I got tagged!

Yay, thanks Carli! I am happy, because I never get tagged! But here's a disclaimer:

This tag may be a bit of a downer for someone who is looking for something positive. I'm just keeping things real, so here goes!

5 major pet peeves

1. When people eat messily.
That is to say, when people eat with their mouths open, chowing on their food, spittle and food particulates flying everywhere, drinking (chugging) loudly, trying to hold a full on conversation while eating... GROSS!!!!!!! Keep it civilized, people!

2. Bad drivers
I'm mostly talking about two types of drivers. First, the type who are totally oblivious to the other 2.5 ton death machines in close proximity around them (i.e., other cars). Hello, people!!! Are you that CLUELESS to not see that the speed limit is 65! sixty. FIVE! And guess what? This might shock you... people actually go OVER THAT SPEED! So, GET OUT OF THE FAST LANE!!!!! AND GET OFF YOUR CELL PHONE!
And secondly, the drivers who are inconsiderate of other drivers. You know the type of which I am referring to; the kind who won't let you in their lane, even though your blinker has been ON for the last TWO MILES. Um, my blinker being on does NOT necessitate your need to accelerate and make driving on the freeway a PAIN! (Brooke, I totally channel you in this situation; GOOO! LOL)

3. Incorrect grammar
OK, I know this makes me a snob, and I know that the next one will make me even more of a snob, but here goes. It really bugs me when people don't speak correctly, especially things like "You did good" (it's 'you did WELL', did you grow up in a pack of wolves?), or "I can feel the spirit so strong" ('strong-LY'! Who failed to teach you that, or did you just not show up that day?). It just really irritates me.

4. Incorrect spelling
I realize that in my father's day and age, spell checker wasn't even conceived of. Heck, computers weren't even a possibility yet! However, we do not live in the 50's. We all have access to computers, word processing programs, internet, blogs, email, etc. They are wonderful pieces of machinery, and even better, ALL of these mediums have a little 'ABC' button with a check mark in the foreground. Does everyone know what this stands for? This means you can check your paper for spelling errors! What an amazing concept! I realize that some people just don't care. But to the people that just don't care, realize that there are other people who will READ what you wrote, and they may not understand what you are trying to convey! Really, I'm just looking out for you. Use your spell checker, end of story.

5. Kids whining
I can stand a whole lot of things from kids. Being peed on, poop on my fingers/hands (even if you aren't my own kid. It's gross when it's your own offspring, and even more putrid when it isn't.), being scratched or stepped on, bounced on, used as a jungle gym, etc. But I honestly can't STAND it when kids whine. Even my own kids. It's worse than nails on a chalkboard to me! In the defense of all children everywhere, I know that this can not always be avoided. But seriously, those high pitched whiny little voices throwing tantrums, with their faces contorted and falling in a heap on the floor just makes me want to throttle the little angels!

Wow, can I say that I actually feel great? I have cleansed my pet peeves from me! :) Okay, now that everyone is familiar with Sarah's irks, I tag Tiffany, Sam, and Brittany.

Halo night

Bryan is an avid Halo Player, more specifically, Halo 3. He likes to have Halo parties, where he has a bunch of guys over and they spend hours upon end blasting each others' brains out. I usually don't mind so much; I spend time on the computer or read a good book after the kids are in bed. Well, not last night!

It was just so dang HOT that we stayed cooped up inside all day. Those of you who live in the same complex as me realize that there is not a lot of room for a family of four to spend the entire day inside without getting on each other's nerves! Anyway, I was dying to get outside once the sun let up a little bit, so when Bryan was shootin' em up with his buddies, the kids & Sam and I went out!

We first went to California Pizza Kitchen for some yummy dinner. Lincoln, as always, was the heartthrob social butterfly.

He said 'hi' to everyone (repeatedly) and was just being his super cute active self! He wore himself out so much that he laid his head down on his plate!

Orion was wanting to get in on the action, so he decided to be a little fussy, but everyone still thought he was just so adorable. You can't tell in this picture, but he was putting up a fight with everything! What happened to my angel baby that night? :)

Here we are!

After dinner, we went to Kidopolis in Vista. It was after dark (hence why the pictures aren't so great), so the security guard let us in for free! Lincoln was a little hesitant to go for it, so for his first run I had to go in the tubes with him! They seriously aren't kidding when they say 50 inch (4'1") height limit. It was a little tough to squeeze my 5'6" self into some areas! Sheesh, the things we do for our kids! :)

Once we had fun together in the tubes for a while, he pointed to the HUGE twirly slide. When I say huge, I mean close to two stories tall! So, once again, only because I love my children, we went up together to go down the slide. We went at Lincoln's climbing pace (which is fast for an almost 2 year old, but agonizingly slow for me), so it seriously took half an hour to get up there! Once we got there, I obviously was too big to gain any speed (with Lincoln on my lap to boot), so we puttered down together all 17 billion curves of this slide! When he expressed that he wanted to go again, I told him daddy would take him another day!

Kidopolis in all it's glory! This is only one side; the place is enormous.

And here we are in the tubes!

Love the crazy hair!

Orion once again reverted back to my angel baby... what a cutie!

And he's off! This little girl kept on referring to herself as 'spider girl' because of the webbed chutes/ladders. She was adorable! (I know it looks weird, but Lincoln is actually sliding down; his doggy pack is clipped onto his front)

We had a lot of fun (thanks Sam for the awesome suggestion!), Orion snoozed peacefully after his defiance, and we missed most of Halo night. What could be better? :)

What to do when the insomnia kicks in???

B L O G ! ! !

Just thought I'd share my love for the series 'Firefly'. It's kind of like the Old West meets Star Wars, slightly sci-fi, but not too much to be nerdy or too weird. I love this series! It has long since been cancelled (much to the chagrin of the die hard fans), but Bryan and I have the 13 or so episodes on DVD. It was loved so much that the show eventually went on to become the movie 'Serenity'. I really enjoyed it, but was so sad that the movie forced a few characters to their untimely demise! Anyway, if you're into action/comedy/something different, I highly recommend it.

So, without further adieu, I give you my results! (drumroll, please)

Your results:
You are Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)

Dependable and trustworthy.
You love your significant other
and you are a tough cookie when in a conflict.

Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command) 95% Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic) 90% Inara Serra (Companion) 70% Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) 60% Wash (Ship Pilot) 60% Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic) 60% Derrial Book (Shepherd) 55% Jayne Cobb (Mercenary) 40% River (Stowaway) 40% Alliance 25% A Reaver (Cannibal) 0%

Click here to take the Serenity Firefly Personality Test





Yay, I just love Zoe! She's this amazing tough-as-nails softie, and I think she's so beautiful.

By the way, thank you everyone for your uplifting comments on my last post! It really is refreshing to hear that other people know what I'm going through, even though it still sucks to have to go through it!

Reflecting on the present

Wow, I have been feeling so much like I have been put through the ringer lately.

No, stirred up in a huge pot of scalding hot wash, scrubbed out on a rough wash board, then put through the ringer a few times for good measure. If anyone has ever had an extremely difficult time financially, I can totally empathize with you!

I am not writing this for anyone to feel sorry for me or try to make me feel 'better', but mostly just for myself so I can get it out on paper (so to speak) and stop beating myself up and spinning my wheels. This year has not been kind to the Harrison family; each month with Phoenix Industries there has been a major setback, so much so that I keep wondering if it's still worth it to own the business. It's kinda funny, because our first year was so phenomenal, and it's usually the 1st year that's the hardest. I suppose that it is my personal M.O.; it was the same way with our marriage. The first year was awesome and stress free, the second year??? Crazy unstable and scary (just to clarify, NOT OUR RELATIONSHIP!!! I love Bryan very much, as he does me. I meant that life around us was unstable!).

The one constant throughout all our issues is the amazing support we have from our families. And not to mention, what doesn't destroy you makes you stronger. I've found that this also applies in marriages. In ours, anyway. We have had so many things thrown (hurled is more appropriate) in our direction, that we have had no choice but to either blame one another and fall apart, or hunker down in the barracks and hold on tight to each other for protection. We have both chosen the latter, and it makes these insane unknowns seem slightly bearable.

So, what is the moral of the story? Pray. Read your scriptures. Listen and follow the Holy Ghost. Pay your tithing. All of those standard Primary/Seminary answers that all of us take for granted. They are simple for a reason. And doing all these things will protect us.

I have had an extremely emotional few weeks. (not to mention the fact that I am still topsy turvy with post pregnancy hormones and my hair is STILL falling out!) At times it feels like we will never get to see the light at the end of the tunnel, like we are destined for poverty our whole lives, like we will be living where we are now for the rest of our lives, with our crackhead pot smoking neighbors and all twenty of their whiny imposing kids! I'm sure that a lot of young married couples with a small family in tow feels/have felt the same way, and I know that the more experienced couples KNOW what I'm talking about! I just... I just get tired of fighting sometimes.

Like I said before, this blog is to merely get a few things off of my chest and become positive again, and to get past the most recent development in our lives. So I guess I've said it all, or at least all that I am going to go public with! It's definitely time for bed.

So... I thought this was cute and really clever. You know those days when you are really. irritated. with. your. HUSBAND!!!
I found this on another persons blog, and I thought it put a twist of humor into the annoying habits that each of our husbands may have, even though they are awesome 90% of the time. It certainly helped me to laugh it off. Enjoy!



Dear Tech support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0. In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5 and then installed undesirable programs such as HALO3 5.0, NintendoDS 3.0 and Golf Clubs 4.1. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?

Signed,

Desperate



DEAR DESPERATE,

First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system. Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html and try to download Tears 6.2 and don't forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5. But remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Xbox360 7.0 or Television 6.1. Please note that Television 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta. Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.) Also do not attempt to reinstall Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0. In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Cooking 3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck,

Tech Support

Under Construction

I am in the process of changing up a few things on ye olde blog... sometimes you may catch me being oh so uncoordinated in my color schemes. Don't worry, once I am finished my blog will return to being beautimus! Come back often for the most recent changes! And just for those of you who need a picture, I am here to provide... enjoy!

When mom goes to Party City, this is what happens!