Happy Birthday To Us!

Greg and I celebrate our birthdays two days apart.

I'm pretty sure this fact alone sealed our fate as eternal companions.

Who wouldn't want ONE HUGE party that essentially lasts three days?!?

For Greg's birthday, we went to see "Wicked" in Phoenix. We saw it for the first time the summer of 2004 and have seen it two additional times since then. Each of the viewings have been in the "nose bleed" section of the theater because we were cheap.

We decided that if we were to see it a FOURTH time, we better make it worth our time. So, we bit the bullet and paid for REAL seats. It was worth every penny. Seeing a show up close is a different experience than sitting in the back. We really really enjoyed our Elphaba - who was the "stand by". And the show is just as magical, even for returning audience members.

We enjoyed a fantastic dinner at Pita Jungle before the show with Greg's brother Jeff and his wife Michelle, who happened to purchase tickets to Wicked on the same night 6 months ago, without even knowing we were going. SO FUN!!

After Wicked we got a room at the "Arizona Biltmore" - which is a five star resort in Phoenix, who has KILLER prices during the summer months, when no sane person would consider visiting our desert. My wonderful sister Laura, watched Emma for the night as her birthday gift to us. And it was the BEST gift ever. First time leaving her over night. Didn't phase any of us.

Saturday morning I gave Greg his traditional breakfast at Denny's. YUCK. I hate the place. Greg loves the place. So every year, as an annual sacrifice of my undying love and affection for him... I let him eat his Denny's breakfast.

Laura brought Emma up to the resort after our breakfast and we enjoyed a lovely morning of swimming in the pools and water slides. Such a fun way to spend a Saturday!


Saturday evening we gathered in the "Pope Room" at Buca Di Beppo for a hilarious dinner with friends. It was a great table for so many people and I think I burned off my fattening Italian dinner with laughter. Besides Greg and I, Jeff Andersen celebrates his bday on July 23rd. I guess the three of us are basically triplets. Can you see the resemblance?

As we didn't get quite enough Italian on Saturday, we decided to throw a pizza party on Sunday... my actual bday. Unfortunately, we had so much fun, that my camera was never busted out to catch the group. Everyone got their own homemade crust and then added their toppings of choice.

Emma chose this special day of her mother's birth to pull out her "devil child" behavior. In her 18 months of living, this was her worst day yet. Nice timing, Emma. She wouldn't let me lead the ward choir, so I held her on one side of my hip and tried to conduct with the other free hand. She scratched my face and pulled my hair in sacrament meeting while I was standing up with her in the back. Refused to attend nursery without me by her side. Cut her nap short by an hour and screamed 75% of the time while we had company over. It was really lovely. Luckily, my angel child returned on Monday and we have had a great week since.


We enjoyed our fourth evening of celebration on Monday night with Greg's family. They were kind enough to host a party for us! We had scrumptious Barro's pizza and a yummy cake. They got us such a fun gift of a homemade ice cream maker, after our unsuccessful attempt to find one while at the cabin. We are SOOOOO excited to try it out!!

WHEW!! We had so much fun this week. Can't wait for next July!

And we are still enjoying free meals at a variety of restaurants that offer "birthday meals".... so that should stretch the celebrating through this weekend. For those of you interested, our favorite "no strings attached" free birthday meals are: Spicy Pickle, Daphne's Greek Cafe, Kona Grill, Rubios, Krispy Kreme (free dozen donuts), Moe's, Red Robin, Cold Stone and 31 Flavors (free ice cream). At Beni Hana you can get $30 off of your meal which is a pretty great deal.

The Adams Escape the Fiery Furnace.

When the weather man promises a weekend full of heat OVER 110 degrees - what else is there to do but GET OUT OF DODGE?!?

So... we packed up some of Greg's family and headed to my grandparents cabin in the mountains. We were greeted with rain and a gorgeous thunderstorm and I knew we had made the right choice for our weekend plans!

Saturday morning, Emma woke up quite early. To avoid waking the entire cabin, Greg and I fed her breakfast in our bedroom and then snuck out of the cabin to the fish hatchery. Emma LOVES fish and was quite taken with the hatchery. I just love this cute little picture of her.

Here we are with the fish that are ready to be "thrown to the wild". Unfortunately, we had to leave that area rather quickly, because Emma kept trying to swim with them. After purchasing some fish food, Emma loved to thrown in handfuls and watch the ensuing mayhem.

Really? Could those tiny nuggets of cardboard-looking-food really be worth body slamming/pimp slapping your neighbor? I may attack for Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake, but that's about it.

Here is the cabin gang. Greg's Mom is on the left and his brother and new wife Michelle on the right. We had such a wonderful time together. We didn't go to bed earlier than 2am either night and consumed WAY TOO MUCH food. But what else is a cabin trip good for??

I learned something about myself this weekend.

If good food is around me, I do not have the self-control to avoid eating it. I feel so weak admitting this, but it is an honest truth that I simply must face.

At home, I do not surround myself with junk food, and therefore maintain my Weight Watchers diet rather well. At the cabin, there were so many yummy things, I just had to partake. Naughty Tammy. Very, very naughty. Here's to an upcoming week of intense exercise and starvation. :)

The most memorable moment of the trip was our "ice cream adventure". Jeff and Michelle brought up all the fixn's for homemade ice cream, but forgot their ice cream maker. We kind of started obsessing over this ice cream that "could have been" and decided that we would venture into Payson (40 minutes away) and hit up the Wal-Mart for an ice cream maker.

FIVE stores later, we still had no ice cream maker and returned to the cabin defeated.

We put on our pioneer thinking caps(or bonnets if you will) and started to brain storm. We put the ice cream mix in ziploc bags, emptied out some of my grandparents food storage #10 cans, filled it with rock salt, ice, and the mixture bags - and went to town shaking the cans and rolling them across the cabin floor.

After only 15 minutes of "processing time" we had some pretty AMAZING rocky road ice cream. Who says the pioneers had it so rough? If they had ice cream like this, they could have walked and walked another 2,000 miles. YUM! (and yes, this is some of the wonderful food that I could not avoid or control entering my tummy).

What a fantastic weekend with great family, great food and great weather!!

Speaking of "BANGS"!

We enjoyed a "BANG" of a Fourth of July!!

We had a wonderfully long weekend and relaxed and spent lots of time in the pool!

On the Fourth, we had a BBQ with my Aunt Sharron and her children, including my cousin Sheila who flew in from San Jose. We followed that with the fireworks over Tempe Town Lake. Everyone told us we were crazy for fighting the crowds and the heat, but honestly neither were too bad. I enjoy getting out and being part of a community. We even rode the light rail in, to save frustration with traffic.

Emma was TERRIFIED of the fireworks at first, but as they progressed she grew to love them and would say "WOW" and "SO PRETTY". The show was really great and totally worth the $5 admittance fee.

Our friends, Trent, Sarah and Baby Rowan joined us for the fun, and we have to thank them for their kindness and charity in joining our evening. Evidently, we are not as cool as we think, because we invited about 10 other couples from our ward and NOBODY else wanted to sacrifice their social standing to be seen with us in public. Hats of to Trent and Sarah for their generosity! :)

We also welcomed a new member to our family... our computer family, that is.

Our laptop died about 2 months ago in a smoky death. Yep, smoke literally came out of the back. Not a good sign. It was 6 years old, and unfortunately in computer years that makes it 97.

We have been trying to survive without it, but our desktop was slowly giving up the ghost as well. This weekend we FINALLY gave in and purchased a new laptop.

So while Greg was doing THIS all weekend...

Emma was entertaining herself by sitting INSIDE her toy basket.

We took Emma to a really fun community pool in Chandler. Zero entry pools are my best friend.

It pays to be a "Good Samaritan"

I embarked on my weekly CVS run this morning after Emma's swim lessons (where she is failing BTW - no kicking abilities and no bubble blowing skills). :)

Well OK, if you must know, I got all of these items for $3.00! But I digress, because this post is not about my amazing CVS deals.

As I was checking out a homeless man walked into the store. My first thought was not nice. As he walked by, he grabbed a quick item and then went to the cashier next to me. After a few minutes his cashier turned to us and said, "do you know where the nearest post office is? This man needs 2 stamps". My cashier and I tried to explain the directions, to which the man replied, "I'll be taking the bus and am new to the area, so could you tell me the fastest way via bus"?

My heart softened as I thought about the million degrees outside and the hour bus trip it would take to go a few miles. I reached in my purse and handed him 2 stamps to save him the hassle. He tried to pay me, but I insisted they were my "on me". No big deal.

I proceeded to continue my transaction, when the man approached me and said, "It pays to be a good Samaritan". He then handed me the box of envelopes he had purchased to mail his letters and told me that he only needed the 2 envelopes and wanted to give me the rest. I thanked him and then finished my transaction. The cashier told me my total would be 69 cents, and when I reached in my purse to pay, the cashier told me that he would cover my 69 cents courtesy of CVS.

I don't know why, but these kind acts toward me really touched my heart this morning. One simple act of charity, and I was repaid five times what I gave. I truly believe this is how love grows. The more we give, the more we receive. What a beautiful concept brought home in my neighborhood CVS on a blazing hot Monday morning.

She bangs. She bangs.

bang ² (bng)

n. A fringe of hair cut short and straight across the forehead. Often used in the plural.

I was looking over some recent pictures and noticed that my sweet daughter's forehead was growing larger than life. So I covered it up. By cutting her bangs. Not too many, just a few wisps, so that on hot, summer days they can stick uncomfortably to her forehead. :)

I actually think they look pretty cute and hide some of the spacious area above her beautiful eyes.

There was an unfortunate time in MY life, that I also thought my problems would be solved with bangs. Note "Exhibit A" below - where I am in 4th grade shown after a play "Annie". Adorable. Don't you think?

In 5th grade... the 80's STRUCK with a vengeance and I thought that it would be an excellent idea to get bangs and a perm... AT THE SAME TIME. Just a note to the wise - this was not in fact such an excellent idea. See "Exhibit B".

Although, I will have you also notice that the other three girls also had these gorgeous bangs. I did follow the mantra that when my friends jumped off a bridge, so would I. And I jumped off that "bangs bridge" with a mighty splash that lasted EIGHT years!!

Thankfully, I arrived at BYU and the promised valley showed me the way to a life of smaller and simpler hair.

What will I do when these trends cycle around again and Emma wants bangs and a perm?

I'll tell you what I'll do.

I'll show her these pictures - they should scare her into avoidance.