1 year

It's been quite awhile since I've told a story from the not very long ago past but since we passed our 1 year mark of when Victory proposed to me, I thought I'd share the story for those who haven't heard it before. :)

It was a Saturday afternoon, and at the time I was still working Saturdays at Younkers. Each shoe associate was going to be receiving a free pair of crocs that they would then have to wear to work during the croc sale, in order to promote them. So, I was there trying on crocs to decide on a size that would fit me best since my long toe stuck out the stupid hole in the front. I was so completely distracted by the stupid shoes I didn't realize that my manager was there (who was not working) and a few others who just happened to be hanging around the shoe dept. I was still debating and adequately complaining about the stupid crocs when our friends Aaron and Whitney came along.

I started talking to them for few minutes and then I started to realize there were quite a few people in the shoe department and that I probably should get back to work. I was about to leave to help other customers when Whitney, said she wanted to try on a shoe. She showed me the shoe, and I said, "Hey, the style of that shoe is named "Victory!" So I went to the stockroom to retreive the shoe and while I was back there I opened the box to make sure I got the right color and size, well, inside the shoe box was a ring box. I thought to myself, "stupid customers". You can find the most random things in shoe boxes. I opened the box and saw the ring (still thinking it was costume jewlery). I walked out of the stockroom and turned to my co-workers and said, "Hey look what I found! And just as I did so, Victory Haines, dressed in a suit and carrying a bouquet of flowers came around the corner and took the ring from me and said, "that's mine" and got down on one knee and asked to spend eternity with me. I obviously said yes and as I did so everyone in the huge crowd that had gathered began clapping. And we are living happily ever after!

Proud Aunt of 41!!

Two posts in one day, I know! But I actually have stories to tell today. So all my life I think I've been fairly reserved about the size of my family. Whenever someone asks me how many siblings I have, I answer the question and almost prepare myself for all of the comments of "OH MY GOODNESS!" "From the same parents?" "Any adopted?" "How old are your parents?" "How old is your oldest sibling?" "Can you name all of them?" etc....I've always wanted to be proud to say "Yes, I come from a family of 12 children, the best family in the world" but whenever I mentioned the size of my family, I would just quitely and quickly say the number and try to make it seem like it was nothing because I didn't want people to over react and make it a big deal since I don't necessarily like the attention...sometimes anyway. :)
But yesterday, as I shared the news of my sister having her baby with my coworkers, it finally dawned on me, I'm now an aunt of 41 neices and nephews (36 from the Randalls and 5 from the Haines side)! That is truly amazing, especially at the age of 25 and gosh darn it, it should be something I'm proud of because I truly am! I love all of my neices and nephews and they make me soooo happy!
So GOSH DARN IT!! I'm Proud of my HUGE family! I wouldn't ever wish to be a part of a different family! NEVER!

What is that smell??

Victory may not like that I'm blogging about this but I he knows its coming. :) I would have had pictures but he destroyed the evidence before I could get my camera.
Last night I made cookies, really yummy ones, and I put a batch in before I left for a visiting teaching appointment. I asked Victory to take them out in 10 minutes. I left in good faith that he would finish up with cookies while I was gone. I get home about an hour later and walk in the door and say, "Victory, what is that smell?" He tilts his head to the side a bit and sniffs, instantly it registered, "COOKIES!" The cookies were FRIED!! BLGHH! They were completly black all the way through and our poor house smelled HORRIBLE!
I was just amazed that he couldn't smell that overwhelming burnt smell. When I asked him why he couldn't smell it, he said, "I thought I smelled something but it just didn't register."

What a silly boy but I sure do love him!

After our cookie episode, Victory left to go play basketball. 15 minutes after the game started I got a phone call. I knew that couldn't be good. Turns out that he got elbowed in the mouth by his teammate and had to go get stitches. It was a 2 1/2 cm cut on the right side of his mouth. He'll be fine, he'll get the stitches out on Saturday. I feel kinda sorry for him, he was having kind of a rough night.

Love true love.....

In light of Valentine's day I thougth I would share this video here.

rAndOm

So my loving sister tagged me....and I don't like tagging others so if you read this consider yourself tagged, if you want to be tagged. :) But since she made the comment that it's not Christmas anymore and that I needed to update my blog I'll play the game....
Rules
1- Post the rules on your blog
2- List 6 random things about yourself.
3- Tag 6 people at the end of your post.
4- Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
5- Let the tagger know when your entry is up.
Here we go......
1. I squeeze the toothpaste from the middle and often fail to put the cap back on... sorry Victory.
2. I like to conserve my food so that I will have left overs not only to save money but so I don't have to worry about what to eat the next day. However, now that I'm married this seems to rarely happen.
3. I love the Trident Tropical Twist gum as well as the Extra's strawberry Bannana gum. And when I was in college I would chew an entire pack in preparation for my Cognitive Development tests. INTENSE!
4. I've been told I'm a crazy driver... I don't think I'm so bad. I'm just not so good in unfamiliar places....on my first driving test for my driver's license I got 39 points, you can only have up to 15 points and still receive your license. I ran a red light during the test and automatically failed right there. Once again, that was a completly unfamiliar side of town.
5. I love the t.v. show Friends. It's on at 5:00 and 5:30, if I miss those they replay them at 9:00 and 9:30. For better or worse, I think I most resemble Monica. I've even taken up talking like her. I KNOW!!!
6. I love school supplies! Markers, pens, crayons, post it notes, glue sticks! I love Back to School shopping! Even though I don't have a lot of use for these supplies currenly I still buy them.
YAY! I did it! have fun!

Merry Christmas!!!

Here are pictures of Victory and I's first Christmas as a Married couple!!

Everything I need to be a Princess, including the Prince!!

Lauren learning to be a princess. Cute girl!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too!

Happy New Year's!!

Well, here are the pictures from New Years. (you'll have to wait for pictures from Christmas since they are on my parent's camera.) We decided not to do the traditional New Year's Eve activities of hanging out and playing games all night while eating delicious appetizer and snacky foods all night. So we did something different and went out to eat. We dined at the Green Gateau, where I swear they served raspberry topping instead of raspberry vinaigrette on my salad. Otherwise, the food was enjoyable.

Victory and I then headed to the blockbuster downtown to see if we could find a Doris Day movie to watch. And just so you know, the only blockbuster in town that is supposed to have old movies, doesn't even have one Doris Day movie. We ended up watching a Kerry Grant movie, "War Bride". Funny.

We still had an hour or so to kill so we played Guestures. All I can say is, "Wow!" The two times my family has played that game in the last year, my dad has been the star of the show. It's quite hilarious to watch him frantically act out the words. The last time we played, one of the words was fire hydrant. What did my dad do? He lifted up his leg like a dog. Hilarious. This year, it was hurdles. That was so funny that Stephanie went into a laughing fit-to the point we were afraid she would go into pre-term labor.

And for the crowning event of the evening, my dad and Jeff did a balloon drop. They used the holes in the walls from our wedding to string a huge bag of balloons. It was an awesome New Year’s Eve.