A Month of Love: Day 28

Today is the last day in my “A Month of Love” series.
There were not enough days in the month of February to list all the things I love.
So on this, the last day of February, I will give a round up of some of the things I love.
Some, not all…
that would be an incredible long list.

• I love the sound and smell of rain
• I love the smile Riker gives me first thing in the morning
• I love the sound of Riker giggling
• I love to see TJ and Riker playing together
• I love the smell of lavender
• I love tulips
• I love going on walks
• I love Tuesday lunches
• I love candles
• I love new jeans…that fit!
• I love flip flops
• I love TJ’s crooked smile
• I love holding hands
• I love breakfast foods
• I love introducing Riker to new things
• I love going to restaurants
• I love jersey cotton sheets
• I love Mexican food
• I love cardigans
• I love pedicures
• I love taking vacations
• I love sandwiches
• I love singing songs to Riker
• I love hearing TJ sing songs to Riker
• I love the feeling I get when I successfully craft something
• I love finding money in my pockets
• I love Wetzels Pretzels
• I love Disney Sing Along Songs videos
• I love Lucky You perfume
• I love hand sanitizer
• I love craft blogs
• I love food blogs
• I love my blog
• I love your blog
• I love taking bubble baths
• I love Zumba
• I love the 80s
• I love sleeping in
• I love taking pictures of Riker
• I love weddings
• I love love

I know, it’s a long list…
and it isn’t even complete!
There are so many things and people that I love…
no blog post can ever encompass everything.
I just love love.

A Month of Love: Day 27

I love Nutella.
Maybe I buy the big 2-packs from Costco…
and maybe we go through them faster than we should.

My all-time favorite snack is apples with Nutella.
I try to convince myself that it’s totally a healthy snack…
you know, ‘cause it’s an apple.
Just don’t look at the calories.

Of course, sometimes I just need a chocolate fix.
That’s when I just grab a spoonful of Nutella.
I try to stick to just one spoonful…
but that stuff is addicting!

 

Bananas and Nutella crepes.
Perfection.
Someday, when I’m a supermom, my kiddos will eat these for breakfast.

 

And someday, when I am a superwife, I will plan a romantic dinner for my husband.
And I will serve these yummy Nutella Raviolis for dessert.

I don’t think there is a Nutella recipe that wouldn’t be fabulous.
Well, one time I tried to make Nutella cupcakes…
and failed.
But other than that, Nutella is perfection.
I love Nutella.

A Month of Love: Day 26

I love my mom.

How awesome is she!? 
Seriously, she’s amazing.

My mom is pretty much a superstar.
She’s crafty.
And creative.
And funny.
She taught me to work hard.
And (tried) to teach me how to cook and sew.

She loves her grandkids
and works really hard to make sure they love her too!

I love you, MOM!

A Month of Love: Day 25

I love my daddy.

He’s pretty much the greatest dad anyone could ever ask for.

*Not pictured: Calli. She wasn’t invited.
The father of 5 daughters, he is the strong silent type.

He was once described as a “tall, powerful man”
and I couldn’t agree more.
The mere sight of him can startle potential “suitors” away from his daughters.

 

However, my daddy is also a teddy bear.
He loves his grandkids…
and my sisters and I sometimes place bets on how long it will take him to cry during testimony meetings on Sunday.

My daddy is my favorite.
(And I’m pretty sure I am his favorite, too!)

A Month of Love: Day 24

I love teaching.
Did you know that I graduated from ASU in Elementary Education?
Well, I did.
I graduated December 2007…
Spring 2008 was spent substituting in different classes.
And finally, I landed my first (and only) teaching job for the 2008-2009 school year.
It was at a dream school, with dream teachers, and dream students.
Giving up this job to move to Ohio was hard.

I taught second grade.
My absolute favorite grade EVER.
Second graders are still little and cute and think their teacher is a hero…
but they are old enough to blow their own noses and work independently.
Please, our projects don’t include as much glue and glitter…
I despise glue and glitter.

Also, my team of teachers were PHENOMENAL!
I was hired one week before school started.
I was completely unprepared!
Luckily, I had these amazing ladies there to share lesson plans and worksheets and chocolate!

I miss teaching…
luckily, I can use the boxes and boxes of books and supplies I have to teach my own kids.
I love teaching.

A Month of Love: Day 23

I love my sisters.
I know I mentioned them on Day 9, but I thought they deserved their own post.

Aren’t they all so pretty!?

First, there is my oldest sister…Calli.

Calli is very funny.
We shared a bedroom for most of our lives,
and she would often keep me up late playing games she just made up in her head.
Once we got it a fight and she bought me flowers to say sorry.

My next sister is Lindsey.

   While we might not have gotten along when we were younger,
Lindsey is now one of my top four favorite sisters!
(At least she was…until she left me all alone in Ohio)
Sometimes we call her Nazi Mom…
but we all know that is the world ended tomorrow,
we could all live at Lindsey’s house and she would cook and clean for us.

Next, we have Summer.

Summer is my special sister.
I don’t think I have a single picture of Summer making a normal face.
But she makes me laugh.
And she lets me borrow her clothes, so points to her!

And now, my baby sister Jessica.

Jessica was adopted from a family that has a tan.
Just kidding, she’s not adopted…I’m just really white.
Jessica is (barely) taller than me.
She likes to remind me of this often.
She’s smart. And athletic. And pretty.

So yeah, I love my sisters.
They are definitely some of my favorite people.

A Month of Love: Day 22

I love the Food Network*.

We do not have cable,
but if we did it would always be set to the Food Network.
But don’t be fooled…
just because I like to watch shows about cooking doesn’t mean I actually do any cooking!

I like Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
Guy Fieri is kind of annoying, but the food always looks tempting!

TJ likes Giada.
Not necessarily because of her cooking…
he thinks she’s pretty.

We both have mixed feelings about Bobby Flay.
His food is awesome, but he seems pretty cocky.
Like, he knows he’s awesome.
But I still want to eat that burger.

Yes, I realize there are better ways to waste time than watching the Food Network…
but that’s one of the reasons why we don’t have cable!
I still love it, though!

*disclaimer: I do not love everything about the Food Network. Specifically, I do NOT love Emeril. He’s annoying. And while Paula Deen’s food is probably really good, I cannot stand to watch/listen to her…and her sons are dumb. Also, TJ thinks Sandra Lee is a drunk.

A Month of Love: Day 21

I love to play games.
Board games.
Card games.
Word games.
I love them all!
TJ likes playing games too, so we often have friends over to play.
(We only own, like, one game…so really we HAVE to invite friends over because they own the games we like to play)

Some of our favorites include:

(this is the only game we own…we call this one the Bean Game…we haven’t been able to play it for a while, because my neighbor Brett and I got into a heated debate over the rules…but I think we are finally able to put it past us and play again)

 

(We only play Settlers if someone has an expansion pack…because once you learn to play with an expansion, the regular game is kind of boring. Usually, we just play online with my sisters.)

Our friends, the Bodell’s, own pretty much every games ever made…
they were our favorite game night friends.
But then they abandoned us and moved back to AZ.
So we are now accepting applicants to be our new game night friends!
Do you love games?
Do you OWN games?
If so, you can schedule a game night with the Grier’s!
Because we love playing games!

A Month of Love: Day 20

I love The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

Have you seen this movie yet!?
If not, please watch it immediately.
(It is available to watch instantly on Netflix, btw)

It is a documentary about the fight between two men to be the world record holder in Donkey Kong.
Even if you have absolutely no interest in Donkey Kong
(or any other classic video games)
you cannot help but love this movie.

You will find yourself rooting for this guy:

Steve Wiebe.
He’s the good guy in this movie.
He plays DK in his garage with his son hanging off his neck.
All he wants is to be recognized for his high score…
but SOMEONE keeps messing things up for him.

And that someone, is Billy Mitchell.

Billy Mitchell is the bad guy in this movie.
He set the DK high score in 1982 and will do whatever it takes to keep his title.

This movie has it all…
drama.
emotion.
You will laugh…you will cry…you will be grateful your husband isn’t a professional gamer.

Do yourself a favor and watch this movie.
You will love it.
I know I love it.

A Month of Love: Day 19

I love cherry chapstick.

It is the ONLY chapstick that I will use.
There is always at least one tube in my bag…
and one in my bathroom…
and usually one turns up in the laundry.
"Never let your lips go naked.”

A Month of Love: Day 18

I love our iPad.

Thanks to my generous inlaws
(shout out to Thom and Deb!)
we got our iPad last summer.
When TJ first opened it, I didn’t understand his excitement.
My mind has since been changed.
I should really call it “my iPad”…
I’m pretty sure I use it a LOT more than TJ does.

Let me tell you why I love MY iPad.
First up, Words With Friends.

Really, its just Scrabble.
But thanks to the wifi connection, I can play scrabble with people who live far away from me!
(You can also play with a complete stranger, if you want!)
If you have an iPhone or iPad, download this game.
Then we can play together.

Another reason why I love the iPad is because Riker loves the iPad.

 

Sometimes, Riker is kinda whiny…
and one of the easiest ways to entertain him is with the iPad.
Don’t judge me.
I downloaded an app called Zoola for Riker.

When you touch a picture of an animal, you can hear the sound that animal makes.
Riker’s favorite is the dog.
My favorite is the giraffe.

Other apps that I frequently use are:

iBooks

 

Amazon Kindle

 

Plants vs Zombies

World of Goo

When bedtime rolls around, TJ is often reading a book on our Kindle and I’m reading a book (or playing a game) on the iPad.
I love it.

A Month of Love: Day 17

I love the zoo.
Specifically, the Columbus Zoo.
This should not be a surprise…
I blogged about trips to the zoo here and here and here.

But I was reminded of my zoo love today…
because I WENT to the zoo!
It has been way too long.
The snow and cold and ice have kept us indoors for too long.
But when I heard today’s forecast
(60 degrees!)
I knew a trip to the zoo was a must!

It was cloudy,
and still a bit chilly,
but it was lovely to be outside again!
Riker still didn’t care too much about the animals
but, as usual, loved the fishes.
But this time, he also loved watching the gorillas and bonobo monkeys.

No new pictures were taken today,
since we have a MILLION pictures of Riker at the zoo.

But new pictures or not, we still LOVE the zoo!

A Month of Love: Day 16

I love my diaper bag.

When Riker was born, I bought the least expensive diaper bag in the store.
And I hated it.

See it hanging on the stroller…
my sadface is because I broke my flip flop right as I stepped out of my car at the mall…but also because I don’t like my diaper bag.

It looked like a diaper bag (which I hated)…
and didn’t have enough pockets…
and I just didn’t like it.

See  it behind all the kiddos?…what a sad looking bag…but what a cute looking baby!
After using that awful diaper bag for the first few months of Riker’s life,
I decided to just purchase a big purse to use instead of my ugly diaper bag.

See my orange purse?…I like it because it is orange…and has lots of pockets…but it’s too small.
For a while, my purse worked just fine.
I could fit my diaper case, bottles, and formula in my purse.
But as Riker has grown, so has the list of items I need to carry with me.
I now carry sippy cups, snacks, diapers, toys, books…
plus, all of my own stuff!
After looking online for “diaper bags that don’t look like diaper bags”
(because I really don’t like the way diaper bags look)
I found this bag:

The Skip Hop Studio Bag in Charcoal Dot.
After dropping several (not so subtle) hints to TJ,
this bag now belongs to ME!
So far, I have zero complaints about this bag.
It has a LOT of pockets…
10 to be exact.
Plenty of space for all of Riker’s stuff
and all of my stuff
and all of TJ’s stuff that he randomly stuffs in there.
I love it.

A Month of Love: Day 15

I love Piada.

The first time TJ and I went to Piada, we thought it was yummy…
but we weren’t in love.
But when our friends Andy and Lisa came to visit we took them to Piada…
and ever since then, we’ve been infatuated!
Piada is the name of the restaurant…
but piada is also the name of the flatbread wrap.
(Piada the restaurant also has pasta bowls and salads…but I always get a piada)
It is something that I crave on a regular basis.
They must put an additive chemical in it to make me “crave it fortnightly.”
If you live in Cbus and haven’t been to Piada yet, go!
You will thank me, I promise!
If you do not live in Cbus, come visit me and I will take you there.

Seriously. Piada is delicious!

Know what today is?

Yes, it is Valentine’s Day…
but that’s not what I’m talking about.
Today is Arizona’s birthday!

I think by now we all know how much I love Arizona.
In honor is AZ’s 99th birthday,
I have found a few gifts that I would like!

First up, this necklace found here.

If I can’t live in  Arizona, I would love to wear this beauty!

Also, I would like this shirt found here.

Even though my family now lives in G-town,
I will always be from Mesa.

Oh, and if someone can figure out a way to send me a Chicken Mango Quesadilla from Gecko Grill…
that would be fantastic.

Happy birthday, Arizona!