The Big E Turned 3!

Wow, where does the time go, seriously? I just am still in a state of shock thinking that in 2 years, my child will be in grade school. Ok, enough of the sounding like all mothers do when they get sentimental, on with the party! This year, we only had family because our house can house like, 2.5 people, comfortably, and his I was in denial that his birthday was fast approaching! John and I were hussling like mad people trying to get the house finished up before the party, but we pulled it off. Unfortunately, for about 85% of the party, our birthday boy was a GROUCH! He stayed at Grandma Northweather's the night prior, so he took a nap on the long ride home from Belton (he is like his father; the minute his butt hits a car seat, he's asleep!) So he didn't want to eat and the whole family was starving, so we were all wolfing food down and I'm sure a couple of people had heartburn that night!

Then, we get to the presents. Some, he was indeed happy about. But others, he got angry about. Seriously, a 3 year old gets angry that he's getting toys? How did I get so blessed? At one point, he opened a toy up, announced to me, angrily, "I told you I already had a mack truck" and chucked it across the room." Wow, there's a moment I'm so glad got on film! And then, I got him Handy Manny tools, and he screamed "I hate Handy Manny and his tools" and was mad again. By this time, I've chalked it up to not enough nap and I that my child is way spoiled.

Fortunately, there is a light at the end of this birthday tunnel. His mood turned around with cake time, because mom made him a bang up chocolate chip cake (they don't make the choc. chip cake mix anymore, so genius me made it with a bag of chips, and they all sunk to the bottom. But, the cake tasted good.) And he had his little 16 month old cousin, Mason, there to play with him, so he was happy by the time everyone left. Just the luck. So, on with the pics!

This was one of the toys he was very pleased with. I didn't get snapshots of the toys that flew across the room!

Ethan and cousin Mason. It was so cute to watch Mason imitate his big cousin Ethan and think all of the toys were great. At least someone appreciated the presents!

My first attempt at making Ethan's birthday cake. The last 2 years, I've went the Wal-Mart route, but Ethan loves chocolate chip muffins, so I wanted to make it extra special, and I even found Ethan candles at Party America. Bonus! Oh, the theme was Cars, if you couldn't tell.

And the Ethan candles threw him off a little bit, because normally all he has is the one candle that says 1, 2, 3, etc. on it. So, with a little help from Dad, we got those darn candles blew out!

It's tradition every year since his first birthday that he takes a photo with everyone that came to the party, but quite frankly, I'm just too lazy to post all of those pics. But, I'm just vain enough to post our family pic :-)

And there you have it. Our little family, and finally a happy birthday boy. I love you, E man, and could you do me a favor and stop growing so fast?

Stuck with me for an ETERNITY (band)

Well, haven't had too much to write about in the past couple of weeks. But, I thought I would write a blog about my new wedding ring. By now, everyone in Clay County knows about it, but I don't care. I have a story behind it. Next week, I'll write about Ethan's 3rd Birthday party, so just listen to my ring story!

When John proposed to me 6 years ago, he had a gorgeous carat 1/4 engagement ring for me, and it was a beauty. We went to Jones Store (it was not Macy's yet) and got an 88 dollar band with some itty bitty diamonds to go along with my engagement ring. I was happy. We couldn't afford anymore because not only were we planning a wedding and paying for most of it ourselves, and we were in the process of buying a house. Yeah, smart, young couple, huh?

Anyhoo, I had always LOVED eternity bands, but they were not popular at the time and no stores carried them when we went to look (we couldn't have afforded one anyway, so I guess it didn't matter.) The idea of never having to turn my ring around to see the diamonds was just a concept that seemed awesome to me (ok, it takes very little to make me happy, I admit!)

Fast forward, I rarely wear my engagement ring for fear of harming Ethan or anyone else for that matter. Or worse, loosing my diamond out of it when I'm at work or doing housework!!! That would be devastating! I still wear it on special occasions and think it is just beautiful, but it's too showy for everyday life for me. I have a garage sale about 2 years ago, and at the end of the day, my 88 dollar band that John had put on my finger the day of our wedding was gone. I was devastated. Not for the fact of the expense of it, because I am a sentimental person. This was the ring that held our vows to each other for life, and now I will never be able to pass it down to future children/grandchildren. Well, I got past my mourning stage, we went to Wal-Mart, "upgraded" to a ring that looked almost exactly like my original, and went about our life.

Fast forwarder, the Wal-mart ring was fine, and we always said we would upgrade when we got older. Well, I don't want to wait until I'm older, and so I mentioned to John that I really wanted an eternity band for our 6 year anniversary coming up in April. All of you who know my hubby knows his reaction "go pick one out and get it!" He's pretty easy to convince. We went out and were blown away by prices, but not knocked down. So we went to Kay jewelers where John got his wedding ring, and they of course, didn't have eternity bands. But they had special order catalogs. The lady opened up and I turned to the page where I found my beautiful eternity band that is gracing my wedding finger as we speak. We had to special order it, and I about died while I waited for it to come in, then the fateful call came. We rushed out to Metro North mall (if that's what you can call it) and I was like an ADD kid about ready to jump across the counter waiting for her to take it out of the bag! She took it out, and I'm pretty sure Journey started playing in the background! I was in love. Now, those of you who have seen the band have said "oh, it's pretty" and I know what you're really thinking is "this is what she's been waiting for? I was expecting a fat ring." I am a very simple gal when it comes to jewelry, and this ring has diamonds all around, and they are flush with the band. It's a perfect ring for me. I love it. Below are two pics I took, but it really doesn't do the ring justice. In fact, it just looks like gold band almost in the pics.

Here it is, hans solo, which is how you will see it 98.7 percent of the time. Yes, those are diamonds, and they go all the way around. And they are beautiful!

And here it is with my overpowering engagement ring. Yes ladies, I know this is how you would prefer to wear it. Again, simple gal!

So there you have it. The not-so-cliff notes of how I got my eternity band I have always wanted. After six years and birthing your clone, thank you, Bub for letting me wear it before our actual anniversary in April. I will love you for an eternity (you all can either say awww or puke at this point.)

***UPDATE*** I was going through my tank top drawer about a month ago, and guess what I found...my ORIGINAL wedding ring! I now wear it on my right hand.

He's the one they call Dr. No Pull!

So, I went to get my wisdom teeth pulled Tuesday, fully expecting to be stuffed with gauze and pumped up with Vicoden (yes!) I arranged for my dad to watch Ethan, and my mom drove me because I would be groggy. I filled out insurance paperwork at the office, I was READY!

They take my ex-ray, I hop in the dental chair, get my "bib" on and the oral surgeon walks in and I ask him if he thinks all of my wisdom teeth need pulled or just the cavitied one. He looked for a moment at my large ex-ray staring at us on the flat screen tv in the room, and said he was concerned that if he pulled the bottom two, since I was older and not a teenager, that he could hit a nerve since my teeth were fully grown in, and it could paralyze my lips for who knows how much time, or maybe not at all (and we all know if I can't talk, we have some very serious issues!!) Wow, ok. Well, I'm feeling a little less confident at this point. So then I ask if we could just pull the cavitied wisdom tooth that I came in for originally anyway. He asked me which tooth it was! I'm not the dentist, dude, and you have my ex-ray staring you in the face! You can't find a cavity??? Anyhoo, he gets his little dental mouth mirror out and looks around my mouth and says, "well, I guess it could be the top right one that has a little decay on it, but nothing serious." Are you kidding me? Is this guy talking me out of making insurance money or what?

So he asks me if I want to get them pulled because they are hurting. They aren't, my regular dentist has just been on my butt for the last 4 years to do so. He said all dentists are like this, and that I don't have to do anything I don't want to. I just sat there; what am I supposed to say? So he says, "if they start hurting, you know where I am and we can pull them easily. You're a bright and intelligent girl, and I think you know the right thing to do." He then proceeds to pat me on the shoulder and walk out of the room!

The nurse looks at me and says, "what are you thinking?" I said, "I truly don't know. I expected to sit in this chair, get teeth yanked, and go home drugged out. I'm so confused, but I think I don't want to do this anymore!" She pulls my little "bib" off of me and walks me to the waiting room where my mom goes, "did you have 1 pulled? no. Did you have all of them pulled? no. Did you have any pulled?" I then proceeded to tell my mom let's just get the heck out of here and I would explain on the ride home. We then went to Sonic where I pigged out since I hadn't ate or drank anything that afternoon, and pondered what had just happened.

So, I still have my wisdom teeth. According to the doc (who's name has been kept private to protect the innocent) said I might live with them forever without any problems. So that is what I'm going to do! All hail wisdom teeth!

And since there are no pics for this blog, I'll just add one of me and Bub on our awesome trip to Cozumel, pre-Ethan, wisdom teeth and all!