GO CARDINALS!!

Who would ever believe that Sunday's Superbowl festivities would actually involve our own team?? Year after year it has been a tradition to watch the Superbowl. Not because I love football so much, but it is such a comfortable tradition that is exclusive to the good old USA. The commercials were always my thing. I didn't really have a team to cheer for because the teams that go to the Superbowl are always those really good teams.

Not ours.

As a season ticket holders to the Arizona Cardinals I was able to watch my fair share of live games this year. Being the daughter to the Cardinals' biggest fan, I was able to watch my fair share of live games when they were HORRIBLE. My dad got tickets right when Arizona got the Cardinals. The poor team played in the ASU Sun Devil Stadium. No one knew why we would bother going to the games. Even my daughter is a fan. She took in her first game when she was just a month old. Here she is at her 2nd game.

This year when we were getting close to playoff time I asked Mr. Cookie if we had a chance at going to the Superbowl. I mean, if we made it to the playoffs, why not? He, along with others, shook their heads quickly saying something along the lines of...hmmm...what was it now...oh yeah, I think it was, "No f**king way!" AND I said..."I have a good feeling, they are going to the Superbowl. I can FEEL it."

Back off of my woman's intuition, slightly sprinkled with the new and improved intuition, mother's intuition.

This town is so excited. I was at the grocery store earlier and an announcement came on talking about how the butcher just put all this meat on major special. He ended his announcement with, "Let's Go Cardinals!" and after that from all over the store I hear people just shouting out, "Let's Do IT!", "Come On Cardinals!", "WooHooo!". I love it. As I walked out I bumped into the one guy in Arizona wearing full on Steelers gear. Jackass.

This team will not let themselves get to the Superbowl and lose. Just like they weren't going to get themselves within 1 game of going and not go.

SUPER CARDS!

painting results

here are the results of my painting. i didn't really take before pics so you'll just have to remember if you've ever visited us.

The new office/old guest room, Brian's side is on the right

My side is on the left

Guest room/old office, still needs a few touches to break up the color, but much brighter now

Bowling for Brian

In honor of my brother Brian's birthday, we get together annually to remember him. His birthday is on January 18th so our original event was to happen last Sunday, but to our disbelief the Cardinals were battling it out for a spot in the Superbowl. There is no way Brian would be doing anything but watching the game in a situation like that, so we postponed our event until today.

For the last 3 gatherings we played softball at his old softball league field. We all wear #18 shirts, some in blue and some in black. His favorite number and colors. After a couple years of cold weather we decided to switch things up and go bowling.

This year we went to our old high school bowling alley. It was a ton of fun, we had 20 people make it. It is always fun to see how everyone is doing as some of the people that go, we only see once a year.

Debbie made buttons for all of us to wear with Brian's photo in it. It was cool to see Brian's nieces and little cousins wearing the button in his honor. It is just too bad that this is their only way of knowing him, he would be the coolest uncle around.

iLike

So as I've mentioned earlier, I was one drop from getting an iPhone. Well, I did end up dropping it a few more times and was still contemplating. I knew I wanted it, but I get scared when I spend money like it's my job to keep the economy going. Sometimes I actually think I better take it down a notch.

Well my lovely Mr. Cookie came to the rescue and gave me an iPhone for my birthday! I have always loved technology and usually end up with the latest and greatest. My sister-in-law is still not connected to the internet and to me this is almost as weird as someone you doesn't love cheese.

I know my phone does way more than I am aware of at this time, but the fact that I have internet access wherever I go is a dream come true.

Thanks for providing me with this lovely convenience, Mr. Cookie!

Young Lady

Ava is going to be 6 months old on the 1st. In the last two weeks she has hit some big milestones. Babies just develop so fast it is mind boggling.

Ava sprouted her first 2 teeth in the last couple weeks!

She has learned to sit!

And she sleeps in her big girl crib every night now. This wasn't really her milestone, but my own. I feel like her room is too far away from my room. I can't stand my mind worrying about everything on the moon. I have always been a worrier so it isn't surprising. At least she didn't stay in our room until she was 9 like I originally planned. It never even phased her to sleep in her own room at night. She should find out which colleges she has been accepted to soon and leave home in the fall. My independent little nut.

Paint makes things pretty.

We had ourselves one very productive weekend, even with a very active 5 1/2 month old around.

We decided to switch the guest room to the office and the office to the guest room. Originally this was our plan as we were going to have 2 desk spaces in the office and it would have fit perfectly in the room overlooking the courtyard. We last minute changed it to give our guests a nicer room/view. We painted the guest room a dark 'sedona red' color thinking it would make them feel full of Arizona. The room was just crazy dark. We never did anything with the office and there was no room to fit the extra desk space.

Recently, we decided to do a switcharama. Reason 1: I really do need office space as I am starting to get my little business off the ground. Reason 2: An excuse to repaint everything. Reason 3: Since our guests don't pay the mortgage, they get what they get.

This weekend we repainted the dark room and it looks lovely! We ordered me a desk like Mr. Cookie's and it will be here on Wednesday. I ordered a supercool chair that I've had my eyes on for months. I don't want to post pics until it is done though so stay tuned.

We also shoveled a boat load of gravel. Well, Mr. Cookie technically shoveled and I raked. This is the drawback of being tightwads. We do a lot of crap ourselves. Always half way through do I think it would have been better to just pay someone.

The guest room will get underway soon, paint is purchased. Painting sucks, but paint on a wall makes an entire room feel totally different for next to nothing.

My family is special.

I've always known my family isn't like everyone else's.

Christmas Eve 2008
We are gathered around playing White Elephant. We are told to get a gift for no more than $10 and it could be a gag gift. We saw a couple $5 Target gift certificates, a candle, a stuffed animal that was also a back massager, a stuffed penis with a happy face stitched on to it...

My mom was the one that ended up opening that one. She laughed, was a little embarrassed holding it in front of my grandpa and then Violet decided it was the best present. Ever.

One Week Later
I am getting ready for work and I have Ava in her chair in the bathroom with me. I glance down at her and see she has Violet's new favorite toy in her lap. Ummm, how did Ava get that??? Turns out Violet is such a sweet big sister that she shares her toys. All of them.

So there it is, full circle. My family exchanges stuffed penis toys, my dog loves stuffed penis toys and my infant daughter is seen with stuffed penis toy in her lap.

Are we going to jail?