It's Heather's Burfday!

Happy happy birthday Heather dear,
Happy days will come to you all year
If I had a wish then it would be,
A happy happy birthday to you from me!

Love you Heather! Hope this is another amazing year for you!


Heather looking beautiful for her Jr. Prom


Heather and me. She always took me places with her and I worshiped her for this.


We had lots of fun together...and we still do!

Let me clear my throat

*ahem ahem*
First time this has been done by the Red Sox in 15 years.

One of my favorite moments

This current Red Sox/Yankees series got me thinking about my favorite moment last year between the Yankees and the Sox. Sean Casey, who is sorely missed but is fun to watch on the MLB Network, thinks he's getting picked off and makes a humble crawl back to second base.
Always brings a big smile to my face :)

Jacobson women visit Boise!

My sister Laurie and her four beautiful girls came up to Boise and, miraculously, I was able to take a couple of pictures of the visit (of course none of the whole family together, and none past the first day of the visit, but hey, at least a got a couple.) Laurie ran the Race to Robie Creek and killed her goal time, so we were all very excited about that. They also came to my work to visit one day and we had a bunch of great meals together throughout the visit. Again, I just wish I had taken some more pictures but there's always next time, I guess.
Anyhoodle, my nieces Eliza and Carlie Paige spent the night at our house and they had a little too much fun. My sister-in-law Sevy got us a great matching game from Sweden, but instead of it being the standard memory matching game with pictures of butterflies or apples it has photos of moustaches and you have to match them. I love it! Anyways, we were playing it and then had the brilliant idea to take pictures of the moustaches. Hilarity ensued:





Also, if you think that 7:45am is too early for a fashion show staring several pairs of my shoes and a couple of pre-teen girls, you are wrong. Eliza and Carlie walked the catwalk while I took pictures of them in my shoes:


Too bad my battery on the camera died before I could capture them in the next stage of the fashion show, which involved my dresses and belts. It was pretty awesome.
Now you might wonder where Levi was in all of this mayhem...he was doing what he does best: Eating a bowl of cereal and watching the Red Sox. Love you babe!!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everybody! What a beautiful day and I'm sad I can't share it with every single one of my family members. I miss all my Utah family and I miss my sweet mother-in-law in Texas so much! Unfortunately I have to work today so I wasn't able to go to the annual Gates' Easter party today, which is also a bummer. Still, I love Easter and I'll be thinking of my family all day today while I'm at work.

This weekend has been fun. Yesterday I went to my six year old nephew Wilson's t-ball game and I don't remember smiling that much in the last two months combined. It was one of the funniest and sweetest things you've ever seen. These kids are tiny! The helmets are so huge, they look like Darth Vader running around the bases. There was one girl on the opposing team that couldn't have been more than a foot and a half tall and I thought she'd go around in a circle when she swung that bat! Wilson is an excellent player and hit a line drive to "right field" (right field is about 3 feet past first base, but still it was an amazing hit!) About half the kids were really into the game, hitting their mitt and crouching down to catch a line drive, and the other half were chasing bugs and pulling grass. It was the most adorable thing I've ever seen and I'm excited to see Wilson play more games. Now if I can just get Eliza interested in softball....
It made me think about how much I can't wait to see my own child out there. I can't wait to go to the parks on Saturday with Levi and our child and watch them play and laugh. It was almost overwhelming how much I wanted it yesterday. We are still struggling with getting pregnant and we found out that our next step will be artificial insemination (yes, just like they do to cows LOL). I'll do anything to get pregnant. I don't care if I have to stand on my head whilst wearing a tutu, I just want that baby :) I found out that our insurance covers up to 90% of In virto fertilization, which is amazing because only 9 states in this entire country require medical insurance to cover infertility procedures, and Idaho ain't one of them so we really lucked out. Keep sending your good vibes our way. We're feeling confident that this WILL happen someday.

Well, I'm off to work. I hope everybody has a fabulous Easter and please know that you are in my thoughts today. Love you all!

No!! Why?!?!

Rain delay!!! It's Opening Day!! I don't care if it's a monsoon with hail the size of basketballs! Get out there and play! Yes, I understand this could cause injuries to those precious million dollar players, but c'mon! I've been waiting forever for this!

New Favorite!

Ha Ha! This might be my new favorite lolcat!


On a totally unrelated note, does anyone have any advice on how I can lose 10 pounds in one month. I'm doing slimfast, but I still seem to snack throughout the day. Any advice??

Colbert roasts Glenn Beck.

It's about time somebody took on that bag of wind Glenn Beck, who actually said this about 9/11 survivors and their families:

"This is horrible to say, and I wonder if I'm alone in this-you know it took me about a year to start hating the 9/11 victims' families. I don't hate all of them. I hate probably about 10 of them. But when I see a 9/11 victim's family on television or whatever, I'm just like, "Oh Shut up!" I'm so sick of them because they're always complaining."

This guy, who has said those awful things, decides he wants to start a program of remembering 9/12, meaning he wants the country to be more united (but then again, he demands that we not support the current president, so I'm not sure how that's going to work out for him.) (On another note, I wonder if Beck would ever admit that a day of unity in this country was this past election day. Record numbers turned out to vote. McCain was gracious and polite in his succession and the world is starting to heal.)
Stephen Colbert has saved the day. Watch him roast Beck for his hypocrisy and his paranoia, but doing so as politely as possible. I laughed so hard at this.

First dance class...

...was a blast! For Levi's birthday we had dance lessons paid for us. It's done through the community center here in Boise and is 6 weeks long. Tonight we learned how to do the traveling waltz and the boxstep waltz. My head is still spinning, going "1 2 3, 1 2 3" Levi and I were laughing about the fact that we were both staring at our feet AND counting out loud and were still messing up. I'm sure we'll get the hang of it, with lots of practice. Next week we're learning the Foxtrot. I'm so excited!
Thanks again everyone for the wonderful birthday present!

P.S. Somebody should look at building a dance studio that doesn't have mirrors all over the place. Nothing like seeing your fat sweaty butt spinning around at all angles. It's just not kind.

I knew it!

I knew there was something unsettling about the ShamWow guy and now I have my proof! Apparently he beats up hookers!
Check this link out!!
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0327092sham1.html

Giddy

THIS makes me excited!

Just a friendly reminder...

...only 2 weeks until OPENING DAY!! I'm excited for another year of friendly family rivalry and I'm even more excited to see who comes out on top: The team with well-developed, homegrown talent... or the Yankees.
No matter who wins, it's going to be a great baseball season!!




Oh yeah, I almost forgot:

Gnomeo and Juliet

I have the most amazing husband in the whole world. I have a husband who has bought me not one, but two amazing garden gnomes in the last three months.
Today he came in with a big gift bag and said my St. Patrick's Day present was inside. I love garden gnomes and Levi scored major brownie points with these purchases. Heather bought me my first garden gnome and I still have him on my front porch, even with his broken red hat (stupid Boise wind knocked him over and hurt his little head.)I refuse to give him up. He makes people smile when they come up to my door.
Thanks again Levi and Happy St. Patrick's Day to you too!

P.S. Garden gnomes always make me think of The Full Monty. "The man has gnomes in his yard!"
Here's one of my fave scenes from that hilarious movie.
You have to turn up your volume, the sound isn't very good in this clip

Another Good Laugh

First this,

Now the response:

And Dustin's rebuttal:

LOL!!!

As if I needed another reason to love Ricky Gervais! Check out these outtakes from his time with Elmo. So great!

No Title

Ever since we started trying for a baby (almost 10 months ago) I have been through every emotion under the sun. I have felt joy unlike anything in this world and I've felt sorrow so horrible I didn't think I could ever feel any worse.
Right now I'm at a low point because we have yet to conceive since my miscarriage in December. I know it doesn't sound like it's been that long, but it feels like an eternity to me. Every day that goes by I think of hardly anything else than the baby I so desperately want. Every month that it doesn't happen means I have to put on my strong face and keep my head up and I'm becoming exhausted. I'm tired of taking Clomid every month and getting multiple blood tests to check my progesterone (along with spending up to $50 on home pregnancy tests) only to get bad news.
I feel completely helpless because if I can't get pregnant while on Clomid it means I'm out of options. We don't have enough money to do IVF (which can cost up to $4000 each time) and we certainly don't have enough money to adopt. What are we supposed to do? I've only become pregnant once and I miscarried very early on. What happens if I can't get pregnant again or if I keep having miscarriages? Does this mean we just won't have kids? I don't think I can handle that option. Levi is much stronger than me. He told me that he set himself up to be happy if we get pregnant, but tries not to worry about infertility.
I feel like damaged goods. I feel like I did something wrong. I know that's an extremely immature way to think, but I can't help it. I try to look at the positive in everything in life, but infertility doesn't seem to have any positives.
Does anyone out there have any advice for me? I feel like I'm sinking and I don't know if I can continue being disappointed month after month. Any advice would help (except stories about how easy it was for you to get pregnant. For some reason people always tell me that when they hear I'm on fertility drugs. This doesn't make me feel better.)
I know that only my family reads this blog and my family is full of strong women that know how to make it through tough times. Please let me know what to do!
Thanks for listening
Carly

Happy Day of Birth Athena!

I cannot BELIEVE my niece Athena is fourteen years old!! It seems like only a couple of years ago that we rushed down to UVRMC to see the brand new member of our family. Scott and Stephanie were so proud they were practically beaming.
Athena you are such a joy to have in our lives and we miss you ever single day. Have a very, very happy birthday!!!
Love Uncle Levi and Aunt Carly

Forget Dopey and Doc, I'm Grumpy!

Normally I, along with most of the blogging world, use my blog to report on all the fun/good things going on in my life. Today I'm just too grumpy for that. I decided I'd write down all the things that are bugging me at this very moment and hopefully it will be a therapy of sorts.
1. I have a horrible toothache. Toothaches are the worst because you CAN'T ignore them! I made an appointment with the dentist for Thursday morning, but I think by the time it comes around I'll have already yanked the tooth out myself. I have Oragel to put on the gums and the tooth but it just ends up making my tongue numb and then I start drooling. Attractive huh?
2. My house is so messy. It doesn't matter if we've just cleaned it, somehow it becomes a complete pig sty within 2 days of a good cleaning. Grrr!
3. I'm so sick of looking at mothers who clearly don't enjoy motherhood. All day at my work I see people who have procreated and look and act as if they can't stand their offspring and that their children are just one big inconvenience to them. It drives me up the wall.
4. People that come up to me at work while I'm pushing a big cart of books, wearing a nametag and wearing a walkie talkie-type device and ask, "Do you work here?" Yeah, I'm just a customer that likes to push giant carts of books and move tables around. What was their first clue that I worked there? Drives me crazy!
5. My hair. I absolutely detest being a brunette and I went to Aveda today to see how much a color correction session would be and was told it would be $75...PER HOUR!! My hair normally takes 3 hours to take any sort of color and/or bleach. I absolutely can't afford how much they're charging and I'll have to go somewhere else, though they are the absolute best when it comes to color correction. Oh well. Live and learn. Next time I'll remember this and I won't even come close to darkening my hair.
6. There is an odd smell in my car and I can't find it. Playing "Find The Smell" is always a risky, but even after sniffing around like a Bloodhound I couldn't find the source. Hopefully nothing died in there!
7. Paying student loans. Shouldn't I only have to pay if I actually graduated?? I feel like I'll be paying them off for the rest of my life and I only went to UVSC for a couple of years! I have absolutely nothing to show for it :(

Anyways, I do actually feel a little bit better now. Sorry if this post is a buzzkill, I just had to get it off my chest!

P.S. Anyone who says Clomid doesn't make you hormonally insane is a LIAR! Just ask my poor, sweet husband.

Funny stuff.

So ever since Mel Gibson had his little meltdown (you know, the one where he blamed the Jews for all the wars in the world, as well as calling a cop "SugarT**s") I haven't had much use for him. I thought his career was over....UNTIL NOW!!
I have to admit that this is one of the funniest things I've seen in a while:
(as always, push pause on my music player on the right of the page to hear the audio)

Privacy....meh.

I don't especially like having a private blog because, for some reason, I don't feel the need to update it as frequently. I'm thinking about going back to public in a few weeks. We'll see.
This week was both Levi and Eliza's birthdays! On Tuesday we celebrated with the in-laws at Famous Dave's BBQ, which, if you haven't tried it already, is amazing. He scored some great gifts and it was fun hanging out with everyone that night. I need to start planning Levi's dirty 30 birthday party he'll be having next year. On Thursday we went over to Heather's house to have cupcakes and ice cream for Eliza. I can't believe she's 10!! Where has the time gone? While we were there, Heather gave Levi his present from her, my mom and Laurie and we are so excited! They signed us up for 6 weeks of dance lessons to learn everything from the Cha Cha to the Waltz. We're way excited to find out just how uncoordinated we really are :)
Oh yeah, I almost forgot that I have another bookstore story for Nancy. A lady came in the other day that wanted a book that she thought would be in our computer section. She said it was a book that described how hackers can plant a demon in a computer that can be transmitted to your computer. Demons. Hmmmm. Sorry to say we hadn't heard of that particular book. LOL!
Well anyways, hopefully I'll be motivated to update this a little more. I also need to add pictures of Levi's birthday. Sevy and Avery, can you send me the pictures that you took that night? Thanks so much!