mama..mama you know I love you

Well after three months it finally came. I think it turned out good. Simple, yet perfect for my mom. She loved lilacs.

Motownphilly back again...doing a little east coast swing...

Can I just say the Boyz II Men concert was AWESOME!!!!



Man, they still got it, and we were thoroughly entertained for an hour and half....in fact in could have lasted forever as far as I was concerned. They sang hits from their first album to the present, and I couldn't stop singing, dancing, and smiling. We had the most amazing seats, literally 10 rows from the stage, and I got to share the experience with some of the most important people in my life.


10 years ago I was in beauty school at Bon Losee in Provo, UT and Boyz II Men were in concert at the Delta Center for their "Evolution" album. I really wanted to go, but had nobody to go with me. I was kind of friends with this girl Tamu at school, and thought maybe it would be fun to go with her, so I asked if she would come with me. Well the rest is history and we have been the best of friends ever since. Now, 10 years later, she flew up from Utah and came to the concert with me again. It was so awesome to have her there and helped ease the pain of not having the person who was supposed to be in that seat not there.

See my mom was supposed to go with me and my sister to the concert, and except for the one in Utah 10 years ago my mom had been with me the other 3 times I had seen Boyz II men. She was a huge fan, just like me. I missed her, but I'm pretty sure she was watching from some pretty dang good seats herself.

One of my mother's favorite songs, and mine as well, is "a song for mama" from Boyz II Men. They sang it at the concert, and I'm not gonna lie it was a little hard to get through. To intro the song they told the crowd to call their mom's or if their mothers were there to hold them close and sing this song to them. Kim and I just looked at each other, half smiled, and just listened to the song.

You taught me everything
And everything you've given me
I always keep it inside
You're the driving force in my life, yeah
There isn't anything
Or anyone I can be
And it just wouldn't feel right
If I didnt' have you by my side

You were there for me to love and care for me
When skies were grey
Whenever I was down
You were always there to comfort me
And no one else can be what you have been to me
You will always be you will always be the girl
In my life for all times

Chorus:
Mama, mama you know I love you
Oh you know I love you
Mama, mama you're the queen of my heart
Your love is like
Tears from the stars
Mama, I just want you to know
Lovin' you is like food to my soul

You're always down for me
Have always been around for me even when I was bad
You showed me right from my wrong
Yes you did
And you took up for me
When everyone was down on me
You always did understand
You gave me strength to go on

There was so many times
Looking back when I was so afraid
And then you come to me
And say to me I can face anything
And no one else can do
What you have done for me
You will always be
You will always be the girl in my life

Chorus

(My short video of their performance)


One of the highlights from the concert was during the song "I'll make love to you" (a classic Boyz II men jam). As in concerts before they passed out red roses to ladies in the audience, unfortunately I was always seated too far away to receive such an honor....but don't think that I don't have one in a vase in my family room right now....cause I do!



Thanks to Tamu.

She and Zandra (another friend that flew up for the concert) bolted up to the front and each received a rose (along with copping a little feel on Shawn's leg).

I was going to join them, but thought surrounding myself with a bunch of crazed female fans in order to get a flower would not be in my best interest at this time (cause you know I would have done what it took to get a flower). Luckily, I had Tamu who came back and gave me her flower....this is why I love her.

Oh what a night!

I want a ball...I want a party

This past Saturday was my baby shower and it turned out so nice I thought. I'm not the hugest fan of showers (bridal or baby), so I had a lot of rules for the party throwers. I wanted it to be pop culture based, entertaining, and fun. Hopefully everyone enjoyed themselves. We had some delicious food, that I couldn't stop eating, provided by my lovely Aunts (Becky, Peggy, and Lori) and my Grandma...thanks so much!
We talked for a bit


ate some food, played some games (including celebrity baby name memory, famous tv moms quiz, and a mega round of encore using the word "baby".




and then the crowd opened up presents. The idea of sitting there opening gifts while everyone stared at me was just not appealing to me, so I decided that the guests would open up the presents....I liked that a lot better.











I got a lot of cute stuff...seriously. Cute outfits, swimsuits, accessories, and blankets. Here is a quilt that my cousin-in-law Nena and Aunt Gail made for me. Nena took her inspiration from the dots that I had bought for the nursery walls and ran with it....I thought it turned out adorable. With the same fabrics she decorated some onesies, and made little booties....too cute.



Thank you to everyone who came and participated...and thank you so much for the gifts. Love you all!

To forget about life for a while...

I have to admit I'm not doing to well lately. It feels like all of the sudden this pregnancy thing has gone from "it's not so bad" to "my whole body hurts". I am tired all of the time and my body has now decided to be in pain. My ankles and feet are constantly swelling, and I don't think having a job where I sit all day is helping. And now my hands have decided to join the party. From the moment I wake in the morning my hands are tingling and halfway through getting ready I can't feel my fingers at all--this numbness comes and goes all throughout the day...although lately it's been more constant. Throughout the day my wrists get tighter and tighter, and have a shooting pain in them, again not helped my the fact that I sit at a computer and type all day. I really need to work, up until the last possible day for obvious financial reasons, but my body is really fighting me on it. And this is just adding to an already stressful time.

One of the reasons why I put off buying a house for so long, was that the commitment scared me. I like the thought that if needed I could call my renter, pack up my stuff, and move on a moments notice. Then I thought it was time to grow up and plant some roots. And the ironies of all ironies...now I need to pack up and move and can't. There has been no action on my house, not a single call to my real estate agent and I'm starting to really stress about it. I feel stuck in a house and a life that I can't handle and I'm slightly freakin out....and by slightly I mean a lot.

People say that everything will work out, but judging by the way my life has gone lately I don't know if that's realistic. We Bates kids don't exactly have the best luck with life lately, and I fear that things aren't gonna work out with all of this either. I'm trying to keep an open mind, but I'm also a realist....so who knows.

To make myself feel better, and to end this post on a positive note here is my

TOP 5 THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY RIGHT NOW:

1. Dole Pina Colada juice! I am a sucka for a good juice, and Dole rarely disappoints, (try the Pineapple, banana as well) but this new juice has got me trippin'.. it's so delicious.

2. The men of "sisterhood of the traveling pants 2" movie: what was that casting call like..."are you hot?" "do you have a washboard stomach?"...then yes you can be in this movie.



Although I think they did a serious casting FAIL (jared) with the british dude...seriously was there no hot british guy you could have gotten...i'm pretty sure there are tons of them, but no you get the one the overly british teeth and floppy hair. bad idea.

good thing the hot asian and the hot black artist more than made up for it.


3. Bravo network: I love reality shows, and although I try to avoid watching every thing on tv, sometimes I catch a marathon of a show and am instantly hooked. This past weekend I got caught up on "million dollar listing"....wow! These guys are such douches (there is a reason joel mchale makes fun of them on the soup), but I can't stop watching them. Project Runway and Shear genius are also rockin my world.

4. Summertime drinks at fast food restaurants: jack in the box has a divine list of fruit smoothies

taco bell is rockin the mango/strawberry frutista

and a&W has a delicious root beer freeze...add these to the BK Coke ICEE that I so love and we have enough delicious cold drinks to keep me satisfied all summer long.

5. Boyz II Men. I love having things to look forward to and in about one week I get to see my favorite group of all time in concert (my 5th time seeing them). I'm so stoked! The drive over to seattle probably won't be super awesome, but eating some good food, being with kimmie and my friends (my bestest good friend tamu is even flying up), and hearing Boyz II men sing their hits along with the sweet melodies of Motown will make it all worth it. Plus this is my last little adventure, probably for awhile, so I am going to enjoy every minute.

night swimming...deserves a quiet night...

I have been addicted to the olympics...and when I say olympics I mean....men's swimming. And when I say men's swimming I mean...

Michael Phelps!

I mean c'mon....not only is he an amazing swimmer but look at that torso...

God Bless America indeed!


I have also discovered that I am a one or two event watcher. In the winter olympics I dedicated myself to snowboarding and skiing and watched every event. This olympics it has been all about swimming. With Michael Phelps, Aaron Piersol (hot), Dara Torres, Cullen Jones, and Natalie Coughlin peeking my interest the most. I like watching the gymnastics, but it's all to "subjective" for me, and I get frustrated when I don't understand difficulty levels, and scoring. Thus I usually get check the scores first then rewind and watch the routine. To me, most of the routines look the same anyway, so at least I go into it knowing what the judges thought and then just being able to enjoy it. But with swimming...there was a clear winner and loser (even if it was by 1/100 of a second....sorry cavic). Now I'm focusing on track. Not all the events, cause honestly I couldn't care less about the javelin, diskus, and a lot of the jumps....I like the basic running (short distances especially). Now, those people are impressive.

that's the sound of the man working on the chain...gang

To all that can help:

Brigham and Dallin are starting the work on my yard On FRIDAY AT 10AM. If you are able to come over and help that would be awesome. Not quite sure what they are doing with it, but the more hands the better! Again, food and beverages will be provided.

there's a party going on right here...a celebration to last throughout the years...

My baby shower announcements went out to those in the area and who we thought could attend...but I wanted to post them here for everybody to see. If you are going to be around and want to come, feel free to join the party! I also wanted to give a big shout-out to my sister Kimmie for putting the cover together...I think it turned out amazing! Em and I came up with the inside content, and I think it turned out pretty darn awesome. Yeah us!!

Throw every last care away...Let's go to the mall today

Just wanted to show off some of the cute things that I have bought for baby.

This is the cute moses basket that I bought to use for the first few months. It takes up less space than a crib and is pretty darn handy to have from what I hear. It was difficult finding a dark moses basket as most of them are the light wicker....but I wanted the chocolate one to match everything else I have decor wise.


As suggested by Melanie, of the best stroller, I looked online and purchased the Graco Mosaic stroller.

I got the limited edition Cynthia Rowley pattern, since I love her style.

This stroller can be used even with newborns cause it reclines, which makes it even more awesome. Plus it's lightweight and collapses to a good travel size. I love it.
My favorite part of the design....


the cute fringe along the top!

sidenote***

This has nothing to do with the above post, but it needed to be mentioned anyway. Nigel often says things on SYTYCD that either don't make sense, are trying to be funny but fail, or tries to be hip and ends up embarrassing. Last night he said this...

"one thing that separates humans from the rest of the animals on the planet is their sense of humor."
The one thing Nigel? really?

i'm holding out for a hero...

I sent out the call and the men have answered. On August 16th there will be a little "lawn project" at my house headed up by Brigham Shaw and his brother Dallin. I am putting everything into their hands, so whoever is willing to help them with labor and what not I'm sure it will be greatly appreciated. I will be providing moral support..... along with food and beverages! Exact start time is unknown at this point, but i would imagine it would begin early so to be done early...right?

Anyway thanks to everyone who is willing to help....it means alot!! Love ya.

Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

So people keep asking....what's your colors for your nursery?

Well officially there is no nursery yet but here is what i am going to do when the whole housing thing gets figured out.





I got these dots, that are the hip new trend, off the internet and plan on doing some cool patterns with them on the walls. Plus they pretty much totally explain my color scheme.
Bold, funky, and modern!