Garage Sales & a Cubs Game

On Saturday, I went to some garage sales in the morning and found some great things. I feel like people either love or hate garage sales - I actually enjoy going, but it's not for everyone. You just can't beat the prices, but I know that some people hate the idea of used stuff. I don't mind if its in good condition and seems to come from a good family.

Anyway, onto the story. I found a giant Pooh Bear in amazing condition! Remember the one that Rachel wanted SO bad at Disneyland and I almost paid $35 for it?! Well, the lady at the garage sale charged me $1 for it, so I snatched it up and could hardly wait to give it to Rachel. I raced home and she was thrilled! She hauled it around all morning.

Later that afternoon, we decided to go to the Spring Training Cubs vs SD Padres game and WHO do you think got to come with us? Yep, GIANT Pooh Bear!! She had only got it a few hours earlier and we didn't have the heart to say no when she begged for him to come to the game. We got some strange looks, but we still had a great time and got some great seats in the shade! Go, Cubs, go!

Rachel and her new best friend.

Trip Home to Utah

We had a free flight to use and I wanted to help throw a baby shower for my sister-in-law, Cindy, so we headed home to Utah this month for a week - just me and Rachie.

I don't know what it is about Utah, but we seem to ALWAYS get sick. Usually it's the day after we leave, but this time it came right in the middle of our trip. And this was by far, THE WORST sickness (cold/flu type) that Rachel has EVER had. The poor thing was miserable and the nights were hard and the days were long. Her eye also started looking nasty. I took her to the doctor when she got a fever and she had a double ear infection and some sort of pink eye infection. Thank heavens for antibiotics!! The next morning I woke up to this princess (warning - this picture is disgusting!) who's eye was sealed shut with goobers and who's nose was nearly sealed shut with boogers (poor thing, it just broke my heart):

Some vacation, right?! (Note small Pooh Bear in picture and also the green triangle duck in the pictures below - both items helped get her through the week - she carried them everywhere!) We still managed to have a little fun, but we were SO sad that we couldn't spend more time with the cousins, who we didn't want to get sick. One morning, Nana hid Easter eggs in the yard for Rachel and she absolutely loved it! Here she is finding an egg with her buddy, Zoe - my mom's dog, who is way too nice to Rachel.

And this one is out of order, but it's on the flight home (she's feeling much better, but I of course caught her same bug, so I wasn't feeling too hot). It was St. Patrick's Day = green dress and we were trying to be rambunctious so no one would want to sit by us; only problem was the flight was chuck full, so my larger than average 21 month old sat on my lap. Luckily it's a short flight and she really did great and the couple that sat next to us were very nice. Oh yeah, and on the flight to Utah, we had an empty seat so I can't complain. On that leg, we sat by this awesome 21-year old girl who is also a nanny and was so cute to Rachel - we all ate suckers together and she even let Rachel listen to her ipod. Rachel asked her if she had the "party song" - I translated ~ "Party in the USA" - Miley Cyrus ~ and sure enough she did, so Rachel danced on the floor of the plane in between us while listening to her "party song" - so funny!

Rachel's favorite person (next to grandparents, of course) was my 15 year old brother, Cade. She couldn't wait until he came home from school everyday so that they could play "chase" or cars-down-the-ramp or "kitties" (this is a game where she wants you to crawl around with her and pretend to be kitties) - and he was such good sport and played with her so well. She must have said "Hi Cader" a million times, just to get his attention. I love this picture - you can just see how much she loves him!

The Baby Shower was a total success and there was an amazing spread of food, decorations and presents. We're so glad Cindy's part of our family and we're so excited for their new baby boy coming in June! They have picked the name, Logan, but if you ask Rachel it's "Yogan". Here we are - Cindy, my mom and I (do I need to clarify, that there is not a giant flower in my hair, but it's in the background?):

Funny story: while my mom was playing with Rachel one afternoon, she taught her something new. They watched "A Baby Story" on TLC (don't ask me why) and Rachel learned how babies come out of mommy's tummies. Not "where" they come out because they don't get that graphic on TLC, but "how" they come out. When I arrived home, Rachel explained to me that mommies have to "PUSH!!" (squished up face, fists tight) the baby out. Oh great, thanks mom. I was hoping to wait a few years on that one, but oh well - it's pretty funny.

We were too sick to go to church in Utah and Rachel was supposed to wear her Easter dress to my mom's ward so that she could show her off :) but since we couldn't go, I got a picture of her wearing it and she's even folding her arms so reverently.

Train Park Visit (back in Jan.)

Found some cute pictures I forgot to post when we went to a train park in Scottsdale. They have a cute train ride & carousel and lots of playground equipment. It was a super cold day for us (am I even allowed to say that? It was probably in the high 50's) but we had made our plans to go with Brandon on a Monday holiday and we weren't going to let a little rain/wind ruin our plans.

Memories & March Madness

We just fixed an old computer that was out of commission for awhile and I found this gem of a picture. It made me smile and laugh out loud, so I thought I'd share. It just made me happy. It was our 2008 ward Halloween party and we convinced our doorman (miss him!!) to let us take his son, Miles, with us. When we didn't have enough seats in the car for everyone, we snuck Brandon in the trunk and told Miles (4 yrs old) that Brandon was just going to run SUPER fast to the party and that he would meet us there (can you imagine your child telling you that your babysitters had let someone ride in the trunk?) :) I have no explanation for the little Weaver girl being in the photo - she just wanted to be in the picture too and we thought it would make our little "family" look more complete. There was something special about our ward in Chicago that will never be able to be recreated.

p.s. How's your march madness bracket? I'm in first place in our Hale Family bracket right now and crossing my fingers I'll be able to claim the $50 prize! But anything can happen, so I'm enjoying my bragging rights while they last. 1st place, baby! Disclaimer - I do not follow college basketball, so it's complete dumb luck. I also won last year's bracket! Ha ha

GIVEAWAY WINNER!

Congrats to the winner(s) of the custom card GIVEAWAY (by way of random.org):

Katherine - which cracks me up since she is WAY better at this stuff than me (she's basically a professional), so if you really want something Katherine, you were the first official winner and I'd be happy to do something for you. (Side story - a year and a half ago I won a custom card from Katherine that she gaveway at a Relief Society service auction and she made the CUTEST invitation for Rachel's first birthday - it was TO-DIE-FOR)

... so then I had to choose another one because I thought that was only fair, so then the second winner was ...

Ashley - which is even funnier because she won that stupid Brick Oven watch that I gave away on my first giveaway and she's right, she totally deserves it.

... but then I was still feeling generous, so I decided with one more winner and it was ...

Nicole - which is ironic since she's one of my closest friends, so I would have totally done one for her anyways, but I decided to stop there. I stopped while I was ahead. There you go - I thought there was only going to be one winner, but SURPRISE, there's three.

Have a great day!

So Katherine, Ashely & Nicole, contact me anytime and we'll make you a custom card! p.s. Leave me a comment, so I know you found out you won!

Disneyland

It was magical. Just magical. Except for when Rachel was being "a treat" in the afternoon due to no nap, which caused me to also be very grumpy until she finally fell asleep in "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride (dark, cool, and long) at 5pm. But after that we were set and were able to stay for the rest of the evening.

Let me start by saying that we got our Disneyland tix on EBAY - weird, right? Even weirder that we picked them up at an office a few blocks away from the park and had to return them later that night. But the ebay seller had 99.9% positive feedback and it was a pretty big $ savings, so we tried it and it was a huge success!! We both got 1 day park hopper tickets for $110, that would normally cost about $175! I was happy and if you want any more info, I'd be happy to tell you the seller we used, etc.

As soon as we got there, we saw Mickey and waited our turn. Rachel was so happy and all the characters are so sweet to all the kids! Then we met up with our good friends from law school - the Worthen's and the Packer's. It was so fun to get with them and it felt like we just picked up right where we left off back in Chicago. Rachel also had a lot of fun playing with their kids (like holding Lily's hand while waiting in line) and sharing her treats with them (like when she shared her box of raisins and she was a little nervous when they all surrounded her to grab some "yaisins" and also when we gave suckers to everyone and the Packer twins hardly knew what to do, the best was that Ethan just held onto it and didn't even taste it for a very long time - so funny! Way to go, Lauren, for not keeping many sweets around your house).

We went on lots of rides - the favorites for Rachel were probably Dumbo, teacups, It's a small world, and the roller coaster in toon town. But her FAVORITE part of the day was the Dance Parade that night. It was probably 25 minutes of the characters and Disney dancers singing and dancing - Rachel danced the entire time and was completely entranced.

I also don't want to forget about the "deal" Brandon made with Rachel. She told her that if she took a nap, that she could get some ice cream and pick out a toy. She FINALLY fell asleep and stayed asleep for about 45 minutes on Brandon's shoulder. The second she woke up she told us she was ready for her ice cream. So she got a Mickey-shaped ice cream right then. She also got to pick out a toy at the end of the day and she of course picked the largest Pooh Bear that they sold (and totally overpriced!), so we gently coaxed her to pick some Mickey Mouse & gang figurines that we knew she'd like to play with more than the stuffed animal. But she didn't forget about Pooh days later, so we ended up going to the Disney store at home and buying her a little Pooh bear to haul around (luckily she was ok with the small sized bear this time). She's a funny girl.



The kids - Rachel, Kate, Lily and Ethan during our churro break





Bummer that we didn't snap a picture with the Packer's, but here we are at the parade with the Worthens

Giveaway!!

Who does giveaways on their private blog?! Ummm ... ME?!!

In my free time lately, I've loved playing in Photoshop Elements and designing custom invitations and greeting cards.

Click HERE to view my gallery of recent cards I've designed.

OK, so the GIVEAWAY is a custom designed card. We'll figure out what you want and where you want to print it, and then I'll design it and we'll go back and forth until you're happy. It can be for any event - baby announcement, graduation, Christmas card, invitation, etc. And you can use it anytime - no rush.

Just leave a comment if you want a chance to win. I'll use a random number generator to pick the winner. And you have one week to enter!

p.s. A small shout out to you & you who are some of my friends who do awesome custom cards!

Tacky

This may seem tacky. But since none of you will feel obligated or pressured (I HOPE), I thought I'd pass on this info. I've recently got some questions from friends about budgeting, saving and investing. By NO means am I an expert. And I am very conservative and not risky at all with finances, but I want to feel like I'm doing something rather than nothing. My main goal is to continually keep an emergency fund and savings account without spending it all. :) So years ago, I set up a savings account with ING Direct. (Brandon would say I have a small obsession with them and I should probably work for them.) And many of you probably already have an account with them - it's not anything new. It's an external savings account that is linked to your personal bank account that allows transfers between the two. It has a higher interest rate than other banks because they do not have branches, but do the majority of their business online so it avoids all those costs. Anyway, it is FDIC insured (safe) and it takes two business days to transfer between the accounts, so it is pretty liquid in case an emergency comes up. There aren't any minimum requirements, they just ask that you have an monthly, automatic transfer to the ING account (can be very small). They also have CD's and a free checking account and stuff like that. The reason I wanted to spread the word is that I feel like it has helped me save money (maybe because it's 2 business days away and 'out of sight, out of mind') and it makes me feel like I'm doing something - although it's small.

If you want a referral, then I can send you a link and you'd get $25. Here's the TACKY part in *full disclosure* that I would also get something ($20 thru the end of March and $10 after that). Search it out for yourself and if it's something that would sounds good to you, then sign up, with or without the referral reward - whatever you feel comfortable with. This is where I really hope you would NOT feel obligated or pressured. You don't even need to leave a comment, just send me an email if you think you'd be interested or have any questions.

p.s. For budgeting, I'm using "pear budget" which is a free excel spreadsheet I googled online, but you need to find one that works for your family. And I think I'm almost to the point where I'm going to buy Quicken - it's a fantastic program, I've just been too cheap to buy it myself.

p.s. I promise no more sales-pitchy-like posts for a long time! And I still have to make up for that lame watch giveaway (Ashley, hope you received it!?). I will make up for it really soon with a real giveaway, I promise!