Katelyn's Baby Shower

My bestie Katelyn is having a baby. You may remember her from this conversation. Or from this hat. Or this vacation.

We have had some good times.

I asked her if she was going to have a shower. She said she wasn't sure, because it is the second girl, and technically that is not allowed. But almost seven years later, she had no baby stuff.

So I threw the girl a shower.

First and most important: a theme. Katelyn told me to choose.

I chose the best theme ever. The theme I would have if I were to ever have a baby. If Disneyland brought this job back, I would seriously consider quitting my job, moving to an area with a Disneyland, and making them hire me.

Mermaids.

I photoshopped her an invite.

The day of, we picked up some balloons along with the cake. J was a huge help. 

I appreciate this man.

Tangent: We had found a little dog on the side of the road a couple weeks prior. I actually almost hit her and thought she was a rabbit. We brought her home and J's brother Jacob's wife Crystal fell in love with her. So Crystal has a new little dog. They asked if we could dog sit. The day of the shower, I had a two-year-old's birthday party to go to in the morning and I told J I couldn't be watching a little dog when I was hosting a baby shower. He said no problem, we'll put her in the bathroom for the birthday party, and then during the baby shower he would watch her.

Well the second half of that plan turned out alright.

I had just restocked the toilet paper in anticipation of guests.

This little dog did not want to be left alone.

Look at my adorable friends. I love them to pieces. Abby is in the middle and Katelyn is on the right.

The diaper raffle. My Mom made me that mermaid when I was really young; she has to be around 25 years old.

Jellyfish. I was able to borrow a lot of the decorations from my Mom, who had them saved from my ocean-themed wedding reception.

This was before the guests showed up; the gift table really filled up. 

More jellyfish and some netting. 

Katelyn's WONDERFUL mother-in-law Sherree brought the food, drinks, plates, napkins, and utensils. It is much less stressful when you're not throwing a shower all by yourself. 

I didn't get a close-up of the cake because I wasn't really happy with how it turned out, but it is the big sister in her mermaid swimsuit. I am not the only mermaid lover in the group!

The octopus on the shrimp dip.

Edible decorations include "seaweed" and "pearls."

Although it was a pain to put together, this treasure chest was my favorite.

Katelyn's mother in law provided the sandwiches and I provided the eyeballs to turn them into crabs.

My beautiful seashell dishes.

My house already has the ocean theme going on.

I am always amazed at how many people can fit in my tiny house. Having such large families on both sides ensures that J and I have plenty of creative seating.

My Mom posted that blanket on Facebook. Katelyn complimented it. And look where it ended up. I have the best Mom.

Someone got a present for Lily and she was in heaven.

The tiny humans waiting for the cake.

I really enjoyed hosting the baby shower but I am SO GLAD it is over!

This is my third shower. I also hosted for my sisters Shanna and Danielle.

My Better Half

Joseph's mouth has been hurting him for the last few months.

He also has this pain in his back that comes and goes. I'm pretty sure it's from poor posture and working at a desk all day. Sometimes he goes to the chiropractor.

I like to think that the first 27 times I heard about the pain I was pretty sympathetic.

On Monday I worked from home. I had a project I needed to finish that day, and someone was counting on me. I don't usually have any problems working from home, but for some reason my computer froze a couple times. And there is nothing more frustrating than a frozen computer, a deadline, and that helpless feeling when you're wondering if you're going to lose the work you did after your last save.

I saw somewhere on the internet that said, before you marry someone, see how he/she reacts to a slow internet connection. I don't think that is very fair, because I consider myself a pretty decent person, but a slow internet connection when I need to get something done transforms me into a fire-breathing scorpion with knife-throwing skills. You don't even try to kill that bug, you just let it have your house.

So it's about this time when J texted me (I was in the living room and he was in the office) and told me he was in pain. I didn't bother to text him back, but I had to pee so I got up. As I passed his office I said something to the effect of, "I'm sorry you're in pain, but maybe you should make an appointment with someone" in a rather snippy way, and continued on to the bathroom. When I passed his office again, he really quietly asked me if I was ok. I told him I had a deadline and my computer froze again. He offered to help. I stomped back to my computer and he quietly helped me. He gave me his heartbreaker look with a little half smile, the one he gives me when I am hormonal and raging and he's afraid of moving too quickly because it's never smart to anger a rabid dog.

Oh, the guilt. My sweetie was in pain, but could tell I was frustrated and upset, and was helping me. He could have very easily snapped back and things would have escalated, but that is not how my J handles things.

It's interesting. He is the reason our marriage is so happy. By treating me like a princess, it makes me want to be a better person. I was able to calm down and apologize. He was able to fix my problem and I got my work done.

And he made a friggin chiro appointment and a dental appointment. And after he gets his root canal I'm sure he'll feel a lot better.

Unexpected Consequences

Life always has unexpected consequences.

It started out with J mentioning that he wanted to buy himself a new gaming system. Probably for Christmas. Alright fine, I don't really care.

But, he said with worry, we only have one TV. What if D wants to watch TV and J wants to play a game?

Hadn't really been a problem before. At one point we'd had two TVs. Then when we got rid of the second one, J had mostly played computer games. So it's a new dilemma. What to do.

Well I guess we're buying a second TV. I figured we'd put it in the guest bedroom.

J doesn't want it in the guest bedroom.

And that's where things really get crazy.

I've been thinking back to the poor CEO who gave everyone a raise in his company. The minimum salary is $70,000. Doesn't that sound great? What could possible go wrong? Everyone has enough money to live and be happy.

Nope. There is a human condition known as jealousy. Some people received huge pay raises - most likely the ones with little skill - but the ones who had worked hard, furthered their education, and put in long hours, were not happy with their small (in comparison) raises.

It's interesting. I can see both sides. On the one hand, you want your hard work rewarded. You want to be recognized. You want to know that your company values you. You might feel resentment.

On the other hand, how is a person making more money affecting your life negatively? You make a bit more than you did yesterday, so your life has improved. Your coworkers now have a better standard of living. Maybe they can start planning to put their kids through college or pay off debt. Consume more goods, help the economy. It really does not affect your life in a way that you should be upset.

But feelings are hurt. Human emotions can't be turned off. Valuable people who worked for the company have quit. Apparently there have been negative consequences that the well-intentioned CEO did not anticipate. It makes me sad. The poor CEO was trying to help people and do a good thing and people are calling him names and acting like he's the biggest idiot.

I was talking it over with J and he said that little scenario would work in a Vulcan society because people could see the logic behind it.

Which brings me back to my original point about my nerd boy.

Unintended consequences. Ripples from a pebble in a river. Butterfly wings causing a hurricane and all that. J now needs an official game room. He wants to rearrange the entire house. The couches, TV, dining room table, and other various pieces of furniture are no longer in their original spot. All because of one game system.

That we haven't even bought yet.

The fur children are so confused.

Camping

A few weekends ago, we went camping with J's family.

Now I am not the biggest fan of camping. I'll do it, but peeing outside and "roughing it" isn't something I suggest as a weekend pastime. I do, however, enjoy spending time with people, so I put on my big girl panties and packed up.

We took the dogs and left Lilly cat home with plenty of food, water, and fresh litter.

Osa was pretty excited. She loves being included. 

We drove up Friday and stayed until Sunday.

At first the dogs needed leashes, but once they figured out that if they didn't wander too far and came when called they didn't get tied up, then they were fine.

We made sure to bring a blanket for our old man. He was not too happy.

Saturday was a great day. But then around 7:00 it started raining and just wouldn't stop.

Micah was smart and stayed in the tent without prompting. But the baby dog refused to stay in there. In hindsight, I should have just shut her in, but I kept thinking the rain would stop and we would dry out and things would be fine. But we weren't in Phoenix anymore, and the rain didn't let up for ten friggin hours.

Poor Jacob and Crystal didn't show up until Saturday night. They got their tent up, scrambling to hurry in the rain, but then found out that it leaked. They ended up leaving it and just driving home.

Saturday night was pretty miserable. My pants had gotten soaked helping with dinner. Osa was soaked. When she and I came into the tent, our sleeping bag and other items got wet. We ended up going to bed early pretty grumpy.

And then the gas started. J and I both had the worst farts. They got caught in the sleeping bag, and when you turned over or shifted the covers, it escaped to slap you in the face. J and I started laughing helplessly, because the night just could not get any worse.

At least our tent didn't leak.

Sunday morning it finally stopped raining. We packed up, just to have to unpack and lay everything out once we got home, including our tent, so that it could properly dry out.

J said he's not sure if he's going camping again. I feel like I took it pretty well.