Moved In

I made it to Colorado Springs last Monday. Our families kept Kaden while I went up to move our stuff in and date my sweet Hubbs for a few days. It was a short, sweet ten-hour drive from OKC. No dog, no baby, no passenger- it was a breeze! I sang as many old Britney Spears, Spice Girls, and Pitbull songs as I wanted at the top of my lungs without worrying about disturbing anyone. I swear I sounded exactly like all three of them.

Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado state lines. Obviously.

I learned a little something on my way up that I am gonna go ahead and share as a tip to all the single ladies out there. I wish I would have known this in college! Go out and get yourself a big ol' shiny pickup truck and some kind of a trailer, and you will have boys eyeing you up no matter what you look like. They must like girls in big trucks because I have never been hit on more in my life than on my little road trip! Granted, these *gentlemen* eyeing me up (or maybe it was the truck, but whatever!) were usually missing four or five teeth, talked in an incomprehensible hick accent with a lip full of tobacco, and scared me enough to where I limited all my gas stops to under three minutes, but hey, IT WORKS! Thank me later.

Eat your heart out ladies, this could be yours!

When Hubbs left for a road trip, I decided to fly out of Denver instead of Colorado Springs so I could fly my beloved Southwest. Well, you know those people who are at the airport just ticked off at the world? And who take all their frustration out on ticketing agents, security agents, and gate agents? Yeah, I was surrounded by those winners that day. There was a lady behind me in the security line who was about 4 feet 9 inches who was huffing and sighing as if that would make the line go faster. Every time I would move up 5 inches in line, she would move up 5.5 inches in line. I might as well have been giving this woman a piggy-back ride. The only thing that kept me from saying something to her was the fact that she looked and sounded exactly like Wanda Sykes. So I actually began to enjoy her little rants. Who knew miserable people could actually be extremely entertaining?!

Then the lady behind me on the plane had three beers on our one-hour flight, so not only could I smell her feet when she decided to get a little more comfortable by taking off her shoes, but I could also smell the beer on her breath. Don'tget me wrong, I don't dislike the smell of beer at all. The smell of beer that has already been consumed, but then released in the form of carbon dioxide through an exhale, however, NOT A FAN. I added a diagram to make to help you understand my pain:

We went to Stillwater for the Oklahoma State spring football scrimmage yesterday and it was a blast, but the real highlight of my day happened earlier that morning when my mom, grandma, sister, and I played with the mind of one of mother nature's finest- the Cardinal. The male Cardinal is a very proud, very territorial bird who claims his territory with his song and can turn downright rotten if you are a fellow male Cardinal who intrudes his territory. We used this to our advantage when we saw and heard one of these beautiful red birds chirping away happily in my parents' backyard. Don't ask why because I think it's odd too, but my mom has the "Chirp! Bird Songs USA" app on her iPhone, and it plays the sound of different birds throughout the United States. Soooo we connected the iPhone to a loud speaker, turned it to a Cardinal's chirp, and blared it from the speaker. Mean, but very funny! The bird went loco and was looking for a fight. Or maybe looking to mate, I really never can tell to be honest. See for yourself-

I couldn't sign off this blog without posting a view from one of our main roads in Colorado Springs. This is Pikes Peak and it takes my breath away! No literally, I cannot breathe at the top of Pikes Peak, I've been there before. Ideally I would like to get in good enough shape to do some kind of Pikes Peak run before our time in Colorado expires. Maybe like a 5k or something.

Had to add this picture, because it makes me smile! We had family over today and all the kids got easter baskets with bunny ears in them and somehow my Papa ended up with them on. He looks so EXCITED about it! Smile today! Ohhh and GO OKC THUNDER!!!

Sweet Home Oklahoma

Renting an unfurnished apartment for such a short amount of time just plain SUCKS. But, what can you do? It was either suck it up and buy/rent/bring some cheap furniture for the five-month stay or pay $2,500-3,000/month for a furnished rental. So needless to say, we packed the trailer full of essentials and smaller furniture. Essentials plus things like: a waffle maker that is still in it's original box from our wedding registry (you never know when you might wake up one day and have a hankering for homemade waffles), All my at-home exercise DVD's (just in case I feel like starting up an at-home exercise program in the next five months), and a small box of books that I MAY just want to re-read on a rainy day sometime. You know, the ESSENTIALS.

Packing procrastination at it's finest.

My mom took off work last week to help me pack this stuff up, load up the trailer, and drive it to Oklahoma- our stopping place for a week or so before we head up to Colorado Springs. Once again I wonder how I have gotten so lucky with so much help from family?! I could not have done that without her! Okay, to my credit, I probably could have, but it would have taken a couple WEEKS longer. Before she got there, Kaden thought it was a fun game to unpack the whole suitcase or box that I had just packed. So fun.

Our motley crew (minus mom) all smiles before leaving. We had VERY different expressions about 15 hours in. Sorry Al Gore, this gas-guzzlin' puppy got an average of 10 mpg. A PRIUS just wouldn't pull a trailer!

We left Thursday around 11:00 am. I had to stop at BuyBuyBaby in Tampa to get Kaden a new car seat, plus I wanted to run by a Best Buy to get a new Garmin. Soooo we ended up getting out of Tampa around 2:00 pm-ish. Not the BEST start to a long road trip, but oh well. We decided down the road a little ways that we would just stay in Pensacola and get a good night's sleep. I called the Marriott Rewards center so I could just pay for the room using points, and I got the most delightful customer service agent to work with, Jean W. from Omaha. We had a 22 minute conversation, and I found out all about her five grandkids, her dog that lays at her feet while she works, and the fact that she is based out of Salt Lake City and works from home. (Note to self: check into Marriott Reservations jobs).

I conveniently left the pics out of Kaden screaming around the 3rd hour in the car every day.

Macy was by far the most comfortable one in the car.

When we got to the hotel, I found out the "small" pet fee I was told about ended up being a $100/night pet fee. What the...? They ended up working with me since we lived in a Marriott Residence Inn ALLLLLL last summer, but it made me wonder who the heck would pay a $100 pet fee. La Quinta Inn and Suites are just as nice and are free for pets. Macy never made a peep and was just as good as she always is. My son, however, was a terrorist. He cried for about an hour before he finally went to sleep and the next morning he sprinkled toilet paper all over our room. If you ask me, they would probably be much smarter to charge a baby fee instead of a pet fee, but I'm not complaining of course.

The next day, my brand-new GPS got us lost in Mobile, AL. We decided to just eat lunch there, and ended up being there for about three hours total. When we looked at our trail on our GPS, it was the funniest thing, because we had done a complete circle around the city, plus many other turn-arounds. We couldn't stop laughing. Laughing turned into pure ticked-offness when it started to get dark and we were in Nowhere, Louisiana. We decided to shoot for Dallas, but we got so bored that I was even having my mom Google things like "shark gets into man's shark cage" and "how many sharks are in the ocean". If you don't know me, you should probably know that most of my conversations eventually lead to sharks at one point or another- I'm pretty obsessed.

Random shark pic for your pleasure. He is smiling. Silly shark.

In Dallas, the GPS told me to get in the HOV lane, and being subservient to technology like I usually am, I took her instructions. BAD IDEA. About a quarter mile after entering the lane, I became walled in! I felt like the wall on my left was practically touching my truck and the wall on my right was practically touching my trailer. I had a small panic attack for the next seven miles, because I was oblivious to the fact that entering the HOV lane was such a commitment. I had no idea you couldn't enter and exit at your own discretion. The line of nine cars behind me was probably just as upset about my decision as I was, because the "regular" freeway had NO traffic, and all those cars were zooming past me at what had to have been twice my speed.

All our state lines. Looks like I need to show the picture-taker how to properly crop on the iPhone. Also, she was sleepy when we crossed into Texas, so the Dallas sign will have to work.

Trash bags in front of state line? Reeeealllll classy, Oklahoma. Still proud-a-you.

We finally made it to Oklahoma City Saturday afternoon safe and sound. I hadn't watched the news or even been to a news website in over a week and I was surprised to learn that our government almost shut down, Manny Ramirez retired, and Pia got voted off American Idol. What the crap?! Anywho, SMILE today!

Thought I would share a couple Florida pics that make me SMILE! :)

Eating well BLOWS

Ugggghhhh, It's mid-afternoon, but it feels like 9:00 or 10:00pm already. I. am. so. HUNGRY! This fruit and veggie crap is a load of bull. I'm starving. They say that after a couple days of not eating so much sugar and bad stuf for your body, you start to get used to it, and that your stomach starts to shrink back to it's normal size. Who are "THEY" anyways? To make me even grumpier, I forgot my iron pill this morning and yesterday morning. I am anemic, so when I forget my iron pill, I have zero energy. Blahhhhhh.

So anyways, on a more positive note, I am on day 2 of trying to take better care of myself. I usually try this about 3 or 4 times a month- always on a Monday, because it would just be detrimental to start on a weekend, or a day that is rapidly approaching a weekend (this includes Tuesday). I am going to post all my goals soon because when I write down a goal and tell people about it, it usually happens. Operation: Take Better Care of Myself will probably be in the Top 30. Fiiiine, I can probably manage to move some stuff around to move it up to my Top 5. This is gonna be me soon if not-

"I just had a baby, I swear!"

I have a hard time taking any kind of diet or lifestyle change seriously when I am about to make a cross-country journey. Not to mention the fact that I want to get rid of (devour) most of the perishable food that I already have here at the house so we don't have to waste much of it when we leave. It's just a shame that some of these perishable food items include chips, crackers, 3 cookies, 1/4 tub of Publix Chocolate Almond ice cream (theirs is always a little bit melty, which makes it even more awesome), a loaf of bread, and hamburger meat. So for now I am gonna go with the idea I read in Shape magazine before all the "Eat Clean" diets came out- Everything in Moderation. Last time I tried the Everything in Moderation plan, one thing led to another, and the next thing I knew, I was parked at Sonic with an Oreo Blast in my hand. It felt oh-so-right at the time.

I hope you are getting the picture of my love affair with foods. I mean I LOVE food. So yeah, it's obviously time for a change, I don't want to turn into a glutton! Or I guess rather, I don't want to be a glutton-in-disguise any longer. I remember a teammate in college of mine watching me devour 5 spicy McChicken Sandwiches (hey, they were only a buck each!) and fries one afternoon, and telling me "I can't believe you just eat whatever you want. This is all gonna catch up with you someday!" Looking back, I think that was a freakin' spell she put on me! It was either that or the whole "your metablism starts slowing down after age 20" line. I choose to blame witchcraft instead of place the blame on myself ;).

Regardless, IT'S TIME. My baby is 17 months old, and I have been carrying around too much extra weight for that long. Some changes are in the near future, and I'm excited about it. Colorado Springs should be the PERFECT place to implement them! After all, Colorado is one of the healthiest states according to a poll on yahoo.com I read last week. And if it's on the internet, it must be true! Stay tuned for more info in the upcoming weeks, because I will be recruiting others to make changes as well!

We got Hubbs off to the airport safe and sound today to send him to head to Scottsdale to meet up with his new team. It was like dropping off a kid at the first day of kindergarten. Except, we have done this ordeal a couple times now (this is his 4th team in pro baseball, after all). And this kid had a carry-on instead of a backpack, and had to pay $285 in luggage fees. So yeah, it was actually not like dropping a kid off for his first day of kindergarten after all. Forget I said that, I may use that analogy down the road. We are already missing him, and looking forward to seeing him in a couple weeks. And by we I mean I, because it's still only 3:30 and Kaden has no idea that Hubbs isn't just at work yet.

SMILE today!

This was the sky this morning when we left home... how could you NOT smile?!

Curveball!

Well, maybe after this post my blog title will finally make sense to you. Today, Hubbs was traded to the Colorado Rockies. So we will NOT be going to Indianapolis after all. Instead, we will be going to Colorado Springs where Hubbs will be starting the year with their Triple-A team. Soooooo here is my NEW route, while driving a massive truck and pulling a 6x12 cargo trailer -

Yep, you read that right. 1,865 miles with a baby and a huge dog. Great. My mom is going to fly out to make the drive with me at least. So I have spent a ton of hours on the internet today trying to find a decent place to live. Hubbs leaves early in the morning to fly to Scottsdale, and then in a week we will take off for Colorado. That's the plan anyway, who knows if something ELSE will happen by then!

Sunday Funday

It's Sunday, 85 degrees out, and my Hubbs is home early from work and my baby is taking a nap. Life is good. When Kaden wakes up, we will probably do something more productive, but for now being lazy and taking it easy is way more fun.

We had some very good friends over last night for a cookout and it was a VERY good time! The cast included Bridget and Jeremy, Caroline and Patrick (and Isablella, 18 months), Steve and Jacky, Kara and Kevin, Doug, and at one point Karen and Jamie and 7 of their 8 kids. We ate, drank, played cornhole (aka BAGS to the northerners), ate some more, played Rock Band, drank some more, told good stories, and shared laughed the entire evening. It's so important to have people in your life that can make you smile and laugh, and when you are surrounded by lots of them at once, things just go right. I'm thankful we have found friends here in Florida that share the same values as us and that are fun to be around!

It looks like my time herein Florida is down to two weeks. By looking at my pale skin, you would never think I even go out and enjoy the sun, but I am REALLY going to miss it. It's 38 degrees right now in Indianapolis. I don't even know where my coats are in this house at this point, but I guess it would be in my best interest to find them. Just thinking about putting on a sweater makes me sweat right now. Anyways, have a great weekend and don't forget to SMILE!

BEACH DAY!

What a beautiful day to go to the beach. I woke up this morning with the sun shining in, and have had a smile on all day. Hubbs finally heard about his job, we will be heading to Indianapolis. We FINALLY know something! Yayyy. Not exactly the ultimate goal, but a chance for him to get back into baseball and get some at-bats since he was injured all summer last year. Very exciting. Since he got sent down today, he has the day off and we get to spend the day with him. Beach? Yes please!

We ran some errands this morning to drop off t00-small-for-Kaden baby clothes at a local organization, when I noticed a "now hiring" sign at Peek-A-Boo Lounge. Yes, you can probably imagine what kind of "lounge" this is. Beneath the sing, on a digital board it adds, "GOOD MONEY". I personally think is should be called Peek-A-Boob, but whatever. I decided to mess with Hubbs, just to see what he would say:

Me- So I'm thinking now that we are back in the minors, I should probably get a job.
Hubbs- Ok, what were you thinking? What about Kaden?
Me- Well, I thought about that. I don't want to have to pay for childcare, so I will just work nights, after you get home.
Hubbs- Mmmmmmk, but when will I ever see you?
Me- Well you could just come see me perform I guess, it's really just up to you.
Hubbs- Perform?
Me- Yeah, Peek-A-Boo Lounge in hiring so I sent in my application yesterday. My interview is today. And my song is Redneck Woman by Gretchen Wilson-- they need to add some country to exotic dancing in my opinion.
Hubbs- .............................................................
Me- So I need to go get a new *sparkly* cowgirl outfit, a pair of pink platform heels, and some tassles.
Hubbs- You're probably going to want a razor as well, no one wants to see all that leg hair. Sick.

Sooooo yeah. Probably too obvious of a joke, but it was fun anyways. But I DID get to see one of the strippers, ahem, dancers in the broad daylight heading into her establishment. It was pretty awesome, she even had a cute little bag that I am guessing she carries her props(??) in. I mean, you can't NOT stare. I personally think that should be a sign of good luck, seeing an exotic dancer in the daylight. I mean, you know they're out there, you just don't get to see them interacting in society unless you know what/who to look for. So when you do see one outside of the club, I think it should be lucky. Like finding a four-leaf clover.

Anyways, if you are an avid follower of my blog (which I know a whopping TWO people are- love you mom and dad!), you know that I posted a story about Kaden falling out of his high chair two weeks back. Well, I took him back to the doc yesterday for more X-rays since I can still tell it is bugging him, and he DOES have a fracture in his clavicle- aka collar bone for those of you who missed out on the fine read, "Anatomy for Dummies". So the poor little dude has been hurting for two weeks. We go to an orthopedic doc today, so wish us luck! Any kind of sling, etc. is NOT going to be pleasant for my little on-the-go guy.

Enjoy today, you only get one chance at it! SMILE!

Waiting Around...

I think it ALL caught up with me today.

Every year around this time, some uncertainty is formed for those players and families in the baseball world for those players without a long-term contract. Will my husband make the big-league team? Will he be in Triple-A with this team? Will they release him if they can't use him on either team? Would he get another job with another team this late in Spring Training when rosters are all set? If he doesn't get another job, will we have to move back to Oklahoma so he can finish his degree at Okie State? What kind of job can I get in Stillwater, America? How much of a loss would we have to take on our Florida house to sell it now? Would we buy or rent another house in Okie? Will we ever see our Florida friends?? Welcome to how my mind works.

Questions + Uncertainty = STRESS. At least for me! Hubbs is still in there every day working his butt off, just as positive and hard-working as ever. But, he hasn't exactly hit the best he can during Spring Training and showed everything he is capable of to his new team, so every day we progress towards opening day is a little more heavy. If God could just go ahead and tell me what is going to happen, that would be grrrrrreat. Fortunately, he has. He has blessed my family and I with a copy of his bestseller, The Bible. And he told me and Hubbs-

"For I know the plans I have for you', declares the Lord, 'Plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future". Jeremiah 29:11

I don't know why I forget this every day. I've never been too great at the whole *patience* thing, but it is comforting to know that there's a plan for us, even if I don't know all the details yet.

This morning I was having a rough morning to the point of tears, and the FedEx man came and rang the doorbell. I didn't want him to see me upset, so I waited until he left before getting it. This was a lot of self-restraint, because a package, even if it's not addressed to me, is SUPER exciting. I took it inside, ripped open the box, and there was the most beautiful clock that I have had my eye on for about a YEAR now. My good friends Ali, Kirk, and Ethan Milligan had sent it as a "just because" gift for us because it matches a lot of the decor in my house, and they know how much I love the brand that it was. My whole day changed from there. I have been smiling ever since! Not just because I received a really nice gift in the mail, but because I have such amazing friends to send me something so sweet just because they knew I would like it. IT could have been a pencil for all I care, it was the sweetest thing, and I am so lucky to have such great friends. So THANK YOU Milligans for such a generous gift, and for changing my whole day.

I hope this post finds everyone having a great day! Love you guys!