The Lottery

I'm not sure why, but it seems that the TV stations are fascinated by people who win the lottery. I've watched 3 shows in the last couple of weeks about people winning the lottery. One show was about "the curse of the lottery" and showcased people that won and lost it all - in other words, idiots. Another won just displayed all of the crap that people bought. And I wondered, why do these people blow all this money on ridiculous stuff. And the reason I came up with is this - generally people who buy lots of lottery tickets, therefore increasing their chance of winning, are people who are not smart with their money or investments. I would consider myself someone that chooses to put my money is "safer" places like investments, bonds, savings, etc. I find it a waste of money to buy a lottery ticket. Sorry if I've offended anyone who reads my blog that buys lottery tickets. Utah doesn't have a lottery so I guess that helps too.

But no matter how "smart" you are with your money or who you are, everyone, yes I mean you too, dreams about what you would do if you won, let's say 121 million dollars. So because I've watched a couple of these shows and it's a fun game to play, Fogg and I have been dreaming up what we'd do with all that money. And yes, some of these things are ridiculous, but we are talking about fake money, so no holds bar. Here is what I would do with my money if I won the lottery:

• First and foremost, I would quit my job. (people who say that they would still work if they were set financially are liars)
• I would go on a great vacation. Probably for a couple of months and I would go to all the places I've always wanted to go - France, Nepal, Italy, Spain, Germany, Scotland. And I'd do it big - nice hotels, nice restaurants, nice rental cars, and I'd definitely fly first class.
• I'd get two cars - a Dodge Charger (the new one looks so cool to me) and a Land Rover (for the winter driving). I'd probably get myself a nice motorcycle too. And since I'm not working, I'd have time to take the motorcycle class.
• I'd sell my house and find a house on more property and I'd probably pay to have all the nice things put into it. Now, I wouldn't buy a multimillion dollar home, I'd buy something that is big enough but not too big that I couldn't clean it. And yes, I'd still clean it, I have a control issue with cleaning, I couldn't let anyone else do it. It would be cool to have land to drive dirtbikes and mountain bikes and fun things on it.
  
• I'd pay off my parents and my in-laws houses for them (or help them move where they'd want to be instead). And since I have theoretical money here, I'd buy them cars they want if they didn't already have them. And I'd give them enough money that they wouldn't have to work anymore.
  
• I'd invest a large chunk so that Reed (and any other of my children) are set for their lives and for their children. Enough money that they could go to college and pursue their dreams.
• I'd treat my friends to nice dinners and fun things.
• I'd give money to my church to build more locations and support ministries.
• I might buy a vacation home somewhere - but I don't know where yet, maybe I'd figure that out while on my travels.
• I'd go heliskiing in Alaska.
• I'd get myself a bracelet that I've been eying for 5 years that is $3K.
• I'd hire a personal trainer to help me get the rest of my baby weight off.
  

What would you do with money if you won the lottery?

RIP Steve Roberts

Yesterday, our friend Steve Roberts passed away. Steve was quite an amazing person and Fogg and I are blessed to have known him, if only for a short time. We first met Steve this winter with his equally amazing wife Suzanne. What made Steve so amazing is that he has battled cancer for the past 10 years. I'm not going to give his story any justice at all but I'll attempt it. He was doing a routine health exam for life insurance when they found a deadly form of cancer and he was given only a few short months to live. 10 years and many, many cancers, diagnosis' and "only months to live" he finally passed. What made Steve so awesome is that his faith only grew with each diagnosis and battle. He sought the most advanced care and gave his body for trials on new medications. He touched so many people's lives during his last few years, sharing his story to anyone that would listen (probably to those that didn't want to too). His final battle was with some brain tumors that proved to have beat him this time around. Up to the end he was helping his family out, by taking in their small granddaughter. Fogg and I made the trip to church on Sunday hoping to run into Steve and thankfully we did and were able to see him standing and talking as Steve always does. On his last weekend on earth, he went to church with his family. What a guy. We will miss Steve, he was an amazing dude!

a few of my new favorite things

Because I have now entered "mom" status, I have to share some of my new favorite "mom" things. By the way, I still find it weird to be called a "mom". My mom is a mom, how could I be a mom?

Thing #1: babysteals.com
This is a one deal at a time site that gives you one really cool baby thing a day. Some are gender specific, most things are just some cool mom or baby things. If you are expecting, this is a site to check daily, you could pick up some of your necessities super cheap.

Thing #2: coolmompicks.com
I just stumbled across this, but I really like it. Good ideas, neat things.

Ok, that's all I've got for now. Next on the blog list is pet peeves and the lottery.

Cheers~

Turn Bleft in the Ca

So we just went to Maine, via Boston, for a week. The purpose of the trip was to visit with family that is getting a bit older and haven't met Reed yet. We were hoping to see Fogg's great uncle Bill one more time as he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Unfortunately, though he lasted much longer than the doctors had predicted, he passed away before we were able to get out there. The fortunate thing is that we were able to spend time with his widow - Aunt Sa. Sa told us tons of great stories about Bill and showed us lots of pictures. It was great to bond with her that way.

First we flew into Boston and spent the night with Fogg's uncle Paul and aunt Carol. They cooked us an amazing pasta dinner! The next morning we headed up to the Constitution ship at the navy yard in Boston. It was a fascinating tour.

I do the exact same thing with my eyes when it's sunny...

Next we headed north, stopping in Ogunquit (pronounced O-gone-quit). There was an amazing beach there that we took Reed to. He got to put his feet in the Atlantic for the first time.





We spent the night in Dover, NH, the next morning heading to Freeport. We met up with Dale (Fogg's brother) and Georgette and their daughter Gabby. We then went to a shaker village in Maine, with only 4 remaining members. We looked around a bit and learned some interesting facts about the shakers. According to a map located in the museum, these are the last 4 shakers in existence (I could be wrong about that, but that's what I saw). We then drove up to Gram's house in Bangor. Reed had a rough day this day for some reason so we had to stop for a "sanity check". We learned later that we think he was having some serious gas problems even though he was burping fine after feedings. Poor little guy was just screaming his head off like I've never heard before. So we get to Gram's then head straight over to uncle Bob and aunt Cindy's place (which is about 2 houses away). We caught up with the family and had some dinner. We spent the night there and just hung around the next day at Bob and Cindy's. The boys did some work, bringing firewood to Gram's house. We also walked down to the old John Deere tractor for some pictures of Reed, but he wasn't having it. Reed took a ride with Bob later on the new tractor. The whole fam came over for a BBQ that afternoon and for a surprise birthday for Gram. I believe there was like 18 people there, I won't bore you with exactly who. That night, we slept in the camper with Dale and Georgette where I froze my ass off and got attacked (ok, just jumped on) by Buster the dog in the middle of the night. To say the least, it wasn't the most restful night of sleep I've ever had. The next day, we hung around Gram's for a bit, then went to lunch without the kids (grandma's watched the kiddos). Then we went to the LL Bean outlet where we got some super cute clothes for Reed. Back to Bob and Cindy's to have leftovers for dinner and a bit more hanging out time.

Gram with Gabby and Reed

Bob putting firewood in the truck for Gram

Gabby and Reed

Fogg pooking his head in the old shed at Grams

Side note: we found out during these few days that we got a full price offer on our Layton house (which we had been renting) after only 2 days on the market! We are currently under contract and should close on Oct. 5th!

Georgette with Reed

We spent the night at Bob and Cindy's again, taking a walk on their vast property with the dogs in the morning. We then loaded up and drove to Bar Harbor for some lunch with Dale, Georgette and Gabby. Then to the brewery we all love and over to Aunt Sa's house in Belfast. The boys stopped at Young's Lobster (Lobsta) Pound on the way. We got to spend the evening with Aunt Sa hearing about Uncle Bill's life and funeral/memorial. She showed us pictures and we had a good time remembering such a great guy. I am lucky to have met him a couple of times in the past 5 years. We really enjoyed our time there.

Gabby giving Reed a bath at Aunt Sa's

Aunt Sa talking with Reed

Uncle Dale making Reed laugh

The next morning we were up and driving South to Boston. We were hosted again by Paul and Carol for another fantastic pasta dinner.

Uncle Paul

Aunt Carol

Oh yeah, and the "Bleft" in the title comes from the speech impediment that the GPS had. It would say "Turn Bleft in 300 yards". We laughed every time. And of course you don't drive a "car" you drive a "ca" in the north east.

It was a fun trip and a frustrating one. Tiring and relaxing, long and short. We are so glad we went during this hard time so that we could visit with family. But seriously, I'm going to the beach withOUT family next year...

Cheers~

Steeler's Game

Reed participated in his very first football season Steeler's game with his dad last night. He had to sport one of his new outfits in support. Notice that he has the outfit, plus Steeler socks and a mini Terrible Towel. He also has a bib that goes with it all. The kid will have no choice for his future team I think...

As soon as I get a minute I will upload pictures from our latest adventure to Boston and Maine and tell you about the trip.

Cheers~

wedding cake, hot air balloons, basements, and primanti's

Been super busy sense my last post, sorry! So here's the haps in the past couple of weeks. I'm going to work in chronological order cause I don't work in "no particular order".

Greer and Andrew got married! It was a great wedding, beautiful setting, beautiful people, fun time. The food was really good and the setting was great. Here are some pictures of the wedding.

Greer walking down the aisle with her dad.


Greer and Andrew getting married!

Rob with his funny hat, his wife Britta is in the pink dress.

Marit and Bill - they got married just 13 days later!


The boys - John, Andrew, Rob, Neil, and Fogg

I went back to work, which has been fine. The first week was stressful and sad but now I'm getting into the swing of things again. I started planning (my job for those of you who don't know) for the Ski and Paddle areas of our company. It should be fun to work with new areas!

I saw this one morning when I pulled into the parking lot, I drove right underneath it.


We used a rainy Saturday to finish up the big basement clean up of 2009. I started this project when I was maternity leave but needed Fogg's help with the remaining part of it as it was mostly tools and what have you. Fogg got some shelving to put up and we affectionately call it the "warehouse" now. I organized everything and totally love it. Here are a few pictures of it.




Next, we went to Pittsburgh last weekend for a couple of different reasons. First, we got asked to our niece's godparents when she got baptized. It was also Gabby's 5th birthday party that weekend. Fogg's brother Dale and his wife Georgette and Gabby have never met Reed so we wanted to bring him out to meet them as well. It was a busy, fun filled weekend and Reed's first plane rides. It went fairly well on the way out there, a little more rough on the way back, I think he was tired and just wanted to be home, much like his parents. We went to see the six superbowl trophies as well, which was very exciting for Fogg.

Smiling on his first plane ride!

Gabby holding "her baby Reed" as she called him.

We went to my favorite Pittsburgh location - Primanti's! Had me a sandwich and a half, fried zucchini, and poppers. Here is Dale and Mike with their kids playing.

The six Superbowl trophies...

Gabby right before she got baptized.

And finally, some fun Reed pictures from the last month.

First Steeler's game with dad. We got some outfits while in Pittsburgh, so next game, he'll be in black and gold.

So we chug along in life so next is our trip to Maine. We are flying direct in and out of Boston (thankfully, we had layovers going out and back to Pittsiburgh). We will spend a week driving up to Maine and visiting Fogg's extended family. I'd say the next vacation should be on the beach with not so much family... :) Anyway, we get to introduce Reed to Fogg's grandma and aunts and uncle's and great aunt. We will have a big family BBQ and some other fun things on the list. Little Reed is going to be quite the traveler in his first year of life! That's what happens when you get born into our little family I guess! Then my parents will be in Utah when we get back so you'll be sure to be treated to a million new Reed pics from my dad the photog.

Cheers~

what's up?

Hello there. It's been a while since I last posted. Because I have pretty much nothing of value to share with you today, I'll just give you the latest events in our lives. When I was in college, and just adjusting to being away from my parents, I would go into my friend Tasha's room down the hall and tell her about the next days events. I always did this with my parents for two reasons - one, I could verbally plan out my next day and two, it gave my parents an idea of where I would be and when for safety reasons. So I couldn't really get to bed without doing this exercise. So Tasha would graciously listen while I would account for the next days activities. So you all get to go through a similar process with me now.

If you didn't know, we have a rental home in Layton (which used to be our first house and instead of selling it a year ago when we moved, we just rent it). Well, our great renters turned out to be not so great when they decided not to pay their rent for July and move out. We didn't evict them because they already decided to move out at the end of the contract, but when their July rent payment bounced, they never bothered to pay us again. I'm learning to not be so angry about it, but it's hard when I've been at the house almost every day for the past week doing work on it. It's hard to use the last week of my maternity leave working - for free. But the house looks good, trash in the backyard is gone, weeds pulled and killed, branches disposed of, paint touched up, carpet cleaned, house cleaned. And we are lucky to have a new contract signed tomorrow! I've been busting my butt on Monday and Wednesday (and about to head over there today) to finish up painting and weed pulling.

I work for rewards, even if the reward is just a lunch out (which I reward myself with when I'm at the house working on it). But I'm rewarding myself for all this work over the past week and with pushing out a baby and learning to take care of it, by going to Cirque Du Soleil tomorrow night! I'm so excited! I've seen at least three, maybe more, can't remember, and know it'll be a great show. I also know that Fogg is going to like it, more than a musical I'm sure. We got a sitter, so we get to enjoy some time with friends at dinner and a show!

Going back to work on Monday, stressing about childcare a little bit. I had a dream about it last night. I'm not so nervous about being back at work or even being away from Reed, I'm just worried how he is going to do and nervous for the people watching him, that he will be easy for them. I've got a temporary child care option set up for the next few weeks but I am feeling like I'm burdening other people with my child. I'm going to have to get over that I guess. That's my only heart pull right now, not for me or my child but for the people watching him. I hate asking people to watch him, so I try to utilize people who have offered instead. I can't wait till my full time lady starts in October, I won't feel so bad about it all.

Lots of friends getting married or having babies. Let's see if I can remember them all...
Candace and Andy got married in April
Crystal and Andy got married in June
Taylor and Mary got married August 1st
Greer and Andrew got marred August 2nd
Michelle and Beau are getting married next week
Marit and Bill are getting married in two weeks

Mardi and Ryan had a baby girl in May - Brinnley
Amy and Pete had a baby girl in June - Jane
Hud and Jennifer are having a baby girl any day now - Pruitt
Stacy and Geoff had a baby boy in June - Wyatt
Marit and Bill are having a baby girl in January - Hazel
Sarah and Jared had a baby girl on Monday - Ava
Nikki and Paul had a baby boy in March - Luke
and many more babies to come and I'm sure I missed some...

We are heading to Pittsburgh on August 21st to attend my neice's baptism. We were asked to be Gabby's Godparents and we are so excited to be there. This will also be the first time that Reed will meet his Aunt Georgette and Uncle Dale and cousin Gabby. We are excited to have the whole Fogg clan together. We'll have to take a nice family photo all dressed up for the ceremony. We are also going to Maine via Boston from September 2-9th. We are really excited for this trip as well, we are going to Boston to see some of Fogg's cousins and then we are driving up to Maine to visit Fogg's extended family, his Grandma Ivy and Aunt Sa. Unfortunately Uncle Bill passed away about a month ago and we weren't able to make it up for the funeral so we are going to visit Sa so she can also meet Reed. Plus we love going to Belfast and Bar Harbor and Acadia and Bangor. I'm worried about the two plane rides and that Reed will be good. I'm so hypersensitive about babies crying in public so I'm afraid that I'm going to be that parent with the crying baby. Pray for easy flights for us!

Reed is just growing away and being an awesome baby. He is starting to talk and smile a lot. He's got a great schedule now. He wakes up at 6ish, feeds, goes back to sleep, sometimes just talks to himself for awhile. Then he eats at 9, then plays for an hour or so then takes a nap till 12 when he eats again. He will usually be awake till he eats again at 3. Then he takes a nice long afternoon nap from 3-6. Then eats at 6 and will hang out with dad until he eats again at 9, then a bath and in bed by 10ish. Then he sleeps until he gets up the next morning. He's so flexible now that I can go do just about anything or change a feeding time by an hour or so and he does just fine. He's started to suck his thumb more. He's got tiny little hand and feet so it's funny to see him try to get any satisfaction from sucking his thumb, but he does it anyway. He's getting to be so much fun, holding his head up more and being more interactive.

I had a skin biopsy on Tuesday to confirm my Carnitine diagnosis. I'll get the results in six weeks about that. They also did a blood test to check my levels, which I should get back soon and a blood test to measure my liver and kidney function. I also need to go get an echocardiogram to see if my heart is functioning well. The doctors are a little confused as to why I've never showed any signs of this disfuction but still testing low. Until we know more, I have to continue taking my fishy pills - 9 a day, and Reed has to continue getting 2 ML a day until he gets on his own food to get the vitamin.

Well, that might be all for now. Here are some pictures to satisfy any need to see Reed (if you don't get to). And on with my day now...

Reed on his activity mat, he grabs the side of the arch and shakes it so the bird swings and he just stares at that bird.

Reed and London, I just couldn't resist taking this, I'm sick I know it.

This is Reed and his sock monkey to measure him, at 10 weeks.

Reed holding his first contribution to his college fund from Papa and Grandma Fogg. He has a shirt that says "Party Animal" on it - appropriate huh?

Cute little smile, love this kid!