Test Drive, Braden Style...

After almost three years of begging for a kitchen table, Sam finally caved and got me one! Thank you craigslist for the sturdiest table with 6 decent chairs for a price so low that even Sam couldn't make up an excuse opposing the purchase.

The next step, getting it to our house...and without a truck to our name this became a problem. Usually we can bum off our friends (thanks Ash and Jeff), but sometimes you begin to feel guilty. So Sam got to thinking and decided the best thing to do would be to "test drive" a large truck and see how well it tows a table and chairs.
Sound shady? Yes it was, and I was worried the entire time I would get a call from jail asking me to come bail out my Sam. But more importantly, did it work? Yes it did. The large truck drove well, was good at towing, but I guess wasn't exactly what Sam was looking for so after getting the table to our house, back to the bank it went with no offer.

Now the next step, convincing Sam to help me sand and spray paint the table since the toxic fumes probably won't mix well with growing Bailey. Good luck to me with that one.

Are you an Osmond???

So we walk into Costco ready to shop. As we are walking down the main isle way Sam all of a sudden shouts, 'Oh No' as he bends down to pick up a dropped American Express Costco card. We all stop with our ginormous shopping cart, clogging up the walkway as Jana and I tell Sam to go take the card up to customer service. Sam slowly turns and walks toward the front, takes one step, then turns back around and says 'there is a picture on the back of this card. I am going to find the owner myself.'

And then he was off, glancing at the picture and then at every person he walks by. Awkward? Yes, but that is why Jana, the boys and I hung back pretending we didn't know him.

As us slow walkers finally rounded our way over to the produce we see Sam hand the card over to an older gentleman who smiled, but didn't seem all that grateful. And then as he was starting to walk away we see Sam kind of stutter through a conversation with what appeared to be the card owners wife. We were still far away so we couldn't hear the conversation, but even from the distance we could tell it looked a little uncomfortable.

And then Sam returned to us with a big smile on his face and told us about his lovely conversation:

Lady: stutter..stutter..walk away..turn back around.."ummm..."
Sam: Start to walk away..turn back around..too curious to leave now..
Lady: "are you...?"...pauses to move closer and speaks in a hushed tone..."Are you an Osmond?"
Sam politely tells her no, but is flattered beyond words. You couldn't wipe the smirk off his face for days. Or stop him from posing and asking if certain positions made him look more like an Osmond than others. Silly Sam.

100 Randoms...

A large list of things on my mind, a couple of goals, and probably a few things you did not want to know...

1. Getting excited about the small piece of samoa cookie crumble in your ice cream makes you feel foolish once the entire box of 15 cookies shows up.
2. Feeling Bailey move...not as endearing anymore...I prefer to sleep at 4 am and my ribs are slowly breaking to pieces.
3. One time Sam told me even if someone offered him sufficient money to live very comfortably for the rest of his life without having to work, he would not take it because that defeats the purpose of life...I told him he was wrong. He has since retracted his statemenet.
4. Getting ready for the day is quite exhausting...which is why I don't do it that often anymore. It's wasting make up if no one sees your face after you have put it on, right?
5. I am glad I am not in school anymore. I hate homework. And studying.
6. Brushing my teeth before I take a shower so I feel completely clean when I get out is the best thing ever. Too bad it took me 24 years to figure that out.
7. Last night Sam told me it would be so funny if he bought an extra box of girl scout cookies and left them at work so he wouldn't have to share with me. He either 1. regrets he did not think of this sooner or 2. really did this and tried to play it off like it was a joke. I didn't think it was very funny.
8. Can you tell we are obsessed with girl scout cookies? I wish cub scouts had cookies. Then being the webelos den leader would be that much better.
9. When I was little I remember lying on the dinner table bench while everyone else was off playing because I didn't want to finish my dinner. I will probably do this to my kids.
10. It probably makes me a very bad person for always wanting to take others down with me if something awful happens to me.
11. Sometimes, if I was lucky, my Dad would just make me eat as many bites of vegetables as age I was. I think instead of age (unless of course its more) I will add up the stretch marks they give me and make them eat that many bites.
12. When I brush my teeth sometimes toothpaste drips out of my mouth (I am not a very attractive teeth brusher). It used to drip in the sink, counter, or floor, but now it lands on the shirt of my big belly. I don't like this very much.
13. 32 weeks of housing Bailey is technically long enough, right? Because I feel like I am getting pretty close to evicting her.
14. On second thought, if she is awake at 4am kicking me inside the uterus, she will probably be awake at 4am outside the uterus, crying. Not a fan of that, but at least then it would keep Sam up as well.
15. I miss driving through Los Angeles with my Dad and hearing about all the people he arrested where, and all the foot chases through apartment buildings, across streets, etc. This is probably why I have grown accustomed to being entertained through stories in the car. Poor Sam, I wish he had more stories.
16. You know its going to be bad news when the nurse getting ready to draw your blood has to look at both arms to see which veins are the best and then goes out to grab another nurse to make sure what she is poking is actually a vein. All I can say is needle movement and bruising and Sam's face of anguish are not fun. Maybe next time I will just let Sam have a go at my arm.
17. Even worse than a nurse who can't draw blood is a finger poke the next appointment. The anticipation of it is torture. All because said nurse couldn't get enough blood out to check my iron and glucose. Dr. Sam definitely gets a turn next appointment.
18. Classic Disney movies are expensive. Our collection may have to be a slow and steady wins the race sort of thing.
19. Saying "duh" after someone makes a statement will always be funny. Especially because it catches people off guard hearing a 24 year old adult say it.
20. Why is it that the older I get, the more scary flying in an airplane becomes? I blame Sam. Why? Because he made me watch Lost one time on the bumpiest ride from Los Angeles to Salt Lake.
21. I am angry with stupid Verizon for forcing you to get a data plan for almost everyone decent phone they offer. My way of protesting is to boycott the new phones and continue to use my old crappy one that works half the time. I'm not sure how this is punishing Verizon yet; I am still working out the kinks.
22. Why are infomericals so mesmerizing. Latest want: the Nordic Track. Why? Not sure yet.
23. Babies in chicken suits are always cute. That is why we bought one already. And it probably won't just be on Halloween that Bailey will wear it.
24. If I could only shop at one place for the rest of my life I would choose Target.
25. It is very funny when Sam turns to you and says, "Guess who got on the scale this morning and weighed only 194? Me, Sam, that's who (as he raises his hand). And after a weight loss shake and banana for breakfast, two cookies for lunch, and a reasonable dinner im sure I will lose another 1 or 2 lbs. " And if he is mad at me for posting his weight on the internet, he should be more careful about what he says to me when I am writing a really long list.
26. It took Sam two years to finally fix my kitchen faucet, but now I love it. My toilet has been broken for maybe 6 months now. I wonder how much longer I will have to wait?
27. A sleeping Sam started jabbering in his sleep about how he was uncomfortable and then asked why no one had proposed to him? I wish he would have remembered what his dream was about. I am still curious. Especially about who he wanted to propose to him.
28. Today the doctor told me he was very pleased with how healthy I was. The prenatals must be working over time hiding all the cookies, candy, doughnuts and rice krispy treats in my body because I am pretty sure I am having a peanut butter chocolate cookie ball.
29. It is a little strange hearing that the contractions I have been having are normal, and in two more weeks they won't stop me from having her. Eeks.
30. I wish that my house could clean itself. Has this been invented yet?
31. If you want to make Sam so angry that he will probably start hating you, walk up behind him and smack him on the back of the head. Nothing makes him more livid.
32. He also hates it when you kick or startle him awake. I told him I would stop doing this when he stops waking me up with his sleep talking and snoring. It seems like a fair trade to me.
33. Poor Sam is down to 1 pillow, and it is the second crappiest pillow in our house. I have five, including all four of the king size ones we own and then some. Maybe I should buy more pillows.
34. Yellow may be my new favorite color. It used to be green. Weird that it has changed so late in the game of life.
35. When I walk into a store to shop, I am immediately drawn to little Bailey clothes, rather than Terri clothes. Never thought that would happen.
36. I still think its funny that I got seasick on our honeymoon cruise, took dramamine, and slept while Sam hung out on the boat by himself. Good thing there was a casino to keep him entertained.
37. One day we will own two cars. I can't wait for this day.
38. Usually when people dance around me in a non-recital setting it makes me feel awkward, unless said person is Sam. And then I usually start laughing.
39. Bailey may have a rough childhood. Why? Because she already gets blamed for everything in this house: food and items going missing, smells, etc...Hopefully she turns out to be a contributing member of society.
40. Why do people lie? Yoga is not relaxing. It is very hard.
41. Why is it that when you are in second grade it feels like forever until you get to be in third grade, and yet now that I am 24 I feel like I should still be 16? Time flies when you get old.
42. I may be starting to believe that it is not that weird to pee your pants every once in awhile. I am not sure if this is because it happens relatively often or from Sam constantly reassuring me afterward that I am not a disgusting person.
43. I may or may not have cried a little when my tivo failed to record Ellen on Monday. I'm sure I missed something really funny and now I will never know what that was.
44. I hope that Bailey's poop, snot, germs and throw up does not gross me out as much as all the poop, snot germs and throw up I have encountered in my life to date. If it does we may have to look into that return policy.
45. Having to pee every twenty mintues is not fun, especially to someone as lazy as I am. Probably why I pee the pants so often?
46. I think it is a little odd that I don't know where I am going to be living in 6 months. Talk about bringing a child into a stable environment.
47. Buying things is like playing dominoes in this house. For instance, after almost three years we finally bought nightstands so we don't have to sleep with our phones under our pillows and get more radiation in our brains. But now I want little table lamps to decorate said tables. Sorry Sam, it will never end.
48. Does anyone think it is strange that Sam's favorite ice cream is mint chocolate chip, and yet he doesn't really like thin mint girl scout cookies? I do.
49. I have forgotten what spring and summer are like. But I sure hope I am reminded soon.
50. I have also forgotten what it feels like to not be pregnant. I am looking forward to being reminded of that soon as well.
51. I want to win a big prize. Like the presents that Ellen, Oprah and other shows give away. We should probably have Sam sign up though because he is much luckier than I am.
52. You can tell I am very tired of being pregnant when I start looking forward to doing P90X again. We will see how long it lasts the second time around.
53. So we are pretty sure we are naming the baby Bailey Hiroko. The only way we would change it is if we meet a Bailey between now and birth that we hate. Then we will have to figure something else out and do a lot of editing on the blog.
54. Just the mere thought of large Sam and Quinn, with two ginormo bags of laundry riding on little Yoshi motoped from BYU to Orem will always bring a smile to my face. Unless I am really angry, then I will probably glare in an attempt to not smile.
55. Sam is not a punctual person. The only time I remember him being early was to pick me up on our wedding day and this was because I told him the night before if he was late to not bother coming because I won't marry him, no matter how much it turns everything awkward. Since we have been married instead of me making him better I have moved to the dark side. Never plan on us being on time anywhere, and always be ready for us to blame the other one for the lateness.
56. You will never meet anyone who loves back tickles more than my Sam. I promise.
57. When Sam gets home from work he is either starving or not hungry at all. If he is starving, you need to make him food right away or he will whine and cry until you do. Even if you nicely tell him to wait a few minutes and everything will be okay.
58. If he tells you he is not hungry because he ate his lunch late, he will still eat all of your food. Even when you tell him to just order something and he assures you over and over that he is not hungry at all. This is even more extreme when said food also involves some sort of sugary dessert.
59. I love game shows. Family Feud, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy etc. The bonus rounds are always my favorite part. I would tivo them so I could watch them all the time, but Sam tells me this is lame.
60. It is a weird feeling to not be able to put your own shoes/boots on.
61. Just looking at the candy isle, or my candy jars can satisfy my cravings. Sam, on the other hand, eats the candy quickly.
62. Never ask Sam to hold something for you if it is food, candy, or drink, especially if you just want him to hold it for a minute and you plan on eating the rest. He will eat it without realizing what he is doing. Or at least that is what he will claim after said item is completely gone.
63. I do not like roller coasters. I will barf after being jerked around on one.
64. I don't care who you are or what you say, bugs and spiders will always be scary.
65. Games are only fun when you win, or lose because you are busy making sure someone else loses as well.
66. Sam will hold your purse, but you have to make sure you keep your eye on it the whole time because it is not uncommon for him to set it down and leave it in random places. He can be distracted very easily.
67. Sometimes when people put their faces really close to mine for no reason, and especially if they do a no teeth smile, I get the urge to punch them in the face. This probably makes me a somewhat violent person.
68. A few months after we got married I convinced Sam to buy me a Dyson vacuum. I am not sure why I did this because I rarely use it. Maybe one day I will be a regular vacuumer.
69. There is nothing that makes me feel smarter than knowing one of the answers on Jeopardy.
70. Nobody I know loves free stuff more than my Sam. And nothing makes him happier when he is able to obtain something free.
71. I take that back. Sam likes free stuff even more when he gets it and someone else doesn't. Especially if they really wanted. This probably makes him a bad person too.
72. Every night our heater makes the same scary noise. And every night I am pretty sure it is a bad guy trying to break in and kill us. The first few times Sam got the big heavy flashlight and sneaked around our house looking for the burglar. Now he just tells me to go back to sleep. I guess this means i've cried wolf too many times?
73. I haven't hidden in the dark and scared Sam for a long time. I miss doing that.
74. It is still a wonder to me how boys are always so stinky. It seems that just sitting there makes them filthy.
75. I love crest. Sam loves colgate. It is a wonder how we ever ended up together.
76. My mom told me when I was little I would often go missing, and then she would get a call from our neighbor a few doors down to let her know I was in their playroom doing all of their puzzles. Apparently I would just let myself in. I still love puzzles, but I have stopped the whole breaking and entering bit.
77. My mom also left me to believe for years that my favorite thing at McDonalds was the fish sandwich. I am still a little mad at her for tricking me with such an awful lie.
78. Sam will let out a cheer if he makes it through a yellow light and the cars around/slightly behind him have to stop for the red.
79. Picking out paint colors for our house is quite possibly the most difficult decision I have had to make in my life to date. Why it was so hard? I am not sure. Especially considering the yellow room had to be repainted a few times.
80. When Sam or I get a text message or phone call we often times have a battle over who gets to read it first. It sometimes involves grabbing phones, running away, tackling and locking doors to ensure you get to read it first. I am assuming this is not normal.
81. The few nights after we mounted the plasma tv on the wall Sam was so nervous it would fall that he put pillows on the floor below it. Like that was going to save it from breaking. Goof.
82. We bought a wii, and then three weeks later we took it back. I guess our true devotion is to the old school nintendos. However, after the most recent mario brothers game made its grand debut into Sam's life, he may regret that decision.
83. It really is too bad that Sam has the smallest pillow in the house because his head is ginormous.
84. My dream car: a brand new range rover. Sam's dream car: a late '90s Jeep Wrangler. I guess we know who dreams big at our house.
85. It took Sam quite a while to realize just how much I enjoy calling people names. It took me quite a while to adjust to how sensitive Sam truly is.
86. Throwing a snowball at someone, always funny. Getting hit by a snowball, quite infuriating.
87. Eating cold cereal in the morning has never been my thing. I prefer eggs, bacon and hash browns. That is until I became pregnant. And now I think I may start crying, we are out of milk.
88. Every morning, right before Sam leaves for work, he kisses my head and my belly, tells me he loves me and Bailey, and then to call him when I wake up. And every morning when I wake up, I reach for my phone, call Sam, and get his voicemail.
89. Our family trip to San Francisco many years ago proved that almost all the Galeria kids are quite frightened of homeless people. I think it's because they are loud and unpredictable.
90. I told Sam he needs to buy a new computer because out of the two we have one is completely broken and the other is mostly broken. He got online and bought a camcorder. Not necessarily complaining, just saying.
91. Sam is the strangest running partner you will ever have. Why? Because if you look at him while he is running he always looks bored out of his mind. Plus he will constantly be looking around, getting distracted, and then bumping into you.
92. Full proof plan: When the second counselor in the bishopric calls and asks you to speak in sacrament you can respond with a, "well are you asking both of us to speak or just me?" And if he says just you, then you can tell him Sam will do it, and thus you will not have to speak in church.
93. Dr. Ben fixed my aching pregnant back and then taught Sam how to do it. A few weeks later Sam had a go at my back and I am pretty sure he did some permanent damage. Moral of the story: only trust those who have gone to medical school already.
94. Sometimes I will make Sam dinner, or heat him up some delicious leftovers and instead he will say he just feels like a bowl of life cereal and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I think he is weird.
95. One night Sam was sitting on the couch next to me, started to hum/sing a song, told me he really liked it, didn't know what it was called and asked if I knew what song it was. I told him it was called crush by David Archuletta then started laughing at him. Shame on Sam.
96. One morning a car alarm was going off in our parking lot forever. It was quite annoying so I texted working Sam about how it was giving me a headache. He immediately responded with, "Is it ours." I am pretty sure he drove the car to work that day.
97. During the summer sales era we slept on two twin mattresses pushed together. Yet another reason why I hated that summer.
98. Galeria kids eat seaweed plain, with rice, with sushi etc because they like it. Sam thinks we are gross. He used to eat it in ninth grade as a punishment (probably for talking too much).
99. Last night Sam told me it was wrong of Disney to make animals talk in their movies. Why? Because then when little kids try to talk to animals in real life it could hurt their feelings when the animals don't talk back. I am pretty sure Sam was speaking from experience.
100. Sam almost signed up for a 5K this Saturday morning to shed those pounds. But then found out the race started at 9am and decided it was too early. However, he is up for endless pancakes and french toast at Magelby's Fresh. I guess we will just stick to the eating.

Now that you have wasted half of your life reading this...go do something productive.

Sharing is Caring...

I remember when I was younger I got in a fight with Janet over the last piece of garlic bread. My Dad told us to split it in half, but she ate the whole thing and I was so angry at her.

Sam and I have never had this problem (quite possibly because he always gives in). We often just put dinner on one large plate and both eat off of it, drink out of the same cup, etc and it has always worked smoothly.

That is until this evening when he came home from work with a couple boxes of these...

and then the claws came out. I tried to use the Bailey card and for the first time it hasn't worked. We will see if we make it through this.

Social Norms...

Our timing must have been perfect (or so we thought) because as we were ordering our calzone and side salad the place was pretty crowded with a few big parties, but by the time we finished and were ready to sit down the workers were cleaning the tables and the place had emptied out. Out of the twelve or more tables in the small pizza joint it was us and these two other dudes sitting on the other side of the room.

And then the weird people showed up. A goofy looking couple who talk loudly because everyone has to be interested in what they are discussing, and their little baby (you know the type yet???). Well I was snacking on my little salad while they were ordering their pizza and then while he went to fill up their drinks, she decided out of all the empty tables the one that could not get closer to me was the appropriate one to sit at.

Seriously? You might as well have joined us at our table because at least then you would have been sitting across from me, which would have given me a little more personal space than the chair you decided to sit in at that table. And the baby did not help the situation because that little girl was way more interested in looking at Sam and I then she was at her parents.

And how does this make it more awkward? Because then mom decides to talk to baby quite loudly, talking to her like an adult, asking her why she keeps looking at "them" (meaning Sam and I). All that twisting in the high chair was about to make her fall out of the thing so eventually mom just twisted the high chair so she could look directly at us (from like a foot or so away, so basically joining our table) all the while talking to baby about staring at us.

Then to make matters worse, Dad answers a phone call and apparently his phone was broken because he had to shout into it. All I can say is most boring conversation ever. And how are you supposed to react? Pretend that I don't hear mom talking about me even though it is dead obvious because we are sitting a foot apart in an empty restaurant? Yet, acknowledging it might suck you into a terrible conversation you don't want to be apart of. All I know is it definitely ruined our conversation because who wants strangers listening to you.

I hear their is an unwritten bathroom rule whether you are in a stall or at the urinal: you use the furthest toilet you can away from the current bathroom goers. I would appreciate the same courtesy while I am trying to eat my calzone.

Man o Man, some people's kids...

Off to Seattle...

Thanks to Bailey peacefully staying in the uterus, Sam receiving a Washington school interview, and Sam having the best Aunt and Uncle in Seattle we decided to take a weekend getaway to one of our favorite cities.

In order to recreate the memory of our first (and only, I guess) trip here, a shot in front of the Seattle TapRoom.
Why a bar was chosen as the Seattle tradition I am not sure, but we can't break it now.

We flew in Thursday night, rented a car, and were off on the hour and a half drive to Yakima to get ready for the interview. By the time we checked into our hotel in Agricultural Yakima my legs were mighty swollen. Of course I freaked out because they looked ginormous while Sam managed to stay level headed and told me to just lay down and go to sleep (because if I am sleeping I am not talking or whining) and by morning they were back to normal, thank goodness.

The best part of Yakima? The drive back to Seattle when Sam begged me to stop here (his old stomping ground) so he could relive his wonderful childhood memories...
Weird thing was Jana (who has the best memory in the world) and Mama Pam couldn't even remember it without a little coaching...making me wonder how significant of a memory this place truly was, and whether or not I got played a little.

But I am not going to complain too much because I got some candy out of it...
and Sam got his beloved grapefruit slices which he loves...
and was able to tell me about the time he fell down the flight of stairs in the middle of the shop, and how that red wagon has been there forever.

And then, after what seemed like forever to my falling apart, pregnant body we arrived back in beautiful Seattle...

where we walked around pikes place...

isn't Sam's purse so cute? He gets lots and lots of compliments on it wherever we go.
The part that Sam was looking forward to the most was the delicious and very large doughnuts at the bakery right next to where they throw the fish.

Unfortunately for him (which I found quite hilarious) the place was closed. Apparently they were moving the location of their behind the scenes kitchen and although they were sorry, they were planning on being closed till the end of January. Oddly enough we were in Washington February 25-28 so I am not sure what exactly was going on...Poor Sam.

Luckily, right around the corner there was a mini doughnut shop, which brought the smile right back because he got a little bag full of twelve assorted mini-doughnuts...
And unfortunately for me, while I was off looking for a pretty bouquet of flowers for Sam's wonderful Aunt Sage, Sam ate that bag of doughnuts like a fat kid who hates sharing food :)
When there are doughnuts present and you want some, but Sam is around, you better eat fast or you won't get to eat at all. You have been warned.

It also wouldn't be Pike's Place without seeing a few fish get tossed around...
Sam loves fish, especially how they smell and taste.

And I love shopping...

and people watching.

Besides Pike's Place we spent the weekend shopping at the Asian Market, playing games, eating the best gourmet food made by Uncle David and Aunt Sage (including the best homemade cheesecake that survived the plane ride back to Utah, but not too much longer than that), driving around the city, and relaxing with some wonderful company.

We had the best time. And who could complain when you look out the window and see this...

Uncle David and Aunt Sage, we can not thank you enough for your wonderful hospitality. And for the perfect little Bailey outfit and book. We love you guys.

Oh Webelos...

If you think ten year old girls like to talk a lot, just come to our weekly pack meetings and listen to the stories that ten year old boys endlessly tell...

Like for instance, you will learn about how the family has a cat, and when the cat pooped it was really stinky. So his mom put Tide in the litter box and now the poop doesn't stink anymore. Ta Da. (For some reason when I type the story it doesn't seem as long as it took for the kid to tell me about it, weird).

At the current moment I am not in the market for getting cat poop to not stink, but I am searching for a way to make baby poop not stink. Has that been invented yet?