St. Paddy's Day weekend and baby shower fun

Happy Belated St. Patrick's Day!

I'm about 1/64th Irish so I'm totally

validated in wearing green and speaking

in an Irish accent, right??

Actually....in all honesty

I could kind of care less about

St. Patrick's day...I'm not one for

the bar scene...

or beer in general...

but I am a fan of dying your food green

and Corned Beef & Cabbage.

So, In celebration of corned beef & cabbage

I invited my parents and sister over for dinner

Saturday evening. 

My mom volunteered to cook the meat...

Thank God, cause the first and only time I tried

to make corned beef it turned into some semblance

of charred jerky.

It was such a beautiful evening

so we had dinner out on the deck and the

food turned out delicious. I had hoped we could

play some games and hang out awhile after dinner,

but my parents scattered like roaches when the 

clock struck 6:45 pm...wah

oh the trials & tribulations of having old fogey parents

that live in tim-buk-tu....nobody ever wants

to stick around into the evening.  Ohwelll

I didn't take any pictures of dinner..oops.

Today I had fun plans to go shopping

with Rachael and to attend a work friends

baby shower. 

It's so fun to see your friends going through

these amazing stages of life...watching

them and their families change.

Having worked at my job for almost 5 years I've

seen plenty of girls get engaged, married and

start having babies.

I work with such generous people who do a

really great job of showering new mommys with

lots of gifts, despite the overwhelming amount

of pregnant women we work with.

This shower was for a sweet girl, Michaela who

Rachael knew previous to her working with us.

She is such a kind-hearted and caring person.

They are having a little boy that they're naming Jonah.

She'll be an amazing mama and I can't

wait to see this little guy!!

Here's a few pictures from the partay...

Rachel, Aja and Laura holding Laura's twins

Ava and Jackson. 

Aja is holding sweet baby Claire who is 

only 6 weeks old!

Beautiful mommies-to-be!

Rachael and Jenna.

The guest of honor, Michaela!

She looks so great!

I insisted on 'fluffing' my hair prior

to taking this picture...

in the future I think additional fluffing

of my fro will be avoided..eeek

Belly comparison...

Rach still has a ways to go!!

The three bump-eteers!!

(corny-ness is a struggle for me...I apologize)

Rach and I.

Again, I just had to show baby girl some

attention with a little rub..

Can. Not. Wait. for this little one!!

And BONUS...

I found a super-cute pair of skinny

jeans and even a cute pair of shorts

(which is a miracle in itself)

at The Gap today!!

Yay for 30% off coupons and jeans

that fit!!

Summer, you are officially welcome 

to make your appearance!

Overall a great weekend!

Is it safe to say it's spring??

Can you believe this weather??

 I don't care who you are...

there's no way you can walk outside into

this beautiful spring weather without smiling.

There's just something about the spring

time that leaves you feeling renewed...

Makes me feel so happy and alive.

And happy to BE alive!

I've had six of the last seven days off,

(halelujah!!)

And I've spent them all trying to squeeze

in as much fun as I can!

We've rented lots of movies,

spent time with family, gone out to dinner 

(a few too many times...eeek)

slept in late and stayed up even later!

Roy's off-season is quickly coming to

a close, and although I'm so

grateful to have a husband who works hard, 

I know that our late night runs to 

Wal Mart for a movie and snacks are

going to be few and far between.

It's good though.

And with that being said, I'm definitely 

feeling good about 2012 

and whatever it may hold for us.

Here's a few pictures from the week...

Breakfast in bed!!

Roy is far from a romantic...

which makes sweet unexpected

moments like this mean so much more...

Trying to teach myself to sew...

from a book...

it's not 'sew' easy...

Playing 'airplane' in the kitchen...

cause that's what you do when you're

27 and it's 3:00 in the morning!!

(Roy would kill me if he knew I posted

this picture of his ashen-gray feet!!) 

haha!!

Gettin' my walk on!

I haven't forgotten or abandoned

my new years resolution to

get healthy... 

It's a slow & steady process, people!

A Saturday shopping trip with mom leads to a 

weekend project of hanging some

SUPER CUTE solar lanterns on my deck!

I love them!! 

The best part is I don't have to WATER

them like the stupid hanging baskets

that I've tried (unsuccessfully) to

keep there the last 2 summers!

I'm hoping that they'll look cute for a

baby shower I'm going to be hosting

for a very special baby girl and

her mommy in May!

Visiting my sister at work...I never seem to 

wear the appropriate clothing here...

Note to self: when you visit a farm, wear

clothes that can handle cow drool, goat milk

and goose poop!!

It's back to work tomorrow 

for 3 nights, and then I spontaneously

decided to invite family over on Saturday

for St. Patrick's Day dinner....

Corned Beef and Cabbage?

Yes, please!!

Guess who's back??

Well, to be more specific

we actually got back Monday, but

this is the first opportunity I've had to 

sit down and post...

In a nutshell: 

It was great and 

very much needed!

I'm going to spare you all a lengthy

day-by-day playback of our trip 

that would most definitely include

uber-corny commentary

from yours truly...

instead I'll just post a few 

(28 is a few, right??)

of my favorite pics from our trip...

Yummy carne asada tacos we 

discovered on our first night!

USS Midway

Food picture #2

cause I'm a person who takes

as many pictures of the food I eat

as I do the people I eat it with...

...like this guy

Roy meets the Midway

Bay cruise boat tour

LaJolla cave

Roy giving me gray hairs

breakfast in LaJolla

playing in the freezing

cold water at LaJolla cove...

but how can you resist??

The Children's Pool...

aka

a baby seal 'rookery'

FYI...baby animals are cute

Hotel Del Coronado

The beach was beautiful and

this was one of our warmest days

Point Loma

The tide pools at Point Loma..

I had to include this one

cause Roy fell into the ocean about

2 seconds after I took this picture..hehe

Being blinded by the sun...

my TOMS served me well as I 

DID NOT fall into the ocean

So pretty.

The token 'Captain Morgan' photo

that Roy has become notorious for...

poor guy missed his calling as

a JCPenneys catalog model.

He specializes in ocean gazing with

slightly squinted eyes...

love him for it :)

Maybe my favorite picture 

from the whole trip

Balboa park

Botanic House...

probably our favorite part of

Balboa park

Desert garden at Balboa Park

In a tree stump...

worried about tree spiders

Just call me Auntie Beth...

Friday morning we woke up without much to do,

so we decided to follow through on some 

long-standing plans we've had to babysit two of Roy's 

nieces for the night.

We picked them up at 3 and I did some quick

research on my phone to try and figure out

what the heck to do with 'em now that we had them!

So off to Crown Center we went, to a free

childrens play exhibit they have open this month.

But first, we had to stop at every bathroom between 

Olathe and downtown..

McDonalds bathroom, Quicktrip bathroom,

and Boston Market Bathroom.

I'm halfway convinced that they were just getting a kick

out of watching Aunt & Uncle panic that they were

going to pee in my car!!

But, finally we got to our destination and

they seemed to have a blast, and bonus- it was free

so I was happy!

Roy and I pretty quickly sprung into overprotective 

aunt and uncle mode...we were like hawks watching them

while they played 

 Roy kept going and standing by the entrance 

'Just in case someone tries to take them..'

hehe...cute.

I must say...in my very limited child rearing

experience of 1 day-which makes me like, an expert I'm sure...

I am UBER annoyed by

parents who let their children run helter skelter

wreaking havoc and hogging swings and toys!!

Hey! Get off your freaking phone and come get your

spoiled brat who just ripped the rope swing out

of my nieces hands!!

Ugh...new pet peeve.

After we were all played out, we headed to Fritz's 

for some overpriced and mediocre kid friendly

dinner :)  Roy and I each had a 

burger and when it was all said and done,

we also had the girls' chicken nuggets that they ate

about two bites of...haha.

Amateur caregiver move-don't let your kids

drink giant glasses of chocolate milk before their

dinner comes...duh.

I was nervous about bedtime, but it actually

went really well. We pulled our air mattress

into our bedroom, and after some TV time,

a bit of coloring and a bedtime snack,

we had two very sleepy little girls!

Here are a just a very few pictures I caught...

(PS..how do parents EVER take any pictures

of their kids?? I barely had a spare second to 

pull out my phone-much less a camera!)

At Fritz's

Elissa sporting her conductors hat

lol..this makes me laugh..

Uncle Roy sporting his conductors hat

Early morning monkey business

Overall I'd say it was a success...

and it is always so endearing for me 

 to see Roy in uncle-action.

I feel like we worked really well together 

as a team, and I can't help but to get

excited for one day when it's our own

little ones that we're wrangling..

Saturday night we headed out to The Legends

for one of my oldest friends birthday dinner.

I was so excited (and somewhat shocked) 

that Roy actually wanted to come with...

He tends to shy away from joining me at things

when he's not going to know many people, 

but I think since these were some of my friends

that he knows from 'back in the day'...

(yes I'm old and I just said 'back in the day..')

he felt a little more comfortable coming along,

and I was so glad to have him there!

Here's the only picture I have from dinner:

I can't believe I've known these girls

for 12 years!! 

I'm not the greatest at staying in touch with

people, so that fact that we've all stayed

friends over the years means a lot to me.

It was a fun night, and a great weekend.

Now just two nights of work and then we

leave on Wednesday for San Diego!!

Yippee!!

2 days and counting...

Our refinance is complete...HOORAY!!

Well after roughly 3 months and lots of anxious waiting,

we closed on our refinance today!

I'm so happy and feeling super-blessed because we had pretty

much given up hope that this was going to happen.

Our first appraisal came in $18,000 lower
than what we needed...YIKES!

That was a tough pill to swallow...
but we didn't feel there was much that we could do about it.

But our super-awesome mortgage consultant at Wells Fargo
really went above and beyond for us
and was able to get the first appraisal thrown out

(which I've heard is quite a feat)
and got us a second appraisal that went so much better!!  

Thank you, God.

I  know there were several people praying for us
 through this entire process, and I credit their prayers
and our mortgage guys hard work for making this happen.

If you live in KC and you're needing a referral,
 I have a name for you!

So the bottom line is...we lowered our mortgage payment

by $210 a month (yippee!!)
and got rid of our PMI, which will save

us a great deal of money over the course of our loan.

I'm SO very thankful.

This date has special meaning for me this year and

I was really needing something to lift my spirits...

God delivered, and I'm knowing in my heart

that it was no coincidence our closure was on this date.

I have no pertaining picture for this post...

but I feel the overwhelming need to post one anyways...

So here's a photo that will stand testament to

why you don't let your husband do your little girls hair

on school picture day...
Rachael take note:

Nice work Pops...the signature side-pony.

And my sweetheart neckline...

I love it :)