You say it's your birthday!

hello 40!!!

I've been thinking a lot about my not so minor freak out about leaving my 30's.

Here's the thing: My 30's rocked my socks off.

• I had Noah, the best boy in the entire world.
• I met, fell in love with, and married Peter.
• We added to our family with two beautiful, funny, adorable girls.
• I became a Catholic and strengthened by relationship with God.
• I started scrapbooking and taught classes with uber talented artists at my favorite store.
• I wrote a book! Thought of it, designed it, worked on it for 2 years, and even finished it!!!
• I met a group of women whose friendships mean more to me than I could possible explain.
• We found a great house that, even with the crazy small backyard, we totally love.
• We both have jobs/careers that we love.
• and most recently, we found Iris and added her to our family.

And that's just the big stuff. That doesn't count every laugh I've heard from my kids in the other room, every smile they've giving to me, every fight that got worked out. Every debt we've managed to pay off. Every baseball game, or karate tournament, or talent show. That doesn't count every funny exchange between peter and I or every time we make each other bust out in laughter.

My thirties kicked ass! Plain and Simple. How could my 40's possibly measure up to a list like that? I've wondered that all week, coming into today. I woke assuming I would feel exactly the same. Everyone said I would, and I saw no reason not to believe them. Here's the thing. I DON'T feel the same. I feel BETTER. If my thirties kicked my twenties stupid butt, my 40's are going to do the same, I just know it.

So bring it on new decade! Show me what you got. You're got big shoes to fill, and I know you're going to rock the house!

m

Phil in the Box

I'm at home today with a sick Noah Bear. He woke me at some ungodly hour last night with a cough. I feel bad now because I didn't get up with him and (I think) told him to get a class of water. In my defense, I was in the middle of a wackiest dream ever that had me woefully confused. It involved one of my architect clients, who wasn't an architect, but a Catholic Priest. Then, this architect/priest was also my date who insisted I wear his collar. He was kinda pushy about it, too. Crazy, because the architect is no were near pushy, and the same can be said for Priests. This was just the beginning too, and for sure the only parts I can pull out of my head and put into poorly constructed sentences. Still, with this short description, I'm sure you can see why I might have been a tad confused? yes?

geeez. Whoa! how was that for an "I digress" moment?

Back to the story. Home with Noah, but still had to get the girls together and off to their schools. On the way back I stopped at Jack in the Box for the crucial First Diet Coke of the Day. While trying to order I started laughing, making me look especially crazy. All because I saw this:

For some reason, this cracked me up. Come on, that's funny. Okay, okay...maybe it's just me. I've always loved Jack. This love affair has grown over years and years, getting stronger with each new ad campaign. This year's "hang in there Jack" is no exception. I mean this,

The broken nose? GOLDEN! I don't care who you are, that's funny right there. I can't keep from giggling, even now.

Back to the drive thru. I pull up feeling kinda bad that I was laughing while the cute headphone girl was taking my order. They kinda know me there (kinda? they invite me to Thanksgiving) and I wanted to make sure she didn't think I was making fun of her. We got to talking and she told me that there was a message on the JITB voicemail informing management that JACK WAS

BACK! After the obvious laugh about how far this ruse is going, I came home and found this:

HOORAY! because Phil in the Box would have just sucked donkey butt.

m

step away from the electronics

Once again, I've been a bad bad blogger. So many reasons, none of which you really give a damn about, so I won't go there. Things have been happening around here, mainly with electronics.

So let's talk about electronics. The fun, yummy, pink phone kind, to be exact. My beloved HTC smartphone found the hard side of the floor the other day and died a horrible death. No biggie really. With the three kids (none of which have actually ever hurt my phone, it's always me) I have the insurance, so I knew what to expect with the insurance replacement.

or so I thought.

Man oh man, what a pain. First, the "upgrade" phone was a complete POS. HATED it. I could not get rid of it fast enough. My breaking point though, was trying to check my email. 20 minutes later, TEARS, and still no email, I gave up. That experience was made even more horrible when Peter walked in on me. "Are you crying? Michelle, it's a PHONE!"

yeah pal, BUT IT'S AN EXPENSIVE PHONE THAT DOESN'T GET MY EMAIL AND I HAVE TO GET MY EMAIL RIGHT NOW OR THE WORLD WILL IMPLODE ON ITSELF AND WE WILL ALL DIE BEFORE I KNOW WHO TAGGED ME TODAY ON FACEBOOK!!!!

Clearly, I'm insane.

After much running around checking on every new phone on the market and comparing rate plans, I landed on the G1 from T-mobile. THIS PHONE ROCKS PEOPLE. I expect it will get up and make me breakfast tomorrow, it's that good.



Like the iphone, there are a million applications you can download. and believe me, I've been downloading. yummy...i love downloading. One of the first things was a set of wallpapers. This little guy was my first pic. Just look at him, is he not the cutest thing ever?!?? I dare you to frown while looking at him. OMG, i love him.



Another app I downloaded was PicSay. It's this cute photo editor where you can add silly graphics and props and crazy stuff. I took the liberty of "enhancing" the already goofy picture of Peter in his fake glasses. Then, I added it in my Five.

he's super hot!



m

to things forgotten

Is it a good sign, or a bad sign, that on Valentine's Day you and your hubby are in separate rooms; one playing video games, the other facebooking and doing website editing with her girlfriend? Me thinks that as long as both parties are happy that it's all good. At least I hope so, or else I'm in big trouble.

Peter and I aren't the sappy, horribly romantical type couple. Want proof? out of 6 anniversaries, we've forgotten 2. I was the first to forget too - our second one at that. We both forgot the 4th. Imagine the laugh we got when we both got an email from his sister wishing us a happy anniversary. DUDE, really? My sister-in-law remembered and WE BOTH forgot?! Actually, another SIL and our nephew remember too. That's just crazy.

I remember that 4th anniversary like it was yesterday. Well it was only 2 years ago, so not far off, but let's be real, I forgot our second one. Memory isn't my strong suit. But this I'm not likely to forget. I got this email and before I could call peter, the phone rang.
"Did you just get an email from Nancy?"
"yeah"
"we forgot again"
"yeah"
"happy anniversary babe. I love you"
"happy anniversary babe. I love you, too"
"think we'll remember next year"
"no"
"well at least we both forgot, so you can't be mad at me"
"pretty much. Oh and hon?"
"yeah?"
"be sure to thank Nance for the reminder"
"will do"


We did remember the next one though. And then the next one even. It's coming again in august, I'm pretty sure we won't go 3 for 3. So if someone wants to send me an email A DAY EARLY that would be fantastic. OH wait, I facebook now. Maybe the Internet will remind me.


Thank God for the Internet. and sisters in law.



Happy Valentine's Yo! Y'all rock!





m

Big Game

Today is a big day for (us) Arizona football fans. I'm normally not one to lament about being somewhere I'm not, but today I gotta say, I would LOVE to be here:



But I know a few people who ARE GOING! So I'll be living through them. Thank God for cell phones and texting. It's going to feel like I'm there!

m

meet my husband, the comedian

My man is blind. Which, now that I think about it, makes me wonder if he has a clue what I look like. I know he doesn't know what color my eyes are. He thinks they are blue. They are not, they're green. It's an ongoing joke I won't let him ever live down. But that's another post. This one is about his eyesight.

So, he's blind and with every eyeglass-wearing person, he needs new spectacles every few years. Today was that blessed day. I asked if I go with him to vote on the new pair. He shot me down without a second thought, "I've been doing this since I was 16, Michelle. I can handle it" Yeah yeah, but I don't wear glasses every day so it's cool to me. Freaking humor me, man. But Nope. He didn't want me to tag along. I called him a name I can't say here. Starts with F, ends with head. Some day I'll tell the story about that 'term of endearment', too.

Let me tell you something about Peter. He's is killer funny. The man cracks me up. Everyone wants to find that person who makes them laugh, right? I know I always did. I dated many funny guys. Some were even like seriously stand up comedian funny. But what made it different with Peter is he thinks I'm killer funny too. We're like a matched set of really super funny people - to each other. If no one else ever cracks a smile over us, it's cool. We'll be kicking back laughing out our own damn selves.

This smarty pants husband of mine comes walking in with these on, and asks me what I think.



seriously? we're close. soul mates (hurl) even. But in those first few seconds of looking at him I didn't think I could tell him that those were quite possibly the ugliest pair of glasses ever made. How do you tell someone that? "oh yes dear, those silver dollar sized, amber colored, way too narrow, BI-focal glasses look horrible, dear."

Thank God he let me off the hook quickly. He told me that they - quite literally - came from the "ugly box" of glasses. Apparently, Peter told his Dr. about my desire to 'help' with this process and they devised this plan to show up with the nastiest part of glasses in the free world. Possibly on the planet.

I called him the F slash head name and then peed my pants with laughter. His real glasses will be here next week.

m

love my peeps, just not the marshmellow kind

This weekend has been kinda busy, especially today, when I got a crazy hair and decided to take down all the Christmas decorations. Even the Santa's outside, Beth. :) I haven't put anything back up so the house looks really strange. It's going to have to wait until tomorrow, though, cuz I'm beat! But it feels good to have it (almost all the way) done.

I joined facebook this weekend, too. already addicted. The newness better fade quickly or I'll alienate all my 'new' friends before the week is out. Nothing like a newbie huh?!

Beth , Kaelene and I scrapbooked at Paper Vineyard last night. Had a blast!!! We went to Walmart after - my all time favorite place (you can hear the sarcasm right?) so I could pick some up crap (no floor cleaner stalker guy or bitch fights Kerry, thank god!) and I ran across this aisle.

Seriously, Valentine's Day. Can we get a week's break from the holiday merchandising? This aisle was literally nauseating it was so huge. Pink from floor to ceiling and 50 feet deep with this:

GIGANTIC sign ever so gently reminding you to show your love for your family with heart shaped candy or else they'll get bitter and resentful and divorce your ass for a candy maker.

As I walked away from the football field of pink I let it go. I mean V-day is only 5 weeks away, or there abouts. I could get my candy now, eat it, and still have time to buy more for Peter. Too bad it'll be stale!

But then...oh then...we got to the front and Beth saw this.

That's Easter candy my friends. EASTER! This is a crappy picture, at best, so if you don't believe me, I took another.

This is a crappy picture, at best, so if you don't believe me, I took another.

no doubt about it, that's a creme egg.

While I love the Cadbury Creme Egg more than the average Joe, and I'm tickled that I won't have to wait until after Lent to have (a super stale) one, I am fearful that I won't make the 3+ months of looking at hollow Easter bunnies and Peeps. Someone make get hurt. I'm guessing it'll be the Peeps.

m

Christmas pics after Christmas

Here are some random pictures I've taken over the last couple weeks. I've not been able to post them because, well let's face it, I'm completely lazy. Then I got a raging cold and couldn't do anything. I'm on the mend now, wide awake, and hopped on B12, so I figured I'd blog a little blog.


I did prove something this year, in regards to being sicky. I get a cold every stinking year and I've always thought it's because i go and go and go and the cold is my body's way of saying STOP IT MORON. but this year I did nothing. NOTHING. and I still got that dumb cold. and let me tell ya, decorating the tree (including the lights), wrapping every single present, and SHOPPING for the hubby on CHRISTMAS EVE with a cold, sucks ass. If I'm going to get a cold I might as well do something before hand so at least I'm not trying to finish everything while I'm trying to plan my own funeral.

But I digress. Back to pictures. I saw this cute wreathe at Starbucks at the mall last week. Yes, I did stop in the middle of everything and snap a picture. I didn't even care who took notice. The wreathe is that cute. no?



Oh! wait! If you can't tell, those are balls of yard up in there y'all! CLEVER right?! Maybe I'm going back to my childhood with my mom who was an avid knitter. I can't tell you how many skeins of yard I've balled up in my life. So this gives me warm fuzzies, the same way chocolate milk or smores might. I think my mom actually had a contraption to aide in this task. I could be wrong there.

Kate's daycare has a Christmas program every year. It's always consisted of a half an hour of super cuteness for most kids (mine included of course) but there is always those few who are completely over it. The idea of singing in front of 50 adults and/or wearing any sort of costume is simple out of the question. This results in the typical crying and screaming also known as a TANTRUM.

I've always loved this preschool concert, mostly because of the half hour part (yes I said it) but this year they changed it up and did a dinner with Santa thing. We all brought pizza and a small unisex toy and the school provided drinks and desserts (of which I had too many!) Then Santa came for a photo op and to hand out (the provided) gifts. MY KIDS LOVED THIS!!!



Noah even VOLUNTARILY wore the suit I got him for his presentation a few weeks earlier. I don't have a single picture from that event that's decent enough to post. I still don't have a clue how to take a good picture in low light, we've gone over that, right? Trust me, he was crazy handsome!

I do have a photo of the cute cookies one of the teachers made. You've seen them on Lorie's blog I'm sure, and Martha's but here's a pic of one in real life :) They are delicious!!




Then again, I never met a sugar cookie that I didn't like.



I'm in the middle of organizing 10 years of pictures. Be prepared for some looking back. :)



m

when cups get cold

Just one picture today and a quick blurb. Been super busy. Not sure with what, though. It's not like I've been shopping. Crap, I haven't even starting thinking about shopping. Yeah, I'm gonna pay for that one.

This is a real cup in our office, all hooked up with its own polka dotted cozy. seriously? it's not like it even has liquid in it. Just standard ole candy canes. But it's ready for the blistering cold of an Arizona winter. All 50 degrees of it.





It is stinking cute though, and it does make me smile. kinda a lot actually :)

m

Etsy stroll

Took a little Etsy stroll tonight. Something I like to do to find more stuff I don't need but convince myself I can't live without. Like 3D metal M's. Sometimes I just can't help myself.

Today's search was simple. Turtles. My all time favorite animal. I love many animals. Elephants, hippos, penguins, bunnys, pandas, manatees, polar bears pigskittensbabybirdsgiraffesrhinossnowleopardslkajsdlfjasldkfjljasld YOU NAME IT. I've probably wanted to start a collection. But from a very young age, as far back as I can remember (HEY! shut up now..don't go there!) I've loved turtles.

This search was fun for me. Some made me laugh. One even made me blush. So I thought I'd blog about it.

Meet Dilbert the daydreaming turtle
I love him. L.O.V.E. I might have to buy him just so I know he's got a good, loving home to keep his lampwork beaded self warm.

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Next is an entire cast of sea creatures. Hard to say which is my favorite here. History would say it's the turtle for sure. But look at that crab. and the octopus. Are you kidding me??? CUTENESS. But that whale. ah that whale...in all his uber big round head and short, skinny tail. I think I love him best. If my kids wouldn't destroy these creatures in minutes flat they would be living here!

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I'm going to take it easy with This guy And by guy, I mean GUY! Holy crap is this show PG???

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Now bear with me on this one. I don't mean to poke fun at any artist. We all have our place in this glorious world, but this guy kinda makes me panic. He's cute n'all, what turtle isn't? but it's kinda like he's got a killer whale chasing his ass and he's swimming for his life. wow! and that's all I can say about that, I can already feel myself hyperventilating.

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I'm so glad I put myself on mini album probation before I found this adorable little thing. Had I not I'd have a dozen of these guys lying around...not being done.

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And finally, the cross collectible of all time. A turtle on a box. This is the best of both worlds for me. BRILLIANT! This combination marries my two deepest loves - boxes and turtles. Just looking at this makes my mouth water and my hands shake. seriously, I wish I was kidding. Put a slice of pizza, a chocolate bar and a beer in that box and I am in heaven people. HEAVEN! And wust wook at wis wace...so woveable and swuggly. *SLAP* oh sorry about that, momentary loss of self control.

This guy I might really have to buy.

m

just cuz

I've done this one but thought I would do it again and then maybe compare.

Where is your mobile phone? desk
Where is your significant other? work
Your hair colour? dyed
Your mother? shelf
Your father? shelf
Your favourite thing? laughing
Your dream last night? wacked
Your dream goal? fit
The room you're in? cubicle
Your hobby? scrapbooking
Your fear? heights
Where do you want to be in 6 years? living
Where were you last night? driving
What you're not? thin
One of your wish-list items? laptop
Where you grew up? Northern California
The last thing you did? ate
What are you wearing? clothes
Your TV? big
Your pets? gone
Your computer? slow
Your mood? clear
Missing someone? yup!
Your car? parked
Something you're not wearing? socks
Favourite shop? target
Your summer? standard
Love someone? many!
Your favourite colour? pink
When is the last time you laughed? lunch
When is the last time you cried? yesterday





And this, just for fun, cuz noah hasn't had much time here cracking us up. but that doesn't mean he's not funny as hell.



Noah with his fauxhawk and rockstar hands (his hair has been cut since this pic) and Sarah being a cheese ball. Heaven forbid I snap a picture that doesn't have her in it :)

m

PHEW!

***edited to add pictures***

wow. That was a fun 4 day holiday. Seems like I did a lot. Here's a quick run down, in no particular order.

- Christmas threw up in my house, and it had snowmen and white lights for lunch. I'll have pictures soon. Like when I remember to take pictures during the day cuz I REALLY SUCK at night pictures.

The snowman wall. Only snowmen, nothing else. I have issues.

This doesn't look like many lights but that's because I suck. Peter did a kick ass job, as usual, on the house. I love it.

A new addition to the M household. I love them!

I can't forget about the Santa's They are more spread out.

- I rearranged our family room a little bit. Took out the fish tank, hung the curtains I've had for 2 years, arranged this huge clock and framed pictures I've had for a year, and basically gave the room a little face lift without spending any (more) money.

Here are the clocks. You can't tell how big or high this is. But if you remember this post you might have a better frame of reference. that top clock is like hugh! The bottom of it is higher than the top of my entertainment unit. That's up there and I totally love it!!!!

- I am extending the lifted sale through Cyber Monday. woo hoo for sales!

- I've finalized the project I've been working on for the free class. Still lots to do, like take a million pictures on the construction process and write up everything. But the creative part is done and that's a fantastic feeling.

- okay...I'm hesitant to even write this here, but what the hell, I think I'm FINALLY over being a fat ass and am ready to do something about it. This is going to be a MASSIVE undertaking, cuz I pretty much could be cut in half and still be bigger than most of my friends (skinny bitches! haha) but something must be done. I've started really reeeeeeeeally slow. Like giving up desserts after every meal. And yes, confession time, I've taken to having something sweet like all the time, even after breakfast. and YES - THAT'S freaking CRAZY - but true! So be prepared to hear about that from time to time.

and finally - We had a fantastic Thanksgiving. My bro came over as did our baseball friends who have 2 kids, and then one of peter's collegues and his wife. It was a blast having so many people around. I hope y'all had a great holiday!!!

m

wow, pure talent!

I could listen to this kid all day long. Who am I kidding, I damn near have :)
Check out the rest of this stuff. He's amazing.





m

my brain may explode

No joke, I think my brain is going to explode. Lots of things rambling around up in there. Beyond being actually busy at work (this is a good thing for sure!!!) I've got some personal/creative things going on.

first, my scrapbook room. I've been working on it like crazy. Rearranging the million M's I have. Making new ones. decorating old olds. Buying more, like this one:

This is not smart! I have no more room. The part of my brain that says, "STOP!" is broken. clearly. I've got the middle of the alphabet covering the walls of my room to prove it.

The room is finally clean and nearly ready for a picture to post. Had I not started that free Jessica Sprague Stories in Hand class it might be perfect right now. But since there's a project to do, there are scraps of paper all over the place making it not picture worthy, yet. I hope to get some good pictures this weekend to post. I'll also have to post the before picture. Proof that my creative mind does not require cleanliness. You can't even tell it's an actual room. I have issues. for reals.

second, this class. I'm super excited about Jessica's system to gathering stories. That's something I've struggled with in my scrapbooking. I know I've got stories in me, but getting them out in a more exciting way than "we went to Globe, ate ice cream and had a blast with the kids" is something I want to be better at. The timing isn't great for me, I'll admit. My brain is overflowing with crap and adding to it is causing the craziest dreams. My brain takes my creative endeavours and blends it into the real things I did or saw that day. so when I've got many creative things going on it turns into a crazy mess up there. If only I could remember them for more than an hour, I would share one with you. Peter gets to hear most, and he looks at me completely boggled, mumbling, "that's completely f'ed up" Next time I'll write one down so y'all can see what I mean.

third, a new idea. I've been working on some ideas with how to better explain and market my book. It's been super slow going as everything ties together. When I change one thing in one of my concepts it trickles down to the blog, and website, and adverts. Everything! I need to finish it all before I can move on. In the long run it's better, it just seems to take so long to make progress.

But in the spirit of a good blog entry, which means pictures. And to put a little teaser out there. Here's a graphic I've been working on. Hate it? well keep that to yourself. :) My dreams couldn't handle it!

m

Parenting Tip of the Month (or not)

Don't let this title fool you, I'm not going to be adding a monthly parenting tip to my blog? Why, you ask? Because I'm like the crappiest mother ever. Oh yes, it's true.

Want proof? Our pet hamster Rascal died. Found him dead Friday morning. This, in itself, doesn't earn me "crap mother of the year" award, as pets are allowed to die. The problem? I'm not exactly sure when it happened. I know he was alive Wednesday, because I saw him climbing in his cage, but beyond that I'm clueless. I'm a monster!

Last night I told the kids. Noah first, since it was his birthday present pet. He burst into tears. I felt terrible. He asked how, and why, and was it his fault? I told him no and no and heavens no! all the while thinking it's your mother's fault. I probably put him in a diabetic coma feeding him too many carrots and grapes. Can hamsters get diabetes? Should they even eat carrots and grapes? See? These are things I should know! Monster I tell you!

OOH!!! And to top off this pleasure cruise of self loathing, I wrapped up little rascal and put him in the trash. WHAT???!! what are you supposed to do? I didn't know, and it was trash day. Turns out I might have thought to save him so Noah could see him, and say goodbye maybe. Hell if I know. All I know is I had to completely avoid Noah's question of what I did with him. He'll ask again, I'm sure. Still have NO idea what I'll tell him, "Mommy threw your beloved little pet in the garbage honey, and years from now you won't see her in heaven, Satan has a special spot for hamster tossing monster moms!"

I started this blog entry thinking about this super clever and incredibly brilliant idea slash parenting tip I came up with while dining with the kids the other night. But now I'm wondering if this is just another example of what a monster I am!

Here's what happened. We are with another family and that mom, her name is Renee, is like super prepared and actually brings things to entertain her children during dinner. Something I've long since given up remembering I should do. There we are, adults chatting away having a great time while the kids put together the puzzle Renee brought along. They started to get restless after putting it together twice. Oh bloody hell! I just realize they put it together a second time because I tore it apart right as they finished, laughed and said "uh oh, looks like you have to do it again!" What is wrong with me???

As I was saying, after they put it together, for the second time, no thanks to me, they were bored. I suggested they do it upside down and wouldn't ya know it - they did! I made Eric, the one who did the bulk of the work, hold off with the last piece so I could snap a picture.



So my parenting tip of the month, find someone else who is like NICE and THOUGHTFUL to get tips from. I'm for sure not qualified! :)

m

one way I kill time

You may have noticed with the new blog added a couple silly things. When I set it up I found myself rummaging through some of the add-on features blogger has available to those of us in need of content :) I loved many of them but managed to limit myself to two.

If you scroll aaaaall the way down to the bottom of the blog you'll find a brain exerciser game. It's fast and easy, yet surprisingly hard and not so fast when you do it like a dozen times. Go ahead, give it a try. It's good to give that lump up in your head a work out now and again. I'll fess up, the first time (and second and third) I finished in 59, 56 and 52 seconds. I've stuck with it (more or less) and can now consistently finish in 30. It's like a internal challenge for me now. and besides, sometimes I find myself in need of a break :)

The second little silly adder thing that that "things you ponder" dealio. I love this kind of thing. So Steven Wright. It repeats kind of a lot and I've been considering changing it for something new. This morning I was glad I hadn't yet because this one totally caught my eye.

Why is it that when you are driving and looking for an address you turn the radio down?

Seriously, does everyone else do this too? who knew?!?! I thought I was the only one!

m