He is a much better man than I

Just yesterday Q ran into someone I went to high school with.  This someone basically said to Q that he should feel honored to be in his presence and the presence of his family because they were so rich and at least four of them were millionaires.  My Q, my perfect Q, simply replied, "cool."

Well, Q is a much better man than I because I can think of at least 7 come back lines that would include rude, sarcastic remarks. There is no way I could have let something like that slide with grace and humility on my part.  It's times like these when I am most proud to be married to Q... a real man who is ten gazillion times more fantastic than any rich millionaire!!!

Speaking of fantastic:

 I'm not quite sure how it was managed, but the day after school got out, I put on this fantastic bridal shower for my sister Megan.  Never mind the fact that my body hurt so wretchedly from teaching dance the day before (really, that was one week too many- my baby dropped this week and all that bouncing was no bueno).  It took 3 days to recover.

I even made and strung way cute banners that I am planning to leave up all summer because Annie and I love waking up to them.

And I made these fabulous clothespins covered in ribbon and lace...

 Check out our new rug.  New Zealand wool and it is 12 x 9.  Got it for a dream at the overstock warehouse!

 It is still quite unreal to see little Meg so close to getting hitched,

 I bought these darling candle magnets at 50% off and am now wishing I had picked up all of them.

 Also splurged on this party banner. Planned to give it away as a gift but in the end I couldn't part with it.

 A few extra details...

 The guest of honor:

 And some really awesome hair the morning after:

"This. Just not at midnight."

On Monday I was baking away - and swearing - at midnight.  The last week of school is always hectic.  I lamented to Q.  It went like this:

me:  "HONESTLY, what DO women do all day who don't have to work?"

Q:   "This.  Just not at midnight."

We both started laughing.  There was many a time this year when I had to suck it up and deal with work.  More later...but, THAT my friends, is in the past.  Starting today I officially have a two and half month vacation!  Can you believe it?  This is our first summer without moving or renovating!  My my, whatever will we do?  Well, for starters, may I just say that I woke up early this morning and cleaned my whole house.  It looks gorgeous. I even watched half an episode of Downton Abbey (before Porter walked in on the kissing scene and I had to turn it off - drat).

So that awful night (and so many others like them) when I needed way more hours in the day for what needed to be accomplished which pushed cookie-making for co-workers into the post midnight hours, THOSE nights are in the past.  I get to be a certified stay-at-home mom for 2 months.  Life is bliss.  Someone reminded me yesterday that I was jumping the gun on thinking I have vacation time coming because I'm having a baby in two weeks.  OH-CONTRAIRE I quickly corrected them, compared to this past year, having a baby will be a cake walk.  I'm even looking forward to my catheder at the hospital.  TMI? 

Annie (aka:  Little Mommy) requires a front row seat to any baking I do.  She is going strong at 11pm here.  It took more than a few spills before I figured out I should give her her own bowl to mix her own cookies in.  Duh.

Titanic Towers

Quinn and I are working on some compromises for the back yard...  For example:  I have vetoed the 5 foot dirt base paths but agreed to white lines around the actual diamond,while Q has positively denied any possibility of moving home base to the corner with the house even after he hit a ball into one of our back porch windows and nearly shattered it.  Currently the house is 3rd base which doesn't make sense to me as that is the general direction one hits the balls toward.  I think he may have said something to the effect that damaging the house with repeated long drives is better than having to retrieve lost balls over the fence (??!?!).  My hubby is my ultimate dream boat but gee wiz is he obsessed with base ball! I do believe Q is giving me a crumb though by agreeing to NOT paint Yankees logos all over the walls of the yard which was his initial plan.  We are still 12 months away from a finish date so the battles ensue.  In the meantime...

I am DREAMING about THIS!   It is called the Titanic Towers and after hours and hours of wasteful research, this is the play set of my dreams.  They even have free install, if you live in Georgia (drat).

P.S. Does anyone else HATE the new blogger photo uploader? I can't move the photos around and size them like I used to.  Tricks?

SHOT Show 2012

I have been trying to figure out how I was going to get to the SHOT Show for about a month now... I got it worked out late Thursday night to attend the final day on Friday. So.. there I went, sporting my SLAM Outdoors polo and a couple of SLAM business cards in my wallet just in case I happened to run into someone like say.... oh I don't know........ BENNY SPIES MAYBE??

Yep! It's true folks.. I met our Mentor, Benny Spies himself! I have been on a high ever since! What an honor! Here's a little about how the conversation went:

Me: BENNY!, love your show. Best hunting show on t.v. by far! We love it because it appeals to normal guys like me.
Benny: Thanks man, that means a lot.
Me: My friends and I love your show. In fact, we are even in the market for an old winnie.
Benny: Oh, A toaster?
Me: Yep (we shared a quick laugh).
Benny: This is so and so....(forgot the name of the girl with him)
Me: Hi, nice to meet you. I'm Quinn Hadley (and we all shook hands).
Benny: She's the reason we can do what we do. She keeps us on the air.
Me: So.. did NBC Outdoors pick up you show?
Benny: yep, we just signed for 9 more shows coming out later this year. Gotta keep the old toaster on the road.
Me: Awesome! Would you mind if I got a picture with you? Maybe one on my phone and one on my camera?
Benny: Sure (we take pictures)
Me: Thanks, my friends are gonna freak when they see this
Benny: What size are you?
Me: XL
Benny: Here, have a shirt. Not sure if it is XL... Oh, it's not. Let me look. Here's one... You know what? Just keep both of them.
Me: Thanks a lot man!
Benny: You're welcome
Me: Nice to meet you
Benny: You too. Take care. Thanks for watching.....

THAT WAS SOOO AWESOME!! but, unfortunately, I froze during all of that because I was nervous and didn't give him a business card.... what was I thinking??? I guess I didn't want to be rude and it looked like he was leaving. I just felt lucky to even run into him. I mean... there are 10,000 people at this thing and I just happened to be right were he was walking out at that exact moment. I almost couldn't believe it. It caught me off guard because I didn't expect to see him there that late in the week so when I did, I wasn't prepared. I am going to post that pic on his facebook wall but there are a lot of other morons on there asking him to go hunting with them and stuff like that. But, If I could do it all over again, I would have talked to him a bit longer and ask him if he liked it out west, introduced myself better, and told him how much we watch and love his show. And then I would have invited him out to Lake Powell (which was the first thing Nicole asked me if I had said) for a Striper fishing trip. Just think if he had that card right now.... If he didn't throw it in the trash right after he walked away, he would have had it in his pocket and found it one day and thought, "hey, I should check out this website, that guy said I was on here. What the heck." And then who knows if it would have turned into a friendship. I would love to be considered one of his "good buddies" like on his show.

Anyway, not that it mattered after that, there was still a whole show to see. There were like 2,000 booths at this thing! We were there for 4 hrs and barely saw any of it. It was SOOO awesome! I have never seen so much cool stuff in one place. Every major company and tons you have never heard of were there. We're talkin', Browning, Mossy Oak, Realtree, Remington, TC, Smith and Wesson, Colt, Glock, Benelli, Savage, DB, Nikon, Leopold, Vortex, Wolf, Tul Ammo, Barnes, Hornaday, Gamo... You had to be a buyer to get in. Good thing I have a few friends in high places in law enforcement.

-Quinn

"If I sew patches on, it won't look like a fishing shirt anymore!"

Naturally the idea of Quinn wearing a scout uniform in public peaked my interest. As Q loathes the possibility of public matching and positively shirks from any resemblance of uniform apparel, I was more than a little enthused to see him wearing his scout shirt to the Blue and Gold Cub Scout Banquet at our church. I even made a point to bring my camera. Leave it to Q to find yet another way out of official matching. He managed to wear this brown jacket over his official scout shirt the entire evening regardless of the temperature. Lame. I tried to make him feel bad for it by pointing out how the other leaders have TONS of really cool patches sewn onto their shirts and his is super plain and boring. He promptly and sufficiently silenced my guilt trip by explaining that leaders don't earn those patches, they just go to the scout store and buy whichever ones they think look cool, and besides, "If I sew patches onto my shirt, it won't look like a fishing shirt anymore."

I'll never understand men. Q refused to wear his scout shirt visibly out of embarrassment and yet he's been begging me to let him buy this $90 ghastly and hideous Nascar fishing twin for weeks?!?!?! Someone please explain this to me.

Annie is so much fun!
She has two teeth, loves to roll, and is talking up a storm.

We took her to the SGU Parade of Homes and discovered MUCH TO MY DELIGHT at the first house we visited mere SECONDS from mom's house that Irmitas had set up a booth in the garage. Needless to say, we visited that garage for 10 days straight! We thanked our lucky stars that we hit that house first because if I had discovered the Irmitas garage seconds from home on the last day, I would have cried. One day we sent Q for our Irmitas fix and the ladies asked him, "How's the baby?" and "Is your wife teaching again today?" Yep. We love Irmitas,

SGU really is a most beautiful place to live.

You May Have Heard...
We bought a house. Thrill! I have been designing the inside of this house for decades (really- I've always been obsessed with someday having and decorating my very own real live house). Knowing this then, you will be amazed to discover that I literally walked into my dream design aesthetic during the parade of homes. It was like stepping into my own mind! I took about 800 pictures. In fact, Q finally left me behind because my snapping was embarrassing him. I was surprised then, when he went back with me to hold paint and wood samples up to the wall to make sure they matched! Here it is- straight from my dreams:

We've also been celebrating some birthdays round our parts:

Nor and Quinn turned another year older. 31 was big for Quinn. Suddenly he has one child and two mortgages to pay. Yikes for next year!

I gave Q a garden hose and some socks.

I know, I know- not that great right?
We decided that we would be giving each other things for the house
for the next thousand gift-giving events.
I already know I'm getting a fridge for Christmas.
Q pretended to be excited about the hose.
At least he got a wicked-awesome BBQ from my parents!

Your advice please:

These pictures kill me and break my heart now that we have discovered
after MUCH trial and tribulation
that Annie is allergic to TOUCHING food- not eating it!
Major heart breaking puffy red rash.
Except NOW I'm almost positive she is allergic to something she's been eating too.
We have to start over.

I just have one question: Will someone please tell me
how to teach a baby to eat without touching her food?!?!?!

All Annie All the Time

Ever tried to snap a photo of your baby sans the blur of her constant motion
let alone that of her favorite swing?
...almost...

...not quite...

HERE WE GO!

Did I ever tell you Annie is a swing snob?
Well she is and it's driving me crazy. She simply will not settle for any swing less than the one at Grandma Cindy's. Ug. It really only bothers me because my mom kept telling me, "You need to go get one like mine, it's on sale...why haven't you gotten it yet?"
I put it off thinking I could buy a cheaper, better, more gender neutral swing online.
Boy was that a mistake. The swing I got online is fine, it's orange and cute, but now that Annie has been ruined with the pink one, she'll have no going back to an orange one that feels different even if it was more expensive, took a way long time to arrive, and has a glide and swing motion.
Anyone wanna buy an orange swing that has been rejected by my 4-month old?

Earlier this month my mom required some artistic assistance in getting the decor up and going. I hope Annie doesn't feel deprived since this is about the only decor she's getting. Q and I managed to bring our Christmas tree down from the cabin on the 11th, but it has yet to make it out of the box and we are going out of town for a week so.... Annie may just have to survive with my really awesome advent calendars and Grandma's tree this year. Does it help that I bought her some awesome presents for Christmas?

...and when you can't decide which picture of your baby is cutest, you just post them all!


I decided to give Annie her big gift early (activity center below) when I saw her grow about an inch and a pound right before my eyes. I realized she is going to be out of this thing before I have sufficient time enough to enjoy her being entertained by it whilst I attempt to clean a smidgen of the house, so out of the box it came. Annie and I set it up one night while Q was at Scouts. Did I mention Q's favorite part about scouts? He loves the outfit. Now before you raise your eyebrow in shock, let me just add that he only loves the outfit because it looks like a fishing shirt if he can get away without putting any patches on it.


Other fabulous Q quotes we should not forget to recognize:
Conversation last night in the car when we spent 2 hours delivering Christmas baked goods to our friends:

Quinn: Is it time for my mid-life crisis yet?

Me: No.

Quinn: When do I get to have that?

Me: Not tell you're in your 40's at least.

Quinn: Oh. I better start saving my money then.