The Random Events Post

So its been an eventful week. This might be long...you can read it or not...it's ok, we've all done it. Its taken me awhile to gather all of my thoughts and organize them enough to put them all down in this post. I might throw in a few random tidbits...SOFTBALL IS OVER FOR A FEW MONTHS...WOOHOO!! I never would have said such things when I was playing, but coaching is a whole different thing...it really brings out the mean person inside of me. It was a frustrating season to say the least. I can handle having a team that loses games. We knew it would be hard these first few years of the program. I cannot, however, handle losing attitudes. They accepted failure all season long and they were defeated before they even stepped out onto the field. It was very difficult to watch. I think we got rid of all the bad seeds this season and hope we have some winners coming in next year. That is my biggest piece of news...I'm looking forward to slowing down for a few months and getting ready for this baby!! On that note, my parents drove up for a couple days last week. My mom and I have some major organizational projects we want to do in our apartment before the baby comes. Well, on this visit, we didn't get any of those done. We did, however, make some dang cute curtains (or valance) for my kitchen window. Sounds simple, yes? Everything was going great, until it was time to evenly space the hanging tabs across the curtain. Little did we know, you had to have a degree in Mathematics to accomplish this. I should have saved our notes with our equations scribbled on them, but they sounded a little like this: Number of tabs you have minus 2: this is factor A. Take factor A and multiply the length of each panel and then divide by the number of panels: this is factor B. Take factor A and B put them together and multiply them by the sum of the squareroots A and B and divide that by half of the length of the each of the 3 panels: This is factor C. And this went on until the E factor. We worked through the equation 3 times and came up with 3 different answers!! So these pictures kind of walk you through the process that day.
After my idea of just "eyeballing" it and putting them where they looked evenly spaced got shut down, my mother had an equation of her own. She's got it all under control...she just needs a tape measure...


Getting down and dirty on the sewing machine...with Riley's pink foam visor. It helps me focus. Oops...think I just messed up.



The finished product...well, semi-finished. We were spent after all the problem-solving, so the bottom isn't hemmed yet. And we decided it needs more tabs...oh great...I hope I saved my notes...




And since this is the random events post, I'll finish by saying that I am close to 28 weeks pregnant now. I am nearing the time my water broke and I gave birth to Riley. I'm getting a little nervous, but I know that whatever is going to happen will happen, so I can't really stress out about it. But just keep us in your prayers and think happy thoughts about a big, chubby, healthy baby.

Thanks for reading!! More to come...hopefully more on a regular basis now that SOFTBALL IS OVER!!
And P.S. I didn't proofread, so sorry

To All The Fat Women Everywhere!!

What an inspiration!! I love this show and I love this girl!! Being part of the overweight population, I finally (after 6 years of sitting on my a** and eating junk) took off most of the weight and got close to the weight I wanted to be when I found out I pregnant last year. I can't wait to have this baby, so I can start the long road back. I just wish I could be on the show and do it all in less than 6 months, rather than the 16 months it took me!! Way to go Ali...you've given hope to the fat women everywhere!!

Dragonlions...BEWARE!!

So there's this trail behind our apartment that goes right down into campus...it's a great shortcut and we love to go walking around and through the hills (I wouldn't necessarily call them mountains) around us. Well, apparently, we're not the only ones. So after one day of walking down to campus, this sign was posted everywhere THE VERY NEXT DAY!! Three mountains lions (or dragon lions as Riley calls them...) were spotted on that very trail at night by our crack-squad of highly motivated campus public safety personnel and their night-vision goggles! They want us to call them IMMEDIATELY if we see anything. Just wondering what security guards are going to do with a group of vicious mountain cats...throw rocks at them maybe? AWESOME!! So now, every time we step out the door, Riley reminds us to 'watch out for the dragon lions, they will tear off our eyelashes and we will cry all day'. (WHAT?)

One of the many, many perks to living in Southeast Idaho where spring is actually snow season, and the temperatures hover around the 30's and 40's bringing all the wildlife down from the mountains and into town.

Who knows where Thoughts come from??

So Riley turned 4 on April Fools Day. She was so excited...while she was opening her gifts she kept saying...'maybe it's some diamonds or something...' She says the most random things, like when my grandmother spilled her taco salad all over the living room carpet and Riley walked up to it and said...'Well, now that's a gorgeous mess...' Or just the other day, she picked up this huge orange at the store and said...'Mom, now look at this fat daddy...' She just is the funniest, most peculiar person I know. It amazes me everyday to see this beautiful, bright, perfect little girl who started out 4 years ago at 2 pounds on a ventilator fighting for her life.

Snaggletooth!

So we're sitting on the beach in Hawaii (aahh...) and Dylan starts putting broken seashell pieces up in his lip for teeth. I laughed so hard, I could barely focus long enough to take a picture

THERE!!!!.....I'VE DONE IT!!!

So after much harassment from family and friends (you know who you are...), I've decided to join the world of blogging!! I'm a little skeptical as I am trying to navigate through this and build my blog. I'm not the most computer-savvy person you'll meet, but since no one prints off their pictures and carries them around with them to show people anymore, and since I scrapbook maybe 2 pages a year...., I thought I could try this and share some of my favorite pictures and memories with my family and friends whom I don't get to see as often as I want. And I keep telling myself that I'm going to start writing down all the funny things that Riley says on a daily basis so that my conversations don't start with...'Riley said the funniest thing the other day, and I can't remember what it was...' So hopefully, this will help. Anyway, enjoy and don't be too critical....I'M NEW!!!