Our personal Hallmark greeting ...

We had such a great Anniversary! Dinner was fantastic, as always. We got to the Salt Cellar about a half hour before our reservation and just planned on having a drink in the bar until our table was ready. We've gone to this restaurant for the last several years on our anniversary and love it. The food is amazing, and it was a former "Speak-Easy" so the ambiance is pretty cool. Anyway, I let the hostess know that we were early, but we had a reservation for Peterson. She looks up and says "Oh! Just a minute." She hands an envelope to another hostess, whispers something in her ear, and then she goes ahead and seats us. As we sit down, she hands me an envelope that says "3/11/08 - For Peterson Party (2) - 7:30". So I open up the envelope and the tears start flowing. Surprise #1: Cameron had made an Anniversary card/picture for us (note the beautiful artwork above) and mom faxed it to the restaurant so we'd have it when we got there! So sweet. I kept looking at it and wanted to call him so bad at dinner, but I didn't have service on my phone being underground and all. Had a couple of drinks with dinner, shrimp appetizers, I had the Alaskan King Crab, and Bryan had the King Crab and filet. It was so delicious. Our waiter offers us dessert which we had NO room for, but then lets us know that we can pick one out to go and that it's on him. He then comes back and asks which one of our parents are Rick and Julie, and then says Happy Anniversary dinner is on them! Surprise #2 was just as great as Surprise #1! Thanks Mom & Dad! After our two-hour dinner, we stopped for coffee and headed home. Such a great night!!

8 Years Ago Today ...

I am so blessed to have a husband who is kind-hearted, sensitive, thoughtful, and perceptive in ways that contradict the man some people see on the outside. He is an amazing father and an even more amazing husband. The list of things I truly love about him is much longer than this, but here are a few... Happy Anniversary Honey!

THE TOP 50 THINGS I LOVE ABOUT MY HUSBAND:

1. He tells me when he hears a song he knows I would like on my iPod.
2. His pants ALWAYS fall down, and show his boxers, even with a belt on.
3. He gets emotional during a TV show or movie, and doesn't try to hide it.
4. The wonderful relationship he has with my family.
5. He calls me Princess.
6. He loves to sing made-up songs to Cameron and I.
7. He cooks AND cleans ... all the time.
8. He makes me laugh - gut laughter.
9. He tells me how proud he is of me being a full-time wife, mother, employee and student.
10. He doesn't complain when I ask him to cook up some mushrooms for me, even though it is a "disgusting fungus."
11. He always has coffee made Sunday mornings before I get up.
12. He tells me how beautiful I am no matter what condition I'’m in.
13. He’'s romantic.
14. He devotes so much of his time and effort to Cameron.
15. He's a little boy at heart.
16. His love of cars and buying cars.
17. He listens to me when I tell him not to follow through on his love of cars and buying cars.
18. He's hardworking - he gets up before the crack of dawn for work and never gets the luxury of a sick day.
19. He gets up before the crack of dawn for work and still musters up enough energy to keep up with Cam until I get home.
20. He'll pull our neighbors weeds because he doesn't want our yard to look bad.
21. He sympathizes with my bunions and doesn't make fun of them ... anymore.
    
22. Everything he BBQ'’s turns out great.
23. He’'s seen several of my family members in their underwear - by accident -– and is still here.
24. He brings me latex gloves when I make meatloaf, and doesn’'t make fun of me for wearing them.
25. He always makes me laugh or smile - even at times when I don’'t want to.
26. The way he proposed to me.
    
27. He will argue against something that I want or ask (half the time I think because he likes to push my buttons) and five minutes later, I see that he went ahead and did it anyway.
28. He understands that I can spend two hours at Barnes and Noble and come home with nothing
29. He hates watching football, but will watch a Beaver game with me.
30. He remembers our first dance at our wedding was by George Strait.
31. He always comes up with the perfect gifts for people.
32. It takes him 20 minutes to swallow a tiny pill, but he has no problems with Jagermeister.
33. He knows that I hate onions on just about everything.
34. He's a fantastic Uncle.
35. The way he kisses me and touches me.
36. He accepts that when I drink too much wine, I talk too much.
37. He went along with being called "Kyle". :)
    
38. He understands why I won’'t give him a foot massage.
39. He knows and is prepared for the reminiscing that occurs when we're with my girlfriends.
40. He knows and is prepared for the reminiscing that occurs when we're with the Bales'.
41. He showers in one bathroom, gets dressed in another, and brushes his teeth in the third.
42. His midnight sweet tooth.
43. The first night he met my parents.
44. How cute he looks when he's wakeboarding.
45. He agrees 100% that no one makes a cheesecake like my Grandma Eileen.
46. The way he and Cam look forward to game releases.
47. He drinks mimosas with me on random Sunday mornings.
48. Cameron is a spitting image of him.
49. He knows that I always want to eat at the Salt Cellar on our Anniversary.
    
50. HE LOVES ME AND WANTS TO BE WITH ME!

Spring Break has begun!

We are officially child-free this week - Cameron hopped on his FIRST unaccompanied flight yesterday! (We were joking about the movie Unaccompanied Minors and had to reiterate to him that he will NOT be left alone, or by himself in any airport. Great movie by the way ...check it out.) So he is spending the week in Vegas with Grandma and Papa and couldn't wait for yesterday to come! We got to the airport and Cam did have about a 5 minute panic session when Bryan realized he didn't have his drivers license. (Rewind two hours: "Honey, do you have your ID?" "Of course I do, it's in my money clip where it always is."). Seems he DIDN'T have it after all, not the time to gloat becauase I thought Cam was going to break down upon realizing Daddy might not be waiting at the gate with him. The agent at the ticket counter was nice, and did give him the pass anyway. He did, however, have to endure a lot more searching and wanding at Security than the rest of us. His flight was about a half hour late leaving, so Cam was getting a little antsy. He did so great and was just really excited to get on the plane. Even the flight attendants FYI announcement that someone on the previous flight threw up in aisle 11, the emergency exit row, in case that changes your mind about sitting in that row. Cam gave us this look but we reassured him that he'd get to sit in the front. I, on the other hand, had a few tears when he walked off with the flight attendant to get seated. That was my baby going off by himself!!! Granted, he's a pro at flying, and it is only about a 45 minute flight, but still! Bryan told me to buck up. It took me a few minutes, but I managed to get it together. Mom said he was smiling when he got off the plane and shrugged it off like it was no big deal. So he's there this week, and I'm headed that way on Friday for the weekend. Cam and I fly back together, so I can put my Tums away. Now that I think about it, I should have taken a picture of his suitcase ... his clothes were in there, somewhere, but all you could see was his baseball glove, three baseballs, his skate helmet, elbow pads and his NEW knee pads - just in case he and Papa go to the skate park. That didn't include what he had in his backpack: iPod, PSP, Nintendo DS, a skateboarding magazine, a couple of car mags, and of course, an extra Wii remote. :) He was set!

Our plans for the week? Nothing too exciting. Did some yard work when we got home, worked on a paper for class, and that was the extent of the night. Have a date for dinner tomorrow with my hubby - eight years since we were hitched! Looking forward to that.

TGIF - And I mean that in EVERY possible way

Well apparently I missed a really awesome skate lesson today (keep reading for the reason on this one). Cam actually had the coach to himself instead of sharing him with the other 4 kids that are usually in the class. And after that hour was up, another coach came in and offered to work with him some more. He got that backwards turn thingy down that I mentioned last time, and is ready to drop in the 8 foot bowl. This is good. :) And, the best part of all of this is his knee pads did some serious work tonight. In fact (see picture) his right knee pad busted apart on one of his harder falls. Can you imagine if he wasn't wearing them? I think a lot of his confidence is due in part to the sense of protection he feels with his helmet and pads. Thank god. I'll spend another 30 bucks for knee pads ... saves us some dough on a new kneecap, right? :) Even better, Cam tells me when I get home that he felt something poking his head under his helmet, but couldn't figure out what it was. So after his lesson, he took off his helmet and saw the culprit: he had thrown one of his Gameboy games in his helmet earlier, and it was still there when he put it on. The ironic part of all this? It was his Tony Hawk game. Maybe this was a sign ...

So in yesterday's blog I left off with a recap of the week ... and how utterly crappy Wednesday was. Thinking that since today was Friday, it HAD to be better. Started out fine, but wouldn't you know it? Something had to ruin it. I attempted to leave early today to catch Cam's skateboarding lesson. Didn't quite happen. Get to my car and can't seem to find my keys. Oh wait! There they are ... on the front seat. After I got to work this morning, I opened my door, hit the lock button on my key ring, threw my keys in my purse, and grabbed my bag out of the backseat. Well apparently my keys fell out of my purse when I picked it up. So it's 4:45, and to make a LONG story short, I finally left at 6:00. My usual time of getting out of work. So, kudos to Dodge for making my car REALLY difficult to break into (apparently there is a metal plate at the top of my door that prevents even a slim jim from working, kudos to our Barney Fife security guards for handing me their Rolodex to find a locksmith, and the idiot locksmith for running his finger across my hood and commenting that it's "pretty dusty". Thanks. I suppose the bright side of this is if I wouldn't have left work early, but left at 6:00 like usual, I would have been sitting there until 7:30, in the dark. Okay, so it must get tiring listening to me vent, but now that your suckered into reading it, you'll just have to hear about all the great things that happen, and the not-so-great things. :)

Time to De-Brief (or should I say De-Compress??!)

Well it's been a week since I posted. Not acceptable. Sorry. Let's see if I can recap the last week or so, this will be a true test!!!


Friday - Mom flew in for the weekend! Nice surprise! Uncle Bryan and Auntie "Lecia" babysat Kailee and Alex. Alex was in heaven playing with Cameron's cars, and Kailee might as well have been at Le Peterson Spa ... bath, hair, pedicure. The works. She loved it. :)

Saturday - We live close to Theresa - I think there's less than a half mile between our houses - so Cameron rode his skateboard, and I rode my bike over there for a Saturday morning visit. Kids played, and we had our coffee. Then I called Bryan for a ride home. Just kidding. Saturday night the neighbor's watched Cam while Bryan and I headed out to the WigWam Resort to meet up with my friend Kim. She was here on business for the weekend and cleared her schedule to have dinner and drinks with us. It was great - hadn't seen her in over a year, and we had a lot to catch up on. Dinner was fantastic, the cocktails were even better!

Sunday - Dropped Cam off at Mike & Denise's so he could spend some time with Grandma and Papa! Video games, skateboarding, lunch ... what more could he ask for? Bryan and I ran some errands, went to lunch, did some shopping, and had a nice day hanging out together.

Monday - felt like crap and stayed home from work. Highlight of the day: Bryan and Cameron are at the grocery store, and have to go to the bathroom. So they're standing at the urinal going, when Cameron says to Bryan, "Wow - yours holds a lot more than mine." Classic. When do they start learning about anatomy? Guess I'm gonna have to pull out a picture of the human body here soon ...

Tuesday - Feeling a little better, think I have a cold. Sucks. Cam had another skateboarding lesson - still absolutely LOVING it! He is doing so awesome. Right now he's in the "Rippers" class. He has improved incredibly since the first lesson, and is about ready to move up to the "Shredders". :) He "dropped in the bowl", grinded the 4 ft rail, and has a back turn flip or something before he can move up. He is completely motivated, no fear whatsoever, and really thriving on the improvements and progression he has seen himself. Oh by the way, did I mention I have YET to see him? Yeah, I know. His lessons are usually at 4, so that sucks. Do you think Bryan has taken the camera like I asked? Nope. Guess I'll just have to wait.

Found out that Jim and Becky are having a BOY! So excited for them, and Cameron is super excited knowing he has another "cousin" to add to his list. The Keene's Blogspot will keep you up on all the adventures of little JT Keene and his mommy and daddy. :)

Wednesday - This was a busy day. And to be honest, I'm glad it's over. It really kind of sucked for all of us. The only good thing was that it was Cam's first meeting for baseball! After getting the call from the coach on Monday about the first meeting, we went through the whole "I'm not sure that I still want to do baseball now because I'm in skateboarding ..." Well we knew it was going to come. So we had the "you need to take responsibility/you wanted to sign up for it/give it a shot/you don't have to LOVE them both/etc." chat. Seemed to be okay. Meeting was good - coach seems nice. I would say that for never playing baseball or t-ball, Cameron was in the top half of the kids that had some "skills". He figured he was the "second best hitter because I hit all three balls". Admitted some of the other kids were better at catching, which is good for him. Our conversations with about having fun and trying YOUR best vs. having to BE the best certainly surfaced. He let me know this morning (Friday) that he was going to give it a shot and that it should be fun, but that he was more excited for skateboarding. Nothing wrong with honesty. Just don't want to see him in the outfield, sitting down, pulling dandelions or worse, pulling his Gameboy out of his pocket during the game.

Cam also got in trouble at school. He apparently "yelled" at a recess aide. Well he raised his voice, but only after this aide raised her voice, asked him the same question, four times, and after Cameron answered her, four times. I'd be frustrated too. Kind of puts us in a tough spot. Understand where the "respect and kind words" come into play, but also feel that "hassling" is just as inappropriate. To make matters worse, we went through the exact same scenario/situation, with the exact same teacher's aide a couple of months ago. Raising his voice because she kept asking him the same question. Had a meeting with a couple of the teacher's over that one. We'll see what happens with this. Needless to say, he lost two days worth of recess, had to pick out an appropriate scripture for the situation, and write the aid an apology note.

Bryan hit the Urgent Care, his other "PCP" for his knee. Had been having problems with it, can't remember doing anything in particular to cause the swelling and pain, but yesterday was really bad. Didn't sleep the night before, and was limping quite a bit. Doctor said there was a bit of fluid, and he thought his meniscus was irritated, but not torn. Gave him a brace to wear for work, told him to take ibuprofen, keep it straight when he's resting, and use heat packs. Seemed to work pretty good last night, because he wasn't limping today, and there was no swelling. We'll see how THAT goes. In the meantime, we're hunting down an orthopedist just in case.

And the highlight of my day: getting pulled over by a DPS motorcycle cop on my way home, and getting a ticket, for being in the HOV (carpool) lane. I wasn't in the HOV lane. At all. Seriously. I'm still so damn irritated with the whole situation that I cannot talk about it without seething. I left work at 6:00, get on 1-10 from my exit, and proceed to US60. 8 minutes into my drive, I call my hairstylist and let her know that I'm on my way for my appointment. I'm in the far right lane to begin with on the 10, which eventually turns into the middle lane once it merges with the 60. Once on the 60, I move into the left lane, which is the lane closest to the HOV lane. For those of you wondering, the HOV lane in AZ is restricted to 2 or more passengers between the hours of 6-9am and 3-7pm, weekdays. I'm barely on the 60, and notice a piece of crap, older model cabriolet convertible flying in behind me from the HOV lane. One guy in it. I'm thinking he must be paranoid about a cop, or there's one sitting up ahead. Couldn't see anything myself. Then this guy moves over another couple of lanes to "hide out". Then I see the motorcycle cop and am thinking to myself "this is GREAT!" I love it when they get caught. The cop pulls in behind me, with his lights flashing. Okay, maybe he's trying to get someone ahead of me. I change lanes. So does he. Then he's doing his little weaving back and forth to slow traffic down when I realize I'm the one that's getting pulled over! What the french toast? So I pull over. He comes up, asks for all my info and then says "Do you know why I pulled you over?" I answer that I have NO idea. then he says "So you don't think I had a reason?" Okay, did I say that? I don't think so. Does he WANT me to remove the lid from freshly brewed coffee and splatter it all over his too-tight helmet and ugly brown uniform? I answer him "Well I'm sure you had a reason, I just don't know what it is." So then he asks, "You want to tell me how you got on the 60 from the 10?" Then I knew what he was inferring. So I asked him if he thought I was in the carpool lane. He says, "I know you were in the carpool lane. You were the only one with your headlights and fog lights on, so it was easy to pick you out." What the hell is the color of the sky in your world? Seriously.

It's 6:10, sunset was at 6:28 (I looked it up) and you're facing west, looking into the sun, my lights are automatic and already on. I'm going out on a limb here and say that most newer model cars have automatic headlights. But I was the only one on the freeway in rush hour traffic, doing no more than 20 mph, bumper to bumper, with headlights on, that switched from the HOV lane into the left lane. So I then say, "Well I'm not going to argue with you". He comes back with a ticket - $378 - and lets me know that I can pay it, or go to Traffic School, or utilize the Online Traffic School if I want, he's "given me until April 15", or I can contest it in court. Your damn right I am. I sign the ticket, hand it back, and before he gives it to me, he wants to know if I have any questions. Oh, do I. "Nope." Bite your tongue, Alicia. Breathe.

So just to recap ... I WAS NOT IN THE HOV LANE.