Lucky Winner!

A few weeks ago I was spending way too much time on the internet looking at blogs. I've become a blog junkie. I love reading about all the fun things, new ideas and lately anything to do with babies. I came across this blog called "What's That Smell?"-the adventures in life and parenting of two accidental mommies. (see their blog button below on the right side). They are having this awesome contest called a virtual baby shower. They couldn't have done it at a more perfect time.

Each week they are having contest giveaways on many great baby products. Many of which you'd probably never buy for your self because they are so expensive. On one of the postings there was a giveaway link to a blog called Hip Mama Blog. The prize was for a DVD set about childbirth, newborn baby care and breastfeeding by Sheri Bayles. I thought this looked like a great DVD set, and being new parents Paul and I can use all the help we can get. For most of the contest all you have to do to enter is leave a comment on the blog entry and that's it. The winner of this particular contest was chosen using random.org. To my surprise I received a comment on my blog today that out of 33 entries I was the big winner!!! I can't believe this, me a winner! I hardly ever win anything. I am very unlucky when it comes to contests and winning prizes. An the fact that this was all a random winning was amazing. Thanks Hip Mama (or should I say random.org) for picking me as the winner. I guess being pregnant has changed my lucky streak.
Check out Hip Mama's blog and the virtual baby shower if you get a chance.

What is with those nicknames?

So I understand the nicknames that actually make sense like Pat for Patrick or Patricia, or Sam for Samuel. Growing up I've learned that Bill is short for William, Bob is short for Robert and Dick is short for Richard. I have yet to figure out why these are nicknames but they are and that's how it is.

So the other night, Paul was talking to his mom, giving her the weekly "Kelly Report" and she suggested the name, "Chip" for our currently unnamed child. Paul immediately responded with, "Well we could, but did you know that Chip is a nickname for Paul?" Now explain this nickname reasoning to me. Paul said that when he was in high school he new 2 guys named Paul that both went by Chip. Paul was quite serious that Chip is a nickname for Paul. As I was laughing hysterically at this, I told Paul that just because he new 2 guys named Chip, it doesn't make "Chip" an official nickname for Paul. If I had a nickle for every time I heard some one say "I knew a guy..." I'd be rich. Paul claims that neither guy had the middle name Chip. So I asked him why he doesn't go by Chip if it is a nickname for Paul. All he said was that no one's ever called him Chip. I told him it's because Chip is NOT a nickname for Paul. His mom had never heard of this concept either. We looked it up on the internet and had no such luck finding this a true fact. If Chip truly is a nickname for "Paul," why has Paul never mentioned this factoid before? After all, we have known each other for over 10 years. I can always count on Paul when I need a good laugh.

According to Yahoo Answers: "Chip is a preppy nickname that is not short for any particular name, but rather to indicate that one is named after another aka 'chip off the old block.' One finds that men named Chip usually have a roman numeral after their real names."

What is still so funny to me is the fact that all these years Paul has seriously believed that Chip was a nickname for Paul. I think I've finally convinced him otherwise. Maybe I'll just start calling him Chip anyway!


My "Chip"

What nicknames have you heard that just don't make any sense or you just don't understand?

I Did It All By Myself!

So this morning I bought something on Ebay. Surprisingly it was not lip gloss or hair products. It was a super cute baby boy scrapbook album. One particular seller on Ebay makes the cutest paper bag albums you've ever seen. I've been trying to get one for weeks but either get out bid or usually forget to bid (which happens more often). So anyway, I finally just decided to buy it now. It was too cute to pass up.

Now to the point of this blog entry. Paul and I have decided that when we make an internet purchase, instead of printing out the receipts like we used to, we would save them to the computer for easy access and less paper waist. Our receipts usually piled up on our desk so I thought this was a good idea. His idea was to make a copy of the web receipt into a pdf file so that it would look the same as if we had printed it. Since Paul was all the way upstairs probably busy, I decided to figure out how to do this myself. I've picked up a few things here and there about computers (how could I not, being married to a computer geek) and figured it couldn't be too hard. I know Paul has shown me once or more accurately two or three times how to do this but I never seem to remember. Many of you reading this may think, "come on, you don't know how to make a pdf file!". Well, I do now! And I figured it out all by myself! If you can't tell I've very proud of this fact and I hope Paul will be to. So just in case you don't know how to do this let me quickly and easily tell you how. After talking to Paul I found out that you need to have the program Professional Adobe Acrobat. This is not the free adobe acrobat you can download from the internet. I guess it's about $150. But apparently we have it because Paul uses it for work a lot to convert old files to pdf's. So if you do have this program loaded on your computer it will automatically set up a printer setting. All you need to do is open your file, web page or document and go to file, select print and then select Adobe PDF. It will then automatically convert your document, web page, or file to a PDF file that you can save and read any time. After reading this, if you still have no clue what I'm talking about, I'm sure Paul would be happy to come give you a fee lesson. So that's my story for this wonderfully lazy Monday morning.

My Secret Obsessions

Some women collect shoes while others collect purses. Here is my story. My secret was revealed a few weeks ago when I accidentally dropped a necklace pendant down the drain of the bathroom sink. I was on my way out to dance class and didn't have time to wait for Paul to find it. Luckily he is handy enough that I knew he wouldn't have trouble retrieving it. When I came home from dance class I happened to go into the bathroom and this is what I saw.



All of my hair products were spread across the counter-top. I was a little embarrassed. Paul, however was "shocked and dismayed" to find so many hair products hidden under our sink. He couldn't believe I had so many and never knew about them. Until then, it was my well kept little secret. What could I say? I certainly don't wake up looking like I walked out of the salon. I have very fine thin hair and I am easily influenced by infomercials. In my defense, I do use all of these products at one time or another. And to tell you the truth, that's not even all of my hair products. I have a few more hidden away in a drawer.

So the other day, Paul and I were at the store and he asked me if I had any ChapStick he could borrow. As I was looking through my purse I found 8 lip glosses but no ChapStick. Paul was amazed I had so many lip glosses in one purse. I obviously can't wear them all at once, so why did I have 8 in my purse. I explained it's because I never know what kind of mood I will be in when I want to put on lip gloss. Since each one is a different color or has sparkles and matches different outfits, I need to carry several "just in case". Now instead of 8, I only carry 4 and always make sure to have ChapStick so Paul won't be tempted to use one of my ever so sparkly lip glosses. Just as I am tempted by hair products on infomercials, the lip gloss gets to me as well. I have to say that I got a" super awesome" deal on Ebay: 12 lip glosses for $12. You can't find that in any store!

Below is a picture of all the lip glosses I own.



In my defense to all of these products, I never buy something unless it's on sale. And if it's not I try to find the best internet price, usually on Ebay.

So now that I've shared my secret obsessions, I challenge all of you to share one of yours.

Happy Anni-Birthary!

August 16th in our family is a festive day. We celebrate three events on one day: Paul's birthday, Paul's parents anniversary, and my dad's birthday. This year Paul's parents, sister April and Jabez the dog decided to come down to UT for the weekend to celebrate. It was a fun day. We went to the Ogden farmers market, went on a hike, played games, and best of all we got to eat ice cream cake. Yum, my favorite. I just barely finished the ice cream cake from my birthday last month. Paul picked a great flavor: praline ice cream with caramel topping.
Even though my dad wasn't able to celebrate with us we thought of him and wished him a happy birthday. Hope you had a great birthday dad! Here are some pictures from our day.




No dice! No fair!






Oh no I busted!


The dog gets all the water! No fair!!


Look at their strong muscles. Aren't they buff!

Surprise! It's a Baby Shower!

On Tuesday afternoons the special education team at West Clinton Elementary gathers for our weekly meeting. It's a time to catch up on the weeks happenings of students and personal gossip (which often keeps us off topic, not always a bad thing). This past Tuesday, August 5th, the team put together a surprise baby show for Brooke (resource teacher) and I. Brooke is having a girl and due September 11th. The shower was such a nice surprise. We played several games: guess the number of candies in the jar, guess how big our belly is using ribbon, and who can collect the most pacifiers by not saying the word "I" (very difficult to do). The food was delicious, consisting of fruit (huge craving of mine), trail mix, and chocolate cheese cake (another craving of mine).


Doesn't that look delicious!


Steve (principal)


Susan, counselor & Scott admin. intern

It was interesting to see how Steve and Scott handled the baby shower. I've never been to a shower were the men were invited. As you can see by the pictures they fit right in, enjoying themselves and having a great time.


Brooke and I opening our gifts.


Me holding an adorable sports outfit.



I really love working with such wonderful people that are there to help and support me and make working at West Clinton fun! Thanks Team!

Sleeping Beauty

Last Wednesday while I was sleeping Paul took this picture of me. I had just gotten home from dance class and was exhausted. I thought this was a cute pregnant picture of me sleeping. It's not very often I get a cute picture of me sleeping.