Congrats, Megan and Daniel!

Quadruple doh!! How could I forget the most exciting thing about my weekend? There was a reason I went off on my tangent about my new phone. I was phoneless all day on Saturday, which was highly inconvenient because my sister had some great news she was dying to share:

Megan is engaged!! I'm so happy for her. She and Daniel have a lot in common and have so many things they like to do together. They're just 2 outdoorsy peas in a pod. I haven't gotten to spend a lot of time with Daniel because I lived in Phoenix when they lived in Tucson and they both moved to Seattle, but he's a very sweet guy who makes my little sister very happy.

My little sister is getting married, y'all. I can hardly believe it. Yay!

Sweet Weekend

We had such a great weekend! friday night at my friend's house was a lot of fun. We went over for dinner and to celebrate little Eli's 10 days on Earth. Fariba's one of 8 children - 6 girls and 2 boys. All but one of her sisters made the trip along with her mom. So it was a house full of people, especially since her husband's mother and his brother's family (with 4 more kids) were there. The food was amazing. Dan and I were both a little worried since we're not what you'd call adventerous with foreign cuisine, but it was all awesome. Apparently, the ladies were cooking for some 9 hours. We had saffron chicken, lamb, spinach, eggplant, spicy potatoes, rice, and then a bunch of sauces to accompany it all. Dan cleaned his plate and went back for more. For desert, we had delicious apple pie, a chocolate cake, and my cookies.

On Saturday, I woke up to a text from a friend asking if I wanted to go to the dog park. So I packed up my Girls and hopped in the car. We were going to a huge dog park about 20 minutes away. Of course, I got lost. The website I looked up for directions was way off. I drove around trying to find the place. Of course, my friend hadn't brought her phone, so I was hopelessly lost. The dogs were whining in the car. Finally, I gave up and decided to turn around and go back home. About a minute later, I drove right past it. Yes, folks, I managed to pass by this... twice:

Doh!! So, an hour after getting the text, I finally showed up. My friend was about to leave, but decided to stay. About a half hour later, I got a text from Dan: "do you have my keys?" Double doh! Turns out, when we went to Fariba's the night before, we shuffled cars around, and Dan's keys were left in my car. So we had to go back home so Dan could go work at a customer's house. And then, the worst part: I went to use the little ladies' facilities, and my phone slipped out of my pocket and into the toilet. Triple doh! After that, I wasn't very happy.

I started working on the Tinkerbell cake for Fariba's nieces, worried that the events that had transpired by 9am would be indicative of my day. Dan got home and we headed to the Verizon store, where the guy made cut me some slack and allowed me to upgrade with new contract prices 42 days early. I'm now the proud owner of a Blackberry. When we got home, I made fondant for the first time for the cake and began assembling and decorating. Here's the finished Tinkerbell cake:

The bowl cake ended up being very dense and not looking too big, so I did some chocolate cupcakes on the side. The petals are fondant and the pink frosting is raspberry butter cream. I was very happy with how it all came out, and the birthday girls were ecstatic.

Yesterday, we went to lunch with friends. Well, it was meant to be lunch. We got to the Dubliner at 2 and left at... oh, 7:15. Yeah, looooong lunch. And then I had to make Philadelphia Eagles cookies. They came out really cute, too I think. The wings on the helmets are a little cartoony, but the recipient loved them:

And yes, I am (now) aware that #5, Donovan McNabb, no longer plays for the Eagles. Ooops. Good words about my cookies have been spread, and someone who used to work at our site emailed me today asking if I can do an order for her brother's graduation - very exciting!

All in all, we had a lovely weekend. I got a new phone, went through 6 pounds of powdered sugar, dyed my fingers green permanently, and got to have a great time with friends. How was your weekend?

Cookie weekend

It's a cookie weekend. I had three "orders" for cookies this week. And a cake order. Eek! And I call them orders because I'm actually being paid. Cool! I made these sweet baby cookies for Eli's 10th day party. I'm really excited to go and see Fariba & Eli, meet Fariba's Afghani family, and find out what this 10th day tradition is all about (I can't even find a name for it). I made blue, yellow, and white onesies, bibs and E's. They're pretty much my favorite cookies that I've ever made, and they're far cuter in person.

I also made dollar signs for a finance group here at the office. My coworker handed me money a couple weeks ago and said "here, make us something." Alrighty then. Finance people... hmm, dollar signs! Dan had chosen the cookie cutter months ago and it was my first chance to use it.

I still have some Philadelphia Eagles cookies to make by Monday. A coworker has been out on sick leave for a while and is returning on Monday. His admin asked me to make him cookies for his return. I'm going to do footballs, jerseys, and helmets. Hopefully they come out half as good as my inspiration from A Dozen Eggs:

I also have to do a cake for Fariba (Eli's mom). Her nieces are turning 2 and 3 and she requested a Tinkerbell cake similar to this one from Coolest Birthday Cakes . Only she specified there must be pink, so I'll be putting it in place of the yellow on this inspriration cake. I'm also thinking of using fondant for the petals of the skirt to avoid the pain-in-the-ass that is so much butter cream once it starts to melt.

So that's what I've got going on this weekend: A LOT of baking and decorating. What will you be up to?

__________________________________________________________________

And now, a Dan Funny. I woke up with a headache. No, not a hangover. Like a pressure headache, supper annoying. Also, he calls me Henry to his coworkers. They ask about Henry, not Brooke. As in "what are you and Henry doing this weekend?"

So I told him my head felt awful and asked if he'd stuffed cotton candy in my noggin while I was sleeping. His response: "No, I would have eaten cotton candy if I had it. Henry, you know better than that." I thought it was funny, mostly because it's true. Dan would not have wasted good cotton candy on my head.

The Rule of Urinals

It's Open Letter Thursday over at Salt Says... and I've decided to participate. I've been thinking about this one for some time, and it's about time I let it off my chest. Here goes.

Dear Female Coworkers,

Good morning (I feel rude not saying good morning)! Can we chat a second? Great. You see, I have a couple, um, peeves with the ladies' room etiquette going on around here. It's not anything big really. Nothing disgusting or embarrassing. Nothing that I would call my plumber husband about and say "hey, I've got septic system overflow disgustingness beat." But there is just one thing. Okay, two things. But it boils down to one thing. I want y'all to act more like men in the ladies' room.

You see, men know what's up when it comes to using the facilities. Have you ever noticed when you're out with your friends at da club that there's screeching, hollering, and laughing come our lavatory, and silence coming from theirs? I like that. Because, you see, while I care about your son/daughter/grandchild/dog/budding Avon business, I don't want to talk about it while I'm busy. It's awkward. We can talk after, at my cubicle. I have a lovely "Therapy in Session" sign and I can get the aromatherapy going and turn on soothing crashing wave sounds, but I don't want to hear about little Timmy's potty training progress while I'm on the potty myself. It's a simple request really.

My other request is a little more complicated. But don't worry, I have diagrams. Not only do men know to not talk to each other while draining the main vein, they know that you don't crowd your buddies. We have 4 stalls in our ladies' room, 5 if you count the first-class sized handicap stall. So let's stick with 4, since we know it's not really polite to use it if you don't need it. There's no reason why when I walk into an empty restroom and you follow me in 30 seconds later, you choose the stall next to mine. You're in my bubble. Guys know better. Allow me to demonstrate. Here's our bathroom if it belonged to the men in our office:

They have sinks in theirs, right? We'll assume they do. Moving forward, this is a pretty typical restroom. 4 urinals, sinks, and done. Now, let's say that four men, who we'll name 1, 2, 3, and 4 walk into this restroom 30 seconds apart. Can you tell me which urinal each would choose? Think on it a moment.

::jeopardy music::

Got your answer? Now I'll give you mine, aka the correct answer, The Rule of Urinals

Man 1 goes to the farthest urinal from the door. This keeps anyone coming in from spying on his junk. Man 2 goes to the farthest urinal from Man 1 to avoid any weird peering from Man 1. What about Man 3? When he comes in, each of the remaining urinals is equidistant (thanks, trigonometry!) from Man 1 and Man 2. But, Man 3 knows The Rule of Urinals, so he knows that Man 1 was there first and will therefore finish first. So he chooses the urinal closest to Man 1, careful not to peer in either direction. Lastly, Man 4 enters and takes the remaining urinal next to Man 2, staring straight forward the whole time. No looking, no talking, just peeing. It's awesome.

See, men know what's up. I sincerely think we should consider implementing this. We'll all get our space, and keep our chats to our cubicles or other common areas. Agreed? Great!

Hugs'n'kisses,

Brooke

Monkeys and moonshine

When I wrote my post about our money matters, I completely forgot about another perk to having separate accounts. Sometimes, it's downright funny. You see, today, I got a notification that Dan had transferred money to me for the phone bill. When I went to open it, I discovered that my darling husband had apparently paid me for "moonshine." Funny. So then I looked back at all deposits from his account to mine, and he's also paid me for monkeys, a fake leg, happy endings, dildos, and love (back when he was sweet). It certainly made my day to rediscover them, and now I've got to figure out some good ones to use in the future.

I'll have to think of something really good to label my Murano payment this month. Any ideas?

Graduation Staycation

This weekend was our much anticipated stay at the Arizona Grand Resort in celebration of my graduation (it's official - an A on the final assignment and a B overall). My mom met me at home Friday after work and took Paisley and Clover home with her. Dan got home shortly after and we packed up our stuff and then headed to Walmart for drinks and snacks. My mom had given us a beach bag with wine and goodies - and a gift certificate for a trip to a destination of my choice. Yay, more vacation!

The first thing Dan did was turn the thermostat down to 60. With free AC, he was bound and determined to not be hot a single moment in that room. We got ready and went to Rustler's Rooste for steak and great views of the city. The place is a really touristy Wild West restaurant and live music. We went there for 4th of July when we were dating - the food wasn't so great last night, but it was absolutely delicious this time around. We were out kind of late and had another drink when we got back before hitting the hay.

Saturday was our big fun day. We went to Olive Garden for lunch, ran a couple quick errands and headed back to the hotel. We'd hoped that friends would be able to come enjoy the water park at the resort with us, but no one was able to come. So we went by ourselves and took advantage of the lazy river and pool bar. We'd brought a bunch of adult beverages in an ice chest thinking we'd have our own little supply of drinks for the day at the pool. As it turns out, the resort isn't located in Rocky Point, Mexico and you can't just wheel your ice chest down and park it next to the wave pool. After hanging out at the water park and then the pool next to our room, we took naps and then got ready for dinner. We got dressed up and went to Aunt Chilada's for some super tasty Mexican food.

Today, we spent Mother's Day with Dan's mom. We dropped our stuff off at home, then took her to lunch. We all then went to Scott and Melissa's for Family Art Funday. I wasn't feeling my painting, though, so my daisy remains unfinished. Tonight, we're going to just take it easy and get ready to go back to the grind tomorrow.

I just wanted to say Happy Mother's Day to all the mommas out there. I hope you had a wonderful day with your family. I really missed seeing mine today, but I get to see her tomorrow when I get the pups back.

Show Us Your Life: Baby Names

I love Kelly's Korner Show Us Your Life posts, and I really love baby names. Today, they collide in one awesome Show Us Your Life post . I haven't been able to participate in her last few, since they have to do with actually being a mom, or about personal missionaries (Kelly's a devout Christian, I - if you haven't figured it out - am pretty much not. A topic for another day). But I do love me some baby names. Actually, I don't completely love referring to them as baby names. Though you name a baby, they have to live with it for the rest of their lives. You really name an adult - a future teacher, doctor, lawyer, plumber, tax analyst, bus driver, or President of the United States.

I'm pretty lucky - Dan and I have pretty similar tastes in names for our future kids. For the most part - he has vetoed a few of my favorites, but there are still plenty we agree on. Some we love but wouldn't ever actually use (for a first name). Like Calvin. Dan loves Calvin and I like it well enough, but it reminds me of the stinky kid in class from high school. Not sure I could get over that and not sure I like it enough to have to say it 3,487,943,875 times a day. It also turns out that a lot of our name picks have become very popular, like Aiden, Mason, and Owen. Since Dan is a Daniel who's been one of many all his life, we want names that are more like Brooke - uncommon but not so weird that people say "what?!" So Aiden, Mason, Owen, and a whole host of others are out.

So what names do we like? For girls, I've loved the name Ainsley for a long time. It's Irish and means meadow or field. Since my name is a "nature name" I like the coordination with Ainsley. We also like Allison. Unfortunately, I dislike the nickname Allie, so that may pose a problem. Other possibilities for first or middle names are Morgan, Meredith, and Anna. Dan is pretty much okay with all these choices, even though they're my picks. He likes Hilary. Meh.

Boys are a little harder. I like names like Ian, Jonah, Jacob, Noah, Liam, Nathan, Joel, Ethan, and Seth (oddly, a bunch of Biblical names). These have all been shot down with a glare. Dan's top faves are Calvin and Doctor. Yes, he thinks Doctor is a great name for a kid. I agreed to compromise with giving a kid the initials M.D., but Mason was the only name we liked for the M, and that's out. Names we do agree on are Jamison, Gavin, Simon and Graham.

If we had to pick tomorrow, I have no idea which direction we'd go. Thankfully, we have a lot of time, and are nowhere near having to choose a name. But they are fun to think about, and we've had fun debating names for future children. We've talked about them since before we were married. That might be weird, but hey, whatever.

What names do you like for your future children?

Welcome to the world, Eli!!

Remember when I made that monkey cake for my coworker's baby shower? Well, the little guy finally showed up. After 41 weeks and 1 day, 42 hours of labor, 1 failed epidural, 2.5 hours of pushing and a C-section, Eli has finally arrived! Isn't he precious?

My official birthdate prediction (April 14th) was waaaay off, but I got the weight spot-on at 8lbs, 2oz. It remains to be seen if my red hair prediction (his dad's entire side of the family are gingers) will come true, but I see some light hair at the edge of that wee little hairline. A couple of other coworkers and I are going to meet the little guy this afternoon, and I am psyched. We were excited when we found out she was expecting, when she started to show, when we heard it was a boy, when we could finally feel him, and then when the due date approached. I think we've been almost as anxious for his birth as his parents have been. Almost. And I sincerely hope the kids loves monkeys, because his room if fuuuull of them.

And to my other coworkers, you can stop with the "ooooh, you're next!" comments. My uterus may have ached at the thought of a baby before, but her rough labor and delivery has me seriously freaked out.

Two Years

It's amazing how much life has changed in two years. 729 days ago, I was a single girl living the single life. I had a brand new puppy who was literally my world at the time. I had a new job, new apartment, and a new perspective on what I wanted out of a relationship. And then, two years ago today, I went to a baby shower. I laid eyes on my husband for the first time and life has been so wonderfully different ever since.

I remember he looked intimidating with the tattoos and gaged ears, but had a sweet smile and kind eyes. We exchanged a few glances. Two days later when our mutual friend told me their friend thought I was cute and described him, I was excited. When he didn't call in 10 days, I stalked her myspace and found him. Not my typical MO, but I was really curious. We went on a date some days later (we don't remember when) and I discovered that the book was definitely kinder, sweeter, and more shy than the cover.

If you had told me two years ago today that I'd be married right now, I wouldn't have believed you. I would have thought you were crazy. It's still surreal sometimes, in the greatest way. Dan has changed my perspective on many things, and brought so much joy and love to my life. He's shown me what unconditional love for another person is all about. This has been the best two years, and we have our whole lives ahead of us.

If you're reading, Buddy, I love you. Thank you for being the most incredible husband and best friend a girl could ask for. You are my sunshine.

The first photo of us ever taken on my 27th birthday.

Fiiiiinished!

Wow, how the week flew. I can't believe it's been 5 days since I posted anything. The most exciting news of the day is that I'm fiiiiinished with school! Well, mostly. My last assignment was turned in yesterday. All I have left are two discussion board comments. I'm anxious still though. Usually, if I turn something in and my grade isn't what I'd hoped for, I can compensate and work harder with the next assignment. But not with this one. I know I was doing well in the class, but until I see that final grade is posted, I'll be anxious.

The rest of the week was pretty good. It was rough being back after a week away. However, it was nice to see all my girls at the office and catch up. I had a few fires to put out, but the work week was really much better than it could have been. I also got a very special visitor on Thursday: Mrs. ESPN! She hired me and was my boss at my first job and has become a wonderful friend. She now works for another division of my company, doing a very similar job to my own. Recently, a position opened up at our corporate headquarters, and my boss' boss interviewed her at our site on Thursday. So we got to have lunch and catch up. So please keep your fingers crossed that her interviews go well this week and she'll hopefully be working from my office.

On Saturday after I finished and turned in my last assignment, I made 4 dozen Dr. Seuss cookies to send to my friend for a baby shower she's hosting. They came out super cute the second time around, and I really hope the mom-to-be has an awesome shower.

We also went to a comedy show on Saturday night. Zane Lamprey has a show on the travel channel where he goes to foreign countries and drinks their exotic drinks and learns about their culture as it relates to alcohol. He definitely seems to have a loyal following - people who were wearing shirts from his show and seemed to know everything about him. People who like to drink a LOT - everyone was trashed and screaming. He had another comedian touring with him who was hilarious. The show was somewhat educational, going over the basics of beer, wine, and spirits with a lot of humor thrown in.

We got to spend time with my parents today when they came up to visit. We had wanted to go kayaking, but it was windy and we needed a boating license that you couldn't get on the weekend. So we headed to the Greek Festival. Unfortunately, that wasn't much fun with wind either, so we went to a local brewery for lunch. It was very nice to get to spend time with my parents and relax.