Switzerland

Apparantly I thought I mentioned Joe's trip to Switzerland, but in fact, I didn't.
He's taking his masters classes in Educational Technology, through U of M, and as part of the program, he *has* to go spend 3 weeks in Geneva, Switzerland this summer and next summer. Yay for him, bummer for me.
He leaves in about 7 weeks, so there's a lot to do between now and then, considering when he gets back he'll only have a week or so until school starts! It really is going to make the summer go way too fast for him.
I don't really know an awful lot about what he'll be doing over there...something technological, I'm sure, but what? I don't know. Maybe I'll find out and let you know. :)

Time to Blog

Hey Bloggerville! Our computer is still out, being fixed, so it's hard to go online these days. I'm out here blogging from mom's computer again- We just went to a graduation open house, and now I'm waiting for this storm to roll in. I can hear thunder in the distance....it seems like a good day to go home and do some laundry and read a book.
School's not out around here until next week: Joe has 2 make-up days, so he's done on Thursday. He's not doing any moth catching or anything this year, since his Switzerland trip is going to take up a good chunk of his summer. I think he's looking forward to a summer with no extra work.
I get a new summer schedule too. Next Friday is my last one to work, since one of my stylists is coming back from her maternity leave, so I can be off Fridays now! That's going to be so fun this summer. :) I'll take all the extra pool time I can get!! It's nice to be the boss, so I can let the other people go to work while I sit at the pool. :) hahaha
That's about it around here. Baby is doing well, 17 weeks now. I have an ultrasound appointment on June 19 to find out the answer to the big question, boy or girl?
I know I promised Nancy some belly photos, but really, I'm just too lazy to do that right now. There IS a belly to see though! Maybe when we go up to Amy's she can take a picture of me and do it for me. hah. =)
Time to go to the grocery store. Food is getting scarce around our house, and I'm almost out of Cocoa Krispies!!! (That's me and the baby's favorite food! It's a daily staple, sometimes twice a day.)
Happy holiday weekend!

responses to below

To respond to the responses:
As far as boy or girl, I feel like this is a baby boy, but that doesn't really count for much, so we'll just wait and see I guess.
I AM loving the empire waist fashions this season!!! It's more of a pants issue at this point. And I miss my skirts.
As far as 14,000 iTunes: That's Joe's department. He's mildly (OK a little more than mildly) obsessed with downloading as MUCH music as humanly possible! Of those, probalby only 150 of them are actually songs I purchased on iTunes; a few thousand or so are from our own HUGE personal CD collection..and the rest? Any time Joe could get his hands on anyone's CD's, he loaded them into our computer. And now we've got everything you could possibly want to listen to (and a lot you probably would NOT want to hear as well!!!)
So that's that with that.
Today was my last day of work before vacation! Lisa and I leave Monday morning. I'll blog at y'all when we get back!!!

Blahg

Our computer is sick. Or very well could be. Our virus protection expired, so we need to buy new, but before we do that, it needs to be sent in to clear out whatever computer gunk is making it be crappy. (Could it have anything to do with the 14,000 songs we have in iTunes? Possibly....) And while we're at it, I think we are adding more memory (you know, to make room for a couple thousand MORE iTunes!)
Anyway, point being, it's being sent off to Dell, so I won't have it for a while (ughhh....) which means limited blogging (because i was SO good at daily blogging in the past!)
So to cover the next week or so:
~baby LaValley is currently 14 weeks, new due date is Nov. 6. That seems SO far away! I'm in a weird clothing dilemma where none of my clothes fit, but the next size up, as well as maternity clothes are too big...any suggestions?

~I got an ultrasound at my last appointment too. I thought about posting a picture of it on here, but I have this thought in the back of my head that if I scan it, the picture will fade (you know, like a concert ticket does when it's exposed to bright light?) anyone have experience with scanning ultrasound pics?

~I'm going on vacation next week with Lisa (thanks Lisa!!!) She's taking me as her "plus one" for her awesome company retreat to Arizona. Isn't she nice?? Or actually, aren't I lucky that Desiree' couldn't go?! haha

~End of school is near, which means (oh NO!) end of network television is near!!! What are we going to watch?! Even American Idol is almost over. (Go Blake!!)
It's almost RERUN time! The only thing that makes rerun season better is that it's also pool season. (uh..let's just not talk about pools right now though, because that brings up swimsuits, which isn't a pleasant topic this week.)

~Happy Birthday to all of our May birthdays! I'm pulling a Grandma Featherstone here (That's Joe's grandma: she sends everyone's b-day cards for the month at the beginning of the month. Smart move!!) So happy birthday to Jill, Jessica, Amy, Mom, and Joe. And happy mothers day to everyone. Hopefully my pregnant mind didn't forget anyone.

~Speaking of pregnant minds, I'm finding that it really is true that you lose half of your mind when pregnant. Fun stuff.

~Favorite food this week? Strawberry shakes. I had 3 last week. :) Hey, baby likes them!

PROM!!!

Last night was the Time Warp Prom. It was a lot of fun- We'll definitely be going back next year. And we all agreed it was so much more fun than our real proms! A lot of people arrived dressed in themes: we saw the Captain and Tenille, George Michael, Slash, and numerous Madonnas and John Travoltas. Here's a few highlights from the evening:


The salon girls: Tracie, Andi, Tonia, Me



















Our friends (who don't work at the salon): Laura, Christina, Tina.
Actually, Tina works at the salon sometimes, she's our on-call receptionist.



















Me, hanging out at Tracie's house, waiting to go.





















Doing the Chicken Dance (and the table-chicken-dance)















Dancing to some fabulous 80's music!
Did you notice Laura's leggings?! Fabulous.















I took this from our table; you can see what a huge event this was. Our table was about a third of the way back from the dance floor, to give an idea of how may people were there. I was really suprised at what a big deal this is!

more vacation photos: Savannah

This is the Sorrel-Weed house: supposedly the most haunted in Savannah. We toured it, but didn't see any ghosts.















Joe, sitting on someone's front steps.


















This is the Williams house, where the man from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil lived (and died). We also toured this.




















The waving girl statue on the water. See how great the weather was?!

One more tail on the bird couch!

So for those of you who haven't heard it through the phone chain, it's time to get your baby-name hats on again! We've got until October to pick the bestest most fantastic name for the LaValley baby.
Yes, I said BABY.
And yes, we're keeping the Solstice. :)

Vacation pictures

Here's my first installment of vacation photos, since I know you're all dying to see them. =)


This is the street outside our hotel in Charleston; the building at the end is the open market entrance. Fun shopping.
















Kathy, Bob, and Joe outside a yummy restaurant we ate at. There's almost always a line outside to get in to eat the traditional "low country" food; another cool fact, Rachel Ray ate there. :)

















Part of "Rainbow Row" where all the houses are different colors.















The next few are all in Tybee Island. It was nice; I would have liked to spend a little more time there. It was great to walk on the beach!!

Snow??

Vacation was lovely, 85 and sunny all week. I got a little sun, we drove our car with the top down all week, I even got a mini-sunburn on my forehead...and then driving home, we drove back into this crap all over the place.
I am not happy with the weather.

Know who else I'm not happy with, "Hills" watchers? Heidi!
She's an idiot and Spencer is a punk.
And now we have to wait for next season to find out what happens? (Not that we don't already know: they'll break up and she'll want to move back in with Lauren, which will cause a fight btween her and Audrina....blah blah blah)

Anyway, back to vacation: it was so fun. I loved Savannah- I have a ton of pictures to share~ Maybe tomorrow I'll put some on here.
But for now, I have to get my lazy self up and get dressed so I can go over to mom and dad's for lunch and watch Rylee hunt Easter eggs in the snow.

Stay warm everyone!

Here I am.

I've been a bad blogger lately. It's been a busy couple of weeks- we went up to Joe's parents' house last weekend for a quick overnight...then work all week...then left after work Saturday for a Hair Show in Indiana and got back from that tonight....
Oh, I DID find my pink camera. Yay! Just in time for vacation. We're taking the Solstice so that means pack super-lite, so I can take the little camera. :)
We leave after work Saturday for our East Coast tour.
And I have been trying to finish my book in between everything else- whch is another reason I haven't blogged- and I'm almost done with it. Must finish before Saturday!

Another new fun toy- I got a phone that I can go online with. Too fun! I read everyone's blogs this weekend on the road. I havent figured out how to post a blog from my phone, still working on that one.

Off to bed!

We're headed to the (south) east coast for vacation this year. One of our stops is Savannah, and I had a couple people say that if we're going there, I MUST see/read "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" before I go.
So I went to the library, checked out the book, and now am about a third of the way through it. So far, it's pretty good. I think I'm into it because a lot of the story is about the city itself, and I am looking forward to going there.... but since I've started reading it, everyone I've talked to who has read it says "I couldn't get through it."
So...has anyone out there seen/read it? Does it get worse? Should I keep reading? Or should i just rent the movie and get it over with? =)

Green, Pink.

In honor of the upcoming St. Pattie's Day, you are now enjoying my new and improved GREEN blog.

Want to see my latest obsession?? I've been stalking this for a little while now. I found it at Target the other day and I think I need to have it. It's perfectly compact and purse-sized, ideal for travelling, and it's PINK!
Determined to buy it this past Saturday, I strolled on up into Target, and went to the counter, to be told they were sold out.
No problem, I had them check the 2 closest Targets....also both sold out.

Circuit City?? Sold out.
Three different Super Wal Marts? Sold OUT.
Best Buy? Doesn't even carry it, but I bet if they did, they'd be sold out.
I did find a similar model on display at Best Buy, but guess what: sold out. And no longer carrying it.

They're supposed to be getting more at all of these stores, but none of them know when. So now I have to stalk the Target electronics counter every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (their delivery days) until they get them in.
Luckily, Target is right behind the salon, so that's no big deal.
Oh, and it's not an online item, it's in stores only, so that option is out also.

I am determined to get this before the end of March, to take on my trips with me....
Joe just rolled his eyes and said I'm a camera junkie.
Too bad it's true.

Hello, Idol fans!

Americal Idol update:
So far my new favorite is Chris. Last week I liked Blake, but I tend to agree with Simon, and aside from the whole beat-box thing, his act was a Jamiroqui rip-off of the video. If his hat was a little bigger, I wouldn't have known the difference.

Last week, I thought Chris was a decent Justin Timberlake impersonater, suit and all...this week I liked him better. Possibly because Jason Mraz is one of my all time favorite singers, and he sang one of his songs, but he did do a very nice job.

Sundance is my other favorite, just because he's awesome...so far.

Oh- and AJ was really good too. I think I overlooked him last week.
The others aren't even mildly interesting to me.

I was very creeped out by the guy who dedicated "Let's Get it On" to his parents.

Can't wait for tonight's episode! I'm an AI junkie.

Picture Time!

Here's some photos I finally loaded onto my computer. The first one is how I found Cissi sleeping in our bed the other day- she was too cute and cozy to move her!
The rest are from our cousin's scrapbook/sleepover back in January. (A.K.A. "The night Bella Dancerella disappeared!") :)



















Jenna and Rylee, being cute.















Snuggling on the bird couch.

















Me and Lisa and Cissi, being cute- haha. :)














Joe and Jenna having dinner.

















Deb, Kara, Amy, Lisa, Me: in our p.j.'s

Mystery Solved!

So...Joe was transferring his school videos to DVD today, and couldn't get the tape into the VCR. It would only go in part of the way.
He looked inside the VCR and saw something shiny.
And let me just say I've looked everywhere BUT the VCR for this thing!!!
Geez.

Today's Riddle:

WHY do the contestants on American Idol suck at singing?!

The ONLY one I liked was the guy who sang the Keane song (the one Simon said sounds like someone in 2007- Blake, I think?)
And even he wasn't all that great.

All those thousands of people who auditioned and THIS is the best they came up with??

And yet I can't stop watching it.....

Bloggy Weekend!

Wow- you can tell I'm just hanging around the house today- I'm blogging like crazy!
Here's my favorite comic from today's paper. I'm not as much of a comic fan as I used to be, because I think the quality of the Sunday funnies has gone way down and most aren't even FUNNY anymore.
But this one gave me a good chuckle...I'm still laughing at it.
Enjoy. :)

Junk Mail

I cleaned out my e-mail inbox today. I had 592 bulk e-mails to delete. I always have a good laugh at the names and subjects in the bulk e-mail inbox...they're everything from foreign to slightly creative to just plain stupid. Because I'm in waste-the-day-away mode today, I am posting a list of my favorite bulk e-mail subject lines, from senders including: Violetta Sidebottom, Gracie Goodq, Matthaes Ralf, Gaston, Elfriede, and lori1017 AND lori1176.
Here they are, in no particular order:

As marie or suffix

on a violin

his no nocturne

as camellia no salaried

he pasta

go ebullient on preparative

he waldo by grammatic

checkup troposphere

varigated philosopher

qaa thencefort

mitochondrial girl

There they are- the best of the worst. They're so creatively jibberish, I'm almost compelled to open them up, if it weren't a computer virus waiting to happen.

What is going on in that girl's head?

More importantly, what's going on ON Britney's head?!

She shaved it.

She's nuts.

This just may upstage the Anna Nicole story.

Here's a link, in case you haven't heard/read about it.

http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=6551d873-8fde-48e0-bbfb-9a33f6824467

picture time!

Here's a couple photos of Cissi enjoying her new puffy vest.