I seriously just had this conversation...

(A little background first. It's raining cats and dogs here and has been all morning.)

Tenant: "Yes Mrs. Allison. Did you know my house is flooding?"
Me: "No, I did not know that. So the roof is leaking?"
Tenant: "No it's not the roof, but the house is flooding!!"
Me: "How is the house flooding?"
Tenant: "Through the front door! It's flooding so bad we can't even go outside!"
Me: "So the rain is coming in through the front door??"
Tenant: "Well....well not yet, but it will if it don't quit raining!!!"

Umm sorry lady, making the rain stop is not in my job description!

A pink gun and a pink dress

Remember this post where I talked about wanting a pink gun? Well I caught a lot of crap for that post from my stepdad Doug. Thanks to my looooovely brother-in-law, Josh, I now know that there ARE pink guns! HAHA DOUG!




So I haven't done much quilting lately. Partly because I'm lazy, partly because I got a little burnt out and partly because I'm waiting on my Mom to finish a project with her sewing machine so I can use it. Sewing by hand takes forever yall! So in the mean time, I decided that I would try something new. Making a dress for a one year old! Addison, the one year old, is having her first birthday party next Saturday! That means I have a little over a week to try and make this dress! I picked out the pattern and fabric today. That was a funny trip. I have never sewn clothing in my life and I have NO clue how to read a pattern, so the little old cashier lady had to help me! Anyway, here is the fabric I picked out:



Hobby Lobby has some cute stuff! Donna and Vanessa, I hope you aren't reading this yet because my surprise would be ruined! Cross your fingers that I can pull this off!

My options so far

The only cars I have looked at so far are Nissans. I realllllly like the Murano...



but it is pretty expense and a little over our budget. So Brad talked to a guy he knows at the Nissan dealership and that guy told Brad that they have a lot of 2008 Rogues that they are trying to get rid of, so we could probably get a really good deal on them.



The red one that they have there has a built-in navigational system and a moon roof! I've always wanted a moon roof! I really like it but I don't want to get too attached before I see what else there is out there!

A bird and a car

Mom and I were out checking rental houses yesterday when we noticed something in the front window. A bird! Inside the house! If we would have had a video camera with us, we would have won the million dollars on America's Funniest Home Videos for sure! That bird was psycho! Whenever Mom tried to scare it to get it to fly out the door, it would try to attack me! It finally flew out though. And thank goodness because we rented the house that afternoon!



Brad and I are SO excited that we have nothing to do tonight! Lately, we have had something to do every single night of the week! And that plus the fact that we got NO sleep Saturday night is leaving us pretty tired! Oh, and I talked Brad into letting me get a new car! Woo Hoo! My car is a piece of crap. So we are going car shopping Saturday! I can't wait! I want a SUV but I don't really know what kind. Any ideas?

The rest of the weekend

Wow. I'm exhausted. Don't laugh. So after my last post, Brad quickly got Reece to sleep. She slept the entire night and everything was just peachy.

Saturday we went furniture shopping and Reece was such a trooper! Saturday night, we went to our Sunday school party and Reece did great there, too....until about 8:30pm (which was past her bedtime, so it was completely understandable).

We had to leave the party early but we were fine with that!

We got home and tried getting Reece to sleep. Not happening. From 8:45pm-3:30am we were in a cycle.....Reece would scream bloody murder for 10 minutes, after trying to calm her for 10 minutes she would fall asleep, never sleeping more than 2-3 minutes at a time, then she would wake up and start the cycle over again.

Finally, at 3:30am I called April because Brad and I were going crazy and didn't know what to do anymore. April suggested that we give her some Tylenol because something was obviously wrong. I did and she finally fell asleep at about 4:00am......and we had to wake up at 6:00am to get ready for church!

Once she got up Sunday morning, she was good to go. She was great at church and afterwards, we went and ate at O'Charley's with Brad's parents and our Sunday school class.

After that, we went back home and tried to get Reece to take a nap (so WE could take a nap!) and she only slept about 25 minutes before we had to leave to drop her off at my Mom's. EXHAUSTED. And Bella did NOT like not getting our full attention all weekend.

Look how hurt she looks! But everything is back to normal now! Yippee! Brad thinks he doesn't want kids for another 5 years now! Yeah right!

Reece-Night One

Mission: Bathe Reece

Step one: Catch Reece and undress her.


Step two: Put Reece in the water.


Step three: Wash her hair.


Step four: Bathe her.


Step five: Dry her off.


Step six: Dress her in her pjs.


Mission accomplished!


Reece has been great so far. She stayed with MiMi and Pop (and ate a turkey sandwich for dinner!) so Brad and I could go see our friend's new baby! Parker (the baby) was SOOO adorable! He was so tiny and cuddly! That just increased my baby fever by about 50%! We are trying to get Reece to sleep now! Check back tomorrow for more updates on our parenthood practice.

Weekend with Reece

I'm sure you haven't forgotten that Brad and I are keeping Reece this weekend. April left out about 8:00am this morning, leaving me in charge of her youngest!! And around 10:00ish I got a phone call from Reece's daycare teacher saying Reece needed some medicine. Ahh the joys of parenthood! I jumped up, left work and took the medicine down to her school. Aunt Farse to the rescue! (And in case you are wondering, no I didn't leave the 'sick' baby at school! Reece was scratching her legs and she just needed something to make her stop scratching!) And just in case you DON'T like me posting every little thing Reece does, do NOT read my blog for the next few days! It will most definitely be Reece-filled, 1-because she is the flippin cutest baby in the entire world and I love taking pictures of her and 2-April has never left Reece for more than one night and I am sure she will want a detailed report when she gets back. So now all I have to say is, "Read my blog!" And there you go.

AND our friends Stefanie and Nick had their baby at 11:15pm last night. The baby was 8 lbs and has a head full of blonde hair! We are going to see them tonight! (And noooo, I'm not taking Reece to the germy hospital. She is going to stay with her MiMi for about an hour so we can go see the new baby! A babysitter getting a babysitter to watch the baby? Yes!)

Have a fabulous weekend!

American Idol

Let's talk about this. First of all I do not like the way things are being played out this season. I don't like the 'top 36' and the way they broke the contestants up in three groups and the whole top boy vote getter-top girl vote getter-next top person thing is just stupid. And I can't STAND the new judge Kara Diasomethingorother.

Michael. I like him. His story and his voice. Yay for Michael!



I do NOT like Alexis Grace. I liked her before she put pink in her hair and changed herself because the judges wanted her to. Her little girl is cute, though.



Ahhhhh, Danny. I LOVE Danny. He's my pick this year. I voted for him Tuesday night! And how sad that his wife died?? Very sad! GO Danny, I say!


And there's my American Idol post for the week. I STILL haven't caught up with my Tivo from last week's shows. And there is NO way I'm going to be able to catch up tonight because Survivor, Grey's and Private Practice come on! What to do, what to do.

And to change the subject, my friend Stefanie has been in labor all day today and we still have no baby! Please pray that she has him soon! We need a baby to play with!

Have I mentioned I want a baby girl?

Oh. My. Gosh. Is that not the CUTEST thing you have seen in your entire life??? I almost passed out when I saw it!! I hope I hope I hope I have a girl!!!!!!! We booked our Vegas trip last night, or as I like to call it-our Baby Making Trip! We leave April 17th! Woot Woot! And Brad and I are babysitting Reece this weekend, allllll weekend! So we can get in some practice time!

And speaking of Brad, I "cooked" lasagna last night. While we were eating Brad says to me, "Babe, this lasagna is realllly good. You did a great job!" I stared at him like he was nuts because he knew I didn't really cook it....then he says, "Nobody pops lasagna in the oven like you!" How sweet...... :o)

The Beach!

We left at around noon Friday to head down to Gulf Shores. Brad and I had plans to scrub down the beach house. We ate a bunch of seafood, cleaned the kitchen and spend a lot of quality time with each other (no tv!) :o)

All the cleaning supplies we used!


Our difficult sleeping arrangements...(difficult sleeping on a full size bed when you are used to sleeping on a king!)


This picture is probably going to gross some of you out, but it's a cool story!! So the reason the bottom of my feet are so dirty is because we were cleaning the dirty beach house! Around lunch time Saturday, Valentine's Day, Brad and I took a break from cleaning to play a card game. I sat indian-style on the floor to play and I looked down at my foot and here's what I saw:
A heart on the bottom of my foot! On Valentine's Day! How cool is that??

And a quick Bachelor note: I am SHOCKED that Jason sent Jillian home! I thought he for sure would send Molly home! And the preview for the next couple of weeks looks crazy! I can't wait! And need I remind you that Melissa and Molly were 2 of my 3 top picks at the very beginning??? Just sayin.

I am maaaaad.....

So I read MckMama's blog this morning and see that she is about to have 4 million hits on her blog. Well not too long ago, she gave a prize to the person who hit the 3 million mark and had a picture to prove it. So I knew she would give away a prize to the person who hit 4 million too! The counter was already at about 3,957,361 so I knew it would happen before the day ended. I told myself I would keep checking back but I got so busy at work that I COMPLETELY FORGOT about it, only to just now check it and it's at 4,005,244. MAD. MAD. MAD.

And speaking of mad, I'm also mad at my stupid car. My stupid car ATE one of my choir cd's (and that particular cd just happens to have my choir song on it that I am supposed to sing in 5 weeks....). I called the Ford place to see if they could get the cd out and the lady told me that they "miiiiiight be able to remove the cd, but we will probably have to order you a new cd player." "And how much will that cost?" "Anywhere from $325-$400." Greeeeeat.

I have not forgotten to post about our beach trip! I plan on doing that tonight, so stay tuned!

Travel System!

Here are the pictures as promised!! We LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

YAY! Now we just need a baby!! I won't be posting for a few days. We are going to the beach and I won't have internet access. But I'll take plenty of pictures so don't worry!

Guess what came by UPS???

Our travel system was delivered yesterday and Brad put everything together as soon as we got home from church last night! I took lots of pictures, but I was too tired last night to post. I'll post them tonight though and then tomorrow we are off to Gulf Shores! Woot Woot!

Cooking, Allison style

Everyone knows that I am no cook. In fact, I hate cooking when it involves measuring and adding in lots of different ingredients. So basically, unless I can unwrap it and pop it in the oven or microwave, I'm not 'cooking' it! So when Brad and I were grocery shopping last week, I found a little box called 2 Alarm Chili Kit. It was full of cute little packets labeled 'Chili pepper', 'Onions and garlic', 'Oregano' and so on. Easy peasy, just the way I like it! SOOOO without further ado, I present to you Chili-Allison style:


First, start out with an 8 oz can of tomato sauce, 2 lbs of ground beef and the 2 Alarm Chili Kit.



Next, find a cute little helper to stare at you while you cook.



Brown the ground beef.



Drain the grease.



Mix allllll ingredients plus some water in the pot and simmer for 30 minutes.



Stir, take a picture, then wonder why you stirred with two spoons...

TA-DA!!

And finally, give a bowl to your husband while he is folding clothes and tell him to give a thumbs up to the camera so everyone that reads your blog will think your chili is YUMMY!

After eating the chili, we give it a 7 out of 10. Okay if you want chili but not the best in the world. If you want the best in the world, you'll have to ask our friends Brian and Jenn. They make some KICKIN chili! And there's my first cooking lesson. I probably won't 'cook' anything for another month or so, but I will post another lesson as soon as I cook!

Signs

I don't know about you, but I believe in signs from above. Little messages from God telling you what he wants you to know. We all know that I've been struggling with the baby fever, scared of being infertile, etc. So today my Mom calls me and tells me that she saw my sign-a literal sign and coincidently enough-right above the LifeWay Christian store in town.





How cool is that? Pretty dang cool, I say!

Not Me! Monday

I haven't done a Not Me! Monday in a while, so I figured I would today. Not Me! Monday comes from MckMama's blog, so click the picture above to go to her site and find out what other people have not been doing this past week!

Saturday, I most certainly did not buy a travel system for my unconceived child. Because that would just be crazy, right? Who actually buys strollers and carseats for their children that aren't even conceived yet?? Not me! And yesterday, I most certainly did not feel a little slited by the fact that the praise team only got to sing ONE song at church because we had guest singers. How selfish would that be? I would never be jealous that professional singers got to sing at my church instead of me! Not me! I also went bowling with my husband and some friends yesterday and did not bowl my worst game ever. I mean, I didn't even break 50 the first game! No one bowls that bad, especially not me!

And there you have it my friends. Happy Not Me! Mondaying to you!

Harper's 1st Birthday

That's our nephew Harper, not to be confused with the baby girl Harper I've been talking about lately! Harper turned one today and we celebrated at his house with family and friends. Brad and I decided to bring Reece along with us for the party, partially to give April a break and partially because I love showing her off!!

Harper's present from us

I made this cute onesie for Reece to wear to the party! I did a great job, if I do say so myself!

Reece at the party. She hardly ever let go of that balloon!

The birthday boy, Harper.

Harper loooooved Reece. Reece, as you can see in her eyes, wasn't too fond of Harper!


Harper and Aunt Allison

A birthday wink from the birthday boy!

Playing with the two monkeys


"Farse!!" She says.


Harper's cakes


Reece chewing on a balloon!

Singing Happy Birthday!

Starting to get into the cake...

Looking like a Smurf...

Completely filthy!

Reece playing with a fellow partygoer, Jaxon.


Clinging to her Farse

Checking out Harper's presents

Ok, so I am SO excited about what Brad and I just did! #1-We bought a stroller and carseat and #2-we actually both AGREED on it!! It's the same one I posted about earlier. At first glance, it didn't look very cushioned, but after Brad and I compared it to the others in store and after I did some serious research on the carseat and the brand itself, we decided that it was perfect! So we placed our order and it's shipping out Monday!!! YAY! One more step closer to baby!