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Not really sure what to write about today, but I'm doing it. Let's pick a random topic....baseball cards. A few years ago, my mom gave me 2 shoe boxes full of my dad's baseball cards from when he was a kid. Well, last week I finally looked into getting some help to see how much they are worth and it looks like we have some that are going to be worth some money. So I was going through them and trying to organize them and I found myself wondering how a little card board card could be worth any money, let alone lots of money. And to think that people actually have whole shops dedicated to baseball cards and that people will pay crazy amounts of money for certain cards. I don't get it. I guess maybe if I liked baseball more I would understand it better.

Valentine's Day

This Valentine's Day, Bo definitely scored some points. He had 3 different surprises all planned out. First was his surprise for Melia and I. He packed us up in the car and drove us out to the middle of nowhere (not hard to do around here), and as we pull up to where we are stopping, the first thing I see is this huge tiger! No, not just roaming around free--in a cage. Anyway, it was a wildlife sanctuary where they take in animals with special needs. Ok, if you know me at all, you will know that this was the perfect place to take me. :) And Melia too. She loves animals and it was amazing to be able to see them all so close up. I mean, I've seen tigers and stuff at zoos before, but they are always pretty far away. At this place, we literally stood like 5 feet away from them. I never realized how massive they are! We also found out that they have the ability to spray their scent from their butts at a distance of up to like 10 feet. We had to dodge a couple of times.
They had lions, tigers, mountain lions, panthers, coyotes, otters, birds, owls, snakes, lizards, and some animals I had never heard of. Oh, and they actually had a "Liger"--just like Napolean Dynamite was talking about. :) Anyway, we had a really good time there.


Later, Bo's second surprise was just for me. He took me to a lookout point overlooking this huge canyon that we live by. His intention was to watch the sunset, but it was overcast, rainy and freezing. Needless to say, we didn't get to see the sunset, but hey, it's the thought that counts right? It was still beautiful. That night, we went out to eat at Olive Garden, which is a real treat for us because we don't get to go out to eat that often anymore. (you know, money. Or lack of.) His last surprise for me was taking me to this little live theater in Chico called the Blue Room. The show was "The Twilight Zone". I know, kind of random, but it was actually pretty cool. A friend from Bo's work was in it. Anyway, overall it was a fun day. It's nice to be surprised and to know that Bo put in the effort to plan it all out. I'm grateful to have a good husband. :)

No Gestational Diabetes for Me!!!

So the last three months of my pregnancy with Melia was spent poking my finger 4 times a day to check my blood sugar levels, following a strict diet (boo!), thinking about if it's been long enough since I last ate to eat again or if it's been too long and I need to eat something, having to take walks at all hours after finding out my blood sugar was too high, yearning to be able to eat something sweet or more than 2 french fries at a time, and worrying that my baby would be born with a huge head or something. Ahh, the joys of having gestational diabetes. They say that once you get it, you will usually have it for all your pregnancies and will be more likely to develop it later in life. So, needless to say, I was not looking forward to taking that blood sugar level test this time to see if I had it again. But I've been drinking Monavie juice every day (which has a great effect on stabilizing blood sugar levels) and I've been exercising, so I was hoping for the best and....my tests came back completely normal this time!! I can't even tell you how relieved and excited I was! It's so nice to just be able to eat what I want and not worry about that whole thing. Now I just need to watch it and not go crazy and blow up like a balloon. :)

Happy Birthday Melia!!

Well, we've had a busy weekend! We had 2 1/2 birthday parties for Melia, plus Shane and Ericka came up to visit for the weekend. It was really fun though. Melia was so excited when she found out that her Uncle Shanie and Auntie Ericka would be there for her birthday party! So for the first birthday party, Melia made her intentions clear: She wanted to wear a pretty dress and have a Princess cake and dance. So that's what we did. We invited all of her little friends over and played games and had a good time. There's Melia playing "Pin the crown on the Princess".
Music, dancing and balloon time! We also played Ring Around the Rosies and London Bridge is Falling down.
Bubble time! We all went outside and let them go crazy with the bubbles. The other two girls are Melia's friends from church--Marissa and Angelina. Their birthday is the day before Melia's, so we had a combined party with them.
Princess cake time! When we went shopping for the ice cream, Melia picked the strawberry sundae kind because it was pink. :)
Here are the girls opening their presents. Lots of princess girlie stuff. They loved it!
After this party was over, we went to the park for Marissa and Angelina's family party. We had fun and more cake and they included Melia when we sang. (Thus, the 1/2 party)
On Sunday, we went to Uncle Gary and Aunt Sherri's house for the final party. We had dinner and more cake and ice cream!
Here she is blowing out her candles. 3 years old! How time flies. She didn't get a nap that day because they moved our church meetings to the afternoon which is when she usually takes her nap. But she did remarkably well all day long.
Melia and her friend Karson enjoying the cake. Overall it was a great birthday weekend!
She did have a melt down on the way home, but then again, I kind of felt like having one too after all of that! :)

The War of Names is On

Well, I finally sat down and looked at a baby name book. I came up with 5 names I liked and one that I really liked. I thought for sure that Bo would like it too and I even started looking for middle names to go with it. Then Bo came home and I told him my wonderful name and he was less than thrilled. He didn't hate it, he was just like whatever about it. I don't know why that surprised me, but it did. So then he sat down with the book and came up with his list. I had pretty much the same reaction to his names as he had to mine. Hmmm. I didn't expect this because we had such an easy time with Melia's name. We'll see how this turns out in a few months.

It's Monday

I don't think I have a real topic today. I just decided to start writing every Monday, so that way I'll actually do it more than once a month or so. :) Our friends Chris, Vicky and their daughter, Lenore, who's 2 came up to visit us from Napa last weekend. We had a lot of fun playing famous people and dancing like fools to an instructional hip hop video for kids. We spent the week previous to them coming getting together with some of the young couples from church to get to know them better. It was good too, but there's something so comfortable about old friends. You can just totally be free to be yourself, say anything you want, and act as stupid as you want and it's ok. :) They were only able to stay for one night, but are planning another trip soon.
So, I'm throwing my first "real" birthday party for Melia this Saturday and she's excited!! Her last two birthdays she didn't really know what was going on, so this has been fun for me too to be able to talk to her about it. We went shopping together today for decorations--Princess theme, what else? Can I just say that the Dollar Tree is awesome?! We found almost everything we needed there. I had this idea for Bo and I to start writing a letter to our kids each year on their birthdays. I think it will be cool because a lot of times you can express way more in letters. So we'll do that each year until they're 18 or something and then I'll compile them in a book and give it to them. My grandma Evelyn put together a scrapbook of my whole life and gave it to me for my 18th birthday and I appreciate it so much now, especially because she's gone. Anyway, looks like that's it for now.

I'm No Longer Mommy

Melia never ceases to crack us up. Her latest thing is to call us names from movies she likes. Last week, it was Toy Story--I was "Buzz Lightyear", Daddy was "Woody" and Melia was "Little Lady". She just started calling me Buzz one day and wouldn't respond when I talked to her if I called her Melia. I had to call her Little Lady. She would also correct me if I called Bo "Daddy". "No, not Daddy. Woody!" I think Bo was a little irritated that he had to be Woody instead of Buzz Lightyear. But not to worry, this week it's names from Ice Age and payback for Bo. Daddy is "Diego", the cool Saber tooth Tiger, Melia is "Sid" the sloth, and I have been dubbed "Manny" the Wooly Mammoth. I have been growing in size lately--Could this be related? Anyway, I started off the week as Manny, but today she has switched to just calling me "Ice Age". I don't know if that's better or not. Melia will even correct me when I'm saying a prayer if I say, "Please bless Daddy." She'll interupt and whisper, "No, please bless Diego the tiger." One of the small joys of having kids. :)