Our Biggest Fight

Scott’s and my biggest fight with each other is probably about movies. Okay, it may not be our biggest fight, but I feel as though it is our most regular argument, and the one I am just not willing to budge on. I tell people that I used to love movies…until I got married. I will completely agree that I am very difficult to watch movies with. I get bored easily, I don’t like to pay the high price of Movie Theaters to sit through a movie (especially one that I don’t really want to see), and I don’t like to compromise. I enjoy comedies. Romantic Comedies especially, but most comedies I will watch. I can watch some action, if they are like the Italian Job, Oceans 11 and Gone in 60 seconds. Otherwise I tend to stay away from action Adventure, but you are more likely to get me to see that kind of movie than a suspense or thriller. I don’t like to be scared, and images stay with me years later. For example, I still have images from the Sixth Sense that creep me out, and I only saw that movie once back in 2002. I’m don’t like dramas either. I don’t really like to cry. And I hate when the good guy doesn’t win or doesn’t get the girl in the end, I want to happy ending. The argument of “real life doesn’t always have happy endings” doesn’t do it for me. I don’t watch a movie for real life, I watch it to be entertained.

My poor husband on the other hand, grew up on movies and going to the movie theater, and is always trying to convince me to open up and watch one of his movies. I avoid going to Blockbuster with him as much as possible unless we have the movie already picked out. Because walking up and down the movie aisles only causes fights. I want to watch the “chick flick” and he wants to watch the suspenseful action movie with guns and blood, explosions and thrills. And I just don’t compromise. My compromises are the comic-book movies. Fantastic Four, Iron Man, X-men. Although I didn’t watch Wolverine with him and I won’t watch the batman movies either. I know he is called the black night, but his movies are too dark for me, it makes me uncomfortable. That could be why Scott is excited to have two boys when they get older, so he will have someone watch movies with him.

So that’s one area where I am not willing to change. I’m happy with my comedies. Anyone else have a similar fight where they know they very well could be wrong, but just isn’t willing to change?

Single Parenting

I am very thankful that I am not a single parent, I have a loving husband that is going through this with me. Because of Scott's work schedule, I feel as though I take the brunt of the childcare at home, but I think that most women, when completely honest, will say the same thing.

Last week, Both Scott and I had "plans" (although not yet discussed with the other yet) to hang out with friends. Being that Mondays are on of the only nights in which Scott and I both have free, we don't get a lot of time to spend with friends. Scott graciously agreed to have his friend come over to our house to watch a movie so that Brendan could stay home with him instead of me taking him out in the cold. The girls and I went to Downtown Riverside to the Festival of Lights. (You can read about it on Jenni's Blog.) It was a really great time that we could just enjoy each other's company and walk around the lights of Riverside. As I drove home that night, I thought about how lucky I was to have a husband to share the workload. We both do laundry (especially now that it is in the house with us and we don't have to cart it up and down stairs with a timer set) we both do dishes, clean the house, take care of Brendan. It really is a team effort and I know I could not do it with out him.

Last night, The girls hung out again. We had dinner at Olive Garden, just the girls. Scott once again, watched Brendan so I could have a stress free meal with the girls. Because taking an active toddler to Olive Garden is not my idea of a fun night! In fact, I wouldn't go if I couldn't leave Brendan at home. Scott is lucky enough to have guy friends that understand he has a kid, and some with kids themselves. I am lucky enough to have a husband that understands, I need time alone too.

So Scott hung out with the guys and three kids, while I was able to hang out with 5 amazing girls. I feel so refreshed this morning. I am also reminded that even though I feel stressed with Brendan and the though of another on the way sometimes scares me, I know that I am not alone.

Festival of the Trees

On Saturday after Thanksgiving, while we were still in Idaho, we went to Boise's Annual Festival of the Trees. We took our Niece, Elyse, with us before she moved to California. She loves spending time with Brendan, and Grandma & Grandpa wanted to see her as much as they could before she left. So we bundled up and went downtown. It was very enjoyable, even though we didn't get to spend as much time there as we would have liked.

There was many, many trees; all being auctioned off to raise money for community health care. Some of our favorites (or the ones Scott took pictures of anyway, were the Soda tree, Thomas the Tank Engine, Tribute to Michael Jackson, the Boise State tree with the Broncos, and the Wizard of Oz tree. I love that the tree is upside down!

We also were able to sit for a little bit and watch some performers. There were a dozen different ballet/Jazz/Hip-hop groups that came on and preformed of all ages. Brendan sat on my lap with his juice and watched them intensely for at least 20 minutes. After a while though, he got restless and it was time to move on.

Overall it was a very nice experience, I would love to go back and be able to see more, there was so much more to take in!


I also have to share that Brendan's cute little "Hunter Outfit" was purchased by my Aunt & Uncle (My dad's brother) last Thanksgiving in hopes that he could wear it by Christmas, my kid was so little that I was afraid he wouldn't ever get the opportunity to wear it. Luckily, it fit this Thanksgiving! A year later! That's one reason why I don't shop very much at Gap kids, the size 6-12 months is too large of a gap for me!

Thanksgiving 2009

For Thanksgiving this year, we went to Idaho to visit Scott's parents. It was Brendan's first Thanksgiving being able to enjoy the food. I flew up on Sunday evening with Brendan to spend a few days getting everything ready for Thanksgiving and letting Grandma play with her Grandson. Scott then flew up on Tuesday evening after work to join us. We started Thanksgiving day with monkey bread. Scott and I work together to make it, although I ended up making too large of a loaf, it was so good! It was the prettiest one I have ever made, we were very proud. My Mother-in-Law thought it needed some frosting and whipped some up to spread on top. It was a great breakfast, Brendan's favorite part of the day I'm sure!

My MIL does not like Turkey, (neither does my husband) but she was determined to make a turkey for Thanksgiving. None of us had actually ever made a turkey before, so we bought the smallest one in the store, a little less than 10 pounds. With all of us together, we were able to pull it off.

Okay, so looking back on it, I didn't really help much with the turkey besides picking it out in the store. Great job guys!

Overall, this Thanksgiving dinner seemed to be pretty stress free, we even noticed about 2 hours before dinner, with the turkey in the oven "Shouldn't Thanksgiving dinner be more stressful than this?" But with the whole family working together, it came together fairly smoothly.

The table was set and ready, we had all the "Traditional" dishes: the Turkey of course, green-bean casserole, stuffing, sweet-potatoes with marshmallows on top, mashed potatoes with homemade gravy, olives, pickles, bread rolls with butter, canned cranberry sauce (my favorite) and my mom's recipe of Cranberry Jell-o salad, which I had to chop all cranberries, apples, and celery by hand! It was a very nice dinner surrounded with family.

Scott's sister Brianna & her daughter Elyse

Brendan & Grandma

Brendan liked the Mashed potatoes the best,

but not as well as the Monkey Bread from breakfast!

The weather wasn't as cold as we thought it would be, we still had to bundle Brendan up when he wanted to go outside and play. I thought he looked so cute in his new jacket. His big cousin Elyse helped get him all ready to go outside to watch Daddy & Grandpa play a few games of ping-pong after dinner. After the dinner dishes were cleaned up and our stomachs had settled a bit, we had dessert. As we sat around the table with our pies, we went around the room stating what we were thankful for this year. It was a great time as a family to reflect on the past year and what Gos has given us.

This year Scott & I are thankful to have such great jobs in this economy, many teachers are without work this year, but Scott has found a great school to teach what he loves. I have a great job that I love, and that gives me the opportunity to have vacations and holidays to spend with my family.

We are thankful for our house that God provided at a price we could afford when we thought becoming homeowners was far into the future.

We are thankful that we have found a great church to attend and get involved with. We are excited to see the journey the church is taking and to be a part of God's plan with it.

We are Thankful that we have such a wonderful family. That we are in this together, Scott and myself. We are a team that works together. We have a wonderful and smart boy, and were given the gift of another on the way.

We are tankful that we don't have to face this parenting alone, we have many grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends to help us through it all.

We have a lot that we have been blessed with, and a lot to thank God for.

Baby Names

So now that we know our little one is a boy, we have to decide on a name. Currently Scott and I are unable to decide between two names, although we haven't limited them to only these names, we may find another that we like better. But for now we are "arguing" against two names. What do you think? I have added a little poll to the side so you can vote on your favorite name!

Evan James

-or-

Brian Joseph

Tell us what you think!

Congratulations! It's a.....

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