The Great Catch Up

1. So yesterday was a great day! All of the women on my mom's side of the family got together to celebrate my Grandma's Birthday. I LOVE my Grandma! Really there are just so many great things about her, and she always makes me laugh and smile. We had not been together for a long time and it was so fun to see everyone and laugh! I come from great women. For dessert I made the BEST soft sugar cookies and promised that I would post the recipe. I wish that I could take the credit, but my sister-in-law Suzy shared the recipe with me. So ladies here it is:

Soft Sugar Cookies
* In Small bowl mix together:
1 c sour cream 1 tsp baking soda
set aside

Mix dry ingredients:
5 c flour 3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt 1 ½ c sugar

Make a hole in dry ingredients and add:
1 c softened butter 3 eggs
Sour cream mixture 3 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon or almond extract

Chill if needed. Roll and Cut. Bake at 375 for 4-6 minutes. Frost with icing of choice

As far as the icing goes, I just kinda made it up with 4 oz of cream cheese, 1/3 cup butter, milk and powdered sugar.

2. I survived! I am SO glad Eric is home! He was in Houston for six days and man did I miss him! Thankfully, no one broke into my house in the middle of the night and I made in through the week alive. Since I am such a wimp, Momma J and I had a slumber party the whole week. Thanks Mom! Having Eric gone just reminded me how much I love him and how lucky I am to have him. I am so thankful that we are best friends and that we love being together so much! Thank you so much to those of you that called, kept me company, had me to dinner and made sure I was not too lonely!

3. After my massive post about DWTS, a lot of people have been asking me what I think so far. Here it goes. I can't get hooked for some reason, I watch it but I don't get excited. I really think Brooke adopted her baby, there is no way her stomach can look that good! I really like Warren Sapp, how his three hundred pound body is so light on his feet is beyond me. Cheryl still needs a new haircut. I am sick of Lance and Lacey pushing the envelope, enough with the chains on your costumes. Cloris is entertaining, but it is way time to go.

4. Presidential Elections: So I watched the debate this week, I am not impressed with either one. I am still up in the air about who will be my final choice. I have decided however that I think it should be mandatory that the nominee announce their cabinet choices before the elections. Who are they going to surround themselves with? You know who I would vote for..... that's right Tom Selleck!

5. Baby Mack is doing very well. He is quite the mover and shaker. Now when he kicks we can see my tummy move with him. I was amazed at this and so was Eric. He then asked me if I remembered that scene in Ailens and Spaceballs. I really missed Eric!

I am a FF Fanatic!

I don't know what happened to me over the weekend, something has been rewired in my brain. So on Sunday morning I get this frantic call from the Hubby in Houston asking me to look at his fantasy football lineup for the games that day. I locate the lineup only to find out that our (see I am even saying "our" instead of "his team") wide receiver is injured and is probably not going to be playing. I also look to see that we are playing another team who is favored to beat us, I must act quickly! I have never been into the whole fantasy geek football thing before so it took me a long time to figure it out, and my deadline was fast approaching. At exactly three minutes before the lineup was closed for trading out the teams bench I finally figured it out! I was a proud peacock, knowing how grateful Eric would be.

But then during church, my mind started wandering.... How is the team? How are our players? Has anyone been injured? Was it wise to take Braylon Edwards off the bench? I then looked at our opponent this week silently sitting in church and started to wonder if he was obsessed as I was. Then I was hoping that he would lose badly.

So I came home and checked and our team was looking okay. It was 86 to 89 and we had one more player to play Monday night..... Braylon Edwards our bench warmer. Oh no, would my trade work? Where was Eric when I needed the reassurance that our team was okay? Sure enough, our team ROCKED! 112-89 baby! Braylon was amazing and now might be my favorite player! I called to tell Eric the good news and we celebrated via cell phone. I am the BEST assistant manager/coach ever and I am completely perplexed as to why I care so much!

Tylenol Toby.... I Swear He Has Hidden Thumbs

So I have decided that I have waited long enough to blog about The T-dog. I just didn't want to appear like the obsessive people who live for their pets (even though sometimes I am one of them). But no, don't worry I don't wear T-shirts with the Tob's picture on it and I don't do the whole baby talk thing to him either, he is way too intelligent for such talk!

So, T-Dizzle has had a very stressful week. Today I left for a doctor's appointment to come home to find a Ziploc bag full of Tylenol (that I keep in my CLOSED nightstand drawer) on the floor in the front room. The bag had been chewed open and Tylenol was scattered everywhere. So I called the vet, and of course they recognized me as the owner of the dog that will eat anything. (Some of the things on T's wrap sheet include: a bottle of Tums that, were also in a closed drawer, snail bait, Benedryl that had the child cap on and pure vegetable oil. The beag has iron gut.) Well, Toby was really excited until we pulled up to the Vet's office where he promptly put on the brakes. I walked in and they greeted me with, "There is Tylenol Toby". So they take him back to make him throw up the Tylenol and I sit down to wait in the waiting room. Some busy body in the waiting room then asks how in the world my dog got an unspecified number of Tylenol. I felt like a neglectful mother. Needless to say, the Beagle Boy is recovering fine, a little stoned because of the medication and a little clingy because of the trauma but I don't blame him. I called to report to Eric and we decided that if we can't keep our dog out of trouble, maybe we aren't quite ready for Mack. But I am sure we will do fine!

A Few Frustrations

Okay, I am really not in a huge negative mood..... but it's time to vent. Lately I am really trying not to say a few words in prep for when baby comes and one of them is "hate". So this is my list of things that I am really disliking lately.

1. Insurance Customer Service: So a few days ago we get this bill in the mail from our old insurance carrier. After talking it over with Eric, we decided that we had met the deductible with that insurance and we really should not have to pay. And let's be honest the bill was over $200, so it wasn't like it was a $6 lab bill or something. So I get on the phone, keep in mind that I know next to nothing about insurance except that I am grateful to have it. So I explain the situation, and before I know what is going on, the lady is explaining ALL of the claims that we have had since we were married. And then she says, "Well with your accident in March of last year we have been paying out to your Accidental Supplemental Plan." Umm... what accident in March, and Accident what plan? I am completely confused and attempt to explain that there was no accident in March. Oh dear. So then she explains that they have processed every claim wrong including back surgery appointments, the hospital stay, the surgeon, physical therapy everything, so they will have to process everything again and that we really owe them about $1,000 for the whole Accidental Supplemental Plan. I panicked. A lot. She told me she would talk to her supervisor and call me back. Lots of prayers were said during that 15 minutes. So she calls back and I lost it. I mean I kinda fell apart. The tears were flowing and I was explaining that I didn't know anything about insurance lingo, that we weren't even on their plan anymore, that my memory stinks, and that I was pregnant and not sure if I could handle this. She listened through my sub subs, said "oh dear" and told me she would call me back again. She called back and said that after talking to her supervisor, that this seemed like such a unique situation. She said she felt sorry for me and instead of processing everything again and possibly having to pay the 1k, that if I wanted to I could just pay the $200 and be done. Sure thing I replied, signed, sealed and delivered.

2. Rocky Mountain Power: Okay, I know it's just like the insurance thing, I am incredibly thankful to have both insurance and power. So Salt Lake had the hottest summer ever, so as a result I had the air conditioning on a lot. If I got too hot, it was pass out city. So we get our bill in July. HUGE amount. What? Our condo is not small, but by all means it is not as big as a house! I am in total shock over the amount and I could tell Eric was as well, but didn't want to say anything. Eric is sweet, but not all husbands are so understanding about there wives heating and cooling issues. I am sure the Rocky Mountain is the root of a many divorce. So, I vow to try to improve. Thankfully August came and it had dropped $75 (keep in mind not to $75 but dropped by $75, that should give you some idea about how bad it was. And I am still sure that there was some sort of mistake.) So it is better now, but it still bugs me so I am hoping this little vent might cure me of my animosity.

3. Ghetto Smiths: So the Smith's by our house is totally Ghetto Smiths. It's not very clean, they are ALWAYS short staffed and there are always men out in the parking lot asking for money or trying to sell you something. But prices are pretty good and it is close. So a couple of nights ago, Eric and I struck up the deal that if I went grocery shopping, he would clean the kitchen while I was gone. Great! I really like shopping at night and I got a lot done this night. My cart was pretty full so I go to checkout. Not one checkstand is open. Huh? Only the four self checkouts were open with a line from Salt Lake to Tahiti. I look at the time just because I was curious how long this would take me. And of course the people in line behind me were less than thrilled when they saw how full my basket was. But honestly I couldn't let everyone behind me with a few items go because the line was SO long. So I finally get to my checkout, the scanner won't scan anything! I complain to the girl and she has to scan them at the main desk and then acts like I am slow and can't handle it by myself! AHHH!! It's not my fault there is an angry mob behind me armed with milk and eggs, and your scanner is on meltdown. So I finally get done. How long did it take me from when I got in line to when I got in the car to drive away? THIRTY-FIVE minutes!

Okay, thank you I feel much better. Really quite a bit. I am thankful for the grocery store, power and insurance but it felt good to let it all out. One more thing where is Tom Selleck?