3 Things I Hate

Here are 3 things I hate more than anything else in the world:

1. The Cold!!!

I hate the cold more than anything else in the world. You can ask Amanda about it and she will tell you I am the biggest baby when it comes to the cold, and she is right. I whine and cry about being cold all winter long. Part of the problem is that I hate wearing jackets and coats (Just layers in general). I hate putting on a bunch of layers to get in the car. And then it gets too hot. And then when we get inside whatever building we are going to I have to take off my layers and I have to carry them around. I hate it! I hate it! I hate it! (That is me throwing a temper tantrum and acting like a baby). I have probably asked myself 1,000 times in the past 3 months why we live in MN. I guess cause we have a house and we both have good jobs and it would be too hard to move at the present time. But I vow I will get out here someday...but then the spring comes and it's great.

But for real, all you environmental freaks out there, it has been 5 degrees cooler on average this winter here in MN. So instead of -5 it has been -10. we just got out of a 3 month deep freeze with -30 wind chills. So take your stupid, idiotic, dumb, narcissistic theory of global warming and shove it down your pants cause I could use a little temperature upgrade. We have actually converted our home to dirty coal and gasoline to help speed up the process.

2. Cockroaches!!I HATE Cockroaches more than anything in the world!!
They are dirty and gross and I almost threw up in my mouth looking at pictures on the internet. For those of you who have never lived in the South, I applaud your efforts at keeping your distance. The worst is when they start flying at your head. That scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom when she is in that corridor with all the bugs makes me dry heave every time I watch it. Quick cockroach story:

When I was on my mission I waited for my visa in Boston for 3 months. When I finally got the call that we cleared our visa, it was a 2 day process to get from Boston to Chihuahua, Mexico. So I slept maybe 5 hours in two days and finally got into Juarez at 1 in the morning on my first day in Mexico. When I went to use the bathroom when we finally got to our place and flipped on the light and 1000's of cockroaches went scurrying around. Ugggh. So I finally started to get to sleep and I felt something crawling on me so I leap up and turn on the light and a cockroach is on my blanket. And my companion is like "Que pasa? Gringo loco!" And i'm like Cucaracha. And he's like Duermete. tenemos que levantarnos muy temprano. ( Go to sleep. We have to get up early in the morning). Thanks for the love companero. So the rest of the night i just laid there and every time I felt my skin tingle i wanted to scream and shout but I just swept my hand over the spot and hoped it wasn't a cockroach. The next day I went to the store and bought some cockroach traps and we cut down on our cockroach problem by 95%.

3. Shaving!!
I hate shaving more than anything else in the world except the cold and cockroaches!!
I just hate shaving. It makes my face hurt. If you do it every day it starts to hurt every time you shave. I try to go 3-4 days without shaving. It doesn't hurt that much when you do shave and it really cuts down on razor burn. I try to make sure I am clean-shaven for church but that doesn't always happen.

love/hate

love:
my diaper bag/purse that i got for my birthday. it finally came yesterday, and i love it so much i want to take it behind the middle school... (and yes ladies, i did get the cute red one i wanted.)

hate:
my swollen, beefy-looking feet and ankles. i read and have heard about this, but what the heck?! it looks like i got into an accident...but just with my feet.

love:
banana cream pie. at work, they threw me and another girl a lil' birthday party. we had pie instead of cake, and it was awesome. mostly because i enjoy eating (when i can fit food in my stomach), and i didn't have to "pretend" like i was working for a little while.

hate:
salt on my car. it's been so snowy and too cold (up to 40 below) here to be able to get my car washed. and the lame part of it is that i can get it washed for free at the dealership down the street, but they close the car wash when it's too cold and snowy.

love:
cadbury mini eggs. i've only bought one bag so far, and i haven't even opened it. i've been good. i stare at it, and my mouth waters. but i realize that i haven't eaten anything else and have to refrain for the baby's sake.

hate:
my cats jumping on the counter. i like things to be clean, and i am feeling really paranoid about germs as i get closer to delivering. i hope i don't become one of those moms that has to wipe/spray/bleach/swab everything down. it's just that sometimes i will find kitty litter crumbs on the counter, and it sicks me out. when i see that, i do have to clean it vigorously.

love:
feeling the baby kick. it's so neat. it's cool when it feels like a somersault, especially.

hate:
not being able to get up out of bed or a chair on my own without a lot of strenuous maneuvering. this is good motivation to never be fat unless i am pregnant.

dearest dad

so the other day i got a card for my birthday from my dad. my dad is not known for his affections or even showing much emotion at all. i think i can count all the times that my dad has said "i love you" on just 2 hands. i never really thought much of it until i met other people's dads and noticed ones were very openly affectionate or whatver and realized my dad was different. i think though that it is a product of his upbringing in the philippines or just his culture overall.

anyway, on my wedding day, my mom made pete and i dance (even though we did not want to). the idea was to make money during the dance, so it was actually kind of cool. anyone who wanted to dance with pete or i had to put money in a little purse or in pete's coat pocket. i think we made out with over $100 or something, and we only had to dance for a few minutes.

so my dad comes up to dance with me, and during the whole dance he is telling me something. i'm listening intently, because i figured that this was going to be one of those rare affectionate moments. but...no. he is lecturing me. lecturing me about being respectful and how important it is to show people that you respect them...yada, yada, yada. mind you, i have heard this lecture my whole life. i thought i would at least get something different for my wedding day.

now, i love my dad. and this moment only made that part of my wedding even more hilarious than i thought it could be. so what about this birthday card, you ask? well, the part that was produced and that he paid for was very affectionate. the part that he wrote in was....typical.

this is what it said:

"don't forget what i always telling you the words. respect. love, dad" (respect is underlined here a couple of times. yeah. i'm not kidding.)

good ol' dad. i can't wait to hear what he has to say his grandchildren.



**i would have included the photo of me and my dad dancing together, because it is a much nicer representation of my dad. but it was in a tif file....whatever that means.

Band of Horses Rocks!!

I would highly recommend this album. It is one of my recent favorites. I guess Amanda and I saw them open for Iron and Wine a few years ago and i didn't really like them when i saw them. But I like them now.

Pomade Vendor: I can get the part from Bristol. It'll take two weeks, here's your pomade.
Ulysses Everett McGill: Two weeks? That don't do me no good.
Pomade Vendor: Nearest Ford auto man's Bristol.
Ulysses Everett McGill: Hold on, I don't want this pomade. I want Dapper Dan.
Pomade Vendor: I don't carry Dapper Dan, I carry Fop.
Ulysses Everett McGill: Well, I don't want Fop, damn it! I'm a Dapper Dan man!
Pomade Vendor: Watch your language, young feller, this is a public market. Now if you want Dapper Dan, I can order it for you, have it in a couple of weeks.
Ulysses Everett McGill: Well, ain't this place a geographical oddity. Two weeks from everywhere!


Hope this puts a smile on your face.

the many reasons i love pete faleschini...and not just on valentine's day

i meant to do this at work, since i know pete would have read it (he barely has anything to do at work, so he surfs a lot). alas, this is the one part of my blog that is off limits to me at my work computer. *note: there are many more reasons why i love pete. one reason is also not any greater than the other.

anyway, here goes:

1. he is devoted. not only to me, but to his faith. right now, he is at the temple working. a calling we both hold, but i am too pregnant now to be able to do much...let alone for four hours. so he is there earning eternal blessings for our family. plus, everyone at church just loves pete. sometimes i think they only talk to me because i am standing next to him.

2. he is patient. i am really picky about certain things that really don't matter to many people, and poor pete has learned to put up with my eccentricities. and he still loves me no matter how much i nag him about dumb stuff. thanks honey.

3. he is thoughtful. pete is an awesome gift giver, and he always remembers the things that i like or want for special days. as for his gift-wrapping abilities...let's just say it's a good thing they make gift bags.

4. he is good at finances and numbers. this is something i used to be good at, but i lost sight of it when i got to college. i know. the time when you're supposed to get good at it. anyway, he has kept our family on top of our budget and makes great decisions about our spending. much more even-minded than i could be. good thing, since he was a finance major at byu.

5. he likes my food. this isn't that strange for some wives, but i was always afraid the man i would marry would not like some of the weird foods that i crave or ate growing up. filipinos are not really known for their culinary delights. for those who have had balut or even smelled it, you know what i am talking about. (btw, i hate balut!)

6. he enjoys watching movies as much as i do. this is so small, but i am a big fan of the big screen. sometimes i like to talk about movies with people or just scenes from a movie, and i find it strange that they've never seen it. especially if it's something that has played on tbs superstation every saturday for the past 10 years.

7. he likes to read as much as i do. working in a bookstore for almost 4 years, i thought the whole world loved reading. i found out i was wrong. this is the same thing for me as movies. pete and i can talk about books/movies at length, and it's something we enjoy doing together. something we will carry on in our family.

8. we laugh at the same things. this one day we were driving home, and this subaru pulled out abruptly in front of this other car. thankfully, the other car didn't hit the subaru. we were appalled and looked over into the subaru, and there was a middle-aged couple with french berets on. pete and i started mimicking them both in french accents and doing that funny french laugh, and it was all so spontaneous. we didn't even have to prompt each other. it was awesome.

9. he is caring. we are a pretty independent couple, and we don't have to spend every waking moment with each other...even though i love his company. one night i was out late after work (when i worked nights at borders) with some friends, and i forgot to call him or hadn't in hours and hours. he called me to make sure i was okay, because he was sincerely worried. i just remember feeling really loved then and appreciated how much he cared about my safety.

10. he loves his family and is very close to them. i am always impressed with how much pete loves his family. even when some of them are being dramatic or silly about certain things. this is something that i am not good with with my family. my family just knows how to make me crazy. i admire this in him, and i am so glad that his family is mine now too.

11. he is good at compromising. being married now for almost 4 years, this is not as easy people say it is to do. but pete and i will make our best effort to find that middle-ground.

12. i can never stay mad at him. he just won't let me. i can't look at him and do it for very long. it just doesn't work.

13. he is so handsome. duh!

14. he gives great hugs. i don't know what it is, but his are the best.

15. he is my baby's daddy. how cute is he going to look holding a baby? our baby.

happy valentine's day honey! bunny! love you so much!

way to throw down...

...some bucks! pete and i went on our little search of the perfect glider tonight, since i was so bummed about the one from target and their outrageous shipping fee. another warning about target furniture purchases online: they deliver, but they do not assemble and some times do not even bring it into your house. i know. what is this world coming to?

pete, being the most awesome husband in the world, searched the world wide web and emailed the manufacturer of the same glider sold at target about where to find similar gliders within the twin cities. they promptly responded (such great service! thank you best chairs, inc.!) and let us know a baby store called baby grand sold them and all sorts of styles. pete called them, and apparently they have a ginormous store in st. paul. the other twin. but...even better, they had a smaller location that did orders and such in hopkins. much closer to us, i might add. pete called over there. pete told them our dilemma. they suggested some styles, and they even had comparable prices to target. better yet, you could choose your own fabric at no extra cost. hallelujah!

so we met up at baby grand in hopkins after work, and i was elated. not only was this place in a really cute downtown area, but almost everything in the store was all that i could want in baby furniture, toys, clothes, and art. so here is what happened.

1) we sat in some gliders.
2) we glided.
3) we chose a fabric. (there were some super cute polka-dot ones, but i refrained. i wanted the chair to match our current living room furniture once we move it out of the nursery. bummer.)
4) we fell in love and bought.

here it is: (this is not the color we got though. we got more of a cream color to match any of the bedding and other stuff i will decorate the nursery with.)



this chair is so soft and smooth, it could be an r&b singer.

oh, but wait. i'm not done. the search for the perfect crib ended today too! i had my heart set on something at babies 'r us, and we were just about to order it in. but baby grand showed them up like they were yesterday's news. i don't have the real picture of the crib, because baby grand does not have a website yet. this is the picture of the one from babies 'r us, but it is the same idea. white with an espresso color. oh, baby grand delivers and assembles too for a much cheaper price than the b.r.u. what? did you just get 'moted babies 'r us?



so basically i am pretty happy right now. we got the biggest items out of the way. we got exactly what we both wanted. it was cheaper (the owner even gave us a 10% discount off of our glider. he's basically my newest best friend in the whole wide world.), and the quality of our products was beyond what i could expect within our budget. thank you baby grand! you have won me over.