Back to Life, Back to Reality

Current condition of our house: chaos.
Loads of laundry to do.
Longer post to come later.

The Man in My Life

Shauna tagged me on this one, and it looked like fun, so here goes:

What's your husband's name? Nick
How long have you been married? Four years
How long did you date? Well, that depends when the first date was. Let's just say 3 months (but we were good friends for 9 months before that).
How old is he? 35
Who eats more sweets? Definitely me. When we got married, I cleaned out one of his cupboards that had Easter chocolate from several years collected there.
Who said "I Love You" first? I think I did. Nick was a bit of a chicken in the girl department.
Who is taller? He is, but all of my 5'2" isn't hard to beat.
Who is smarter? Nick, for sure. He surprises me with all he knows.
Who does the laundry? I do. He will help fold and put away sometimes.
Who pays the bills? I usually do.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do.
Does he snore? He used to, but since he's lost weight it's been A LOT better.
What does he do in his spare time? What spare time? Lately he's spent a lot of time out in the garden, but he also loves to cook, work with wood, and of course, spend time with me.
Who mows the lawn? I usually do (he does when I let him).
What is his favorite candy bar? He likes Twix, Baby Ruth, Kit Kat, Snickers
Who cooks dinner? I cook during the week and Nick usually cooks on the weekend.
Who drives? Usually Nick.
Who is the first to say they are wrong? We both are quick to admit when we are wrong. Gotta love those 'blue' personalities!
Who kissed who first? Nick made the first move (he came his 90%, and I made my 10%).
Who asked who out first? I think I asked him out. I knew that he liked me, but like I said before, he was a bit chicken.
Who wears the pants? I would like to think that we both wear a leg of the pants. I think he has the final say in things (and I'm okay with that).
Does he say he loves you every day? Yes, several times a day.

Books versus Movies

It's time again for another episode of Nick's Rants. Sure, it's been quite a while since the March 2008 rants on Sporks, Utah Shakes, and Chocohol. But now I have one more, of just as great importance.
People are talking about wanting to see the latest chick-flick, The Secret Life of Bees. I have nothing against chick-flicks; they're usually entertaining enough, unless it's Pride and Prejudice. Sorry, I tried a few times to get through a couple different versions of that one, and I just couldn't do it. But I digress.
The Secret Life of Bees is based on a book, and I realized that very often, people want to see a newly released movie version of a book they've previously read. Sounds fine. I've even been guilty of this a couple times. But then I thought of the aftermath of seeing the movie. Without fail, I'll hear someone say how the book was so much better. Just once in my life, I want to hear someone say, "The movie was so much better than the book" and really mean it. I mean, if you like the book so much, why bother seeing the movie at all? We all know what the reviews will be.
Now I was thinking of proposing an alternative, namely skipping the book altogether an just watching the movie. However, besides the flack I'd be sure to receive from my literary friends (April, Em, and many others), the movie industry simply has not released much worth taking even the two hours of my time to see. And let's not forget how many of these newer movies carry a risk that I'd be dumber for having seen them. But again, I digress. The undeniable fact is that the book seems to always be better than the movie. Maybe the solution is to ban movies based on books... or at least the ones that leave me dumber than before.

Look What I Did!

I finished Maren's Christmas stocking and wanted to show it off... And I had to hang up the other stockings too so Maren's wouldn't get lonely. Here they are, all ready for Santa!

Diving, Olives, and Oreos

This last weekend Nick went on a dive with my sister at a place called Seabase. We decided to all tag along. Thankfully they had a place for us non-divers to hang out and they even turned on "Beauty and the Beast" for Ellie. Nick said that visibility was rotten, so they didn't see much, but he would be willing to give it another try another day. The best part for me was seeing my husband in his wetsuit! ;)

That evening we made pizza (or rather, Nick made pizza) and here is our olive girl:

And then, the Oreos... we thought her 'mustache' was hilarious.

SNOW

We got several inches of snow this morning... and there are just certain things you must do when you get a good snowfall (at least, if you have a young child, otherwise, you just stay inside, wrap up in a blanket and read a book while the snow falls outside). (Ellie has crusty snot nose and dried milk beard - lovely. All part of being a kid.)

Of course, you must make a snowman. This one was destroyed a few minutes after this photo was taken. Ellie must take after her dad - he loves a suicidal snowman. You must make a snow angel.

You must stick your face in the snow. Well, this one is optional, but Ellie thought it was hilarious. Oh, and you must eat the snow, too.
Oh, and this one is most important. You must come in the warm house and drink hot chocolate.

Halloween

We had a wonderful Halloween. Nick dressed as Tony Starks (aka Ironman) for his wear-to-work costume:
Hmm...maybe Nick should grow out a goatee... what a handsome guy!

Maren was a ladybug (thanks for letting us borrow the costume, Shauna!):

Ellie was a cow (thanks for letting us borrow the costume, mom!):

We're all about borrowing if you can't tell... free sounds good to me!

Ellie went trick-or-treating with her cousins, Aspen and Connor. What a cute bunch of kids! Aspen was a pink puppy, Connor, a monkey, and that's my little heifer! :)

Look at those cute tails! What little kid doesn't want a tail?

Our neighbor was giving out full-sized candy bars and Nick didn't want to miss out on that!
Ellie was quite pleased with her loot:Later that night we went to "Pampa's house" where we made traditional orange popcorn balls and watched a movie (and Nick fell asleep on the couch).