Happy 25th Birthday Ben!!!!

I love you!

I typically wouldn't do this...

... but it was too good! (Thanks Vicki for sending it to me!)

Edited 3/4... I had to make the picture smaller... It was freaking me out :o)

(A PAID POLITICAL ANNOUNCEMENT BY SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D- ILL) and I APPROVE THIS MESSAGE... )

My fellow Identity-Americans:

As your future President I want to thank my supporters, for their ... well, support.

Your mindless support of me, despite my complete lack of any legislative achievement,
my pastor's relations with Louis Farrakhan and Libyan dictator Moammar Quadafi, or my
blatantly leftist voting record while I present myself as some sort of bi-partisan agent of change.

I also like how my supporters claim my youthful drug use and criminal behavior somehow
qualifies me for the Presidency after 8 years of claiming Bush's youthful drinking disqualifies
him. Your hypocrisy is a beacon of hope shining over a sea of political posing.

I would also like to thank the Kennedys for coming out in support of me. There's a lot of
glamour behind the Kennedy name, even though JFK started the Vietnam War, his brother
Robert illegally wiretapped Martin Luther King, Jr. and Teddy killed a female employee he was
having an extra-marital affair with who was pregnant with his child. And I'm not going anywhere near the cousins, both literally and figuratively.

And I'd like to thank Oprah Winfrey for her support. Her love of meaningless empty platitudes
will be the force that propels me to the White House.

Americans should vote for me, not because of my lack of experience or achievement, but because I make people feel good. Voting for me causes some white folk to feel relieved of their imagined,
racist guilt. I say things that sound meaningful, but don't really mean anything because Americans are tired of things having meaning. If things have meaning, then that means you have to think about them. Americans are tired of thinking. It's time to shut down the brain, and open up the heart.

So when you go to vote in the primaries, remember don't think, just do... And do it for me.

Thank You,
Barack

Mexico

I'm sitting here, buried in tax returns and all I can think about is that I'd much rather be on vacation! My Mother-In-Law went to Mexico last week and I know she's got a killer tan! (She's not the pasty white that her son and I are) I know when I see her Sunday for Ben's birthday - that tan's going to taunt me... A) because I couldn't get one in a million years, and B) becasue she was in beautiful, warm Cancun and I wasn't! :o)
I'll just hold on to the memory of being there myself.

Here is Ben and me on the beach in Mazatlan: (At Ben's, Nana & Papa's place)

Emotional Roller Coaster!

Brandon, Aubrey and the kids came over this weekend. Ben and I got to see a few of the kids when we picked Brandon and Aubrey up for dinner Friday night. Uncle Ben and Makenna got to read a quick book, Lexi showed us her latest dental work, and I got to hold sweet 'little' 21 pound Brady boy! Then off to a yummy dinner at Chili's!
Saturday was the gun show for the boys (work for me) and then later to Sumner with Aubrey, where I showed some self control, but still managed to come home with a backseat full - a couple bags belonged to Aubrey :o) In my defense, one of the items took up half the backseat and was only $29! Saturday night was quiet movie night at home...

Sunday morning I woke up and decided to finally order my new lens! It's not quite the one I wanted, it's the 'knock off" manufacturer - I've heard that the glass quality is still really good and with my still fairly novice skill - I shouldn't have too much of a problem. I also ordered an external flash with bounce reflector and a tripod! I was quite excited! Then my Mom calls with news that a relative had passed away, I hardly knew her, but she was 35 and it's still quite sad for the family... The cause is still up in the air so the next couple hours are spent with sporadic calls with details and more questions.
THEN our good friends call up and tell us that they just found out they're expecting their first baby...

And now it's back to work for my 1st Monday of the week (It works out way better having 2 Mondays - that way Saturday is just a half-day Friday!)

Are you kidding?

For those that don't know, I work for a moderately sized accounting firm in Bellevue. As many know the close surrounding areas are home to some rather wealthy folks... We get to call some of them clients! I get green occasionally when I see trust fund babies walking out to their brand new Range Rovers, but it's also fairly entertaining.

So I was covering the phones yesterday afternoon when a gentleman called and wanted to speak to one of the partner's here - he became rather frantic when he learned she was in a meeting... I asked if there was something I could help him with and he began to tell me that he had just sent a fax with "personal information" on it and doesn't want it sitting in the fax machine...

Dude, are you for real? THIS IS AN ACCOUNTING FIRM!!! There's not a single document (paper, .pdf or otherwise) in this office that doesn't contain someone's personal information!

Of course I told him not to worry and that I would go grab his papers and get them to his accountant right away... but seriously, what a nerd!

Weekend

I had to work Saturday and made it in time to see the last 15 minutes of Nick's basketball game, while Ben had some shooting 'thing' followed by the old car swap meet with his dad... We met up at Pink Gramma's and then off to do some chores... By the time 6:00 rolled around we were both beat and ready for a night IN! We stopped into the bar at The Keg and had some yummy French Onion soup and then straight to Game Stop (across the street) where we finally broke down and bought Guitar Hero... I had yet to play this game because I refuse to have the first video game I've played in the last decade to be in front of a Guitar Hero crowd. Yes, crowd... GH has become quite the event! I had Ben start to play assuming he'd tire out and take a break, i.e. nap, and then I'd be able to get in a quick crash course before he awoke so that I wouldn't suck so bad. That didn't work! Everywhere else he's played., someone else has unlocked all of the songs and all he had to do was pick one and play it, now he had the challenge of unlocking them all... I fell asleep somewhere between Pat Benatar and Tenacious D.

On Sunday we ran some errands at South Center, hit Fry's where I was able to get some new digital image editing software (that I still can't completely figure out), then went across the street to Coulon Park where we grabbed some lunch and sat by the water. When we got home I helped Ben start his nap before heading back to work by honoring his V-Day massage coupon. Poor guy, being the husband of a Licensed Massage Therapist, you'd think he'd get some regular care, or at least the occasional decent massage... Nope, I'm in the accounting industry now... and it's Tax Season! One hour later, he was snoring and I was all by myself with that wicked game!

I'm still not that great but, as Chris would put it, I "suck less"!

:o)

Nick with the ball (Blue #1)

Nick avoiding the foul (or guarding his boy-hood?)

My guy and his 'guitar'... He's actually quite irritated that I'm taking this 

(check out the face- he's giving me crap about it)

To see what I mean by GH being an 'event' check out the older blogs here or here. Every Holiday since the release of GH III, it has been played! Be glad there aren't pictures of New Year's at Jared's - Ben had to work that night so he was fine, but the other's... drunks playing Guitar Hero - it was only briefly entertaining.

A Couple Days Late

Ben works nights, so he has to leave the house by 9ish (8 on his Monday's)... And now that it's tax season, I don't get home until 7-7:30 (on a good day). This obviously doesn't leave a great amount of time to have a Valentine's Day, but Wednesday night when I got home - Ben was itching to give me my gift early, he didn't want to wait any longer. He made me go stand in front of the mirror and close my eyes. He came up behind me and put a necklace on and allowed me to look. It was the necklace we saw at an antique gallery a couple weeks ago. I was eyeing it and just loved, though I didn't even think he was paying attention, he went back a few days later and picked it up. We love going to antique shops, my favorite is always the jewelry - it reminds me of being little and getting the (off) chance to peek at my Great Grandma's pieces... For Ben, antique shops are like a kid in a candy store! He wants to know what every single thing in there was, and was used for, and when.

Thursday morning when he got home from work (6am) he got his gift. We don't buy 'toys' from the general bank account, this mainly applies to Ben - his guns, gun 'accessories' and car stuff come from his fun money accounts that he saves up from selling other guns, gun accessories and car stuff. (Oh and his military stuff - let's not forget that) So I went to the bank, got a bunch of $1 bills and taped them end to end. I made a massage certificate - one where I'd break out the table and sheets - and taped it into the center of all the bills. Rolled them all up and stuffed them into a small kleenex box with the end sticking just slightly out of the hole. That way, when he pulled it, it was this big stream of money - he thought it was pretty great  :o)

Later that day, if the necklace wasn't great enough,  he had a dozen red roses and a cute little heart box of chocolates delivered to me at work! The roses are still just beautiful and with me there 6 days a week - I've been able to really enjoy them! 

He's a keeper!

Happy Valentine's Day!

So with busy season in full force, I don't have the time to tell you how sweet my husband is while I'm here at work, but I'll let you all know in a later post tonight :o)

I couldn't wait however, to steal this picture from Aubrey and use it as my own Valentine's post. They were just too cute!

(L-R: Lorelai, Makenna, Brady, Lexi & Reagan)

I miss them, and their Mommy... I wish Moses Lake was closer!

Now my little brother!

I've created a frenzy! Now Nick's got his own little blog going!

Click here to see the thought's of an 11 year old.

Gramma's got a blog!!!

My Gramma just jumped on the Blog boat :o)
One post and it's adorable already!

Gramma's House Blog