Date Night - Red Lobster

Last Friday night Brandon and I had a date night all to ourselves. Typically we don't go out alone, we bring Lady Bug with us and call it "family date night". We've had a Red Lobster gift card that we needed to use and so we got a babysitter from our branch and headed to Layton for dinner. We have only ever been to Red Lobster once, and that was during a trip to San Diego almost 3 years ago!

What's funny about me is that I grew up near the Gulf Coast and due to my overly picky eating habits, I have never been one to consume sea food. I am very particular when it comes to food and its texture. I have tried scallops (too rubbery, blech), calamari (again, the rubbery thing), salmon (LOVE IT), clams (nasty), etc. The first time I ever tried crab legs was the first time I ever walked in and ate at Red Lobster. It was a learning experience cracking all those legs open for the meat and I loved it. I was anxious to order it again going there a second time.

We get there and I ordered their snow crab legs. A whole freakin' pound and a half. I started to work on my plate, and dang for some reason I was sorely disappointed. The meat tasted way too rubbery, and got cold too fast. I did a bunch of work and really tried to enjoy myself but I just couldn't bring myself to love it.

On a recommendation from a great neighbor of mine Brandon ordered their "Ultimate Feast" that came with shrimp, crab legs, lobster and something else I can't remember. I tried the lobster for the first time, and again BLECH! I just didn't enjoy it. Brandon liked the shrimp the best, but thought the lobester was interesting. He even helped me finish my crab legs.

While eating though, we just had to laugh. I was working on cracking open the crab legs and pieces of meat, ligament, or shell went flying across our row of booths close to where we sat. I'm so glad that people were willing to either just smile and laugh with us, or just plain didn't care enough to look our way.

I would go back to Red Lobster again on account of the fact that Brandon enjoyed it so much, but I have to admit that I will play it safe and just order salmon.

Want to Spill Your Cookies? Wear THIS!

I love this shirt. It's one of my favorite colors. The cut of it and the material make it very ideal for camouflaging some pounds that I've packed on since getting my insulin pump. It was a great deal at JCPenny's etc.

There's just one thing that I can't seem to let go. In the last couple of months since I bought it, I will have just put it on to go out somewhere, and Lady Bug has managed FOUR different times to spill her cookies ALL over me. It's the strangest (and grossest) thing. She's never spit up on me in any other shirt, except this one.

Maybe...just maybe due to the fact that she can't communicate the concept that she doesn't favor the shirt more than wearing a dirty diaper for a while... this is how she is trying to tell me she hates the shirt.

Or maybe it is just a coincidence. Go figure.

Lady Bug in Idaho

Ever since we've arrived in Idaho for vacation, Lady Bug has fallen in love with her "grandma's" piano. We have found her on several occasions doing this very thing. The thing that is so adorable other than the girl herself is that she doesn't just go to town and pound the daylights out of the piano, but she daintily fingers the keys trying to be careful. I love it.


This was after a meal of strawberries and heaven only knows what else the other night. There should be more pictures to come since I haven't been blogging as regularly as I used to. I'm a slacker, I know.

Feeling Pretty Sexy Right About Now

So today has kinda sucked for a few reasons.

Several days ago, I was walking down our steps with Lady Bug in tow, and I stepped on a step wrong (no pun intended) and heard a pop. It hurt something wicked, but I have done something similar before and it never hurt like that. But this is something different. I did something really dumb (Me? Do something stupid? NEVER? :)) and went jogging with a friend, and this only made it worse. I woke up Sunday morning with somewhat swollen and hurting foot. Not long after I woke up I went to walk in to my room and it snapped again! I almost pulled a Yosemite Sam scene with a string of profanities...but I digress. I talked to my mom last night and she encouraged me to go and get myself checked out.

I ended up coming home from the doctor this morning with the sexy fashion statement pictured up above.

Then while coming home, I got a low blood sugar of 48, which took me a while to recover from, and a whiny hungry baby to feed. This took all my energy I had at that moment.

Then I tried to take a nap to try and recover and then Lady Bug woke up and didn't want to sleep anymore. So I didn't get the much needed nap I was desperately hoping for.

Then, I looked down and saw my hands, and found the other lovely visual above. Lovely part of being a Diabetic. Dry hands...ALL the time!



So how has your day been? Hopefully better than mine!

I'm looking forward to the "Foster Mom Pampering" night tonight.

I'm done venting now! Thanks for humoring me!

Patience? A Virtue? Well Alright Then....

Okay so we've had our little red-headed ray of sunshine for about 5 weeks now. Everywhere we go, whether it's people we've known for a while, or complete strangers in a restaurant that come to know that she is our foster daughter have started saying the same thing: "She is so lucky to be in your home, and we sure hope that she stays with you forever".

And while this is all well and fine, I don't let it go to my heart. EVER.

For those of you that know the crazy story of the foster boys we had, and the "heart ripped out of our chests" feeling we experienced when they left us, we swore up and down that we were DONE with foster care. After experiencing a case that led to so many people saying things like "get ready, it looks like they are going to be yours", "we the state are going to recommend the boys stay in your home, and move for the rights of the parents to be terminated" and then being told 6 days before court that the state had changed their position and were sending the boys away to live with their grandparents (which turned out to be a great thing though, in the end) I am not taking any word from anyone seriously until a judge rules something one way or another.

You'd think after those types of things being said and done would have made us wave our white flag of surrender and cry "UNCLE" when it came to signing up again to do this. Through a course of events, we were lead down this path again. We felt that God had something up His sleeve this time. We prayed and pondered deeply the implications of taking that step and calling Utah Foster Care to tell them to add us back to their list for available placements (though there were times we wanted to tell them where to stick it...but I digress).

Some of you might think that we are crazy for signing up to do this to ourselves again. Believe me, I feel the same way at times. I'm not even going to say that this little red head is supposed to be ours, because I'm not the One in control. I spent a couple of weeks stressing myself out over things that weren't in my control, and then realized that I am not going to put myself through the emotional stress that I did last time. I would only be setting myself up for the loony bin again (though I hear there are vacancies this time of year...digression again, I know).

I am switching gears again this time. I am going to give it all up to God, and let His will guide this decision to foster again, wherever it may go. Instead of exercising and stretching the boundaries of my sanity (not that there was much to begin with :)) I am going to ride this out on faith. I am thinking more positively, being more supportive of things, and just loving this little one to bits.

I know that God knows that I am not a patient person. That's why this time around I am not cashing my chips on one hope or another. If patience is a virtue, then well......here goes.

Tagged, It's Been a While

1. What was the last thing you put in your mouth? The mouth of my Diet Dr. Pepper bottle.

2. Where was your profile picture taken? Here at the house, using my POS digital camera.

3. Can you play Guitar Hero? I've never tried. Not much of a gamer......

4. Name someone who made you laugh today? My sister Jenny, during one of our zany phone conversations.

5. How late did you stay up last night and why? Was awake until 10:30 or so, then struggled to sleep all night. Yay for me.

6. If you could move somewhere else, would you? Yes. Now the question is where? I wouldn't mind Denver, Boise, San Diego, or Salt Lake City.

7. Ever been kissed under fireworks? Nope.

8. Which of your friends lives closest to you on your FaceBook list? Lyndi, or Anne

9. Do you believe exes can be friends? Yes and No. I dated a bunch of worthless buttheads that somehow found me on FaceBook.

10. How do you feel about Dr Pepper? It's the nectar of the gods.

11. When was the last time you cried really hard? Last Thursday, due to a lack of sleep, and the emotional roller-coaster called foster-parenting.

12. Who took your profile picture? Me, myself, and I.

13. Who was the last person you took a picture of? My beautiful foster daughter.

14. Was yesterday better than today? Abso-frickin-lutely. Diabetes hell broke loose today.

15. Can you live a day without TV? Yes, except Thursdays.

16. Are you upset about anything? Just having such a rough diabetes day. Blood sugar was all over the place.

17. Do you think relationships are ever really worth it? Always! Special people are the soft place for you to land on when things hit the fan, or the place to go for a laugh.

18. Are you a bad influence? No doubt. I am a bad influence on my sisters. hehe....

19. Night out or night in? Both.

20. What items could you not go without during the day? Glucometer, pump, cell phone.

21. Who was the last person you visited in the hospital? I'm blessed that way I guess, I don't know anyone recently who has been to the hospital.

22. What does the last text message in your inbox say? I'm too lazy to get off the couch to go looking for my phone to look.

23. How do you feel about your life right now? There's still a few questions that I would like to have answered, it's been a couple of years now living by the "what if" principle. It would be nice to have something concrete occur.

24. Do you hate anyone? Not at all. There are people that I don't get along with very well, or really could live without, though.

25. If we were to look in your Facebook inbox, what would we find? Emails from all sorts of people for all different reasons.

26. Say you were given a drug test right now, would you pass? ummm duh. Yeah.

27. Has anyone ever called you perfect before? Of course not, that's a no brainer.

28. What song is stuck in your head? Beautiful Nightmare by Beyonce.

29. Someone knocks on your window at 2:00 a.m., a secret lover or George Clooney? Neither, it's a fireman telling me to evacuate my house because my white-trash neighbors flicked their cig butts on to our side of the duplex, and it is going up in flames.

30.Wanna have grandkids before you’re 50? At the rate we're going, we won't have grandkids until we're 60.

31. Name something you have to do tomorrow? Brace myself for my sister and her kids to come over for the day! (love ya jenny!)

32. Do you think too much or too little? Too much, I read too much in to things and stress myself out.

33. Do you smile a lot? Yes.

Bonus Round...

34. How many hours a day do you spend on the computer? On average, probably 1-2 depending on the day.

35. If you could be anyone else for a day, who would you be? President Obama, then I would overturn some of the stupid things he has done. Just saying.....

36. Facebook or Twitter? FaceBook all the way, never have gotten in to Twitter.

37. Chicken or Beef? Baby Back Ribs, y'all!

38. Mac or PC? PC

39. Have you ever punched anyone in the face? Nope, but I've wanted too.

40. Last music received or purchased? Lady Gaga

A Little Catching Up

Here are some tidbits of information to catch y'all up on with what's been going on with us recently:

On March 4th, we became foster parents again to this little ray of sunshine. She is such a good baby, and feel so blessed to have her in our home. She is 11 months old, has red hair, and these gorgeous blue eyes. We didn't think we'd be doing this again, but felt impressed to pursue this roller-coaster adventure again, so we'll see how it goes!

A couple of days ago, I bought one of those John Frieda products for my hair using a $2 off coupon. I brought it home thinking what a great deal I got on their spray conditioner. I got up the next morning and sprayed my hair with it, then started getting the baby ready for the day, when I noticed my hair getting kind of stiff. It still smelled good, but I couldn't think of any reason that a spray conditioner would make my hair feel so funny. Turns out, in another hare-brained moment (these happen all too frequently) I read the label to the bottle a little closer and realized I had in fact not bought hair conditioner, but hair spray. (Enter applause here). Boy, did I feel stupid....

And last but certainly not least, I received some awesome news today: I PASSED MY LEVEL 2 CERTIFICATION FOR THE STATE OF UTAH! I can't believe it! Finally! I am thrilled but feeling extremely humbled right now. God has blessed me beyond anything I can think of.

These tidbits are what is new with us! What about y'all?