Two Seats, Please!

Finally, here is the blog posting about the concert that I promised two weeks ago. Rob didn’t get around to writing it so I’m going to share the story. We excitedly arrived to the Martina McBride concert and got to our seats about 5-10 minutes before the concert was to start. Everyone in our row was already there and every single one of them would qualify for the “overweight” category. The smallest one had to weigh 100 pounds more than me and probably 50-60 pounds more than Rob. Most unfortunately, the two that were on either side of our empty seats would qualify for the “morbidly obese” category. We see this as we are walking up and stand to the side trying to discuss which one of us will sit by which one of them. The worst part is that the seats are just one big line of folding chairs (our seats were on the floor level) so these people are oozing into our seats and are not contained by armrests or anything like that. We make our seat choices and sit down and it is miserable. I could not sit all the way back in my seat because there just wasn’t enough room. I ended up sitting kind of sideways in my seat which I paid for over the next 24 hours with an achy lower back. We put up with this for the first two opening acts and then we were done with it. Thankfully, Rob knew someone working there who was able to get us different seats where we had more room. The new seats were farther from the stage so it wasn’t a great solution but it was an improvement. The thing that was most irritating to me is that we were the little people who actually fit in our seats and we were the ones that had to move and were inconvenienced. I’m so tired of having to deal with this problem at theaters, sporting events, on airplanes and everywhere else I go. Those people should be forced to buy two seats if they can’t fit into one because I’m tired of sharing a quarter to half of my seat with them. Maybe I should charge them for it- my seat was $60 so since you are in a quarter of it, you need to give me $15! I know it’s not a practical solution but I sure wish I could find a way to do it. I know I sound very unsympathetic to the plight of the heavy/overweight person but I understand better than they think. It's been almost 2 years since I lost 65 pounds and I know very well that dieting is not fun at all. But life is so much better when you are at a healthy weight. Anyhow, other than that, it was a great concert. Really, it was. Martina was wonderful and the opening acts, Jack Ingram and Lady Antebellum were also really good.

“It’s so cold!”

We must have heard that statement from at least 5 different family members or friends while we were out in California for the past few days and they just don’t know what cold is. Here is all our family out at dinner one night- don't we look like we're freezing?? If you are still looking at green grass in your yard, it’s not cold. This trip was the first time I’ve seen that since November! I can understand though- I used to think it was “cold” when I went outside and the temperature was in the 40s. Our perspective has changed quite a bit though now and we totally enjoyed the weather while we were in California, even when it dipped all the way down into the 40s at night. We returned to Iowa to find that it had snowed more while we were gone. It was also pretty icy on Monday, so I hear, but all of that seems to be gone by now. Just in case you want to hear about actual cold weather, it is 18 degrees here right now with a 30% chance of snow and our high for the day is 30 degrees. Tomorrow looks about the same and then it looks like it will get colder for the weekend. Yikes. Only 6 days until we leave for Florida!

We had a great time visiting with friends and family while we were in California. We even spent some time in Carmel last Friday and Saturday celebrating our 1 year wedding anniversary and that was really awesome. That’s kind of a lame word I suppose, but it’s the best one I can think of to describe that “Wow-I’ve-been-married-for-a-whole-year” feeling that I have. It’s so wonderful! We stayed at the same hotel where we stayed when we got married and we also went to the same restaurant where we all ate for the wedding. I would like to highly, highly recommend both places- Tradewinds Inn and Little Napoli. I have been to the Monterey Peninsula soooo many times in my life and can tell you that these are two of the best places there. We walked down to the beach and took some pictures right in the same spot that we had our ceremony last year and stuck our hands in the ocean. I’m trying to have a better appreciation for the ocean now that I live far away from it. It’s so amazing and I don’t think I ever realized that enough or enjoyed it enough when it was close- the same goes for the mountains. The weather was actually very nice while we were there- we hit it just right because it had been raining and started again once we left.



On Sunday, I attended a baby shower for my sister who is due with my niece in only 11 more days! I got to see a lot of people there that I haven’t seen in a while which was great. Nanette also drove up to the area to attend and brought yummy treats with her.




Nanette and I hung out for the rest of the day while Rob spent some time with his friends and watched the Super Bowl with the boys. The rest of the time was just spent with friends and family, mostly doing a lot of eating. Yay for In-N-Out Burger and George’s Shish Kebab and Mexican Food from California!! We put about 700 miles on the car by the time we returned it Wednesday morning but we got to see everyone and eat everything and do everything that we had set out to do in our time there.

One of the best parts was being able to share the latest baby news in person with everyone- the news that we are having a boy! We felt pretty strongly that it was a boy and the ultrasound confirmed it last Thursday. It wasn’t that we preferred a boy because either was fine (really, it was!) but we just really, really thought it would be a boy. We got pictures and a DVD from the ultrasound to take with us and share with everyone. I packed an empty duffle bag in my suitcase and we came back with it full of stuff- some new things for me but I think this little guy has a wardrobe almost as big as mine already. It was so wonderful to see everyone and I can't wait for the next trip. I'll leave off with a picture of Uncle Rob reading a book with our niece. It's just too cute not to share. He's going to be such a great dad!

Happy 1 Year Anniversary to Us

We are headed out the door right now for California to celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary and visit friends and family. I promise to have lots of stories to share when we get back, including the one about the concert that we still need to share!

Heat Wave

This morning when I got out of bed at 6:00 a.m. it was 40 degrees here- in Iowa! It is just downright warm out there. I’ve heard varying reports regarding the high for today but they are between 47 and 50. Somebody get me my shorts! We’ve been building up to this for a few days so I have been enjoying the warmer weather for a while now but this is just about the end of it. Tomorrow it’s supposed to cool down (18 degrees is the high and -1 is the low) and probably even snow. It is fun while it lasts though and I’m going to enjoy every second of it.

It was a good weekend for us- some fun stuff and some rest time too. Friday night we rented 3:10 to Yuma and we both thought it was a very good movie. We both really like westerns so that’s no surprise. Saturday morning we made it to the gym but ended up going to a different gym because the first one that’s closest to our house was crazy-busy. We were having none of that so we drove to another one which was much less crowded. Then we tried to go to Panera’s to get a little breakfast but that was also crazy-busy so we went home and Rob made crepes. It was his first attempt at them and they were pretty good. Later in the day while I cleaned up the house, Rob went and did the grocery shopping. We were both tired after that so we just watched tv and ordered a pizza. Since I’ve been pregnant, I can’t get enough pizza- Rob has to keep an eye on me because I’ve been known to eat half of a large pepperoni. I probably could have kept going too but he stopped me. It’s just soooo good! Last night we went to see Martina McBride in concert and it was…. Well, Rob made me promise that he could blog about it so I’ll let him tell it in the next post.

Oh Baby

So hopefully most of you already know about this, but Rob and I are expecting a baby at the end of June! My due date is June 26th and we are both sooo excited. We found out pretty early but kept it a secret until Christmas (I was about 13 weeks along at that point) when we told our family and then have been telling everyone else after that. Everything is going great and I feel really good right now. I had no energy the first trimester which was not fun. I didn't want to go anywhere or do anything. I just wanted to sit and be quiet. I wasn't sick hardly at all so yay for that! I didn't feel much like eating but I didn't feel sick either. After the first trimester, my energy levels and stomach returned to normal and everything is going along great now. We have an appointment for next Thursday to find out the sex of the baby and it is killing me to wait! I don't know how people can spend their whole pregnancy not knowing. I can see how it would be cool, I just can't see how they actually do it. We haven't bought much yet since we are waiting to see if we should be buying girl or boy things. We talk about names some but I think it will be a while, maybe even until after the baby is born, before we make a decision on that. I am sure there will be plenty of crazy stories over the next few months but for now, things are still pretty normal. I'm not showing yet but I'll put up some pictures throughout the pregnancy of the expanding belly. There have been no wacky cravings yet but if I have them, I'll be sure to share.

It continues to be very cold here- The Weather Channel says it is 0 degrees right now and -13 with the wind chill. Brrr. The good news is that tomorrow is our last cold day and then we'll be warming up for the next 10 days. That will last us until it is time to go to California next Friday where we can definitely warm up. We're back in Iowa for a week after a 5-day visit and then we take off to Florida where it will be nice and warm. By the time we get back from that trip, things will be starting to warm up here and most of the snow should be done with. It feels good to finally see the (sun)light at the end of the tunnel.

Snow White and the Seven Below

Okay, so it was actually 11.5 below but who's keeping track? Man is it cold here- and really snowy. It started snowing sometime Sunday night or really early Monday morning and kept up until sometime in the night last night- so at least for 24 hours. Thankfully it was during a holiday weekend so we just hung out at the house all weekend and limited our trips out. During the last week or 10 days we had some of our first below zero weather here and it is not pleasant, especially when you add in the wind chill on top of that. Every Saturday morning we either go to the gym or go out to breakfast but the last two Saturdays have been so cold (-11 one morning and not much better for the other) that we just stayed in and made our own breakfast. I drove to work all last week but today I decided to play it safe and take the bus. They both have their downsides- I’m either freezing cold walking to and from bus stops or I’m risking crashing the car. It’s free to warm up while an accident could be rather pricey so I’m better off taking the bus, I think. Thursday and on are looking better but today and tomorrow are still pretty yucky.

We did make it out to the grocery store on Saturday to pick up enough goods to get us through the weekend. After going to the grocery store, we decided to go by Hollywood Video and rent a movie. We had a quick moment where we started to talk about “Well, what will we do with the groceries while we go in the movie store?” That’s a valid concern back in California- you wouldn’t want to do that there. Then I pointed out that the groceries would probably warm up once moved from the car into the refrigerator so it would probably be fine to leave them in the car while we picked a movie. We ended up getting Rush Hour 3. We had both seen the first two many times and I felt like I needed to see this one too. I laughed quite a bit and there were a lot of good action scenes in it but the story was, not surprisingly, weak. Still, I was not expecting the movie to end because it seemed like nothing was being done to advance the plot and then all of a sudden it was like “They did it!” and the movie was done. We were entertained for a while though so I have no complaints.

Our main task this weekend was some major furniture rearrangement in the house. When we moved in, we decided to make one of the bedrooms a “media room”- it had the computer, tv and stereo equipment in it. I was starting to get irritated with the arrangement because it was rather crowded and we spent nearly all our waking hours in that room. We recently hooked up the Playstation and Nintendo which made it even worse because I couldn’t get past Rob when he was playing games- I either wanted to get to the computer and couldn’t or I was trapped at it. And finally, we have a very nice, big living room that was getting very little use. I finally convinced Rob that the tv and stereo equipment needed to go out in the living room and the media room needed to just be the office with the computer. Since we had so much time at home this weekend, we moved all the stuff around and got it how I wanted it. Although he had been resistant at first, he admitted that it was much nicer the way it is now. It is so nice to be out in the world again and have some room to move around instead of being stuck in a little tiny room!

The living room now:



The office- we actually have room to work on the computer and it's not jammed in a closet anymore!

Rob, The Guitar Hero

Nanette and Brent gave us a pretty awesome Christmas present- Guitar Hero II, with the red Gibson SG guitar. It got here last week and Rob has pretty much been playing it ever since.




I'm enjoying it too but he likes to play it every day! He's already at the medium level and I'm barely out of the training sessions. I think we'll be needing to get Guitar Hero III soon because he'll have this one conquered. I'll just keep plugging along :o)

This weekend was a pretty uneventful one. It seemed like we were out and about and doing quite a bit of shopping last weekend but this weekend was a lot slower. I went out and bought groceries yesterday so I could make pork chops and rice for dinner last night. Rob was helping a friend fix his car and his wife's car while I was out running around. We did go out to a delicious breakfast Saturday morning which was nice. I love to take the paper and read it at breakfast and do my Jumble. This morning I woke up with a headache so I took some tylenol and laid around until it went away. After that, I cleaned up the kitchen, bathrooms, floors- pretty much everything. Yay :o( The floors were grossing me out and they needed a super-duper cleaning which they got. Rob went out and bought me a Swiffer WetJet that I had been wanting. I absolutely hate to mop and thought this would make it easier. It does and it doesn't. It worked really well on the vinyl flooring in the bathroom but it wasn't so great on the tile in the kitchen and entry. It just doesn't get the grout areas very well. I also thought it was hard to see where the mop spray solution stuff was going and how much was coming out. On the plus side, the mop solution smells wonderful. I'm sure I'll keep using it but it wasn't quite the easy-breezy mopping experience I was expecting.

Old Man Winter

Rob Update:

We are on our third month of winter right now. It is not bad, just different. Truthfully, I would not mind a little "3 day weekend" of Spring. Or some summer humidity. To come home from work, mow the yard, watch some fireflies in the backyard, and wait for the evening thunderstorm. Man, that is good stuff.

But winter brings good with it also. Wrapping up in blankets on the couch with your wife, wearing beanies, and watching the snow fall.

I never thought I would be the one to say this, but I like going to ISU Women's Basketball games. We were initially introduced to this phenomenon by our retired neighbor John. He is an avid fan. Goes to every practice (yes...practice), every game, and all of the players know him by name. He was raving about the Women's team last summer and I just nodded and smiled. Well, one one of my coworkers gave us tickets for a game and the rest is history. We have been to three games now so far this season and it is a blast. The price is right, and they are good. I will admit, that it is a different game. More of the fundamentals. It is a different group of fans also. I talked about this with my friends at work the other day. When you go to a men's basketball game, if a scuffle or a fight breaks out, the crowd really wants the home team guy to kick some butt. But at a women's game, if one of the ISU players is involved in an on-court altercation, the crowd takes a more protective role. Like a parent protects a child.

Until next time, stay cool!

The Caucus Report

It’s been a few days now since we had the Iowa caucus and I have been trying to get Rob to blog about it since he actually went. I was very interested in going but I had a problem with one part of the process. When it comes to voter registration and party affiliation, I have always been a “decline to state” because I don’t want to pick any party. In California, this was ideal because at the primaries, they allow you to pick whichever ballot you want. Here in Iowa, you have to be a registered Democrat or Republican to participate in the caucus. I mostly lean towards being a Democrat but I don’t feel comfortable with calling myself one. I was thinking that was how I would register though so we could see how each party’s process works in the caucus because they are very different. But when it came down to it, I just couldn’t bring myself to register as either so I stayed home. Rob still promises to give the insider view soon but because I’ve been asked so many times how it works, I thought I’d share some of that info.

Republicans: Everyone has to be at their assigned caucus location and be signed in by 7:00 pm. Then they sit down in a room and write their vote on a piece of paper. The votes are tallied and that’s about it. Rob will give a better idea what happened here since this is the one he participated in.

Democrats: Everyone has to be at their assigned caucus location and be signed in by 6:30 pm. They all go into a big room where there are signs for each candidate and you stand by the sign of the candidate that you want to vote for. If your candidate has less than 15% of the people in the room, then they are not considered viable. These people then have to pick a different candidate and that is where things must get very interesting. The other people in the room go around and try to recruit these people to join them to get more votes for their candidate. Once everyone is settled on a viable candidate, then they count the votes.

It is a pretty confusing process- I asked several native Iowans how it worked and most of them could not tell me. I tried to find stuff on the internet but the websites I found really did not explain it very well. Finally, on caucus day, CNN had a great write-up of the process but that wasn’t until caucus day! It has all been very interesting though and I am glad that I will be able to be a part of it in the future and the Rob already has been a part of it. The best thing about it being over is watching regular commercials again- we have been bombarded with political advertisements since last summer and I am so glad to get a break from that!

Weekend Update

It wasn’t a terribly exciting weekend for us but we did get out and do a few things. Friday night was spent at home watching tv and then on Saturday I had a massage which was absolutely wonderful. For the past week, I had a headache that just would not go away and so I knew that something had to be going on with my neck/shoulders/back. It turned out I had an adhesion in my neck (explained here) that once she got out, my headache was gone within 30 minutes. We went to see a basketball game on Saturday night and had a pretty good time with that. It was a college women’s game and I know that sounds a little crazy, but we had really good seats and they actually are fun to go to. We went out to a nice dinner too before the game. It was a fun evening and a good way to celebrate our one-year anniversary since we got engaged. Rob had been feeling sick for a couple of days and it really hit him on Saturday night while we were out. We kept it low key after that so he could rest and I tried to stay away from him as much as I could. Sunday morning we did run a few errands, checked out an open house in our neighborhood just for fun and went out for some lunch. After that, we went back home and Rob rested while I caught up on some laundry, dishes and made dinner. We didn’t even rent any movies or anything like that over the weekend- we watched several CSI:Miami episodes though that I had recorded on A&E. I am addicted to that show like crack! I never used to watch it because I thought David Caruso was too much for me to handle but he is just so over the top that it is entertaining. With the lack of new programming these days, I gave it a try and am loving it. Anyhow, that’s about it for us- I warned you it wasn’t very exciting!