cuuuute!

So I got this text message from Randy earlier last week. He was in Wal-Mart helping a coworker pick up some patio furniture.

It said,

"Can I buy this?"

with this picture...


Someone is becoming a softie!

And I stinkin' love it!

Shame

I just ate pickles and blazing buffalo doritos...together.

I'm so embarrassed (and yet so satisfied!)

What is happening to me?

Things I know...

1) My house has never been messier.

2) Embarrassingly enough, I have served more dinners from the frozen food section than I have in all my years of cooking.

3) My tummy seems to grow overnight.

4) I am so emotional. I even cry during commercials.

5) Varicose veins keep popping up...

6) I know what a sciatic nerve is and how the pain can interfere with your sleeping.

7) Sleeping on your side is not comfortable.

8) I need to push a porta potty around because the amount of times I have to pee has increased by 75%.

9) My mom is the most excited person I know currently. She even kisses my belly when she sees me. Yah, she's a little nuts over this, but we were expecting this!

10) Our family and friends have been such a huge support to us. We are so blessed!

11) My nails could be in a Sally Hansen photo advertisement! I have never had pretty nails.

12) I am hungry even after I just eat a meal. I'm hungry really all the time.

13) My face is currently the size of a bowling ball. See reason number 12.

14) I feel tired even after sleeping all night.

15) I am overwhelmed with everything that needs to get done.

16) It's all going to be so worth it! This baby is very loved already! We truly don't deserve His grace, mercy, and blessings.

Big, no, HUGE NEWS!!!

I'm going to be a mom!!!!!

God has been so faithful through this journey. Randy and I truly don't deserve His blessings. We are just in awe of the little miracle growing inside of me. It even does little dances on the ultrasounds.

He/She does not get his dancing skills from his daddy:)

We are expecting to meet Little Lueders on December 27th!

Prayers are greatly appreciated! This pregnancy thing is stressful!


AAghahahahahahaggghahahahaholqj0oeijrljkvoiwajeroijlaksmvlczzmotjroqjlvmbouq!!!!

See above for my level of excitement!

Left Out

Am I the only one not into Harry Potter?

I mean it's border line ridiculous.

People are even wearing the little Harry glasses.

Yesterday, my friend and I saw "Cars," which was nothing short of fabulous!

Side note: Favorite line: "Do not eat the Pistachio ice cream. It has turned." Gosh I love Mater!

Anyway, we saw the 2 o'clock matinee. There were people wrapped around the ticket office sitting on the pavement and in their Academy folding chairs. What??????

They were waiting to see the 12:01 showing of Harry Potter.

It was a 105 degrees yesterday afternoon! People were camped out in a long line waiting to see a movie that will still be showing for weeks!

I don't get it!

I need to read these books. They must have like dollar bills hidden between those pages.

Completely Different

Food Network and I have bonded!

Mopac and I have watched every possible episode over these past four weeks! I can't believe I have to go back to work on Monday:(

My favorite show is "Restaurant Impossible."

Randy and I are hooked! I love Robert Irvine and his toughness as he tells people their restaurant is crap and their food sucks! The premise of the show is that a restaurant is about to go under. Robert Irvine is their last attempt to turn things around. He comes in and assesses, gives his review (often brutal, yet hilarious), revamps the menus, trains the cooks, and redesigns the whole restaurant with his design team. They show an end clip with an update such as "four months after the show, blah blah."

It is fabulous!

Right now, I am watching "Giada at Home." She is making a "simple" kid friendly meal for her daughter's music class who is coming over to bang on instruments as they call it music.

Her kid friendly menu is completely different than what my mom served my brother and me.

She's serving wagon wheel pastas with pancetta and peas.

My mom served us fun wagon wheels too. But she topped ours with chili and cheese! Man, I miss that meal!

Giada is also just throwing together mini lamb chops and homemade ketchup.

I have never had lamb to this day. We never had this at Little Bo Peep day care either. Oh and the ketchup thing, remember that green ketchup? My mom was cool enough to let us buy that gross stuff. Thanks Mom!

Lastly, Giada is rounding out the meal with pbj crepes. The whole toddlers and crepes combination is just as common as toddlers and cheerios!

I didn't know what a crepe was until "Talladega Nights" came out. Thanks Will Ferrell!

Man, what little kid wants to go to her daughter's birthday party?
I'm guessing it won't be at Mickey D's!

Highlight of the week!

I'm seeing Cars 2 with Jana today! I love matinee prices! You don't feel as guilty paying for your popcorn then. Because there will definitely be popcorn!

Viva Las Vegas

We are back from vacation!!!

More importantly, Mopac and I are reunited. All is well in the world again!

We had a great time, but I'm glad to be home. I now feel like a Vegas Veteran because I learned a lot on the trip!

1) Vegas is expensive! Whoa, we paid 20 bucks for two six-inch Subway sandwiches, 2 bags of chips, and 2 sodas.

2) Why were we eating at Subway?
Because the food sucks!
We were so tired paying 30-40 dollars for LUNCH and being super disappointed. In fact, even the Buffet was disappointing.

Here we are in the fabulous Bellagio casino/hotel, and I am starving!!!! We're there for the low priced lunch, $19.99. At night it was $29.99.

So I'm expecting nothing short of spectacular.

I look at Randy's plate after we sat down from the buffet.

He had iceberg lettuce, shredded cheddar cheese, croutons, and ranch dressing.
Additionally, a piece of pepperoni pizza, (so far, we could be at Mr. Gatti's and no one could tell the difference) a mini hamburger slider, one roasted new potato, and a piece of flank steak (one of the cheapest cuts of beef).

What are we doing eating here?

P: "Randy is that all you're going to eat?"
R: "I didn't like anything else up there."

Grrreattt! We were officially ripped off! I can't get mad. We don't really have very distinguished palates. Granted, my plate was a little better. I had asparagus! But still not enough to make up 20 bucks. The thing is with buffets is you must like seafood in order to get your money's worth. Well, Randy and I don't eat seafood, any of it. So we didn't partake in the large sushi bar or the boiled shrimp or the other 5 seaweed smelling dishes. And we also passed on the lamb. And my mom could have showed them a thing or two about their carved turkey breasts. I would have also liked more veggie choices than just asparagus, new potatoes, mushrooms, and corn.

See I could go on and on.

The point is we're not really Bellagio buffet people. We're more "ooh that food court has Subway, Taco Bell, and Wendy's all in one" kinda people.

3) If you have children, particularly babies, bring them to Vegas.
It must be a rule, "Have stroller, must come to the strip." Because babies love Vegas. All those nudie pictures lying on the sidewalk, the blazing heat, cigarette smoke...Heck, who said it was just an Adult Disney World.

4) The shows are incredible. Hands down, my favorite part of Vegas. Even Randy loved the shows. Those Cirque de Soleil people are freaks of nature. They could contort themselves into these pretzel shapes and then lift a 200 lb person in the air with their left foot. I mean, it was insane. The whole time we were in a trance! We saw Mystere! I never oohed and aahed at a show before this one.

5) David Copperfield is a genius. I loved, loved, loved him! He's really funny too! His last trick started off by throwing inflatable beach balls into the audience. He had 12 of them, and the instructions were to bounce them around the auditorium including to the people in the back. Yah, hello, the cheap seats should get some fun too. (They obviously missed this memo. A beach ball never came within 5 rows of us.) When the music stopped, if you were still holding a beach ball, you were called on stage. (Never mind, I'm glad they missed the memo.)

These 12 people sat on an elevated stage. It had a camera behind the stage, so we could see what was going on and an elevated bottom (i.e. no trap bottom or escape through stage). He draped a sheet over the elevated stage, and abbra cadbra, they were gone! They were standing in the back of the auditorium.

NO FREAKING WAY!!!! It happened within 5 seconds. We're still scratching our heads.

6) I just used the words "abbra cadbra" for the first and possibly last time in my blog.

back to the list...

7) The Hoover Dam was slightly interesting and a whole lot of boring. I was interested for the first 20 seconds I saw it. The vastness and size of the structure is incredible. And it's purpose is vital for water distribution in the Southwest. But after that, it was more like "yah di, yah di, yah di."

Randy basically had his Christmas in July. He was so excited!

8) I love Roulette! Put it on black!!!!!

9) I never walked so much in my life. Okay maybe at summer orientation when we walked UT's campus about a gazillion times. My feet were so ticked at me! Randy was even doing leg stretches in the hotel. Seriously, we walked a ton!

10) Randy is really lucky! I mean extremely lucky. His only complaint (besides the food) was he wished he had more time to gamble. Cha-ching!!!

(Note: when I say lucky, I don't mean like a couple of grand. I mean like a couple of hundred! We pretty much cashed out when we were fifty dollars up. Did I care the dealer smirked when I bet only 12 dollars? Absolutely not! People spend money like water! Debt is a national problem people. They need to pass out those "gamblers anonymous cards" when you land in Vegas. They even have slots in the airport!)

We had a great time! I can officially say I've seen Las Vegas. "National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation" will mean much more to me now when I watch it.

Vegas Baby!!!

I'll be taking a picture with this sign tomorrow!

Our vacation begins bright and early with a 7:25 flight.

Today is the not so fun laundry, paying bills, cleaning house, and packing!

I'm ready for a vacation!

And I already miss my sweet girl! Mopac is staying with her Mimi! It's been two whole days, and I'm going nuts without her here with me. It's going to be a whole week until I see her sweet face!!!

Have a great week:)

If you hear me screaming from Vegas, that means I hit it big in the casinos or that the Bellagio buffet that Food Network ranked as the best buffet in Vegas really is number 1!