Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Famous
So apparently my little Madelyn is sort of famous! My friend Nicole texted me today to see if I had seen Madelyn's picture in the new November 2009 issue of Utah Baby Guide...which is apparently a super cute online magazine. I had no idea, so she gave me the link to check it out and low and behold there was my little beauty gracing the last page! Here is the link to check it out: Utah Baby Guide, Maddy is on page 62....kinnda cool huh? =) Thanks for sharing Nicole!
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Parents Beware!
Last night Terry and I took Madelyn to see the new A Christmas Carol movie, and we were absolutely mortified!!! The trailer for this film is very deceiving, it made this classic tale from Charles Dickens seem like it was going to be a light hearted, colorful, humerous, fun family film.....this couldn't be farther from the truth! They must have taken clips from the only 5 minutes of the movie that aren't completely horrifying to put the preview together....very misleading! I have no idea how this movie got past the sensors but it should have definitely been rated PG-13, and this is coming from me, who let my 3 year old watch The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline, so you know it has to REALLY be that bad! Lol! Madelyn is pretty tough and actually likes scary things like monsters and ghosts, but this movie was just over the top with disturbing graphics and dark images not appropriate for anyone under the age of 13, and all of them were so unnecessary too. Maddy kept saying "I thought we were going to see a Christmas movie, not a scary movie!" There were literally other little kids in the theater crying! I am so disappointed in Disney and have no idea what demographic they were trying to target with this film. Parents please beware with this one and stay away! I would recommend A Muppet's Christmas Carol instead. That one is full of fun songs and happy characters, it will leave you feeling good and uplifted unlike this version that will leave you feeling stunned and disgusted! Yuck!
These pictures were obviously taken before we knew we were taking our 4 year old to watch a horror film. Lol!
So in an attempt to make up for our huge mistake in judgement, Terry and I decided to take Madelyn out to eat dinner at Tepanaykis so we could finally have some fun together on our date night. And fun it was, Maddy thought it was awesome! If you have kids I would definitely recommend this type of restaurant, they will get the biggest kick out of it! They cook your food on a giant grill right in front of you and your chef will entertain you with fun tricks like juggling his spatulas and flipping your food in the air, it's quite the show!
Friday, November 6, 2009
Christmas Came Early!
Christmas came early for me this year! Look at what my hubby got me yesterday:
A new digital camera!!! Our old camera was approaching 4 years old and was well used....I take pictures every single day and my camera goes everywhere with me....so the poor thing had seen better days to say the least! I knew I was going to get a new camera for Christmas but my hubby brought up a good point, I should really get a new one BEFORE the holidays so I can take pictures and document Thanksgiving and Christmas with the new camera....obviously I wasn't going to object to this! Lol! At first Terry started looking into entry level SLR's for me, like the Canon Rebel and the Nikon 3000. The problem with those is that neither one of them takes video and I use my video feature a lot to record my girls in action, so having video was a necessity. Plus, while both of the cameras are great and take excellent photos, they are huge! I wanted something that I could easily carry around with me in my purse or even in my pocket if I didn't want to bring my purse with me somewhere. An SLR is honestly too much camera for me, I appreciated Terry's thought but I informed him that a little camera from Wal-mart would do the job just fine. If we ever wanted to take professional quality photos we could just bring his work camera home one day, Regal has a Nikon D200 and a Nikon D300....so we don't technically need another SLR anyways.
So off to Wal-mart we went to pick out the new camera. At first I was thinking I would just go with another Canon Power Shot since that is what my old one is and it has been a great camera. But one of the biggest flaws with Canon is that they take AA batteries. Like I already mentioned, I use my camera on a daily basis so I burn through the batteries fast! I replace them almost every month. At $6 a pack, one pack would last 2 months, over 4 years of battery use, that puts me at almost $150 spent on batteries! Nikon cameras have a rechargeable battery so that was what finally swayed me from the Canon, other than that they were very comparable to one another. My new Nikon has loads of cool features, way too many to list, so here is the link to check it out: Nikon Coolpix S630
Simply put I love my new camera! It's really small and sleek and does everything I need a camera to do!
Plus I also got this super cute case to keep my camera in and to help keep it protected (mine is pink though, not black):
Then as if that wasn't enough to make my day, my hubby also got me a new Coach purse! I didn't know this one was coming so it was a big surprise! However, I'm going to have to wait until Christmas before I get it...gotta have at least one thing to open on Christmas morning! =) But here is a picture:
Out of all the purses I have, can you believe I didn't have a black one until now? I have beige, green, pink, blue, white, silver, gray, and a couple brown ones....but no black! Every woman should have a black purse in her wardrobe and now I have a really nice one! YAY!!!
Now I'm left with the dilemma of what to get Terry for Christmas. We weren't going to do gifts this year for each other since we are traveling to Washington DC and our present to one another was suppose to be just going on this trip together. We spent a lot of money on the plane tickets and will be spending more money with metro tickets, attractions & museum fees, eating out, and possibly renting a car. We agreed to get the girls a few things to open on Christmas but that we wouldn't worry about us. Well obviously since he broke the rules and got me presents anyways I need to return the favor. I never know what to get him for anything, he is impossible to shop for....any suggestions???
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Pretty Dang Excited About This!
I don't know how any of you could possibly not know this by now, but I have been using this website called Baby Jelly Beans to document my daughters' lives. It is basically a user friendly site that offers various different templates so that the average human being can create their own website for their child....you don't have to be a computer genius! I started right when Madelyn was born so I have over 4 years worth of pictures, videos, milestones, and journal entries on this site! Every year you can get your whole website made into a keepsake CD for free, so I have basically been using this website as a baby book substitute, since I have absolutely no time for scrapbooking anymore. The keepsake CD's were really cool to have but I had to admit that it just wasn't the same as actually being able to open up a baby book and look at all the pictures and read all the journal entries....that is until Baby Jelly Beans decided to come out with their keepsake books!!! I am so excited by this, it is exactly what I have been waiting for! They turn your entire website into a hard cover book and they include every single thing that is on your website....I am going to get over 4 years worth of pictures with the captions, milestones with the coordinating pictures, growth charts, journal entries....everything! I've decided to wait until January to order mine so I can end out the book with Christmas and our trip to Washington DC. Then I will probably wait another couple years before I order another one. And the great thing is when I go to order another book I can select what material I want included in it, so I can just start where I left off after the first book and don't have to include the first 4 years all over again. So the first volume will be Madelyn ages 0-4 and Macy 0-1. Then the second volume will probably be Madelyn ages 4-7 and Macy 1-4....something like that, or I may order a new book every year, I haven't decided yet.
Anyways, for all you other parents out there I would definitely recommend Baby Jelly Beans. They offer adorable websites with tons of different designs and themes to choose from. It's also a really organized way to document your child's life, everything is put into seperate folders. Plus if you are too busy to scrapbook these days like I am, this is an awesome way to still have a baby book for your child because it is really easy to update a couple pictures here and write a journal entry there, you don't have to do everything all at once like a scrapbook requires....you can work on it a little bit as you go for years to come! =)
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Goodbye! You Will NOT Be Missed!
and goodbye to you:
I wont be seeing either of you until next Spring...and I wont miss you a bit! Lol! We have experienced some gorgeous fall weather these past couple of days, so I was able to get my yard all ready for winter. I am very excited to say that I have mowed, edged, trimmed, and pulled weeds for the last time this year, and I am really looking forward to my 5 month break from yard work!
Obviously I still have a little raking to do, I've already raked up 6 big garbage bags full of leaves so I am just going to wait another week or so until all the leaves have fallen before I rake them all up again. But it is such a great feeling to have the yard all cleaned up and to know that I wont have to work on it again until April! Woot woot! =)
Oh, and we have decided that we are going to build a couple grow boxes this upcoming Spring to plant a garden in! This will be our first garden so I have no idea what I am doing, but I guess I have the next 5 months to research everything and figure it out right?
Spicing Things Up Part 2
Our leather couches came in a 3 piece set, a large sofa, a loveseat, and an oversized chair. When we originally moved into this house we had the whole set in the living room...the idea of breaking up the set was unthinkable to me! (I have OCD, remember? Lol!) Well when Christmas came last year we needed somewhere to put up our tree, so we moved the chair 'temporarily' into the office during the holiday season. But when Christmas was over and it was time to take down the tree we realized how nice it was having that big comfy chair in the office. It gave Terry's photographer a place to sit when he comes over for business meetings, which is pretty regularly, and it gave me a nice spot to read or hang out in there while Terry works or the girls play. So I got over my OCD and we split up the set. So when I got all the new pillows for the couches in the living room I decided I couldn't forget about the chair! So while I was at Target this morning I decided to take a stroll down their decorative pillow isle and low and behold I found one that was perfect, it had all the colors I was looking for! When I got home I went ahead and conditioned the chair and now it looks brand new too...it sometimes gets neglected in that room all by itself. =)
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Halloween Pictures
Hey everybody, just wanted to let you all know that I updated the girls' website with all of our pictures from this past week's Halloween festivities. We definitely got our money's worth this year with Madelyn's costume. I was feeling a little guilty for spending practically $100 on something she was only going to wear once, but she actually got to wear her Coraline costume 4 times this year...so it was worth it! She got to dress up for dance classes on Wednesday, then on Thursday she got to wear her costume again to school for her class party. Saturday afternoon she was invited to a Halloween party so she got dressed up for that, then Saturday night she put it on again to go trick or treating! Posted below are a couple sneak peaks but be sure to check out more pictures of both Maddy and Macy in their costumes at http://www.minimontagues.com/
Oh, and I put up some pictures from our trip to the pumpkin patch as well. Enjoy! =)
Oh, and I put up some pictures from our trip to the pumpkin patch as well. Enjoy! =)
Worked Like Magic!
So last Sunday we carved our jack-o-lanterns. I knew that carving them a whole week before Halloween was going to be a little risky and that there was a possiblity they would start to shrivel up and dry out before the big day. We usually carve our pumpkins only 3 or 4 days before Halloween but with everybody's busy schedules this year, last Sunday was the only day everyone in my family could get together...and we like to make it a big family event! So we went ahead and carved them and I was really optomistic that they would hold out for us when I saw that the extended weather forcast was predicting cold weather all week long. But much to my dismay, I noticed our pumpkins starting to dry out just a bit by Thursday evening. By Friday evening they were looking a little bit worse and I was afraid by Saturday night they would be looking pretty bad if I didn't do something. So I filled our bathtub up with cold water and placed all the pumpkins in the water and left them over night. When I woke up Saturday morning I was truly amazed! The looked brand new, like we had just carved them! Such a simple trick and I have no idea why I haven't tried it in years past! It makes perfect sense when you think about it. After a few days the pumpkins start to shrivel up and wilt because they have lost moisture. By placing them in the water the pumpkins soak up the water like a sponge and plump right back up to their original form! So I became the hero and saved our jack-o-lanterns just in time for Halloween. I wish I had thought to take a couple before and after pictures but I didn't....so here they are last night glowing for all to see. =)
Macy's pumpkin was a little too small to actually carve so we just stuck some cute kitten ears in it to make it look like a cat. Madelyn's pumpkin is the one with the flamingo, not very Halloweenish but I knew when she saw that carving stencil, that would be the one she wanted and I was right. =) Mine was the ghost, this one had the biggest before and after transformation, his tail was all caved in before I soaked it. Then Terry's was the big happy face! Another trick is that instead of using regular tea lights or candles inside your pumpkin, I went to the dollar store and got some of those battery operated lights. They don't blow out if there is wind, and the flame flickers just like a real candle!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
100 Things
I have seen other people do this post and I always thought to myself that there would be no way I could ever come up with 100 things...but apparently I can! It took me a few days of just entering a couple things here and there every time I walked past my computer, but I did it! It's far more than I'm sure any of you would ever care to know, but regardless, here you go!
1. My name is Karen but did you know my name was almost Edith? My mom wanted to name me Edith Ann after her grandmother. I know she had great intentions with keeping a family name and all, but thankfully my dad saved me from that one!
2. I have 4 siblings in my immediate family. 3 older brothers, and 1 younger sister. If you take Kevin out of the scenario we would all be 4 years apart in age, but Kevin came 19 months after Todd so he ruins the even spacing. =)
3. At one time in my life when both of my parents were remarried, there were 12 kids in the family. I had 6 brothers and 5 sisters. A lot of our names were really close to one another's too so it sometimes got confusing: Kevin, Callie, Colby, Cassidy, Chris, Karen, Kara, Carisa, Arissa! The outcasts were Doug, Todd, and Ryan...they were the lucky ones! =)
4. My favorite meal is probably nachos, with lots of cheese and jalapenos.
5. Two food items I could never live without however would be bread and cheese. I love all different kinds of breads and all different kinds of cheeses with pepper jack and feta topping the list.
6. My favorite soda is Coca Cola, and I love all the variations: regular, cherry, vanilla....yum!
7. My favorite beverage to drink overall though would probably be iced sweet tea. McDonalds and Sonic both have a great sweet tea.
8. I played the violin in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade and I was rather good at it if I do say so myself. I actually enjoyed playing it too until my 6th grade orchestra instructor sucked all the fun out of it. I decided not to play after the 6th grade and it is something I sometimes regret....my mom still has my violin at her house, maybe I should pick it up and start practicing again? Lol!
9. I played my violin at my great grandmother's funeral and I wish somebody had a recording of it. My brother Kevin and I played a duet together, he was on the flute and I was on the violin.
10. I starting taking dance lessons when I was 8 years old, which is actually pretty late in the game in the world of dance. But I was a natural and by the time I was in the 7th grade I was in the advanced dance class with older high school girls.
11. When I was in high school you couldn't be on drill team until you were a sophmore, they didn't take freshman back then. I had been watching the drill team girls perform my whole life and couldn't wait until it was my turn to be out there performing. When I was finally a sophmore the drill team at Centennial decided to split into two seperate teams: the dance team (performs in the gym at basketball games) and the color guard (performs on the field during football games) I was torn because I wanted to do both, my dance teacher was also the coach of the dance team at Centennial but my brother was going to be coaching the colorguard so it was an obvious choice.
12. After being on the Sweet Liberty Colorguard team during high school, I had the opportunity afterwards to coach the team for 5 seasons, it was so much fun! This year was actually my first year of living here in town and not being involved with them. Last week I sat up in the stands at District III just like everybody else and it was so weird! =)
13. My favorite actress is Kate Winslet, but I also really like Rachel McAdams and Sandra Bullock.
14. My favorite actor is Leonardo DiCaprio, but I also like Christian Bale and Tom Hanks.
15. My favorite authors are Stephenie Meyer for obvious reasons, I am obsessed with the Twilight Saga! And Augusten Burroughs who is the author is Running with Scissors, Possible Side Effects, and Dry....all of which made me laugh hysterically out loud!
16. I have never had a traffic ticket; no speeding tickets, not even a parking ticket. My record is squeeky clean!
17. I have however been invloved in 3 car accidents, none of which were my fault. The BMW has been hit twice and the Cadillac has been hit once....boo!
18. I love chocolate but I only really love milk chocolate. Dark chocolate and white chocolate are sort of gross.
19. I personally think that chocolate should only be paired with peanut butter, nuts, or carmel. Fruit and chocolate don't mix. It ruins perfectly good chocolate and perfectly good fruit when you put them together....yuck!
20. When I was a teenager I had quite a few piercings. I got my ears pierced when I was 8 years old. I got my eyebrow pierced when I was 15. My tongue and belly button came next at age 16. Then when I was 17 I got my labret pierced as well as the upper cartilage area on my right ear. By the time I was 19 the only piercing I had left besides my ears was my belly button and as soon as I got pregnant with Madelyn that one came out as well.
21. I currently have just one tattoo. It is a black and blue tribal star on my right shoulder blade. I have been planning on getting my feet tattooed with my daughter's names on them for a long time now but can never find the time to go do it. Terry has been recently talking about finally starting on his back tattoo soon so maybe we will get a babysitter and go together. =)
22. When I was in the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade I was also obsessed with ice skating. I watched it religiously on TV, I knew all the skaters names, and I knew all the skating terminology. For Christmas I got my very own pair of ice skates and the year we lived in Idaho Falls I was literally at the ice skating rink every single day. I was pretty good too. I could do a lunge, an attitude, cross overs, and a scratch spin.....if only I had gotten proper training....I could have been a gold medalist for crying out loud! Lol!
23. I have only lived in 2 different states. Idaho = Meridian, Boise, Idaho Falls, and Caldwell - don't judge me for this last one, it was only for a few months! Haha! Nevada = Las Vegas and Summerlin.
24. In my 26 years of life I have lived in 17 different houses, 7 houses by the age of 10! My dad is a contractor so we moved around a lot. He would build a new house every year or so. This is probably where my hate of moving stems from, I just want to stay put! Fortunately we always seemed to stay on the same side of town so we usually didn't have to change school districts. I only had to change schools once, but it still sucked....
25. I can tolerate spiders, bugs, and other creepy crawly creatures but I am deathly afraid of snakes, even little garden snakes scare the crap out of me! Everything about them makes me shudder, the slithering, their hissing, their beady little eyes......ewwww!
26. I also have a paranoia that I am going to open my toilet lid one day and there is going to be a snake curled up in it! I must have read that somewhere or heard about it somewhere, where there was a snake that had made its way up through the pipes and was found in someone's toilet...I would die!
27. I also hate straws and refuse to use them. Yes, the things you drink out of. The slurping, the spit, the backwash...soooo grossssss! The worst is when someone starts blowing bubbles in their drink with their straw, it almost makes me lose my mind!
28. I'm also freaked out by dark water. I don't like being in any water where I can't see the bottom. I hate not knowing what is there swimming around underneath me, it is so creepy! I loved snorkeling in Catalina though because the water was clear and I could see what was near my legs! (Oh, and snorkeling was really hard for me to try because the mouth piece is just like a straw! I wasn't going to go but Terry talked me into it and I'm really glad I did!)
29. We always had cats growing up so my first dog was when I was 17 years old and had moved out of the house on my own. I went to the local shelter and got a one year old black Chow Chow whom I named Bubba. He was such a good dog, despite for the fact that he loved to run away! Lol! Unfortunately my dogs were split up when my boyfriend of the time and I broke up. He got Bubba and I got Buddy.
30. My favorite TV show was Friends, I have all 10 seasons on DVD. Thankfully NBC has The Office now which I love just as much and I also have all the currently available seasons on DVD.
31. I miss Wild Waters...Roaring Springs just isn't the same. When we were younger my mom always got us season passes and we would be at the water park about 5 days a week during the summer. Those were simplier times, back when you could just drop your kids off and then pick them up at closing. I would never do that with my girls now!
32. I have been to Disneyland 3 times. My mom took us when I was 8, my dad took us when I was 10, and Terry and I went again together when I was 21. We are planning a big trip to Disneyland again for Madelyn's 5th birthday next October, I can't wait!
33. The best vacation I ever went on as a child was when I was 10 years old and my dad took all the kids down to California. In addition to Disneyland we also went to Sea World and Knotts Berry Farm....it was awesome!
34. The above mentioned vacation when I was 10 years old was also the first time I had ever been on an airplane.
35. I have a three way tie for my favorite vacation as a teenager: Family vacation to Las Vegas when I was 13 (my first time to Vegas), when my brother flew me out to San Fransisco to stay with him when I was 15 (my first time of many to San Fran), and when I flew to Florida and spent a week in Orlando with my friend Jessica when I was 19.
36. My first time actually swimming in the ocean was when I was 19 and went to Florida. Before then I had only seen it from the car; when I was 10 and went to California with my dad we drove down the coast from L.A. to San Diego so I saw the ocean then but didn't get to go play in it. So while I was in Florida we went to Cocoa Beach and Myrtle Beach for a couple days. I tried surfing and made a complete fool of myself but it was a great time.
37. My favorite vacation as an adult? Europe....duh! Lol! =)
38. I jam out while I am driving in the car, and by jam out I mean; speakers blasting, body moving, singing at the top of my lungs kind of jamming!
39. Terry and I's first official date was a lunch date at Casa Mexico on a Sunday afternoon. (June 30th, 2002 - is it weird that I know the exact date?) We talked for hours at our table and I'm sure our waitress was more than annoyed with us.
40. I should have been scared off by Terry in the beginning of our relationship, I think any other girl would have been. The first night we really hung out he asked me for my number, keep in mind this was going on 8 years ago so it was before I had a cell phone, so I had to give him my home number. Well by the time I got home that night he had already called my house 5 times and had left messages with my brother (who I was living with at the time) to call him back....can we say obsessed much? Hahaha!
41. I organize my closet by style and then by color. For instance I have all my dresses hanging together, my tank tops together, short sleeves together, and long sleeves together. Then I have them hanging in rainbow order starting with white, then pink, then red, then orange.....all the way to black. All my pants go in my dresser and they are also organized; shorts and capris in the top drawer, blue jeans in the middle drawer, and all pants made of a different material and that are a different color other than blue go in the bottom drawer.
42. I do suffer from a mild case of OCD. I don't have to turn the light switches on and off 25 times before I leave a room and I don't have to lock and unlock the front door a bunch of times before I can leave the house, but I do have little querks of my own. I can't leave the house or go to bed if one of the cupboard doors is open. I can't fall asleep at night if there are any dirty dishes in the sink, and I can't start the day until all the beds are made. Oh and I unconciously count my steps while I am walking, but I blame this last one on being invlolved with color guard for 7 years....you have to count all of your steps to each new set of drill in a show, left foot is odd numbers and right foot is even! Lol!
43. I like to cook my pankcakes so they are still a little gooey in the middle. I also like to eat my breads and cookies this way, just a little gooey and super soft!
44. The first movie Terry and I ever watched together was 'I Am Sam'. We rented it and took it back to watch at Terry's house after we had only been dating a couple of days. Neither of us had any clue what it was about and man, were we in for a surprise! Saddest movie ever! I cried of course and so did Terry...Im sure he was embarrassed and I think he tried to play the whole thing down. But I loved the fact that he was sensitive and emotional just like me, I knew I was going to marry him and that he was going to be an amazing father...and I was right!
44. I love the feeling of climbing into a bed that has freshly washed sheets and pillowcases. I wash all our bedding at least once a week but if I had the time I could easly wash it everyday because I love that feeling so much!
45. I absolutely have to take a shower every single night, no matter how late I get home, or even when I am camping! I like to be clean before going to sleep and I can't understand how people can crawl into a clean bed being dirty and then sleep in their own filth....gross....
46. I also love the feeling of putting on a new pair of socks for the first time!
47. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I am driving down the street and somebody pulls out right in front of me and makes me hit the breaks, and there was no one behind me! It seems like this happens all the time. Why can't people just wait until I have passed and then pull out? There will be no one behind me for miles, yet they have to cut me off....it really irritates me!
48. Another thing that really gets under my skin is when parents or adults smoke around children! I can't even wrap my head around this one. Why would you blow harmful smoke around an innocent child for them to breathe in? Knowingly exposing a helpless child to a deadly disease....these parents must really hate their kids....
49. My favorite flavor of Doritos is Cooler Ranch, but I am the only one in my house that likes that kind so I rarely get to enjoy them.
50. I absolutely love my Cadillac however, if I got to choose my dream automobile it would have to be a new Land Rover Sport. Black exterior with either a dark gray or black leather interior. I never thought I would ever love driving an SUV but now that I have two kids I can't even imagine not having one...how would everything fit in a sedan?
51. I am a museum junkie!!! I love anthropology and archeology, so learning about different cultures and different time periods is fascinating to me. I could look at artifacts and works of art all day long. I jump at any opportunity to see a good museum and in my life I have seen some great ones: The Guggenheim Las Vegas and The Las Vegas Art Museum (this one was right around the corner from our house!), The Exploratorium in San Fransisco, Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum in Orlando, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Natural History in New York City, the Corrie Ten Boom Museum and St. Bavo in Haarlem. (St. Bavo is technically a church but you can tour the inside of it and they have set up a brochure guide with historical points of interest and also have artifacts and models displayed inside...it really felt like a museum. The VanGogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Anne Frank House all were in Amsterdam. - I have a hard time believing that anyone could visit Amsterdam and not walk through the Anne Frank annex the first time they were there, it is a must see! (Man, I am starting to sound very cultured here aren't I? Lol!) The Louvre in Paris, the British Museum and the Handel House Museum in London. I am also super excited to visit the Smithsonian in Washington DC this December! Whew! That was a long list! =)
52. Traveling to Europe was simply amazing and I hope that I get another opportunity in my life to visit over seas because I still haven't seen Italy, and my life wont be complete until I do! Even though we were only in each city for a couple of days, I feel like we pretty much conquered that Western part of Europe. Next time we need to hit up the Eastern side visiting Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and of course Italy! Oh and Greece might be cool too. But anything further East than those countries, I honestly don't really have any desire to see.
53. When I was younger I would always dress up as a witch, a pumpkin, or a hippy for Halloween. Every year I was one of those three things.
54. My favorite months of the year are October and December. I enjoy the weather of the summer months better, but there are so many fun activities and events taking place in October and December, and now that I have kids the fun has only multiplied!
55. My favorite holiday is Christmas! You can feel the holiday all around you, everywhere you go. The chilly weather, the snow, the decorations, the lights, the holiday goodies, the planning and preparing, the anticipation for Christmas morning...how could you not love Christmas?
56. My favorite weather is when it is still pretty warm outside, like in the high 80's, and it is storming outside but not raining....just cloudy, windy, with thunder. We use to have this weather all the time in Vegas and I loved it!
57. If my mother was willing to come with us, I would pack up our house and leave Idaho tomorrow. Me and my girls are way too attached to leave grandma Netty now though, I don't know what we will do if the day ever comes to leave...
58. Speakng of moving, Terry and I have been discussing the future and a move might be necessary for his business. We've been doing really well considering we live in Idaho. But if he wants to progress and take Regal to a whole other level we really need to be where the action is. Las Vegas is a possibility as well as somewhere in California. Only time will tell I suppose, I can't even think about it right now.
59. My mom is my best friend in the whole world!!! This may be hard to believe for those of you who knew me during the ages of 14 and 15. I was the worst! I hated my mom and we would fight constantly! She sent me to live with my dad for my freshman year in high school and when I moved back in with my mom sophmore year we were totally fine with each other. She came to the understanding that I was going to do whatever I wanted regardless of whether she allowed me to or not. So she figured she at least wanted to know where I was honestly going and who I was honestly hanging out with, just incase anything ever happened she would know where I was. Honsesty is all she required of me and I could handle that, I've always been an honest person.
60. I like most genres of music, except jazz...I really can't stand jazz. My absolute favorite style of music though is techno, electronica, dance music...whatever you want to call it is fine with me. It rocks! =)
61. My first techno love was when I was 14 years old and I listened to my brother's Daft Punk CD...it was an instant connection!
62. My first time out of the country was when my girlfriend Kelly and I went up to Canada in high school. Back then you didn't need a passport or anything like that, you could just cross right over.
63. My favorite smells are homemade bread & cookies, shoe stores, and cinnamon pinecones.
64. As I get older my eyes are getting greener and greener. They were always a hazel color with both brown and green but I have noticed the past few years that the brown is disappearing.
65. I sleep on my stomach with both of my arms tucked in under me. Obviously during my pregnancies this position wasn't possible and I had the hardest time training myself to fall asleep on my sides instead.
66. I don't drink milk, it is so thick and gross. I don't think I have had a glass of milk since I was 7 or 8 years old and even then it had to be chocolate milk. I do pour milk over my cereal but I strain the milk out of each bite before I eat it. I get plenty of calcium from my cheese and ice cream intake so no worries people! Lol!
67. I can't stand having my finger nails painted because as soon as I get one little chip it drives me nuts and I have to take all the poilish off and paint them again...it's way too much work.
68. With that said however, I almost always have my toe nails painted. The paint doesn't chip nearly as easy for some reason so the polish lasts for weeks.
69. When we were living in Las Vegas I was mega tan, they had 24 hour a day tanning salons everywhere and I went once a week. Because of this I can already tell that I have little wrinkles around my eyes and I am only 26 years old! I decided I am never going tanning again and I have stuck to it for the past 2 years. I haven't been once. I would rather be pastey white with no wrinkles, then tan with wrinkles and skin cancer when I'm older! Hard choice, I know! =)
70. Terry and I went to the same elementary school in Idaho Falls but not at the same time...we barely missed each other. He was born there and lived there until he was 11, then his family moved to Nampa. I was born in Boise and moved to Idaho Falls during the summer between 4th and 5th grade when I was 9 years old. We only lived there for one year so I was back in Boise for 6th grade. Anyways, I thought it was strange that both Terry and I attended Hillview Elementary at some point in our lives, only missing each other by one year. We played at the same parks and swam in the same public pool...it would have been weird to know him back then! Haha!
71. I was born 4 days late. My due date was May 4th which is my brother Kevin's birthday. I was the only one out of my mother's 5 children who came late, the other 4 were all early. But I was also born on Mother's Day. So I joke that I was purposely late as a gift to Kevin so he wouldn't have to share his birthday with his little sister, and as a gift to my mother so she could have her first baby girl on her special day! =) My mom likes to say that this should have been her warning that I would be stubborn and that I was going to always do whatever I wanted! Lol!
72. I wear a size 6 shoe, which seems to be a very popular size because whenever I find a shoe that I like it is always sold out in a size 6....boo!
73. My favorite color is probably pink, but when it comes to clothes I really don't own that many pink things.
74. My astrological sign is a Taurus. I have never really bought in to all that supersticious stuff but I do agree that I am stubborn, reliable, loyal, generous, honest, and I do have a temper. I would have to strongly disagree that I am lazy though. With two young kids you don't get the chance to be lazy! =)
75. I am a really forgiving person, probably too forgiving. I often forgive and let people back into my life who have done horrible things to me. I am just a believer that everyone deserves a second chance and I really do want to believe that most people are good and mean well. We all make mistakes and I would want someone to be willing to forgive me if I had done something to hurt them. However I do have a cut off limit, I think the "3 strikes you're out" rule works quite well. =)
76. I am a generous person. I love to give way more than I like to recieve, and to be honest getting gifts actually makes me a little uncomfortable. I would gladly give anyone in my family my last dollar if they needed it and I wouldn't even think twice about it.
77. I am 'slightly' addicted to shopping, as I think all women are. Thankfully for me, I have a husband with the world's worst memory. So I can go shopping for new clothes, come home and hang them up in the closet, and when I wear them Terry can't remember if they are new or if I have worn them before, so he just keeps his mouth shut! Hahaha! There are also 3 stores I couldn't live without: Target, Old Navy, and Wal-mart. All the other stores are nice to have, but those 3 are a neccessity!
78. The next vacation Terry and I go on needs to be somewhere warm and relaxing. The past 3 trips we have taken alone together have all been to big cities, with big populations, and have been fast paced. (Las Vegas, New York City, and Europe) We need to go to a warm beach where we do absolutely nothing for a change! Maybe we can get over to Carmel By The Sea for our wedding anniversary in March??? =)
79. This March Terry and I will be celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary! I decided I will finally change my last name too! Terry could care less if I take his last name or not, and I don't really care either, but I am tired of people getting us all confused. They either call Terry, Mr. Renberg. Or at school they sometimes call Maddy, Madelyn Renberg. People just assume that if I am married and my last name is Renberg, then that must be my married name. So the time has come, I will probably change it this spring and I will finally be Karen Montague! That sounds so weird to say! Haha!
80. In addition to visiting Italy one day I think Egypt would be pretty dang cool too. Seeing the pyramids up close like that would probably make my mind explode! They are insanely fascinating to me...how did the Egyptians really build them? It just doesn't make any logical sense!
81. I might be skinny but I assure you I am seriously out of shape. I don't exercise except for chasing my kids around all day. If I had to run a mile or something like that I would probably pass out. I know I can walk miles each day because we just did it in Europe, but running is another story, I hate running!
82. I have always hated running. I dreaded the days in PE where we would play soccer. Soccer is nothing but non stop running back and forth for hours...blah!
83. I also dreaded the days in PE where we had to play volley ball. I could serve it over the net just fine most of the time but I just despised that sport for some reason. Maybe because I was short and could never spike the ball over the net...I don't know. But volley ball and soccer were my two least favorite sports growing up.
84. There were a few things I liked in gym class though. I kicked some serious trash when it came to the rope climb, the chin hang, and the peg board. I must have had wicked upper arm strength as a kid because I don't think I could do any of those things now. Lol! I set the record at Lowell Scott Middle School for the longest chin hang for a girl in my grade. OoOoOo! I'm special! Haha!
85. I was in choir every single grade all through middle school and high school. I was always in the alto section because I have a pretty good ear for singing the harmony. I know I have a decent voice and have no problems singing with a group of people, but ask me to sing alone and I will laugh in your face, it's never going to happen!
86. I always knew I was going to grow up, get married, and have children. I also always thought that I wanted to have around 4 kids of my own. Then I actually had one and decided that 2 would be the perfect number! Lol! A family of four is perfect. You will always fit comfortably in a car, one parent can always handle one child, and there is never a child left out. Even if we had a 100% guarantee that if we had another baby it would be a boy, I still don't think Terry or I would have another one. We are happy with our current family dinamic and are done having kids....we have to pay for each of their college educations let's not forget and that is going to be expensive!
87. My favorite flowers are lilacs because they smell so sweet and delicious. Not to mention they are big and purple and beautiful!
88. My favorite subject in school was always in the science department; biology, chemistry, and what not. Science was one of the only classes that could hold my interest long enough so I wouldn't fall asleep....that and choir and color guard. 3 class periods I enjoyed. Math and English were the worst. I hate math and even though I like to read, English was awful because they always made us read the boringest books and write big long papers on them....blah blah blah!
89. My first job was at Allstate insurance offering free auto insurance quotes over the phone. It was a pretty easy gig, most people were nice and legitamately wanted to get a price quote to see if we could save them money each month. It's not like I was trying to sell them something they would never use, everyone has car insurance. But every once in a while I would get some mean old man that would just lay into me for calling him on a Saturday morning. I heard some pretty terrible things and I always wondered if these people knew they were screaming at a little girl from Idaho, if they would still talk to me like that? Who knows, but because of this job I have always been able to sympathize with tellemarketers.
90. I don't care if people make fun of it for not being "real" Italian food, I still love the Olive Garden! I could eat their breadsticks with alfredo dipping sauce and their zuppa toscana soup every day of the week...and when I was pregnant with Madelyn I did! =)
91. Before I had children I cleaned my house every day, no joke, every single day! I must have been insane because it was just Terry and I living in it, there was no need to clean every day! But regardless, I swept, mopped, vacuumed, dusted, and windexed on a daily basis. My house was spotless. It could have passed a white glove inspection. I only wish my house was that clean nowadays. With two kids at home, you can forget it! I do a load of dishes, a load of laundry, and take out a bag of trash every day. Those things are a given. Then I try and do at least one extra thing above and beyond those 3 things everyday like sweep and mop the floors one day, vacuum another day, and clean the bathrooms on another day. It's a pretty good system with the only flaw being that the entire house isn't clean all at the same time. By time I get to the last item on my rotation, the first one needs to be done again! Lol! I guess I could bust it all out in one day but if you ask me I would compromise having a little dust on my dresser for coloring pictures and reading books with my girls...the dusting can wait. =)
92. Terry researched about engagement rings and selected my ring 100% on his own. I know lots of women are involved with the ring process and have a big say in what the ring is going to look like, what the cut of the diamond is going to be, how big it is going to be, and so on. I had none of that, it was a surprise. Terry personally loved the antique/vintage style and looked into Tacori all on his own. They are gorgeous rings with tons of attention to detail with all the scroll work and beading. He chose the cushion cut of the diamond all on his own too, which is a combination of a round and a princess cut. He selected the size of the center diamond based on the size of my hands...he thought of everything! When he proposed and pulled out the ring I fell in love all over again. It meant a lot to me that he went through all the time and trouble of picking my ring out by himself and it made the ring more special to me than if he had just taken me down to the jewelry store and had told me to pick one out...just not as romantic if you ask me. =)
93. The first gift Terry ever bought for me was a couple weeks after we started dating. He bought me a new Guess watch and it was super cute. I wore that thing every day for several years until it finally bit the dust. For Valentine's Day 2006 he replaced it with an upgraded diamond watch. <3
94. The first gift I ever got Terry was also during the first month we were dating, I got him a new hard cover record case for all his vinyl records. He still has it to this day, though he has thousands of records and the case only holds like 80. So he only keeps his favorite ones in the hard case.
95. The first piece of furniture Terry and I ever bought together as a couple was our bedroom set back in 2004...I can't believe we have already had that set for 5 years...time flies!
96. I can't stand musicals! I obviously didn't inherit that gene from my mother because everyone else in my family loves them...well besides for Todd. Me and Todd are the outcasts. But everyone else loves them! They make me want to pull my hair out with all the non top singing and dancing....gag! If I HAD to watch one I can stomach Moulin Rouge or the Newsies, but that is about it.
97. If I don't get a new digital camera for Christmas this year from my husband I will be seriously shocked! I have been dropping hints left and right for over a year now. I think I take more pictures than the average American does and our current camera has seen better days. It is almost 4 years old, and while it was a pretty nice camera when we first got it, the technology has advanced even further since then...so I hope you are reading this Terry!
98. The only types of seafood I will eat are crab legs and lobster both of which need to be drenched in some sort of butter sauce, and fried shrimp with tarer sauce. I don't like fish of any sort, the thought of sushi makes me shiver, and the idea of eating fish eggs is beyond disgusting to me.
99. It is impossible for me to walk past the bell ringers at Christmas time and not put money in their pail, even if all I have is some change, I have to put something in as I walk by or else I feel guilty for the rest of the day. I also try to clean out our closets once a year and donate those clothes to charity. I also donate money to the humane shelters because that place makes me cry. I have a hard time going in there because I want to adopt all the dogs, I can't stand the thought of innocent animals being put to sleep because nobody will adopt them...I would take them all if I could!
100. I love my loud, crazy, disfunctional family more than anything in the world and would do anything for any of them. I can only hope that when I am all grown and old, that my girls will love each other as much as all my siblings do. You mess with my family you're messing with me! Lol! =)
1. My name is Karen but did you know my name was almost Edith? My mom wanted to name me Edith Ann after her grandmother. I know she had great intentions with keeping a family name and all, but thankfully my dad saved me from that one!
2. I have 4 siblings in my immediate family. 3 older brothers, and 1 younger sister. If you take Kevin out of the scenario we would all be 4 years apart in age, but Kevin came 19 months after Todd so he ruins the even spacing. =)
3. At one time in my life when both of my parents were remarried, there were 12 kids in the family. I had 6 brothers and 5 sisters. A lot of our names were really close to one another's too so it sometimes got confusing: Kevin, Callie, Colby, Cassidy, Chris, Karen, Kara, Carisa, Arissa! The outcasts were Doug, Todd, and Ryan...they were the lucky ones! =)
4. My favorite meal is probably nachos, with lots of cheese and jalapenos.
5. Two food items I could never live without however would be bread and cheese. I love all different kinds of breads and all different kinds of cheeses with pepper jack and feta topping the list.
6. My favorite soda is Coca Cola, and I love all the variations: regular, cherry, vanilla....yum!
7. My favorite beverage to drink overall though would probably be iced sweet tea. McDonalds and Sonic both have a great sweet tea.
8. I played the violin in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade and I was rather good at it if I do say so myself. I actually enjoyed playing it too until my 6th grade orchestra instructor sucked all the fun out of it. I decided not to play after the 6th grade and it is something I sometimes regret....my mom still has my violin at her house, maybe I should pick it up and start practicing again? Lol!
9. I played my violin at my great grandmother's funeral and I wish somebody had a recording of it. My brother Kevin and I played a duet together, he was on the flute and I was on the violin.
10. I starting taking dance lessons when I was 8 years old, which is actually pretty late in the game in the world of dance. But I was a natural and by the time I was in the 7th grade I was in the advanced dance class with older high school girls.
11. When I was in high school you couldn't be on drill team until you were a sophmore, they didn't take freshman back then. I had been watching the drill team girls perform my whole life and couldn't wait until it was my turn to be out there performing. When I was finally a sophmore the drill team at Centennial decided to split into two seperate teams: the dance team (performs in the gym at basketball games) and the color guard (performs on the field during football games) I was torn because I wanted to do both, my dance teacher was also the coach of the dance team at Centennial but my brother was going to be coaching the colorguard so it was an obvious choice.
12. After being on the Sweet Liberty Colorguard team during high school, I had the opportunity afterwards to coach the team for 5 seasons, it was so much fun! This year was actually my first year of living here in town and not being involved with them. Last week I sat up in the stands at District III just like everybody else and it was so weird! =)
13. My favorite actress is Kate Winslet, but I also really like Rachel McAdams and Sandra Bullock.
14. My favorite actor is Leonardo DiCaprio, but I also like Christian Bale and Tom Hanks.
15. My favorite authors are Stephenie Meyer for obvious reasons, I am obsessed with the Twilight Saga! And Augusten Burroughs who is the author is Running with Scissors, Possible Side Effects, and Dry....all of which made me laugh hysterically out loud!
16. I have never had a traffic ticket; no speeding tickets, not even a parking ticket. My record is squeeky clean!
17. I have however been invloved in 3 car accidents, none of which were my fault. The BMW has been hit twice and the Cadillac has been hit once....boo!
18. I love chocolate but I only really love milk chocolate. Dark chocolate and white chocolate are sort of gross.
19. I personally think that chocolate should only be paired with peanut butter, nuts, or carmel. Fruit and chocolate don't mix. It ruins perfectly good chocolate and perfectly good fruit when you put them together....yuck!
20. When I was a teenager I had quite a few piercings. I got my ears pierced when I was 8 years old. I got my eyebrow pierced when I was 15. My tongue and belly button came next at age 16. Then when I was 17 I got my labret pierced as well as the upper cartilage area on my right ear. By the time I was 19 the only piercing I had left besides my ears was my belly button and as soon as I got pregnant with Madelyn that one came out as well.
21. I currently have just one tattoo. It is a black and blue tribal star on my right shoulder blade. I have been planning on getting my feet tattooed with my daughter's names on them for a long time now but can never find the time to go do it. Terry has been recently talking about finally starting on his back tattoo soon so maybe we will get a babysitter and go together. =)
22. When I was in the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade I was also obsessed with ice skating. I watched it religiously on TV, I knew all the skaters names, and I knew all the skating terminology. For Christmas I got my very own pair of ice skates and the year we lived in Idaho Falls I was literally at the ice skating rink every single day. I was pretty good too. I could do a lunge, an attitude, cross overs, and a scratch spin.....if only I had gotten proper training....I could have been a gold medalist for crying out loud! Lol!
23. I have only lived in 2 different states. Idaho = Meridian, Boise, Idaho Falls, and Caldwell - don't judge me for this last one, it was only for a few months! Haha! Nevada = Las Vegas and Summerlin.
24. In my 26 years of life I have lived in 17 different houses, 7 houses by the age of 10! My dad is a contractor so we moved around a lot. He would build a new house every year or so. This is probably where my hate of moving stems from, I just want to stay put! Fortunately we always seemed to stay on the same side of town so we usually didn't have to change school districts. I only had to change schools once, but it still sucked....
25. I can tolerate spiders, bugs, and other creepy crawly creatures but I am deathly afraid of snakes, even little garden snakes scare the crap out of me! Everything about them makes me shudder, the slithering, their hissing, their beady little eyes......ewwww!
26. I also have a paranoia that I am going to open my toilet lid one day and there is going to be a snake curled up in it! I must have read that somewhere or heard about it somewhere, where there was a snake that had made its way up through the pipes and was found in someone's toilet...I would die!
27. I also hate straws and refuse to use them. Yes, the things you drink out of. The slurping, the spit, the backwash...soooo grossssss! The worst is when someone starts blowing bubbles in their drink with their straw, it almost makes me lose my mind!
28. I'm also freaked out by dark water. I don't like being in any water where I can't see the bottom. I hate not knowing what is there swimming around underneath me, it is so creepy! I loved snorkeling in Catalina though because the water was clear and I could see what was near my legs! (Oh, and snorkeling was really hard for me to try because the mouth piece is just like a straw! I wasn't going to go but Terry talked me into it and I'm really glad I did!)
29. We always had cats growing up so my first dog was when I was 17 years old and had moved out of the house on my own. I went to the local shelter and got a one year old black Chow Chow whom I named Bubba. He was such a good dog, despite for the fact that he loved to run away! Lol! Unfortunately my dogs were split up when my boyfriend of the time and I broke up. He got Bubba and I got Buddy.
30. My favorite TV show was Friends, I have all 10 seasons on DVD. Thankfully NBC has The Office now which I love just as much and I also have all the currently available seasons on DVD.
31. I miss Wild Waters...Roaring Springs just isn't the same. When we were younger my mom always got us season passes and we would be at the water park about 5 days a week during the summer. Those were simplier times, back when you could just drop your kids off and then pick them up at closing. I would never do that with my girls now!
32. I have been to Disneyland 3 times. My mom took us when I was 8, my dad took us when I was 10, and Terry and I went again together when I was 21. We are planning a big trip to Disneyland again for Madelyn's 5th birthday next October, I can't wait!
33. The best vacation I ever went on as a child was when I was 10 years old and my dad took all the kids down to California. In addition to Disneyland we also went to Sea World and Knotts Berry Farm....it was awesome!
34. The above mentioned vacation when I was 10 years old was also the first time I had ever been on an airplane.
35. I have a three way tie for my favorite vacation as a teenager: Family vacation to Las Vegas when I was 13 (my first time to Vegas), when my brother flew me out to San Fransisco to stay with him when I was 15 (my first time of many to San Fran), and when I flew to Florida and spent a week in Orlando with my friend Jessica when I was 19.
36. My first time actually swimming in the ocean was when I was 19 and went to Florida. Before then I had only seen it from the car; when I was 10 and went to California with my dad we drove down the coast from L.A. to San Diego so I saw the ocean then but didn't get to go play in it. So while I was in Florida we went to Cocoa Beach and Myrtle Beach for a couple days. I tried surfing and made a complete fool of myself but it was a great time.
37. My favorite vacation as an adult? Europe....duh! Lol! =)
38. I jam out while I am driving in the car, and by jam out I mean; speakers blasting, body moving, singing at the top of my lungs kind of jamming!
39. Terry and I's first official date was a lunch date at Casa Mexico on a Sunday afternoon. (June 30th, 2002 - is it weird that I know the exact date?) We talked for hours at our table and I'm sure our waitress was more than annoyed with us.
40. I should have been scared off by Terry in the beginning of our relationship, I think any other girl would have been. The first night we really hung out he asked me for my number, keep in mind this was going on 8 years ago so it was before I had a cell phone, so I had to give him my home number. Well by the time I got home that night he had already called my house 5 times and had left messages with my brother (who I was living with at the time) to call him back....can we say obsessed much? Hahaha!
41. I organize my closet by style and then by color. For instance I have all my dresses hanging together, my tank tops together, short sleeves together, and long sleeves together. Then I have them hanging in rainbow order starting with white, then pink, then red, then orange.....all the way to black. All my pants go in my dresser and they are also organized; shorts and capris in the top drawer, blue jeans in the middle drawer, and all pants made of a different material and that are a different color other than blue go in the bottom drawer.
42. I do suffer from a mild case of OCD. I don't have to turn the light switches on and off 25 times before I leave a room and I don't have to lock and unlock the front door a bunch of times before I can leave the house, but I do have little querks of my own. I can't leave the house or go to bed if one of the cupboard doors is open. I can't fall asleep at night if there are any dirty dishes in the sink, and I can't start the day until all the beds are made. Oh and I unconciously count my steps while I am walking, but I blame this last one on being invlolved with color guard for 7 years....you have to count all of your steps to each new set of drill in a show, left foot is odd numbers and right foot is even! Lol!
43. I like to cook my pankcakes so they are still a little gooey in the middle. I also like to eat my breads and cookies this way, just a little gooey and super soft!
44. The first movie Terry and I ever watched together was 'I Am Sam'. We rented it and took it back to watch at Terry's house after we had only been dating a couple of days. Neither of us had any clue what it was about and man, were we in for a surprise! Saddest movie ever! I cried of course and so did Terry...Im sure he was embarrassed and I think he tried to play the whole thing down. But I loved the fact that he was sensitive and emotional just like me, I knew I was going to marry him and that he was going to be an amazing father...and I was right!
44. I love the feeling of climbing into a bed that has freshly washed sheets and pillowcases. I wash all our bedding at least once a week but if I had the time I could easly wash it everyday because I love that feeling so much!
45. I absolutely have to take a shower every single night, no matter how late I get home, or even when I am camping! I like to be clean before going to sleep and I can't understand how people can crawl into a clean bed being dirty and then sleep in their own filth....gross....
46. I also love the feeling of putting on a new pair of socks for the first time!
47. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I am driving down the street and somebody pulls out right in front of me and makes me hit the breaks, and there was no one behind me! It seems like this happens all the time. Why can't people just wait until I have passed and then pull out? There will be no one behind me for miles, yet they have to cut me off....it really irritates me!
48. Another thing that really gets under my skin is when parents or adults smoke around children! I can't even wrap my head around this one. Why would you blow harmful smoke around an innocent child for them to breathe in? Knowingly exposing a helpless child to a deadly disease....these parents must really hate their kids....
49. My favorite flavor of Doritos is Cooler Ranch, but I am the only one in my house that likes that kind so I rarely get to enjoy them.
50. I absolutely love my Cadillac however, if I got to choose my dream automobile it would have to be a new Land Rover Sport. Black exterior with either a dark gray or black leather interior. I never thought I would ever love driving an SUV but now that I have two kids I can't even imagine not having one...how would everything fit in a sedan?
51. I am a museum junkie!!! I love anthropology and archeology, so learning about different cultures and different time periods is fascinating to me. I could look at artifacts and works of art all day long. I jump at any opportunity to see a good museum and in my life I have seen some great ones: The Guggenheim Las Vegas and The Las Vegas Art Museum (this one was right around the corner from our house!), The Exploratorium in San Fransisco, Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum in Orlando, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Natural History in New York City, the Corrie Ten Boom Museum and St. Bavo in Haarlem. (St. Bavo is technically a church but you can tour the inside of it and they have set up a brochure guide with historical points of interest and also have artifacts and models displayed inside...it really felt like a museum. The VanGogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Anne Frank House all were in Amsterdam. - I have a hard time believing that anyone could visit Amsterdam and not walk through the Anne Frank annex the first time they were there, it is a must see! (Man, I am starting to sound very cultured here aren't I? Lol!) The Louvre in Paris, the British Museum and the Handel House Museum in London. I am also super excited to visit the Smithsonian in Washington DC this December! Whew! That was a long list! =)
52. Traveling to Europe was simply amazing and I hope that I get another opportunity in my life to visit over seas because I still haven't seen Italy, and my life wont be complete until I do! Even though we were only in each city for a couple of days, I feel like we pretty much conquered that Western part of Europe. Next time we need to hit up the Eastern side visiting Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and of course Italy! Oh and Greece might be cool too. But anything further East than those countries, I honestly don't really have any desire to see.
53. When I was younger I would always dress up as a witch, a pumpkin, or a hippy for Halloween. Every year I was one of those three things.
54. My favorite months of the year are October and December. I enjoy the weather of the summer months better, but there are so many fun activities and events taking place in October and December, and now that I have kids the fun has only multiplied!
55. My favorite holiday is Christmas! You can feel the holiday all around you, everywhere you go. The chilly weather, the snow, the decorations, the lights, the holiday goodies, the planning and preparing, the anticipation for Christmas morning...how could you not love Christmas?
56. My favorite weather is when it is still pretty warm outside, like in the high 80's, and it is storming outside but not raining....just cloudy, windy, with thunder. We use to have this weather all the time in Vegas and I loved it!
57. If my mother was willing to come with us, I would pack up our house and leave Idaho tomorrow. Me and my girls are way too attached to leave grandma Netty now though, I don't know what we will do if the day ever comes to leave...
58. Speakng of moving, Terry and I have been discussing the future and a move might be necessary for his business. We've been doing really well considering we live in Idaho. But if he wants to progress and take Regal to a whole other level we really need to be where the action is. Las Vegas is a possibility as well as somewhere in California. Only time will tell I suppose, I can't even think about it right now.
59. My mom is my best friend in the whole world!!! This may be hard to believe for those of you who knew me during the ages of 14 and 15. I was the worst! I hated my mom and we would fight constantly! She sent me to live with my dad for my freshman year in high school and when I moved back in with my mom sophmore year we were totally fine with each other. She came to the understanding that I was going to do whatever I wanted regardless of whether she allowed me to or not. So she figured she at least wanted to know where I was honestly going and who I was honestly hanging out with, just incase anything ever happened she would know where I was. Honsesty is all she required of me and I could handle that, I've always been an honest person.
60. I like most genres of music, except jazz...I really can't stand jazz. My absolute favorite style of music though is techno, electronica, dance music...whatever you want to call it is fine with me. It rocks! =)
61. My first techno love was when I was 14 years old and I listened to my brother's Daft Punk CD...it was an instant connection!
62. My first time out of the country was when my girlfriend Kelly and I went up to Canada in high school. Back then you didn't need a passport or anything like that, you could just cross right over.
63. My favorite smells are homemade bread & cookies, shoe stores, and cinnamon pinecones.
64. As I get older my eyes are getting greener and greener. They were always a hazel color with both brown and green but I have noticed the past few years that the brown is disappearing.
65. I sleep on my stomach with both of my arms tucked in under me. Obviously during my pregnancies this position wasn't possible and I had the hardest time training myself to fall asleep on my sides instead.
66. I don't drink milk, it is so thick and gross. I don't think I have had a glass of milk since I was 7 or 8 years old and even then it had to be chocolate milk. I do pour milk over my cereal but I strain the milk out of each bite before I eat it. I get plenty of calcium from my cheese and ice cream intake so no worries people! Lol!
67. I can't stand having my finger nails painted because as soon as I get one little chip it drives me nuts and I have to take all the poilish off and paint them again...it's way too much work.
68. With that said however, I almost always have my toe nails painted. The paint doesn't chip nearly as easy for some reason so the polish lasts for weeks.
69. When we were living in Las Vegas I was mega tan, they had 24 hour a day tanning salons everywhere and I went once a week. Because of this I can already tell that I have little wrinkles around my eyes and I am only 26 years old! I decided I am never going tanning again and I have stuck to it for the past 2 years. I haven't been once. I would rather be pastey white with no wrinkles, then tan with wrinkles and skin cancer when I'm older! Hard choice, I know! =)
70. Terry and I went to the same elementary school in Idaho Falls but not at the same time...we barely missed each other. He was born there and lived there until he was 11, then his family moved to Nampa. I was born in Boise and moved to Idaho Falls during the summer between 4th and 5th grade when I was 9 years old. We only lived there for one year so I was back in Boise for 6th grade. Anyways, I thought it was strange that both Terry and I attended Hillview Elementary at some point in our lives, only missing each other by one year. We played at the same parks and swam in the same public pool...it would have been weird to know him back then! Haha!
71. I was born 4 days late. My due date was May 4th which is my brother Kevin's birthday. I was the only one out of my mother's 5 children who came late, the other 4 were all early. But I was also born on Mother's Day. So I joke that I was purposely late as a gift to Kevin so he wouldn't have to share his birthday with his little sister, and as a gift to my mother so she could have her first baby girl on her special day! =) My mom likes to say that this should have been her warning that I would be stubborn and that I was going to always do whatever I wanted! Lol!
72. I wear a size 6 shoe, which seems to be a very popular size because whenever I find a shoe that I like it is always sold out in a size 6....boo!
73. My favorite color is probably pink, but when it comes to clothes I really don't own that many pink things.
74. My astrological sign is a Taurus. I have never really bought in to all that supersticious stuff but I do agree that I am stubborn, reliable, loyal, generous, honest, and I do have a temper. I would have to strongly disagree that I am lazy though. With two young kids you don't get the chance to be lazy! =)
75. I am a really forgiving person, probably too forgiving. I often forgive and let people back into my life who have done horrible things to me. I am just a believer that everyone deserves a second chance and I really do want to believe that most people are good and mean well. We all make mistakes and I would want someone to be willing to forgive me if I had done something to hurt them. However I do have a cut off limit, I think the "3 strikes you're out" rule works quite well. =)
76. I am a generous person. I love to give way more than I like to recieve, and to be honest getting gifts actually makes me a little uncomfortable. I would gladly give anyone in my family my last dollar if they needed it and I wouldn't even think twice about it.
77. I am 'slightly' addicted to shopping, as I think all women are. Thankfully for me, I have a husband with the world's worst memory. So I can go shopping for new clothes, come home and hang them up in the closet, and when I wear them Terry can't remember if they are new or if I have worn them before, so he just keeps his mouth shut! Hahaha! There are also 3 stores I couldn't live without: Target, Old Navy, and Wal-mart. All the other stores are nice to have, but those 3 are a neccessity!
78. The next vacation Terry and I go on needs to be somewhere warm and relaxing. The past 3 trips we have taken alone together have all been to big cities, with big populations, and have been fast paced. (Las Vegas, New York City, and Europe) We need to go to a warm beach where we do absolutely nothing for a change! Maybe we can get over to Carmel By The Sea for our wedding anniversary in March??? =)
79. This March Terry and I will be celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary! I decided I will finally change my last name too! Terry could care less if I take his last name or not, and I don't really care either, but I am tired of people getting us all confused. They either call Terry, Mr. Renberg. Or at school they sometimes call Maddy, Madelyn Renberg. People just assume that if I am married and my last name is Renberg, then that must be my married name. So the time has come, I will probably change it this spring and I will finally be Karen Montague! That sounds so weird to say! Haha!
80. In addition to visiting Italy one day I think Egypt would be pretty dang cool too. Seeing the pyramids up close like that would probably make my mind explode! They are insanely fascinating to me...how did the Egyptians really build them? It just doesn't make any logical sense!
81. I might be skinny but I assure you I am seriously out of shape. I don't exercise except for chasing my kids around all day. If I had to run a mile or something like that I would probably pass out. I know I can walk miles each day because we just did it in Europe, but running is another story, I hate running!
82. I have always hated running. I dreaded the days in PE where we would play soccer. Soccer is nothing but non stop running back and forth for hours...blah!
83. I also dreaded the days in PE where we had to play volley ball. I could serve it over the net just fine most of the time but I just despised that sport for some reason. Maybe because I was short and could never spike the ball over the net...I don't know. But volley ball and soccer were my two least favorite sports growing up.
84. There were a few things I liked in gym class though. I kicked some serious trash when it came to the rope climb, the chin hang, and the peg board. I must have had wicked upper arm strength as a kid because I don't think I could do any of those things now. Lol! I set the record at Lowell Scott Middle School for the longest chin hang for a girl in my grade. OoOoOo! I'm special! Haha!
85. I was in choir every single grade all through middle school and high school. I was always in the alto section because I have a pretty good ear for singing the harmony. I know I have a decent voice and have no problems singing with a group of people, but ask me to sing alone and I will laugh in your face, it's never going to happen!
86. I always knew I was going to grow up, get married, and have children. I also always thought that I wanted to have around 4 kids of my own. Then I actually had one and decided that 2 would be the perfect number! Lol! A family of four is perfect. You will always fit comfortably in a car, one parent can always handle one child, and there is never a child left out. Even if we had a 100% guarantee that if we had another baby it would be a boy, I still don't think Terry or I would have another one. We are happy with our current family dinamic and are done having kids....we have to pay for each of their college educations let's not forget and that is going to be expensive!
87. My favorite flowers are lilacs because they smell so sweet and delicious. Not to mention they are big and purple and beautiful!
88. My favorite subject in school was always in the science department; biology, chemistry, and what not. Science was one of the only classes that could hold my interest long enough so I wouldn't fall asleep....that and choir and color guard. 3 class periods I enjoyed. Math and English were the worst. I hate math and even though I like to read, English was awful because they always made us read the boringest books and write big long papers on them....blah blah blah!
89. My first job was at Allstate insurance offering free auto insurance quotes over the phone. It was a pretty easy gig, most people were nice and legitamately wanted to get a price quote to see if we could save them money each month. It's not like I was trying to sell them something they would never use, everyone has car insurance. But every once in a while I would get some mean old man that would just lay into me for calling him on a Saturday morning. I heard some pretty terrible things and I always wondered if these people knew they were screaming at a little girl from Idaho, if they would still talk to me like that? Who knows, but because of this job I have always been able to sympathize with tellemarketers.
90. I don't care if people make fun of it for not being "real" Italian food, I still love the Olive Garden! I could eat their breadsticks with alfredo dipping sauce and their zuppa toscana soup every day of the week...and when I was pregnant with Madelyn I did! =)
91. Before I had children I cleaned my house every day, no joke, every single day! I must have been insane because it was just Terry and I living in it, there was no need to clean every day! But regardless, I swept, mopped, vacuumed, dusted, and windexed on a daily basis. My house was spotless. It could have passed a white glove inspection. I only wish my house was that clean nowadays. With two kids at home, you can forget it! I do a load of dishes, a load of laundry, and take out a bag of trash every day. Those things are a given. Then I try and do at least one extra thing above and beyond those 3 things everyday like sweep and mop the floors one day, vacuum another day, and clean the bathrooms on another day. It's a pretty good system with the only flaw being that the entire house isn't clean all at the same time. By time I get to the last item on my rotation, the first one needs to be done again! Lol! I guess I could bust it all out in one day but if you ask me I would compromise having a little dust on my dresser for coloring pictures and reading books with my girls...the dusting can wait. =)
92. Terry researched about engagement rings and selected my ring 100% on his own. I know lots of women are involved with the ring process and have a big say in what the ring is going to look like, what the cut of the diamond is going to be, how big it is going to be, and so on. I had none of that, it was a surprise. Terry personally loved the antique/vintage style and looked into Tacori all on his own. They are gorgeous rings with tons of attention to detail with all the scroll work and beading. He chose the cushion cut of the diamond all on his own too, which is a combination of a round and a princess cut. He selected the size of the center diamond based on the size of my hands...he thought of everything! When he proposed and pulled out the ring I fell in love all over again. It meant a lot to me that he went through all the time and trouble of picking my ring out by himself and it made the ring more special to me than if he had just taken me down to the jewelry store and had told me to pick one out...just not as romantic if you ask me. =)
93. The first gift Terry ever bought for me was a couple weeks after we started dating. He bought me a new Guess watch and it was super cute. I wore that thing every day for several years until it finally bit the dust. For Valentine's Day 2006 he replaced it with an upgraded diamond watch. <3
94. The first gift I ever got Terry was also during the first month we were dating, I got him a new hard cover record case for all his vinyl records. He still has it to this day, though he has thousands of records and the case only holds like 80. So he only keeps his favorite ones in the hard case.
95. The first piece of furniture Terry and I ever bought together as a couple was our bedroom set back in 2004...I can't believe we have already had that set for 5 years...time flies!
96. I can't stand musicals! I obviously didn't inherit that gene from my mother because everyone else in my family loves them...well besides for Todd. Me and Todd are the outcasts. But everyone else loves them! They make me want to pull my hair out with all the non top singing and dancing....gag! If I HAD to watch one I can stomach Moulin Rouge or the Newsies, but that is about it.
97. If I don't get a new digital camera for Christmas this year from my husband I will be seriously shocked! I have been dropping hints left and right for over a year now. I think I take more pictures than the average American does and our current camera has seen better days. It is almost 4 years old, and while it was a pretty nice camera when we first got it, the technology has advanced even further since then...so I hope you are reading this Terry!
98. The only types of seafood I will eat are crab legs and lobster both of which need to be drenched in some sort of butter sauce, and fried shrimp with tarer sauce. I don't like fish of any sort, the thought of sushi makes me shiver, and the idea of eating fish eggs is beyond disgusting to me.
99. It is impossible for me to walk past the bell ringers at Christmas time and not put money in their pail, even if all I have is some change, I have to put something in as I walk by or else I feel guilty for the rest of the day. I also try to clean out our closets once a year and donate those clothes to charity. I also donate money to the humane shelters because that place makes me cry. I have a hard time going in there because I want to adopt all the dogs, I can't stand the thought of innocent animals being put to sleep because nobody will adopt them...I would take them all if I could!
100. I love my loud, crazy, disfunctional family more than anything in the world and would do anything for any of them. I can only hope that when I am all grown and old, that my girls will love each other as much as all my siblings do. You mess with my family you're messing with me! Lol! =)
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Spicing Things Up
I decided today that I needed a little change, nothing too drastic but I bought some new decorative pillows for our couches in the living room. Our old pillows were still in nice condition but we have had them for 4 years and I was tired of looking at them. So off to Kohls we went in search of a fun, bright, new pattern that would still match our existing decor and furniture. We scored big time! Not only did we find a pillow design that we really liked, they were also on sale! There were only 4 of the patterned pillows left so I swooped those up. Two for the love seat and two for the bigger couch. Then I went ahead and picked up a couple brown micro suede pillows for the big couch as well. When I got home I conditioned the couches, it is amazing how nicely leather furniture cleans up. If any of you have ever been on the fence about whether to get leather furniture or not you should absolutely go for it! I have two young children who spill and make messes and with a leather couch everything just wipes right off. If we had a fabric covered couch it would be stained and ruined by now....leather is worth the money! Anyways, the couches look brand new and the pillows look great on them too, as well as with the rest of our house. It's so fun how by changing something so simple can completely transform the look and feel of a room....they should hold me over for a while, till I need to change something else! =)
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