How to spend a gorgeous spring weekend...

*Ooh-ing and ah-ing over all the pink frills and pretties at a baby shower for a good friend. (Congrats to Brooke and baby Olivia! Can't wait to meet her!)

*Golfing in perfect 60 something degree weather with a view of the monuments (there are perks to your wife being at a baby shower, although he'd never openly say that :)).

*Braving the crowds to see the National Arboretum's Azaleas.

*Getting in a few good smooches (yeah yeah...you're probably grossed out...but it's what we do :) MWAH)

*Walking gorgeous, forestry trails that have sudden bursts of colors from the azaleas randomly mixed in.

*Strolling a more controlled, orderly garden of azaleas (that P.S...cost $2million a year to maintain. WHOA buddy... thank you generous (and WAY too wealthy) flower donors!)

*Admiring the state flower (and tree) of Virginia--the dogwood. You should see them in pink...beautiful.

*Celebrating a 40th birthday at a good friend's Luau, and reconnecting with friends who have moved out of the ward.

*Finding out at stake conference that WE'RE moving out of the ward. 3 wards in our building have now become 5, and we were one of the "lucky" winners who got booted out of our ward and will be joining a different ward... and we'll be moving back to a 3-6pm time slot (kinda a bummer...but we're hoping to make the best of it. I'm sure it happened for a reason...some reason... :))

*Getting your bumper all scratch and gouged by a landscape truck (ok...don't recommend this one... at all. Should I really be surprised, though? Poor Tink seems to be on a 6 month cycle. Soooooooo ready for a garage. But at least my knight in shining armour is taking care of dealing with it all...love that kid.)

*Chatting about anything and everything Disney related in a vain attempt to get even MORE excited for our upcoming vacation (like THAT's possible).




WELCOME SPRING!!! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!

Eggs-tra Memorable

So, I'm always telling my brides that the mishaps make the memories. I don't like to see them bridezilla-ing about the little things that go wrong on their big day, because I honestly think that the little "oopsies" always end up making the best memories (for example, our wedding video that played at our reception and said "Amber & Brent (my dad)" instead of "Amber & Brian"...hilarious...we still laugh...). If my theory holds true, Easter 2011 will go down in the books as extra special and extra memorable.

Memory Worthy Event #1: Opened my eyes at 6:30 a.m and realized a smell had woke me up. And not a pleasant smell. More of a really-really-really-burnt-tuna-melt smell. Nope...wasn't Brian. :) It was our apartment. Those of you who know me well, know that I have a freakishly good nose--got it from my mom. We're talking...I can smell things seconds before a pregnant woman can (yeah...it's bad). But when Brian woke up, he smelled it too so I knew we were in trouble. He stuck his head out of our apartment, and our stairwell smelt AWFUL. Now, we've had neighbor's snoring, and neighbor's squeaking, and neighbor's talking, and neighbor's fighting filter into our apartment before, but NEVER neighbor's smells. Yuck. Brian propped open the building door, we opened every windnow we have and went crazy with the Lysol, and I spent the next 3 hours at church terrified that the drunken neighbor who passed out with a tuna melt on the stove in the wee hours was still out-of-it, and was going to burn down our apartment (and I wouldn't even be there to grab my honeymoon oil painting).

Memory Worthy Event #2: Full of paranoia, I was leading the way to the car so we could leave for church. I heard a crash. Turned around to see Brian looking down at what used to be one of my cute, dressy dinner plates. Broken into bits in the parking lot. At least the young women's treats hadn't been unwrapped and put on it yet.

Memory Worthy Event #3: I was talking to my parents on the phone, wishing them a happy Easter. As I talked, I was pushing the sides of my tuna-melt-fighting spring candle (my BURNING tuna-melt-fighting spring candle) down into the already melted wax with a popsicle stick, trying to even things up a bit. WHAM and splash...just like that, I had wax splattered all over the carpet, the counter and ME. Face...hair...shirt...arms...hands...covered. That was fun to get off. But at least I smelled like a Lily/Peony/Flower Market mix. :)

E
Memory Worthy Event #4: We're dying away at our eggs, when suddenly the cup of blue dye is down for the count (it was me...clutzy things that go on in our apartment are always me...except for the plate episode...:)). The dye is getting closer and closer to the edge of the counter...I'm containing it with my hands and screaming, "Grab the dish towel...grab the dish towel...it's gonna get our carpet!!!" Brian brings me ONE sqaure of paper towel. I'm screaming, "No No No! The DISH TOWEL. The DISH TOWEL." He comes back with 3 squares of paper towel, saying, "Dish towel? Dish towel? What????" He's all in a fluster, running back toward the paper towels as I'm screaming, "The CARPET...grab the DISH TOWEL on the OVEN!" He brings...the dish towel. But too late. The dye has started trickling under my arms on to the carpet. Luckily, by the time I'm scrubbing our capet with stain stick, we're laughing. He never said, "Who is THAT clutzy?" and I never said, "Really? One sqaure of paper towel?" :). But we DID comment on how our poor carpet had had quite a blue, waxy day. :)

Memory Worthy Event #5: We're winding down our day with an inspirational Hallmark movie after watching the Cowboys get kicked off the Amazing Race (NOT a memory worthy mishap, just plain crappy). Suddenly, a crash SO loud I jumped out of my seat (literally). Brian is laughing his head off because his wife went balistic over thunder... but the laughing stopped when CRAZY hail started pelting our building. I'm thinking, "Great...this is gonna be the acorns of 2009, except now we have 2 nice cars to worry about..." But it all turned out ok...I think...Brian checked the cars this morning and said they were fine. :)

Quite the memorable holiday, right? Not so memorable, but still great events:

*A great Easter program at church--amazing music and messages
*A cute Easter dress from my parents

*An AWESOME Easter bunny who filled our baskets with all kinds of amazing and thoughtful things
*A scrumptious Easter dinner of spiral ham, au gratin potatoes, fresh beans and fruit salad
*A satisfied 3 year craving for my favorite Marie Callender Lemon Sour Cream pie. I found a knock-off recipe, altered it to be gluten-free, and delighted in the deliciousness that followed. Even Brian was astounded. Heaven. I tell you. Heaven.

The possibilities are endless

*It's possible that I haven't updated in long enough that I don't even know where to start.

*It's possible that yesterday was my all-time-favorite boy's birthday... and we might have celebrated it in the happiest place on earth. Possibly involved an apartment set up like the Pirates of the Caribbean Ride, a Mickey cake, a Disneyland gumbo meal, and a pirate treasure hunt for presents. Also possible that I promised my parents video, so you now have to suffer through it.

What's impossible is to express how much I love the birthday boy.

*It's possible that our pirate adventure of yesterday has us oh-so-excited for our upcoming vacation. Very possible that we need some fun couple time... away from doctors, work responsibilities, church responsibilities, and just day-to-day life. Possible that we're going to enjoy each and every second of just the two of us, doing whatever we choose to do. Very possible that we'll drop off the face of the earth, and our cell phones mysteriously won't work while we're gone. I'm just sayin...possible. :)

*It's possible two of my favorite people were in town for not-long-enough a couple of weeks ago.

It's possible that they were here during the cherry blossom festival, but that I was wearing mittens.


It's possible that it didn't matter a lick, because while we went to the arboretum, zoo, Carlyle House, tidal basin, Fort Ward, temple and American History Museum, our favorite times were quite possibly sitting around in the apartment chatting and chatting.

It's possible the two people in this picture are still very much in love 3 years in.

It's possible the National Arboretum is one of my favorite D.C. spots.

Also possible that my parents brought a pound of gluten-free See's chocolates fresh from Utah...we're not going to say what happened to the chocolate, but it's possible that neither they nor Brian had ANY, and by the end of their trip the box had 2 pieces left. Possible we have mice problems. :) It's possible I cried like a 2 year old when they left, and still haven't quite recovered. :)

*It's possible that Brian talked more sports than he has in a long time last month when one of his favorite people came in town on business. Possible that he had a great time, and enjoyed the crab cakes (that he never gets because I won't go anywhere near them) immenseley.

*It's possible that we might be moving in a couple weeks (and unfortunately I don't mean back to Utah). We've been looking. We're hoping not to, but we'll see.

*It's possible that we watched an apartment in our complex (not our building luckily) burn the other morning. Possible that it scared me to death, and has me catalouging exactly what I would grab first if we caught fire and I had any time. Possible that you'd see a crazed lady running from the burning building wearing nothing but a robe and her wedding ring, with an Italian oil painting under one arm, and a chest full of souvenirs under the other--everything else...replaceable.

*It's possible that I've made peace with my round brush. Too early to be definitive, but possible.

Like I said, the possibilites are endless...but so is the list of things I (and I'm sure you) have to do! So for now... possibly, probably, am done!

The long and short of it...

So, after some recent health issues (yes, in true Amber fashion where my life problems always seem to be of my own making, my body is still finding new and exciting ways to attack itself and keep me on the edge of my seat...honestly, it's kinda humorous...in a sick sort of way--no horribly bad pun intended), my once long and luscious hair (ha ha) has been trending more and more toward stringy stringy blah blah (I have no idea why Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has been in my head lately, or what it has to do with my hair, but wasn't that a great movie?!).

After months of sporting the flippy, bun-ny ponytail look, and being unable to wear my hair down, I figured what's the point in keeping it? Saturday I bit the bullet, gritted my teeth, went into a cute little salon called Frizzled feeling somewhat frazzled (oh dear...can you tell I didn't get enough sleep last night? this writing....sheesh), and a few highlights and big ole piles of hair later, came out looking like... well...this:

If you ignore the unmade bed in the background, not too too bad (although we're still working on styling it ourselves... not "ourselves" as in me and Brian, although that WOULD be fun... "ourselves" as in...I guess...me and my many personalities? Round brushes are a nightmare invention, by the way...) Honestly, I spent the first couple of days swinging wildly from LOVING it to BAWLING my eyes out. :) (Poor Brian...if you see him anytime soon, he deserves an extra big hug for all the many things he deals with.) Now, here we are a little under a week later, and overall... digging it! It's fun to have a "style", and be able to wear my hair down again. I tried my natural curl with it yesterday, and the wavy layers were pretty darn fun!

So, that's the long and short of it (sigh. dorky dorky dork dork.)

Now I've got to run in and jump on the air mattress taking up our entire living room floor. :) That's right... my parents are in town, meaning my three all-time-biggest fans are under one roof. It's an Amber love fest, and I am one happy camper. :)

Bracket...shot.

Louisville going to the championship with Duke...Duke winning. Not so much. Day two, and my bracket is already toast. Sigh.

Even WORSE... when Brian and I compared our brackets after filling them out completely independently, they were IDENTICAL from the final 4 on. I just called him at work knowing he'd want to know the horrible Louisville news, only to find...he CHANGED HIS PICKS LAST NIGHT! Louisville was no longer going that far in his mind. So, I'm not only a loser...I'm a loser who's hubbie was so sure she was a loser that he changed his picks once he knew they were the same as mine! :)

The GOOD news is that maybe now he'll still have a chance to win his work pool. The winnings from his football win were a fun little addition to our vacation funds :). As for the Johnson family pool... lost cause. I don't think Brian Johnson had ever won until he married a certain athletic goddess who creamed everyone in the football competition last year. Ah-hem... luck? I think not. Picking teams based on mascot, colors and geography is totally legitimate. :)

Did I mention... we're going to Disney World in May?!!! :) I guess everything is ok in the world. :)