I have a feeling that facebook & twitter will kill my blog. . . .

Just wanted to put it down somewhere. . .

I made Pepper giggle last night.

She also rolled from her stomach to her back.

THINGS ARE HAPPENING!!!!

(Disclaimer - if you send me free stuff, I will hold a party & invite all the friends and family to try the product out)

Saturday, we had the official Move Party.

If you don’t know what’s going on – let me fill in some blanks for you.

About a year ago, my neighbor Becky asked me to try out some Werthers chocolate. She sent over some bags o’ yummy chocolate and some swag (Slang for free promotional items). I asked her how she came to all these goodies and she pointed towards the internet to a great website call House Party. Sign up. Look at future events/parties. Apply. Wait to see if they accept your application to host a party for said item/show/etc.

So a couple months ago, I applied for the Playstation Move Party and got accepted to host a party with the new Playstation Move controllers.

My free party pack included:
• Two PlayStation®Move controllers + one PS Eye Camera
• Demos of games made exclusively for PlayStation®Move
• Sports Champions™ Frisbees
• The Shoot™ photo frames
• PlayStation®Move quick start guide and product information
• Plus more great gifts to help you host an unbelievable Ultimate Block Party

So we held the Open House party last Saturday at 3pm – 10pm

Here’s my official review for the PS3 Moves.

Cons:
1. I had to load each game on the PS3 – took forever to get started. I thought maybe since we have the disc, we’d be able to play them off the disc. Instead I had to load each game on the system. . . . bleh!

2. Navigating through the menu with the Move controller is annoying. . . call me ole’ skool but I like the Wii’s pointy finger.

3. The PS Eye camera! Yup the whole camera must go. . . the main reason why ppl get a PS3 is the higher graphics. . and so the camera should be the same. The grainy pictures for Start the Party & Beat Sketcher were a big disappointment.

4. Calibrating every time. It would be kind of awesome to have set profiles and it has your calibration loaded. Just a suggestion!

5. The games in general weren’t that impressive. There wasn’t a game that stood out that would make me or any of my guests go out and buy a Move controller to play said game. I did get a game loyalty feedback, basically ppl will buy the controller for their favorite game i.e Resident Evil 5.

6. USB ports!!! Holy hell, there’s only 2 on the PS3 and I’m suppose to charge only 2 controllers at a time. . how does that equal good planning. I have (3) regular controllers and (2) Move controllers – I have to charge the extras on my PC/laptop or get a hub (just another thing I have to buy to make my system more convenient). Not to mention, you have to plug in the camera. . and what if you had a bluetooth headset. Get a hub = boo!

Overall, the investment of the PS3 just jumped the shark. I mean its been about 4yrs since the Wii has come out, and I think it might be 4yrs too late. When the Wii came out and I tried it for the first time, instantly I wanted to find one and get it for my family. With the PS3 Move, if I didn’t get it for free – and I came to a Move party, I don’t think I would drop more money on my PS3 to get the controllers.

I don’t doubt that more games will come out and change my mind but it won’t be til next year.

When I started working from home, I decided that we needed a new coffee maker. I can’t just keep running out every morning to grab a cup’o joe. That’s just not economical and practical, well maybe if I were rich or something.

I convinced Brad that we should purchase a Keurig single coffee maker. I remember trying a cup at Costco and thought it was pretty good. If you haven’t seen one of these things work, it’s pretty cool. You load in the k-cup, which looks like this:

Pour in 8oz of water

Push the button to brew

It makes a perfect cup every time!

The main reason why I bought a single cup brewer was because I only drink like one cup a day (unless I’m going on 3hrs of sleep, then I tend to have like 10). Plus it’s less clean up. I don’t have to have filters, or the carafe to empty each time.

The one down fall is the k-cups will always be more expensive than a bag of coffee. But they stay fresh!

Win-win.

Brad bought these 100% made out of recycled glass mugs from Starbucks and I love them! So I decided to start replacing our plain boring white mugs with awesome Starbucks mugs. And I’m pretty proud of the ones I found last night. They’re right up my alley way if you ask me. . but you don’t have to take my word for it! bum-bum-bum. (Reading Rainbow reference)

The best part is what’s on the inside near the top rim!! The clown fish and the butterfly are meeting in the cup to discuss life. Or how the hell to avoid the crzy oil spill in the gulf. Okay! I have an active imagination. . . can’t help it!!!

So I’ve got this crzy thing for owls. . . this is my new notebook isn’t it cute!!!!

Well if you haven’t heard from us with an update on the house. . . we’re NOT moving. That’s right I repeat – N O T M O V I N G!

We attended the meeting tonight and boy was it a eye-opening experience. I guess all the elders of the neighborhood showed up to voice their concerns about the 4100so/Bangerter Hwy Prj. When I say, “voice” I really mean rip the Udot guy a new butthole.

Basically they’re going to take land from the LDS church across the highway and the medical clinic across the street. So no other land will be taken. Also this project is a bit smaller than the 3500so one. Basically Udot is not in the business of acquiring land if they don’t have too. It’s just too much money when they have to.

It’s like the other shoe has dropped. Sure I had all these plans if they made us move but when me and Brad bought this house, we said this is the one we could stay in til we retire. True, most of our surrounding neighbors annoy me – but it’s not like we share a wall with them.

So bring on the crzy house projects!

Updating our upstairs bathroom.
Huge front yard landscape redo.
Updating my kitchen.
Redoing the ceiling and painting the basement.
Redoing the downstairs bathroom.

And the list goes on, because when you’re a homeowner that’s how the cookies crumble.

In other news, I got selected to host a house party for the Playstation Move.

A long time ago, my friend Becky did a house party with Werther’s Chocolate. And I asked how she got all this free product. She told me about houseparty.com. It’s a website where major manufacturers ask people around the country to hold “house parties” to test their products.

About a month ago, I noticed that Playstation had one for the Move (their version of the Wii) and signed up.

Well this morning while stressing about work and how the govt-could-be-taking-my-land bullshit, I got an email stating that first 1000 to respond get to host the party. I want to be cocky and say I was the first 3 but I was probably in the first 100s. But the important thing is I got in.

Meaning, I get to host a party in August a couple months before the release of the Move and get a party pack. I (think not sure yet) we get in the party pack (3) new Move controllers, Eye camera, and (3) games (The Shoot, Sports Champion, & Start the Party).

Immediately, I started gathering emails and so if you got an invite in your email – please accept. If you know someone who would love to try the new Playstation gear, email me or facebook me (Amy Newbold).

Think of it as a “We’re keeping our land & Move’ing forward” party.

Plus when you think of claiming our land it always makes me think of Far & Away. . good show.

(did I just say my last name on the internets. . . oh well you got me on Facebook right?)

Yes, it was in the back of our minds when they did the continuous flow intersection on 3500 south, then 4700 south, and 5700 south. . that they could-might do it to our little corner 4100 south.

A couple weeks ago, UDot (Utah Department of Transportation) came knocking at our door wanting to know if they could get access to our back yard. I said, “sure” and the guy was kind of shocked. “There’s no dog back there.” (too soon) and he asked, “how do I get access?” I pointed at the tiny gate. . . and he was like “Oh it’s just a gate.”

Well Brad later told me there’s a huge pink spike in the back yard.

If that’s the measurement on where they’re going to do the continuous-flow intersection, that means more than half of our backyard would be gone!

So we got a nice pink notice on our door last night about a council meeting on Monday night to discuss what’s going to happen to our lovely intersection on 4100 south.

Brad is a bit freaked out and pissed off. He thought we’d be living here til we retired. And when we bought this house, I was thinking the same thing. But I will have to say the govt. bought our house . . there would be some perks in the situation.

1. We wouldn’t be losing money on the house. . . well at least I hope so. We can take the chunk of money and put it towards another house.
2. Getting away from most of our neighbors. We’ve been here for 4yrs and we really only like our neighbors to the north. The rest is annoying. The guy across the street and he’s scrap metal collecting. His big trucks. . he doesn’t even care about his yard because it’s a rental. The hispanics on the corner across the street blarin’ their stereos. The polys two houses down, drinking, pit bulls, and their yard looks like crap too. And don’t forget our neighbors to the south. Half naked. Animal fattin’ to eat. Burning aspen wood in a pit. Red-neck sign!
3. The housing market is geared towards buying. The interest rates are super low. We’re not in a bidding war like we were when we bought the place.

More tiny reasons why I could let this house go.

I think the plan for family would be kind of crazy depending on when they want us out and depending on the sale price.

Gut our house. . meaning taking everything we can! A/C, waterheater. . . everything that I thought would be value because they’re just going to take the house down.

Store most of our furniture and stuff.

Rent a 2bedroom apt (because 3br would cost the same as mortgage) sure Pepper would have to stay in our room for a bit, but it’s totally doable.

I would want the boy to finish his year at Pioneer.

And then look for a house again. . . and this time not so close to a major-major road that could later turn on us.

Gone through the dvd collection. . . took 34 items out and went to Greywhale to trade them in for some store credit. But we had to have some family fun with a little game that we all know & love.

Everyone tried to guess what the credit would be or come close to it. And whoever got close would get a prize (more like an item with the value of $30 or less)

Brad (1st to guess and you know the first person always sets the pace for the other guesses) : $74.00

Lucas: $75.00 (see! sets the pace!!!)

Mine: $101.00

Who won??

Lucas.

The total before the 10% additional discount is $83.40. With the discount it was $91.74 in store credit.

The highest priced item was True Blood Season 1 going to a whopping $15.00. The lowest priced item was Oceans Eleven for $0.05.

I remember back n’ the days when me and Brad bought dvd after dvd. But now we try to buy we a purpose. Like will we watch it again and again. Is it a classic? We gotta have it in blueray. . . maybe. . .

Well I’m off to get the boy a lego set. . . .

Oh freak! I haven’t blogged since May 30th – what the heck is wrong with me?!?! Oh yeah, I just had a baby. . bleh!!! Not a good enough excuse if you ask me.

My house is a mess. . .

“Oh you just had a baby.”

bleh!

My thighs and butt feel fatty. . .

“Oh you just had a baby.”

bleh!

Excuses. . excuses. . excuses. . .

So Pepper is a little over 2mos old. She’s doing really well. 10lbs now.

IMHO, we’re adjusting well. Brad and I seem to be more on the same page with Pepper than we were with Lucas. Don’t ask me why. . but if it keeps going like this, then I might want to have another baby with Brad. Another baby?!?! Yeah not planning for that anytime soon. Trust me!!

Lucas is on his was to scouts. This week he went on his 1st camp out. He was packed for success. . . okay we need to work on a lighter pack for him. haha

I will try to blog everyday.

This is the first Saturday in a long time where the family just sat in the basement in front of the tv and lounged all day. I can’t remember the last Saturday when we did that. Even Pepper joined in the activities or lack there of.

What about last Saturday?

Well it was the boy’s 11th birthday party. He wanted a guy’s game night. Guys. Chick fil-a nuggets, bag o’ dorritos, and cheese cake. What more could a kid ask for. He had an awesome birthday.

It wasn’t til around 8pm when the scare started.

We’ve been waking up Pepper ever 4hrs to feed. But around 8pm she didn’t wake up. So I let her sleep a little more, around 9ish I tried to wake her up again. She just didn’t seem herself. I went downstairs to get Brad and tell him something’s wrong with Pepper. She just seemed lethargic. Brad got her to eat but she wasn’t awake for it like her normal self.

I called the NICU. . they told me to call our pediatrician.

She told me that Pepper could be changing her sleeping habits. (Mind you we’ve only had her home for like 3days. . .there’s noway she could of changed her sleeping habits in that short time frame.) She said if I really felt like something was wrong then I should take her to Primary Children’s Hospital ER.

And in my gut’s gut I knew something wasn’t right and I rather be safe than sorry.

We got to the ER and immediately went into triage. The first thing they did was take her temp. Her temp was too low.

With a baby, if the temp is low or high certain tests have to be ran (I guess, I’m not an expert or anything). Blood and urine for sure and then a spinal tap for Meningitis. Yup, all those tests were ran on our lil’ Pepper. I was in tears the whole night.

If you haven’t been around me before this event. I’ve been handling the whole NICU and Pepper well. True, I’ve been waiting for postpartum depression to hit me like a sack o’ bricks and I thought it would, but it didn’t til this one weekend. I started blaming myself pretty hard. I was in tears for pretty much most of the night and early morning.

Being in the hospital for 24hrs to wait for the results for Meningitis just compounded the depression. I stayed with her for the night and we were surrounded by crying children, from newborn to toddlers. It wasn’t good for me.

Blood and urine = negative

Meningitis = negative

We were discharged on Monday around noon.

I’ve been on pins n’ needles every since. I’m extra cautious of her temp. I have the house at 74 constant, no a/c even if the house is close to 80. She’s got two layers of clothes on her most of time too.

But as the weekend passes. . . it seems more normal to me. . . like how things are suppose to be without hospitals, doctors, and nurses.

Hopefully we are out of the woods for good.