals want to come I'd love to have you!

Speaking of May 16th, I'm sure all of you know this already but Sher is running a marathon on that day so pop over and wish her luck!

I've been rocking the tips at work lately. I made $150 in two nights. I worked tonight and it was freakin DEAD! Where were all the beer drinkers??? Don't they know I've got another birthday party to plan when I get done with Harley's? They don't care. Remember that one night? Well those people came in tonight (at EIGHT FORTY-FREAKING-FIVE!!!!!) and asked if I was going to dump the drinks all over the place again. Sorry, folks! The circus pulled out of town that night. Can I just say that they stayed for 45 minutes after we closed? Rude.

K, so there's the post. Lame, I know. But guess what?? This is post number 99. Do you know what that means? It means that next post has to be something fantastic! I could do that thing where I tell you 100 random things about myself but I've kinda done that here and here and here. So what's it going to be? A GIVEAWAY!!! Yippeeeee! I'm gonna be one of those people and tell you that if you're not already a follower you stand no chance of winning. (Except for that one girl who stopped following everyone and went all incognito. She knows who she is and she's still qualified.)

So stay tuned! And thanks to those of you who asked about me. It's nice to be missed a little!

What's In a Kiss?

I was watching "What Not to Wear" (which, by the way, if anyone wants to do a favor to humanity, you'll sign me up for that show. I promise to get half the wardrobe in your size so we can share.) the other day and at the end, when the woman had her big reveal, it showed her kissing her husband. And for some reason it got me thinking.

I absolutely LOVE to kiss. And I'm not necessarily talking about the passionate, lust-filled kissing. Although, I'm certainly down for that once in a while, too. No, I'm talking about the "peck". I love to do it. I bet my kids have been kissed 12 million times in their lives. Harley has just barely started blowing kisses. (Ya, it's every bit as darling as you think it is.) And he smacks his lips together making the noise when I do it first. Every parent looks forward to the day when they can say to their baby, "kisses?" And right on cue, their baby leans in and opens their little mouth and gives a kiss. It absolutely melts your heart. And it's one of the first things we want to teach our babies.

I love that my ten-year-old son still kisses me on the mouth. And for that matter, he still kisses his dad on the mouth, too. I kissed my parents good-bye well into my junior high years. Maybe even high school.

So as this woman gave her husband several pecks it made me think of just how much I love to kiss Tavis. I love the sound it makes. I love that we do it without even thinking about it. We kiss four times every night before we go to sleep. Peck, peck, peck, peck. We kiss every time one of us leaves and gets home.

So what is a kiss? What's in a kiss? Why is it the universal sign of affection? I'll bet every single one of us can remember our first kiss. (Mine was in kindergarten, under the table with David H. He would later be my first "french" kiss during the summer before 8th grade. I almost suffocated because I couldn't figure out how to breathe for the first minute. He was never my boyfriend, though.) And I bet we can all remember the first kiss with the guy who would become our husband. Who among us didn't practice our "you may kiss the bride" kiss with our spouse before the big day? Will we use tongue? How long will it last? Will we do it like this? Or like this?

I'm interested in your take on kissing. I'm guessing that my "crew" of followers is big into kissing. Lemme know what you think!

Here's Some Stuff I Heard Slash Said This Past Month

At Avery's 2nd grade program to Hayden: "Do I need to separate you and your dad?"

Avery: "Hayden, I wanna see how wide the TV is."
Hayden: "It's one point twenty-one gigawatts!"

Avery: "I'm a miracle."

Hayden: "You know why she keeps getting messages? Because she texas too much."

Avery: "Mama! Don't make me laugh when I'm drinking chocolate milk!"

My sister Jill about her daughter: "She really does have a high crack. She needs plastic surgery."


Avery: "The Easter Bunny is amazing!"


Text from Sher: "Welcome to the dark side."
Me: "At least I'm in good company."


And my personal favorite...
Me driving home from work: "Get off my bumper! I'm blogging!"