Meganne Grumbles tagged me weeks ago but I am just now getting around to this. Like Alicia, I think I will cheat a bit and not follow rule #3. Anyone I know with a site or a blog has been tagged or would not be the type of person to do this. So here it goes about me…….

Rules:
A. Post the Rules
B. Answer all the questions about yourself
C. After you are done posting, tag 5 people.

1. What were you doing 10 years ago? I was a junior in high school and dating an RLDS guy of all things! He was a soccer player and a pianist for the choir. What a combination, right? I was interested in Nursing and was gearing up to apply for the Certified Nursing Assistant college program offered through my high school for my senior year. I didn’t really have a job, per se, but I worked in my high school bookstore during my lunch hour and occasionally after school.

2. 5 things on your To Do List today: Take the girls to JC Penney’s for portraits, buy some frames at Hobby Lobby and drop off a painting to get framed, laundry and various house chores, grocery shop at WalMart, prepare for and attend my Primary Presidency meeting tonight.

3. Snacks I enjoy: Sunflower seeds (but only ‘David’ brand), pistachios, red vines, sour straws, popcorn, Cool Ranch Doritos—-blah, nothing really healthy—I might have to change that!

4. What would I do if I were suddenly a billionaire? Start college funds for my girls, put money into savings, buy 2 new cars, buy land and build my dream home, help family pay off debt, and travel.

5. 3 Bad Habits:

1. Only very close friends and family really see this side of me, but I have a potty mouth. No one would ever guess by looking at me but I can cuss with the best of them. It is definitely something I have been working on breaking.
2. I can’t sit still and leave well enough alone. There have been times when I should be sitting down enjoying my family or be doing something else more productive but I have to be cleaning something or working on a project. So basically, I do too much!
3. I buy candy almost every time I go grocery shopping. I tell myself I want to lose weight and I watch what I eat in some areas but I have such a weakness for candy!

6. 5 places I’ve lived: Houston, TX Phoenix, AZ Carrollton, TX Little Elm, TX

7. 5 Jobs I’ve had:High School Bookstore Assistant, Sales Rep. at Mervyn’s, Patient Rep. for CareNow Urgent Care on Medical side for one and a half years then Patient Rep. on Physical Therapy side for 3 years, and finally my most draining, difficult job yet—-a mother!

8. 5 things people don’t know about me:

1. I rarely have bare toenails. I love having my toenails painted no matter what time of the year it is. My 2 favorite colors to wear are red or fuscia. Even when I was 38 weeks pregnant with Sophia I was maneuvering around my big ol’ belly to get them painted because I was too stubborn to pay for a pedicure. Actually, I have never had a pedicure in my life…..
2. I have a biting fetish. I will not say more on this topic other than my dear friend Meganne understands.
3. I love to cook and am always on the lookout for new, yummy recipes.
4. I tend to drive a little on the fast side and have a minor road rage problem. BJ HATES driving with me because of what a grouch I am.
5. I am a bit of a diva at bedtime. I sleep with a white noise sound machine, a fluffy feather pillow, and a satin eye cover on my face to black out any extra light. I always put on my rose lip salve and body butter on my hands before turning out the lights. Hey, I might as well be sleeping AND moisturizing, right?!

Tags: e-mail forward,Heather,tag
Categories: Heather
4 Comments »

For those not following the case, here is a summary from wikipedia.

District of Columbia v. Heller, No. 07-290, is a case pending before the Supreme Court of the United States. It is an appeal from Parker v. District of Columbia, 478 F.3d 370 (D.C. Cir. 2007), a decision in which the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit became the first federal appeals court in the United States to rule that a firearm ban was an unconstitutional infringement of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, and the second to expressly interpret the Second Amendment as protecting an individual right to possess firearms for private use.

The stepping stone to the case was a security guard who filed for permission with DC to keep a firearm at home for the purposes of protection. The denial of and subsequent ruling by the DC district court is the impetus to the current Supreme Court review.

On March 18th the Supreme Court heard oral arguments. If you’re at all interested in this case I suggest listening to the audio and/or reading the transcript here.

Here’s where I make an ideological argument, but honestly, I can’t be bothered. It usually just devolves into anecdotes and doctored numbers that purposely ignore all the motivations for violence. In that frame of mind, I’ll just post some anecdotes from some interesting sources, that conveniently support my own view.

Tags: court cases,district of colubia vs heller,guns
Categories: BJ, Philosophy etc
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Seriously. If you have the means (you’re not being forced to use IE6 due to surfing the site from work), switch to another browser. There’s a reason my site looks a little funny in Internet Explorer 6; IE6 can’t display png transparencies correctly. The missing lines you see at the top and bottom of every content area on the blog exist in every other browser except Internet Explorer 6. Even using IE7 would be a huge upgrade. Since I’m a web dev, I love Firefox, due to it’s plug-ins for adblocking, code parsing, script building, etc etc…

Firefox is still hampered a bit by accounting for legacy html but you’re most likely to see most sites on the internet as the creators intended by using Firefox.

Download it. Here’s a big banner to click on and download it from.

(full disclosure, I gain revenue if download it from this link. This isn’t merely me being a whore however as you really really need to not be using IE6)

Otherwise just go to Firefox, Opera, Safari, or even IE7 and download and upgrade to IE6.

Tags: firefox,internet explorer,naasen,upgrade
Categories: BJ
1 Comment »

I turned ads back on. It’s not that I expect any revenue from them, they exist solely in the event that traffic floods the blog as has happened in a minor sense with the Jury trial post. I haven’t come anywhere close to capacity as far as bandwidth is concerned, but I want to be prepared in case of emergency bandwidth or CPU costs.

Let me know if they’re too obtrusive. I’ll gladly turn them back off, but for now I’m just experimenting again with google-analytics and the ads themselves.

Tags: ads,naasen
Categories: BJ
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Yessiree. Her logic was that I am outnumbered in the household. I tend to agree. She also wanted the sidebar moved. So here we are with a new blog layout. Let me know what you think. Switching back is simple, but honestly I think I like the changes. Now to blog about Heller vs the District of Columbia.

Tags: color,girly,Heather,naasen,scheme
Categories: BJ
2 Comments »

Heather and I have begun to be a little more picky in our food choices as of late. I’m not saying we’re eating more healthy, but we’re definitely trying to find higher a quality food. Our current breakdown of food purchasing goes like this: dairy from Braums, produce from Sprouts or Central Market, Asian food from the Asian supermarket in Carrollton, and packaged/processed food from Wal-Mart.

Central Market also has a great butcher, deli, and cheese selection. The produce from there is locally sourced when possible and the next best thing to going all the way to the downtown Dallas farmers market. Sprouts is much closer but shares the same mentality for produce. This means we still go to Central Market for deli and uncooked meats. Heather and I discussed this and decided it wasn’t complex enough (sarcasm), so instead we’ve decided to begin to order our non-steak beef cuts from a local ranch. We’ve made one order through burgundy pasture beef, and so far we’ve been really happy with the quality. There is one issue… this is actually the reason I specified non-steak cuts. We’re spoiled. There’s nothing like a dry-aged, seared, hand picked prime rib-eye from the Central Market butcher. Oh sure the beef might be technically inferior due to being grain fed and lazy rather than the grass fed free range beef from burgundy pasture beef, but it melts in your mouth. The rib-eye from burgundy was a little tough but amazingly enough tasted more beefy than anything I had eaten in recent memory. For this reason all our stew, ground, roast, or any other beef that isn’t a nice rib-eye is coming from Burgundy Pasture Beef. I suggest checking out their website if you’re in North Texas. It has a nice color scheme

I could evangelize about cattle health, organic whatever, and natural feed, but their website does plenty of evangelizing and I personally am not ordering from them for those reasons. I only have 2 reasons: flavor and location. I’m a fan of supporting local growers (Braum’s sources their eggs from a farm in Prosper Texas… about 15 minutes from us), and the price and flavor are welcome, especially because it’s delivered to one of our parent’s houses within 3 days of our order. The hilarious part is that prior to Burgundy Beef, the beefiest meat I had eaten was Bison.

Tags: beef,bison,burgundy pasture beef,meat,shameless plug
Categories: BJ
1 Comment »

Sophia now says “I love you too” instead of “I love you.”

She is also beginning to show possession. She says “my” or “mine” before all sorts of stuff: my daddy’s shoes, my mommy’s cup, my shirt, etc.

Our struggle over the last 2 months (it seems) has been Sophia fighting taking naps and coming to our bed in the middle of the night. One of our methods came back to bite me the other day. In an attempt to get some rest myself, and get Sophia down, we laid in my bed for a nap. Anytime I moved, even a little, she pointed her finger at me and said in a firm voice “Lay down! Night time! Sh!”

I weaned Phoebe a few weeks ago and she has been packing on the weight very quickly being on formula. She has finally graduated to size 3 diapers this week. I thought it worth mentioning just because she is 9 months old and only now going up in size.

Sophia and I had play group again this week. We went to a fabulous duck pond with an ever better bike trail. The kiddos brought their bikes or scooters and we enjoyed riding around the trail and feeding the ducks. It was so great I went back with BJ on Saturday and he got some wonderful photos. Click on the duck pond photo here and it will take you to all the rest.

Sophia now responds to us calling her name by saying “what?” or “yeah?” She used to simply look at us with her sweet face but now she has more sass. It seems each week she is talking more and more like us. It makes it so much easier to communicate and get her what she needs.

Phoebe can stand alone for several seconds but then realizes she has no support and lets herself gently down by bending at the knees. I know if she really tried and had more confidence she could be taking steps by now. All in her own due time though.

Phoebe has also become quite the chatterbox. Most days my house is filled with the sound of her babbling all sorts of sounds. It is fun to hear and I babble right back at her.

The memories of me nursing Phoebe must not be too far off from Sophia’s mind. The other night we were snuggling on the couch with her head on my stomach. She leans her head to my chest and starts opening and closing her mouth real wide as if pretending to be a fish. But she was so specific about the area and was nuzzling me. When I finally figured it out I looked down at her and asked “Sophia, are you nursing?” She just looks at me with a big smile. Silly girl.

The big event of the week was having our front yard re-landscaped. Ever since we moved into this house 4 years ago I have hated the front yard. The planter boxes and bushes were not taken care of and BJ and I did not have the energy or desire to do it ourselves. With it being out front and not in our faces every moment of every day we have let it go this long. This was finally the year to no longer have one of the trashy looking yards on the street. We hired my mom’s lawn guy and he did a beautiful job in just 2 days. I still can’t get over the difference and love being in my front yard now! See the before and after pictures below.

We ended the week with Stake Conference. Three stakes were asked to meet at the Coliseum at UNT and it was announced that a new stake was being formed. BJ and I are now apart of the new stake and are excited about the change. We were blessed to hear from 2 members of the Seventy. The weather was so lovely that day and we were all in a good mood we went to the neighborhood park. Phoebe had her first time in a toddler swing. I really couldn’t say what she thought of it, I think she was more bothered by the sun being in her face.

Tags: Heather,Phoebe,Sophia,Weekly Family Update
Categories: Heather, Weekly Family Update
3 Comments »

Just FYI.

Tags: naasen
Categories: BJ
2 Comments »

In the beginning of the week we were very proactive about Sophia going on the potty. Great success—3 times she went tinkle! The rest of the week not so good. We haven’t even offered. It’s hard to remember to take time to do it and do it so often. Any parents with potty trained kids have stories to offer?

Sophia began “sneaking”. She curls her shoulders over, bends her knees, and shuffles her feet forward inch by inch. She developed this trying to get into the room where I put Phoebe down when I am rocking the baby and trying to get her to sleep. I always kick her out to give Phoebe and I peace and quiet. Maybe she figured if she were more quiet about it she would be allowed in. Not a chance!

Our digital camera has been slowly dying over the last few months and was getting worse. So BJ decided to buy me an early birthday gift and got us a great new camera. We have enjoyed playing around with it and taking lots of new pictures—as I am sure most of you can see from all the other posts BJ has done this week.

Phoebe is teething so we have been enduring tons of drooling, crying, and crazy mucus poopy diapers which has led to horrible diaper rash. She has no teeth to show yet for all this drama. They better come in soon!

The big event of the week was Sophia’s birthday party! She turned 2 years old and we can hardly believe she has been in our lives that long already! We did a chocolate fountain this year with pretzels, marshmallows, pineapple, and strawberries. I did cupcakes as well and it was all so delicious! I did a Disney Princess theme with a dozen balloons and a big princess balloon for Sophia. Everything looked great and Sophia was very excited about the changes in her environment. Last year she made out like a bandit and this years loot was good too:

• Dora the Explorer big wheels tricycle
• enclosed trampoline
• plastic horseshoe and croquet set for the backyard
• a beautiful new quilt made by Granny and her friend Millie
• 2 princess sleeper gowns
• princess bathing suit with matching sunglasses
• a princess beach towel with crown hoody
• fun velcro activity folders for church made by Granny
• princess placemat (so far it is helping to contain the mess at the dinner table)
• play doe and color wonder markers with pad
• a Dyson toy vacuum

The day of the party the rest of the family got to see what I have known since Phoebe was active—she is Sophia’s shadow and has to follow her everywhere and be into what her sister is doing. They thought it was quite funny but on a daily basis and with the fighting and screaming that ensues from the little shadow it loses its humor.

I am the baby of the family and at least have the perspective of being the one who sees her older sister and want to do what she is doing. I told my older sister, Tiffany, who is only 18 months older than me (and we fought horribly as young kids) that when she has 2 kids she will understand the sibling relationship even better.

Tags: Heather,Phoebe,Sophia,Weekly Family Update
Categories: Heather, Weekly Family Update
2 Comments »

Sophia turned 2 today. Mommy will be posting more about the party starting tomorrow, but for now I wanted to point out the pictures from the party. Here’s Sophia enjoying one of her gifts. Click here to go to the Gallery.

Tags: jumping,photo highlight,Sophia
Categories: BJ, Photo Highlights, Sophia
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