Setting the Record Straight!

Apparently I cannot cry without being pregnant. So to all of you out there that think that I am pregnant I am going to let you down easy. The answer is "NO!" There is no bun in the oven, bread in the basket, embryo in the womb etc. I just cried. Sometimes music and weight loss really get me going. After all I am a Jardine and we have been known to cry often. Even Oprah can get me going sometimes. In conclusion I will repeat it is a "nope" on the prego thing!

A First!

So this is definitely a first for me.  I have never before written about a show and how much I liked something on television.  This is worth it...  I can only say that I cried last night watching, and have since then rewound it probably a hundred times.   Hello David Archuleta!  I am an absolute huge fan.  Huge Fan, HUGE FAN!  I never jump aboard American Idol because I get too attached and then get upset when things don't go my way.  However I am making an exception actually I can't help it because I am border line obsessed.  Yes, I am aware that he is 17 but he has the most pure, innocent, angelic voice that when he sings not only do I get goosebumps, but you can just see the talent seeping from his pores.  I am not exaggerating I have seen his version of "Imagine" a trillion times.  That boy is god given talent!  I agree with Paula I would like to hug him, squeeze him, and then hang him from  my rear view mirror.  He is just the true "American Idol!"  The second show that brought me to tears last night was, believe it or not, The Biggest Loser!  I was so  humbled to see Mark step down and do what was right for the team.  He has kind of rubbed me wrong this season but to see that side of him last  night really renewed my faith in him.  It taught me once again not to make snap judgements because people are good inside.  Bottom line is last night I was a bawl baby and I want a refund on my Prozac!  Love to all!

Fantastic Birthday!

This was probably one of the best birthdays that I have ever had.  It has also lasted the longest.  Starting with dinner and gifts at my in-laws on Sunday to the actual day on Wednesday.  Then onto Thursday when all my girlfriends took me out to dinner and gave me the coolest gift ever!  So here is a shout out to all my girls... Mindy, Kae Lynn, Hailey, Laura, Leigh (Gisele), Aimee, Joyce, Courtney, Meghan, Caryn, & Katie!  You are so nice to think of me on such an occasion.  Seriously I know how busy you all are and how many children you have so it was sweet for you all to take time off to come and hang out for a while.  Thanks also to the husbands that watched children and let their wives escape for a few hours.  A special thanks to Kae Lynn and Mindy for organizing everything and making sure it was such a great night.  Also thanks to my family for all the cards gifts and love.  Jerianne, I will be 40 before you need to buy me another bag of Haribos!  Ryan you really out did yourself this time and how you are ever going to do better I don't know...  Guess you will have to try hard!!  Then finally to Brady thanks for the "Shizout" boy was it entertaining!  Love you all.

Flying into my 30's!

This will probably be pretty long but I can guarantee you it will all be worth it in the end!  I have to start with a few things that didn't take place on my birthday.  The day before the big day I came down with the flu and was suffering pretty bad.  I have never been able to throw up not pregnant or sick.  I would love to be able to but for some reason it doesn't come up.  I am a perfect dry-heaver I can gag with the best of them first team all American!  My muscles hurt I was sore weak the whole nine yards.  I very rarely get sick I think that has to do with being a mom and your body just knows that sickness and motherhood don't go together.  I pushed through and made it to bed that night with no expectations for the next morning whatsoever.  I woke up to breakfast in bed (or it could've been lunch considering that Ryan let me sleep in until 11) although I couldn't stomach it down it was a sweet thought.  I came out to the kitchen with 30 roses waiting and a sweet card telling me to be ready to go in an hour.  Ryan really wanted to keep everything a surprise but I am not big on stuff like that and insisted that he share his plans with me.  After some gentle coaxing he gave in a told me that we were going skydiving.  I have always entertained this thought but never thought it would truly come to fruition just a dream or death wish I can't figure out which.  When he told me though my stomach instantly flipped and all I could think of was how to get out of this situation.  He quickly informed me it was already paid for (come to find out that was untrue but his was of getting me to go) I hesitantly agreed.  So we hop into the car me with applesauce in hand hoping to settle my nerves just a hair.  I decided against taking a valium for fear of falling asleep mid fall and leaving my landing up to the instructor carrying dead weight.  So I went into this with only tylenol and a stomach empty and upset.  When I get nervous I tend to speak without thinking and needless to say this time was no exception.  We drive our way out to Casa Grande and pull up to a hangar.  Two guys were walking in with shirts that said "staff" on the back and I wanted to turn around right away.  The first guy (boy) looked no older than high school age and the other one I outweighed.  Not the best signs!  We went inside and yes these fine men were our instructors.  I must preface the rest of this story with the fact that these were the absolute nicest guys and the best place to have an experience like this.  Truly genuinely great guys!  Still didn't ease my fears that one was only 22.  However he informs me that he has been doing this since the ripe old age of 12 and he is very qualified.  After watching my brother and sister in laws experience with their skydiving I thought I had an idea as to how this would work.  I was dead wrong.  My expectations were that we would go inside have a training class watch an instructional video try on our jumpsuits and see if we qualified for this adventure.  My realization was that we went in signed papers listened to Tom tell us how to arch and where to put our arms then we climbed into our harnesses.  By this point I think I had lost all sort of brain power and was just rolling with the punches.  Now please don't think that I sound terribly worldly but I wore my favorite velour suit thinking that we would put jump suits over our clothes and it would be no big deal I was wrong.   They told us that most landings you skid to a stop on your butt and to just hold your legs up and wait for it.  I have never wanted to change out of something that I adored so much and put on my grubbies so bad.  I couldn't stop thinking about possibly putting a hole in my favorite pants and exposing myself in the meantime.  Back on track now... They are taking videos of us and interviewing us and introduce us to the plane all at the same time and we are on our way.  When I say plane I don't want you to get your hopes up.  I was comfortably sitting in my instructors lap while Ryan was at my feet and his instructors lap.  It was a tight squeeze in a plane that had an awful lot of duct tape in it.  Now correct me if I'm wrong but I swear that duct tape was made to hold boxes together not planes.  I was told that this was special duct tape and that it did it's job rather well.  No need to worry!!!  At 10,500 ft. above the ground (2 miles) a plane door opens.  Now for any of you that are LOST fans this usually means that you get sucked out of the plane and plummet to the ground.  He (my new best friend and close encounter partner Geoff) informed me that this is all a Hollywood myth that you cannot get sucked out of a plane regardless of how high or fast you are going.  It made me feel al little better until he told me to stick my feet out the door and onto the wheel stair.  For any of you that haven't done this, something just will never feel right about stepping out of a plane that is smaller than your car while it is 2 miles high.  I chose to go first with Geoff because I thought if I didn't that I wouldn't do it.  That actual jump is probably the worst part because your stomach initially does that roller coaster drop but it only lasts for a few seconds.  I can't say that it was the most flattering video of me considering the nostrils that flared to the size of a small child and the flappy cheeks.  Although it looks as though I am screaming, trust me when I tell you that no noise whatsoever was escaping my mouth.  I couldn't make one ounce of sound!  I was so cold that it was hard to think about surviving through the fall.  When the cord is pulled for the parachute it is just like movies...  It yanks you so far up and you can feel the wind fill the sails so to speak but it was truly HEAVENLY!  I would do this part for the rest of my life if I could.  To float in pure serenity and silence was surreal.  I can sincerely say that Heaven has to be something like that it was that beautiful.  Now don't be fooled I couldn't enjoy it that long due to the overwhelming nausea that had creaped up on me.  Geoff quickly noticed and shut the camera off and said (I quote) "If you are going to throw up do it under your arm, but don't worry I have been puked on several times it will be our secret!"  He didn't know that I lacked the ability to actually chuck but I was dying to gag or something.  I did make it down without hurling and actually we had a perfect landing on our feet and all.  No sugar coating it, it was a good 4 hours until the nausea passed but I have come to the realization that it was worth every minute.  Don't get me wrong I don't think that I could do it again but I am so glad that I did do it this once.  I think everyone needs to experience this (unless you have a weak bladder, heart, lungs etc.) at least once in their lifetime.  Ryan is excited to go again and has already talked several friends into joining him (I will meet him at the landing zone).  We quickly got a ride back to the hangar and they made our videos while I recovered on the couch.  What a super experience and a great group of guys to do it with.  Best of all I got to make a memory with my best friend Ryan.  He always goes out of his way to make memories and keep things exciting.  I love him dearly and will write more about my birthday experiences and gifts later.  Right now your eyes and my fingers need a nap!  Love to all...  

My sweet VALENTINE!

I decided today to write a little something about my sweet little Ryan...

You can ask anyone and I think they all agree that he is one of the most thoughtful men around.  He always is thinking about others and to top it off wants to make sure that everyone around him is having fun.  That is not too hard to do considering that anytime he is around things are ALWAYS entertaining.  I mean that there is not a dull moment in sight if Ryan is present.  He has a sense of humor that is catching and the laughter always rolls when Ryan is talking.  For Valentines Day Ryan and I shocked each other.  I bought us some nice sheets for our bed and turned around and surprised me with the same exact pair of sheets.  We must have been on the same page that our bed needs better sheets I just think it was funny that we bought them a the same time for the same occasion.  After our duplicate gift we went to dinner with some of our best friends the Hornes.  We made our way to Scottsdale to Ruths Chris Steakhouse and had a wonderful dinner.  Not to mention highly entertaining because Ryan was present.  You seem to always be on the edge of your seat when Ryan is there because you never know what is going to take place or if he is going to decide to embarrass you in front of complete strangers (sorry Dustin!)  It was a great time though!  Then we all went to the Phoenix Suns game and met up with the Randalls.  It was a really late game (thanks Lenna for taking the kids for so long we love you) but we all had a great time.  We had box seats with the Mechams!  The game was awesome.  To top everything off Ryan had a surprise waiting for me at home.  He got a TV for our bedroom to hang on the wall.  I know some of you might disagree but Ryan and I love to lay in bed at night when the kids are all down and watch some of our shows together.  Thanks love!  Overall it was a great Valentines Day and we enjoyed all the company and the wonderful memories made.  I love you Ryan and am so grateful for all that you do and for the fact that you always put our family first you are an amazing father but more importantly you are a fabulous husband and friend.  I couldn't be blessed with better thank you for all of your patience with me.  Love you dearly Ry-Guy!!!  Love to all as well on this hearts day!

P.S. In case some of you didn't notice I got my hair cut today and cut me some bangs and got rid of the extra long baggage.  I was beginning to look a little like a pioneer and it was driving me nuts.  Thanks Laura for sharing all of your talent with me I would be lost without you.  

Where are all the VAMPIRES?

I am warning you all that this post is a little forward for all of you that, like my dad, think that I have been raised in a barn yard and speak too much...  Be WARNED!  Anyway when Ryan was out of town in Montana he spoke with one of my friends and she strongly urged him to buy me the book "Twilight."  I know that over half of you reading this have already read the book and I have had so many people tell me to read it for a long time now but I HATE reading.  I cannot emphasize that enough I dislike reading a lot.  I get bored I fall asleep and I get headaches so overall I usually choose to stay away from them.  I can seriously count on one hand or maybe two (because of Harry Potter) how many books I have read.  Ryan got on my case saying that he never saw me reading this book and he wanted me to give it a try.  After a few days of hearing this I gave it a whirl.  Needless to say that I cannot put it down.  Most of you already know that I have a weakness for Naughty Boys!  I don't know what it is but Pirates of the Caribbean (Johnny, and Orlando) really made me crush on pirates.  Not that you see a lot of them roaming the streets now-a-days or for that sake ever!  However I do really have a thing for them.  Well now I can add vampires to the list!  I have never wanted to meet a vampire so bad in my life, seriously.  I am dead honest about that I am having dreams about naughty vampires.  What is my deal.  So now you all know what I really am drawn to.  For those of you that don't know Ryan that well, now you know that something drew me in.  Naughty Ryan!  

Is someone a south paw pro?

You know Ryan and I aren't bias however we do think that we have a pretty special talented kid on our hands.  He loves to throw balls and Ryan taught him to throw a football the right way!  He grabs hold of the laces and launches it.  It is so adorable to watch and we get a kick out of it every single time.  Ryan says he is hoping for baseball or football.  Me on the other hand I am hoping for soccer or baseball.  Since the height is against us we know that basketball is probably not our best guarantee and the aggressiveness of hockey scares me to death!  I am not for football because I don't want anyone to hit my kid and Ryan was so good at soccer that I think that would be great.  However Jag hates to kick balls he only likes to throw them...  It could be wishful thinking but we are praying for sports over ballet I guess.  No offense to you men ballerinas out there we just have very little masculinity in our house and we would like to keep all that we've got.  Estrogen is over flowing out of this house!  Anyway we though that we would share our pictures with you of our very talented Jagger!  Love to all... 

A Super SUPER Bowl!

To preface this post I am SUPPOSED to tell you that in Australia it was already Monday so in some sort the Sabbath was not broken?!

Joshua Green was in town not only to fix all our families teeth (thank you so much) but also to go cheer his underdog team The NY Giants on in the Super Bowl.  The excitement that was in this house was palpable with Josh being a loyal Giants fan and Ryan wanting to witness history with the undefeated season and fourth win.  I am always cheering for the underdogs for some reason and love to see an upset happen.  They acquired tickets and made their way down to the stadium to sit on the lower level right behind all the patriots families.  They lucked out once again by getting awesome seats and getting to witness one of the best games ever! I am going to post some post game pictures of Joshuas face.  If a picture could say a thousand words these are definately the ones that speak loudly!  Overall what a great experience that these boys got to have I am so happy for them and the memory that they made together.  By the time that they got home Josh had lost his voice and Ryan said he had lost his hearing due to Joshs screaming. What an amazing super bowl.