Whatever Wednesday - Obituary

Well Shay and Alissa came up with a slightly morbid topic today. Although I do have this fascination with death. I often wonder (probably too much) would anyone show up to my funeral? Would anyone care? Or would I be that funeral where only 1 or 2 people show up. I'd like to think that more then that would come. Anyway, thinking about obituaries and what I want said...hmmm...??? Here it goes.

Sarah C, born August 30, 1979 left this world alongside her husband peacefully in their sleep (think The Notebook - movie edition). They always said that they didn't want to live in this world without each other, so they left it together. They leave behind their 2 children, Baby Fox, his wife Jillian and their 3 children,  Elizabeth, 25, Cameron, 22, and Matthew, 20 and Mini Fox, her husband Daniel and their 2 children, Michael, 24, and Natalie, 22.

Sarah loved her family more then anything and loved enjoying time and spoiling her grandchildren. She loved to travel with Mr. and her family all around the world but said that her RV trip to all 50 states in one summer was one of the best times of her life. 

She was an engineer by process of elimination in college, but really loved to try and be crafty and loved to cook for her family and friends, even though she couldn't eat most of what was being served. She thought having her nails painted and hair done made her feel good, so she got them done weekly.

She lived by this motto: you can have all the money in the world but if you don't have good family and friends then you don't have anything at all. And she did just that until the day she died.

And that my friends is what my obituary would say. Yep I made up a bunch of grandchildren to spoil and take around the world with me, cause you know I'm going to be rich enough to do that.

So what would your obituary say?

Whatever Wednesdays - TV Shows

 This weeks WW topic is Top 5 TV shows, not 3, not 7, but 5. It was actually a lot harder then I thought to come up with 5 TV shows that I absolutely must watch, can't miss type of thing. Hard to chose just 5, but I think these are it.

All pictures found via Google Images

#1 - Grey's Anatomy

This came out just as Mr. and I got married, it was the first show we really started watching together and have watched every.single.episode together.  No matter how bad the storylines get, we continue to watch. I can't tell you how many times this stupid show has mad me cry. We're in it till the end. Which in our estimation, should be soon, right?

#2 - Gilmore Girls

Cheesy, but true. I have actually watched this series in it's entirety again when Baby Fox was born. Reminds me of those nights when I would snuggle up with Mom and we would watch it together. Good wholesome TV watching.

#3 - Dawson's Creek 

This show was really big when I was in college. Every Wednesday night my roommates and I would gather around the TV and watch DC with a pan of brownies. One of our guy friends would happen to stop by on Wednesday nights because of the brownies, but we knew better, he really wanted to watch DC.

#4 - Gossip Girl

I know right? Who watches this any more? But I loved it the minute it aired "your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite." Granted it got weird in the middle and stuff, but I was committed and had to see it through till the end. Which by the way, I liked the ending and thought they ended it really well. No wondering what happened to people, etc. I hate when they leave shows with unanswered questions, tell me what happens to people, that's what we all really want to know. "And who am I?! That's one secret I'll never tell. You know you love me.. XO XO Gossip Girl"

#5 - Scandal

If you haven't watched this show, you have about a month or so to catch up on the short season 1 and season 2. It will not disappoint. Really the only reason we started watching it was because Mr. and I needed a new show to start watching and this show started so late in the game that we figured we give it a try. We actually had DVR'd all of the first season (7-8 espisodes) before we even started watching, but once we started we could not stop. Addicting! Now go watch it so they don't cancel it, like they do with all of the shows we tend to like.

What are your favorite tv shows? Everyone's been talking about Breaking Bad, I think we need to pick that show up STAT.

Sometimes I Take You for Granted

Today's subject comes from Shay, via Kali. Where to begin? There are so many things I could write about, my job, I seriously have the easiest job and get paid a lot to do it, my parents, always wanting to do for me and me always scolding them about something or another, but in reality everything they do is because they love me and my family and would die for us. Mr. who is constantly picking up the slack when I just can't handle it any more, and always supporting me with whatever I decide to do.

But I'm not going to talk about any of that. I'm going to chose my son, Colton aka Baby Fox. Seems like a silly choice, but I do. When Mr. and I got married we had a plan, a 5 year plan. We were going to travel the world, do what we wanted to do while we were young, buy a house and be really financially stable before we brought a baby into the world.  On our 5 year anniversary we took a trip and got pregnant our first go. I don't think I realized just how lucky we were that we didn't have any issues getting pregnant, and that we got pregnant so fast.

He came, and he was perfect, I mean seriously perfect.

 As we got used to being a family of 3 and having this little human rely solely on us, he really helped us navigate those first few months of parenthood. He NEVER cried. I mean when I say never cried, he never cried, so much so that when he was about a month old and was crying/whinning, someone asked us and I quote "is that your baby's cry?" It was that soft. He just never really developed the loud screaming capacity lungs because he never cried. He started sleeping 5 hour stretches around 2.5 months, 8-9 hours at 3.5 months and then 12 hours at 4.5 months. I mean what kid does that? To this day, he goes down without a fight and even if he's not tired, he'll just lay in his crib and roll around, talk to his stuffed animals and wait for sleep to come to him. When he's sick he hardly wakes up in the middle of the night screaming. I think in the past 2.5 years, he's woken up twice in the middle of the night, since he started sleeping 12 hour stretches.

He is the politest kid, and learns quickly. Adapts to life in general, takes things in and goes with the flow. Skip nap that day because we're out and about, no problems. Most importantly he is healthy and happy. I have a few friends who have to constantly fight for their kids health, people who I don't know how they find the strength each day to continue, but somehow they do and they come out stronger on the other side.

He's all we know, but:

I take for granted how smart he is. he taught us sign language when he was 10 months old. He had signs he made up for more, drink and all done.

Trying to figure out how Daddy put all these cars on top of each other

 I take for granted how sweet he is and wants the best for everyone around him

Sharing his bear with Great Grandma, Bear is kissing GG better

 I take for granted that he loves me unconditionally and is excited to see me each day I get home he screams out "MOMMY" and comes running

I take for granted that he wants me when he's hurt

Don't worry, I happened to be taking pictures of him when he started crying, I snapped this and then picked him up

I take for granted that he hardly complains

100° heat at a funeral, but there's a fire truck, all is good with the world

I take for granted that he always wants to share everything he has with everyone else. 

I take for granted that he sleeps through the night

I take for granted that he can self soothe

I take for granted that he's never sick, and when he does get sick he's happy and isn't grumpy

Last time he was sick, June 2012

I take for granted those special moments when he holds my head in his hands and looks into my eyes and says he loves me

I take for granted the fact that no one can compare to how great he is and how fun, loveable and how he has a great sense of humor.

I hope to remember all these things when he's a teenager and driving me crazy, that deep down he's the best kid a mom could hope for. I want to cherish these last few weeks with just him before the crazy of a newborn begins all over again.

Thank you Colton for being you, you have grown into such a fun, lovable 2 year old. You are going to be the best big brother and I can't wait for you to meet her!

Honey Lime Shrimp

For Whatever Wednesdays  Alissa and Shay, okay more Alissa then Shay...wanted us to post a recipe. (Alissa if you want more of my recipes click on my recipes tab, created just for you today, seriously.)

For our picnic in the park, I decided to make my quinoa salad and then I thought that some shrimp would be a really good picnic food. So I set off to find a recipe. I came across this recipe on what other then Pinterest. It has only 8 ingredients, and 6 of them I already had in my pantry, win for me. So here it is.

Stole this picture from The Dough Will Rise Again

We were supposed to meet friends at 6pm at the park, I started this at 4, should have started sooner, but I was napping, which felt great and I woke up refreshed and ready to tackle a concert in the park.

What you'll need:

1/2 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined (although I used 1 pound with the same amount of marinade and it worked great)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tablespoons honey
Juice of one small lime, or half a large lime (2-3 T)
Zest of one small lime, or half a large lime
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Step 1:

It says to use a Ziploc bag, I figured I would put the ziploc in a small bowl so that I wasn't messing with trying to keep the bag open while pouring in ingredients.

Step 2:

Add Olive Oil

Lime Zest

Lime Juice

If you don't have one of these bad boys, you must go get one right now! Life saver and you get all of the juice out!

2 Tablespoons of Honey

2 garlic cloves - recipe says smashed, but I went the easy route and just used my garlic press

1/2 tsp kosher salt, 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes and 1/4 tsp black pepper. I just winged this, close enough, and I didn't want to make it too spicy in case one of the kids wanted one. Also my measuring spoons were currently in the dishwasher.

Step 3:

Mix ingredients

Step 4:

I used the frozen shrimp from Costco (2 pounds costs $20), I used half the bag, apparently I can't read and I thought the recipe called for a pound of shrimp, guess I was wrong, but it worked out in the end.

Step 5:

Put shrimp in bag and put in fridge to marinate. I've read on the comments that people do this anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours. I did mine for just 40 minutes because that's all the time I had.

Step 6:

Cook shrimp in skillet, no need to add any more oil, it already has enough.

I did it in batches and had two skillets going. It only took about 10 minutes to cook all of the shrimp. We were out the door with it still hot and got to the park just as our friends were arriving. Perfect timing!

In the haste to get out the door, I forgot to take a picture of all of the cooked shrimp, just look at the 1st picture and think, with tails on. Mine pretty much looked the same.

Whatever Wednesday - I Spend Too Much Time...

I spend too much time stalking people. Sounds creepy right? Let me explain, as all stalkers say...I have an explaination.

Okay I don't, bottom line, I'm nosy, super nosy. If I find a blog that I like I feel the need to read every post about them, and then if they mention something interesting, I hunt down another post about whatever was interesting to me.

I read too many blogs and am continually finding new ones to read. I love reading about how people live what they did in a particular situation, and reading love stories. I'm a sucker, I am.

Hi my name is Sarah and I spend too much time reading about other people's lives via their blogs.

Linking up with Shay and Alissa for Whatever Wednesday - random topics about random things, just the way I like it.

Whatever Wednesday - Biggest Heartbreak

Wow, Shay and Alissa really took it up a notch today. Okay maybe it was Alissa...but whatever. I've thought and thought about the topic since it arrived in my inbox on Monday. One thing really stood out in my mind, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to talk about it. It's not something that I normally tell people, mostly it just makes for an awkward few minutes. But I thought, it's been almost almost 14 years, and I haven't cried about it in about 3 years, so here it goes.

This is about to get really personal, so if you don't want to know personal stuff about me, then stop reading.

Now where to start? I guess from the beginning. It all started with a hug. He had graduated already, and I was in the school admin office, for what reason I'm not sure. We had been working together for a few months and never really talked to each other, but when he saw me he smiled and gave me the biggest hug. That hug changed my life forever. We dated the rest of the school year and into freshman year of college. My parents of course were concerned we were too serious at such a young age. They told me that I need to see less of him during the summer before my sophomore year. This it turns out, while I hated them and thought they were ridiculous became a blessing. School started back up and we started talking again. We went on a couple of dates, things were picking back up where we left them 2.5 months ago. Wow this is harder then I thought it would be. Then one day I get The Phone Call from my best friend from high school. It was super early in the morning so I let it go to voicemail, who calls at 6:30am? She calls again, and again, leaving messages every time. I finally get up, I don't recall what time, maybe 8:30? I listen to her messages, the first one she's been crying, telling me to call her. The second time, she's a little more calm, and the third time, she's not crying. I figure her mom and her got into another fight, and by the third message she seemed okay, so I figured they had worked it out. I casually call her back. She bursts into tears and just spits it out, she tells me he, the one I thought I had forever with, the one that I had given space to for my parents so that when we got back together we knew that we had to be together, had died in a car accident the night before.

You know when you see those TV shows when people get really bad news and they scream and yell NOOO and drop to their knees? I always thought, that doesn't really happen in real life, but it does and it did to me. My 3 roommates knew something had happened to him, they all came running.

Life that year was a blur, it was like I was living outside of my body, watching me perform normal everyday activities, but not actually living them. I was getting school work back I didn't even remember doing, taking tests and getting them back that I didn't remember taking.  Slowly the fog began to lift and by Junior year I was back to a new normal.

School was hard, I had worked so hard to get to where I was, and I begin wondering why? Why do I put so much effort into school when it can all be taken away just like that? I got a new outlook on life, have more fun, enjoy my friends more and be a little more carefree, totally cliche of my to say, but life is short, and if you don't live each day like it's your last, then what's the point? I made more of an effort to foster my friendships with friends, and to say yes when they were going out, instead of studying 24/7 (an engineering degree can do that to a person). I didn't have to have the best GPA, I was okay with average. I was going to take advantage of living with my 3 best friends and being young and being in college. And that's exactly what I did. I have no regrets from those years in college.

Turns out my parents summer ban on boyfriend was a blessing. I wasn't talking to him everyday, seeing him everyday, so it wasn't as huge of a hit after the accident. For a long while I  just kept thinking, it's still summer, I'll talk to him next week, or I thought it was a cruel joke and that he would come waltzing around the corner at any moment. He never did. He will always have a piece of my heart, and will forever be a part of who I was and who I have become.

Whatever Wednesdays - Girl Code

Well another Wednesday is here and Shay and Alissa cooked up a good one this week...Girl Code. I guess there is a show on MTV, I haven't watched it yet, but probably should. Anyway, they sent out the topic on Sunday and I thought, I have no freakin' clue...so here are my thoughts:

1. If you call dibs on a guy, it's NOT okay for your friend to then go hard core on you and try to get him first after she's told you that you would be perfect for each other. That happened to me in college, I broke up with that friend, literally, I had a conversation with her, told her I no longer wanted to be friends, walked away and never looked back, well until now.
2. Just after college I moved out with a friend, or so I thought. She turned out to be ca-razy! She started spreading rumors, etc. It's fine if you don't like me, but don't start spreading false rumors to mutual friends. Not cool. They felt like they had to pick, some of those friendships were never the same.
3. I learned that when you get a boyfriend, don't drop your friends. Not cool. I did this when I met Mr. But my bestie kicked me in my butt and said, not cool. We then made weekly meet-ups and I made more of an effort. Boys come and go, but best friends are here to stay (or at least I hope they are)

      4. And last but not least, since my life is more about mommyhood, tell me I look fantastic pregnant, don't
          tell me "you look like you're ready to pop" when I still have 3 months to go. This is a time that it is
          perfectly acceptable to LIE YOUR ASS OFF. I already feel like poo, so just go ahead and tell me
          how wonderful I look.

Looking at these pictures apparently I have a thing for polka dots...Blue and white to be specific.

Whatever Wednesday - Another Decade

Today is the third installment of Whatever Wednesday's with Shay and Alissa . See last week's topic here. Today's topic? If you could live in another decade which would you choose? Well I thought and thought about it, and I couldn't really think of anything. I asked my husband which decade he would choose and he said he likes living in the now, with all of the technology and wouldn't want to live in any other time.

He asked me the same and the first thing that popped out of my mouth, 1890's. The reason(s)? Okay I have to add a caveat...when I told Mr. that I wanted to live int he 1890's his reaction why? Work was so hard, everything was labor intensive, no air conditioning. My answer, I don't know I just think I would love it...that being said, since this is my choice, I'm going to choose to be a lady married to a wealthy man where we travel the world and have servants to clean and cook for us. But if push comes to shove, I could do it prairie style and cook and clean and keep a garden and do all that house wife work too.

Reason #1: The fashion, I know, totally wacky. I love the dress styles and the hats and the long dresses. I hate pants and I love dresses, I would wear a dress every single day if I could get away with it.

Love this green dress and matching hat

Via

 Seriously the backs of these dresses? Can't get better then that!

Via

Reason #2: Manners, most people seemed to be so polite, the men stood up when a lady got up from the table. Ladies whispered in the corner while the men folk went to the cigar room after dinner to talk politics. I hate politics or talking about them, so I'm totally okay just gossiping about what Mrs. Smith wore to church.

Lastly Reason #3: You get to ride in horse drawn carriages, people didn't seem to be in a huge hurry to get anywhere. The horse can only take you so fast, yes it's bumpy, but I can handle bumpy. Life just seemed more simple, no technology to worry about, no shows to DVR and catch up on, people learned how to play instruments for entertainment.

I know this is probably totally not what it was like, but for this Whatever Wednesday, I'm going to say it is and just keep living in my little dream world of what it would be like to live in the 1890's.

Whatever Wednesdays - First Kiss

I'm joining up with Shay and Alissa today, they give us a super secret, okay not really, they send out a topic on Sundays and we have 3 days to hash it out, topic this week? Our First Kiss...yikes. Do I really want to remember that?

I was a late bloomer, could be because my brother is 9 months younger than me, so I didn't want him to feel left out, so I naturally was a good big sister and would wait patiently for him to do things at the same time as me...or I am just slow, take your pick.

I am shy, okay, was shy, especially when it came to boys. Seriously, I liked this guy in 7th grade and it took us 9 years to kiss, yep, we had a flirty thing for 9 years, went to 3 school dances together and it took us 9 years to kiss. But that's not the boy who I got my first kiss from.

Back to 7th grade, there was this cute guy Alex who's locker was right above mine. He was even more shy then me, but every once in a while I would help him get a book out of his locker, since I was always in his way. He always smiled at me and thanked me and went on his way. I was sad when 7th grade ended because I wouldn't get to see his cute face everyday. 8th grade, again his locker was relatively close to mine, we would smile at each other but nothing happened. 9th grade (getting ridiculous huh? boy am I patient), we got to pick lockers, and now that I think about it, he must have known where I picked my locker because his locker was right above mine again. Same thing happened as 7th grade, frustrating I know. Now we're in 10th grade, high school (yes if you're doing the math, I still haven't had my first kiss and I'm in high school), he somehow is always right where I'm walking or eating lunch, and now that I think about it, I think he did this on purpose. Anyway, end of the year comes and I get the courage to ask him to sign my yearbook. He says that he needs some time and can I get my yearbook after the next class, I shrug and agree. When he gives it back I anxiously open to where he signed and it says "Hope you have a great summer, I wish I could have gotten to know you better, call me this summer..." with his phone number attached. I'm thinking What?! Holy cow! 

So summer between 10th and 11th grade I got the nerve and called him, okay my friend and I actually stalked him and called him like 50 times before someone answered the phone. I asked him to meet up with us at my church carnival, he agreed. We went on the Ferris Wheel together, my dad was having a mini heart attack that I was there was a boy. Nothing happened. Then he asked me to the movies for later that week. I could drive but he couldn't, so I picked him up from home, we went and saw Phenomenon with John Travolta. While in the theater he picked up my hand to look at the ring I was wearing and then never gave it back, we held hands the whole movie (smooth move huh?), I don't think I remember one part of the movie besides the song that played, Change the World by Eric Clapton, even to this day that song reminds me of him.

After the movie I went back to drop him off at his place. He had gotten a voicemail saying that he needed to come down to his Karate school because one of the teachers couldn't make it and they wanted to know if he could teach a class. He asked me for a ride. On the way there he just blurted out, so why do you like me? I was shocked but think I said something like you're cute and nice. He said so you only like me cause I'm cute? Well yea, but I wasn't going to admit that, I said I think you're nice, why do you like me? He said cause he thought I was cute and was always nice to him. We arrived at his Karate place, we're sitting in the car being all awkward and stuff, and he leans over and kisses me, tongue and everything. Want to know my reaction?

I LAUGHED! Full on laughed. He looked at me dumbfounded, I told him I had never kissed anyone and that it was just new, we kissed again, this time it was slightly better, but slobbery. He left my car to go teach, I was reliving the moment over and over, my first kiss.

I left for camp the next week, and then when I got back he left for vacation for a week, we saw each other maybe a few more times before school started and then I broke things off. Turns out besides being attracted to one another we had nothing in common and he was a really jealous guy. Something I hate.

Long winded story. Want to see a picture of me in high school?

That's me in all my dorky glory.

If you made it through my long winded story, good for you! Until next time!