This Is Why I Should Have Smacked Him

Last night, after watching a gripping episode of The Pacific with Hubby and several sweet kiddos, Hubby and I resigned ourselves to going to bed because, unlike the kiddos, we had to get up early for work. Our routine is predictable, hence why we call it a routine.  While Hubby brushes his teeth, I check my email and messages one last time for the day.  Then I take my turn brushing teeth and off to dreamland we go.  (HA! How I wish! Hubby falls asleep instantly and I struggle with panicked, work-induced thoughts for hours!)

Normally, all I find in my email is more work for my constantly growing To Do list. I go to bed sufficiently stressed and then attempt to sleep.  However, last night was a different scenario completely.  I opened my Facebook and saw this lovely comment posted on my wall:

Jim Barela Where did Bill find you and where can i get one?

Jim and my Hubby have been friends far longer than I have even known Hubby.  These two friends worked together in Atlanta and I have heard many tales of boys being boys. I know how much the Hubby respects and admires Jim so you can imagine how flattered I was by his Facebook comment. At the very least, it was something fun at the end of the day, rather than the usual stress! 

When Hubby came out of the bathroom, with sparkling teeth and minty fresh breath, I proudly showed him the comment from Jim. I should have known what would follow.

That darn Hubby started laughing!

With an indignant snort, I turned away from the snickering Hubby and pretended to pout mightily.

Me: "You should learn to appreciate me like your friend, who I have never met, appreciates me!"

Hubby: "But why would he say something like that?" (Still chortling).

Me: "RUDE!" (Beginning to grin in spite of myself.)

Hubby: "No, really.  Why would he say something like that about you? Did you say anything to him??" 

Me: "No, he just reads my posts and APPRECIATES what I have to say."

Hubby starts giggling anew. 

I wanted to smack him, but I love him too much and I know he does love me too. But seriously?  WTH Hubby? Someone needs to teach you how to properly stroke a girl's ego.  Yes, we have them too! 

Just before I turned out the light, I sent this reply to Jim on Facebook: 

 

Nicole Thomas Turek He's laughing his ass off right now and wants to know to what you are referring. I think I should just smack him. ;)

I didn't actually smack him, but I seriously considered it.  Instead I just snuggled up with him, as I always do. Love you, unappreciative Hubby!

Update: This morning I saw that silly Hubby had also posted a reply to his friend's inquiry. I can only shake my head and grin at what the love of my life had to say: 

Bill Turek She came in a Cracker Jack box Jim, lol

What am I going to do with him?  (Kiss him and love him forever, I think!)

Dear Spring

Yesterday I could hear birds chirping enthusiastically outside my window and when I went over to look, I saw beautiful blue sky and dazzling sunshine! Immediately, I had visions of the bright sunshine warming my toes as I sit on my favorite step on my beloved deck.  Too excited to contain myself, I opened the back door as if in a trance. I was headed outside for some much needed sun therapy! And then it hit me. Icy air blasted my face and my bare toes attempted to shrink into themselves as they hit the unexpected frost covered trex steps of the deck.

DAMN!

Damn trickery! I cursed a few more times for emphasis as I raced back through the door and shut it behind me. I stood there sulking as I looked out the window and wished for warmer weather.  I wished Spring would stop playing games with me and bring me the warmth that I crave!

Then I remembered the conversation Hubby and I had the other day.. the same one we seem to have every year.

Me: "It always snows in April."

Hubby: "Yes, I know. I lost a bet over that one year."

Me Grinning: "You bet against me and I won?"

Hubby: "Yep. I won't make that mistake again. It ALWAYS snows in April."

Me: "Daweena."  (Ute Indian word for last snowstorm of the season.)

Obviously I know that craving warm, sunshiny Saturday mornings in March is futile. I do, in fact, understand the temperamental season that Spring really is. And clearly I know there is more snow in our future. 

But that doesn't stop the wanting.

The other day I came home from work in a fantastic mood. I had the windows of the Durango down every second I was not on the freeway. The warm air was intoxicating! I walked in the door and everyone was happy - the kind of happy that you can only get on a perfectly warm Spring day. We gathered on our favorite conversation steps of the back deck and talked about our day and daydreamed about planting gardens in the very near future.

*Sigh* 

I can only conclude that Spring is glorious torture. Every day I am taunted by the promise of things to come and I am eagerly awaiting the warm summer mornings spent gardening and the anticipation of bbqs shared with favorite people on perfect summer evenings. I wish we didn't have to wait!

Worth Watching

I worked with all but one of these guys and I adore them. Their creativity and humor is priceless! Watch and enjoy! Then visit http://www.teamzorilla.org/

Hey Vanna, I'd Like to Buy a Vowel!

I enjoy blogs.  No really.  I REALLY enjoy blogs.  I think part of the reason is because life seems to be stuck on fast forward and blogs remind me that there is (somewhat) normal life out there. Because I work for an online high school, I talk to people all day through IM, text messages, rapid fire emails, Twitter (sad, but true), and Facebook. I have learned how to condense what I need to say into 140 characters or less, and the shocking thing is that this has become normal to me! My conversations have become "convos" and daily I use abbreviations in place of actual words.  *LM, CB, IM , TXT,  BRT, WYSIWYG, OMW, OMG, WTH and my favorite? DRVN - which means, "Please accept my sincerest apologies, but I cannot text you right now because I am driving and it is illegal to text and drive, dontchanno?" (BTW, if you report me to the UHP, I'll deny this ever happens!)


Occasionally it takes me longer to respond to all of the voice mail, instant messages, emails and urgent texts, but DO NOT PANIC if I am MIA!  If you suddenly find me AWOL from TXT, PLZ no SOS or 911. Prob drvn!  BRB!

Whew!

After a hectic day without my recommended daily allowance of vowels, I love to curl up in bed with my laptop and cruise the blogs.  Why do I love blogs so much?  FULL SENTENCES, PEOPLE! Actual punctuation, vowels, and thoughts that have been completed already. It's enough to make a girl giddy! There's no guesswork involved, no filling in the blanks, and relatively little txt spk. Ooh and look at all of the colorful pictures!  Nice!

So please, for the love of WEBSTER, keep those blogs coming! I want to hear about your weekend shopping trips, lunch with the girls, favorite cupcakery and what you cooked for dinner on Sunday. It is important to me to know that your latest vacation included a plethora of run on sentences and cousin Earl who drinks too much and then won't shut up! If you have an adorable toddler who is learning to crawl, walk, eat from a spoon, or drool enthusiastically, I NEED to read about it.  Consider it exercise for my eyes and a reminder to my brain that words do, in fact, require vowels.  

To all of you bloggers out there, thank you for the time and effort it takes to put your thoughts into actual words. You are my linguistical heros!

*Left message, call back, instant message, text, be right there, what you see is what you get, on my way, oh my gosh, what the hell, driving.

My Girls at Toys R Us

I've been hopelessly in love with them since the day they were born. All five of them! On the occasion that they show me pictures like these, I fall even harder.  These are my adorable, fun-loving, adventurous girls.

Mini's Takes the (Cup) Cake!

Late the other night, I received an email from my wonderful Boss (Not sarcastic, I really adore her!) and judging by the subject line, she  was in a bind.

"Hellllp Meeee!"

A few weeks ago, we attended Charter School day at the Capitol and were privileged to have a private audience with Governor Herbert and Senator Dayton in The Gold Room.  It was OH SO COOL!  What had my boss so frantic was the fact that the Thank You  had not yet been sent from our group to the Governor or Senator Dayton. 

Oops!

She suggested I send some cookie gift baskets and gave me a great tip on some cookies that are "To die for!" Although I had never heard of this particular brand before, I immediately noticed that they were picked up by several florist chains and could be ordered on the web... for an extra $30 in shipping... from Ohio.  o.O

Something about sending Ohio cookies to our Utah Governor felt a bit like asking a fish to wear pajamas.  Awkward!  So I did what I always do in a pinch - I called Mom for some expert advice.

Let me tell you how wonderful my mother is.  She has been the head secretary at a big high school for 20+ years now. There's nothing and no one that she does not know!  Having witnessed the power of her brilliance and uber connections, I'm absolutely certain of this. I called her up and explained my situation. Do you want to know what she suggested to me?

Cupcakes! 

Oh boy..  anyone who knows me has heard that I absolutely do NOT understand the current cupcake frenzy that is the hottest trend since Starbucks hit the scene in Seattle. I could go on and on about how this is because the current generation in charge of the cupcake craze somehow failed to mature and are forever locked in some sort of pre-pubescent, sugar-coated, life is happiness and sunshine world! (ahem! back on track please!)


Right, where was I?  Oh yeah.. my mom told me about Mini's Cupcakes in SLC. She was going on about how Casey Scott, of local news fame, was there a while ago and it was a fabulous segment.  I googled them and saw:

When you buy a Mini's Cupcake your money stays local. 

Your money also goes to support:

Lehi Roller Mills-We buy their unbleached flour

Meadow Gold Dairy-We use products from Utah Dairy Farmers, who needs California cows.

Oakdell Egg Farm-We buy their eggs from happy chickens.

The Amalgamated Sugar Company, a grower owned Cooperative based in Idaho-We buy their granulated and powdered sugars, better than cane sugars on our environment.

I could not think of anything better to send to the Governor.  Salt Lake's finest cupcakes, supporting local business. Sign me up! 

I followed the email link, sent a quick message about how I wanted to showcase a local business with our Thank You to the Senator and Governor and asked for suggestions.  I then fired off a similar email to a Layton cupcake business, Cutsie Cakes,  because I like to have options. Imagine how pleased I was when the OWNER of Mini's Cupcakes, Leslie, contacted me and said they would love to put together something special for us and that she wholeheartedly supported my sentiment about supporting local business. She is a true gem! I told her that I would have to get approval from my boss first and would call her soon.

When the reply of an enthusiastic "YES!" came from my boss, I was also informed that it would need to be delivered the very next day, not the following Monday as I had originally planned. YIKES! It was 6pm... I needed a miracle.  I called Leslie's number, hoping she would check her voice mail the next morning in time to help me out.  Imagine how shocked I was when she answered! Leslie had given me her personal cell phone number and she was more than happy to agree to help me out with the delivery the next day. She asked me to email her what I would like her to hand write on the cards she offered to include.  Personal touch is a lost art in today's fast food, chain store, mass marketing world... but Leslie of Mini's Cupcakes has got it going on!

About an hour ago, Leslie called me to report that the Governor was blown away (not literally) by the 2 dozen cupcakes which Leslie HAND DELIVERED to him personally.  Please join me in a "Whoa!"  She told me that he had declared them "too beautiful and exquisite to eat" but when he finally did get down to the business of eating one, he was in a sugary heaven.

Let me ask you this...  When was the last time you ordered something and the OWNER called you to tell you they had hand delivered it AND gave you a play by play of your recipient's reaction?  Uh...never?  Yup, that was me too, until today!

I then called my boss and gushed about our success! I am certain that she will also call her boss to gush.  We knocked this one out of the park.  And I have my wonderful Mom, and Leslie of Mini's Cupcakes to thank for it!

Leslie, you can expect to see me in your shop soon because I am planning to serve your adorable box lunches at our next faculty meeting and I would like to buy some cupcakes for my family. You just might be the one to help me understand the cupcake craze!

Thank you!


**UPDATE
(Cutsie Cakes of Layton just emailed me back. Although it is now Monday and our gift went to the Gov last Thursday, the owner of Cutsie Cakes was so apologetic about missing my email. Amberlynn Rasmussen is the owner and she gave me her personal email for future use. Thank you, Amberlynn! I will definitely keep you in mind next time I have a cupcake need!)