"get to know me monday." - w.3

so i have a quite few questions that were left unanswered from my "ask my anything" post way back before the vacay.  i've been meaning to answer them because they were all really good ones, so i'm gonna pick a few & answer them each monday for the next few weeks.

an anonymous poster asked:

"i often see washington state university related things on your blog - what is your affiliation with the school & would you want p-ray to go there someday?  GO COUGS & ALOHA!"

you probably see wsu stuff all over the blog because i'm a proud {crazed} alumni.  sam & i met at wsu & were married just before our last semester there.  i have nothing but happy memories of pullman & we always try to make it back at least once a year for a football or basketball game.  and?  i may or may not have been known to be a wsu basketball groupie.  no big deal.

would i want p-ray to go there some day?  sure!  if that's the school he chose.  i'd be pretty happy if he chose a division one pac-10 school like wsu.  but i'm pretty sure he's a genius & will be able to go to any school he wants.  we'll see.

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shawntae from a little king & i asked:

"if you won a million dollars, what would you do with it?"

ooooh, i really really hope i am faced with this scenario some day!  half would go to moving my family somewhere warm.... let's say so-cal.  the other half would be saved up so that sam could retire early.  let's say at 40.  boring & responsible?  i don't even care... the thought still makes me giddy.

but first?  i would take my family on a long, warm, australian vacay.  and then maybe we wouldn't come back.
meh, being responsible isn't always what it's cracked up to be.

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Erinn {via email} asked:

"how do you feel about vaccines?  did you follow the AAP guidelines, delayed schedule, or defer them altogether?"

alright, i've been a bit nervous about answering this one.  i want to give an opinionated yet non-controversial answer.  is that possible?  here goes.

in short:  i'm pro-vaccines.  i feel strongly that vaccinations have saved lives & have dang-near eradicated some pretty scary illnesses.  illnesses that i sure wouldn't want p-ray getting.  however, when given a choice, i always opt to give parker as few vaccines as possible at once.  if i'm given the option, i'll do some vaccines at his well-baby check up & then come back in a month for the rest.  i've heard of some babies getting six vaccines at once, & i feel like that is totally unnecessary.  parker's never had more than two or three at a time.

in summary?  vaccinate.  measles & mumps are not words i want to be in parker's vocabulary.

{four day old parker ray}

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ok, that's it for now!  i'll answer more questions next monday.  if you have questions, go ahead & ask 'em in the comments or send me an email & i will try to answer them in the order they've been asked.  i'll just keep on doing these posts on mondays as long as i have questions to answer!

thanks friends.

click twice to make my day.  that is seriously all. it. takes.

weekday recap - {in iPhone pics}

monday

monday night we went over to our besties for pizza, monday night football, & so parker could get his kaylee fix.  all this girl has to do is glance at him & he's all giggles & mush.  oh to be young & in love.

tuesday

p-ray & i had some errands to run so we met sam for lunch at panera.  it might look like sam is feeding parker a napkin, but really, it's the opposite.  he's frantically pulling it out of his mouth.  this kid sucks up every random object within reach faster than you can say pica. 

wednesday

wednesday was about one thing & one thing only.  new camera day.  parker & i hung out all day long waiting anxiously for the ups man to bring me my second baby.  we may have spent the whole day in our jammies, & i may have been too anxious to put on any makeup... apparently.

if you missed new camera day, check out all the excitement here.

thursday

thursday is my one day a week in the office.  here i am wearing adult clothes {aka: something other than a hoodie & jeans} & hanging out in my cubicle.  sam stays home with parker for the first half of the day & then he goes to a sitter for the second half.

see how much parker misses me?  he does, i can tell.  i can see it in his eyes.  he's miserable without me.

friday

bloggy baby playdate day.  we met up with melissa, rowan & stella, mandy & bennett, jill & corbin, & amanda & elliott for some baby play time & some mama chit chat. more on this tomorrow.

as p-ray & i drove home during rush hour, our one hour drive turned into a two & a half hour drive.  awesome.  seattle.  traffic.  luckily parker was so tuckered out he slept most the way.

once we got home we snuggled up on the couch in our pj's & watched the cougs play some basketball on the telly.  which brings me to my next point, make sure you say a little prayer so that good will prevail & the cougs beat the huskies today in the apple cup.  GO COUGS.

did you take your "week in camera phone" pictures? 
there's only one rule to linking up... your pictures have to be taken by your camera phone.  that's it! you don't even have to have a picture for every day.  got one camera phone pic of something fun from this week?  link up!

grab the code below & put it in your post to have the linky with all the thumbnails show up on your blog too.  the more kids who come out to play, the more fun it will be, right?

grab the code here:

<script src="http://www.linkytools.com/thumbnail_linky_include.aspx?id=60226" type="text/javascript"></script>

...and get on the linky here:



and i'd love it if ya voted here.  it just takes two clicks & can be considered your good deed for the day. thanks friend.

flashback friday: {animal adventures}

to say i loved my time at washington state university would be an understatement.  my time at wsu changed my life forever.  i discovered who i was there.  i became independent.  i grew up. 

while there, i majored in wildlife ecology.  best. major. ever.  i always wanted to do something with animals, conservation, the planet, global warming, climate change, save the world, yadda yadda yadda.  i had so many amazing opportunities while going to school at wazzu & will never forget them.

{these pics come at ya circa 2004 - 2006. ish.}

{1} working at the vet school - inserting an iv catheter into a dog {2} monitoring anesthesia on same dog {3}  holding a rare & threatened pygmy rabbit {4} playing with a bear cub - yes he takes a paci {5} field trip to study big horned sheep - sheep in background. see me? {6} holding "kessie" - an american kestrel

i love that i'm able to continue to work part-time as an ecologist & use my hard earned degree.  

oh, & i love that the cougs are totally gonna beat the huskies in the apple cup tomorrow.  GO COUGS!

not a cougar? that's ok, nobody's perfect.  your vote makes you pretty cool though.

vay-cay-shun & september blog-a-thon

first & foremost i am SO excited about the poster giveaway!  thanks to all who have entered so far & for all your votes & fun comments.  i tried to reply back to everyone who's entered so far either in the comments of the last post or on your own blog.  it's been a blast to see who stops by our little corner of the blogosphere. 

this week p-ray & i are hanging out in utah with my fam.  sam had to stay back in washington & keep bringing home the bacon.  boooooooooooooooooooooooooo.  we miss him. you can tell i mean it from all those "o"'s.

we're here for my sister heidi's wedding tomorrow... wedding bells are ringing & last minute arrangements/preparations/planning chaos is filling up the air. it's been fun.

i have no pictures of the trip thus far because i haven't wanted to mess with loading and editing pics on my parents' computer, so i am going to give you this little bit of eye candy:


what has two thumbs & loves a chubby baby in cougar gear?  this girl!  (said while pointing to oneself with thumbs.  you can imagine).

september blog-a-thon

not sure why i'm doing this as i'm not sure if i'm up for the challenge.  but i'm doing it.  a blog-a-thon.  what is a blog-a-thon you ask?  it's where a bunch of ocd bloggers get together & make a pact to blog every day for a month.  that's what's happening at this blog for the month of september.  find out more here:

feel free to hop on the bandwagon or tell me i'm crazy for trying. 

and lastly, feel free to keep on signing up for our p-ray poster giveaway here.  it goes on until september 6 so hop on the bandwagon already, yo.




you guys. we're climbing fast! thank you thank you thank you for your continued daily votes ;)

flashback friday

today i'm starting what may or may not be a regular friday thing, depending on my mood. but i've seen people do it on other blogs & i'm gonna give it a go because that's the kind of control you have when you get your own blog. it's an amazing amount of power. i pretty much know how obama feels.

anywho, for today's flashback friday i take you waaaayyy back. way back to may of 2006.


graduation day. sam & i both graduated from washington state university (go cougs!) in the fine little town of pullman, wa. those were the days. not that these aren't the days too, but those were some days.

we had been married for 5 months by this point, and lived in our first little apartment for $420/month. it was right under beasley coliseum where we could walk 2 minutes to class, the rec center, sam's intramural football/softball/basketball games, many many cougar basketball games, & of course cougar football games. so many fun memories in pullman.

one of my favorite memories is walking home between classes through wind, rain, & snow during the horrible pullman winter to meet sam at our apartment for grilled cheese & soup lunch. this happened often... we really liked grilled cheese & soup. and it was cheap.

we moved from pullman the day after graduation to begin careers in our field; civil engineering for sam, wildlife ecology for me. graduated life has been good to us, but it's always fun to take a look back at the beginning.

and that was my first flashback friday! this is probably the beginning of something awesome. or a one hit wonder. either way, it was a good time.



top baby blogs... vote! vote! vote!

29 Weeks & I'm a Super Fan

Every now and then I have to remind the world what a huge Cougar I am (and no, not the kind that likes younger men). And when times are tough (can you say Football season 2009? *tear*) I even occasionally have to remind myself. But I have a feeling the winds are a-changin. Yup, you can expect some pretty good things out of WSU B-ball these next few years. Mark my words.

So I was just thinking about two years ago this weekend Sam and I embarked on one of our Top 10 funnest road trips. We spent Valentine's Weekend 2008 as WSU Cougar Basketball groupies.

The Cougs were playing the Oregon schools and we decided to hit up both games and visit the coast, too. It was a blast. And WSU won both games... so worth it. This was also the year we made it into the Sweet 16. Man, those were the days.

I love me some Cougar Basketball. And this proves it:

Yup. We waited outside WSU's locker room for a good hour or so waiting for the guys to come out so I can have my obligatory groupie moment. It was amazing. And Sam was so proud. (Or maybe just extremely embarrassed... yeah, that's probably closer).

Go Cougs.

And, one last picture for good measure:

We had Dominoe boarded that weekend at a kennel where he came home all stinky and dirty. He was thrown into the bath and came out looking like this:

Ahh, I miss that little guy.

29 Weeks

So I've been pregnant for a few weeks OVER half a year now!! I'm getting big and pregnancy is getting painful. My body apparently doesn't handle all these changes too well, and most days I feel like an 80 year old woman, but it's still been a blast.

The baby things are starting to pile up around here and the heap of baby boy clothes is growing. And as much as I promised myself I would stop, I just can't help but buy the occasional pair of baby boy board shorts or little itty bitty miniature polo shirts for Sundays. Watch out ladies, this boy's gonna be a heartbreaker!

Until then, he's just making his momma grow... and I still have 11 more weeks. These pictures are getting more and more painful to put up! Hello not-so-cute-stage of pregnancy, my name is Amy. We'll be getting to know each other well.

When I Say "GO" You Say...

COUGS!!

Woohoo!! It's that time again, time for Cougar Football! Last weekend Sam, his sister and her husband (Jodi and Jason), Sam's Dad, and I continued on the tradition of going to the Cougar football game in Seattle. Every game day follows a distinct pattern, as follows:

1. Waking up early and watching "College Gameday" on ESPN and getting all excited about college football. We watch for the WSU flag being waved in the background by proud fellow Alumni and feel the pride of being Cougs.

2. Putting on my Coug gear. Consists of football jersey or WSU sweatshirt and hat or visor.

3. Driving to the game, honking and waving at other Coug fans who are also all dressed up and clearly going to the same game.

4. Getting to the stadium... everyone is excited, there is Cougar pride everywhere, and with every 10 minutes that go by the crowd cheers, "20 minutes til Cougar Football, Woooo!!!" until it's go time.

5. The team runs onto the field with a bang of the Cougar canyon, Butch T. Cougar is running around or driving on a 4 wheeler, cheerleaders are doing flips and other crazy things are going on.

*It should be noted, that this is the high point of the game usually, for most Coug fans... because from this point on, it's all downhill.

6. The game is played... this usually consists of many incompleted passes, or quite a few "3 and outs."

7. More often than not, the Cougs lose, we get so mad, and we go home.

8. Next Saturday comes, and we repeat.

Gotta love being a Cougar.


Sam and I at a point in the game where there must have still been some hope... we don't look totally distraught yet!

I'm clearly the only person still excited to be at the game at this point...

Jodi and Jason... so happy to be here!

Go Cougs!!