Happy New Year!

HAPPY 2008!!!

So we flew back to OreGON on Wednesday after Christmas and although we both love our jobs, we had a hard time getting back into the swing of things with just two work days left in the week, but not to worry, we partied hard starting Friday night!! Mom and Dad and the girls drove back to Cali on Friday, but stopped in Reno so the girls could jump on a plane to come spend the weekend with US for New Years!! I haven't packed as much as we did into one weekend for a long time, but we loved every second, except for the last part....

Saturday morning I took the girls to go get manicures at a random nail place just outside Newberg. Well, it is interesting how extras get added in without you realizing it till they charge you an arm and a leg at the end...lol. I'm apparently not versed enough to ask how much each additional thing costs. There is a hilarious comedy skit on YouTube done by Anjelah Johnson about getting your nails done and Brie memorized it and performed it for us after much convincing...you'd think after knowing what to expect I wouldn't have let them get away with extra charges!
(DON'T FORGET TO PAUSE THE MUSIC SO YOU CAN HEAR THE VIDEOS).



I'm sure there are some who can COMPLETELY relate to this...if not, it's all good, don't worry about it. :)

The finished product..."Flowas only fai dolla moh! I do fo you! Fench ti only fai dolla moh!...PER PERSON! When I was told to pick a color, I didn't know WHITE was going to cost EXTRA...all in all though, it was so funny that I didn't even bother to make a scene. I just kept thinking of Brie's skit the whole time...a great way to start a funfilled weekend! Fo SHO!

I don't remember whose hands these are...Brie are these yours? :)



So, for one of Dallas' stocking stuffers, I bought him one of those remote control helicopters from Brookstone and he and the girls went nuts with it. They actually learned to control it quite well, but this picture was taken BEFORE that happened and Brooke flew it right into my hair. No big deal, except for the propeller KEPT SPINNING until it got all tangled in my hair!! I was completely understanding, can't you tell?



Saturday afternoon we decided to visit the Pittock Mansion. It was the home of some early Oregon Pioneers who contributed much to the growth of Portland...ask Brooke for more details...she's the one that did the report on them. It was pretty foggy and rainy outside, but we still got a great view of Portland from the hill.



The Pittock Mansion had a theme, "A Fairy Tale Christmas," so each room was decorated with a different fairy tale theme. Since Brie is playing the Queen of Hearts in her school play, we took a picture of her in the Alice in Wonderland room in front of the Queen. (I'm glad we didn't see I Am Legend until a couple days later, or this situation might have been a little more disturbing.)



Left: Me just being dramatic. There was a fence there and I was pretending to lean over it, but you can't see it, so it makes it kinda lame. Right: Brie and me in front of the back side of the mansion...Dallas suggested that this field would be awesome for mud football...very true, very true.



So after we went to the mansion, the girls and Dallas were great sports as we drove around Vancouver looking at ellipticals for sale on Craig's list. I finally found the one I wanted and it works GREAT!!! This is a picture of what Brooke did to Brie after an hour of being bored. Then the other picture was when they'd finally had enough! It's ok though, they woke up in time for us to go to National Treasure 2 that night!

Sunday we went to church and then pretty much vegged most of the day. We probably should have been less lazy, but instead we watched four movies. heehee. :)

Monday morning Dallas and I got up early and I went to physical therapy while Dallas picked up the elliptical, and the girls were still sleeping when we got back! We were going to go horse back riding with a lady from our ward, but her son broke his leg that morning, so that was out...instead we went to a matinee of I Am Legend. Good movie. Strange, but good. Will Smith is HOT! We then drove to the Woodburn Outlets to shop, not realizing they closed at 6 and we got there at 5...So....we just randomly roamed around Target, Fred Meyer and Papa John's before we came home to play games till 2008! I got my butt kicked at Phase 10. It's amazing how fun it is when I'm winning and how absolutely painful it is when I'm losing. Especially playing with two more COMPETITIVE SIMMONS girls. We had a good time though. In Newberg everyone shoots off fireworks on New Years. It was Sawwweeeet! We went outside thinking we were cool with a bunch of little poppers and snap guns, and our neighbors blew us away with their REAL fireworks...the bigs ones they use on the 4th of July...it was awesome!



I know. Random. This is the only picture we took on Monday. The girls thought this Smart Car was awesome, so they took a picture and this lady thought we were crazy! Duh! Everyone knows that.



Just kidding, I forgot about this picture. So we took TWO pictures on Monday. Actually we took several of the same scene, but these were the best ones. This is the couch I want. I just have to figure out how to make the corner wall in my living room longer or the couch shorter so that it fits like it's supposed to. :)

Tuesday morning we woke up and went to Lincoln City on the coast. We lasted for approximately 10 minutes on the beach. FREEEEZING, but beautiful. We obviously lasted long enough to get some cute pictures.







So as we are walking back to the car, Brie spots this glass ball. When we got in the car, we noticed it has an official number for you to call and register it. Apparently some organization hides these on the beach and when you find them, there's a "Finders Keepers" sticker on it and you register it as an official keepsake of Lincoln City. Cute idea, eh? Brie didn't want it to break traveling back to Cali, so she left it with us.



Brooke had this great idea. Let's grab the most random things we can find in Old Navy, put them on in the dressing room and take pictures. My first thought was, "C'mon, seriously? Lame!!" Then I remembered doing the exact same thing with Jill Hacker way back when, only at Target...lol. Craziness.



Yay for little sisters. Well, not so little anymore, but it's fun to have them come and hang out. I can't believe Brooke's 12 and Brie's 13. Time flies way too fast!

So, here's the big finale. I decided to make some soup for dinner for everyone at like 9pm Tuesday night...
Because my manicure had already started peeling off, the girls and I repainted our nails while we watched watched Balls of Fury with Dallas. So...because my nails were wet, I was trying not to mess them up, opening my can of Progresso Minestrone. Well...the little self opener deal kinked the lid instead of allowing me to pull it off in a nice easy motion. When it folded, my right middle finger got in the way. It was weird because it felt like I smashed my finger in a drawer really hard, so I didn't look at it. Then....the STING!!! I kept saying out loud, "It doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt. I'm good. No big deal, no worries." Yeah, that doesn't help. After "discussing" with Dallas for like 15 minutes, HE won and we went to the ER to see if I needed stitches. I felt lame. Who cuts their finger on a can of soup like that? I mean really?




So here are pictures of my finger about an hour after the bleeding had "stopped." I figured I'd just need a good ole butterfly bandaid and I'd be good, but the doctor gave me four shots and 3 stitches. The best part was that he stiched the last stitch through the crease of my finger (which I personally think was on accident) and said, "Now, there's a stitch in the crease of your finger, so don't straighten if for 10 days, till you come back to get the stitches out). OK...no problem. I really thought it wouldn't be a big deal. You don't realize how often you need to straighten your middle finger. (Hey now. I know what you're thinking. I don't straighten it for that purpose!)
Really, in writing this, it's just fun to be dramatic. It really isn't a big deal. At least it wasn't my left hand...I can still write, I have all my fingers and I am almost 100% functional.....so here's the finished product...



Besides the resemblance to a sausage link, I think it it looks pretty good, don't you?
HAPPY 2008 EVERYONE!! Let us know how you are! We miss and love you all!

"Mehwy Chwismas!"---Aidan Simmons

I hope everyone had a GREAT Christmas like we did!!! Dallas and I met my parents and sisters in Utah to spend Christmas with Dustin, Rachelle, Aidan and new Baby Matty! It was one of my most favorite Christmases so far. We even got to talk to Heath in Argentina for a couple of hours on Christmas day, which was the best part of it all. Brian and Lindsey were generous enough to let us stay in their AWESOME house in Lehi while we were there, and we had some great fun watching a bunch of clean flicks movies with their 92 in screen and rocking out on their Wii Guitar Hero. See below for videos of mom and dad rockin out. LOL. But, first of all, here are pictures of Christmas with the fam.

We definitely had a WHITE CHRISTMAS. I do miss SEEING the snow. However I do not miss BEING in it one bit!!




Christmas morning...Matty was obviously the best part (besides Aidan calling us at 7am saying, "Mehwy Chwismas!!" We were in close quarters, but it made Christmas morning that much more fun.



Aidan has some impressive sign language skills. This is his official sign for "COLD".



Salsa was cold, so we bought her a coat. :)

Salsa is the best dog ever. We keep trying to convince my parents that they want to give her to us. She came along for the festivities and entertained us well. The next picture is of Dallas opening up his sweet Stephen Colbert book from Dustin and Rachelle (and Heath:)

Dad scored with presents this year and Brookie is a natural with Babies. Aidan evidently likes to help with dishes and I'm sure he showed Brie how to wash them correctly.



"Bwie Gramma and Bwook Gampa" (aka my parents) got Aidan a fun digging tractor for Christmas, he spent forever just moving it around and was satisfied without even having to dig anything up.



I posted the one on the left for purely selfish reasons because Aidan says, "Where's Ashwey and Dawas?" at the very end, and it's the best! (Prior to that, he is singing, "Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman....but he kind of trails off as he sees his new bike from Santa and says "I wanna ride on dis"). As for the one on the right, the Simmons family corrupted Aidan while we were there. Although he picked up, "Dang it!" from his Daddy Dustin before we arrived, once he said it in front of everyone, we couldn't stop laughing, which was no help to his mom in trying to train him correctly. So this is of Brie corrupting him and encouraging him to say "Dang it!" so we could get it on video...it was hysterical! Hopefully Rachelle can repair the damage quickly. :)



Here's Papa Bear with little Matty. I think we've got pictures like this with every kid/grankid. My dad's the best.
The girls like to take pictures now, so posing is very important. I secretly ruined this one on purpose, but it was fun! :)



ROCK ON!!!!! I lUUUUUV IIIIITT!!
Dad's facial expressions beat mom's by far, but the video of mom rocking out takes the cake. Sorry it's sideways, I'm too impatient to figure out how to rotate it correctly.

Ashley sent this email to me, and said we should post it for everyone. She says that she is the epitome of the "why?" question in life :)

Why, Why, Why?

Do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are getting dead?

Why do banks charge a fee on 'insufficient funds' when they know there is not enough money?

Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

Why doesn't glue stick to the bottle?

Why do they use sterilized needles for death by lethal injection?

Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?

Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when you throw a revolver at him?

Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?

Whose idea was it to put an 'S' in the word 'lisp'?

If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?

Why is it that no matter what color bubble bath you use the bubbles are always white?

Is there ever a day that mattresses are not on sale?

Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?

Why do people keep running over a string a dozen times with their vacuum cleaner, then reach down, pick it up, examine it, then put it down to give the vacuum one more chance?

Why is it that no plastic bag will open from the end on your first try?

How do those dead bugs get into those enclosed light fixtures?

When we are in the supermarket and someone rams our ankle with a shopping cart then apologizes for doing so, why do we say, 'It's all right?' Well, it isn't all right, so why don't we say, 'That hurt, you stupid idiot?'

Why is it that whenever you attempt to catch something that's falling off the table you always manage to knock something else over?

In winter why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?

How come you never hear father-in-law jokes?

And my FAVORITE......

The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four persons is suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends -- if they're okay, then it's you.

A Real Cat Fight!!!

As y'all can see, Zee is a very good mother. Look at how protective she is... isn't that cute? Well, it's cute and all until you become the enemy!!! As you know, Zee has lost 2 of her babies in the last few weeks to new homes. She's probably been a little confused, and trying to figure out why they keep disappearing. So I think she just really loves her babies, and is glad that Toby is still around to keep her company. They play and romp around the house. They make a pretty good team. Well let me tell you about my adventure into Zee's "Mama Bear" Territory...

Last Friday morning, I was sitting at the kitchen table, just eating my Wheaties. It was no different than any other day. Zee was trying to convince me that I wanted to share my cereal with her. And Toby was running around like he had cat-nip surgically inserted into his brain. Well, he has learned that he can jump onto the kitchen chairs now. These chairs are your typical wooden chair. They kind of look like this.

They have the openings at the bottom and top, and get more narrow in the middle. Well Toby decided to stick his head through the bottom hole and then move up the chair. Well, he suddenly realized that his head was not coming back the way he thought it should go. He began to freak out, and scream quite loudly. I felt horrible for the poor little guy, and he was just panicking. Lucky for him, I was sitting in the chair next to him, and his mother was also 10 feet away on the floor. I immediately grabbed him and tried to hold him still and slide him back down to the hole in order to remove him from the chair. At the same time, Zee came running to save the day. Of course, she's not as graceful as I am, and she could only think of biting him to pull him to safety. Being the engineer that I am, I knew there was only one way to get Toby to safety, and Zee didn't know it. Zee was attacking me at the same time because she thought I was the one causing pain to her baby. So while Zee was attacking my hands, I held the kitten still, and slid him out from between the bars in the chair. He bolted to safety somewhere else, and then it was just Zee and me. You should have seen her eyes!! She hissed and growled and promptly attached herself to my leg. I was in shock more than anything. I got her off my leg, but she kept coming at me! I threw off my jacket, and used it as a shield. However, she wasn't going to be stopped and kept coming at me. She successfully stalked me around my own house until I was able to lock myself into a bathroom and assess the damage. If I hadn't have been wearing jeans, my leg would have been really messed up. I had bite marks and scratches all over my right leg and hands. She also tore open the middle finger on my left hand pretty good. So I spent the next 20-30 mins applying alcohol and band-aids to my wounds, and listening to Zee on the other side of the door. After I was fixed up enough to leave the house and get to work (This all happened about 7:45am), I slowly opened the bathroom door. Zee was there with Toby, and seemed to be okay. She came and cuddled up to me, and Toby did as well. It was all very strange. But the second I made any sudden movements, Zee was back on the attack and stalking me to my car! Man... I tell you, don't get in the way of a mommy cat and her baby. Actually, don't get in the way of any mommy and her baby, no matter the species. When I got home that night, Zee was fine and we haven't had an issue since. But she has been on her guard more to make sure nothing happens to her baby again. If she hears a strange noise or sees something a little out of the ordinary, she'll come a running. So that was my experience with a real cat fight.

Check out my battle wounds below. I know you all love my sexy, white, hairy legs :)

And The Name Is......?

As you all know, we had some kittens recently. We have now given 2 of the kittens to new homes, and decided to keep one for ourselves. Here is the kitten that we kept. We've named him Toby (Or Tobi with an "I" just in case we find out it's a girl. But so far we think it's a boy). Toby has been a lot of fun, and loves to run around chasing anything that moves, especially his tail. Zee has enjoyed the company as well. They wrestle all the time, which ends with Zee pinning him then biting him till he squeals like a pig. Anyway, we're having fun with our cats, and they all seem to be potty trained now!! Yippee!!!

Matthew Allen Simmons!!

Well, we want to extend a hearty welcome to our new nephew Matthew (Matty) Allen Simmons. He was born today, 11 December 2007, at 5:01am. Happy Birthday to Matty (and to Dallas' mom Selonna!) He weighed 8 lbs, 9 oz and was 20.5 inches long. We can't wait to see him at Christmas! Perfect timing! It looks like his older brother Aidan is excited too. What a good looking group of Simmons Boys!

The Ice Cream Man!! No, wait... that's just the garbage man :(

One of the unique things about Taiwan is the Garbage pick-up that they have. I wish this video had audio to go with it, but my explanation will have to do. My first morning in Taiwan, I was sitting at my desk when I heard the Ice Cream Man music. You know the song I'm talking about. I immediately thought to myself, "That's great! Something similar to the states!" My companion then started to chuckle and explain that there was no ice cream truck here, but that the Garbage man played music, so you knew when to take your trash out. If you miss the garbage truck, then you have to wait till the next time he comes. They don't have bins for you to fill and set next to the curb. This video shows a truck we saw in Taiwan with everyone bringing their trash out.