Like Winning the Lottery

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I know we sure did! What I love just as much as Christmas morning, are some of the fantastic sales after. I really believe in using coupons and shopping for the best price on something. Nothing like a sale with an additional discount to make your day :) It bothers me that stores can sell something at one price and the next day it can be sold at a different price. Wrong, just wrong I tell ya.
So let me tell you about my latest winning against corporate America. I heard that Bath and Body Works was in the process of changing their packaging which means they have to get rid of what they have now. I went to their website and indeed-y-do, there's a sale. $3 soap, lotions and other things!!! On top of that I found a $10 coupon off of a purchase of $40 (or more). I dragged Nathan into the store, found yummy lotions, a great deal on soaps and even managed to get coconut lotion up the nose in the process. (I had to pick the one bottle that hadn't been opened yet and must of been pressurized during shipping to Denver. Ahh!) All in all it was like taking candy from a baby. I purchased $126 worth of stuff and only paid $35! I felt like jumping up and down and shouting boo-yah to the cashier.

I-ronical! (thanks Grizz)

I don't think that one could fully understand/appreciate the previous post and how much we love these pumpkin pie shakes. Tonight, we went to get our last one until next year. We were asked if we would like to donate a $1 to help fight Juvenile Diabetes - at the fast food drive through!? We had a good laugh at the irony. (And, yes we did donate our $1)

Autumn deliciousness!

PUMPKIN PIE FROZEN CUSTARD! If you live by a Good Times I suggest you go get yourself a scoop right now! Right this very minute! (It's so good we had some last weekend and had to go back again last night.) Oh, and it's super yummy if you make it into a spoon bender with cheesecake pieces added in. (drool...)

  

Happy Halloween!

Here's what we did for Halloween - a spooky dinner!

Spooky eyeball tacos

Nathan's impersonation of a spooky eyeball taco

Bat chips and dip

Candycorn cupcakes

All by romantic candlelight of haunted houses.

The "E-Lemon-ator"

Props to Nathan for winning his fight on Friday by TKO! He's still undefeated and has acquired the new nickname the E-Lemon-ator from my family. (Honey, I'm very proud of you. However, I will not be carrying a "belt" above my head while walking behind you.)

Monday? Already?

How many times can I hit the snooze button?

Las Vegas

This is where we were for the last couple of days. It was rough sitting by the pool enjoying the sun, drinking strawberry daiquiris (virgin of course) and thinking how nice it was not to be at home...with the snow.

Barker Day's

We took Duncan to doggy day at the pool. He loved it as you can see by the pictures.

How's that for retriving?

Diamonds ARE a girls best friend...(thanks to a good husband)

This is my wedding ring (minus the solitaire stone - I'll explain in a minute). I love it and could not imagine parting with it because of it's significance. :(
Back in April, I was putting on my 7 year itch ring that Nathan had given me (Apparently you're suppose to itch or get a rash or something around year 7!?) and I noticed one of the stones was wobbling. Ahh! So we made a point to head downtown to the jeweler's to have it fixed. We use only this jeweler because 1. His quality of jewelry is amazing! 2. He doesn't mass produce everything assuring that you won't find someone else with the exact same ring or necklace. 3. He was Nathan's seminary teacher so he's gotta be somewhat trustworthy. ;0) Anywho, while we were there I got to browsing and found a ring that I fell in love with. When we went in a few weeks later to pick up my other ring, I was asked if I wanted "visitation" with the other ring. Heck ya I do! So, I tried it on again. At this point Nathan was asking, "What's a good gift for a 10 year anniversary?" Their response, "Diamonds!" (Gotta love that place!) So, they suggested taking my center stone out of the wedding band and adding it to the new ring. So, voile! I still have my original ring that I love and a new fancy shmancy one!

These pictures do not do justice to their sparkley -ness.

Happy 10 years and 1 month Nathan! :)

Mt. Massive

Last weekend, Duncan and I went up to the mountains with about 15 of my coworkers to climb Mt. Massive. It is one of 60 or so 14ers here in Colorado that I never even considered trying to summit, even though I have grown up here.

The hike was great and very tiring for both dog and human. We didn't quite make it all the way to the top, but it was still a great experience with some great scenic views.

Here is a quick blerb on Mt. Summit, then three pictures for the public viewing pleasure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt_massive

Lemon Choo

Jimmy ain't got nothin' on my shoe fashion!


Sassy and stylish no?
I get to wear this little number for at least 6 weeks. About a month ago I "bruised" my foot while kickboxing with my trainer. Of course I ignored the pain and have be keeping up with my normal workouts including meeting with the trainer. Today, I finally gave in and saw the Podiatrist - the bruise was indeed a stress fracture. She is optimistic that it will heal in about 6 weeks. Me too, this thing seriously weighs almost as much as me. Good news out of all of this? It makes my other calf look super small!

Lifesavers

This weekend we went hiking at Castlewood Canyon with the dog. Before we left, Nathan had to stop at a convenience store to grab something to drink. Running inside he asked if I would like anything and I said, "Sure, I would like some Lifesavers." Not a complicated request, but one that was not fulfilled. He came back with a roll of (gasp) Certs!!! This is the conversation that followed:

N: They didn't have any Lifesavers.
D: What? Not even in a big bag?
N: Oh, I didn't think look.
D: Really? You've been in this family for how long and you didn't find any Lifesavers?

Let me explain myself Lucy. My family has a serious love for Wint-o-green Lifesavers. There are a few places that they are expected to be located: candy dish in the kitchen at my parents, a large bag in the storage room and a generous handful in my dad's coat pocket at church. After the sacrament, we are given our "adult cheerios". (same shape and they keep us quite)

So, not getting my Lifesavers was disappointing to say the least. But, it did help me come up with this doozy - I think I could repackage Lifesavers and sell them to church goin' folk. They will be called.....SacraMINTS!

The Netflix Theory

So I have this theory, that somehow, someday, I am going to make a ton of money doing what everyone else is doing which is taking something someone else already built/created/is selling and make it better. I don't think you have to reinvent the wheel, just make the wheel better. Here are a few examples of how this common business practice is already in place:

They took what Blockbuster was doing and made it easier for all of us to be lazier. Instead of having of going to a store to rent an overpriced movie, you can have three overpriced movies at a subscription price which is more than you ever paid Blockbuster in a month.

See their entire store...the re-sell everyone else's product.

They make it easier for everyone to write down random thoughts and share them with people over the web instead of having to sit through dinner or a date to hear the same random thoughts.

These guys took the most annoying feature of Facebook (which took a page from MySpace) and made a whole new website out of it. Now you can only update one simple question, "What are you doing now"....and that is it...and they make money somehow. I must admit, it is addicting to write 140 characters of random crap every few hours, even though you know nobody is reading it or cares.

To get the brainstorming session going, I will volunteer the first idea. If you choose to re-invent my idea, just know that I am an undefeated boxer...so top that.

A New Modern Toilet Bowl

Think about it. There are a lot of smart engineering people in the world...there has to be a way to build a toilet bowl that doesn't leave streaks or that doesn't create splash back. I mean, this is a problem in every home, office and public restroom. The first person to solve this challenge will be rich I tell you...spiritually rich that is!

Now you must comment with your ideas or be blocked from our blog forever.

Mr. & Mrs. Lemon

Happy 4th of July from the Lemons! (better late then never)

This picture came from my sister - my family felt the need to have stand-ins for us since we did not venture to Idaho for the weekend. The accommodations weren't that great (a small disposable Tupperware bowl for the two of them/us) but we made it to a pancake breakfast, parade and took a ride in a helicopter!

Mother Nature

Can you tell what type of flowers these are were?


Thanks to mother nature and her generous helping of this:

My once beautiful flowers are now flower confetti. I guess one could say, "All hail broke loose!" Curses to you Mother Nature.

SYTYCD

By show of hands, who's excited about the new season starting tonight??

Fight Night

Last night, Nathan had his first amateur boxing match. Thanks to everyone that came out to support him. There were a lot of friends there for what we like to call "Team Lemon". Thanks to Jordan for taking the pictures so I could nervously watch.

Tap gloves and fight! (Nathan is in the blue)

Nathan landing a good jab.

And the winner, in the blue corner, Nathan Lemon!

Trainers Rolando, Miah, Nathan and me


Nathan, his trophy and trophy wife :)

Mama said knock you out...

The following people and events are true.
Nathan goes to a sparring class during the week. Basically you get in the ring with another guy and have at it at full steam. Less than a minute into it on Thursday, Nathan knocked Joe* out. Saturday morning, we walk into the gym and the first thing we hear from the front desk guy is "Hey there knockout." Nathan turns to me and says, "See, I wasn't making it up." (I feel that I should interject here, at no point did I doubt the story.) According to the front desk guy, Nathan must have got Joe good because Joe went to a meeting on Friday morning with the store manager and later on in the day asked if he was going to have a meeting with the manager - forgetting that it had already taken place.
Then the instructor came over and said that she heard about sparring class. Apparently, this is the talk of the town!
So, do any of you remember playing the Telephone Game where someone whispers something to one person who whispers to the next and so on until it reaches the last person? Things always ended up different. At this point, I imagine that the story has become more of a tall tale. For that reason, I have been calling Nathan, Wallace, as in William Wallace whose reputation was exaggerated. (I've heard he's seven feet tall! Yes, I've heard. Kills men by the hundreds. And if HE were here, he'd consume the English with fireballs from his eyes, and bolts of lightning from his arse.)

*The name of this person has been changed to protect their identity and minimize jabbing (ha, ha) comments.

Je suis M. Bonhomme de neige.

This is one way of putting off laundry and cleaning today. I did consider putting one of my swimsuits on it with a beach towel in protest of yet another spring storm, but I wasn't sure how the neighbors would take it.

On a side note, I have been asked twice this week if I'm French. The answer is no, but my snowman is!

Choosy Moms choose JIF!

Duncan loves peanut butter. He knows what that jar sounds like when I get it out of the cupboard and sits patiently for me to share with him. (He actually has his own jar...I don't need dog slobber on my PB&J.) Today was his lucky day, an empty jar for him to enjoy.

You can call me Al.

OK, maybe not. I'm not really an Al. Maybe a Dan or Dani or even just "D". So this brings me to today's story. As many of you know, Nathan and I joined a boxing gym back in December. In addition to taking classes, I meet with a trainer to work on kickboxing. (nothing like actually kicking someone to get out some frustration!) He usually calls me D. Not a big deal. We've spent many hours together with him kicking my butt.
~Flash back a week ago~ During my personal training, Nathan and another guy at the gym have a casual conversation. You know, guy stuff, while watching me train. I'm even sure that Nathan told him my name at some point. ~Flash forward to today~ During class tonight, we were asked to grab a partner for some of the warm up. Unfortunately, I was paired up with casual conversation guy. As we are doing push ups, he yells out "Good work D." What the!? I don't even know him! Excuse me sir, you see that line on the floor? Yeah, you just crossed it.

J Dawg and Q.P., please continue to refer to me as D ;) I at least know you guys!

Quack...quack...quack!!!

(props to any of you who know the name of the movie my title came from)

We have to give a big CONGRATS to my nephew and his hockey team. He called me earlier today to let us know that they just took Second at their hockey tournament. But, what is even better, he called Nathan last night all excited because he scored the winning goal! He gave Nathan the play by play: He was the last one to go, he made a wrist shot, the puck hit the goalie's pads, the goalie tried to stop it with his stick and the puck slid in. He told me today that his team tackled him and his goalie gave him the best hug. (I was told by my sister that this is not necessarily the correct order of events, it's just how one really excited 9 year old told the story.) I was also informed that his friend's dog is named Jose Theodore after the Avs goalie - Jose Theodore!? Way to go Glaciers!

Here he is in action, with two different socks on!

Tag...I'm it!

Ugh, I've been tagged...again. (I ask that anyone of you who decide to read the following would not judge.)

1. I am a germ-a-phobe when in public. I will not touch door handles with my bare hands. I will use a sleeve if I have to. (besides, that's what men are for, to open doors and stuff) And I won't use public restrooms. I would rather take my chances of peeing in my pants.
2. I have to have toenail polish on ALL the time. My feet feel naked without it.
3. I wish I knew how to play the guitar.
4. Some people are tall, some are super strong, me...I have larger pupils than most people. Aren't you jealous?
5. I've been trying to finish this list for about 2 weeks.
6. I love Pepsi (from a can) in a glass with crushed ice! I really don't drink soda much, I just need a fix sometimes.
7. I'm training to be a cage fighter. Just kidding. But, I am going to do a one-on-one boxing/kickboxing training on Monday :/ I'll let you know if I can move on Tuesday.
8. I like to sleep - yet I have insomnia. How does that work?
9. I've been craving a chocolate cupcake with buttercream frosting for about 2 weeks now. (thanks to Lisa)
10. I am redecorating our bedroom (much to Nathan's chagrin)

There you have it. Now get going on your 10 things! :)

My, do we LOVE our Lemons!!!

I stole this off of my sister's blog. It's just too cute not to share.

These are our Lemons. Meet my little sister (I mean 7 years younger Sister), Danica and her husband, The Infamous Uncle Nathan. Who wouldn't love some lemon's in their family? And we
are the lucky ones to have them!!!



And so I bring you another funny story courtesy of Kyndal.

The other day while in the produce section while at the grocery store, Kyndal sees a large basket of Lemons that happen to be on sale 4/1.00 And the following conversation ensues:

Kyndal: MOM! Can I please have one of those lemons?

Mom: (thinking, Sure I have a recipe I'd like to try with lemon zest) "Sure Honey, how about this nice big lemon?"

Kyndal then begins loving,hugging and rocking her lemon like a baby. And don't forget giving it smooches.

And then she says:"I love my lemon."

Mom: "Who else loves Lemons?"

Kyndal: "Danica. She is a Lemon and so is Uncle Nathan."

Mom: "Yep they are and we love them. They are our Lemons"

Kyndal: "Danica LOVES lemons. She has them in her tummy and in her Heart."

My sister had a good laugh when I told her this story. And assures me the only lemons in her tummy are the lemon juice from her diet Pepsi!! Drats that means we have no little Lemon drops on the way. If every one chipped in and sent them a little 'Lemon-Aide" for the Lemon drop fund, they would probably use it to sit on the beach and sip a cold virgin strawberry daiquiri!!!! What gives? I thought maybe Kyndal knew something we all didn't!!!

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

This past weekend, we were invited to "Poker Night" with some friends. For many of us it was our first time playing Texas Hold 'Em, so it was agreed that we wouldn't play for money. (Which is too bad...see photo below.)

Yes, that's me raking in my winnings off of a pair of Aces. Nathan was out at this point and sitting on the couch with one of the other losing husbands so I had my friend take this picture since Nathan wouldn't even look at me in all of my glory. (Thanks Lisa!) Said husbands were tired and ready to go while I was still playing so it was decided that we would play one last hand and the two of us left would go all in. It wasn't looking good for me until the last card...I won!!!!! (insert visual of me jumping up and down screaming) I'm sure that it will never happen again, so I am milking my victory for all it's worth.

Blogging and Boxing

As I am tired of being chastised by Danica for not blogging enough (since blogging is meant for stay at home mom's or people who don't work 12 hours a day like some of us), I decided I would blog about our newest workout routine.

About four weeks ago, Danica and I started taking boxing classes at this new gym here in P-town called LA Boxing. They have classes for boxing, kick boxing, MMA and a few other fighting techniques. The first class was a challenge to say the least, as I wanted to puke after the class, but we are starting to get into a good routine now. I have taken a couple of one on one classes (which are extremely tiring but very empowering), plus their class schedule forces me to leave work at a reasonable hour. Maybe we will find some pictures to put up at some point.

Hopefully this post satisfies Danica's anger for at least a day or two (probably shouldn't let her learn how to punch and kick harder with so much anger).

Lemon out.