HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOE!!!!!!!

Joe's Birthday was last week...October 23rd. I was HOPING to make it super special for him, but was busy packing for Tennessee. If I were normal, I would have just thrown stuff into a suitcase and called it good. Packing for me this time meant cleaning out my closet (filling 4 trash bags with clothes for Deseret Industries), and cleaning the whole house top to bottom. I just can't leave a dirty house. Unfortunately for Joe, he's not coming until TOMORROW. Being the good husband that he is, though, he's home re-cleaning whatever he's dirtied since I left so that we can still come home to a clean house. That alone deserves a special birthday tribute, so here's to the many things I love about Joe!

1. He's a GREAT daddy! While it's true that sometimes his idea of "watching" Parker for me means getting up early so that I can sleep in only for me to be awakened by Parker's crying at my bedroom door while Joe is asleep on the couch, he really loves spending time with Parker. And Parker is SO GLAD when daddy comes home! 2. Joe will HONESTLY eat anything. This makes my job SO MUCH EASIER. Not only will he eat whatever I make him, he usually likes it. I can only think of ONE time so far in 3 1/2 years of marriage that something was so bad that he couldn't take more than a few bites. I knew it had to be REALLY bad for Joe not to eat it. Luckily I was in a good mood and laughed with him about it.
3. He loves to have a good time. He's also very willing to compromise for the benefit of others. He'll go along with ANYTHING if it's what everyone else wants to do. (He doesn't compromise his standards, however...) Joe is VERY easy-going...much less high-maintenance than I am (unfortunately for him)!

4. Joe is incredibly adventurous! He'll try ANYTHING if it sounds remotely fun (unlike me...I don't like trying new things unless I know I'll be good at them.) Joe's not afraid of laughing at himself and he's usually pretty good at whatever he tries! 5. Joe tries really hard to make everyone happy...especially me! I'm definitely the "fighter" in the relationship. Sometimes I just really want to fight, but it never works with Joe. I usually end up laughing instead!
6. Joe is very sentimental...more-so than I am! He really wanted to save hairs from Parker's first haircut...I thought a picture would suffice!
7. He loves his family! He's a great husband, father, son, brother, and uncle. Everyone needs an Uncle Joe! (Doesn't Luke look like Parker in this picture?)
8. Joe's great at planning for the future. I'm definitely the spender...he's the saver.

9. When we first started dating, I was still sort of hanging on to a former fling. My dad pointed out the night and day differences between Joe and this guy. He knew by how Joe treated me from the very beginning that I would always be a priority in Joe's life. Not so much with the other dude. How right he was! A girl in our student ward called Joe the "best kept secret in the ward." How right she was! I am so grateful EVERY DAY to be married to this cute, hard-working, fun, smart, amazing guy who puts up with the many faces of me and loves me anyway!

HAPPY 28TH BIRTHDAY, JOE! I LOVE YOU!

Sorry we've been MIA...

Sorry my mommy hasn't been very good at updating her blog lately. It's kind of my fault, so let me explain. I've been busy:

1. Being sick with an ear infection...not fun!

2. Feeding the cows at Thanksgiving Point.

3. Walking away from scary pony rides.

4. Going to the Scarecrow Festival with Jacob.
5. Visiting the "Witchy Poos" at Gardener Village with my mommy's friend, Aubrey.

6. Playing "Ring Around the Rosie" with Aunt Marci and Jacob.

7. Going to COLD, SNOWY BYU football games.

and most importantly...

8. I have a new girlfriend named Ellie. I walk around the house saying "Ellllla, Ellllla" all day long! Good thing our moms are good friends and they live two houses away...I get to see lots of Ellie. I definitely have a thing for older women!

Is it worth it???

There seems to be an ongoing debate on which is more valuable...time or money? Last February Joe and I found out about a potential offer for a free 42" Plasma TV. We had no idea how time consuming this little offer would be, but low and behold, we finally qualified and our little time-waster arrived yesterday! Joe had to take pictures of the unveiling step by step. It's definitely real, it definitely works, and it definitely took us WAY too much time to qualify for!
One of Joe's old college buddies had done something similar, so Joe had to give it a try. We signed up on a website back in February after putting Parker to bed one night and stayed up until about 3 am completing certain offers, making a spreadsheet so that we remembered when to cancel said offers, etc. By the time we got to the last page of offers, we realized that they were getting increasingly more costly. SO, we held off completing the 18 required offers until they were updated with more reasonable options. A few weeks ago, after many frustrating phone calls, thousands of junk e-mails, and around $100 spent on useless products AKA "offers," we finally qualified. Neither one of us really believed we would actually get the TV, but here's the proof!
So there it stands...on top of our old entertainment center in the basement until we find a more suitable place away from Parker's sticky fingers. Was it worth it? I guess so. Would I recommend it? Probably not. But everyone's invited to our house for all their TV viewing needs...unless of course you have your own that you acquired through more traditional means! What can I say? We like to get the biggest bang for our buck! Somehow it usually works out...

MARATHON #7

Parker and I were sick all last week, so the night before we left for St. George for Joe to run his SEVENTH marathon (FIFTH St. George Marathon), he told me that if I wasn't feeling up to it, we didn't have to go. Nice try, babe. I wasn't going to let him out of it for my sake! My cousins Dan and Matt were also running (Dan's 2nd and Matt's 1st marathon) so we all pitched in and rented a fabulous house for the weekend. Here's Joe the morning of....up and ready to run 26.2 miles at 4:00 am.
Here's Parker after I woke him up at 7:45 (of course he would sleep in the morning I needed him to be awake early!) looking much less awake than Joe! Matt's wife Janice embroidered Parker and the other kids super cute little shirts for the occasion. The back says "Run Daddy Run!" We left the house hoping to see the guys at mile 13, but by the time we made it out of the house and up the canyon, we were pretty sure we'd missed them, so they had to wait for some moral support until mile 23...sorry! I felt terrible, but Joe told me that it was actually encouraging not to see us, because he figured he was running too fast and we missed him. Maybe next time I'll just be at the finish line! Actually, after I saw Joe at mile 23, my Uncle Bill told me to take his car to the finish line so I wouldn't miss him. Unfortunately it took me longer to find a parking spot and walk to the end than it took Joe to run the last 3.2 miles. The same was the case for Dan and Matt...Joe and I found them waiting after the finish line with the mobs of runners while Bill, Kathi, Cindy, Janice and kids were still waiting for them to run past. They were all too fast for us!
Parker was really upset when we saw Joe at mile 23 and he just kept running. Once we found him after the race, Parker did not want to let him out of his sight. I was (and always am) SOOOO proud of Joe! He trained pretty well over the last month, but definitely not as well as he would have liked to the months leading up to the race (hence the trying to get out of the race two nights before). In all his marathons, he's yet to beat his best time (which was also his first marathon). His best time was 3 hours and 36 minutes. Last year he came pretty close at 3 hours and 38 minutes. This year he was 3 hours and 37 minutes! So close! At least he's consistent...and in my mind pretty darn fast! Way to go, Joe!
Do they look like they just ran 26.2 miles? Definitely not...they all walked like old men, though.
The atmosphere at the marathon is always SO fun...it made me think I might want to do another one. Maybe next year. We'll see how I feel....I'll be a lactating mother with a 5-month old baby....hmmmm. Sounds fun, right?